1st Week of Lent 2025 - Friday - Transformation of heart and behavior

Several times this first full week of Lent, we read from Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount. 

On Tuesday, Jesus taught his disciples how to pray—that Christian prayer is much more than babbling, like the pagans. We are to prayerfully turn our hearts to the Father, seeking His Will, His sustenance, His forgiveness and ability to forgive, and his protection from evil. Our prayer is to be deepened and purified during this Lenten season.

Today, we hear that not only our prayer, but our hearts and minds are to be purified as well. Not only are we to avoid grave sins like murder: we are to be purified from the slightest hint of any attitude that leads to murder. We are to avoid anger toward our brother, we are to avoid calling him belittling names, and we are to seek to reconcile with him even before fulfilling some of our other religious duties.

Here is yet another teaching from the Sermon on the Mount that our conversion must be more than skin-deep, our conversion to Christ means more than just giving lip service to ideas like forgiveness and peacemaking. 

We are to be purified from inner attitudes that lead to sin, injustice, division, and malice. We are to seek to actively overcome our inhibitions towards working for peace. In fact, we are to actively cultivate those dispositions where we are ready to go out and make peace even when it costs us something. 

If you don’t, what does the Lord say, “you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” If we are unwilling to purify our hearts and actively work for peace there is a sort of debt, there is something missing. And we will not be able to progress spiritually in this life or likely from purgatory into heaven in the next life until that purifying has taken place.

From what the saints say, it is more pleasant to work for that purification in this life, than in purgatory. So we should do it now. My guess is that this is issue is a major stumbling black in the spiritual life for a lot of Christians: the unwillingness to make peace with those who have offended us, with whom there is some sort of open wound.

I get it, it’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, it’s humbling. “Why should I have to be the one to make peace?” Because we are Christian and the Lord told us to.

Again our readings remind us, that Lent is not simply about performing exterior deeds of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, but is aimed at inner transformation, where we can think with the mind of Christ, and more importantly, love with his heart, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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We should pour forth prayers at all times dear brothers and sisters but above all in these days of lent we ought to watch more intently with Christ and direct our petitions more fervently to God.

For the Church, that this Lent may be a time of deep interior purification, leading each believer to more fully embrace the mind and heart of Christ.

For those struggling to forgive or reconcile with others, that they may find the courage, humility, and strength to actively seek peace

For those preparing for baptism and reception into the Church at Easter, that their hearts may grow pure and radiant through prayer, fasting, and acts of charity, we pray to the Lord.

For Holy Father Pope Francis, in this time of illness, and for all the sick, suffering, and those who carry heavy burdens, that they may experience the comforting presence of God, who draws near to those who earnestly seek Him, we pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for all the souls in purgatory, that through our prayers and sacrifices, they may swiftly enter the eternal peace of God’s presence.

Grant we pray our Lord that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

November 10 2021 - Pope St. Leo the Great - Truth, Peace, and Barbarians Inside and Out

 Constant barbarian invasions and the gradual disintegration of the Roman Empire, certainly made the papacy of Pope Leo the First a challenging one. And yet, his papacy was so effective, and his holiness so evident, that he is the first Pope to be given the title, “The Great”. Leo Magnus, Leo the Great.

I shared this last year, but it is such a great story.

In 452, Attila the Hung was laying siege to northeastern Italy. They vanquished city after city and reports were circulating that Attila was setting his sights on the rest of Italy.  

So Pope Leo himself, 52 years old at the time, rode on horseback to meet the barbarian leader and pleaded with him to spare Italy. The leader of the Huns, impressed by the Pope, left Italy.  Unfortunately, a few years later, another barbarian horde, the Vandals, attacked and sacked Rome. Again, the Pope, defenseless and surrounded by his clergy, went forth to meet the invader to implore him to desist. The Vandal leader promised to spare the great Basilicas of St Peter, St Paul and St John, whose dedication we celebrated yesterday, in which the terrified population of Rome sought refuge and were spared.  

The Collect for today’s feast asks God to grant the Church, through the intercession of Pope St. Leo, that we may stand firm in truth and know the protection of lasting peace.

Truth and peace. These are no doubt always to goals of any papacy. And aims of the Christian life.

Pope Leo worked hard to control the heresies prominent in his day and to call their followers back to true Christian belief. And he worked to promote peace and protection against the barbarians when the government failed to protect its people. Barbarians inside the Church are combatted with Truth. Barbarians outside of the Church are dealt with courage, diplomacy, and concern for their souls, and with prayers of protection for God’s people.

Pope Saint Leo was indeed a great Pope, a man boundless in his energy, compassionate, and clear in his sense of duty as Peter’s successor.  He is an example for all of us, for he was focused entirely on Christ, fulfilling the vocation to which Christ called him.

When things get difficult, and cloudy, and confusing, when barbarians are on the move, we are to focus on the Truth of Christ and recommit to the life to which he calls us: a barbarian or two might even be converted in the process. For it is the Freedom and Joy that comes from the Truth of Christ that the world longs for, that even the barbarians long for, that will ultimately bring deliverance from the darkness of the age and the darkness of evil. 

May Pope St. Leo assist us in loving the truth, living the truth, and working for the peace of Christ in our time for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the purification of Holy Church, and for all Bishops and clergy, that they may always lead us in fidelity to the saving Gospel of Christ.

That the Christian faithful may continue to nurture and discover their spiritual gifts for the building up of the Church.

For those who have left the Church, for those who have grown lukewarm, for those in mortal sin, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

For the healing of all those afflicted with physical, mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

Monday - 11th Week of OT 2017 - Practicing Self-Restraint

We’ve been reading through the Sermon on the Mount now for a week in which Jesus teaches his disciples throughout all the ages about living blessed lives, holy lives, lives that shine with the brightness of God’s goodness. We are to strive for blessedness by following God’s commandments, the moral law, and Jesus’ teachings.

Jesus recalled the fifth commandment earlier in the sermon, “You shall not kill” calling us to revere human life as sacred. The Lord calls us to such reverence for our brothers and sisters that we are to avoid not just murder, but even anger, hatred, and vengeance.

Today, he goes even further: “When someone strikes you on the one cheek, turn the other to him as well.” To most of the world, this sounds like weakness: being a pushover. But those who follow the message of Christ are anything but weak.  There is tremendous strength shown in turning away from the inclination for revenge.  Revenge is easy.

When someone strikes you on the right cheek, the immediate reaction is strike back them, or to begin plotting their punishment or demise. It’s easy to retaliate, to curse at someone who offends us, to return an insult for an insult. We even see this fallen behavior in little children, who break the toys of their brothers and sisters because they were mean. Revenge is easy, and it base, juvenile.

And Jesus offers another path, the path of moral and spiritual maturity.

Now, when it comes to turning the other cheek, Jesus is not saying we should be doormats and pacifists. Jesus offers clear words about take up a sword” for self-defense. Never does he condemn, say, military service.

But he is clearly teaching us here, that we are not simply to follow every desire that we have, starting with the very deep, nearly instinctual desire to strike back at those who hurt us: either physically or verbally, and including our desires for food, sex, money, gambling, gossip, and control.

Jesus calls us to be people of peace: and that requires self-control in the face of hostility, well-trained powers of discernment in order to know how best to act in a particular situation, and the ability to be humble when our egos are bruised.

May the Lord continue to lead us and guide us in the way of blessedness, to heal and raise up our wounded fallen natures, and transform them into instruments of God’s goodness for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our bishops and clergy may be zealous in preaching and teaching the truth of the Gospel, and that our future bishop of the diocese of Cleveland may be a man of true faith and the Holy Spirit.

For all of us who struggle with disordered attractions, sinful inclinations, and temptations to serious sin, for the grace to remain faithful to the teachings of Christ, and for mercy for those who fall.

That our young people on summer vacation, may be kept close to the truth and heart of Jesus.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.