18th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Friday - But for Wales?

 One of my favorite scenes from The Man for All Seasons, the movie version about St. Thomas More, is when St. Thomas has been brought before the high court and is being questioned by his former friend Richard Rich. From the beginning of the movie, it is clear that Richard is an ambitious man, he had high ambitions to become a powerful man in the English government. St. Thomas cares for Richard’s soul, and tries to convince Richard to consider a humbler profession, that of a school teacher, in which he may even become a great teacher.

St. Thomas had become chancellor of England, the stripped of his office and imprisoned when he would not sign a declaration that the King, rather than the Pope was head of the Church. Richard is brought forward as a witness in Thomas’ trial, and offers false testimony, accusing Thomas of treason, which carried the penalty of death.

Thomas then notices the new chain of office around Richard’s neck, he had been appointed the new Attorney General for Wales. And then Thomas delivers one of the great lines, echoing the Gospel today: “Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world . . . But for Wales!”

You see, Richard had conspired with the government to offer false testimony against St. Thomas in exchange for political office. “But for Wales”. 

Yet, in any sin, we settle for so much less. We exchange the good of our souls, for a passing pleasure, a forbidden piece of knowledge, a petty act of revenge, a chance to climb the ladder of ambition. Sin, in the end profits us nothing, the Lord says in the Gospel today, not even if we were to gain the whole world. For the result of sin is the destruction of our soul, perhaps even its eternal loss. 

Rather, when we are being tempted to sin, we must deny ourselves, practicing self-control, temperance, and prudence—recognizing that we were made for so much more than sin. 

The Lord acknowledges that to fight against temptation sometimes feels like being nailed to a cross, but those who deny themselves, will find something—obtain something—more valuable and glorious than anything their sin could ever hope to acquire—divine life, divine grace, peace that the world cannot give, joy, that is made perfect in us by the Holy Spirit.

May the Lord keep us strong against temptation, helping us to value the things of heaven over the things of earth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the pope, bishops, and clergy may be filled with constancy in teaching and living out the Gospel, and that our parish may bear witness with great confidence to our life-giving faith in word and deed.

For newly consecrated Bishop Michael Woost, new auxiliary for the Diocese of Cleveland, may he know abundant blessings in his new ministry, and aid the Church in stirring up the flame of faith and witnessing to the Gospel.

That politicians and government officials may protect religious freedom, promote virtue, and look to the law of Christ to guide their work for the good of nations and the human race

For all those who experience persecution for the sake of the Gospel, that they may be sustained in their faith, and bear fruit for the salvation of souls.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection, especially N. for whom this mass is offered.

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

18th Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Wednesday - Make our faith great

 Earlier this week I spoke about virtue. How virtue is like a muscle: to exercise it will strengthen it, to neglect it will cause the virtue to weaken.

In the Gospel today, the Lord praises the faith of the Canaanite women. Faith. Faith is a virtue, one of the theological virtues. And like all the virtues, the virtue of faith is a muscle that needs to be practiced in order to be strengthened.

And this virtue is a powerful conduit for God to work in our lives, as He did in the life of the Canaanite woman. Her great faith was a conduit for healing in her family. There are a number of healings in the Gospel that come through the faith of others. And, if you remember, the gospel writers tell us that Jesus did not perform many miracles in his hometown because of their lack of faith.

So, if faith is a muscle, a virtue—how can we strengthen it, that it may become a more powerful conduit for God to work in our lives and in our families?

Firstly, Pray daily for great faith, especially by praying the Mass and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation frequently. In the words of the father of the demon possessed by in Mark’s Gospel, pray, “Lord help my unbelief”

Secondly, Hear, read, study, share, and practice God’s Word daily, for St. Paul tells us faith “comes through hearing, and what is heard is the word of Christ”

Thirdly, assemble with other Christians who encourage your faith and help you deepen your faith. The book of Acts tells us how the early Christians, “devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.”

Fourthly, you have to cut out sin. Sin is like injecting poison into a healthy muscle. Venial sin will weaken the muscle, mortal sin will kill the muscle. It might look like it’s alive for a while, but it will die. Many Christians who have failed to confess their mortal sins, are in state of dying faith. 

From time to time, I meet folks who say they are going through a crisis of faith: they can’t see God working in their life, they doubt God’s plan. And quite often, come to find out: they don’t pray, they don’t read and meditate on the scriptures, they don’t come to mass, they don’t confess their sins, they aren’t involved in their parish.

Well of course you are going through a crisis of faith, you’ve allowed faith to wither. And like a neglected muscle, it will take some time to rehabilitate withered faith. But there is no magic wand for faith to become strengthened again. It requires effort on your part and real reliance on the transforming grace of God.

But when faith is rekindled and strengthened, spiritual sight will return, what was dead is brought back to life, and God’s grace once again begins to animate one’s life. Lord make our faith strong, make our faith great again, help our unbelief, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the pope, bishops, and clergy may be filled with constancy in teaching and living out the Gospel, and that our parish may bear witness with great confidence to our life-giving faith in word and deed.

For Bishop-elect Michael Woost who will be consecrated bishop this week, for blessings upon his ministry as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Cleveland.

That politicians and government officials may protect religious freedom, promote virtue, and look to the law of Christ to guide their work for the good of nations and the human race, and for a rekindling and strengthening of faith.

For all those who experience persecution for the sake of the Gospel, that they may be sustained in their faith, and bear fruit for the salvation of souls.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection, especially N. for whom this mass is offered.

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

August 2 2022 - St. Eusebius of Vercelli - Constancy to affirm the Lord's divinity

 The time was the third century, the challenge facing the Church was the heresy of Arianism which denied the Divinity of Christ.

A synod was called by Pope Liberius in 355 to help settle the growing split between loyal Catholics and the Arians, and the Pope’s delegate was the first bishop of Vercelli, Bishop Eusebius.

During the Council, the Arians were vicious in arguing that the Son of God did not always exist, that he was inferior in divinity to God the Father.  The Arians wanted their opponents to condemn the writings and teachings of St. Athanasius who defended the true faith at the First Council of Nicaea.

Eusebius and other bishops loyal to Rome refused to go along with the condemnation of Athanasius.  Instead, Eusebius laid the Nicene Creed on the table and insisted that all sign it before taking up any other matter.  The Roman Emperor, himself an Arian Heretic, began to put pressure on Eusebius and the loyal bishops.  But Eusebius did not relent, in fact he confronted the Emperor for attempting to use secular force to influence Church decisions.

And you’d like to think Eusebius’ courage and constancy changed the Emperor’s mind and converted the Arians…well, no. Eusebius, like Athanasius before him, was condemned to exile for not supporting the Emperor’s will and heretical beliefs. And In exile, the Arians continued to harass the faithful bishop, even dragging him through the streets and imprisoning him. 

This reminds me of a line of Mother Theresa: “God doesn’t call us to be successful, only to be faithful.” We might not always be successful in converting the heretical emperor or fallen away family member. But we are called to be faithful to trying.  We are to uphold Catholic teaching, when faced with pressure from the secular world; maybe some will be converted…God willing…when they witness our constancy and fortitude and patience and willingness to suffer for the truth. 

As you know, I like to use the proper readings for the saints on their memorials. I like to preach on the virtues of the saints, and those proper readings are chosen by the Church because there is some confluence between God’s word and the life of the saint, the saint in some way exemplifies and illustrates God’s word by their life. And I find it pretty noteworthy that the Gospel reading for St. Eusebius is the beatitudes. 

It's almost as if the Church is saying, take note of this saint, he exemplifies the beatitudes of Jesus Christ. He was meek as Jesus was meek, he was pure of heart as Jesus was pure of heart, he was insulted and persecuted and had every evil uttered against him because he was faithful to God, and for this, for his faithfulness, he is counting among the blessed and his honored by the Church, but also held up as an example, of what it means to be a holy bishop, and faithful Catholic.

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That the pope, bishops, and clergy may be filled with constancy in teaching and living out the Gospel, and that our parish may bear witness with great confidence to our life-giving faith in word and deed.

For Bishop-elect Michael Woost who will be consecrated bishop this week, for blessings upon his ministry as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Cleveland.

That politicians and government officials may protect religious freedom, promote virtue, and look to the law of Christ to guide their work for the good of nations and the human race

For all those who experience persecution for the sake of the Gospel, that they may be sustained in their faith, and bear fruit for the salvation of souls.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection, especially N. for whom this mass is offered.

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

August 1, 2022 - St. Alphonsus Ligouri - Strengthening Virtue

 

Yesterday, at Sunday Mass I preached on the virtue of prudence, which the Catechism defines as “is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it”.

Today’s Saint, St. Alphonsus Ligouri wrote extensively on the virtues. He writes: “All holiness and perfection of soul lies in our love for Jesus Christ, who is our Redeemer and our supreme good. It is part of the love of God to acquire and to nurture all the virtues which make a man perfect.”

If we say we love God with all our heart, we owe it to him to acquire and nurture virtue. For he made us to be virtuous. So to neglect becoming as virtuous as we can, is to fail to love God with all our heart.

St. Alphonsus even recommended practicing a particular virtue each month: January: faith; February: Hope; March: Love of God; April: Love of Neighbor; May: Poverty; June: Purity of Heart; July: Obedience; August: Meekness and Humility of Heart; September: Mortification; October: Reconciliation and Silence; November: Prayer; and December: Self-Abnegation and Love of the Cross.”

You can’t acquire and nurture the virtues if all you have is a general, vague, unintentional desire to become more virtuous. A virtue is like a particular muscle, say your biceps. Your biceps won’t grow stronger if you just go through your normal routine. You have to intentionally train and strengthen your bicep. Same with the virtues. If you want to grow in humility, you have to be intentional about growing in humility. A virtue, like a muscle, is likely to decrease in strength, if you don’t exercise it.

Now you might not have the physical constitution to do a lot of physical training, but all of us are spiritual creatures, who are called to the spiritual training of the virtues.

St. Alphonsus even recommended keeping a notebook or journal—an account of your failures and successes in practicing those virtues. For example, we begin the month of August. Every day we should be conscious and intentional about making acts of meekness and humility.

May St. Alphonsus help us to practice the virtues, to put on Christ, to seek the goodness and perfection for which we are made, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

 

For an increase in virtue for the clergy and all members of the Church.

For Bishop-elect Michael Woost who will be consecrated bishop this week, for blessings upon his ministry as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Cleveland

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Redemptorist Order, founded by St. Alphonsus, and for the sanctification of all marriages.

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster, war, violence, and terrorism, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

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, 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.

 

 

 

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Prudence in Times of Turmoil

 On the news and social media this week, there has been some talk and debate over whether our country is in an economic recession—whether two quarters of negative economic growth constitute a recession. Whatever a recession is, and whether we are in one, rising prices at the supermarket, at the gas pump, utility bills, are concerning to a lot of people.

I’m not an economist of course or a financial advisor, but our faith does offer guidance for how we are to act in a times of turmoil; our faith helps us to know how to act at all times—including times of turmoil.

Our faith helps us to be prudent—to be prudent. What is prudence?

Prudence, the catechism says, “is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it;” What does that mean? Prudence is a virtue, a disposition of mind, intellect, and will, to know and choose what is good in order to reach our highest end, in our case, holiness on earth that leads to the beatitude of heaven.  

The Book of Proverbs says, “the prudent man looks where he is going”. If you don’t look where you are going, you are likely to steer off course, get lost, perhaps crash, and you’ll fail to reach your destination. So, we are to look where we are going, paying attention to the signs of the times, and act in accord with our faith and right reason.   

St. Thomas Aquinas echoes the Greek philosopher Aristotle when he defines prudence as "right reason in action.” Our reasonings need to be rightly directed. Many people are very good at rationalizing sin and evil actions, that’s not prudence. Prudence is when we’ve done everything we can to conform our intellects with the Truth that comes from God and act in accord with that Truth.

At all times Christians are to be a prudent people, making prudent decisions regarding our time, talent and treasure, and that is especially true in times of turmoil. 

So what does prudence dictate in a time of economic recession? Firstly, it is prudent to avoid foolishness with money. Think before you spend. Examine your spending habits. Limit your purchases of non-essentials. No matter how little you make, try to save a little bit more than normal. Stretch your dollars.

It is also prudent to remain productive. Try to work more diligently. Show yourself to be a valuable employee. Diversify your skill set. If you are retired from work, or in your spare time, you might want to take up some of those old practical life skills again—sewing, gardening, canning, preserving salted meats and fish, or my favorite, fermenting and distilling. 

One of my favorite passages from the book of Proverbs says, look to the example of the ant, you slothful one, observe her ways and be wise, Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.” God’s word gives us practical guidance in prudence: follow the example of the humble ant: industrious, self-motivated, thrifty, preparing for times when food is scarce.

Then proverbs says, “How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? The sluggard says “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”— Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.” In other words, we shouldn’t be like the sluggard, the afternoon farmer who instead of working when we should be, folds our hands on our chest for a nap. Proverbs warns that imprudence, laziness, leads to our provisions disappearing like a thief in the night, like an armed man you won’t be able to resist. 

Now our Gospel today also talks about storing up our treasures. But the motivation of the rich man in the gospel parable is very different from the wise, prudent, and industrious ant of proverbs. 

The rich man in the Gospel, has more than enough, more than he needs, but builds towers to store up his excesses, he hoards more than he needs, disregarding the needs of the hungry and poor. This too is foolishness, for instead of living for God, the rich man in the parable lives for his stuff. And so God calls him a fool, for he has placed his spiritual welfare at risk due to his greed. This too is imprudence, because his life—his actions, his decisions are not aimed at his highest spiritual good, only maintaining a life of luxury.

Catholics rather use the things of the world to help us achieve our highest end, and we of course are called to be generous with our provisions. We are to avoid the extreme on one side of fear and foolishness about spending, but also the extreme on the other side of greed and excessive love of material stuff.

St. Augustine said, you are what you love; and if what you love is stuff, profit, the things of the world, then you are guaranteed only one thing: that you will lose them. You will die with them. They will turn to dust and so will you. If your hope and joy are bound to the material, you will not possess the joy and peace that comes from holiness. 

Christians place our trust in God at all times, in good times and in bad, and set our hearts on God who is the source of peace and joy and hope. So even in times of turmoil, Christians are like the calm center of the whirlwind. We aren’t frantic and hysterical because we’ve failed to prepare for the chaos; we aren’t overly disturbed when we don’t have the same access to non-essential luxuries; we have our hearts set on what matters most. 

Prudence: practice it, love it, live it. For prudence is liberating, it’s freeing, it’s the key to lightheartedness because by it, our lives are ordered, our priorities are straight; we make practical, judicious, shrewd, and pragmatic use of our resources, which frees us to become instruments of God’s generous love and hope for the hopeless.

Finally, prudence dictates that we take Paul seriously in our second reading today when he says seek what is above and put to death the earthly, the worldly. And that comes through prayer. My bulletin column this week speaks of what we mean by prayer. By prayer our minds and hearts reach out to God who sustains us in all things, who liberates us from fear and sin, and causes his life to flourish in us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

July 26 2022 - Sts Joachim and Anne - "They shall bear fruit even in old age"

To coincide this year with the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus, Holy Father Pope Francis issued a message about grandparents.

And he began the message reflecting on a short, but poignant line from Psalm 92. The Psalm, speaking of the just ones, the righteous ones who walk in the ways of the Lord, who are planted in the house of the Lord, says “ They shall bear fruit even in old age, they will stay fresh and green”

The Holy Father says, “these words of the Psalmist are glad tidings, a true “gospel”…They run counter to what the world thinks about this stage of life, but also to the attitude of grim resignation shown by some of us elderly people, who harbor few expectations for the future.”

I encourage you to read the rest of the Holy Father’s message—I’ve printed out a few copies and also linked the message on my personal Facebook page.

It is good news—glad tidings—that God promises that even in old age his people will bear fruit. Old age might mean slowing down physically, however, spiritually in can be a time of tremendous spiritual fruitfulness for the Church—potentially greater fruitfulness than in youth—when we are focused on our own agendas and pursuits. 

The grandparents of Jesus, Joachim and Anne, no doubt had a tremendous love for the Lord, and that love for Jesus was a blessing for the entire Holy Family. So too, the faith of grandparents is a tremendous source of faith for the whole family. 

I’ve shared before how for many years on Sunday, when my parents worked late the night before, my grandparents would drive miles out of their way to pick me up for Sunday Mass. I doubt I would have discovered my priestly vocation without my grandparents. They taught me to pray before meals, the importance of Sunday mass, participating and singing at mass, supporting our home parish—not to mention so many other important virtues like patriotism, hard work, prudent stewardship, and tenderness.  

So much fruitfulness in my own life can be traced back to my grandparents’ godliness—their Catholic faith. 

Grandparents, if you see the faith is not being practiced in your families, don’t be afraid to remind your families of the importance of faith and prayer. If you sense that your children are becoming too materialistic, tell them.  If they are not bringing their own children to Sunday Mass, gently correct them. And if they still don’t relent, offer to bring them to mass with the promise of pancakes afterwards. When the grandkids come over for a visit, pray a rosary with them, make sure that prayers are said before meals, explain to them the meanings of the holy pictures and statues in your homes, teach the traditions, help them, like Joachim and Anne to instill faith.

On this feast of the grandparents, we’re reminded of grandparent’s special role and responsibility in forming the generations to come.  Through the prayers of Saints Joachim and Anne may we all consider and respond well to the vocation each of us has in spreading the Faith for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

In gratitude for the example of faith and the role of grandparents in the Church. And for the good health of the elderly and their continued spiritual fruitfulness. 

That our young people on summer vacation may be protected from all physical and spiritual harm, shielded from the errors and perversions of the world, and kept in closeness to God through prayer and virtue.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, for all those recovering from or undergoing surgery today, and for the consolation of the dying.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, for our dear departed grandparents, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

 

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Lust and Pride in the Inferno and Purgatorio

 
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that for my spiritual reading this summer, I’m making my way through Dante Alighieri’s 800 year old epic poem, the Divine Comedy. In the three books of the Divine Comedy, Dante chronicles a pilgrimage he makes through hell, purgatory, and heaven.   He describes the horrific sights and sounds of the punishment of the damned in hell. He then makes his way up the mountain of purgatory, where he meets those who still need to be purified of the effects of their sins before entering heaven where amidst glorious celestial light he meets the blessed saints enjoying the beatific vision of the Holy Trinity.

And throughout his journey, Dante often stops to speak to the souls he meets in the afterlife. In hell, Dante meets Popes and political leaders who misused or neglected their responsibilities; heretics who spread their errors and led others away from the Gospel of Christ, he meets those who betrayed their nation and families; and in the very lowest and iciest depths of hell, there is Judas Iscariot who betrayed our Lord.

Well, near the entrance of the Inferno, Dante meets a pair of souls, Paolo and Francesca, a married woman and her brother-in-law who are in hell because of their joint sin of lust.

The conversation Dante has with this lustful pair is interesting because like most of the souls in hell Paolo and Francesca refuse to admit they did anything wrong. They explain how they were simply spending time in a room together, reading a rather lurid romance novel, when their own passions were kindled. 

For allowing themselves to be carried away by their passions, Dante describes Paolo and Francesca with all of the other lustful souls as being blown about hell in a sort of whirlwind for all eternity. Their sin was allowing their passions to lead them to sin. They failed to exercise their intellect—and refused to admit that an unmarried couple shouldn’t have been in room together, alone, reading erotic literature—failing to reasonably protect their chastity. We call that the near occasion of sin, don’t we, when we knowingly put ourselves in a situation where, given our fallen human nature, we are likely to fall into sin.

The Catechism explains that our passions—our powerful emotions are an essential part of our human nature—hunger, thirst, desire for physical intimacy—are part of human nature, but it is our responsibility as rational beings that these passions be put under the direction of right reason.

Our passions are like horses, and they need to be directed by the bridle and bit of truth and reason and self-control. And if our passions are allowed to run-away on their own without proper direction, we will not reach the destination God wants for us—and in a very real sense our actions become little different from the animals. To allow our passions to rule is to abdicate our responsibility as human beings.

In our first reading, we hear of the grave evils running rampant in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The book of Genesis describes God Himself taking note of the grave sins taking place in these cities. Like Paolo and Francesco in the inferno, the Sodomites and citizens of Gomorrah were engaging in sins of lust. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had become so corrupt, Abraham, as we heard in our first reading from Genesis chapter 18 is really struggling to find 50 or 40 or 30 or 20 or even 10 innocent people.

Sodom and Gomorrah are spared for a time, but In the following chapter of Genesis, Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by God with fire and brimstone, which is certainly a foreshadowing of the eternal punishments of the cities inhabitants who allow their passions to become corrupted by sin and fail to repent.

After traversing through hell, Dante eventually makes his way to the mountain of purgatory. And on Mount Purgatory, Dante encounters the holy souls who, repentant of their sins, now undergo purification in order to prepare for heavenly glory.

In purgatory Dante meets souls guilty of the same sorts of sins as those he encountered in hell: sins of gluttony, and lust, and wrath, and avarice and theft. But the big difference between those in purgatory and those in hell, are that the souls in purgatory acknowledged in their earthly life that their sins were offensive to God. And so they repented and began to hand their lives over to God.

The first group of repentant sinners Dante meets in Purgatory are the souls being purified of the sin of Pride—and this is a big group—a very big group. For Dante, and St. Thomas Aquinas, every sin, really can be traced back to pride. For Pride is when we turn away from God, when we claim to know better than God, when we act as if we were the center of the universe.  Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their pride and traced their inability and unwillingness to recognize him as the Son of God back to sinful pride.  

As part of their Purgatorial purification from pride, Dante describes the souls pushing heavy stones up the inclined mountain, the heaviness of the stones proportional to the measure of their pride while on earth. Additionally, the souls being purified of pride are found praying; they are praying over and over and over again, the prayer we find in our Gospel today, the Lord’s prayer.

The Lord’s prayer is the antidote to pride. For in the Lord’s prayer, we humbly surrender to God’s will, over our own. The sin of Pride weighs us down from living in the freedom of the children of God, so Our Lord teaches us the Lord’s Prayer to combat our earthly pride—to be devoted to doing the will of the Father, and relying on the providence of the Father, as Our Lord himself. The Catechism states praying the our Father should develop in us the desire to become like Christ, to behave like Christ, to be holy like Christ—free from all selfishness like Christ.

A good priest once suggested to me that our holiness as a Christian can be measured by our ability to pray the Our Father from the heart.    In Dante’s purgatory, the Our Father is prayed over and over until they really learn to pray it from the heart. Do you pray the Our Father from your heart? Being one of the first prayers we learn, praying it daily, and every week at Mass, it becomes easy just to rattle off the Our Father without praying from our hearts.

The Catechism devotes its last 100 paragraphs explaining the words of the Lord’s Prayer. I recommend reading through those 100 paragraphs over the next week, you won’t regret it. But also, I invite you, each day this week, set aside some time to pray the Our Father from the heart. Pray it slowly, reflectively, pondering each word, each phrase, each petition. Allow the Lord’s Prayer to help you overcome the pride, the willfulness, the arrogance, the disordered passions that keep you from living in the freedom and peace God wants for you.

My God’s Will truly be done on earth as it is in heaven, in our lives, the lives of our families, and nation, and parish, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.