Second Sunday of Lent: The Gate of Heaven Is in the Shape of the Cross

Modern audiences are usually horrified by the account of the sacrifice of Isaac. How could, the objection goes, God be so cruel as to command Abraham to sacrifice his son, even just as a test of his willingness, even without requiring to go through with the sacrifice itself? But our objections are rooted in our own cultural setting. We need to see the situation from Abraham's perspective.

Child sacrifice was a common practice among the pagan religions at the time of Abraham. Many parents would offer the lives of their children in exchange for material blessings. For Abraham, the command to sacrifice Isaac would not have been shocking or unusual. The surprise would have been the command to stop the sacrifice. God was teaching Abraham that he did not need to perform such an evil act to curry favor with him. Quite the contrary.

Read more...

First Sunday of Lent: The Desert Helps Us Find Our True Treasure

Before he starts his ministry, Jesus goes out into the desert to pray and fast. We are called to do the same during this Lenten season. In Christian spirituality, the desert has always been a symbol of spiritual purification. We will most likely not spend time in an actual desert praying and fasting, as Jesus did, but we can enter into the desert experience by pushing aside the many things that distract us from our relationship with God.

What are the things we use for comfort? Do we go from one source of digital distraction to another? Do we reach for food or coffee or another source of pleasure when we are stressed? We should identify and name the crutches we use to deal with the ups and downs of daily life. Some of these crutches are deeply destructive, while others might be okay in moderation. But we need to examine the role they play in our lives.

Read more...

Ash Wednesday: What Is Our Recompense?

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving have traditionally been the three pillars of Lent. Jesus warns us against engaging in these practices for show, for building up our public reputation. Instead, we are to pray, fast, and give alms in secret in order to receive our recompense from God. But what is it that we gain from these practices? What is our recompense?

Read more...

12 Ways to Make Lent a Life-changing Experience

As Catholics, one of the most counter-cultural things we can do is to observe the season of Lent. In our hyper-materialistic, instant grat culture, the idea of 40 days of deliberate self-denial is sure to be seen as crazy. But Lent is a profound opportunity for positive transformation.

The focus of Lent is fourfold:

- Preparing for the liturgical celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ, especially through the Triduum liturgies of Holy Week.

- Atoning for our sins through penitential practices.

- Becoming spiritually purified so that we can be more fully opened to the presence of Christ in our daily lives.

- Preparing ourselves and the world for the Second Coming of Christ.

In this article, I will explore 12 disciplines that can help us to set out on a path of life-giving transformation during the Lenten season. The first three of these, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are especially encouraged by the Church during this penitential season.

Read more...

14 Tips for a Catholic Celebration of St. Valentine's Day

Catholic reactions to Valentine's Day range from a whole-hearted embracing of the day with all of its commercialized dimensions, to utter disdain, wishing nothing more than that the day might be obliterated from our calendar. But I would propose an approach different from both of these. I would, instead, advocate for an intentionally Catholic celebration of the day. After all, whether Valentine's Day is a Christian holiday that was secularized, or a pagan holiday that was Christianized and then re-secularized, or simply a commercial holiday made up for the benefit of merchants, the day is tied to the date of a Catholic feast. As Catholics, let's claim, or reclaim, this day as St. Valentine's Day, and let's celebrate it as one of our special Catholic days.

Below are 14 tips for how we can do so (plus a bonus one at the end). These suggestions are intended for Catholic couples, but others might benefit from them as well.

Read more...

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Grace Favors the Bold

Back in the day, it was dangerous to take the kids with me when I would go shopping, because when they would ask me to buy this and that, I would usually give in. Sometimes, I would say no. But more often than not, I would make the purchase. The items in question weren't bad. They were just things I was not otherwise planning to buy. But when asked, I did so.

My shopping outings have some parallels with prayer.

Read more...

Godzilla Minus One: A Profound Exploration of the Human Condition

Many potential viewers might pass on Godzilla Minus One because they have no interest in a monster spectacle. But doing so would be an unfortunate mistake. Don't think of Godzilla Minus One as a movie about monsters but as a profound exploration of various aspects of the human condition, where the character of Godzilla is merely the catalyst that provides a frame for a poignant, gripping, and heart-rending narrative.

The story is set in post-World War II Japan, as the survivors seek to rebuild from the rubble. As the title, which no doubt got lost in translation somewhat, suggests, Japan is at its lowest point and couldn't possibly fall lower. But wait. There is Godzilla. As the monster begins to ravage the already shattered nation, we are drawn into the lives of some genuinely engaging characters, whose struggles offer us some deep insights into the workings of the human psyche.

Read more...

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Embracing the Cross Gives Us Joy

In today’s Old Testament reading, Job sounds very depressed. He does not know how to process his suffering. In my own life, I struggled for many years to come to terms with the suffering I was experiencing. I would distract myself with useless or self-defeating pursuits. I would also get bitter and blame God. The enemy was very successful at using my suffering to put a wedge between me and God.

The turning point came after my first trip to Medjugorje. One of the key insights I received there was to accept my suffering. Of course, some suffering we can prevent through prudent action. Some suffering we can alleviate through simple remedies. Some forms of suffering, like injustice, we should work to oppose. But we will all be visited by suffering that we cannot change. We can allow such suffering to destroy us or we can use it to grow and become more loving.

After my first trip to Medjugorje, I started saying the following prayer:

Read more...

7 Ways to Prepare for Lent during the Septuagesima Season

Traditionally, the third Sunday before Lent started a period of preparation for the Lenten season, called the Septuagesima season. The current, post-Vatican II calendar of the Catholic Church no longer recognizes this pre-Lenten period, but there is nothing to stop rank-and-file Catholics from observing it as a private devotion in order to gain a greater sense of focus in time for the start of Lent.

The three Sundays before Lent were traditionally called Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays, respectively, from the Latin words for 70th, 60th, and 50th. I will not go into details of the history of this naming convention here, but I will provide some links to further reading at the end. Suffice it to say that in the past the pre-Lenten period took its name from the first of these Sundays, Septuagesima.

So what should we do differently during these three pre-Lenten weeks? Let us explore seven ways that we can prepare for Lent during the Septuagesima season:

Read more...