Amazing Catechists

Teaching and learning the faith together

Looking for God? Now is the Time.

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We have all heard the warning about “living in the past.”  It’s not a wise thing to do.

I know that I often catch myself dwelling on this or that decision from years or even decades ago.  When this happens I find myself rehashing my reasons and rationales like some broken record.

There is no doubt that 20/20 hindsight can be a cruel partner, poking us every now and then.   Armed with the clarity of knowing results and consequences we torture ourselves wondering how we could not see the results of our actions or decisions way back when.

Not to be outdone, of course, are the ever-popular apprehensions about the future. After all, is not the future merely a blind curve teeming with unexpected traps and problems? Yet we rush  toward manholes and cliffs we will not see until it is too late.

Between the haunting past and the foreboding future, we have a ready-made plate of worries and ruminations at our disposal.  What we need to realize sooner better than later, however, is that God is neither in our rear-view mirror nor is He at the end of the blind curve that is our future.

Dwelling In The Past

There is a clear distinction between dwelling in the past as opposed to learning from the past.  The word “dwelling” means a home or where one resides or lives. It is not constructive, and it’s even destructive, to constantly live in the past.

Whether we constantly reflect on positive or negative memories and experiences, the mere fact that we keep re-visiting that past takes away from our focus on the present.  Spending all day thinking about my great high school experiences does little to improve my present situation.  Likewise, obsessing over the mistakes or poor choices I made in the past only tends to beat me down.

Of course there is nothing wrong with mentally glancing back at our past highlights or low points. The problem occurs when we dwell or entrench ourselves in a time which we cannot change now.  We gain nothing, and even retreat, when we define ourselves by our past, bad or good.  When we define ourselves by our past, we perpetuate that past far beyond its beneficial role in our lives.  The past should inform, and not define, our present and future.

Learning From The Past

God wants us to learn and grow toward our destiny with Him. But we cannot learn and grow if we wrap ourselves in our past.  Obsessing over past glory only invites complacency, presumption, stagnation, or even arrogance. Obsessing over past stumbles or hurts only brings  depression, resentment, regret, and even bitterness.  No matter how you look at it, the past that is obsessed over is a moral minefield most mortal humans cannot traverse safely.

We should use the past as a teacher for enhancing our future. The only thing worse than a mistake is a mistake one does not learn from and may even repeat.  Reflecting on past errors and taking steps to avoid those errors again is never a bad thing.  When we reflect on our past mistakes, we bring the wisdom of the past to our present.  When we dwell on the past, however, we drag our present to that past.

The Past is an Unhealthy Neighborhood

The past can be dangerous turf teeming with regret, remorse, resentment, revenge, bitterness, and ingratitude.  Armed with 20/20 hindsight, we see results and consequences that we could never have anticipated back then. Obsessing over what we should or could have done or what we did not do goes way past the productive stage.

Forgiving others or ourselves can be very difficult, if not impossible, for those wrapped in the past.  It is also practically impossible to appreciate the present if we are preoccupied with the past.  The devil wants us to sink in the past’s cesspool of vice and hopelessness.

Ultimately, those mired in the past cannot let go because they cannot trust in God’s mercy.

Leave The Future to God

Dwelling in the past is an invitation to be ungrateful for what we have and mistrustful of God’s Divine Mercy. At the same time, worrying about the future can be an invitation to be mistrustful of God’s Divine Providence.

While there is nothing wrong with glancing at our future and reflecting on our plans and hopes, this is very different from being anxious or even petrified of what that future will bring.  If the past is teeming with the potential for regret, then the future is overflowing with the potential for fear.

God wants us to learn from our past and plan for our future with joyful trust, acceptance, and gratitude for His many blessings. We are closest to God when we humbly ask for forgiveness for our stumbles and humbly embrace God’s Will for our lives.  Learn from your past and leave it to God.  Embrace your future and entrust it to God as well.

“Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.” (Mt 6:34)

Find God in The Present

Fulton Sheen once observed that much of our unhappiness stems from excessive concentration in the past and extreme preoccupation with the future.  We cannot change the past.  We only have the potential to either simmer in it or learn from it.  Similarly, we cannot predict the future.  We only have the opportunity to become paralyzed before it or to embrace it by trusting in God.

God is found in our present moments.  He is present among the countless souls we daily encounter in great need for kindness, compassion, and love.  He is present in the wonders of nature that surround us each today.  Each moment is an opportunity to get closer to God in small and immense ways.  We can only relieve pain, loneliness, hopelessness, and sorrow in the present.  We can only reach out to wandering hands in search of a caring touch in the present.

Prayers about the past tend to apologize or hope. Prayers about the future tend to petition.  Prayers in the present, however, are the most opportune way to praise and thank the Creator.

Embrace each moment as an opportunity for salvation. Sanctify each moment with humble contentment and acceptance. Do not waste or tarnish each moment with apathy, or ingratitude.  Let God always be your answer to now.

2020  Gabriel Garnica

Following Christ is a Series of Commitments

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In the Gospel reading for Sept. 8, Jesus tells us that truly following Him requires a series of continuous commitments.  But for many, such commitments are simply a bridge too far.

The commitments Jesus lists include “hating” our family, bearing our cross, and planning our path (LK 14:25-33).  Christ is telling us that following Him requires sacrifice, suffering, dedication, commitment, dedication, and planning.  This teaching ties back to previous readings where Jesus tells us we need to be humble (LK 14:7-14) and that we should strive to enter the kingdom through the narrow door (LK 13:22-30).

Following Christ

Many people are ‘turned off’ by the word “hate” in this reading.   But as Msgr. Charles Pope explains, “The use of the word “hate” here does not mean that we are to have contempt for others or to nourish unrighteous anger toward them. Rather, this is a Jewish idiom. For some reason, the Hebrew language has very few comparative words such as more/less and greater/ fewer . . .  So, what Jesus means is that we cannot prefer anyone or anything to Him.”

Our Lord was merely telling us that following Him must be our primary mission in this life, above all other commitments and missions. The ironic part of this concern is that the word “hate” is one of a litany of words so thrown about in our modern speech that it has somehow undergone a diabolic distortion.

Today this word is often used as a weapon of political, social, and media manipulation.  If an opponent does not agree with us, we call them a hater.  If anyone dares to express reservations regarding others’ actions and attitudes, we call them a hater.  Pretty soon, we will resort to calling anyone who gets in our nerves a hater. In this superficial and often lazy society, the mainstream media has taken over the mantle of description and perception of reality. Whomever the media calls a hater is, in fact, a hater.  No further explanation or justification necessary!

Some ‘Hatred’ is Actually Required

In truth, to hold Christ above everything else in our lives, we must develop a hatred, an aversion, or at least a disregard for anything and anyone who dares to stand in our way toward Christ. That of course includes sin but, beyond that, it includes not allowing the ingredients of sin to fester in our daily lives. Things such as resentment, bitterness, revenge, lust, and jealousy, for example, cannot be allowed to become squatters in our hearts, minds, and souls lest they become permanent squatters and, eventually, possessors of who we are.

Any strong feeling toward someone or something implies a passion or a love for that person or thing.  Likewise, any strong aversion or hatred for someone or something implies a total distaste and a commitment to avoid and distance ourselves from that person or thing.  Unless we find sin, toxic things, and toxic people revolting, we will leave ourselves vulnerable to those very sins, things, and people.  Ultimately, unless someone or something brings us closer to Christ, we must push that person or thing away on our journey and mission to help ourselves and others toward Christ.

Following Christ is About Genuine Sacrifice

While we have all heard that we carry our crosses in order to follow Christ, many of us brush this challenge off.  We have not seen too many folks hanging from crosses in our neighborhoods lately. We think of crucifixion as an ancient and primitive torture and punishment.  So we do not take it too seriously in our so-called enlightened world.  We do, however, understand that carrying our crosses means being willing to suffer and sacrifice.  But many of us now equate this with not eating chocolate during Lent.

In truth, the level and kind of sacrifice and suffering that we must equate with carrying our cross has never been watered down since Calvary. What has often been diluted, however, is our perception of what that cross actually means.  This is not about sacrificing chocolate or high fat diets.  It is about pushing away the false values and superficial concerns of this world. It is about placing Christ above anything this world promises and, in fact, above ourselves and our own personal agenda.

Following Christ Cannot Be an Accident

This reading also reminds us that following Christ cannot be an accident or a coincidence.   Being a follower of Christ is a serious and profound commitment.  We cannot possibly turn that dedication into a whimsical fancy to be followed only on odd days or whenever we are in the mood.

Our Lord compares this to building a serious structure or responding to a serious military situation.  If we seriously want to build something of value or be a soldier for any worthwhile cause, we do some serious planning.  Then we must dedicate ourselves to that which we plan to build or fight for.

We must also note that this building and fighting does not, however, imply random, headstrong, or mindless full-speed-ahead thinking.  We must be willing to take a step back, to pause, to assess our strengths and weaknesses, and to adjust our original plans. Temporary retreat is often the best response to immediate obstacles and setbacks if one is to obtain ultimate, long-term success.

Failure to Plan

In truth, sin is the result of accidental thinking.  When we do not plan, we fail to prepare. We fall to the whims of human weakness and nature. In our quest for Christ it can truly be said that if we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail.

If we consider the temporary shine of sin threatening our eternal salvation, we begin to get a sense of just how foolish and mindless sin really is. Assuming that we actually care and want to save our souls, then it makes absolutely no sense to lose that treasure by committing any sin.  Yet we do it every day.

Sin is the epitome of foolishness and of stupidity.  Yet we engage in such stupidity all the time. Are we, in fact, stupid?  No, we are just weak;.  And that weakness causes us to accidentally slip into the utter failure of sin.

My meaning here is that God has given each of us enough intelligence and common sense to realize that sin is the ultimate stupidity.  However, He has also given us freedom of choice. So too often we choose to be stupid and vulnerable to our own human weakness.

If we would approach every day like an intelligent and careful builder or a general constructing our path to Christ and confronting the forces that pull us away from Him, our God-given gifts would put us on the path to eternal salvation. Sadly, we tend to stumble through each day, oblivious to the forces that threaten us.  And we inadvertently build our eternal resume on flimsy ground.

Christ’s Lesson

Ultimately, if we do not put Christ above everyone and everything else, we are putting ourselves above Christ.  If we are not willing to fully sacrifice and suffer for Christ, we are also putting ourselves above Christ.  All sin is about putting ourselves above Christ.  If we fail to plan and prepare to do what we have to do to follow Christ and serve God with our God-given gifts, we are again putting ourselves above Christ.

Given all of this, this Gospel reading is really telling us that reaching eternal salvation means putting away our mirrors and stopping our fascination with ourselves above Christ.  Following Christ is about keeping our eyes on the prize and that prize is not a selfie.

 

What is Your Eternal Job Description? The Lesson of Martha and Mary

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The recent gospel story of Martha and Mary (LK 10: 38-42) is one of the most powerful and profound expressions of an eternal struggle many of us face on a daily basis.  People grapple with their ‘job descriptions’ every single day, just like Martha was doing.

Quite often our job description is about as secular as it can get.  We focus on what we need to focus on to succeed in this world. The next day, however, we sway toward a crooked, but hopefully sincere, struggle to define our ‘eternal’ job as saving our own souls and those of others while serving and loving God and others.

While a certain amount of shuffling between a secular and our sacred, eternal job description is allowed in our daily pilgrimage through this world toward God, we must always take stock and adjust.  We need to maintain the overall direction of our efforts – facing due Heaven and not due earth. What are the signs that we are straying toward earth more than toward Heaven in this daily struggle?

Burdens

In Luke’s gospel,  Martha feels burdened by her earthly tasks and complains to Our Lord. Whatever earthly loads we may be carrying, feeling burdened certainly seems par for the course regarding all of them.  Earthly tasks carry physical, emotional, psychological, social, financial, practical, and many other kinds of burdens.  As physical beings, we will certainly feel those burdens on a regular basis.

Our burdens can surely tire, frustrate, and exasperate us.  While it is both normal and expected that we will all feel these strains from time to time, there is a high correlation between our eternal job description and just how much and how regularly we are feeling such burdens.  Those with an earthly focus will tend to feel more and increasingly burdened by these loads because earthly burdens tend to seem all-consuming and endless.

In fact, earthy burdens sometimes seem insurmountable and pointless.  They can overwhelm us.  We can feel lost as to how to handle them, and wonder how they can possibly lead us to any good.  A couple consumed and obsessed with buying a home, for example, may pull themselves in all directions trying to save for their goal.  They can even lose hope that they will ever achieve it in the light of their difficulties.

Isolation and Abandonment

Martha also expressed resentment that Our Lord did not care about her plight.  Martha felt she was being left all alone to deal with her burden. Once we become distracted or lost in an earthly focus, however, we measure and judge according to the dictates and standards of this world and not of God.  Negative, earthly feelings such as resentment, anger, bitterness, and jealousy creep in.  These secular standards and measures tell us that we are getting the short end of the stick and even being treated unfairly by God and others.  Ironically, we will feel isolated and abandoned by God and others precisely because our self-obsession and warped self-pity will not allow us to find fulfillment or joy in focusing on the needs of others.

It is easy to see that Martha was only focused on herself in this situation.  She was feeling unfairly treated and did not care to see anything other than that view of the situation.  Martha even went as far as to judge and question Our Lord’s stance in all of this!  Do we not do the same when we pray for something and then resent it when we feel our prayers are not answered?

Enticing Others to Our Mistake

Martha’s resentment and frustration led her to ask Our Lord to make Mary join her in her mistake!   I have often read that one of the devil’s greatest delights in pushing us to sin is successfully convincing us to join in his mistake of rejecting God.  Misery loves company, and Martha’s self-obsession leads her to demand that Our Lord order Mary to make the same mistake that she has made.  This warped delusion of self and righteousness goes as far as pretending that one’s foolishness is actually one’s enlightenment and that others should follow one’s “light.”

Our Lord tells Martha that she is worried and anxious about pointless things that will not ultimately amount to a hill of beans to her eternity. We stray from the path to Our Lord to the extent that we seek our treasure among things that do not lead us to him.  Washing dishes and making beds are not inherent evils.  Fixing the car and installing a new garage door opener are not inherently bad.  Fixing the air conditioning and paying our bills are not superficial and useless tasks.  However, while we should focus on and accomplish these things as we can, we must never reach the point of worrying and obsessing over these tasks and duties as if they are all that matters. Such worry and obsession only pushes God to the background for another day.

Where is God to You?

When we become fixated with things of this world over what matters to heaven, we tend to push heaven to the background and even change how, and even if, we see God at all.  If you see God as some sugar daddy who will come to your rescue whenever you need Him, you have lost the proper place of God in your life.  Frankly, I am not sure which is worse:  forgetting God or distorting what God is.  If God is not found in your preoccupation or consideration of some issue or burden, then perhaps you are mired in an overly earthly focus.

The story of Martha and Mary reminds us that we have a daily choice to embrace God or this earth.  Too many times, we become so wrapped up in accomplishing what this world expects or even what we think this world expects that we forget what God expects from us.  While doing our best to fulfill our tasks and duties in this world is important, we can never allow those tasks and duties to displace God as the center of our lives and focus.

Always place God first, place your earthly burdens before Him, and trust that He will guide you through these struggles!

2019  Gabriel Garnica

Are You a Yada Yada Catholic?

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The phrase Yada yada has been around for a long time, with varied origins proposed, but the phrase’s popularity was re-ignited by a 1997 episode of the Seinfeld sitcom.  The double use of yadda implies a shorthand way of fast-forwarding boring or expected parts of life or speech. It is literally the equivalent of et cetera or blah blah.

For example, a student might tell her absent classmate, “The professor did her usual lecture on the scientific method, yada yada, and then she cancelled class early.” The implication is that the yada yadapart is the usual, mundane, unimportant, and/or redundant stuff already experienced by the parties involved.  The idea is that such parts are so predictable that repeating them is a waste of time since people could figure out what was implied anyway.

Part of the irony and attempt at humor was that one party thought that Yada yada was appropriate, practical, and self-explanatory in a given context and the other party was only further confused by the phrase.  Rather than save everyone a lot of thought, the phrase only threw the confused party into a sea of unanswered questions and unsure assumptions.  A life immersed only in the secular can often be a paradox of such ironic tragedy in the midst of patronizing presumption. Such a life is pulled between satisfying flimsy and changing societal conventions and trying to grasp effective and fulfilling self-perceptions.  We are often pulled between satisfying others and ourselves by a society that idolizes popularity and self at the same time. Like the townspeople pretending that the naked Emperor is wearing clothes, we are often too obsessed with looking right to do what is truly right.

Yada Yada Catholics

I am fairly certain that this might be the first use of Yada yada to describe Catholics, so embrace my pioneering spirit. As I see it, many of us might be tempted to fast-forward, assume, practicalize, and short-hand our Faith. Why would we do this?  Perhaps, whether we admit it or not, we have allowed our Faith, or at least our perception and experience of it, to grow stale, mundane, predictable, and even boring.  We have lost the transcendent power and meaning of our beliefs and practices to the point where we now see the practice of our faith as nothing more than commercials we want to fast-forward through on the DVR of our lives. This tragedy explains parents missing mass with their kids in order to take them to swim meets and soccer games.  It explains folks treating the most Blessed Sacrament as nothing more than a weekly white cookie.  It explains hordes of Catholics too ignorant about what their Faith is about to explain much less defend it.

The Five Culprits of Catholic Yada Yada

I believe that there are many reasons for Catholic Yada yada, but the five main ones are, in no particular order:  1) Ignorance   2) Distraction  3) Arrogance  4) Defiance and 5) Distance.

Thanks to a diluted and sometimes distorted religious education system, many Catholics have been raised increasingly ignorant of core Catholic beliefs and the relative importance and centrality of those beliefs.  Many Catholics, for example, do not know, understand, or care about the Divine Presence.

Secondly, modern society embodies so many distractions, from technology to twisted values, that many Catholics are easily confused and readily blend truth with subjective whim and myth. Third and fourth, current social values promote and foment rampant personal arrogance and defiance against any absolute moral code.  Morality is what each person defines as morality.  Anyone who even attempts to guide others toward ethical behavior is labeled an intolerant and divisive threat to society.  It is troubling that increasing numbers of Catholics stubbornly and cluelessly latch unto distorted, warped, and very subjective interpretations and applications of their Faith.

We see scores of Catholics encouraged and convinced that attending a wedding between two divorced Catholics without annulments is acceptable to “maintain the peace” and exhibit “love and acceptance”.  Finally, all of these things and more cause many Catholics to grow distant from their faith.  Their beliefs become nothing more than distant relatives they admit to being related to but barely know.  All too often, many Catholics become Peter at the fire warming himself while Christ, their Faith, is interrogated.  We too may deny Christ many times through our words, actions, and omissions merely to avoid trouble and criticism.

The Surprising Meaning of Yada and Its Implications

The most surprising part of my preparation for this piece was the discovery that a single Yada is a Hebraic word meaning a knowing dedication and sharing often based on love, mercy, and justice which is often referenced in the Old Testament. The obvious question is how can such a beautiful and positive word suddenly become so negative and dismissive when doubled?  I think that the answer may lie in the idea that we often take what is most important for granted out of convenience, impatience, and a warped search for what I will call external novelty.

The process by which this terrible thing happens might begin with expecting core, profound, and central ideas to continually inspire and radiate their own wonder. Rather than embracing our responsibility to cultivate and refresh the wonder of the most transcendent, we tend to sit back and expect the transcendent to entertain and inspire us.  It is almost as if we have come to equate greatness with the innate ability to generate greatness without any effort or participation on our part.  A fantastic health speaker may provide us with a wonderful diet and exercise strategies, but our health will not improve unless we take, apply, and make those ideas work in our lives. Similarly, we are the hands of Christ in this world, not merely his audience eating popcorn and waiting for the next miracle or magic trick.

We tend to exhibit the obnoxious trio of lazy impatience leading to an obsession with finding the most convenient path to anything.  In our rush to get to the next great thing which is often not that great at all, we tend to overlook the very greatness right under our noses.  Ultimately, we seek external novelty, automatically assuming that new is better and new must come from outside of what is presently before us.  In this context,  the Hebraic Yada’s power and beauty are dismissed when we lump all of the Yadas in our lives into a convenient pile while impatiently looking elsewhere for the freshness and wonder we already have before us if we only care to look.  Many Catholics, for example, are too distracted with the cares of the day to truly consider the majesty of the Divine Presence. Similarly, many folks go the bathroom exactly during the elevation of the Eucharist at the Offertory. Lastly, how many Catholics truly consider that we are just as present at the Last Supper, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord as the Apostles were when we attend mass?  For far too many Catholics, the Holy Mass has conveniently become a weekly social ritual.

One Yada is Enough

Given what we know about the meanings of Yada as opposed to Yada yada, we can perhaps conclude that one Yada is more than enough when it comes to our Faith.  We must see our Faith as a knowing dedication to Christ and sharing of that dedication with others in love, mercy, and justice.  That view, however, invites us to continually seek the internal novelty of ways by which we may practice and apply such dedication, sharing, love, mercy, and justice. The answer does not lie in the society and world around us, for to believe so would imply that the value of our Faith is dependent upon this world and its values.  Rather, the beauty and power of our faith are to be found within the Faith itself and our ability to discover, extract, and apply what we find to a needy world.  We cannot be lazy observers of our own Faith merely waiting to be entertained while continually handcuffing our beliefs to the whimsical chains of this world. Rather, it is our duty, mission, and purpose to draw out from our Faith the necessary tools to both glorify God and bring Christ to everyone we meet.

One Yada is enough because one Yada tells us all we need to know and use to follow Christ.  Once we let this world convince us that it has the prescription to improve our Faith, we will become Yada yadaCatholics who think that convenience, entertainment, external novelty, and compromise will ever bring us closer to our Faith much less to Christ.  The internal novelty of our Faith is simply its transcendent ability to provide us with new insights and applications through Christ and his example. By necessity, any external novelty will be subject to the superficial and distorted values of this world.  Ultimately, when it comes to the Yada in our Faith, less is more!

2019   Gabriel Garnica

The Silence of Christmas Speaks Loud and Clear

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In his wonderful book, The Power of Silence: Against The Dictatorship of Noise, Cardinal Robert Sarah tells us

Without silence, God disappears in the noise. And this noise becomes                                                             all the more obsessive because God is absent. Unless the world rediscovers silence,                                        it is lost.

We might rightly ask, what does Cardinal Sarah mean by silence and noise?  The answer, my friends, is all around us right now.  Cardinal Sarah refers to silence as that environment by which we can encounter God, Who is Divine Silence. Only by placing ourselves in the silence that is God can we ever hope to hear Him in our hearts, minds, and souls.  I was once told that God always answers our prayers but that we often are not listening or do not want to listen to His answer.

If God is true silence, then what is this noise that we speak of?  Is it the sirens and whistles that invade our daily lives?  Is it the clamoring of crowds and busy streets?  Is it the blare of alarm clocks and bells that dictate our hypnotizing routine toward ends we may no longer even know?

For Cardinal Sarah, noise is anything which distracts us from God, and so that kind of noise is far beyond the sounds that disrupt our quiet moments of meditation and reflection. We all have our favorite sounds and songs. Some love a bubbling brook or birds chirping. Others enjoy the sounds of a forest or soft background music.  Ultimately, inevitably, sounds surround us with such frequency and intensity that we become oblivious to their power over us. The loud sounds of a factory or office fade into the distance the longer one works in those environments. Eventually, we internalize those sounds so that they become part of who we are and, for that matter, part of who we become to others. If we allow this world to become our priority, we will invariably allow the sounds of this world to become the background music of that priority.

Faced with such variety of sounds, we indirectly choose which will become noise and which will remain simply sounds.  Sounds are those things that we hear through our ears, but noises are those sounds that we hear through our minds, hearts, and souls which distract and even distance us from God.  Most people will agree that alarm bells, whistles, busy streets, and bustling workplaces by themselves do not really distract us from God.  I do not necessarily distance myself from God when I hear an alarm clock or enter a busy office.

So when do sounds become noise for us?  For many of us, a sound becomes a noise when it is annoying, unpleasant, unwanted, or distracting, and that is a valid, earthly view of noise.  Earthly noise inspires us to escape, avoid, or distance ourselves from the source of that noise.   Listening to songs or music that we do not like is often noise to us because we do not find these pleasant or to our liking. In fact, things we do not understand, care about, or relate to often become simply noise to us.

However, for Cardinal Sarah, the worst kind of noise is that which pushes us away from God and what God is about.  This noise is contradictory to the love and essence of what God truly is.  The silence of God is not found in criticism, judgment of others, gossip, vulgarity, arrogance, or mockery.  Neither is this divine silence found in idle, useless talk about superficial things.

As we proceed through our yearly Christmas journey, we may ask ourselves if this journey has become a mundane routine, a robotic ritual, or a remote control duty to fulfill.  Do we do Christmas or do we truly experience its  essence?  Do we treat Christmas like some shopping list to finish or do we embrace Christmas as a beautifully profound opportunity to re-connect with what really matters?

There is nothing inherently wrong with Christmas music, shopping, decorations, parties, family gatherings, and all of the exciting preparations we make each year as long as we do not allow these things to define Christmas for us and therefore distance us from God. The sounds of Christmas become the noise of Christmas to the extent that we forget Christ as a result.  There was a time when celebrating Christmas and getting closer to God went hand and hand.  That time is past and lost.  We are surrounded by a word and society  immersed in very temporary, superficial, distracting, and even destructive spiritual noise.  We live in a world which no longer inspires us toward God but, sadly, seems to make every effort to drag us away from Him. Whether this world succeeds in that effort is up to each of us.

God is Divine Silence, but He speaks to each of us loud and clear if we are willing to listen.  We encounter Him in our prayer, in our kindness and love toward others, and in the eyes of the fragile elderly,  frightened sick, confused young, and marginalized homeless. If we engage in the daily struggle to push away this world’s noise and simply listen to God’s divine, not-so-silent call, we can  encounter the child Jesus on that silent night each and every day of the year.

 

2018  Gabriel Garnica

5 Ways to Wait with Purpose

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Advent is a perfect liturgical season to apply what we have learned and understand about the spirituality of waiting – its purpose and gift for us from God. Because taking a lofty spiritual concept can be difficult to break down in terms of practical application to everyday living, it’s important to understand particular steps that can assist us in using our seasons of waiting with intention.

This Advent, try to be sincere in your effort to wait with purpose. Turn to God with these five ways of entering into dialogue with him as only a guideline to understand more deeply what he is asking of you or telling you in your time of waiting.

A brief preface of these five steps is this: You may enter into the first few cyclically for months or even years before you reach the prepare phase. This is because preparation often requires a very refined and fine-tuned faith in which God will chisel and prune you in order to move you closer to a specific call or mission.

Listen

We can never expect to glean clarity in our uncertainty or holy tension if we don’t regularly enter into the sanctuary of our own hearts, nestled in silence. Solitude is absolutely imperative for us to hear God speak to our hearts.

Though it’s difficult to do in my current state as a wife and mother to three young daughters, I create a sacred space every day to enter into the heart of God through silence. This is how I begin my daily prayers and devotions. I gather my prayer journal, daily inspirational flip calendar, liturgical companion Magnificat, and seasonal devotions, if applicable. Then I breathe and gaze at an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus mounted above our holy water font in the living room.

Listening means we turn our ears toward another. We must eliminate every distraction possible if we are to effectively hear that “still, small voice” within.

Ponder

Sometimes God is silent when we seek him in solitude, but there are occasions when he will give you a bold message. Prepare yourself for all sorts of surprises led by the Holy Spirit! When you read Scripture, and a particular word or phrase or passage really jolts or sears your heart, pay attention. Write it down and mull it over for a few moments.

Ask some questions about it. For example, while I was writing Waiting with Purpose, the words “wait” or “be still” or “trust in the Lord” came to me frequently during the listening and pondering stages of prayer. I kept asking God what he wanted to teach me and wrote down the thoughts that inspired the book.

Pray

After you formulate some questions, bring them directly to the Lord in conversation. Pour your heart out to him – your fears and doubts, your anxiety or concerns, your excitement or restlessness. Give him everything that flows forth as you delve more deeply into your own heart in search of his.

You are conversing with the Divine, so there’s no need for format or formulae here. It’s just your heart language speaking to God’s heart.

This stage will likely lead you back to listening, pondering, asking more questions, and praying again. You will likely engage in this process for quite some time before advancing to the last two.

Prepare

Over time, you might discern that God is asking something specific of you. Everyone’s mission will look different, of course. But the point is that you receive a divine assignment, based on the pattern of listening to and speaking with God.

If and when this happens, you will need to find a good spiritual director if you haven’t already. This person needs to be objective in matters of guiding you more deeply into accepting your holy assignment and discovering what that means. Think of St. Teresa of Calcutta whom Jesus asked to found an order serving the “poorest of the poor.” Or St. Teresa of Avila who heard the Lord tell her to reform the Carmelite order.

God asks some people today to become overseas missionaries, write books, enter into a specific vocation, found a non-profit, lead a parish ministry, and so on. Regardless of the assignment, know that he has something specific in mind for you. Be attentive and vigilant like the wise virgins who kept their oil ready for the Bridegroom’s arrival.

Act

Again, you will need a spiritual director to guide you before you actually go forth to begin your mission or ministry. The point is to be ready for whatever God asks of you. It seems as if waiting lingers forever, but once God acts in your life, he moves quickly. This isn’t always the case, but you will find that timing is such an important piece to your waiting experience.

This post is an abridged version of Chapter 6 in my book, Waiting with Purpose: Persevering When God Says “Not Yet.”

Text (c) Jeannie Ewing 2018, all rights reserved. Photo by Maxime Lelièvre on Unsplash

Advent #GIVEAWAY and Interview With #aromaRosary Inventor, Chantal Howard

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UPDATE: Comments were turned off by accident but are now ON. Feel free to enter! So sorry for any inconvenience!–Lisa

Guadalupe Rosary Bracelet

Beloved Readers, we have an exciting and unusual giveaway: an Our Lady of Guadalupe rosary bracelet that diffuses essential oils, as you pray!!! Talk about awesome!

TO ENTER, please tell us in the comments why you would like to win!

The popular Our Lady of Guadalupe aromaRosary Bracelet will be awarded on December 12th, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so enter right away!

And start praying the Novena to Our Lady, which starts today (December 4th)!

 

Now, meet aromaRosary’s inventor, Chantal Howard! 

Welcome, Chantal! Please give us just a few glimpses into your world so that we can get to know you a bit more personally.

I am a Byzantine Catholic by birth, giving me a great love for icons, chant, and the Divine Liturgy. I am an oblate of the Community of St. John and, therefore, identify myself as Eucharistic, Marian, Seeker of Truth, and devotee of all things truly Catholic. I have a charismatic side, a traditional Latin-loving, veil-wearing side. Above all, I want to live a life of prayer, holiness, and heroic virtue. The New Evangelization is knit into who I am.

Rosa Mystica Rosary Bracelet

Chantal HowardI have been married for nearly 15 years to the man of my Jane-Austin-like dreams.  I can truthfully say Peter and I are a work in progress.  But I rejoice in the Mercy of God that is helping us to put lofty ideas of love into practice with greater gratitude and tenderness. I love that I get to share life with a man of such conviction, passion, and fidelity – to me, to Our Lady, and to Our Lord.

My five children are the pure light of my life. We homeschool.  I admit, though, that our homeschool has been interdependent with much family collaboration and even part-time school going opportunities to help round out our family dynamic, allowing for me to be as active in work as I am.  This is the nature of the “School of the Family,” as it has developed for us. The desire to nurture them in health, in mind, in spirit, and in creativity and joy is foundational and much of that I can give to them, but I also realize that I am not fully sufficient alone.  I laugh when I hear the not so popular expression, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and yet can we really deny the fact?  So, we had better choose our villages carefully.  In our case, our family is our village, and so we have recently relocated to Northern Idaho to be near all my siblings and my mother so that we can foster our kids in the context of family, faith, farming, good food, and adventure.

Tell us about the nature of your work.

Victory Heirloom aromaRosary

My Grandaddy began the entrepreneurial streak in our family as an inventor. My mom and dad firmed it up by building a family business. I grew up helping to answer phone calls, strategize marketing plans and work in the field. As my mom homeschooled me, this practical work in business became second nature. Since then, I have not ceased drumming up new ventures. Ministry, writing, dōTERRA, and my family have offered platforms to launch entrepreneurial dreams in more directions than I ever imagined – Catholicpreneur style. In addition, as a young person I was a highly competitive gymnast and high-level athlete, in several arenas.  This promoted a lifestyle of fitness and wholesomeness that has been a steady undercurrent in my life. Together, these life experiences have brought me to where I am today as a “natural solution coach.” I help families find health and happiness through an essential oil-inspired wellness lifestyle, without New Age overtones.

Where did your passion for the rosary begin, and why do you see it as such an important mission to bring to the world?

As a young person my parents rested all their hope of us remaining a faithful family on the prayer of the Holy Rosary. Through their inspiration, we began early chanting the rosary in a Byzantine style, and I have never turned back from loving the rosary and wanting to bring it to life as—not just a prayer but—an experience that helps us traverse from our earthly dimension to the spiritual plain of contemplation.  (You can check out the audio CD in the Byzantine style that we produced as a family, here.)

How did your passion for essential oils and the rosary together take shape?

The Rosary is a gift that has been given to all of humanity to heal our wounded nature.  It offers us a way to ascend to the heights of our calling as children of God by tethering our fidgeting hands, our wandering minds, and our wayward souls to the life of Christ. In light of my work coaching so many people who are wounded physically and emotionally, the support of essential oils tied to the rosary struck me as a natural bridge.

A few years ago, Immaculée Ilibagiza spoke to my heart, as she shared her story of suffering and triumph through the power of the rosary with 30,000 other individuals. It just so happened that she was the keynote speaker at a large, global essential oil summit I was attending. As she shared, I marveled at her passion and unhindered dedication to sharing the rosary with the world.  Here, in one moment, two of my greatest loves in life were colliding before my eyes—essential oils and the rosary! As I drove across the county, I reflected on my personal visit with Immaculee, her powerful gesture of throwing her rosary to someone in the crowd, and all I had just learned about the movement of essential oils in health care. My heart overflowed with inspiration and the desire to bring to our hurting world the solace and rich blessings of essential oils and the rosary. Thus this effort was born.

Describe an aromaRosary.

Every aromaRosary is hand-crafted to hold and diffuse essential oils, to expand the prayer experience.  Using natural stones and lava rock and other ceramic, metal, or wood beads, we have designed rosaries that can withstand the intensity of therapeutic grade essential oils that have been chosen carefully to reflect the mysteries of the rosary.  These blends are symbolic and calming, to help promote an atmosphere of prayer.  Together with fingering the beads, chanting the prayers, and smelling the aromas of sanctity, we can more fully engage our senses and focus our prayers.

Unpack for us briefly the four essential oil bends you have chosen.

We use four unique blends. The Joyful Blend is comprised of frankincense and other oils that help create an aroma reminiscent of the Nativity.  The Luminous Blend is a blend of citrus oils that reflect the light and miraculous nature of the Luminous mysteries. The Sorrowful Blend is woody and earthy, with Myrrh and other wood oils that are an aromatic encounter with the cross and the mysteries of Christ’s suffering.  The Glorious Blend offers floral notes and Easteresque aromas that are gentle, soft, and Marian.

Do you have resources that would help others to learn about aromaRosary and your work as a coach and speaker?

Please visit us at aromaRosary.com. We’re having our Advent sale, right now!  I would welcome your comments, your reviews, your support of our efforts, and of course I would love to work with you. I offer coaching and essential oil training.  We have a dynamic Catholic team of essential oils coaches throughout the country and we want you to be a part of what we are doing to heal families and evangelize in the process.

aromaRosary-2.jpg

Thank you, Chantal!

TO ENTER:

Leave a comment below about why you’d like to win the Guadalupe aromaRosary Bracelet! A random drawing will take place on the evening of Wednesday, December 12th.

NOTE: you must have access to a mailing address in the United States, to win!

 

Passive Waiting and Suffering Well

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We established that no one likes to wait and that a small fraction of our waiting experiences is what we term active, or Advent waiting. What, then, comprises the majority of those periods of life when we linger in tension, when we are in between or feeling stuck or lost?

Passive waiting is when we move from a place of knowing specifically that God will complete some good work He has begun in us to becoming entirely unaware and uncertain of what He is doing or asking of us. We move from subject to object in passive waiting. For example, if you are late to work and get stuck in the midst of unexpected construction, you are experiencing passive waiting. If you just had a biopsy and have to spent an agonizing week not knowing if you have cancer or not, you are in passive waiting.

These times when waiting is painful, when we do not choose to suffer, is precisely what makes life worthwhile. It’s not because of the suffering itself; it is because of what Passion gives birth to, that is, Resurrection. We know that suffering is not the end and that our tragedies can bring about beautiful blessings. But how do we understand passive waiting so that we can learn to suffer well, or at least better?

The Gift of Helplessness and Dependency

Maybe you or someone you know has recently become injured or suffered an accident that left him/her incapacitated. Maybe you have fallen ill with a terrible malady and simply cannot keep up your active lifestyle anymore. Maybe you are disabled.

These are all examples of the helpless state, whether temporary or permanent. And when we can’t move around like we’re used to – going to work, doing household chores, taking care of our families – we feel guilty, as if we are a burden. But God shows us the hidden gift of helplessness, because He deliberately sent His Son as an infant totally dependent on His Mother’s love and nourishment:

The popular imagination discerns nothing in God: no dependence, no waiting, no exposure, nothing of passion or passibility…and therefore, when these conditions appear in the life of man, they must appear fundamentally ‘ungodlike;’ and therefore again they must appear alien to the proper status of man and unworthy of his unique dignity. (W.H. Vanstone quote from Waiting with Purpose, p. 87)

So when you find yourself in a helpless state, know that you are not alone and that God longs to reach you in your suffering.

Preparing for Mission

When we suffer, we gain wisdom and life experience that cannot be replicated by books or rhetoric. Our experiences, then, shape us fundamentally. They make us stronger, more compassionate, and resilient. Even more, they lead us to mission.

You probably didn’t ask for your sickness or your child’s disability or your spouse’s Alzheimer’s. You didn’t want to lose a friend to addiction or a parent to cancer. Yet all of these atrocities can lead us to accompany others who are suffering similar afflictions. We are more equipped to handle their pain when we have already been through our own journey of grief.

Entering Your Resurrection

I learned something extraordinary while researching my book, Waiting with Purpose: all of the Greek verbs used to describe Jesus’ life and ministry were in the active tense until He was handed over in the Garden of Gethsemane. He spoke to His apostles at the Last Supper, “My work is finished” but immediately before expiring, “It is finished.” These are powerful examples of how working isn’t the be-all-end-all to life’s meaning and value.

Your true work is to suffer with Jesus and learn to suffer well. This doesn’t mean perfectly – just well. That means you will have moments when offering up your pain in solidarity with Jesus’ or someone else’s pain is effortless and other times when it’s impossible. The point is to keep moving forward in your own passion, knowing with confidence that your own Calvary journey will lead you to new life in Resurrection, whether in this life or the next.

This post was adapted from Chapter 6 in my book, Waiting with Purpose: Persevering When God Says “Not Yet.”

Text (c) Jeannie Ewing 2018, all rights reserved. Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

The Joy of Expectant Waiting

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There are so many beautiful words to describe active waiting: expectancy, joy, pregnancy, anticipation. It’s what we tend to experience during the Advent season. Active waiting (also called Advent or expectant waiting) evokes incredible hope in us, because we are on the cusp of watching how God’s plan unfolds for a specific promise.

A few points pertaining to this type of waiting will guide us as we move through our own journey. Think of the popular song, “I Wonder As I Wander” for this type of expectancy. A seed has been planted. Its in the germination stage right now, and what is required of you is to be vigilant and patience until the time of flourishing – which God determines – arrives.

We Wait In Community

Let’s look to a beautiful example of expectant waiting – the Visitation. What did the Blessed Mother do as soon as she heard the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy and after she accepted the invitation to bear the Son of God? She went in haste to share this joy with her cousin! They were both pregnant with a promise, so they gathered together in friendship, in community, to allow the seed of human life to grow within them.

When we wait in joyful anticipation, we remember that ‘nothing is impossible for God.’ (Waiting with Purpose, p. 47)

Have Confidence in God’s Promise

One of my favorite saints-to-be is Blessed Solanus Casey. He is well known for his famous quip, “Thank God ahead of time.” What does this mean for us when we are waiting – often with a certain amount of restlessness or tension – for new birth, new life, or a new phase of life to begin? We focus on who God is and all He has already accomplished in our lives. It’s important to thank God for all that He has done, is doing, and will do for us. That’s what expectant faith is – it’s faith that is confident in God.

We know He will act, and we pray accordingly – with expectation of answered prayer.

Expect to Move from Community to Contemplation

God often prepares us for a particular mission in cycles and seasons. We know this from our waiting experiences that somehow give way to seasons of activity and then back to dormancy. If expectant faith relies upon our lives in relationship, then we know we are being formed by those to whom we are closest – family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, spouses, children.

The people who live with us see us at our best and worst. They might draw out specific flaws or weaknesses – tendencies toward impatience, for example. As we enter into prayer each day, God reflects this reality to us so that we might allow Him to further chisel away the imperfections that deter us from spiritually advancing.

Then, one day, or perhaps gradually, we will move from a stage of activity to the desert. Community tends to precede contemplation, in that God draws us – whether quite literally (as in the case of an anchoress or hermit) or interiorly – into a more reflective state of solitude. It is during our time in the desert when God guides us more directly, though we cannot see or feel much of anything.

We wait – always in joyful hope – whether in community or contemplation.

This post was adapted from Chapter 3 in my book, Waiting with Purpose: Persevering When God Says “Not Yet.”

Text (c) Jeannie Ewing 2018, all rights reserved. Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Five Steps for Mentoring Kids in Prayer

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It is important to teach kids how to pray the Rosary, the Angelus, and other common Catholic Prayers. These should be taught in the home, but sometimes the Catechist is called to help. One of the most terrifying things you can do in the classroom is to ask a child to lead prayer. Yet, we can easily teach our children how to lead prayer in the classroom. These steps can be used with kids as young as five.

Step 1: The Catechist is the Prayer Mentor

The catechist needs to be a person of deep prayer and be the example of prayer for the class. The opening prayer for each class should always be done by the Catechist. This sets the tone. Even if you want to practice a specific prayer with them, you can still offer a spontaneous prayer and conclude with your memorized prayer.

Step 2: Mentor with Short Prayers

In the beginning, it is important to lead prayers that are easy for a child to recognize a pattern and imitate. For example: O God, thank you for this day and help our class to know you better. We ask this through Jesus. Amen.

Step 3: Just Get Started

Do not wait for a magical moment to begin having the kids pray. Have one or all of your kids offer a closing prayer at the end of class. Encourage them to close their eyes, fold their hands in prayer, and imitate the opening prayer.

Step 4: Teach Prayer as a Response

Kids should learn to incorporate the class in their closing prayer. I call this “Responsory Prayer” for my students. We pick something from the class or Mass that we could hear or see God at work in and incorporate this into our individual prayer. I ask all my students to say a Responsory Prayer at the end of class. I go first and set the example.

Here is an example of prayers my students recently made when learning about the Immaculate Mary hymn as we created Psalters for each kid.

  • Dear God, thank you for this day, help me to have self-control, and help me to have virtue like Mary. Amen.
  • Dear God, thank you for this day and help me to love Mary.

These prayers were offered by small children. You can see how they are similar, simple, and incorporate something from the class that day.

Step 5: Challenge Them

Challenge the students to grow beyond the simple prayers of comfort. In the beginning, small children and teens both tend to stick with personal petitions and personal thanksgiving. Place a jar in your room with different types of prayer. Ask each student to draw one and incorporate it into their closing or Responsory Prayer. Examples could include:

  • Give THANKS for something in someone else’s life.
  • PETITION (ask) God for something for someone else.
  • ADORE God as God.
  • PRAISE God for the work of creation or redemption or some manifestation of God’s work in your life.

Spontaneous prayer forces a student to unite their mind and voice. Hopefully we can also mentor them in the use of their heart. There is no hiding in spontaneous prayer, and there is no mindless routine. When memorized prayers and devotions are introduced in class, the students will now have a firmer foundation for praying the prayer and not simply the saying of the prayer.