Sunday Meditation: Reflecting on the Good Shepherd

"I know my sheep and they know me." John 10:14 

Does your diocese have a good shepherd? Does your parish? How can you tell? Scripture says, "By their fruits you shall know them." The measure of a good shepherd is how zealously he defends the faith and protects his flock from scandal. If you are fortunate enough to have a good shepherd, be sure to express your gratitude.

And now I have a story to tell from my own two dioceses, Richmond and Arlington. Arlington is blessed to have many faithful priests. How grateful I am for them because they have kept Arlington from going the way of so many places that have essentially lost the faith altogether. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. warned about the crisis of faith for years and predicted that entire dioceses would lose the faith. Has that happened in your diocese? He described the crisis in a 1997 article that outlined what has become ever more obvious. Who can deny it today?

The Language of Faith and the Mass

I occasionally have conversations with people about the Traditional Latin Mass and almost invariably they express the point that no one understands the Latin so they aren't really getting anything out of it. If that were true, it might be a good argument for the vernacular. Although I wonder why, in that case, the committee that developed the Novus Ordo didn't just translate the Mass into English. But that's a thought for another day. 

Whenever someone tells me that people didn't understand the Mass that was the norm for centuries, I ask myself whether that was really true. Do we only understand the spoken word? And, in fact, does the spoken word sometimes fail to impart a message? My contention is that the answer to those questions is NO and then YES. 

A Reminder to Be Vigilant against the Predators Who want to destroy Life's Sweetness

Satan may prowl around the world seeking whom he may devour. But there are other predators out there as well. I thought about that this morning when I looked out at the bee yard and realized we'd had a stalker prowling the bee yard who did a number on one of the hives. The worst part was we knew that hive had a queen. Now we don't know whether she survived the assault. 

We Captured a Swarm! Wouldn't it Be Wonderful If We Could Capture Souls Like That?

I love being a beekeeper and I love all the saints who appreciate the bees and use them in their teaching. St. Francis de Sales mentions bees often in his sermons. Many other saints did too, e.g., Thomas Aquinas. 

I thought of that today when I went out to check our swarm trap and saw that we had, indeed, captured a swarm. It's been up about a month since I set it up and we didn't think it was going to be successful. Surprise! Today, after I got back from visiting my sister in Maryland, I went out to check, and the opening was covered with bees. To make the trap I used a bucket and put honey wax and some lemon oil in it and a little propolis. My husband cut a hole in the side for the entrance.  Yippee! We captured a swarm. 

What next? We put a frame of brood, some honey, and some pollen in a hive box and turned the swarm trap bucket upside down over the top entry after covering the entry hole. The bees have no place to go except into the hive box. Now we wait until evening and hopefully all the girls will have gone down and set up their new home. We'll leave them alone for a week or so and then see if the queen is laying.

The Shroud of Turin and the Face of Jesus

When I saw this image of Christ the King, I fell in love with it. One of the main reasons is because it looks so much like the face of Jesus reconstructed from the Shroud of Turin. All of the hoopla from unbelievers trying to say the shroud was a medieval fake has fallen by the wayside. The carbon dating that supposedly proved it wasn't old enough to be authentic was taken from a sample corrupted by the fire of 1532. No one has ever been able to recreate an image like that of Christ on the shroud by artificial means. Certainly, the technology to try to fake it was not available to the ancients. 

Thought for the Day: We All Need Beauty, and Don't Need to go Far to Find It!

 Remember Dorothy at the end of the Wizard of Oz: 

We don't need to go far from home to find incredible beauty with ample reason to praise God. If you can't find God in your home, your yard, and your neighborhood, you probably won't find Him anywhere.

Sunday Meditation: How Can We Be Happy in Heaven if Our Loved Ones Aren't There?

Funerals turn the minds of the faithful to the four last things: death, judgment, heaven or hell. That's not too surprising when you think about it. Even those who have little or no relationship with God must think about "What's next!" when they attend a funeral. "Is this really all there is?... Where is my loved one, friend, acquaintance, colleague now?...What will happen to me after I die?" 

Question for the Day: What is Our First Duty?

 "I must be holy because my Jesus wants it."    

                                    St. Bernadette Soubirous

The Church often reminds us of our obligations according to our state in life. A priest's or nun's duty is not the same as a husband or a wife, a mother or a father, a student, an employer, or employee. But one duty in which we all share is to be holy "because my Jesus wants it."

How do we do that? It's not very complicated, but it's anything but easy. Mary showed us how in her "fiat." When she responded to the angel, she gave us the answer. "Be it done to me according to your word." The angel was the the messenger of God's will. If we want to be holy we have to do one thing -- embrace the will of God! It's better to embrace His will out of love than out of fear, but Scripture tells us that the "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." A child may behave out of fear of Daddy's anger, but it's better to behave out of love and respect. And as we mature in our faith, that hopefully becomes our default position.

Death has a way of focusing the mind.

My husband and I have experienced two deaths in the past eight months, an older sibling in each family. Reflecting on death and the power of prayer makes me so grateful for the Catholic Church family. Whenever I ask for prayers, dozens of you respond immediately offering Masses and rosaries and who knows what other acts of charity for the requested needs? I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

What Do You Think? Is the Divine Mercy Devotion Legit?

I've always felt a little queasy about the Divine Mercy Devotion. Personally, I don't pray it. Instead I pray the Sacred Heart novena which Padre Pio prayed every day. There are thousands of devotions in the Church. No one Catholic could pray them all. God gave us this abundance because we are like a huge flower garden. What nourishes one flower could kill another. The rosary is certainly a devotion for all that is like putting the best fertilizer on every flower in the garden. Most devotions aren't like that.