Looking in the Window of the Church

If I weren't born a Catholic who learned the faith from the cradle thanks to my Catholic parents, I wonder what would have happened to me. Would I have come to the faith or would I still be wandering in the wilderness? I have many convert friends and each has a different story about what attracted them and led to their entry into the fullness of the faith. Many belonged to Christian denominations. Some left the Church and reverted later. What would my story be? If I were not born in the faith, raised in the faith, learned the faith in Catholic schools, married in the faith, raised our children in the faith...would I be a Catholic today? 

Imagining myself as an outsider looking in the window, I think what would have led to my conversion would be the sacrament of Confession. Of course, Jesus and the Eucharist are at the center, but think of the power of forgiveness. 

Sunday Meditation: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself! Do You Keep a Record of Your Past Wrongs?

At Mass this morning I was thinking about 1 Corinthians 13. One of St. Paul's admonitions about love emphasizes that it doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Obviously, if we keep a record of wrongs about our neighbors, we are likely to build walls against them and even stud the walls with the barbed wire of grudges and desire for revenge. To not keep a record of wrongs, we need to foster the virtue of forgiveness.

Thought for the Day from Ann Barnhardt: Shame is Medicinal!

I love this article by Ann Barnhardt! She is so insightful!

The Key Character in Brideshead Revisited Is Mrs. Beryl Muspratt

Brideshead Revisited is one of my favorite novels. Sad, but in many ways glorious. What a story of sin, repentance, and redemption! The movie with Jeremy Irons is also wonderful. (Caveat: There is one graphic bedroom scene.) 

To be confronted with our sin is, indeed, a blessed gift of God. Those who don't believe in the existence of hell, but live according to its standards, are in for a rude awakening on Judgement Day. Better to have a rude awakening now! And it is a charity to love others, but call them gently to repentance even if they hate you for it. The death of Lord Marchmain displays the power of grace through the ministry of the Church. He has lived a sinful life with a hatred for the church but dies reconciled. Note the recitation of the Confiteor in Latin. 

On Mercy and What it Requires!

Pope Francis talks a lot about mercy and, in fact, we will soon begin the year of Mercy. So what exactly is the Mercy of God? And what does it require of us?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about "cheap grace," the grace we bestow on ourselves, grace without the cross and without Jesus Christ. I think we might also talk about "cheap mercy."

In the wee hours at adoration this morning I was reading the first essay in Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and the Family. (You know, the book hijacked by Fr. Lombardi and co.) Cardinal Carlo Caffarra addressed Mercy and Conversion. The cardinal began by saying, "These reflections focus on the act in which God's mercy shines forth in its preeminent form: the forgiveness of a sinner."

A Miracle Story for Sunday: Son of Martyred Missionary Builds "Flying Car"

Steve Saint's dad, Nate, and some brother missionaries were killed in the wilds of Ecuador in 1956 by a tribe of natives they were trying to befriend. Steve's aunt continued the missionary work and Steve lived there from the age of five until he left to go to college in the United States. Later, the  Waodani asked him to return and he did with his wife and teenage children. Steve saw the need for a vehicle that could access remote parts of the country that were inaccesible by traditional transportation. He hopes to sell the flying car on the commercial market in order to finance its main use, "to access places where there are no doctors, there are no nurses, there's no hospital."  The Waodani call Steve's car the "wood-bee thing" and want to learn to fly so they can help their own people. Pray for the success of this wonderful invention that opens up a whole new world to people living in the remotest locations on earth. For more on this story go here.

Quote of the Day - But it's not about cheap forgiveness!

"God's greatest pleasure is to pardon us. The good Lord is more eager to pardon a repentant sinner than a mother to rescue her child from the fire." -- St. Therese of Lisieux

Underline the word "repentant." Even God can't forgive the soul who rejects his mercy.

Jesus paid for our sins with every drop of His precious blood. Those who preach universal salvation and God as the Sugar Daddy in the sky waiting to welcome us to Candyland paint a false picture of Divine Justice. Jesus is on the cross with arms outstretched to welcome every repentant sinner. He does not rejoice in our destruction. In fact those who are lost must wrench themselves away from His loving embrace.

When was the last time you went to Confession? We are weak and sick from sin. Only by running often to the Divine Physician can we hope to survive in this corrupt age.