Saint of The Day: St. Andrew

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

I have been neglecting our Saints lately.  On the last day in November we celebrate St. Andrew, Apostle and martyr.

“St. Andrew was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, a fisherman by trade, and a former disciple of John the Baptist. He was the one who introduced his brother Peter to Jesus, saying, “We have found the Messiah.” Overshadowed henceforth by his brother, Andrew nevertheless appears again in the Gospels as introducing souls to Christ. After Pentecost, Andrew took up the apostolate on a much wider scale, and is said to have been martyred at Patras in southern Greece on a cross which was in the form of an “X”. This type of cross has long been known as “St. Andrew’s cross.” Read more about St. Andrew here.

An excerpt from the Office of Readings by St. John Chrysostom

“After Andrew had stayed with Jesus and had learned much from him, he did not keep this treasure to himself, but hastened to share it with his brother. Notice what Andrew said to him: We have found the Messiah, that is to say, the Christ. Notice how his words reveal what he has learned in so short a time. They show the power of the master who has convinced them of this truth. They reveal the zeal and concern of men preoccupied with this question from the very beginning. Andrew’s words reveal a soul waiting with the utmost longing for the coming of the Messiah, looking forward to his appearing from heaven, rejoicing when he does appear, and hastening to announce so great an event to others. To support one another in the things of the spirit is the true sign of good will between brothers, of loving kinship and sincere affection.”

Read more here.

In honor of my Scottish daughter in law Aileen,and grandchildren Lucia and Rosey, I give you the patron Saint of Scotland.

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Advent Conspiracy

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Who knew.  H/T Deacon Greg Kandra There is an Advent Conspiracy to:

Worship Fully

Spend Less

Give More

Love All

Their motto? Give presence.

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Celebrate Advent. Christmas Can Wait

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Bishop John C. Wester, of the Diocese of Salt Lake City is inviting his flock to not decorate or celebrate Christmas until December 24th when Christmas begins.

Excerpt:

“As we renew our sense of the liturgical celebration of time, I encourage you to remain faithful to the celebration of the four weeks of Advent. As I mentioned earlier, it is so easy to be consumed by the hype of the “holiday season”: to decorate our churches and houses for Christmas, to spend more time shopping than in prayer, and to host Christmas parties before the season has arrived. I know it is an enormous challenge to remain faithful to the Advent season when we are surrounded by a society which, while claiming to be Christian, does not take the time to reflect and prepare as the church calls us to do.

As Catholics, we must celebrate Advent differently. Our reckoning of time is itself a sacramental witness to the fullness of the paschal mystery. If we were to skip the Advent season or any other season, we would impoverish that witness. We are very lucky to have a Church who has provided us with seasons to bear witness to the great mysteries of our faith. As Christians, these celebrations and our observance of time help us witness the truth and beauty of the risen Christ.”

You can read the Bishops Pastoral letter, “Waiting in Joyful Hope” here.

Deacon and I have been observing Advent the last few years. Well for the most part. We have to attend his company Christmas party since he is a senior manager. But we don’t put on Christmas music until the evening of the 24th. Not even Handles Messiah our all time favorite.

We were surprised to learn shortly after moving to Iowa, that the natives put up their Christmas decorations right after thanks giving. And everything comes down the day after Christmas.

But the Christmas season in the Church does not end until the Baptism of the Lord (Jan. 9 this year).

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Advent Retreat With St. Alphonsus Liguori

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Yesterday I started posting on a book of Excerpts from Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation For Death. I have decided to turn this into a mini online retreat based on a suggested plan at the end of the book.

There is a question that almost screams from every page. Am I ready to die? In other words, am I ready to meet Jesus, as judge, face to face? Have I persevered in faith and love and holiness so that I will be worthy to live in God’s house?

To do this we have to be detached from this world.  We live in the world, but we do not belong to the world (Jn 17:14).

Our gaze should always be focused on heaven through the cross. The early Christian martyrs were able to go to gruesome deaths, because they never lost sight of their true home. They were filled with joy at the time of their deaths.

St. Liguori reminds us to live each day as if it were our last, “ Those who expect death every hour will die a good death, even though it should come to them suddenly.”

The good Saint goes on to remind us that time is a precious gift from God.

“Saint Benardine of Siena, for example, said that a moment of time is as valuable as God himself, because in one moment of time a person can, by an act of sorrow or an act of love, gain God’s grace and even heaven.”

So his message is to use time wisely. We “have only the present in which to do good”. He laments that too many people just “kill time” or use their precious time in useless conversation.

Wow. Today we have so many ways to waste time that were not available in his time. Television, iPods, the internet just to name a few. The devil can sleep in most days.

But we need to use our time to prepare for eternity. To prepare for judgment.

“How great is the distress and despair of travelers who discover, just as night is falling, that they have taken the wrong road, and now that they have no more time to correct their mistake. Such will be the anguish of those who come to die, realizing that they have given too much time on earth to worldly pursuits, and have not lived for God.

Holiness is not an intellectual exercise. It is faith in action. Every second of our life on this earth. Use it wisely.

Prayer (St. Liguori)

Mary my Mother, obtain for me the grace always to recommend myself to God, and to ask him for perseverance until death.

Posted in Four Last Things, Saints | Tagged | 4 Comments

First Sunday in Advent. Awake! Prepare!

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Happy New (liturgical) Year!

Advent. We anticipate the celebration of the time in human history when God the son entered into his own creation. We wait in joyful hope for his second coming and the end of time.

It is a time for prayer, reflection, and joyful penance. But most of all it is a time to turn back to the Lord.  The priest, in his homily this morning, told of a Bishop who quipped that if it wasn’t for Advent he would be a pagan.

Sometimes we need something to wake us up out of our complacent sleep. Although we are supposed to grow in the Lord every day in the green of ordinary time, we often lose our focus.

Advent reminds us that the Lord is coming. We need to be ready. We need to prepare.

In the first reading today, Isaiah urges us to climb the mountain of the Lord to receive instruction in His ways. There will be a time of judgment. We need to be ready. “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

St. Paul warns that the day of salvation is at hand. So “put on the armor of light”. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”

In the Gospel Jesus warns us to “Stay awake”! We do not know when the Lord will return. We must, therefore, be prepared.

Well we may not know when the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus will occur.

But we do know that our life on this earth is short. Each of us will have our personal end of the world We do not know, generally speaking, when we are going to die.. As Christians, however, we do know that we are but pilgrims on this earth. Heaven is our true home. It is heaven that we must prepare for.

And the only way to prepare for heaven is to prepare for death.

Several years ago, when I was still in my forties, a young man told me that he was very exited about a book by St. Alphonsus Liguori on “Preparation for Death”. I could not find the unabridged version, but I did find a book of excerpts. I read it but I was, umm, unimpressed.

But now that I can see the cemetery from the house of my soul, I am rather drawn to it. I think that it is a perfect book to meditate on for Advent. It is my intention to post on the book throughout Advent.

So let us ponder the words of St. Alphonsus as we audit our souls to determine if we are on the right path to holiness.

“Remember the parable Jesus told about the barren fig tree and the words said of it by its owner: See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down. Why should it be wasting the soil? “ (Lk 13:7)

You have surely been in this world for more than three years. What fruits have you produced? Saint Bernard says that the Lord seeks not only flowers, but fruits. That is, not only good desires and promises, but also holy deeds, deeds done while there is still time. Learn to make good use of the time which God in his mercy still gives us. You cannot wait until you are told that there is no more time, or that the time for leaving this world has arrived. You must be ready to die today, now, at this very moment!”

In other words folks are you ready to die?

Me? Not so much. I am not ready. Still struggling to be holy. Still falling short. I am not a very good friend to God.  Sure I have lots of good intentions. I make God a lot of promises, but I don’t make good use of God’s gift of time.

Somewhere in the basement, I think that I have a first place trophy for procrastination. Tomorrow is another day.

Sigh. I may not have another day or another hour.

But I don’t have to despair. God will give me the grace that I need to be His good friend. That is why Jesus gave us the Sacraments. I can confess. Repent. Do penance for my sins. And I can receive Jesus in the Eucharist.

Prayer from St. Liguori:

I ask for your grace and your love. Grant that your grace and your divine love may flourish in my soul wherein sin has previously abounded. Mary my Mother, my great advocate, listen also to my cry and pray to Jesus for me.

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Make Thanksgiving A Day of Prayer

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Deacon Greg Kandra reminds us to count our blessings and “Make this very day a kind of prayer”.

Where are the blessings for these and others who are feeling, in a particular way, burdened, afflicted, cursed?

The simple, indisputable fact is this: every breath is a blessing. Every sunrise. Every snowfall. “Bless the God of all,” Sirach exclaims, “who has done wondrous things on earth.” Incredibly, we are part of that wonder, part of God’s continuing creation in the world. And what a blessing to be able to say that!

The German mystic and philosopher, Meister Eckhert, once wrote: “If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that will suffice.”

That is why we are here: to pray those words, and to make them matter.

So taking a cue from Meister Eckhert, let’s make this something more than a holiday, more than an excuse to have a second slice of pie and take a long nap in front of the television.

Make this very day a kind of prayer. Beginning here, and now.

Read the good deacon’s homily here.

May you all have a blessed thanksgiving!
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Abortion Doctors. Seduced by the Devil

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ Luke 23:28-29

After reading this article, A young abortion doctor’s dilemma, my soul weeps. I weep for the aborted child. I weep for the women. I weep for the doctors who are performing evil deeds, and can believe that the death of a child is preferable to suffering.

Excerpt H/T Matthew Archbold, Creative Minority Report.

“I didn’t understand that until I saw it,” he says. “I very strongly believe that women make a maternal decision when they decide to end a pregnancy. Because they are deciding for that child it is the best option, that (by having an abortion) they are preventing suffering and preventing a life that they wouldn’t wish upon anyone else, let alone their child. That was very powerful for me.”

The whole article is depressing.

I was on a pro life walk to a Planned Parenthood abortion facility a few years ago. A man stopped his car, pointed his finger at me, and screamed,

Get a life.

I responded,

Exactly

There were a few (very few) passerby’s who voiced or honked their support. Contrast that with an experience I had not long after in Denver.

Deacon and I were walking around Cherry Creek a popular shopping district. Outside an upscale department store that sold fur coats, animal rights activists were protesting the sale of mink coats.

Almost every car passing by gave a show of support. We stood there watching for a time in utter disbelief and sorrow.

We have come to a place in  history where the life of an animal is more important than the life of  a human being who is made in the image and likeness of God.

Our culture has forgotten that each human being is created by God, sacred, unique, and unrepeatable.

My God have mercy on us.

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Pope Approves Condoms

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

NO. No. Absolutely not. The pit bulls of the media have sunk their teeth into the story and will not let go. The two clarifications by the Vatican spokesman, Fr. Lombardi, here and here have their (the media) jaws firmly locked on the subject.

Fr. Fressio, in his guest post for Rueters Faith View ,Did the Pope “Justify”condom use in some circumstances, provides us with a great analogy: Pope approves padded pipes for mugging. H/T Father Z

“Here’s an example of this distinction that parallels what the Pope said. Muggers are using steel pipes to attack people and the injuries are severe. Some muggers use padded pipes to reduce the injuries, while still disabling the victim enough for the mugging. The Pope says that the intention of reducing injury (in the act of mugging) could be a first step toward greater moral responsibility. This would not justify the following headlines: “Pope Approves Padded Pipes for Mugging” “Pope Says Use of Padded Pipes Justified in Some Circumstances”, Pope Permits Use of Padded Pipes in Some Cases”.

Of course, one may morally use padded pipes in some circumstances, e.g., as insulated pipes so that hot water flowing through them doesn’t cool as fast. And one may use condoms morally in some cases, e.g. as water balloons. But that also would not justify the headline “Pope Approves Condom Use”, though in this case it could be true. But it would be intentionally misleading.

In sum, the Pope did not “justify” condom use in any circumstances. And Church teaching remains the same as it has always been—both before and after the Pope’s statements.”

Fr. Fessio provides an excellent explanation of the moral theology involved.

Posted in Moral Theology, Pope Benedict XVI | Tagged , | 5 Comments

The Persecuted Church in Iraq

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

The LA Times is reporting that more Catholic Christians have been murdered in Iraq.

“Two brothers of the Syrian Catholic denomination were working as blacksmiths in their workshop in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday when gunmen stormed their workplace. Both were shot dead, police said, part of an apparent campaign against Iraq’s small Christian community.

A source in the provincial government said some citizens managed to intervene and thwart another attack that same day against a  Christian family in eastern Mosul, forcing the assailants to flee.”

Please pray for the victims and for the conversion of their murderers.

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Note to TSA: Dig Into my Profile Not My Pants

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

As a Catholic who understands the importance of human dignity and modesty the new TSA procedures make me furious.

Catholic Online has a sane editorial on the new ogle or grope enhanced airport screening. H/T Mark Shea.

“3 year-old girls are not the enemy. 7 year-old boys are not the enemy.  Elderly nuns in full habit are not the enemy. The overwhelming majority of people in the United States are not the enemy.  The enemy, by and large, is Muslim men.  But since the current administration won’t even name the enemy, let alone employ security measures that actually target the enemy, now every American citizen is treated as the enemy.

The fact is, if we’re only finding the chemical explosives hidden in a potential bomber’s underwear while he’s standing in security surrounded by hundreds of other passengers, then we’re finding out too late.  We’ve already failed.

Profiling is not a dirty word

We will never be secure if we are unwilling to do the logical, necessary, perfectly reasonable act of profiling.  That must be the first step in determining if someone poses a security threat.  As a law-abiding citizen, I have nothing to hide or fear.  I would much rather have someone digging into my profile than into my pants.

El Al is widely held up as the model of how to achieve airport security.  The Israelis have successfully kept their people and their planes safe from terrorist attacks and they’ve done it without requiring naked full-body images, reaching inside passenger’s clothing or groping people’s genitals.” Read the entire post, Security or Unreasonable Search? Stop Treating Americans Like Suspected Terrorists.

It is beyond political correctness that the US does not profile every passenger. It is beyond stupid.

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | 6 Comments