Cath-Lit Live: Places of Grace

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Cath-Lit Live: Places of Grace

“Cath-Lit Live!” features brief interviews with Catholic authors who are releasing new books. Hosted by Catholic author and speaker Amy J. Cattapan, “Cath-Lit Live!” gives viewers a glimpse into the latest Catholic books while getting to know a bit about the author as well.

 

 

Places of Grace: My Visits to Shrines, Chapels, Graves, and Monasteries and the Graces I Received by Fr. Edward Looney

Places of Grace is a travel memoir recounting how God has worked in the life of Fr. Edward Looney through his visits to shrines, chapels, monasteries, and graves in the US and throughout the world. In Places of Grace, Fr. Looney recounts his experiences at shrines, chapels, monasteries, and graves, naming a grace he received from the Lord at each site. That grace will be different for each person. In his typical style, Fr. Looney weaves together personal anecdotes and experiences to arrive at a greater spiritual point, helping the reader and future pilgrim to better appreciate the holy sites they will visit during their earthly pilgrimage to Heaven. This book does not present the historical facts or architecture of holy sites, but the spiritual experience of a Catholic priest who hopes you will discover God’s grace at a shrine or holy site.

 

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About the author:

Fr. Edward Looney was ordained a priest in 2015 for the Diocese of Green Bay. In addition to a Bachelor of Philosophy, a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology (S.T.B.), and a Master of Divinity, he holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the University of St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein Seminary. Fr. Looney specializes in Marian theology, having authored numerous works on Mary, including A Lenten Journey with Mother Mary and How They Love Mary: 28 Life-Changing Stories of Devotion to Our Lady available from Sophia Institute Press. He is a past president of the Mariological Society of America and continues to research, reflect, and write about Mary. Fr. Looney is a popular media personality, podcast host, and contributor to online publications and print publications like Living Faith. His interests include the Blessed Virgin, sainthood causes, shrines, and film/television.

You can catch “Cath-Lit Live” live on A.J. Cattapan’s author Facebook page. Recorded versions of the show will also be available to watch later on her YouTube channel and Instagram.

 

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Copyright 2024 Amy J. Cattapan
Banner image via Pexels

What’s Your Name?

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What’s Your Name?

“What’s your name?” is probably the easiest question we can answer. The name we are known by. It’s the name our parents gave us, and maybe they put effort into choosing the right one to set us on our life path. In the past, babies were often named after an elder or someone in the Bible. That name was given to them upon their Baptism: their Christian name. Catholics, at Confirmation, take the name of a saint they want to emulate. In modern times, the Sacrament of Baptism, too often, is not a priority or consideration for parents and they choose names that are meant to be historical, inspiring, courageous, regal, or just “different.”

We all have another designation, one far more important and beautiful than any label loving parents can bestow upon us: the name God has given us. ike many of the things He creates, it’s a mystery that we will know one day, but not in this earthly life.

Appellations are important to God. He tells us many times. We see in the first chapter in Genesis how much he loves to title each one of his masterpieces: “God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night’” (Gen. 1:5). And: “God called the dome ‘sky.’” (Gen. 1:8). “God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the basin of water ‘sea’” (Gen. 1:10). The chapter goes on, right down to “… creatures that crawl the earth” and “green plants for food” (Gen. 1:30). A creator who knows us so well, he’s counted the hairs on our head and desires the deepest and most intimate relationship with each of us (cf. Mt. 10:30). Surely, he’s dubbed us individually with names that reflect that longing. In fact, in Isaiah 43:1, the Lord has said, “I have called you by name, and you are mine.”

Our name “… expresses a person’s essence and identity and the meaning of this person’s life,” explains The Catechism of the Catholic Church in article 203. We have well-known examples of God changing names, or giving a variant, to reflect of new mission. Abram became Abraham when God made him the “father of a multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:5). What other names from the Bible might reveal God’s charges for his flock? The apostle Barnabas has, according to Acts 4:36, a name that means “Son of Encouragement” and he was a supporter of Paul (who was still going by Saul at the time) before a skeptical troupe of apostles (cf. 9:27). Michael means “Who is like God?” Nathanael means “God has given.” Joshua to Jesus means Yahweh is salvation (Behind the Name).

Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers of the Diocese of Portland, Oregon addresses an important question we need to consider: are we living a life that is at least attempting to be worthy of a name God would give us?

“Is it ‘parked in front of the television?’ Is it ‘never pray with my spouse?’” He posed the issue in a humorous, yet serious way in his April 20, 2023 reflection on the USCCB website. He links the question of identity with cultural demands to rename and re-identify ourselves, warning of the threat to our eternal salvation by complying with modern social fads rather than God.

What do we want to be? We strive to be diligent employees to achieve raises and promotions; good parents to raise independent children; honest business owners to keep and attract customers. But who do we try to be for God? What does God call us to be? Would our Godly name reflect our greatest strength or perhaps reveal our greatest struggle? It is somewhat ironic that God chose Simon, a man who expertly made a living on an unpredictable, fluid surface, to become Peter―Rock―a sturdy and stalwart foundation on which to build his church. His original name, Simon, means “hearing, listening.” He must have listened intently when God spoke to him to be the one who recognized that the Jesus was the Messiah when all the others missed it.

“Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father” (Mt 16:17).

In another bit of irony, Paul means “small or humble” (Behind the Name). Eventually, he was humble unto the Lord, but in his convictions, he was anything but small.

“… every one of us has a mysterious name, expressing our own meaning in the designs of God, even unknown to us here below, and to be revealed beyond this life,” wrote Fr. Hugh Barbour, O. PRAEM.

Until the day we learn God’s special endearment for us, we know we all share this one distinction for which we can strive each moment: Child of God.

Copyright 2024 Mary McWilliams
Images: Pixels.com

New American Bible Revised Edition. New Jersey: Catholic Book Publishing Corp. 2010. St. Joseph medium size edition.
Catechism of the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday. April 1995. First Image Books Edition.
Behind the Name. https://www.behindthename.com/name
Burke-Sivers, Harold. “Daily Reflection.” 20 April, 2023. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/video/2023-04-20-reflection-270
Barbour, Hugh. “Names Written in Stone.” Catholic.com. 23 Aug. 2020

 

Stumble onto a Forgotten Priest’s Homilies, and Wind Up in a Successfully Reflective Lent

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Ever feel like you’ve failed Lent? You enter the season ambitiously on Ash Wednesday, receiving the smudged cross on your forehead, determined to read through the New Testament or Exodus at a measured pace, only to get stuck on a confusing passage and give up … for now.

A local parish offers an evening Bible study, but when the day comes, you’re too exhausted from work. Maybe next week, you think, but then the six weeks go by and you’ve missed the whole thing. You try online reflections, but you just breeze through them over morning coffee. You chastise yourself for being undisciplined or for refusing to take your spiritual life seriously. But maybe you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. A more relaxed approach, such as leisurely readings by a forgotten, but once beloved priest could deepen your faith, self-reflection, and ultimately your relationship with God.

Fr. Ronald Knox is little known to 21st Century Americans in favor of other popular English converts such as St. John Henry Newman and GK Chesterton, but in his time, Fr. Knox was regarded as one of the most influential and prolific Catholics of the past century. He is a contemporary of Chesterton and an Oxford neighbor of CS Lewis, and February 17 marks the 136th anniversary of his birth. Raised in the Anglican tradition, even becoming an Anglican minister, the good father followed in his country’s stead, not because he believed it was the perfect way, but because he wanted to bring the Church of England back to Rome. When he realized his ambition was futile, he converted to Catholicism at the still tender age of 29.

Fr. Knox was much sought after as a speaker, preacher, and retreat facilitator for his way of bringing depth to simple concepts and simplicity to the profound. His self-deprecating humor, orthodox theology, and insight into the human condition found its way into countless published homilies, broadcasts on the BBC, and even detective novels. He is also highly respected for his English translation of the Bible, known as the Knox Bible.

One collection of his homilies that might elude a mainstream audience is his title, The Priestly Life. Originally published in 1958 and re-released in 2023 by Cluny Media, this compilation of 16 retreat talks addressed to priests could just as easily be called The Saintly Life because it speaks to the saintliness we are all called to live. With the wisdom of a compassionate confessor, Fr. Knox, who seems to know what’s inside the flawed heart that yearns to be whole, begins with the Alpha and Omega framed in Biblical history, then gently leads the reader (or listener, originally) to realize his sinful nature, bringing him to humility and repentance. Catholic theologian and author John Janaro quotes Evelyn Waugh’s in a 2021 essay, calling the priest and his ministry an “apostolate of laughter and the love of friends” (Janaro).

His chapters in The Priestly Life address so many of the “No, not me” sins: sloth, apathy, grumbling and complaining, blaming. In “Murmuring,” he engages the reader with a compelling story of the Israelites venting and complaining about Moses and God. You read along, nodding and chuckling, amazed how much they sound like your co-workers. He goes on to explain why the grumbling, a “very difficult sin to avoid,” is a three-fold sin against God, neighbor, and self and realize, “That’s me!” and feel an urgency to go to Confession.

“Part of the reason why God put you into the world was to exercise the patience of others by your defects; think of that sometimes when you are going to bed” (pg. 81).

He speaks to his brother priests in “Accidie” about a “tepidity” of spiritual life. “What I mind about is not so much that I seem to get so little out of my religion, but that I seem to put so little into it. Or perhaps I should put it this way: what I mind about is that I should mind so little” (pg. 90). He also addresses a type of malaise, of going through the motions. The scenarios sound much like ruts that most everyone, at some point and in honest moments, experiences in marriage, work, and life in general. “All of the savour has gone out of his priesthood; he sometimes thinks, even out of his religion. Was he, perhaps, not meant to be a priest … is it possible that he has made a mistake?” (pg. 89).

Fr. Knox, in other chapters, addresses perseverance, death and obedience. In his piece on the Blessed Mother, he eschews “Mariology” and sounds more like a loyal knight honoring his heroine queen. While each chapter serves as retreat on its own, they also impart an appreciation into a priest’s very human life by which we might gain more compassion and understanding of a demanding and sacrificial choice, Wouldn’t that help make a successful Lent?

Copyright 2024 Mary McWilliams

Knox, Ronald. The Priestly Life. 2023. Cluny Media. Providence, Rhode Island.
Janaro, John. Monsignor Ronald Knox. 2021. Magnificat. Catholic Education Resource Center.
Photo Credits: Keegan Houser and Eduardo Braga

Roses and Ashes

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Gather ye Rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

 Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” 1648

In a rare, but not unprecedented, synchronicity this month, St. Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday will fall on the same day. These two dates last came together in 2018, and they will do it again in 2029. According to the Fayetteville Observer, this convergence seems to happen approximately three times in every one-hundred-years. The Twentieth Century also recorded three occurrences, in 1923, 1934, and 1945. (1)

The origins of our contemporary St. Valentine’s Day celebration are hidden in history. Even Roman Catholic sources record an astounding variety, of what can perhaps best be regarded as legends. He may have been a priest, a bishop, and/or a physician. It’s unclear whether the stories that have been combined under this saint’s name include the life one man, or the lives of two.

There is some evidence that, on an actual occasion, a prisoner named Valentine left a letter for his jailer’s daughter signed, “from your Valentine.” He’s said to have healed the child of her blindness; we all prefer to believe he did. He may well have converted her to Christianity. He might have converted her father, too. Plausible evidence does exist that a man named Valentine was imprisoned and martyred for his Christian faith. Other tales suggest that the little girl, and possibly her father, died with him. (2)

One fact is clear, that the official liturgical calendar of the United States makes no reference to a saint’s feast on February 14. On the USCCB website, it’s marked only with a purple dot indicating a day of Lent. There is no alternate reading for a saint’s feast day. (3)

Another mystery is how a saint, whom most legends report died as a martyr for his Faith, came to be a symbol of chocolate, flowers, and every other sort of indulgent romantic concupiscence.

Ash Wednesday, on the other hand, is a reminder of the death we all will experience. The Latin counsel memento mori, “remember you will die,” dates back to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, from sometime before his death in 399 B.C. (4).

The use of ashes as a symbol of penance and anointing for death by the Hebrews is documented in the Old Testament books of Esther 4:1, 484-465 B.C.; Job 42:6, 700-500 B.C.; Daniel 9:3, circa 550 B.C.; and Jonah 3:5-6, circa 500 B.C. (5)

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, Illustration from The Book of Old English Songs and Ballads, Circa 1920; Public
domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A solemn recognition of Ash Wednesday has been practiced since the earliest days of Christianity. The words, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” from Genesis 3:19 (6), have been spoken through millennia in both the Eastern and Roman Catholic churches. They are still used for Ash Wednesday services in many Protestant churches today, as well. 

But the question remains. What meaning can we discern from this mysterious union of love with death, that seems to appear as a trinity in multiple centuries?

For one answer, we might turn again to scripture, and discover that Song of Songs is the only one of three writings classified by biblical scholars as ‘Wisdom books’ that appears in Protestant bibles. Our Catholic Bibles contain all three, with the Book of Wisdom and the Book of Sirach included (7). Here is another trinity.

The Song, also called Canticle of Canticles, is a romantic poem that evokes all the sensual joys of earthly lovers, as metaphors that describe God’s desirous love for us. In Christian churches it is read as allegory (8). The determination of the bride to reach her lover, and the strength of their bond, represent the Sacrament of Matrimony on earth and Christ’s love for His Bride, the Church, in eternity.

When the cross of ashes, death, and dust is marked on our foreheads again this year — and the day wavers from joy, to penance, and grief — may we remember the powerful lover who awaits us, and continue to sing the Canticle:

“… Set me as a seal upon your heart,

as a seal upon your arm;

For Love is strong as Death …

Deep waters cannot quench love,

nor rivers sweep it away …

 … You who dwell in the gardens,

my companions are listening for your voice–

let me hear it!

Swiftly, my lover,

be like a gazelle or a young stag

upon the mountain of spices.”

Song (Cant.) 8:6-7, 13-14 (9)

John William Waterhouse, Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May; 1909, Public domain, via Wikimedia
Commons.

© Copyright 2024 by Margaret King Zacharias

Featured Photo: John William Waterhouse, Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May,1908, Public domain, via
Wikimedia Commons.
Footnotes for Roses and Ashes and Sources for Further Reading
  1. https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/live-wire/2018/02/06/live-wire-when-was-last-time-ash-wednesday-and-valentines-day-were-same-date/15307391007/#
  1. For a few different perspectives, see:
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/will-the-real-st-valentine-please-stand-up
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Valentine
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/history-of-st-valentine.html
  1. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021424.cfm
  2. https://dailystoic.com/what-is-memento-mori/#:~:text=Memento%20Mori%20—%20(Latin%3A%20remember,but%20dying%20and%20being%20dead.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates
  1. https://catholicstraightanswers.com/what-are-the-origins-of-ash-wednesday-and-the-use-of-ashes/
  1. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3
  1. https://www.artesianministries.org/bible-study/why-are-catholic-and-protestant-bibles-different/
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Songs
9. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/songofsongs/8

Preparing Snacks in Secret

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A little story

I ran the summer youth program at the YMCA and had two particular students, Jimmy and Larry. Jimmy was a good kid with a single mother and little sister. He could be a real pill at times, but he always meant well. Some of the other teachers couldn’t stand having Jimmy in their classes because he would interrupt and question their authority. Jimmy spent a lot of time with me in the office because he got kicked out of the classroom more than any other kid I’d ever seen.

Larry had the same background as Jimmy. He was smart and had a single mother and little sister. But Larry was the angel of every class. Every teacher would comment on his behavior and how smart he was and would let him do things that typically would not be allowed. By acting the way he did, many opportunities opened for Larry, and he took full advantage of it.

After a year of seeing both boys in action, I began to see things that showed who they really were—not what others tried to imprint on them. One day, when Jimmy was alone and no one was watching, he spirited off to the kitchen. I quietly watched from a far corner to see what he would do. Jimmy opened the fridge, pulled out the big box of cheese slices and the box of crackers from the cupboard, and began to prepare them for a snack for the 120 kids in the program. I had heard from the other teachers that someone had been prepping the snacks for them, but they had no idea who had been doing it. Now I knew. This… was the real Jimmy.

I then saw Larry sneak off from his group when he had the chance. It was science day, and there were a lot of tweezers, magnifying glasses, and pH balance paper on the back fields. I saw Larry from a distance with a large magnifying glass in his hand. Instead of looking through it, he was concentrating the sunlight onto the ground. As I got closer, I saw he was scorching and burning worms that had come to the ground surface. He was delighted to see them scorch and then burn. It was a little disconcerting, really.

Fast forward

A few years ago, I ran into both Jimmy’s and Larry’s younger sisters while shopping. I asked how they were and then about their brothers. Jimmy’s sister blurted out, “You’d never believe it! He’s a priest in Madison, Wisconsin! We never saw it coming!” The reaction was quite different from Larry’s sister. She looked at the floor and said, just above a whisper, “Larry got high one night and murdered the entire family he was staying with. He’s on death row right now in Texas.”

In the readings, we hear about being physically “clean” and “unclean” (Leviticus 13). We hear what safeguards society took to ensure everyone’s safety from being physically unclean and how to prove a change of state—from being physically unclean to clean. But the Old Testament deals only with the physical. Paul, in 1 Corinthians (10 and 11), points out that being clean has little to do with what we eat or drink. He asks if what we are doing is pleasing to God. Notice, it’s not about what others think or see, but what we are actually doing that matters to God. By example, Jesus was “moved with pity” when the leper knelt at his feet and begged, “If you wish, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). Jesus wasn’t looking at the outside. He was reading the desire through the man’s actions.

As we move into Lent, we have the opportunity to be “moved with pity” for those around us. To do so, we need to read the actions and not the words of others. So, what is the one thing you can do for someone that will make a change in their life? Or better put, what snacks can we secretly prepare for our neighbor?

Copyright 2024 Ben Bongers

Hearing God’s Voice in Unexpected Ways

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Hearing God’s Voice in Unexpected Ways

I am savvy regarding computer programs, social media sites, and internet surfing. Recently, I found a new feature on my cell phone that allows me to create stickers from photographs. I found joy quickly when I made stickers of the dog and began to share them. I only recently realized this feature has been around for a long time. A little deflated that my discovery was old news, I didn’t let it steal my joy and continue to play with it today.

The other day, as I was digging through photographs for sticker making, I stumbled upon a short video I had captured a few days earlier. I had been sitting at my desk, and out the window, I saw one lonely leaf on the tree, literally wiggling side to side. As a butterfly lover, I thought it was a very large chrysalis. Jumping out of my chair, I reached for the binoculars, quickly discovering a rolled-up leaf had remained after the tree lost its leaves for fall.

I am obsessed with caterpillars and butterflies, so my perception is, in a sense, tainted. Anyone else looking at that tree would have seen a leaf blowing in the wind. I, however, had an inside scoop. Only a few months earlier, I had witnessed a considerable caterpillar making its way up the most extended branch. Still, it never dawned on me that it was winter and the butterflies had transformed many months ago. Since I am currently working on a project writing about bugs and caterpillars, I chalk up the vision I saw to divine inspiration! After all, my first book began with a caterpillar clutching a leaf as a storm erupted around it.

I should also note one other important aspect of my leaf video. In the moment I recorded, the sky was dark and gray. Yet, when I watched it back, a small area of light appeared, proof in my eyes this was a Holy Spirit-filled moment. Always in tune with how God communicates to me, I knew there was a reason I was so captivated by the leaf in the wind.

Because I am a woman of faith, open to the promptings of the Spirit, my perception is programmed to view the light in the video as God’s whisper. However, anyone else looking through the same lens and watching the same video could pick up the reflection of the ceiling light bouncing off the window.

Another example is how we perceive God’s fluffy clouds in the sky. There have been days when I’ve seen things like a bunny, a vintage feather pen, a replica of the Ark, etc. Someone else looking at those same puffy clouds probably wouldn’t see them as I do. That doesn’t mean my perception is wrong. It all depends on how God has conditioned my eyes to see what He has placed on my path.

The stirrings in my heart and the knowledge of God’s presence are all I needed to convince myself of an experience of a Spirit-filled moment. Circumstances have trained me to expect God to show up and do big and small things. The instance in the tree is one of those small things, but it may have a more significant impact someday.

Going to scripture, I reflect on Luke 24:13-15, when the disciples walked the road to Emmaus. Because they had witnessed the death of Jesus, they did not expect him to be on their path. God had closed their eyes at that moment, but their perception was also conditioned by what they had experienced earlier.

When we are consistently open to the promptings of the Spirit, God can and will do big things. He will set the scene right when He has something to show or share with you. How you perceive it all depends on your willingness to let God in. It might be something that only you can see or something others think is entirely absurd—these are the moments when you stop and pay attention. God is most likely speaking to you and only to you!

Copyright 2024 Kimberly Novak
Images: Canva

Finding Treasures in Pockets of Time

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Finding Treasures in Pockets of Time

When I run into other moms at church, in the neighborhood, or at the grocery store, I find that I am having the same conversation over and over. I say, “Hi! How are you?” and she replies, “Busy!” and then delves into her litany of appointments and tasks that fill her schedule, and I reply in kind by agreeing and sharing my own over-scheduled obligations. We end our rushed conversation and run off to get something else done.

Sometimes there are things in our lives that we need to purge. It may not always be easy to remove it, but often, we are aware of the things that consume our time and give us nothing in return. I find, in my life, those things are typically self-centered, and when I choose to live the way Christ wants me to, I am given the strength to remove those things that take up too much of my life.

As mothers, though, so much of our life is spent in service to others. We are chefs, nurses, house cleaners, and chauffeurs, not to mention boo-boo kissers, story time tellers, snuggle buddies, and behavior correctors. Then our mother-in-law comes to visit, and we must be the perfect hostesses. The list goes on indefinitely, but the hours in the day do not.

How do we find time for Christ when we are pulled in so many different directions? It is especially difficult when these many different directions are for good things for our families. From time to time, I have found myself wishing for the seemingly simple life of a nun, especially when I am craving time and intimacy with our Lord but finding the demands of my vocation of motherhood to be standing in my way. But then I remember the beautiful gift of my calling, and I have worked to grow in my relationship with Christ within the demands of my schedule.

I rarely have large blocks of time, but I am regularly gifted with what I call “pockets of time” throughout the day. I have five minutes here or there, often while I am waiting for something, that I used to spend scrolling on my phone or otherwise distracting myself. Now, I try to be purposeful with these pockets of time and turn to God in prayer, even if I don’t have time to read the daily readings or journal in my Bible study workbook.

I used to get stuck in my growth toward Jesus because if I didn’t have 20–30 minutes to sit down, read, pray, and reflect, I wouldn’t do anything at all. Then, by the end of the day, I would feel like a failure because my spiritual time was just something else that I didn’t get done today (along with a shower or getting that laundry from a week ago folded). Somewhere along the way, I realized that God never gave me a set of expectations for how and when I have to pray. That came from my own unrealistic expectations, compounded by comparing myself to other women who seem to have it all together in their faith journeys.

Now, instead of dedicating 20–30 minutes to God in the morning, I turn to Him for a minute or two 20—30 times per day. Before I get out of bed in the morning, I say hello to the Lord, offer my day to Him, and ask Him to show me His will. When I begin a household chore, I offer it for someone in need. I pray for a moment before I start a workout, thanking God for the gift of my body, the temple which houses my soul and the Holy Spirit. I have learned that just a few moments is all it takes to recenter my day and draw closer to Christ.

The best part about approaching my prayer life in this way is how my spiritual life has deepened and grown. Previously, once I had completed my morning prayer time and reflection, I would check the “Time for God” box and then go on with my day. Now, by regularly recentering myself and refocusing on God many times throughout the day, I am able to let Him work in me and through me all day long. It is such a gift that God has helped transform my life so that my entire day has become a prayer.

© Maria Riley 2024

The “Call”: We All Receive Them, But When Will You Answer?

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The “Call”: We All Receive Them, But When Will You Answer?

Nine years ago, I got a text from a friend I hadn’t seen in a few years: “I don’t know where to turn or what to do. I’m sick and getting evicted from my apartment as of the 31st. Help me!”.

I was happily living my life. I was a successful singer and sommelier in the San Francisco Bay Area. But, with that one text, my life changed.

Are You Ready When the “Call” Comes?

My friend—we’ll call him Tom—flew with his life partner to say goodbye to his dying mother. While there, Tom’s partner fell gravely ill, passing away in the same hospital a few rooms away from Tom’s mother. In the breath of a few days, Tom lost his mother, partner, and reason to keep going.

Tom was a PhD and very well respected in his community and academia. Over the following couple of years, Tom filled his life with drugs, alcohol, and activities to numb his emotions and memories. When his life was turned upside-down, he reached out to people, but many either didn’t have time, want to change their plans, or put up with his antics caused by the pain.

Trying to Say “No” to the “Call”

I felt the same way when I received Tom’s text. I told myself, “I don’t have time for this! It’s the day after Christmas and my anniversary.” In full disclosure, Tom had been quite dismissive and mean in earlier conversations with me. So, I wrote back saying I couldn’t see him. He replied, “I have nowhere else to turn. This may be it for me. No one cares anymore.” Stunned by his hollow reply, I said I’d come by, but only for a few minutes.

When I arrived, I found Tom visibly shaken, sick, and weighing only half of what he had the last time I’d seen him. He had a few things packed in old, smelly grocery store boxes that he’d scrounged up, and he sat in one place—silent, rocking forward and back, eyes fixed on a spot a few feet in front of him. After making something warm to drink, he came out of the trance long enough to fill me in on what brought him to this point. He’d burned through all his money and lost his job and every “friend” he had. As of New Year’s Day, he would be on the street. He later told me he contacted me either for help or to say a final goodbye.

I stayed, helped him pack boxes, and promised to return the following day, but just for a few hours. That night, I spoke with my wife and told her all I’d seen and heard. The decision was made. We had to help. The next day, we moved his things into a storage locker and helped find a facility to take him in, allowing him to dry out and receive mental help. New Year’s Day became the first day of the rest of Tom’s life.

Answering the “Call”

This was the day after Christmas nine years ago. This week, I received a note via email from Tom. He’s starting a new job he never thought he would have. He is fully employed, off the street, getting benefits—and most importantly—whole again.

Since saying “Yes” to that simple text—that simple “call”—my life has changed in ways I can’t yet express. Soon after, I received a “call” (quite literally) from a nun at my parish to help her establish an overnight homeless shelter for when there was inclement weather in the Bay Area. The men would bed down on our parish hall floor, and I would be there to facilitate and make sure everyone felt safe. I became a Knight in the Order of Malta, sworn to aid the poor and the sick, and I’m on the trail to the Permanent Diaconate. All of this is due to answering a simple “call.”

Did answering that single “call” change my life? Yes! Was it an easy transition? No! My life became topsy-turvy! What was important—no longer held my interest. What I held in high regard—was now pedestrian. And things that I didn’t have time for—became my focus.

We read in 1 Samuel that Samuel was “called” in the night. He didn’t know who was calling him or why, but when Eli told him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” Samuel answered the “call.” And when two of John the Baptizer’s disciples heard him say, “Behold, the Lamb of God…” they listened to the “call” and followed Jesus to where he was staying, causing Andrew (one of the two) to tell his brother, Peter, “We have found the Messiah.” All of this because they heard and listened to a “call.”

I say all these very personal things not to pat myself on the back or state how good I am. No. Just the opposite! I’m opening up to show that anyone, every sinner, like me, is being “called” regularly—every year, month, week, day—we each and every one is being called.

So:

  • What “calls” are you hearing today?
  • What things are causing you to say, “I don’t have time for this…” like I did?
  • What “call” can you finally say “yes” to in your upcoming year?

Copyright 2023 Ben Bongers

Celebrate the dedication of the ‘mother and head’ of all churches on Nov. 9

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Celebrate the dedication of the ‘mother and head’ of all churches on Nov. 9

The diesel engine of the American pilgrims’ tour bus couldn’t quiet the buzzing of questions concerning their next Roman site.

“Who’s St. John Lateran?”

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“What did he do to become a saint?”

Tucked away in southeast Rome and across the street from the Holy Steps (the stairway St. Helena excavated and believed Christ climbed to his meeting with Pilate), sits the historic archbasilica commonly known as “St. John Lateran.”

“There is no saint named John Lateran,” the tour guide announced as the pilgrims gathered at the front entrance of the oldest public church in Rome. It was built on a large campus that housed a palace, barracks, and other edifices owned by the wealthy and powerful Lateran family. The church was originally dedicated to the Most Holy Savior, then later to Sts. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, giving it the official name of The Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist. Most people simply refer to it as St. John Lateran. In a city of many ancient churches filled with art and history, this one has a special designation.

What would most Catholics say is the “pope’s church?” St. Peter’s Basilica? That’s the church most associated with the Holy See. In addition to other ceremonies and Masses at St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope celebrates Christmas Eve Mass there, installs new cardinals and, until recently, bestowed the lamb’s wool pallium on new archbishops.

But every year, on Nov. 9, the pope travels less than 15 minutes from St. Peter’s to celebrate the dedication of St. John Lateran. As the bishop of Rome, Lateran is the pope’s archbasilica. And, as Catholics, it’s our church too. The church of every Catholic everywhere in the world.

“Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarium mater et caput,” the tour guide read, pointing to the message in Latin. Translated in English, it is “The mother and head of all the churches in the city and the world.” Every Catholic has a parish home, the church they attend regularly and are probably registered. They also have their diocesan home, the cathedral in the diocese that is known as the “bishop’s church.” On an international level, they have St. John Lateran, the mother and head of all churches. Sojourners from around the world are welcomed at daily Masses and join in this universal place as a family. The pope celebrates Mass on many holy days, such as the feast of Corpus Christi and even Christmas Day. On a jubilee year, its holy doors are the first opened of four major basilicas in Rome. Between the 12th and 16th centuries, it hosted five ecclesiastical meetings, collectively known at the “Lateran Councils.” It housed popes until the 14th century. John Paul II journeyed to Lateran for the Rite of the Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome after being elected pope in 1978, invoking Revelation 21:3 when he said, “I wish to kneel down in this place and kiss the threshold of this temple which has been for so many centuries ‘the dwelling of God with men.’” (1)


Yards from the basilica is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi, who ventured to Rome to request permission from Pope Innocent III, in residence at the Lateran palace, to begin his order. Larger than life statues of the 12 apostles surround the perimeter of the nave, each showing the symbols associated with them: Peter holding the keys; John the Evangelist with pen and eagle; Bartholomew, who was flayed alive, holding the skin of his face. Each one teaching us the glory of their entrance into heaven and reminding us that the art in churches was never meant simply as pretty decoration of some artist’s spiritual interpretation. Art was meant to help teach the Gospel, to both the illiterate and privileged. It is just as important today to keep that art public to help enlighten moderns to the Word.


The archbasilica has survived natural disasters and fires, a 1993 bombing, and more than 200 popes. It is a place of rich history that includes the fiendishness of Nero and the benevolence of Constantine who handed the property over to the church under the care of Pope Melchiades (2). Like countless other Catholic churches, it displays sumptuous art and has been a place of significant occasions, some of which have harbored tragedy and joy. It could be argued, however, that the most momentous event takes place daily and exponentially with the arrival of Catholic pilgrims from their native lands who come to the comforting revelation that this basilica is also their home. If you can’t attend a Mass there Nov. 9 to celebrate its dedication, make a virtual visit and get to know your home away from home.

Click here to take a virtual tour of St. John Lateran.

Copyright 2023 Mary McWilliams
Photos by Mary McWilliams:

Feature Image: The front of The Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and the Evangelist, commonly known as “St. John Lateran.”
Image 2: Statue of St. Francis of Assisi and companions requesting permission from Pope Innocent to establish a new order.
Image 3: St. Peter, in the nave of St. John Lateran shown holding his symbol, the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven.

References:
(1) https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19781112_possesso-laterano.html
(2)https://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/it/basilica/storia.htm

My Dad Was Always Prepared

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My Dad Was Always Prepared

Mom would give Dad a clean crisp package of handkerchiefs for every Thanksgiving and Christmas. He would take a close look at them, smile, and thank her—then, *shoop* into Dad’s pants pocket, one of the handkerchiefs would go. I will never forget my dad’s pants. More specifically, his pockets. It didn’t matter if he wore jeans, work pants, overhauls, or a suit … he always had three bulging pockets.

In his front right, there was always a stubby screwdriver, a pocketknife with at least five blades, a coin pouch (the type that you squeeze on the sides and opens like a duck’s bill), and usually some binding material (twine, twist ties, baling wire, a small roll of duct tape, etc.).

The front left was reserved for the “quick reference area.” Receipts, checks (usually kept in a little plastic bag), a little business card-sized notepad, and a stubby pencil. If he were out on the ranch/farm, he would usually have his pliers in a holster on his right hip—think Quick Draw McGraw, only with pliers instead of a Colt revolver. But if he were “dressing,” he’d slip the pliers in the front left pocket with his “paperwork.”

The rear right always had a two-inch thick billfold that was brimming over with pictures, cards, more checks, phone numbers, addresses, leads of upcoming livestock sales, advertisements, Christmas present ideas for friends and family … oh yeah, and a few dollar bills.

The rear left? Well, that was sacred ground. Dad always carried two handkerchiefs. He used to say, “One for me and one for somebody who needs it.” I’ve lost track of the times when I saw Dad just hand over a handkerchief to someone in tears at a funeral, wedding, or just because. He’d give it to a mother or father who was trying to take care of their child who had a runny nose or skinned knee.

Dad was sort of like the parable of the Ten Virgins. “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him! Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps …” His lamp was always trimmed, at the ready, and he always carried just enough oil.

And Dad had the wisdom of Wisdom 6, “For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence, and whoever for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care…” He was always ready, looking, vigilant for things to be fixed earlier rather than later so they didn’t deteriorate or become worse. He didn’t have a care; he knew he was ready!

Fast Forward

In retirement, Dad retained his chipmunk pockets, even after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s and waking one morning in long-term care. On the first day, the admissions nurse went through all his personal belongings. They wouldn’t let him keep the majority of things he always carried in his overflowing pockets.

With head down, a slight smile on his face, he handed over all his lifetime pocket loot to me and said, “Well, this is yours now.” I looked through the plastic shopping bag and asked if he wanted to keep the small notepad and stubby pencil. He just glanced up and said, “Nah, you still need it. I’m retired. You take over,” and he wheeled down the hallway. It was like the gates had opened and then closed behind him. He didn’t have to be vigilant; he didn’t have to stay awake any longer. It was time for the banquet—and he was inside the gates.

Now, I always carry a handkerchief that my wife has embroidered a special note or character on. Thanks, Dad.

Copyright 2023 Ben Bongers

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