I haven't posted for awhile. Thought it'd be fun to post my first homily for class.

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@semina-virtutum
I haven't posted for awhile. Thought it'd be fun to post my first homily for class.

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He says he’s Catholic, but does he...
Go to Mass every Sunday and on holy days of obligation (and why does he go? Does he feel like he has to? Does his family make him go?)?
Pray daily (and want to pray with you and for you?)?
Go to Adoration?
Pray the Rosary?
Go to Confession regularly?
Understand and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation?
Believe in all that the Church teaches?
Support things that the Church is against?
Read his Bible regularly?
Read the Catechism?
Refrain from listening to music and watching shows that do not honor God?
Avoid using bad language?
Help others?
Apply his faith to all areas of his life?
Ladies, we need to think about these things. We need to choose who we date/court/marry wisely. This applies to our brothers in Christ, too. Gentlemen, find a woman who wants to honor God.
The world you are inheriting is a world which desperately needs a new sense of brotherhood and human solidarity. It is a world which needs to be touched and healed by the beauty and richness of God's love. It needs witnesses to that love.The world needs salt. It needs you - to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Pope St. John Paul II http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20020728_xvii-wyd.html
More info
Since Familiaris Consortio keeps getting thrown around... I thought I’d provide some clarification. Specifically regarding this passage:
“Pastors must know that, for the sake of truth, they are obliged to exercise careful discernment of situations. There is in fact a difference between those who have sincerely tried to save their first marriage and have been unjustly abandoned, and those who through their own grave fault have destroyed a canonically valid marriage. Finally, there are those who have entered into a second union for the sake of the children's upbringing, and who are sometimes subjectively certain in conscience that their previous and irreparably destroyed marriage had never been valid.”
... this quote is getting thrown all over the news. One need read only one paragraph down...
“However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.
Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they "take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples."
The whole document is worth reading:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html
Magical amu-what?!?!?! Dear God no. I suspect this has something to do with Santeria.

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And so we learn and grow...
I gave a talk over the weekend to a high school youth group. Listening to the audio I've come to appreciate that I've not been writing enough. I tried giving the talk like I used to write.... and while I know there was a progression of ideas which build on each other, and the overall general structure was half decent.... I did jump around a bit.... and because of that, I think that it suffered in terms of quality. It's okay though - it was my very first actual talk as a seminarian, and God-willing, there will be a second, and a third... and it'll get better each time. One thing I was very happy about, is I got them to break down the walls between the ideas of "us", and "the saints." That's important. Striving for sainthood is a good and noble thing.
And I'm going to try to write more. I definitely need it.
So... Watson's User Modelling Service attempts to build a model of a writer based on a piece of writing. This graphic was generated from one of my blog posts. The idea intrigues me. Click here to try it yourself.
I find it amusing
I find it amusing that shortly after that last post, I was in my car listening to the radio... and there is Sr. Simone Campbell of NETWORK being interviewed about this latest report. The interviewer even pointed out the lack of LCWR vocations, which I thought was stunning... Sr. Campbell's response was even more stunning. What does she think of the lack of vocations? She responds by saying that they don't NEED vocations, and they're perfectly fine as they are.
That, sweetheart, is why God refuses to give you any more, and as a result your order (and entire organization) will within my lifetime cease to exist, and you will be just another sad note in the history books.
Vatican report on women religious
Today, the median age of apostolic women religious in the United States is in the mid-to-late 70s. The current number of approximately 50,000 apostolic women religious is a decline of about 125,000 since the mid-1960s, when the numbers of religious in the United States had reached their peak. [...] Many sisters expressed great concern during the Apostolic Visitation for the continuation of their charism and mission, because of the numerical decline in their membership … Vocation and formation personnel interviewed noted that candidates often desire the experience of living in formative communities and many wish to be externally recognizable as consecrated women. This is a particular challenge in institutes whose current lifestyle does not emphasize these aspects of religious life.
this is particularly interesting to me. We have a local group of women Religious whose median age is about 70. To stay alive, they keep merging with smaller dying communities. Very few of them live in community. Most live in apartments, many by themselves... many have their own cars. They wear normal clothing. Yes, they draw from a communual closet, but it is a closet where everyone has their own section, and they buy the clothes they like which conform with their own personal style. Many have jobs. One is an auto mechanic. A number of them have distinctly secular jobs. They're also extremely liberal, and very disconnected from local priests and seminarians. They have had one young vocation that I know of in the last five years, and I believe she left. Total vocations in the last five years I believe stands at four.
Meanwhile, there is another local order. Semi-contemplative, and they engage in missionary work. They started with three. It's very young - maybe ten years old? They are EXPLODING with vocations. They are also very connected to the local priests, and VERY supportive of seminarians - many of us have open invitations to stay with them and make short retreats in the mother house, and they have rooms there specifically for this. They pray for us constantly, have Masses said, and offer Holy Hours. To that end, the number of men in formation for the priesthood have shot through the roof since they have come into the diocese and become vocal about the importance of praying for vocations. Do I attribute this increase solely to them? No. There has also been a trend where a number of perpetual adoration chapels have been built, and more parishes are promoting the practice. Rosary groups are growing, and prayer groups of all sorts. More and more, Masses are being offered in local parishes for seminarians, and for an increase in vocations.
What is my point? My point is this: God grants graces in accordance with our conviction that we exist in a state of dire need of those graces. If you shrug your shoulders and non-committally say "Okay, God... if you WANT to give me graces, I guess I'll take them", or even worse... live as though you do not need them.... then you will reap what you sow.
On the other hand - if you build your life around Him, then you need only recall the words of Psalm 127:
Vain is the builder’s toil, if the house is not of the Lord’s building; vainly the guard keeps watch, if the city has not the Lord for its guardian.
If you trust Him - if you rely on Him, whole and entire, and your life will reflect that... the harvest will be unparalleled.
The old-women Religious are confused about why they have no vocations. The semi-contemplative Religious? Not confused at all.
Why do we need a report from the Holy See to point out the obvious?
It's been a very odd week, with finals and whatnot. Please pray for us seminarians. It seems that my devotion to St. Gemma Galgani is worth growing, as she seems to be everywhere I turn here lately, in the most surprising places....

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Columbus, Ohio has a Catholic museum. These are some photographs from the museum which I made into wallpaper to raise awareness of the museum. Enjoy, and share them.
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Nobody answered their phone that you called. There's an important difference. If you think about it, there are very likely at least a few who WOULD have answered their phones had you called them.
That's the thing about relationships, right? They always involve a little leap of faith. It's too easy to settle into established ones where the leap is smaller, and we forget that it's even there.... and we forget how easy it is to make the bigger leaps to others. This is how our world gets artificially smaller all the time, and we don't even notice it.
There are plenty of people who care about you. Give them a shot.
Questions regarding Catholicism and Christianity under the cut! I’d love if some Catholics could help me out!
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Hello, Chassity. I couldn't tell from a look at your blog how old you are exactly, but I assume you are still in school under the guardianship of your parents.
First of all - congratulations on your openness to receiving the grace of conversion... you're in for an absolutely wonderful ride. It will have its ups and downs, but the downs (as we read in Scripture) are only to foster the growth of the holy virtue of perseverance within our souls.
I can definitely relate in some aspects, to your story. I grew up in a primarily atheistic household which was certainly not happy with my conversion. After a few years, I began to feel as though God wanted me to become a priest, and so I applied to seminary. On entering seminary, I got probably eleven thousand different lectures from family members about how I had wronged them by entering seminary. I want you to understand: people only have hard reactions to circumstances which reach into their hearts. It may well be that your conversion may touch some interior wounds of your family members: I ask that when this topic of your conversion does in fact come up, to be very patient with them. Some wounds are allowed to fester in a person's interiority for years that they spend in hopes that ignoring its very existence will cause it to go away. It was this way with my family's rejection of me and my vocation. I continue to pray for them to receive the graces necessary to both accept it, and to heal from the wounds that their reactions stem from. It may well be that this experience of yours will be the means by which our Lord seeks to bring your entire family home. It's happened many, many times before, and what a wonderful thing it is when it does happen.
That said: if you are young, it is good that you are seeing the truth of Catholicism, but under no circumstance do I want you to do anything which may be interpreted as dishonoring your parents while you are young and depend on them. The fourth commandment applies here, and God has given you the parents you have to effect your sanctification, and you theirs. Read some more about Holy Mother Church, and the sacraments. Anticipate their questions BEFORE you have the conversation. Most importantly: be respectful, loving, and non-emotional when you have this conversation. If they forbid you to convert, I ask you to respect that until you are an adult.
Keep reading. Pray your rosary. If you do not have one currently, I would like to make you one as a gift. Pray, period. It is a love which is put into a person's heart which opens them to conversion, and even if they forbid your conversion you must understand that the time is given you so that you might grow in love for our Lord, his Blessed Mother, and the Church.
The time we want things to come to fruition is not necessarily the time our dear and blessed Lord has in mind for us - and He knows best.
If you have any questions, or need help or support in any way, I assure you of the entire Tumblr Catholic community's prayers for you and desire to help you in any way that we can. Feel free to message me or any of us.
Recently dumped from the collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
The infancy of Jesus Christ, and the virtue of faith.
If the infancy of Jesus Christ is to provide for us a model of the way in which we are to love our Savior, then it is entirely possible that there is more to be learned as well. Perhaps even the Theological Virtues are covered: Faith, Hope, and Love (CCC 1812). Certainly we have discussed holy love previously. In this column, I wish to reflect upon the holy virtue of faith in light of Christ's infancy. When we talk about the holy virtue of faith, we oftentimes intersperse other words. The ideal of faith is often described as blind, or unquestioning. This can lead to certain unfortunate interpretations. Does this mean that we should not ask questions or read the Catechism? Of course not - God gave you a brilliant, beautiful brain with a rational intellect so that you could come to know him. Then it becomes necessary to separate the notion of the practice of faith which is the road by which we travel toward the exercise of the holy virtue of faith. From the Catechism, we read that it is by the holy virtue of faith that man "freely commits his entire self to God". (CCC 1814) I don't know about you, but I certainly have quite a ways to go in this regard, and this is why Holy Mother Church recommends that we pray daily for an increase in the virtues of faith, hope, and love. This is all well and good, but what does any of this have to do with the infancy of Christ? By the free committing of one's entire self to God, we give all that we are without question, or without hesitation, since we know that "everything helps to secure the good of those who love God" (Rom 8:28). In what way might a small child teach us about full surrender? Ask any parent. There is a period in the life of a child where they could set their kid on top of a table, step ten feet back, and call to the child that they might run to them; and the child will do exactly that. At no point do they ask of themselves what will happen if they keep running and they run out of table, why their parent would have put them on a table in the first place, or what the parent is trying to prove - they will simply do what is asked with a great love in their heart and the knowledge that their parent would never ask them to do anything that wasn't good. It is this faith to which we are called. Joy and reckless abandon in answer to God's action in our lives as He works toward our growth in holiness and sanctification.

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Perhaps the sole ends of the priesthood are to say Mass, and to recite the Office, and then to live like seculars ? No, the end for which God has instituted the priesthood has been to appoint on earth public persons to watch over the honor of his divine majesty, and to procure the salvation of souls.
St Alphonsus Liguori
Some thoughts on the Most Holy Eucharist
What a wonderful gift, the Eucharist - and on the subject of a gift so great as to instill an infinitude of graces it would be easy to fill volumes. Instead, I will concentrate on one thing: the gift of this relationship to which we are called by virtue of the institution of this Sacrament. St. Alphonsus Liguori makes a very interesting point in "The Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Our Lord Jesus Christ" - that the very essense of the relationship God desires to have with us is revealed in the means by which Jesus is presented to us. How did He come, exactly? As a baby. I want you to think about this for a second - what human being with an intact heart can help but to fall in love with a baby? There is not a person alive which does not melt when greeted with a baby's smile, and return one in kind. And what is our first instinct when we see them? To hold them, to embrace them. So, then, it is telling that Jesus did not choose to come to us already incarnate as a grown man, in regal clothes, with a golden crown... but as a helpless baby that we cannot resist loving. And for those of you who are parents (for those who are not, you have only to ask those who are) - is there any worse feeling that of disappointing one of these little ones? This is the relationship with Jesus Christ to which we are called; St. Josemaria Escriva put it best - that we must fall madly in love with Him if we are to know Him. This unfathomable humility of our Lord Jesus Christ is proven to us, I believe, in no place any more strongly than in the Eucharist. Father says the words of consecration, and ordinary bread and wine are literally and truly transformed right before our eyes, and Jesus appears on the altar under this humble disguise. But why the disguise? Why the mystery of the Eucharist? Every single time, without fail, when God, or a heavenly messenger appears on His behalf, among the very first things said is what? Be not afraid. Why? Why did Adam and Eve hide from God? Because a consequence of original sin, is that when we are granted the Beatific Vision - when we see God, we cannot help but instantly recall every single occasion on which we have hurt Him by our sins, and our heart breaks. Even the Virgin Mother, shielded from the stain of original sin by the Immaculate Conception, when she beheld the angel of the Lord in the Gospel of Luke - what must he say? "Do not be afraid: thou has found favor in the sight of God". Though sinless, she still in her humility knew how small she was before the Lord, and required encouragement. How much more encouragement do we need, who are not immaculately conceived? Be not afraid, he says, to draw near. What an amazing gift, this love, this relationship to which we are called! The only fear we ought feel, then, is that we may harm or even to lose this relationship by our sin. Jesus does not want to rule your kingdom, your town, or your village. Jesus wants reign of your heart, and so He is content to come to us as a helpless baby so that we may draw near and to fall in love, and then turn us into living tabernacles by our reception of Him under the humble disguise of bread and wine that He may live in us and in so doing to instill graces and mend our brokenness so that He may be made known to others by His living in us. Make frequent confessions. Visit Him often. Make fervent and worthy communions. Join I and St. Josemaria Escriva in praying that we all may fall more madly in love with Him with every breath we take. God bless you. Please pray for me.