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Back in 2015, my family went to the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. At the end of the week, we got to have Mass with the pope. There were over a million Catholics in the streets of Philly and it was incredible. I’ve never felt the universality of the Church quite as keenly as I did at that Mass.
Anyway, since the pope was in country, obviously, news media outlets were covering him and an acquaintance of mine on Facebook said, “What’s the big deal about the pope? My pastor never gets this kind of coverage. Don’t even know what the point of the pope is.”
We will come back to this.
Now that my son is getting older, whenever my husband leaves for work, he has a conversation with our son, “Now, Buddy, I’m leaving for a bit and I need you to watch over things for me. Take care of your mom, keep an eye on the house. You do the things you know I would do, okay?”
Our son always stands a bit taller and I can see his confidence build as his father places trust in him to stand in his stead while he’s gone.
And so, my son will do things that he sees his dad do. He won’t let me bring the trash bin up from the curb. He turns off the lights at night and makes sure all the doors are locked. He becomes more helpful than normal, as he tries to mirror what he sees his dad do when he’s home. It’s pretty cute, honestly, how serious he takes his role.
But, it also speaks a great truth: No organization, unit, institution, group, or family works without a leader and if that leader is away, someone has to stand in for them as their representative.
What the acquaintance from the story at the beginning failed to see is that the papacy was founded by Christ. Peter was our first Vicar of Christ and the popes after him are his successors. Why do we need more after Peter? Because the Church Christ founded is still going and Peter isn’t here on earth anymore.
It’s important to note that her church has a leader—her pastor—who she believes has the authority to lead her church.
Whether people consciously think about it or not, Catholic Pilgrims, the reason people pay attention to the pope is because he leads over a billion Catholics and because his office, that we can trace all the way back to Peter, was instituted by Christ.
Have a blessed Feast Day of the Chair of St. Peter.
When I say Alabama, you may say: Football (SEC 👎) Bible Belt Forrest Gump Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" (There you go, it's in your head now. You're welcome.) What you won't probably think about is Catholicism. I know I sure didn't think that when my family was stationed there for 10 months a few years back. But, if I learned anything living in Turkey, sometimes when you are outnumbered, your faith gets stronger. Catholics in Alabama are some devoted folks. Our small-town chapel this week is Sacred Heart Church in Clear Point, Alabama. It sits right on Mobile Bay and is a popular venue for weddings because of its charm and quaintness. It's, also, packed during the busy season, so get there early all you late-coming Catholics. Yes, I'm looking at all of you. It's not far from Mobile, which is a city my family thoroughly enjoyed visiting when we lived in Montgomery. Side note: You Gulf people have some strange food habits. This Kansanite (my word for a person from Kansas) wasn't too keen on ripping the heads off of the river bugs, sorry, crawfish. I know you love to suck the brains out after decapitation, but I'm gonna have to stick with the cows, chickens and pigs. lol. 😉 However, if you are ever sticking your feet in the Gulf Shores in Alabama, check out the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile. But, also, take some time to visit Sacred Heart Church and be thankful to the French that got our Catholic Faith kick-started off in Alabama all the way back in 1703. Merci! Live the Faith boldly and travel well, Catholic Pilgrims.
Continue ReadingEarly on in my marriage, when I still had major anger issues, my husband would kindly ask me to work on my anger. Of course, I would become super angry and get defensive and yell, "This is just who I am, okay!" It was so selfish of me to not want to work on myself. I wanted to believe that my faults and failings were just something that happened to me. I couldn't help it, you see? Sure, there were reasons that led to me having a deep-seated anger within me, but it was always my choice to allow it to take over or not. I just didn't want to admit that. Instead, I wanted to believe that God had just made me this way--angry, selfish, and impatient. In effect, I was telling my husband, "Welp, sorry pal, you get what you get." These are the lies we tell ourselves to protect our egos. We want to believe that everything is out of our control because then we don't have to take responsibility and ...AND...we don't have to put in effort to work on ourselves. God did not make us to be filled with vices, bad habits and sinful behaviors. The potential we have in God's plan for our soul is beyond our imagination. With His grace we can become who He created us to be. Lent is the perfect time to finally be honest with ourselves. We are angry, jealous, lazy, irritable, rude, ungrateful, prideful, impatient, distracted, etc, because we allow ourselves to be. Not because we were made that way and not because we have no control. At some point, for love of my husband, I realized that I was a horrible wife for telling him that I wasn't going to change for the better. I got honest with myself and asked for God's help. I'm not that same person anymore. Resorting to anger was a habit of mine, so I will tend towards it when upset, but I do realize now that I have the ability to control it with prayer and awareness. It is something that I will always have to work on, but it is easier now to work on it. Excuses never allow us to grow, Catholic Pilgrims. Be brave enough to face yourself. Live the Faith boldly and travel well this Monday.
Continue ReadingWhat has Satan used to tempt you away from God? We know from today's reading from Matthew that Satan tries to use pleasures, presumption, and power to tempt Jesus away from the Father. The three P's, if you will. We all know that worldly pleasures definitely tempt people away, by making them think that they can find ultimate happiness in them. We know that people are tempted away from God by just presuming that God will save them in the end. This creates an apathy in their souls, because why do you need to try if no matter what you are saved? For sure we know that power tempts people away from God. Getting drunk on our own power and believing that we are gods is, well, something Satan knows well. I wasn't, though, tempted away by any of those things initially. I was tempted away by Satan telling me that God didn't really care about me. "If God really loved you, He'd never have let bad things happen to you." In an instant, I believed that lie, because, I thought, who needs God when He just leaves you to be hurt? With that poison in my heart, I walked away. In that walking away, I went to the three P's. I tried to find happiness in my life apart from God in pleasures. That didn't work. I wrongly presumed that just because I still believed in God, He'd eventually save me in the end. So, it didn't matter how I lived. Such ungrateful arrogance. And, I believed I had the power to heal myself and live my life my way. That didn't work either. Satan doesn't always tempt us by offering to add something to our lives. Sometimes, he makes us doubt that God even cares. That's what he did to me. Through all temptations, we must hold fast to our worship of the One True God and of Him alone. There is nothing that Satan could tempt you with that is better than staying close to God, Catholic Pilgrims--nothing at all. Have a blessed First Sunday of Lent.
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