The Family

Lauren and her parents meet Pope John Paul II

The husband ought not to seek only his own interests, but also those of his wife; and she, those of her husband. Parents should look after the interests of their children, and these in turn look after the interests of their parents. The family is the only community in which man "is loved for himself," for what he "is" and not for what he "has" ... Respect for this fundamental norm explains as the apostle hiimself teaches, why nothing should be done out of a spirit of rivalry or for vainglory, but rather through humility, because of love. And this love, which is opened up to others, makes members of the family true servants of "the domestic church," where all desire the good and the happiness of each one; where each and every one gives life to this love with an urgent search for that good and that happiness.

Pope John Paul II
Homily of the Mass for families
Found in "In Conversation with God: Lent and Eastertide"

Clean Your Screen for Free Now

Go here.

(Be sure to try the ringtones too. If my phone could use them I surely would have #1.) Via Jimmy Akin.

Alternative News Network to be Launched April 11

SPERO NEWS LAUNCHES APRIL 11
ALTERNATIVE NETWORK FOR NEWS, COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS

Madrid, Spain/Houston, Texas /April 11/ -- Communication in today’s world requires openness and a new approach with respect to media. Spero News is that new approach.

Initially in English, and soon expanding into Spanish, Spero News is a bi-lingual weekly electronic magazine and community spanning the globe providing premium content submitted from its nearly 100 collaborators. Spero News aims to enhance society by creating a premier, alternative network for readers seeking quality news, information and interaction through the Internet by providing news, commentary, and analysis that encourages citizen participation. In that respect, Spero News is a unique experience towards creating a constructive dialogue between media and readers with the aim of promoting a correctly informed and discerning public opinion as reflected in Judeo-Christian values. By melding journalists, citizen journalists and sector professionals, Spero News also guarantees that its news is by the people and for the people.

Read the rest at Santificarnos. This is the network in which I'll have some columns appearing as will several others from St. Blog's.

A Little Useless Information

MISS AMERICA HAIR COLOR

The Miss America title has been awarded (with some breaks) since 1921,
when it was presented to Margaret Gorman. The statics of winners' hair color
might disprove the oft quoted claim that "gentlemen prefer blondes."

From 1921 - 2003
Brunettes - 70%
Blondes - 24%
Redheads - 6%

Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott

The Right to Life

For man, the right to life is the fundamental right. And yet, a part of contemporary culture has wanted to deny that right, turning it into an "uncomfortable" right, one that has to be defended. But there is no other right that so closely affects the very existence of the person! The right to life means the right to be born and then continue to live until one's natural end: "As long as I live, I have the right to live." ...

It is necessary to recognize that, in this context, we are witnessing true human tragedies. Often the woman is the victim of male selfishness, in the sense that the man, who has contributed to the conception of the new life, does not want to be burdened with it and leaves the responsibility to the woman, as if it were "her fault" alone. So precisely when the woman most needs the man's support, he proves to be a cynical egoist, capable of exploiting her affection or weakness, yet stubbornly resistant to any sense of responsibility for his own action...

Therefore, in firmly rejecting "pro choice" it is necessary to become courageously "pro woman," promoting a choice that is truly in favor of women. It is precisely the woman, in fact, who pays the highest price, not only for her motherhood, but even more for its destruction, for the suppression of the life of the child who has been conceived. The only honest stance, in these cases, is that of radical solidarity with the woman. It is not right to leave her alone.

Pope John Paul II
Crossing the Threshold of Hope

This is Why We've Been Missing Mark Shea

[commenting on Cardinal Law being at the Pope's funeral] I think this basically illustrates three things. First, the good news about the Catholic Church is: it's like a big family. Second, the bad news about the Catholic Church is: it's like a big family. We've seen these sorts of "What's *he* doing here?" stuff at our own family funerals.

Not only does he crack me up but it is absolutely true. He follows up with a very good observation which you can read here.

The Older the Mother, The Funnier This Is

Which explains why I was laughing hysterically, when I read "At Home, #3." From my in-box.

Birth order of children

Your Clothes:
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.

Preparing for the Birth:
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.

The Layette:
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?

Worries:
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.

Pacifier:
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.

Diapering:
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.

Activities:
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing,and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.

Going Out:
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.

At Home:
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.

Swallowing Coins (a favorite):
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance

The Long Way Home

One of the greatest challenges to spiritual life is to receive God's forgiveness. There is something in us humans that keeps us clinging to our sins and prevents us from letting God erase our past and offer us a completely new beginning. Sometimes it even seems as though I want to prove to God that my darkness is too great to overcome. While God wants to restore me to the full dignity of sonship, I keep insisting that I will settle for being a hired servant. But do I truly want to be restored to the full responsibility of the son? Do I truly want to be so totally forgiven that a completely new way of living becomes possible? Do I trust myself and such a radical reclamation? Do I want to break away from my deep-rooted rebellion against God and surrender myself so absolutely to God's love that a new person can emerge? Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring, and renewing. As long as I want to do even a part of that myself, I end up with partial solutions, such as becoming a hired servant. As a hired servant, I can still keep my distance, still revolt, reject, strike, run away, or complain about my pay. As the beloved son, I have to claim my full dignity and begin preparing myself to become the father.

Henri Nouwen
The Return of the Prodigal Son

The Ultimate IM

Today we are living in an age of instant communications.
But do you realize what a unique form of communication prayer is?
Prayer enables us to meet God at the most profound level of our being.
It connects us directly to God, the living God:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in a constant exchange of love.

Pope John Paul II
Celebration with Youth, St. Louis, 1999

I'm Gonna Do Something Radical

Something that I haven't done since ... well, maybe third or fourth grade. I'm going to try reading just one book at a time. I'm clearing off my bedside table except for the one book of the moment - which in this case is The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel. Of course, y'all understand that a daily devotional to read with my breakfast doesn't count here.

I'm curious to see what this will feel like...

Think Terri Schiavo Was An Isolated Incident? Think Again.

85 year-old Mae Margourik of LaGrange, Georgia, is currently being deprived of nutrition and hydration at the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy. Mrs. Margourik suffered an aortic dissection 2 weeks ago and was hospitalized. Though her doctors have said that she is not terminally ill, Ms. Gaddy declared that she held medical power of attorney for Mae, and had her transferred to the LaGrange Hospice. Later investigation revealed that Ms. Gaddy did not in fact have such power of attorney. Furthermore, Mae's Living Will provides that nutrition and hydration are to be withheld only if she is comatose or vegetative. Mae is in neither condition. Neither is her condition terminal.

Read the whole story at Thrown Back. Via The Curt Jester.

The Best Salad Dressing Ever

Over at Glad Gastronome, you'll find a recipe for Spicy Caesar Dressing. Serve this and your reputation as a cook is made. It is a "signature" recipe and I gladly share it with y'all.

UPDATE: We also have what may be the best Indian Lentil recipe ever ... donated by a kind reader. Check it out.

What Made John Paul II So "Real"

A few little things that made him so real and just made us love him more.

Just a funny story from Jim Caviezel, actor, who met with the Pope after filming The Passion of The Christ. He was talking about this the other night on The Larry King Show...

Larry King: What was it like when you met him, James?

JAMES CAVIEZEL, ACTOR: Well Larry, I went into the Vatican and they took me from one room into the next. And immediately, I was intimidated. You know, I had an opportunity to meet him in 1984, I could have seen him and I didn't, and I always regretted it. So, when we were in Rome, I had this chance.

And finally, when I walked in the room, there he was, he was like 100 yards away. And by the time I got to him, I was so out of breath... and he looked at me, how are you? Jim Caviezel, not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

He said, Jim Caviezel, what have you learned in playing Jesus Christ? I said, well, holy father, I've been hanging out with -- he goes, yes, I said I think Jesus was Italian. He said, what? I said well, he didn't leave home until he was 30. He always hang out with the same 12 guys, and his mother believed he was God, so he had to be Italian, you know. I said, you're not upset with me.

He said, no, I always believed he was Polish.

Post poached shamelessly from
Regina Clare Jane at I Still See A Spark In You

I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.
Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul's traveling press entourage was the most international (and for many years the largest) in the world. That meant that the questions were asked in five or six languages, and often answered that way by the multilingual pope.

That could be a problem for English-only reporters on a tight deadline. You never knew if the answer given in Spanish, French, German or Polish was going to be the real news, or one of the English answers you were able to understand.

Don Lattin at the San Francisco Chronicle
Via Get Religion

Pope John Paul II wearing Bono's shades

Bono: This is an amazing—this was an amazing moment for all of us gathered, actually. I just said to him, “I know you’re a very—you’re a holy man, but I know you are a showman.” And noticed him spotting the fly shades as I was walking up to him, so I just gave them to him, and he put them on, and he made this kind of wicked smile.

Read entire story at Bettnet

Toiling quietly behind the scenes in Pope John Paul II's final hours were five Polish nuns who dedicated their lives to his service, beginning when he was Bishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow.

Sisters Tobiana, Germana, Fernanda, Matylda and Eufrosyana, from the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, were "the pillars" that supported the pope, a Vatican insider told AFP...

Sister Germana's vegetable pies - especially spinach - wowed the late Italian president Sandro Pertini, who was a regular at papal working luncheons and dinners when John Paul II was well enough to entertain guests.

Others fondly remember the carp served on Christmas Eve as a typical Polish delicacy.

For Polish visitors to the Vatican, the obligatory dishes included piroshki - dumplings with meat or fruit filling - pates, cheesecake and fish in aspic.

Sister Fernanda was in charge of the pope's pantry, replenishing it mainly with fruit, vegetables and milk from Castelgandolfo, the pontiff's summer holiday home just outside Rome.

John Paul II's wardrobe was the responsibility of Sister Matylda, who must have suffered immense humiliation during a papal visit to France, when a horrified French bishop gasped: "There's a smudge on the pontiff's robe!"

Women in the Pope's Life
Via Get Religion

Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.
Pope John Paul II

I've Always Had a Liking for St. Jerome

Now I like that sarcastic, cranky saint even more. The Curt Jester took a fresh look at him and realized he is the perfect patron for bloggers. Read up on it and then you'll understand why St. Jerome is now residing in the bottom of my sidebar.

This Sounds Good to Me

What do we need in a new pope? I was thinking yesterday about what name a new pope could take. I don't think an unending succession of John Pauls would be a good idea. The new pope should return to a traditional name. But the choice of a name indicates the orientation of the new reign. I think we need another Gregory--this would be Gregory XVII. The spirit of St. Gregory the Great is what the Church needs now. To be sure, John Paul II had it. Paul McLachlan associates Gregory with music and liturgy--think Gregorian chant--but there is more that the Church needs in his heritage. St. Gregory was a pope of renewal--he was involved with the early spread of the Benedictine Order. He was a pastoral pope--his Regula Pastoralis was the standard of pastoral theology for a thousand years; at the same time he was a pope of great learning. Most of all, he was a missionary pope. In his day, Italy was mostly occupied by the Lombards, who were partly pagan, partly Arian, whom Gregory worked to evangelize. He was inspired to begin the evangelization of England, where he sent St. Augustine, who became the first archbishop of Canterbury. We need all of these qualities now--a new pope Gregory, whoever he is. May the Lord send us one.

Henry Dieterich at A Plumbline in the Wind has a wishlist of papal qualities. I concur. Via Roz at Exultet.

The Heart of the Young

Although I have lived through much darkness ... I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the heart of the young ...

Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His son.

Pope John Paul II
World Youth Day, Toronto 2002

When Inspiration Strikes

Rose's theology class was given an assignment to do a presentation about how God sees us versus how society sees us. From the moment she heard it she was really lit up because she could "see" the perfect song and fashion montage to start off with. By the time we got home, she had a variety of skits thought up. Add in the influence of her partner, Mary, and a video camera ... and they were off and running.

Her teacher liked the project. So much so that she showed it to every single theology class. It is on our webserver, smaller than I'd like but it will run fairly well on the web. I'd like to link to it here but considering the times we live in, don't want to spread Rose's and Mary's pictures all over the internet. However, if you are interested in seeing the video (it's about 8 minutes long), just email me (julie at glyphnet dot com) and I'll send you the link.

Two things if you watch it ... turn up the sound and be sure to watch after the credits have run (sadly, they are unreadable because of size restrictions but they were a hoot), for the bloopers finish.

Ahhh, Our Diocean Spokesman Still Making Us Proud

On Saturday, a ink-stained FrontBurnervian tells me, the News decided it might be nice to overprint "John Paul II In His Own Words," a beautifully produced special section for the Sunday paper, and distribute it gratis to local Catholic churches. When they called the diocese to enlist its help, spokesman Bronson Havard went ballistic and told them that any News employee who stepped on the Church's property would be arrested. Presumably this edict did not apply to those Catholic employees who went to Mass yesterday--at least we haven't heard yet of any who were led away in handcuffs.

Front Burner (D Magazine's blog)

Now you can see why around Dallas all you have to do is start a sentence with, "Bronson Havard..." and people's heads start shaking.

How Does the Pope Pray?

How -- and for whom -- does the Pope pray?

You would have to ask the Holy Spirit! The Pope prays as the Holy Spirit permits him to pray. I think he has to pray in a way in which, deepening the mystery revealed in Christ, he can better fulfill his ministry. The Holy Spirit certainly guides him in this. But man must not put up obstacles. "The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness." ...

Because the Pope is a witness of Christ and a minister of the Good News, he is a man of joy and a man of hope, a man of the fundamental affirmation of the value of existance, the value of creation and of hope in the future life. Naturally, this is neither a naive joy, nor a vain hope. The joy of the victory over evil does not obfuscate -- it actually intensifies -- the realistic awareness of the existence of evil in the world and in every man. The Gospel teaches us to call good and evil by name, but it also teaches: "Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good" (Rom. 12:21). ...

The Pope, like every Christian, must be keenly aware of the dangers to which man is subject in the world, in his temporal future, and in his final, eternal, eschatological future. The awareness of these dangers does not generate pessimism, but rather encourages the struggle for the victory of good in every realm. And it is precisely from this struggle for the victory of good in man and in the world that the need for prayer arises.

The Pope's prayer, however, has an added dimension. In his concern for all the churches every day the pontiff must open his prayer, his thought, his heart to the entire world. Thus a kind of geography of the Pope's prayer is sketched out. It is a geography of communities, churches, societies, and also of the problems that trouble the world today. In this sense the Pope is called to a universal prayer ... [which] permits him to set forth before God all the joys and hopes as well as the griefs and anxieties that the Church shares with humanity today.

Pope John Paul II
Crossing the Threshold of Hope

Yesterday is a Day I Always Will Remember

It sounds odd if I say that yesterday was a "golden day," one that will stay in my memory for a long, long time, if not forever ... but that's just what it was.

It started off with two "chance" meetings that made me very happy.

Then I went on for a bloggers' lunch with Mama T, Smockmama, and Steven Riddle. What a great bunch of people! Steven Riddle, Southern gentleman that he is, was so charming and nice and funny and real. As for the Summa Mamas, I was ready to hop in their car and go home with them. (Which, by the way, is not so far off ... after hearing about their church, we're gonna have to drop by there some Sunday morning. It sounds amazing ... just about as good as my church. Ha!) We all dove in talking as if we'd known each other for many years. What an absolute pleasure it was. I can't say it better than Steven Riddle (as if anyone could!), "Y'all ROCK!!!"

And, what a perfect group of people for me to be with when Mama T got the sad call that the pope had died. We were in a restaurant but it was as if we were in a soundproof bubble. Nothing else existed except the four of us and our shared, mingled sadness and joy. Tears flowed and we clasped hands and shared prayer together for our pope and our church. What an odd "coincidence" for us to be together to share that moment ... as if I believed in coincidence. In fact, my husband has said three times that he still can't believe how odd it was that I was with those St. Blog's parishioners at that time (and he doesn't repeat himself like that).

That actually was the second time that I heard the pope was dead as I had the misfortune to check The Drudge Report on Friday at the exact time that the false report of John Paul II's death was posted. I stunned myself by bursting into sobs and not being able to stop. When I went to tell my husband, he wasn't surprised that I was so upset. "You love him," he said. Well, I knew that! But I didn't expect it to be such a real, physical feeling of sorrow. Brother, was I ticked off at the media after that! However, I got to experience both an intense private moment of mourning for the pope as well as sharing it with community, so in a way I feel doubly blessed by that mistake.

Of course, I was floating on air after coming back from that lunch. But the day wasn't done with me yet. Then I got a phone call from a dear friend who offered a wonderful opportunity to both expand my horizons and to be of service. I'm excited every time it crosses my mind so this is definitely the right time for this to come along. More details later as things develop about that but ... gee whiz, what a day!

UPDATE: Steven's and Mama T's accounts are here.

It Is Jesus That You Seek

It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness;
He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you;
He is the beauty to which you are so attracted;
it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise;
it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life;
it is He who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives,
the will to follow an ideal,
the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity,
the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society,
making the world more human and more fraternal.

Pope John Paul II
World Youth Day, Rome 2000

Until We Meet Again

I am so sad for us but I am so very happy for our dear pope ... don't you know there is a colossal whooping and hollering and clapping going on to greet him right now as he enters Heaven's gates? He was truly our good shepherd who watched over us to the limits of his strength and to the very end. With all my heart I thank you, Papa.

Nothing Else Need Be Said

This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the Pope.

Angelo Comastri
Vicar General of Vatican City

Lolek

2:15 PM Here’s a nice little bit of trivia: When JPII dies, according to tradition, the carmelengo will take a small silver hammer and lightly tap his head and say, “Karol Wotyja are you there?”

Then he will tap him again and say, “Lolek, are you there?”

“Lolek” is the nickname his mother had given him. When a man is named pope, one of the first things he is asked is by what nickname his mother called him. He is asked this because in old days, when it was not always possible to tell if one was dead or deeply comatose, it was believed that if one was called by the sweet name of one’s babyhood, one might respond to it.

It is an old idea, of course, and it might be “silly” today - clearly, we will KNOW when the pope dies…and yet, I think it is sweet and lovely, that at the moment of the man’s death, he will be called by the name his loving mother gave him. This article says the pope will not be hammered according to the new, streamlined plans...but who knows...it's still kind of lovely.

The Anchoress is blogging her thoughts while watching news coverage on the Pope's condition. I love this story about calling someone the nickname his mother had for him when he dies.

Also, like The Anchoress, I am touched by the many well wishings and caring messages from my non-Catholic friends. Nothing says "body of Christ" more to me than that does.

I Didn't Expect Tears to Spring to My Eyes...

... when I read this at BettNet

Update on the Pope

The latest information coming out right now says the Holy Father’s blood pressure is dropping, his breathing is getting shallow, his “cardio-vascular system has worsened.” His blood is being “poisoned” by the failures causing organ problems. It won’t be long now.

Dom also has a link to an article that he wrote about what happens when a pope dies.

Our dear Pope is old and frail. He has rendered faithful service long past when most ever would. He has been our good shepherd. I guess that is why I am crying right now. I have prayed for him to have a good death, whenever it finally would come. It is not as if this is unexpected by any means. But that reality is hitting me in the face right now and I am sorrowful beyond expectations.

I'm Not an April Fooler ...

... but I know some folks who are.

Drop by Too Many Chefs and read all about their Newest Team Member and their Family Secret Pizza Recipe.

Roz gets a reminder of the date.

Just for Fun

A few of my favorite quotes that are not "churchy."

You and I are here to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.

W.H. Auden

I know not how to abstain from reading.

Samuel Pepys
[obviously we are soul mates]

A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.

Robert Benchley

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

Goethe
[another soul mate]

Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.

Groucho Marx

For Our Pope

Father in Heaven,

Thy will be done. Your faithful servant has served the faithful long and well. Thank you for the gift of him. If it be your will, let us keep him with us a while longer. Nevertheless Father, I'm certain that he is longing for home. Thy will be done to thy greater glory.

Amen

Steven Riddle at Flos Carmeli

Lord, hear our prayer. Amen.

Patience

Today's meditation in "In Conversation with God: Lent and Eastertide" is reflecting on the incident when the disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing ... until Jesus told them to go back out after which their nets were so full that the boats were foundering. It seems perfectly timed to me.

Why did the Lord include so many fishermen among His Apostles? ... What were the good points that He saw in them? I think there was one thing which He specially appreciated in those who were to be his Apostles: an unshakeable patience ... They had worked all night and had caught nothing; long hours of waiting after which the grey light of dawn was to bring them their reward, but there was none ...

What a lot of waiting the Church of Christ has had to endure throughout the centuries ... partiently extending her invitations and leaving grace to do its work! ... What does it matter if she has worked very hard in one place or another and reaped very little for her Master? On the basis of his word, in spite of everything, she will launch her nets again until such time as his grace, the limits of which are in no way proportioned to human efforts, brings her again a new catch of fish. (R.A. Knox) We don't know how or when, but all apostolic effort bears fruit, even though it often happens that we do not see it. Our Lord asks from us Christians the same capacity for patient waiting as he found in the fishermen. He asks us to be constant in our personal apostolate with our friends and acquaintances, never to abandon them or to give up anybody as being impossible. ...

If we persevere and carry on in the firm conviction that the Lord wills it, signs of a Christian revolution will appear around you, everywhere. Some will follow the call, others will take their interior life seriously, and others -- the weakest -- will at least be forewarned. (St. Escriva, Furrow)

Keeping Our Papa in My Prayers

The Pope's condition

Fox News is reporting that an Italian news agency has said that the Pope’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. I don’t have any more information than that and am waiting for our Rome correspondent to notify us if there’s any real information. Until you can verify such things from two or more sources in Rome, I suggest you treat it as the rumor that it is.

That said, a few prayers for the Holy Father would not be out of order.

Update: CNN is reporting that he has received the last rites. Other sources say he’s had a urinary tract infection and is receiving antibiotics. Stay tuned.

Dom Bettinelli at BettNet

Thou Shalt Not Be Overcome

I know that many people are heartsick over Terri. Someone said that she saw George Felos on television trashing Fr. Frank Pavone who has a long history of fighting for life. We are not even allowed to lick our wounds and mourn our dead before the attack presses on.

GetReligion's story, "Sneer-quoting culture of life," tells about a new order of priests being founded by Pavone to fight against abortion and euthanasia ... and the sneering reactions of Planned Parenthood. This is the trend we can expect as this struggle between the cultures of life and death continue. Evil is not happy about this turn of events, that this very visible struggle has alerted us all to the dangers at hand ... and evil does not give up easily. It fights back.

We must not forget that this was a battle, not the war. If ever there was a time for "onward Christian soldiers" and "the Church militant" then this is that time. This quote has been running through my head all day. It applies to right here and right now.

He said not:
Thou shalt be troubled, thou shalt not be tempted, thou shalt not be distressed,
but He said:
thou shalt not be overcome.

Julian of Norwich

Keep the faith. Hold the line. Wipe your tears and straighten your shoulders and press on in the good fight. He has promised it and Our Father keeps His promises. We shall not be overcome.

Terri is Dead

Schiavo, 41, died quietly in a Pinellas Park hospice 13 days after her feeding tube was removed despite extraordinary intervention by Florida lawmakers, Congress and President Bush - efforts that were rebuffed at every turn by the courts.

Her death was confirmed to The Associated Press by Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, and announced to reporters outside her hospice by a family adviser.

My Way News via Drudge Report

May God give support and comfort to all those who loved her and will miss her ... and may He have mercy on those who killed her.

A Lot of Hot Air

STEAM BOY
This was a wonderfully animated and otherwise dreadfully dull movie that is not worth the time I am taking type this mini-review. I do so only in the hope of saving others from a similar terrible fate. Therefore, I will pass on the two nuggets of wisdom that comprised the movie's entire message which took them two hours to communicate sufficiently to make sure that we'd really get it.

1. War is bad.
2. Science should not be used to make weapons because ... (see message 1).
   

Taking My Hat Off to "A Rational LIberal"

My dear friend, Toby, is a liberal with whom anyone in St. Blogs would enjoy crossing swords. She is open minded to others' reasoning, truly tolerant, and can hold her own intelligently but without heat in any verbal debate. One of the many things I admire about Toby so much is that she thinks for herself and never stops examining issues until she has considered every side of an argument. She also is the friend who spurred my thinking about federal involvement in Terri Schiavo's case.

Toby was so outraged over the federal government trying to step in that we "agreed to disagree" and stepped away from the discussion. However, that was not enough for Toby who hadn't heard of some of the information I had heard ... y'all would have laughed to hear us talking because we were both being so careful about qualifying our lack of documentation for much of what we had "heard." She's been out of town and I've had other things on my mind so I had forgotten all about our conversation. I was really surprised to find this comment from her this morning ... but I shouldn't have been. She's been busy thinking and investigating and isn't afraid to admit a change in position based on new information.

I have been surprised at the level of my ambivalence over this tragedy. I would call myself a "rational liberal" (stop laughing!) ...and am seriously conflicted over how much I want the government in my life. We always want it to be consistent with our selfish desires, don't we?

I freely admit that I formed an opinion before learning the details. Some of the "details" are fraught with hyperbole and difficult to believe. Motives are questionable, emotions are high. But the primary issue that has moved me from "let her go" to "examine more" is the absence of CURRENT testing.

We have a friend that has recovered from a devastating lack of oxygen to her brain ...she was diagnosed as having only "brain stem" activity, and would be unable to regain any kind of awareness. Today she is verbal, functional and taking vocational rehabilitation. She even remembers her friends and family from before the incident. She will never be "her old self", but she has become a welcomed and cherished member of her assisted living home. She is a loving, supporting and truly caring friend to her fellow residents.

It can happen ...everything should be done to give Terri a chance.

How's that for a 180, Julie!

I'm just sorry that y'all don't have a chance to get to know Toby. She's one in a million!

"The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Lawyers"

Henry VI, Shakespeare

Remember that traffic ticket that Tom got? We paid it and then forgot it but about two days before the final due date he got three (three!) letters from lawyers all telling him that they could get it reduced to $75 whether he had done it or not. His comment? "Who are the real criminals here?" I think we all know the answer to that one.

BUT BLESS THE TAX ACCOUNTANTS
In the same set of mail we got our tax return from our accountant. We keep our business as separate as possible from our home finances but sometimes an intermingling is unavoidable and I rarely have any idea how we will come out tax-wise. Woohoo! Not only are we getting money back but it is about twice what I would have hoped for. There is nothing like that feeling of relief!

The Beatitudes: Happiness on a Higher Level

Those who heard Him preach the Beatitudes were invited to stretch themselves out on a cross, to find happiness on a higher level by death to a lower order, to despise all the world holds sacred, and to venerate as sacred all the world regards as an ideal. Heaven is happiness; but it is too much for man to have two heavens, an ersatz one below, and a real one above. Hence the four "woes" He immediately added to the Beatitudes.

But alas for you who are rich; you have had your time of happiness.
Alas for you who are well-fed now; you shall go hungry.
Alas for you who laugh now; you shall mourn and weep.
Alas for you when all speak well of you; just so did their fathers treat the false prophets.

Luke 6:24-26

Crucifixion cannot be far away when a Teacher says "woe" to the rich, the satiated, the gay and the popular. Truth is not in the Sermon on the Mount alone; it is in the One Who lived our the Sermon on the Mount on Golgotha. The four woes would have been ethical condemnations, if He had not died full of the opposite of the four woes: poor, abandoned, sorrowful, and despised. On the Mount of the Beatitudes, He bade men hurl themselves on the cross of self-denial; on the Mount of Calvary, He embraced that very cross. Though the shadow of the Cross would not fall across the place of the skull until three years later, it was already in His Heart the day He preached on "How to be Happy."

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Beatitudes: Lessons in Self-Crucifixion

The Beatitudes cannot be taken alone: they are not ideals; they are hard facts and realities inseparable from the Cross of Calvary. What He taught was self-crucifixion: to love those who hate us; to pluck out eyes and cut off arms in order to prevent sinning; to be clean on the inside when the passions clamor for satisfaction on the outside; to forgive those who would put us to death; to overcome evil with good; to bless those who curse us; to stop mouthing freedom until we have justice, truth and love of God in our hearts as the condition of freedom; to live in the world and still keep oneself unpolluted from it; to deny ourselves sometimes legitimate pleasures in order the better to crucify our egotism -- all this is to sentence the old man in us to death.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Beatitudes: The Peacemakers and Those Reviled

Let Him come into a world which believes that one must resort to every manner of chicanery and duplicity in order to conquer the world, carrying doves of peace with stomachs full of bombs, say to them, "Blessed are the peacemakers," or "Blessed are they who eradicate sin that there may be peace"; and He will find Himself surrounded by men engaged in the silliest of all wars -- a war against the Son of God; making violence with steel and wood, pinions and gall and then setting a watch over His grave that He who lost the battle might not win the day.

Let Him come into a world that believes that our whole life should be geared to flattering and influencing people for the sake of utility and popularity, and say to them: "Blessed are you when men hate, persecute, and revile you"; and He will find Himself without a friend in the world, an outcast on a hill, with mobs shouting His death, and His flesh hanging from Him like purple rags.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Beatitudes: The Holy, The Merciful, and The Pure

Let Him come into the world which denies Absolute Truth, which says that right and wrong are only questions of point of view, that we must be broadminded about virtue and vice, and let Him say to them, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after holiness," that is, after the Absolute, after the Truth which "I am"; and they will in their broadmindedness give the mob the choice of Him or Barabbas, they will crucify Him with thieves, and try to make the world believe that God is no different from a batch of robbers who are His bedfellows in death.

Let Him come into a world which says that "my neighbor is hell," that all which is opposite me is nothing, that the ego alone matters, that my will is supreme law, that what I decide is good, that I must forget others and think only of myself, and say to them, "Blessed are the merciful." He will find that He will receive no mercy; they will open five streams of blood out of His Body; they will pour vinegar and gall into His thirsting mouth; and, even after His death, be so merciless as to plunge a spear into His Sacred Heart.

Let Him come into a world which tries to interpret man in terms of sex; which regards purity as coldness, chastity as frustrated sex, self-containment as abnormality, and the union of husband and wife until death as boredom; which says that a marriage endures only so long as the glands endure, that one may unbind what God binds and unseal what God seals. Say to them, "Blessed are the pure"; and He will find Himself hanging naked on a Cross, made a spectacle to men and angels in a last wild crazy affirmation that purity is abnormal, that the virgins are neurotics, and that carnality is right.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Beatitudes: The Poor in Spirit, The Patient, and They Who Mourn

The Sermon on the Mount is so much at variance with all that the world holds dear that the world will crucify anyone who tries to live up to its values. Because Christ preached them, He had to die. Calvary was the price He paid for the Sermon on the Mount. Only mediocrity survives. Those who call black black, and white white are sentenced for intolerance. Only the grays live.

The Lord Who says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," comes into the world that believes in the primacy of the economic; let Him stand in the market place where some men live for collective profit, or where others say men live for individual profit, and see what happens. He will be so poor that during life He will have nowhere to lay His head; a day will come when He will die without anything of economic worth. In His last hour He will be so impoverished that they will strip Him of His garments and even give Him a stranger's grave for His burial, as He had a stranger's stable for His birth.

Let Him come into the world which proclaims the gospel of the strong, which advocates hating our enemies, which condemns Christian virtues as the "soft" virtues, and say to that world, "Blessed are the patient," and He will one day feel the scourges of the strong barbarians laid across His back; He will be struck on the cheek by a mocking fist during one of His trials; He will see men take a sickle and cut the grass from a hill on Calvary, and then use a hammer to pinion Him to a Cross to test the patience of One Who endures the worst that evil has to offer, that having exhausted itself it might eventually turn to Love.

Let Him come into our world which ridicules the idea of sin as morbidity, considers reparation for past guilt as a guilt complex and preach to that world, "Blessed are they who mourn" for their sins, and He will be blindfolded and mocked as a fool. They will take His Body and scourge it, until His bones can be numbered; they will crown His head with thorns, until He begins to weep not salt tears but crimson beads of blood, as they laugh at the weakness of Him Who will not come down from the Cross.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Cure for Cynicism

PAPER CLIPS
Chances are that you haven't heard of this documentary . I'll write more about it later but Rose has really been wanting to see it so I took her this afternoon. Bottom line: see it. And if you have kids who understand what the Holocaust is, have them see it also. It is rated G and, although there are moments that bring tears on there is nothing graphic about the Holocaust itself. As a person in the movie said, when you get older you start to think that there is nothing good in the world. This is the cure for that cynicism.

The Beatitudes: The Key

The key to the Sermon on the Mount is the way He used two expressions: one was, "You have heard"; the other was the short, emphatic word, "But." When He said, "You have heard," He reached back to what human ears had heard for centuries and still hear from ethical reformers -- all those rules and codes and precepts which are half measures between instinct and reason, between local customs and the highest ideals. When He said, "You have heard," He included the Mosaic Law, Buddha with his eightfold way, Confucius with his rules for being a gentleman, Aristotle with his natural happiness, the broadness of the Hindus, and all the humanitarian groups of our day, who would translate some of the old codes into their own language and call them a new way of life. Of all these compromises, He said, "You have heard."

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Beatitudes: Taking On the World

The fascinating thing about this passage and the ones I will post over the next few days is that Sheen wrote this in 1958. 1958! I think of that as being an innocent, happy time where these problems had nothing like the emphasis they have in our modern lives. However, we can easily see from what Sheen says that was not case. His words could have been written today.

In the Beatitudes, Our Divine Lord takes those eight flimsy catch-words of the world -- "Security," "Revenge," "Laughter," "Popularity," "Getting Even," "Sex," "Armed Might," and "Comfort" -- and turns them upside down. To those who say, "You cannot be happy unless you are rich," He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." To those who say, "Don't let him get away with it," He says, "Blessed are the patient." To those who say, "Laugh and the world laughs with you," He says, "Blessed are those who mourn." To those who say: "If nature gave you sex instincts you ought to give them free expression, otherwise you will become frustrated," He says, "Blessed are the clean of heart." To those who say, "Seek to be popular and well known," He says, "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely because of Me." To those who say, "In time of peace prepare for war," He says, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

The cheap clichés around which movies are written and novels composed, He scorns. He proposes to burn what they worship; to conquer errant sex instincts instead of allowing them to make slaves of man; to tame economic conquests instead of making happiness consist in an abundance of things external to the soul. All false beatitudes which make happiness depend on self-expression, license, having a good time, or "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die," He scorns because they bring mental disorders, unhappiness, false hopes, fears, and anxieties.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

My Bellwether for the Culture of Death

bell·weth·er
Pronunciation: 'bel-'we-[th]&r, -"we-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, leading sheep of a flock, leader, from belle bell + wether; from the practice of belling the leader of a flock
: one that takes the lead or initiative : LEADER; also : an indicator of trends

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I was talking to my mother on the phone last night and realized just how far I'd come in not thinking like the rest of our society. I can't remember why this came up but she suddenly was laughing and saying, "Why won't the pope just quit? That stubborn old guy ... what is his problem?" I was shocked into silence.

I stammered, "But we love our Papa," thinking to myself, "can I sound any lamer or more sentimental or more Catholic?" Because I knew that wasn't going to get me anywhere with my mom. "He can't even talk." was her reply. I pulled myself together and pointed out that he was showing our society a wonderful example of how old age or sickness didn't mean you had to be shoved into a corner ... and then dropped the big bomb, "like Terri Schiavo down in Florida. Her husband's trying to kill her and no one's stopping him."

Her tone grew cold. "She's been in a coma for twelve years."
"She isn't in a coma, Mom."
"Well, she's in a vegetative state."
"No, she's not. I've seen videos of her responding to her mother and people around her."
"Well," my mother said dismissively, "I don't agree with you."
"But it's a video. You don't agree or disagree with it. It shows you what it shows you."

And then, because we love each other and didn't want to go past the point of no return, we changed the subject.

So, you probably can understand why, when my mother brought up how curious she was to see Million Dollar Baby, I just told her about how all the movie critics liked it too. There wasn't any point in bringing up the whole euthanasia issue ... we were already running on pure luck in that conversation.

My mother is a wonderful person, kind and good to anyone she meets, and would never knowingly harm anyone. She also is an atheist and, consequently, much of the time has no reason to question what modern culture holds to be "good." She truly believes that we are simply very intelligent animals and when we die ... poof ... we disappear. That's it.

I can't be upset with what she thinks. A few years ago I would have agreed with my mother on every point except the atheism. She gets her news from television and The New York Times. She is only saying what a lot of people think, a bellwether in essence for which way the wind is blowing on current issues. However, it makes two things perfectly clear to me.

The first is that we truly are those bits of yeast Jesus spoke of, the light that can change the world. If my mother doesn't hear a different viewpoint from me, where will she hear it? She may not agree but at least someone has mentioned a few facts from the opposite point of view. Without Christians who hold the line against the culture of death, there is no one to say anything or stop anyone.

The second realization was connected to Million Dollar Baby. I have watched with great interest as Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses and Jeffrey Overstreet at Looking Closer Journal have traded viewpoints about this movie. Nicolosi maintains that the overwhelmingly negative presentation of Christians and support for euthanasia make the movie dangerous; that it validates euthanasia as an option of love. Overstreet holds that the movie presents both sides in an issue that we must examine and that to suppress the other point of view is dangerous censorship.

I haven't seen the movie so couldn't really come down on one side or the other until that conversation with my mother. I realized that even if Million Dollar Baby was very fair presenting euthanasia pros and cons, Barbara Nicolosi was right. My mother has no reason to think that there is such a thing as a soul or believe in the sanctity of life itself as a gift from God. She would take that movie as affirmation of her viewpoint. She doesn't care about the cons of the argument because she thinks they are based on stupidity, not compassion or love. It would take a truly passionate and intelligent presentation of the opposite side to make her begin to rethink it. She has not had any reason to go through the process that I have of reexamining all my beliefs against what the Catholic Church teaches; an examination was often painful and forced me to abandon long-held "truths" for a much brighter light that called "black black and white white" as Fulton Sheen says in Life of Christ.

What this says about society as a whole, if my mother is truly the bellwether I believe her to be, is a very scary proposition. If a 70 year old grandmother holds these views and thinks them perfectly reasonable we are much closer to the sort of situation that exists in Holland today than I realized. I do not know what the answer is and, truth be told, there is undoubtedly not merely one answer at all. Again, we are back to Jesus' analogy of the yeast. Each of us holds a bit of the key, even if it is only a daughter forcing herself to talk about the tough stuff with her mother on the phone and both of them tolerating, in love, hearing what the other side thinks. It's a start anyway.

Once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe in nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything.

C.S. Lewis

Why Twelve Apostles?

The number twelve is symbolic. The Book of the Apocalypse speaks of the twelve foundations of the Church. There were twelve patriarchs in the Old Testament, and also twelve tribes in Israel; there were twelve spies who explored the promised land; there were twelve stones on the breast of the High Priest; when Judas failed, a twelfth Apostle had to be named. The Apostles are most often referred to in the Gospels as "the twelve," that title being attributed to them thirty-two times. In choosing these twelve, it was evident that Our Lord was preparing them for a work after His Ascension; that the Kingdom He came to found was not only invisible but visible; not only Divine but human. But they had so much to learn before they could be the twelve gates of the Kingdom of God. Their first lesson would be the Beatitudes.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

I will be following up this with several excerpts about the Beatitudes also as Sheen presents them in a way that I really never had thought of and y'all may like it also.

The Way I Feel Right Now

Last year I had a really wonderful Holy Week. Rose and I together wound up traveling a parallel spiritual journey that made Easter the most joyous ever. I told all this to a friend who loves Lent. She said that she couldn't believe I was someone who had to be practically forced into looking forward to Lent this year. The funny thing is that I dove into Lent but once the discipline of limiting blogging time set in, it has been a relatively smooth, unemotional ride. I did have an exceptional time during the last week of being allowed to see the "design on the embroidery" in many situations. What a blessing and one that never came without selfless service, which I am not usually involved in very much. (Ahem. We will talk about that some other time.) However, those incidents were not particularly connected to Lent.

In one way I have surprised myself. I've had the opportunity for adoration over the last two weekends, pretty much any time I'd like ... yet I haven't been moved to take advantage of it. And, let me tell you, adoration opportunities are very rare in our parish and I'm one of a relatively small group of people who have access to this opportunity over these weekends. Usually I'm on this like a chicken on a June bug. Still I didn't go. No particular reason; just didn't feel like it. At the same time I've been watching myself, observing this as if from a distance. I think that sometimes we are drawn to Him and other times, well I don't know, it just isn't how He is going to reach us, or at least me at this moment.

So I've been thinking about this some, the missed opportunities and my lack of reaction, just riding along in my head wondering what this Holy Week will be like. I'm planning on making time to watch The Passion of the Christ next weekend (if every other Christian in town hasn't rented it first, in which case I suppose I'll be forced to buy it). I'll go to Mass for Holy Thursday and Good Friday. I skip the vigil services on Holy Saturday. Not only are they packed and lengthy but I like to find the open tomb the way the women did, on Sunday morning. (Also, I keep a special place in my heart for the Vigil Saturday in 2000 when I came home to the Church.)

Waiting up for Hannah to come back on Saturday night I was typing in posts about the beatitudes that went perfectly with Holy Week (y'all will just have to keep coming back to see them, won't you?). Looking at these readings I wasn't amazed, just matter-of-fact in my acceptance that they mirrored Holy Week so perfectly and came up at just the right time to end on Good Friday. The fact that they were the perfect preparation for me didn't escape me either.

Then, Sunday morning, I realized that I'd better have some things to post for Easter itself. Kind of like a forgotten homework assignment I just remembered, this made me tired. Surely every other blog I knew would have something great for Easter. Right? But it doesn't hurt just to see if anything hits me right (which is the only way that anything winds up on this blog). I turned to my "go-to" devotional, In Conversation with God ... and I found where Jesus was waiting to touch my heart. He had the prep work done and was ready to make His point. As I slowly turned the pages for Holy Week, phrases leapt out at me, perfectly speaking to my heart, bringing tears to my eyes as I thought of what Jesus endured ... for me. That was when I knew that I don't have to wonder about what this Holy Week and Easter will be like. They will be perfect for me because God is waiting for me there ... in the right time, Holy Week itself.

Who could ever figure out the Holy Spirit? I am so thankful that I wasn't trying to "force" anything because, naturally, He has this Easter all planned for me. I just haven't gotten there yet. And what did He did to make this point to me? This blog. Kinda funny, huh? But then He works in ironic ways too, doesn't He?

There's a woman who is embroidering. Her son, seated on a low stool, sees her work, but in reverse. He sees the knots of the embroidery, the tangled threads. He says, "Mother, what are you doing? I can't make out what you are doing!" Then mother lowers the embroidery hoop and shows the good part of the work. Each color is in place that the various threads form a harmonious design. So, we see the reverse side of the embroidery because we are seated on the low stool.

Saint Pio

The Twelve: Simon

Simon the Zealot is one of the twelve Apostles about whom we know the least. His Aramaic name meaning "Zealot" suggests that he was a partisan to a sect which would use violence to overthrow the foreign yoke. This name had been given to him before his conversion. He belonged to a band of patriots who were so zealous for the overthrow of Roman rule that they revolted against Caesar. Perhaps the Lord chose him because of his wholehearted enthusiasm for a cause; but a Niagara of purification would be needed before he would understand the Kingdom in terms of a Cross instead of a sword. Imagine Simon the Zealot, an Apostle with Matthew the publican! One was an extreme nationalist, while the other was by profession virtually a traitor to his own people. And yet both were made one by Christ, and later on they would both be martyrs for His Kindgom. The twelfth Apostle was Judas, "the son of perdition," who will be treated later.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Twelve: Jude and James

Two of the Apostles were relatives of Our Lord, namely James and Jude. They are called "brethren" of Our Lord, but in Aramaic and Hebrew this word often means cousins or distant relatives ... These two Apostles, James the Less and Jude, were probably the sons of Cleophas, who was married to Our Lady's sister.

Jude had three names. Having the same name as Judas the traitor, he is always described negatively as "not the Iscariot." The night of the Last Supper, he questioned Our Lord about the Holy Spirit, or how He would be invisible and yet manifest Himself after His Resurrection. There had always been lurking in the minds of many of the Apostles a desire to see some great flashing Messianic glory that would open blind eyes and capture every intelligence.

Judas asked him -- the other Judas, not Iscariot -- Lord, what can have happened, that you mean to disclose yourself to us alone and not to the world? John 14:22

The answer of Our Lord to Jude was that when our responsive love melts into obedience, then God makes His dwelling within us. Late on, Jude, sometimes called Thaddeus, wrote an Epistle beginning with words which reflected the answer he received on Holy Thursday night.

From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those whom God has called, who live in the love of God the Father and in the safe keeping of Jesus Christ.
Mercy, peace, and love be yours in fullest measure. Jude 1:1-3

Another Apostle was James the Just, also called James the Less, to distinguish him from the son of Zebedee. We know he had a good mother for she was one of the women who stood at the foot of the Cross. Like his brother Jude he wrote an Epistle which was addressed to the twelve tribes of the dispersion, that is, to the Jewish Christians who were scattered throughout the Roman world. It began:

From James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Greetings to the Twelve Tribes dispersed throughout the world. James 1:1

James, who like all the other Apostles failed to understand the Cross when Our Lord foretold it, afterward came like the others to make the Cross the condition of glory.

My brothers, whenever you have to face trials of many kinds, count yourselves supremely happy ... Happy the man who remains steadfast under trial, for having passed that test he will receive for his prize the gift of life promised to those who love God. James 1:2, 12

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

A Layman's Litany of Humility

A litany is a well-known and much appreciated form of responsive petition, used in public liturgical services, and in private devotions, for common necessities of the Church, or in calamities — to implore God's aid or to appease His just wrath. (From Mary at Ever New.)

From feeling and acting like I have the answer, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting like my way is best, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting like I am right, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting like I should be the leader, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting like I'm better than someone else, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting like someone else is wrong, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting like I know more than others, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting overly sensitive, deliver me, Jesus.
From feeling and acting defensively, deliver me, Jesus.


From finding it difficult to deny myself for the good of others, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to pray for my 'enemies,' deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to leave my comfort zone, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to set aside my personal preferences, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to trust others, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to submit to others, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to defer to others, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to allow others to serve me, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to rejoice in the success of others, deliver me, Jesus.
From finding it difficult to be totally open and honest with others, deliver me, Jesus.


From the fear of being vulnerable to others, deliver me, Jesus.
From thinking less of those who are different from me, deliver me, Jesus.
From judging others, deliver me, Jesus.
From becoming envious of others, deliver me, Jesus.
From being critical of others, deliver me, Jesus.
From speaking to others in a degrading way, deliver me, Jesus.
From desiring to be the center of attention, deliver me, Jesus.
From the compulsion to make my opinion known, deliver me, Jesus.
From wanting to make others aware of how much I am suffering, deliver me, Jesus.
From wanting to make others aware of how much I've been persecuted, deliver me, Jesus.
From doing things so others will think I am holy, deliver me, Jesus.
From being afraid, ashamed or embarrassed to publicly acknowledge the Lord, deliver me, Jesus.
From neglecting to acknowledge my total dependence on the Lord, deliver me, Jesus.
From regarding myself as more important than anyone else, deliver me, Jesus.


That I would never make myself anything but the lowest priority for anyone, especially in my own household, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how displeasing even the least of my sins is to God, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I neglect God, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how little time I actually take to ask God for his help with the needs in my life, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I plunge into a project without imploring God's assistance, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of the magnitude of my weakness, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how stupid I've proven that I can be, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how selfish I can be, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I have been proven wrong, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I've done selfish or sinful things, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I forget to express gratitude, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I stop listening and form my own opinion, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I feel worthy or deserving, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I pursue my own will without considering what God's will might be, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I rely on my own knowledge without seeking the wisdom of God, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I blame others, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I have hurt others, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I fail to extend mercy, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily my behavior is dictated by what others will think of me, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how easily I lose my joy when things don't come to pass as I had hoped, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how difficult it is for me to ask others for help, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how difficult it is for me to ask forgiveness, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how difficult it is for me to accept correction, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how frequently I first see the faults, rather than the good in others, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of the effort I put into concealing my weaknesses from others, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always be aware of how often I impose my will upon others unnecessarily, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always remember to allow others to go before me, Jesus, grant me the grace.
That I could always remember to imitate you, Jesus, our perfect model of humility, Jesus, grant me the grace.

The Twelve: Thomas

Thomas was the pessimist of the Apostles, and probably his pessimism had something to do with his scepticism. When Our Lord tried to console His Apostles, on the night of the Last Supper by assuring them that He would prepare the way for them in heaven, Thomas responded by saying that he wanted to believe but could not. Later on, when the news was brought to Our Lord that Lazarus was dead:

Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. John 11:16

Thomas was called Didymus, which is merely the Greek translation of a Hebrew name and means "twin"; Thomas was a twin in another sense, for in him lived side-by-side the twins of unbelief and faith, each contending for mastery. There was faith, because he believed it was better to die with the Lord than to forsake Him; there was unbelief, for he could not help believing that death would be the end of whatever work the Lord had a mind to accomplish.

Chrysostom says of him that while he would hardly venture to go with Jesus as far as the neighboring town of Bethany, Thomas would travel without Him after Pentecost, to farthest India to implant the Faith; even to this day, the faithful in India still call themselves "St. Thomas Christians."

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Twelve: Matthew

Of Matthew or Levi, the publican, there is a record of his vocation and how he responded to it. The great and imperishable glory of Matthew is his Gospel. Matthew was a publican under the government of Herod, a vassal of Rome. A publican was one who sold out his own people and collected taxes for the invader, retaining for himself a fairly large percentage. Very understandably, because a publican was a kind of Quisling, he was held in contempt by his fellow men; yet he knew at the same time that he had the power and legal authority of the Roman government behind him. The particular place where we first meet Matthew is at the head of the lake, near Capharnaum where he was gathering in the taxes. His calling demanded that he should be a careful recorder of the accounts. His submission to the Savior was immediate. The Gospel relates:

As he passed on from there Jesus saw a man named Matthew at his seat in the custom-house, and said to him, Follow me; and Matthew rose and followed him.

Matthew 9:9

He who had been wealthy would now have nothing to look forward to but poverty and persecution; and yet, he accepted this condition at the first summons. "Come," says the Savior to a despised man, and he follows immediately. His response was all the more remarkable because he had been immersed in a trade which attracted mostly the unscrupulous and the unethical. It was bad enough that the tribute of homage from Israel should be collected by a Roman, but for it to be collected by a Jew was to make him one of the most despised of men. And yet, this Quisling who had forfeited all love of country, and who had completely suffocated the virtue of patriotism in his lust for gain, ended by becoming one of the most patriotic of his own people. The Gospel he wrote might be described as the gospel of patriotism. A hundred times in his Gospel, he goes back into the history of the past, quoting from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micheas, David, Daniel and all the prophets; after piling them one upon the other in a great cumulative argument, he says to his people in effect: "This is the glory of Israel, this is our hope, we have begotten the Son of the Living God; we have given to the world the Messiah." His country, which had yesterday meant nothing at all to him, became in his Gospel of the highest importance. He was declaring himself a son of Israel, ready to lavish on her all his praise. As men love God, they will also love their country.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Twelve: Bartholomew (Nathanael)

Philip brought Bartholomew, or Nathanael as he was also called, to Our Blessed Lord. As soon as He saw him, Our Divine Savior read his soul and described him as follows:

Here is an Israelite worthy of the name; there is nothing false in him. Nathanael asked him, How do you come to know me? Jesus replied, I saw you under the fig-tree before Philip spoke to you.

John 1:47, 48

Then Nathanael answered Him:

Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are king of Israel. Jesus answered, Is this the ground of your faith, that I told you I saw you under the fig-tree? You shall see greater things than that. Then he added, In truth, in very truth I tell you all, you shall see heaven wide open, and God's angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

John 1:49-51

When Our Lord told him that He had seen him under a fig tree, Bartholomew was willing immediately to make the affirmation that Christ was the Son of God. His first contact with Our Lord had already lighted the lamp of faith within him, but Our Lord quickly assured him that there would be greater experiences in store; in particular, the great vision which had come to Jacob would be realized in Him.

Our Lord said that Nathanael belonged to the true Israel. Israel was the name given to Jacob. He, however, was very shrewd, and full of guile. Nathanael is characterized as a true Israelite, or one without guile. A sudden transition from the plural to the singular happens when Our Lord says: "You will see heaven opening"; Jacob had seen the heavens opened and angels ascending and descending on the ladder, bringing the things of man to God and the things of God to men. Jesus was now telling Nathanael that he would see even greater things. The implication was that He Himself would henceforth be the Mediator between heaven and earth, God and man; in Him, all the traffic between time and eternity would meet as at a crossroad.

The prophecy of Our Lord to Bartholomew shows that the incarnation of the Son of God would be the basis of communion between man and God. Nathanael had called Him the "Son of God"; Our Lord called Himself the "Son of Man"; "Son of God" because He is eternally Divine; "Son of Man" because He is related humbly to all humanity. This title, used in close relationship with another title that had been given to Our Lord, namely, the "King of Israel," still carried with it a Messianic meaning; but it took it out of the limited context of one people and one race, into the sphere of universal humanity.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Twelve: Philip

The Apostle Philip came from Bethsaida and was a fellow townsman of Andrew and Peter. Philip was the curious enquirer; and his enquiry was crowned by the joy of discovery when he found Christ.

Philip went to find Nathanael and told him, We have met the man spoken of by Moses in the Law, and by the prophets: It is Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth. Nazareth! Nathanael exclaimed; can anything good come from Nazareth? Philip said, Come and see.

John 1, 45, 46

Philip declined all controversy with a man who was so prejudiced as to believe that a prophet could not come out of a despised village. Philip is not met again until the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes, and again he was enquiring:

Twenty pounds would not buy enough bread for every one of them to have a little. John 6:7

Philip made a last enquiry on the night of the Last Supper, when he asked Our Lord to show him the Father.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Twelve: James and John

Like Peter and Andrew, James and John were brothers and fishermen. They worked together for their father Zebedee. Their mother Salome was apparently not lacking in ambition; for it was she who, one day, thinking that the Kingdom that Our Blessed Lord had come to establish would be without a Cross, asked that her two sons be picked to sit at the left and right side of Our Lord in His Kingdom. To her credit, however, it must be added that we find her again on Calvary, at the foot of the Cross. Our Blessed Lord gave her sons a nickname -- Boanerges or "sons of thunder." This happened when the Samaritans refused to receive Our Blessed Lord because He had set His Face towards Jerusalem and His death. The two Apostles, discovering this, manifested their intolerance to Our Lord:

Lord, may we call down fire from heaven to burn them up? But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

Luke 9:54-56

The two "sons of thunder" did not fail to drink deeply of the chalice of suffering. John was later plunged in boiling oil, which he survived only through a miracle. James was the first of all of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom for Christ. John described himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and to him was accorded the guardianship of the mother of Our Lord after the Crucifixion. John was known to the High Priest probably because of his cultural refinement which justified is name, which in the original Hebrew means "favored of God." His Gospel revealed him truly as an eagle who soared to heaven to understand the mysteries of the word. No one better understood the heart of Christ; no one penetrated more deeply into the significance of His words. He too was the only one of the Apostles to be found at the foot of Christ; he is the one who tells us that "Jesus wept," and he gives the New Testament definition of God as "Love." James his brother, who is called "the Greater" belonged, together with Peter and John, to that "special committee" which witnessed the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead, and the agony of Gethsemane.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

The Twelve: Andrew

Andrew, the brother of Peter, is referred to eight times in the New Testament. After being called from his nets and his boats to be a "fisher of men" along with his brother Peter, Andrew is seen next on the occasion of the feeding of the five thousand, telling Our Lord that there was a boy present with five loaves and two fishes. Toward the end of the public ministry, Andrew is met with again when some Gentiles, probably Greeks, came to Philip asking to see Our Lord. Philip then consulted Andrew and they both came to the Lord. At the very first meeting of Andrew and Our Blessed Lord, Jesus asked him:

What are you looking for? John 1:38

Andrew had been a friend of John the Baptist. When he met Our Lord, to whom John the Baptist had pointed, he immediately went and told Peter that he had found the Messiah. Andrew is always spoken of as Simon Peter's brother. He was an "introducer" because he brought his brother Peter to Our Lord; he introduced the lad with the barley loaves and fishes to Our Lord; and finally with Philip, came to introduce the Greeks to Our Lord. When it is a question of dispensing some benefits of the Lord or bringing others to the Lord, Philip and Andrew are mentioned together. Andrew was rather silent, being overshadowed by his brother Peter, but apparently he was never jealous. There was room for envy when Peter, James, and John were selected on three occasions for intimacy with the Divine Master, but he accepted his humble place; sufficient it was to him to have found the Christ.

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen