Sentiments and Cigars 1: "The trees are strong, my lord. Their roots run deep."

Friends, a couple of weeks ago the men of Old College had our annual Spring Retreat. It was a great weekend away from the business of student life at Notre Dame. It was a great weekend of prayer, reflection and community.

On the first night of the retreat, after our conferences were over and the OC men one-by-one went to catch some Z's before each of their time-slots for nocturnal Adoration, I found myself alone on the porch at our retreat house in LaPorte, IN (a small town, about a half-hour outside of South Bend. It kind of reminded me of Coopersville, MI!). I was smoking on a fine cigar ('incensing the temple of the Holy Spirit', if you will) and listening to the wind howl. It was a fierce, biting wind that blew through LaPorte that night. As I sat, I began reflecting on the spiritual life of the Christian. I jotted down a quick, short journal entry that I would like to share with you:

The spiritual life is like a tree. The one that has the deepest roots will withstand any wind, no matter how strong, and whatever elements the world will throw at it. Those whose roots are shallow and whose frame is week will be swept away or blown over. Though the branches may sway, at its core the tree with the deep roots is strong and sturdy. Sometimes, it happens that entire forests are uprooted and destroyed by man. But where those trees once stood, new ones will grow, because there will always be someone to plant them. This is the truth of the Church. Those who root themselves in Christ and the tradition of the Church, those who truly anchor their faith and their lives in the hope of Christ and the cross will never be destroyed by the winds and weather of the world and of the devil. But those whose roots are shallow and whose faith superficial will find it hard to resist the onslaught of the Evil One. Sadly, there are many who abandon the faith and who are overcome by the trials of the world. But those where these 'trees' once stood, new ones will grow. For the Lord, the planter, will always be there to sow new seeds.

Therefore, children of God, root yourselves in the tradition of the Church. Have Hope in the Cross of Christ and in His Resurrection. Do not be like the trees that cannot withstand the violent winds, but be as the strong, sturdy, rooted trees that, though their branches may sway in the onslaught, their core remains unmoved. Draw your nourishment from the richness of the Sacraments, just as the roots draw theirs from the soil.

Stand strong, no matter what evil surrounds you!

Don't Give up on Notre Dame

We all know what has been happening at the University of Notre Dame ever since the Land O'Lakes Conference in 1967.  On the surface Notre Dame has been all but completely secularized, welcoming such events as the Vagina Monologues and the President Obama commencement speech and the awarding of an honorary doctorate degree back in 2008. These and other warning signs from Notre Dame's leadership point to a future where Our Lady's university is no longer the flagship of all Catholic universities.  In fact, many believe that it already remains Catholic in name only, and should therefore be stripped of even that.

While these accusations and fears are fairly accurate, it is important to remember that the worst thing we can do is abandon Notre Dame.

As a seminarian and a student at the University of Notre Dame, my brothers and I have been scorned, scolded and shunned because of our association with the University.  This comes from wonderful Catholics, both priests and laity who have given up hope on the University of Our Lady.  They have come from men and women I truly look up to.  I cannot tell you how many people have asked me why I would endanger my faith and waste my time and God-given talents at such a place.  I cannot tell you how many (and I would like to emphasize that these are people that I still respect and love dearly) good, solid Catholics have told me about how they now refuse to associate with anything Notre Dame; how they will no longer donate to the school or to the Congregation of Holy Cross (the religious community who founded the school); how they feel betrayed.

I can empathize with these sentiments. For I, too, have felt betrayed by some of the actions of the Notre Dame community.  I will not, however, buy into the idea that abandonment is the solution to the problem.

Yes, Notre Dame is at a critical point in its history.  Yes, its future as a Catholic institution may be in jeopardy as it seems to alienate itself from the Church.  But I also encourage those who condemn Notre Dame without being a member of the community to not completely underestimate the quiet spirituality that exists on campus. I have seen firsthand the vibrancy of spiritual life that exists, and this gives me great hope in the school.  Those outside of Notre Dame cannot see that there are many faithful, holy priests, professors and students who are not only living their faith unabashedly, but are willing to face public persecution from both sides for doing so.  My spiritual life has only benefited from being a part of this community.

So why does it seem as though we are losing Notre Dame? It's because those who wish to keep Notre Dame under the umbrella of the Church are unwilling to fight to do so.  Those who stand by crying and complaining as Notre Dame drifts away are the very ones that are allowing (maybe even pushing) it into the abyss of secularization.

How can Notre Dame be saved? The only answer is to increase, not decrease, one's involvement and one's prayers. The answer is to 'de-villainize' those of us who are not content with allowing the university of our Blessed Mother to be known as a "formerly" Catholic institution.  It's time to get off the sidelines, put on the gloves and step into the ring, or at the very least stop standing in the way of those that choose to do so.

Do pro-choicers really have a case againt Casey Anthony?

Thank you to everyone who polled in yesterday on the abortion question. It was interesting and refreshing to see that the consensus seemed to support a birth and adoption; as long as the child was given the chance to live, despite the conditions. 

This is obviously an extreme situation, but one that is often cited by a portion of the pro-choice crowd who believe that abortion must be a viable option due to scenarios such as this.  President Obama himself has strongly supported abortion in cases of rape. 

But the situation I proposed below surprisingly did not derive directly from the abortion debate. The “hypothetical” woman in question is the one and only Casey Anthony.  If you’ve been following her story on the news (it was hard not to), you’ll see parallels between the situation I posted and her own.  She was a single mother who had lost her job at Universal Studios several years prior to the 2008 incidents.  She claimed to have been raped by her father and had fought advances from her brother. Her boyfriend did not want Caylee around, and Caylee obviously intruded on her mother’s desired lifestyle.  Although Anthony was found innocent of the murder of Caylee Anthony (her daughter) in 2008, many Americans feel are outraged at the verdict as Anthony continues to undergo public persecution from all corners of the nation.

But do the pro-choice advocates that cite the hypothetical scenario of a woman who is raped really have any grounds to criticize Anthony?  Granted, the debate is much more complicated and includes the question of whether a baby in the womb is considered a human being, but the fundamental question remains the same: Did, or did Anthony not have the right to terminate her daughter’s life? In an abortion case, many would argue that she does, based on the context. But some of those very same people are quick to point the finger of condemnation at a woman who may have carried out exactly what they were supporting.  So what is the difference between the Casey Anthony situation and the abortion question? Just three years.  If one is to maintain that a woman facing the challenges that I proposed in my previous blog post is justified in terminating the life of an unwanted baby, then on what grounds can one condemn a woman facing those very same challenges to terminate the life of her unwanted toddler?   When advocating for the death of another human being, one finds himself on a slippery slope as he loses the foundations needed to defend his own life.

Just something to think about in the midst of the multitude of controversies surrounding the abortion debate. 

I’ll leave you with a great video in defense of life that my friend passed on to me. I encourage you to check it out and get involved in the discussion:

Right to Life or Right to Choose? What's YOUR opinion?

There is a hypothetical scenario often cited by pro-choice advocates.  It is obviously a very difficult moral decision, and difficult to answer.  Here's the situation, please poll your response to the right of this post:

A young woman has no job, and is just trying to get by.  She has been harassed and raped by her father.  Eventually she discovers she's pregnant. Whether it was by her father or her boyfriend, she doesn't know.  Nevertheless, her boyfriend is trying to convince her to get rid of the child, as it will interfere with her youthful lifestyle. She didn't intend to get pregnant for awhile. Jobless and without trustworthy support from her parents, the woman sees this is obviously not a good family situation for a child to be raised in, especially with the father so near and with her current 'party' lifestyle.

In this situation, should this woman have a right to an abortion?

A Love Song for My Girlfriend

Yes, I have a girlfriend.  Confused? Most people are.  You should see the looks I get when I first mention it.

Priceless.

The look is usually followed by, “But…you’re a seminarian... You can’t have a girlfriend, can you?”  Well, not in the same way as you would typically think of when you think about boyfriends and girlfriends. But I can assure you that my girlfriend is just as real, and just as beautiful (I would argue even more beautiful) as the next guy's significant other. 

My girlfriend is the Catholic Church.  Before you roll your eyes and give up on this blog post, let me explain. 

Two things are occurring during the years that a young man is in the seminary: formation and discernment.  The man is being trained and formed for the Catholic priesthood by living the vows a priest would live, without formally taking the vows.  So I’m living (to a lesser degree) poverty, chastity and obedience. While in the seminary I am discerning whether or not I’m called to ordination, the moment when a priest is united to the Church for life, while simultaneously preparing to live the life. 

Still not seeing the connection? I have a friend who has been dating this girl for a couple of years now.  Because he spends most of his money on her, he doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of cash, or at least he has to monitor his spending to account for what he spends on his girlfriend (poverty); he only has eyes for her, meaning that he if he were to step out on her and fool around with another girl, he’d be in trouble (chastity), and let’s be honest, we all know who really has control in the relationship (obedience).  What my friend is living right now is a small-scale version of what he will be living if he and this girl ever get married: they will live by a common purse or paycheck, they will be called to be completely faithful to each other, and they will need to be reasonably obedient to each other. Poverty, chastity, obedience. My friend is discerning whether or not he is called to marry this girl while simultaneously learning how to live as though he were going to. 

Now, some people have asked me, “What about the small things in a relationship, the things that really make it fun? i.e. the late night phone calls, the hand-holding, the long and intimate walks… Obviously you can’t literally hold the hand of the Church, right?”

You might have heard of a prayer that all religious (priests, sisters, brothers, seminarians) pray every day called the Liturgy of the Hours (or Divine Office).  This prayer is referred to as “the official prayer of the Church” and is compiled of psalms and other prayers.  In my seminary we pray this in common every morning and night, and are even encouraged to take a break from what we are doing to pray the short prayers on our own at different times of the day.  When I pick up the breviary (the book containing the prayers), it’s almost like I'm picking up the phone to call my girlfriend.  I’m sure many of you have been in one of those relationships where it almost becomes just a habit to call your boyfriend/girlfriend at a certain time each day or night. It’s the same way with us, only instead of just talking to our girlfriend, we also sing to her ;). 

There are many other comparisons I could draw on, but the bottom line is this: I am falling in love with the Church.  While I know we are not yet married, and there’s always the chance that God calls me to a different path, I still pray that someday He calls us to be. 

Until then, I’ll continue to stumble along as boyfriends do, making my mistakes as I do my best to put my whole heart into this relationship. 

So this one's for my boo!

Dear Westboro Baptist Church: 'Now STOP. Hatin' is bad.'

Recently Westboro Baptist Church, the nationally renowned and vocal congregation of Topeka, Kansas, has announced that it plans to picket the funeral services being held for Betty Ford this week in Grand Rapids (my hometown). Westboro’s funeral and sidewalk demonstrations have put them in the public eye as they display “large, colorful signs containing Bible words and sentiments.”

Westboro’s website, bluntly named GodHatesFags.com, describes the ‘church’ as “adhering to the teachings of the Bible, preaching against all form of sin (e.g. fornication, adultery [including divorce and remarriage], sodomy) and insist that the sovereignty of God and the doctrines of grace be taught and expounded publicly to all men.” At first glance, this looks like a solid and noble mission. It even makes WBC look almost, dare I say, Christian.

Read on.

“WBC engages in daily peaceful sidewalk demonstrations opposing the homosexual lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth. We display large, colorful signs containing Bible words and sentiments, including: GOD HATES FAGS, FAGS HATE GOD, AIDS CURES FAGS, THANK GOD FOR AIDS, FAGS BURN IN HELL… FAGS DOOM NATIONS, THANK GOD FOR DEAD SOLDIERS, FAG TROOPS, GOD BLEW UP THE TROOPS, etc.”

This message is not only ignorant, it is unabashedly anti-Christian. It’s true that we are called to “adhere to the teachings of the Bible” and even to denounce all forms of sin. But Christ’s mission was not only to take away the sin of the world, but to teach us how to spread His Word. The language WBC uses to evangelize is dangerous and inexcusable for disciples of Jesus Christ.

WBC claims to have read the entire Bible and to adhere to its teachings. Any Bible-reader would know, however, that the way in which WBC attempts to ‘engage’ (if you can call it that) the world is completely contradictory to the way Christ teaches us in scripture to engage the world. The Bible gives us beautiful accounts of Christ’s interactions with sinners. Take, for example, Christ’s meeting with the adulteress in the Gospel of John:

“Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. 2 So what do you say?"
They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. 3
4 But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more." (John 8:4-12)

I can only imagine the fathers of our Church, Christ’s original twelve Apostles standing behind him holding colorful signs that read, “GOD HATES ADULTERESSES. ADULTERESSES BURN IN HELL.”

If this is the way the “Old School/Primitive Church” (as WBC calls it on their website) evangelized, I want nothing to do with it. Christ said it best Himself, “For God did not send Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).”

It’s true that we are called to fight against the sin that exists in the world. Yes, sin is evil. War, sodomy, adultery; all are contrary to Christian teaching. Of course we must “adhere to the teachings of the Bible and preach against all forms of sin.” But what's fundamental to this mission of preaching the Gospel is the way that it is carried out. The Good News must always be preached and lived with love and humility. This fact is nonnegotiable. God does not gleam some sort of content satisfaction when He sees soldiers dying and families mourning. In fact, scripture even tell us that "God did not create death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living (Wisdom 1:13)."


God hates sinfulness, but God does not hate people. Nowhere in scripture does it claim ‘God hates fags’ or that the God of love ‘blows up troops.’ The Bible teaches us that the only way to rid the world of sin is out of love and through love, the same way it was done 2,000 years ago by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His followers. We are not called to toss the sinner to the side, for we are all sinners in some way. Rather, the Christian is called to pick the sinner up, dust him off and encourage him to 'Go and sin no more.'

If our brothers and sisters at Westboro Baptist Church truly desire to proclaim Christ’s message and rid the world of sin, I encourage them to take a small break from agonizing mourning families at funerals and to actually give the Bible a proper read.

The Catholic Reformation?

Recently I wrote an article titled “The True Beauty of Liturgy,” which was picked up and published by Crisis Magazine.  My article is a humble reflection on the importance of liturgy and the current liturgical reforms being called for by the Holy See. 

These reforms include a wider allowance for the celebration of the Tridentine (or Latin) Mass, and other traditional liturgical practices, such as celebrating the Eucharist ad orientem, receiving Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue, a wider use of Gregorian chant and more room for sacred silence.  But my article deals mostly with the reform which will be coming to English-speaking countries this upcoming Advent: the new Mass translation (Roman Missal, Third Edition).

The article doesn’t deal with so much with the correctness of such reforms, but rather with the beauty and necessity of liturgy as a whole, and the role liturgy plays in the ministerial outreach of the Church:

That is why Benedict’s reforms of the Roman Catholic liturgy could have an impact that reaches far beyond the Catholic Church. The Church is described in Light of the World as “giving expression to God’s message, which raises man to his highest dignity, goodness, and beauty.” This is and always has been the mission of the Church — to transform and to elevate man by creating a culture that fosters human flourishing. With his attention to liturgy, Benedict reminds us of the truth of our existence: that we are pilgrims on this earth, and we were created to live for more than the temporal.
The true beauty of liturgy is that it raises our eyes and our hearts toward Heaven, reminding us of the eschaton, the day when we pass from the temporal into the eternal. The Church exists to transform the world, to prepare it for the coming of Christ’s kingdom. Because liturgy is the primary place where this transformation occurs, Benedict is right to put it at the top of his agenda. If what we pray is what we believe, then the way we pray will determine the way we will live.

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