Imago Trinitatis

As we approach the celebration of Christmas, the Church aids us in reflecting on the mystery of the Nativity, the coming of the Word Made Flesh in Jesus Christ.   Reflection on this historical event is not just remembering the past but making it present in our own lives right now.   A piece of advice I received from my spiritual director is to meditate on the characters in the nativity story, placing myself in the place of those who experienced Jesus’s coming firsthand.   One person I have reflected on over the past couple of years is Joseph.   Not much is really known about him; in fact, he never says a word in the Gospels!   What he does show, however, is that he is a man of action, justice, and wisdom, listening for God’s Word and acting on it.     Think about the confusion that would have reigned after Joseph learned that Mary was having a child.   In any other situation, Mary would have been stoned to death for having a child out of marriage.   Joseph must have felt confus

The title says it all; so often, I am afraid to be poor.   For instance, I am sometimes very concerned about how much money and other material possessions I have.   It’s not that I want to be rich, but I just want to have enough for the basic needs of life plus some things to make life comfortable and enjoyable. I also don’t want to be poor in my duties and achievements.   For schoolwork, I often feel like I fail if I don’t get the best grade, and if I don’t achieve specific goals, then there’s often great disappointment.   I also always want to have rich friendships full of love and kindness, but how often I fail to love or to receive love from others!   Yes, the above confessions are pretty blunt.   Yet, these are what I have been forced to face over and over again in my years of seminary formation.   It takes a lot of strength to be honest to myself, and while I’ve had significant growth here, I know I still have a long way to go. How scary it is, then, when Jesus says

As we begin Advent, I'd like to share one of my favorite songs, "Zion" by My Epic.  May this show us how to desire Christ with our whole hearts! LYRICS: as a bride, blushing bides on the bed for the touch of her love to arrive other passions call and loom but she will wait for her groom just the same I am restless for You as the vagrant, dreams of vacant lands to plow, and a hearth to call home but each distance only fails him so he'll keep drifting through just the same I am restless for You You loved me first and fully when nothing lovely existed all before then grew dim in the light of desire awakened and all else be cursed I choose rather this thirst no man, no land, no task for my hand ever soothes I stay restless for You all I am, was made for You and no other will do so I stay restless for You You loved me first and fully when nothing lovely existed and gifted grace til my heart could awaken, embrace, and return it all I see now every goodness, each beaut

Advent is nearly upon us; it is time to prepare the way of the Lord . . .   Yes, I did just start this post with a clip from Godspell, a musical/movie I’ve always enjoyed.   Though admittedly it may seem a cheesy by today’s standards, it still gets a strong point across, helping us to visualize how radical the Gospel call really is. Notice the disciples completely stopping whatever tasks at hand – working in stores, patrolling traffic, selling items on the street, auditioning for an acting role, practicing ballet – dropping everything when they hear the voice of John the Baptist singing out, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”   When they arrive at the fountain, there is so much joy!   They are now prepared to receive Jesus and follow Him. As we enter into Advent, we prepare again to receive Christ into our hearts, but the temptation is to be bored by this.   As Christians, we’ve done this again and again – haven’t we done it enough by now?   Don’t we already have Christ?   W

(I recently entered FOCUS's Blog Contest for SEEK, and while my post wasn't chosen as a finalist [I do highly recommend looking at the great posts that were chosen here ], I still think it's worth sharing.  I look forward to attending SEEK in Nashville in January!) From St. John Paul II Chapel at Mundelein Seminary “It is Jesus in fact 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 provokes 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 grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently

I was still praying to the Lord, my God, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, presenting my petition concerning the holy mountain of my God – I was still praying, when the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision before, came to me in flight at the time of the evening offering.   He instructed me in these words: “Daniel, I have now come to give you understanding.   When you began your petition, an answer was given which I have come to announce, because you are beloved ." -           Daniel 9:20-23 The above passage was part of the Office of Readings last Wednesday, and those four words, “because you are beloved,” hit my heart in a unique way.   That day, I left on our Rector’s Pilgrimage, in which my senior class travelled with our rector Fr. Samuel to St. Louis and Chicago.   Throughout this time, we visited seminaries, churches, landmarks, and Starbucks (nine times, to be precise), and we encountered the richness of the Church in its many forms.   What was

The holy longing, we’re not on our own, With all of our neighbors we shall receive a home, When at the end of time, the original sin Of being alone is conquered within.    -     From my song, “The Holy Longing” All Saints’ Day holds a special place in my heart, especially since three years ago, I received a very important moment of confirmation and consolation: the knowledge that the saints truly desire for us to be with them. It was my first semester at seminary, and though it was overall going well, there were some tough aspects of adjustment, especially that of finding friends, being accepted, and accepting myself.   Throughout high school, I had often struggled with loneliness and isolation, and on Halloween night, I wondered if much had changed.   I still couldn’t determine who my closest friends were at seminary, and I was fearful that the future would continue to hold this loneliness. This feeling continued into the next day, All Saints’ Day.   Yes, there were blessed

One of my previous posts ( http://thesearchforencounter.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-spiritual-trap-of-enough.html ) dealt with the realization I had of “enough” plaguing my spiritual vocabulary. I think this is something that’s common in all of our lives; whenever we face discouragement, fear, disappointment, or desolation, there’s often some form of “I didn’t (or someone else didn’t) do enough.” All of this is part of our fallen condition, so the first step in response would be to not beat ourselves up over these thoughts. What Satan desires most of all is for us to become lost in despair. Yet, thanks be to God, we can certainly find a renewed hope in Him. If “enough” is an attitude that is harmful for us, then what should we replace it with?   I mentioned previously that I was teaching the program Totus Tuus when I encountered the above realization, and, through some ordinary (and even some extraordinary) events, what I learned is that the opposite of giving “enough” is giving all

Much attention has been given in both Catholic and secular media over this past week to the ongoing Synod on the Family, and the viewpoints contained in these articles vary from one extreme to the other.   While it would be out of my range to try to comment on everything discussed in the synod, I want to humbly bring attention to possibly the most important yet often-ignored topic – how we truly live as disciples of Jesus as witnesses to the beauty of the family. Understandably, what is highlighted in the synod by the media are stances on hot-button issues: divorce, annulment, contraception, homosexuality, etc.   It’s quite a danger, however, to limit discussion to these topics and not make the necessary jump to living out the teachings of Christ.   It is one thing to know and promote the teachings of the Church; it is quite another to live his love out in our complex lives and wounded society.   This, in the mind of the bishops, is the “harder path” of being witnesses of love and

These past two summers, I worked with the program Totus Tuus within the Archdiocese of Omaha.   This gave me the opportunity to go to eleven different parishes leading week-long youth catechetical programs, and these experiences provided me with so much grace!   However, one particular lesson stands out as a foundation for everything I received: the realization of the “spiritual trap of ‘enough.’”   One night during my very first week of teaching, I was praying night prayer with my fellow teachers and was listening to repeated desolating thoughts in my mind:   “Am I teaching enough?   Am I being with the kids enough?   Am I getting to know my teammates enough?   Am I loving enough?”   In a sense, I was discouraged and wondering what more could I do, but then I realized the common bond between all of these statements: enough .   God showed me right there that this was a trap from the Enemy – from Satan’s voice and from my own false self – and I saw that this wasn’t what He wanted me

“To make the Church the home and the school of communion : that is the great challenge facing us . . . if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings.”  - St. Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43 Whenever we Catholics think of “communion” in the religious sense, it is automatic to consider first the sacrament of the Eucharist, which we often call Communion (e.g. receiving First Communion). However, once we start to unpack what this word means, we can discover much more depth in the call that St. John Paul II makes above.   The word communion itself is fairly simple in construction. “Union” implies when two or more individuals are joined together into one, and “con” is a prefix for “with.” Communion = with union. If I am in communion with someone, then I become “one” in some sense with that person. All of those who work at the same place, who are attending the same concert, who have the same political beliefs, etc.,

“The presentation of religion had been principally from God to man, but now it will be from man to God. It will not start with the order in the universe alluding to the existence of a Creator of the cosmos; it will start with the disorder inside of man himself. It will take all the findings of our psychological age and use them as a springboard for the presentation of Divine Truths. . . .   “I often wish that I were younger so that I might use this third approach which I have mentioned, namely, starting with the unhappiness inside of the human heart. The audience is always there, the opportunities are ever present. There is need to take hold of tortured souls like Peter, agnostics like Thomas and mystics like John and lead them to tears, to their knees or to resting on His Sacred Heart.” - Fulton J. Sheen, Treasure In Clay, Chapter 6 When I read this last night, it seemed like Archbishop Sheen, writing in 1979, was making a prophecy of the New Evangelization. Sheen, whose c

St. Therese, whose feast we celebrate today, is unarguably one of the most popular and influential saints in the Catholic Church today.   Her book Story of a Soul has sold millions of copies; many books, movies, and talks have been based on her life; and miracles attributed to her intercession happen to this day. Yet, it’s almost unbelievable that her life could have produced this sanctity.   She grew up in a common family, and her mother died when Therese was four.   This trial influenced her childhood tremendously, and many would have been put off by her abundant crying, weak ego, and scrupulosity.   When she was fifteen, she incessantly asked to enter the Carmel convent, and though she was told she couldn’t enter until she was eighteen, she went all the way to the Pope to beg for her entrance!   Once she did enter, she struggled with many tasks she was asked to do, and nothing really set her apart from the other sisters.   She died, unknown to the world, at the age of 24, and

Today's first reading reminded me of an image I received in prayer last year.  It struck me so profoundly that I decided to draw it, and it remains visible in my room as a reminder for how close Jesus longs to be to our hearts.  Also, happy feast day of St. Padre Pio, who bore the wounds of Christ as a reminder of his incredible love!  Like a stream is the king’s heart in the hand of the LORD; wherever it pleases him, he directs it. (Proverbs 21:1) "'Channeled water' . . . is water that fertilizes arid land.  It takes great skill to direct water, whether it be water to fertilize fields or cosmic floods harnessed at creation, for water is powerful and seems to have a mind of its own.  It also requires great skill to direct the heart of a king, for it is inscrutable and beyond ordinary human control." (NABRE Bible commentary) Father, you know how my own heart has a mind of its own.  Though it is meant only for You, it roams toward other lovers and is bro

En-coun-ter (verb)      -       To have or experience (problems, difficulties, etc.)      -       To meet (someone) without expecting or intending to      (Merriam-Webster online dictionary) Think about how many different people and things we encounter in life: friends, strangers, teachers, new ideas, stores, websites, foods, drinks, weather, sports, surprises, tragedies, boredom, excitement, etc., etc.   Essentially, just as life can be described as a search, it can also be described as encounter .   We experience so many different things, often without expecting to.   No matter how well we can plan our day, there are always new occurrences that we can’t even begin to anticipate.   However, do we think about the possibility of encountering God?   It’s simple to believe that God exists and not too difficult to devote some time to Him on a regular basis (e.g. attending Church on weekends), but often it’s easy to think of God as “somewhere out there” and not fully prese

“All my life, I have been searching for you.”      - Army of Me, “Roadmaps” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quHidvMZYmA “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”      - Jesus, Matthew 7:7 Life is a journey, a search, an endless discovery of what is truly real.   Whether we like it or not, we are constantly being thrust into new situations, undiscovered concepts, and unimagined horizons.   The question then becomes: what are we to do in the face of all of this? The temptation in this world is to forget about the search, to live day-to-day for goals we set up on our own.   Sometimes we need a rude awakening to tear away the curtains and discover our longing for something deeper.   In my life, I have faced this often: What is the truth that I am supposed to be living for?   What is the love that I earnestly desire?   Ultimately, what we seek is the encounter with something or someone beyond ourselves, and it see