Imago Trinitatis

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 Saint...

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...

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 wit...

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 – a...

“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 belief...

“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...

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 ...