• With wisdom, the Spirit gives us the power to see God acting in our everyday lives.
• Understanding gives us the ability to grasp with greater clarity the riches of the Faith.
• Counsel points us down the path of holiness and helps us discern the will of God for us.
• The gift of fortitude gives us the strength we need to follow the path God leads us down.
• Knowledge is the gift that helps us judge which created things lead us toward God, and which created things lead us away from God.
• Through piety we are given the desire to love God as true children.
• And the fear of the Lord compels us to flee sin and temptation because we do not want to sadden God our Father.

I hope to be back to posting regularly soon. And — yes — I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been doing. But right now I’m in the process of condensing my categories into something more manageable and of putting tags on each of my posts. 

And the theme is going to change. Something a lot different. It’ll be much simpler, not nearly as flashy, and more text focused.

The first two are connected. As I noted at the beginning of the year, I’ve made 2009 the Year I Get Serious About Writing. What I didn’t say back then was that after thinking it over a bit, I decided to make it the Year I Get Serious About Writing Fiction. Now, if you’ve read this blog back when I was posting regularly, you’ll recall that I said something about not writing fiction, and not even reading fiction, and something about believing this was God’s will for me. Thus, the question: What made me change my mind?

A lot of small things, really: several conversations, a few articles I read, thinking about my life in both a general and a specific way. What I finally concluded was that I was using the “will of God” as a pretext for giving up writing fiction. I was tired of failing; I was afraid of failing. But if God didn’t want me to write fiction, then I no longer had to fear it. Sneaky of me, eh?

Once I realized this, I thought about it, prayed about it, talked to my wife about it, and decided that I needed to give fiction one last shot in 2009. I set up some pretty wild goals — (I’m keeping them to myself right now, sorry) — and if I meet all of them by the end of the year, I’d continue in 2010. Conversely, if I didn’t meet these goals, I’d give fiction up . . . putting it behind my back, never to return to it again.

That’s the first reason why I haven’t been around here much. Here’s the second.

I was asked to take over the RCIA class at my parish. Without a doubt, this is a dream come true, a prayer answered. But it also means that much of the energy I used to write this blog and make the “Jesus and the Catholic Church Podcast” is now being used to teach RCIA — as well as Confirmation and a monthly Baptism class.

One thing I’ve learned during my short life is that I have energy to be a rather productive farmhand, so long as I’m not plowing in the same field. To change the metaphor: burn out happens not because there is too much on my plate, but because there is too much of the same stuff of my plate. I get tired of the monotony. So even if I wasn’t writing a novel, given the fact that I’m teaching RCIA, Confirmation, and a Baptism class, I wouldn’t be writing this blog or making the Jesus and the Catholic Church Podcast. Let’s remember, folks, that this isn’t a typical blog. That is, this blog was dedicated to teaching; I didn’t engage in news, current events, or entertainment. Since all my teaching energy is being used up elsewhere (in the aforementioned ways, as well as homeschooling my kids), I have nothing left to give here. 

Which leads me to another question: What am I going to do with this blog?

For now, nothing. But I do have some plans that I’m willing to share with you.

1. In terms of actual writing, don’t expect anything else from this blog. I might update from time to time, but I doubt I’ll ever post on a regular basis. I’m deeply sorry about that, but it is what it is.

2. This also means that, beginning today, comments are off.

3. If you follow the Jesus and the Catholic Church Podcast, that is no more, either. That takes even more time than this blog . . . and time has always been an issue. 

4. Eventually — probably this summer, when I’m not teaching at my parish and therefore have more teaching energy — I plan to produce a series of catechetical podcasts for my RCIA class. This podcast will be about 30 episodes, and it will cover the basics of the faith: doctrine, sacraments, morality, and prayer.

5. When these podcasts are ready to be published, I plan to completely overhaul this site. The URL of this place is, if you don’t know, “catholic-teaching.org.” Since this new podcast will be focused on basic Catholic teaching, I plan to use this URL rather than another. And when this finally happens (again, we’re talking about the summer . . . maybe even late summer, August or September), all the written content of this blog will go away. It will be for the podcast only.

Fasting is as important as ever and it is a “therapy” to heal obstacles to conforming to God’s will, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this is a message for Lent, dated Dec. 11 and relea sed today. Ash Wednesday this year is Feb. 25.

The Holy Father recalled that the liturgy proposes three specific practices during Lent: prayer, almsgiving and fasting. And he said that his message this year would focus on the history and importance of fasting.

The Pontiff noted how fasting was prominent in both the Old and New Testaments: “Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb, Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared himself for the mission that lay before him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.”

Benedict XVI went on to acknowledge that the meaning of fasting — “depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance” — might not be immediately clear.

But he explained that “sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. […] “

“Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God.”

Jesus’ teaching

A deeper meaning for fasting is revealed by Christ, the Pope explained.

“True fasting […] is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who ’sees in secret, and will reward you,’” the papal message notes. “[Christ] himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the 40 days spent in the desert that ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ The true fast is thus directed to eating the ‘true food,’ which is to do the Father’s will. [T]he believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in his goodness and mercy.”

The first Christian communities and the fathers of the Church also point to the importance of fasting, the Holy Father continued.

“Moreover,” he said, “fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age.”

A rediscovery

Nevertheless, the Pontiff observed, “fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. Fasting certainly brings benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a ‘therapy’ to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God.”

Recalling a 1966 document written by Pope Paul VI, “Pænitemini,” Benedict XVI said that this Lent could be a “propitious time to present again the norms contained in the apostolic constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor.”

Finally, in addition to the personal benefits of fasting, the Holy Father said, the penance also helps to foster solidarity.

“Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother,” he said. “By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger.”

“From what I have said thus far,” the Bishop of Rome affirmed, “it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves.”

— — —

On the Net:

Full text of Lenten message: www.zenit.org/article-24990?l=english

Paul VI’s “Pænitemini”: www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini_en.html

What’s profoundly important here is that fasting does not have a physical end, but, rather, a spiritual end: the avoidance of sin, conformity to God’s will, mortification of our ego, charity toward God and neighbor.

How is this possible?

Fasting is like lifting weights. It’s easy to lift five pounds, but fifty pounds is more difficult. So you work out until fifty pounds is easy, then you set your sights on 100 pounds.

In the spiritual life, it’s easy to be patient when things are going your way. It’s more difficult when they’re not. So you fast, and then you find that being patient while being hungry is difficult. But you eventually learn how to look past yourself toward the other, despite your hunger. Over time, you’ll have grown in the virtue of patience.

Thus, fasting should be seen as a training ground for virtue and doing good.

[Christ] chooses us where we are, and leaves us — the majority of Christians, lay people — just where we were: in our family, in our own job, in the cultural or sports association that we belong to . . . so that in the very environment in which we are found we should love him and make him known through family ties, through relationships at work and among friends. From the moment that we decide to make Christ the center of our lives, everything we do is affected by that decision. We must ask ourselves whether we are consistent with what it means to turn our work into a vehicle for growing in friendship with Jesus Christ, through developing our human and supernatural virtues in it.

Ideas like these are what attract me to Opus Dei spirituality. Christ doesn’t call us to live apart from others, just to live differently. And what does that mean? To be a better friend, a harder worker, a more loving spouse, and more self-giving parent. 

But it’s not as serious as all that. Being a good friend means taking time to spend with one’s friends — even if that means watching a B-movie. Working harder doesn’t mean doing more, but, rather, doing what needs to be done with more focus. Becoming a more loving spouse may mean taking some extra minutes to clean the bathroom sink, and letting your kids picking the Friday-night movie may be a way of being a little more self-giving. Little things go a long way to holiness primarily because they’re little: They don’t attract the eyes of others, only the eyes of God. 

From the First Things website…

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died. Read more …

…We should be confident that no good deed we ever do is wasted. It is true we may fail in our immediate object; we may not always gain the good effect we intended. We may work for a conversion, and our friend may die without any sign of having once ever given the matter a thought. We may give alms and find we have only been encouraging a wastrel. We may labor to exhaustion in teaching a child, and the child may turn out nothing but a shame to his instructors.

Still, none of these covers the whole matter. A good deed done is like a stone that is dropped in deep water; the circles of waves continue to move out from that center, on and on, long after the stone has settled at the bottom.

1. Posting here is going to be sparse for a while. There are three reasons for this. One — I don’t have much to say about much of anything right now. Two — I’ve decided to make 2009 the Year I Become Serious About Writing. And three — I’m still thinking about the direction I want to take this blog.

2. The Jesus and the Catholic Church Podcast will enter an extended hiatus. What it comes down to is time. I estimate it takes about 7 hours of work to make a 30-minute podcast. That is far, far, far more time than I ever expected. Also, I don’t particularly like podcasting — which makes it all the more difficult. But I’m not sure I want to give it up just yet. I have some ideas for how to keep it going but I’m no ready to say anything just yet.

• Praying the Rosary with Small Children
• Reason vs. Emotion in the Spiritual Life
• What to do about Spiritual Sloth?
• Rule of Life
• Friday, a Day of Penance
• Tuesdays with St. Thomas: Divine Providence (especially for the comments)
• What is the Liturgy of the Hours? (the beginning of a series of posts on the Divine Office)
• How to Practice Poverty Today
• God and Happiness: A Reflection
• The Standard of Satan: Pride (which isn’t a post, but an excerpt from Fr. John Hardon; it did bring over 10,000 visitors, however!)
• Overwhelmed by Catholic Literature? This Post is for You!