College Commencement Day is a time for great expectations. Graduates have completed their course work and are prepared to go into the world and make their unique contributions. But it is also a day that is clouded by the fact that each graduate will go his or her own separate way, dissolving the bond of friendship that was formed in college. New friends will be made. Past friends will not be entirely forgotten, but things will be very different.

I had not seen my best friend from college for several years after graduation. He went to Wisconsin and earned an advanced degree in chemistry. I went to New York and studied philosophy. I was pleased when I discovered that he, now married, had relocated just a few miles from where I lived. We got in touch. My friend and his wife happily arranged a reunion dinner for my wife and me.

During our conversation, my friend talked about two acquaintances of his who were living together. Concerning their out-of-marriage relationship, my amiable dinner host said, “Who am I to judge?” He delivered these words with the self-assurance that he was being generous and accepting. His tone implied that I should think the same way, which, of course, meant not to think at all, but simply to accept. In other words, he thought of himself as being “liberal.” I said nothing. It was neither the time nor place for an extended disputation. Years later, I was sadly disappointed to hear this same phrase on a moral issue uttered by no less than Pope Francis.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that the best thing one can do for a friend is to lead him to the truth. He did not say that this is easy to accomplish. But he did underscore the fact that the meaning of friendship is to be united in truth. Tact, of course, is the ability to make a point without losing a friend.

The notion that, with regard to moral issues, we should accept but not think is, in my view, unthinkable. When no one thinks, no one feels uncomfortable. One of the great heresies in the modern world is the belief that acceptance is love. Acceptance is benign. No one is offended. But love is dangerous. It could upset people, even enrage them. Yet we are all commanded to love. Why are there suicide hotlines? Why is there near universal opposition to drug abuse? Why is domestic violence condemned? The simple answer is that suicide, drug abuse, and domestic violence are morally wrong. They are severely injurious to human beings. No one opposes judging in these instances. But when it comes to sexual indiscretions, the “Who am I to judge” flag is hoisted.

My dear friend felt that living together would be wrong for Catholics, but not necessarily wrong for non-Catholics. This is where I thought our disagreement was most serious. Everyone should be discouraged from sinning, not just Catholics. The natural law applies to all human beings. It is not because one is Catholic that he is obliged to refrain from sinning. It is because he is a human being. Catholic, as the word indicates, means universal. “Go forth and teach all nation” implies that anyone can profit from Catholic teaching.

When it comes to judging, we are all forbidden to judge the person. But we are encouraged to judge the actions. Therefore, the Catholic Church is a great teacher and always has been. Augustine and Aquinas, Maritain and Gilson, were persons of exceptional kindness. But they were also exceptionally capable of judging whether certain actions are morally right or wrong.

The fact that surgery usually requires pain and discomfort does not mean that doctors should never practice the art for which they were trained. Physical healing is usually accompanied by pain. That is simply an integral and unavoidable part of medicine. And so it is that moral healing is often accompanied by pain. Bruising the ego, challenging one’s life style, being shamed and embarrassed are also forms of pain, but pains that are often required for conversion.

Catholicism is not insular. It is for everyone, despite the fact that most people are not Catholic. Catholicism is essentially apostolic because its moral foundation in the natural law is valid for everyone.

I never saw my friend again. The rift between us was more than we could overcome. He expected me to be other than I am. I learned of his passing with sadness. He was certainly a good man and a good Catholic. Nonetheless, a Catholic should love others without settling for acceptance. As we all know so well, exchanging acceptance for love is a tricky business. And loving means (as any mother knows very well) helping people to turn away from sin and become whole. How this is accomplished requires the kind of diplomacy that is more delicate than the diplomacy practiced by paid diplomats. Yet God’s grace, we must not forget, is continually available.

My best friends are the ones who help me to realize my indiscretions. Wives seem to be particularly gifted in this respect. Husbands should comply cheerfully. Confession is good for the soul. But so is admonition. One should not fear correction if he understands that he is loved. Faults can be corrected without injuring love. We can bail the canoe of excess water while the canoe remains unharmed.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

In Part 1 of this article, I laid out a general framework for achieving whole-person holiness. In Part 2 of this article, I began listing and explaining some practical steps we can take to achieve whole-person holiness. In the final part of this article, I will continue explaining practical steps we can take in the pursuit of complete holiness. These steps, done with grace and love, will further open our souls to God’s grace, thereby preparing us for complete sanctification and deification. Let’s start with the body.

Exercise and Diet

When I was younger, I exercised without giving God a thought. I would exercise for several months, get tired of it, and then stop for several months. Then, the cycle would repeat. However, several years ago, I began the habit of praying before and after exercising. Since starting this, I have rarely missed more than a week or two of exercise, and those times were typically due to work priorities.

My routine includes walking as fast as I can for 30 minutes a day, three times per week, and listening to Scripture or spiritual commentaries while doing it. I also do calisthenics (e.g., pushups, sit-ups, body-weight squats, etc.) 20 minutes a day, three other days per week. I ask God to accept my exercise as a prayer, to use my body for His will, and to keep me healthy if it is His will. I also ask Him to teach me through Scripture and the commentaries to which I listen. This simple prayer, for whatever reason, helps me to maintain my motivation to exercise.

In my opinion, a person in good physical shape is better equipped to go out and do whatever God’s calls him or her to do. God gives us a body, and we must care for it just like we should take care of any gift. But taking care of our bodies isn’t just about exercise. We need to discipline our appetites as well.

America has just about whatever food one can imagine, and it has this food abundantly. This is good in one sense, but it can also be a source of temptation for those who are disposed to overeating. Therefore, we must discipline our appetites by eating healthy foods in the right amounts, while also limiting our snacking. If we keep God at the forefront of our minds, we will better regulate the amount and types of foods that we eat. Creating the habit of praying before and even after meals will help us to remember that we should not overeat.

My biggest challenge when it comes to food is holiday meals. I especially love the Thanksgiving meal, and I used to overeat it every year. It was no doubt a gluttonous act. After I realized what I was doing, I took it to Confession. Since then, I have established the habit of reminding myself not to eat so much. If I want dessert, I eat a smaller portion of the main meal, or I have it some other time. This self-discipline has served me well thanks be to God. I can’t imagine losing grace because I intentionally gorged on food until I was sick. Food in place of grace? Let’s get real here.

Reflect On Scripture and Creation

The Church gives us Scripture readings every day for Mass. In addition to reading them, find a quiet place and spend 15 or more minutes meditating on one of them. Ask God to help you and to give you insights. If you don’t receive insights, that’s fine. They will come around eventually. If you receive them, however, jot them down in a journal. Writing an insight will help you to remember it better, and it will be accessible if you ever want to go back and revisit your thoughts.

Obviously, do not meditate on God’s word just for the insights. Understand that God gives us insights to draw us closer to Him. As we gain a deeper understanding of Scripture, we can’t help but give God the thanks and praise for His beautiful teachings. But Scripture is not the only thing God uses to give us insights.

Take some time throughout the day to notice God’s creation. Notice yourself and how wonderfully God makes you. Look at the sky, trees, grass, flowers, and animals. See the diversity of God’s beauty and the eternal wisdom and knowledge from which all creation proceeds. Enjoy the sounds and smells of nature as well. By doing this, we engage nature with our senses, and we come to understand the goodness of God. I find that sitting outside for a few minutes early in the morning works best for me, but use whatever approach works best for you. Regardless, think about God and give Him the praise.

Spend Quality Time with People

Spend quality time with family, friends, and fellow parishioners. Visit the sick and those in need. Host or attend a Bible study or prayer group. Meet up with friends for a cup of coffee and talk about God. Take time to interact with others made in God’s image and likeness. Especially, spend some time talking with fellow Catholics. St. Paul writes:

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thess. 5:9-11)

I love these words because I have experienced exactly what Paul is describing. When we have meaningful conversations with others, we walk away feeling inspired and even motivated us to share God’s love. So, let us encourage and build one another up so that we can better equip one another to live with Christ and help others come to Him.

Interplay of Prayer and Works

You have probably noticed that our prayers and good works interact with one another to help form us in grace. This is because prayer prepares us for good works, and good works complete our prayers. We should pray before starting any good work. Why? Because God wants to be in us and to work through us as we perform His works (see Ephesians 2:10). In this way, we intentionally unite our good works to Jesus’s good works, and we (each one of us and Jesus) become partners in disposing our souls to more grace and in building up the kingdom. With His help, we put on His yoke, and we share our daily burdens with Him who makes these burdens light.

Daily Examen

Finally, examine your thoughts, words, actions, blessings, and burdens daily. A daily examen helps us to see how God uses our entire day to prepare us for more grace. Whether we experience ease or hardships, holiness or temptations, or compliments or criticisms, notice how God helps us to properly navigate them while we move toward the goal of whole-person holiness.

God uses every experience to dispose us to more grace, but we must cooperate with His will with steadfast faith, hope, and love. Do everything with the mind of Christ, think about God and His exemplar par excellence, Jesus Christ, and imitate Him. In doing so and with the help of grace, we can turn every joy and obstacle (e.g., sickness, temptations, concupiscence, irritable people, etc.) into moments of holiness.

Of course, this list of things we can do to invite more grace is not exhaustive. So, please modify as you see fit. God bless!

Author’s Note: Click below for related articles on:

• How to stop sinning.  
• How God makes us gods. 
• How God uses concupiscence to make us holy. 
• How to differentiate between mortal and venial sins.

Photo by Anthony Intraversato on Unsplash

“The Cuban Communist regime is a state sponsor of terrorism that uses its military and intelligence apparatus to spy on the United States, provide material support to violent radicals and terrorist groups, and spread poisonous Marxist ideology within our borders and polity, all while serving as a staging ground for other U.S. adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran to conduct operations against the United States,” says a State Department report dated August 6, 2026. Unfortunately, communism appears alive and well. Fulton Sheen’s book, Communism and the Conscience of the West is relevant today because it explains the makeup of the Marxist philosophy and the disease which afflicts much of the West. The audience for the paperback is everyone because communism is unknown by many, and its pernicious ways seem lost to history.

Fulton Sheen was an engaging professor at Catholic University of America for over two decades. He has much to teach us still. He wrote 66 books. Also Sheen became a household name as he began to broadcast on radio and became a popular television teacher. The bishop won an Emmy award for most outstanding television personality. After a much anticipated wait, Sheen will be declared Blessed this week, on September 24, 2026, in St. Louis. Although his writing on communism was first published before 1950, it speaks to us like it was written yesterday.

Sheen was an expert in philosophy. He reveals in the book how communism is atheistic and determined to stamp out religion. Lenin wrote: “Our program rests in its entirety on a scientific philosophy and notably on a materialistic philosophy…Our propaganda therefore necessarily embraces atheism” (p.72). From the communists’ own documents, we have the answer to the question: Are they against religion? “One of the most important tasks of the cultural revolution affecting the wide masses is the task of systematically and unswervingly combating religion—the opium of the people” (p.119). Contrary to what some want to believe today about Marxism, Sheen shows us the actual belief system from their own writings.

In time, seeing the spiritual reality of how good can sometimes come out of evil, even from a totalitarian Marxist regime, Sheen writes: “When finally the yoke of slavery, terrorism and secret police has been lifted from the Russian people, there will be less need of educating them in the Way of the Cross than there will be of educating us” (p.82). We see the truth of his analysis. Ostensibly, when communism fell in Russia, eight hundred monasteries were built. Christianity began to flourish again. The faith of the Russian people was finally set free. But, unfortunately, this liberty does not include, at present, freedom from dictatorship.

The real violence of communism is well documented in our time. Denying God, communism rests its foundation on materialism. “Communism too states that man came from the beast, hence, they add, he ought to act like one, and thus they justify their philosophy of violence,” penned Sheen (p.51). Since Sheen’s 1948 publication of his book, history has proven time and again that communism is extremely brutal. Concentration camps, torture, forced labor, genocide, starvation, and executions are some of the ways people have died and still are dying needlessly at the hands of an ideology based on lies. It is estimated that over 100 million people have died in the last century alone from communist and socialist governments. Sheen is spot on with his analysis of the philosophy, and all one needs to do is look at the record of any country where it has been tried.

In the West many are blind to the societal decay happening within. “It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives,” Sheen states. The West is in a crisis because it adheres to a materialistic philosophy too.

The problem is a failure to identify what is right and what is wrong, Sheen explains.

In the domain of morality, is it not an accepted principle of our Western bourgeois world that there is no absolute distinction between right and wrong rooted in the eternal order of God, but that they are relative and dependent entirely upon one’s point of view? Hence when the Western world wishes to decide what is right and wrong even in certain moral matters, it takes a poll—forgetful that the majority never makes a thing right, because right is right if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong. (p.50)

The author makes the same argument that Pope Benedict made years later when he spoke of the dictatorship of relativism. The good bishop makes a compelling point here: today many in the West have forgotten that divine revelation gives us the true compass to guide our path. Many get stuck in the morass of relativism and don’t know that divine truth is as close as the catechism.

Sheen is saying that both the West and the communists that maintain a materialistic mindset are part of the decay. Rather than being stewards of resources and living the Faith, the materialist believes all truth is relative and focuses solely on self. Egotism has a collectivist form in communism and an individualistic form in the West. The bishop makes a strong argument here on the crisis in the West, but he shows the way forward too. The materialist philosophy is empty and fake, but following Christ brings one to know more and more of divine revelation and the way to authentically help others along the pathway. Our Lord reminded us that He is the way forward: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6).

Additionally, the early communist views on the family as a thing of the past underscores the radicality of their ever evolving system. In The Communist Manifesto, the middle class family reposes on capital or individual gain and that “the family will, therefore, disappear with capital” (p.140). The Matrimonial Codes of 1918 and 1927 affirmed the law: “All children belong to the State” (p.143). The author brings out that: “The young were encouraged to spy on their parents and report them to the Communist authorities at the least sign of Fascism and anti-communism” (p.143), and “Abortion clinics were established by the state throughout the country, and every available means was used to weaken the family” (p.143).

But then the Soviet communists did an about-face when they saw the numbers. “Russia began counting heads, and those that should have been heads, and it was discovered that in Moscow alone only 57,000 children were born in 1934, while 154,000 abortions were performed. In the villages there were 242,979 births, but 324,194 abortions,” highlights Sheen (p.143). The author brings out that Stalin began having photo ops with children and even appeared with his own kids in a garden; at the time, many Soviet people in the USSR did not even know that he had children.

The fickle nature of the Soviet policy on abortion can be seen in their changed position. “Abortion clinics were abolished as abortion became legally identified with homicide; anyone counseling abortion was sentenced to two years imprisonment” (p. 146). The author underscores that the communists concocted a bad policy of abortion on demand because they ascertained that the family is evolving away.

Sheen brilliantly shows the misguided history of the materialist philosophy. To change one’s position on so fundamental a moral issue drives home the necessity of divine revelation. From the earliest catechism—the didache to the present catechism, divine revelation has consistently taught that each person—at the moment of conception—has a unique mission and destiny. Abortion must never be performed because it takes away an innocent life and the destiny it was meant to fulfill.

This is an important book because it addresses communism and the underlying materialist philosophy, which, unfortunately, are still with us today in the form of its empty promises. But it also points the way forward. And many young and older people, the world over, are recognizing that divine revelation was given to us as a great gift and map to the great city, the new Jerusalem. Also, the author points out that inner peace that all seek in this life is found in Christianity—not in incoherent philosophies and empty accumulation. In the short volume, Sheen shows us how the Gospel provides the real answer to a life that fulfills instead of myths that enslave.

Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

When a soul falls in love with God there is a strong desire to do everything possible for His greater glory. A Latin motto of the Society of Jesus is Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam which means, “for the greater glory of God.” The soul in love longs for his life to bring God glory, to attract people to His truth, beauty, and goodness, for their salvation and for their joy in finding His love, too.

A fruit of this desire is continually wanting to give God more. Magis, the Latin word for the more, the greater, is used by the Jesuits to describe this movement of the spirit to give God glory. But what is more? How can our lives bring God more glory? In what manner should we seek to pursue this more?

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. (Jn. 10:10)

In a culture where we are surrounded by more of everything from noise to food to work to media to shopping and everything else, we need a better understanding of what more means in relationship to God, His glory, and our response to His love for us.

The abundance of Jesus is different from the world’s. The Jesuits pursue an abundance, a more that goes deeper. It means life lived more fully in God’s presence for the accomplishment of His holy will. It embodies a restless spirit of generous excellence that seeks to make decisions based on what will bring more souls to the glorious freedom of life in Him.

Magnanimity and the Magis

When we are faced with an important decision, Fr. Barton T. Geger, S.J. offers the framework, “which of these choices will give God more glory, will bring more souls to heaven?” Using a colloquialism to illustrate, Fr. Barton says that if we have pure intentions for our outcome, if we are disinterested or detached, we will choose the option that offers, a “bigger bang for our buck.” Here he means that there are choices that will bring more souls to God, give God more glory. When we make these choices regardless of our own personal preferences, which may be to the contrary, we are opting for the magis.

If we love to volunteer in a soup kitchen in a more hidden way, but a catechist is urgently needed, and we have the knowledge and skills, the choice that leans into magis puts aside our quiet preferences to directly pass on the Faith through teaching. As we choose the magis over our preferences, God develops our talents, and we become who we were created to be.

Happiness Is a Choice

Far from dooming us to always do what we do not want to do, magnanimity in decision-making follows the traditionally Christian and Ignatian idea that “happiness is a choice.” When we are freed from “Which choice will make me happier?” we are free to give God more. Detachment opens us to the freedom of choosing to be “happy” giving God glory.

Not About An Early Grave

Giving more to God is not about working ourselves to death. It is about trusting the God who created us for deep union with Him, and who knows the life that will lead us there. This life includes taking care of ourselves. St. Ignatius insisted his brothers took proper rest, went on regular retreats, and limited mortifications. Fairly modern in this thinking, he understood that we will give more to God over 80 healthier years than by going out in a blaze of (perhaps our own) glory at 35.

Our deeply lived lives give more glory to God than productivity, efficiency, accomplishment, or any other worldly marker. The magis is not necessarily different from what we are already doing. It may be exactly what we are already doing. The magis difference is the choice to be more present to it, doing it with more care, seeking the eternal in it.

This can be done by:

• being more present to the people we serve and live with
• striving for excellence in the tasks God gives us
• applying ourselves to our spiritual reading and prayers
• being more present to God throughout the day

We can also pursue this deeper excellence for God by subtracting.

Less is More

The famous phrase “Less is more” was popularized by influential modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Far from earlier forms of architecture that added decorative flourishes at every turn, van der Rohe believed more was achieved in design by removing unneeded parts to highlight simple beauty. With less distracting elements, the user of his designs notices what matters most, because everything that remains serves a clear purpose.

We can apply this principle to our lives by prayerfully removing activities which drain time and energy from our central purposes. A regular examination of our personal resources, especially time and energy, can provide contrast between those activities that truly serve the magis and those that don’t. Ruthless elimination of those that don’t can yield greater peace and ultimately help us to give more to the God we love.

Is Your Prayer Life Complicated?

Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off. (Coco Chanel)

What does fashion advice have to do with giving God glory? Ms. Chanel’s advice is another illustration of how we can maintain focus by regularly pursuing simplicity. Seeking the more in our prayer lives is challenging. Often, however, simple subtraction can lead to big freedom and deeper union with God. Consider:

Eliminating devotions that are not central to your spirituality and no longer inspire meditation. Many times, we continue something that is no longer fruitful in our lives out of a false sense of obligation. Letting these devotions go will free up prayer time for going deeper with the Lord, rather than just checking off our spiritual to-do list.

Not adopting other people’s prayer lives. When a dear friend (or sometimes even a stranger!) enthusiastically shares a new devotion that is setting his or her heart on fire and urges you to pick it up too, resist jumping right in. Take the question to prayer and see if the Holy Spirit is leading you to add the devotion, or if that false sense of obligation is showing up again in another form.

One in, one out. If you do choose to add a new devotion or prayer routine, ask yourself what it is that you will be removing from your limited time for prayer. We all have 24 hours in the day. Overcrowding our time with spiritual pursuits rarely yields deeper contemplation. Ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance and decide what existing practice needs to be eliminated to allow time for the new.   

Far from placing a huge burden on our shoulders, St. Ignatius’ idea of the more can help us pursue our vocations, our work, and our spiritual lives with more freedom and more joy because we are following the plan of the God who created us for both. By keeping an eye on our human needs and limitations, our more will not weigh us down, but instead will give us wings to fly to God.  

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[Jesus] saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. (Lk. 5:27)

Levi the tax collector, also known as Matthew, has one of the greatest conversion stories of all the disciples. Why? Because of all Twelve, Matthew not only lived a sinful life before meeting Jesus—as did most of the rest—but his sin was one of betrayal.

He was a Jew working for the Romans, garnering money from his own people, which resulted in a tidy profit for himself. After all, the tax collectors of ancient Rome were not paid the way employees of the IRS are paid today. They did not simply receive a regular salary regardless of how many taxes they managed to collect from the Jewish citizens living within the walls of the Roman Empire. No, the method of payment which the Romans employed was one that provided incentive to the tax collector to make sure he squeezed the funds owed to the government out of as many people as he could—including those who were destitute. His salary was earned by charging any amount he wished, over and above the fair tax.

Tax collecting quickly became synonymous with extortion, as the system implemented by the Roman government set the tax collector up for greed. The tax collector would have been continually pushing the envelope in an attempt to gain every last penny possible from those who were taxed.

He would have been well trained in his ability to calculate maximum payment based on each family’s individual assets. Because of this, the tax collector was despised by the Jewish community. And for someone like Matthew who had been perpetuating this shameful practice upon his own people—possibly his own relatives and friends—his treachery would have been, for the community, unforgivable.

[Jesus] said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him. (Lk. 5:27-28)

With that as our backdrop, we must now come to realize the sheer incomprehensibility of what Jesus does next: He beckons Matthew to “follow” Him. Scripture tells us that Matthew immediately leaves everything behind and follows Jesus. Of course, we understand that in Jesus’ divinity, even “the winds and sea obey” Him (Mt. 8:27). God’s Word “shall not return to [him] void, but shall do…the end for which [he] sent it” (Is. 55:11). So it is not surprising that Matthew is compelled to leave his post so decisively and abruptly at the command of the divine Master. However, Jesus does not address His words to Matthew only in His divinity. He speaks these words, at the same time, in His humanity, as the hypostatic union of Jesus’ two distinct, complete natures is inseparable. And it is this fully divine, but also fully human person that Matthew is eager and willing to follow.

Matthew has finally, finally been told that he is welcome. Someone has invited him. Someone has shown interest! For the first time in a long time, there is one person who has not rejected him. And Matthew would have longed—desperately—to be shown even a fraction of that kindness by anyone. It is possible that someone else could have said to Matthew, “Would you like to come over for dinner?”…and he may likewise have jumped at the chance without hesitation. We can only imagine. But what is apparent is that Matthew must have been thirsting for love, even before Love itself had offered it to him.

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth. (Ps. 86:11)

Before we get to what takes place next, let’s understand what Matthew’s encounter with Jesus means for us. It is true, we are not divine, as Jesus is. Words that come out of our mouths “return to us void” all the time! But this does not mean that we cannot be like Jesus, who shared in our humanity. It was not only Jesus’ divinity that convinced Matthew to drop everything and follow Him; if it were, how could Jesus possibly expect the rest of us to imitate His example and “make disciples of all nations” (Mt. 28:19)? No, Jesus shows us today how we ourselves can fulfill the mission to which He sends us. We must simply extend mercy to the spiritually hungry, afflicted, and poor.

If you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then…the ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; “Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you, “Restorer of ruined homesteads.” (Is. 58:10-12)

Now of course, just because we extend mercy to others does not mean that they will accept it. But even though others may reject what we are offering, Jesus asks us to try anyway. Our only job is to make the effort; the outcome of our effort is up to the Lord. So let us entrust those outcomes to Him.

So Matthew drops everything to follow Christ…and then what happens?

Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. (Lk. 5:29)

Matthew drops everything, follows Jesus…and then throws a huge party for Him. What has happened between the time in which he has followed Jesus and the time he has decided to hold a great banquet in Jesus’ honor? All there is between these two scriptural verses is…a period. Are we to understand that Matthew’s feast takes place immediately? How would Matthew have had time to plan the food and invite all his friends?

Clearly, a certain amount of time must have passed between Matthew’s quitting his day job and his hosting a banquet. But however much time that is, Scripture is quite clear that it is brief. In other words, the moment Matthew leaves his post, he is all in. It does not take a long question and answer session to convince him, nor does he need to sit at the Master’s feet for an extended period of time before he accepts this new, revolutionary way. All it takes is just one act of love and mercy, and Matthew is hooked: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6)! There is no going back.

What’s more, Matthew’s very first act as a disciple of Jesus is to do everything he can to make more disciples for the Lord: he is compelled to invite all his tax collector friends (“and others”) to “come and see” (Jn. 1:46). He wants nothing more than to fill the aching void in the hearts of his colleagues with the love and mercy of Christ. The teachings, the lessons, the fullness of understanding…would all come later. For now, it is love that has changed Matthew’s heart.

Author’s Note: This article was adapted from a chapter in 26 Steps with the Apostles: A Journey into Christian Mission.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

In His perfection and elegance, God approached the world gently. First, by the language of nature, then by the voice of the intellect, and finally by Divine Revelation. Nonetheless, Revelation itself was also given in stages, starting with the creation of the material order, continuing with the law and prophets, finalizing with the coming of Christ and the foundation of His Church.

The language of God is perfect, prophetic, clear, and clean. Yet, for the imperfect, the perfect seems obscure, confusing, and cruel. Hence, the imperfection of the human intellect, wounded by the Fall, should have been a perfect impediment for God to communicate Himself to the world. Yet, in His love letter to mankind, God revealed many elevated concepts, the crown of which is the Mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Studying the Holy Trinity

Before examining the Trinitarian concept, it is important to understand that the mind by itself is utterly incapable of fully understanding it. However, aided by the grace of God, it is possible to grasp a pale shadow of its essence, that by itself, eclipses all other concepts in existence in terms of complexity, elegance, and majesty.

St. John Chrysostom, in his homilies, spoke about the limits of language and on the impossibility to adequately label the fiber of the Triune Mystery. Further, concerning the study of the Holy Trinity, St. Augustine writes that “Nowhere is error more harmful, the quest more toilsome, the finding more fruitful” (De Trin. I, 3). Yet, the tapestry of their faith had its origin in the Eternal Mind of God, where those in junction with His will can experience the incomprehensible, in a limitless and eternal Divine Present.

The concept of the Holy Trinity is of a supernatural precept, incomprehensible for the intellect in its totality, because it is higher than reason, but not contrary to it.

What is the Holy Trinity

In order to speak about what the Holy Trinity is, we must first see what it is not.

The Most Holy Trinity is not a set of three gods; otherwise, it would be a contradiction to the essence of perfection, because a god cannot be a god if it is not omnipotent and one. This is why in polytheism the gods are limited to their own domain, and thus lie, cheat, and murder for the sake of power. In other words, they are everything except divine, because they are limited.

The Holy Trinity is One God, in Three consubstantial Persons, indivisible and perfectly equal. Despite the complexity of the concept, God left signs in His creation that can illustrate this complex truth.

In order to see, a human eye needs the medium of light. However, the eye by itself is unable to glance directly at that which originates it, namely, the sun. Instead, God in His majesty orchestrated a wonder of consolation. If the sun, source of all light, stands behind an individual in a rainy day, it will cast its rays to the droplets of water to be filtered, and reflect a rainbow to the eye of the beholder. In a similar manner, the concept of the Trinity, too bright for the eye of the human soul, can be seen in a rainbow of signs suitable to its powers.

The First Person of the Holy Trinity

The first person of the Holy Trinity is God the Father, also known as the Godhead.

God the Father is unbegotten, eternal, and unchanging. He is the fountain of being and the initiator of creation. He is the speaker and articulator of essence and existence. His Intelligence and Will are the force of all potential and the sense of all actuality.

Further, the Godhead is the architect of salvation and the initiator of redemption. Goodness exists in creatures because God, who is infinitely good, freely created them and communicates His goodness to them.

The Second Person of the Holy Trinity

The Second Person is the Son. He is consubstantial with, and begotten by the Father, because He is His Word, as well as the fiber of His Promise.

The Son is a Verse from the Father, glory of His glory, and perfection of His perfection. He is unchanging in the unchangingness of the Father, and omnipotent in His omnipotence.

As the Father is the architect of salvation and initiator of redemption; the Son is salvation and redemption itself, who was made flesh and released us from sin and death by coming into the world and dying on the cross as a payment for our ransom from the devil.

Moreover, the Son is the mediator between God and mankind, because after the incarnation the Son was made both God and man.

The Third Person of the Holy Trinity

The Third Person is the Holy Spirit, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, with whom He is consubstantial, coeternal, co-omnipotent, and unchanging.

The Holy Spirit is the giver of life, the consoler, and the lifter of souls. To those who seek Him, He is also the giver of wisdom, understanding, council, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit Christifies, purifies, and transforms the children of God.

The Trinitarian Love

As mentioned before, assimilating the concept of the Holy Trinity is daunting and can be overwhelming. Notwithstanding, God is Love, and through love the Divine shows its Blessed Self.

In an attempt to explain the Holy Trinity, St. Augustine tells us that in order for love to be, it has to be threefold, namely, it needs a lover, a loved one, and love. Following this philosophical formula, we see that God the Father is the Lover, Our Blessed Lord is the Loved One, and the Holy Spirit is the Love that connects the three Persons in single Godhood.

The Divine Love for Man

The Book of Genesis tells us that God made man in His own image, and if we contemplate the Holy Trinity, we can see that in a way, we are all trine beings, composed of a soul footprint of the Father, a body representing the Son, and the words that proceed from the body and the mind being the signature of the Holy Spirit. Not in vain St. Paul tells us that the body is a temple (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

In the next article, we will explore how after the Fall of Man, the Holy Trinity went in search of His children, in the most beautiful story the world has ever known.  

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a CE original series on the Beauty of the Holy Trinity.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

“Thy will be done,” which every Christian prays at least once a day, is perhaps the most difficult petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It demands that a person put aside their own selfish wishes and trust in a higher plan. (Read John 6:67.)

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote: “All our perfection consists in the love of our infinitely lovable God. But the full perfection of love consists in the union of our will with the divine will.”

This is illustrated in the writings of St. Faustina Kowalska:

The priest spoke these profound words to me: “There are three degrees in the accomplishment of God’s will: in the first, the soul carries out all rules and statutes pertaining to external observance; in the second degree, the soul accepts interior inspirations and carries them out faithfully; in the third degree, the soul, abandoned to the will of God, allows Him to dispose of it freely, and God does with it as He pleases, and it is a docile tool in His hands.” (Diary, 444)

These three degrees form a practical ladder of spiritual ascent.

What does this mean in practice for a Christian?

STAGE ONE

Here the soul faithfully observes God’s Commandments and the Precepts of the Church. If we never advance beyond this point, however, we may find that much purification still awaits us in Purgatory. (Read Matthew 5:20.)

STAGE TWO

Here the soul responds to God’s interior promptings and follows them with faithful obedience.

An inspiration is an actual grace of the Holy Spirit, enlightening the mind to perceive what God asks of us, what is pleasing to Him, and what He abhors. 

God grants this grace to every person, though not in equal measure, for He is sovereign in the distribution of His gifts. Therefore, anyone who imagines that it can be attained by strength of will or the power of the intellect is mistaken. Grace often comes when we least expect it. 

Our greatest concern should be to discern God’s will in every moment.  

We encounter it in the Sacraments; in the reading of Sacred Scripture; while listening to sermons or taking part in a retreat; in silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; in the counsel of the priest while making Confession; in the words of a spiritual director; in the painful words of a spouse; or through either joyful or sorrowful events. By joy God raises up the discouraged, and through the Cross and suffering He likewise draws the soul powerfully to Himself.

At times, these graces act with astonishing swiftness. Like a flash of lightning, they illumine the soul and, in a single moment, shatter hearts as hard and proud as the cedars of Lebanon, bringing about a sudden conversion. At other times, these divine inspirations come gently and quietly, like the whisper of a soft breeze. (Cześć Maryi, O Pobudkach I Srodkach Nabożeństwa, Do Najświętszej Maryi Panny, KS. Jakub Górka)

Their action is always accompanied by inner peace and spiritual joy, though the latter may persist only for a fleeting moment. The Evil One, who never ceases to imitate the Creator, possesses neither God’s peace nor spiritual joy. He can, however, produce a false peace and a false joy. Yet the soul should not be discouraged by this, for with time it learns to distinguish the one from the other. (Read Matthew 7:16.)

Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from the wound of original sin, she possessed the full capacity to distinguish good from evil and, consequently, to follow the interior inspirations of God. This does not mean that she was spared sufferings or interior darkness. Therefore, after a good Confession and the reception of Holy Communion, we are most open to the interior inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

For the soul that desires holiness but has not yet advanced far along the path to perfection, the absence of such inspirations may be a sign that it ought to go to Confession. Human pride may tempt us to think that we are experiencing the dark night of the senses, but that is not the case. 

Following Mary’s example, let us learn to respond promptly—and even with holy haste—to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. (Read Luke 1:39–56.)

Does this suffice for a Christian to avoid Purgatory? I doubt it.

Before the soul reaches the mystical union with God, it cannot possess absolute certainty that every interior inspiration expresses God’s will. It must walk by faith, not by sight, discerning with humility, obedience, prudence, and trust in Divine Providence. Only in transforming union do the soul’s will and God’s will become habitually conformed, though even then this does not amount to personal infallibility. (Read Proverbs 24:16.)

STAGE THREE

Here the soul, surrendered to the Will of God, allows Him to guide and dispose of it according to His good pleasure, as Blessed Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko also exhorts us from Heaven.

It soon becomes evident that it is not enough to make a single act of surrender to Jesus, as St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort clearly teaches:

Every year at least, on the same date, they should renew the consecration following the same exercises for three weeks. They might also renew it every month or even every day by saying this short prayer: “I am all yours and all I have is yours, O dear Jesus, through Mary, your holy Mother.”

Each day, as soon as the soul awakens, let it make an act of complete abandonment to Jesus. It may do so in its own words or by using the meditation on the Passion of Christ, recorded by the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, praying as follows:

Beloved Jesus, today I surrender to You my will; dispose of me in whatever way most pleases You. I give You my eyes, that they may behold all things as You behold them. I give You my ears, that they may hear only what You desire them to hear. I give You my tongue, that it may speak only what You would speak. I give You my hands, that they may accomplish only what You Yourself would accomplish. I give You my feet, that they may walk only where You lead them. I give You my memory, that I may remember what You desire me to remember. I give You my understanding, that I may think of others as You think of them. And at last, as Luisa so beautifully expresses it: “I stretch out my arms to embrace You, I rest my head upon Your Heart, and I begin.”

Thus, little by little, the soul is transformed into the likeness of Christ. She discovers with quiet amazement how often the choices she makes prove to be the right ones. At times, the soul suddenly remembers what she would ordinarily have forgotten; at other times she forgets something she would almost never neglect, only to discover later that there had been no need to do it at all.

Such things come to pass because Jesus lovingly enters even the most ordinary affairs of her daily life. This does not mean that her path becomes free from crosses or trials. Rather, He sanctifies the commonplace, guiding the soul with a wisdom that surpasses her own. In this way she falls far less frequently into venial sins, grows to abhor mortal sin with her whole heart, and advances ever more deeply in the love of God, whose Divine Will becomes her delight. 

Reflecting on the theme of God’s will, it is important to emphasize that human nature, wounded by original sin, is naturally inclined to distrust God. The Evil One continually seeks to frighten us with suffering, for he is most eager to prevent us from surrendering ourselves entirely to God. Yet, only a few of us are granted the grace of becoming victim souls.

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

I. Opening: A Personal Shock

I have practiced psychotherapy for more than three decades, treating individuals, couples, and families across a wide range of presenting problems. In recent years I have semi‑retired from clinical practice and now teach in a graduate counseling program—work I deeply enjoy, especially helping students prepare to serve those who suffer.

Over time, I discovered something that genuinely shocked me: I am one of only two Catholic therapists in one of the largest dioceses in the United States.

The more I reflected on this, the more urgent the issue became. This is not merely surprising—it is pastorally dangerous.

Most people who reach out for therapy are already in a vulnerable state. They are experiencing shame, confusion, fear, or emotional pain. And yet, very few understand the differences between:

• counselor
• social worker
• marriage and family therapist
• psychologist
• psychiatrist

To use a simple analogy: you would not expect your primary care physician to perform open‑heart surgery. Yet many Catholics assume that “a therapist is a therapist,” unaware that each profession has a different scope of practice, training, worldview, and approach to the human person.

And worldview matters—especially when the soul is wounded.

What the Church needs, especially in my diocese, is a mental‑health framework that aligns with Catholic anthropology—the Church’s understanding of the human person, the soul, and the path to God.

II. The Problem: A Lack of Catholic Anthropology

As a convert to Catholicism, I spent decades in Protestant environments. I respect our Protestant brothers and sisters deeply. But becoming a catechist opened my eyes to the profound differences between Protestant and Catholic anthropology.

Protestantism is shaped by sola scriptura—Scripture alone. Catholicism is shaped by Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Together these form the Deposit of Faith, the Church’s coherent vision of the human person:

• the dignity of the human soul
• the meaning of suffering
• the role of grace
• the reality of spiritual warfare
• the sacramental worldview
• the communion of saints
• the moral law
• the path to theosis—union with God

Most secular therapists do not share this worldview. Many Protestant therapists do not understand it. New Age therapists often contradict it.

For example:

Protestant therapists may be:

• suspicious of Catholicism
• shaped by anti‑sacramental assumptions
• unaware of Catholic moral theology

New Age therapists may:

• deny objective truth
• promote spiritual experimentation
• blur boundaries between psychology and occult practices

None of this is malicious. But it is misaligned with Catholic truth.

And the result can be devastating: A vulnerable Catholic may be unintentionally guided away from the Church.

III. The Hidden Danger: Counsel That Undermines Faith

Let me speak plainly.

Modern secular psychology increasingly incorporates Eastern mysticism. Terms like “mindfulness,” “authentic self,” and “follow your joy” are now standard. While mindfulness has empirical benefits for anxiety and trauma, it can also open the imagination—the nous—to spiritual influences that Catholics must discern carefully.

Common therapeutic messages include:

• “Let go of your guilt; it’s unhealthy.”
• “Follow your heart, even if it means leaving the Church.”
• “Your marriage is making you unhappy; maybe it’s time to part amicably.”
• “The Sacrament of Reconciliation is outdated and controlling.”
• “Your Catholic upbringing is the source of your trauma.”

I have personally heard therapists describe Confession as “manipulative” or “draconian.” For a Catholic, this is not merely incorrect—it is spiritually dangerous.

Again, I do not believe these therapists act with malice. Their worldview simply does not align with the Church’s.

But when a therapist encourages a Catholic to abandon Confession, ignore moral teaching, or leave the Church, the damage to the soul can be profound.

IV. The Priest’s Dilemma: Fear After the Scandals

For years I have had the privilege of treating Catholic priests and religious. Many have shared their fear of performing certain pastoral duties. The scandals of the early 2000s—horrific sins committed by a small number of clergy—inflicted deep wounds on the Church.

Today many priests are terrified of even the appearance of impropriety.

This means they often avoid:

• private meetings
• deep emotional conversations
• extended spiritual direction
• close physical proximity

The consequences are serious:

• parishioners cannot receive the depth of pastoral care they need
• priests cannot accompany people through psychological suffering
• spiritual direction becomes shallow or rushed
• Catholics turn to secular therapists for help

This creates a double burden:

1. Priests may hesitate to offer the deep pastoral care they are called to give.
2. Parishioners may lack the spiritual guidance necessary for growth and healing.

A Catholic therapist cannot replace a priest—but he can help fill the gap.

V. The Solution: A Catholic Model of Psychotherapy

We need a model of psychotherapy that:

• honors the sovereignty of God
• respects the authority of the Church
• integrates Catholic anthropology
• understands spiritual warfare
• collaborates with local priests
• supports sacramental life
• upholds Catholic moral teaching
• recognizes the unity of body, soul, and spirit
• avoids New Age distortions
• avoids Protestant reductionism
• avoids secular moral relativism

Over the past several years I have studied both Thomistic psychology and the anthropology of the Desert Fathers. St. Thomas Aquinas’ model of the intellect—especially the practice of cultivating the virtue opposite the vice—resonates deeply with clients.

But Evagrius Ponticus, the “Ascetical Psychologist,” offers a precision that modern psychology desperately needs. His articulation of logismoi—intrusive thoughts—and their origins (from God, the self, or demons) provides a map of the interior battle that aligns perfectly with Catholic teaching.

This battle is not the sensationalized exorcism content popular online. It is the daily battle for the soul.

My vision is a Catholic psychotherapy model rooted in:

• St. Thomas
• St. Polycarp
• St. Irenaeus
• St. Cassian
• Evagrius Ponticus
• St. Nikodemus
• The Desert Fathers

These saints mapped the interior life with astonishing clarity. Their insights align seamlessly with the Deposit of Faith.

Until such a model is fully developed, I offer practical guidance for Catholics seeking therapy.

VI. What Catholics Need to Know Before Seeking Therapy

1. Choose based on your symptoms

For anxiety, grief, depression, anger, addiction—most master’s‑level therapists can help. But read their advertisements carefully. If they openly reject Catholic teaching, avoid them.

2. “Christian therapist” does not mean “Catholic therapist”

Many Christian therapists hold beliefs that differ significantly from Catholic doctrine.

3. Ask for a brief phone consultation

A 10‑minute conversation can reveal:

• their worldview
• their approach
• their comfort with Catholic teaching
• their understanding of moral theology

Ask directly: “How do you treat anxiety?” “How do you view the role of faith in therapy?”

4. Avoid activist therapists

If a therapist openly promotes beliefs contrary to the Church, do not seek treatment from them.

5. Consider collaboration between therapist and priest

In my years working in multidisciplinary settings, I saw the benefit of collaboration between:

• medical doctors
• psychiatrists
• psychologists
• therapists

Imagine the benefit of collaboration between a Catholic therapist and a trusted priest. This could provide an optimal environment for healing—both psychological and spiritual.

VII. Closing: A Call to Action

The Church, priests, families, and dioceses need a coherent Catholic anthropology. We need a model of psychotherapy that integrates:

• psychology
• Catholic tradition
• patristic anthropology
• spiritual direction
• clinical practice

Catholics deserve therapy that honors their faith, protects their souls, and leads them toward Christ.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Jesus tells a parable that poses an interesting question:  Would we ever grumble about God’s generosity?

Gospel (Read Mt. 20:1-16a)

In the verses preceding this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus told the disciples, “it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:23).  A “rich young man” had just gone away “sorrowful” from Jesus, because he could not detach from his possessions to follow Him.  When the disciples hear that even the rich, thought to be especially blessed by God, would have a hard time entering heaven, they ask, “Who, then, can be saved?” (Mt. 19:25)  Jesus gives them an answer that He further elaborates in this reading:  “With men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26).  

In our parable, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a scene in which a landowner hires helpers to work in his vineyard.  The landowner goes out early to the marketplace, where workers congregated, to look for laborers.  He was not obligated to do this, of course.  The vineyard belonged to him; he could have kept it a family affair, using only family members to do the work.  Instead, he reaches outside his family to those who would otherwise be “idle”—waiting for something meaningful to happen.  

He enters an “agreement” (or “covenant”) with some laborers for the pay they will receive for their work, and off they go.  The landowner keeps returning to the marketplace, however, during all the “hours” of the day (Jews divided the time between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm into several “hours”), finding those who were “idle” and promising to give them “whatever is right” for their labor.  We have to wonder why he did this.  Was it for himself, or for the laborers?  Was he concerned that he needed more workers to get the work done, or was he concerned that men would be “idle” all day if he didn’t keep hiring them?

Finally, at the eleventh hour, he goes out again.  Realistically, these laborers would only be able to put in an hour’s work, at most, because Jewish law required that a laborer be paid at sundown (see Dt. 24:14-15).  By the time we get to this point in the parable, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the landowner simply wants to empty the marketplace of anyone still standing around, still waiting for something to happen.

When it comes time to pay the workers, payment begins with the last ones hired.  This is so contrary to what any of us would expect that it helps us identify the thrust of the parable right away.  Had the landowner paid the longest, hardest-working men first, they would not have witnessed what they considered to be an injustice.  Jesus uses this inverted order to call our attention to the point He is making.  

The first laborers grumble when they discover that they are paid exactly the same as the latecomers, who hardly worked at all.  Can we blame them?  Would our reaction have been different?  The landowner reminds the grumblers that they have not been cheated.  They had agreed on the “usual daily wage.”  No injustice has been committed.  The landowner also reminds them that he is “free to do as I wish with my own money.”  The fact is, any wage coming to any of the laborers depended entirely on the grace and generosity of the landowner.  Apart from him repeatedly seeking laborers in the marketplace, none of them would have had anything meaningful to do.  They would all still have been waiting for something to happen.  

We might be able to phrase it this way:  “With men, no wages are possible, but with a landowner looking for workers, all things are possible.”  That being the case, are the grumblers really justified in being envious of the landowner’s generosity?  It was this very generosity that gave them work in the first place.  Had they understood this at the start of the day, they would not have been surprised at how the day ended.

Jesus concludes the story with a familiar saying:  “The last will be first, and the first will be last.”  The Church has traditionally understood this as a parable foreshadowing the generosity of God to include the Gentiles in His covenant, at the “eleventh hour” in salvation history, blessing them with the same blessing first promised long ago to His Chosen People, the Jews.  In this, Jesus is warning His disciples (then and now) not to think of God’s blessings as a matter of record-keeping.  God’s generosity cannot be measured.  All of us, the “worthy” and the “unworthy,” are utterly dependent on it. When we see others with greater spiritual gifts than we have ourselves, do we rejoice in God’s generosity, or are we envious?  And, at the end of time, if we see God’s mercy extended to those whom we are sure don’t deserve it (we might even be picking those folks out now), will we look as small and stunted as the grumbling laborers in the parable?  These are questions worth asking.

Possible response: Heavenly Father, help me to rejoice over Your generosity wherever it appears.

First Reading (Read Is. 55:6-9)

These verses from Isaiah are a perfect preparation for our Gospel reading, because they speak about God’s generosity (“generous in forgiving”) and about how different God’s way is from ours.  Recall the shock we felt in reading the parable and hearing that “the last will be first and the first will be last.”  Here, God tells us, through Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are My ways above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts.”  This difference between God’s way and ours is what keeps life interesting.  If we take it seriously, we might often be surprised by how He works, but we surely won’t become grumblers.

Possible response: Heavenly Father, forgive me for the times I have not wanted to be surprised by the difference between Your way and mine.

Psalm (Read Ps. 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18)

The psalmist tells us that God’s “greatness is unsearchable.”  That is exactly what both Isaiah and Jesus seek to tell us in our other readings.  Our imaginations are not vivid enough to be able to predict how God’s goodness and mercy will break out in His creation:  “The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all His works.”  Perhaps the most treasured characteristic of His immeasurable and unimaginable kindness is the one we will repeat in the responsorial:  “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him.”

In the end, isn’t this what matters most to us on our journey home to heaven?

Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.

Second Reading (Read Phil. 1:20c-24, 27a)

In this reading, St. Paul is an example of one who is completely at peace with whatever God does with him.  We would have liked the first group of laborers in the Gospel parable to be able to say that about the landowner.  How does a person get to that place of peace with God and confidence in whatever He does, no matter how different His ways are from ours?  “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.”  St. Paul understood that in becoming a servant of Christ, he had gained everything.  Even death, which we naturally fear and dread, posed no worry for him.  Death (which St. Paul faced on a nearly daily basis) would simply be the door through which he would walk into the loving arms of Jesus.  

When we have this kind of relationship with the Lord, when He is everything to us, then we are truly free.  Knowing the power of His love and kindness, nothing can disturb us, nothing can turn us into grumblers.  All that should matter to us is to conduct ourselves “in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ.”  Then, truly, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Possible response: Lord Jesus, please teach me to trust You and to be at peace in all the events of my life.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

St. Michael the Archangel is one of those saints that you can go to for anything. Priests and parishioners invoke his name for spiritual protection, especially at the end of Mass. We also see St. Michael coming to the aid of the sick and dying, especially in the visions of Pope St. Gregory the Great in Rome as well as that of St. Lorenzo on Monte Gargano. Further, the mighty archangel is the patron saint of soldiers, police officers, grocers, and poor souls, and the protector of places such as Rome and Kyiv.

Of course, all the great things St. Michael has done reflect God’s love, especially for us. That is what makes so many of us love him: the archangel’s ultimate mission is to lead us back to God. In his book Devotion to the Holy Angels, Fr. Henri-Marie Boudon says of St. Michael: “If, then, we love the interests of God only, we must love him; for he is the great saint of the cause of God, and of God Incarnate.”

The Church so relies on St. Michael that she has two feast days celebrating him, Michaelmas (Sept. 29th) and another celebrating his apparition on Monte Gargano (May 8th). In the past, some Catholics also practiced a sort of forty days of fasting and prayer leading up to Michaelmas, starting on August 15th. St. Francis was observing this St. Michael’s Lent when he had a vision of the seraphim and received the stigmata.

We may not observe the St. Michael’s Lent today (although some still do!), but we can prepare ourselves to celebrate this great angel by saying a novena. A novena is only nine days of prayer, as opposed to forty, but it still prepares your heart to love and celebrate a saint on their feast day. A novena is also a potent prayer if you have a particular need or petition on your heart, and St. Michael is a powerful intercessor to turn to!

I have prayed several novenas to St. Michael, especially for my work and prayer life. The experience is always a joy, no matter how God answers my particular petitions. Taking nine days to pray and meditate on St. Michael’s loving service to God does wonders. In my own life, praying a St. Michael novena has been a source of peace and a help in cultivating a daily prayer life.

Novena to St. Michael the Archangel

There are several ways to pray a novena in honor of St. Michael, and you can pray one at any time. I use the small prayer below, but you can also pray a St. Michael Chaplet or the Litany of the Holy Angels on each of the nine days of the novena.

To prepare for the Feast of the Archangels, pray the novena from September 20th to 28th, finishing the novena the day before St. Michael’s feast. And while it’s not required, going to Mass on the feast day is a great way to bring an end to your prayer and preparation.

Pray each day:

Saint Michael the Archangel, loyal champion of God and His Catholic people, I turn to thee with confidence and seek thy powerful intercession. For the love of God, Who hast made thee so glorious in grace and power, and for the love of the Mother of Jesus, the Queen of the Angels, be pleased to hear my prayer.

Thou knowest the value of my soul in the eyes of God. May no stain of evil ever disfigure its beauty. Help me to conquer the evil spirit who tempts me. I desire to imitate thy loyalty to God and Holy Mother Church and thy great love for God and men. And since thou art God’s messenger for the care of His people, I entrust to thee this special request:

(Mention your intentions here)

Saint Michael, since thou art, by the will of the Creator, the powerful intercessor of Christians, I have great confidence in thy prayers. I earnestly trust that if it is God’s holy will, my petition will be granted.

Pray for me, Saint Michael, and also for those I love. Protect us in all dangers of body and soul. Help us in our daily needs. Through thy powerful intercession, may we live a holy life, die a happy death, and reach Heaven where we may praise and love God with thee forever. Amen.

You can pray this prayer anywhere throughout the year, but it’s especially helpful for preparing for Michaelmas. If you pray for a particular need, let this prayer be an encouragement to you that God and His angels are still working for your good. May we all turn to the glorious and mighty St. Michael in our spiritual lives!

Image from Wikimedia Commons

About 1.5 years after we moved into our current house, a major bridge construction project began two blocks away. This led the city to divert traffic through our neighborhood. As the project drags on, it is creating more and more problems in the neighborhood from the volume of traffic it was never meant to handle. We reached out to the city but were met with the indifferent bureaucracy that is prevalent in our times. Instead, due to multiple factors, we decided to look for another house and are now in the process of moving out into the country to a place of blessed quiet.

The months on end of traffic and angry drivers outside of our small neighborhood have been a source of meditation for me on the state of our culture. The frenetic pace we are supposed to live at, coupled with the instant gratification of smartphones, social media, and a society where everything is immediately at our fingertips, are eroding our patience. On an almost daily basis people scream at one another right outside our door because they can’t be bothered to stop at the stop sign for oncoming traffic. There have been multiple occasions when I became concerned that a road rage incident would happen in front of my house.

The instant gratification culture that we are a part of leads us to believe that we are the center of the universe. It is very rapidly teaching us to dehumanize one another and to view people as an impediment to our plans. We see this in the constant push to digitize everything. Why should we have to carry on a conversation with a cashier or bank teller? We should be able to move quickly and efficiently throughout our day without people getting in our way. We are the center of everything, and the world should be at my beck and call.

My husband and I were chatting about this on our 16^th wedding anniversary on the Feast of St. Augustine. We went to breakfast together, then to various home improvements stores in search of flooring and kitchen cabinets for our new home that we need to remodel before moving in. My husband experienced the worst customer service of his life at one of the stores. He found himself in a serious situation during which no one wanted to help him. I was across the store and had no idea. The staff couldn’t be bothered to help him. There was no common decency or common sense. The store is almost entirely automated.

As we walked out of the store, I explained to my husband why I shop at a certain grocery store in our area even though it is slightly more expensive and doesn’t offer fuel points. I explained that the people who work there are friendly and offer great customer service. To me it is absolutely worth the extra dollars to encounter friendly and helpful staff. He saw this on display when we went to the next home improvement store where everyone went out of their way to help us. It was a more human experience. It made us want to shop at that store for our home remodel.

How are the traffic on my street and our experiences at the two different home improvement stores connected? They each reveal how our digital age is destroying our ability to see the people in front of us as fellow human beings. The people screaming at one another at our street corner dehumanize the person in the car that is a law-abiding citizen who stops at the stop sign. Our smartphones give us an erroneous sense of control and play into the worst parts of our egotism. The minute something doesn’t go our way in the real world we lash out at other people. The digital world also allows us to ignore people and to simply use them in our incessant desire to stroke our own egos. If something doesn’t directly impact us then we ignore it or refuse to respond, which is what happened to my husband in a dire situation.

As Christians, we should be highly leery of anything that leads us from virtue to vice. We are not made for ease, comfort, and egotism. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI famously said: “We are made for greatness.” This greatness does not come about through impatience, indifference, and selfishness. It certainly doesn’t come about through laziness and egotism. If we are honest with ourselves, most of us have experienced growing impatience or indifference when we spend most of our lives online. When we walk out into the real world, people become a source of annoyance because they do things outside of our control, like stop at stop signs or ask for our help when we’d rather stare at our smartphone and get paid for it.

We as a Church have not done our due diligence in discerning the technologies coming out in the last 20 years. We jumped on every bandwagon without considering the consequences. Our culture is not better because of all these technological advances. For all of the touting about the way this will revolutionize our lives—which is what every utopian project promises, and the fallout is usually horrific—healthcare is considerably worse and more dehumanizing in my area of the country; people are more impatient with one another; acedia and indifference are present in every place that has digitized everything; the culture continues to polarize; psychiatric disorders and suicide are on the rise; and we ignore the flesh-and-blood people sitting in the room with us on a regular basis. There are countless other issues that we have ignored in our rose-tinted optimism that has forgotten how fallen human beings operate without Christ.

I write and say it often, and I will do so again now: We must reclaim our prophetic vision as a Church guided by the Holy Spirit in order to discern prudently how these technologies are used and how they impact us. The technocrats are working on another utopian project; the same utopian dreams that are reminiscent of the French Revolution, Communism, and Nazism except they imagine an entirely digital world. We are being promised less suffering and to live forever through the transhumanist myth. The fruits of the project are not what has been promised.

Healthcare is one of the big fields technocrats promise revolutionary improvements, yet the hospitals in my area are terrible. The younger staff do not care about patients. They spend their days staring at their smartphones while treating patients like a nuisance. I’ve witnessed this both as a patient and through the testimony of my spiritual daughter and others who work in hospitals.

The promised technologies have dehumanized healthcare and have not delivered on the promises of Artificial Intelligence saving countless lives and delivering us from suffering. The more things digitized the more the staff stop caring about patients and doing their jobs well. This is coupled with a culture that has turned from Christianity. What do we really think the consequences of a re-paganized and/or atheist society will be on healthcare and other helping professions? It’s as if we have forgotten why Christ had to come to save us in the first place. Fallen human beings easily slide into darkness and evil without grace.

The only option we have as Catholics is to seek to live more human lives, which is the call to holiness. We should not be seeking ease and comfort through constant technological dependency. We should not be like the rest of the culture and ignore the flesh-and-blood people around us. We should make every effort to greet others while we are running errands and to frequent the businesses that prioritize customer service and the dignity of the human person. We should make sure we aren’t the ones screaming at someone for stopping at a stop sign and aggressively pushing around people who get in our way. We are supposed to be light in the darkness, and there is a lot of darkness in the world at present. We all have bad days, but if it becomes routine, we need to examine what is leading us to habitual sin in this area. Chances are, it is social media or some other technology addiction that is distracting us from living in the real world.

Sentimental views of the world get us nowhere. We should be on guard against the lies of the present age, and we should be seeking to see with the eyes of the Holy Spirit rather than the tech overlords. There is a wide gap between how current technologies can be utilized in a virtuous culture versus these technologies in a culture that is re-paganizing and/or atheistic like our own. We need to stop ceding the high ground to the atheist materialists in Silicon Valley and start taking our guidance from the Holy Spirit and the Church. We should be calling for a more human society rather than giving into the current zeitgeist just because we want to be relevant and a part of the crowd. If we are seeking the esteem of the crowd, then we have turned from Christ who warned us we would be hated by the world (see John 16). We don’t live in a sentimental, ideologically driven bubble. We live in the real world of fallen men and women who have not been taught how to virtuously employ the constant flow of new technologies at our fingertips.

The bad fruits are everywhere if we have eyes to see. In-person relationships are suffering as more and more people choose the isolation of social media and AI chatbots. People are aggressive and hostile to others or indifferent when needs arise. Look at all the people who video recorded assaults rather than helping the victim. Healthcare is becoming more and more about greed, and the staff have grown indifferent to human suffering. We scream at each other in traffic even more because social media, streaming services, and short videos have destroyed our attention span and patience level. These are only a few examples, but there are countless more.

As Catholics we should be seriously asking ourselves if we are helping make our culture more human by leading people to Christ, or if we ourselves are part of the problem.

Photo by J W on Unsplash