Half Gaelic Half Garlic

          A long time ago I saw a t-shirt that said “Half Gaelic Half Garlic.”  I regret never purchasing that shirt since I am half Italian and half Irish but I make up for it by telling people that phrase every time I’m asked about my families heritage.  Needless to say, for all of us graced with both Irish and Italian parents this week is the one of the best in our whole year!  Both major patrons celebrated just days apart!  All the ham, corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread you can eat on one day, fish, desserts, coffee, and pasta on the other day and of course more wine, whiskey, and beer than you know what to do with!  It’s a great week!  But how should one really celebrate these two major feast days?  In the United States only one of them is a Solemnity but both should be given solemn respect.  I offer this reflection to those of us who want to celebrate but also remember what we are celebrating.

St. Patrick, who wasn't even Irish, came to Ireland as a humble Bishop being sent by Pope Celestine (patron Saint of my home parish).  St. Patrick had one goal: to spread the faith and convert hearts to Jesus Christ.  He did this by ordaining many priests and sending them out to baptize the country in Christ’s name!  This was both a great idea and a bad idea…these priests were baptizing everyone…even if they didn’t want to be baptized and it didn't matter if the people had any knowledge (a good number didn’t) of the faith they were being baptized into.  But St. Patrick knew the power of baptism and he wanted to save the whole country!  St. Patrick was a major evangelist!  He taught the faith as often as he could.  His most famous teaching is on the Trinity where he used a shamrock as a visual aid.  St. Patrick loved Jesus Christ, he loved the Church, and he loved the people of Ireland so much that he did what he could to save their souls. 

So, how should we celebrate such an evangelical saint? 

1.   Go to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! St. Patrick loved Jesus Christ and he was a Bishop who celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass daily.  Everyone who is Irish (which apparently is everyone on St. Patrick’s Day) should go to mass as the perfect means of celebrating this great saint!

2.   Evangelize!  Share your faith!  St. Patrick was an evangelist!  Instead of posting pictures on your Facebook’s with you drunk as a skunk in a green shirt…post a picture of you praying the rosary or of your parish when you go to mass!  Tell people that you’re Catholic and love Jesus rather than “kiss me I’m Irish.”

3.   Baptize!  I think the ultimate way to celebrate St. Patrick is to baptize someone.  Of course, this can only be done by an ordained minister, unless there is an emergency of death with no ordained minister around, but one great idea is to renew your baptismal promises with your family as your prayer before you eat dinner!

 

St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, is a great saint, a humble man, a model of chastity (especially for men), and a model of fatherhood!  I’m not sure how St. Joseph became the patron of Italy or where such popular Italian devotion to St. Joseph came from but none the less many great Italian traditions come from celebrating this great saint!  Across the world this day is celebrated in the Church as a solemnity (as important as a Sunday) although it is not a holy day of obligation.  We don’t know much about Joseph, which shows his great humility, but we do know that he remained chaste through his marriage with the Blessed Mother, that he took care of the Holy Family by migrating them to Egypt for protection, he was tradesmen (carpenter), and he was fully obedient to the will of God. 

Italians celebrate this great feast in beautiful ways that we should all do:

1.   Go to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!  It’s rightfully a solemnity and what better way to celebrate the foster father of Jesus Christ than to receive Christ in the Eucharist?!  Go to Mass!

2.   Abstain from meat.  This is a great Italian tradition that reminds us to be as humble as St. Joseph.  An easy way to deny ourselves is to abstain from meat. 

3.   Give to the poor!  St. Joseph was a man of charity.  He gave up his whole life to take care of Mary and Jesus.  What will you give up to take care of others?  What self gift will you make?  You can throw in a couple extra bucks in the poor box, donate to a local food pantry, volunteer at a homeless shelter, etc.  Charity is a great way to honor St. Joseph. 

          These are just some simple suggestions to celebrate the feasts of these two holy, humble, and amazing men who followed God’s will and fell in love with Jesus Christ.  Don’t feel the need to get drunk as a skunk or over eat on the pasta.  Use these two beautiful feast days to grow closer to God, build up the Body of Christ (the Church), and convert your heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (a popular Irish and Italian devotion).  

The Difference Vows Make

About four weeks ago a came across this article written by a man of faith who argues that two people should never stop dating even when they are married.  He of course meant dating each other, not other people, in that the couple should continue going on dates, dressing up, trying to impress each other, and keep the romance alive.  He says “…in any relationship, communication and the action of constant pursuit is key.”  While I agree with him 100% I do wish he spent more time in the article explaining the intrinsic difference between dating/ courtship and marriage.  That is what I will do in this short article.

First I want to make it clear that when I use the term courtship I am speaking of a man and woman who are not married but are exclusively seeing each other in a romantic relationship.  I am using this (some may think older) term to save us all from confusion from using the term “dating.”  Because a married couple can, and should, go out on dates as the author from the above mentioned article states.

So, what is the difference between courtship and marriage?  There are two main differences: a secular and a religious (Catholic) difference – of course the Catholic also includes the secular.  The secular difference is the vow’s the couple makes to each other when they are married.  The man and woman both promise to love and honor each other in sickness, health, good, bad, rain, shine, etc. for as long as they both shall live.  Catholic couples also vow to accept children lovingly from God and to raise them in the true Church of Christ (the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church).  These vows are a big deal because you are promising your whole self to another human being until one of you die.  That’s a big commitment!  In courtship you should be faithful and respectful to your significant other (boyfriend or girlfriend) but you are free to end the relationship at any time.  In marriage you promise to stick with your spouse no matter how hard the storm may be. 

 

The second difference, which is the Catholic one, is that in marriage you and your spouse form a communion of persons.  Reciprocity is inherent to human existence.  Man and woman were created to be self-giving and the most beautiful, and vulnerable, way to give of yourself to another person is through the conjugal act (sex).  The Second Vatican Council says it beautifully this way: “The body has a ‘spousal’ meaning because the human person is a creature that God willed for his own sake and that, at the same time, cannot fully find himself except through the gift of self.” (Gaudium et Spes, 24:3)  It is in the Sacrament of Marriage that we are able to be that self-gift to the person we love more than anything else in the world.  It is a self-gift that we don’t give to anyone but to the person we love the most which is why this self-gift is reserved for the sacrament of marriage.

Courtship is meant to prepare a couple for

marriage by helping you see if you can still love that person no matter their flaws.  Courtship does not take the place of marriage!  Courtship is a time that should be used to grow in friendship (because you should already be friends), grow closer, and become romantic with each other.  The best way to enter into a courtship, and marriage, is with a friend.  Friends make the best significant others and also the best spouses.  John Gottman (founder of the Gottman Institute) agrees with data to support it.  Couples who are friends first have healthier and happier marriages. 

Courtship and Marriage are two totally different relationships.  Courtship is a time to find your future spouse and prepare for a lifetime commitment and marriage is when you make that commitment (by making a full and beautiful self-gift) and live it out the rest of your life.  While you’re married you should still work at romancing and pursuing your spouse, but marriage and courtship are not the same thing.  As long as you are friends first, respect each other, and understand the importance of the self-gift we make in marriage, you will spend many beautiful years with your loved one. 

St. Valentine, Pray for Us!

FYI...It's still Christmas!!!

Even though radio stations have stopped playing Christmas music, people are throwing away their trees, the "happy holidays" have turned into "happy new year," and stores have replaced their Christmas decorations with Valentines day decorations...we are still in the midst of Christmas.

It's really very logical how the whole season works...we start with Advent where we prepare for Christmas and then on the 25th we celebrate Christmas! But Christmas lasts longer than 24 hours. The Christmas season lasts until the Baptism of The Lord (this year takes place on January 12).  Our beautiful tradition and calendar is filled with feasts that keep us in the Christmas spirit such as today as we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family.  On January 1st we will celebrate Mary, the Mother of God, which is a Holy Day of Obligation.  January 3 we celebrate the most Holy Name of Jesus and next Sunday we celebrate the feast if the Epiphany when the three Kings came to pay homage to the Christ child. Finally, the following week, we celebrate the Baptism of Christ.

So let us use these beautiful celebrations to assist us in continuing the great celebration of the King of Kings lowering himself to a small child, born in a stable, to suffer and die for our salvation from sin and death.  The best way to continue these celebrations, as always, is by attending mass and praying with your friends and family together asking for the Christ child to enter your hearts and conform you to his most Sacred Heart.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

O Emmanuel (God-with-us)

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel;
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

For my final blog post on the "O Antiphons" I prayed with two passages: Isaiah 7: 10-15 & Romans 8: 20-24.  The Isaiah reading was Ahaz's prophesy of the virgin giving birth to Emmanuel (God-with-us).  But why a virgin?  Just so God can show how powerful he is?  No.  Because if God was becoming man then he wold need to be born from a perfect & spotless womb.  God is perfect and sinless so he would have to be born from a sinless womb.  This is what led the Church, specifically through the scholarship of Duns Scotus, to the revelation of the Immaculate Conception.  Mary is our races solitary boast!  If not for Mary, Emmanuel would not have come.  This is why Mary is held to such a high esteem and many seek her prayers & intercession.  Mary knew from the moment of her conception that to be one with God is the only way to live.  May we all be as open and willing to do the will of the Father as Mary is.

In Romans 8: 20-24 St. Paul reminds us that we, all creation, needed a savior since thebeginning of   creation.  This leads into a major theological debate many Dominican's and Franciscan's have been having for years.  Was the incarnation a result of original sin?  I tend to lean more on the Franciscan side of the debate that the incarnation was pre-ordained by God before man was even created.  Look back at Genesis where everything was created "good;" however, not perfect.  There was always room for growth, even among humans since Adam and Eve were created "good" as well.  This led Franciscans, like Duns Scotus, to believe that Christ's human birth would have come even without falling because we needed a model of perfection to attain since we were only created "good" and not perfect.

Since the beginning of time we needed God to be with us (Emmanuel) and that is what happened  God gave us his only Son, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he [Jesus] in turn gave us his own life for our redemption.  Jesus is the model for whom our lives should reflect.  We are Jesus in the world today!  May this feast of the incarnation of Christ, God made man, remind us that we are called to share in Christ's life by imitating him and hopefully, if we lived lives of faith, hope, and love, share in his divinity one day in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Savior: come and save us, O Lord our God!  Amen.

O Rex Gentium (King of Nations)

O come, desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid thou our sad divisions cease
And be thyself our Prince of Peace.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

My favorite part of Advent is reading all the Old Testament texts that foreshadow the coming of Christ.  As I prayed with Ezekiel 37: 21-28 I found it fascinating because I knew the passage was foreshadowing Christ the King!  The prophet Ezekiel is telling his listeners what The Lord told him: that a great King, like David, will come and gather together all the kingdoms.  "They will be my people and I will be their God."

G.K. Chesterton, as well as Fr. Edward Oaks, SJ (scholar & professor of Theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/ Mundelein Seminary who just passed away) loved looking at great paradoxes of Christianity.  The King of Kings lowered himself to being born in a barn.  His bed was a tiny manger, his robes were swaddling clothes, his crown was made of thorns, and his throne would become a cross.  How do we know he's a King?  Because he fought the greatest battle ever on the cross and won.  Because kingdoms have been brought together in his name.  All are saved under Christ the King and all share in his wonderful kingship who also share in his wonderful gift of the Eucharist...the greatest treasure of the King of Kings.

O King of nations, and their Desired, the Cornerstone who make all one: come and save our race, whom you formed out of clay.  Amen

O Oriens (Dayspring)

O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

For this Antiphon I relfected on John 8:12 where Jesus says "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life."  As I prayed over this passage I immediately thought of the Advent wreath.  The whole purpose of the Advent wreath is to show how our lives get brighter the more we allow Christ to enter into our life.  Because, as our Lord tells us, we will never be in darkness when we choose to follow Christ.

But this light doesn't just show up out of nowhere...we need to be vigilent and look for the light.  Our prayer and the way we life our life must be properly ordered so that we can find the light of Christ easier.  Right praise & worship (please note I am speaking of Orthodoxy...not Christian rock) is what guides us to the light (although Christian rock can guide us as well...but not in the same way an orthodox lifestyle can).

Some may think that this is just "nice language" or a "good metaphore" to describe the importance of Jesus in your life but those people don't understand what this light is.  We practice orthodoxy so that we may be guided to the eschatological light...the light of Heaven where we will be in full communion with God.  It's important to remember that we get to this light by properly praising & worshiping almighty God.  And how do we properly praise him?  By loving him, The Lord our God, with all our heart, mind, and soul.  And by loving our neighbor as ourself.

O Dayspring, brightness of eternal Light and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.  Amen.

O Clavis David (Key of David)

O come, O Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Christ as the Key of David opens the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven and judges if we belong there or not.  No one gets to the Father, except through Christ, the narrow gate.  So hot do we get past the narrow gate? How do we enter through Christ?

1) Faith
Faith in God is the fundamental virtue.  Without faith what's the point?  There is none.  But I pose a more important question: what do we need to have faith in?  The resurrection of Christ from the dead! This is central to the Gospel!  The resurrection of Christ IS the Good News!  If Christ didn't raise from the dead he would only be another great figure with a good philosophy.  But Christ is so much more than that.  HE IS GOD MADE MAN!! THE KING OF KINGS!! THE SON OF GOD!!  He died on the cross, killed by sin, and conquered death by rising from the dead and not sits at the right hand of God the Father.

2) Love
St. Paul tells us that without love we are nothing.  We are called to Love as Christ loved.  Christ gave his life for our redemption.  Jesus tells us that there is no greater love than to give your life for your friends.  While Faith is the fundamental virtue...Love is the greatest virtue.

3) Hope
But hope in what?  If we have faith in the Good News that Christ defeated death by rising from the dead then surly we will do the same as he promised us.  So what do we hope for?  We hope, and pray, for Gods mercy.  We are a sinful people who do many stupid and selfish things and we hope that our hearts are contrite enough to seek forgiveness through the Sacrament of Penance and be welcomed by Christ, the Key of David, into the Kingdom of God!

O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel: you open and no one shuts; you shut and no one opens.  Come and lead forth from his prison the captive sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.  Amen