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Not your Grandmother’s Adoration

In the last six months, three different friends, two who were newly dating, and one whose relationship was getting more serious mentioned that recent dates had included a visit to Adoration!  And what is more interesting, Adoration was the suggestion of the guy.  Date night Adoration. Who knew? Just last week, Sarah Yaklic, the coordinator of young adult ministry was sharing with me that the number of young adults coming to our monthly Adoration is increasing. Two different generations of Catholics are rediscovering the grace of Adoration. Growing up I thought Adoration was strictly for grandmothers, then it seemed to have disappeared from parish life.  But it’s back!

At Home with the Lord

For me, Adoration is the experience of being “at home”with the Lord. My parents moved into the house in which I was raised a week before I was born and they lived in the house for 45 years. When they were ready to move, my brother and his wife bought the house and so today, it remains in my family. When I visit, I love to walk through each room, though different then when I was living there, it feels like “home” in a way no other place I have lived has felt.  For me, Adoration is the spiritual experience of home. Sitting in the presence of the Lord, feeling completely myself with the Lord, allowing that presence to fill me.

A few years back, I discovered a homily on the story of Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary, in which Augustine talks about the meaning of Mary choosing the better part. Augustine points out that Mary, sitting  at the feet of the Lord  prefigures the experience of heaven. In heaven there will be no more work or service in the name of the Lord, we will live in the presence of the Lord and we will “be”  rather than “do.” Augustine suggests that for many of us, this may come as a shock, that we  may need to learn how to be with Our Lord.  Augustine had my number! I decided that I needed to practice the prayer of being. Now, if  it has been awhile since I have made a visit, I miss it, the way I miss quality time with a good friend. Luckily, this Lent, all over the archdiocese, parishes are offering Adoration.

The Light is On for You

Beginning Wednesday, our annual The Light is On Campaign begins. In all of our churches, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Confession will be offered. In many of our churches, there will also be Adoration.  In the words of Pope Benedict XVI, The Lord is present, watching and waiting for us to come into his presence.  Adoration in an invitation to be with the Lord. For many of our parishes,  Adoration is also a regular part of parish life. If you would like to find a parish near where you live or work that has regular Adoration, contact my office at stimoney@adw.org and we will help you find one.

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"Release me from the chains that hold me back"

Entrusted to the Archdiocese of Washington

Today’s station church is significant for the Church of Washington. This past November, Pope Benedict XVI entrusted St. Peter in Chains, situated in the heart of Rome, to Cardinal Wuerl as his titular church. I had the great honor of being the acolyte at today’s Mass. Chris Seith, a Washington seminarian in his first year at the North American College, was the lector.

Two of the church’s treasures brought me to reflect on the meaning and importance of freedom in Christ. The statue of Moses and chains of Peter remind me to allow God to free me, helping me overcome the slavery of sin and self-centeredness in my heart this Lent.

A marble statue of Moses, a masterpiece by Michelangelo, sits prominently on the right side of church. The marble Moses sits majestically – powerfully muscular, bearded, and ready to take on any obstacle standing in the way of God’s people. Just as Moses led his people from the clutches of slavery, so we should follow Jesus who will lead us out of our slavery to sin.

Proclaim the Gospel of Christ

Secondly, hanging in a glass case below the high altar, one can see and venerate the chains that give the church its name. Peter, the first pope, was thrown into prison and locked in these chains. What was his crime? He was spreading the Gospel and its message of freedom in Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 12:7), we read about Peter’s miraculous rescue by an angel who released him from these chains. The passage says, “And behold an angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shined in the room. And he, striking Peter on the side, raised him up, saying: Arise quickly. And the chains fell off from his hands.” Peter was released so that he could boldly proclaim the message of Christ and continue to spread the Gospel throughout the Empire.

Looking upon those chains and reflecting on the heroism of Peter and Moses, I prayed that God would release me from the chains that hold me back from proclaiming his Word and following him in true freedom. I pray that you, reader, have that experience of freedom from the chains of sin this Lent. I ask that you pray that I receive the grace of this freedom as well.

Blog By: Patrick Lewis

Photos by Fr. Justin Huber

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Mercy for All

A youth minister once shared with me how he had led a group of young people in song outside a high security prison. After some time, hands were seen sticking wet pieces of toilet paper on the prison wall’s small slit windows. Letters began to emerge, then a complete message. It read: “Pray for us.” “We went to visit our brothers in prison,” the speaker explained to me, “because Jesus was a prisoner too.”

As I listened to this, I recalled another conversation, this time with a parish volunteer. Her pastor had asked her arrange for parish children to stuff Christmas goody bags of toiletries for local inmates. She was appalled at this suggestion and flatly refused. Those people were being punished for their crimes, she insisted; they didn’t deserve any goody bags.

What a contrast between these two people. Both are committed Catholics. Yet they held very different attitudes about the exercise of mercy. In today’s gospel, Jesus makes clear what he wants our attitude to be. He spoke of prisoners, the sick, the poor, and strangers in our midst – people we might be tempted to judge, condemn, dismiss, ignore, or neglect out of selfishness, indifference, and hardness of heart. Yet Jesus refers to them as his brothers, and explained that we serve him when we serve them. His challenge to us today, then, is to extend mercy to others, just as he has showered his mercy upon us.

Readings for today’s Mass: http://www.usccb.org/nab/031411.shtml
Photo Credit: amandabhslater via Creative Commons

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Putting Jesus to the Test

One Mardi Gras, Today Show personality Al Roker was broadcasting from New Orleans. He had before him a traditional Mardi Gras king cake, in which is hidden a small baby Jesus. Whoever finds Jesus in his or her slice of cake at a party is declared king or queen for the day, and is expected to bring another king cake to the next Mardi Gras party. As Al Roker was explaining this, he was slicing the king cake before him, looking for the little baby Jesus. As time wore on, he began to slice and chop at his cake with increasing frustration. With a note of mock panic in his voice he exclaimed: “I can’t find the baby Jesus!” When he finally did find it, the cake had been reduced to a crumbled mess. Needless to say, this was not one of Al Roker’s finer moments.

Today’s gospel account of the temptations of Jesus shows how easy it is for us to be unable to find Jesus, or even lose him altogether. When we read the temptation story, it’s natural for us to identify with Jesus, because we’re all familiar with being tempted. But have we ever placed ourselves in the devil’s shoes? We should, because most of us, at one time or another, will make the same demand of Jesus that the devil did, by insisting that he prove himself.

The devil began each of his three temptations by saying to Jesus: “If you are the Son of God…” These were the same words used by mocking bystanders as Jesus hung dying on the cross. But haven’t these same words come from our own mouths? When we’ve been frustrated or in trouble, haven’t we said, “If you are the Son of God, fix my problem now?” Or when Jesus seems to be absent from some situation, like a terrible disaster, haven’t we said, “If you are the Son of God, why did you let this happen?” And when our faith is shaken, and we wonder if Jesus even exists at all, haven’t we said: “If you really are the Son of God, you’d better show yourself more clearly than you’re doing now!”

Throughout his ministry, people were always complaining that Jesus never did enough to show who he really is. Throughout history, we Christians have continued to make the same complaint. So we put Jesus to the test. We ask him to jump through hoops. We throw down the gauntlet, and condition our faith and discipleship upon a set of conditions that we lay out. Jesus needs to play by our rules.

Whenever we fall into this trap, we will lose Jesus. We may seek for him, but we will not find him. We’ll be like Al Roker, frantically chopping at our king cake, but unlike Al Roker, Jesus will not be revealed to us.  In his book, Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict writes: “The arrogance that would…impose our laboratory conditions upon (God) is incapable of finding him. For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him. To think like that is to make oneself God.” And isn’t that what the devil wants us to do? Isn’t that what he tempted Eve to do in the Garden of Eden? “Eat this apple,” he hissed, “and you will be like God.”

Now, sometimes the demands we make of Jesus are simply expressions of our fear, frustration, and confusion. Jesus understands that. He knows that we are weak. At the same time, he wants us to appreciate that he was weak as well. Yes, as the Son of God he possesses unlimited, almighty power. And while he was on earth, people wanted him to demonstrate this power all the time. They wanted him to crush their enemies and fix all their problems. They wanted him to use power like the world likes to use power. But Jesus came among us in weakness, not in power. He became weak to share our weakness and save us from the mess our weakness has made. That’s why people got so frustrated with him. That’s why we too can get so frustrated with him. If we had a choice, we wouldn’t want to see Jesus on a cross. We’d want to see him on a throne! But that’s for the end of time. Not now.

Sometimes we just don’t want Jesus to be Jesus. We want him to be our kind of Jesus. Not the kind of Jesus he really is. Which isn’t really fair, if you think about it. Most of us want other people to know and understand us for who we really are. We want other people to let us be ourselves! But do we try to understand Jesus for who he really is? Do we try to let Jesus be who he really is? When we don’t, we again find ourselves in the devil’s shoes. The devil tempted Jesus to be someone other than the real Jesus. He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and promised that they could all be his if he would only fall down and worship him. Yet if Jesus were to do that, he would be denying that he is God’s Son. He would be denying himself. But Jesus was true to himself. He always is. And we need to accept that.

This is perhaps the greatest challenge that the temptations of Jesus place before us. They teach us that we’re not to make demands of Jesus; we’re to embrace his demands of us. We’re not to place ourselves above Jesus; we’re to humble ourselves beneath him. We need to let Jesus be Jesus, and not remake him in our image. And we need to follow Jesus, not along a path of worldly power, but the godly path of weakness, sacrifice, and trust. Should we do this, we’ll never have to frantically search for an elusive Jesus. He’ll always be there, at our side.

Readings for today’s Mass: http://www.usccb.org/nab/031311.shtml

Photo credits (top to bottom): Mikebdoss, enanon, and Carulmare via Creative Commons.

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Walking in the Footsteps: Persistent Prayer

Monica said, “There was indeed one thing for which I wished to stay a while in this life, and that was to see you a Catholic Christian.”

… And when we were at Ostia on the Tiber, my mother died.

                              (St. Augustine, Confessions, Book IX)

After pursuing her son, Augustine, from Africa to Italy and seeing him convert to Christianity in 386, it was almost as though Monica’s purpose in life had been fulfilled. Hardly a year later, she took ill in Ostia (a seaport outside of Rome)and died there, never returning to her home in Africa. Her remains were eventually laid to rest in the church of San Agostino here in Rome, and it is to this church – run, naturally, by the Augustinian fathers – that our Lenten pilgrimage takes us today.

As I watched many of our pilgrims cluster around Monica’s tomb to pray after Mass, I couldn’t help but admire her story and reflect how much her intercession is needed today. I would guess that many of the pilgrims were praying for someone they knew, some “Augustine-in-waiting”: a family member who had drifted away from, or even outright rejected, Christ and his Church.

Monica: A model of  Persistent Prayer

Monica watched her son’s spiritual wanderings in sadness and in frustration, but never in despair. She prayed constantly for his return to the faith – and of course, she was not shy in letting him know about it! So often did her prayers for Augustine end in weeping that her bishop once assured her, “It is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.” And indeed, Augustine’s conversion to Christianity would give the Church not only a devout believer, but one of the most brilliant theologians that Christianity has ever known. Before Monica’s tomb, I offered a prayer for our families – yours and mine – and for all those spiritual wanderers whom God, this Lent, is lovingly seeking out in ways they do not yet know.

Pilgrim Profile

Among the 200-odd pilgrims at today’s station church was Mary Breed from Mclean, Virginia, visiting Rome for a few days with her husband Jerry. I caught her just outside St. Monica’s chapel. Mary heard about the station church devotions from a friend who had lived in Rome, and leaped at the chance to hear Mass in English rather than in Italian! She was very moved by the number of pilgrims and especially seminarians who were present at today’s Mass – “We are praying for you seminarians all the time,” she encouraged me. By coincidence (or providence?) Mary has a deep personal devotion to St. Monica and was grateful to be able to ask her, “in person” as it were, to intercede for family and friends, as well as for some girls Mary knows who share Monica’s name.

Post by Seminarian, Aaron Qureshi (pictured in photo)

Photos by Fr. Justin Huber

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Walking in the Footsteps:San Giorgio

Guest blogger Chris Seith and photographer, Fr. Justin Huber guide us through San Giorgio:

Today, the English-speaking pilgrims walked to San Giorgio for the second day of Lent.  For those of us at the Pontifical North American College, we began our trek at 6:15 in the morning, walking alongside the Tiber River as the sun rose.  The location towards which we were headed has been used by Christians since the late fifth century.  Originally, the location was used as a center for social services and was later turned into a church in the ninth century.  The Saint it commemorates was a popular martyr during the Diocletian Persecution, the bloodiest persecution of the early Church lasting from the late third century until the year 311.  This Saint inspired many soldiers to remain courageous while they struggled to follow Christ.  He is also an inspiring Saint for the seminarians at the Pontifical North American College who hope to lay down their lives for Christ as Saint George did.  The church is connected to another inspiring figure as well.  San Giorgio was the titular church of the newly beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman.

The readings for today connect us in a particular way to the witness of the martyrs.  In Deuteronomy, Moses tells us, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, then…”  With these words, Moses reminds the Israelites of the great gift of life which God has given them.  No doubt this seemed strange for a people wandering through the desert with no relief in sight.  Much like many in our time, the Israelites doubted the beauty of life amidst their many sufferings.  Yet in the Gospel, Jesus offers clarity by telling us that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”  Our Lord offers a new perspective on life and invites us today to reconsider the grace of our Baptism.  Through this Sacrament, we have become sons and daughters of God.  God sees us as having died with Christ and risen with Him.  Therefore, when we embrace our daily crosses out of love for God, we live the reality of our Baptism by sharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Suffering, then, is not a hindrance to living life abundantly but is rather the very means by which we do so.  When we unite ourselves to Him who is Love, life reclaims its original magnificence and beauty no matter what situation we find ourselves in.

Learn more at Church:  http://www.pnac.org/station-churches/week-of-ash-wed/thursday-after-ash-wednesday-san-giorgio/

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Follow in the Right Direction

An old joke asks: Why did Moses and the Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years? Because they didn’t ask for directions!

We’re on a journey too – not of 40 years, but 40 days of Lent – and proper direction is just as important for us. Consider today’s gospel: Jesus invites us to carry crosses. Those crosses are the suffering that enters every human life. Jesus stresses, however, that when we bear a cross, we’re to “follow him.” That’s our proper direction.

If we take off in a different direction, and follow a path different than our Lord’s, we’ll wind up exhausted, resentful, and alone. Chances are we won’t get very far, because our cross will become too heavy to bear.

But when we do follow Jesus, we’ll be given the courage we need to carry on, and a strength that can only come as God’s gift. We’ll have the consolation of seeing Jesus’ footsteps before us, or even planted right alongside ours. Because if there’s one thing his own cross can teach us, it’s that Jesus doesn’t want us to carry our crosses alone.

Readings for today’s Mass: http://www.usccb.org/nab/031011.shtml

Photo Credit: hlkljgk via Creative Commons

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Walking in the footsteps of the saints and martyrs of Rome

 

With the help of our seminarians and priests studying in Rome, we will be able to participate in one of the most ancient Lenten practices of the Roman Church. Dating back to the late second or early third century, the Bishop of Rome would celebrate Mass in parishes around the city. By the fifth century, there was a fixed calendar in place for the dates of those liturgies.

Today, it has become the practice of the North American College to “host” the English speaking stational churches liturgies. Each day Mass is also celebrated in German and Italian and for many years the Pope has celebrated the Ash Wednesday liturgy at the first of the stational churches. We begin our pilgrimage with a reflection by Patrick Lewis and photos by Fr. Justin Huber.

Santa Sabina

Today the Church begins Lent, the season of prayer, penance, and almsgiving that prepares Catholics for the coming of Easter. For seminarians and priests at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Ash Wednesday begins the pilgrimages to the station churches in Rome.

Seminarians and priests gathered early in the morning at the Pontifical North American College to make their trek out to Santa Sabina. The sacristans, masters of ceremonies, choir, lectors, and acolytes arrived at the quiet church early to ensure that everything was set up and the Mass was prepared to be celebrated with due reverence. I joined a small group of seminarians and a priest and headed out toward Santa Sabina around 5:45AM. Walking along the Tiber in the cold, brisk darkness of the morning, we prayed the rosary and quietly made our way to the church. As I headed up the cobbled-stoned street that goes up the Aventine Hill, the sun began to rise.

The entire community from the Pontifical North American College and Casa Santa Maria gathered for Mass at Santa Sabina, the first of the station churches. Many other English speakers joined the College for the Mass. Students who are studying abroad in Rome and other people from around the city joined us for Mass. The 6:45AM Mass was somber, as the community entered into this holy penitential season.

Santa Sabina has been a place of worship since early in the second century. St. Sabina, a Roman matron from the second century, lived at or near the sight of this church. According to tradition, Sabina was a widow who was converted to the faith by her slave, Seraphia. The current church was built in the fifth century. The church was remodeled many times. The priests and servers sit in a choir section walled off with a marble rail. Pillars line the massive structure. Tombs from throughout the history of the Church line the walls and floors. Saints and martyrs since the time of the early Church have prayed at this holy sanctuary.

Santa Sabina is a particularly powerful church in which to begin the Lenten season not only because it is the traditional Ash Wednesday church, but because of the treasures that are found there. For example, one of the doors to the entrance has a panel with a carved wooden image that is one of the oldest crucifixion scenes in existence. Also, a small casket underneath the high altar contains the relics of various martyrs, including Santa Sabina herself. The image of Christ crucified and the presence of the martyrs are a fitting reminder that we should offer ourselves completely to God, inviting him into our lives and withholding nothing from him this Lent.

For “New Men” who are experiencing their first Lent in Rome, the Mass at Santa Sabina was a powerful introduction to the richness of the Lenten tradition in Rome. For those of us who have studied in Rome for a few years, Ash Wednesday and the church of Santa Sabina will be forever linked in our memories. After the Mass, we left Santa Sabina with ash on our foreheads, to go out and recommit ourselves to the Lord this Lenten season.