Current events

Immigration, our Catholic faith, the present moment

Most of the people about to be deported and rounded up into camps are our fellow Catholics; people who are praying their rosaries scared to death. Our people. When the U.S. invaded Mexico Irish mercenaries were brought in to fight with the U.S.. But when they saw the flag of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the other side they refused to fight their fellow Catholics. They’re known as the San Patricios or The Saint Patrick Brigade, of 1846. I’ve been reflecting on their celebrated legacy in the wake of the protection of our churches as sanctuaries has been taken away.

We all need to think about how we will respond to possible raids during holy mass. What will you do?

Our Holy Father has said the way we treat migrants and refugees is as important as the way we treat the unborn. The Scripture says we must treat the alien as our native born and not persecute or oppress them. (Lv. 19: 33-34) The Catechism teaches us that they are to be treated in such a way as respects their human dignity, and with compassion.

The Church understands we can’t accept everyone who comes to us asking for asylum but that we should always treat them with empathy and understanding regardless. Catholics believe in the unconditional dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God. Jesus says whatever we do to the lowly we do to him. (Matt. 25:40)

The following are quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the topics of migration and immigration.

¶1911: Internal quote is from Gaudium et Spes: “The unity of the human family, embracing people who enjoy equal natural dignity, implies a universal common good. This good calls for an organization of the community of nations able to provide ‘for men’s different needs, both in the fields of social life—such as food supplies, health, education, labor and also in certain special circumstances which can crop up here and there, e.g., the need to promote the general improvement of developing countries, or to alleviate the distressing conditions in which refugees dispersed throughout the world find themselves, or also to assist migrants and their families. to alleviate the distressing conditions in which refugees dispersed throughout the world find themselves, or also to assist migrants and their families.’”

¶2211: “The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially… the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate.”

¶2241: “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.”

¶2433: “Access to employment and to professions must be hope to all without unjust discrimination; men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants. For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment.”

We may be having a moment here; a moment when God is asking us to stand up even though it’s scary. Everyone worries about the reputation of the Church. We have made our mistakes, often because of that worry. But we know what is right. I hope we won’t blow this and let this moment pass us by. We haven’t always stood up when we should have. We always worry about the balance between appeasing authority to effect change or avoid interference in our affairs, and being faithful to our mission and our call to radical love and to “speak truth to power” as some say. I hope our leaders won’t just straddle the fence. In some of what’s going on we will have to pick a side. Let it be the side of the lowly, the persecuted and the oppressed, the stranger, the immigrant, the refugee.

A friend asked, “I wonder how many of them are named Jesus’. “

“All of them,” I said.

January 26, 2025 0

Take refuge in prayer and service on Inauguration Day

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

This post is for those of us for whom the 2025 Inauguration of our incoming president will be a day of grief, or at least a difficult day.

I am very very sad for my country too and worried as well as I have said before. I am horrified by the ugliness and hate this administration is already unleashing into society – bringing out the worst in all of us.

Here are my survival plans for January 20.

I am not watching the inauguration, not in any way. In fact I’m not listening to the news at all that day. Spiritual reading or audio book sounds a lot better.

I plan to celebrate MLK whose day it is. I can do this by being grateful for him, by posting about him, by reading some of his writings, by talking about him with my family, especially with my grandchildren. Locally we have an MLK day March that because of weather will be a caravan this year. We plan to join it.

If you’re home for the MLK holiday then you can make this a mini retreat day for yourself to recharge and put on the armor of God

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“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Ephesians 6:11-17

Pray. Because when we pray we are truly putting more love into the world , in whatever way we choose to pray. If we pray with love and attentiveness God will work through us in secret and powerful ways; our soul becomes a door of grace for the movement of divine love into this world. We don’t have to say anything. We only bring ourselves to God with an open heart. He will only do what is right.

So pray in whatever way you can. Pray as much as you can.

I plan to dedicate my actions that day and any suffering I feel or any happiness, all my thoughts words and experiences of the day, to the cause of truth and justice and right. God knows what those truly are so I don’t even have to be specific.

Next, make this a day of service. Do a good deed. Make a connection with someone. You can pick up trash in your neighborhood. Perform a random act of kindness. Volunteer at a local charity. Spend some time really listening to a child and let them lead the conversation or the activity of their choice. Kids remember things like that. Do someone else’s chores. Pay it forward at a drive through. Give someone flowers. Ask a homeless person how they are. You know what to do.

I also think at least for that day Philippians 4:8 has excellent advice for what to keep in mind. I’m going to try to master my thoughts and put that verse into action.

“Finally, brothers, sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Philippians 4:8

I plan to listen to beautiful music and also to take refuge in poetry. I’ve been reading a lot of poetry lately.

Make good use of that dark day of worry fear and grief. Make it something beautiful for God and for others, for yourself.

It’s like putting flowers in guns I think. Only these flowers are able to bring about the change they represent.

This is it y’all. Let’s prepare ourselves with prayer, with beauty, with acts of service, with peace. That’s our real refuge.

January 17, 2025 0

Accept in order to Resist

I, like many, have been struggling with acceptance since Nov. 5th. Ive been thinking HOW are we, how am I, going to make it through this? I’ve made some plans, thought of some things to do to assist others who will be most affected. But I realized that one thing that could help is acceptance. It sounds obvious but sometimes it takes me a while to realize that I am in non- acceptance – which is the most painful, sticky place to be. If stuck in a glue trap or a spiders web, struggle only impedes escape. I – and we- have a lot of work to do, a lot coming that we will have to deal with. If you are familiar with AA and Al-Anon maybe you will recognize this:

“The level of my Serenity is directly proportional to the level of my acceptance.” – Alcoholics Anonymous, The Big Book

We should not accept what is evil, thats not what I’m saying. But for me it’s been hard to accept that this is where we are. Trump is here along with his clown car of malignant crazies. Yes they are cruel and destructive and authoritarian, racist, “Christian” nationalist, anti planet, sexist -etcetera etcetera, everything horrible. They are. But until I can quit being shocked every day by the awful things they say and do I can’t be very useful and I certainly will be emotionally drained. I’m chuckling a little thinking of how the Twelve Steps of AA would sound applied to Trump but maybe the idea of acceptance and sorting out areas of powerlessness from areas of responsibility and possibility is a pretty good idea.

Sometimes I listen to a spiritual speaker named Tara Brach. She is Buddhist but her talks can apply to anyone. She talks about having a heart ready for anything. To have that you need acceptance of the fact of what’s here. This is here. It “belongs” so to speak. Here we are. Am I going to go into this kicking and screaming? Or can I relax and untangle the web, roll out of the glue trap, and be open to what the Spirit is asking of me in these times ? I suspect there will be many glue trap days. But I can return to the first three steps of the twelve:

That I am powerless over the fact that for the next four years this is our government, yes, of madmen. Here they are. And I admit that my inner life has become unmanageable because of my reaction to this fact.
I believe that a power greater than myself can restore me to sanity.
I become willing to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand him.

I think the 11th step is a big part of this too: I seek “through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God, praying only for the knowledge of his will for me and the power to carry it out.”

I do think intercessory prayer is going to be extremely important in what we are about to encounter. So I’m adding that of course, to my 11th step plans.

Sometimes the only way out is through. So let’s go through. And let’s do it with love.

And let’s remember this is also the Jubilee Year of Hope and we are Pilgrims of Hope.

Hate did not win. Love has not died. It never will. And we belong to love. Lies cannot become truth. They never will. And we belong to truth. Our country has not been overcome by darkness. Because our country has us.

January 14, 2025 0

Pilgrims of Hope

On Christmas Eve the Holy Father knocked on a normally sealed (with bricks) door in St. Peter’s Basilica and gave it a push. Symbolically and ceremonially the holy door was opened wide, ushering in the Jubilee Year of Hope for the whole world so in need of it now.

The holy door represents Christ, who said, “I am the gate,” and “I am the Way.” He is our door, his heart open wide in welcome, beckoning for us to step in to him, to open the doors of our hearts as well, to him, and to others.

This door and this holy year are not merely a symbol and a theme, not only a call from the Pope to renew and intensify our faith, to remember hope and to give hope, though they are those things too. Something very real is happening here, a release, a flood of grace from the treasury entrusted to the Church by Jesus, and to Peter who can unlock and lock, release and forgive.

Veteran Vatican journalist Gerard O’Connell described on the podcast “Inside the Vatican,” being present for the opening of the holy door for the jubilee year 2000 by Pope St. John Paul II. He said we often talk about “ being in the now” but this felt “beyond the now.” I think he was talking about a transcendent present. “Like being in another dimension” he said. I think that sense he had points to the truth of what is actually happening as the Church opens these holy doors all over the world.

Pope Francis urges us to remember that we are a people of hope, a people on a journey, and we have confident assurance that we are on the road with and to Christ. We know where we are going though we cannot see it with our eyes.

He also asks that we turn and give hope to others who need food, shelter, freedom, human dignity, people under relentless attack in war, the refugee and the migrant, the prisoner, the poor.

He is speaking not just to individuals but to nations, urging them to work for peace and to protect human life and dignity. He calls for rich nations to forgive the crippling and impossible debts of the poor ones. He asks for the richer nations to be mindful also of ecological justice for poorer countries as well.

He wants to see restorative justice for prisoners emphasized more than the punitive emphasis we tend to favor. Francis went so far as to open a holy door in a prison (that leads to their prison chapel) and asks that society help these people have hope for their lives beyond prison.

We are called to works and an approach of mercy for all of these brothers and sisters in need of hope

We can also take advantage of the mercy and grace of this holy year by making a pilgrimage. Most of us can’t get to Rome but each diocese will announce pilgrimage sites closer we can journey to.

Here are the ones for the Diocese of Austin. For pilgrimage sites near you check your Diocesan website.

St. Mary Cathedral, Austin
Holy Cross Parish, Austin
Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Parish, Austin
Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Temple
Our Lady of Wisdom University Parish @ Texas State University, San Marcos
Santa Cruz Parish, Buda
St. Joseph Parish, Bryan
St. Mary Church of the Assumption Parish, Waco
St. Mary Catholic Center @ Texas A&M University, College Station
St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish, Lampasas
University Catholic Center @ University of Texas, Austin

In order to receive an indulgence:

Visit and Pray at a Pilgrimage Site
Perform a work of mercy or penance
Recitation of specific prayers (If you are homebound and cannot participate in pilgrimage)

We can apply this grace and mercy of the Jubilee Year to our beloved dead to help them in their journey through eternity, for their purification. This is commonly called a “plenary indulgence.” We share spiritual goods with the dead and with the living in the Communion of Saints. So we can access the special graces of the Holy Year for ourselves as well as others.

Another thing a plenary indulgence does is release us from temporal punishment for sins that have already been forgiven. In current parlance you could think of this as the antidote to “what goes around comes around.”

This is also a year for repentance and penance. We can take advantage of the grace of this holy year by returning to confession, making amends to anyone we have hurt, amending our lives, beginning again.

It’s a year of reconciliation and forgiveness. Any forgiveness we are holding back, this year we should let go. Forgive everyone, everyone. Don’t let anything anyone detain you on your way to Christ.

We are Pilgrims of Hope. There is a renewal of Christian Joy afoot! Grab your pilgrim’s staff, put on your pilgrim’s shoes. Let’s go!

December 29, 2024 0

Holy Innocents

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the toddlers and babies killed by Roman soldiers at Herod’s orders after Joseph fled to Egypt with Jesus and Mary.

I have never liked the traditional way of describing these kids as martyrs. A martyr chooses death rather than betraying Christ. Little children suffer and die before the age of consent and from the terrible things adults do.

I also am not sure abortion is exactly the best modern comparison to what happened that day. As far as we know the tiny innocents in their mother’s womb do not have consciousness yet. I imagine them, at least early on, as in a dreamlike bliss, violently but quickly disturbed and ended by abortion. Abortion is violent and tragic in several ways. However, as Pat Benatar sang, “Hell is for children.”

This is a good day to pray for children around the world who suffer the violence and callousness of adults, especially from state sponsored terror and genocide where there is no safety, no relief, where parents cannot protect them, such as in Gaza where parents write their children’s names on their limbs in case they are killed so they can be identified, where children are orphaned, maimed, under the rubble, starving, sometimes being operated on without anesthesia if they are lucky enough to find care at all. Surely their blood cries out to the Lord. We all know the outrageous numbers. Hell is for children.

Ukrainian children suffer war as well, and I am struck by the fact that Russia is taking the children away from their parents and into Russia. It reminds me of our child separation policy during the last Trump administration; something a lot of us lost sleep over, protested but felt powerless to stop. The damage to those little ones is profound and many of them were sexually abused as well, or never reunited with their families. It’s a method of torture I believe, to do this to kids and their parents. Some of those children were nursing babies.

In many countries life is so dangerous or poverty is so great that parents are forced to flee with their children to find safety or go where life is possible only to be rebuffed and unwanted, subjected to detention or camps or sent back to the dangers they fled after an often long and dangerous journey.

In Sudán, famine threatens and children die of malnutrition as parents look on helplessly. This is happening in so many countries.

I haven’t heard what life is like for the children of Haiti as their country descends further into chaos, violence, and gang rule.

We know children are forced to fight and kill in parts of the world. Children are trafficked and live lives of nightmarish abuse.

Children are abused in their churches, schools, and families and too often the abusers are protected instead of the children.

And here in America, the leading cause of death for our children is gun violence. .

These are things adults have done or conditions the world of adults have created that massacre the souls minds and bodies of children who deserve safety and love, freedom to be kids. These are the holy innocents of our time.

This is overwhelming. What are we supposed to do? Jesus was stern about any harm done to little ones.

We need to be a part of lessening their suffering, advocating for them, of challenging the structural sin of our world, and the wrong headedness of the powers that be. Nothing will change if we don’t.

Hell is for children, but we are allied with Heaven and we hold the gift of prayer given to us by God. As we stand up for children and help as we can, God makes our prayers and actions big and far reaching. We can be everywhere he is, holding frightened children, drying tears, giving strength, transforming the world.

Holy Spirit, we pray for the Holy Innocents of our time and we dedicate this day to them. You are the comforter and the giver of life, the one who strengthens, uplifts, transforms, the Spirit of Love and Truth, Father of the Poor. Make your way through this world bringing light and nourishment and peace. Make us repent of the sins of the world and show us what we must do. Guide our prayer for every child everywhere in need of rescue and relief of sorrow and fear. May our leaders prioritize the needs and rights of children to safety and freedom and family life.

Bless every little heart on earth on this day of the Innocents.

December 28, 2024 1

A reign like no other

Our king is not a king of this world who has to seek or cling to power. He would never scrabble for control of others. He did not seek wealth. He did not fight for victory over anyone, or use force on anyone who disagreed with him. Everyone was and is free to walk away or to take on his gentle yoke.

When asked to show force or use vengeance he refused. When asked to punish someone, the ones who asked ended up walking away in silence, contemplating their own sins.

He was clear about who he was but he never had to brag about anything. Why would he? He was quietly in charge of every star, every atom, every quark, every beetle, every galaxy. His spirit upheld all things. “I am that I am” God told Moses when he asked him his name. He just Is.

And he knew who he was.

When Pilate asked Jesus if he was a king Our Lord’s answer showed us we didn’t understand the kind of king he really was.

Our worldly minds, even as his followers, still find it hard to understand someone who has absolute power but instead chooses dusty feet and sacrificial love.

Can you imagine a mosquito landing on you and biting you? And instead of smacking the mosquito you die for it to save it? We are less than mosquitos given the scale of creation and the absolute power of God. But we are everything to him because he loves us, each one like the only one.

What kind of king is Christ? The kind of king who is infinite but makes himself small for us so we can be friends. The kind of king who washes our feet, shares his rule with us for the small exchange of our love. Indeed we are crowned with the stars in his eyes when he looks at us. He makes us like himself, he lifts us up, he washes our feet, feeds us, dresses us in his own bright finery.

What does this kind kind of Christly kingship mean for us? He summed up his expectations of us by saying “love one another as I have loved you.” He would have us love humbly, sacrificially and completely. He said that if we had authority in this world we should never lord it over those in our charge. He never did. He didn’t have to. It means that we should be grounded in the dignity he gives each of us, in his gift of free will, his unfathomable and tender humility. We reflect his heart, keeping him always at the center seeing with his eyes.

I heard in a homily once from Bishop Bill Wack that 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 could be taken to describe the Lord. We know God is love. So we just read the passage replacing the word love with his name.

“Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not proud. He does not dishonor others, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

Jesus never fails.”

To see how you are doing following this King of ours, go back now and this time put your name in in place of “Love.”

I think we all have a way to go. It’s a good thing we have him to help us.

How can we serve a King like this one? A king who washes feet? Who gives freely? Who rules by love and asks for nothing else?

By washing feet, by giving freely, being ruled by love alone.

November 24, 2024 0

How to love in troubled times; St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

How to love in troubled times; St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

August 9, 2024 1

Corpus Christi and a cautionary note about blasphemy

Today is Body and Blood of Jesus Sunday, otherwise known as the feast of Corpus Christi ♥️ So happy feast.

This is a good time to reflect on the humility of God who became incarnate and remains with us as simple Bread and Wine for us to eat and drink, sharing in our humanity that we might share in his Divinity. There is one Lord who suffered and died for us and we take part in his redemption of all when we suffer with that intention; of uniting our suffering to his in union with his mission of salvation, mercy and love. Under those conditions we can say someone is suffering with Christ or in a way that Jesus did. We can also say he suffers in the poor, the oppressed and those in the margins of society as he said he did in the Gospel of Matthew. That’s it. Anything else is blasphemous. We should keep our eyes on the sinless Son of God who deserves all of our love. One God one faith one baptism. He is God and there is no other.

I’m writing about this because it’s disturbing to see pictures of Trump “crucified” with Jesus or Jesus “embracing” Trump and whispering that he too was wrongly convicted. To me this is an insult to the martyrs who deserve that consolation. We Christians understand that their unjust deaths were for their faith, for their love of God and were their sacrifice for the Gospel.

Trumps’s conviction is not a situation like that whether one believes he is guilty or not. That’s almost beside the point.

Yes God loves the powerful the rich and political figures too and cares about them just as he does the rest of us. However I think there is an innate danger both spiritual and secular in comparing a political figure to Jesus. Let us rather pray for our leaders that they will be what God wants them to be and created them to be. What more could we ask for anyone? Let’s stick with that. We can never go wrong in praying for God’s will. He will give what is right – and only he truly knows what that is.