Third Sorrowful Mystery

Living for God When No One Else Is

Great Science Fiction

I recently completed reading all seven books of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. It is considered one of the pillars of science fiction winning a Hugo Award for “Best All-Time Series” in 1996. Great science fiction contains elements of truth and reveal universal aspects of human nature. And while the Foundation series takes place in the distant future across galaxies, many of its themes will resonate with readers.

One of the main themes across most of the Foundation novels is the idea that nothing great lasts forever. In many of the books, the golden age of the empire is distant history or, in the earlier novels, is in a state of decay. Many characters notice that the empire grew too large to manage and maintain a high standard of living. One of the characters points out that infrastructure breaks and isn’t fixed. People lie, cheat, and steal because law and order has broken down. After a while, the citizens of the empire just stopped caring about doing what is right and instead try to take for themselves the empire’s dwindling resources.

Our Decaying Society

I think the United States, if not the world, is in a state of decline. Pick any city and you will see decay as governments and citizens no longer care about their neighborhoods or neighbors. As I said in my earlier post, society is growing courser as people turn inward. Civility and civic responsibility seem to be relics of the past. Many people don’t live for the betterment of their neighbors, but instead try to reap as much as they can for themselves no matter how unethical it may be. After all, why should we be held back by morality when no one else is?

The Rosary

We should meditate on the Third Sorrowful Mystery — The Crowning of Thorns. The fruit of this mystery is moral courage. Moral courage is what is lacking in today’s world. It involves deliberation and careful thought, rather than impulsive actions. When faced with doubts or fears about the potential outcomes, individuals exhibit moral courage by standing up for ethical principles. Essentially, moral courage is the willingness to do what is right, even when it’s difficult, risky, or unfashionable.

Jesus showed moral courage at his Passion. He chose what was right, doing God’s Will, even when he reaped no personal benefit from it. He knew that what he was preaching was going to get him into trouble with the Pharisees. But he understood that he had to proclaim the truth and do God’s Will even if it wasn’t popular. Contrast that with Peter who denied he knew Jesus because he was afraid of what people may do to him. In fact, all the apostles (except John) deserted Jesus when it was no longer fashionable to follow him.

We may look at Jesus’ example during the Passion and claim that of course he could be morally courageous. He was God Made Man after all. He knew he was going to rise from the dead. We have to remember that we too have that guaranteed afterlife as well. We won’t come back to this life as Jesus did, but we will spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell. The morally courageous person understands that and does the right thing. Because the world may not care what how you act, but God does.

Imitating Jesus

Are we showing moral courage and doing the right thing even when it’s unfashionable or no one cares? Do we resist the temptation to cheat, steal, or bend a few rules because no one is going to punish us in this life? Are we practicing our faith although the people around us are not? We may live in a decaying world. The good news is that we don’t have to live FOR this world. Our gaze should be on God’s Heavenly Kingdom. When we show moral courage, we show that our priority is on living for God instead of following fickle societal trends.

Three Articles on Faith, Courage, and Prayer

I’m going to give you a small glimpse of how I create content for RosaryMeds. When I read a book, news, or blog site, watch a video, or listen to a podcast, I get ideas on how the topic relates to the Rosary. I will then meditate and brainstorm on that topic for a week as I write drafts. However, sometimes I come across articles that I find interesting but cannot write a comprehensive article for them. I usually just read them and file them away for reference. But I’m going to try something new — write an article that includes short summaries of the various content I come across. I hope you find these articles useful and provide fuel for your prayers.

Trusting the Experts Is a Sign of Spiritual Decline – Crisis Magazine

This article discusses the dangers of “scientism” and the “technopoly” where we put our faith in so-called “experts” and technology instead of God. The author observes:

Instead of technology supporting and nurturing the values of society, technology itself reforms the values of society to revolve around it. Thus, all religious beliefs, symbols, and elements are hijacked and transferred from the supernatural realm to the technical realm. The god they serve does not speak of righteousness or goodness or mercy or grace. Their god speaks of efficiency, precision, objectivity. And that is why such concepts as sin and evil disappear in Technopoly. They come from a moral universe that is irrelevant to the theology of expertise…Sin and evil disappear because they cannot be measured and objectified, and therefore cannot be dealt with by experts.

Pray and meditate on the Fourth Luminous Mystery — The Transfiguration. The fruit of this mystery is the desire for holiness. We need to consecrate ourselves to God, not technology. It’s not that science and technology are inherently evil, but they can become false idols in our lives. We should stay focused on serving God and looking to him in all things regarding our souls.

Are We Willing to Defend Our Faith? – Crisis Magazine

This article talks about the need to defend our faith in the face of a culture that is antithetical to Catholic values. It calls out the Church hierarchy as being too accommodating of non-Catholic voices inside and outside the Church.

If Catholic conviction about Christ, grounded in history from the time of the first stirrings of the Church’s life on the day of Pentecost, is true—and therefore binding upon the faithful—then we’re all obliged to defend it. We shall have to answer before God Himself, in other words, on how well we have done in discharging our duty, which means upholding the dignity and identity of the Son of God.

The Third Sorrowful Mystery is The Crowning of Thorns whose fruit is Moral Courage. May God grant us the courage to defend Church teachings. God will help us live faithfully in a world that will attack us for it.

When Prayer IS the Distraction (catholicexchange.com)

This article talks about three ways we pray that really aren’t prayers. They are:

Telling God how good we are by telling Him our various good works.
Requesting the Lord for signs or trying to make deals with Him.
Asking God to justify or validate our actions.

We should contemplate Jesus’ actions at the Garden of Gethsemane in the First Sorrowful Mystery. This mystery is the epitome of mindful and faithful prayer. Jesus humbly asks for the strength to do God’s Will. There’s a request to have God find another way, but Jesus isn’t trying to negotiate with God. Jesus lays out his fears but also his confidence in God’s plan for him. When we think about this Rosary mystery, let’s imitate Jesus in our prayers.

Moral Courage vs. Pride this June

June is coming which means pride month in the USA. No matter where you go, you’ll be bathed in rainbow slogans. But this year, we’ll be subjected to even more propaganda as the “trans” movement will be piggybacking, if not taking the spotlight, of pride month.

This year, I challenge you to not patronize businesses that so aggressively market ideas and propaganda that go against our Catholic faith. We really have to ask ourselves what’s more important to us — our faith and values or cheap goods and entertainment?

Bye Bye Major League Baseball

Case and point. This year the LA Dodgers and Major League Baseball will be honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at one of their games. This is a group that gets attention pushing transgenderism by mocking the Catholic faith. If this group mocked any other religion as they do, they would be widely condemned as a hate group. But they are being honored and celebrated. Why? What does honoring this group or even having a “pride night” have to do with baseball? Seriously, would anyone have cared if a baseball game was just, you know, a baseball game?

I’m not supporting MLB or their advertisers as best I can. I love the game of baseball. I would like to spend a warm summer’s day with my family, hot dog and soda in hand, watching a game. But I cannot support an organization that clearly hates me and everything that is valuable to me. I can live without major league baseball. I can’t live without God’s grace.

See Ya Target!

Another company I won’t be patronizing is Target. They are aggressively marketing LGBTQ+ apparel. It will be front and center at all their stores. And the Target corporation seems to be doubling down on its anti-Catholic stance. The person who designed their pride apparel is a professed Satanist. She once said, “Satan respects pronouns.” It doesn’t get any more on the nose than that. I’m not going to give my money to a company that knowingly sides with evil forces to market dangerous propaganda to families and children.

Moral Courage

The fruit of the Third Sorrowful Mystery is moral courage. The Romans tortured and mocked Jesus during his Passion. But Jesus endured it because of his love of God and knowing the importance of doing his will. We too, must show moral courage. Mary will give us the strength, through her Rosary, to endure. God isn’t asking us to be martyrs, at least not in this case. He’s asking us to love him enough to abstain from supporting those entities that are attacking his Church.

Let’s make a statement this June. Saint Paul had his “road to Damascus” moment when he realized the error of his ways. If Catholics came together and really rejected companies that openly attack our values, we could force the modern-day road to Damascus moments for these companies. We can make it their “Bud Light” moment where they realize that it doesn’t pay to mock and attack their customers’ core values.

Don’t Give Satan an Opportunity

Do you know what it’s like to have a good idea or plan and then to see someone not follow it at their peril? For example, if you have kids then you’ve probably seen them go ten rounds fighting over something that could have been resolved with 30 seconds of conversation. When we don’t follow rules, we introduce so much unnecessary chaos. Well, I feel like the world is enduring so much self-imposed misery when the path to happiness and meaning is right there in front of us!

Christ Versus Satan

I recently read Father Robert Spitzer’s Christ Versus Satan in Our Daily Lives. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to boost their spiritual defenses. I’m not going to lie, it’s a scary book as it outlines all the ways Satan tries to control us. Fr. Spitzer discusses Satan’s tactics, demonic possession, and the eight deadly vices. He makes it clear that there are demonic forces at play in our lives waiting to attack the undefended.

There is, however, a sense of hope in the book. Try as Satan might, his powers are still bounded by God. Fr. Spitzer shows how Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the desert failed because he was no match for the power of God. We too can defeat Satan and resist temptation when we call on the protection of God. The problem is that many people do not call on God’s protection and invite Satan into their lives.

A World Falling Apart

I mention this book because it relates to what we see in our world. Our society has abandoned the values and principles that have protected us from evil. We are currently undergoing a radical, worldwide experiment of replacing values such as religion, family, and community with an almost “anything goes” attitude. And poll after poll shows us that people are feeling less happy and satisfied as a result.

Alarming Report: American Values Evaporating

If you read Fr. Spitzer’s book or just read Catholic doctrine, the erosion of society shouldn’t come as a shock. We open the doors to Satan’s control when we abandon God’s protection and seek fulfillment in worldly pursuits. Whether we admit it or not, we are spiritual beings with eternal souls with an innate sense of good and evil. And when we turn our back on the good, Satan will fill that void.

I’m not saying that the world was perfect in the past or that everyone who practiced a religious faith was an angel. After all, we fought horrific wars and people’s behaviors in their private lives weren’t anything to brag about. But I feel like we, as a society, knew what was right and wrong even when we failed to live up to them. We tried to steer our laws and behaviors toward the good. We’ve gone so far off the rails as a world now that we don’t acknowledge basic facts about human anatomy or basic ethical and moral principles that most religions, philosophies, and societies have recognized for thousands of years.

What is Truth?

Jesus’ scourging and crowning of thorns took place under the direction of Pontius Pilate. He notoriously asked Jesus, “What is truth?” He would have felt right at home in today’s world where everything can be doubted and explained away if it’s inconvenient. There are thousands of “Pilates” in our world condemning those who live by God’s Truth under the pretense that the truth is hurtful and bigoted. Like Pilate, so many people find it easier to dismiss truth and hence, dismiss God, because it is often hard to live up to.

Like Jesus falling under the cross in the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery, we will fall under the weight of sin. We can complain whenever we fall to sin about how unfair it all may seem. There are so many rules and restrictions that our crosses impose on us. Wouldn’t we be so much happier if we threw off the weight of religion and dismiss all her teachings on vice, sin, Satan, Heaven, and Hell?

The reality is we cannot pretend our crosses do not exist. Jesus didn’t magically make his cross disappear although he had the power to do so. He didn’t complain about how unfairly he was being treated during his Passion and Crucifixion. Let’s imitate Jesus and acknowledge God’s Truth and plan for us even if it’s hard for us to follow. Just because we fall short at times, doesn’t mean God is wrong and needs to be replaced with a truth that is easier to follow. Instead, God calls us to dig deep and find the strength to do his Will that he infused in all of us.

Why Abortion Activists Target Catholics

Why Catholics?

One of my goals for RosaryMeds is to draw connections between current events in the world and the mysteries of the Rosary. We do not pray the Rosary in a vacuum but in the context of world events. This is what makes the Rosary such a great and powerful prayer. The mysteries, while remaining the same, take on new meaning and value as the world and our individual situations change.

There is no event in greater need of our Rosary prayers right now than the pending Supreme Court decision in the United States of America that may transfer abortion law from the federal government to the state governments. The prospect of states being free to limit access to abortion has set off a firestorm of attacks against pro-life organizations. The largest target of these attacks is the Catholic Church. But why do pro-abortion activists direct so much rage toward the Church? This Catholic Exchange article, Why Abortion Attacks the Church and the Eucharist, sheds some light on that question.

Rosary Meditation

It’s time to get out those Rosary beads. The article alludes to the Third Sorrowful Mystery beautifully:

Abortion is a new crown of thorns for our Lord, as His innocent children are senselessly killed, the very people He came to save.

When I chose the Third Sorrowful Mystery as my mystery to focus on in 2022, I never thought we, the people of this world, would be adding so many figurative thorns to Jesus’ crown in such a short period of time. Every time we sin, attack, or dismiss Church teachings and God’s Truth, we weave new thorny stems into this crown. Let us pray the Third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary in sorrow for all the sins we commit against Christ our King.

We should also pray for the conversion of those who are attacking pro-life organizations and Catholic churches. Like the Roman soldiers who created a crown of thorns, I think many of these activists/terrorists don’t fully understand what’s going on. The soldiers and many of the Jews got caught up in mocking and then crucifying Jesus and probably didn’t give what they were actually doing much thought. I think the same goes for those who are attacking churches. They are being whipped up and acting without much thought on what exactly they’re doing.

The situation is going to get ugly in the near future for Catholics and pro-life advocates. Let us remember that things got ugly for Jesus too in his Passion. But all that ugliness eventually led to God’s glory. Let us continuously pray that the same happens to us.

Free Will and the Nature of Suffering

I’ve read many articles lately about suffering. It’s probably the cold, dark January weather that makes people dwell on the nature of suffering. Perhaps it’s the ending of Christmas celebrations that depress us a bit. Or maybe it’s that we’re going into year three of Covid craziness. Suffering is confusing. Why does suffering exist? Couldn’t God have created a universe where no one suffers?

I break down suffering into two broad categories. There’s the suffering brought about by nature often referred to as Acts of God. Think earthquakes, hurricanes, and typhoons. Or illnesses like cancer or Covid. Perhaps it’s more mental like depression or severe anxiety. I discussed this type of suffering in a previous article. We essentially attach ourselves so deeply to earthly comforts and the status quo that we suffer when something unexpected occurs.

Suffering By Our Actions

The second type of suffering is that brought about by decisions that either we or other people make. This type of suffering is essentially cause and effect such as:

Over eat = get sick
Don’t get enough sleep = feel tired
Get punched in the face = ouch!
Drive recklessly = crash
Insults and taunts = hurt feelings and sadness

Why did God give us free will knowing that such freedom would lead to self-inflicted suffering? Sometimes it feels like our lives would be better without so much freedom. How nice would it be if we couldn’t do anything that would hurt ourselves or others? But God didn’t do that. In His infinite wisdom, God made free will an essential part of His plan although He knew that it would lead to some suffering. He preferred a world with free will and some degree of suffering to one with no suffering and no free will at all. God’s perfect plan involves us to live in an imperfect world.

God desires us to be free above all else. He wants us to use that freedom and intellect to understand what is right and wrong. God set up the world so that we can see what is right and freely choose that course of action. God does not desire us to be slaves with no choice but to obey Him. Historically, it’s often the weak kings and leaders that resort to totalitarianism to keep people in line. But that is not what God desires. Good kings set up a kingdom where people will want to follow them. God, being King of the Universe, wants us to choose to honor and follow Him without coercion.

Unfortunately, we too often ignore what is good and use our free will to do the opposite. And that is where suffering creeps into our lives. We don’t follow our God-given intellect and commit sin. Suffering is the result of us choosing sin over following God.

Fortunately, our freedom swings both ways. We may choose to turn away from God but we can choose to return to Him, first through the Sacrament of Confession and then through the other sacraments. That is the beauty of free will — when we choose to honor God after choosing sin, He will always welcome us back. He doesn’t reject our choice to follow him nor does He hold a grudge.

Suffering in the Rosary

Let’s look at our 2022 featured Rosary mystery — The Crowning of Thorns. We have a choice to make every day — how will we honor God? Will we use our free will to make good decisions that bring us into closer communion with Him? Or will we dishonor Him through sin causing suffering? Jesus physically suffered when the Roman soldiers dishonored him by placing a crown of thorns on his head. We cause suffering when we dishonor Jesus by not seeing him in our brothers and sisters.

We need to choose our actions wisely. Much of the suffering in this world comes from peoples’ choices. With so much suffering at the hands of so many, it seems futile to think we can reduce it. I know I’ve said this story before, but when a fellow monk asked St. Francis what he could do to make the world more peaceful, St. Francis asked him to close the door softly. Basically, St. Francis was teaching that it’s the small choices and actions we make every day that affect our world. A world with less suffering starts with us choosing to honor God in all that we say and do.

Adam and Eve

Some of you astute Biblical scholars may ask what about the case of Adam and Eve? God designed a paradise for them. Wasn’t His design to have humans live with no suffering? I would argue that a world without suffering was the intent, not the design. For Adam and Eve to truly have free will, there would need to be a choice to make. Without choices, could one really claim to have free will? Furthermore, God created a world outside of the Garden of Eden; a world of hardship and toil. I think that God’s design included free will and consequences for not honoring His commandments as Adam and Eve unfortunately demonstrated. He didn’t desire Adam and Eve to suffer no more than he desires us to suffer. But like physics, our actions have reactions. Sin brings forth suffering. Virtue brings forth grace.

2022: The Year of the Third Sorrowful Mystery

I’m going to try something a little different with my Rosary prayers starting this year. In addition to my daily Rosary prayers, I’m going to dedicate this year to a single mystery. I’m going to pray that decade every day. Each year, I’ll change the dedicated mystery. That means I’ll have a different mystery to pray for the next 20 years! And who knows, maybe some future pope will introduce more extending my run.

I see dedicating a year to a particular Rosary mystery like how the Church dedicates years to a particular theme. For example, 2021 was the Year of Saint Joseph. As someone who loves the Rosary, I think each year should be dedicated to a particular mystery and thereby providing an opportunity to dive into deeper contemplation. Approaching a mystery every few days is great, but reliving the same mystery every day is even better.

The Third Sorrowful Mystery

This year, I’m choosing the Third Sorrowful Mystery, The Crowning of Thorns, as my dedicated Rosary mystery. I think it’s important to ask myself every day, “How will I honor Jesus in my words, thoughts, and actions?” The soldiers crowned Jesus with scorn, contempt, and mockery in this mystery. This is how they “honored” Jesus.

I think this year is a good time to reflect on what I say and do. Do I honor God and not mock Him or make light of His importance? How am I treating others? Am I seeing Jesus in everyone and treating others with dignity, respect, and tolerance? Or am I like the Roman soldiers and choose to honor people with scorn and contempt?

Seeing God in Others

Honoring Jesus by treating others in a Christ-like way is difficult because people are difficult. Often, we want to respond to people in a similar fashion to how they treat us. Yelling begets yelling back. Insults breed more insults. Anger spawns anger. The key to living the Third Sorrowful Mystery is to not respond in the manner we are being treated, but in the manner Jesus would respond. Watch this short clip and see how Jesus responded to people who hated him.

Is it easy to act in a Christ-like way? Of course not. And that is why I’m contemplating the Third Sorrowful Mystery every day in 2022. I’m going to ask myself where I succeeded in seeing Jesus in others and where I fell short. Did I repay hatred with more hatred in thoughts and actions? Or did I make an effort to understand why someone may have acted a certain way in a difficult situation and let go of any thoughts of rage or retribution?

I invite you to join me in this year of contemplation of the Third Sorrowful Mystery.

Defeating Pride With The Rosary

The next of the seven deadly sins we’re looking at is pride. Many consider pride the worst of the seven deadly sins and also the foundation of the other sins. Pride means putting your wants and importance before anyone else’s authority. And what is a sin? It’s putting your desires in front of what God wants. When we sin, we knowingly act without regard to the consequences because we don’t accept any other law beyond our own. According to C.S. Lewis, it’s pride that leads to every other type of sin because it’s the anti-God state of mind.

Pride is so deadly because, by its very nature, it remains hidden. As Fr Dwight Longenecker puts it in his article on Catholic Exchange:

This is why pride is so deadly, because it is the one sin that hides itself so effectively. The proud person, by very definition, does not realize he is proud. If he realized he was proud he would repent, but it is pride which keeps him from seeing that he is wrong or sinful in any way. Pride is a very difficult sin to do anything about because the proud person will even go so far as to admit that he is proud, and that makes him even more “right” than he was before!

The Scriptural Connection

Look at how blinded the Pharisees were by their own pride that they could not accept Jesus’ teachings. They dwelled on their own self-importance and their understanding of God and the Law that they couldn’t accept the teachings of a poor carpenter from Nazareth. They criticized everything Jesus and His apostles did from breaking certain Mosaic laws to ministering to sinners; acts their pride did not allow them to do. So indebted to their pride that the Pharisees didn’t even come to believe after witnessing Jesus’ countless miracles.

We turn next to Saint Paul, or rather Saul before his conversion. Saul was a Roman Jew who persecuted the early Christians. He was so blinded by pride that he refused to accept the teachings of the apostles to the point of killing them (poor Saint Stephen). Saul justified what he was doing by claiming it was God’s work. In reality, he was just keeping the status quo where the power of the Law was taught and enforced by those who believed they were important and holy enough to wield it. Ironically, God physically blinded Saul on the road to Damascus to humble him. That event led to his conversion. Once a humble servant of God, Paul was able to preach God’s Word throughout the world because he could let go of his own self-importance. He teaches to this very day through his various letters in the New Testament.

The Rosary Solution

Humility is the heavenly virtue that counters pride. The humble heart thinks of others and understands and appreciates others’ talents and strengths. It also allows us to put our faith in God by recognizing His authority over us. The humble heart accepts Gods law while the prideful one fights and rebels against it.

Humility is the fruit of the First Joyful Mystery — The Annunciation. Mary proclaims, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) when hearing God’s plan for her. She doesn’t consider herself high and mighty as a prideful person would. She doesn’t see God choosing her as some sort of award or even something to brag about. Instead, she sees herself as the humble servant called to do God’s Will. She doesn’t complain about God messing up her life’s plans. Instead, she realizes that God’s plan is the best plan even if it’s unconventional.

Humility also shows itself in the Third Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus’ Crowning of Thorns. It is a time when Jesus is mocked or tortured. At that time, He could have proven Himself as the Son of God by performing any number of signs. Jesus could have said that He didn’t have to take any more abuse from lowly humans since He was the Messiah. But Jesus humbly lived out God’s Will by enduring mockery and torture. Humility sometimes means suffering in doing what is right instead of constantly asking “Why me? Am too good for this type of treatment.” We should take Jesus’ example in the Third Sorrowful Mystery and always accept God’s plan for us even when it’s difficult or doesn’t make sense.

Ask yourself, are you humbly accepting God’s plan for you or is your pride causing you to rebel against Him? Are you depressed or saddened because you have a hard time accepting God’s Will? Ask yourself, is that your pride talking? Humility isn’t something to fear. It means greater freedom and comfort knowing that you are putting your life in the hands of some greater authority. And what better authority to place your life than our loving God and His Church?

Coping with Controversy with the Rosary

These are unsettling times for the Catholic Church in the wake of abuses and cover-ups at the highest levels of the Church. It’s hard to learn about such corruption by people who are supposed to be spiritual leaders in a Church that espouses such high moral values. It can also shake your faith in an institution that is supposed to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

The cardinals and priests are spiritual leaders, but they are also human. They carry the same weaknesses as you and I. Those weaknesses include lust for power and the tendency to sin. Unfortunately, people move up through the ranks in the Church the same way they do in business or politics. They know what to do and what to say to move up the “corporate” ladder. It’s a ladder that is ascended via politics, not neccessarily holiness and virtue. While we hope that those who lead the Church focus on practicing a high level of virtuous behavior, increased power and authority often has the opposite effect. Fortunately, our Catholic faith is made up of more than the collective virtue of those who lead it.

I’m not going to tell you to ignore what’s going on at the higher levels of the Church. Ignoring the issues is what got us into this mess in the first place. We, as a community of believers, must confront and address these issues. But at the same time, we must remember that the cardinals, bishops, and even the pope, aren’t the center of the Church. The Church is not solely a human institution. It’s a divine institution with the Holy Trinity at its core.

When we pray, we don’t pray to the pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests. We pray to God! It’s an infallible and all-loving God that is the center of our faith. The clergy are servants of God to guide us. Our perfect God works through His imperfect vessels. And no amount of human corruption can weaken God. No amount of corruption can weaken His love for us and our desire to live in His grace.

Humans sin and we have to be accountable for our actions. What I will call the political side of the Church will go through hard times in the near future. But if you keep the right perspective, you will understand that the Church is far more than the sum total of virtue and sins of the clergy. She hasn’t survived and flourished over the centuries because of clerical virtue. She’s flourished because it’s God’s Church which can’t be destroyed by the inherent weakness of Her followers.

I think about the current difficulties the Church faces when I pray the Third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary — Jesus Crowned with Thorns. I picture Jesus, battered and ridiculed. I then think about our Church and how battered She is right now; ridiculed by the behavior of those who are supposed to honor Her. Like the Romans paying fake homage to Jesus with a crown of thorns, we have clergy mocking Jesus by using His Church as a means to acquire riches and power and succumb to sinful weaknesses.

Christ Crowned with Thorns (Marten van Heemskerck)

But from the weakness, Jesus was ultimately triumphant. There is an element of hope throughout the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. We know that Jesus’ Passion ends in joy and triumph in His Resurrection. And we should know that the Church will ultimately be triumphant because that is what scripture and our faith tell us. As we confront these dark times ahead, remember that the true center of the Church is Jesus Christ. Our faith is built on Him, not on the imperfect, fallible humans who run it.

Striving for Manliness, the Catholic Way

Did I miss a memo from the Vatican? I feel like I keep coming across this theme of becoming a better Catholic man all over the place. First I found it on Catholic Exchange when I wrote 12 Ways to be a Better Catholic in 2016. Then a friend sent me a video about the need for authentic Catholic manliness. Was there some sort of synod or papal document released recently on this issue? Or is it the Holy Spirit gently giving me hints that this is a topic I should write about?

If you don’t feel like reading and just want to veg out for a bit watching a video, here is the one my friend sent me about authentic Catholic manhood:

A few thoughts. I really like the part in the middle that asks, if you can’t resist all those little temptations how are you going to resist and protect yourself and others from the big ones? This concept of mastering the small things to prepare for the big ones ties into why I keep pushing on the idea of regular rosary prayer. I think we all encounter those moments of big crisis, temptation, despair, etc. at some point in our lives. It’s not a matter of if, but when. How much harder will overcoming those large challenges be if you haven’t proven to yourself that you have mastered the smaller ones? How much more difficult will it be to pick up that rosary in your hour of need if you’ve never prayed it? It’s the regularity of prayer and self-mastery which makes the big challenges in life manageable. It’s the difference between seeing a large mountain from the base camp vs. already being 90% to the summit. Start the climb now, whether it means resisting those small sins and temptations, fasting, or praying the rosary so that you won’t be starting from the bottom when life throws a mountain of challenges your way.

Another area I want to explore is why there is a cultural aversion to Catholic (or just spiritual) manliness. Why is being strong in faith not considered manly? I think part of it is that faith requires humility. It requires acceptance that you cannot conquer every challenge on your own but need God’s help. And like out of every cheesy romantic comedy, REAL MEN DON’T ASK FOR HELP! Unfortunately, as the movie earlier in this article points out, so much of our image of manhood is shaped by popular culture, not by real interaction with real people. So we develop this warped view that having a spiritual side somehow makes you weak.

"Put that map down! I know where I'm going." — “Put that map down! I know where I’m going.”

Okay, hopefully you’re reading this knowing that popular culture has the concept of manhood all wrong. But how can the rosary show us what true manliness is? The answer should be clear as most of the rosary mysteries revolve around Jesus. What example is he setting before us? I’m going to focus on the Sorrowful Mysteries given the challenges Jesus faced. After all, it is in the times of great hardship that our true character shines.

First Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus prays for help and for a different fate but also accepts God’s Will.
Second Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus endures suffering.
Third Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus endures humiliation.
Fourth Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus repeatedly falls but gets back up and moves forward.
Fifth Sorrowful Mystery: Jesus asks for God’s forgiveness for those who were crucifying him.

What picture do the Sorrowful Mysteries paint of manly virtue? Humility, sacrifice, perseverance, forgiveness, acceptance, understanding, and conviction. Those are the attributes everyone, men and women, are called to show. To steal the quotation from the opening of the movie, “You were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.” And greatness comes from embracing your faith and imitating Jesus, not just when it is convenient, but when it is overwhelmingly challenging.

Come on, you all thought of Tim Tebow when you thought of men praying.

We pray for those facing huge life challenges. But we also pray that we all build up our spiritual strength by praying, faster, receiving the sacraments, and avoid sin.