rosary

Humane Vitae and the Value of Self-Discipline

If you’ve done any type of sports or exercise, you probably know the term no pain, no gain. All athletes must push themselves hard to obtain victory. Muscles only grow when they are challenged. Your heart needs a little bit of stress from cardiovascular activity to function its best. It’s just the way our bodies are designed to function — you need to periodically exert yourself to stay healthy.

Much like how we have to exercise our muscles, we also have to exercise our souls. Here’s another slogan you’ve probably heard — use it or lose it. But what does it mean to exercise and use your soul? Using your soul means feeding yourself with grace by practicing virtue. Is that easy? No, of course not. But much like how our bodies are designed to function best by stressing it a bit with exercise, our souls are at their best when we challenge ourselves by practicing virtues and avoiding temptations. Sounds hard right? The good news is that we’re not alone in this challenge.

The Catholic Church is a great spiritual fitness instructor. She has challenged people to work harder at developing their spiritual muscles. We may often want to quit when life gets challenging and temptations mount. But the Church is like that coach telling you, “you can do this!” Or, “just one more set!” The Church has never allowed people to cheat and take an easy way out of a difficult situation if doing so ultimately harms their spiritual state. There’s no, “you’ve gone to enough Masses” or “sure, commit a little sin; you’ve earned it.” The Church sets a high bar for our spiritual health understanding that it will be challenging. But it doesn’t veer away from teaching what is right just because many people find that path difficult and fail to live up to God’s expectations. The Church knows that it’s within everyone’s ability to lead a spiritually healthy lifestyle. You just have to make the effort.

Humanae Vitae

This Church’s mindset of uncompromising spiritual living is seen in the 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which we celebrated its 50th anniversary this past July. Many people, when they hear about Humanae Vitae, they immediately think, “Oh, that’s that document that is against artificial contraception.” But that’s like saying football is that sport where everyone just lines up and falls down. Sure, the Church’s position against artificial contraception is a core teaching of that document. But there’s so much more to it.

Humanae Vitae puts a challenge before all of us. It asks us to put the needs of our soul first in our lives even when recent inventions and social conventions make it seem like we don’t have to. Just because the birth control pill exists, abortion is legal in many countries, and pornography is readily available doesn’t make them good or healthy. Humanae Vitae wants us to realize that a life of immediate gratification is not necessarily happier because we don’t grow spiritually in accordance with God’s design. God’s design requires us to challenge ourselves to stay spiritually healthy. Consider this excerpt from Humanae Vitae about self-discipline and how it leads to “spiritual blessings.”

Self-discipline of this kind is a shining witness to the chastity of husband and wife and, far from being a hindrance to their love of one another, transforms it by giving it a more truly human character. And if this self-discipline does demand that they persevere in their purpose and efforts, it has at the same time the salutary effect of enabling husband and wife to develop to their personalities and to be enriched with spiritual blessings.
From Humanae Vitae, Section 21

The Rosary Connection

The whole Rosary is an exercise in practicing virtue and growing spiritually by challenging yourself. It’s not an easy prayer. It’s relatively long and repetitive. It’s tiring to say it every day, especially when it’s done in a meditative manner. But, the Rosary is a great prayer to tell God that you want to spend time with Him despite your access to various forms of entertainment. We tell Mary that we’ll pray Her Rosary because we believe that it’s one of the best ways to build grace.

There are so many Rosary mysteries that center around the theme of self-discipline. The one I’ll choose to mention is the Second Joyful Mystery, The Visitation. You really have to give Mary credit for traveling and helping Her cousin Elizabeth when She was pregnant. No one would have faulted Mary for cloistering Herself during Her pregnancy given Her circumstances. But She knew that was not what God was calling Her to do. And that is the core of many Church teachings — true happiness comes when we do God’s Will even when it is difficult or inconvenient. That is how we grow and stay spiritually fit.

Mary had a choice — does She try to bend God’s Will around Her desires or challenge Herself to follow the path as God designed? She’s our Heavenly Queen for a reason — She uncompromisingly chose to obey God’s Will in Her life. How about you? Are you growing spiritually by challenging yourself to follow God’s plan or are you feeding yourself spiritual junk food through sin and vice?

Coping with the Church Scandal One Rosary Bead at a Time

Have you read the book or seen the movie, The Martian? It’s a story that takes place in the future where a man is stranded on Mars after his crew leaves believing he is dead. In this story, the stranded scientist, Mark Watney, overcomes all sorts of challenges to stay alive. It’s one of those stories where everything that can go wrong does go wrong — storms, failed equipment, communication issues, etc. But he just works each problem as it came along to survive just one more day.

I think the Church is in a similar situation — everything that seems like it can go wrong is going wrong regarding the abuse scandal and accusations of coverups going up to the pope himself. The Church is in uncharted territory right now. We have a retired pope who may have known something about the Cardinals’ abuses who is silent on the matter. We have a sitting pope who is remaining silent. We have all sorts of insider leaks pointing to spiritual rot at high levels. It’s enough to make the strongest of us doubt that the Church will come out of this in a better state.

As individuals, we can’t do much regarding the Church scandals inside the Vatican. But like Mark Watney facing countless setbacks trying to survive on Mars, we will also face setbacks in the coming months as more news comes out. The key is not to get overwhelmed and abandon those who need our prayers the most. We can’t make this a “Vatican-only” issue. It’s a problem that all the faithful need to do our part. We just need to take each day in turn and live the best Christian example we can.

Charlie Johnston puts it well in his blog, A Sign of Hope, when he talked about the need to deal with reality before us, not how we want or expect it to be:

You are going to fail at some things, you are going to be wrong about some things, some of your cherished certainties are going to fall. Your faith is dependent on none of these things and your duty is not suspended because of your errors. If your faith is dependent on your certainty that you have it all figured out, it is just a subtle form of pride – and you know what pride goeth before. Follow the example of King David who, after he sinned grievously of his own fault, got up again at the behest of the prophet and lived his duty, even so. You will fail, you will err, you will sin of your own fault. God knows all of this. He waits to see whether, after each failure, you will get up and start again, humbly living your duty with steadfast resolve even though your fault is ever before you – thus trusting to Him, and not to your own virtue.

Charlie’s words remind me of the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, Jesus Carries His Cross. Jesus fell multiple times under the cross. Each time He resolved to get back up again and do God’s Will. He fell under the weight of sin too, our sins. But Jesus found the strength to not get discouraged about the seemingly hopeless situation He was in and did not give up. His will to follow through with God’s plan was greater than the pain He felt. Jesus got back up and completed God’s work one painful step at a time.

And so we too, are called to keep going and live our Catholic faith. It will be difficult at times when we hear about what is happening inside the Vatican. But, like I said in my previous article, our faith isn’t dependent on the virtue of men. It lies on the power and virtue of God Himself. Pray the Rosary and imagine each bead being one slow (sometimes painful) step out of the darkness and into God’s grace.

The Archbishop of San Francisco wrote a letter about the Church scandal. In it, he outlines a 3-step plan to keep us moving forward and repair the damage caused by the Church hierarchy. He asks for:

Praying the rosary daily – and for families, to pray the rosary as a family at least once a week;
Practicing Friday penance by abstaining from eating meat and one other additional act of fasting (e.g., another form of food or drink, or skipping a meal);
Spending one hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament at least once a week

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.

Champions of the Rosary

Did you know that the second part of the Hail Mary wasn’t introduced until the 14th century? Did you know that one of the most popular Rosary shrines was created by a former satanist who converted? Did you know that an image of Mary handing the Rosary to Saint Dominic miraculously appeared in a cave in Colombia in 1754? Did you know that in 1964, 2 million people gathered to pray the Rosary in Brazil?

How do I know all these little facts? Simple. I just finished reading Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon by Donald H. Calloway, MIC. I discovered it after stumbling across an excerpt of it on Catholic Exchange. I’m always on the lookout for books about the Rosary as they fuel my passion for both praying it and writing about it. Bottom line, there is something of value in this book for everyone whether you’re a devoted follower of the Rosary or a skeptic.

The books itself is divided into three parts. The first and largest part is the history of the Rosary. Each chapter takes you through a century and highlights the places, people, and events that shaped the Rosary. It can be a rather dense history lesson at times but stick with it because there are many gems to be found.

The second part takes you through the “Champions of the Rosary.” Each chapter highlights someone’s biography, Marian connection, Rosary connection, and quotations about the Rosary. While not as dense as the first part, again there are great pearls of wisdom and stories of dedication. Just thumbing through a few of the quotations in Rosary Gems sections can provide a little motivation for praying the Rosary if you find yourself tired or not in the mood.

The last part of the book explores the technical details of praying the Rosary. And while useful, the descriptions and meditations are rather shallow. This is not a book of meditation ideas. There are other books that provide much better Rosary meditation ideas (like these!).

I was captivated by the history and evolution of the Rosary explained in this book. I cannot believe just how passionately people have prayed and endorsed this prayer. The Rosary is so valuable that people have laid down their lives for it rather than give it up. The miracles associated with it are amazing — battles won, regions transformed, and people converted. It makes any of my excuses for not finding 20 minutes in a day to pray it seem so petty and selfish. If you’re looking for motivation to pray the Rosary, whether it be getting started or just a boost of energy, please read this book.

While I’ve been praying the Rosary regularly for years, I do have a new appreciation for it thanks to this book. I’m now trying to pray it more reverently — quietly, slowly, and kneeling when I can. I’m really trying to appreciate just how special the Rosary is. For example, the other day I was almost gitty over the idea of how proud and happy my Mother Mary must have felt that I was praying Her Rosary. Knowing that our prayers are important to Her is something I’ve always known intellectually, but only recently have felt it on a deeper level.

I always knew that praying the Rosary is good for you. But I was more like a child eating his vegetables because someone told me I should. But Champions of the Rosary explains why the Rosary is such an important prayer and why everyone must make a habit of praying it. It will help you internalize and understand its power. Give it a read. Hopefully, it will transform the way you approach the Rosary as it did for me.

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The Transfiguration and the Awe of Catholicism

Monday, August 6th, is the Feast of Jesus’ Transfiguration which we meditate on in the Fourth Luminous Mystery of the Rosary. One question I’ve always had about the Transfiguration is why Jesus felt it was necessary. After all, He had traveled throughout the region preaching God’s Word and healing people. The apostles, for the most part, already believed He was the Messiah. Why this extra revelation? And what meaning does it have for the Catholic faithful today?

The Transfiguration was necessary, in part, because Jesus’ ministry had become routine to the apostles. I bet they must have lost some of their sense of wonder and awe while ministering with Jesus. They traveled from village to village listening to Jesus tell the same (or similar) parables, heal the sick, and occasionally admonish them for not understanding Him. While Jesus’ miracles probably amazed them initially, they probably lost some of the awe over time.

Wait, what? How could being witness to Jesus’ miracles lose their awe? Well, let’s look at how many of us treat the amazing miracle of Mass. How often do you fall into the Go to Mass, receive communion, repeat cycle? At Mass, we are in the presence of Jesus, the same Jesus the apostles served with, and yet we’re probably already thinking about what donut we’ll get afterward or how we’ll spend the rest of the day. The miracle that occurs during the consecration comes and goes for us without much thought similar to maybe how the apostles started seeing Jesus’ healings.

“Haven’t we, like, seen this show a hundred times already?”

And it’s not just Mass either. Even if you have a more regular prayer life, it can also descend into a routine and lose its awe. While I try to pray the Rosary every day, I admit that some days are better than others. I can often pray an entire decade of the Rosary only to realize that I didn’t even consciously know what mystery I was praying. I’m having a conversation with God and I’m thinking more about what I’ll have for dinner!

When Peter, James, and John witnessed the Transfiguration, it must have been a real wakeup call for them. Maybe it snapped them out of any complacency they were feeling about their calling. It took a great event to give them a needed kick and boost of energy

We don’t have Jesus physically transfiguring before us today. Most of us will never have a direct apparition of Jesus, Mary, or the saints telling us what to do. So how do we re-energize our spiritual zeal? First, we need to admit when the miraculous blessings of our faith have become routine and resolve to re-ignite our passion. Taking a cue from the Transfiguration, maybe we have to do something out of the ordinary. Some ideas include:

Going to Mass on a weekday
Attending Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Joining a parish prayer group or organization
Finding new prayers to say
Reading a book or article either on a saint or written by a saint

It would be nice if Jesus personally invited us to something as wonderful as the Transfiguration. And in a way, He does through prayer. He offers Himself to us all the time but we have to be listening to Him in the silence of prayer and meditation (ehem… the Rosary!). When we do listen, amazing things can happen whether it be a physical miracle or just a renewed zeal for living our faith.

The Pope’s August 2018 Intention — The Treasure of Families

Take a look at the news and ask yourself, do politicians generally support laws that promote or limit family freedoms? What importance do current laws and legal rulings place on traditional family structures? Think about rulings trying to redefine marriage, the limiting of rights parents have over how to best raise their kids, and just the overall societal devaluing of marriage’s role in promoting a stable, peaceful, and strong society.

In that light, here is Pope Francis’ intention for August 2018:

Universal – The Treasure of Families

That any far-reaching decisions of economists and politicians may protect the family as one of the treasures of humanity.

I think it’s obvious that governments in general, and individual politicians specifically, are acting increasingly more hostile to the traditional family ideal. Much of it comes from politicians knowing that people need to be part of a close-knit unit. But unfortunately for politicians, the original close-knit unit, the family, acts as a political ideological wall. It acts like a wall because parents can act as a political filter and are usually a much closer role model for their kids. But if politicians can chip away or tear down that wall, they know that people will seek the guidance from another community, one where the politicians wield more control — the government.

Politicians are human and have human weaknesses. Many are greedy and seek increases in political power. When they obtain that power, they want to keep it and grow it. That endeavor becomes easier when they have more control over the population. One such lever to increase control is to reduce the influence of a mom and dad. In other words, as the independence of the family goes down, the influence of the government increases because it fills that decision-making, rule-enforcing vacuum.

Once again, we have the Catholic faith taking the now counter-cultural view of promoting the value of the traditional family. In a world where there is a separation of church and state or an open hostility towards religion, then where else but the family will people learn and love God? When Pope Francis asks us to pray for the protection of the family, he does so to our benefit and ultimate happiness. It’s through the family that parents pass their love of God and the importance of faith to their children. It’s that love of God and reliance on Him and His grace that people find strength and motivation to not only endure life’s challenges but prosper and find a meaningful peace.

The Rosary Connection

The Fourth Joyful Mystery, The Presentation in the Temple, is a wonderful Rosary mystery to reflect on the value of family. In this mystery, Mary and Joseph impress the importance and value of living their faith and passing on those traditions to Jesus. I find it interesting that of all the events in the Gospel, this one made the cut of being worthy of a Rosary mystery. Our Mother Mary obviously wants us to understand the importance of family and sharing in God’s love with one another. Following the pope’s intention, let’s remember to pray for politicians, economists, and employers as well in respecting the importance of family.

Remember, the pope is asking us to pray for a group of people (politicians) that are currently skewing in an anti-family direction. We are essentially praying for a change of hardened hearts. Pray for the people in power when you pray the Third Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Call to Conversion. Remember that Jesus’ message wasn’t always well received, especially by the authorities in the Sanhedrin because it challenged their power. So too, does a free and independent family challenge modern politicians’ power. After Jesus’ resurrection, the apostles also encountered a lot of hostility establishing the early Christian Church. Saint Stephen was even martyred on the order of Jewish officials (Saul, later Saint Paul, being one of them). We too are called to the same mission as the apostles — spreading Jesus’ teachings to everyone, especially the powerful who may be hostile towards them.

The Power of the Pompeii Rosary Novena Part 2

In my first article about the Pompeii Rosary Novena, I discussed what I learned about Rosary prayer from a tactical standpoint. I discussed my strategies for finding time to pray 15 mysteries every day and its benefits. In this article, I’m going to discuss whether Mary responded to my 54 days of Rosary prayer. I prayed this novena asking Mary to intercede on behalf of people in my life who have chronic illnesses.

The big question is, were the people whom I prayed for cured? Yes, but not in the way you may imagine. I learned that there are more ways to cure the sick than just physically. The people I prayed for have gotten marginally better, but not miraculously cured of their physical ailments. Naturally, I hoped that they would be in that select group of people who experienced a miraculous physical cure as a result of the Pompeii novena. But that was not God’s plan, at least not yet.

I’ve come to realize that a physical healing is not necessarily the point of a novena. I know that Mary heard my petition and that Jesus is comforting them in His grace. The physical illnesses may still be there but so is the increased strength and courage to endure. God, in His infinite wisdom, decided that a miraculous physical healing is not what is needed in this case. And while that would have been great and I still hope and pray for one, I also understand that God applies His grace uniquely to every situation.

Now the cynic would claim that I’m just rationalizing God’s inaction and that I really just wasted my time over the last 54 days. But I’m sure many people would be cynical of the Pompeii novena even if there was a physical cure. They would say it was good science and medicine and prayer played no part. There are some people with such a hardened heart that even the greatest miracles wouldn’t change them, let alone the more subtle ones. That is why we must keep the hardened-hearted cynics in our prayers too; for they benefit from them whether they admit it or not.

God’s response to my novena reminds me of Jesus’ crucifixion (Fifth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary) where the criminal asks Jesus to remember Him. Jesus’ response was that that criminal would join Him in paradise (Luke 24:43). Here you have the criminal in a terrible situation reaching out to Jesus similar to how we reach out to Him in prayer. Jesus didn’t miraculously bring the criminal down from the cross. But that doesn’t mean Jesus did not respond to the man’s plea.

Jesus gave the criminal something much more important than physical relief from his dire situation and that was His grace and the promise of Heaven. While I’m sure the criminal would have been grateful if Jesus had physically rescued him from the cross, that physical saving would have paled in comparison to what Jesus actually gave the criminal. Because no physical saving can compare to the promise of Heaven brought about by one’s faith in Jesus Christ.

Like the criminal on the cross, I have faith that Mary, Jesus, and God the Father heard my plea to remember those in my life who are ill. While God didn’t bring them down from their “crosses” by physically healing them, I know that my prayers will help them obtain graces and spiritual healing. And ultimately, that is more important than any temporary physical cure. Because all physical cures are temporary because our lives in this world are temporary. It’s our souls that live on for all eternity. When it comes to tradeoffs, a healed soul always wins over a healed body.

Thus ends my Pompeii novena experience for this year. But it won’t be my last. I will turn back to it when I know people who are in dire need of some sort of healing. Or, if my energy to pray the Rosary starts to wane, the Pompeii novena is a great way to jumpstart it again. It’s like going through spiritual boot camp. Remember, Mary does hear your petitions. But you must be open to how she intercedes for you and how God responds.

Priests are People Too — Pope Francis’ July Intention

I don’t know if you’ve ever encountered this uncomfortable situation when you were young — running into your teacher outside of school at a restaurant, bank, or supermarket. I was often confused on how I should act because there was a person who was an authority figure in one context but a “regular person” in another. It was hard seeing my teacher as anyone other than my teacher.

As I got older, I realized how isolating that must have made teachers feel if their encounters outside of school with students were so awkward. To many of the people in their lives, they would only be that red pen using, sticker distributing, detention giving teacher.

The same goes for priests. Growing up, I always viewed priests, not as regular people with hobbies and interests, but as men who spent all their time conducting Mass, teaching, visiting the sick, and praying. In my mind, they didn’t watch sports, read non-religious books, play musical instruments, or browse the internet. Nor did they have normal faults that I could relate to like impatience, selfishness, greed, laziness, etc. Like teachers, my interaction with priests always felt awkward because I couldn’t figure out how I should act around them. After all, how do you act normally around someone who has heard all your sins in the Sacrament of Confession?

Pope Francis’ July 2018 intention is for priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests. It’s important to understand that priests lead hard lives. In many instances, they are away from their friends and families and the area where they grew up. They are always on call for emergencies like administering the Sacrament of Healing to the sick or need to counsel those who are having difficulties in life. I’m sure that they would appreciate some normalcy in their lives. It’s not that they want to get away from their vocation, but instead, not have people act awkwardly around them because of their vocation.

The Rosary Connection

Vocation is a central theme of the First Joyful Mystery of the Rosary. In this mystery, God calls Mary to a very specific life. And that’s what a vocation is — a calling. Mary responds with a humble yes with an idea that her vocation would be difficult even without full knowledge of what she was accepting. And so it is for priests who freely enter the priesthood with an understanding that it will be a difficult vocation but probably not fully realizing it until they’ve lived it for years. The Annunciation should teach us to really discern our vocation and once we say yes to it, to work as hard as we can to make the most of it. We should be mindful that priests, as learned and experienced as they are, are also discovering new aspects of their vocation and can benefit from the lay faithful’s support.

Moving on to the Fourth Joyful Mystery — the Presentation. There are many vocations at play in this mystery. We see Mary and Joseph living their vocation as husband and wife and parents to Jesus. The presentation shows that they are committed to raising and teaching Jesus their faith. It’s a model that all parents should imitate — that we are responsible for teaching our children the Catholic Faith. This means setting a good example and actively practicing our faith. In keeping with Pope Francis’ July intention, it also means educating our children on religious life and the important role priests play in our spiritual development. Parents should be open to the idea that their sons may have a calling to the priesthood and help them explore that vocation.

Another important person in the Fourth Joyful Mystery is Saint Simeon. In the Gospel, all that is really said about him is that he was a righteous man who spent most of his time praying in the temple after the Holy Spirit came to him with a promise. Doesn’t that sound like the call to the priestly vocation? Saint Simeon’s life revolved around prayer and he was one of the first to introduce the world to the Chosen One, Jesus Christ. This parallels the role of priests — introducing the lay faithful to Jesus. But Saint Simeon’s life must have been difficult; one of solitude and uncertainty. When you pray this mystery, think of the solitude your parish priest may feel as he works on bringing Jesus to his congregation.

Finally, think of the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus carrying His cross. Jesus was exhausted and close to death as he fell three times and could barely walk. I think priests must feel the same way at times — exhausted by the years of living their vocation. We need to be like Veronica; making an effort to comfort and support the priests we know in our lives. It can be something as simple as inviting a priest you are close to (like the one who married you, baptized your children, etc.) out for coffee or breakfast; something “normal” and relaxing.

What will you do? Stand on the side like so many people did when Jesus carried His cross? Or make an effort to let priests in your life know how important they are and that you appreciate their sacrifices?

The Power of the Pompeii Rosary Novena Part 1

Earlier this month, I finished praying the Pompeii Rosary Novena. It is a 54-day novena split into two halves — 27 days of petition and 27 days of thanksgiving. In other words, it’s six nine-day novenas. Each day, you pray 15 decades. Before Saint Pope John Paul II introduced the Luminous Mysteries, 15 decades meant all the Rosary Mysteries, every day, for 54 days (I’m unclear if we should now pray 20 decades every day). That’s 810 decades in about a two month period.

The Pompeii Rosary Novena was first prayed by Blessed Bartolo Longo in 1874 and he was miraculously cured of typhoid fever. Later, in 1894, a young girl was cured of a terminal disease after praying this novena. There have been numerous, documented cases of healings as a result of this novena. The Pompeii novena is often prayed to ask Our Lady to intercede on behalf of someone sick. Since there are people in my life who need healing, I too turned to Mary through the Pompeii novena.

You Always Have Time

I learned a few things about Rosary prayer during this novena. On the practical side, I learned that I have more opportunities for prayer throughout the day than I thought. When you commit to praying 15 decades every day, you have to be very disciplined and scheduled so you are not left rushing through decades at 11pm.

My schedule typically looked like this. I would wake up early in the morning and say the Joyful Mysteries before getting out of bed. I would aim to have the Sorrowful Mysteries done by early afternoon and finish the day with the Glorious Mysteries. I squeezed in decades while driving, before meals, waiting for my kids to fall asleep, etc. There are so many opportunities for the Rosary if praying it is constantly on your mind.

Talking to God

Because Rosary prayer was constantly on my mind throughout the day, my relationship with God was constantly on my mind too. I was sharing more of my day with God, telling Him the good and the bad as they happened. I asked Him for more help and guidance for the challenging parts of my day and thanked Him for all the good. Instead of waiting to share my day with God in my last few waking moments, praying the Rosary every few hours gave me the opportunity to talk to God as my day unfolded. I was including God in my day in real time instead of running through a highlights clip at night or the next day.

A Spiritual Banquet

Praying all the Rosary mysteries every day was also beneficial. If you think of the Rosary as a balanced spiritual diet, then praying a single set of mysteries each day is only getting you 25% of the necessary vitamin G (God). Now, of course, the Rosary isn’t the only source of daily spirituality. There’s other prayers, meditation, Mass, scripture, etc. But the Rosary is an important part of one’s spiritual diet because it covers so many important Catholic teachings and has so many benefits.

Praying 15 decades (sometimes inserting the Luminous Mysteries too) felt like a more complete daily prayer regiment. It was easier to build on ideas when I visited each mystery every day instead of letting several days pass between mysteries. I really felt like I gained new insights into certain mysteries that I overlooked when I only prayed them twice a week.

Now, many of you might ask the million dollar question — did the Pompeii novena work? Did Mary respond to my petitions? Stay tuned for part 2 on this topic.

How the Rosary Helps Us Avoid “Everlasting Sin”

“’Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.’”

This passage from the Gospel of Mark confused me until recently. We talk about an all loving and merciful God so how can there be an unforgivable sin? How can the God that created everything from nothing not have the capacity to forgive everything? When I was younger, I asked myself, “what if I already committed this unforgivable sin and not know it? Is the rest of my life pointless because God has already told St. Peter to not allow me into Heaven?”

Fortunately, the unforgivable sin doesn’t work like that. This isn’t some sort of gotcha or fine print in Catholic doctrine that God will use to keep you out of Heaven. It’s simply a way of restating that a sin will remain unforgiven if you never ask for forgiveness. This Catholic Exchange article does a good job of breaking down the unforgivable sin into six aspects:

despair
presumption
impenitence
obstinacy
resisting truth
spiritual welfare

Do you notice a common theme in these? As the CE article states:

In every case analyzed above, we can determine that the only way any sin is truly unpardonable is if the person remains unrepentant. The reasons, as we have sorted through, vary from envy to despair. Each is caused by a hardness of heart, which is directly opposed to meekness. Meekness is that beatitude that mollifies and softens what has become calloused by deep, unhealed wounds. Our models for meekness, of course, are Jesus and Mary.

How does the Rosary teach us about meekness and avoiding behaviors that lead to an unforgiven sin? Let’s look at the Fifth Joyful Mystery and the finding of Jesus in the Temple. Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus for three days after losing Him in the caravan. They did whatever they needed to do to find Jesus. We too must do whatever it takes to find Jesus when we lose Him by sinning. We can’t have a hardened heart or the presumption that Jesus is okay with our behavior. We must acknowledge our wrongdoings and come back to Him through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Think about the Second Luminous Mystery of the Rosary and Jesus’ miracle at Cana. We see Jesus’ ability to perform miracles and turn potential disaster (a wedding without booze, oh no!) into overflowing joy. That miracle is a great metaphor for what happens to our souls in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God, through the Holy Spirit, takes our broken, damaged soul and miraculously transforms it into a pure one filled with hope, joy, and grace. Mary asked Jesus to perform a miracle at Cana. And, whenever we enter that confessional, we ask Him to perform a miracle too.

Next we turn to the Third Glorious Mystery of the Rosary — the descent of the Holy Spirit. Why is a hardened heart such a grave offense? Remember, the Holy Spirit is one part of the Holy Trinity. So rejecting the power and authority of the Holy Spirit is rejecting God. And what’s mortal sin but the total rejection of God? By thinking that God can’t or won’t forgive us, we reject His supremacy over His creation. We are saying that we, the created, are capable of actions that are beyond God’s control. When we pray this Rosary mystery, let’s not only think of the Holy Spirit as our guide but also remember that He’s also God as part of the Holy Trinity.

Finally, the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery — Jesus’ Crucifixion. There’s actually two things to consider. First, Jesus is so willing to forgive that He asked God to forgive the ones who crucified Him. For most of us, our sins will probably never be as grave as murdering God’s begotten Son. If God can forgive that, He can forgive anything we do.

Also, the criminal crucified next to Jesus simply asked Jesus to remember him. And Jesus proclaimed that the criminal would be with Him in paradise. Again, ask Jesus anything with a meek and humble heart and Jesus will respond.

Okay, now that we’ve talked about the power of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, I’ll end on a more light-hearted note. Here’s a clip from The Simpsons about the limits of God’s power.