Eyes fixed on Jesus

Do not seek the consolations of God; seek the God of consolations.

– St. Teresa of Avila

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Jesus has many lovers of his Kingdom of Heaven, but he has few bearers of his Cross. Many desire his consolation, but few desire his tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but he finds few who will be with him in his abstinence and fasting…But those who love Jesus purely for himself, and not for their own profit or convenience, bless him as heartily in temptation and tribulation and in all other adversities as they do in time of consolation. And if he never sent them consolation, they would still bless and praise him.

– Thomas à Kempis

Spotlight: A New Song

If I could ever be tempted to idolatry, it would be to idolize a family like the Nixon family – their gifts, their faith, their joy. As a second-best option, I will instead spotlight their wonderful ministry and mission and highly encourage you to send this on to anyone who might find what they have to offer worthwhile.

Details…

The Nixon Family, comprised of Titus, Colleen, and baby Benedict, is embarking on a mission to spread the Gospel’s really good news through story and song.  Titus and Colleen have been married since June 2010, and have felt a calling to share with youth and young adults their story — that they fell in love with God before they fell in love with one another.  They share this message through presentations filled with stories and songs, while offering relevant comparisons with America’s ambient culture.

A large part of the Nixon Family Mission is music — particularly bringing Colleen’s art to many.  By incorporating Colleen’s pop music – songs about life and love – into their presentations, they are able to reach an audience through something that most anyone can relate to:  good music.  Colleen is also the voice and a songwriter of her sacred music project, Marian Grace.

This  Family Mission has also provided many opportunities for Colleen to do nights of music for parishes and various communities around the country. Most recently, our own SJEC hosted two such events in Des Moines, one open to the general public at the Basilica of St John, and another for youth at St Francis of Assisi parish.  As I said in a previous Blog entry, these nights were veritable epiphanies of beauty — cracks in heaven’s vault — that captured Colleen’s ability to seamlessly weave into a single tapestry texts and melodies both ancient and new.  And I must add, Colleen’s voice is, in the words of a local clergyman, ‘anointed by the Spirit of God.’ What that means to me is that her living voice stirs in hearers living prayer.  Reminds me of my wife, whose angelic voice I am spoiled to hear every day.
If you would like to contact the Nixons about serving at an event near you, you can contact them at thenixonnation@gmail.com, or through their website, www.nixon-nation.com

Fast approaching

On these last days of Ordinary time counting down to Ash Wednesday, St. James has been giving us a tongue lashing in his feisty epistle.  What a perfect ground-tilling before Joel, David, Paul and Jesus finish us off on Wednesday.

Lent is upon us, and it’s time to prepare the mind and heart for the solitude of the desert as we follow Jesus there to do battle with evil.  Not only will our lives be ravaged by a deepened commitment to prayer, fasting and almsgiving, but we should ask the Spirit now to reveal to us that one Achilles heel that keeps us from growing in our Christian life.  After you have targeted it, precision bomb it with prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  Heal my heel, O Lord.

So, say your heel is compulsive detraction – the revealing, without an objectively valid reason, of another’s faults/failings to persons who previously were unaware of them.  Take my former spiritual director’s prayer-ratio and apply it liberally: for every minute of detraction, ten minutes of prayer for the Detracted; for every person you verbally skewer, a day of fasting for their good; for every irritating relative you lance with your tongue, a secret generous act of kindness toward them.

Even as you still revel today in the pre-lenten joys of Mardi Gras, on Shrove Tuesday also begin to slough off some of your spiritual lethargy and don some fresh passion for perfection peppered with pleading prayers preparing for the parousia of Paradise in the present.

Let’s roll.

O August Beauty

A friend in Des Moines reminded me the other day of a well-known St. Augustine quote that never ceases to thrill my heart — ‘Late have I loved you, O Lord.’  In case you’ve never had the opportunity to read the rest…

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

And there is a fantastic musical interpretation of it by Matt Maher:

A Dawning of Redeemed Eros

I simply have to announce, proclaim and blow the Shofar to share the good news that Dawn Eden’s new book on sex, healing and the communion of saints is ready for pre-ordering.

Dawn is, in my estimation, exceptionally adept at bringing deeply personal experience and real-time culture into an electric dialogue with the best of Catholic Tradition.  And she manages to do it in a way that doesn’t compromise the integrity of any of these three elements of her analysis.

She ably demonstrates that Catholic sexual ethics offers both an incisive critique of our culture’s moral malaise and a life-giving alternative that is both eminently do-able and exceedingly joyful.

Her manner of treating Catholic sexual anthropology avoids the *hyper* traps of hyper-sensationalizing, hyper-idealizing, or hyper-vulgarizing Catholic moral discourse with shock-jock language.  And being myself one prone to both exceeding hyperbole and exquisite exaggeration, I can learn much from Dawn’s sober reserve.

{side note: I do commend hyperbole and hyperdulia, though, when it comes to the All-Pure Lady}

Her treatment of healing in this book also nicely balances the goals of a uniquely Christian vision of healing — not divine anesthesia, but rather the progressive liberation from interior chains that shackle our freedom to love authentically so that we might be more free to engage in love’s lifelong, virtue-forging struggle.  She powerfully demonstrates the feeling, texture, color, smell, taste, look and contours of that struggle by introducing us to sprightly portraits of very human saints whose sexual wounds were relentlessly invaded by mercy’s Balm.

Must I say that in our sex-saturated culture, sickly Eros needs to be rushed into a trauma center staffed by Doctors and Virgins, Martyrs and Confessors, holy men and women of every age who were apprentices of the divine Physician.

Kudos to Dawn.  Keep following her work, I adjure.

Spotlight: Holy Cards Galore

To make known others’ mirabilia opera, their ‘marvelous works’ is one of life’s finest joys, is it not?  Once again, I want to make known another Catholic e-entrepreneur who has mastered the lost art of making Holy Cards by pairing visual feasts of sacred beauty with prayerful texts of real substance.  His name is Pete Bond, and he is a dear friend; and he has a truly amazing family. (And he smokes some seriously awesome Cigars)

Here’s his triple gig:

  1. www.CatholicPrayerCards.org is a family run Catholic Holy Card ministry that has its own line of over 350 original designs. They stock over a million cards and each purchase helps send free prayer cards to the missions. They specialize in hard-to-find saint cards, and if they don’t have what you are looking for, they can make them for you in small batches. www.CatholicPrayerCards.org tries try to blend unique classic Catholic artwork with rich prayers and quotes from the saints. They have the most unique line of holy cards on the web and offer bulk discounts and wholesale accounts for Catholic bookstores/gift shops. They also have a full collection of Italian Patron Saint Medals, Crucifixes, Icons, Handmade Rosaries, Bookmarks, Magnets, Rosary Parts, etc…
  2. www.PersonalizedHolyCards.com specializes in custom printed holy cards for Baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, Weddings, Ordinations, Funerals, Anniversaries, Parish Missions, etc… They have over 1100+ beautiful Catholic artwork images to choose from and their prices start at just $39.95 for full color custom printed holy cards. Rush services are available and they offer Free Professional Graphic Design, Free Proofs and flat rate $1.99 UPS shipping. With over 20 years printing experience they offer the highest quality, widest selection, most competitive prices and quickest turnaround of any personalized holy card manufacturer. Their keepsake quality personalized holy cards are a great way to remember life’s special moments. 
  3. www.CatholicPrinting.org provides high quality full color printing at very affordable prices. Their professional, experienced staff and easy to navigate website make ordering printing quick and easy. You can get instant quotes with their easy to use online print calculator…with just a few clicks you can cost out your project in an instant and even calculate s/h to your zip code. www.CatholicPrinting.org offers a low price guarantee so you never have to spend more to work with a company that is faithful to the teachings of the Church. www.CatholicPrinting.org provides low cost print solutions for Catholic organizations and Catholic owned businesses. They strive to offer outstanding customer service, superior print quality, quick turnarounds and deep discounted prices! Let them help with your next print project. 

Risky Business

This Sunday’s Gospel narrates Jesus’ remarkable choice to touch the ‘unclean’ leper in order to heal him, risking uncleanness to cleanse.

This ‘marvelous exchange’ reminded me of that canon of risky-mercy among the saints, St. Damian of Molokai, who echoed the sentiment of this Christ-risk:

I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ…Having no doubts about the true nature of the disease, I am calm, resigned, and very happy in the midst of my people. God certainly knows what is best for my sanctification and I gladly repeat: ‘Thy will be done.’

This resonates, for me, with my experience of those holy souls I have known and admired who bravely witness to Christ even as they walk intimately amid the mass of moral and spiritual leprosy that is human sin and failing, i.e. live in the real world. They achieve effective witness not by railing against the foul stench of this ubiquitous malaise, so that they might hate the illness or hail their own health, but rather they see the leprosy of others as their own and daily suffer its poison sting to heal the wound by mercy’s saving salve.

And as I reflect on that faith-insight, I recalled the story of another saint, an African desert father, Moses the Black:

One of the monks had committed a fault. A council met to offer judgment and Moses was invited, but refused to attend. Someone came to him to let him know the others were waiting, at which Moses went to the meeting. He took a leaking jug filled with water and carried it on his shoulder. When he arrived, the others came out to meet him asking, ‘What is this?’ Moses replied, ‘My sins run out behind me and I do not see them, but today I am coming to judge the errors of another.’ Hearing that, they said no more to the erring brother, but forgave him.