I recently sent my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew to a member of the Sisters of Life, and she writes,

We got your new book!! It’s phenomenal! Everyone was so excited to read it when we opened the package that rather than reading it one at a time, we are reading it at table each morning at breakfast. Today we read about the incomplete perceptions of thinking Jesus was Elijah or Jeremiah. I am learning so much! Thank you for all of the effort of study, research and prayer that went into writing this book. And thank you for donating it to the community. It is SOO good and very engaging. I don’t want it to end! I will definitely recommend it to others.

One of the things on my “to do” list today is look up the word “milquetoast”. It was in this morning’s chapter and I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before. See, I’m learning about Jesus and learning new vocabulary words at all the same time! Thanks Eric!

Having a group of religious sisters read your book at table – talk about an intimidating situation for an author! I hope and pray that the sisters grow deeper in their love and knowledge of our Lord through this exercise.

If there is any other religious community out there that wants a copy of my book, I’ll be happy to send them one free of charge. Just email me to let me know.

At the recently-concluded synod of Middle Eastern bishops, there was a call for a “unified Easter”. One of the more unfortunate practical results of the split between East and West is that the two lungs of the Church do not celebrate Easter on the same day each year (although there are rare cases when the two dates coincide). There have been various efforts over the past few decades to have a unified Easter, but so far they have been fruitless.

It seems to me that competing Easters is the saddest consequence of the East-West split. It is not the most important or most controversial division between us, but it is extremely sad because there is no underlying theological or doctrinal reason behind it. At least with the issues of papal primacy or the filioque or purgatory there are real theological and doctrinal issues to be debated; in those cases, it is understandable that each side is firm in their resolve not to compromise what they believe is the true Faith. But with the date of Easter we have no such fundamental doctrine involved. Heck, the date of Easter could be the last Sunday of month after the fifth full moon on even-numbered years and the sixth full moon of odd-number years and it doesn’t affect our faith in any real way (although it would be a pedagogically poor decision). There is no important reason for the East and the West to stay divided on this issue.

But this is a prime example of what happens when two sides become entrenched in their divisions. You see this sometimes in families: two siblings have a falling-out, often over some important reason, but then over time their estrangement becomes solidified and they no longer talk and no longer trust the other on any issue. Sometimes one sibling will take one side on a debate specifically because it opposes the estranged sibling. When love fails, only discord and division can follow.

The date of Easter is a symptom of the larger issue of over 1,000 years of distrust between East and West. Let us pray that a unified date for Easter can be found and that it will be one small step towards a total reconciliation.

A while back I was at a conference and a discussion arose about blogs. A bishop who was in attendance warmed to the subject and was quick to denounce bloggers, stating that they need to look at the beam in their own eye before condemning the speck in others’ eyes. It was clear that this bishop found no value in the Catholic blogosphere and wished it would just go away.

I thought of this incident when I read this AP story:

Catholic bloggers aim to purge dissenters

Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it’s not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn’t Catholic enough.

Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church…

John Allen, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, has dubbed this trend “Taliban Catholicism.” But he says it’s not a strictly conservative phenomenon — liberals can fit the mindset, too, Allen says. Some left-leaning Catholics are outraged by any exercise of church authority.

Yet on the Internet and in the church, conservatives are having the bigger impact.

Continue reading…

If I were a bishop I too would most likely be suspicious of Catholic bloggers, as often it is true that bishops get unfairly criticized – and it is frequently the case that the most negative bloggers – the “bishop bashers” – get the most attention. I can only imagine what my job would be like if every day I had a legion of bloggers following my every action to see whether I performed in a way they felt was satisfactory. I suspect I would wish they would go away as well.

Furthermore, too often bloggers can criticize bishops without basing their criticisms in love. They can assume a bishop has bad intentions and treat him as the “enemy” when often the bishop is just making a difficult prudential judgement in a particular case. I once wrote about the Three Credits of Love, and if anyone deserves the three credits, it is the successors to the apostles.

And yet I think there is a positive contribution that bloggers have made to the Church, even those which mostly focus on negative aspects of Church life. Blogs have re-energized the faith life of many Catholics, as orthodox faithful who have endured years of misery in a dissenting or dying parish have seen that there are other Catholics out there who care about their faith and love the Church unreservedly. Church bureaucrats who hid behind their bishop’s cloak have been exposed when they do something against the Catholic Faith. Bishops themselves now know that when they allow heresy to be proclaimed in their diocese that it will be made public (and be made known to the Vatican).

I am a strong proponent of the authority of bishops, yet I am not a fan of clericalism. Throughout Church history bishops have faltered and it was the laity who kept the Faith alive in the world. I am thankful that in our time there are a good number of very good bishops proclaiming the Faith in power and in love, but I am also thankful that many lay people take their faith seriously enough to defend it in the public square, even when they have to defend it against the bishops themselves.

What an amazing story. This is faith in action (and note that he makes only $180/month!):

There are many Catholic families out there who are adopting children in danger of abortion – please consider helping them by donating to Little Flowers Foundation.

H/t: Byzantine, TX

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a die-hard baseball fan. This year was very exciting for me, as my beloved Cincinnati Reds made it to the playoffs after 15 years of languishing in obscurity. Unfortunately, their stay in the playoffs was so brief that you missed it if you blinked. But my favorite American League team this year has been the Texas Rangers, who made it to the World Series for the first time in their 60-year history. So I still have a team to root for, albeit not as enthusiastically as I would if the Reds made it.

I did not follow the Rangers because they formally resided in the Washington, D.C., but because of their star player, Josh Hamilton. For those of you unfamiliar with the story of Hamilton (and are still interested enough to be reading this far into the post), he was the “Number 1 Number 1″ draft pick in 1999 (which means he was the first player picked in the first round of the draft) by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He was a prodigious talent and everyone pegged him as “can’t miss.” What got most baseball executives salivating over him was that his incredible talent was matched by an equally strong character. No one had to worry about him hanging out with the wrong crowd or getting involved with drugs or alcohol.

Until he did. A year or so into his career, Hamilton was rehabbing from an injury, had too much down-time on his hands and ended up spiraling downward in dramatic fashion; he started by getting some tattoos and ended by being passed out in a crack house a few months later. His descent was dramatic and almost unbelievable: here was the “good kid” and he was now a crack addict who would most likely be dead before he was thirty.

But God intervened in his life and saved Hamilton from himself. Through the efforts of his father-in-law (a former addict himself) and especially his grandmother, Hamilton was able to quit his habits and gave his life to Christ. He returned to baseball and is now one of the best players in the game.

What I like most about Hamilton is the fact that he is so obviously flawed and weak. After the Rangers won their division, the team engaged in the traditional “champagne shower”. But Hamilton didn’t join the fun, because he knew that he couldn’t have alcohol being poured over him without it leading him to a relapse (after the Rangers won their playoff series, they decided to replace the champagne with Ginger Ale out of respect for Hamilton’s addictions). Here is one of the best players in professional baseball – a man who can hit a baseball a country mile and adored by millions – yet he is so weak that he can’t even be in the presence of alcohol. With Hamilton, you always know that he is just one mistake from a terrible relapse; he must depend on the power of God at every single moment in order just to make it through the day.

This reminds me of St. Paul’s statement, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). We all are weak and flawed individuals, and we all must depend on the power of God every single moment of the day – we just don’t usually realize it as clearly as Hamilton probably does. Hamilton, due to his dramatic descent into darkness, knows how close he is to the edge and therefore must turn to the Lord for the strength to carry on. We too need to recognize our own weakness and our dependence on God, and in doing so, we too will be strong – in the Lord.

Go Rangers!

We relentlessly hear about the vocations crisis and how no one is interested in becoming a priest anymore. However, reality does not always match with conventional wisdom: here in Washington, DC, a new seminary is opening!

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl announced today that the Archdiocese of Washington will open a new seminary in August 2011 for men preparing to become priests. The seminary, for men in college and pre-theology studies, will be located near The Catholic University of America at 145 Taylor Street, NE, Washington, DC.

“At a time when the teachings of the Catholic faith seem counter-cultural, we are seeing an increased interest in the priesthood, particularly among younger men who want to be a part of a new evangelization in society. Until now, most of our new seminarians, especially those in college, have had to leave the area for their studies. Now, the men will begin their formation here and be an integral part of the local Catholic community from the beginning,” said Archbishop Wuerl.

Sixty-seven men are studying for the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Washington, including 29 in college and pre-theology studies. In the 2001-02 academic year, 11 of 44 seminarians were in college or pre-theology programs.

Monsignor Robert Panke, archdiocesan director of priest vocations and formation for the archdiocese and president of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocations Directors, is overseeing the development of the new seminary. He calls it “a real boost” to vocations efforts and notes that the archdiocese has accepted 9 to 15 men into formation annually in recent years. He attributes the numbers to efforts to encourage young men in high school and college to consider the priesthood.

Continue reading…

I know some of the young men discerning their call to the priesthood who would be going to this seminary and they are all fine disciples of our Lord. Please pray for them and for all men called to the priesthood that they might answer the Lord’s call with enthusiasm and faithfulness.

One of the biggest battles in the war against legalized abortion is breaking down the walls of euphemisms and secrets regarding this horrific procedure. Very rarely in the abortion debate does anyone actually talk about abortion itself. Too many people think of abortion as simply one political issue among many; as such, it is often included in discussions as innocuous as beautifying local parks or educating children. Yet every abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent baby.

Back in 1992 a pro-life Indiana man named Michael Bailey discovered that federal law mandates that TV stations must air the ads of any candidate for Congress, no matter what those ads show. Believing that many people were “pro-choice” because they didn’t recognize the great evil of abortion, Bailey decided to run for Congress in order to show pictures of aborted babies on television. Surprisingly, he won the Republican primary and gained national notice for his campaign (he ultimately lost the general election in a landslide).

Even more surprisingly, that law has not changed in the intervening years. So another pro-lifer is running for Congress, this time in Washington, DC, in order to use this law to allow her to run TV ads depicting unborn babies who have been killed by abortion. Considering that in DC more pregnancies end in abortion than birth, this education of the reality of abortion is of vital importance. (Interesting side-note: YouTube is under no such constraints to allow such ads, and they have banned them from their site).

Here are the ads:

It has been shown over the years that when women see pictures of this nature they are more likely to choose life for their children. Please pray that hearts are converted and babies saved because of these commercials.

Note: I have no idea who Missy Smith is or her stand on all the issues. This post is not an overall endorsement of her candidacy, just support for letting the truth about abortion become known far and wide.

It has been announced that the archbishop of my home diocese of Washington, DC – Archbishop Donald Wuerl – has been named a Cardinal! Congratulations Cardinal-designate Wuerl!

And, in a bit of shameless self-promotion, I will now be able to say that my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew has been endorsed by a prince of the Church!

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his reflections on the 2008 Synod on the Word of God, taught us that “Coming into communion with the Word of God, we enter a communion of the Church that lives the Word of God.”  Eric Sammons’ reflections examine the titles and names given to Jesus by those who knew him, as recorded in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  Drawing on his own faith journey and his personal experience, Eric Sammons demonstrates how the lived Word of God — reflected in the lives and writings of the saints and prayers of the Church — of both the East and West — can help us to better know Jesus and to strive to form our daily lives into his likeness. Who Is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew is a work of devotion and readers should find it both inspiring and encouraging.
— Cardinal-designate Donald W. Wuerl, S.T.D., Archbishop of Washington

Let us all remember to pray fervently for Cardinal-designate Wuerl and all the new Cardinals of the Church. May they always lead us faithfully to Jesus.

This is a cause I am praying for:

Father Ciszek’s cause is moving forward in Rome

SHENANDOAH – It may seem that the cause for canonization of Shenandoah native Father Walter J. Ciszek is at a standstill, but according to a co-postulator of the effort, the investigation is continuing at the Vatican.

Monsignor Anthony D. Muntone, a Shenandoah native and priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, provided the news Sunday during the 26th annual Father Walter Ciszek Day Mass in St. Casimir Roman Catholic Church, 229 N. Jardin St., Ciszek’s native parish.

Muntone and the Rev. Thomas F. Sable are co-postulators of the cause. Postulators work with the sponsoring diocese to collect the materials necessary and take the case to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

“I know that many, many of you wonder how far is the cause and can we hope that maybe next week or next month to learn that Father Walter has been declared a saint,” Muntone said from the pulpit at the conclusion of Mass. “I wish that I could say ‘Yes’ to those questions, but I can say this afternoon that the cause is moving along, and it’s moving along very nicely, and it’s very encouraging. There are a lot of things working behind the scenes that’s not very visible, and because it’s not visible, we get the impression that nothing is happening, but a whole lot is happening.”

Continue reading…

If you have never read Fr. Ciszek’s He Leadeth Me, I highly recommend buying a copy and getting started ASAP.

Today is the feast day of the North American Martyrs: St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brebeuf and their six companions. All eight died on North American soil, and three – St. Isaac, St. Rene Goupil, and St. John de Lalande – are the only Church-recognized martyrs to shed their blood in what is now the United States.

This past summer my family made a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs, built at the location where Jogues, Goupil and de Lalande died. It was a powerful experience, and I wrote about it in OSV Newsweekly:

My family descended into the ravine, following the footsteps of one martyr-saint who had searched there for the bones of another. As we traced the downhill path alongside a small stream, we read the words of St. Isaac Jogues describing his search for the body of his Jesuit companion, René.

Killed at the hands of the Iroquois Indians, St. René Goupil would become the first canonized martyr of the United States. We were passing over the holiest ground in our country, we realized, in this out-of-the-way valley in New York.

Continue reading…

North American Martyrs, pray for us!

Often people want to boil down complex subjects into simple-to-understand concepts. They are afraid that if something is too complex, some will reject it even if it is true because they can’t easily grasp it. This is also true of Christianity: throughout our history people have tried to simplify the web of truths which make up Christianity into easy-to-understand ideas. This is a noble project, although it does have its dangers. Sometimes in the process of simplification you leave out essential elements and thus distort the reality. But it is still praise-worthy to try to help others to understand Christianity and to try to break down any barrier to it.

If I had to boil down Christianity to just one word, it would be communion. I would define communion as “mutually self-donating union between two or more persons.” It is a union in which each person freely and completely gives himself or herself to the other out of love.

Communion is the leitmotif of all of Salvation History:

• Before creation, there is the Trinity, in which God is a communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• In the story of creation, the first time something is noted as “not good” is when man is alone (Genesis 2:18). It is only after man is joined with woman – in communion – that he is complete.
• The Fall ruptures two communions – the one between man and God (expelled out of Eden) and the one between man and woman (no longer able to be naked without shame).
• In the Incarnation, God entered into communion with man by becoming one of us.
• In his crucifixion and descent into hell, Christ entered into communion even with the depths of man, taking on our sins and dying for them.
• In his resurrection, Christ re-established the ruptured communion between man and God.
• In establishing the Sacrament of the Eucharist – “communion” – Christ gave us the ability to be in communion with both God and with our fellow man.
• In establishing the Sacrament of Matrimony, Christ re-established the ruptured communion between man and woman.
• At the end of time, those who are saved will be completely united to God and become like Him; we will “come to share in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), thus being in complete and full communion with God and with all the other saved for all eternity.

So you can see that communion is the essence of the Christian Gospel. This has profound implications for how we live as Christians. One of the most obvious is that we cannot believe that our faith is an individualistic one, just between Christ and me. Through Adam, we were lost together, and through Christ – the new Adam – we are saved together. We are bound in this process of salvation as one Body, and to think that the salvation of our neighbor is irrelevant to my salvation is to distort the Gospel.

One of the defining characteristics of Hell is that you are completely and utterly alone. The person is Hell has chosen himself as his god, and God honors that choice by leaving him by himself for all eternity – no God, no communion with anyone. Heaven, on the other hand, is complete communion with God and with all those who are saved. Thus, as the Church Militant we are called to imitate, as much as possible, the Church Triumphant by living in communion with one another and with God.

Let us live out the reality of communion in our churches, in our marriages, and in everything we do on this earth. It is by living out communion that we are truly Christian.

Today is the feast of St. Theresa of Avila, the great doctor of prayer. If you are serious about prayer – and you can’t be a Christian without being serious about prayer – and you don’t know where to start, then I recommend to you her classic work The Way of Perfection. This simple book emphasizes the importance of prayer and that perseverance is the most important virtue when it comes to prayer. She writes,

Those who want to journey on this road and continue until they reach the end, which is to drink from this water of life…they must have a great and very resolute determination to persevere until reaching the end, come what may, happen what may, whatever work is involved, whatever criticism arises, whether they arrive or whether they die on the road, or even if they don’t have courage for the trials that are met, or if the whole world collapses. (The Way of Perfection 21.2)

Commenting on this passage in my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew, I wrote,

Perseverance is a prerequisite for being a Christian; without it, we become like the seed that cannot take root in the soil (cf. Mt 13:1-8). Instead, we must strive to plant ourselves deep in the soil of the Word of God, gaining strength to withstand temptation, persecution, and tribulation; and not only to withstand them, but to grow a “hundredfold” in the faith.

The model of perseverance is Jesus, who from the beginning knew the mission of his Father and would not be deterred from it: neither the flattery of the crowds, nor the pressure from his own disciples, nor the threats from the religious and political leaders could change his course. He persevered through every hardship and temptation. It’s a mistake, however, to believe that following the Father was easy for Christ because he was the divine Son of God. The agony Jesus experienced in Gethsemane (cf. Mt 26:36-46) puts to rest any thought that accomplishing the Father’s will was not a struggle for him; it is no less a struggle for each Christian to fulfill the Father’s will for their lives.

The perseverance needed during great trials is born of forbearance in everyday hardships. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23 emphasis added). Every day, we can experience martyrdom through all the slight instances of suffering each day brings: enduring the small offenses of others, denying our personal desires for the sake of the good of family or friends, and serving others in small daily, perhaps unseen, tasks. These actions, the fruit of a persistent life of prayer and devotion, are what make possible the ability to stand strong in the face of overwhelming opposition.

“You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much” (Mt 25:21), Christ said to the man with five talents. By dying to self in small, everyday affairs, we gain strength to die to self in times of great persecution and strife. When everyone else preaches conformity to the world and its passions, the Christian continues to be founded on the Word of God, Jesus Christ. When worn down by the temptations of this world, we who desire to be saints must turn to Christ and ask for a share in the perseverance the Lord had in following the Father’s will.

If you don’t pray regularly, start today! And persevere!

The latest line of battle in the war against unborn life is to discredit crisis pregnancy centers and to place onerous regulations on them in an effort to shut them down. Fortunately, some pro-lifers are doing something about it. A friend sent me this information about a worthy organization:

The Vitae Foundation (Vitae) is a not-for-profit, tax deductible organization focused on using research-based educational messaging to restore the sanctity of human life value as a core belief in the American culture.  A key tool of the Vitae strategy is to use mass media to distribute its educational messages (television, radio, buses, subways, billboards, internet, etc.)  Since its inception, Vitae has used mass media in over thirty states and seventy media markets as well as several foreign countries.  Vitae is willing to offer assistance to groups and organization that wish to “partner” in joint ventures to support the culture of life.

Vitae was founded by Carl Landwehr from Jefferson City, MO.  Since we are bombarded with messages in the media all day long, he wanted to find a way to brand “Life.”  He contracted a very successful consumer psychologist, Dr. Charles Kenny, to study what motivates the abortion-minded woman.  This led to the research results entitled, “Abortion – The Least of Three Evils.”  It was from this research that Paul Swope based his article in “First Things.”

I have attached the research of Dr. Kenny (Abortion_-_The_Least_of_Three_Evils) and the First_Things_Article.

I also attached a copy of the bus posters in the DC buses.  There are currently 4,400 posters in 200 buses in DC.  We hope to have the same posters in Baltimore by the end of October –please pray!  Vitae also just ran a subway campaign in New York City; it generated over 8000 calls and over 4000 “turn around’s.”  Chris Slattery came to report these statistics at Vitae’s Benefit in DC, Thurs. Oct. 7.

The pregnancy centers in Baltimore have increased their staff and are ready save lives. I still need to raise $5,000 in order to launch the bus campaign by the end of this month. The cost of a child’s life?…………Priceless.

Please consider giving to them: Vitae Foundation.

Yesterday I wrote about the “new evangelization” that our church leaders are calling for. As I mentioned, our Faith is timeless, and every age needs to find new ways to present this Faith in such a way that it is attractive and appealing to those who are sincere and searching for the truth. This means we must engage the culture in which we live.

But what does it mean to “engage the culture”? How does one go about doing that without falling into the errors and evils of a culture? How do you engage the culture without embracing it? How do we live in the world but be of the world? I think it is helpful to look at a practical example: television.

One of the major cultural touchstones in our day is the television. The influence of TV on modern culture cannot be underestimated. How reality is presented through this medium has had a profound impact on how we view the world around us. Anyone who thinks that television doesn’t change people’s behavior should ask why advertising agencies spent millions of dollars on ads if they don’t change behavior. And if ads – which so many people try to ignore – can influence behavior, what about the shows themselves, which are watched willingly? So there is no question that television is a major cultural indicator (and influencer).

So does that mean that in order to effectively evangelize – to engage the culture -  we must watch television? This is exactly what I have been told in the past when I mention that I don’t own a television and therefore don’t watch the many shows out there now. The fact that I’m only vaguely aware of a show called “Glee” supposedly proves that I can’t engage the culture effectively. But I believe this is a misguided notion and shows a faulty understanding of evangelization.

Evangelization is most effective when it is based on a personal relationship between two people. A study was done on Mormon evangelization and it was shown that people were much more likely to convert to Mormonism if someone they were close to – such as a family member – was already a member of the LDS church. The same holds true for any evangelization effort: it is through close personal contact that people are most likely to be open to any message, including the message of the Gospel.

When I was in college, I was a member of Campus Crusade for Christ. We would go door-to-door trying to get people to “accept Jesus into their hearts”. Usually our efforts failed miserably. Why? Because we were not evangelizing, we were being annoying – we were not engaging the total person in our efforts but were instead just doing (annoying) marketing. (Note: I’m not against door-to-door campaigns – I’ve organized them myself; I’m against the idea of a “hard-sell” type of door-to-door campaign).

Effective evangelization involves a long-term effort and deep relationships. Is talking about the latest TV shows really building a deep relationship, or is it not usually just a superficial way to kill time and be sociable? I do not need to know the latest reality show in order to engage my fellow workers on a deep level, and in fact, keeping a conversation to the level of the latest TV show might hinder that effort. Instead of talking about who is about to be ousted on the latest “reality” show, I can talk about my co-worker’s kids or his ailing mother or his hopes for the future. In other words, I can talk about the things that matter – things that lead to the thing that matters most: a relationship with Christ in the Catholic Church.  What I need to engage the culture is not to drown myself in that culture, but instead to form an understanding of human nature and the issues facing people today and use that understanding to engage each person in the struggles they face each day.

Please note: I am not saying that watching TV is evil. Although I do believe that most shows on television today are harmful and should be avoided – and that too much television watching can subtly affect how you view the world – that does not mean that the act of watching a TV show is immoral. However, the idea that watching television is necessary to engage the culture properly is an idea that has no basis in reality and should be rejected. It is more likely that regular TV watching will lead a person to embrace the culture than it will help them to engage it.

This interview with Fr. Benedict is a few years old, but well worth watching if you haven’t seen it yet. Fr. Benedict talks about his involvement in the civil rights movement, the future of the United States, Mother Teresa and other topics.