God's Word and Daily Life

By Mel Jasmin

On August 28, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of one of its greatest saints. But I believe what makes this person great is not so much about his works as philosopher and theologian but on how he turned away from sin and the world and embraced God.

St. Augustine uses his focus on the fact that God may exists in the same extent which wisdom and truth exists, which is as concepts or ideas in the mind but not reality. He shows that there is evidence of God but not a powerful creator. To Augustine, God exists but requires him to exist for the basis of his argument. St. Augustine focuses on memory as an unconscious knowledge, which eventually leads him to his knowledge of God. Augustine is no longer telling events of the past, but only of present time.

Augustine starts his analysis of memory in a description of a house. The storehouse is a place where objects are retrieved, deposited, and re-stored; just like the memory where images are kept, and in need recovered. Augustine gives a characterization of memory as if it was materialistic; it is reliable, everything has its own place in it, and it can contain unlimited information.

His works challenge us to look into our memory and see the presence of God there. Augustine believes that God’s identity is intrinsically present in the mind. And so, he teaches us to reflect and to encounter God deep within our mind and soul. Saint Augustine, pray for us.

By Mel Jasmin

Pope Francis has given Mary Magdalene a canonical rank equivalent to that of the apostles.

The most important woman in human history was Mary, the Mother of God. No mere mortal has ever been so richly honored as she who bore God in her own flesh and truly named him her son.

Who was the second-most-important woman? It’s more debatable, but a strong case could be made for St. Mary Magdalene. This July 22, for the first time, Catholics will celebrate her feast.

By formally elevating her memorial to a feast, Pope Francis has given Mary Magdalene a canonical rank equivalent to that of the apostles. He has many times mentioned his wish that Catholics might reflect more deeply on the role of women in the Church. Now, with this change to the Roman calendar, he has taken a concrete step towards that goal.

For such an important person, it’s amazing how little we really know. She must have come from Magdala, a village in Galilee. That means she grew up along those same sandy shores where the apostles were called to be fishers of men.

From there, speculation begins. The Gospels are full of Mary’s, but we aren’t sure which was she. Was Mary Magdalene the woman caught in adultery, rescued by Jesus with his demand that a sinless person cast the first stone? Was she the sister of Martha, who sat by Christ’s feet to hear his teachings? Did she anoint him before his death, weeping and wiping his feet with her hair?

We do know this: St. Mary Magdalene came to Christ’s tomb on the third day, found it empty and ran to tell the apostles. Then, as she wept by the tomb, the Risen Christ came to her and addressed her by name (John 20). She was the first to see him alive. She was the first ever to share the Good News with the world.

It’s beautiful to reflect on the parallels: Both at his birth and at his rebirth, Jesus’ first intimate moments were shared with a woman named Mary.

By Father Bernard Holzer, aa

During this week, the Church celebrates several saints and she invites us to become like them.

We started the week with Saint Benedict (July 11), the founder of monasticism in Europe with his famous rule of life: “Work and pray”. This was followed by Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American Saint and Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of saint Therese of Child Jesus (July 12), Saint Henry emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (July 13), Saint Camille de Lellis, founder of the Camilians (July 14), Saint Bonaventure, Franciscan and doctor of the Church (July 15), and Saint Marceline, the sister of Saint Ambrose of Milan. The Church also celebrates several Blesseds, some killed for their faith or social commitment.

Saints are from every century, from different social classes – emperor, indigenous peoples, a nurse, from different continents… so different yet united in Christ, searching and serving Him in their own responsibilities. Nobody is excluded. They are not “supermen” who are born perfect. Rather they are ordinary people who followed God with all their heart.

“They are like us, '' says Pope Francis, they are like each of us, they are people who before reaching the glory of heaven lived a normal life, with joys and griefs, struggles and hopes… They spent their lives in the service of others, they endured suffering and adversity without hatred and responded to evil with good, spreading joy and peace.”

We are all called to be saints! Sanctity is a vocation for everyone.

“The saints are men and women who have joy in their hearts and spread it to others. Never hating, but serving the other, is the greatest need. To pray and to live in joy: this is the way of sanctity!” – Pope Francis

Let us ask the grace to follow their path!

By Father Bernard Holzer, aa

Around the world, heads of state are using increasingly violent and hostile words, sowing hatred and division.

It’s time to sow peace through simple gestures, and to pray for peace.

Please, find the time to be kind to others, to say “excuse me”, “pardon me”, “thank you”… show interest, give the gift of a smile, speak a word of encouragement, listen amid indifference. 

 “Kindness facilitates the quest for consensus; it opens new paths where hostility and conflict would burn all bridges.” (“Fratelli Tutti”, 224).

Let's always pray and live the prayer Pope Francis composed in his encyclical « Fratelli Tutti » (Brothers and Sisters, All).

Lord, Father of our human family,

you created all human beings equal in dignity:

pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit

and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter,

dialogue, justice and peace.

Move us to create healthier societies

and a more dignified world,

a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war.

May our hearts be open

to all the peoples and nations of the earth.

May we recognize the goodness and beauty

that you have sown in each of us,

and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects,

and shared dreams.

Amen.

The gospels tell us that Peter knew Jesus for at least three years. He was one of his closest friends and followers. He heard Jesus speak and teach, he saw Jesus work miracles. Peter was at the Last Supper with Jesus; he was witness to all that happed to Jesus. And, as we know Peter not only witnesses these events, he was directly involved in them. Famously, he denied that he even knew Jesus as he was being arrested and beaten prior to his crucifixion and death. Peter lost faith in Jesus, but Jesus never lost his faith in Peter.

When Jesus appeared to his friends after the resurrection, he asked Peter not once, but three times whether he loved Jesus! When Peter says he did love him, Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep… feed my sheep.’ So Peter, the very one who denied and disowned Jesus is now called, chosen and entrusted with responsibility of leading this new infant group called ‘The Christians,’which will eventually become the Church, the People of God.

Given his history, no one in their right mind would have picked Peter to lead the new church. But God’s ways are not our ways. God does not choose the powerful, the wealthy, the clever or the important. God chooses the least likely who have the most potential. As it says in the Old Testament; God does not look at outer appearances, but at  the heart of a person.

By Mel Jasmin

With the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24, we reflect upon the life and legacy of he who was “great in the sight of the Lord.” St. John is perhaps best known for his baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, marking the beginning of Jesus’ public career.

John was born to Elizabeth, who had been barren for years and advanced in age when she conceived. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her husband Zechariah to tell him of John’s conception, he declared of the child:

 [H]e will be great in the sight of [the] Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” (Luke 1:15-17)

A child of the desert, John grew up and lived as a hermit in the Judean wilderness, eating a diet of locusts and wild honey, and clad in camel hair clothing – details which may be reflective of strict commitments to Nazarite law (Matthew 3:4). In his late twenties John left and began his ministry preaching by the Jordan River, yet the wilderness of Judea remained a definitive aspect of John’s identity. In John 1:23, when the Pharisees ask him who he was, he answered with the language of Isaiah, saying:

I am ‘the voice of one crying out in the desert,

 Make straight the way of the Lord.’

By Mel Jasmin

“But as blessed as I was to have been given such a strong, proud mother, Father’s Day sometimes makes me think about what I lost as a boy.”

But as blessed as I was to have been given such a strong, proud mother, Father’s Day sometimes makes me think about what I lost as a boy. I sometimes imagine what it would have been like to have seen my dad sitting right there alongside my mom on all of those special occasions. To have benefitted from the wisdom of his experience as I faced the choices and challenges of adolescence. How proud he would have been of me and my siblings. And, how wonderful it would be today to be able to throw my arm around his shoulders and simply say, “Thank you, Dad, for all that you’ve done for me.”

The key to a happy life, however, is not to ruminate about what we don’t have, but to be grateful to God for the many people He has brought into our lives, for however long. Equally important is that we extend that gratitude by offering our compassion to those who struggle. To be someone in someone else’s life—a person for whom another person is grateful. It’s nothing short of what our Father asks of us. His will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

So many of our young people come from homes without a father—up to 86% in fact. Meanwhile, they’ve also had to cope with so much more than my family did. I struggle to imagine what would life would have been like for my mother and for us had circumstances in our lives been vastly different. Had we been surrounded by poverty and powerlessness. By broken streets and boarded up buildings. By crime and violence. By disillusionment and despair. We had others in our lives who helped us get through, who helped us succeed.