For those folks still learning about the Catholic Faith (like me, since I’m a convert), here is a little blurb about today in the Church calendar.

During the year the Church celebrates one by one the feasts of the saints. Today she joins them all in one festival. In addition to those whose names she knows, she recalls in a magnificent vision all the others “of all nations and tribes standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, proclaiming Him who redeemed them in His Blood.”  (from Catholic Culture)

So in simpler terms, today we call to mind all those folks who have lived great lives for Christ that have gone before us; especially those who have died for Christ and/or been specially named a Saint by the Catholic Church.

Today’s Gospel reading was Matthew 5:1-12a,

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven.”

Pretty much everything a person needs to know about being Holy is listed above!  What a great reminder.  I tend to fall short of being Holy nearly every moment of every day.  Just to pick one attribute from the list…meekness, it is not an adjective I think anyone has ever used to describe my personality. I’ve learned that when you are a Christian, you are never done learning how to be less of yourself and more of Christ.

So thank you God, for giving us such wonderful examples in the lives of the Saints, so that we can choose, as they did, to reject our silly selves and choose instead to be more like your Son in the way we conduct our lives.

On Thursdays, our church has a Bible Study group that meets at 1PM.  Since the Farmer’s Markets are over, I can attend and I’m so looking forward to it.   The Holy See designated this as the Year of St. Paul and I’ve learned that the Bible Study is focusing on St. Paul too.

Sunday’s Mass was celebrated by a visiting priest.  His name is Father John.  Since Dave & I were scheduled to be Eucharistic Ministers, we had an opportunity to talk with him for about 15 minutes prior to mass.  He told us that he’s been granted permission from his order to reside near his sister & her family right now because his sister is dying from cancer.  He said that only this week the doctors had recommended they stop treatments.  She is only 50 and has 3 children still living at home.  He didn’t say anything like he understood why his sister was going to die so young and leave behind a husband and young children, but he simple said that God is bigger than us and He knows the reason why.

During Mass, he said an excellent and intelligent homily regarding the gospel passage from Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two greatest commandments.”

After mass, our Knights of Columbus were hosting a breakfast buffet and Father John joined the group at our table.   It was very pleasant speaking with this gentleman.  You can tell he is hurting because of the tragedy of his sister’s circumstance, but there is a peace about him anyway.  He will be celebrating Mass again for us next week and I’m looking forward to his homily.

Yesterday was St. Clare of Assisi’s feast day. Our church had an evening pray service in honor of St. Clare so Dave and I decided to go. It was really, really nice. There were maybe 20+ people there. After the service, we found out that most of those present were Secular Franciscans. What is funny about that is I’d never heard of Secular Franciscans until Saturday when I saw mention of them on a blog. Whenever I have a question wandering in my head about something Catholic, it is pretty awesome how God finds a way of sending me the answer, even when I’m not really looking for it. The woman who sat in front of us turned around after the service and was telling us a bit about Secular Franciscans and about a trip to Assisi, Italy that she’d just returned from only days before. So, now I know that there are three orders (divisions) to the Franciscans. Very basically stated, First Order are the religious men (monks, priests) who live in a religious community of more than two, Second Order are religious women (nuns) and the Third Order is made up of lay people (your normal everyday folks) who work and live outside of a structured religious community. Thus, the question is answered!

Oh, and I also learned why I almost always see St. Francis of Assisi & St. Clare of Assisi linked. They came from the same town in Italy and St. Clare became a disciple of St. Francis after his own conversion. She outlived him by nearly 30 years so when there were questions about following the rules of the Franciscan Order, in those early years, she was the one folks came to for clarification. She is kind of considered a co-founder of the Franciscans even though she was originally a disciple of St. Francis.

So it was an educational and prayerful evening!

In other words, is praying to the dead okay in my opinion? Yup! I ask living people to pray for me all the time. Why not ask the folks already in God’s house to pray for me too? Of course, I pray directly to Jesus (as I should), but praying for each other is part of what being a Christian is about and it is a good thing to do for one another. St. Paul strongly encouraged Christians to pray for one another and he asked for their prayers for himself as well. There is a passage in the Gospel of Matthew also where Jesus required us to pray for others and not always just for those who asked for our prayers (off the top of my head, I don’t know the exact passage, but I’ll find it if anyone would like it).

So the Catholic Church STRONGLY encourages us all to pray for one another. There is nothing wrong with asking our fellow Christians, including those in Heaven already, to pray with us.

I was just thinking about it and the folks in Heaven aren’t held back by bodily infirmities or the everyday stresses of earthly life. They are right there before the Lord with nothing like pain or angst holding them back like life holds those of us still bound to earth back. I believe they are right there ready and anxious to take our petitions before the Lord.

So to sum up. If you’ve ever asked a fellow living Christian to pray for you (which is good and you should do), the Catholic Church teaches (and I believe) that it is okay to go ahead and ask the folks already in Heaven to pray for you too. It isn’t like you are pressing God from every angle and being forceful either. God is not like the parent who caves because there are so many voices begging for something. Either He’s going to grant the prayer or not, we have to be willing to accept His yes, His no and His timing, but I believe He wants us to pray for one another’s needs & desires. And I believe there is good precedent in the Bible showing that is His desire for us.

Ask your fellow living Christians to pray for you, but don’t forget the Christians who have gone before you…ask them for their prayers too. It’s okay!! God won’t mind hearing from those He’s already invited into Heaven.

God, please bless all those who read this post!

There is a blog I pop into occasionally because the writer sometimes has these great ideas about homemaking and keeping a good schedule, but she is totally anti-Catholic. So if I see she’s written another entry about how wrong Catholics are, I try to skip over it. A person can find “evidence” to back up any preconceived notion on every topic imaginable and this woman finds the meanest most backwards examples for her evidence against the Catholic Church. She’s not even remotely open to exploring voices from the “other side”. Dave once tried to engage her in a discussion via her comments on her blog, but she didn’t post the comment nor did she respond.

So anyway today’s anti-Catholic topic was “Mary worship”. ARGH! Again, with the Mary worship thing. I couldn’t help myself, instead of skipping the entry I skimmed it. But as I skimmed it, I had a thought. Instead of even trying to get a word in edgewise with this woman, because she is soooooooooo incredibly entrenched in her issue with Catholics, I decided to instead be a tiny, speck of light for the Catholic Church on the web. I can’t write as some great intellectual theologian & philosopher, but I can speak from personal experience. I’m not thinking of trying to “take on” this woman’s ideas and prove them wrong either because as I wrote earlier…a person can find “evidence” to back up any thought that pops into their head. I could say that evolution made zebra’s heads migrate to the other end of the animal and find evidence to back it up. So proving her “wrong” isn’t going to be my point. What I can do is write what Jesus’ mother, Mary, has meant to me since becoming a Catholic. And whenever I happen to notice another topic of anti-Catholicism out there…maybe I’ll write another little something.

Just as a quick note because I don’t have time right now to write on this Mary topic…it has meant so much to me to be able to send up a quick thank you or even request to those Saints (and saints) who have gone before me to be with our Lord. I am always sending up prayers of thanks and request to our Lord, but every once in a while I can to “talk” to other saints. Let them know what their life as an example of living for Christ has meant to me or to ask them to petition our Lord on my behalf for some thing or other.

Why doesn’t it make sense that we can commune with those who lived on Earth for Christ and who have gone before us to be with Him? I love the fact that I can send up a prayer to my recently deceased grandmother. I can tell her things going on with her family so she can petition Christ just as I can from here on Earth. Just the other day one of her sons (my uncle) had to have a major heart surgery. I “told” grandma about it so she could petition Christ at the same time I was praying for him. If even our unspoken prayers reach the ears of Christ, why can’t they reach the Saints (and saints) who lived for Christ and are now in Heaven with Him? Not to be redundant, but how awesome is it that when I pray I not only pray directly to Christ, but I can call upon others already in Heaven to petition our Lord too. Why wouldn’t a non-Catholic Christian love that idea too. Man, I am forever calling upon those that have passed on before me for things. If you know me, you are a Christian and you die before me…guess what…I’m so going to be calling upon you to take things to Christ for me. Who has a better chance for a direct audience with Christ than someone who has been invited into His House (aka Heaven)?