Ten Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today (Feb. 26, 2015)

1.

Let's pray for our brothers & sisters. Turkish border closed as #Christian hostages in #Syria spike to 250 #IS http://t.co/YIW4JXPM9b

— Fr. James Bromwich (@NeriInstitute) February 26, 2015

2. Bishop James Conley writes:

I visited the same Turkish cathedral, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, in early November, just a few weeks before Pope Francis did. I celebrated Holy Mass there with fellow pilgrims from Nebraska. And after Mass, I briefly met a Turkish man named Okan Cuhan. Okan and I chatted for a just a few minutes in the sacristy of the Cathedral. He was raised in a muslim community, but he asked me to bless him, and I did.

In a profound way, the Holy Spirit began to move in Okan’s life. He told an American friend that after receiving that Catholic blessing, “I felt a burning feeling in my whole body.” He said the Christian blessing “was the most important thing that ever happened to me.”

In a letter, he wrote that the words of that blessing—the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—echoed through his mind for days.

Okan decided to become a Christian. The Holy Spirit moved in him to profess faith in Jesus Christ. He wrote to that same friend, “I know it will not be easy and of course there is a lot I will have to learn. But you know that I am ready to pay the price of being a Christian living in a Muslim country.”

In January, Okan Cuhan visited his American friend in Michigan, and was received as a catechumen in the Rite of Election. He will be baptized in the near future after a time of catechesis.

In the power of the Holy Spirit, Okan Cuhan has become a witness to the Gospel across the world. The Holy Spirit has inspired faith in him, and moved his heart to profess Jesus Christ. Becoming a Catholic will not make his life easier, more comfortable, or even safer. To the contrary, in fact. Okan Cuhan has accepted the call to become a Christian in a place where faith will have challenging consequences. But he is undeterred. He is ready to “pay the price” of becoming Christ’s disciple.

The Holy Spirit is moving in each of our lives as well. We are all being called and prompted to deeper conversion of mind, heart, and will. We are being invited to faith and discipleship, no matter the cost. The witness of those who will enter the Church in the Diocese of Lincoln should encourage us. So should the witness of Okan Cuhan. No matter where we are called, Christ will be with us, and the Holy Spirit will “inspire prayer in our hearts.”

3. Willy Herteleer is now becoming known as the homeless man who is being buried in the Vatican. Reading up on him I realize I totally went to Mass with him — he attended St. Anne’s by the gate inside the Vatican. He said the Eucharist was his medicine.

From the Catholic News Service:

“He was very, very open and had made many friends,” Father Silvestrini [the pastor at St. Anne’s] said. “He spoke a lot with young people, he spoke to them of the Lord, he spoke about the pope, he would invite them to the celebration of the Eucharist,” which Herteleer always said was “his medicine.”

Msgr. Americo Ciani, a canon at St. Peter’s Basilica was another friend of Herteleer, and he told Vatican Radio that the elderly man — thought to be about 80 — would lean against a lamppost along the road that led tourists and city residents to and from St. Peter’s Square and talk to them about their faith.

“Very often he would engage with someone, asking, ‘Do you go to confession every now and then? Look, going to confession is necessary because if you don’t, you won’t go to heaven!'” the monsignor recalled.

I so wish I had had a conversation with him. Those of us in cities may find ourselves walking past homeless people more than we care to admit. Herteleer, in his death, shows us what we’re missing when we miss encounter with Christ through the eyes of the often overlooked.

4.

Practicing charity is the best way to evangelize.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) January 24, 2015

5.

#TheLightIsON! If you see any of our signs this year snap a photo and share your location with us! #TBT pic.twitter.com/Iu0mLfjBgY

— DC Archdiocese (@WashArchdiocese) February 26, 2015

6.

#TBT to the last Papal visit to #Philly! #PopeInPhilly pic.twitter.com/XjdW6PvApX

— World Meeting 2015 (@WMF2015) February 26, 2015

7. We are created for joy – World Meeting of Family prep with Dominican Fr. Jordan Kelly.

8. Our mission of love, with Fr. Jonah Pollock, O.P. How can we fulfill the mission of love, living in and witnessing to the familial love of God?

9. From Fr. Roger Landry’s homily today:

Jesus promises that the Father will always respond to our prayers by giving us the Holy Spirit. God responds to our petitions first and foremost by giving of himself, because the greatest gift is the Giver. Jesus says all of this so that we will have no fear at all in praying. But he wants us to ask!

10.

We may not always get what we ask for,but we trust that whatever comes from God is always going to be a "good idea" https://t.co/XAguVaTO8U

— Father Dan O'Reilly (@FrDanOReilly) February 26, 2015