Ten Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today (Jan. 29, 2015)

1. Finding freedom in a prison cell. The next best thing to reading something by Joseph Pearce is having him read it out loud.

(His Journey Home interview, if you have time.)

2. “Being a saint doesn’t mean you were never a sinner.”

3. Pope Francis: Don’t privatize faith.

4.

There is great freedom and joy for those who live in the light of Christ and seek His truth.

— Bishop Edward Burns (@BishopBurns) January 29, 2015

5. From John the Serene (Liturgy of the Hours today):

Our Lord said: Walk while you have the light in you. What other light did he mean but himself? For it was he who said: I came as a light into the world,so that those who have eyes may not see and the blind may receive the light. The Lord then is our light, the sun of justice and righteousness, who has shone on his Catholic Church spread throughout the world. The prophet spoke as a figure of the Church when he cried: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The spiritual man who has been thus illumined does not limp or leave the path, but bears all things. Glimpsing our true country from afar, he puts up with adversities; he is not saddened by the things of time, but finds his strength in God. He lowers his pride and endures, possessing patience through humility. That true light which enlightens every man who comes into the world bestows itself on those who reverence it, shining where it wills, on whom it wills, and revealing itself according to the will of God the Son.

When this light begins to shine upon the man who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, in the darkness of evil and the shadow of sin, he is shocked, he calls himself to account, repents of his misdeeds in shame, and says: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Great is this salvation, my brethren, which fears neither sickness nor lethargy and disregards pain. We should then in the fullest sense not only with our voice but with our very soul cry out, The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? If he enlightens and saves me, whom shall I fear? Even though the dark shadows of evil suggestions crowd about, the Lord is my light. They can approach, but cannot prevail; they can lay siege to our heart, but cannot conquer it. Though the blindness of concupiscence assails us, again we say: The Lord is my light. For he is our strength; he gives himself to us and we give ourselves to him. Hasten to this physician while you can, or you may not be able to find him when you want him.

6. From a homily:

What we receive in the Blessed Sacrament is the divine life and presence of the Lord Jesus. The Blessed Sacrament is not a symbol of Christ or a perfunctory gesture that indicates a vague association with the Church as an institution or as a right that comes to us from ethnicity or culture.
The Blessed Sacrament is essential to the reality of being in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Without it, that relationship lacks his Blood, lacks the living source of Christ’s divine life.
As you can see, we are given an extraordinary gift and opportunity in the Church. God is not at a distance from us nor are we at a distance from God, but we are invited to know Christ personally, share a relationship with him, and to do so in a way that is a matter of his living Body and Blood.
This gift is the light that Christ wants to illuminate the darkness that has enveloped a world that dwells in the sadness of its belief that God is distant or has abandoned us.
It is our mission to bear this light into the world, which means seeking out ways to invite people to share the relationship with the Lord Jesus that we have ourselves. In fact, the Gospel is clear, if we do not share what we have received from Christ, his gift to us evanesces, dissipates, disappears…
You can’t share something you don’t have- you can’t introduce people to someone you don’t know. You can’t give what you haven’t received.

7. Fr. Robert Barron preps for Sunday.

8. Cloistered nuns praying for the rest of us – and blogging about it!

9.

This. pic.twitter.com/0v05B0gjz3

— Sister Mary K (@SrMaryK) January 29, 2015

10. Wisdom from a young Dominican friend:

We can approach God in our fatigue, frustration, or boredom and speak honestly with him. That’s actually what God is hoping you’ll do. He wants to talk to you just as you are. This is why we rightly call God “Our Father” when we pray. So speak to God as the loving Father he is, who wants to bring you closer to him than you can ever realize.

In praying to Jesus our words don’t have to be perfect, nor are they really even necessary. In church or at home, in fatigue or boredom, in words or silence, pray to Jesus. Ask him for the Holy Spirit who speaks on your behalf for what you need, with sighs and expressions too deep for words.