Ten Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today (March 4, 2015)

1.

There will always be a hole in our hearts that only God can fill. We're made to know His love and love in return. #AHeartOnFire

— Bishop Olmsted (@BishopOlmsted) March 4, 2015

2. I’m overjoyed by this news: The parents of St. Therese of Lisieux will be canonized in the fall. The celebration of these two saints will coincide with another synod on the family in Rome in October, after Pope Francis visits the United States.
I interviewed my friend Fleur Nabert, a French artist who specializes in religious sculpture and has a great love for the family, here.

3.

Your soul needs silence. Go to the tabernacle. http://t.co/rhKwMTQdoE

— Dynamic Catholic (@DynamicCatholic) March 4, 2015

4.

"We all suffer for each other…" | #dailyeSpiration from Cardinal John Henry Newman pic.twitter.com/23HAEUxUZr

— Steubenville (@go2steubenville) March 4, 2015

5. The ultimate #OPPower tweet?

If Satan had nightmares, they'd surely involve Dominican sisters. pic.twitter.com/xwsvTcBj8K

— Matt Fradd (@mattfradd) March 4, 2015

6. “By a contemporary,” on the life of St. Casmir, whose feast day is today:

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Casimir burned with a sincere and unpretentious love for almighty God that was almost unbelievable in its strength. So rich was his love and so abundantly did it fill his heart, that it flowed out from his inner spirit toward his fellow men. As a result nothing was more pleasant, nothing more desirable for him, than to share his belongings, and even to dedicate and give his entire self to Christ’s poor, to strangers, to the sick, to those in captivity and all who suffer. To widows, orphans and the afflicted, he was not only a guardian and patron but a father, son and brother. One would have to compose a long account to record here all his works of love and dedication for God and for mankind. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine or to express his passion for justice, his exercise of moderation, his gift of prudence, his fundamental spiritual courage and stability, especially in a most permissive age, when men tend to be headstrong and by their very natures inclined to sin.

Daily he urged his father to practice justice throughout his kingdom and in the governance of his people; and whenever anything in the country had been overlooked because of human weakness or simple neglect, he never failed to point it out quietly to the king.

He actively took up the cause of the needy and unfortunate and embraced it as his own; for this reason the people called him the patron of the poor. Though the son of a king and descendant of a noble line, he was never unapproachable in his conversation or dealings with anyone, no matter how humble or obscure.

He always preferred to be counted among the meek and poor of spirit, among those who are promised the kingdom of heaven, rather than among the famous and powerful men of this world. He had no ambition for the power that lies in human rank and he would never accept it from his father. He was afraid the barbs of wealth, which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of as thorns, would wound his soul, or that he would be contaminated by contact with worldly goods.

Many who acted as his personal servants or secretaries are still alive today; these men, of the highest integrity, who had personal knowledge of his private life, testify that he preserved his chastity to the very end of his life.

And a prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours today (where the above Casmir write-up also appeared):

Keep your family, O Lord,
schooled always in good works,
and so comfort them with your protection here
as to lead them graciously to gifts on high.

7. Pope Francis: Convert! And don’t be a liar about it. From the Vatican Radio write-up from his homily yesterday:

“But how can I convert? ‘By learning to do right!’. Conversion.

You cannot remove the filth of the heart as you would remove a stain: we go to the dry cleaner and leave cleansed … This filth is removed by ‘doing’: taking a different path, a different path from that of evil. ‘Learn to do right!’, That is, the path of doing good. And how do I do good? It’s simple! ‘Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow’. Remember that in Israel the poorest and most needy were orphans and widows: do justice to them, go there to the wounds of humanity, where there is so much pain … And by doing so, by doing good, you will cleanse your heart “.
Pope Francis continued that a cleansed heart is promised God’s forgiveness. God does not keep account of the sins of those who concretely love their neighbors. “If you do this, if you take this path to which I invite you – the Lord tells us – ‘though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow’. It is an exaggeration, the Lord exaggerates: but it is the truth! The Lord gives us the gift of His forgiveness. The Lord forgives generously. ‘I forgive you this much, then we’ll see about the rest….’ No, no! The Lord always forgives everything! Everything! But if you want to be forgiven, you must set out on the path of doing good. This is the gift! ‘.
Pope Francis went on to say the Gospel of the day, instead, presents the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Scribes. He was reflecting on people “who say all the right things, but do the exact opposite.”
“We are all clever and always find a path that is not right, to seem more virtuous than we are: it is the path of hypocrisy”. “They pretend to convert, but their heart is a lie: they are liars! It ‘a lie … Their heart does not belong to the Lord; their heart belongs to the father of all lies, Satan. And this is fake holiness. Jesus preferred sinners a thousand times to these. Why? Because sinners told the truth about themselves. ‘Get away from me, Lord, I am a sinner!’: Peter once said. One of those [the hypocrites] never says that! ‘Thank you Lord, that I am not a sinner, that I am righteous … In the second week of Lent we have these three words to think about, to ponder: the invitation to conversion; the gift that the Lord will give us, which is great forgiveness, a great forgiveness; and the trap — that is, pretending to convert, while choosing the path of hypocrisy”.

8. And today: Be anchored in the Eucharist.

9. More links from Pat Gohn.

10. From Mother Teresa via Magnificat today:

For me, Jesus’ thirst is something so intimate. Jesus must be the one to say to you, “I thirst.” Hear your own name. Not just once. Every day. If you listen with your heart, you will hear, you will understand.