Five Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today (Feb. 11, 2015)

1. This morning, Pope Francis talked about children, memory, and roots. All children are a gift and the baptized, we are all God’s children. He talked about the generosity of bigger families and warned against selfishness.

Reading his meditation today from his regular weekly Wednesday audience, one is drawn to think about and pray for those who can’t have children, have lost children, both who have freely sacrificed (and especially during this ongoing year for consecrated life) and those who by circumstances bear the cross of having no children. We are all children of our Heavenly Father and are called to love, with a sensitivity, with a closeness in constant and ceaseless prayer — joined by the cloud of witnesses in Heaven — and boundless charity. These things Pope Francis keeps pointing to — this truth and responsibility. He is trying to wake Christians from lukewarmness and indifference, what popes before him have called a practical atheism so many of us fall into in our daily, hectic lives.

2. We think we’re too busy to visit the sick? Today’s the 23rd World Day of the Sick. In his message for it, Pope Francis writes:

Wisdom of the heart means going forth from ourselves towards our brothers and sisters. Occasionally our world forgets the special value of time spent at the bedside of the sick, since we are in such a rush; caught up as we are in a frenzy of doing, of producing, we forget about giving ourselves freely, taking care of others, being responsible for others. Behind this attitude there is often a lukewarm faith which has forgotten the Lord’s words: “You did it unto me’ (Mt 25:40).

And also:

With lively faith let us ask the Holy Spirit to grant us the grace to appreciate the value of our often unspoken willingness to spend time with these sisters and brothers who, thanks to our closeness and affection, feel more loved and comforted. How great a lie, on the other hand, lurks behind certain phrases which so insist on the importance of “quality of life” that they make people think that lives affected by grave illness are not worth living!

3. I included this in my National Review Online “Things that Caught My Eye” list today: My friend Ed Mechmann writes about the steamroll campaign to legalize assisted suicide. What perverse insanity in the false name of mercy and compassion that would be. As he points out:

In discussing this issue, it is vital that we all recognize that when death approaches, there is always some suffering. Some deaths seem more tragic than others, and bear particular pain to the person and their loved ones. But we need to address that suffering, and not just give up on the patient. Modern medicine has the ability to relieve almost all cases of physical pain in a terminally ill patient. We need to work harder to address the other forms of suffering — the familial, psychological and spiritual pain that accompanies a person’s final illness and passing. We also need to think about preventing the pain and suffering that suicide will leave with families and loved ones, and the sense of guilt that often goes along with that.
That’s why more people need to know about institutions like Calvary Hospital, which provides wonderful support and care for those with terminal cancer. They allow people to exit this life with true dignity and compassion, and utterly reject the idea of giving people lethal overdoses of drugs. People also need to know more about the teachings of the Church on end-of-life issues, and what options are morally acceptable and available. To that end, the New York State Catholic Conference has created a wonderful website, “CatholicEndofLife.org”. This site deserves to be widely known and used by Catholics and others who want to know the truth, and not the lies of the assisted suicide promoters.
Our society spends lots of time and money trying to prevent suicide, particularly for teens and depressed people. It makes no sense — and it will hurt those efforts — to designate it as an acceptable option for elderly and sick people. Think of the awful message that sends — that for some people, we’re all better off if you kill yourself. Talk about creating a culture of death.

4. A homily on loving the Lord with pure hearts.

5.

"The natural potential of the individual is inseparable from the supernatural goal of perfection in Christ". St. Edith Stein

— FrSteveGrunow (@FrSteveGrunow) February 11, 2015