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Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the new USCCB president, has received criticism for being the private secretary to the late Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
The Pillar detects a double standard, noting that Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond, the new chairman o…
Read MoreQatar (map), a nation of 2.5 million that is 79% Muslim, is hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Bishop Paul Hinder of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia spoke about the World Cup and Qatar’s Christians, most of whom are non-citizen migrant …
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Church, Editor's Picks, John Jay Study, News, Opinion, sexual abuse crisis |
Leftists deny the mountain of demographic data that draws a strong link between homosexuality and abuse of minors in the Church.
Catholic prelates demand an end to “social insecurity” after a rejection of a new constitution led to a political, social and economic crisis affecting the daily life of people
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | academics, Catholic converts, Catholic Schools, Conservative, David L. Schindler, Democrat, Dion DiMucci, Education, German Synodal Way, Latin Mass, liberal, Music, News, Politics, Religious Sisters, Republican, Respect for Marriage Act, same-sex, Stanford University, Synodal Way, The Dispatch, Twitter |
Record Turkey Prices – “Thanksgiving dinner will cost 20% more this year compared to last year.” Thanksgiving Necessary for National Renewal (The Association of Mature American Citizens) Latin Mass Revival – An ancient form of […
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Art & Culture, Catholic Living, News, Opinion |
Kindness, American style, detached from the Man upon the cross, has turned sour and sickly. It can justify anything.
Francis highlights common religious heritage, talks of strengthening Jewish-Catholic ties
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Rome Newsroom, Nov 23, 2022 / 02:37 am (CNA).
Pope Francis used the example of several Catholic saints to explain the concept of spiritual consolation during his weekly audience on Wednesday.
“What is spiritual consolation?” he said Nov. 23. “It is a profound experience of interior joy, consisting in seeing God’s presence in everything. It strengthens faith and hope, and even the ability of doing good.”
The pope continued his teachings on the theme of discernment at his public audience in St. Peter’s Square, where he contrasted last week’s reflection on spiritual desolation with consolation, as experienced by several of the Church’s saints.
“The person who experiences consolation never gives up in the face of difficulties because he or she always experiences a peace that is stronger than any trial,” Francis said. Consolation “is, therefore, a tremendous gift for the spiritual life as well as life in general.”
The pope began his explanation by drawing from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who wrote about rules for the discernment of spirits.
Francis said “consolation is an interior movement that touches our depths. It is not flashy but soft, delicate, like a drop of water on a sponge.”
He went on to describe consolation as not “a passing euphoria,” nor something which tries to force our will or inhibit our freedom. “Even the suffering caused, for example, by our own sins can become a reason for consolation,” he added.
St. Augustine was consoled when he spoke with his mother, St. Monica, about the beauty of eternal life, the pope said. And St. Francis of Assisi experienced perfect joy despite the difficult situations he had to bear.
“Let’s think of the many saints who were able to do great things not because they thought they were magnificent or capable, but because they had been conquered by the peaceful
sweetness of God’s love,” Pope Francis said. “This is the peace that St. Ignatius discovered in himself with such amazement when he would read the lives of the saints.”
The pope also quoted St. Edith Stein, who is also known by the name she took in religious life: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
A year after her baptism as a Christian, following her conversion from Judaism, St. Edith Stein wrote about her interior feeling of peace: “As I abandon myself to this feeling, little by little a new life begins to fill me and — without any pressure on my will — to drive me toward new realizations. This living inpouring seems to spring from an activity and it gives a strength that is not mine and which, without doing me any violence, becomes active in me.”
Francis emphasized the importance of action following consolation.
“Consolation is such peace, but not to sit there enjoying it, no, it gives you peace and draws you to the Lord and sets you on a path to do things, to do good things,” he said.
“In a time of consolation, when we are consoled, we get the desire to do so much good, always. Instead, when there is a time of desolation, we get the urge to close in on ourselves and do nothing. Consolation pushes you forward, in service to others, to society, to people.”
He recalled when St. Therese of the Child Jesus, at the age of 14, visited the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome.
The girl from Lisieux, France, “tried to touch the nail venerated there, one of the nails with which Jesus was crucified,” the pope said. “Therese understood her daring as a transport of love and confidence. Later, she wrote, ‘I truly was too audacious. But the Lord sees the depths of our hearts. He knows my intention was pure […] I acted with him as a child who believes everything is permissible and who considers the Father’s treasures their own.’”
This, Pope Francis said, is a “splendid description of spiritual consolation.”
“We can feel a sense of tenderness toward God that makes us audacious in our desire to participate in his own life, to do what is pleasing to him because we feel familiar with him, we feel that his house is our house, we feel welcome, loved, restored,” he added.
Consolation gives one the strength to continue in the face of difficulty, Francis said, pointing to St. Therese’s request to the pope to enter the Carmelite order even though she was too young.
According to the pope, St. Bernard teaches us about consolation and discernment, especially the pitfall of “false consolations.”
“If an authentic consolation is like a drop on a sponge, is soft and intimate, its imitations are noisier and flashier, like straw fires, lacking substance, leading us to close in on ourselves and not to take care of others,” Francis said. This is where discernment comes in.
“False consolation can become a danger if we seek it obsessively as an end in itself, forgetting the Lord,” he pointed out. “As St. Bernard would say, this is like seeking the consolations of God rather than the God of consolations.”
There is a risk of treating our relationship with God in a childish way, he concluded, “of reducing it to an object that we use and consume, losing the most beautiful gift which is God himself.”
Read MoreReading 1 RV 15:1-4
I, John, saw in heaven another sign, great and awe-inspiring:
seven angels with the seven last plagues,
for through them God’s fury is accomplished.
Then I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.
O…
Paris, France / Pedro Lastra / Unsplash (CC0)
Rome Newsroom, Nov 23, 2022 / 02:29 am (CNA).
Political tensions in France and reactions to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States are the context for a push towards adding a “right to …
The Colorado Springs nightclub shooting left five dead and 26 injured.
“The shooter appeared to target members of the LGBTQ community,” said Bishop James Golka of Colorado Springs. “Anytime specific members of the population are …
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Archbishop Timothy Broglio, Bishop Nelson J. Perez, Catholic Relief Services, Church in the US, lead, News |
Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia will serve as the next chairman of the Catholic Relief Services board of directors on a three year term that runs through Nov. 2025.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Caritas, charity, Church management, lead, News, News Analysis, Pope Francis, Pope Paul VI |
One sometimes wonders why Francis hasn’t yet been termed the “Lear Pope,” meaning a leader who doesn’t hesitate to act – who, in fact, can come off as perhaps a bit rash or impetuous at times, but never indecisive.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Activism, Argentina, human rights, lead, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, News, Pope Francis, Vatican |
When Argentina lost its second most famous citizen Sunday, the praise heaped upon her by Pope Francis marked the latest example of what can be described as a complex and at times tumultuous, but ultimately warm relationship between the two.
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Capitol, Donald Trump, January 6, Mike Pence, News, The Dispatch, White House |
I’ll confess to some exasperation when, during the 2016 campaign, Republican vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence described himself as an “evangelical Catholic.” Three years earlier, I had published a book on the Catholic future entitled Evangelical [….
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It is a terrible thing to lose a virtue. We need all the virtues to be a fully moral person just as we need all the parts of the body to be working properly if we are to be in full health. If certain muscles in the legs do not work, for example, we may […]
Posted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | catholic poetry, Catholic Poetry Room, Featured, General, In the Spotlight, News |
This week’s poem in the Catholic Poetry Room is by Maria Grace De Lallo. Expectation Do you think of those late autumn days, When the world was dust and faded gold, And you, in sunlight, outside your door, The sun of heaven, warm on your face, Th…
Read MorePosted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Book Review, fear, Featured, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, News, Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Sophia Excerpts |
The recently republished The Seven Steps to Sanctification, How to Awaken the Gifts of the Holy Spirit within You outlines the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the “Divine Will in Christ’s priestly prayer: “Sanctify them in truth” (John 17:17).” Written by two priests, Walter Farrell, O.P., and Dominic Hughes, O.P. the chapters take readers […]
Posted by bcadmin | Nov 23, 2022 | Best of Week, Featured, News, Prayer, Sophia Excerpts |
Prayer is the lifting up of our minds and hearts to God, to praise His goodness, to thank Him for His kindness, to acknowledge our sins and plead for pardon, to ask His aid for our salvation, and to give glory to Him. Note the words mind and heart. Not every thought of God is […]
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