THE ONE TEACHING OF JOHN PAUL II THAT WILL CHANGE YOU

The one teaching of John Paul II that will change your life

He not only taught it, he lived it out, even as a famous world-traveling pope.

Pope St. John Paul II led an extraordinary life. From his time as a young priest in 1950s Poland surviving the brutalities of Communism to becoming a beloved pope who regularly drew crowds in the hundreds of thousands, he was one of most famous and influential people of his generation.

In the midst of it all, however, he never lost his personal touch. For instance, when he was shot by Mehmet Ali Agca in a 1981 assassination attempt, he later visited the prison to personally forgive the man. He was also well known in his younger days for heading out on retreats with small groups of friends or parishioners deep into the mountains where they had plenty of time for personal bonding.

It’s telling that he was devoted to maintaining individual relationships, even while burdened with the growing responsibilities of serving the Church. I’m just a parish priest with far fewer demands on my attention than he had, but there are nights I’m so tired that I go into my room, close the door, and binge on Netflix. It’s admirable that a man as great as John Paul II managed to make time for personal encounters when it would have been easy to get lost in the busyness and bustle of the Vatican.

The willingness to make time for friendship seems to be waning for many of us. Sure, social media is connective in its own way, but any honest person knows that scrolling through a social media feed isn’t quite the same thing as having face-to-face conversation. This is why many people, when asked, claim to find our technological age dehumanizing.

There are many other factors that pull us way from connecting with others. The way we divide ourselves into “us” and “them” camps so often, especially on social media. Or the way long work days with long commutes zap all of our energies. It’s so easy for many days to go by without any real, human connection.

This is why John Paul II is so fascinating. Because of how smart and busy he was, you would think he’d only have a few close friends or that he would struggle to remain connected to people. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, and people who met him always felt he had given them his full attention. He was clearly intentional in reaching out and made a point of getting to know people. Underneath the genius and in all his many books and teachings, this great man was making one, simple life-changing point: every person deserves to be loved.

In his book Love and Responsibility, he writes, “A person’s rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use.” This holds true for every encounter we have with another person, whether it’s a family member, a co-worker, a friend, a stranger, or an enemy.

The way John Paul II lived his own life is an example of this time and time again. For him, the problem with the rise of technology, politicizing everything, or investing too much time in work is not that they cross some philosophical boundary, but that they objectify people.

To really know a person, we need to pause and take the time to personally connect. The life of St John Paul II shows that a happy life is not about adhering to any ideology or proving ourselves to be right or successful – it’s about people. Every person matters. Every person is valuable. Connection and friendship are the ways we honor that.

CATHOLIC REFORM BEFORE MARTIN LUTHER

Catholic Reform Began Before Martin Luther

We often hear and read that Martin Luther ignited the Protestant Reformation in 1517 because the Church was in a state of severe moral and institutional decay and there was no hope of real reform. In truth, the authentic renewal of the Church started long before Luther was even born.

Fronts of Reform

The “Catholic Reform” took two primary themes: the thorough reform of the institutional, spiritual and ecclesiastical life of the Church and a decisive restatement of the fundamental doctrines of the faith as expressed in Scripture and Tradition.
Through these two themes, the reform ultimately touched upon every facet of Catholic life and reached its strongest expression in the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, it took from 1517 to 1545 for the Tridentine Council to be convoked, a period of time that witnessed the steady progress of both the Protestant Reformation and the early reform of the Church to gain momentum. It would then be an error to say that the Catholic Reform began with the Council of Trent or that little reform of consequence had preceded it.
Certainly, earlier grassroots efforts were scattered across Christendom, but they lacked a single driving force. Still, there was widespread awareness of the need for reform in the Church before Luther and a definite series of movements — or fronts of reform — that tried to bring it about.
Four of these fronts of reform were: Christian humanism, spiritual renewal, the revitalization of the religious orders, and, finally, a determined group of Church leaders who wanted to bring all of the goals together under the rightful leadership of the pope.
All of this was happening at the very time when most modern people assume that the Church was at her lowest ebb.
Most important, the reformers in the Church took as their objective reform and renewal rather than abandoning the teachings of the Church or shattering the unity of the Christian faith. As Cardinal Giles of Viterbo, also a poet, wisely declared at the Fifth Lateran Council in 1512, “Man must be changed by religion, not religion by man.”
Christian humanism was a movement of rebirth that tried to be faithful both to the classical and the Christian traditions. The Christian humanists not only believed that the studia humanitatis (the study of humanity) was the foundation of education, but that Christian humanism offered a genuine means to revive Christian culture and life.
St. Thomas More is among the most famous Christian humanists, but there was also Cardinal Francisco Ximénes de Cisneros (1436-1517), the archbishop of Toledo starting in 1495 and a figure of immense influence at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Cardinal Ximénes entered into his archdiocese determined to restore the discipline of the diocesan clergy and regenerate the Church’s pastoral mission. In his pastoral and intellectual labors, the cardinal became the nexus of Renaissance humanism and ecclesiastical revitalization, and Spain established itself at the forefront of the “Catholic Reformation.”
Meanwhile, in 1501, the humanist Desiderius Erasmus expressed the principles of a personal and deeply Christocentric piety, manifested not in ceremonial or legalistic observances, but in acts of charity and a moral life.
This represented a much broader movement toward renewed spirituality, the spiritual movement of the devotio moderna (modern devotion) that stressed personal prayer and meditation centered on Christ and the Gospels, as well as the practice of the virtues.
The earnest reformers also all returned to the sacramental system that Luther’s doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) sought to undermine. They prescribed confession more than once a year, heightened Eucharistic devotion and advocated more frequent celebration of Mass among priests and bishops as ways of reinvigorating the sacramental life. The laity’s response was visible also in the confraternities that flourished in Italy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.
There was also the flourishing of the new religious orders, including the Theatines, the Somaschi, the Barnabites, the Capuchins (a branch of the Franciscan Order) and the Oratorians begun by St. Philip Neri.
Above the other orders of the Catholic Reformation, of course, was the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola and approved by Pope Paul III in 1540, which became the spearhead of the renewed Church.
The correction of the abuses and failings of the papacy, however, was perhaps the most crucial event in the whole of the reform process, for it made change possible on a universal scale.
The pontificates of Leo X and Clement VII — interrupted only briefly by the ardent but short-lived reformer Adrian VI — were continuations of the often deplorable Renaissance papacy, and so the papacy of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese as Pope Paul III (1534-1549) was greeted with genuine enthusiasm by the growing reform party in the Church.
Known previously neither for his saintliness nor his conspicuous austerity, Paul arrived on the throne of Peter a changed man. With the failures of his immediate predecessors uppermost in his mind, he gave up all thought of worldly amusements and instead dedicated himself foremost to bringing reform to the entire Church.
He elevated only truly deserving and morally irreproachable men to the cardinalate, including the Englishman and noble Reginald Pole (who, in 1550, fell short of election as pope by one vote), Marcello Cervini (the future Pope Marcellus II) and Gian Pietro Carafa (the future Paul IV). All were avowed reformers and committed, like their pontiff, to the convening of a general council — what became the Council of Trent.

Council of Trent

Paul spent nine years preparing for the Council, and Dec. 13, 1545, the first session of the Council of Trent was convened. It took another 18 years of intermittent work, but finally, after 25 sessions, Pope Pius IV closed the council Dec. 4, 1563.
In its decrees, spirit and long-term influence, the Council was the most decisive event of the Catholic Reformation and was so comprehensive and effective in its implementation that another general council was not needed until the late 19th century and Vatican Council I (1869-1870).
Trent reaffirmed all of the doctrines brought into question by Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and others, but it also reformed the institutional life of the Church and called for the creation of the modern seminary system, the preparation of a universal catechism and a thorough reform of the rites of the Mass.
There had been other councils (such as the Fifth Lateran) issuing high-minded and well-meaning pronouncements that were promptly ignored and all but forgotten. The circumstances were now different.
There was the enthusiasm for reform by the pope, cardinals, bishops, religious orders and theologians who returned to Rome or their respective dioceses eager to put the alterations into practice.
Above all, there were the popes who came after Paul III. Among the most memorable pontiffs of the later 16th century were Pius IV (1559-1565), St. Pius V (1566-1572), Gregory XIII (1572-1585) and Sixtus V (1585-1590).

An Authentic Reformation

Concurrent with the new theological surge was the intense renascence in Catholic spirituality and culture. Two of the cornerstones of this process were found in Spain: Sts. Teresa of Ávila (d. 1582; canonized in 1622) and John of the Cross (d. 1591; canonized in 1726).
Both were profound mystical theologians, both brought reform to their respective branches of the Carmelite Order, and both were declared doctors of the Church.
The post-Catholic Reformation Church boasted a confident clergy, a renewed theology and spiritual vigor, a brilliant future in the missions, and a vibrant papacy. The depth of renewal in the Church was visible not only in the institutions and clergy — it was seen in the art of the times, particularly by the hands of those sculptors, painters and composers who labored through the patronage of the popes to give artistic expression to the Catholic Reformation’s highest ideals.
Just two of the masters were the artist and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini (d. 1680) and the composer Giovanni Palestrina (d. 1594). Bernini’s brilliant colonnade in St. Peter’s Square embodied the Catholic Reformation’s outward embrace of the whole world, while Palestrina’s rich, resonant sacred music was inspired by his own abiding faith and the finest elements of the robust religious and spiritual reawakening that surrounded him in Rome.
The Protestant Reformation period had brought the Catholic faith to one of its darkest moments, a time of doubt and shadows, from which it emerged strengthened and renewed.
The Council of Trent reaffirmed the teachings of the Catholic faith, but post-Tridentine Catholicism did not look backward to a vanished time when it was the bulwark of civilization.
Rather, it used its energized members — both the clergy and laity — to go out and to bring Christ to the entire world in a breathtaking era of missionary zeal whose achievements are felt even today.

MISSION SUNDAY MESSAGE 2017

Mission at the heart of the Christian faith            

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

ONCE again this year, World Mission Day gathers us around the person of Jesus, ‘the very first and greatest evangeliser’ (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 7), who continually sends us forth to proclaim the Gospel of the love of God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. This Day invites us to reflect anew on the mission at the heart of the Christian faith. The Church is missionary by nature; otherwise, She would no longer be the Church of Christ, but one group among many others that soon end up serving their purpose and passing away. So it is important to ask ourselves certain questions about our Christian identity and our responsibility as believers in a world marked by confusion, disappointment and frustration, and torn by numerous fratricidal wars that unjustly target the innocent. What is the basis of our mission? What is the heart of our mission? What are the essential approaches we need to take in carrying out our mission?

Mission and the transformative power of the Gospel of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life

1) The Church’s mission, directed to all men and women of good will, is based on the transformative power of the Gospel. The Gospel is Good News filled with contagious joy, for it contains and offers new life: the life of the Risen Christ who, by bestowing His life-giving Spirit, becomes for us the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6). He is the Way who invites us to follow Him with confidence and courage. In following Jesus as our Way, we experience Truth and receive his Life, which is fullness of communion with God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. That life sets us free from every kind of selfishness, and is a source of creativity in love.

2) God the Father desires this existential transformation of His sons and daughters, a transformation that finds expression in worship in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4:23-24), through a life guided by the Holy Spirit in imitation of Jesus the Son to the glory of God the Father. ‘The glory of God is the living man’ (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses IV, 20, 7). The preaching of the Gospel thus becomes a vital and effective word that accomplishes what it proclaims (cf. Is 55:10-11): Jesus Christ, who constantly takes flesh in every human situation (cf. Jn 1:14).

Mission and the kairos of Christ

3) The Church’s mission, then, is not to spread a religious ideology, much less to propose a lofty ethical teaching. Many movements throughout the world inspire high ideals or ways to live a meaningful life. Through the mission of the Church, Jesus Christ Himself continues to evangelise and act; Her mission thus makes present in history the kairos, the favourable time of salvation. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, the risen Jesus becomes our contemporary, so that those who welcome Him with faith and love can experience the transforming power of His Spirit, who makes humanity and creation fruitful, even as the rain does with the earth. “His resurrection is not an event of the past; it contains a vital power which has permeated this world. Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. It is an irresistible force.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 276)

4) Let us never forget that ‘being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a Person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, 1). The Gospel is a Person who continually offers himself and constantly invites those who receive Him with humble and religious faith to share His life by an effective participation in the paschal mystery of His death and resurrection. Through Baptism, the Gospel becomes a source of new life, freed of the dominion of sin, enlightened and transformed by the Holy Spirit. Through Confirmation, it becomes a fortifying anointing that, through the same Spirit, points out new ways and strategies for witness and accompaniment. Through the Eucharist, it becomes food for new life, a ‘medicine of immortality.’ (Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Ephesios, 20, 2)

5) The world vitally needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the Church, Christ continues His mission as the Good Samaritan, caring for the bleeding wounds of humanity, and as Good Shepherd, constantly seeking out those who wander along winding paths that lead nowhere. Thank God, many significant experiences continue to testify to the transformative power of the Gospel. I think of the gesture of the Dinka student who, at the cost of his own life, protected a student from the enemy Nuer tribe who was about to be killed. I think of that Eucharistic celebration in Kitgum, in northern Uganda, where, after brutal massacres by a rebel group, a missionary made the people repeat the words of Jesus on the cross: “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” as an expression of the desperate cry of the brothers and sisters of the crucified Lord. For the people, that celebration was an immense source of consolation and courage. We can think too of countless testimonies to how the Gospel helps to overcome narrowness, conflict, racism, tribalism, and to promote everywhere, and among all, reconciliation, fraternity, and sharing.

Mission inspires a spirituality of constant exodus, pilgrimage, and exile

6) The Church’s mission is enlivened by a spirituality of constant exodus. We are challenged ‘to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the peripheries in need of the light of the Gospel.’ (Evangelii Gaudium, 20) The Church’s mission impels us to undertake a constant pilgrimage across the various deserts of life, through the different experiences of hunger and thirst for truth and justice. The Church’s mission inspires a sense of constant exile, to make us aware, in our thirst for the infinite, that we are exiles journeying towards our final home, poised between the ‘already’ and ‘not yet’ of the Kingdom of Heaven.

7) Mission reminds the Church that  is not an end unto herself, but a humble instrument and mediation of the Kingdom. A self-referential Church, one content with earthly success, is not the Church of Christ, his crucified and glorious Body. That is why we should prefer ‘a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.’

Young people, the hope of mission

8) Young people are the hope of mission. The person of Jesus Christ and the Good News he proclaimed continue to attract many young people. They seek ways to put themselves with courage and enthusiasm at the service of humanity. “There are many young people who offer their solidarity in the face of the evils of the world and engage in various forms of militancy and volunteering… How beautiful it is to see that young people are ‘street preachers,’ joyfully bringing Jesus to every street, every town square and every corner of the earth!” (ibid., 106). The next Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held in 2018 on the theme Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, represents a providential opportunity to involve young people in the shared missionary responsibility that needs their rich imagination and creativity.

Carrying out our mission with Mary, Mother of Evangelisation 10) Dear brothers and sisters, in carrying out our mission, let us draw inspiration from Mary, Mother of Evangelisation. Moved by the Spirit, she welcomed the Word of life in the depths of her humble faith. May the Virgin Mother help us to say our own ‘yes,’ conscious of the urgent need to make the Good News of Jesus resound in our time. May she obtain for us renewed zeal in bringing to everyone the Good News of the life that is victorious over death. May she intercede for us so that we can acquire the holy audacity needed to discover new ways to bring the gift of salvation to every man and woman.

 June 4 2017, Solemnity of Pentecost

PRIESTLY VOCATIONS - A CLOSER LOOK

13 Bishops Take a Closer Look at Vocations

“The secret of a successful vocations program begins with prayer.”

A key focus of any diocesan bishop is going to be vocations to the priesthood and religious life. In recent years, I have spoken to a number of bishops on the subject of vocations; here are some thoughts they have shared.

Michael Barber, SJ, Bishop of Oakland, California
 [Vocations have been] one of my top spiritual priorities since coming to Oakland, finding good vocations from our diocese. I’ve been asking people to pray for this end, and I spend a lot of time promoting vocations myself.
We’ve been in the upswing in recent years, with more ordinations to the priesthood and diaconate, but we certainly could be better. We’d like to start a prayer campaign, asking people who are in the hospital or otherwise ill to offer their prayers and sufferings for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. They’ve done something similar in Arlington, Virginia and it’s been a big success. This is only one element, but it could be a huge element of a successful vocations program.

Fabian Bruskewitz, retired Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska
I inherited a diocese that was stable and wonderful. I was able to build on a strong foundation. My predecessor, Bishop Glennon Flavin, was an extraordinarily adroit promoter of vocations so I was able to construct on what was built before.
The first important thing is God’s grace and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is the patroness of the Diocese of Lincoln. We [have had] a good number of vocations, more than is adequate for the size of our diocese.

Robert Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis
Catholic schools are important when it comes to vocations. Ninety-four percent of our priests went to Catholic grade schools, and 92 percent to Catholic high schools. And, most of our seminarians for St. Louis come from St. Louis.

Charles J. Chaput, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
We’ve added about 25 new seminarians from our own archdiocese each of the last two years, and we've also had increases from other sending dioceses. So we've had good, promising growth. The men we’re attracting are impressive. Our current vocations director and our rector are both doing a great job. But like the rest of the archdiocese, the seminary needed a rethink, a comprehensive structural and financial renewal. We’re working on that right now.

Paul Coakley, Archbishop of Oklahoma City
I believe it is most effective to extend an invitation, particularly if it is by a priest to a young man. It also helps if it is encouraged in the home and family, which includes regularly praying for vocations. We want parents and teachers to regularly have conversations with young men and women about God’s plan for their lives. These should be ordinary conversations; otherwise, when the topic of vocations comes up, it seems like something arcane, unfamiliar or mysterious.
In our archdiocese, we have a wonderful youth camp which has our seminarians serving on the staff. It is a great way for young people to meet and become acquainted with seminarians.

James Conley, Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska
The secret of a successful vocations program, I believe, begins with prayer. Vocations come from God. We have two cloistered communities of religious women in our diocese, our Carmelite Sisters and our Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, whom we call “pink sisters” because of the color of their habits. They both pray for vocations constantly.
Also key to vocations is fidelity to Church teaching. That is one hallmark of the Diocese of Lincoln. For the past 40-plus years Lincoln has had stellar episcopal leadership, and is unapologetic in its embrace of the Faith. Having the security of knowing that the Diocese of Lincoln is 100 percent faithful to Church teaching on faith and morals is very appealing to many young men considering the priesthood.
We also have an active Newman Center at the University of Nebraska. About 100 of our 139 active priests have had some affiliation with the Newman Center, and it helped positively to influence their decision to enter the seminary. In fact, our vocations director is pastor of the University of Nebraska’s Newman Center and we run our vocations office from there.
Also, in 1999, we had a great blessing in our diocese when Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz opened St. Gregory the Great Seminary, a four-year Catholic college seminary, at a time when many such colleges were closing. It’s been a great blessing for us, and allows us to do our own formation of men discerning the priesthood. That is important because we live in a time when more and more men are coming from broken families. We are able to address a lot of “woundedness” early in their formation.

Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco
I find that young people who present themselves for vocations have a great love for God and the Church, and have a desire to serve. I’ve been impressed by the level of maturity of our seminarians.
Some who come to us have family issues to overcome, or suffer from a lack of catechesis. They have some catch up work to do. We need people who are seeking the truth, and have a love for learning.
Our challenge is that we need more. If we had triple the number of seminarians, we’d be in a good situation.
… [Stewardship] is tied to vocations. Successful stewardship is not just a process that takes a few years, but is multi-generational. It has to go way beyond my time in San Francisco. We are working with a firm that has been working for some years with leaders in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas. Wichita has a program that started in the 1970s; they have been very successful, and are a model for the country.
Wichita is a diocese with people who are happy and proud to be Catholic. They have thousands of volunteers. They, for example, run a dining room that serves 2,000 meals to the poor each day, and it is staffed entirely by parishioners. Their Catholic schools do not charge tuition.
They have a diocese of 110,000 Catholics, and have 50 seminarians. This is a very high proportion, as compared to other places.

Thomas Daly, Bishop of Spokane, Washington
When I was first named vocations director in San Francisco, we had seven or eight seminarians for the archdiocese. Over the next nine years, we got it up to 21. Our focus was on “homegrown” vocations, rather than bringing in priests from outside the archdiocese.
It’s not so much about programs, but prayer. I asked people in our parishes to pray for vocations, and stressed the need for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I like to stress Eucharistic adoration; God will not give us the priests we need if we don’t put the Eucharist in the center of our lives.
We put the word out on Immaculate Heart Radio [which broadcasts in San Francisco], asking listeners to pray a decade of the rosary for vocations to the priesthood. We took a pilgrimage to Lourdes. It all begins and ends with prayer. I’m pleased to say that at Marin Catholic [a high school of the San Francisco Archdiocese] we have our fourth young man going into the seminary.
I also believe in the importance of a personal invitation. Once you get a solid core of younger guys in the seminary, they reach out to other young guys and invite them to come to the seminary …
We need to make vocations to the priesthood a priority. I spent 24 years of my priesthood serving in the suburbs of San Francisco. When parishes make vocations a priority, you can see that it really makes a difference.

Joseph Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky
We can have confidence that Christ is calling [young people to the priesthood and religious life], and help others to hear and respond to this call. When we survey our newly ordained priests, 90 percent say they entered the seminary because of a conversation they had with a senior priest. But when we survey our priests, only 30 percent report that they have invited a young man to consider the priesthood. If I were in sales, I’d say we have a great opportunity here.
I encourage pastors to identify those who may have a calling to the priesthood and to make an invitation. That is a way we can let Christ act through us.
The support of family is also important. Many priests and seminarians will tell you that the support of their own families often grew as they went through the seminary. That happened with me. My mom was happy I entered the seminary, but my dad was not. But, over time, he became my biggest supporter. I encourage families to see priesthood and religious life as a great gift, and support their members who are answering the call.

Robert Morlino, Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin
The key is prayer and God’s grace. We’ve also made it clear what the identity of the priest is, and in what direction the Church is headed. We also offer them joy in the community of seminarians and the ready availability of getting to know the bishop.

Thomas Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix, Arizona
There has been great improvement in our seminaries in the past 10 to 20 years. We’ve enjoyed greater clarity of thought regarding the Church’s teaching on doctrine and morals. John Paul II offered many great documents in the 1990s, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the encyclicals Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”), Fides et Ratio (“Faith and Reason”) and Veritatis Splendor (“The Splendor of Truth”). These have been of great benefit explaining Catholic teaching and strengthening the Faith everywhere, especially in seminaries.
We’ve also had a better understanding of the role of psychology in the seminary. There was a time when there was too much emphasis given to psychology, and not enough to the pastoral experience of priests on faculties in evaluating men preparing for the priesthood.
While there certainly is a need for psychological testing of candidates to ensure that they are healthy mentally, at the same time this is only one aspect, the human aspect, of priestly formation. There are four pillars of priestly formation: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral. Spiritually, we need a deep appreciation of the importance of a rich liturgical life and a personal devotional life. Intellectually, we’ve been aided by the teachings of Pope John Paul II and continued by Pope Benedict. And pastorally, we need to ensure that those preparing for the priesthood have a generous heart and feel called to serve and not be served.

Alexander Sample, Archbishop of Portland
When I speak to young men about the priesthood, I tell them that we’re called not to benefit ourselves but for our people. The priesthood is not about us, but serving Christ. We exist for the sake of the Church, to be of service.
We need to shrug off any worldly notion of the priesthood. I bristle when I hear priests talking about “my priesthood,” as if it’s something that belongs to us. There is only one priest, Jesus Christ, and we are His humble servants. It’s not about us obtaining some level of status in the Church, but about having a heart of service for God’s holy people. That’s my constant theme about the priesthood.
We live in a culture of entitlement. It affects us all, myself included. I tell our young men that they must fight against this idea. We must instead form them with a sense of sacrifice.

Edward Slattery, retired Bishop of Tulsa, Oklahoma
 [To encourage vocations] we should start with prayer. That’s where everything starts. We don’t start by talking about ourselves or even examining our consciences. We start by prayer, on our knees. We come to the Lord and ask him to let us see ourselves as He sees us. He’s the only one who can. God knows each one of us perfectly, and if we’re seeking self-knowledge, we must go to Him.
Once we do that, we receive His help and a certain joy because we open our hearts to being honest. We allow ourselves to see and accept what is true about ourselves and about others in light of the Gospel. But without prayer, that’s can’t happen.
Once we become men and women of prayer, everything else will fall into place. But we have to put in the time. You have to schedule prayer. You have to make sure that you pray every day, and as often as you can. Become a man or woman of prayer. When we do this, we will begin to discover ourselves, perhaps for the first time.

LEARN THREE THINGS FROM THE LITTLE FLOWER

3 Things We Can Learn from the Little Flower

In her childlike, joyful love, St. Thérèse truly became the Little Flower.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux is undoubtedly one of the Church’s most cherished saints. All of the saints are precious to us, but there are things about the Little Flower that makes her personable, relatable, and understandable. One could write volumes about her – indeed, there already are volumes written about her. Right now, however, I’m thinking of three things in particular that we can learn from her an implement in our own lives

First, a question. Why is St. Thérèse known as the “Little Flower?’

She saw herself as like the simple wildflowers in forests and fields. They’re often unnoticed by others, yet they grow and give glory to God. She saw herself as simple and hidden, but blooming where God had planted her.

In her autobiography, “Story of a Soul,” she wrote:

Jesus set before me the book of nature. I understand how all the flowers God had created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy. I understand that if all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wild flowers. So it is in the worlds of souls, Jesus’ garden. He has created smaller ones and those must be content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when he looks down at his feet. Perfection consists in doing his will, in being what he wills us to be.

And so what can we learn from the Little Flower?

Childlikeness

In referring to herself, St. Thérèse used the image of a child’s ball. She yearned to be the little plaything of the Child Jesus. “I told him not to use me as a valuable toy children are content to look at but dare not touch, but to use me like a ball of no value which he could throw to the ground, push with his foot, pierce, leave in a corner, or press to his heart if it pleased him.”

The Little Flower’s childlikeness was a mature one, born of great strength, self-surrender, and selflessness. Her childlikeness was tested and purified in the hard struggles of life, a heroic sanctity. From her childlikeness sprang her “Little Way,” her method of doing the ordinary things with extraordinary love. Additionally, St. Thérèse’s prayer life was uncomplicated. Instead of long involved prayers, she preferred to speak plainly and directly to God and Mother Mary.

Joy

The Little Flower rejoiced in her imperfections, embracing them as a means by which she could draw closer to God. For this, she used the image of an elevator. In her imperfections, she was too small to climb the stairway of perfection and so she needed an elevator – Jesus’ arms – to raise her up.

Despite her advancing tuberculosis, St. Thérèse maintained unaffected cheerfulness, using puns, tricks, mimickings, and jokes about herself and the doctor’s inability to help her as a way of bringing cheer to others. Her concern was for the pain of others rather than her own.

Love

St. Thérèse didn’t just love, she loved “unto folly.” Her love for God and for others had no limits; she lived for Jesus alone.

In “Story of a Soul,” she wrote:

It seems to me that if all creatures had received the same graces I received, God would be feared by none but would be loved to the point of folly; and through love, not through fear, no one would ever consent to cause him any pain.

In her childlike, joyful love, St. Thérèse truly became the Little Flower. She left her “Little Way” as a testimony and also as an example for us to follow as we make our own little way to the arms of Jesus.