ad maiorem Dei gloriam

Recently, my coworkers and I have had a string of days that are rather... more stressful than usual. Today was another one of those days. Partway through the day, I found myself praying to St. Ignatius of Loyola - whose feast day is today, July 31. Though he isn't one of the patron saints of scientists, he was a brilliant AND holy man, and he did found the Jesuit order, which is of course renowned for its work in education. But I wasn't asking for his help today simply because he was an exceptionally smart dude who founded a great religious order that has been shaping minds all over the world for a few hundred years. ;-)

No, it was really because, in addition to founding the Jesuit order, St. Ignatius gave the order its motto - ad maiorem Dei gloriam - "for the greater glory of God." I've written about this before (well... here, too), but tonight I need to write about it again, perhaps mostly because I need the reminder. St. Ignatius believed that, so long as we are not working for evil, our work is good - and basically, ordered toward our salvation if we work with the ultimate aim of bringing glory to God. How hard is it to actually put that into practice?!?!?!!! By my estimation, it's definitely easier some days than others. 

Today was one of those "others," and I certainly struggled to put ad maiorem Dei gloriam into practice. 

So here's to tomorrow. St. Ignatius, pray for us. 

+Peace and good. 

if God will send His angels...

"God's got his phone off the hook, babe

Would he even pick up if he could?

It's been a while since we saw that Child

Hanging 'round this neighborhood...

If God will send his angels,

And if God will send a sign,

And if God will send his angels,

Would everything be alright?"

- U2, "If God Will Send His Angels"

Do you know what it's like to feel like "God's got his phone off the hook"... to feel like it's been a while since you've "seen" God hanging around your neighborhood? To at least some extent, most (if not all?) of us have been there. On that edge between despair and hope, unsure of whether there was actually something worth hoping for? Maybe you've flirted with despair. Maybe you actually spent time with despair. Maybe you're spending time with despair now.

Whatever the case, consider this: despair is the easy way out. It doesn't require much effort other than our giving into it. Hope is hard - it requires effort, will, and trust - and true supernatural hope (not optimism - because optimism and hope are very different things) is backed up by faith. Of course, faith's not easy for most of us, either, because we go from emotion to emotion, trusting our feelings more than we trust our God.

And it seems like we who claim some kind of faith are often looking for God to send us a sign - some kind of extra assurance that our hope is not misplaced, that everything will be okay, that we are doing the right thing, etc., etc.... Yes, I do this sometimes, too - you're not alone. ;-)  However, we can't, and shouldn't, rely on these "signs" constantly. We need to remember - and I have to remind myself of this frequently - that God is working within us - signs or no signs, feelings or no feelings - whether we feel like he's picking up the phone or not.

Sunday evening

Well, it's been a few - busy - days. The long and short of it are mixed up in between spending time with the family, photographing a wedding, hanging out in Santa Fe at the Spanish Market, and some miscellany around those things.

All in all, a good weekend, but not really a relaxing one. That's not a complaint, it's just a statement. I have a lot of things many other people, including many in my community, don't have. Things like health (which I don't suppose is really a "thing" per se, but it goes on the list nonetheless), and the time and resources to spend time doing things I enjoy with people I enjoy being around. Not everyone is so fortunate. I am grateful to be so blessed.

Hopefully, I'll still remember that tomorrow morning at work! :-P

+Peace and good.

balance

"Better one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere." (Ps. 84:11)

It's easy to lose sight of balance in life sometimes, between the demands of work and home and everything in between. It can be hard to remain cognizant of reaching our limits, and knowing when to "retreat" - when to take a step or two back, a deep breath, and a quick reality check.

Some weeks make that harder than others. This has been one of them. When I finally got to the last meeting of the day, I had to pause and just breathe for a minute - and remind myself that there are more important things beyond the walls of that building... that even though there is merit in the work I do, at the end of the day, walking with God today in order to live with him eternally, is most important.

+Peace and good.

prayer intentions, and one crazy cat

Today was a Monday, to be sure. Still blessed, but still a "Monday," nonetheless. You know how those are. 

So, I'll keep it short tonight - and ask you, first of all, to join with me in prayer for some people who are very important to me: one is discerning a vocation, and a few of them are fighting some rough battles right now on many fronts, health-related and otherwise. 

As I've said before when asking for prayers, God knows their names and their intentions. The important thing is that they need those prayers, for guidance, for strength, for perseverance, for faith, for hope, for comfort, for all of those things and many others. THANK YOU!!! God bless you for your prayers. 

On a light note, when I got home this evening, one of my cats had decided it would be appropriate to lounge on the kitchen countertop. (I disagreed.) Crazy cat. 

He does this a lot... lounging, that is... wherever he can find a spot, and he ALWAYS poses like he's auditioning for the cover of feline GQ magazine or something like that. Like I said, crazy cat. It's become quite a joke in our house. 

Anyway, back to the point. This evening, he'd decided the countertop was the perfect place to lounge this evening, and welllllllllll, I admit, I couldn't help myself, so I grabbed a camera before "encouraging" him to get down. Hopefully, you'll get a laugh out of what resulted after a trip through Photoshop to add words.

He is... the most interesting cat in the world. ;-) 

shepherds

Today, I am finally (yes, FINALLY) back to editing photos from the Ordination Mass in May. That's right, I'm still not done - but I'm much closer than I was yesterday! In case you're wondering, this is what happens when your day job decides to dominate your life.

Apparently, it's no coincidence that I planned to edit ordination photos today. Priestly vocations are all about God's call to shepherd his people - and today's psalm response at Mass was Psalm 23... "the Lord is my shepherd..." - and in case you're wondering, no, I didn't know that when I was planning to spend the day editing ordination pics.
It got me thinking.

For those of us who are Catholic, what do we call the priests who lead our parishes? Pastors.

Have you ever considered the root of the word pastor, and what it means? If you know Latin, or one of the Latin-derived Romance languages, you know that the word shepherd is translated as pastor (Latin and Spanish), or pastore (Italian). When we refer to a priest as the pastor of a parish, we are literally saying he is the shepherd of that faith community.

Good shepherds know their sheep, their needs and difficulties; they care for, and lead, their flocks.

I have known many such good shepherds - wonderful priests - in the faith communities I've been blessed to be part of in my life; I also know that to continue sustaining these communities, we need more men willing to respond to God's call in a spirit of counter-cultural love, faith, and self-sacrifice.

We need to pray for vocations. This is not optional. We need to pray for the priests who shepherd us today - for their faith, holiness, and strength - and we need to pray for many more of these good shepherds to lead us in the future, including those currently in formation. We need them to continue to do God's good work in bringing to us the light of the Word and the Eucharist.

+Peace and good.

peace and evil

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." - Blessed Mother Teresa


I think we all know that there is plenty of evil in the world. It's an endless topic of discussion and debate. The most unfortunate thing about all this discussion is that all too often, it's just talk, about another one of those things that is easy to armchair quarterback. We can talk about evil and unrest, and lament the lack of good and peace in our world, but what can we actually do about it?

This discussion has spiked again today with the shooting of theater patrons at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, CO.

The first thing we need to do is pray for the victims and their families. If you don't pray in the "traditional" sense, do whatever it is you do in these situations - keep them in your thoughts, etc.

The next thing I think we need to do is reflect on the true meaning of peace: in our world, in our families, and in our own hearts. The Greek word for peace does not express peace as meaning that nothing is wrong in our lives, or even that there is no evil in the world. Rather, it is essentially an expression of wholeness or completeness that remains unshaken by circumstance. Peace comes from rightly ordered, just relationships - with God, and with each other - because we cannot be whole persons without being in right relationship with God, or one another. There will not be peace in this world until these right and just relationships are developed among all people in all nations.

For we who are Christian, peace is indeed a fruit of God's work in our lives (that enables those "right relationships") - as well as a recognition of the fact that we are ultimately in control of our actions - we choose our responses to the circumstances life presents us. Some of the most peaceful people I have known in my life have been those who have faced great hardships, illnesses, or other adversity - and yet they remained unshaken. When the order that comes from those right relationships is present in our lives, we, too, are able to remain unshaken and at peace, even in the midst of evil - confident in the knowledge that everything is in its place. Kind of like how God draws straight with lines we think are crooked.

Pray for peace, and strive for it in your own life. When we live in peace, we can do good, and good will overcome evil. If we want peace in this world, and among our family and friends, we have to start with ourselves.

+Peace and good.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, 

and let perpetual light shine upon them. 

May the souls of the faithful departed, 

through the mercy of God, rest in peace. 

Amen. 

level paths

"The way of the just is smooth;

the path of the just you make level.

Yes, for your way and your judgments, 

O LORD, we look to you;

Your name and your title

are the desire of our souls.

My soul yearns for you in the night,

yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you...

O LORD, you mete out peace to us,

for it is you who have accomplished all we have done."

(Isaiah 26:7-9,12)

God draws straight with crooked lines... the same way he makes "the path of the just" level... by continuing to order our days in the way they should go. 

That level path doesn't always seem level to us, though, does it? More often than not, it at least looks rocky, if not downright treacherous - strewn with all manner of sharp rocks, deep holes, and debris. But at the end of it all, Isaiah has it right - "for your way and your judgments, O Lord, we look to you" - God's idea of level is not our idea of level - his idea of perfection is not our idea of perfection. God's ways are not always our ways. We look to him for his way of making things "level" or "perfect" - not for our own gratification. 

Isn't it true that our restlessness, our wanderings, even our discontents, are born from our need for that level path - the need of our souls to be fulfilled by the perfection of God? Yet in the dark night that is this life we lead, God's way... his idea of level, his idea of perfection... so often seems obscured from our view. In our longing for fulfillment, our yearnings in these nights, and through our many failings, it is difficult to keep vigil for the Lord, and easy to lose the peace he offers us... until we are brought back to the realization that indeed, he brings us peace when we let him in to do his good work in our lives - to make our paths level... because he has "accomplished all we have done."

+Peace and good. 

belief, trust, love.

Belief is hard. 
If you believe in God, odds are you have firsthand experience with how difficult it can be to keep believing, to keep the faith, when it would be much easier to give it up.


Trust is harder. 
If believing in a God you cannot see is hard, trusting that he knows what he's doing can be even harder. Trusting that he knows what he's doing when your life seems to be falling down around you, or your friends' lives are falling down around them - or when you look at the state of the world and wonder where God is in it all. Trusting that why things happen isn't always something we can understand right away, or trusting that sometimes the "why" isn't really that important. 


Love is hardest. (I think.) 
Far too many people who claim belief in God live in fear of the God in whom they believe. That's not to say we shouldn't be mindful of God's justice - but only relating to God in fear is no way to build a relationship with him. Love is paramount - the crucifix should remind us of sacrificial love - the love Christ has for us, the love we (hopefully!) have for him, and the love we come to have for all people by seeing him in each person we meet. Love takes our belief in God and our trust in his goodness, and puts them in action.


Belief... trust... love. These things are not trivial, and they're not easy. It would be easier to think God was a figment of our imaginations, that religion is worthless, that this universe is one giant cosmic accident, and that there are no reasons for the things that happen to us. And yes, it is easier to walk through life seeing people for their failings and flaws instead of first seeing them as loved children of God who aren't that different from us at the end of the day.


And no matter where we are in belief, trust, or love, we're all struggling - whether we're struggling to move forward, or simply struggling to hold our ground and keep from sliding back. No matter where we're at, it can be difficult to recognize that God is at work in our lives, even when it's not obvious to us. 


In that vein, there are several people in my life who are currently going through extremely difficult times - things that are absolutely testing their belief, trust, and love. The details are as complex for each of them as they are irrelevant here. God knows their needs - please pray for them. 


+Peace and good. 

July 16, 1945

“If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now I am become Death, destroyer of worlds.”

- Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Bhagavad Gita at the Trinity Site after the explosion of the first nuclear bomb, July 16, 1945

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the testing of the world's first nuclear device at the Trinity Site in southern New Mexico. The dawn of the nuclear age. The beginning of the end of World War II. 


Nuclear weapons have become a sort of "scourge of the age," if you will - the ultimate deterrent, the ultimate threat. The advances in science and technology that occurred as a result of the nuclear age led (directly or indirectly) to many of the technologies we enjoy today, but that isn't to say the cost has not been steep. That price includes the fact that today, we do not necessarily fear for our safety from, say, Russian nuclear weapons - but instead, we fear for our safety from "dirty bombs," or nukes stolen from another country, and used against us in acts of terrorism. 


I absolutely support our nuclear deterrent. I also believe that when we open a kind of Pandora's box, like that of nuclear weapons, we have an obligation to safeguard the contents of said box. If we don't, bad things like nuclear black markets flourish, and we put not only ourselves, but the whole world at risk. (If you're interested in learning about what happened when the nuclear black market was in its heyday, I would encourage you to read the book The Nuclear Jihadist). Should we fail in this vigilance, it is then that we will indeed "become Death, the destroyer of worlds," as Oppenheimer recognized in the first display of atomic power 67 years ago today.  


So yes, I support our nuclear deterrent. And yes, I pray for peace, and that our nuclear deterrent remains precisely that - a deterrent - and not a spectacular demonstration of force. We must remember our past - we know precisely what these weapons can do - and consider the future we want for ourselves, our families, for humankind - and allow these things to influence our present. 


+Peace and good.

hard to imagine

"It's hard to imagine breathing on my own

When every breath inside of me is tangled up in yours

It's hard to imagine the sun without the moon

'Cause anything that's bright in me is only bouncing off of you.

If I shine, it's because of you

If I love, it's because of you

If I'm strong, it's because of you

It's all because of you..."

- Matt Maher, "Because of You"

I heard this song for the first time on Friday, and it's stuck with me since. I don't listen to much Christian/Catholic music, but occasionally, there's a song or particular artist that catches my attention. Though it's rather beside the point for this post, Matt Maher has been one of those artists for several years. I haven't heard a song in recent weeks that sums things up quite so well as this one.

Talk about things we take for granted, things we don't really think about. Like breathing. It happens reflexively, without our willing it. We don't think about it most of the time, unless our breathing is compromised for some reason or another. The breath that sustains our life is a gift, tangled up in God's gift of life. We continue breathing, we keep living, because of that entanglement with the life of God.

And other things we take for granted - the sun and the moon - together. Even though we don't see the moon every day, it's hard to imagine what the skies would be like without the sun to give us light by day, and the moon to reflect the sun's light by night.

In other words a) there are plenty of things we take for granted/don't really think about, and b) it's worth recalling (at least every once in awhile) that all of those things come down to the action of God. If we live and move and have being, it's because of God.

If we shine, if we love, if we're strong, whatever we are, whatever we do, it's because of him first, and us second. We are not our own. Looking with the eyes of faith, it IS hard to imagine it otherwise. And that is beautiful.

+Peace and good.

a prayer of St. Francis

In my post about Adoration earlier this week, I quoted St. Francis of Assisi - "most high, glorious God, illumine the darkness of my heart." Those words are actually from a prayer St. Francis said before the crucifix at San Damiano. 
*Note, this is "a" prayer of St. Francis - not what most of us know as "the" prayer of St. Francis ("Lord, make me an instrument of your peace...")
This simple, beautiful prayer has been on my mind all week, and I feel compelled to share it this evening.

Most high, glorious God,
illumine the darkness of my heart
and give me Lord,
true faith,
certain hope,
perfect charity,
and profound humility.
Grant me, O Lord,
sense and wisdom,
to fulfill your true and holy will.
Amen.

St. Benedict

I'll try to keep it fairly short and sweet tonight as it's late and I need to drag myself out of bed early tomorrow... but since it's the feast of St. Benedict, I wanted to at least write something about this great saint...

St. Benedict, of course, wrote the rule of monastic life we know today as the Rule of St. Benedict - a set of guidelines for monastic communities that have formed the basis of many other such "rules" since -  leading to his title as the "founder of western monasticism." Here in NM, there are at least three monasteries following St. Benedict's Rule (I say "at least" because there could be more than those of which I am aware). Earlier this year, I was blessed to spend a week at one of those monasteries - Christ in the Desert, near Abiquiu - I blogged about that awesome week, and you can check out their website, if you're interested.

St. Benedict recognized that people aren't perfect, though we may try to be - and wrote his Rule with that in mind, as well as considering the need to offer guidance to those just starting out in the spiritual life. His rule thus became broadly applicable to different people in different spiritual places - and also applicable across time - relevant today, even to those of us living outside monastic communities. As I read earlier today, the Rule of St. Benedict "drags our eyes up to the stars but keeps our feet firmly on the ground; it calls us to perfection but keeps us sane."

adoration.

I spent some time in Adoration last night. It had been a few weeks since I'd had a good opportunity to do so, for various reasons. Those reasons don't really matter; the simple fact is that it had been too long.

Last week, a friend related a little meditation to me, that had originally been related to him by one of his friends who lives in Ohio, and whom he termed a "living saint." This evening, I thought I'd share it with all of you. (Caveat: this following will make sense to you if you're Catholic, otherwise, probably not so much...)

Have you ever noticed how the full moon resembles the Eucharist - the consecrated Host? Think about that... now think about this. We cannot look directly at the sun without injuring ourselves - but we can look at the gentle light of the moon - and this is how Christ comes to us in the Eucharist - flooding our lives with his light, the way moonlight floods the surface of the earth under a full moon.

Awesome, right? I thought so. And I think that's what Adoration is really all about - being flooded with the light of Christ, present in the Eucharist... illumining our darknesses, driving out our demons... "most high and glorious God, illumine the darkness of my heart." (St. Francis of Assisi)

+Peace and good.

Sunday evenings

Sunday evenings always seem to be a mixed bag. Sunday is a great day to spend time with family, relax, and most importantly, go to Mass and celebrate the mysteries of God... but Sunday is also the last day of the weekend. I'm always loathe to part with weekends at their end - the weekend is my refuge from crazy weeks at work, my opportunity to refresh, mentally and spiritually.

Long weekends are even harder. I've been away from work since July 4 - and spent a few very excellent days in Taos (wish I could go back right now - I think I could use a few extra days!). Come tomorrow morning, it's back to the grind, back to the craziness I live with at work.

But I believe that just as Sundays remind us of the Resurrection, of God's greatest gifts to us, Sunday also reminds us that, as receivers of those gifts, we have been tasked to share them with the world - which is what Monday is all about (and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and... ...).

Like St. Paul in the second reading from today's Mass, we are those called to be strong in our weaknesses, through the thorns that torment us and the crosses we bear, relying on the sufficiency of God's grace.

St. Francis of Assisi understood well the call to share the gifts of God with the world, as well as how to rely on the grace of God in the midst of trials - he is honored in many churches in this Archdiocese (and is its patron saint, for anyone out there who is unfamiliar), including the one in Ranchos de Taos:

(St. Francis, pray for us!)

sacrifice. commitment. virtue.

We all know what it's like to give up something we value, something we think is important, whether for a greater good, or as a compromise - in other words, we've all made some sacrifices in our lives. And, odds are, we've seen many around us make sacrifices, too, whether for us, or for others. As Christians, we are familiar with the sacrifice of Christ, offering his life for us.

We who are Catholic are also familiar with the sacrifices made by many saints throughout the history of Christianity - saints who understood the meaning of sacrifice in the deepest sense - giving up what most of us would consider a "normal" life, leaving behind things most of us take for granted, and some even offering their lives because of their deep belief in, and love of, Jesus Christ. 

The apostles and other martyrs of the early Church - who willingly sacrificed their lives for the advancement of the faith. Martyrs and other saints throughout history who sacrificed their lives (whether in actual martyrdom, or through other incredible acts of sacrifice) because of their commitment to living lives of heroic virtue - saints like St. Maria Goretti, who is remembered today (July 6) - or like St. Francis of Assisi, who lived a life of incredible asceticism in his response to Christ's call to "rebuild my church" - or like St. Maximilian Kolbe, who offered himself in place of another man in the Auschwitz concentration camp. 

Sacrifice. Commitment. Virtue. Scary things, aren't they? But can't they change the world? 

They're not "normal" things by any stretch of the imagination in today's world. Nor are they easy. But ultimately, the best things in life are often not easy. Why are we so afraid to do things the rest of the world might consider strange - and why are we so afraid to do things that aren't easy? The stakes may seem high - having to change the way we live or how we act, having to sacrifice some things, or make new commitments - but are the stakes really that high, when we consider what's at stake? 

+Peace and good. 

tax collectors and sinners

"As Jesus passed by, 
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. 
He said to him, 'Follow me.'
And he got up and followed him. 
While he was at table in his house, 
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples. 
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, 
'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
He heard this and said, 
'Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. 
Go and learn the meaning of the words, 
I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.'"
(Mt. 9:10-13)

It's easy to stay in our comfort zones. It's easy to lock ourselves up in small worlds where we don't have to worry about being called upon to answer hard questions. It's easy to surround ourselves with people who think the same way we do and who hold the same opinions.

But is that really what we should be doing? Is that really what we're called to do? I think it's obvious from this Gospel that that's not the case. The Pharisees associated with people who thought the same way they did, who acted a certain way, who observed the law down to the last letter. They had no regard for those who disregarded the law of God - i.e., tax collectors, sinners.

Yet here we see Jesus and the disciples, eating with these tax collectors and sinners - offering them hope - evangelizing. Obviously, these tax collectors and sinners liked being around Jesus - if they didn't, they wouldn't have been eating dinner with him! He probably wasn't bashing them over the head with the Torah - but I'm sure he offered them hope and truth through both his words and his example. Maybe you've had an experience like this before - being around someone filled with peace and hope, who shared it with others - and to whom people seemed to be drawn by a magnetic-seeming force?

I know I talked about this a few days ago, but it's worth talking about again. We can't evangelize unless we get out of our comfort zone, place ourselves at the service of the Gospel, and take it out to the world. It doesn't require quoting chapter and verse - it requires willingness to be examples of the love of God - to bring truth and goodness to a world that needs it - to offer hope to those who are despairing. "'Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.'" There is so much despair in the world around us; how much hope can we bring? How much goodness can we share?

And besides this, being friends with those who don't think the same way we do, and who don't believe all of the same things we do, isn't the worst thing that could happen. Really. It's a good thing. You never know what you might learn. Learning the way others (who seem so decidedly different from us) think gives us new ways to think about things, broadens our perspectives, deepens our understanding.  What unites us is typically greater than what divides us. So go. Be the example. Offer hope. Bring peace. And learn something new about yourself, about others, about the world around you.

+Peace and good.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone - perhaps more appropriately, Happy Independence Day.

No matter what your political views are, hopefully we can all agree that we're fortunate to live in a country that allows us to freely express those views, to argue and debate, and ultimately, to VOTE.

Independence Day reminds us, not only of the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, but of the responsibilities that come with those freedoms, i.e., the obligation we have as citizens to take an active part in ensuring the continuation of democracy.

For Christians, it is also a reminder of our obligation to pray for the good of our country and its citizens, and for true freedom in our nation and our world. In today's world, the idea of freedom immediately conjures up the concept of independence - and in a society that claims fierce independence, it's easy to lose sight of what that really means.

Yes, freedom means we are free from persecutions based on our beliefs and ways of life - that we can stand independently, without fear of reprisal. However, we need to remember that even though we have independence in the sense that we live in a free nation, we are not, and will never be, completely independent from one another. We still need one another, we need the beauty and diversity that all people offer - we are all bound together by our common humanity, and as Americans, we are bound together by our common citizenship - though we come in all shapes and sizes and races and ethnicities and don't always share the same beliefs. We would do well to remember the common ground we share, and use that as a starting point from which to discuss our differences. We call the United States a nation of free and independent people - but as its citizens, we're all in this together.

Knowing that not everyone who reads this blog is Catholic or Christian or anything except possibly American, I would say only this: if you pray, pray for this nation, and pray for your fellow citizens - pray for the continuation of freedom in this good land, and for true peace to take root and grow within it.

+Peace and good.

nerd moment!

Because I think this is important, and it's something people should know about... and because this occupied my reading time at breakfast... if you're a sci-nerd like me - or even if you're not - and you've followed work at Fermilab or the Large Hadron Collider - or even if you haven't - check out this article on CNN about the search for the Higgs boson.

That's my brief, pre-4th of July (although it's after midnight and thus actually the 4th of July) post. I'm not even attempting profundity here tonight, folks. Just science... which is profound without any effort on my part. ;-)

the halfway point.

July 1, 2012. Halfway through the year.

It's a good point to stop and reflect on the months that have come and gone so far. What have we done? What have we not done?

For we who claim to be Christian, have our lives been directed ad maiorem Dei gloriam - to the greater glory of God?

How are we going to continue, how are we going to change, what are we going to do for the rest of this year? Is there something in particular that we can commit to trying to do better from now until December 31?

I'm personally disinclined towards things like New Year's resolutions - if something is important enough to change or take action on in our lives, we should just do it - and not wait for the beginning of a new year as an excuse. However, I also understand the need we humans sometimes have for a concrete starting point. So tonight, take a few minutes. Think about life, think about where you're at, and think about where you want to be, come December 31, whether it's spiritual, mental, emotional, familial, at work, in school, whatever. Think about what you can to do live better, and help those around you live better, too.

And for my fellow Catholics and Christians, we must pay special attention to what we can do to continue to bring the light of Christ to those who need it - remembering that knowing the light of Christ in our own lives and sharing it only with those who believe the same way we do. That's fun, and we all need to do it, but it's not exactly what I'd call effective evangelization! No, you don't have to go out and bash people upside the head with the Bible - but we had better be prepared to be Christ to those who don't know him - by loving others, by bearing peace and justice to a world that needs it, by witnessing to the truth in our daily lives - by preaching the Gospel, using words only when necessary. Get out there and be the example, be the image of God in a world that is so often dark and in pain.

St. Edith Stein said it well: "The nation does not simply need what we have. It needs what we are."
+Peace and good.