See you at the March for Life

I am excited to share that this Friday at the March for Life, I will be joining a team from Relevant Radio to host some on-the-ground interviews with attendees and pro-life advocates. Huzzah! If you’re near the media tent, come say hi.

We’ll probably do a mix of audio and Facebook live, and I’ll share what we come up with here.

For all those marching, and also for those staying home and praying or fasting, thank you for what you do for the ultimate cause of life. The breath of life was the first gift God gave us, and we must protect the right to life for every human being, especially those who cannot stand up on their own.

Looking forward to a memorable and joyful March.

Making spiritual new year's resolutions

My latest article at Catholic Stand is up: How to Make Spiritual New Year’s Resolutions.

Now here’s the thing: I don’t really make new year’s resolutions, and I know many people don’t. Generally, it feels materialistic, or more importantly, that any resolution I make is something I should have been doing all along.

However! There is value in setting goals, and certainly in reevaluating and resetting for a new year. And, occasionally our spiritual life needs that.

Indeed, to focus on strengthening one’s inner life - one’s relationship with God - is always a worthwhile pursuit, no matter the time of year. And if setting a resolution to do so helps - go for it!

I organized ideas around four common areas we typically make resolutions or set goals: education and learning, time management, volunteering, and finances. Have a look!

My list is by no means exhaustive, and you may very well have an entirely different idea of your own. I hope those listed spur some thought, and action.

As for me, I think I want to reacquaint myself with the Blessed Mother. I am a dedicated rosary-sayer, but I know there’s more to it than that. What shape that will take, to be determined. Perhaps I will ask the Legion of Mary if I can host the pilgrim Virgin statue.

I hope you had a blessed Epiphany!

Happy new year! And after-Advent reflections

it is the twilight of 2021. I am thinking about spiritual new year’s resolutions (and maybe writing an article about it) and simultaneously enjoying the Christmas season and reflecting on Advent.

During December, I took a small, four-part online class on Carmelite spirituality through Sacred Heart Major Seminary. I knew nothing about Carmelite spirituality going into it, and am convinced it is a deep, deep well that will require much more exploration.

There are of course parallels to other orders and forms of spirituality; the emphasis on mystic prayer reminded me of the Jesuits, for example. So I need to learn more to understand what makes it different and unique, because I know there is something to it. There wouldn’t be so many great saints to come of it, if not (St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Edith Stein, and so on).

Below are some of the takeaways, or really items of interest that made me pause (and want to know more):

• Carmelites pray “on behalf of the world” - the Carmelite is to stand proxy for sinners through voluntary and joyous suffering. “Missionary contemplation.” Idea of responsibility for the other

• Spirituality rooted in “zeal for the Lord in handing over one’s life to God”

• “The desert of the soul is the very place of God’s communication.”

• Soul = precise locale of communion with God.

• We are unfamiliar with our souls and how they relate to God.

• Contemplative prayer helps us with these questions: what is the soul? How does the soul relate to God? What does God desire for my soul?

• Further: the soul as Heaven itself

• Carmelites live lives both outwardly active and interiorly contemplative - always available in service to others, while also always seeking interior conversation with God through prayer. And open to the Holy Spirit’s “interruptions”

• Contemplative love is a Carmelite’s apostolate

• 5 stages of prayer: vocal, mental/meditation, prayer of recollection, prayer of quiet, prayer of union (I don’t feel I know enough about each to accurately summarize here)

• The common human vocation is to become mother or father (not always in the literal biological sense)

• All are called to enter into a mystical way of being in the world!

There was also a good deal about the way we are to imitate Mary, the ultimate contemplative mystic (yes), and also about Mt. Carmel itself, and the ascent thereof, which I did not understand. More to learn on that and many fronts!

Merry Christmas and happy new year!