Talking about St. Anthony on Morning Air

This week I had the pleasure of joining John Morales and the team on Morning Air on the Feast of St. Anthony to discuss that miraculous saint. You can listen to the audio here, which starts at minute 11:55.

What stands out to me about St. Anthony, as I talked about on the show, is that he is so much more than the patron of lost things (but you should pray to him for lost things, because he will help you). For one thing, he gave his life completely over to God. At one point in his life, after he joined his religious order, he wanted to travel to Morocco, as he felt God calling him there to serve. But, once there, he got terribly sick, had to board a boat back to his native Portugal, but was blown off course and ended up in Sicily. Can you imagine? I mean, that’s it. You live in Italy now whether you like it or not. It’s not like you could just catch the next plane after a nice stay in a comfortable hospital recovering. So, he submitted to God’s will in humility.

We also know him as a great preacher. But, did you know he before he was a great preacher and missionary, he was basically a helper in the kitchen? The first time anyone heard him preach, it was essentially by accident, because no one else had prepared a homily, and his superior called on him. Lo and behold, he had the gift. So, he was not only someone who used his gifts to serve God, but he also waited in obedience until they were called upon. Overall I get the impression he was very humble and patient. St. Anthony, pray for us!

Also, I have a new article up at Catholic Stand, about the new Padre Pio movie, called Deciphering the New Padre Pio Movie. I will dedicate another post to expanding on my thoughts on that movie, which you may have already heard is controversial.

Lastly: tomorrow is the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. John Paul II, a great devotee of the Sacred Heart, said, “This feast reminds us of the mystery of the love of God for the people of all times.” And, this year, the US Bishops are calling on Catholics to pray an act of reparation on this day, by praying the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I recommend not only doing this, but spending time with the words, thinking about what they describe about Jesus and his actions: “source of all consolation,” “aflame with love for us,” “generous to all who turn to you,” and so on. By praying this litany tomorrow, you are, essentially, countering anti-human blasphemy with prayer. Now that’s worth five minutes of your time!

Confronting the occult

I read two things this week that complimented each other: one, a post at Word on Fire called Know Thine Enemy: Demonic Interest on the Rise which begins noting the increasing interest of the American public in entertainment focused on the subject of demons and evil. At the same time, and as I just discussed earlier this week on the Morning Air show, there is an continued decline in belief in God, religiosity, and religious service attendance. Not a great pair of facts!

The other thing I came across is a set of notes taken by someone who attended a talk given during Lent by exorcist Fr. Vincent Lampert. You can see the notes here.

There are a lot of interesting things in that talk. One I will draw out immediately is Fr. Lampert’s directive to be fascinated by the things of God, not those of the devil. Don’t even go there.

For example: The Word on Fire article mentions a recently-released, well-performing podcast about a particular exorcist’s experiences. I started to listen to it recently, and turned it off before the first episode was even halfway over. Why expose myself to that, horror? What good does it do me? What on earth am I learning? So I will instead be fascinated by the things of God: the generosity of neighbors, the well-made meal enjoyed with loved ones, the serendipity of meetings, the examples of virtue and beauty of people I know. Just leave it at that.

Otherwise from the talk I was struck by a few things:

• It is in ordinary observance of the faith that ones keeps the enemy of our human nature away. Not through great, big gestures; just going to church, praying, and receiving confession are enough. That makes sense.

• To become possessed, you have to open up an entry point for a demon to enter your life. (see above why I am not even listening to a podcast about exorcisms)

• Demons believe in God, as well as recognize the hierarchy of the Church, which is why a priest performing an exorcism works.

• Community defeats isolation which would allow the devil to enter in

So that’s just a few things. It’s good to know what you’re spiritually up against, yes. But it’s even better to believe that God wins in the end , and that he is at work in your life right now, and that His triumph is real.

A lot of people are interested in the decline of religion

Greetings, all! I had a fabulous time on Morning Air yesterday speaking with John Morales about the recent survey showing a decline in religiosity - but still a fair number of people a’prayin.’ And, it picked up a bit of traction; we had two callers with interesting comments or questions as to what could be driving some falling away from church. You can listen to the whole thing here starting at minute 25:10.

The biggest takeaway from me: ultimately, we, the weekly church-going faithful, are responsible for sharing why it is we go to church and have faith. Keep in mind that evidently at no point in the survey’s history has more than 29% of people reported attending a religious survey regularly. So, yes, that’s not great - but our work has been cut out for a while, and it’s no excuse to give up.

And we also got into my reflection on St. Paul’s speech at the Areopagus, when he addressed the Greeks on their “Unknown God:”

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:
“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.
For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’* What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,
nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.
He made from one* the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,
so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’* as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent
because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.”

That’s a message of hope - that we are children of God - and that is what must be shared in any form of evangelization, just as St. Paul did with the Greeks.

Up next: I recently spoke with actor Shia LaBeouf, director Abel Ferrera, and Br. Alexander Rodriguez about their movie, Padre Pio, which comes out this Friday, June 2. I’ve got an article coming up talking about what I learned from that interview, and why the movie is a little different probably than you think. More to come!