Listen to me on Relevant Radio: make your home a domestic church

I enjoyed speaking with John Morales earlier this week about my family’s experience having the enthronement of the Sacred Heart performed in our home by the Legion of Mary. We also talked about the call to make one’s home the domestic church. You can listen to the conversation here, which starts at minute 9:05.

The enthronement declares Jesus king of the household, and brings a reminder of the eucharist in (even for the purposes of adoration!). Our homes should be peaceful, holy places, an antidote to the chaos out there in the secular world. And from there, peace can radiate out. We talked about all that.

I am convinced that it is our duty simply to create peace within our own sphere. To go beyond and individually try to implement world peace is just too much. You can, however, govern your own relationships, and more importantly, your own self. Deal with the problems right in front of you, rather than focus entirely what some politician in Washington is doing. For example, can you name your representative in the state house of delegates or representatives? That’s someone you’re more likely to influence.

I was recently reminded that St. Irenaeus wrote, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Reflect on that!

Next radio talk: enthroning your house to the Sacred Heart

Friends, join me this Tuesday, July 11 at 7:10 am eastern on Relevant Radio’s Morning Air program, where I will be talking with John Morales and company about my experience of having my home enthroned with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is a fancy way of saying we invited the Legion of Mary and a priest of our parish to our home to officially bless an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary and then place them in a prominent place, in our case, over the fireplace mantle. What is really cool is that this setup can now take the place of a holy hour in front of the Eucharist. Wouldn’t that be something! Pretty powerful stuff.

There’s plenty online about it, and Cardinal Burke wrote a book about it. Here’s an article that sums it up nicely: How Enthronement Will Change Your Family Forever

““The whole meaning of the devotion is to extend the grace of the Eucharist into the Christian home and from the Christian home to the whole world.”

Find your radio station here and listen online here. And, support your local Legion of Mary!

July Saints

It is the first of July and as summer heats up we have a few saints’ feast days on the horizon. Who are they?

Catholic Culture’s got your overview of everything liturgical in July here.

July 1: Juniperro Serra. That’s today! I was at St. Juniperro Serra’s canonization in 2015, when Pope Francis visited the United States. He was the first, and only, saint ever canonized on American soil. A Californian by way of Spain, a missionary, the apostle to America’s western natives.

July 8: Aquila & Priscilla. This couple named in the Acts of the Apostles were Jewish tentmakers brought to the faith by St. Paul. They were early disciples instrumental in the early formation of the Church, opening their home as a place of worship and formation for the early Christians.

July 11: St. Benedict. Father of monastic life, savior of Western tradition. Work and prayer, hospitality, and groundedness in one geographic spot are signs of the Benedictine order.

July 26: Sts. Anne an Joachim. Parents of the Blessed Mother, blessed with her birth in their old age. They are the patron saints of grandparents, being the grandparents of Jesus.

July 29: St. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. This used to just be the feast of St. Martha, but in 2021 Pope Francis changed it to include all three holy siblings. Known for being close to Jesus, enduring the usual human trials of doubt tempered with faith, they are a model for our need to balance “doing” for Jesus vs. “being” with Jesus.

July 31: St. Ignatius of Loyola. Founder of the Jesuits and their beautiful, soul-searching contemplative form of prayer. Missionary, discerner of spirits.

May these and all of July’s holy friends pray for us!