Lent

Mar 18 2024

5 Ways St. Joseph Can Help Your Lent

How can St. Joseph help you this Lent? I propose five ways.

Simplicity

In John 6, when Jesus boldly declares, “I am the bread of life,” his hearers murmur among themselves and ask, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?” (Jn 6:41). Apparently, they considered Joseph to be just a regular, law-abiding Jew—an average Joe, if you will. By implication, Joseph didn’t go around Nazareth working miracles and polishing his halo; rather, he lived his holiness wrapped in simplicity.

Every year on Ash Wednesday, we hear: “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them” (Mt 6:1). Our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving should be kept for God’s eyes only. Yet we should also remember Jesus’ words earlier in the Sermon on the Mount: “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16).

The key difference is simplicity. When we act simply, we take no heed of our glory, but seek God’s alone. Such simplicity is a modesty of soul, guarding the intimacy we have with God through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

Work

On May 1, we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. He is a saint who knows how to roll up his sleeves and put in a hard day’s work. Joseph reminds us of the dignity of work, beautifully captured in Gaudiem et Spes:

Through labor offered to God man is associated with the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, Who conferred an eminent dignity on labor when at Nazareth He worked with His own hands. (GS 67)

Lent is a good time to live out this dignity of work by imitating St. Joseph. God draws us to Himself through the ordinary means of simply fulfilling our tasks. We need not search for extraordinary acts of penance or lengthy prayers, especially if these detract from our normal duties. So before we add on extra practices, we should redouble our attentiveness to the work already before us.

Rest

While Joseph shows us the dignity of work, he had some of his best moments as he slept. It was here that God spoke to him repeatedly through dreams.

We can distinguish two types of rest: physical sleep and spiritual abandonment to God. Both are critical for holiness. Sleep renews us for another day of work and love. Just ask the mother of a newborn about the importance of sleep. Abandonment increases our hope in God’s loving providence, strengthening our faith in times of trials and creating room for love to grow.

By both sleep and abandonment, we recognize our limits: we need sleep and we need God. We can see this pairing in the beginning of Psalm 127:

If the Lord does not build the house,
in vain do its builders labor;
if the Lord does not watch over the city,
in vain does the watchman keep vigil.

In vain is your earlier rising,
your going later to rest,
you who toil for the bread you eat,
when he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber.

This psalm proclaims the futility of all-nighters and the emptiness of self-made saints. Psalm 127 is a good reminder during Lent, as we up the ante with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These are not exercises of our sheer will-power. Our practices on their own do not make us holy. God makes us holy. And sometimes, God bids us to rest.

Remember the words of Moses to the Israelites as Pharaoh pursued them: “The LORD will fight for you; you have only to keep still” (Ex 14:14), as well as the words of Isaiah: “By waiting and by calm you shall be saved; in quiet and in trust shall be your strength” (Is 30:15).

Family

Joseph was a great man, but where would he be without his family, without Jesus and Mary? I doubt he would make many appearances in 21st-century blog posts—most 1st-century Jewish carpenters don’t.

Joseph’s holiness came through Jesus and Mary, by serving them and receiving from them. Similarly, God draws us to Himself through those around us. We do not become saints as isolated individuals, but as members of a family or community.

With their parents leading the way by example and family prayer, children and indeed everyone gathered around the family hearth will find a readier path to human maturity, salvation and holiness. (GS 48)

Lent is a good opportunity to examine our closest relationships. Is there a need to forgive? Is there love that needs rekindling? Is there gratitude missing? These are excellent ways of giving alms.

Jesus and Mary

Of course, Joseph’s family isn’t your normal family. There’s a special grace about Jesus and Mary (understatement of the year). If we compare our families to the Holy Family, we might be tempted to discouragement. But by God’s goodness, Jesus and Mary are not distant, but rather intimately close to us: Jesus is our savior and brother, and Mary is our tender mother. Joseph, for his part, can help stay close to Jesus and Mary, just as he did.

In the end, all of our Lenten practices are simply saying “yes” to Jesus, just as Mary first did at the Annunciation. May Mary pray for us, and may Jesus bring us to the Father.

This article was originally published on dominicanajournal.org and was written by Fr. Joseph Martin Hagan, O.P.

Mar 04 2024

Seven Life-Hacks for Confession

Pray for the virtue of penance.

It might be helpful to think of penance as a counterpart to gratitude: just as we owe gratitude to God for the benefits He has given us, so too we owe God sorrow for the offenses we’ve committed against Him. This reasonable sorrow about our sins is called the virtue of penance, and it is at the heart of the Sacrament of Penance. The more deeply we are rooted in the virtue of penance, the more powerful our confessions will be.

Memorize an Act of Contrition.

Being contrite is essential to making a good confession. Yes, simple versions of the Act of Contrition (like “Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner”) work perfectly well. But the long versions can also educate us about what we are doing. About 500 years ago the Church defined contrition as “a sorrow of mind, and a detestation for sin committed, with the purpose of not sinning for the future.” A typical, full version of the Act of Contrition includes these three elements. For instance, this version has the penitent say: “I detest my sins… I firmly resolve… to do penance, and to amend my life.” If we know what we are asking for, we can more easily start to instantiate the characteristics of contrition in our lives.

Examine your conscience with the virtues.

When I first learned to go to Confession, I was taught to examine my conscience by using the Ten Commandments. This is very good. But there are other ways to do this. For instance, one could examine one’s conscience with reference to the virtues. The cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) and the theological virtues (faith, hope, and love) are the basic blueprint for living a happy life—and by seeing how we fail in these, we can also offer ourselves back to God. Someone who was ambitious could even read over the Catechism passages linked above to launch a self-reflection.

Pray before Confession.

One introduction which the priest may pray over you, before you begin your confession, says: “May the grace of the Holy Spirit fill your heart with light, that you may confess your sins with loving trust, and come to know that God is merciful.” I like this prayer, especially its focus on asking for light for our minds to know our sins, and trust in God’s mercy—two good things to ask for before Confession.

Renew your sorrow for sins of your past life.

One possible way to finish one’s confession is with these words: “I am sorry for these sins, and all the sins of my past life.” The purpose isn’t to ask for the forgiveness of these sins of one’s “past life”—they’ve already been forgiven definitively by penance—but to root ourselves more deeply in the virtue of penance. One can even add: “for the sins of my past life, especially [of this sort].” This acknowledges both our continuing need for being healed more deeply from our sins and tendency to sin, and the objective power of the sacrament to convey this to us.

Fulfill your penance attentively.

When we get a penance, its effectiveness isn’t just like a private prayer of ours. Rather, it shares in the objective power that Christ gives to the sacraments. This means that the penance—even a small one— can be much more powerful than even a favorite devotion of our own choosing. In this sense, a penance isn’t only a punishment, but also a gift.

Go.

All of the good effects of the Sacrament of Penance can only take effect, if you actually go.

This article was originally published on dominicanajournal.org and was written by Fr. John Sica, O.P.

Feb 13 2024

What Are You Wearing This Lent?

Today is the first of many Fridays during Lent. Our penances are perhaps being refined and hopefully refining us as well. I would like to propose another aspect of penance, focusing more exteriorly. Have you thought much about the clothes you wear during Lent? Likely not, but it may be more worthwhile than you think. By way of example, Saint Dominic demonstrates the value of religious garb in penitential exercises and, by extension, any apparel worn for religious purposes.

There are numerous testimonies to Dominic’s sanctity, which manifested itself in various forms: never sleeping on a bed (if he even slept), drastically diluting his wine at table, praying through the night, fasting, etc. These details are reported by many witnesses, but there is another detail that is repeatedly mentioned: his religious habit. It was an uncomfortable outfit, which he always slept in. Part of Dominic’s penitential life, which was so salutary for himself and many souls, was his attention to his clothing. By no means did he admit of any disordered concern for his appearance—his habit was reported to be rather tattered. But his clothing was an important part of his austerity because it was both a sign for others and for himself.

Today, the purpose of a religious habit is often defended with only one of these elements in mind: it is a sign to others of our separation from the world and our consecration to God. But we, even religious, often forget the secondary element of the habit: it is a sign for the religious himself. Wearing the habit can be a penitential source of discomfort—both physically and socially. The habit doesn’t breathe well. It is mocked by a world that rejects consecration and its signs. But when these kinds of discomfort quite literally weigh upon his shoulders, the religious is challenged by his habit to remember: “I still belong to the Lord. I have stretched out my hands and been dressed by someone else, and now I must continually be converted to him in my consecration.”

Wearing the religious habit more continuously and intentionally can thus be a significant aspect of a consecrated person’s Lenten practices. But what about everyone else? I suggest that even non-religious men and women can follow the example of St. Dominic. Perhaps you can consider modifying the way you dress during this Lenten season. This is not to say that you should wear sackcloth and ashes to draw undue attention to yourself. But just as the religious wears the habit to remind him of his consecration, so you can use your clothing to remind yourself that you have put on Christ in baptism.

This Lent, let your clothing be a small penance that turns you away from the things of this world toward Christ crucified. At least for a season, reject what is vain and showy, and instead clothe yourself with a sign of Christ’s humble simplicity. If this sounds daunting, begin by carrying a sign perhaps no one else will see—whether a crucifix, a medal, or a rosary in your pocket—that reminds you alone of your conversion to Christ. By God’s grace, your external appearance will give way to the more noble clothing of the heart, and you will say with the prophet Isaiah:

I will rejoice heartily in the Lord,
my being exults in my God;
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation,
and wrapped me in a robe of justice,
Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

This article was originally published on dominicanajournal.org and was written by Br. Bertrand Hebert, O.P..

Apr 03 2023

Holy Week and the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the upcoming liturgies of Holy Week, the Church recalls the final events of Jesus’s earthly life day by day, and, once the Triduum begins, even hour by hour. The Church makes this yearly commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus in order to give us the time to reflect more deeply on the meaning of these mysteries. One way of doing so is to meditate on these events with Mary, to look at them with her and from her perspective. The Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary give us one good way of following the events of Holy Week with Mary. In the Middle Ages, however, another Marian devotion sprang up that became much more closely associated with Holy Week. This was the devotion to our Lady of Sorrows, and in particular to the Seven Sorrows, or Seven Dolors, of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We can see why this devotion became associated with Holy Week by looking at the Seven Sorrows themselves:

The prophecy of Simeon foretelling the Passion and Death of Jesus
The flight from Herod into Egypt
The loss of Jesus for three days
Meeting Jesus as he carried his cross to Calvary
Standing at the foot of the cross and witnessing the death of Jesus
Watching as the soldier pierced Jesus’s side with a lance and receiving his body from the cross
Seeing the body of Jesus buried in the tomb

Beginning with the very first sorrow, each of these is connected in some way, either directly or indirectly, to the Passion of Jesus. They also provide us with a unique Marian perspective on some part of this great mystery.

For example, consider the third sorrow. We typically think of this event from the perspective of the fifth Joyful Mystery, the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple. The third sorrow, however, focuses on the loss Mary experienced during the three days Jesus was separated from her and Joseph. These three days prefigure the three days Mary would be separated from Jesus while his body lay in the tomb.

Because of this intimate connection with the Passion, devotion to the Seven Sorrows became a common way for people to reflect on the mysteries of Holy Week. In fact, the devotion became so popular that, in 1727, Pope Benedict XIII instituted a universal feast commemorating the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Friday before Palm Sunday. With this, the Church officially recommended devotion to the Seven Sorrows as a privileged means of preparing for and entering into the commemoration of Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection during Holy Week.

Today, the Church no longer celebrates the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Following the revision of the liturgical calendar, it was combined with Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th in order to keep the focus of the final weeks of Lent directly on the events of the Passion. But the revision kept the connection between the Seven Sorrows and the Passion because the new feast directly follows that of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th. Thus, reflecting on the events of Holy Week by meditating on the Seven Sorrows remains a great way to delve deeper into the meaning of Jesus’s Passion.

Lastly, the most common way of meditating on Mary’s sorrows is by reciting the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is similar in form to the standard Rosary.

Here’s how to pray the chaplet:

Begin by making the Sign of the Cross
Recite the Act of Contrition and say the optional Opening Prayer
Announce the First Sorrow
Say one Our Father and seven Hail Marys
Repeat (3) and (4) for each of the Sorrows
Say three Hail Marys in honor of the tears which Mary shed in her sorrows
Say the optional Closing Prayer and finish by making the Sign of the Cross

(The optional prayers, as well as short passages that can be used to announce the sorrows, are found on page 107 of the 1910 Raccolta.)

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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)

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This article was originally published in the dominicanajournal.org and was written by Brother Gregory Santy. Brother Gregory entered the Order of Preachers in 2018. He received a Licentiate in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America.

Mar 13 2023

The Value of Suffering

We Must Teach Young People the Value of Suffering: Q&A with Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

By Vladimir Mauricio-Perez for the Denver Catholic. Reprinted with permission and edited for brevity.

Fr. Peter Cameron, O.P., former editor- in-chief of Magnificat, serves as the Director of Formation for Hard as Nails Ministries, a nation-wide apostolate for young people. Fr. Cameron recently gave a talk titled “Evangelizing Youth Today” as part of the St. John Paul II Lecture Series in Denver.

Based on your experience, what would you say are some of the greatest needs of young people in the Church in the United States?

I would say one of the greatest needs facing young people in the United States is loneliness. Loneliness isn’t simply the result of being without people in our lives or being solitary. It’s possible to succumb to loneliness when we have people around us, when we have family. Part of the problem comes from the fact that young people don’t have someone to give them that gaze of love and appreciation, and similarly, they have no one that maybe listens to them.

Sometimes young people can be carrying very hefty burdens and even their best friends don’t know what they’re going through. These issues are never talked about and these young people feel completely isolated with this burden that they’re forced to carry along. I think that’s really the principal issue. In reading the document of the Synod on Young People, I noticed that that was one of the principal concerns listed, as well.

What aspect from the Synod on Young People do you think can be especially useful in evangelization?

One of the points is that nobody can evangelize a young person like another young person. As the document points out, when young people speak about their experience, it is something that can’t be discounted or debated. So, if evangelization starts with presenting arguments or theological judgments, it’s possible that people will not pay attention. But when someone speaks about their own sufferings, how they overcame them, how that led them to Jesus Christ, etc., this is something that nobody can gainsay.

And secondly, that it is important to implement new methods for listening to young people. It means being willing to suffer with them and not be intimidated by their problems.

I think there’s a tendency to give up too easily on young people because of their struggles. But I think the job of the modern-day evangelist is primarily to walk with the person and love them, bring them to the awareness that they’re amazing, that they’re valuable, not because of what they have or what they have accomplished, but simply because God has loved them into existence, that the person is a child of God and there’s nothing anyone can do to ever change that.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I give a lot of talks to priests and they are very often fatalistic about the possibility of evangelizing young people. And I think that they consider the lure of the world to be greater than anything that we or the Gospel can propose to them, and it’s simply not so. Once a young person is paid attention to and their dignity is shown to them and they’re cared for, something breaks open and you just see them radiate. It’s not difficult to do that with a young person. So, I hope that the talk will be an encouragement to anyone who listens to it to be certain that they can be that message of grace for youth, especially those who are suffering — that the love of Jesus Christ that we have is exactly what they’re waiting for, and that we’re courageous, authentic, and obedient enough to offer it to young people.