Almighty ever-living God, who as an example of humility for the human race to follow caused our Savior to take flesh and submit to the Cross, graciously grant that we may heed his lesson of patient suffering and so merit a share in his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
We should submit our reason to the truths of faith with the humility and simplicity of a child. ~St. Alphonsus Liguori
“Teach me dear Lord frequently and attentively to consider this truth: that if I gain the whole world and lose thee, in the end I have lost everything: whereas if I lose the whole world and gain thee, in the end I have lost nothing.”
~ Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman
“All I need is a quiet corner where I can talk to God each day as if there were nothing else to do. I try to make myself a tool for God. Not for myself, but only for Him.” ~St. Edith Stein
“They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.” ~John Flavel
Note from the Chair:
It’s a privilege to have Shane Kapler as our guest blogger today. I first met Shane a couple years ago when he visited The Coming Home Network to appear on the Journey Home program. He is an extraordinarily insightful and gifted guy, obvious to anyone who reads his wonderful books. Shane is also among the most authentic people I know. He’s a humble and encouraging guy, and we’re grateful for his willingness to share his talents.
While you’re here, please consider leaving a prayer request for Br. Rex, and making a contribution to our Home for a Hermit campaign.
Thank you for visiting!
Kevin
by Shane Kapler
Our spiritual lives are centered upon Jesus’ sacrifice, made present in the Eucharist. A good number of you reading this, however, probably have schedules that keep you from attending Mass on a daily basis. It may come as a surprise to learn that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph – and the majority of Jews at the time – found themselves in an analogous situation. They also arrived at an ingenious solution that you can make your own.
Jewish religious life was built around sacrifice; and the only place it could be legitimately offered was Jerusalem’s Temple. Every day, at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., its priests made the daily offering, or tamid. After the singing of a Psalm and the recitation of Judaism’s creed, the Shema, a lamb, cake of bread, and wine were offered on the altar. (Remind you of the Mass?) It was the heart of Israel’s spirituality, yet Jews such as the Holy Family lived too far away to take part except on special occasions. (Nazareth was approximately 70 miles from Jerusalem.)
At least two centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Jewish people adopted the practice of stopping, wherever they were, three times a day, to pray facing toward the Temple. They prayed at 9 a.m., and 3 p.m., as the tamid was being offered, and again around sunset when any remaining scraps were burned on the altar and the Temple gate closed. The people’s daily prayer joined them to the Temple’s sacrifices!
Of what did their personal prayer consist? It largely mirrored the Temple’s liturgy. At the first and third times of prayer, they recited the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD …” ; You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Dt 6:4-9; Dt 11:13-21; and Num15:37-41). At all three times of prayer they prayed the Eighteen Benedictions, a beautiful tapestry of blessing and petition.
St. Paul invites us Christians to unite our lives – our regular, busy lives of work and family – to Jesus’ sacrifice, made present in the Eucharist. “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, for this is our spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). United to Jesus, our every thought, word, and action can become an offering to the Father. It is as simple as making our own daily (preferably morning) offering: “Jesus, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world.”
Further, we can mirror the Holy Family’s beginning and ending their day with the Shema, by beginning and ending ours with the Sign of the Cross. It is our Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds in miniature. Whenever we make it we proclaim our belief that it is through Christ’s Cross that we enter into the inner life of the Father, Son, and Spirit; and his grace can empower us to do so with all our mind, all our heart, and all our strength! (It is our Christian Shema.) The early Church also retained the Jewish practice of praying three times a day, but instead of the Eighteen Benedictions they prayed the Our Father (CCC 2767). Taught to us by Christ himself, it is the perfect prayer, encapsulating all others (CCC 2765; 2762).
So if you can’t make it to Mass, take a lesson from the Holy Family: pray a Daily Offering and have recourse to the Sign of the Cross and the Our Father (slowly, intentionally) at least three times in the course of the day. You would also be well-advised to invite Mary and Joseph to pray with you; if they were good enough for Jesus, they’re certainly good enough for you and me!
Shane Kapler is the author of Through, With, & In Him: The Prayer Life of Jesus and How to Make It Our Own and The God Who is Love: Explaining Christianity From Its Center. He is online at www.explainingchristianity.com
“Whoever does not seek the cross of Christ doesn’t seek the glory of Christ.” ~St. John of the Cross
“Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.” ~ St. John Chrysostom
Note from the Chair:
FLPH is deeply grateful to the many good Catholics who stand on the front lines of the new evangelization. Among them is a good friend, Teresa Tomeo. For the one or two people who don’t know Teresa, she is a syndicated Catholic radio show host, motivational speaker, best selling author, and all-around good egg. We’re excited to kick off our Home for a Hermit campaign with a guest blog post by Teresa, entitled Are We Willing to Embrace a “Deeper Theology” for Women?
Look for additional blog posts over the next several weeks from other terrific guest bloggers. While you’re here, please consider leaving a prayer request for Br. Rex, and making a contribution to our Home for a Hermit campaign.
Thank you for visiting, and enjoy!
Kevin
By Teresa Tomeo
Where had I been all those years? That was one of the nagging questions I asked myself as I found my way back to the Catholic Church. How come I never heard growing up how Jesus was a true women’s libber; breaking the norms regarding the way men in His day related to and communicated with women? Why, when gatherings focusing on the progress of women were making headlines at major events such as the 1995 Beijing Conference, weren’t women told that the then head of the Roman Catholic Church was also among the voices calling for “equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, and fairness in careers” among other things as John Paul the Second stressed in his Papal Letter to Women. This document, which included great insights and teachings on Jesus, the Church, and the role of women, was released at the same time of the Beijing event. But I didn’t hear about it until years later.
Maybe this is why Pope Francis in his first year as the head of the Roman Catholic Church around the world has been calling for a deeper theology of women. He made the comments in his now-famous impromptu interview returning to the Vatican following World Youth Day events in Rio de Janeiro.
“A church without women would be like the apostolic college without Mary. The Madonna is more important than the apostles, and the church herself is feminine, the spouse of Christ and a mother. The role of women doesn’t end just with being a mother and with housework … we don’t yet have a truly deep theology of women in the church. We talk about whether they can do this or that, can they be altar boys, can they be lectors, about a woman as president of Caritas, but we don’t have a deep theology of women in the Church.”
The Pope reiterated this in an interview last week with an Italian daily newspaper. Once again as in his previous comments, he didn’t say the Church is in need of a teaching or a theology on women. He stressed we needed a deeper theology of women. Speaking from personal experience growing up Catholic I don’t remember doing anything more than barely sticking my toes in the water in terms of attempting to really understand the Church. Beyond a few basic tenets and the general understanding of the saints and Mary I knew very little about the Church I claimed to be a member of. Partly my fault but also as Church leaders now readily admit, also the result of poor or no catechesis. As Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has stated so eloquently, “American Catholics need to realize that many in the current generation haven’t just been assimilated into the American culture but have been absorbed, bleached, and digested by it.”
As a result it was always about me. It took being knocked off my horse in both my personal and professional life before I started to take my faith more seriously and really attempt to understand and admittedly struggle at times with what the Church has to say about women as well as other core teachings; teachings I had ignored for most of my life. I had to ask a lot of questions, read Church documents, and study the Bible. I found it freeing, utterly liberating no pun intended, when I finally understood that true equality between women and men doesn’t always have to mean sameness. We were created in the image and likeness of God; equal but different. Who knew? You mean the Catholic Church has an entire body of teaching on women and role in the Church and society? Go figure.
So in honor of the one year anniversary of Pope Francis’ election, why not discover the “deeper theology” of women through documents such as The Paper Letter to Women or Mulieris Dignitatem: On the Dignity and Vocation of Women. Swim in the deep end of the faith pool for a while. Maybe you’ll find as I did that the water is just fine.
Teresa Tomeo is a motivational speaker, best selling author, and syndicated Catholic talk show host. Her website is www.teresatomeo.com