New Year’s Resolutions
Posted by Deacon Allen | Discipleship, Emotions/Feelings, Everyday Life | No CommentsIt’s January 1st, which can only mean one thing: time to make those New Year’s Resolutions.
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Mary | Deacon Allen Tatara Catholic Speaker
On the Inside; On the Outside
Since we just celebrated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary yesterday, I thought that this would be an appropriate post.
While on retreat at the Redemptorist Retreat Center in Wisconsin, I had the opportunity, or shall I say the necessity, to pray to our Blessed Mother for something that was going on in my life. It just so happened that on the center grounds, there was a shrine dedicated to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Realizing that I could use all the help that I could get, I ventured inside.
Earlier this year, I was giving a Lenten mission in Iowa and on the final night, I ended Evening Prayer with the song Immaculate Mary. After we had finished, a woman came up to me and told me that she is blessed with having visions. She told me that while I was singing, the Blessed Mother appeared behind me and was smiling at me. I had chills when she told me that. Hopefully that meant that our Lady was happy with what I was doing.
I’m not telling this story so that you will be impressed. I’m telling this story to remind us that Mary is always looking out for us and doing all she can to point us toward her Son.
Another great story is the centered around today’s feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. An indigenous peasant, Juan Diego, was walking by a hill called Tepeyac in Mexico when he heard a voice calling him by name. A radiant cloud appeared, and within it stood an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. After she had identified herself to him, Our Lady asked that Juan build her a shrine in that same spot, in order for her to show and share her love and compassion with all those who believe.
Afterwards, Juan Diego visited the bishop, but Juan was dismissed and was asked for proof of his story and proof of the Lady’s identity.
Juan Diego returned to the hill and encountered Our Lady again. The Virgin told him to climb to the top of the hill and pick some flowers to present to the bishop.
Although it was winter and nothing should have been in bloom, Juan Diego found an abundance of flowers of a type he had never seen before. The Virgin bundled the flowers into Juan’s cloak, known as a tilma. When Juan Diego presented the tilma of exotic flowers to the bishop, the flowers fell out and he recognized them as Castilian roses, which are not found in Mexico. What was even more significant was that the tilma had been miraculously imprinted with a colorful image of the Virgin herself.
Mary had heard the prayers and pain of these people, and she came to give them hope and to remind them that God will remember his mercy for all people.
Today we honor Our Lady of Guadalupe not only because of her motherly concern and love for us, but because we truly believe that she always there with us. May we always come to Mary asking her to intercede for us with her Son.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Today we celebrate the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was established by the Pope Pius XII in 1954. He stated that Mary is Queen above every other creature on account of the elevation of her soul and how she never ceases to bestow all the treasures of her love and care on humanity.
Mary is often called the Queen of many things: Queen of the Angels, Queen of Patriarchs, Queen of Prophets, Queen of the Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Virgins, Queen of All Saints, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, and Queen of Peace, and many others.
But how does Mary exercise this queenship? Pope Benedict XVI said, “By watching over us, her children: the children who turn to her in prayer, to thank her and to ask her maternal protection and her heavenly help, perhaps after having lost their way, or weighed down by suffering and anguish on account of the sad and troubled events of life.” He continued to say, “The title of Queen is therefore a title of trust, of joy and of love. And we know that what she holds in her hands for the fate of the world is good; she loves us, and she helps us in our difficulties.”
May we always turn to Mary in prayer for she will always intercede for us to her Son. Mary is the Queen of Heaven who is close to God, but she is also the Mother who is close to each one of us, who loves us and who listens to our voice. May we imitate her faith every day, for as it says in today’s psalm, “To do your will, O my God, is my delight.”
In 1967, Paul Newman starred in the prison drama Cool Hand Luke. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) knows how to win at poker, even with bad cards, by using his smarts and playing it cool. When Luke finds out his mother has died, he plots his escape; when he’s caught, he simply escapes again. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison.
On the Feast of St. Luke, we are indebted to him for so much information about the early Church, but we know so little about him.
He was of Gentile origin, a Greek from the city of Antioch in ancient Syria, and he made his living as a physician, and he was the companion of St. Paul. But Luke is mainly known as the author of the third Gospel and the book of the Acts of the Apostles. It is in these writings that we will find three reasons why he has become a symbol of hope and resilience to all of us.
First, he had a special love for Mary, the mother of Jesus. It is from Luke that we have most of what we know about Mary: her steadfast faith, her child-like trust and obedience to God’s will, her generosity and readiness to serve others, her acceptance of God’s plan, and her pondering prayerfulness.
Second, he focused in on Jesus’ compassion and mercy for those who suffered. As a doctor Luke was very familiar with sickness and suffering. Luke calls us to be aware of the needs of each other, and especially those without the necessities of life, for those who are lost, and for anyone who is sick or suffering.
And third, he had a passion for evangelization. Luke wanted to spend his life spreading the good news about Jesus, both in his writings as well as in his journeys with St. Paul.
May we strive to be more like Cool Hand St. Luke: cool-headed, independent, individualistic spirit that won’t submit to the power of the evil one. May we be a symbol of hope to others by having a deep-seeded faith like Mary, taking care of those who are less fortunate, and spreading the good news about Jesus to everyone.
Whenever I hear today’s Gospel (Matthew 7:21-29), I can’t help but think about St. Irenaeus. He is hardly a household name among Catholics today, and it’s easy to understand why. The distance between his time and ours is about 18 centuries. But St. Irenaeus remains enormously important to the Church today, especially for those who want to better understand and defend their faith.
Irenaeus was crucially important in establishing the belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Eucharist, Irenaeus writes, consists of “two realities, earthly and heavenly.” He describes Christ as the “perfect bread” of the Father who enables us to enter into full communion with the being of God: “He did this when He appeared as a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of His flesh, and having, by such a course of milk nourishment, become accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father.” These are not the words of someone who views the Eucharist as a symbol, but one who has a deep, rock-solid faith.
Irenaeus is also famous for recapitulation – the concept that all things are summed up, or, literally, brought back to their head – which is Christ. Irenaeus is saying that Christ, in a sense, re-enacted all the events and all the figures from the Garden of Eden, in the process of undoing original sin. Irenaeus writes, just as Christ is the new Adam, so also Mary is the new Eve. And just as tree was the cause of the curse, so also we were saved through a tree (the cross).
Through all his writings and by his actions, St. Irenaeus teaches us that if our faith is strong, we can overcome anything that is thrown our way. If our lives are built on the rock of Christ and we listen to his words and act on them, we will have a powerful foundation for the rest of our lives.
A while back, I was having the worst day ever. At one point, I decided that I needed to take a long walk or I was going to explode. I needed to vent, and I thought that taking my venting to God was what I needed to do. So I spent my entire walking journey complaining and whining to God in prayer.
I let everything out, and I didn’t hold back. (It was not one of my prouder moments.) At the end of my walk, I suddenly felt this phrase fall upon my heart: it’s not about you.
This was certainly one of those moments where I knew that God was speaking to me. It was just so out of nowhere that I knew it wasn’t something that I could have conjured up. God was reminding me that all my problems, concerns, worries, frustrations, and issues were all centered around me. Everything was about me!
In Scripture, whether we are looking at the Visitation, Annunciation, the Wedding in Cana or other events, Mary says very little, but her words are packed full of meaning. The one thing that underscores all of her communication is that it’s not about her – it’s about Him.
Her only desire was to be known as a lowly servant – a handmaid, if you will – of God. She wanted nothing more and would settle for nothing less that total surrender to Him.
What difficulties are you facing in your life? What conflicts do you find in your workplace, your family, or among your friends? Could it be that God is using these as a gentle reminder that it’s not about you and cause you to grow and experience the transforming power of God in your life?
Let us pray that “It’s not about you” rolls through our minds daily. Let us feel the invitation of God’s Spirit to change our attitudes and behaviors so that we become less self-focused and begin to see things as God sees them.
How can this be? Those four short words make up one of the most famous questions in all of Scripture – and it’s also a question that I find myself thinking a lot about this Advent.
With yesterday being the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I’ve been thinking a lot about Mary. Every year, I’m blown away by Mary’s faith when she said “yes” to God. Especially as a young teenager, I can only imagine what her faith was like. Read More
