Day: May 20, 2022

For many followers of Christ, there is an understanding, love and prayer that we offer to Jesus. He points us to the Father and consequently we pray the Our Father, as sons and daughters of the Father should pray.

However, for more than a few of us the Holy Spirit, who indeed is the third Person of the Blessed Trinity, remains nebulous, mysterious, and in a real sense unknown. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to strive for a more clear and penetrating understanding of the “Sweet Guest of the soul.”  (Sequence prayer for Pentecost)

Following logic and reason, unless we capture a more profound comprehension of the Holy Spirit, His presence, power and action in our lives will be inhibited, if not paralyzed. Friends long to get acquainted with each other, yearn to spend quality time with each other, so as to appreciate this mutual bond of friendship and rejoice in the successes and weep at the failures in the reality of friendship. So in a parallel sense is our bond of relationship with the Holy Spirit.

In fact, with respect to our relationship with the Trinity, we have a different relationship with each Person. Once baptized we become sons/daughters of God the Father and brothers/sisters to Jesus Christ our Elder Brother. However, with respect to the Holy Spirit, He becomes our Intimate Friend. This bond and depth of Friendship depends on one element: our docility and openness to the Holy Spirit or our lack of it.

With great joy and enthusiasm, let us delve into the infinite riches in getting to know the Holy Spirit better. This deep union with Him will result in the opening of a new vista or horizon in our spiritual life. Indeed He will shine light in our minds and ignite a fire in our hearts transforming us into, in the words of Saint Paul, new creatures in Christ.

This succinct but substantial treatment will serve as a short, mini-catechesis on the Person, the Power, the Presence and the Interior Peace that are all communicated to the soul enamored with the Holy Spirit, the Sweet Guest of the Soul.

We build skyscrapers, split the atom, design computers, and send men to the moon, but the most difficult and most important task remains undone, namely acknowledging our personal sins.  Pride, the most deceptive of the Seven Deadly Sins, creates the illusion that we are better than we are and therefore renders critical self-examination unnecessary.“ I don’t want criticism,” insisted Mussolini, “I want applause.”

How can those who favor abortion acknowledge its iniquity? Abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.  It is robbing that human being of ever knowing love, liberty, or life.  It is an evil of such enormity that it is too painful to acknowledge and much easier to repress. The self-justification of an evil must close itself off from self-realization. As a consequence, the person who represses his complicity in evil acts must war against anyone who seeks to liberate him from his delusions. Nothing is more horrifying to a person than the sudden realization of his repressed iniquities.

The story of King David offers us the first of four examples concerning individuals who could not acknowledge their sins, but through the grace of God and the help of others, experienced an epiphany which led to their conversions and to a far better life. David, despite his many wives and concubines, lusted after Bathsheba, arranged the death of her husband, and took her for his wife.  He had adjusted to his iniquities and remained unrepentant. God, however, sent Nathan to him who spoke of a rich man who had “very many flocks and herds” and a poor man who had “but one little ewe lamb. When a traveler arrived, the rich man refused to offer one of his flock, but took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for him. Infuriated by this tale, David, said, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.” Then, Nathan said to David, “You are the man.”  It was a painful moment of self-realization for David.  “I have sinned against the Lord,” said David, in an act of contrition. God was forgiving, but David did not escape punishment (2 Samuel, 12).

Saul, whose name was later changed to Paul, was on his way to Damascus seeking to imprison whatever Christians he might encounter. Suddenly a brilliant flash of light from heaven struck him, knocking him to the ground.  He heard the voice of Jesus speak to him: “Saul. Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus,” He replied, “whom you are persecuting.”  Saul was blinded by the light, but after three days of fasting and praying, something like scales fell from his eyes and he could see again. But Saul, now Paul and later St. Paul, saw things in a different light. He could now recognize his former sins and the redeeming power of Christ (9: 1-19). He was liberated from the darkness of his sins and entered the light of Truth.

Aurelius Augustinus, by his own admission, was the most learned and the most dissolute student at the University of Carthage.  Lust of the flesh had been his undoing.  He was in his garden one day and in an agitated state.  He was reading the Letters of St. Paul when he heard a child’s voice saying “tolle lege, tolle lege” (take up and read).  What Augustine read was a turning point in his life and led to his baptism.  He opened the Bible at random and his eyes fell on Romans 13:13–14 which read: “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Augustine abandoned his own sensuous ways and became a Christian, a bishop and a saint.

Ebenezer Scrooge is the central character of Charles Dickens’ immortal classic, A Christmas Carol.  His sin was that of avarice, more specifically described in the story as miserliness. He thought of nothing other than how much money he could save. He cared little for his employees and less for their families. In a harrowing sequence of events, he is visited by Jacob Marley, his former partner, and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. He is finally awakened to the fact that his miserliness is the cause of his misery and that life is to be enjoyed and happily shared with others. His conversion was a full 180 degrees. Early in the tale, he declared that  “If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!” By the end of the story, he says “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

The examples from the Old Testament (King David), the New Testament (St. Paul), the Fourth Century (St. Augustine), and from the world of literature (Ebenezer Scrooge) offer hope to those who have difficulty coming to terms with their own sins. Conversions, with the help of God and good friends, are possible.  Several doctors who performed abortions finally recognized the horror of that they were doing and became pro-life Christians. Sins need not be a permanent feature of one’s character. Grace is available and hope is always on the horizon.

However joyous the faithful may be over the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting it will overturn Roe v. Wade, this highly contentious news serves to heighten tensions in an already deeply-divided America. Pro-life Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs. Churches and pregnancy centers have been vandalized and set on fire. Abortion advocates have interrupted Masses, chanting the message, “Without abortion women can’t be free.”

Their provocative statement is a falsely empowering lie that, tragically, even some pro-life Christians believe. Rhetoric insisting that abortion is a woman’s right is embedded in our cultural consciousness, so much so that many are reluctant to condemn abortion even when they recognize the dignity of the fetus. This is where much of the dialogue on this issue remains gridlocked. Abortion is almost always painted as a conflict between the good of the mother and the good of the fetus. It is time we changed the conversation.

Far from being a basic “right,” abortion is deeply damaging to women; it is not the means to a level playing field that its avid supporters believe it to be. This faulty perception relies on decades of accepting a poor societal “solution” to the “problem” of women’s fertility. In addition to doing women serious physical and psychological harm, abortion contributes to a society that is less hospitable to women, not more so. Contrary to widespread misperception, abortion does not expand options for women; it has brought us merely the illusion of “choice.” Abortion is not an equalizer but an assault on women, a poison that masks the ailment but is slowly killing the patient.

In the United States today, women are woefully uninformed about the realities of abortion. By their own accounts, 84 percent of women who have had abortions felt they did not receive adequate counseling prior to the procedure; and 64 percent felt pressured to have an abortion. When women do receive in-depth counseling about potential side effects and risks, only 33 percent choose abortion, as opposed to the 94 percent of Planned Parenthood’s patients who choose the procedure. The implications? When informed about the health risks of abortion, the majority of women choose another option.

A view that is truly pro-choice and not merely pro-abortion is one that supports the disclosure of information about the risks associated with abortion. In order to make truly free decisions, women need all the information.

Tragically, they aren’t likely to get it from organizations like Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), both of which publicly declare abortion to be without risks. Their declarations grossly exaggerate the supposed “safety” of the procedure and fail to account for the spectrum of afflictions women can and do experience as a result of abortion.

Studies show a great deal of risk associated with abortion across the spectrum of women’s health and fertility. For example, one study revealed a 44 percent increase in risk for breast cancer after a single abortion, rising to 76-89 percent after multiple abortions. Complications from abortion can include scarring, Asherman’s Syndrome, and incompetent cervix, both of which can result in difficulty carrying future pregnancies to term.

Damage from abortion is not limited to the women who procure them; it can also affect their future children. Studies point to an increased chance of preterm birth of 25-27 percent that rises to 51-62 percent after multiple abortions, with a 71 percent higher chance of a very early preterm birth prior to 26 weeks.

In addition to the health risks, abortion can carry serious psychological consequences for women. Although the American Psychological Association (APA) officially denies the existence of mental health risks associated with abortion, their own research shows a strong correlation to that effect. Another study found an 81 percent incidence of mental health problems in women who had undergone abortion, 10 percent of which was directly attributable to abortion.

Anecdotal evidence supports the idea that abortion causes long-term trauma, as evidenced by the existence of Project Rachel and similar ministries whose charism is to aid in the healing of women who deeply regret choosing abortion.

The suppression of information regarding abortion’s risks in service of expanding access to the procedure runs contrary to the ultimate good of women. While this point might fall on deaf ears at Planned Parenthood and other organizations with a vested financial interest in the perpetuation of abortion on demand, this information is vital to the women who will potentially be harmed by abortion, as well as to those who genuinely seek women’s advancement in good faith.

As many are coming to realize, abortion is not a panacea for women’s inequality. Far from it. Reliance on abortion limits rather than expands options for women. As Gloria Purvis points out, abortion is “integral to upholding systems that oppress women.”

As I argue in Chapter 4 of Reclaiming Motherhood from a Culture Gone Mad, abortion and contraception are coercive technologies. Their widespread use contributes to the structuring of society in such a way that it becomes increasingly difficult to opt out of its use. Fewer children and fewer families result in a society that is less hospitable to families. The less society feels its collective responsibility toward our children, the less likely we are to see policies that support the needs of families.

And reproductive coercion influencing women to forgo motherhood is expanding. Because maternity leave and medical coverage for dependents come with added costs, corporate policies often encourage women to delay or forgo childbearing. Tech companies have even begun offering coverage for egg freezing, a “benefit” that supposedly offers women greater reproductive choice (despite the implied coercive message that women who take their careers seriously ought to delay motherhood in order to establish themselves). Never mind that egg freezing is itself risky, and delays in childbearing age correlate with increased maternal health risks and infertility.

Instead of fighting for the freedom of women to be women—whose fertility and desire for motherhood are integral parts of their identity—abortion advocates insist that our liberty can only be found by muting our fertility and forcing our healthy bodies to mimic those of men. If the single path to freedom in our society is one that requires the stamping out of uniquely feminine abilities, then the problem lies with society and not with women’s bodies. As Leah Jacobson writes, “Rather than elevating culture to appreciate and support women’s bodies, we settled for a culture that says our bodies are for sexual pleasure only, making the right to alter, suppress, and destroy our fertile, life-giving female bodies the supreme ‘women’s right.’”

How can such a narrow view of women’s “rights” account for the needs of those who choose motherhood?

The answer: it doesn’t. If it did, support and funding for women’s childbearing “choices” would not be so asymmetrically skewed in favor of those who choose abortion over those who choose motherhood and carrying to term.

In the state of California, where abortion is nearly as accessible as fast food at a drive-through window, the need for a proposed $61 million in additional abortion funding in the governor’s budget seems dubious. Where is the funding for those who pursue motherhood? In a San Diego Tribune op-ed, women asked: “Where are the recommendations to address the millions of missing housing units, the unaffordable childcare situation, the inadequate prenatal care many women receive, the deadly maternal mortality rate compared to the rest of the developed world, or the dismal state of women’s preventive care?” As Gloria Purvis observes, “When you have this asymmetrical emphasis on funding and marketing towards abortion, that’s not freedom to me. That’s coercion.”

These coercive effects are magnified for women living in poverty, for whom state funding provides easy access to abortion and relatively little support for carrying to term. For women grappling with the realities of poverty, lack of affordable housing, and domestic violence, the idea of having a “choice” feels distant indeed.

“Without abortion, women can’t be free.” An emotionally compelling statement, to be sure. But is there any logical weight to it? Are American women free to choose when they have sex and with whom? If so, it seems that self-restraint is an obvious alternative path to freedom that these protestors hadn’t considered. If not, there is a gravely serious issue we need to address, one that abortion does nothing to solve.

A quote from G. Michael Hopf’s novel Those Who Remain is making the social media rounds for the simple reason that it is obviously true: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”

So, what is to be done about this obvious truth? The Jekyll and Hyde nature of culture has been referred to as the swing of the pendulum. Given the four self-evident cultural phases, as outlined by Hopf, that cultural stir seems to be much more of a vicious circle than a pendulum.

If the truth of this is something that most of us can readily recognize, while knowing that, historically, these cultural cycles have often been murderously catastrophic, shouldn’t the avoidance of this be paramount in our minds? After two millennia of Christianity, shouldn’t the Church have a formula for avoiding this?

The simple fact is that the Church does indeed have a formula for avoiding this, but in our day, to paraphrase Christ, its light seems to have been relegated to a place under a very thick, heavy bushel basket.

Most of us make a minimal effort at spiritual exercise every Lent, but for the rest of the year it seems that we never cease feasting on Easter candy. What I’m talking about, of course, is our lack of self-denial. Strong men and women don’t stay strong by self-pampering. We always want to reward ourselves. Those who have suffered and fought through hard times always want to thoroughly enjoy the good times they have enabled. We easily forget that nothing would have been gained without the hand of God. We too readily set aside any concern about our weaknesses and concupiscence.

To put it simply, most of us live without regimen; that is, without a lifestyle plan for maintaining spiritual strength. No military force is successful without a regimen. In fact, a military unit may be referred to as a regiment. What is your spiritual regimen?

We Americans are, collectively, the fattest we’ve ever been. It doesn’t seem that most of us have much of a regimen when it comes to eating, drinking, and exercise. And before discussing spiritual regimens, what about all of that eating, drinking, and sitting around? Can we say that these excesses are without a spiritual downside? We think of gluttony as the sin of eating and drinking to excess, but what about eating and drinking like unrestrained children, that is, eating and drinking only things that give us a pleasure fix without regard to health? Is that not a form of gluttony?

If we are not setting an example of any kind of physical regimen to our children, what is the likelihood that we are doing so in the spiritual realm? I would say it is very low. And what about in the area of sexuality? St. Paul advised his spiritual children who were married: “Do not deprive each other, except perhaps by mutual consent for a time, to be free for prayer…” which implies that, as married couples, we actually have a prayer life. I think that for most of us, without a plan and time set aside—without a regimen—prayer seldom happens.

So, what about that vicious circle? What are we doing to keep ourselves from going soft? Catholics used to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in a solidarity of remembrance of the Lord’s Passion and death on Good Friday. What are we doing for that remembrance now? Are we spiritually tough? Are we raising spiritually tough children or weak men and women who will create bad times?

Failure to embrace self-discipline invariably becomes its own bleak reward. That is to say that God respects our freedom because without it we’re not truly human, and His respect for our freedom must allow us to fail or freedom is a lie. So it is that we are the only ones who can end the vicious circle, and it can only be accomplished by hard spiritual work—by creating our own “hard times.”

And what exactly is spiritual work, or perhaps more correctly, a spiritual workout? It is anything that has potential to make us holy, which simply means to be made more like our Father in Heaven. It is the work of striving for perfection, the same goal as a serious effort in any pursuit. The attainment of spiritual strength operates under the same set of rules as attaining physical strength. The first order of any self-improvement is to strengthen one’s resolve. Effort in any arena will fail without resolve, the most basic ingredient of success.

I use the word arena very purposefully, as its etymology refers broadly to a sandy place but more specifically to a fighting arena. Attaining holiness is, in many respects, a battle against our own concupiscence, that is, against our tendency to always seek selfish pleasure above all other pursuits. I use the qualifier “in many respects” because it is certainly possible to conquer one’s drive for pleasure for less than holy reasons, for example, for very puritanical reasons; that is, to simply gain the attention and praise of others.

Some historians suggest that, in the Middle Ages, as much as one-third of all adults in Catholic Europe had chosen monastic life: one third of all adults practicing self-denial to the exclusion of sex and wealth and dedicated to a life of prayer and obedience. I have no delusions of the Middle Ages being perfect, or of there being no corrupt monasteries, but there were certainly cultural practices and personal holiness that we would do well to emulate. Monasticism has all but perished in current times, and it has left a gaping spiritual void. In a culture that promotes an extremely low birthrate, where are the parents who are going to promote the monastic life to their children?

Long story short, where are the prayer warriors? Who will step up to the plate to end the vicious circle? Who among us is preparing their children for the battle that is raging around us?

What are the weapons that are available? You know what they are. Let’s make a list. My non-Catholic readers will forgive this very Catholic list and will find similar means within their own traditions.

Sunday Mass is a given, but how about daily Mass? Daily Mass may not be a possibility for everyone, but it is available to a lot more of us than are currently availing ourselves.

Reading Scripture. The contemplation of Scripture cannot be overestimated. It is the stuff of sainthood.

Eucharistic adoration. Spending time with the Lord is priceless. It’s an opportunity to shut off the noise that engulfs our lives and just listen with our hearts.

A daily examination of conscience and an act of contrition. If a spiritual regimen has an absolute bare minimum, this would be it.

Reconciliation. This powerful sacrament fuels a myriad of virtues, outstanding among them, humility—so much grace channeled into so powerful a virtue. It is the singular grace that will flood our examinations of conscience with the sunshine of Truth.

Morning offering. I’m reminded here of the daily regimen practiced in my career. Every morning started with pouring through my Franklin day planner, noting the times of meetings and setting goals and expectations for the day. Similarly, making a morning offering prayer is the perfect time for the reciprocal of your evening examination of conscience—it’s an opportunity to prepare or review your day’s battle plan for avoiding sin and pleasing God.

The Rosary or the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. For me these are best accomplished when on a walk or lying in bed unable to sleep. (In the latter case, the Rosary often goes incomplete. But we’re in good company, as St. Thérèse admitted to usually falling asleep during her evening Rosary.) Contemplation of the mysteries of Christ’s life is the best medicine for the soul.

Abstinence. This is a broad term. It can refer to abstinence from meat on Friday in remembrance of our Lord’s sacrifice, a long-standing Church tradition, or it can mean abstaining from anything as a means of self-denial, a tempering of the will. Sacrifice makes us strong.

Fasting. This may not be possible for some whose livelihood requires heavy physical labor, which is not so many of us in our industrialized world, but for the rest of us this is a formidable weapon of self-denial—a win/win for both body and soul.

Virginity. If there is a single weapon that will save future marriages, it is virginity. Maintaining virginity requires unyielding self-discipline and diligence. By and large, virgins who marry virgins don’t divorce. It’s a simple fact of life, one that nearly no one is talking about. You were born a jackpot winner. No state lottery could give you a greater prize than the one you were born with. Your virginity is the greatest, most romantic gift you could ever give to your mate; and as a monastic or holy single person, it is the greatest gift you can give to your Creator. Purity of one’s state in life is the beginning of perfection.

Obedience. This is a tough one. The toughest. What military unit functions without it? What battles are won with a brigade of ne’er-do-well, disobedient slackers? If we allow our children to disobey, we are destroying their future and the future of humanity. And how about our spouses? We promised to obey them. Did no one explain to us that it would be a sacrifice? The toughest sacrifice? And how about obedience to Church teaching—to biblical teaching? Are we creating our own soft Church? Soft on this, that, or the other thing? —don’t pretend you don’t know the list.