A Little Pilgrimage to a Little Known Saint

"Beaverville?? Where's that?!"

They had never heard of it before.  ("They" refers to the hypothetical group of people I made up for the sake of this post..) That's because it's out in the middle of Illinois somewhere.  Not in the middle of "nowhere."  I was there so I know Beaverville is "somewhere."  It's just that most people have probably not heard of this somewhere.

But I have!  It's the place where the "Cathedral in the Country" is located which sports the cemetary where a little known mystic-Saint (yet to be canonized) is buried. (see above picture.)  

"Hey! That looks like a picture of a statue of Christ with a gargantuan Church in the background!" Right on, faithful blog reader right on.  This Church is literally the size of a Cathedral and it's in a tiny "blink and you'll miss it" town called Beaverville. "Why'd they name it 'Beaverville'?"  That I don't know...

But the Church is beautiful! Amazing stained glass windows with rich imagery, ornate baldachino with the latin phrase "Venite ad me" above the tabernacle in the sanctuary, a gigantic, deep blue starry night dome, a lovely life-like statue of Our Lady to kneel before (when you look up into her eyes it seems so real!) and most importantly...

An open door on a Sunday afternoon!  Look at what I saw below:

This was my favorite image in the Church.  It was such a realistic looking statue.  It made me feeling I was really looking up at Our Lady.

(In the backright of this glass case is a zachetto -white cap - which Pope Paul VI wore.  I felt a lot of peace asking for his prayers here.)

Co-Founder of the Sister Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary, the community which Sr. Mary Mediatrix - more on her later - belonged to.

Co-Foundress of the same community.  Mother Marie of the Blessed Sacrament.

After the visit inside the Church and spending time with Our Lord we (me and my friend) went to the cemetary to spend time with our little known Saint - Sr. Mary Mediatrix! (her tomb is the first picture at the top of this post.)

During the summer I read a short little book on this mystic and prophet called "Sister Mary Mediatrix" by Jeff Moniyhan.  Because of that I decided I had to go pay her tomb a visit.  She had a Priest-friend in her life for a period of time (Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, a Claertian) who could read souls, was also prophetic, and had the gift of having the presence of the Blessed Sacrament always in him as it only digested when he would receive Holy Communion in him the next day.)

It was a beautiful visit to Sr. Mary Mediatrix.  Who knew? A Saint in my backyard in Beaverville!  She died in 1959.  I hope to post a little about her life some time in the future  The same author also wrote a short book on Fr. Aloysius.

Sr. Mary Mediatrix and Fr. Aloysius, pray for us!

-MM

True Peace Only Comes When We Live in Reality

As I said in the previous post (paraphrasing) don't worry about this next year or your future because the same God Who has been so faithful to you in the past will continue to be faithful in the future.

St. Francis de Sales put it this way:

"The same Everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day of your life. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginings."

I mean how easy is it for us to forget how abundantly good God has been to us?  

Very easy.

When we forget Who God is though (an all-loving and all-wise Father Who has nothing but our best interests at heart) it becomes that much easier to lose our sense of peace.  Put another way, Who God really is and what God has to say - THAT'S reality. We are called and invited to abide in Him and listen to Him -to live in reality.  Outside of reality there is no true peace but if we live in the truth then we have peace.

As always I think Jesus says it best:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?o

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness,* and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil."

-Matthew 6:25-34

Faith gives the deepest part of our intellect - what the bible would call the "heart" - access to God, to the truth, to reality.  So let us not be of little faith but let us always remember Who God is.  Let us stay there.

"Abide with me." - John 15:4

Most of all let us hover often near Jesus in the Eucharist.  Let us draw near and keep company with the One Who is True, with Reality.  Then we will have peace because we will know Him Who is the truth and the truth will make us free.

-MM

It's Been a While... 365 Days Worth

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

It was 2013.

As the waves of time roll on we often forget about the graces of the past.  It's easy to get caught up in our thoughts and activities in the now.  It's also sometimes easier to see the difficulties of our past rather than the blessings.  It's also sometimes easier to worry about the future and how things will turn out rather than remembering that the same good God Who took care of us last year, and the year before, will continue to protect, guide, and bless us.

Yes, oftentimes we haven't deserved those blessings.  Perhaps you've had a tremendous change of perspective recently or a conversion of heart and you're able to look back more easily than most and see how God has blessed you often in spite of you!

Can we just be grateful to God? Can we at least be just towards Him and give Him what is due to Him, namely, our gratitude? Can we ask pardon for past mistakes and sins while asking Him to brig a greater good out of them? Can we replace last year's negligences and evil with greater love and adoration in this new year towards such a good Father? Can we be more resolute in praying for others instead of forgetting to, or, even worse, deciding not to?

I think a good new year's resolution would be just giving God what is due to Him.

That would be your entire life.

:)

And that's just the minimum requirement of justice! So we should never boast about being better than the next guy because, frankly, we all fall short.)

What would God's new year's resolution for you be?

Is there a sin He wants you to get rid of? A virtue you need to work on? Do you need to pray more? Go to Mass more? Make a weekly holy hour at he local adoration chapel? Who do you need to forgive? Who does God want you to love?  What has He been asking of you for so long and will you finally respond now?

-MM

Simply Incredible - The Generosity of a Woman

Now you may think my post will be about the Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ (especially since Christmas is right around the corner) as Scripture refers to her as "the" Woman.  But you'd only be half right.

I want to share with you what happened to me today.  I want to share how I became the recipient of an incredible Christmas gift from a woman (though I DO think the Woman, Mary the Mother of Christ was behind it anyway! For her own sake I'll keep THIS woman anonymous, though.)

I went to do buy some Christmas gifts today at the local Catholic bookstore *I just arrived back in the States the other day for Christmas!*  I used to work there so I know the owners and other workers pretty well.  Chatting with the owner I was told that he was going to give me a 40% "employee" discount.  Wow.  That was generous enough!

So I browsed and thought I'd take advantage of such a great gift and picked up several things for various family members.  I was given an extra Christmas stipend just for that reason.  I made my way up to the counter.

A woman I know took care of me.  An extremely kind and very charitable woman.  So charitable that she felt moved to purchase all of my items for me!  Every year she finds a creative way to pass on a particular rebate which she and her husband get annually - I was this year's grateful recipient!  I tried to insist that she couldn't do this! This was too much! But she insisted even more and truly wanted to buy the items for me.   I was, and remain, stunned.

Moreover, she wrote me a Christmas card during my time in the store  When I got home and opened it I saw a check for $200.  Shock.  I praise God for this woman's generosity towards me.  She wanted to help me out simply because I am a seminarian studying to become a Priest.  

So this woman did a tremendous thing for me today.

The first Christmas began with the generosity of a Woman.  This Christmas sees another generous act from another woman.  I pray that God may reward her.

:)

-MM

I Found Myself in a Cemetary Today

I found myself in a cemetary today.

Last year at Mundelein Seminary I could just have easily said: "I found myself in a seminary today."

- "...Not funny, boo!"

Thanks for keeping me honest, faithful blog reader.

But seriously there I was today sitting on a bench in a cemetary. I was in a place of hope.

Now, yes, cemtaries are places of sadness, grieving, and the like.  But I'm a Christian.  I don't believe death is the end.  If it is the end then everything that exists is absurd - even your reading of this blog.

But we know - if we're honest - that deep down our most intense aspirations for eternal life are not absurd.  What is absurd, I think, is how seldom we consider the fact that one day we will die.

One day you will die.

It could be tomorrow.  It could.  

Ask someone who works in an Emergency Room at a hospital how uncertain tomorrow is...they'll tell you.  They see it all the time.  They see life end all the time.

How often do you consider your eventual death? I don't mean to be morbid.

Considering the end of our lives on earth helps us grow in wisdom; helps us see things more as God sees them.  Suffering can do that, too.  Or one could become bitter through it.  That only happens if one has lost hope.

At the cemetary today I sat and listen to a soccer game going on a few hundred feet away just beyond the cemetary walls.  It was ironic to me that a place of such liveliness could be so close to a place where the dead are laid to rest.  Often, we seek to distract ourselves with some amusement.  But how often do we forsake our distractions for the sake of not becoming distracted from the most important things in life.

For example, I will die someday.

Does that thought make you smile?  If you have hope I think it should.  In hope we know that death is not the end.  It's a door.  In Jesus death, God entered through the door of death so that when we ourselves eventually enter through that door we would not be alone. In Jesus' resurrection and ascension, God linked death to eternal life so that when we die in   friendship with God we are able to follow the path traced out for us by Christ - all the way to Heaven.

So, I found myself in a cemetary today.  You, too, will someday find yourself in a cemetary.  

I hope that happens before you die.

-MM

Opening Up the Corridors and Letting in New Light - Advent Reflection Part II

Do you ear what I ear?

- "Eww, Matt! Is that a picture of your ear??"

Spot on, faithful blog reader! That is a picture of my ear.

You may be wondering why I took a picture of my ear but that's not the purpose of this post. The theme for today's reflection is listening. Listening to God speaking to our hearts.

- "But it's an ear!"

Look, that's not th..

- "Look?! Are you going to post a picture of your eyeball now and tell us to 'look' around or something??"

... *Sigh*...

Right. Moving on then.  In part I of the Advent reflection last week I discussed how we need to listen to the Lord knocking on the door of our lives, let Him in, and then not be afraid to give Him full access to every part of our heart..

- "Every part??"

Yes... every part.

- "Even.."

ESPECIALLY that part.

- "*gasp*"

You said it faithful blog reader: *gasp* is right.  God wants in - especially the places we're least excited about.

Advent is a time when we anticipate the coming of our "God-hero" as Scripture calls Him; our Savior.  We need to be saved from so much - sin, lies, fear, shame, difficulties of all kinds.  There is a lot down there in the depths of our hearts.  There are many rooms which remain locked, many rooms which have never seen the light of truth, many rooms with "Caution" tape blocking the entryways and "Danger: Do Not Enter" signs posted outside.  

Yes, these rooms ARE dangerous.  There is a reason that caution tape hangs outside those rooms.  We are weary about letting anyone enter them - even ourselves.  We often prefer to leave the doors of our past - the lies, the shame, our sins, the wounds which we've received from others' lack of love towards us in one way or another.  It is much too painful and causes too much turmoil and confusion when anyone gets too close to those areas.

But can you hear the sound of footsteps coming down those steps into your heart? "How beatuiful... are the feet of Him who brings good news!" (Isaiah 52:7, a common Advent Scripture) Do you know that He alone can redeem, heal, bless, and make whole again those parts of your life which are "off-limits?"  How will you react when Jesus reaches for the doorknob of that first room?

What IS the first room He wants entry to? Is it a memory of some past hurt? Is it a past sin you're terribly ashamed of? Is it some recurring sin of self-importance, lust, anger, greed? Is it a lie which you don't want to admit is a lie? 

Where does Christ want to go next in your heart?  How will you react when He asks your permission to enter in there?

If you won't let Christ in can you let the Holy Spirit in? He's more "neutral" to some people.  Or can you let in the child Jesus rather than the adult Lord?  Advent is about welcoming in this Divine Child - God's Son and the Son of Mary - into the dark cave we call our heart and letting His light shine through.  "Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)

But we have to let Him in first!  What is Jesus' next move in your life? What is the Savior wanting to save now?  

Listen... He's speaking to you. He comes for you.

-MM

Advent Reflection: Part 1 1/2

Before doing part 2 of the Advent reflection I began last week I'd like to offer an "in between" thought.

A simple thought.

A question actually.

...

What do you need from the Lord?

We often ask God for what we want.

Ok.

But have you taken time recently to reflect on what you need?

Those are the prayers that God answers swiftly.

They go something like this:

"Lord, I need to know your love more."

"Jesus, I need your help in gowing in humility."

"Heavenly Father, I'm too quick to judge other people.  Please show me the faults in myself which I think I'm seeing in others."

"Lord, I'm not nearly as grateful as I ought to be.  Please forgive me.  Give me a grateful heart!"

"Jesus, I need to love you more.  Help me to love you more!"

I'm reminded of the blind man sitting alongside the road calling out "Son of David, have pity on me!"  Jesus comes up to him and asks "What do you want me to do for you?" The man responds, "Lord, I want to see!"

His need became his want.  He desired what he needed.

Do you desire what you need? Or perhaps a better place to start is to ask do you need what you desire?

God provides for all our needs! God grant that our needs be the same things as our desires this Advent and Christmas.  There is a gift Christ wants to give to you; it is precisely what you need!

But do you want what you need?

-MM