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praying togetherThe Christian journey is exciting but hard, that’s why Jesus wisely sent the disciples out in two-s.  We aren’t meant to do this alone!

Taketimeforhim ministry is a place for you to find inspiration, encouragement, support, and the practical tips needed to not only grow in your faith, but to thrive in life.

Invite Michelle and or Angie to speak at your event, order Angie’s guided Sunday Gospel meditations, or simply click the follow tab for weekly inspiration sent to your email. Comment and share to help build a community of support as we all strive for transformation in Christ.

~Angela Jendro and Michelle Steele

Making Space for The Holy Spirit – Lessons from Mary on Mother’s Day

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Fra Angelico, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What do Mother’s Day and preparing for Pentecost have to do with one another? Making room to receive divine Love. 

As we celebrate our mothers in May, we also celebrate Christ’s mother Mary. Not only does she nurture, care, guide, and protect us, but she is also the very model from which we learn what it means to be a Church, – how to be a People of God and true disciples of Christ. She who first received the Holy Spirit, from Whom she conceived and bore Christ, was there in the Upper Room praying with the apostles when they too received the Holy Spirit from which the Church was born into the world. We can learn from her how to be more receptive to the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts at baptism, and for His creative grace to bear fruit in our lives.

Pope Benedict XVI offers rich insights into what the Church learns about herself in and through Mary in a work he did with theologian and priest Hans Urs von Balthasar titled Mary – The Church at the Source.  

He asserts that “the Church learns concretely what she is and is meant to be by looking at Mary.”  In contrast to our self-centered tendencies and our individualistic world, Mary shines as a woman completely open to the Lord, the mystery of His will, and participation in His saving work of love for mankind. He writes, “She does not wish to be just this one human being who defends and protects her own ego. She does not regard life as a stock of goods of which everyone wants to get as much as possible for himself. Her life is such that she is transparent to God, ‘habitable’ for him. Her life is such that she is a place for God.“

How can we be more “habitable”? How can we make a place for God? This was the work of the prayer and waiting that Christ commanded of the apostles between His Ascension into Heaven and Pentecost. 

“And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'” Acts 1:4-5

 Relationships grow insofar as we open up to each other. It requires giving of oneself and receptivity to the other. In regard to intimate relationship with God, this requires making space for the Holy Spirit to dwell – not in isolation, but in a continual dialogue of listening prayer.

But how do we pray effectively? How can it be fruitful instead of sterile and dry? Again, Mary provides a model. First, we listen attentively, then contemplate and appropriate His word, then respond with action.  Jesus had the greatest respect for His mother because of this. When Mary was praised for getting to be Jesus’ physical mother, He pointed instead to her strength of faith which made His conception possible:

As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Luke 11:27-28 RSV

How can we be followers of Christ, if we never actually listen and let Him guide us? If we rarely pray, and if that prayer consists solely of requests to God, then it remains a self-directed life rather than a God-directed life. Oftentimes we try to lead Christ along our path, asking Him to bless our plans and provide earthly prosperity.  Instead, we need to pause and make the time and mental space to really listen to the Lord and what He asks of us.  We do this through praying with Scripture – His Word to us – or reading quality spiritual books that draw us deeper into the mysteries of our faith. We can also meditate using the rosary, since it guides us in reflection on each of the key moments of Christ’s life.  

Robert Cardinal Sarah offers instructive advice about this type of prayer in his work the Catechism of the Spiritual Life

“The important thing, when we pray, is not so much what we say to God but rather the work that He accomplishes in us while we remain silent in His presence, when we agree to let ourselves be cured of our lack of love. Prayer does not consist of laying a hand on God, but of letting God lay his Hand on us. Otherwise, our prayer will be sterile. Such prayer requires silence, recollection, interior availability, humility in the presence of God’s holiness.”

The apostles, who had asked Jesus to teach them to pray, knew the great prayer of surrender – the Our Father. They also knew from His example the importance of regularly drawing away from the crowds to converse in prayer with the Father, and always before a mission.  They also had Mary with them, the first and longest disciple of Christ and a woman who constantly lived in a contemplative openness to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

“Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away; and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”  Acts 1:12-14

What peace Mary must have brought the apostles!  Jesus promised He would not leave them orphans, and He never did. From the Cross, He gave them Mary as their mother, and on Pentecost the Holy Spirit – Who proceeds from love of the Father and the Son.

In closing, let’s take a lesson from Mary.  Let’s make space for silence, for intentional listening to our Lord.  From that listening, let us act on His calling in our hearts, in communion with the Holy Spirit.

“If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

Finally, a special shout out to all the mothers today!  We honor you because you made space in your body and in your heart, giving life through your constant love and care!

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© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

4 Takeaways for Us Today from St. Catherine of Siena – Word on Fire

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I love Word on Fire ministry, and am so thankful for the honor of getting to write a piece on St. Catherine for her feast day today!

For guidance on how to live as a disciple of Christ in our strange times, look to St. Catherine of Siena. Here are 4 takeaways for us today.
— Read on www.wordonfire.org/articles/4-takeaways-for-us-today-from-st-catherine-of-siena/

Judas and the Limits of Divine Mercy

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By Angela M Jendro

Whenever I teach on the topic of the Last Things (Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell), a student will inevitably ask about Judas. Despite having just emphasized that only God can judge hearts, they feel that somehow Judas must be an exception and we can at least judge him.  They also question if he might be an exception to Church teaching about hell – that although it does exist and you can go there, we do not definitively know the name of any specific person there.[i] Why doesn’t the Church admit that Judas is in hell? It canonizes saints and names particular people in heaven, why can’t it name Judas as not in heaven?

As Pope St. John Paul II said, “Damnation remains a real possibility, but it is not granted to us, without special divine revelation, to know which human beings are effectively involved in it.”[ii] The Church can only proclaim that which God has revealed for us to know.  The Lord revealed His judgment on Satan and the fallen angels, which is why we know they are in hell.[iii] However, though Christ lamented for Judas’ betrayal, saying it would be better if he had not been born (Matthew 26:24), He nevertheless refrained from declaring definitively that Judas was condemned there, and we cannot know if Judas repented (even of hanging himself) just before the moment of his death.[iv] 

Jesus said that He came not to condemn the world but to save it (John 12:47-49). Christ has done His part – He has gone to every possible length to save us.  Therefore, a person’s condemnation to hell is not Christ’s doing, but our own obstinate rejection of the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6) which He has offered.

His word is not only about sin however, but also about God’s unfathomable love and mercy – a mystery far beyond our understanding and too often foreign to our personal experience. As we struggle to accept the lengths of this reckless love[v], we look for some limit – and Judas seems to make sense.  Judas literally betrayed Jesus and directly participated in the sentencing of Christ to death.  Judas himself was so horrified by his sin, that in his painful grief and humiliating shame he took his own life.  Judas’ greatest failure, however, may not have been his betrayal of Christ to the chief priests, but his disbelief and distrust in the extent of Christ’s mercy.  In truth, the fact that the Church will not officially declare Judas to be in hell should be a source of hope for us, because as Jesus complained to St. Faustina in an apparition, so many of us commit the fault of disbelief and distrust in the limitlessness of His mercy too. 

Jesus appeared to the young polish nun, St. Faustina (1905-1938) many times to reemphasize this essential Gospel truth.  She obediently shared His messages with her confessor and wrote them in her Diary. In entry 50, on February 22, 1931, she recorded (Jesus’ words to her are in bold):

“+ I desire that priests proclaim this great mercy of Mine towards souls of sinners. Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. The flames of mercy are burning Me clamoring to be spent; I want to pour them out upon these souls.

Jesus complained to me in these words, Distrust on the part of souls is tearing at My insides. The distrust of a chosen soul causes Me even greater pain; despite My inexhaustible love for them they do not trust Me.”[vi]

From a desire to make His mercy known and accepted more, Jesus asked Faustina to have an image painted which would illustrate this. The image consisted of Jesus in a white garment, and from His heart emanated two rays – one white and one red – symbolizing the water of baptism and the blood of His sacrifice. Beneath the image He wanted the words “Jesus, I trust in You” printed.[vii] In addition to the image, Jesus wanted the Sunday following Easter to be a Feast of Mercy.[viii] 

Pope St. John Paul II recognized the timeliness of this message and the importance of Faustina’s witness. He canonized her on Sunday April 30, 2000; making her the first saint of the new millennium as well as instituting the Feast of Divine Mercy Sunday to be celebrated the Sunday following Easter each year from then on. In his homily at her canonization, he affirmed,

“Divine Mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ crucified: ‘My daughter, say that I am love and mercy personified’, Jesus will ask Sr Faustina (Diary, p. 374). Christ pours out this mercy on humanity though the sending of the Spirit who, in the Trinity, is the Person-Love. And is not mercy love’s ‘second name’ (cf. Dives in misericordia, n. 7), understood in its deepest and most tender aspect, in its ability to take upon itself the burden of any need and, especially, in its immense capacity for forgiveness?”[ix]

Echoing the need for teaching divine mercy, Pope Francis called for a Holy Year of Mercy (Dec. 8, 2015 – Nov. 20, 2016).  In the book The Name of God is Mercy, Pope Francis articulated his concern with why more people do not turn to Christ in their need: “Because humanity is wounded, deeply wounded. Either it does not know how to cure its wounds or it believes that it’s not possible to cure them”[x] This helplessness is compounded by our wounded experiences. He observed that since many people in today’s selfish world haven’t experienced mercy in their own lives, they assume they won’t receive mercy from God.

Consider Judas again.  He had judged Jesus without mercy, and now he judged himself the same way. In addition, when he returned to the chief priests and the elders heartbroken and repentant, they responded with utter coldness.  The great theologian Fr. Romano Guardini captured the anguish of the moment well in his book The Lord, writing:

“After the deed came repentance – an overwhelming recognition of all that was lost. But this consciousness could no longer alter the fait accompli that stared back at Judas from the cold faces of those he had served. Strangely heart-rending gesture of helplessness, this flinging down the silver in the temple sanctuary!”[xi]

In this light, consider how important Jesus’ exhortation to us is in Luke 6:36-38! If only Judas had obeyed Christ’s word, he wouldn’t have had to suffer so terribly from the awful effects of his judgmentalism.

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Judgmentalism can quickly become a vicious cycle. Judas judged and condemned Jesus.  However, when he realized he had judged wrongly, he then turned and judged and condemned himself, but was again wrong.  Though not innocent, he judged himself beyond the limits of God’s forgiveness and condemned himself to death.  We can’t judge Judas either. Fr. Guardini warned:

“No, what came to the surface in all its terrible nakedness in Judas, existed as a possibility all around Jesus. Fundamentally not one of his followers had much cause to look down on Judas. Nor have we. Let us be perfectly clear about this. Betrayal of the divine touches us all.”[xii]

Imagine the emotional drama and utter pain when Judas “flung the coins” (Matthew 27:5).  Think of all the frustration – the mental and emotional struggle during his time with Jesus, trying to determine just who Jesus is.  First as a zealous and hopeful follower, then a disenchanted disciple angry that Jesus wouldn’t bend to his expectations. Next as a malicious betrayer helping put to death what he deemed at the moment a false messiah, only to finally realize Jesus’ innocence, but tragically still too narrow minded and hearted to realize the extent of the Messianic redemption meant even for him. 

We at least live in the age of the Church, in the age of grace. Judas’ betrayal – both in Jesus’ death and his own – occurred before the Resurrection, and more importantly, before Pentecost. Had any of the other apostles been as extreme as Judas in their passions, they too may have succumbed to a similar end.  No one can fathom the mercy of God – it’s literally beyond human understanding.  They needed the Holy Spirit to open their minds and hearts to what Christ had been teaching them all along. We rely on the same Holy Spirit to both inspire knowledge of our sins and compunction of heart, and to give us the supernatural courage to trust in divine mercy. This is why it’s essential that we practice mercy, so we can become more habituated (and therefore open) to God’s gift of mercy to us.

Let’s take a final look at Judas from the standpoint of what we do and don’t know.  What was his disposition of soul at death? When he saw the truth of Jesus’ innocence he repented.  What did he do when he saw the truth of Jesus’ mercy, when he saw him face to face at his judgment?  We do not know…  It would be so much more satisfying if we did, we want to know the end of this dramatic story! He could have accepted Jesus’ mercy, been purified (Purgatory), and entered heaven.  Or he could have doubled down in his despair or in his pride, refused to accept mercy, and excluded himself from heaven, which is the definition of hell. 

Our choices matter. It’s incredible to think about the power that God has given to us in the freedom of Love.  May we pray for a merciful heart, which is able to both give and receive mercy. Jesus proclaimed, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Repentance of sin and trust in the merciful love of God are meant to be inextricably united. As Jesus said to St. Catherine of Siena:“I do not wish the soul to consider her sins, either in general or in particular, without also remembering the Blood and the broadness of my Mercy.”[xiii]

In conclusion, although it’s natural for students to ask, “what about Judas?”, the truth is it’s between Judas and Jesus.  The more important question to ask is, “what about me?”. Thankfully for us there’s still time.

[i] CCC par. 1033 “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.’” CCC par.1035 “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.” CCC 1036 “The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

[ii] Pope St. John Paul II Audience July 22, 1999. Vatican.va

[iii] Cf CCC par. 391-393

[iv] For Church teaching about suicide, see The Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 2280-2283. Taking one’s own life is a serious sin. At the same time, the Church recognizes that “grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture, can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide” (par. 2282) It also encourages us that “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives” (2283).

[v] cf Dorothy Day, The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus”, ed. Carolyn Kurtz, Plough Publishing House, 2017.

[vi] Maria Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul: Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska. Marian Press, 2003.

[vii] Ibid. Diary entry 47

[viii][viii] Ibid. Diary entry 49

[ix] John Paul II, Homily at the Mass in St. Peter’s Square for the Canonization of Sr Maria Faustina Kowalska, 30 April, 2000. Vatican.va

[x] Pope Francis.  The Name of God is Mercy. Random House, 2016.

[xi] Romano Guardini, The Lord, Gateway Editions 1982, p. 410

[xii] Ibid. p. 411

[xiii] Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Edited by Richard J. Payne, Translated by Suzanne Noffke, O.P. Paulist Press, 1980.

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© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

Honoring Mary on International Women’s Day

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In honor of International Women’s Day, I’d like to offer a lovely little vignette of an inspiring relationship which exemplifies its 2024 themes – “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” (U.N.) and “Inspire Inclusion” (IWD). Pope St. John Paul II’s love for Mary and his undying devotion to her is a beautiful image of the complementarity of the masculine and the feminine in the Church and some of the possibilities that emerge from it.

Counter to secular culture which conflates the papacy with patriarchal power, John Paul II chose as his papal motto “Totus Tuus” – offering himself and his papacy totally to Mary. His inclusion of Mary in his papal ministry and his personal investment in Marian prayer and Mariology shined a light on feminine greatness that inspired many, including myself. 

vatican.va

The simplicity of the symbol on his papal shield of the Cross with an M, cuts through the political misdirects about the Church and points instead to the distinct but inseparable work of Christ and His Mother, and of the Marian and the Petrine dimensions of the Church. Moreover, through his filial relationship with her, he came to understand and articulate what he termed the feminine genius. Because he knew deeply, and cherished with great love, the woman – Mary – the new Eve, full of grace and the fullness of the feminine vocation, his insights on the feminine calling through Christ were filled with reverence, awe, and respect. 

 As Pope, John Paul II embodied the Petrine dimension of the Church. Christ instituted Holy Orders through which He wished to be present sacramentally through the ministry of Peter, the apostles, and their successors, particularly in the Eucharist and in the safeguarding of the Deposit of Faith. They teach, sanctify, and rule with the power and authority of Christ to carry on His mission on earth in persona Christi. The Petrine response to Christ is lived through this ministry.

The Marian dimension precedes the Petrine – Mary is the first and perfect disciple of Christ. The apostles, along with us, learn how to be a disciple through imitating her. Through Mary’s total surrender to God and complete gift of self in faith and obedience, the Holy Spirit descended upon her, and Christ’s literal incarnate Body and human nature was conceived. The Mystical Body of Christ begins therefore in Mary’s fiat and fidelity – she is the Mother of the Church and she continues to bring forth new spiritual life and nurture it in grace together with Her Son. The Catechism incredibly states:

“[The Church’s] structure is totally ordered to the holiness of Christ’s members. And holiness is measured according to the ‘great mystery’ in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the Bridegroom.”193 Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church’s mystery as “the bride without spot or wrinkle.”194 This is why the “Marian” dimension of the Church precedes the “Petrine.”[i]

John Paul II also underscored the preeminence of her role.  He noted that the Petrine dimension relied upon the Marian, and rather than subjugating the feminine he humbly recognized her greater power in the Church than his own:

“The Immaculate Mary precedes all others, including obviously Peter himself and the Apostles. This is so, not only because Peter and the Apostles, being born of the human race under the burden of sin, form part of the Church which is ‘holy with sinners’, but also because their triple function has no other purpose except to form the Church in line with the ideal of sanctity already programmed and prefigured in Mary. A contemporary theologian has well commented: ‘Mary is ‘Queen of the Apostles’ without any pretensions to apostolic powers: she has other and greater powers” (von Balthasar, Nette Klarstellungen, Ital. transl., Milan 1980, p. 181). In this context it is especially significant to note the presence of Mary in the Upper Room, where she assists Peter and the other Apostles, praying for and with them as all await the coming of the Spirit.’”[ii] 

vaticannews.va

As we look for ways to better appreciate the distinctly feminine contribution in all of the various spheres of societal life, John Paul II provides a beautiful example of how to go about it. He began on his knees, in prayer, and through the lens of love.  May we too invest in our relationship with Mary, and learn from her the how to hear and respond to Christ in our own lives and callings.

[i] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., 773

[ii] John Paul II, “The Marian and Petrine Principles” Annual Address to Roman Curia Dec. 22, 1987, https://www.piercedhearts.org/jpii/addresses_speeches/1997/marian_petrine_principles.htm

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© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

The Strange Convergence of Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday

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On Valentine’s Day this year – when we usually celebrate romantic love with fine dining and indulgent desserts, Catholics will be kicking off Lent with Ash Wednesday – celebrating Christ’s love with fasting and abstinence.  What an apparent mismatch! Does love mean giving your beloved chocolate, or giving chocolate up?

The confusion can be summed up well by recounting a spontaneous dialogue between a teen in one of my bible studies at school and her Christian teammate as they were driving together to practice. When she casually asked her friend what she was giving up for lent, the teammate looked at her with surprise and puzzlement.  Not only had she never heard of lent before, let alone giving things up for it, the very idea seemed counter to her sensibility.  She wondered why Catholics fast or do acts of self-denial, reasoning, “Doesn’t Jesus just want us to love him?”. The Catholic teen was equally confused, wondering “How can you love Jesus without sacrificing in some way?”. 

St. Francis de Sales offers wise insight into this difference of viewpoint:

“The world sees devout people as they pray, fast, endure injuries, take care of the sick, give alms to the poor, keep vigils, restrain anger, suppress their passions, give up sensual pleasures, and perform other actions painful and rigorous in themselves and by their very nature. But the world does not see the heartfelt inward devotion that renders all such actions pleasant, sweet, and easy…Sugar sweetens green fruit and ripe fruit corrects whatever is crude and unwholesome. Now devotion is true spiritual sugar for it removes bitterness from mortification and anything harmful from our consolations.”[i]

Maybe the conjunction of these two celebrations of love isn’t mismatched after all. Maybe their timing in 2024 is actually brilliant. Too often abstaining from meat on Fridays, spending greater time in prayer, and giving something up is viewed as a tedious burden.  Were they done for their own sake or out of a feeling of guilt or obligation they might be.  However Lent is a beautiful – one could say spiritually romantic – time with Christ. We withdraw from the world to devote time to our relationship. We spend alone time with the Lord through an intentional addition of prayer. We look within to consider that which is unloving and needs healing.  We counter our easy self-centeredness by looking for a way to serve in acts of giving.  As St. John wrote, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The 40 days leading up to Christ’s ultimate act of love for us, is meant to love Christ in return and open our hearts more to receive the love He wishes to pour out on us in His blood on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday.

St. Paul described this mismatch of openness in his second letter to the Corinthians (6:11-13):

“Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return – I speak as to children – widen your hearts also.”

Jesus has opened His heart wide, but we respond to His approach with hearts opened only a crack, letting in very little of the Lord.  Our own preoccupations and love for other things block His entrance – like a child’s room that’s so cluttered in mess you can barely get the door open. In today’s culture especially, Christ can be quickly crowded out by media time, consumerism, and overpacked schedules. From this vantage point, consider some common Lenten sacrifices and their loving effect. Giving up chocolate, sweets, energy drinks, french fries, or other favorite foods or beverages draws back the deluge of impulses that quickly and regularly pull us away from spiritual growth. For example, when you sit down to prayer do you think – “I need a snack?”, or do you run out of time for prayer but not out of time to make a Starbucks run? The sacrifice illumines our affections and the proportion of our heart they hold.  When we crave something, it draws our attention. When we say no to that craving, we remember why – Jesus’ no to His physical craving to avoid the suffering of the cross in favor of a higher craving for our salvation and the will of the Father (cf. Matthew 26:36-46).  At its most basic level, it’s a simple way to say “Jesus I love you more than ….”  – and the more meaningful the sacrifice the more meaningful the statement.  Secondly, impulses often undermine love of neighbor.  Every day we ask, “what’s for dinner?”, but neglect to ask “who needs my kindness today?”.  The strength of our impulses can even cause unloving actions – unrestrained speech devolving into gossip or biting words, fighting over resources, and rushing to attain things for ourselves before someone else, or sadly using others as objects to satisfy a desire rather than loving them as persons. Finally, it keeps us from virtues such as temperance which governs gluttony and other areas in need of self-control. 

Jesus does want us to love Him.  To do that, we need to remove the barriers blocking the door.  Our own attachments make it painful. However, the more we love Jesus, the more enjoyment we take in throwing things out of the way as we excitedly invite Him in. It feels good to gain self-mastery (with the help of grace) over things that regularly win our attention. Moreover, it would be a mistake to imagine the emptying that Catholics work at during lent as creating a barren void. On the contrary, with every inch of room we make for the Lord, He fills it with His presence and His love.  Pope St. John Paul II often exhorted us that self-fulfillment can only be achieved through self-gift.  During lent, we give of ourselves – and in loving Christ and others, we too are filled with love.  Sounds like the perfect Valentine’s gift after all!

[i] St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, trans. John K. Ryan (New York: Image Books, 1972) p.30

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Connection Point – Share Your Experience

+ What are you giving up for Lent or adding in? Share your ideas in the comment section below.

+ What are some fruits from your past Lenten practices? 

Please keep all comments respectful; this is a platform for encouragement and accompaniment, not argument.

 

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

A Beautiful Mess: A Few Pro-Life Thoughts on the Mystery of Unplanned Plans

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“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he made him; male and female he made them” Genesis 1:27

“God is love.” 1 John 4:8

“Let all who thirst come; let all who desire it, drink from the life-giving water.” (Revelation 22:17)

Life is messy, and oftentimes the messiness brings pain and difficulty. We grasp at control in an effort to prevent pain or avoid problems, and sometimes it works for a bit. However, the messiness of life is unavoidable and attempts to get around the concomitant pain and trouble only causes other pains and troubles. The ceaseless effort only exacerbates our thirst for happiness and peace.

Everyone desires happiness – a fulfilling life of love and purpose. If we want this thirst satisfied however, we would be better served by looking to Christ. Contemporary cultural solutions tend to be short sighted; Christ alone provides the life-giving water that can redeem our efforts.  Our lives will be messy.  The lives of those we love will be messy. God isn’t afraid of our mess, rather He chose to become man to stand in the middle of it with us, roll up His sleeves, and put it back together.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.  

With Christ however, He never puts it back the way it was.  Instead, He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).  He’s so much more loving and wiser than we can imagine, so allowing Him into our mess, also means allowing Him to work in His way. And the Lord has told us ahead of time, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).  He does not see as we see – from outward appearance, rather he sees straight to the heart (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7).

Nothing seems to be as messy as human relationships; probably because it’s where we ought to resemble God the most and where we struggle with our fallenness the most. Anxiety around relationships takes many different forms, but everyone struggles in some way or another.

On January 22nd, we will be remembering a particular relational struggle-that of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Rallies will be held around the United States to promote the protection of all human life.  Arguments and pleas on both sides of the abortion debate will be made about choice.  I’m not going to offer an argument – many thoughtful and knowledgeable people have already done so.  Rather, I’d like to offer a reflection on the mystery underlying the dialogue around what choice one should make when faced with such a profoundly delicate and meaningful “mess” – a drink of life-giving water from Christ amidst the stress.

The debates around pregnancy must be heated because the reality of pregnancy and its consequences carry such profound significance – literally life altering.  When considering a “wanted pregnancy”, this profundity is obviously apparent.  The deepest joy and depth of meaning for a couple is becoming a family. However, the exact same act done in love and producing the most beautiful miracle, can also be done without love or without meaning and somehow produces the same miracle. This is the mystery of the mismatch underlying the abortion issue. An unremarkable sexual encounter, or a remarkable encounter but lacking the necessary relational depth or perfect circumstances, should seemingly produce an equally unremarkable or superficial effect. Yet something so short can (and does) produce a someone who is eternal. A forgettable night can create an unforgettable person. One must wonder at this mystery: how can something so simple produce something so complex and weighty?

This brings us back to the messiness of human life. God made the act of love for a love that images Him – unitive, creative, life giving, meaningful, supernatural. Whether we respect nature or not, God does. The intentions of the couple do not determine the gravity of its effects. We can try to control the situation, but unplanned and unwanted pregnancies prove otherwise.

One might counter with a “simple” solution of an abortion. However, abortion isn’t merely a “procedure” – it’s a birth.  All pregnancies end with the birth of a baby, abortion doesn’t avoid that reality.  Instead, it makes it violent toward the child and emotionally traumatizing for the parents.

In our present culture, sex is associated by many with animal instinct. Yet it doesn’t result in animals but in humans, images of God with eternal souls. Maybe this is why making love is a more accurate description of the act than merely having sex.  In our fallen and messy world, we can experience a mismatch between sharing in the holiest of powers to cooperate with God in the creation of new life, and the easy misuse or degraded abuse of that power. We need Christ’s help to recover reverence for this sacred power and gift. We also need profound grace to wield this power against the fallen forces of concupiscence within. Our fallen nature means we have a weakened will and a darkened intellect, meaning we are great at rationalizing what we want to do over what we should do, and find it so hard to do what we ought rather than what we feel.

However, when we sin (and we all do), there can be healing redemption through taking responsibility for our actions and allowing Christ to work in the mess.  In the case of “unwanted pregnancy”, our act of selfish un-love, can be remedied by the reparative act of to-love. A child conceived in a superficial or selfishly motivated encounter is still a gift given by God for an opportunity to restore or grow one’s heart with deep and real love. Even if the conception occurred from merely having sex instead of making love, God Who is Love, created this child, and his or her growth, birth, and life can be a profoundly loving encounter. How beautiful if both the mother and the father should embrace this opportunity! If they turn from using each other, or only loving partially, to loving each other wholly and sacrificially, inspired by love for the child they have begotten together with God.  

Oftentimes when in a mess and feeling overwhelmed, we feel ashamed to let anyone see, and pride undermines reaching out for help.  When we let Christ into the mess, He not only heals us in surprising ways, but He also sends reinforcement.  Just as you have an opportunity to grow, so do others who Christ invites to participate.  It takes faith because we can’t always see the help right away. However, if we can be humble and brave enough to let others into our mess, they too can be part of the gift of love.

St. Paul wrote that “God works all things together for good” (Romans 8:28). Even though every child deserves to be conceived in love and part of a family ready to receive them, God can redeem every limitation or mistake and make it more beautiful than before. Isn’t this what He did with death?  What Satan thought to be his triumph, turned instead to be God’s weapon against him. In the same way, if we turn our problems over to the Lord, He can use the same circumstance to raise us back up. 

God is love, and we are made in His image. All pregnancies are an opportunity for the sacrificial and heroic love to which we are called, and in which we can find the happiness we are searching for. We are all part of God’s family, and all called to care for one another. Even if a child was not planned by the parents, it has a plan from God and so do they.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Connection Point – Share Your Experience

+ Are you currently in an unplanned struggle? What are your fears or worries? 

+ Have you made it through to the other side of a crisis? What encouragement can you offer those in the middle of one? What did you find most helpful during that time? How has God worked it for good?

Please keep all comments respectful; this is a platform for encouragement and accompaniment, not argument.

Join in prayer: Praying for the Unborn and Mothers in Crisis…Meditations on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary

Related post: Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

 

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

Illumined by Christ – would love your ongoing perspectives!

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Hello all! As you may (or may not) have noticed, I took a small break from writing regularly on my site. The reason is because having finished scripture mediations for you for each of the Sundays in our three-year liturgical cycle, I was praying about how God wanted me to serve you in Him next, through this writing endeavor. 

Through much prayer, thought, and discernment, I feel most passionately about illuminating the dark in our culture with the light of faith regarding our identity as human persons made in the image and likeness of God. It’s much easier to judge and criticize our confused culture than to work at healing it. My hope is to contribute my mustard seed of knowledge and experience as a Catholic writer, speaker, and high school religion teacher, praying that the Lord may apply it as a healing balm in the minds and hearts of those who need it.

My heart breaks at the oceans of young people lost with no one guiding them or sheltering them through the strong and often stormy currents of competing assertions about who they are and what will make them happy. Christians rooted to the vine (cf. John 15) can see differently in important ways that cut through cultural limits or mistakes.  We would be far better served to investigate the Christian revelation rather than the cultural and political trends to plumb deep questions such as “What does it mean to be a human being?” and more specifically, “What does it mean to be a male or female human being?”, or “What is our origin and what is our end?” since “We have the freedom to pursue happiness, but what is happiness?”

To be a human person in the image and likeness of God, means to be male or female: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gensis 1:27). Moreover, it means to live in a complementary relationship of life and love: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'” (Gensis 1:28). However, because of the destructive effects of original sin, the relationship between men and women has suffered tremendously and the image of God intended to be shone has been obscured. This has led to many deep wounds, some with millennia of history. At the same time, the Lord has sent Christ, Who “heals the broken hearted and binds up all their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). We do not have to remain in this darkness if we allow grace and the light of faith to heal our wounded experience and views. 

To that end, I need a favor from all of you 🙂 I’d like to write my thoughts about what I’m seeing and get your perspective. I’d like to write what I wish I could say to every young person about what will really make them happy and some of the flaws in secular “wisdom”. I’d like to write to every person who has suffered from the fallout of sin or of the cultural deformation that has misled them down wounding paths and left them disillusioned and questioning. I want to know your experience and your perspective too. After each post, I would deeply appreciate your point of view: What resonated with your experience? What did you find helpful or healing? What did you find thought provoking? Is there another dimension to the question we could explore? Do you see an inaccuracy in comparison with your observations? Was there something you think I overlooked that ought to be included or considered?

We live in an incredible time of opportunity for freedom and creativity. Let’s use it to cooperate with Christ in His work of restoring us in the image of God who is Love. Like seeing the warmth of a lighted window on a winter’s night, let’s offer the warmth of Christ’s light and the fullness of joy He died to give us (cf John 15:11).

You will be in my prayers, and please keep me in yours!

Angela

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Read This Sunday’s guided Gospel meditation: Have You Found What You Are Looking For?

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

Sunday Food For Thought: A Joyful House of Prayer

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“For my house shall be called a house of prayer

     for all peoples” Isaiah 56:7 

Full Sunday Scripture Readings Link

Food For Thought

We usually associate the house of the Lord with church, and this is true as churches are consecrated places of worship for the Lord alone.  However, through the gift of Baptism, our souls become the house of the Lord too.  St. Teresa of Avila described the Christian soul as an Interior Castle wherein our Divine King dwells. 

From this perspective, consider again the Lord’s words through the prophet Isaiah: “my house shall be a house of prayer.” The Lord invites and challenges us to make our souls a prayerful place.  One in which St. Paul exhorts that we can “pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

How can we do this?  First, as always, ask the Holy Spirit.  Next, build a habit of being recollected. From the earliest times in the Christian church through the present day you will find spiritual authors and saints who have sought the same thing and written about how to pursue it.  (Below I have listed and linked a handful of classics.)  

Essentially, it means quieting our inner self, and being attentive to the Lord within.  Just as close friends or couples can feel connected through a simple glance amidst a crowd, so too recollection could be described as an attentive glance at the Lord.  

Building this intimacy resembles that of all relationships.  Initially it requires getting to know the Lord more through extended and intentional time set aside to listen to Him (remember He speaks to us through Scripture, His Church, His saints, and His creation, so listening can be as simple as opening the bible, attending mass, going for a nature walk, reading a spiritual book or life of a saint).  

To listen we must make room for silence: physically as well as mentally and spiritually.  Don’t be discouraged if you find yourself distracted by a clamor of thoughts when attempting to recollect yourself for prayer.  Simply ask the Holy Spirit for help.  Since our soul is the house of the Lord, I also like to ask Mary to help me prepare my home for Christ as she so lovingly did every day when He was on earth. 

As with any practice or habit, it may feel awkward at first or you may struggle with consistency. Nevertheless, persevere.  God can do so much with so little! Every bit counts.  In time, your efforts and His grace can result in a relationship of continual interior unity and love.  

The Lord promises in Isaiah 56 verse 7, that he will “make them joyful in my house of prayer“.  Recollection leads to peace in the presence of the Beloved Lord, and an abundance of joy. With this within, you can travel through your da

y “giv[ing] thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) and offering all things as a prayer pleasing to the Lord. 

May the Lord make our hearts, a house of ardent, loving, joyful, intimate, prayer.

A few Spiritual Classics on Recollection and Interior union with the Lord:

A couple of modern books on the subject:

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

 

© 2023 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

God Can Do Anything!

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God can do Anything!

by Angela M Jendro

God can do anything. Although it can be used as a cheap and quick answer to theological difficulties, at the same time there’s tremendous richness to this simple, yet powerful truth. Think about that for a moment…God can do anything! How many times in the Gospels does someone ask Jesus, “if you will it, you can…” In response to cries for mercy, healing, and forgiveness, Jesus consistently responded, “I do will it,” and miraculously restored the person with His human touch or word, and His divine power.

Granted, sometimes God says no to our plea, or at least “not yet” or “not in the way you are asking.”  Pride or pain responds with rage.  “God can do anything, but He won’t do this which I have asked of Him!”  In these moments we are challenged to surrender our reasoning and/or our emotions to the Lord in trust.  Yes, God can do anything, but God is also love.  Not only that, but God’s love is superabundant and prefers to give the very best over the mediocre.  The most loving thing a parent can say to their child sometimes is “no.”  We see this especially today in American culture. We have so much we can give our children that we risk spoiling them and stunting their personal growth if we do not refuse them things we could give, but shouldn’t.  For us, it can be difficult to discern when to say yes, and when to say no.  Sometimes we know the right answer but are too weak to follow through with a no, or don’t have the resources to say yes. Thankfully, our heavenly Father has perfect wisdom and perfect power which He applies with perfect love.  We can trust His will, which is what Jesus did at all times and exhorts us to do as well.  

We should seek to know the Lord, and to pursue deeper understanding of His revelation. God invites dialogue and investigation.  At the same time, we need to remember that it’s not a dialogue with an equal.  There will be times we must simply surrender to His care and trust His word. Jesus taught and did things that went beyond human understanding.  Sometimes we can forget His divinity due to His extraordinary nearness; He had such humility that He “ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7).  Yet, because of that nearness, many also witnessed his divine power – healing the blind, calming the storm, raising people from the dead, and Himself rising from the dead and glorified.  

Do you believe God can do anything? Do you believe Jesus can do anything? That is the question posed to us during Easter.  Jesus has risen! Do you believe it?  You shall rise too! Can you believe that? If so, then the rest of Christ’s teachings, in Scripture and through His Church, deserve our belief.  Can bread and wine become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist? Why not?!  If Jesus said so, and He can do anything, then it’s so.  

In our Christian life of discipleship Christ challenges us both to exert our mind and seek understanding as far as possible, as well as accepting when we are in mystery territory and responding with trust, surrender, and praise before the power and glory of God.

Meditate on this truth in prayer: God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, cares for me with the full strength of His all-powerful Love. Rejoice in this and take comfort in it.

© 2023 Angela M Jendro

*Pray and Reflect with weekly Sunday Gospel meditations by Angela available in paperback or e-book on Amazon