Formation Matters: Recent Episodes
Nicholas Sheehy
Hay tumbas cerradas en nuestra vida, pero tenemos de nuestro lado a Jesús vencedor de la muerte.
But a man who is truly humble cannot despair, because in the humble man there is no longer any such thing as self-pity (Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation). Bilingual homily.
If you ask people why they go to Mass, you are sure to get a lot of answers. “I go because I want to receive the Eucharist.” “I go to spend time with family.” Others will remark “I want to hear the Word of God.” Someone else will say “I like the preaching,” Ok, maybe I just hope someone would answer that. However, all these answers fall short: Catholic Mass is about perpetuating the Paschal mystery. Mass is a sacrifice, in which we all participate, led by the priest. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2024/02/catholic-mass-is-orthodox-right-worship-of-the-father/
By being bold, Jesus shows us what it means to have meaning and purpose. We need meaning and purpose to transform drudgery into drive. In the Gospel, Mark describes one day in the life of Jesus. Strikingly, he knows what his purpose is. He is curing the sick, expelling demons, and preaching the Kingdom of God. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2024/02/be-bold/
It seems so dramatic. His teaching strikes home and impresses his listeners. They want to hear more. He obliges and enjoys talking to them about the Kingdom of God. He is happy to share with them the life-giving message. “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” But then, someone objects to Jesus.
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Mk. 1:24) His outcry chills the hearts of the bystanders. They don’t know what to do. The other learned men take a step back. What will they do? What will Jesus do?
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2024/01/jesus-is-more-powerful/
Too often, we think about science and morality as completely different subjects of study. Many would balk at the term “science of morality.” However, both subjects are important and must work together if we are to progress as a society in a way that respects our own humanity.
In today’s Gospel, we see how Jesus was always pressing forward; he was on the offensive. Evidently, he knew that his mission was to preach the Kingdom of God, and we catch a glimpse of him doing so in this Gospel. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk. 1:15) When we hear these words, it is easy for us to concentrate on the aspect of repentance. But I think we should focus on the aspect of evangelization. Certainly, young people need Jesus. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2024/01/saint-at-24/
Youth is a time full of hopes and dreams, stirred by the many beautiful things that enrich our lives: the splendor of God’s creation, our relationships with friends and loved ones, our encounter with art and culture, science and technology, our efforts to work for peace, justice and fraternity, and so many other things. We are living at a time, though, when for many people, including the young, hope seems absent. (Pope Francis, Message for the XXXVIII World Youth Day, 26 November 2023)
The Holy Family is a model for holy families. We need to commit to building a culture of family in a hostile world. Within the Octave of Christmas, we celebrate the Holy Family. This helps us deepen our understanding of these three persons and how they intervened in salvation history. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in a special way that changed the course of history forever. It invites us as well to meditate on the importance of family as the most basic building block of civilization.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2023/12/model-for-holy-families/
Ahora es una oportunidad para vivir en la luz que te ofrece Cristo.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2023/11/light-reveals-sin/
¿Cómo era para José y María llegar a Belén y no encontrar lugar? Imagínense que llega el Salvador del mundo y no hay ningún lugar para acogerlo. Como ha de haber sido difícil para José, sentir la vergüenza de no poder ofrecer mejor lugar a María y a Jesús. Ha de haber sido difícil para María también ya que estaba cansada del viaje y ya lista para dar a luz al niño que llevaba en su seno durante ya nueve meses. Tienen experiencia de peregrinación, de pesebre y de pastores.
¿A dónde vamos durante este Adviento?
Estamos acostumbrados a tener un propósito claro para la Cuaresma. Quizás ofrecemos un sacrificio y se convierte en un largo camino hasta el Triduo Sacro y el final de nuestro sacrificio a la hora de celebrar la Pascua. Pero para el Adviento, no solemos pensar así. Estamos ocupados con los preparativos para la Navidad. Ponemos adornos en nuestras casas. Hay fiestas. Organizamos fiestas. Nos invitan a fiestas. Hay actividades en la escuela de nuestros hijos. Quizás tenemos un calendario de adviento, pero es más de comer chocolate que prepararnos para la Navidad de forma espiritual.
Quiero ayudarles a vivir mejor este adviento, sobre dos vertientes. Quiero que profundicen su contemplación de Cristo. La meta de toda nuestra vida cristiana es enamorarnos más de Dios. Es más fácil a través de Cristo, porque es Dios y hombre. Por ser Dios, merece todo nuestro amor y adoración. Por ser hombre, es más asequible a cada uno de nosotros.
Before Christmas, we have four weeks of Advent. Well, perhaps more precisely we can speak of four Sundays of Advent, because sometimes that last week can be pretty short. Each Sunday introduces a theme that can help us get ready to celebrate the Birth of Our Lord in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/formationmatters/2023/11/the-expectation-of-four-candles/
Fr. Martin Connor shares a talk with the California LC's reflecting on what attracts men to the Legion today.
El Evangelio de las vírgenes prudentes nos muestra el valor de "ser" antes que "actuar". Es una lección muy importante para nuestro mundo.
We live in a world that is so focused on output and production to determine value. Contemplative religious help us to remember that life is not only about production. Being comes before action. Their being in the presence of God comes before any particular actions that they may need to perform to preserve their monastery’s way of life. They take as their model the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the fruit of the Immaculate Conception, as we remember from the apparition at Lourdes. She had an absolute purity. Contemplative religious reflect this through their dedicated service in the shadows of the world. They are not famous. They do not appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. And yet, they are the women who have the deepest impact in the world. Their time of solitude and seclusion is the very definition of leisure. They have time to dedicate to the noblest of pursuits – the contemplation of God and his good works.
Be faithful, true, and tough.
Saints Joan of Arc, Thomas More, and Isaac Jogues show us what we need to do if we are going to be saints.
Talk given at Guadalupe Radio to the boys and girls at the Family Retreat.
Mt. 23:1-12
How do we overcome our false sense of independence and let go of the bitterness of orphanhood?
In the faith, there are no orphans. We all come from the Father, and Jesus knows that we need to remember that. His prohibition to call others “father” is not a quick phrase to give evangelical apologists fodder to attack Catholics for calling priests “father.”
We call priests “father” as a sign of respect and hopefully it can help us bridge the gap to see God as our father. Unfortunately, the situation Jesus describes in the Gospel does not feel 2,000 years away. We are all too familiar with false teachers and hypocrites. But it would be a mistake to allow the foundation of our faith to crumble because of their bad example.
Cómo se hace para cumplir con los mandamientos de Dios? Se tiene que fundar en el amor a Dios sobre todo y luego el amor al prójimo. El celibato es un don y un signo de ese amor.
Beginning with Romeo and Juliet, followed by the trials of Odysseus, Fr Shawn Aaron, LC establishes the foundations for true intimacy and friendship that we all long for. This talk was given 10.28.2023 at the Newman Center in Pasadena, CA.
When Jesus tells us to give Caesar what is Caesar's (Mt. 21), what does that mean for our engagement in political life?
https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/voting-as-a-christian
Podemos sentir que somos indignos del amor de Cristo. Pero el nos reviste con su traje de bodas. Así nos hace dignos.
Mt. 21,1-14
Mt. 21:1-14
The movie The Greatest Showman tells a powerful story of a man who had to overcome tremendous obstacles to take care of his family and do something amazing with his life, beginning a whole new type of circus. And yet, one of the refrains of his life is expressed through the words: “never enough.” For so many of us, these words echo in our minds and hearts as well. We fear that we are “never enough.” Today’s Gospel gives us a clue about how to establish our identity in God and know that He is enough.
Los viñadores rechazaron al dueño. Se habían olvidado de la importancia de conectarse con Dios.
We need to learn to have an ordered love.
St. Augustine spoke a lot about this when reflecting on happiness.
Mt. 21,33-43
"Puesto que el amor crece dentro de ti, así crece la belleza. Porque el amor es la belleza del alma". (San Agustín)"Puesto que el amor crece dentro de ti, así crece la belleza. Porque el amor es la belleza del alma". (San Agustín)
Loving What is Right
Mt. 21:33-43 The evil workers in the vineyard show us what happens when love is disordered. We need to learn to love rightly and respond to God's grace in our lives.
“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” (St. Augustine)
La imagen del hijo mayor en el Evangelio de hoy me llama mucho la atención. Pues siento que soy yo. ¿Qué te está diciendo el Evangelio sobre tu tendencia de justificarte?
We tend to justify ourselves. This leads to a bad attitude in relation to God. We have to overcome this if we are going to be fully happy with God.
God wants to touch our hearts. The names of Zechariah, Elizabeth and John speak to how God wants to deal with us.
We can easily be taken in by a New Age ideology. It is so important to grow in our faith.
Talk at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Baldwin Park for the Sanctitas Young Adult Adoration. What is not the rosary? What is the rosary? 3 things to focus on while praying the rosary.
I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world. (John 16:33)
Do you seek peace? Of course, you do. Jesus knew the deepest longings of the human heart. This is why so much of his preaching goes to the core of our being. He is talking about life and he is talking about us. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.
I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me. (Philippians 4:13)
How do you face fear? We all have fears that threaten to invade our life.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
We all have secret fears to face. We all experience fear, but not everyone is honest about this universal experience. Do you have fear about the future? Are you afraid of your past? How do you deal with fear?
It is the LORD who goes before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:8)
If God is walking before us or with us, why would we be afraid of anything? And yet, we often feel afraid.
"You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised." (Hebrews 10:36) May we all pray for endurance to do the will of God and receive what He has promised. Do you ever see the fruits of endurance in your own life? Does it make you feel closer to God?
Lk. 16,1-13 Today's Gospel invites us to be trustworthy. The best way to do this is to live out the Gospel. Few examples in history do this better than St. Francis of Assisi.
You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) When God tells us to act justly and love mercy, this is not some moralizing discourse to make us behave. Rather, it is opening a door to the happiness and peace that comes from acting according to our purpose in life.
1 Timothy 2:4 God "wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. God wants our salvation more than we do. Our life on earth is our time to grow and build up our spiritual muscles so that we can be ready for the love that we are called to live forever in Heaven.
We have all felt shame and guilt. It makes us sick. We want to hide. But facing it is essential if we are going to be true to ourselves.
Haters gonna hate. But when God is on our side, we don’t have to worry about the criticisms of those who are trying to bring us down.
The three parables of God’s love in Luke 15 give us an insight into how he rejoices to find us, values us, and welcomes us as beloved children.
Often we don’t even know what wisdom is, so how are we going to live it? God wants to give us wisdom, but we have to ask for it.
We can all feel lost and empty at times. But we can know that God is planning great things for us.
Do you ever wonder what God has planned for your life? The prophet Jeremiah helps us to see the hope that comes from knowing that God is watching over our future.
Opening the Bible allows you to change your thoughts, your feelings and your decisions; so that you are more in line with God’s Plan for your life.
Peter had a special relationship with Jesus. How did it all start? Jesus told Peter how to fish. Then he told him to quit fishing. Peter would spend the rest of his life serving Jesus, happy to do so.
We choose to follow Christ. He gives us the key: we are to do hard things if we are to follow him. He gives us in exchange incomparable joy.
God wants to give us so much grace. We can do this in the measure that we let go and let God. Seeing ourselves as stewards of the mysteries of God puts us with the right attitude to do great things for him.
We want to learn to be principle-based and not dependent on our feelings. We need formation for discipleship in order to carry out apostolate in the world.
XX Sunday of Ordinary Time. Jesus seems a little aggressive towards family in this Gospel, but really just wants us to realize what is truly important.
“The gospel definition of love goes something like this: a self-sacrificing, willed concern for and giving to another, even if attraction and feeling are diminished or absent, and even if little or nothing is received in return – and all with divine motivation” (Dubay, Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer, p. 71)
“Heroic love for God and neighbor is, of course, closely allied to profound intimacy with the indwelling Trinity” (Dubay, Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer, p. 73)
“The ars celebrandi cannot be reduced to only a rubrical mechanism, much less should it be thought of as imaginative – sometimes wild – creativity without rules” (Francis, Desiderio desideravi, 48)
“The action of the celebration does not belong to the individual but to the Christ-church, to the totality of the faithful united in Christ. The liturgy does not say ‘I’ but ‘we,’ and any limitation on the breadth of this ‘we’ is always demonic.” (Francis, Desiderio desideravi, 19) “A celebration that does not evangelize is not authentic, just as a proclamation that does not lead to an encounter with the risen Lord in the celebration is not authentic” (Francis, Desiderio desideravi, 37)
Although the sacred liturgy is above all things the worship of the divine Majesty, it likewise contains much instruction for the faithful. For in the liturgy God speaks to His people and Christ is still proclaiming His gospel. And the people reply to God both by song and prayer. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 33)
Pope Francis just sent out an Apostolic Letter on the Liturgy. Over the course of the next 3 meditations, I would like to help us live out some of his key petitions for us in this letter. We want to make the liturgy our life.
Fr. Vito was in Cheshire for a young men’s retreat and I sat down with him to talk about ECYD. He just arrived in Washington, D.C., after two years studying Spiritual Theology in Rome. Now, he begins a new mission with ECYD boys and girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV-8ZQoloDA https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/ecyd-will-change-the-world
Fr. Edward Hopkins, LC is originally from New York. He was ordained in 1991 by St. John Paul II, one of his many claims to fame. I have known Fr. Edward for years and have always recognized he has a flair for preaching. His words are engaging and help his listeners encounter God. For the last several years, he is working with college-age young men, promoting Christian living and hopefully a few vocations to the priesthood. I sat down with him and picked his brain about silent retreats for college-age young men. https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/retreat-opening-doors
3rd Sunday of Advent. Gaudete Sunday. 1. Lost joy. 2. Command to rejoice. 3. Sharing. Homework. Find someone to help.
Homily for the second Sunday of Advent. Being a prophet is hard. From the times of the Old Testament to John the Baptist, to those who spoke up against the Nazis, it is always hard to fight the current and stand up for the truth. Yet this is precisely what we are called to do as Christians in the modern world.
https://www.fathernicholas.com/post/being-a-prophet-is-hard
Mk. 13:24-32. Turner’s beautiful painting of the harbor of Dieppe plays with the light of the unseen sun. Today’s Gospel reminds us of the light that illumines our lives, who is Christ Jesus.
Mk. 12:41-44. The story of the widow’s mite gives us all a lesson about giving our all or being satisfied with doing things halfway.