Would There Be a Padre Pio Without St. Francis?

The Franciscan friars largely dictated the way that Padre Pio lived for the majority of his life.  For this reason, the spirituality and practices of St. Francis marked many of the integral elements of who Padre Pio was.  He was formed by the legacy of Francis.  The question of whether there would have been a Padre Pio without St. Francis is one that requires a delicately balanced response.  One must find a reply that acknowledges the practical and spiritual implications imparted upon Pio by St. Francis, while simultaneously avoiding the diminishment of the power of God’s grace upon a soul regardless of circumstance.  Did Padre Pio benefit from the life and holiness of St. Francis?  Yes.  It is likely that Pio studied Francis closely, gleaning from him every ounce of wisdom available.  However, Pio was blessed with many graces and experience, from his childhood to his death, which allowed him to be someone Francis could never have been.  Not someone better or holier, but someone with a unique calling.  Someone whose journey to holiness would touch lives in a way Francis’s could not.  There are many similarities between the two.  However, there are also key differences, which make each one holy.  Padre Pio became the man of God the world knew him to be not because he mimicked the life of St. Francis perfectly.  Rather, he became the individual that God asked him to become.

Theology and Art

In the Incarnation, God took on flesh.  The invisible became visible. Man enters into, on a lesser scale, the same action of God when he becomes an artist.  Art takes form and gives it matter.  It expresses what man has previously only experienced.  In doing so, art leads man to God.  In expressing truth about a real human experience, art becomes an expression of God.  And it is God that man sees in art.

 

Special thanks to Dr. Jamie Blosser whose impeccable sense of precision allows him to stay within the lines when he colors and whose uncanny ability to choose the absolute best color makes his work pleasant to view, both of which enable the viewer to encounter a reality that leads him to God.

At the Crucifixion

I was reading Padre Pio's reflections in the book The Agony of Jesus.  Pio writes, "He sees His throat and entrails on fire with a burning thirst, and to add to this agony, a drink of vinegar and gall."  to add to this agony... suddenly it all made a little bit more sense.  It was another way to torture Him. I'd always thought this part of the story a bit odd, but always just brushed over it.  Why would the men torturing Jesus, crucifying Him, offer Him something to drink when He was He is thirsty?  It doesn't seem to fit their characters.  Thankfully, Padre Pio cleared things up for me.

HAPPY LITURGICAL NEW YEAR!!!

I love advent.  If fall is my favorite season of the secular year, then advent is my favorite season of the liturgical year.  The joyful anticipation that comes with advent is inspiring.  As I prepare my heart to enter into the mystery of the Incarnation again this year, there is excitement within in me.  It's as if soon (and very soon ;) ) I will encounter something big. Something huge. Something life-changing.  And while all of that depends in a large way on my ability to maintain a disposition that is open to grace, it all seems doable somehow.  Perhaps Our Mother Mary begs for us at the side of her Son a bit more fervently this time of year.  (It is likely that is not theologically correct.  It would probably be more accurate to say that as we enter more deeply and openly into her life, we ask for and receive more blessings through her and the hand of her Son.)  Maybe the hustle and bustle, though at times nothing more than a distraction, stirs us up just enough inside of us so that we aren't lazy.  We're moving.  We're active.

This advent I need to be centered.  I need to focus.  I need the kind of discipline that comes only from peace.  May Mother Mary be my guide.  Under her mantle, wrapped up in her prayers, maybe I'll be blessed with a small taste of what she was fully.  Maybe my heart will become more like hers.  Perhaps, through her intercession, I will learn to wait with the joyful, peaceful anticipation with which she waited all those years ago.

Maybe, just maybe, my waiting will be filled with humble surrender.

Some of God's Many Blessings

In honor of this nation's holiday here are some of these things I'm thankful for:

• My family. We aren't perfect. Most days, we aren't even close. But there has never been a time in my life when I've felt like I couldn't go home.  There has never been a time in my life when my home has not be open to me. Are we going to win the award for the world's closest family? Probably not.  That doesn't matter though.  What does matter is that we do our best, that we love each other, and that, no matter what, we will always be family.
• The girls that I live with now and have ever lived with. My life with them is kind of crazy and almost always random. Most of the time, that is probably my fault. But the things I have learned and am learning about myself because of them are invaluable. I love the woman they call, encourage, and help me to be. 
• My Benedictine friends. The majority of the college experience is the people making the journey with you. I couldn't have asked for holier, happier, or better people. 
• My Tech Team: I could not be the sound tech I am without them. They put up with me when I'm stressed. They're there when I can't be.
• The 8:00pm mass people.  They really are a highlight to my week.  I love taking to them through the monitor. Working with them is just plain fun. Praying with them is even better.  Standing together as we help the community worship more fully is truly an honor.
• The Slobodnik's. Elizabeth teaches me so much.  David brings joy and peace and baby to my life.
• The Humberg's.  Every last one of them.  Angela and Jeff for welcoming me into their home, to their dinner table, and into the lives of their children.  Benedict for the way he reminds me to play. William for all of the ways he seems to read my needs and respond accordingly. Elizabeth for always making me feel welcome and right at home. Sarah for the way she always honest and helpful.  Hannah for playing with me and wanting my attention. And Vincent.  For being a constant example of how sometimes the best things in life are hard work and demand sacrifice. This big family gives me hope and so much more.
  
• My professors. It is a great gift to be able to learn from them. More importantly, I will forever be changed because they have invested so much of themselves-way beyond academics. In many ways, they are examples of life lived in holiness.
• My CCD students. The hour I spend with them a week is too short. They make me laugh. They make want to scream. They challenge me as a teacher.
• Assumption. It is blessing to have a Parish that is, without question, my home. Not only does it provide me the Sacraments, but it also stands as familiar pillar in who I will always be.
• The teens at youth group. Talk about a source of joy. These people may be young, but they sure know how to impact lives. Mine is proof of that. Never will I be the same. They keep me young. They keep me striving for holiness.
• The CORE team. Standing next to these people I get the strange feeling that I can do anything.  Anything. The friendships are great. The ministry is an even bigger blessing.
• My STL friends.  They are a large part of the reason I come back.  Who I am today is largely shaped by the person they helped to form. Whether we are getting ice cream from Coldstone or coffee from Starbucks or anything else in between, I'm thankful.
  

Quoting the Great C.S. Lewis

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.  This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner - no mere tolerance of indulgence with parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.  Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your sense." Taken from The Weight of Glory

May we always remember the undying importance of all our encounters.  May we encounter each person, new and old, asking how God is calling us to lead him to Heaven.

CCD Class Last Night

Teacher: what is the name for the state of our souls when they are being purified for Heaven?

Student: Oh! I know, I know!

Teacher: Yes, (student's name)?

Student: Puberty!

Teacher: (trying not to laugh) Close. Purgatory.

This is how we deal with spiders...

Update

Jake (the little boy in the picture below) is scheduled to have a surgery to remove the brain tumor tomorrow morning (Friday) at 7:30am. Please remember him in your prayers.

Halloween

The much anticipated, much debated holiday approaches this weekend. I've already bought the candy to give out to trick-or-treaters, and I can't wait to see all of the cute kids in their costumes. I never knew there was anything controversial about the holiday until I came to college. I'd never heard of people dressing up as saints. I don't have very strong opinions on the matter. I don't really have much of a reason to right now. While I do find it questionable to have children walking around dressed like demons, witches, or ghosts, I don't think it's necessary to dress up like a saint (and certainly not to avoid the holiday all together). Also, I must admit, that I refused to put jack-o-lantern stickers on my CCD students' homework since the tradition involves the Evil Spirit of Halloween (or something like that). This article on First Things offers some interesting insights. I like what she has to say. Although her argument presented isn't perfect, I like the challenge to live the liturgy fully.