An Apostolate of Persons with Chronic Illness and/or Disability

Civilization begins to erode when an amoral minority persuades ordinary citizens to imitate their art, nuances and fashions. Its downfall is at hand when the masses adopt their thoughts, words and actions. Americans cannot underestimate this threat to society by allowing the prophetic wisdom of the past to be muted by the popular culture. Theologian, Thomas C. Oden aptly wrote, “The modern love affair with relativism and permissiveness has made it easier to blur lines than draw lines.”

Regrettably, these minorities persist in stripping the nation of its dignity by suggesting its garments of decency, morality and ethical standards are out of style. This fragment of society has cleverly manipulated public opinion by using the tactics of the civil rights movement and employing the stratums of discrimination, oppression and victim hood. By depicting their views in this manner, the amoral minority has succeeded in bullying a huge segment of the population into acquiescing to their views. It is implied that to do otherwise risks being seen as intolerant or lacking in compassion.

The ultimate demise of the republic lies in the acceptance of thinking which attempts to instill harmony among people by insisting all adhere to the philosophy that no one is wrong except those who reject this concept. The eventual goal is to abolish the nation’s Judeo-Christian principles upon which the republic was founded. This flies in the face of God-fearing citizens.

For a society that purports to be civilized, there is little moral outrage. This lack of outrage paves the way to further abuses of the democratic system. The State must recognize valid protests but it cannot alter the standards of right and wrong. Most Americans embrace the traditional values of this country, but apparently many citizens are immune to any moral suasion since they joined the herd that no longer confronts the profane or defends the revered. Fulton Sheen believed, “The masses of people are generally inclined to equate morality with the general level of society at any given moment.”

Americans have always strongly resisted being herded into one corral. Contemporary cultural whims must not displace the will of the majority. Permitting the disregard of right and wrong perpetuates the notion that nothing is beyond the bounds of a civilized society. Efforts must be made to dissuade those citizens who have been mislead by the amoral who simply seek the furtherance of their abnormal lifestyles by obliterating truth and moral precepts.

Americans must advance the common good and refrain from pandering to the unscrupulous. A true democracy forms a consensus that promotes the common good through reason and objectivity. To affect change they must be prepared to withstand all criticism daring to be right when the popular culture is wrong. Indifference to the predilections of the amoral will sanction the undoing of the American way of life.

Decent citizens committed to a patriotic moral resurgence can appreciate the wisdom of Fulton Sheen saying, “Nothing is more tragic in an individual who once was wise than to lose his memory, and nothing is more tragic to a civilization than the loss of its tradition.”

Dan Shea, EGL-2

One doesn’t have to be a mind reader to realize that St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is a letter that has a fairly angry tone lying just below the surface of the words. This is evident right from the beginning of the letter. Instead of beginning with his usual words of “thanksgiving,” St. Paul launches into a tirade almost from the first verse because of what he perceives as disloyalty on the part of the people of Galatia. St. Paul has preached the Gospel to the community of Galatia, a Gospel which they accepted. However, after St. Paul journeyed to the next community, he was followed by another group who came into Galatia preaching another Gospel. They told the people of Galatia that before a Gentile could become a Christian, they had to first become Jews.

St. Paul uses this letter to really take the “Judaizers” head on. The letter is filled with personal details of how he disagreed with Peter about this issue. He also describes how he and Barnabas eventually split up and went their separate ways over this issue. He uses words such as “stupid” and “fool” in reference to anyone who had accepted the message that one had to convert to Judaism first before becoming a Christian. This meant that the men had to be circumcised, men and women alike had to obey the dietary laws of Judaism, and that all of the synagogue and temple practices of the Jewish religion had to be observed.

One must remember that St. Paul’s Letters all predate the Gospels. The written form of the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles did not come about until several years later. Consequently, St. Paul’s Letters give us the most accurate picture of the early Christian community. It was, to say the least, a community that was in turmoil and that was really struggling to come to understand what Jesus had meant in the words that he had spoken to them and the deeds he had done. Most of the Christians before St. Paul came onto the scene had been Jews. They continued to worship in the synagogue and in the Temple as well as coming together to celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week.

When St. Paul began to introduce the Gospel to the Gentiles, it forced the community to reexamine its relationships with the rest of the then known world. Up until this time, Gentiles were considered “those who were far off.” They were “those people,” the outsiders, the ones who did not belong. No Jew would have any more to do with them than was absolutely necessary. As I have noted before, their was a notice posted on the Temple wall that warned any Gentile who trespassed into the inner courtyard of the Temple that he was placing his life in peril. Now these people were being welcomed into the Christian community, a movement which forced the Jewish Christians to rethink not only their ethnic prejudices but also their religious beliefs.

Prejudice and bias are still very real parts of our world. We find discrimination based upon color, ethnicity, race, gender, age, and disability. It can have no place in our life as Christians, just as it could not be part of the Gospel of the early Church.

Each and every day, we pray the Lord’s Prayer. The first word of that prayer can be the most important word. If we truly believe that God is “our” Father, than we cannot accept any part of a Gospel that preaches that some people are less than worthy and that they must somehow conform to a preconceived notion of what it means to be acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

- Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

I have chosen the way of faithfulness. (Psalms 119:30)

If the details of my life seem to be imposed upon me by others or by circumstances, I need to remember that I can choose the good I want to fill my life. I make choices each day that determine the content and the outcome of that day. The small choices I make, when taken together, form the tapestry of my life. Daily, I weave the pattern of my life.

If ever I find that a choice is not easy to make, I acknowledge that God is within my thoughts and feelings as well as in the situations that I encounter. I am surrounded and filled with God’s love, presence, and power. This truth is the strength underlying every choice I make.

Therefore, I choose to react calmly and creatively to challenges that confront me. Each step I take in the direction I want my life to go adds another harmonizing thread in the tapestry of my life.

- Sue Mees, EGL 2

Today is the popular Memorial devoted to Our Lady of the Rosary. While the month of May is observed by Roman Catholics as “Mary’s month,” October is oftentimes observed as the month of the Holy Rosary.

The history of the Rosary stretches back as far as the seventh century A.D. St. Eligius wrote of making a chair that was studded with 150 gold and silver nails to aid the person sitting in the chair to pray the psalter of the Blessed Mother. This “psalter” substituted a “Hail Mary” for each of the 150 psalms in the Bible. The psalms form the basic body of prayer in our biblical spirituality. However, the early saints realized that most people in the early days of the Church were illiterate and were unable to pray the psalms either alone or in choir with others. Consequently, the early Church encouraged the members who were unable to read to pray 150 “Hail Marys,” one for each of the psalms.

Five centuries later, a certain Eulalia popularized the notion of praying 50 “Hail Marys” slowly and devoutly rather than hastily reciting 150. In the 13^th century, St. Dominic was instrumental in popularizing this devotion. There is a legend that states that St. Dominic received the five decade rosary from Our Blessed Mother herself.

In 1569, Pope Pius V established the three sets of joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the Rosary. By associating each of the fifteen decades with a significant moment in the life of Jesus and Mary, he established the idea of meditating on the mysteries of salvation as one recites the rosary. In 2002, Pope John Paul II added five more decades and created the luminous mysteries of the rosary.

While we are all more familiar with the Dominican or fifteen decade rosary, there are several others that have become popular in the Church. The Servite Rosary is a seven decade rosary that commemorates the “seven sorrows” of the Blessed Virgin. The Franciscan Rosary or “Franciscan Crown” also has seven decades but devotes itself to the so-called “seven joys” of the Blessed Virgin. Irish Catholics have a tradition of saying thirteen rather than ten “Hail Marys” in honor of St. Anthony of Padua whose feast day is on June 13. The Bridgettine Rosary is a series of seven “Our Fathers,” one for each of the seven joys and sorrows of the Blessed Mother, and 63 “Hail Marys,” one for each of the sixty-three years that the Blessed Mother, according to tradition, lived on this earth.

The opening prayer for Mass today is very instructive in the purpose of the Rosary: Lord, fill our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your Son as man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. As the prayer notes, the real meaning of the Rosary lies in the mysteries of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. “To Jesus through Mary” sums up the spirituality which undergirds this popular form of prayer.

- Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God choose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human might boast before God. It is due to him that your are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, santification, and redemption. So that as it is written, “whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 3:26-31)

As a person with a disablity, I have to say I have always loved this passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians because it reminds me (and I am sure all my fellow CUSANS as well) that God does not look at us the way the world does. He doesn’t look at us based on what the next person can do or how smart that person is. He likes to use the simple and childlike to do his greatest work. Our Lord during his public ministry befriended the people who were looked down on in society: sinners, the Samaritan woman, people with disablities. It always reminds me that we each have a special job to do in this life that was not given to us by world but by our loving Father in heaven. So may we always boast in the Lord. Amen.

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

The reading from the Letter to the Philippians for today’s liturgy demonstrates St. Paul’s affection for the people of Philippi. Recall that Philippi was a “retirement village.” It was populated by the retired soldiers of the army of the Roman Empire and their families. These military men had no trouble understanding real communal life. They had lived with their comrades in arms and had come to know that one soldier had to depend upon his fellow soldiers. In the army, one learned that you hang together or you hang separately. So when St. Paul preached the Gospel to them, a Gospel which teaches us to love one another as Jesus had loved us, they became his “showcase.” His affection for them is evident throughout the Letter to the Philippians, which is probably a compilation of two or three different letters that St. Paul had written to them.

This passage comes close to the end of the letter. St. Paul is saying goodbye. He is writing from prison, and he realizes that he will probably never see his beloved Philippians again. So he seeks to console them and promises them that if they hold fast to their convictions, the peace of God will guard them. One can see how St. Paul even uses language that soldiers would understand when he chooses to say that “peace” will “stand guard” over them.

The community of Philippi stands as a model for us today. This past week has been anything but a “peaceful” week in our country. Even since the news of the crumbling economy of Wall Street has hit the news media, we have been a people concerned about our future. Older people who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930’s are revisiting that time of their lives and are genuinely concerned about their retirement funds. We baby boomers are wondering whether the stories we have heard from our parents of that time will repeat themselves. Those men and women who form the work force are concerned about the security of their jobs and whether they will ever be able to retire. Young men and women who are just starting their families are wondering if they will even be able to afford a home for their fledgling broods. There is very little peace standing guard over us just now.

In the face of this, we hear St. Paul tell us: Have no anxiety at all. I am not going to be so bold (or stupid) as to tell you that we have nothing to worry about. However, I will say that St. Paul does offer us some good advice here. Prayer can be a source of comfort for us in these troubling times. While we will probably have to endure some rough patches ahead and we may even see a repeat of the 1930’s, prayers of petition and thanksgiving can remind us that God does not abandon those who pray. Prayer reminds us of God’s providential care. Prayer helps us to put things into perspective. Prayer can ease the burden because God has promised to share the load.

At the same time, prayer helps to remind us that we are in this together. When we gather together to pray as we do every Sunday, we are reminded that we are part of a community. There is strength in numbers. The magic of Philippi is still with us if we see ourselves as more than single entities. Like those retired soldiers of Philippi, we need to “hang together,” to hold on to one another, to cherish one another, to assist one another, to ease one another’s burdens. St. Paul puts it this way: Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:9)

- Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Behold him in whose time the house of God was renovated, in whose day the temple was reinforced. In his time the reservoir was dug, the pool with a vastness like the sea’s. (Sirach 50: 1, 3)

These lines from the Book of Sirach form the first lines of the Scripture reading chosen for the Solemnity of Our Holy Father Francis of Assisi. (We Franciscans refer to St. Francis as our Holy Father even though St. Francis himself never thought of himself as anything but a brother.) As we celebrate his feast day today, we will once again think of who he was in the history of the Church.

There is a wonderful story about St. Francis and his interaction with Pope Innocent III. When his band of followers had reached eleven (twelve, counting himself), concern about their lifestyle had begun to cause difficulties. The sons of the nobility and gentry of the Umbrian Valley had left their palaces and lavish homes to follow Francis, the penitent. They formed a band of twelve men who desired to live a life of penance in reparation for their sins. They refused to touch money and they only accepted what was offered to them by way of food. Most of the time, the food that was offered to them was little more than the garbage that was being discarded anyway. If someone offered them a bowl of stew or something that was appealing, St. Francis would sprinkle ashes on it to make it less than tasty. The extremes to which they went in living their life of penance caused concern because it looked very much like the Catharist heresy which proclaimed that all material things were intrinsically evil and created by Satan. So St. Francis and his followers went to Rome to profess their faith and to ask the Pope for permission to continue in their life of penance.

At their first audience, the Pope dismissed them as another band of fanatics. St. Francis was dejected by this turn of events and wondered whether he had, in fact, been led astray by the devil. That night the Pope had a dream. In his dream the Lateran Basilica, St. John, the residence and cathedral of the Pope in the 13^th century, began to crumble and fall. Out of nowhere, a tiny man dressed as a beggar came up to the basilica walls and held them in place by placing his hands upon them. The Pope recognized the beggar as the man who had stood before him that day. The next morning, the Pope sent his servants to look for the band of penitents and to ask them to return for another audience. At that second meeting, Pope Innocent III gave his verbal approval of the lifestyle of the group which was to become the Order of Friars Minor - the Order of Lesser Brothers. By the time of St. Francis’s death, his followers numbered in the thousands and included men and women in every walk of life. Eventually, three separate Orders were formed from his original design: the Order of Friars Minor (celibate men), the Poor Ladies of San Damiano or Poor Clares (contemplative women), and the Secular Franciscans (single and married men and women who lived in the world but followed the spirit of the Franciscan movement).

Through these three branches of the Franciscan Family, the Church – or as Sirach calls it, the house of God – was renovated, was made new. St. Francis and his followers began the mendicant Orders along with St. Dominic and his followers. St. Clare and her sisters professed the same kind of poverty as the men. The Secular Franciscans revolutionized the feudal system of Europe by their refusal to bear arms and to engage in the wars that were constantly tearing apart the fabric of life in 13^th century Europe. Today, all three branches of the Order are still alive. The movement is still relevant in the world where profit and pleasure stand in stark contrast to the life of poverty which plagues most of the world’s population.

St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi were also responsible for creating a different way of taking care of invalids and people with disabilities. Because of the fear of contagion in the Middle Ages, sick people were isolated or quarantined from the healthy. They had to fend for themselves and usually died of neglect. St. Francis and St. Clare responded to this need by caring for the lepers and the sick. In the writings of St. Clare, we hear her explain that this kind of charity is a logical extension of the Eucharist in which Christ gives his body for our physical and spiritual health and nourishment.

I wish you all a Happy Feast Day, for we are all beneficiaries of the movement which began in the Umbrian Valley of Italy in the 13^th century. May we continue to reinforce and renovate the house of God in our 21^st century.

- Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34)

When you say the word “test,” most people flinch. That’s because tests bring undue stress and pressure that we’d rather live without. Nonetheless, tests have many purposes. They analyze our intelligence or skill, determine what we have learned, and reveal who we are. Then there are spiritual tests. They often try our faith and commitment to God.

Remember the story of Abraham and his beloved son, Isaac, found in Genesis chapter 22? Through Isaac, God was going to build a nation! Can you imagine the pride Abraham must have had for his son? Nothing makes me prouder than to see my son and grandchildren succeed, and Abraham knew God had great plans for his son. What on earth could go wrong — especially with a promised child?

Some of us have probably stood in Abraham’s sandals once or twice in our life times too. Like Abraham, we’ve clung to the promises of God. Yet, sickness lingers, financial troubles invade, and eventually death calls. How do we respond?

Abraham responded with great love, trust, and commitment when God asked for his only son to be sacrificed. He had to trust God every step of the way. Abraham’s mind must have been plagued with thoughts such as, “This doesn’t make sense, Lord.” “You promised, Lord.” “Help me, Lord!”

Determined to obey God no matter the cost, Abraham prepared to take his son’s life. In that dramatic moment, and just in the nick of time, God called from heaven and released both the child and Abraham from the test.

It was only a test. God never wanted the death of Isaac. He wanted the surrendered heart of Abraham. Just as God planned, the test revealed Abraham’s undying love and commitment to God.

God will always test you and me. More than anything, God wants our whole and committed hearts. As painful as some tests are, God is using them to form us into all He has designed us to be. When our trials don’t make sense, we can trust God. He has promised to set limits on our trials — to walk with us in the midst of our trials and tests of our faith to bring forth good.

When it seems like God has turned the other way, will I still love and trust Him? Yes, without question.

On this day of uncertainty and trial, I pray to God:

Dear Lord, I am guilty of chasing Your blessings more than chasing after You. You are all I need. At this moment, I recommit my heart to You, and I will trust You in my present and future situations. May Your will, not mine, be done. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

- Sue Mees, EGL 2

One of the things that makes life with a disability difficult is the fact that it sometimes means that we are ignored or disregarded by others. Our culture values people for what they can accomplish, for what they do, for what they contribute. People with disabilities have a hard time competing against this mind set. Sometimes people with disabilities are abandoned by family members simply because they cannot deal with the trauma, with the difficulties, etc. So the Gospel reading for today is particularly meaningful for us.

I am sure that the Gospel reading was chosen because today is the Memorial of the Guardian Angels. When we think of Guardian Angels, we usually think in terms of children. Pictures of Guardian Angels are usually representations of children in potentially dangerous situations being protected by these bodiless creatures. However, the Gospel reading must be approached with a cultural understanding of how children were valued in the Middle Eastern culture of Jesus’ time.

Then as now, children were defenseless individuals. However, our culture tries to provide parents or guardians who will be the wall of defense for children. Although they sometimes fail in their responsibilities to children, parents or guardians, even civil guardians, are generally effective in protecting children. This was not the case 2,000 years ago.

Infant and child mortality was such that children were often in danger of failing to live long enough to reach puberty. Consequently, parents, especially fathers, tended to distance themselves from their children. If they failed to thrive after birth or were struck down by innumerable childhood diseases, their poor diet, and the lack of effective sanitation, the parent would be spared the terrible grief of seeing a beloved child die. Once the child made it through the dangerous and treacherous rigors of infancy and childhood, their parents would then begin to hope that they might reach adulthood and would become more involved in their lives. So when Jesus tells his disciples that they must become like little children, he is asking them to place themselves at risk, to become the least valued members of that society.

The “little ones” to which Jesus refers here are not only the children, but includes those who have chosen to follow Jesus as disciples. They are “little ones” because following Jesus meant leaving their support systems (their families). The family was the connection to their past, their present and their future. However, following Jesus meant leaving behind all of that and putting themselves in a situation where they were dependent on the good will of others.

While we usually think that Jesus is referring to the “innocence” of children in this Gospel passage; he is really speaking of a much more precarious life style. People with disabilities know this kind of existence, know what it is to lose the support of family, know what it means to be defenseless. We also need those Guardian Angels just as much as do little children.

- Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Modernity & Morality

The Cultural Revolution changed what constitutes the good by suppressing the established social constructs. This breakdown of the natural boundaries of civilized society allowed the implementation of a wholesale redesign of the culture. This new thinking supplanted time-honored behaviors and discarded any moral or spiritual perspective – now thought to be excess baggage. It was time to collapse the walls of propriety and dispense with the rules.

The perpetrators quickly and quietly amassed their powers to effect this change confident in success. They correctly surmised the average individual would not stand up for what is right if it meant being exposed to ridicule or taking direct action. Besides, most were simply convinced it was time to change antiquated mores to free appetites from any attending guilt. However, Fulton Sheen warned, “There has been no single influence which…has done more to lower the moral tone of society than the denial of personal guilt.”

Regrettably, the proliferation of lifestyle experimentation sent a message of a less rigid life and promoted a reason to dismantle traditional attitudes towards work, family, morality and civility. This was done at the cost of subordinating the pursuit of excellence and focusing on mediocrity as a standard sufficient to all tasks. Coupled with lowered standards was the willingness to endorse deviance as an acceptable form of behavior.

Turning hearts and minds away from those ingrained habits of faith, reason and common sense undermined the cohesiveness of societal thought. The major change was the disassembling of the sanctity of life and personal responsibility. The moral consensus towards sex, substance abuse, hard work and honesty were consigned to the past, altering our view of each other and the world in which we live.

To attract the masses necessary to effect such a change, the gospel of group rights was directed to minorities. The Civil Rights Movement impacted civil society by providing a blueprint for every group with a cause who wanted to impose their agenda or supposed victimhood on the public’s collective conscience.

Emotion, hormones or political agendas do not determine proper behavior. Right reason and common sense promote the common good. This process is indispensable to sustain cultural values and moral ties that bind a nation. Yet the most important determinant of appropriate behavior is the moral courage to accept only rational standards as social norms.

When a culture abandons its duty of transferring its collective wisdom and moral heritage to the next generation, it finds itself poised on the brink of decay – a decay created by placing group rights over those of the individual. Anglican convert and priest, Ronald Knox, understood, “Disobedience to conscience on the part of a large multitude is apt to produce an erroneous conscience in society at large.”

Sadly, society by its lack of condemnation provides the balm for those who are fugitives from the demands of conscience. The acceptance of license is fatal to liberty. Deviance for the “hell” of it may indeed be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

- Dan Shea, EGL 2