Will You Be My Methodious?

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodious. The rest of the United States is celebrating St. Valentine's Day.

I'm not quite sure why St. Valentine isn't on the liturgical calender, as he seems to be the object of so much popular devotion (or at least pseudo-devotion). I had always heard that he was a Catholic priest in ancient Rome who helped couples by witnessing their Christian marriages, and that he was later martyred. Perhaps when they reformed the calender they determined these legends to be overly apocryphal. Oh, well.

But Sts. Cyril and Methodious are interesting, too, and they're also historically important. Not to mention the fact that they actually existed. They are mainly famous for preaching the Gospel to the Slavic nations, a byproduct of which was their invention of the Cyrillic (a.k.a. the "Russian") alphabet.

A seminarian friend asked me today, jokingly, "Will you be my Methodious?" To which I could only respond, "If you'll be my Cyril!"

I decided that I am definitely going to make cards along this theme for next year, as it's the perfect "St. Valentine's Day" greeting for those of us who aren't dating for spiritual reasons! Sts. Cyril and Methodious were friends whose friendship was based on Jesus Christ, and this bore fruit in the conversion of an entire culture. I find this to be an excellent example for me as I value my own friendships.

Happy Ash Wednesday!

I have been wishing everyone here at school a happy Ash Wednesday. Not surprisingly, I've gotten a few protests that Ash Wednesday isn't a "happy" day.

Maybe these people were a little cranky from fasting, but I beg to differ! For the past couple of days friends and I have spent our lunch conversations deciding on a "top ten" list of great things about Lent:

Top Ten "Coolest" Things About Lent

10. Purple is a much more elegant liturgical color than green.

9.You can save money on all the food you won't be eating--although you should probably be giving this to the poor!

8. All the good fish recipes come out of the woodwork.

7. A convenient excuse to watch The Passion of the Christ. (I've heard in some places they even bring it back into theaters.)

6.Catholic camaraderie. E.g., when you see someone else with ashes today, you know they were at Mass, too!

5. You don't need to hide or make excuses around your penance and sacrifices--because everyone else is supposed to be doing the same thing.

4. Priests are generally more enthusiastic to hear confessions--so I don't have to worry about becoming the "scourge of the clergy" by going frequently.

3. More opportunities for organized communal prayer, especially on the campus of a Catholic university.

2. Cool antiphons.

and the #1 coolest thing about Lent...

...is the chance to become closer to Jesus Christ!

Some of our list items are silly, but we really should be excited about the chance to renew our spiritual life. So I will continue to wish everyone a happy Lent.

"Super Tuesday" and the March for Life

I was able to go home and visit my parents this weekend, so I had a chance to fill them in on some of my "adventures" this semester. Among other things, I told them about the trip I took two weeks ago with my school's campus ministry to Washington D.C. for the March for Life.

Apparently, my mother had heard that there was an unremarkable turnout, and that there were plenty of counter-protesters.

I don't know where she got that news. First, I didn't see a single pro-choice protester--my thought is that if you were carrying a pro-abortion sign, everyone would just have assumed that the "don't" or "stop" part of your poster had fallen off!

In my group, we heard that there were 200,000 people at the march, and I certainly believe it. I don't think I've ever seen that many people in one place before. And the funny thing is, you still manage to find people you know (even from other regions of the country) unexpectedly in the crowd. While I was there, it occurred to me that Heaven might be a little similar in this regard: billions and billions of people, but you still manage to find your friends and connect with people personally. But this was just a thought.

Of course, most of the day was far from heavenly. For one thing, it's sad that we have to come out and march in the first place. Also, January 22 was declared a national day of penance by the U.S. bishops, and I can assure you that the day was adequately penitential for everyone in my group.

We had a LONG and grueling trip by bus and train, and we spent a lot of time standing in cold and rainy weather (and I had a migraine on the way home). But in one sense, I was almost grateful for these trying conditions. They made our being there more meaningful. I think it says a lot when people, especially young people, are willing to put up with this discomfort in order to take a stand on what they believe.

At the end of the march, there was a huge rainbow across the sky (and some say over the Supreme Court building, but I wasn't there at the time). A friend of mine said that this was the first rainbow he had ever seen in D.C. We're all hoping it's a sign!

Participating in the March for Life was a great thing to do as a Catholic, but also as an American citizen. I'm sure that all the marchers will bring their convictions into the voting booth with them on this "Super Tuesday". Today let's pray that more people--especially Catholics--will listen to their consciences as they choose which candidate to support.

Feast of the Presentation

Today, forty days after Christmas, the Church celebrates the feast of Jesus' presentation in the Temple. February 2 is also the day the Church chooses to commemorate (non-liturgically) the gift of the consecrated life.

I have always assumed that this feast was selected as an appropriate occasion for the "World Day of Consecrated Life" because this was the day when Jesus was presented, i.e. "consecrated" to God in the Temple.

Of course, Jesus' life was the most "consecrated" of anyone who ever walked the earth, and all consecrated people strive to live as He did. (Although He was not presented in the Temple to be ritually set apart from other children. Rather, in presenting Him, His parents were fulfilling the Jewish law and custom described in Exodus 13:1-3a, 11-16.)

But as I reflect, it would seem that the lives of modern consecrated people also find a parallel in the figures of Simeon and Anna. Like Anna, who spent most of her time in the Temple, consecrated people spend their lives occupied with the things of God. And like Simeon, their life is completed only by seeing Christ.

This feast can serve to remind us that the pure in heart will see God. I hope and pray that a life spent eagerly waiting for His coming will serve as my own purifying "refiner's fire," so that I too may have this as my reward.

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas

Today is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, who is sometimes referred to as "the most saintly of the learned and the most learned of the saints". He is the official patron saint of college students, and is often cited as the patron saint of philosophers.

Thus, he is a fairly significant saint for me in my life as an undergraduate Philosophy major. There are few saints who inspire me academically as well as spiritually, but St. Thomas is one of them!

St. Thomas was a remarkably prolific writer, and was one of the major architects of the philosophical movement known as Scholasticism. Scholasticism is somewhat out of favor in mainstream secular philosophical circles, but there remains a lively interest in this school of thought among Catholic scholars.
(This is a totally unqualified statement, but it's my thought that non-religious intellectuals who have a serious encounter with Scholasticism tend to become Catholic.) I personally have a great appreciation for the clarity and comprehensiveness of Thomistic thought.

Even though you might expect the studious St. Thomas Aquinas to have lead a rather dull life, I actually have a lot of fun swapping "St. Thomas" stories with my Catholic friends who are fellow Philosophy majors.

For example, St. Thomas' parents placed him in a Benedictine abbey as a child so that he could gain an education. The well-to-do Aquinas family expected him to remain in the monastery and become an abbot eventually, an appointment which would have brought great honor to the Aquinases. When St. Thomas decided to join the new mendicant order of St. Dominic, his family was furious. To change his mind, his brothers kidnapped him and locked him in a tower, where they exposed him to all sorts of sensual delights.

At one point, they sent a woman of questionable morality to visit him. St. Thomas--who was serious about chastity--grabbed a torch from the fireplace and chased her out of the room. Then he used the torch to trace a cross on the wall, and knelt down to pray. Of course, St. Thomas later found a way to escape from his prison.

I'll paraphrase my favorite story here. It's said that at the end of his life, St. Thomas had a vision. In it, Christ said to him, "You have written well of me Thomas. What do you want as your reward?" To which St. Thomas responded, "Only You!"

How I Live

One challenge unique to my vocation as an aspiring consecrated virgin is the general lack of concrete directives for living one's daily life. Unlike new religious, I do not have a tried and tested way of life handed down to me.

As consecrated people, consecrated virgins are called to live the Gospel as fully as possible. However, this still leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Seeking to "live the full Gospel" could inspire me to move to the nearest desert, stop bathing, and embrace a set of extraordinary ascetical practices OR it could inspire me to live an upper middle-class lifestyle with a commitment to celibacy and twenty minutes set aside for daily prayer.

In my mind, these scenarios represent two "extremes" on the spectrum of the forms my future consecrated life could take. Naturally my hope is to adopt the best of both worlds; namely, the zeal and witness-value of the former situation with the sense of balance and stability of the latter.

At least as far as I'm aware, I do have a lot of freedom in determining the details of my present and future daily life. As I see it, this is both a tremendous responsibility as well as a great gift (which I pray I will use prudently!). My goal is that in being free, I use this freedom to do God's will without reservation.

That being said, I thought I would share some of the things I do presently which I consider part of my consecrated life:

First, I made every effort to attend Mass daily, because the Eucharist is truly the center of my world. I would only miss Mass if I was too sick to get out of bed, if I would have to drive there and the roads were completely impassable, or for some other truly extenuating circumstance. Even if I'm travelling, I usually try to call ahead or look on-line to find a Mass in the area where I will be staying.

I also pray the Liturgy of the Hours (a.k.a. the Divine Office) five times a day. I say Morning Prayer, one of the daytime hours (usually Mid-day Prayer, though this varies), the Office of Readings, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. Since I live at a Catholic university, I am sometimes able to recite the Office within a group. But out of necessity, I usually say it on my own.

The Liturgy of the Hours is an important part of my life because it is the official prayer of the whole Church. As such, I feel honored--and very happy!--to be able to participate in it. Consecrated virgins are "strongly encouraged" to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and in my diocese consecrated virgins are required to say at least Morning and Evening Prayer.

I make a point to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation on a weekly basis. This may sound like a lot to some people, but (trust me) it doesn't seem like that much once you actually start. Since my primary relationship is my relationship with God, I do my best to stay on good terms with Him at all times! And regular confession is the best way to accomplish this.

It's also important to me to spend time in silent prayer. I think of this my chance to have a "heart to heart" talk with Jesus.

Right now, I really don't keep track of how much time I spend praying this way, because it's something I'm naturally inclined to do and I take advantage of the appropriate opportunities for prayer as they present themselves. But before I transferred to my present university, my schedule was such that I did need to budget time for silent prayer. Generally, I tried to spend about forty-five minutes to an hour every day.

Since a call to consecrated virginity is also a call to a life of penance, I do try to fast in some way. I really can't fast in the normal sense of the word--i.e., by not eating--because I am very petite and can't risk losing any weight. So instead, I ordinarily give up chocolate three days a week. (This may sound silly, but I'm quite fond of chocolate so I find this adequately penitential.) I do try to be discreet about this, out of modesty as well as from a desire not to be laughed at for liking chocolate that much.

Also, I never drank as a teenager, and when I turned twenty-one I chose to continue to abstain. I am perfectly aware that Jesus drank (I do love the story of the wedding at Cana), and I have no problem with other people drinking responsibly. But aside from its penitential aspect, I find that my avoidance of alcohol is an excellent way to bear a Christian witness, especially on a college campus. And perpetual sobriety carries the added benefit of protecting me from some potentially compromising situations.

Evangelical poverty is important for me, though as a student I find that this tends to take care of itself! Still, I look for ways to live simply. For example, I don't wear designer clothes, make-up, or any jewelry besides a simple silver cross. I go out to movies or restaurants only rarely, and I don't shop recreationally.

My desire to become a theologian stems from my call to consecrated virginity, and as such it is something of a secondary vocation for me. Because becoming a theologian means a life of scholarship, I treat my school work as one of my duties towards God. I see my hours of study as another facet of my consecrated life.

So this is what my life looks like! As I understand it, being a spouse of Christ means you try to live every moment with Him. And I strive to do just that, even while I'm still only "engaged".

Feast of Sts. Titus and Timothy

Today is the feast of Sts. Titus and Timothy. In my opinion, they are two rather under-appreciated saints. They were young bishops during apostolic times, and they are both original recipients of Pauline epistles.

St. Paul's letters to these two saints are filled with encouragement as well as practical advice for guiding their respective local Churches. One of my favorite verses of the New Testament can be found in the first letter of St. Paul to St. Timothy:

"Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity."*

Because the Church was so new, (and probably also due to the anti-Christian sentiment of the times), Sts. Timothy and Titus must have faced some extraordinary difficulties in their episcopate. I use this feast day as a special opportunity to pray for younger members of the diocesan clergy, who would seem to face some analogous challenges in their ministry today.

* 1 Timothy 4:12, the New American Bible