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Twelve Ordinary Men

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. The Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton was a great advocate for the virtues of the everyday man and woman. In his essay on the British jury system, he commented, “When it (civilization) wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the most ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.” Who were the twelve men known as the Apostles of Jesus Christ? Perhaps one can list all of their names, hopefully keeping track of the different ways they are referred to in the different Gospels. After all, Matthew is also called Levi, Thaddaeus is actually another Judas (literally, not metaphorically), and Bartholomew is the same as Nathanael in the Gospel of John. We know that several of them were fishermen by trade, and that Matthew was a tax collector. We know that Simon Peter, at least, was married and had a mother-in-law whom Our Lord healed. We are given traditions about where each of these men traveled to after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost, legends of how they died and what became of their bodies, but after 2,000 years much must be taken on faith and our pious belief in these stories. In reading about the lives of the Apostles, it’s also clear that we have more details about some than of others. It’s not difficult to bring St. Peter or St. Paul alive in our imaginations, but have you...

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St. Peter and the Storms of Life

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. One of my favorite scenes in the Bible is when Jesus walks on the water of the Sea of Galilee and calls St. Peter to come out to Him. And Peter does it. He steps out of the boat and onto the water, and he walks toward Our Lord. But then he notices the wind and the storm around him, and he begins to sink. It’s easy to imagine how his fear must have risen as he sank into the cold water. He had been a fisherman on that sea probably his whole life; he knew the dangers and treacheries of the sea during a storm. Perhaps he had seen men drown, or perhaps he simply knew of those who had gone out onto the water and never came back. He stepped out of that boat with such confidence when the Lord called to him, just as he had already left behind his fishing nets and all that he had known when Jesus said, “Follow me.” Then, as soon as he perceived how the world raged around him, he lost heart and began to be pulled under. But that is not the end of the scene. In his fear and distress, Peter cried, “Save me, Lord!” As St. Matthew tells us, Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him. With only a slight reprimand about his lack of faith, Peter is once again safe in the boat and the storm is calmed. I love this scene because of how it illuminates the character of St. Peter, and perhaps because I relate to it more than I always care to admit. In his book “Life of Christ,” Blessed Archbishop...

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Our Lady of La Leche

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. When one thinks of making a pilgrimage, it’s easy to think of such far off places as the Holy Land, Rome or Fatima. When you think of going to see great sites of religious history, it’s not surprising if the mind first ventures to the Middle East or to Europe, where great dramas of history have played out for so many centuries and in so many ways. But those of us who live here in the southeastern United States are gifted with our own history, our own memorials, and moments of religious significance. On Sept. 8, 1565, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Spanish settlers sent by King Philip II landed and celebrated the first Catholic Mass on North American soil, in what is now St. Augustine, Fla. They had first sighted the land on Aug. 28, the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, and in thanksgiving named their new settlement after that great Catholic saint – a testament that stands more than 450 years later. These Spanish settlers brought with them a deep love and devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and in particular to the image of Our Lady of La Leche, Nuestra Señora de La Leche y Buen Parto, Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery. They established what is now the oldest Marian shrine in North America, and in 2019 Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre De Dios in St. Augustine was declared a national shrine. On the land known as the “sacred acre,” the memorial sits...

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The Litany of St. Joseph

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. I love to meditate on the many titles of St. Joseph. As I have grown in awareness and devotion to him over the last several years, his litany has become one of my favorite prayers. Different titles will resonate with me at different times and in different circumstances of life. I’ve also discovered that the litany can make for a good examination of conscious, drawing to the fore of my mind certain sins or vices with which I might be struggling, and with the added benefit that I can then immediately petition St. Joseph to aid me in overcoming them. We must be careful not to let his titles limit St. Joseph in our minds, however. One might think that he is only worth turning to if you are a father or if you work in manual labor or are nearing death. The truth is that the patronages of St. Joseph are universal, virtues that apply to each one of us – regardless of gender, age or circumstances. St. Joseph is Head of the Holy Family, Spouse of the Mother of God, and Foster Father of the Son of God. He is the Glory of Domestic Life and the Pillar of Families. We all come from a family, whether it is whole or broken, whether we knew our parents and had a relationship with them or not. Perhaps the family that you came from is a source of strength for you, or perhaps it is a wound that you need God’s grace to heal. St. Joseph is a model to all of us, because he shows us what true domestic...

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Flannery O’Connor

This article was originally published in The Catholic News Herald of the diocese of Charlotte. Only recently have I become a devotee of the Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor, although her collection of short stories sat on my bookshelf for many years. I was aware that she was an important figure, both as a writer and as a Catholic. Her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is studied at various levels in academia, and she was certainly a master at her craft. Yet, when I tried to dip into her work previously, I never found it particularly appealing. Her characters are rarely likable, and the situations that they are in are rarely pleasant. There is often violence, as well as despair; it does not make for light reading and can be challenging on both an intellectual and spiritual level. However, the other thing that I noticed about her stories when I did read them was that I couldn’t let them go. I would always be left thinking about them, drawn back to read them a second or even a third time. There was something about them that kept working on me. It was only when I read the collection of her prose essays, Mystery and Manners, that O’Connor herself gave me the answer to the riddle of her work and the power of it. Born in Savannah, Ga., in 1925 to a Catholic family, O’Connor seems never to have swerved or deviated in her commitment to the faith. She also was dedicated to the art and craft of fiction writing. Though she died from lupus at the young age of 39, she left such...

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