Learning to be Quick to Listen

Catholics don’t celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus because it's a random organ. We don’t have feast days for Jesus’ arms or kidneys, for instance. Rather, the feast honors his divine-human love for us, a love that the Catechism refers to as “our hidden center.” This devotion goes all the way back to the Middle Ages, but its celebration as a solemnity became especially important in the seventeenth century as a response to the devastating heresy of Jansenism . The Jansenist heresy created a deep and lasting spiritual anxiety for Catholics, largely because it painted a distorted picture of God as an “implacable judge” rather than a merciful Father. Jansenism wrongly taught that God predestined some people for hell, that most people lacked the perfect contrition required to be forgiven in the sacrament of confession, and that unworthy reception of Communion was a grave risk. The resulting vision was a cold, distant God who was not to be loved but feared. This led o...

"Offering it up," a profoundly Catholic practice, is not a naive act of spiritualizing away our pain, but rather a radical act of faith that finds its deepest meaning in the cross of Christ. As worshipers of the crucified Son of God, Christians uniquely understand that all our sufferings receive their ultimate meaning and purpose only in His passion. God Himself enters fully and freely into our sufferings, branding them his own; through his suffering and resurrection, he suffuses our suffering with hope. All our questions of “Why?” are taken up in Christ’s cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1). Suffering is not a puzzle to be solved but a cross to bear—one that plants us within the redemptive wounds of Jesus. It is in this act that we discover suffering can actually make us less, so that there might be more room for Jesus in us. Pope Benedict XVI spoke eloquently about this mystery, emphasizing that our pain, when united with Christ...

Lent , a sacred season of forty days, is a pilgrimage of the soul, a time of preparation for the glorious celebration of Easter. It's an invitation to journey with Jesus through His Passion, death, and resurrection, allowing His transformative love to reshape our hearts. Our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving during this period are not mere external acts, but profound spiritual exercises that draw us closer to Jesus' suffering and ultimately, to the joy of His resurrection. Fasting: Sharing in Christ's Deprivation Fasting, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains, is a way to "purify our hearts and dispose ourselves to a deeper encounter with God" ( CCC 1438 ). When we abstain from food or other comforts, we experience a small taste of the deprivation Jesus endured during His Passion. This physical sacrifice allows us to identify with His suffering, creating space in our lives for deeper contemplation and prayer. It reminds us that our true sustenance com...

The affliction of wounds is an inescapable part of the human experience. We often try to hide them, deny their existence, or even parade them as a defining feature of our identity. Yet, these extremes only serve to deepen our suffering. In his insightful book, Cistercian monk Varden, drawing upon the medieval poem of Arnulf of Leuven, guides us towards a profound understanding of wounds, not as isolated afflictions, but as points of connection with the wounds of Christ. He gently encourages us to move beyond a superficial understanding, urging us to consider how our own wounds can be transformed through Christ's sacrifice, leading to a path of healing and flourishing. Varden challenges us to shift our perspective, asking how we can experience Christ’s wounds not merely as a juridical act of redemption, but as a living source of healing. He emphasizes the contextual nature of wounds, reminding us that they feed on what was once whole. This understanding allows us to see our own wo...