Year III, Number 46

"The grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all" (Titus 2:11).

Our hearts this Christmas are anxious and distressed because of the continuation in various parts of the world of war, social tensions, and the painful hardships in which so many people find themselves. We are all seeking an answer that will reassure us.

The passage from the Letter to Titus which we have just heard reminds us that the birth of the Only-begotten Son of the Father has been revealed as "an offer of salvation" in every corner of the earth, at every time in history. The Child who is named "Wonder-Counsellor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:5) is born for every man and woman. He brings with him the answer which can calm our fears and reinvigorate our hope.

Yes, in this night filled with sacred memories, our trust in the redemptive power of the Word made flesh is confirmed. When darkness and evil seem to prevail, Christ tells us once more: Fear not! By his coming into the world he has vanquished the power of evil, freed us from the slavery of death and brought us back to the banquet of life.

It is up to us to draw from the power of his victorious love by appropriating his "logic" of service and humility. Each of us is called to overcome with Christ "the mystery of iniquity", by becoming witnesses of solidarity and builders of peace. Let us go then to the cave of Bethlehem to meet him, and to meet, in him, all the world’s children, every one of our brothers and sisters afflicted in body or oppressed in spirit.

The shepherds, "once they had seen, made known what had been told them concerning this child" (Luke 2:17).

Like the shepherds, we too on this wonderful night cannot fail to experience the desire to share with others the joy of our encounter with this "child wrapped in swaddling cloths", in whom the saving power of the Almighty is revealed. We cannot pause in ecstatic contemplation of the Messiah lying in the manger, and forget our obligation to bear witness to him.

In haste we must once more set out on our journey. With joy we must leave the cave of Bethlehem in order to recount everywhere the marvel which we have witnessed. We have encountered light and life! In him, love has been bestowed upon us.

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

For the last two and a half years I have been contemplating joining a religious order. In January of this year I went to an order for what was called a “come and see”. I have always been attracted to how the saints gave their lives and everything up for God. And when I turned 22, I felt God was calling me to do the same. After the “come and see” I decided that this was the God’s will and asked them if I could join. I will now be joining this coming June.

You would think that I would now be at peace and looking forward to joining the Missionaries of Charity! But no, since returning back I have met a really lovely and special guy who shares my love of God and wants to give himself totally to God, but as a lay person.

I am very confused. To be honest, if you had asked me months ago what was my greatest temptation, marriage would not have ever listed in the top five! I am becoming increasingly unsettled, and I have to say I am upset that just when I was deciding to go, I have this now to deal with. I don’t understand what God is wanting of me. I feel guilty that I have these feelings for this guy, and this is hindering my spiritual life. It’s almost as if I were wearing two hats!

Please, Father, can you advise me? I have prayed about this and left it in Our Lady’s hands, but I would like to have you say some guiding words. Thank you for your help.

God bless you.

- A Daughter of Our Lady

A. My dear friend,

What you are describing is not unusual, and it is perhaps one of the most natural things that can happen to us. Let’s see if I can help you with a few reflections.

To start off, God is always going to keep on making wonderful people - attractive, agreeable, good people. The man you have met is not going to be the last such person you will ever meet in your life, whether you get married or become a nun. The way we allow such people to affect us depends on the direction we have given our life, the options we have taken, and the love we have committed ourselves to. When a person is married and somebody terribly interesting crosses her path, she does not immediately think it is God calling her to make a change. She knows what God wants her to do, and she doesn’t let a new person intrude on her life or the commitments she has already made before God. She continues to give herself to her husband and family and lets no one else get close or in the way.

When God calls us to consecrated life, and when we respond, it is just the same. Every attractive person we meet (and a person who is good and virtuous, seeking holiness, is very attractive) is not a sign from God. If you think God is calling you to give your life to him as a consecrated religious, react in the same way as a married woman to all new acquaintances that cross your path. Consecration is becoming Christ’s bride.

Maybe what happened was you were looking at your choice as something that you were going to do in the future, not something that made a difference now, so maybe your guard was down. But now you have to make some choices, admittedly hard. You need to go back in prayer and see if all the signs are there that God is calling you to be a nun. If they are, though it will be difficult you need to break with this excellent man because you already have a fiancée.

Be sure of my prayers.

- Fr Anthony

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

Hi. I am wondering what the signs are that may signal that a person may have a religious vocation. I’ve been trying for three years to figure out if I have a vocation to the priesthood. I do have a desire to get married, but the thought of being a priest just won’t go away. So how does someone in their mid-twenties get information about the priesthood and religious orders? Thanks and God bless.

- Gregory

A. Dear Gregory,

To answer briefly and to give you something to go on, you can’t figure out if you have a vocation; all you can figure out is that you might have a vocation. Once you figure out you might have one, you have to start doing something towards finding out if you do have one. You see, figuring out is something we do in our minds, while finding out is something we do by looking, asking, trying. Two things are needed to figure out if you might have a vocation: to have the question come into your mind with certain insistence, and not to have any real, objective impediments. (These are not the same as obstacles. An obstacle is temporary - for example, if you are in debt or not old enough - and an impediment is permanent.) If you want to go beyond that and find out, you have to start asking questions, looking, visiting; in short, you have to do something. The first thing to do is pray for the generosity to not place any obstacles through attachments to anything that is not God and his work. The next thing to do is ask yourself is there any type of priestly work that appeals to you especially (parish work in your diocese or missionary work, education, contemplation, etc.); if there is any priest you know that you have thought to yourself, "I would like to be like him," or if there is any particular group and their spirit that you are particularly attracted to. Then follow up on that by inquiring from somebody involved in one of those vocations how you can get more information, visit and get some spiritual advice. Getting your own spiritual director's advice will be very helpful as well. Happy searching; I hope and pray it will be fruitful.

- Fr Anthony

Certainly poetry, folklore, and the heart of man have made of Christ's birth a celebration of happiness, love and union, in which the feeling of brotherhood among men is strengthened, families feel more united, adults become like children, and even God seems closer and more accessible. But this does not exhaust the meaning of Bethlehem. For the believing Christian Bethlehem is a university of life, a gospel lesson and a way of salvation, since above and beyond its happiness and love, there hides a mystery that our poor human mind will never exhaust, even if it spent hundreds of years absorbed in its contemplation.

I know my words will be poor even if my heart is on fire at the mystery of Bethlehem, but I wish first of all to contemplate Bethlehem as a mystery of poverty. It is disconcerting and overwhelming - almost beyond our capacity of surprise - to contemplate God made Child, accompanied by Mary and Joseph, in the midst of animals in a cave carved into a mountain, on a cold winter night. The maker of the universe who opened his mouth and everything was done as he said, the one who gave others their existence and was free to choose how he would be born... there he is poor, surrounded by poverty, joyful in the poverty of his parents.

Bethlehem is a sign and a prophecy for us all in this world where people do everything to own more and more, to accrue more and more, to have more and more, driven by their instincts of avarice and ambition; a world where people's only concern is to amass their fortune and not to share it, and no-one spares a thought for the poor. It is a sign inasmuch as it shows us that from the divine point of view poverty is wealth, salvation and blessing. And it is a prophecy inasmuch as it opens us to the truth of poverty as the path to happiness and personal fulfillment.

God loves poverty and chose poverty for his Son. God loves poverty and chooses poverty for us as the instrument of our personal salvation and apostolic efficacy because poverty keeps our souls open to God and neighbor, it nourishes hope, it is the mother of justice and mercy, it develops love through generosity, and it begets serenity and spiritual happiness, as a foretaste of eternal joy.

As you behold this mystery of poverty fall in love with it, detach your hearts from the things you use, leave to God any worry about temporal things, live as pilgrims in this world, focus your hearts on God. You will then be God's property, his exclusive domain, and he will be your treasure, your security, your hope and your joy, and you will experience unparalleled peace.

Gospel: Lk 2:1-8

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Introductory Prayer: Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church, and my Mother - pray with me. Let me contemplate the birth of Christ with you. Let me look at him through your eyes. Let me look into those little eyes with you as you did that first time. Let me experience the reality of his presence in my heart. Teach me about him so that I can love him more and serve him better.

Petition: Heavenly Father, together with Mary I ask you for the grace to contemplate the reality of the Incarnation of your Son in such a way that it will strengthen and deepen my faith, hope and love. May these virtues may become the pillars of my life, allowing me to live and move continually immersed your presence.

1. A Reality of Faith

Mary and Joseph lived immersed in the light of their faith while the powers of the world struggled in darkness, seeking glory, fame, and self-exaltation. Without faith, there can only be darkness and confusion. Only humble, faith-filled souls were present at the birth of Christ. It is the same today after 2,000 years. Men still seek power and glory and submit each other to evil and violence. But now more than ever God offers peace and consolation to those who live in faith and humility. The content of our faith is even greater now since the birth of Christ. Our humanity has been joined irreversibly to God’s divine nature. Children of light. Children of immortality. Children of God.

Dear Mother, pray with me. Teach me to exercise my faith continually - to grow in it. Heavenly Father, I believe in you. I need your grace to grow in my faith. Deepen my faith so that I can know you and love you more profoundly. Deepen my faith so that I can be light for others and give you glory. Deepen my faith so that I can rejoice more fully in the birth of your Son. Mary, intercede for me. Let me contemplate your Infant Son with you, in your heart, in your faith. Let me share in your joy, in your peace, in your consolation. Let me welcome Christ with you. Blessed is she who believed that God’s promise to her would be fulfilled!

2. A Reality of Hope

Our hope is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth! Mary’s hope sustained her in time of adversity - the trip to Bethlehem, giving birth in a cave, the flight into Egypt, the rejection of Christ by the leaders of God’s people, her Son’s death on a cross. Her hope was stronger than Abraham's, "our father in faith." She is the Mother of Hope. God was her only hope.

Lord, I hope in you above all things…but when I say this to you I feel that other things compete for my hope in you. Lord, purify my hope with your grace so that you are truly my only hope. Help me to see that my hope in you is the only true hope…sustaining me and guiding me to the only true reality…eternal life with you.

3. A Reality of Love

God created man to be the center of the universe, the center of all creation. He walked with our first parents in the Garden of Eden conversing with them in intimate friendship. They were graced with knowledge, wisdom and understanding, crowned with spiritual and natural gifts. Then man fell. It devastated the created world. ‘All creation groaned…’

Contemplate the Holy Trinity looking at man’s history. Contemplate the night when God overpowered the world of sin and darkness. Taken by storm, by an Infant and his Virgin Mother. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens… chosen in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish… In love he destined us for adoption…” (Ephesians 1:3-5).

Thank you, dear Mother, for saying yes to God! I want to say it with you. Say it again with me and for me. I want to say yes to God with my life, with each day of it. A life-long yes, which is pronounced by my fidelity to the details of God’s will in each moment. Dear Mother let me contemplate the birth of God’s love. Let me watch with you as creation leaps for joy on the night your Son was born. Let me see the angels stand in awe as they witness God’s love poured out on the cosmos and man’s dignity raised above all creation. Teach me to love, dear Mother, with my whole heart, my whole soul and my whole being, to give my life in return as a small token to God for his personal love for me. Heavenly Father, I love you! Help me to see more deeply how real your love is for me. Give me the grace to grow daily in my love for you, that I may be an instrument of your love for many souls.

Dialogue: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts of faith, hope and love. Give me the grace to exercise, grow and live in them daily. Help me to submerge myself in them so that I can live fully in the reality of your presence and love. Let your grace move my heart to a total generosity so that my life can serve as your instrument of salvation and love, so that in and with Christ your Son, I may praise you and give you glory.

Questionnaire:

1. How can I live more constantly in faith, hope and love? Do I set time aside each day for prayer, for meditating on the Gospel? How is my sacramental life, especially confession and reception of the Eucharist?

2. What about my devotion to Mary? Can I say that I have filial devotion to Mary?

3. What can I do to give myself more to others? Knowing that faith without works is dead, what can I do to exercise my faith, hope, and love, and grow in these virtues? Have I ever thought of engaging in apostolic work in order to bring Christ to souls?

In the twentieth century, Poland's vision of the person and of history through the eyes of the crucified Christ would be put to the supreme test. A brief flicker of freedom in the Second Polish Republic (1918-1939) was soon extinguished by the Nazi invasion of September 1, 1939. Three hundred years of attempting to eliminate God from culture and history in Western Europe produced the bitterest fruits imaginable for humanity in the Third Reich and the concentration camp of Oswiecim, the Polish town known to the world by its German name, Auschwitz.

Why did Auschwitz happen? Rocco Buttiglione answers that, "In a universe from which God has been expelled, any reason to respect man is forfeited. Man becomes simply an object, similar to other natural objects, on which other men exercise their will to power."

In the face of this ultimate effort to eliminate God and to erase the very humanity of the individual, Poland's crucified faith prevailed. It did so in a new wave of "organic work," one of whose participants was the young actor Karol Wojtyla. He and his companions risked the death camps by performing in the underground Rhapsodic Theater, the "the theater of the living word." The Faith also survived in the person of the Polish martyr, Maximilian Kolbe. Father Kolbe's witness responded to the question posed by Theodore Adorno, who queried whether it was still possible to be human after Auschwitz.

In twentieth-century Poland the supreme test of Nazism was followed by the equally severe trial of Communism. Once again Poland's faith proved victorious, with the help of one of her sons, John Paul ll. This time the victory was in the persons of the shipyard workers in Gdansk. With the Gospel in their hands and a prayer on their lips, they rose up against the very "proletarian" movement that purported to represent them and gave birth to the Solidarity Trade Union. The strength of this moral resistance proved so irresistible that within a decade neither the Berlin Wall nor the Soviet Union could stand against it.

In the encyclical Centesimus Annus, the Holy Father made it clear that the inner meaning of the events of the year 1989 lay precisely in the power of Christ's cross at work in history, enabling the individual to fulfill the truth about himself: "The events of 1989 are an example of the success of willingness to negotiate and of the Gospel spirit in the face of an adversary determined not to be bound by moral principles. In a certain sense, it was a struggle born of prayer, and it would have been unthinkable without immense trust in God, the Lord of history, who carries the human heart in his hands. It is by uniting his own sufferings for the sake of truth and freedom to the sufferings of Christ on the cross that man is able to accomplish the miracle of peace and is in a position to discern the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil and the violence which, under the illusion of fighting evil, only makes it worse."

Upcoming Events & Retreats

(( Listed here are retreats directed by the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi members. For a listing of diocesan activities and other events, click here to go to the vocation.com website ))

LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST

Cheshire, CT, December 26-30, Test Your Call! retreat. Contact Br Branigan Sherman, (800) 420-5409. vocation@legionaries.org.

Sacramento, CA, January 11-12, Young Men’s Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Br Robert DeCesare, (916) 716-5506. sgomez@legionaries.org.

Mission for Life! January 17-22, 2003. Cost: only $90. Help the nation's capital prepare for the national March for Life by participating in a retreat and evangelization mission! For more information, click on mission@ytm.org or call (301) 365-3205.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated women

Los Angeles, CA, January 12, Young Women's Spiritual Growth Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Magdalena Faine, (562) 597-6352. mfaine@inteducators.org.

Washington, DC, January 17-22, Mission for Life. Cost: $90. Help the nation's capitol prepare for the national March for Life by participating in a retreat and evangelization mission. Contact MariCarmen Maheu, (301) 365-3205. mission@ytm.org.

Ottawa, Ontario, January 19, Young Women's Spiritual Growth Retreat. Ages 17-30. Contact Lourdes Cano, (401) 225-2314. lcano@inteducators.org.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated men

Call Tony McDonnell for more information, (301) 365-3205. info@ytm.org.

ShoreLines welcomes your questions and comments at questions@shorelines.org. If you do not specify otherwise, your question may be posted in the Vocations Q&A section.

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