Year IV, Number 19

Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus. The Baptism in the Jordan is first of all a mystery of light. Here, as Christ descends into the waters, the innocent one who became “sin” for our sake (cf. 2 Cor 5:21), the heavens open wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son (cf. Mt 3:17 and parallels), while the Spirit descends on him to invest him with the mission which he is to carry out. Another mystery of light is the first of the signs, given at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1-12), when Christ changes water into wine and opens the hearts of the disciples to faith, thanks to the intervention of Mary, the first among believers. Another mystery of light is the preaching by which Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion (cf. Mk 1:15) and forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in humble trust (cf. Mk 2:3-13; Lk 7:47-48): the inauguration of that ministry of mercy which he continues to exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has entrusted to his Church (cf. Jn 20:22-23). The mystery of light par excellence is the Transfiguration, traditionally believed to have taken place on Mount Tabor. The glory of the Godhead shines forth from the face of Christ as the Father commands the astonished Apostles to “listen to him” (cf. Lk 9:35 and parallels) and to prepare to experience with him the agony of the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit. A final mystery of light is the institution of the Eucharist, in which Christ offers his body and blood as food under the signs of bread and wine, and testifies “to the end” his love for humanity (Jn 13:1), for whose salvation he will offer himself in sacrifice.

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

I am interested in possibly entering the Legionaries of Christ, and I am wondering if all the slurs often heaped on your order are really true. For instance, do you really have a rulebook that governs the smallest aspects of life? Is it true that no discussion or hint of dissent is allowed? Thanks!

- Lukas

A. Dear Lukas,

You are welcome to come visit us, meet and live with the seminarians, and see for yourself if the slurs hold water.

We do have very high expectations of our priests and seminarians in all areas of their lives, from their spiritual formation to their social behavior, so our formation is quite detailed. But meet our priests and judge for yourself if that elevates or represses them.

As regards dissent, we are Catholic, so it would be contradictory and destructive of what we are to harbor dissent from Catholic doctrine and morals; we are a religious congregation in the Church, so it would be contradictory and destructive of what we are to allow dissent from what the Church has approved as regards our charism and spirit; as regards all else the operative word is charity.

We expect our men to love Christ enough and be manly enough to be able to put their personal preferences aside and give themselves to their mission without looking back. We have not come to serve ourselves or be served, but rather to serve others. Plus, we are all aware that we are called to follow in Christ’s footsteps, and he came to do his Father’s will. The Church herself tells us (among other places, it is written in Canon Law) that a religious finds God’s will in his superiors, so it makes no sense to think you can be like Christ without being close to them. However, if in conscience you believe that your superior is making a mistake you have not only the possibility but also the obligation if the mistake seems grave to you, to take it up directly with him or with someone over him.

So, while we are disciplined and want to give ourselves totally to God, it is done in love, with great freedom of spirit and joy. It is very simple, really: “Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” “Whoever seeks his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

I’m almost 15 and almost positive I want to become a nun and missionary. I know this means taking the vow of chastity and accepting Christ as my spouse. With this in mind, would it be a sin to date in high school? Thank you, and God bless.

- Jami

A. Dear Jami,

I think you are asking the wrong question, or maybe asking the right one in the wrong way. The question "Is such-and-such a sin?" is a basic one, and when we are making decisions, it is a very important one. The first thing we need to do if we want to please Christ and be his follower is avoid sin. OK. But that is not everything. It is never enough just to avoid sin. Our Christian life is about growth, and growth in love. Just imagine how strange it would seem to you if your Dad were to ask you, "Do you think it would be a sin if I didn't buy Mom some roses for our anniversary?" He would definitely be asking the wrong question, don't you think?

You are pretty sure God is giving you a vocation. You seem to be willing to give him everything. So the question should not be, "Will it be a sin to date?" but, "Will dating be the best way to show God I will put him in the first place, and will it help me keep him there?"

But you have to be clear as to what you mean by dating. I have found some kids refer to normal friendships, groups of friends doing things together, as "dating" . However, dating usually means the cultivation of a pretty exclusive friendship between a boy and a girl. Now, in our culture, with our inherent personal weakness and the pressures around us, that may not be the thing to do too soon, even if you don't have a vocation. It usually involves a certain amount of pressure (real or perceived) not to be "strange", and to do "what everybody does"; better not to get drawn into it. Get a good group of friends, whose parents are like your own, and you can have lots of healthy fun and activity without the other pressures.

And keep close to Christ in prayer (rosary, Mass).

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Since God did not make man to live alone, satisfied with himself, we see that he experiences the imperative need to be close to others, even to the point of the most intimate union possible. So when a young man renounces for life a personal union with another human person that gives people on this earth a relative and temporal wholeness, he does so only to the degree that he hastens to enjoy the personal, truly beatific union which is a pledge of complete happiness, that Christ, his God and Friend, offers to him.

Personal love and intimacy with Christ is a must if you don't want to risk grave disorientation and failure in your lives. Don't attempt to go against the laws of your nature, don't cut off the fountain of love in your hearts. Love as though you had never loved till now. Love more than anyone in the world. Love better, love longer, love more people and more things, and be detached from them all. Accept into your hearts all that God the Creator has made. Wonder at everything, but do not deify any creature.

Gospel: Jn 15: 1-8

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Introductory Prayer:

Dear Lord, I believe in your providence and love in my life. You created me with in a plan to be with you and to work with you, to grow as a living branch on your Vine, Christ. I trust you to care for my needs and to reveal how you want me to bear fruit with my life. I love you and want to grow by giving myself more fully according to your will. May my love glorify you, Lord.

Petition: Grant me, Lord, the intimacy to know your will and the love to do it for your glory.

1. The Vine Grower

My life is not simply my life. It belongs to the Vine Grower who gives life. God the Father gives me natural life as well as the supernatural life of grace, a share in his own life. As the Vine Grower he works in every circumstance to care for me, my growth, and the fruitfulness of my life. This fruitfulness depends primarily on my relationship with Christ the Vine, through whom his life is given me.

But I often resist pruning, the discipline of Christian life. I prefer not to become too dependent on the Vine. Yet once I become too independent, disconnected, and separated from the Vine, then that life of grace dies and as a branch I can bear no fruit. I may think of myself as “productive” in some way, but there is no real value in what I do, since I was created to be a branch on this Vine. If I resist the Vine Grower’s efforts to revive and reconnect me, he will have no choice but to take away this dead branch. Alone, I can only wither and will be good for nothing but fueling a fire. Do I trust the Vine Grower? Do I cooperate with his plan?

2. “Remain in Me” (Intimacy)

To remain in Christ is neither a passive state nor a survival mentality. To remain alive in him requires growth. A failure to grow marks the beginning of death. My relationship with Christ, he in me and I in him, grows the more I give myself to him. This begins in prayer where he invites me to a deeper understanding of his ways and a stronger embracing of his will. While his love is constant, I can always grow in my awareness of his great love for me and thus desire more and more to respond with love. This leads to an intimacy where I share his view of my life, where I come to desire what he desires, love what he loves and detest what he detests. Faith and sincerity in prayer will change my life. And this change will be seen in how much and how well I do his will each day. What are the sacrifices of love asked by God in his “pruning” of my life today?

3. “Glorify My Father”

St. Augustine says, “Do you want to speak the praise of God? Be yourselves what you speak. If you live good lives, you are his praise” [Sermon 34]. We become the glory of God by doing his will and reproducing his life. What is the fruit we are called to give God? It can only be something lasting, eternal. First is my living of God’s life, growing in grace and holiness. Holiness is being united in mind, heart and action with him. Then from this life flow the works of God: “Ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” Jesus places the two together: “Bear much fruit and become my disciples.” Do I want to do great things for God during my short life? Do I want to help Jesus save souls, bring them truth, freedom, healing and life? Only by living in grace and seeking his plan will I fulfill my mission and become eternally fruitful. His Kingdom in my heart and in the apostolic works of my life glorify God.

Questionnaire:

1. Is living the life of grace the first priority of my life? How do I protect it? Do I build my life of grace through a constant and growing life of prayer? Do I grow in the quality, not just in the quantity of my prayer?

2. Have I learned to trust the Father enough to ask him to show me his plan? How well do I welcome and cooperate with his “pruning” of those things to which I am too attached, my own desires, preferences and plans? Do I most of all desire intimacy with him?

3. In what ways is my prayer leading to changes in my life? Does it move me to serve others in charity and in apostolic service, sharing the gift of my faith with them? Do I glorify God by the way I live?

Dear Holy Father:

I am Sister Ruth de Jesús. I am 28 years old. I belong to the Sisters of the Company of the Cross, founded by Blessed Ángela de la Cruz, whom Your Holiness will canonize tomorrow. I entered when I was 20.

Although I am a junior with temporary vows, I am committed to Jesus forever with an undivided love, in a life of prayer and service to the poorest, the sick and the abandoned in their own homes. I wash their clothes, clean their homes, cook their food, dress their sores, and watch over them at night. Most important of all, I give them all the love they need, because Jesus gives it to me in prayer. God is love, and I return his love by loving the poor, giving them my youth and my whole life.

Before entering the institute, I led a normal life. I liked music, beautiful things, art, friendship, adventure. I often dreamed about my future, but one day I saw two Sisters on the street who caught my attention because of their recollection, quick step and peaceful look. They were young like me. I felt empty and in my inner self I heard a voice that said to me: "What are you doing with your life?" I wanted to justify myself: "I study, get good grades, I have many friends." I stared at the Sisters until they disappeared from view and wondered: Who are they? Where are they going?

Like Nicodemus, I invited Jesus into the night of my anxious heart and in prayer, I began to talk with him. With him, I felt the call of so many brothers who were asking me for my time, my youth, the love I had received from the Lord. And I searched, and found the woman who, together with Mary, was closest to the cross of Jesus -- Sister Ángela de la Cruz. She had so configured herself to Jesus' cross that she became love for the suffering poor. She captivated me and I wanted to be one of hers. And here I am, Holiness, conscious of what I have left behind.

I have left everything that the young people have who are with us this evening: freedom, money, perhaps a brilliant future, human love, perhaps some children. I have left it all for Jesus Christ, who captured by heart to make the love of God present to the weakest, in my poor nature of clay.

I must confess, Holiness, that I am very happy and that I wouldn't change my life for anything or anyone. I live in the confidence of the one who called me to be a witness and who supports me with his grace.

Thank you, Holy Father, for your dedicated life, without reservations, as a faithful witness of the Gospel, for strengthening our faith, for quickening our hope, and for opening our heart to the ardent love of the one who knows how to lose his life so that others may gain it.

Thank you, Holy Father, for your life, which has marked many of us.

Thank you for coming to tell us, the young people of Spain, that the world needs living witnesses of the Gospel; that each one of us can be one of those courageous persons who dare to construct the new civilization of love, because what we do not do for the poor, contemplating in them the face of Christ, will remain undone.

Thank you again, Holy Father.

[Transcription and translation by ZENIT]

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

Sacramento, CA, May 13-14, 2003, Young Men's Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Br Robert DeCesare at sgomez@legionaries.org or (916) 716-5506. Price: $15.

Cheshire, CT, May 16-18, 2003, Test Your Call Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Br Branigan Sherman at vocation@legionaries.org or (800) 420-5409. Price: none.

Cornwall, ONT, May 16-18, 2003, Test Your Call Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Fr William Slattery at wslattery@legionaries.org or (613) 931-1920. Price: none.

Pasadena, CA, May 18, 2003, Test Your Call Retreat. Ages 16-27. Contact Fr Thomas Maher at tmaher@legionaries.org or (626) 792-0447.

Rome, Italy, May 23-30, 2003. Pilgrimage for college-aged men and high school seniors. Contact Karolee Stauduhar at kstauduhar@msn.com or (407) 869-8263.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated women

Los Angeles, CA, May 18, 2003, Young Women's Spiritual Growth Retreat. Ages 16-30. Contact Magdalena Faine at mfaine@inteducators.org or (562) 597-6352.

Washington DC, May 19, 2003, Young Women's Spiritual Growth Retreat. Ages 17-30. Contact Lucy Honnor at lhonnor@inteducators.org or (301) 536-6931.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated men

Call Tony McDonnell for more information, (301) 365-3205. amacdonnell@arcol.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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