5 Ways to Simplify Your Spiritual Life - and Make It Beautiful!

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

Devotions can be like jewelry. They bring about beauty and accent the appearance of the one wearing them. However, too much jewelry can be a distraction. At one point, they become counterproductive.

I have discovered this to be the case with devotions in my own life. The more complicated things become, the more suffocated I feel. 

You start with basics. You have a daily Rosary and then the daily Divine Mercy chaplet, and then a Novena to the Holy Spirit, and then a Novena to Saint Joseph, and then a Holy Hour once per day, and then you have to care for your spouse, and your children. Oh, and then there is the Knights of Columbus meeting. The Bible study. The Altar Guild meeting. And daily Mass. Liturgy of the Hours. Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. One-Year Catholic Bible. Reading a Saint story daily. Reading the Summa...

...and then you snap. Then you go crazy. The spiritual life becomes complicated, conflicted, and stifling.

You're wearing so much spiritual jewelry that you cannot even stand up and walk around. The yoke is no longer easy. The burden is no longer light. It's heavy. Really heavy.

From time to time, this happens to me. Devotions, commitments, and resolutions add up. Life changes. New children are born. We move to new places. We acquire different responsibilities. We enter into different seasons of life.

Frequently, we must reassess our journey with Christ. Simplicity is best when its rooted in love for God. 

Saint Francis de Sales said, "We are not drawn to God by iron chains, but by sweet attractions and holy inspirations." The same saint said, "We must fear God out of love, not love Him out of fear." We do not need a complex constellation of devotions. We need simplicity.

True devotion to God derives from simple love. I heartfelt "I love you," to God is worth more than a strenuous Lent with resentment.

Saint Therese the Little Flower wrote, "Loves consumes us only in the measure of our self-surrender." Love is the core. 

In order to re-discover this simple core, here are five ways to simplify and revitalize your life with Christ.

1) Mental prayer is the most important kind of prayer. Mental prayer is talking to God with your heart and mind. It's conversational. In mental prayer, you tell Jesus about your hopes, joys, fears, and sufferings for each and every day. It's intimate. There is something simple and unassuming about mental prayer. Set your iPhone for five minutes and talk to Jesus from the heart. Add minutes over time.

2) Do you have a basic prayer structure in your life? A morning prayer/offering. Prayers at meals. Angelus. Daily Rosary. Prayers before bed. 

If this seems overwhelming, don't worry. Just start with one devotion and think of it as a brick. You don't need build the house at one time. Brick by brick is the prudent way. Rome wasn't built in a day. Add one thing at a time. Don't start praying the Breviary or fifteen decades of the Rosary overnight. Ramp up slowly.

3) How can you make a better Holy Communion? The Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives as Christians. How can you amplify that reality in your life. Could you say prayers for the night before. Is there a prayer you could add to the moment when you receive Communion? Something special that only you and God know? How can you crown that moment of Holy Communion?

4) What's your "policy" on going to Confession?Do you have a simple rule that makes it regular and easy? What is one thing you could do to make Confession into a sought after joy, rather than a dreaded obligation? All the spiritual masters say that frequent confession is essential to growth. Make a simple, easy to remember plan.

5) Set some goals. Get out a sheet of paper. Stop reading right now and get a sheet a paper....

Okay, do you have that sheet of paper? Write down your daily, weekly, monthly, and annual devotions. If you don't have any. Don't worry. Assess where you are. Then ask yourself where you want to be one year from now. Best of all, discuss this with your spiritual director. Get his objective diagnosis. If you don't have a spiritual director, talk to a friend you trust in a casual way. 

Set a simple plan and then stick with it. If you decide to pray the daily Rosary of five decades. Do it. Don't feel obliged to bump it up or turn it down. Just be steady. If you miss. Just start over the next day.

Did you decide to do the Morning Offering every day? Great. If you forget and remember to say it at 9pm at night. No worries. Just say it when you remember. If you forget for three days, say it anyway as soon as you remember. Keep it simple. Remember, it takes about twenty-one days to create a habit. Give it twenty-one days before you even begin to become discouraged!

The key to simplicity is habit and pattern. Why do you think monks and nuns lived patterned lives? Simplicity.

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Social Media vs. the Catholic Church (?)

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

Here's the summary of this post: "How the Internet is game-changer for the Catholic Church." Keep reading if you're interested...

This summer I'll be speaking at the 2013 Catholic Media Conference in Denver. I'll be giving a presentation on the "Ethics of Social Media." 

The elements of social media (internet, blogs, podcasts, synchronous college courses, live streaming internet radio, phone texts, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are now a permanent part of our lives. You can try to be a Luddite, but not for long. You will drown in the waves. You will lose the cultural battle.

Think about these two bullets:

• Social media now has the power to bring pornographic videos through an iPhone into a teenager's bedroom. 
• Social media now has the power to bring videos of the Pope celebrating Mass, Bibles, Catechisms, and Fulton Sheen mp3s to China, North Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. - places where missionary efforts have been widely blocked.

As Uncle Ben from Spiderman cribbed from the Bible: "With great power, comes great responsibility." How can Catholics surf the wave of information crashing upon us?

No doubt, the power of information just became more powerful. Information is faster and easier.This is like fire. It can bring about great good and great evil. Fire can burn down your house and crackle the skin off your bones. Fire can also cook your steak and warm your home. The problem is not the fire per se.

As you know, Popes issue encyclicals. They are called "encyclicals" because once upon a time they needed to be "cycled" around. These documents had to be distributed through the rings of information. At first hand copied. Later printed. Later photocopied. Later faxed. But now, Pope Francis can send out a tweet via Twitter and it goes to 2.5 million peopleinstantly. Pope Boniface VIII (d. 1303) would have fleeced France a hundredfold in order to acquire this new kind of social power.

What does this mean for Catholics?

I read somewhere recently that 60% of the internet is delivering pornography. That means that Wikipedia, your favorite blogs, sports scores, and whatever are only 40% of what is "the internet"!

That is a bleak statistic. Nevertheless, I'm hopeful. When people look back at our century, they will speak of the canonized saints who used this great power to evangelize the face of planet earth. The next Boniface, Dominic, Catherine of Sienna, or Francis Xavier will come seemingly out from nowhwere when things seem almost lost. Then Christ will act with great power.

These future saints could be little old nuns like Mother Angelica or they could be a handful of Catholic college kids who launched an initiative that reformed the Catholic Church through their keyboards. I don't know. What I do know is this: When the printing press emerged in the 1500's, Protestants and Humanists flocked to it. Catholics were slow on the uptake. We should learn from this mistake.

I hope that we won't make the same mistake with the new digital medium. The Catholic Church could become the most influential voice on the planet. But she needs saints to make it happen. Not mere techies. She needs "holy techies" who have a passion for truth, souls, and most importantly, love for Christ and His Church.

Question: I have some ideas on how this "game changer" could happen for the Catholic Church through the new media. I'll be sharing them in the months to come. Before then, I want to hear your ideas. How do we share the Gospel with every person on earth? How do we harness this power? How do we create something like an EWTN that is 1,000 times bigger and more influential?

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Did God Send the Tornado? The Problem of Natural Evils

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

When a person murders another person, there is outrage. Many ask, "How could God allow this?" Yet there remains an implicit understanding that humans have free will. When a murderer kills another human, we blame the murderer.

But what about natural evils? Natural disasters?

A tornado that kills children does not have free will. A tsunami does not have free will. A virus or cancer does not have free will. All these forces kill people. Why?

Why would a good God allow this?

A doctor friend of mine, Ben Olsson, DO, recently said, "Someone needs to come up with a theology of viruses. How do we account for the creation of these "non-living" things that destroy human bodies?"

These problems point to the final frontier of theology and philosophy. They are the perennial unanswered questions...

Today our hearts go out to those who have died and suffered in the tornado of Oklahoma. God is all-loving and all-powerful. So why didn't He stop the storm?

In philosophy, this is the problem of theodicy.The word "theodicy comes from two Greek workstheos meaning "God" and dike meaning "justice."

When dear little children die in a violent tornado, humans begin to question the "justice of God."

Just a few days ago, I wrote a blog post on how to speak with atheists. You can find it by clicking here. I mentioned in this post that atheists are not usually atheists because of the cosmological arguments. They are atheists because of evil. They reject God in the face of moral, but especially natural, evils.

The atheists points to the TV screen and says, "Aha, all those children died in a tornado. You're God did that. Is that your God?" For these atheists, it is better to deny God's existence than it is admit that God is evil or  ambivalent. 

The atheistic critique of theists is the thread running through Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. (A great novel that you should read. You can get here.) Ivan the atheist brother asks Aloysha the Christian brother about the cruelty children receive. He refers to God as the "architect" of the arrangement when he asks:

"Would you consent to be the architect under those conditions? Tell me honestly!"

"No, I wouldn't agree," said Alyosha quietly.

Even the innocent and faithful Alyosha seems confused and ashamed about the problem of evil.

The human heart, like Alyosha, knows that if there is a God, and that God should be good. The heart cannot make sense of it all. It hurts. It requires a quiet response and a lowering of the eyes.

Enough philosophy. Why did a tornado kill innocent children? What's the answer?

The answer is not one that you will like...

The answer is silence. Sit down and read the book of Job in your own silence. It is without a doubt the most powerful treatise on theodicy. It involves terrible moral and natural evils happening to one man.

When the evils happen, Job remains silent.

Job's "friends" Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar come and they remain silent until Job finally speaks. 

Next, the friends try to provide Job with a cogent account of theodicy - an account of why God allowed these evils to befall Job. Their speeches are unsatisfying. The young man Elihu defends Job and God. Finally God speaks. God does not condemn the men for asking the question and trying to seek answers. But God does not give an answer.

No answers are provided. Rather faith and silence are implied. The Eastern theologian Alexander Schmemann notes that "Job, the sufferer, is the Old Testament icon of Christ. This reading announces the great mystery of Christ's sufferings, obedience and sacrifice.” (from his A Liturgical Explanation for the Days of Holy Week)

Silence. This is the posture of Jesus Christ in the face of evil - all evil. 

"He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7).

So we must remain silent. Have faith. Pray. The answer will not be given to us. A compassionate and trustful silence is all we have.

Please pray for the injured, suffering, and dead of Oklahoma. Kyrie eleison 40x. Ave Maria.

When in Cebu City, please visit http://www.gregmelep.com for your real estate and retirement needs. Avail of the opportunity to own a condominium unit in Cebu City at the low amount of only P 9,333.33 and House and Lot @ P 7,306.81/month only. Hurry while supply of units still last. Just call the Tel. Nos. shown herein: (053)555-84-64/09155734856/09173373687/09222737836.

How to Speak with an Atheist Friend or Loved One

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

Atheists: Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens

In this post, I'm going to share with you what I believe to be the most powerful way to speak with atheists. But first...

Last night I had the sad experience of learning that one of my cousins is an atheist. I say sad, because all my hope in this life comes from my faith in Christ. If I did not have Christ, I don't know what would happen to me.

I am not saying that atheists cannot be naturally happy or even naturally virtuous. However, I am a man of faith. I am a Catholic. I believe in Heaven and Hell. I want everyone I meet to go to Heaven...not Hell. With eternity on the line, we need to be intentional about what matters most. So how do we share our faith effectively?

I know many atheists. I have friends and family who are atheists. We speak openly about God, morals, and the afterlife. Regrettably, I used to be much moreaggressive in my approach. I don't think aggression or argumentation (however logical) works.

So what does work?

Let me suggest that you first pray and second remain calm. Third, ask your atheist friend this question: "Do you believe in love?"

In other words, is love real? Spend your time discussing love. Is love an instinct? Is it a passion? Is love a hormonal phenomenon? Is love a virtue? Is love a "force"? Is love a "thing"? Where does love come from?

Love is a great way to begin. Very few people will reject the existence of love. That's a great thing! You have somewhere to start.

As much as I love Thomas Aquinas, I realize that the atheist remains unmoved by the five ways of Thomas. (By the way, I discuss this phenomenon regarding atheism and Aquinas in my new free ebook which you can get on May 31 if you sign up for it.) Most atheists don't disbelieve because philosophical arguments from causality. Most atheists disbelieve because they have experienced sheer evil in the world.

So don't start with causality or evil! Start with the idea of love and begin the great conversation. I think you'll discover a strong way forward if you apply this approach with grace, love, prayer, and personal penance.

Remember. You can only rightfully share God (who is Love) if you speak and act with love. If you come off as angry or judgmental, forget it.

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