In Times of Darkness

I recently spent a week with the Marian Franciscan Minor community located in Bellevue, Kentucky. This is a relatively new group of traditional Franciscans that are trying to rebuild Franciscan life to be more closely following what it was like in the time saint Francis was alive. I will not go too much into my personal discernment in relation to this group, but there are take aways from this visit that will benefit me, and those of you reading, for the rest of our living days.

First, I spoke with one of the friars, I will leave his name out as not to cause him any problems if they should arise from this article, and asked him what he thought was one of the biggest things that people tend to not understand in our culture. I was definitely surprised at his answer. He told me about how when he entered the religious life, he came to the realization that he didn’t matter in this world. Now, this is not to say that he did not lack the dignity that God gave to all human beings, or that he should just go and die in a hole. No, this meant that in this world, man tends to go through life seeking worldly gain and worldly respect rather than the love of God and the desire of supernatural things such as being able to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

He spoke of how man chases worldly things and seems to forget that there is anything supernatural above. The example that came to my head was as follows. Think for a moment of a man on a desert island.

On that island, it is split in two. On one half of the island it is dark, damp, and has little food and poor soil as to not be able to grow more. Eventually, if you stay on this side of the island, you will die from hunger and will question why you have been put here and die in anger and want.

On the other half of the island, there is a plentitude of food, so much so that you will never go hungry and all your desires will be filled and you will gain happiness until death. It is the perfect temperature and the soil is so rich that you can put a seed and it will grow on its own and will bear much fruit.

In the middle of this island, there is a thick forest that separates the two sides. It is about a mile long and very difficult to get through as it has many thorns and thick brush so as you cannot see the other side and it can take a long time to get through.

Well, first let us look at one scenario. Let’s say that we have a man who is washed up on the side that is dark and damp. This man has two options: 1) he can either say on that side and die an unhappy death or 2) he can find his way through the woods and enter into happiness and fulfillment. The first scenario shows someone who is born into the world and is taught by the school of the world, i.e. does not have the knowledge of Christ and His holy promises made to man. This person will never be able to find true purpose because we can only really be fulfilled through loving Christ and giving ourselves completely to Him and die to ourselves that we may die in this world so as to enter into the next, i.e. heaven. This person will fill their life with things that will never bring them true and lasting joy and will tend to always be angry at the world and sad. Looking at the second scenario, we see someone who was born into the same situation, but by God’s grace, either through someone or through a personal enlightenment, has come to know the promises and teachings of the holy Catholic Church. This person will have to go through the thick brush and thorns to get to the everlasting banquet, but they have come to know that all suffering is worth the eternal reward of heaven and the ability to glorify God. They may lose their direction when crossing the forest, but they will always have the hope of entering into the banquet on the other side of the island.

Let us now look with regard to the other side of the island and the outcomes possible there. The man who washes up on the side of the island with banquet has two options: 1) he can stay on the side of the island and continue to be happy and fulfilled or 2) he can make his way through the forest due to curiosity and become stuck on the other side. Looking at our first option, this would be related to the person in this world who knows the truths of Christ and desires to learn more about then and become more united to Christ through prayer and fasting as to give greater glory to God. This person has seen the goodness of God from his youth, whether be that through the example of his parents or his holy priest, etc., and desires never to leave that no matter the cost. Looking at our second option we see people that were born into good families and have known the truths of the Catholic faith yet, whether out of curiosity or weakness, turn to a life of sin and worldliness, risking their eternal salvation for the pleasures of the world. Arguably, this option is worse than that of the person that never knew Christ and His teachings because this person knew better and became rebellious, where the other person did not rebel, but was rather ignorant and followed their passions, as most people tend to do that do not know Christ and His holy example.

Looking at this example, we come to a lesson that I gathered from this holy friar. Until we die to this world, until we give up our pride and obsession for earthly things, we cannot truly enter into a life of Christ. This is not to say that owning a car is evil or that wanting a new grill for cooking is bad. This is more to say that when we do not set time aside for Christ, and not just when it is convenient, we will perish. When T.V. becomes our prayer, when our phones become our god, we will never know Christ. When I asked what I should do, especially in this time of discernment, this friar told me I need to make time for recollection. He said people who do not make time for recollection are cheating themselves out of a relationship with Christ. This made a lot of sense to me because 99.99% of the time God does not come in a vision to you and tell you to do this or that to enter the kingdom of heaven. Rather, for most of us, He comes in the silence of our hearts, whether that be in prayer, meditation, or even on a walk through a forest, not referring to the forest in our example of course!

In the quiet, we shall find Christ. When we slow down and give time to Christ as we would give time to a loved one, this is where we are able to find Him in whom all good things are. This does take practice though. The part of the schedule that I struggled with the most was not necessarily the waking up in the morning or the work or the divine office. It rather was the meditation. I would like to think that for most reading this article that is the same for you as well. I am not theologian and could not tell you the ins and outs of silence in terms of theology, but I’m willing to be that the devil and his servants hate silence and want you to hate it too.

During the times of meditation, I did the practice that certain saints did of bringing a spiritual book into the chapel with me and reading rather than just diving into the silence without anything to ponder or reflect on. I found that even though this was helpful, it was still very difficult concentrate, and you must remember this friary has a rule a silence throughout the day so it is not out of the fault of their loudness that I was distracted. I realized that my distraction was more due to worry of the natural realm, namely what job/vocation to I want to follow, when is dinner, I wonder what the friars think of me. We must try to let these thoughts go for we need to reflect, think and meditate on things of a more supernatural level, such as the four last things, Christ’s ministry on earth, the goodness of God, how to be holy, etc. This is one reason that religious life is objectively the highest vocation because it is formed around and for these exact things. To help those men and women who give not only themselves, but even their will, through holy obedience to God, namely through their superiors. I also found that the Franciscan tradition is the safest and most sure way to sanctity because, and this is the very dumbed down version yet true, its main goal is to perfectly live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So this goal, in union with the submission of one’s will, leads to a factory, for lack of a better word, of altus Christus, or other Christs. How wonderful that is.

[To be clear, this is not to say that people who do not join the Franciscan tradition cannot become holy saints, it is just to say that life style is very conducive to sanctity and a very sure path, when followed correctly.]

To bring this to a somewhat full circle, let us reflect on the following: We must die in this life, so that we may live in the next. We must be able to put aside and eradicate our desires that do not coincide with those of Christ and die to ourselves through this practice so as to gain eternal life. Once we give up our will and replace it with the will of our heavenly Father, we will not only find great joy amidst suffering, but we will also be able to enter into the heavenly home in which God intends for us. Once we become an empty vessel ready to be filled with the love of God and love for God, we will truly find heaven on earth.

Now, how do we go about this? Well, I will tell you some of the ways that I learned while on my retreat with the Marian Friars Minor. The first and simplest way is to join the religious life. This is because in that you give your will to your superior and become removed from the world and its temptations and are able to dive more deeply into the spiritual life as well as grow evermore into the virtue of religion. The second would be the secular priesthood, sorry ladies you cannot do this one. Secular in this sense just means priest that are not in a religious order and who work in the world. An example of this would be your local parish priest. I know when I heard this, I said, “How can you say that religious are better than priests, I have met some very holy priests.” Now, this is misunderstanding. When we say that religious life, whether lay brother, religious priests, or nuns, is better that secular priests, we don’t mean that there cannot be holy priests, we mean that it is easier for religious to enter into heaven because most of the time they are removed from the world and hence have less temptations than your average parish priest who must deal with worldly things.

History/Lives of the Saints. Read more books about history and the lives of the saints, rather than read novels or watch television. You may ask, “why shouldn’t I read novels or watch television?” These may be viable options for leisure time provided they are wholesome novels and television shows, and I may go into more detail about why to just get rid of T.V. altogether, but, in my humble option, they are a waste of time. One of the friars was telling me when I brought up novels in television during one of our longs walks that we shouldn’t partake in these because they removed us from reality. For example, reading a novel, we may encounter things that are either humanly possible or will most-likely never occur in our lives. When we read the lives of the saints, and lives of the saints that aren’t just the loosie-goosie feel good saint books, we are able to see what striving for holiness really looks like. These books not only motivate us to strive for holiness through example, but also show us that it is okay at times to feel frustrated in the spiritual life or how when we are in a difficult time how we can best give praise to God. When we become more accustom to saints and their stories, we come closer to knowing how we should live for Christ. Likewise, when we read history, whether it be history about the Church or just world history, which usually tend to be linked together, we become more rooted. Rather than create and getting lost in a fantasy land, we become rooted in the reality of our world and are better able to defend, or oppose, different ideologies that we have seen work, or not work, in the past. For example, a lot of people in our country are pushing for representatives that support socialism and communism. Every country that has ever used and implemented these types of governments has fallen and that trend will never change no matter how powerful a socialist/communist nation seems.

Meditation. Meditation is a most excellent way of learning how to become more unified to Christ. As I mentioned before, meditation is very difficult and takes a long time to master, as we see in the lives of the saints. One way we can start this practice is through the recitation of the Holy Rosary. The mysteries of the Rosary given to the Church by our lady are the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious. In the Joyful mysteries, we have 1) the Annunciation, 2) the Visitation, 3) the Nativity of Jesus Christ, 4) the Presentation, 5) the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. In the Sorrowful mysteries, we have 1) the Agony in the Garden, 2) the Scourging at the Pillar, 3) the Crowning of Thorns, 4) Jesus takes up His Cross, 5) the Crucifixion. In the Glorious mysteries we have 1) the Resurrection, 2) the Ascension, 3) the Coming down of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, 4) the Assumption, 5) the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. It is not required, but I would recommend that when praying the Holy Rosary, you pray it kneeling and in front of a crucifix/tabernacle. I will put a link here [insert fish eater rosary link] to more information about the Holy Rosary if you would like to know more. One of the things that I really like about the Holy Rosary is not just that it is a summary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but that one promise that is attached to it by Our Lady is that if you pray it daily you will not fall into heresy, which is very good because if you die believing in heresy and teaching it to others you have a very large chance of being sent to hell.

With the turmoil with in our world, and especially in the Church (its members no the Church itself), we must really learn our Catholic faith so we can defend Holy Mother Church and so that if Christ calls us to it, we can have the assurance to die as a martyr for the love of Christ and His holy teachings. “No greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for another.”

“Let us humble ourselves and confess that if God were not our armor and shield, we would be pierced by all kinds of sins. That is why we must live in God by persevering in our practices, and learn to serve Him at our own expense.”

–Padre Pio

God bless you,

Patrick Barry