10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today (Feb. 18, 2016)

Last updated on: February 18, 2016 at 4:09 pm by Kathryn Jean Lopez

10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today (Feb. 18, 2016) 2016-02-18T16:09:24-05:00 Kathryn Jean Lopez

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This Season of Lent is a time for repentance and conversion.

— Bishop Barres (@BishopBarres) February 18, 2016

2. I found the pope’s Mass at the border last night beautiful, uniting pilgrims on both sides in the greatest prayer there is. And as usual I was moved by the depth of his sensitivity to human suffering and the routine of indifference we are all prone to fall into.

Mercy, which always rejects wickedness, takes the human person in great earnest. Mercy always appeals to the goodness of each person, even though it be dormant and numbed. Far from bringing destruction, as we so often desire or want to bring about ourselves, mercy seeks to transform each situation from within. Herein lies the mystery of divine mercy. It seeks and invites us to conversion, it invites us to repentance; it invites us to see the damage being done at every level. Mercy always pierces evil in order to transform it. It is the mystery of God our Father: he sends his Son who pierced into what was evil, he made himself sin in order to transform evil. This is his mercy.

Read on for a whole lot about conversion.

Mercy builds bridges, smooths rough waters, quietens raised voices, heals gaping wounds. Be merciful this lent, for the Father is merciful.

— Fr. Patrick Brennan (@Pathound) February 18, 2016

4. Today’s Mass readings.

5. Fr. Roger Landry’s homily on the Christian way to pray today.

"Whoever would do the works of Christ must cleave to Christ." – Bl. John of Fiesole, OP #OPPower #OP800 pic.twitter.com/LEYPMSY7Rp

— Dominican Sisters (@DomSrStJoseph) February 18, 2016

The sick, the lonely and the grieving: all candidates. How can the Jubilee of Mercy inspire us to respond to them? https://t.co/3NtRiriwwF

— Sister Anne (@nunblogger) February 18, 2016

8. Funny, the sermon in the Office of Readings today sounds a lot like Pope Francis. Maybe it has something about keeping eyes on the Gospel? From Saint Asterius of Amasea:

You were made in the image of God. If then you wish to resemble him, follow his example. Since the very name you bear as Christians is a profession of love for men, imitate the love of Christ.

Reflect for a moment on the wealth of his kindness. Before he came as a man to be among men, he sent John the Baptist to preach repentance and lead men to practice it. John himself was preceded by the prophets, who were to teach the people to repent, to return to God and to amend their lives. Then Christ came himself, and with his own lips cried out: Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. How did he receive those who listened to his call? He readily forgave them their sins; he freed them instantly from all that troubled them. The Word made them holy; the Spirit set his seal on them. The old Adam was buried in the waters of baptism; the new man was reborn to the vigor of grace.

What was the result? Those who had been God’s enemies became his friends, those estranged from him became his sons, those who did not know him came to worship and love him.

Let us then be shepherds like the Lord. We must meditate on the Gospel, and as we see in this mirror the example of zeal and loving kindness, we should become thoroughly schooled in these virtues.

For there, obscurely, in the form of a parable, we see a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. When one of them was separated from the flock and lost its way, that shepherd did not remain with the sheep who kept together at pasture. No, he went off to look for the stray. He crossed many valleys and thickets, he climbed great and towering mountains, he spent much time and labor in wandering through solitary places until at last he found his sheep.

When he found it, he did not chastise it; he did not use rough blows to drive it back, but gently placed it on his own shoulders and carried it back to the flock. He took greater joy in this one sheep, lost and found, than in all the others.

Let us look more closely at the hidden meaning of this parable. The sheep is more than a sheep, the shepherd more than a shepherd. They are examples enshrining holy truths. They teach us that we should not look on men as lost or beyond hope; we should not abandon them when they are in danger or be slow to come to their help. When they turn away from the right path and wander, we must lead them back, and rejoice at their return, welcoming them back into the company of those who lead good and holy lives.

9. Something wise on prayer via Magnificat:

10. Tomorrow’s Friday. Tweet #StationsoftheCross at 3? The idea behind it here.

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