Peter and Paul (and John and Eileen)

Ah, the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. 

So many things could be said about these two Apostles—whose ministries were so fundamental for the whole Church—and the different stories of their martyrdom (both in the Imperial Capital) in the decade of the '60s in the first Christian century.

I would like to dwell on the particular memories of two Roman pilgrims who were both present in the huge congregation of Saint Peter's Basilica for the Liturgy of today's feast 29 years ago, in 1996. They were newlyweds, who were beginning the great journey of their married life with a grand adventure of travel through the Italian peninsula, starting in Rome.

Eileen and I both consider ourselves "Romans" by virtue of the (different) times we each lived and studied there in our youth, as well as by our pilgrimage/excursion together at the beginning of our married life. The special significance of the Eternal City has also extended to the next generation of Janaros. Our four university graduates all participated in the Semester in Rome program, and two of them shared crucial moments together with their future spouses during their time in the city of La Dolce Vita. John Paul and Emily began dating in Rome in 2018. Lucia and Mike became engaged in the piazza of Saint John Lateran on a lovely spring day in 2021.

But returning to the original John-and-Eileen story: we spent three and a half weeks in Italy for our honeymoon back in 1996. We were able to make this beautiful and multifaceted trip because we didn't seek a "lovers' solitude" experience; we spent all but five nights at the homes of friends (we had—and still have—lots of Italian friends). We are both Italophiles (and overall Europhiles), and I have Italian heritage from my immigrant ancestors.

It was a real trek, from Rome to Assisi to Florence to Ravenna to Milan to the Italian Riviera. I'm so glad we did it then, when we had the time and the energy of our youth (well, relative youth—as I noted last week, I was 33 and she was 29). I'm glad that, while we were still able and vigorous, we rode trains and buses, hiked steep ancient cobblestone streets, prayed in venerable churches and marveled at great works of art, hauled bags that got bigger and bigger as we accumulated loot along the way, got local tours from our friends and tips about the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and slept on floors or (worse) the infamous Italian "letto" that rolls out at night from under the sofa. We had a blast, and we also had plenty of time for "romance." 

I recommend this kind of honeymoon for you young folks, especially if you are both ardent humanities buffs like us. Trust me, you will never be able to throw yourselves about with such freedom as in these early days of marriage. Soon come the babies, and then come the bad backs and the arthritis. Youth is the time to explore, to rough it, to have an adventure, especially with your spouse. Go somewhere beautiful and fascinating, full of human history and aesthetic richness. Or go on pilgrimage to the places where God's love has touched the world. You will build a foundation of common experience that will stay with you forever.

In Rome we spent a week and a half at an apartment not far from the Vatican, with a friend's mother. This lovely old woman cleared a room for us, made coffee for us every morning, and often fed us abundantly in the kitchen at night (even if we had already eaten). I have never found a restaurant that can match the culinary magic that happens in the simple Italian kitchen. Oh, my my!

We went to all our favorite spots in Rome and shared them together. We brought our gratitude and hopes for our newly married life to the tomb of Saint Peter, and prayed there for a good long time. We explored churches and ruins and great art. June 29th sticks in my mind because we went to Saint Peter's basilica for the ceremony in which the Pope (then Saint John Paul II) invests new Archbishops with the pallium, a woolen band worn as a sign of their particular responsibility and their communion with the Pope.

It was a beautiful ceremony, very crowded of course, so that we barely had a glimpse of the Pope (we had no idea that we were going to meet John Paul II a few days later, embrace him, speak to him, and receive his blessing on our married life—but that's another story that I've blogged about before).

June 29th is the feast celebrating the Apostles who founded the "local" Church of Rome (whose Bishop, through Peter, preserves to this day the primacy of teaching and jurisdiction that enables Popes to serve the truth and unity of the whole Church). We were so happy just to share in this beautiful event with John Paul II and his brother Archbishops in a liturgy that in a special way was dedicated to the service of ecclesial communion and solidarity. 

We knew that we were called, within our marriage union and its (then future) fruition of family life, to serve and build up ecclesial communion in our own way, among ourselves and with the people entrusted to us in our daily lives "on the roads of the world."

After the liturgy and in the midst of the crowds in front of Saint Peter's Basilica, we bumped into a new Archbishop from Malaysia. He spoke English, and so it was easy to strike up a conversation with him. He was a bishop from the “other side of the world” who was nevertheless someone with whom we could rejoice on this patronal feast of the Church of Rome — someone we recognized in that moment as an esteemed spiritual father and brother. We asked for and received his blessing; thus this kindly Malaysian man became the first bishop to bless our marriage. Thinking about this after 29 years, I don't even remember his name.

But Rome is like that. It's more than a gorgeous city steeped in over two thousand years of history, and containing some of the greatest artistic treasures in the world. Rome is the center of a Catholic Church that is more and more extensively embodying its "universal" character. Rome is a place of beautiful and surprising encounters with people from all over the world. We find ourselves united in Christ's Mystical Body, and journeying together toward His glory. We will never forget these experiences of 29 years ago with people from all over the world, with people walking together with Jesus according to His mysterious design for each one of us. 

Rome is a place where people discover that they are not alone.

A Mother's Heart Carries the Gift of Peace

Let's continue to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for PEACE in these times of great danger and fragility in our poor suffering world. She knows how to bring us to the Heart of her Son, Jesus our Brother, who wants so ardently to forgive us, heal us, and reconcile us to one another. We are blessed to be embraced by the tender, attentive, faithful love of Mary's maternal heart.

Meek and Humble of Heart

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

Luigi Giussani: The Mystery Draws Close To Us

Luigi Giussani emphasizes that the Mystery which is the Source of everything, in revealing Himself as "Father," shows Himself to be our intimate companion.

"Even if it is translated into human terms, the result of revelation must be the intensifying of mystery as mystery. It must not reduce mystery, like a human being saying, 'I understand!'but rather deepen it. In this way, it is understood and yet always more understood as mystery. 

"For example: the world and my own life depend on God. And this is true. But if we replace the enigmatic word 'mystery' that reality suggests, with the word, 'Father' that revelation implies, then we have an extremely comprehensible term, which is part of our experience: it is Father who gives me life, who has introduced me to the beauty of things, who has put me on my guard against possible dangers. Voilà: the Absolute, the Mystery, is Father, to repeat, 'tam pater nemo.' No one is such a Father. This truth that Christ has revealed does not diminish the Absolute. Rather, it deepens our knowledge of the mystery: Our Father who art at the depths, who art in heaven, Our Father who art in my profound roots, Thou who art now making me in this instant, who generate my path and guide me to my destiny! 

"You can no longer retract after hearing these words of God. You can no longer go back. But, at the same time, the mystery remains, remains more profound: God is father, but he is father like no other is father. The revealed term carries the mystery further within you, closer to your flesh and bones, and you really feel it in a familiar way, as a son or daughter. There is no one who respects the sense of truth and is as devoted to his father as when the father is truly an intimate companion."

~Luigi Giussani, The Religious Sense, chapter 15.

The Birth of Saint John the Baptist

Happy Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist! 

Today is my "name day" (along with many other more important things). We sometimes feel so "familiar" with the gospel accounts of John the Baptist that we can forget the singular role he plays in the history of salvation. He is the prophet heralding the coming of the Messiah - in history, in the Sacred Scriptures, and in the "rhythm" of liturgical life.

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:6-9).

Here is an excerpt from the Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer in the Roman Rite, which sums up his ministry from his joyful testimony in his mother's womb to his birth, his prophetic testimony, his place in the "theophany" of Christ's baptism in the Jordan, and his martyrdom:

"In his Precursor, Saint John the Baptist,

we praise your great glory,

for you consecrated him for a singular honor

among those born of women.

His birth brought great rejoicing;

even in the womb he leapt for joy

at the coming of human salvation.

He alone of all the prophets

pointed out the Lamb of redemption.

And to make holy the flowing waters,

he baptized the very author of Baptism 

and was privileged to bear him supreme witness

by the shedding of his blood."

The “Hunger” Present Within Every Person

From Sunday: Beautiful witness of Pope Leo to the grace of Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Eileen and I had a very happy 29th wedding anniversary.

I was able to have a dozen roses delivered this morning, but in a very “2025 fashion” — via the internet and the local Wal-Mart! My mind harkens back three decades, to the 1990s, when a dozen roses from the local florist were (as I recall) more expensive. Or maybe I was just poorer. After we were married, for many years I picked up roses or other flower arrangements at the supermarket. Now I don’t drive anymore, and none of the kids were around this weekend to take me anywhere, so I had to have the roses delivered. I guess it sounds more cheesy than romantic. But the buds have opened up nicely. And Eileen was surprised!☺️❤️

Even though both of us were a bit older than usual when we got married (ages 29 and 33), we were still lovebirds in the beginning. Then — of course — came the kids, and it seems like an entire lifetime that we spent raising them. Actually Jojo is living at home: next school year will be her last at White Oaks — the upper school at the John XXIII Montessori Center — but we are always happy to have her around. 

We are grateful to God for everything.

An Act of War

June 21, 2025. And so it begins... Perhaps? United States bombing of Iran today leads in what direction? A terrifying escalation of war in the borderlands of East and West? We have “entered the fog” and cannot know where we are being led.

Save us O Lord!

Summer Glows With Warm Colors

Some "impressions" as we embark on the Summer of 2025:

The Gift of His Person

"Faith is primarily a response to God’s love, and the greatest mistake we can make as Christians is, in the words of Saint Augustine, 'to claim that Christ’s grace consists in his example and not in the gift of his person' (Contra Iulianum opus imperfectum, II, 146). How often, even in the not too distant past, have we forgotten this truth and presented Christian life mostly as a set of rules to be kept, replacing the marvelous experience of encountering Jesus – God who gives himself to us – with a moralistic, burdensome and unappealing religion that, in some ways, is impossible to live in concrete daily life" (Pope Leo XIV).

"Dreaming" of a Culture of Encounter and Dialogue

It has been said that "old men will dream dreams" (Joel 2:28), and so I will share my own "dreams" (which are not mine alone) in the form of a few general reflections. I have no illusions in putting forth these ideals, but perhaps they can give “points of departure” for inspiration and creativity. In any case, please forgive an old man for dreaming in the midst of the deepening clouds of the nightmares that make up the awful reality of too many people and that threaten to swallow us all.

Catholic social teaching inspires me to visualize some of the exigencies of what Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV have called the “culture of encounter” as a social ideal that integrates the principle of subsidiarity with the vitality of solidarity by means of the inherent dynamics of “communion.” The common good is properly attained within concrete relationships that form interpersonal and communal bonds. But a genuine human community is not closed in upon itself, but open, expansive, and welcoming. 

Certainly it must defend itself against violence and crime both within and from outside itself, but self-defense is not its defining characteristic or ideal. Defense is unfortunately necessary, but it should aspire as much as possible to non-violence, which does not exclude – in my view – the use of physical force to restrain an aggressor (ideally as a “last resort”). Moreover, defense should be tempered by mercy and attention to the ineradicable human dignity of even those persons who perpetrate violence against us. 

Still, this means that the practice of non-violence does not necessarily oppose within society the physical restraint of criminals and their being-deprived of certain external freedoms. Civil authorities have public and transparent legal procedures ("due process") for arresting, charging, adjudicating in a fair trial, and when appropriate sentencing convicted criminals to jail. These processes are necessary to repair in some measure the injustice that criminals have inflicted on their victims and the common good, as well as to protect the community. The use of physical force in fighting crime should not be considered "violence" unless it is intentionally wielded to violate or degrade the intrinsic inalienable dignity of human persons. If physical force is used outside procedurally established norms, beyond limits recognized by civil society, or in disrespect for the nature of human persons, then such force becomes violence because it departs from the service of public justice in accordance with the "rule of law." 

The rule of law is not an abstraction, but a standard worthy of international consensus that is shaped by recognition of the dignity of the human person and the rights entailed by that dignity, as well as the basic compassion appropriate to the humanity we all share. A judicial system inspired by non-violence, moreover, will also seek ways that allow for and (as much as possible) actively facilitate the conversion, healing, and rehabilitation of criminals. Non-violence never loses sight of the good of each human person that is essential to the growth of “relationality” (human-persons-in-communion). It therefore tends toward the realization of the depths of a proper and fully human interpersonal common good, and it moves society toward practices that fulfill justice by “exceeding” it — by fostering restoration and forgiveness, healing and compassion, and other ways that indicate the transcendence of the human person and of the significance of human relationships. 

Through Christianity, we have come to know that the human condition is existentially “fallen away” from God’s loving design and wounded by original sin, but also that human persons are redeemed according to the grace of God that reaches its definitive realization beyond the limits of present historical time. People who do not profess Christian faith can still recognize that human existence is profoundly fragile yet has a transcendent destiny toward an ultimately fulfilling Mystery, and that this transcendence is central to human dignity. Of course, temporal societies (even non-violent ones) are governed within history, and formed to achieve purposes that we understand and measure within history. Temporal ideals and methods cannot ever replace the immeasurable gifts of grace freely given by God’s love for the ultimate salvation, healing, and transforming of persons. Human laws, however, can be constituted in light of God’s “supernatural” plan of love, so that they tend more and more to “make space for” the overflowing of Divine love, and perhaps even remotely “signify” it as far as their historically contingent limits make possible. At the very least, human law and the physical force it may require must not oppose or usurp the freedom of God’s summons to human hearts, much less do violence to the essential goodness of persons as God has created them.

Similar standards regarding “non-violent physical force” apply to military self-defense, wherein physical action is taken to protect the rights of a people against a foreign invasion. The immense possibilities of human material power that continue to emerge in these times require ongoing reflection on the means used even in societal self-defense (with confidence that some appropriate means corresponding to the duty to defend people will be found). Still, actions designed to thwart and disarm contemporary large-scale military aggression will inevitably impact many people involved in, but not entirely responsible for, the evil of the aggression (usually because of their own unavoidable ignorance or misconceptions, or because they themselves are under various forms of coercion). Those who participate as individual agents within the armed forces of a politically-organized program of violence can be stopped by means of sometimes-highly-complex but ultimately limited kinds of physical force. It is not for the sake of euphemism that I use these broad terms to refer to "enemy combatants," who in the monstrous wars of recent history have often been wantonly conscripted from civilian life, and are thus also in some way victims of the violent political regime that forces them to carry out its belligerent action. 

This entails a challenge for our consciences, insofar as we recognize that our efforts to stop the agents of the aggressor will inevitably result in death, catastrophic injury, and destruction for some of these people. A non-violent attitude requires in these circumstances a clear and precise formative intention: we must will to stop and turn away the “enemy combatants” without positively willing to murder them. (This still leaves for consideration many questions, including the distinction between murder and “intending to kill” an assailant because it is the only way to stop them, the distinction between combatants who carry out the immediate activity of aggression and non-combatants whose lives may not be taken or threatened solely as a means of gaining leverage against the aggressor, and other considerations that pertain to the fundamental principles of the “just war” tradition as well as modern conventions recognized by international law. I don’t know how to formulate all the questions much less answer them.)

The fundamental point is that social defense must not become a pretext for returning violence with violence. This requires, certainly, that defensive force does not become the instrument of vengeance, retribution, hatred, cruelty, or any kind of disregard for the human dignity of persons (even though the heat of battle makes it very hard to sustain these criteria when defensive action is drawn out into prolonged conflict, or to remember to persevere in the intentionality and interior form of non-violence).

All of this strikes me as – at least – an ideal that should be proposed and aspired to, even though people will fall short on the practical level. We need to seek the freedom, creativity, and magnanimity to become more truly human in the ways we understand one another, relate to one another, and seek to resolve our conflicts. We need a wisdom that we cannot construct from out of ourselves, that comes from a Source greater than ourselves.

We need this wisdom for the whole range of challenges that continue to emerge in this new epoch, as we seek a more adequate integrally human common good in all the levels of interaction that bring us together. The art of politics in a community is not simply to ‘keep the peace” but also to foster and encourage the personal and interpersonal dimensions of human life. Moreover, through openness, hospitality, and dialogue, communities form vital bonds with one another and learn to appreciate the diversity (if I may use this word) that enriches humanity. A prevailing openness and commitment to dialogue – real, difficult, time-consuming, slowly-moving, patient dialogue – builds the solidarity of communities. Here arises the concrete recognition of the common bond of humanity, the fundamental dignity that is mysteriously given and sustained, that calls for love and respect, a personalistic enrichment of the foundational reality signified by an old and unfashionable term: human nature. 

Openness, dialogue, and mutual hospitality between human persons are the vitality and energy that generate a larger, common heritage – a convergence of customs, expressions (including languages), and experiences – that underlie the reality of a historical “People.” Peoples are enriched by building bridges, not walls. The globalized technological world presents new creative possibilities and unprecedented perils, which make more urgent the necessity for mutual understanding, mutually recognized norms (“international law”), and institutions that facilitate global stability and solidarity of the whole human world. The alternative is a world of closed, tribalized, antagonistic societies that are fueled by fear, prejudice, vilification of others, paranoia, and – ultimately – war on a colossal scale. We hope and pray that it is not too late to step back from this awful alternative that seems increasingly to be unraveling all the gains and important goods we have taken for granted in the international order up until these present days.

As a Christian, my hope for all goodness – including what we can (however imperfectly) achieve in the political arrangements of this world – rests in Jesus Christ. The One who was crucified and is risen sustains His saving presence through history and demonstrates that He is the answer to our times as well. Everyone is seeking Him (whether they know it or not). We seek Him in our silence, our words, and our actions. Concern for the common good of our globally interconnected world – especially for the poor and those who suffer injustices and oppression – constitutes for us a work of Christian love (agape, caritas), a “work of mercy.”

This is my “old man’s dream” — that we might respond to violence with works of mercy, that by loving our enemies they might be changed and become our friends, that the human community might begin to move beyond the destruction of violence and toward the vitality of fraternity.

The Pain of Those Who Feel Lost…

Pope Leo said, “there is no cry that God does not hear, even when we are not aware we are addressing him.”

Jesus is the Gift that Brings Healing and Hope

Humans are fragile beings, who are often ignorant, confused, exhausted, and overwhelmed by events and circumstances. Humans get sick, injured, traumatized, and restrained in so many ways. Eventually, humans grow old and their bodies and at least certain aspects of their mental capacities grow progressively weaker. We experience this in various ways at various times in ourselves and/or in those we love. We all carry great burdens.

We are all suffering.

The road of life is difficult. Human freedom, nevertheless, is real. It is woven into all of this mess. The love of Jesus is also real, and it is offered to us within all of this mess.

Our lives therefore, are inescapably dramatic. Love is always possible in this life. So too is sin. We know this if we are honest with ourselves. We know when we have freely chosen to do something that is evil. The weight of our human condition may diminish the blame we deserve, but we still know that we must take responsibility for the things we do wrong.

We must examine ourselves honestly, and repent of our sins.

It is true that our myriad human afflictions can reduce (in various ways) our measure of responsibility for the evil that we do.

But nothing in our particular human condition can turn evil into good. If something is morally destructive in itself, there are many aspects of our burdened humanity that can make it less destructive for us. But there is nothing that can make it good for us.

If our misery drives us to plunge deeper into more kinds of misery, this is a sorrowful event that should evoke compassion, solidarity, and the effort to help. We deserve this solidarity, each one of us, because we are human beings!

But we cannot use our misery to justify ourselves. We cannot redefine the constraints of our misery as an “alternative form” of human fulfillment that we have a “right” to create for ourselves. It doesn't work. We remain miserable. Even if the whole world told us we were happy, would it make any difference, really?

Self-justification is a project that ends in despair.

It doesn't help, however, simply to point this out. Because we all remain broken and in need of healing. We need healing.

Jesus is the gift that brings healing and hope.

Jesus heals us from our sins and begins to heal the brokenness all the way through us, to lift up our humanity, to empower our freedom, and to enable us to embrace the mysterious path of suffering for ourselves and others.

Our destiny is the glory of God, and His glory is our healed and transformed humanity in which we are brothers and sisters of Jesus forever right down to our bones and nerves and tissues, right down to the delicate and exquisite balance of all our parts, to the depths of spirit and mind and heart and flesh and blood.

The human person: alive and whole forever. Filled up and flowing out with joy.

The hope for every human person is Him. God wants each and every human person to be transcendently beautiful and free forever. He wants to make us His adopted children and lead us into His Kingdom where we will see Him face-to-face and live forever in communion with Him and with one another. He has made us for eternal life, and has promised to bring us to this integral fulfillment when we trust in His Son Jesus and follow Jesus present in the life of the Church.

This is the hope that enables us to taste even now the promise of fulfillment. This is the hope that generates the compassion which we are called to have for one another, the interest in life, the building up of the good in this world, the struggle to move forward without being crushed by our own burdens.

In all things, He is our hope.

Saint Barnabas, Companion of Saint Paul

June 11th is the feast of Saint Barnabas, ranked as an “apostle” alongside Saint Paul (see Acts 14:14), although he was not one of the Twelve. He was an early member of the Church of Jerusalem, with Acts 4:36 identifying him as a Cypriot by birth, and as one of disciples who sold his land and laid the money at the feet of the apostles. When the newly converted Saul of Tarsus returned to Jerusalem and sought to convince the church that he had seen Christ and had become a believer, it was Barnabas who presented him to the apostles and vouched for the genuineness of Saul’s conversion. He later assisted Paul in several of the latter’s missionary journeys, including the earliest visits to Antioch. Though brief of detail, the scriptures give enough about him that we recognize him as a companion of Paul:

"The Church in Jerusalem...sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith. And a large number of people was added to the Lord. Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:22-26).

Nine YEARS of Remembering Christina Grimmie

It’s astonishing to think that today marks the ninth anniversary of Christina Grimmie’s passing from this world. Her music and pioneering contributions to audiovisual media remain very much with us. I still reflect often upon her almost singular vocation in mainstream popular music — a vocation invested with such a rich humanity. In an environment that can so easily become inhuman, superficial, and conflict-driven, Christina was persistently human. She was full of passion for her own singing, songwriting, and musical composition, while simultaneously giving herself in friendship and encouragement to her fellow artists.

I have done lots of reflecting about Christina on this Blog. For many years I have followed the paths of music and the expansion of media as well as the needs of humanity, the witness of faith, and the gift of love. Not only as matters of study, but above all as factors of my own life and the growth of my own family.

Open this LINK to see and read all the posts I have devoted to Christina Grimmie — text and images — over the course of the past nine years. There is enough for a book! Although it seems that I keep repeating the same themes about her beautiful life, and her offering-of-herself to Jesus and her “frands” right up until the final moment, when she opened her arms on that night and her gratuitous, defenseless love was met with incomprehensible hatred and bullets.

Nine years later, it seems like the violence of this world has grown and grown, like a monstrous whirlwind that threatens to sweep us all up. But can we not say that love has also grown? Christina's legacy continues to grow. Her frands (like my own used-to-be-teenagers) have become adults now. It won't be long before they take positions of responsibility in their own communities. They will make their contribution to the shape of their societies and the dispositions of their nations (the “Team Grimmie” page on Facebook has members from 99 different countries). I think they will contribute to making this world a better place because Christina has taught them and witnessed to them about the greatness of God's love.

I still see her in this way, with her arms open, ever welcoming, creating spaces of beauty and humanity — spaces of encounter where she could meet people and people could meet one another, spaces of inspiration and encouragement, spaces of peace.

May these spaces of peace and friendship continue to grow.

Pentecost 2025: “The Spirit Breaks Down Barriers…”

“The Spirit breaks down barriers and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred because He ‘teaches us all things’ and ‘reminds us of Jesus’s words’ (cf. John 14:26). He teaches us, reminds us, and writes in our hearts before all else the commandment of love that the Lord has made the center and summit of everything” (Pope Leo XIV, Pentecost 2025).

“The Harmony of the Spirit…”

The harmony of the Spirit works for fraternal communion among us, a coexistence of diversity among “living stones” that build up the house of God. The Holy Spirit fills our hearts with His love.

Come Holy Spirit, Come Through Mary

Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni Per Mariam.

So I pray, many times during the course of the day. It is an invocation worth pondering as we prepare for the great feast of Pentecost. At the very center of the mystery of salvation, there is a woman.

It was the Holy Spirit who preserved her from original sin and from all sin. It was the Holy Spirit who dwelt within her heart from the first moment of her conception, who taught her from her first thoughts to seek God's will and ponder His word, and who inspired her to consecrate herself wholly to the Divine plan. It was the Holy Spirit who gave her a sense of wonder in the presence of God, and that dedication and self-abandonment which she expressed when she called herself the "lowly servant" the "handmaid" of the Lord. It was the Holy Spirit who came upon her in that first, secret Pentecost that occurred in her heart and in her womb when she said "Yes" to the word of the angel Gabriel, when her loving obedience overcame the selfish disobedience of Eve. 

The Word, the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it was the Holy Spirit that sustained and deepened the "Yes" of Mary's heart all the way to the Cross, a "yes" that accompanied the redeeming love of Jesus offered for the whole human race, and therefore a "yes" that embraces each of us personally.

So it is no surprise that we find the Mother of God in the upper room with the disciples praying for the gift of the Holy Spirit and receiving Him anew in the birth of the Church. And now the Virgin Mary, reigning in glory with her Son, prays for us to receive the gift of the Spirit. We receive the grace of the Spirit because we receive Jesus Christ. Jesus became man in the history of the world through the maternal mediation of Mary, and so today He takes flesh in our lives through the maternal mediation of Mary. Jesus comes to us in the invitation to love that shapes the moments of our lives, a shaping that passes in a mysterious but deeply human, attentive, and motherly way through the heart of Mary.

Mary is the "Mediatrix" of all graces (within and subordinate to the One Mediator, her Son Jesus). Thus her involvement in our lives is not just a distant fact of the past. It is a reality of the present, a reality of this moment, a living reality for my life. Mary, my Mother, my Mother. Through her Christ makes Himself present in our lives now, and so through her, the lowly servant of the Lord, we receive the gift of the Spirit in Christ, now, each of us, in all of our many circumstances.

How can I imagine such tenderness, so extensive and yet so personal? And yet it is Love that makes it possible. And so I turn to Mary, always, with confidence. She is my Mother.

Veni Sancte Spiritus, Veni Per Mariam.
Come Holy Spirit. Come through Mary.

June 4th 1989: When Will the Chinese People be Free?

In these days we recall once again the paradigmatic act of violence that symbolizes in many ways the sorrows, sufferings, and frustrations of the great ancient people(s) who live in the world's most populous nation. 

From the night of June 3rd to the morning of June 4th 1989, the Chinese Communist PartyState deployed the overwhelming force of the “People’s Liberation Army” for an aggressive offensive invasion of a city. But it wasn't some foreign city that stood as a threat to China in these days.

It was Beijing.

How strange that the Chinese Communist PartyState thought it necessary to wage war against their own capital city. Moreover, the forces they sought to overcome were… their own people who lived in the city! 

The people had succeeded in preventing armed units from entering Beijing after the May 20th declaration of martial law; they made their stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of students who had occupied Tiananmen Square in peaceful protests over the previous seven weeks. Under the broad category of “Democracy,” the students were calling for the freedom to ask the fundamental questions of human existence, to express the ineradicable desires of the human heart.

These young people were not satisfied with the bread and circuses of the previous decade’s “Reform and Opening” engineered by the PartyState. Many didn’t have a clear idea of what they actually wanted. But they wanted the freedom to search for it. And their desire spread like fire in the Spring of 1989.

This was enough to mark them as enemies of the State power that had arrogated to itself the right to define, and ultimately remake, human beings according to its own suffocating ideology and/or the ruthless exigencies of a power politics dominated by an increasingly invasive and pervasive Party "control" of all aspects of people's lives.

The Army came to impose and restore "order" in the city. But countless citizens of Beijing - ordinary people, workers, vendors, bus drivers, restaurants, even the local media - stood with the students. Finally, the 27th Division of the PLA was ordered to force its way into the city and “clear the Square” of the protestors.

The full story of that horrible night remains in part obscure, but only because the repression was so inhuman, so brutal, and so thorough in “clearing” Tiananmen Square of the protestors and the evidence that they had ever been there. First the army took the city itself by indiscriminate force in its streets, with tanks and Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) shooting down civilians frequently and at random.

Then the 27th Division, known for their efficiency and unquestioning obedience, headed for the Square, where the student protestors maintained their non-violent resistance surrounded by guards (not carrying lethal arms) of the Shenyang Military Region. What happened next? Many voices with diverse agendas give different accounts. The Chinese Communist PartyState, not surprisingly, praised the 27th Division for quelling “counterrevolutionary riots” on that night, and put the death toll at about 200. The general consensus of those who have studied these events is that “thousands” died in the city and in Tiananmen Square on June 3-4, the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians and students.

There is one report, only recently made known, that deserves particular attention. Documents declassified by the British government in 2017 include a secret diplomatic cable from Britain’s ambassador to China in 1989, Sir Alan Donald. Information was relayed to him by a consistently reliable intelligence asset who received it directly from a member of the highest organ of central government, the State Council.

This excerpt from the asset’s report - as presented in the BBC news - speaks for itself. I should note that this text describes some very disturbing - frankly, just plain sick - behavior. According to the BBC's presentation, when the army arrived, a deceitful announcement was made: “Students understood they were given one hour to leave square but after five minutes APCs attacked. Students linked arms but were mown down including soldiers. APCs then ran over bodies time and time again to make 'pie' and remains collected by bulldozer. Remains incinerated and then hosed down drains. Four wounded girl students begged for their lives but were bayoneted.”

Today, thirty six years later, the Chinese Communist PartyState has nothing to say about this crime against humanity, which not only crushed untold human lives, but also tried to crush the human heart’s aspiration for something beyond material prosperity, that deep and mysterious awakening of the core of the human personality that people seek to express when they use the word “freedom.”

Freedom can be distracted by false and superficial promises. It can be deluded, misdirected, discouraged, and even turn toward destructive behavior. Those of us who live in the “Free World” have demonstrated all this beyond any reasonable doubt.

But the fundamental impetus of freedom cannot be crushed. Its “crying-out” cannot be silenced. And it cannot be satisfied by narrow ideologies, material success, nationalist tribalism, or any other LIES. Freedom seeks the real fulfillment of the human person, the ultimate reason for which every human heart is made.

"Divine Mercy" and the Gift of the Holy Spirit

"For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have Mercy on us and on the whole world."

I pray this prayer every day, when I say the chaplet of Divine Mercy. According to Saint Faustina, Jesus urged the practice of praying this repeatedly, using the beads of the Rosary, promising that this "chaplet" would be a source of great and special graces for us and for the world (if you don't know this prayer already, see this LINK).

When I pray the chaplet, I seek to unite myself spiritually to the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, because it is through the Eucharist that I can pray the prayer at the beginning of each decade: "Eternal Father, I offer you the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world."

These prayers express so much about the love of the Father, the truth about our sins, and our total dependence on the mystery of Christ's sacrifice. But sometimes I have wondered: where is the Holy Spirit in this prayer? Then I thought (and this is just my own opinion), that Mercy itself refers to the Holy Spirit. Through the redeeming sacrifice of the Son of God made man, the Father and the Son breathe forth the Spirit upon the world, and into the hearts of those who receive God's saving love.

The Divine Mercy devotion and the special icon given to Saint Faustina focus on the "blood and water" that flowed forth from the Heart of Jesus. But as Saint John tells us, "there are three that bear witness...the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are one" (1 John 5:7-8). In some sense, can we not think of the Mercy of God as the gift of His Spirit?

Then, the prayer of the chaplet becomes a Trinitarian prayer: "For the sake of His [the Son's] sorrowful Passion, [Father] have Mercy [send Your Holy Spirit] on us and on the whole world." I don't see any reason why it cannot be understood in this way, but the more important thing is that I know that when I pray the chaplet and implore God's Mercy for me and for the world, I am begging for the grace of the Holy Spirit, by which God works the miracle of His Mercy in me, and embraces in His Mercy all those who have been entrusted to me - those who need my prayers. I want to lift up my heart and immerse myself in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, of the God who is Love, and who is my only hope.

And I beg for that Love to be poured out as healing mercy on a poor world that is so broken and so full of longing and suffering and deception and violence — a world that I feel inside my own heart, crying out for a love it does not know, crying out for the Presence of Christ to radiate love within it through me. 

Come Holy Spirit, make me an instrument of God's love and mercy.

Saint Andrew Kaggwa of the Uganda Martyrs

This is the story of Saint Andrew Kaggwa, one of the group of martyrs whose feast we celebrate today.

The nineteenth century witnessed the first sustained interaction between European nations and the many different cultures of sub-Saharan East Africa. Europeans met not only various tribal societies, but also a remarkable political entity on the shores of what is now Lake Victoria: a nation of three million people united under a centralized bureaucracy and ruled by an absolute monarch.

This realm was called Buganda, and its ruler was the Kabaka. The “Kingdom of Buganda” dominated the surrounding region, received tribute and took slaves from enemy tribes, and traded with Arab merchants. Some of the Bagandans accepted the religion of the Arabs, abandoning their traditional animism for an adherence to one God.

Among the many slaves was a young boy born about 1855, taken from a neighboring tribe, adopted by a Baganda clan family and raised as one of their own. He was given the name Kaggwa. His strength and outgoing personality won the favor of many, and he was recruited by the prestigious royal service as a teenager. He was assigned to the royal musical retinue which was at the time trained by Arabs. Young Kaggwa had a keen intelligence and (along with many other Bagandans) a remarkable hunger for the truth. Desiring to serve the One God who created all things, he followed his Arab teachers at that time and became a Muslim.

Meanwhile, French Catholic missionaries first arrived at the court of Kabaka Mutesa in 1878. Mutesa was a complex character, fascinated by religion, refined, but also corrupt, ruthless, and bent on the maximum consolidation of his own power. He allowed freedom for religious teaching, but constantly vacillated his favor between Arabs, English Protestants, and French Catholics.

Kaggwa was not content as a Muslim. But soon he encountered the French Father Siméon Lourdel, a Catholic priest from a strange land with a strange skin color, but also specially prepared to share something beautiful with the Baganda people. Lourdel proposed the true God who created all things, and who also became man in Jesus and redeemed the human race from sin. Jesus seeks every person of every race and nation, to draw them into communion with his ongoing presence and gift of himself in the Catholic Church.

By the time Kaggwa took his place at the Kabaka’s court, he had decided to enroll as a Catholic catechumen. The grace of the Holy Spirit worked powerfully in transforming his own searching intelligence and openheartedness. The missionaries were astonished by how Kaggwa and several other young catechumens rapidly learned the catechism with thoroughness and comprehension, became passionately committed to their faith, and began spreading it to others even before their own baptism. Kaggwa soon brought his friends to receive instruction from the missionaries, who found that they had already learned much from Kaggwa himself.

Finally, he was baptized “Andrew” Kaggwa on April 30, 1882. In the next four years, he rose to prominence in the court of Mutesa’s son, the Kabaka Mwanga. He married and began a Catholic Christian family, and also taught the faith to many others as a catechist in his home. In this way, however, he aroused the envy of anti-Christian officials which led to his martyrdom a week before that of young Charles Lwanga and the other children attendants at the royal palace on June 3, 1886.

On John Paul’s Birthday, I Remember Being 28

Today is John Paul’s 28th birthday. When this blog began he was 13. Now he’s nearly five years married with a family of his own. When I was 28, I was still single and several years into my graduate studies.

It was the year 1991.

Here is a poem-of-sorts that I wrote a few months short of turning 28. It has a visual component, as I am comparing myself to ten years earlier (1981). It’s not a very deep reflection, but it’s based on a sense of how we change as we grow older. At this age, after a decade of “adult experiences,” we have a stretch of life we can “look back” upon.

Roses are Blooming

June is almost here, and the roses are blooming.🌹

Non-violence: A Method and a Style of "Peace-building"

May 2025 on this Blog has been all about "Popes" - not surprisingly. I'm finding it difficult to write lately, but perhaps that's just as well. It's hard to know what to say in these disturbing times. 

Pope Leo has encouraged us to listen, and he has already said much that is worthy of hearing. 

In a speech he made today to the Italian group initiative "Arena for Peace," Leo gave a concise yet rich articulation of the importance of non-violence as a Christian and human witness which is rooted in hearts that renounce vengeance, and through compassion branch out into works of mercy, fraternity, solidarity, and peace. Here are some of his words:

"Dear brothers and sisters, all too much violence exists in the world and our societies. Amid wars, terrorism, human trafficking and widespread aggression, our children and young people need to be able to experience the culture of life, dialogue, and mutual respect. Above all, they need the witness of men and women who embody a different and non-violent way of living. From local and everyday situations up to the international order, whenever those who have suffered injustice and violence resist the temptation to seek revenge, they become the most credible agents of non-violent peacebuilding processes. Non-violence, as a method and a style, must distinguish our decisions, our relationships and our actions.

"The Gospel and the Church’s social doctrine are a constant source of support for Christians in this effort. They can also act as a compass for everyone, since the fostering of a culture of peace is a task entrusted to all, believers and non-believers alike, who must advance it through reflection and a praxis inspired by the dignity of the person and the common good.

"If you want peace, prepare institutions of peace. Increasingly we realize that this cannot simply involve political institutions, whether national or international, but requires all institutions – educational, economic and social. The Encyclical Fratelli Tutti frequently spoke of the need to pass from 'I' to 'we', in a spirit of solidarity that needs to find institutional expression. For this reason, I encourage you to remain committed and present: present within history as a leaven of unity, communion and fraternity. Fraternity needs to be recovered, loved, experienced, proclaimed and witnessed, in the confident hope that it is indeed possible, thanks to the love of God 'poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit' (Romans 5:5)."

“Christ’s Ascension…Sustains Our Journey on Earth”

This year, Thursday’s worldwide observance of the Feast of the Ascension is on May 29, which is also the memorial of Saint Paul VI, the Pope of my childhood (who served from 1963-1978).

Personhood, the "Heart," and Friendship with Jesus

I continue to meditate on the late Pope Francis’s last Encyclical on the Sacred Heart, published this past October 24. Here are some beautiful excerpts from sections 25-28.

“Where the thinking of the philosopher halts, there the heart of the believer presses on in love and adoration, in pleading for forgiveness and in willingness to serve in whatever place the Lord allows us to choose, in order to follow in his footsteps. At that point, we realize that in God’s eyes we are a ‘Thou’, and for that very reason we can be an ‘I’. Indeed, only the Lord offers to treat each one of us as a ‘Thou’, always and forever. Accepting his friendship is a matter of the heart; it is what constitutes us as persons in the fullest sense of that word.

“Saint Bonaventure tells us that in the end we should not pray for light, but for ‘raging fire’. [Itinerarium Mentis in Deum VII:6] He teaches that, ‘faith is in the intellect, in such a way as to provoke affection. In this sense, for example, the knowledge that Christ died for us does not remain knowledge, but necessarily becomes affection, love’. [Proemium in I Sent., q.3] Along the same lines, Saint John Henry Newman took as his motto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur, since, beyond all our thoughts and ideas, the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart. This realization led him, the distinguished intellectual, to recognize that his deepest encounter with himself and with the Lord came not from his reading or reflection, but from his prayerful dialogue, heart to heart, with Christ, alive and present. It was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace: ‘O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still… I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receive Thee, to eat and drink Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy abode within me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace’.

“Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his words and our will is moved to put them into practice. This could easily remain on the level of a kind of self-reliant moralism. Hearing and tasting the Lord, and paying him due honour, however, is a matter of the heart. Only the heart is capable of setting our other powers and passions, and our entire person, in a stance of reverence and loving obedience before the Lord.

“It is only by starting from the heart that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters. Reconciliation and peace are also born of the heart. The heart of Christ is “ecstasy”, openness, gift and encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, and to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle.”