Day after Thanksgiving

I haven’t seen anything of this sort, and if I were more organized I would start something myself… There ought to be a petition, a worldwide campaign for everyone on the planet to NOT PURCHASE anything today. Let’s demonstrate that we honestly want to break the cycles of excessive acquiring, owning, and focusing on all of the wrong things. This one day, more than any other, would be terrific to not buy.

Headlines in the papers tomorrow would scream that the world is coming to an end.

Wisdom from the 1209 Rule of Saint Francis

This paragraph from St. Francis’s original Rule of Life feels appropriate to my life these days. I wanted to share it with you, too…

“I counsel, admonish and beg my brothers that, when they travel about the world, they should not be quarrelsome, dispute with words, or criticize others, but rather should be gentle, peaceful and unassuming, courteous and humble, speaking respectfully to all as is fitting. They must not ride on horseback unless forced to so by obvious necessity or illness. Whatever house they enter, they are first to say, ‘Peace to this house’ (Lk. 10:5). According to the holy gospel they can eat whatever food is set before them.”

John Chrysostom on Why There Is Poverty and Wealth

Today is the Feast Day of St. John Chrysostom, one of the greatest teachers in the history of the Christian Church. He is recognized as one of the “Eastern Fathers.”

I recently came across this passage from one of his sermons on 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which will soon be published in the book, The Love Chapter:

The first and great commandment is, “You shall love the Lord your God,” and then he adds the second (never wanting the first to be heard alone), which is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” See how Christ demands this of us with nearly the same exactitude. Concerning God, he says, love with all your heart. And concerning your neighbor, love as yourself—which is tantamount to with all your heart!

Listen: if this were truly observed there would be neither slave nor free, neither ruler nor ruled, neither rich nor poor, neither small nor great. And no devil would ever have to become known. Only Satan would have been known and whatever other evil spirits there a even if they numbered in the hundreds, thousands, or to ten thousand, they would have no power while love ruled. For grass would more easily endure a scorching fire than the devil the flame of love (cf. Jms. 1:11).

Love is stronger than any wall, and is firmer than any rock. If you can name any material stronger than walls and rocks, the firmness of love transcends them all. Neither wealth nor poverty overcomes love. The truth is, there would be no poverty, no unbounded wealth, if there were love (cf. Mt. 6:31–34). There would only be the virtuous qualities, without the bad, that stem from each state, poverty and wealth. We would only reap the abundance from wealth, and from poverty we would only have its freedom from care; no one would have to undergo the anxieties of riches or the dread of poverty.

Mass in French/any language

I’ve just returned this morning from the 7:30 a.m. mass at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal. Even the Kyrie and the Sanctus were in French!

Still, I find that a mass, and many other forms of religious language, don’t need much translation. It’s not just that I know what’s happening when the priest begins the Kyrie in French and so I can recite along in my English, but it’s that the gestures of faith and religious language say as much, or more, than do the actual words.

Lighting Vigil Candles

Candle lighting is a way of prayer. Long after our attention has moved on to other things, a lit votive candle symbolizes the intention of our love for God in Christ and the presence of our request before heaven. Votive comes from the Latin word votum, meaning vow, but vigil—a much better word for this practice—means watchfulness.

Candles are often set aside in the front or back of churches for this purpose. I will sometimes light one of these at my home parish, either before the service begins or immediately after taking Communion, as a prayer to my grandmother or as a petition for a needy friend. I’ve been lighting a lot of candles, lately.

When used in prayer, a candle can show our persistence and continual desire to be with God, to listen for God’s will, and to seek the intercession of one of the saints. I often use a candle in this spirit in the early morning when I am the only person awake in the house, reading or praying.

Many Christians from all denominations have small spaces called home altars where vigil candles are often kept and used for prayer. Like the psalmist, we may say, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice” (Psalm 141:2).

This is a great practice: Offer a blessing over your candles, sanctifying them for the purpose of prayer. I sometimes use this prayer…

God of light, light to the nations,

light that reaches into all darkness,

use these candles to illuminate us.

May the light of our prayers always be with You,

quietly in Your holy presence,

and may we always be

reflected in Your true Light. Amen.