OUR FAITH

A seminarian’s reflection

By Daniel Flores Contributor

Daniel Flores is a seminarian for the Diocese of Corpus Christi. He is currently studying at Saint Mary Seminary in Houston.

“There is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole

earth keeps silence …” – Excerpt from an ancient second-century homily given on Holy Saturday by Bishop Melito of Sardis M any of us may feel a sense of deprivation and separation, without a community. Empty pews remind us there’s not much to do, but we should see this as a time of retreat – of getting away from all the noise of this world.

Sudden changes during this global pandemic have caused a halt to my classes and formation. In light of this, I continue to see it as a moment of opening my eyes and being truly grateful for pursuing my vocation – but this hasn’t always been the case.

Last year in August, up until October, I began having doubts about becoming a priest. I recall a particularly stressful day. I was sitting by the patio on seminary grounds, reflecting on how upset I was with myself, when a professor, who saw how miserable I was, asked me how everything was going. After confiding in him, he told me to go to the chapel and pray for a while.

Later, I recalled the scene in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ in the garden, where he found his disciples asleep – not keeping watch. The disciples were distressed; they didn’t know what to do. Jesus answered, “Stay here. Watch, pray!” It’s as if Jesus, himself, was commanding me to pray, and rightly I did so. At that moment, all my sense of doubts and fears were lifted from me.

I was able to experience a sense of peace and calm in my heart, through the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There was silence and stillness all around me at that moment. Through various conversations with my brother seminarians, I also felt the presence of Christ in them by listening to what they said.

Today, the earth is silent. We are mourning. Restaurants and local businesses are shut down, and many places remain closed. We as Catholics are deprived of the Most Holy Eucharist. “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). When we send our cares, our worries and our praises to the Lord, he hears us and grants his blessings to those who acclaim his name. The Lord promises that he would never cast his eyes away from us when we call out to him. We cannot hope to begin the change on this earth if we continue to ignore the person who loves us the most.

I encourage each one of us to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Perhaps we should be like our Blessed Mother Mary, who listened to her Son, at the Wedding Feast at Cana, and when she found him in the temple.

The Lord will sustain and provide for us if we continue to trust in him. Trusting in God was what I did at the beginning of this year in seminary formation. There were struggles and tribulations along the way – but casting my cares onto the Lord helped sustain my prayer life with the hope of one day serving my diocese.

Now, this is the major tribulation you and I must endure. Pope Francis says, “To you and to all, I repeat: Never yield to discouragement, do not lose trust, do not allow your hope to be extinguished.” – These words have been my motto throughout these past six years of formation – words that have given me peace and joy in my heart. I encourage every one of us to do the same.

Mary, a mother to all

By Julie Stark

South Texas Catholic C atholics, through tradition, around the world, have dedicated the month of May to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This singular devotion awakens hearts to Mary as the first disciple, the first to love the precious savior, and the first to lead people to Jesus.

Mary is the perfect model for all to imitate in order to follow Christ faithfully. St. John Paul II, when speaking as pope in Washington, D.C. said, “‘From Mary, we learn to surrender to God’s will in things. From Mary, we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone. From Mary, we learn to love Christ, her Son and the Son of God … Learn from her to be always faithful, to trust that God’s Word to you will be fulfilled, and that nothing is impossible with God.’”

When Jesus gave her to the world at the foot of the cross and asked John to take her as his mother, she became humanity’s mother, ‘mother to all.’

At the heart of most saints is a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Bonaventure says of St. Francis of Assisi, “He loved with an unspeakable affection the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, forasmuch as that She had made the Lord of glory our Brother, and that through Her we have obtained mercy” (Leg. Mai. IX,3). For who can make the Lord our brother, if she not also be our mother?

The faithful can show particular devotion to the Blessed Mother by singing Marian songs, praying Marian prayers, and reciting the rosary. Participate in a May Crowning, an event that signifies Mary’s queenship as the mother of Christ the King, by placing a crown of blossoms on the head of her statue.

This May find a special time to devote in prayer to Our Lady, to thank her for her willingness to say “yes” to God.

Message of Fatima

By Julie Stark

South Texas Catholic I n a world where we see wars being played out on the evening news, threats of terrorism both foreign and domestic, and where the faithful are challenged and vilified by a secular society, the message of Fatima is still relevant today. Increasingly we live in a society that does not know God or that keeps him at arm’s length.

Our Lady’s messages to the three shepherd children, Lucia de Jesus Santos, and her first cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, are messages to bring us closer to God and help us understand our duty to pray for people to know and love God better.

On May 13, the faithful around the world celebrate the beginning of

Our Lady’s visitations to the three little shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. These visitations took place on May 13, 1917, and con-

tinued until October of the same year. Our Lady has always worked to bring people closer to God. Therefore, it stands to reason that the messages of Fatima would ask us to put God first in our lives, make reparation for our sins, pray the rosary each day for peace in the world so that all will know and love God.

At this point in history, our world had been enduring World War I for three years and reeling from the loss of life. Although the end of the war was on the horizon, the global pandemic of 1919 would soon be spreading. The Russians who had begun a civil war would soon establish a communist nation. Our Lady’s appearance and the miracles that followed were God’s means of showing his love for the world, a world that had lost its way and needed to be turned from the path it was on.

The visitation of Our Lady of Fatima exhorts us to return to God, to prayer, and to make reparation for the souls in purgatory. Our Lady of Fatima is still asking us to do those things. She is still pleading with us. She is still waiting for us to make things right with God so that our world will come back to the love of the Father. We need only to heed her message. In asking us to recite the rosary every day, Our Lady of Fatima also asked us to pray the following prayer after each decade of the rosary, “O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.” As we see the strife in the world around us and our own recent pandemic, let us turn to Our Lady of Fatima and heed her call to prayer.

Let us not forget what happened over 100 years ago in a small village in Portugal but take up the power of the rosary and pray fervently.