Category: Behold Vancouver

The “Preferential Option for the Poor” is a Catholic social teaching on how the Bible gives priority to the well-being of the poor and powerless. 

Referring to the Preferential Option for the Poor, Pope Leo XIV writes in his Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi Te, “This ‘preference’ never indicates exclusivity or discrimination towards other groups, which would be impossible for God. It is meant to emphasize God’s actions, which are moved by compassion toward the poverty and weakness of all humanity. Wanting to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, fraternity and solidarity, God has a special place in his heart for those who are discriminated against and oppressed, and he asks us, his Church, to make a decisive and radical choice in favor of the weakest… With St. John Paul II, the Church’s preferential relationship with the poor was consolidated, particularly from a doctrinal standpoint. His teaching saw in the option for the poor a ‘special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness.'” 

Fr. Mark-Mary shares powerful examples of how we can put the poor and weakest among us at the front of our hearts and minds.

Shift your attitude about leadership and it can change your life.Think of the names of some living leaders.

Is your own name on that list?

I guess not. But it should be. Each of us has a leadership opportunity and responsibility, every single day, whether at home or at work. What’s more, showing leadership is core to our calling in this world. That will become clear in following paragraphs, as we discard some faulty stereotypes to reach a more authentic understanding of leadership.

We don’t typically think of ourselves as leaders. We stereotypically associate “leadership” with hierarchy and fame. You and I aren’t leaders; popes, presidents, and chief executives are. To proclaim oneself a leader? That sounds like chest-thumping arrogance, directly contradicting the New Testament’s manifold exhortations to humility: “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled,” for example, or, “Blessed are the meek,” or “Humble yourselves before the Lord,” and we could go on.

But a life of leadership is not at all inimical to a Christian worldview; rather, it’s core to the Christian calling.

Consider one common dictionary definition: Leadership involves “pointing out a way, direction, or goal,” and “influencing others toward it.” Well, every one of us is living that definition every day. We’re not standing on street corners holding road signs and literally pointing out the way. But we’re doing so implicitly. By our behaviors, values, and priorities, we’re pointing out a way of living, our vision of how human beings ought to live and treat one another in this world. Many of us are parents, and all of us have parents: Could there be any more obvious example of “pointing the way” and “influencing others” than what parents do for children over a lifetime? Good parenting, then, is good leadership.

Once we embrace this way of thinking, the “leadership light bulb” goes off and transforms our approach to life and work. Leadership becomes today’s challenge and my challenge. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eloquent call to embrace “the fierce urgency of now”? Well, that happens upon accepting one’s leadership responsibility: We “embrace the now” by discovering each day’s small opportunities to point out a way of living through our example: How am I using my time? How am I treating my children, community members, or work colleagues? How am I using my money?

It’s no longer some remote opportunity that may emerge if I someday manage hundreds of subordinates; instead, leadership is about the influence I can have today, whether I’m managing hundreds or indirectly influencing a handful of family members and colleagues. And it’s no longer the exclusive domain of high and mighty personages who wrestle with world-shaking issues in the global limelight; it also involves the more humble impact that I can make.

“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:22) 

Woah! Come again? On the list of controversial and misunderstood Bible verses, this is near the top. 

When it swings through in the cycle of Mass readings, folks are often left in the pew looking at each other like, “Did anyone else just hear what St. Paul said?” 

If you’ll let Fr. Mike explain this scripture passage, it will transform the way you understand Christian marriage (for the better).

After college, there was a period in my life when I dreaded the weekends.  

I anxiously awaited the long hours of unstructured time I would spend trying to distract myself from my loneliness. It wasn’t that I lacked friends, it was the physical distance between us that left me without plans on the weekends. As I adjusted to moving back home while working full-time as a college librarian and not having connections at my fingertips like I had when I was a student, I hungered for community with peers.

My instinct during this time of loneliness was to take advantage of as many opportunities as possible to foster social connection. I joined a women’s group at a parish in Chicago and volunteered as a literacy tutor. I invested in hobbies that would sustain my body and mind – I went to exercise classes and rollerbladed, I started a gratitude journal and listened to audiobooks. 

LISTEN: How Can I Be Strong in Faith While Missing Community? 

Though these pursuits were healthy and helped me discover what fulfills me, I could not stay present and enjoy them when my focus remained on what I lacked. I stayed in motion but hadn’t found my place, becoming bitter and cynical when these activities did not produce the community I craved. Rather than reframing this period of loneliness as an opportunity to try new experiences and reevaluate my priorities, I saw it as a burden that I didn’t deserve to carry. I concentrated too much on what I wanted to gain from these activities rather than on what I could give to God and others through them.

As this period continued, I knew I needed help. While I received support through mental health counseling, I also brought this ache to my spiritual life, turning to saints who had both experienced pain and found profound peace in trusting God. I asked our Blessed Mother Mary for help finding good and holy friendships. I prayed a novena to St. Therese the Little Flower, asking for the courage to pursue true friendships. On the last day of the novena, I joined a woman whom I had briefly met at Mass for a drink. It was the first new friend I had made in a long time, and the conversation we had affirmed me that a new, meaningful connection was possible.

RELATED: Three Female Saints and Mystics Who Guide Me to Freedom

As I struggled to let go of my need for control and rely on the saints’ intercession, opportunities for friendship and community began to present themselves more naturally, but without the same sense of pressure. I was invited to volunteer with an organization that hosts afterschool programs for girls, and I met other like-minded women who also volunteered there.

Immaculée Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, shares how through her suffering she learned what it means to truly forgive someone and the new life that comes from that forgiveness.

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 Are you giving too much power to the devil? Dave VanVickle shares how we should view Satan. 

Remember he’s just a creature, therefore his power is limited. If we stay close to the Creator, we should not fear!

In this episode, we welcome Arthur and Ester Brooks to talk about marriage, suffering, and the path to lasting love. Arthur and Ester share what it’s like to minister together, revealing both the grace needed and the hard work it takes to love each other faithfully over decades. We also reflect on suffering as an invitation for growth, why pain is fruitful, and how the hardest places in life are where love is purified. Whether you are married, single, or in religious life, intimacy with God is our source of strength for every situation we encounter in life.

Show Notes

One Thing We Love This Week:

• Sister Miriam’s one thing – Heather’s Easter Spotify Playlist

• Michelle’s one thing – Everyone who just came into the Catholic Church!

• Heather’s one thing – Franciscan’s Resurrection Party!

• Heather’s other one thing –  10 Day Pentecost Audio Prayer Plan

• Ester’s one thing – Her husband Arthur!

• Ester’s other one thing – Professional Cycling

• Arthur’s One Thing – Opportunities to witness to the Catholic faith during The Meaning of Your Life book launch

Discussion Questions:    

When are you tempted to be led by your feelings?

When have you had to let go of resisting suffering in the past?

Where in your life, marriage, or relationships do you feel stalled?

How is God inviting you to prioritize Him over your marriage, relationships, and responsibilities?

Journal Questions:

What does it look like to fight well?

How have I witnessed or experienced a marriage that is an antenna to God?

What suffering in my life am I resisting?

What are the discomforts and sufferings I have experienced today that I can thank God for?

Quotes to Ponder:

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”

— Pope John Paul II, World Youth Day, Rome, 2000

Scripture for Lectio Divina:

“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

The autumn air swirled around the skirt of my formal dress while jazz music filled the party tent. My husband and I were attending a work event, and I knew only a small handful of people there. The band was entertaining, and the food was delicious, but anyone who has been in a similar situation knows that engaging in small talk during cocktail hour can get dull and uncomfortable. Then, one of my husband’s colleagues turned to me with a warm smile and asked, “So Catherine, what has been the best part of your day?” 

Instantly, I relaxed into a similar smile as I told her about the haircut I received earlier that morning. We swapped funny stories about haircuts and hairdos — both good and bad — and I found myself enjoying a friendly rapport with a woman I had just met. The party became much more fun after that conversation because I had a new friend to enjoy it with. 

In the weeks that followed, I couldn’t stop thinking about the question she asked me and the impact it had on my night. I had already been asked, “Where are you from?” and “What do you do?” several times. But her question, although equally simple, felt different, and I wanted to know why.

I found an answer in social psychologist Vanessa Van Edwards’ TEDxLondon talk titled, “You are contagious.” In it, she explains that when we are asked a question like, “Been busy lately?” our brains automatically start recalling examples of busyness and stress in order to answer it. If you ask questions that focus on positive or exciting answers like, “What has been the best part of your day?” you trigger a dopamine response in that person as they think about their answer. Then, as Van Edwards says, they can pass that excitement or happiness back to you through their vocal cues and micro expressions, triggering a dopamine response in your own brain. 

As a wife and mother, I regularly find myself in situations that require small talk. I decided to put Van Edwards’ findings to the test to see if I could make small talk more enjoyable for both myself and others. 

Taking Van Edwards’ advice, I started by brainstorming a list of conversation starters that could trigger a dopamine response. I will admit that this felt awkward at first, but I knew if I wanted to avoid the automatic answers that come after, “What do you do?” and “Where are you from?” I needed to be prepared. On Substack, I started a list, and some of my favorites included, “How do you spend your days?”

Why are we so bent on finding an alternative to obeying the living God?

My favorite scene from Excalibur: Young Arthur has removed the sword Excalibur from the stone, thereby becoming king.  People wonder whether this young nobody is king. Arthur brandishes Excalibur, declaring, “Any man, who would be a knight, and follow a king—follow me!”  Oh! I was ready to jump up, shouting, “Take me!” To follow a king for a cause, having good reason to live and die—that touches the heart deeply. We often corrupt that noble longing, attaching it to what isn’t God.

What of Christ the King? Much of the world is either ignorant of him or rejects him. Too many deny God, deny our heavenly king, acting as if there is no Lord to love and serve.

Without a king, how will the soul find purpose? A king calls his people to a glorious destiny. Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Man is a useless passion.” So the world offers a lot of toys to distract us from our misery.

The world says that there’s no Lord to love and serve. Perhaps this is the worst lie of all. The human heart aches to give all the love it can, and to see all of that love completely and gratefully received. The human heart aches to receive constant and faithful love. But the world says we cannot have that perfect loving, because there’s no Lord to love and serve; so the world offers idols take the place of the real love we want to give and receive.

What if we acted on the truth that there is hope, purpose, and love? Believing in a God of hope, our grief would be easier to bear and our worship would be more joyful because we would believe that Jesus has conquered sin and death, and that his victory will be given to us over time and given to us completely at the world’s end. We’d know that anything good apparently lost was never really lost, but offered to God, who will give us all good in his kingdom.

Believing that Christ is our King, then what? Christ told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. I came into the world to testify to the truth. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice.” Christ testifies to a terrible and wonderful truth.

The terrible truth: We’re sinners. Sin brings darkness and death.

The glorious truth: Christ comes to rescue us, cleansing us with his own Blood, making us heirs to his kingdom, leading us home to his Father.

The hardest, saddest truth: We often believe that love’s impossible. So, here comes the world, to medicate the pain of our loneliness.