Category: Behold Vancouver

Relics can be confusing, so here is a brief rundown of what Catholics believe.

Why do Catholics keep saint’s bones, hair, clothes or even their blood in gold shiny boxes? Didn’t God condemn idolatry? While many (both Protestants and Catholics alike) are often confused by the practice of venerating relics, the tradition has deep biblical roots.

What are relics?

Relics are material items that are connected to a saint and are sorted into three “classes.” A first-class relic is all or part of the physical remains of a saint. This could be a piece of bone, a vial of blood, a lock of hair, or even a skull or incorrupt body.

A second-class relic is any item that the saint frequently used (clothing, for example). A third-class relic is any item that touches a first or second-class relic.

Catholics are known to preserve relics of saints and it is believed that graces from God flow through these objects to devout souls who venerate them.

Where in the bible are relics?

The use of physical objects related to a holy person goes back as far as the Old Testament. In it we see an episode from the Second Book of Kings that features the use of relics.

“And so Elisha died and was buried. At that time of year, bands of Moabites used to raid the land. Once some people were burying a man, when suddenly they saw such a raiding band. So they cast the man into the grave of Elisha, and everyone went off. But when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and got to his feet.” (2 Kings 13:20-21)

Even in the New Testament we see how God uses material objects to bring about healings. In the Gospel of Mark we see how a woman is healed because she touched Jesus’ cloak.

“She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.’ Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.” (Mark 5.27-29)

There are other examples in the lives of the apostles that clearly show how God works miracles through items connected to a saint.

Do relics have power?

While the Church encourages the practice of venerating relics, it is important to remember that it is not the actual object that imparts healing. A piece of bone can’t heal someone from terminal cancer. However, God can use a relic of a saint to heal, just like he used his cloak to heal the woman with the hemorrhage.

Even great saints have gone through periods of doubt, but they persevered in prayer and love.

The word “doubt” has two definitions. The first one, as its etymology (dubius or double) suggests, is hesitation. For example, a person facing a fork in a road or a dilemma, unsure whether to turn left or right, to say “yes” or “no.”  

But the word can also designate the questioning of something we believed to be true until recently.

“Faith is certain,” recalls the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “It is more certain than human knowledge, because it is founded on the very Word of God, who cannot lie” (§ 157). When on the day of his baptism an initiate proclaims his faith in God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, his “I believe” expresses a certainty. More often than not this certainty comes after a period of doubt. He then believes, and his faith is destined to grow. If he perseveres in his faith, he will soon discover more reasons to believe than he could previously imagine. If he takes time to pray, the Lord will reveal more of His presence to him. And he won’t worry, if at times the Lord has not instantly answered his prayers. 

But there may come a time when faced with trials and tribulations that he questions certain aspects of the Gospel message. These doubts (in the second sense of the word), can be assuaged and do not necessarily imply any skepticism on his part. 

“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt”

Some saints had to go through these periods of spiritual darkness. At times, they felt that God had abandoned them, or worse, that they couldn’t love Him. They had to pray to overcome their despair. What gave them solace is the certainty that in accepting to take part in the agony of Christ they could participate in saving the world.  

In the last months of her life, St. Therese of Lisieux was assailed by terrible doubts about the existence of Heaven. But she firmly held on to her faith supported by the words of Christ: “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (John. 4:12). Cardinal John Henry Newman used to say: “Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”

When someone talks about “being on mission,” what’s the first thing you think about?

For a lot of people, missions might be limited to the trips people take with their churches to go and build a well or orphanage in another country. And while that’s a great way to serve God’s Kingdom, for many it’s not a reality.

And it’s not the only way to be on mission.

Maybe your life doesn’t have room for a missions trip. Maybe the idea of adding yet another thing to your weekly calendar seems like too much to ask. Maybe you and your spouse are barely finding time to connect as a couple, never mind turning your marriage into a mission field. However, having a mission-minded marriage doesn’t need to be as daunting as it seems.

But a bigger question – before addressing the how – would be the why. Why should mission be a central focus in your marriage?

Why is mission in marriage important?

Gary Thomas, in his book Sacred Marriage, writes, “When marriage becomes our primary pursuit, our delight in the relationship will be crippled by fear, possessiveness, and self-centredness. We were made to admire, respect, and love someone who has a purpose bigger than ourselves, a purpose centred on God’s untiring work of calling His people home to His heart of love.”

“Without this involvement in and commitment to service,” he continues, “marriage gets lonely very fast. A selfish marriage is a hollow marriage. We were made to serve God, and no human affection can appease that hunger for very long.”

But, again, having a marriage centred on mission doesn’t mean moving across the globe – it means being open to understanding the call God has placed on you, on your spouse and on your marriage.

How to live out mission every day

“If we are going to learn how to live out our mission in our marriage relationship,” Thomas writes, “we must learn to be more selfless, and we have to become more connected with each other. We have to remember that our spouse is called, just as we are, and we have to be interested enough in their call to know what it is that moves them and gives them energy.”

In A Lifelong Love, Thomas explains how mission looks different for different couples: “Though every Christian marriage should ultimately aspire to seek God’s kingdom as the primary mission, each couple will have a different expression of that mission.”

How can you and your spouse turn your marriage into a mission-minded marriage? Three couples share how God has led them to reach outside of their marriage and serve those around them.

In this episode, we begin our Advent journey in Eden, a place of freedom, communion, and life without shame. Eden is not only a moment in history, but also an interior garden within each of our hearts. We talk about the deep ache we all feel for union, rest, and peace, and how this longing reveals our original design for communion with God. We also reflect on the shame that often accompanies this desire for communion with others, especially when our desires are left unmet, and how bringing these places of poverty to Jesus opens us up to real, lived communion with Him.

Show Notes

One Thing We Love This Week:

• Sister Miriam’s one thing – Sacred Anchor Artisans (Catholic Etsy!) founded by Tim and Molly Olsen

• Michelle’s one thing –  The Inspired Living and this Chrism Candle

• Michelle’s other one thing – Fr. Innocent Montgomery, CFR

• Heather’s one thing – The Renew Conference in Toronto

• Heather’s other one thing – Her Advent Worship Playlist

“God does not ask us to be successful, He asks us to be faithful.” – St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta 

Fr. Mike Schmitz reflects on this quote along with the way St. Mother Teresa lived her life. So often we measure our lives by worldly success, however God wants your faithfulness, not your success. 

Let us always say, “God let me honor you with my effort.”

Do you trust God’s timing? 

Fr. Mike Schmitz reminds us that God is never late (and never early). We can trust whole heartedly that His timing is always perfect!

There is a scene in the emotional movie, “Good Will Hunting”, where Will is laid back against a wooden desk and his therapist looks at him lovingly after hearing something that happened in his past. The therapist says, “It’s not your fault”. Will, still laid against the desk, scoffs, shrugs it off and says, “I know that”. The therapist gingerly steps forward and says again, “It’s not your fault”. Will blinks, looking confused with a slight, crooked smile, “I know”? Then again, the therapist says, “it’s not your fault”. Slowly, we see Will’s face start to change. We may even see his eyes start to well with tears. The therapist keeps saying and keeps coming physically and emotionally closer, “It’s not your fault, it’s not your fault”. At the end, we see Will and the therapist embrace. Will’s sobs are the sound of a real cathartic release. 

Speaking as a counsellor, this scene is such a powerful picture of something moving from the head to the heart — from knowing to believing. Will knew in his mind that it wasn’t his fault; but until that moment, his heart did not.

Practicing our faith can sometimes be like Will’s experience. We know the Bible verses. We know to attend Mass. We know novenas and prayers ‘work’ but we struggle to believe that God will intervene within our families struggling with addictions, turmoil, grief, sicknesses etc…Like Will, “We know”. Yet sometimes, it feels like our heart is still catching up to what our head knows. Why does this happen?

In counselling school, I learned the phrase: “staying in the cognitive”, which is deciphering when a client tends to stay ‘‘in the brain’’, speaking in a matter-of-a-fact way; ultimately deciding not to feel things in the heart for whatever good and protective reason. This was a way to live safely as sometimes the heart is too unsafe, fragile and vulnerable. To “stay in the cognitive” feels safer than entering life fully with gusto and zeal. 

When someone stays in the cognitive, the counselling belief is that we get to know about their story, but not how they truly felt in that lived experience. For example, if a client tells me about a breakup and recounts how it happened, without the details of how they felt about the breakup, I am not getting the full story. Did they feel that it was unfair? Or needed? Both elements of the story – the facts and the feelings –  are needed because both can be used for God’s glory. Like most things of God and His character, there is no either/or, but a both/and. 

I fell in love with the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel decades ago, when I encountered it—in rapid succession—in both Fr. Raymond Brown’s “A Coming Christ in Advent” and Gail Godwin’s novel “Evensong.” Unfortunately, even daily Mass-goers won’t get to hear it this year, as it’s proclaimed only when December 17 (the first day of the “O Antiphons” leading up to Christmas) does not fall on a Sunday. 

Matthew’s genealogy is a startling, tongue-twisting list of fathers that also includes four mothers:  Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Their tales are filled with fraught sexual encounters, including incest, prostitution, and rape. We may be tempted to look away–or even question how these brutal stories can be considered sacred texts. And yet, each of these women played a key role in the history of salvation. So, in the spirit of the first antiphon—O Wisdom—let’s peek at the wisdom of our foremothers in faith. 

Tamar (Genesis 38)

In biblical times, if a married man died childless, his brother had to marry the widow to father an heir for the deceased. Tamar had married Judah’s oldest son, Er, who died, then his middle son Onan, who also died. Judah—understandably skittish—asked Tamar to wait a few years before marrying his youngest, Shelah. When it became clear that a third wedding was not forthcoming, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked Judah into sleeping with her; their son Perez became an ancestor of Jesus. 

After news of her pregnancy kindled her father-in-law’s rage, Tamar confronted Judah with the truth, and he admitted, “She is in the right.” Why was she praised for her deceit? I believe it’s because the marriage protocol in question was not just a human precept; it was what the people understood as divine law. Tamar knew it, and so did Judah. Instead of placing her hope in men, Tamar bravely placed her hope in God—and took matters into her own hands.

When have women (and men) of our day struggled with dawning awareness that those who should have known better were not doing the right thing? My mind goes straight to the clergy scandal, which eroded the trust of countless Catholics. Yet I also think of politicians who put the wishes of the gun and fossil fuel lobbies above the welfare of children, and of CEOs who amass wealth while denying their workers a living wage. In the face of their disgraceful conduct, I am inspired by women and men who speak truth to power, often at personal risk. Tamar is the patron saint for those who take bold action in the service of God’s vision—for our Church and for our world.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is one of my favorite hymns, if not my all-time favorite. This hymn is ubiquitous with the Advent season and is heard in most Catholic churches in the United States at least once in the season. The words of this hymn, simultaneously wonderfully ancient and ever-new, are based on what is referred to as the “O Antiphons.” Now, maybe you already knew that, maybe you’ve heard of the “O Antiphons” before, or maybe you’re now wondering what an antiphon even is. Chances are though, you’ve heard this hymn and might have wondered where it came from.

An antiphon is a short phrase or sentence that is used in liturgies like the Mass or Liturgy of the Hours. Antiphons serve as small refrains and often highlight a particular message or prayer of the season. In this case, the “O Antiphons” refer to the specific antiphons used in Vespers (evening prayer of Liturgy of the Hours) that go with reciting the Magnificat (Mary’s prayer of praise from Luke) from December 17 to 23. Together, these seven antiphons – all of which start with calling upon Jesus Christ with an exclamatory O, hence the name –  help to serve as a prayerful conclusion to Advent, a homestretch prayer on our way to Christmas.

Structurally, each antiphon has two key parts. The first is a traditional title of Jesus Christ as the messiah, the one who was promised to come, such as Emmanuel, used by Gabriel in the Annunciation meaning “God with us.” These titles reflect how the prophets thought of the coming messiah and who he is. The second part of each antiphon is a reflection of that role by drawing upon the words of the prophet Isaiah. This portion helps to reflect on the mission and ministry of the messiah and how he would live out that particular title. For us as Christians, we use these prophetic titles and words to reflect on Jesus Christ, what he has done in history, and how he continues to act in our lives today.

We can sit with these seven little phrases and draw upon their richness in helping us to know Jesus Christ as the wisdom of God, guiding us in our lives and actions. We too call upon Jesus Christ in a longing way as we look forward to and hope for his second coming. So just as the prophets longed for his first arrival, we too wait eagerly and look forward to his return in glory.

December 17: O Sapientia

O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet gentle care.

A four part Advent series on the nature and character of Mary, our Mother.