Catholic

Why is it that we can find countless resources for parents praying for children who have left the faith, but far fewer for children praying for their parents’ return? Although I’m blessed that my own parents are faithful, practicing Catholics, a recent conversation prompted me to reflect on the unique loneliness that often accompanies this sorrowful journey.

This past Sunday, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, our deacon concluded his homily with a simple enough lesson: “Love isn’t love until you give it away.” I spent the rest of my day trying to figure out why this line sounded so familiar. It had moved me deeply—I would go so far as to say that it galvanized me in the face of both everyday discontents and deeper wounds that I’d brought to the Lord that morning. Eventually, Google informed me that it comes most directly from the reprise of “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” from The Sound of Music, a film I have a fondness for but don’t know by heart.

A record number of over 10,000 faithful are registered to participate in this tradition of honoring Christ and Our Lady with a 22-mile pilgrimage from the National Shrine of St. Joseph in De Pere, WI, to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. The Shrine is the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States. We wrote about the apparition’s seer Adele Brice a few months back on this blog—her cause for canonization was recently opened by the Most Reverend David L. Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay. Servant of God Adele Brice devoted her life to traveling on foot as far as fifty miles through the Wisconsin wilderness to catechize families and children regardless of the weather, heeding the instructions to evangelize given to her by Our Lady of Champion.

Before she became something of a “lost Catholic classic,” Görres was a woman who loved the Church enough to speak honestly about her.

In these last few days of the Lenten season, the Gospel readings guide us through Christ’s final moments before His Passion and death. During this time, we are encouraged to recommit ourselves to fasting, prayer, and almsgiving as a way of drawing nearer to Jesus as His earthly ministry comes to a close.