Tag: catholic

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There’s a Jesus Revolution

Several weeks ago, I went to see Jesus Revolution, an absolutely wonderful movie that’s based on a true story. It was the cover story of Time Magazine on June 21st, 1971. You can read the article here. 

Greg Laurie, still the Pastor of Harvest Church in Southern California, wrote the book which the movie is based on. It’s the story of a failing Church and a struggling Pastor named Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), who is introduced to a hippie preacher named Lonnie (played by Jonathan Roumie of Chosen), by his daughter. Chuck does the unthinkable by inviting Lonnie into his Church to preach, also inviting his hippie friends and a band to do what wasn’t considered true Church music. 

More and more hippies then attended services, with the Church growing so much that they had to build a big tent. Baptisms were done in droves, in the Pacific Ocean. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Pastor Chuck addresses the hippie congregation by saying (paraphrasing), “no matter what sin you’ve committed, no matter what sin you’re currently living, you’re welcome here, where you’ll experience forgiveness and freedom”. WOW!!!!!!!!!! One of many times I teared up…pure joy. You may have heard before, “the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a hotel for saints”. Do yourself a favor…go see Jesus Revolution. 

Relate the above to what went on at Asbury University, where a revival was sparked by students spontaneously staying after a regularly scheduled chapel service on February 8, 2023. Following the gathering, Asbury President Kevin Brown sent out a brief two-sentence email: “There’s worship happening at Asbury. You’re welcome to join. An estimated 70,000 visited the campus for the revival through February 19th. 

I don’t know if you see it, but something’s happening. There’s a thirst, a hunger that people have. And they’re acting on it…including our Catholic Church. You may have heard of the launch of the National Eucharistic Congress, that will culminate in a revival in Indianapolis, in July 2024…with 80,000 in attendance. I’m honored to be on the programming team…it’s going to be a great gathering. 

I’m also privileged to work at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where we see this enthusiasm for our faith all the time. If you’ve never been, come visit. You’ll see a campus full of students truly on fire for our Lord. Come to one of our Steubenville Conferences and be blown away by what you experience. I guarantee you, you’ve never seen a Liturgy celebrated like at Steubenville. Our conferences are truly life changing, clearly the work of Jesus. 

In 1969, then Fr. Joseph Ratzinger said, “From the crisis of today the Church tomorrow will emerge a Church that has lost much. She will become small and have to start afresh, more or less from the beginning”. Prophetic words from our last Pope. The world, including our country, is in crisis. Not unique to all of Christianity, the Catholic Church has suffered significant losses. The statistics show that far fewer have a faith life compared to past generations. 

Stipulating to the above, people are seeking. They don’t always know what it is they’re looking for, but they’re looking. They’re yearning to fill the God sized hole they have in their chests. We know there’s only one answer…and that’s JESUS!!! 

What to do…love God, love your neighbor, and share the love of Christ. What else? Go see Jesus Revolution. Engage in the National Eucharistic Congress. Come to a Steubenville Conference. All will be life-changing…I guarantee it. Invest in your own faith journey. And then go light up the world. 

Btw, you can listen to a brief interview of me by Drew Mariani on Relevant Radio, on all of this here. (from minute 40 thru 47ish) 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

When the Miracle Doesn’t Come

On February 23, just 4 weeks ago, we lost Amber VanVickle, dear wife to Dave and loving mother of 5 children, including 2 with special needs. Amber was special for many reasons. But she was most special for her love for Jesus and her embracing of the Cross.  

The age-old question of Christianity is how an all-loving God allows tragedy in our lives. Amber eloquently answers that question below, in an article published in the National Catholic Register (NCR), originally in 2019 and then posted again after her death. You can find it and more on Amber at here. 

Before getting to the article, which is well worth the read and reflection (I’ve read it 10 times), I’d like to point you to a couple other things. 

Dave and Amber were interviewed prior to her cancer diagnosis. The subject was “Finding God in the Midst of Suffering” and is definitely worth the 8 minutes. Other articles authored by Amber, all worth reading and reflecting on, can be found at the NCR link above, just after the main post. 

Finally, if you’d like to support Dave and the kids, please go to: 

When the Miracle Doesn’t Come

In Amber’s words…”I remember distinctly a night that had a great impact on my soul, a night that led to a great searching and seeking.

It was late. I was sitting amid beeping machines around the hospital bed of my newborn daughter. She had just had extensive back surgery for severe spina bifida, only a few days old. She was more tubes and bandages than sweet baby-soft skin. I sat with a broken heart in quiet questioning to our Lord. We had prayed for a miracle that had not come, and the result had been nothing less than torturous — physically for our daughter, in every other way for us.

At this same time, a beautiful miracle had occurred for an acquaintance of ours. Like the miracles of old — a life-giving, awe-inspiring, faith-enriching healing. We rejoiced in it with all our hearts. A letter soon circulated that this miracle occurred, firstly, because of God’s great love for the couple. As I read the letter late that night, sitting next to my daughter, my heart broke even deeper. What did it mean for us that the miracle had not come? Did God not love us?

It’s easy for us to read the Gospel accounts and see only the thread of one miracle story after another. But there are hidden golden threads that seem too often unnoticed, and it seems as if our Lord utters them in quiet desperation: ‘You seek me… because you ate your fill of the loaves,’ ‘Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe,’ and ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

Perhaps the Lord is telling us that his love is not measured simply in the physical, in the miracles and the healings, but perhaps even more so, in the absence of those. That his love is shown, even more deeply, in the crosses, the trials and tempests of our lives, in the seeming absence of his power and love. That God permits sorrow and suffering for the very end of drawing us into himself, for an intimacy and sharing-in that could not be achieved any other way than through a share in his passion: ‘You seem, Lord, to give severe trials to those who love you, but only that in the excess of their trials, they may learn the greater excess of your love.’

Too often the spiritual life, that continuous road of handing our lives, hearts and wills to God, is depicted as an effortless adventure, that when we turn to God all will be well. Many times I’ve heard, ‘Just sit back and wait and see what the Lord does!’ as if a firework show awaits around every corner. But as St. Teresa of Ávila says, “They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will – with our thoughts, words and actions – to the will of God.”

God is a consuming fire, a fire that ‘breaks, blows, and burns and makes us new,’ as John Donne writes. God’s love is one that enflames but also one that purifies.

‘For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid affliction on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us forth to a spacious place.’

The absence of God’s miracles does not signify the absence of his love but the very presence of it, an offering of it and invitation to greater intimacy, a sharing in his life so efficaciously achieved by the stripping and fire of the cross: as St. Teresa Margaret writes, ‘Since Your life was a hidden life of humiliations, love and sacrifice, such shall henceforth be mine.’

Perhaps the sadness and frustration we hear in the voice of Christ is because of his desire for true love, a love that flourishes in the dark valleys as well as the peaks of life, a love that is not dependent on getting ‘our fill of the loaves,’ a love that is pursued and sought not because of signs and wonders but because of who he is, a love that is tested and tried and found pure and true. He gives us this opportunity of love through the cross and sufferings, even more so than his miracles. As St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus prays, ‘O Lord, you do not like to make us suffer, but you know it is the only way to prepare us to know you as you know yourself, to prepare us to become like you… because you wish that my heart be wholly yours.'”

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

What’s Your Lenten Plan? 

How do you spend Lent? What are the things you do or don’t do, that are different from other times of the year? Why do you do such things? What impact do they have? Could this Lent be different…maybe better? 

Lent comes every year, beginning on Ash Wednesday (which is today) and lasting 40 days to Holy Thursday. For many people, including Catholics, Lent is ignored. For others, I think Lent is about the 1-2 things they give up. It was for me for years, to varying degrees of success. Back then, I don’t know that I fully got it, the meaning of Lent. 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Lent is a time during which “the Church unites herself to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.” As per the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), it’s a season of prayer, almsgiving, and fasting, in preparation to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. The USCCB goes on to say we are called to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ’s will more faithfully. 

Given my journey and believe me I don’t have it all figured out, the primary thing is improving in what we’re already doing. Take prayer…how do I do it more and do it better? Like everything I’ll share here, what is the next thing you can be doing to enhance your spiritual life? If you spend no time in prayer each day, try 5 minutes. If you spend 10 minutes, how about 15? You get the point. Pick the stretch goal for you and do it daily. 

You could choose additional ways to pray or extend the time you do each form of prayer. Examples are rote prayer, reading Scripture, quiet time with our Lord. Should you desire, I have plenty of prayer resources I can pass along to you. 

I’ve fasted periodically, really beginning to do it more this past year. Fasting means different things to different people and health issues can impact what you do. I just heard an incredibly inspiring talk on fasting, where the book, Fasting, was suggested…here’s a link. Do an internet search to find additional information. Again, how can you take what you’ve been doing, no matter how much or little, to the next level? That’s my goal this lent. 

Almsgiving is the giving of one’s time, money, and possessions to those who are less fortunate. Again, what have you done in the past that you can enhance this Lent? 

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I’d like to close by referring to the USCCB from above, where it says related to Lent, “we are called to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ’s will more faithfully”. 

Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving…all of these spiritual practices are designed to lead us into a deeper relationship with Jesus, making us more holy, and providing us with the only path to peace, joy, and fulfillment. 

Some quotes to ponder as we enter this Lenten season: 

  • “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy” – Pope Francis
  • “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring” – St.
  • “Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may go to heaven” – St. Rose of Lima
  • “Unless there is Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday” – Blessed Fulton J. Sheen

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

What is True Friendship?

Cyndi and I often kid around that it’s only the two of us, no one else, whether we’re in Pennsylvania where we live, or Arizona and Nevada, places we like to travel. Like her parents and mine, we do everything together, having very few close friends otherwise. I’m blessed and gratified that my wife is truly my best friend. 

Cyndi often says that I know the world. It’s interesting…many, many places we go, I end up knowing someone or knowing someone who knows someone. I learned a long time ago though, that acquaintances aren’t the same as friendships. I have a ton of acquaintances, but very few close friends. Very few. 

For me, there’s a high bar to the word “friend”. I think of those who meet that criteria as being in my inner circle…those people who invest in me and me in them. It includes those who are heading in the same direction as me, who teach and pray with me, laugh and cry with me, and hold me accountable. They’re there when things are great, as well as when big challenges surface. 

Maybe it’s that high bar that results in me having so few friends. Or maybe I’m just wrong (feel free to respond to this and comment). Maybe the definition should be much broader. One of the problems here is mine. I’m not very good at small talk. If a conversation isn’t substantive, I check out quickly. And for whatever reason (maybe I’m doing it wrong), most conversations don’t get to a place of substance.

 

I’m part of a Discipleship Quad, a faith-based peer group, where 4 brothers in Christ are sharing life. Having been in men’s groups for years, this is my 3rd Quad. I joke around that during my last Quad, those were my 3 best friends and during this Quad, I have a new set of best friends. They’re investing in me and me in them, all of us heading in the same direction (striving to be Disciples of Christ). We laugh and cry, teach and listen, invest, are accountable, and love one another. 

I went to a funeral this past week…the Mother of a high school friend passed away. Playing football together and graduating in 1981, with the exception of maybe 1-2 times, I haven’t seen Nick in 42 years. Yet it was like we didn’t miss a beat…we just picked up where we left off. There are some others who fall into that category for me, including my 3 brothers. 

Life’s crazy busy…and I think getting busier. And as I get older, I’m way more interested in the peace than the pace. I truly don’t have this all figured out. What I have is this yearning, probably not unlike you, for authentic friendship, relationship, and community. I think we’re made for these things. 

I know my most important relationship is with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And my close 2nd is Cyndi, who I thank God for. As I close here, I’m reminded of the Great Commandments and Great Commission, where in short Jesus told us to “love God, love our neighbors, and share the Gospel message”. Maybe if I just do more of that, I’ll have more friends, good friends, real friends. How about you? 

As always, please email me at [email protected] with questions, concerns, comments, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God made you for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph