[Salvation]

Friday, First Week of Easter

The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them.

Luke 24:10-11

Can you beat that? These women disciples report what happened – and the apostles don’t believe them. Because they were women? Well, in John’s Gospel, Thomas wouldn’t believe the male disciples who had seen the Risen Lord.

We don’t live in a culture that automatically supports our faith. Our decision to believe in Christ is more radical than it seemed 50 years ago. The theologigian Karl Rahner said that faith today requires “the lonely courage of the first century martyr.”

In the end our faith can only be based, not on what others tell us…not on indoctrination…not on public opinion…not on reasoned arguments…not on second-hand date…but on our own firsthand experience of God.

This is not something that we accomplish. We must simply open ourselves to receive it as a gift when it comes – usually in prayer, but other times too.

My own firsthand experience of God?

Spend some quiet time with the Risen Lord.

[Salvation]

April 2, 2005

Feast of St. Francis of Paola

Today is the feast of St. Francis of Paola, the patron saint of sailors. Born in 1416, his parents named him after St. Francis of Assisi. At 14, he decided to become a hermit. Over the years, others were attracted to his austere lifestyle, and eventually he founded a community which became known as the Franciscan Friars, meaning “the least of all religious.”

* * * *

Many centuries later, a cloistered community of monks in the Bavarian Alps produced a heavy, dopplebock beer to sustain them through Lenten fasting. Today, Munich’s Paulaner brewery derives its name from that monastery which was dedicated to St. Francis of Paola.