The Mission Update
The Missio Dei Newsletter Issue #3- Remember You Will Die.
Letter from the Editor
Greetings to the Readers and Writers,
One of the most glaring notions that have become apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic is how afraid modern Western people are to die. Quite frankly, I’m astonished at how easily the Catholic Church closed shop and kept the sacraments, namely the source and summit of the Catholic faith—the Eucharist, away from the faithful. The argument is made that we have a Christian duty to protect the lives of our neighbors—that is true. The problem is modernity has also forgotten there are far worst things than mere death.
The charism of Missio Dei is founded on the mission of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to the world. Our actions, or rather reactions, on how we engage with the spiritual life must be a consideration for how our missionaries proclaim the gospel—which is the call for the repentance of sins, the forgiveness of those sins, and eternal life through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The New Testament response to the gospel is a threefold action: faith, repentance, and baptism.1
Christ asks, “Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth?” Do we believe in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life?
Philosopher Sören Kierkegaard writing in his treatise The Sickness Unto Death, explains that the sickness that leads to true death is not our physical death, but rather it is our giving into anxieties and despair in this world—a giving up of our faith.
Sacred Scripture agrees with Kierkegaard and, in fact, makes a note of the spiritual warfare aspects of it in the Letter to the Hebrews:
14 Now since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.2
The proclamation of the gospel is a realization that we are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song. We believe in a resurrected Lord who promises to provide the means of the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Let us pray for this faith and the courage to proclaim it to others.
Oratio
Prayer for a Happy Death by St. John Henry Newman
Oh, my Lord and Savior, support me in that hour in the strong arms of Your Sacraments, and by the fresh fragrance of Your consolations. Let the absolving words be said over me, and the holy oil sign and seal me, and Your own Body be my food, and Your Blood my sprinkling; and let my sweet Mother, Mary, breathe on me, and my Angel whisper peace to me, and my glorious Saints smile upon me; that in them all, and through them all, I may receive the gift of perseverance, and die, as I desire to live, in Your faith, in Your Church, in Your service, and in Your love.
Amen.
Making a Good Confession
by Fr. Chris Pietraszko
There are many ways to look at making a good confession - we can examine preparation, good examinations of conscience, the work done to ensure we are going not out of mere habitude, presumption, scrupulosity, and developing genuine contrition. I am not going to focus on any of those things in this post - rather I’d like to simply focus on the format for confession and give a couple reasons why this is also important.
When you go for confession, especially when you are in a rather long line, we can forget that the priests time, as well as those in line is limited. We can also deform confession into a counselling session. Sometimes this happens because we are carrying some very real, and heavy burdens. If you need spiritual advice, consider making an appointment instead. If the matter isn’t about sin, ask for a Spiritual Director or temporary direction. Please even consider a therapist or counsellor if the problems are not merely spiritual. These heavy burdens are important - they need to be addressed. However, that is not the nature of confession - and we run the risk of abusing the Sacrament when we use it for these reasons. The last thing a priest wants to do is coldly tell a person who is in tears that they should make an appointment and we do not have time for them. That somewhat heartless reaction can certainly do damage. Yet the fact remains that The Sacrament of Confession is not principally counselling - its object is not therapy or advice - its object is the absolution of sins.
"Struggles in the Spiritual Life" with Fr. Timothy Gallagher O.M.V.
by Christina M. Sorrentino
If you love and enjoy Catholic literature, and want to take part in discussion with authors, editors, and readers you can participate monthly in Sophia Institute Press’ New Virtual Book Club.
This past month I joined the virtual book club with an editor from Sophia Institute Press, a small group of readers, and the author of the book, “Struggles in the Spiritual Life,” Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. Fr. Gallagher is mostly known for his writing on Ignatian Spiritual Direction and discernment, and has appeared on EWTN.
Fr. Gallagher spoke of how his book, “Struggles in the Spiritual Life,” begins with the everyday spiritual struggles of the human person and leads to the way to freedom from them. The first few chapters speak of spiritual struggles of various fictional characters in different situations, and then there is Fr. Reid, the figure of wisdom who they can turn to and he reveals to them the spiritual traditions of the Church. According to Fr. Gallagher, the character, “Fr. Reid acts as the depository of the Ignatian wisdom and the wisdom of the Carmelite tradition.”
The book addresses spiritual desolation and temptation, which are the basic tactics of Satan…
Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus
by Michael Joseph Carzon
In the first installment of this series, we covered preliminary ground in this investigation. The next two articles will cover two each of the four historical facts presented by William Lane Craig.
Fact 1: “After his crucifixion, Jesus was buried in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea.”{1}
Because of the historical proof for the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the items that need to be explored here are the burial and the person of Joseph of Arimathea. The tomb of Jesus can be seen in Jerusalem to this day, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 2016, during a renovation of the chapel surrounding the tomb, archaeologists dated the mortar in the shrine to the time of Constantine. {2} Other samples showed that various parts of the tomb could be dated to documented restorations and similar activities, and that the tomb itself dated to the time of Jesus. In the words of one archaeologist…
Memento Mori: Remember that You Must Die
by Stephanie Brady
I am someone who grew up being terrified of death. I went to Sunday school when I was little and learned about Jesus, but then never really got the chance to go back to church until I was a preteen. I went with my Aunt, who would take me randomly with her to hyper charismatic revivals where they shouted about the Rapture, and I would sit in the pew terrified about being left behind. Even after I really began to follow Jesus at the age of 17, I still continued to be afraid of death and what would come after…and honestly, I still struggle with the uncertainty of how things come to pass once our soul has left our body…what it’s like when we pass from this life into the next.
It is interesting that I have this fear of death considering the intense period of several years where I experienced suicidal ideation. I pined for death all the while dreading it. I would wake up and wish I would die that day, and yet, as I fell asleep, I would be terrified that I would indeed die. I had become stuck in a very strange cycle. The Lord was faithful through those dark days and helped me through.
And yet, the anxiety surrounding death still continued for me…
William S. Kurz, Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 58.
Heb 2:14–15. NABRE