12 Days with St. Rose of Lima - Day 3 - Rose Falls in Love

Spiritual question: What did Rose discover in Jesus that made Him worth everything?

The first two days were largely about Rose.

Today we begin turning our attention away from Rose and toward Jesus.

That is exactly what Rose would want.

Because if our journey ends with you thinking, "St. Rose was an extraordinary woman," we will have failed.

The goal is eventually to understand why Rose could look at Christ and say, in effect:

You are enough. I want to belong entirely to You.

Today we begin discovering why.

KNOW — Something more than religious enthusiasm

Rose grew up surrounded by Catholicism: Mass, saints, sacraments, processions, religious orders, preaching, devotions.

But there is a difference between living in a Catholic environment and falling in love with Christ.

Rose increasingly understood her relationship with Jesus in deeply personal terms.

Christ wasn't merely:

God whom she believed existed.

He became:

the One to whom she belonged.

This is why one of the most important ideas for understanding Rose is the ancient Christian idea of:

Christ the Bridegroom

That language can initially sound strange, especially to modern ears.

But it is profoundly biblical.

God describes His covenant with Israel using the imagery of marriage. Jesus identifies Himself with the bridegroom. St. Paul describes Christ's relationship with the Church in marital terms. Revelation culminates in the wedding feast of the Lamb.

And therefore throughout Christian history, mystics have understood the soul's union with Christ through this imagery.

Rose inherited this tradition.

So did her great spiritual model, Catherine of Siena.

For Rose, consecrated virginity wasn't fundamentally:

"I don't want to get married."

It was much closer to:

"I already belong to Someone."

That's completely different.

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UNDERSTAND — Desire comes before sacrifice

This is where we need to correct our image of Rose.

If you begin her story with her fasting, mortifications and austerities, Rose can look almost incomprehensible.

But begin with love, and the pieces start fitting together.

Consider ordinary human love.

When someone falls deeply in love, strange things begin happening.

Time becomes less important.

You sacrifice sleep.

You rearrange schedules.

You travel farther than you normally would.

You spend money you would otherwise save.

You tolerate inconvenience.

You think repeatedly about the person.

And strangely, things that objectively cost something don't necessarily feel primarily like sacrifices.

Why?

Because love has changed their value.

This gives us an important spiritual principle:

Sacrifice becomes intelligible only when we understand what someone loves more than the sacrifice costs.

That is the doorway into Rose.

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The mistake we often make about holiness

Many Christians unconsciously imagine the spiritual life this way:

Give up things → obey commandments → make sacrifices → become holy → eventually become close to God.

But the saints frequently reveal something closer to:

Encounter God → fall in love → desire Him → surrender what obstructs that love → become increasingly free → love even more deeply.

Notice what comes first.

God.

Grace comes first.

Love responds.

Sacrifice follows.

This is profoundly Catholic.

Christianity isn't fundamentally humanity struggling upward toward God.

It begins with God coming downward toward humanity.

Creation.

Covenant.

Incarnation.

Cross.

Resurrection.

Eucharist.

Grace.

And then our response:

"We love because he first loved us."
— 1 John 4:19

That single verse could serve as a key to Rose's entire life.

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Now look at the Crucifix

Here we approach the center.

Rose developed an intense devotion to Christ crucified.

Modern Christians sometimes have difficulty understanding this.

Why dwell upon suffering?

Why contemplate wounds?

Why a crucifix rather than simply the risen Christ?

Because Rose wasn't primarily looking at pain.

She was looking at love made visible.

Think carefully about the Crucifix.

Christianity makes an astonishing claim.

The Person hanging there is not merely a good man who suffered unjustly.

He is the eternal Son of God.

Therefore the Crucifix says something about God Himself.

God is not distant from human suffering.

God enters it.

God does not merely command humanity to love Him.

He loves first.

And He loves at enormous cost.

So when Rose looked upon Christ crucified, the fundamental message wasn't:

"Look how much Jesus suffered. I should suffer too."

Before that comes:

"Look how much I am loved."

That changes everything.

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An experiment

Imagine standing before the Crucifix and asking:

"Jesus, how much do You love me?"

Christianity's answer isn't primarily a sentence.

It points toward Calvary.

That much.

Arms extended.

Nothing withheld.

Rose spent enormous amounts of spiritual energy contemplating this mystery.

And eventually another question naturally follows:

If He withheld nothing from me, why am I withholding myself from Him?

Now Rose's radicalism begins making sense.

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The Eucharistic Rose

Rose's love for Christ was also deeply Eucharistic.

This matters enormously.

Because Christianity could otherwise become admiration for a historical Jesus who lived 1,600 years before Rose.

But Catholicism says something much more startling.

The Christ of Calvary is present.

The same Jesus whom Rose loved is sacramentally present in the Eucharist.

Not symbolically present in the weak sense of "something that reminds us of Him."

Catholic faith confesses the Real Presence.

Body.

Blood.

Soul.

Divinity.

Therefore Rose's love wasn't merely:

"Jesus did something wonderful centuries ago."

It was:

"Jesus is here."

And that is the beginning of Eucharistic spirituality.

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Now something becomes uncomfortable for us

Rose's world lacked many things we possess.

No smartphone.

No streaming entertainment.

No social media.

No endless news feed.

No algorithm designed to capture her attention.

Yet she still believed the human heart needed silence to perceive God.

What would Rose think of us?

Not because technology is evil.

It isn't.

But because many of us almost never experience interior silence.

The moment boredom appears:

phone.

The moment anxiety appears:

phone.

The moment loneliness appears:

phone.

The moment we're waiting:

phone.

The moment an uncomfortable thought appears:

distraction.

And eventually something tragic can happen.

God may be whispering.

But our interior world has become so noisy that we cannot hear Him.

Rose's solitude begins looking less strange.

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The deeper issue: Do I love God—or merely believe in Him?

This is today's uncomfortable question.

Catholicism contains doctrines that must be believed.

But knowing doctrines about God is not identical with knowing God.

I can know:

Jesus is the Second Person of the Trinity.

Jesus has two natures.

Jesus instituted the Eucharist.

Jesus died for our sins.

Jesus rose bodily from the dead.

All true.

All essential.

And yet I can know all of that while my heart remains relatively untouched.

There is a difference between:

knowing that Jesus loves me

and

allowing myself to be loved by Jesus.

Rose crossed that distance.

And saints often make ordinary Christians uncomfortable precisely because they expose how easily we can settle for religion without intimacy.

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PRAY — Today I want you to do something different

Don't read another biography of Rose today.

Don't research her miracles.

Don't even pray primarily to Rose.

Instead, Rose is going to lead you somewhere.

Find a crucifix.

Preferably go somewhere you can be alone.

If possible, spend 10 minutes.

Put away your phone after reading these instructions.

Look at Jesus.

For the first two minutes, say nothing.

Simply look.

When your mind wanders, return to Him.

Then slowly ask:

"Jesus, what do You want me to understand about Your love for me?"

Don't manufacture an answer.

Don't imagine that every thought that enters your head is God speaking.

Simply remain available.

After several minutes, say:

Jesus, I believe You love me.

Help me receive that love, not merely understand it.

Then look at the Crucifix again.

Finally ask:

"What am I still afraid to give You?"

That question may produce something.

Or nothing.

Either is fine.

End with an Our Father.

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LIVE — A small experiment in love

Yesterday I asked you to practice one tiny act of detachment.

Today we add something.

Do one thing for Jesus that nobody else knows about.

Something small.

Help someone without mentioning it.

Do an unpleasant household task.

Give up a convenience.

Pray briefly for someone who irritates you.

Allow someone else to receive credit.

Give something quietly.

Resist telling anyone afterward.

And while doing it, say internally:

"Jesus, this is for You."

This introduces you to something Rose understood extremely well:

hidden love.

Our culture frequently turns goodness into performance.

We post.

We announce.

We document.

We receive affirmation.

Hidden sacrifice removes the audience.

And then an extraordinary question appears:

Would I still do this if Jesus were the only one who knew?

Rose wanted the answer to become yes.

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One danger we must avoid

As your devotion to Rose grows, don't begin thinking:

"I should become extreme."

That would misunderstand her.

The Church does not canonize every individual decision a saint made.

Canonization means that a person lived heroic Christian virtue and is with God; it does not mean every ascetical practice is universally prudent or meant for imitation.

This distinction will become crucial when we examine Rose's severe mortifications.

For now, imitate the safest and deepest thing about her:

Take Jesus seriously.

Not Rose's crown of thorns.

Not her fasting.

Not her sleeplessness.

Not yet.

Start where she started:

Christ.

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Your Rose journal — Entry 3

I recommend keeping a small notebook through these twelve days.

Tonight write only three sentences.

Complete these:

1. When I look at the Crucifix, I see ________.

2. The thing I find hardest to entrust completely to Jesus is ________.

3. If I truly believed Jesus were enough, I would ________.

Don't write what you think a good Catholic should answer.

Write what is actually true.

That distinction is essential to genuine prayer.

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What Rose has taught us so far

Day 1:

Rose became convinced Jesus was worth everything.

Day 2:

She began loosening the things that competed with God for her heart.

Today:

She could surrender because she increasingly understood that she had already been loved first.

And that brings us to a crucial point.

Rose was beautiful.

People noticed her.

Marriage was available.

Her family had expectations.

She possessed a body, reputation, future, ambitions and ordinary human desires.

Yet she increasingly refused to allow any of these things to tell her who she was.

Why?

Because another identity was becoming stronger:

I belong to Christ.

Tomorrow we will explore one of the most surprisingly contemporary dimensions of Rose's spirituality.

Day 4 — Beauty, Identity and Detachment

We will look at Rose's struggle with physical beauty, other people's approval and her desire to belong completely to Christ—but we'll go considerably deeper.

The question will become:

If my achievements disappeared, my appearance changed, people stopped admiring me, my position vanished, and everything I use to prove my worth were removed—would knowing that I am loved by God still be enough?

That question takes us very close to the heart of Christian freedom.

12 Days with St. Rose of Lima - Day 2 - The World That Formed Rose

Spiritual question: What does holiness look like when the world around you is deeply imperfect?

Last session, we met Isabel Flores de Oliva before concentrating on the extraordinary penances, mystical experiences, and miracles associated with St. Rose.

Today I want to put Rose back into her world.

This matters because saints do not become holy in laboratories. They become holy amid families, cultures, economic pressures, injustices, personalities, expectations, and contradictions.

Rose's world contained all of them.

KNOW — Lima, 1586

Rose was born in Lima in 1586, less than 50 years after the city had been founded by the Spanish.

Try to imagine the world into which she was born.

The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was still within living memory. Lima had become the administrative center of Spanish power in much of South America. Spanish colonists, Indigenous peoples, Africans, people of mixed ancestry, merchants, clergy, soldiers, officials, enslaved people, and religious orders occupied the same rapidly developing society.

It was intensely Catholic.

But "intensely Catholic" does not mean "perfectly Christian."

There were churches, processions, religious orders, confraternities, preaching and devotion.

There were also enormous inequalities, exploitation, slavery, political power struggles, and the lingering violence and disruption produced by conquest.

Rose therefore grew up surrounded by an uncomfortable contradiction:

a society that publicly professed Christ while frequently failing to treat human beings as Christ commanded.

That tension will matter later.

Because Rose's response to Christianity was not:

"Everyone around me is Catholic, therefore I'm Catholic."

She increasingly seemed to ask something far more demanding:

If Christ is actually who we say He is, what would happen if I took Him completely seriously?

That question can produce saints.

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Lima was also experiencing an extraordinary Catholic moment

Rose wasn't an isolated religious phenomenon.

The Lima of her lifetime became associated with an astonishing concentration of saints.

Most importantly for Rose was Turibius of Mogrovejo, the great Archbishop of Lima.

He traveled enormous distances through his vast archdiocese, worked to reform the clergy, promoted evangelization and defended Indigenous people against abuses.

Tradition records something remarkable:

Turibius confirmed Rose.

Think about that.

One canonized saint administered Confirmation to another future canonized saint.

And Rose's Lima would also be associated with figures such as Martin de Porres, the great Dominican brother renowned for humility and service to the poor.

Rose and Martin were contemporaries.

This was the spiritual ecosystem surrounding her.

Dominican spirituality, reform, missionary activity, concern for the poor, intense sacramental life and Catholic mysticism were not abstractions. Rose encountered them in her own city.

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UNDERSTAND — Rose did not become holy by escaping ordinary life

This is perhaps today's most important lesson.

When we encounter extreme saints, we can unconsciously imagine:

ordinary life → escape the world → become holy

But Rose complicates that picture.

Her family was not wealthy enough for her to ignore practical realities.

She worked.

She became skilled in embroidery and needlework and sold flowers she cultivated. Her labor helped support her family.

Imagine the contrast.

The future great mystic of the Americas is not spending every waking moment levitating before a crucifix.

She's sewing.

Growing flowers.

Dealing with family.

Earning money.

Praying.

Working again.

This gives us our first glimpse of something that will become increasingly important:

Rose's monastery was partly constructed inside ordinary life.

Eventually she built a small hermitage or cell in the garden of her family's home where she could pray in solitude.

But notice where she built it.

At home.

She did not need another continent.

She did not even need another household.

She carved out a place for God inside the life she had been given.

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The conflict with her family

Now we encounter another side of Rose.

Rose was apparently attractive, and her family expected that she might marry.

Rose increasingly became convinced that Christ was calling her to perpetual virginity.

This created tension.

We have to be careful here because hagiographies sometimes simplify these situations into:

holy child versus worldly parents.

Real family relationships are usually more complicated.

Marriage was not sinful. Her parents were not necessarily asking her to abandon God. Marriage is itself a sacrament and a path to holiness.

Rose's question was different:

What is God asking specifically of me?

She believed the answer was radical consecration to Christ.

Eventually she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, remaining a laywoman rather than entering an enclosed Dominican convent.

That choice is fascinating.

She wanted radical belonging to Christ without simply abandoning the circumstances God had placed around her.

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Rose and beauty

Now we come to something uncomfortable.

Accounts describe Rose as physically beautiful.

She apparently disliked the attention this attracted and sometimes deliberately tried to diminish her attractiveness.

Some stories describe severe measures.

We should not imitate them literally.

But before dismissing Rose, ask what she was fighting.

Rose recognized something extremely modern:

Other people's attention can become a prison.

Beauty can become identity.

Approval can become identity.

Desirability can become identity.

Status can become identity.

Career can become identity.

Intelligence can become identity.

Reputation can become identity.

Even being considered holy can become identity.

Rose wanted something underneath all of those things.

She wanted to know:

Who am I when nobody's opinion defines me except God's?

That question is much closer to us than her sixteenth-century world might initially suggest.

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The deeper theology

Here we need an important Catholic distinction.

Christian detachment does not mean:

created things are bad.

Beauty isn't bad.

Food isn't bad.

Marriage isn't bad.

Money isn't bad.

Success isn't bad.

Pleasure isn't bad.

The Catholic understanding of creation begins with:

"God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good."
— Genesis 1:31

The problem begins when a created good becomes an ultimate good.

Rose was pursuing what spiritual theology calls detachment.

Not:

"I must hate everything except God."

But:

"I must love everything according to its proper relationship to God."

That is profoundly different.

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Rose's hidden question

Imagine Rose working quietly at home.

Thread passes through fabric.

Flowers are growing nearby.

Her family worries about money.

Someone wants her to marry.

People notice her beauty.

The city outside contains wealth and poverty, holiness and corruption.

And somewhere inside this young woman a question becomes stronger:

What if God really is enough?

That question frightened people long before Rose.

It still frightens us.

Because most Christians are comfortable saying:

God is important.

Rose's life asks whether we are prepared to say:

God is first.

And there is an enormous difference.

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PRAY — Your exercise today

I want to introduce you to a practice that will accompany our journey with Rose.

It's a very simple examination of attachment.

Sit somewhere quietly for about five minutes.

Begin:

"Lord Jesus, show me what competes with You for my heart."

Then don't immediately produce a list.

Wait.

Consider several possibilities:

What do I most fear losing?

Whose approval affects me disproportionately?

What possession, achievement, relationship, pleasure, reputation or comfort do I secretly believe I cannot be happy without?

And perhaps the most revealing question:

When I feel empty, where do I instinctively go for consolation before I go to God?

Don't condemn yourself for whatever appears.

Just notice it.

Rose's spirituality begins not with destroying things but with discovering what possesses us.

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LIVE — Rose's first challenge to you

I don't want you imitating Rose's severe penances.

Instead, practice one tiny act of detachment.

Choose something harmless that you normally reach for automatically.

Perhaps checking your phone.

A snack.

Social media.

Entertainment.

Coffee.

Being the person who gets the last word.

For one occasion, deliberately don't take it.

But this part is essential:

Don't merely abstain.

When the desire appears, quietly say:

"Jesus, I choose You here."

Then continue your day.

That transforms deprivation into love.

Without love, it is merely self-denial.

With love, it begins becoming asceticism.

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Something Rose is already teaching us

After two sessions, we can correct a common misunderstanding.

Rose's path isn't fundamentally:

suffer → become holy.

It is closer to:

encounter Christ → desire Christ → discover attachments → surrender them → become freer to love.

Eventually suffering enters that path.

But suffering isn't the destination.

Freedom for love is.

And that distinction will become extremely important when we reach her severe asceticism.

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Keep this image of Rose today

Don't picture the saint wearing a crown of roses yet.

Picture young Isabel sitting at her embroidery.

Ordinary household.

Ordinary work.

Ordinary family pressures.

An imperfect society outside.

And an extraordinary desire growing quietly inside:

"I want to belong completely to Jesus."

Now something is about to happen.

Because a person cannot continue saying that seriously without eventually confronting the question:

Who exactly is this Jesus to whom I want to belong?

And Rose's answer wasn't primarily an idea.

It was a Person.

And increasingly, she encountered Him on the Cross.

Session 3 — Rose Falls in Love

Next we will begin entering Rose's interior world: her relationship with Jesus, why she understood herself as belonging to Him, the importance of the Eucharist and prayer, and why the language of Christ as Bridegroom is essential for understanding her.

That is the session where we begin moving from the biography of Rose toward the secret at the center of Rose.

12 Days with St. Rose of Lima - Day 1 - Meet Isabel

Sharing materials I saw to get to know St. Rose of Lima beyond "facts and trivia" to a deeper knowledge towards growth in love for God. Enjoy!

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Forget the halo for a moment.

Forget the roses.

Forget the statues.

And meet a little girl named Isabel Flores de Oliva.

She was born in Lima, Peru, in 1586. Her parents were Gaspar Flores and Oliva de Herrera. "Rose" was not originally her baptismal name. According to early traditions surrounding her life, she came to be called Rosa because of an incident in infancy in which her face was said to have appeared like a rose.

Eventually, Rose herself resisted the name.

That small detail is already revealing.

She didn't want to be admired simply because she was beautiful.

Yet the name eventually acquired a religious significance for her, and she came to accept Rosa de Santa María — Rose of Saint Mary.

Rose of Lima would become extraordinary.

But her circumstances weren't.

Her family experienced financial difficulty. She worked. She embroidered and cultivated flowers to help support the household. Her parents had expectations for her future, including marriage. Rose increasingly believed God was calling her elsewhere.

She was not a nun in the way we normally imagine.

She became a Dominican tertiary—a laywoman associated with Dominican spirituality—and lived much of her remarkable spiritual life at her family's home.

That point is enormously important.

Rose became a mystic without escaping ordinary life.

There were parents.

Work.

Money problems.

Family disagreements.

Expectations.

Household responsibilities.

And in the middle of all that:

God.

---

But there was something unusual happening inside Rose

From a remarkably young age, Rose developed an intense attraction toward prayer, solitude, sacrifice and especially Jesus Christ.

And "intense" is the appropriate word.

Rose wasn't mildly religious.

She became consumed with God.

Eventually she would undertake extraordinary austerities—fasting, sleep deprivation and bodily mortification—that require careful interpretation. Some practices should not simply be copied, and when we reach Session 6 we're going to examine them seriously.

Because if we reduce Rose to:

"She hurt herself because she loved Jesus"

we have badly misunderstood Catholic asceticism—and probably Rose herself.

Something deeper was happening.

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The first key to understanding Rose

Here is the first thing I want you to remember about her.

Rose's story is not primarily about suffering.

It is about love.

The suffering only makes sense after the love.

She became fascinated by Christ—particularly Christ crucified—and increasingly came to believe:

If Christ has given Himself completely to me, then I want to give myself completely to Him.

That desire explains much of what follows.

Not:

"How much pain can I endure?"

but:

"Jesus, how completely can I belong to You?"

That distinction will become crucial.

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Rose's great teacher

There is another woman you need to meet because she provides one of the keys to Rose's spirituality.

Catherine of Siena.

Rose deeply admired Catherine.

The parallels are striking: Dominican spirituality, virginity dedicated to Christ, intense prayer, asceticism, mystical experiences, concern for others and a profound identification with the suffering Christ.

In a sense, Catherine became Rose's spiritual elder.

And eventually Rose can become something similar for us.

That is one of the beautiful Catholic ideas behind devotion to saints.

We don't merely admire dead Christians.

The Communion of Saints means that those united to Christ remain members of His living Body.

Therefore devotion ultimately says:

"Rose, you learned to love Jesus. Teach me."

Not:

"Rose, replace Jesus."

But:

"Rose, take me where you went."

And where she went was toward Christ.

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Your first encounter with Rose

Today I don't want you doing much.

Find somewhere quiet.

If possible, place yourself before a crucifix.

Spend perhaps five minutes simply looking at Christ crucified.

Don't analyze anything.

Then ask yourself:

What would make someone love this Man so much that He became the organizing center of her entire life?

Rose apparently discovered an answer.

We are going to spend the rest of this journey discovering what she discovered.

Then pray very simply:

St. Rose of Lima,
I don't know you yet.
But you knew Jesus.

If God permits it, become my friend and teacher.

Teach me what you discovered in Christ.
Teach me to love Him rather than merely know about Him.

And whatever in your life points toward Jesus,
help me see it clearly.

Pray that I may desire God
more deeply than I do today.

Amen.

Then remain silent for a minute or two.

Don't manufacture an experience.

If absolutely nothing happens, that's perfectly fine.

You've begun.

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One thing to carry today

Don't try to remember dates yet.

Don't remember the extreme penances.

Don't even remember all the biographical details.

Remember just this:

Rose was a woman who became convinced that Jesus Christ was worth giving everything for.

Our next question is therefore not yet "What did she give up?"

It is:

"What did Rose see in Christ that made Him worth everything?"

That will take us into Session 2: The World That Formed Rose—Lima, her family, colonial Catholicism, the Dominicans, the tensions and injustices surrounding her, and the surprisingly complicated world in which this extraordinary young woman learned to seek God.

And as we progress, I'll deliberately distinguish well-attested history, early hagiographical traditions, theological interpretation, and later devotional stories. That matters if we're going to develop a mature devotion rather than a sentimentalized picture of Rose.

Faith and the Ballot: Voting as a Catholic in a Compromised World

The moment we enter the voting booth, our faith must go with us. As Archbishop José Gomez puts it, “We have important obligations as citizens — but we have to carry out those obligations always in light of our duty to God.” In other words, our Catholic beliefs and our political choices are inseparable!

Christ’s Lordship extends beyond our private lives into society’s laws and leaders. The Church teaches that it has a duty “to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it”. Even in a pluralistic world, truths rooted in the Gospel and in natural law remain non-negotiable, because without God’s vision of man and creation, society loses any firm standard of good and evil. As the Catechism warns, communities that reject this divine guidance “do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil,” often sliding into totalitarian ideology instead.

Catholics do not vote as secularists or as blind party members. We are citizens of heaven as well as earth, but we live in our country “to work for the common good of society, to obey just laws, and to respect society and government,” as Gomez notes. Yet we are also called to “render unto God” our faith – meaning we cannot forget Church teaching when we engage in public life. In practice this means our vote should flow from our faith-formed conscience. We seek politicians who respect life, uphold family, defend human dignity and religious freedom – the very values on which all just laws should rest.

Honoring Our Moral Heritage: Dignity in Society Formed by Judeo-Christian Values

While our country may not be a theocracy, we have an obligation to push for what is morally right as residents of society. If we silence ourselves using “not everyone believes what we believe in” as an excuse to allow what our faith teaches as evil, nothing will ever change. Imagine if our ancestors thought that way.

History shows the power of Judeo‑Christian values to shape decent laws and societies. Long before modern human rights, the Hebrew prophets and the Ten Commandments forbade murder and called all people to see each other as God’s children. St. Augustine observed that “the beginning of freedom is to be free from crimes… such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft…”, meaning that real liberty springs from following the moral law. Centuries later, Christians built on that foundation. For example, in the ancient Roman world infanticide and the abandonment of children were commonplace. Early Christians boldly condemned this, caring for orphans and persuading emperors to change the law so that exposing or killing infants was outlawed. They acted on the conviction that every human life bears God’s image, a vision starkly absent in pagan views of human worth.

Without that Christian influence, who knows what moral evils might be normalized today? The Church’s voice raised the standard of justice: it outlawed slavery among Christians, inspired hospitals and care for the poor, and brought the Gospel’s respect for life into law. As the Catechism explains, only a revealed religion “has clearly recognized man’s origin and destiny in God” – without it societies “borrow…ideology” for their goals, arrogating total control over people and their fate. In short, removing God from the public square unmoors us from truth. Catholics know that the security and prosperity of a nation ultimately depends on upholding universal values given by the Creator.

Principled Voting with Prudence

We recognize that no candidate is perfect, so prudence and conscience must guide us. But some choices are non‑negotiable. The U.S. bishops plainly teach that “a Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who favors a policy promoting an intrinsically evil act, such as abortion, euthanasia, … or redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning”. If a candidate’s main intent is to advance a grave wrong like legalized killing of the innocent, we cannot in good conscience support them, for that would mean cooperating with evil in a grave matter. This is echoed by Archbishop Gomez: he lists abortion, euthanasia, and the protection of marriage as “non-negotiables” that Catholics in good conscience cannot set aside.

At the same time, the bishops acknowledge the voter’s dilemma when all choices are flawed. If every candidate mishandles some moral issue, a Catholic may be forced to pick the lesser evil for truly grave reasons, rather than simply boosting narrow interests. For example, if one candidate supports life but handles the economy poorly, and another is fiscally strong but votes to legalize abortion, a conscientious voter may reasonably choose the first, so as not to advance the greater evil. The key is that we never abandon the core principles: life, family, religious freedom, and basic justice must always come first. The bishops emphasize that issues protecting life and the family have “a special claim on our consciences and our actions”. Other matters – taxes, trade, immigration – can be debated by faithful Catholics who apply the same moral principles in different ways.

Questions to Ponder

Every voter needs to examine motives and trade-offs. We might reflect:

• Are we choosing the greater good, or settling for the lesser evil?
• Are we sacrificing a minor good (like personal comfort, convenience, or party unity) at the risk of permitting a grave evil?
• Are our choices driven by fear of the other side or by deep moral convictions shaped by the Gospel?

These questions keep us honest. As Catholics, we should not be content to vote out of habit, fear, or mere convenience. Instead, we prayerfully weigh which candidate or party, on balance, will advance the common good without trampling essential moral values.

 

Four Categories for Discernment

In trying to put these principles into practice, I have found it helpful to group candidates into four categories:

1. Vote and Campaign For. These are candidates who line up with Church teaching on most or all key issues, while at the same time perform well in governance. They may possibly still have minor flaws, but nothing that involves an intrinsic evil. They defend life and family and largely promote justice and charity. For such candidates, we not only vote, but actively support and campaign for them.

2. Vote But Do Not Campaign For. These candidates may help prevent grave evils (like abortion or divorce) but carry governance or political concerns that prevent full endorsement. We vote to prevent greater harm, but refrain from active promotion.

3. Will Not Vote For, But Will Not Campaign Against. These individuals do some good things (perhaps on social or economic issues) but also support multiple nonnegotiable evils (for example, abortion or redefinition of marriage). They cannot be our choice at the polls, but if a worse candidate is running, we focus on other races and refrain from discouraging others to vote for them.

4. Will Not Vote For and Will Campaign Against. This category is for those who actively promote many intrinsic evils or consistently oppose fundamental Church teaching. Whatever good they may bring to the government, this cannot counter the amount of negative values they push. No matter their competence, we cannot in good conscience support them. In a democratic society, we even have the duty to defend the common good by campaigning against such candidates. Of course, this group also includes those who are both bad in governance and push negative values at the same time.

This framework isn’t about popularity or party, but about moral consistency. It is rooted in the idea that while we accept some compromise in politics, we must never legitimize grave wrongs.

 

Considering the Whole Ticket

It is not only individual candidates we should judge, but also the balance of power they will create. In legislative races (such as for the Senate or Congress), ask: will our chosen slate of candidates help enact good laws and block evil ones? A majority that honors life, marriage, and charity in its platform can advance the common good – funding aid to the poor, protecting religious freedom, and limiting abortion, for example. By contrast, a majority indifferent to morality can slip through harmful bills. Catholics should therefore consider how our vote contributes to building a government capable of upholding truth. As the Catechism teaches, we have a duty to help achieve the good of society in “a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom”. That means thinking not just of one office, but of how all our elected officials together will shape policy.

 

Defining “Good” and “Evil” in Politics

It helps to clarify what we mean by “good” and “evil” in political terms. Here, “good” generally refers to effective governance and policies that genuinely improve people’s lives – economic prosperity, opportunities for the young, care for the vulnerable, and so on. These are morally good if they respect the dignity of every person. On the other hand, “evil” in this context means policies that involve moral compromise or directly attack human dignity: for example, legalizing abortion or euthanasia, undermining marriage, or crushing religious liberty.

Even goals like fighting corruption or improving education, if pursued by trampling on life or human dignity, can become evil. We must always measure actions against the Gospel and the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not kill,” which the Church takes seriously from conception to natural death. Let us never be blinded by what is politically good over what are intrinsically evil. This becomes even more important when we are weighing what is “possibly good” versus something “evidently evil”.

 

Forming Conscience and Seeking God’s Will

Ultimately, voting is a profoundly personal act of conscience. The Church calls every Catholic to form his or her conscience by prayer, Scripture, and Church teaching – not by media or party rhetoric alone. Archbishop Gomez reminds us to strive to act “with the mind of Christ and the mind of the Church”. This means listening to the Holy Spirit and being open to correction. If fellow faithful show us something we missed, we ought to humbly consider it.

Remain vigilant against purely partisan loyalty. The magisterium never tells us whom to vote for, but it urges that truth and justice guide our choice. When we are confused, let us turn to the Catechism and the lives of the saints for wisdom. Let us pray in Eucharist and private prayer for guidance. As Pope Benedict XVI taught, our faith must be “eucharistic” in all things – it cannot be kept on the private altar of our heart but must bear fruit in public life.

Above all, seek God’s will, not just a winning ticket. The Kingdom of Heaven is at stake in earthly decisions. When faith guides the ballot, the result is not only a better country but the glory of God and the salvation of souls. May each of us have the courage and wisdom to vote as a faithful Catholic, trusting that Christ’s light will guide our way.

Rejoice! Gaudete Sunday!

A homily by Fr. Bob way back 2005 at Sto. Nino Chapel, Greenbelt, I always reflect on every year’s Gaudete Sunday…

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. It is Gaudete Sunday. The imperative verb Gaudete, means “Rejoice”. It comes from the Latin noun, gaudium, which in English is “joy”. Gaudare is “to rejoice”. Gaudete is “Rejoice!”

It strikes me and I request you to note that gaudete is neither a noun nor an adjective but a verb. More so, it is an imperative verb. Thus, it is a command. It does not describe an actual state of being or a present condition of things. It does not say that everything and everyone are jumping with joy. Gaudete Sunday is not “Joyful Sunday”; it is, rather, the Sunday that commands us to be joyful.

But can we command joy? Can anyone of us simply jump with sincerely overflowing joy at anyone's command? We can teach the heart, but can we order it to experience what emotion to feel? Can we really, possibly order the heart so that the heart automatically and sincerely follows what we command it?

The heart normally searches for at least one reason to feel what it feels. It is never sad for nothing. It is never happy for no reason. There is a reason for every tear and a cause for every smile. What is the reason for today's command for us to rejoice?

Jesus -- the reason for the season.

Life may be harder for us this year and there may be so much frustration, pain, and fear in our hearts, but through all the onslaughts of our daily living we can find joy in the gift of God to us: His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, who is Emmanuel, “God-With-Us”. He is the joy that never fades. He is the Joy that does not depend on whatever happens around and inside us. He is the Joy of the world yet the Joy that the world cannot give nor take away. He is the Joy that raises us up no matter how down we are:

“When I am down and all my soul so weary,

when troubles come and my heart burdened be,

then I am still and wait here in the silence

until you come and sit awhile with me.

“You raised me up so I can stand on mountains.

You raised me up to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong when I am on your shoulders.

You raised me up to more than I can be.

“There is no life, no life without its hunger.

Each restless heart beats so imperfectly.

But when you come and I am filled with wonder,

sometimes I think I glimpse eternity”

(You Raised Me Up by Josh Groban)

Gaudete! Rejoice! The Church tells us today, “Rejoice!” We command our hearts today, “Rejoice!” We tap our loved ones on their backs and say to them, “Rejoice!” We reach out to the downtrodden and raise them up, saying, “Rejoice!” The First Reading today (Is 61:1-2, 10-11) proclaims, “I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God....” The Psalm today (Lk 1) sings, “My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” The Second Reading today (1 Thes 5:16-24) commands us, “Be happy at all times; pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus.” But John the Baptist in the Gospel today tell us that thought Jesus, our Joy, is already in our midst we fail to recognize Him.

Failure to recognize Jesus in our midst is the reason for sorrow. If we cannot rejoice with the Church, with the liturgy and the readings today, with the Advent season, and with those who are rejoicing, it will help us to know why by reflecting on the presence or absence of Jesus in our life. Have we forgotten the reason for the season? Have we exchanged Him for Sta. Clause instead? Do we recognize Jesus in our midst? If we do then we know that the joy of life, not only of Christmas, is truly in giving rather than in receiving, in loving rather than in being loved, in serving Jesus in one another rather than being served by others.

As we light the pink candle for the third Sunday of Advent, may the Light to which John the Baptist gave witness enlighten each of us and see it burning in our hearts and in the hearts of all. Like John the Baptist, may we speak for that Light by becoming joy in the lives of everyone.

Gaudete! Be happy the Lord is Emmanuel, “God-With-Us”. Rejoice! Be the happiness of others. Give them Jesus, only Jesus, always Jesus.

Pandemic Ngalay of the Faith

 There's a filipino word, "ngalay", which translates to "numbness". It occurs when a body part gets stuck in a position for a very long time that it almost feels like it hardened already. The same can be said of most people's faith nowadays.

Maybe it's because of the pandemic, and everything has been online for more or less two years that people have become used to their "online church". But everything has practically opened up, and statistics do show that things have pretty much been back to normal. So why are churches and prayer meetings not filling up?

Cardinals, bishops and priests have been calling the faithful to go back to the pews. Religious communities have been asking their members to attend face-to-face. Yet a big number of people remain in their couches or beds for religious activities, while readily going out without fear and discomfort when going to malls or other public places.

Fear of covid is hardly the reason for the poor attendance, as the same people have no qualms going out on a gallavanting spree even with people they hardly ever met. At one point, one may say it's probably because they don't know the difference between online and face-to-face, but I'm sure they know online dates are way different than actually being with each other. E-numan (or people drinking together via video conferencing) will never be the same as sharing drinks and grub at the same table. Our greatest feast in the Eucharist will never be the same in youtube or facebook!

So maybe it is ngalay! People have become numb to their faith, downgrading it significantly as lesser priority over many other things. Yes, they will still declare God as their top love, but they can't be bothered to make the effort to stand up, fix themselves, and go to Church.

It is said that a sign of life is growth. If you're not moving up, you're already dying. Maybe it is just ngalay, and not death. But if we get too used to not moving, we're as good as dead. When our love for God doesn't move us to make an effort for Him, maybe our love for God is dead, transformed to a fake one without us even noticing.

The cure to ngalay is to start moving. The sign of love is joyful sacrifice. But all of this is not up to God... Does the person want the cure? Does the person still love God?

Where does God want you to go? Stop making excuses and go already!

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Lent 2022 Reflections // Day 03

 

Lent 2022 Reflections // Day 02

 

Lent 2022 Reflections // Day 01