Spirituality and Healing
For January and February Spirituality and Healing passages, click here.
For March to May Spirituality and Healing, click here.
For June 2025, click here.
What is Freedom?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states that Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life (1731). Human freedom is seen as a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness. it attains its perfection when directed toward God. So, it is a Freedom FOR something, not a freedom FROM something. In the United States, we all have a freedom of choosing to follow our Lord and His teachings. On July Fourth, 2025, we affirm our God- given rights to have the ability to move toward and be “For Our God.” In the deepest sense, freedom is a gift of God, and an informed conscience used to discriminate between what is good, what Christ teaches, and what is not good is also God’s gift. We cannot liberate ourselves from our self-centered desires without choosing freely to live for and with the “other” – Our God and our brothers and sisters. Jesus states clearly that the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor is what our faith is based upon, and this is Truth. And Our Lord stated, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).
Freedom characterizes what is proper to human acts. The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes.
Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of each human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order (www.vatican.va/freedom). Specifically, in Dignitatis Humanae on The Right of the Person and of Communities to Social and Civil Freedom in Matters Religious (Pope Paul VI, 1965), it was declared that a “sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary [men and women].” This demand for freedom in human society chiefly regards the quest for the values [central] to the human spirit”.
Human Freedom is a gift of God which flows from the Free Will that is bestowed on us by our Creator. This Fourth of July, one year before we celebrate the 250th year of the birth of our nation, let us embrace all of our God-given rights in striving to live in a way to pursue happiness in liberty and freedom. We must examine deeply the freedoms that God gave us so they can be expressed to uphold our religious freedoms which are beginning to be seen in certain circumstances as coming under assault. Vatican II described the Church as the “pilgrim people of God.” We are a people on a journey. A journey that leads us to make a free choice to imitate Our Lord in choosing a life transformed, a life of purpose, a life offering hope. Jesus is with us today as He was over two thousand years ago to help us make this journey – invite Him to remain with you, to stay with you in a decision made freely to Follow Him. In choosing Him, may He shed His Grace on Thee!
His Truth Will Set You Free!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) states that Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life (1731). Human freedom is seen as a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness. it attains its perfection when directed toward God. So, it is a Freedom FOR something, not a freedom FROM something. In the United States, we all have a freedom of choosing to follow our Lord and His teachings. On July Fourth, 2025, we affirm our God- given rights to have the ability to move toward and be “For Our God.” In the deepest sense, freedom is a gift of God, and an informed conscience used to discriminate between what is good, what Christ teaches, and what is not good is also God’s gift. We cannot liberate ourselves from our self-centered desires without choosing freely to live for and with the “other” – Our God and our brothers and sisters. Jesus states clearly that the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor is what our faith is based upon, and this is Truth. And Our Lord stated, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32).
Freedom characterizes what is proper to human acts. The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes.
Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings. Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of each human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order (www.vatican.va/freedom). Specifically, in Dignitatis Humanae on The Right of the Person and of Communities to Social and Civil Freedom in Matters Religious (Pope Paul VI, 1965), it was declared that a “sense of the dignity of the human person has been impressing itself more and more deeply on the consciousness of contemporary [men and women].” This demand for freedom in human society chiefly regards the quest for the values [central] to the human spirit”.
Human Freedom is a gift of God which flows from the Free Will that is bestowed on us by our Creator. This Fourth of July, one year before we celebrate the 250th year of the birth of our nation, let us embrace all of our God-given rights in striving to live in a way to pursue happiness in liberty and freedom. We must examine deeply the freedoms that God gave us so they can be expressed to uphold our religious freedoms which are beginning to be seen in certain circumstances as coming under assault. Vatican II described the Church as the “pilgrim people of God.” We are a people on a journey. A journey that leads us to make a free choice to imitate Our Lord in choosing a life transformed, a life of purpose, a life offering hope. Jesus is with us today as He was over two thousand years ago to help us make this journey – invite Him to remain with you, to stay with you in a decision made freely to Follow Him. In choosing Him, may He shed His Grace on Thee!
His Truth Will Set You Free!
Building a Healthy Spirituality . . .
What is a healthy spirituality? To discover this, let us look first at the difference between the terms religion as compared to spirituality by viewing national surveyed beliefs. Religious polls in the United States over the last decades, indicate a stable trend -- almost 90 per cent of Americans believe in God, believe in Heaven and hell, and believe in the power of prayer. On the surface, we appear to be a nation of believers. While the reality is that fewer and fewer Americans actively participate in congregations of faith and in parish life, they insist that religion still plays an important part in their lives.
Religion, especially in our Catholic Faith tradition, enables us to have a personal vehicle with our Divine Creator living within us in our practice of a unique Communion of Faith. As we had discovered during our past presentations on the Living Bread of Life, we share in the Communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as we enter into the very life of God, the Trinity, when we are baptized. At the moment when the waters and the anointing of Baptism are poured upon us, the Divine is in us, becomes part of us. Specifically, by the grace of Jesus, Our Lord, in the Love of God and through the communion of the Holy Spirit, we are propelled into a holy Communion of One Body of Christ. “What we have seen and have heard we are telling you so that you too may be in communion with us, as we are in communion with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Further, the Spirit of the Father and the Son continually arouses faith and love in the believers, enabling them to respond to the demands of communion (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The language of the Spirit, the language of the Gospel, is the language of communion which invites us to conquer closedness and indifference, division and antagonization, hate and evil. Accordingly, Pope Francis said we need to ask ourselves, “How do I let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit in such a way that my life and my witness of faith are both unity and communion?” Do I convey the word of reconciliation and of love – the word of the Gospel of Life in the world in which I live?
Spirituality fostered within our religion, our faith tradition, is both a unique and communal experience. This movement of the Spirit since ancient times involves a Catholic spirituality that continues to be one in unity, a Spirituality of Communion. For example, when we live out the Beatitudes, as the Lord taught . . . “Blessed are the Poor of Spirit, Blessed are the Clean of Heart, Blessed are the Peacemakers, etc. . .” we enter a poverty of spirit prayerfully, and doing so we move toward liberation, a liberation that frees us to discover a way of life that satisfies what we are searching for – a conversion of heart and becoming as we were created to be, an image of a loving God. Our religion is a vehicle that helps us live a personal and powerful spirituality, a way of life. A spiritual path of living the two great commandments of love – loving God with our whole mind heart and soul and loving our neighbor as ourselves (heard in the Gospel message this past weekend) and in living the Beatitudes makes each of us as co-creators of the Community that extends through all time and all space. In opposition to the worldliness that surrounds us and impinges on every aspect of our lives, our Catholic spirituality is one in unity, unique in communion and ongoing in sharing the Way, the Mission of Christ through love, generosity of heart and action, and responding to the most vulnerable. We follow His Way as we live out both the Word and Sacrament we receive.
Stay tuned about how our Catholic Family of Cheektowaga will live the Mission gifted to us as we deepen our relationships in union with the Lord and His teachings, transformed through Word and Sacrament.
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all!
What is a healthy spirituality? To discover this, let us look first at the difference between the terms religion as compared to spirituality by viewing national surveyed beliefs. Religious polls in the United States over the last decades, indicate a stable trend -- almost 90 per cent of Americans believe in God, believe in Heaven and hell, and believe in the power of prayer. On the surface, we appear to be a nation of believers. While the reality is that fewer and fewer Americans actively participate in congregations of faith and in parish life, they insist that religion still plays an important part in their lives.
Religion, especially in our Catholic Faith tradition, enables us to have a personal vehicle with our Divine Creator living within us in our practice of a unique Communion of Faith. As we had discovered during our past presentations on the Living Bread of Life, we share in the Communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as we enter into the very life of God, the Trinity, when we are baptized. At the moment when the waters and the anointing of Baptism are poured upon us, the Divine is in us, becomes part of us. Specifically, by the grace of Jesus, Our Lord, in the Love of God and through the communion of the Holy Spirit, we are propelled into a holy Communion of One Body of Christ. “What we have seen and have heard we are telling you so that you too may be in communion with us, as we are in communion with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Further, the Spirit of the Father and the Son continually arouses faith and love in the believers, enabling them to respond to the demands of communion (1 John 3:24; 4:13). The language of the Spirit, the language of the Gospel, is the language of communion which invites us to conquer closedness and indifference, division and antagonization, hate and evil. Accordingly, Pope Francis said we need to ask ourselves, “How do I let myself be guided by the Holy Spirit in such a way that my life and my witness of faith are both unity and communion?” Do I convey the word of reconciliation and of love – the word of the Gospel of Life in the world in which I live?
Spirituality fostered within our religion, our faith tradition, is both a unique and communal experience. This movement of the Spirit since ancient times involves a Catholic spirituality that continues to be one in unity, a Spirituality of Communion. For example, when we live out the Beatitudes, as the Lord taught . . . “Blessed are the Poor of Spirit, Blessed are the Clean of Heart, Blessed are the Peacemakers, etc. . .” we enter a poverty of spirit prayerfully, and doing so we move toward liberation, a liberation that frees us to discover a way of life that satisfies what we are searching for – a conversion of heart and becoming as we were created to be, an image of a loving God. Our religion is a vehicle that helps us live a personal and powerful spirituality, a way of life. A spiritual path of living the two great commandments of love – loving God with our whole mind heart and soul and loving our neighbor as ourselves (heard in the Gospel message this past weekend) and in living the Beatitudes makes each of us as co-creators of the Community that extends through all time and all space. In opposition to the worldliness that surrounds us and impinges on every aspect of our lives, our Catholic spirituality is one in unity, unique in communion and ongoing in sharing the Way, the Mission of Christ through love, generosity of heart and action, and responding to the most vulnerable. We follow His Way as we live out both the Word and Sacrament we receive.
Stay tuned about how our Catholic Family of Cheektowaga will live the Mission gifted to us as we deepen our relationships in union with the Lord and His teachings, transformed through Word and Sacrament.
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all!
In an article of spirituality called An Ache for God, Manuel Rojo proclaimed: “I need to allow this ache {for God] to occur, to be receptive to my stirrings, -- to open my ears to God’s voice. How is it that we “ache” or thirst for what is and of God. Thirsting is what happens when we lack something vital – water is essential for our physical well being, and our bodies signal us when it is time to drink to stay healthy. We only get thirsty when we do not have enough to drink. A spiritual thirst unquenched can show itself in many forms: addictions, loneliness, despair, frustrations and self-indulgence, or any thought or behavior that is triggered when we lack something that we need or want.
My soul longs for you Lord,
Like a desert thirst for rain.
It is your face I long for,
You alone are life to me. -- (“My Soul Thirsts” cited in Rojo, 103)
We long, we thirst, we sometimes ache for a deeper relationship with Our Creator. Our relationship with God and our personal spiritual beliefs help us to grow with others around us. We show God our love and we demonstrate our love for our neighbor by following the two great commandments of love (Matthew 22:36-40). By loving Our God with our whole mind, heart, and soul, with all of our strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and loving our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus, 19:18), we enter deeply into a relationship with the Lord and live out this love by caring for one another, especially those vulnerable placed in our midst. We satisfy our thirst by and through love.
God is love. Specifically, St Aelred of Rievaulx, a Cistercian Monk in the United Kingdom (c. 1167) taught that God is relationship, God is friendship. In love with His creation, Christ chose and then treated His followers not as slaves but as friends in both supporting and helping them grow in faith and character. This teaching can be summarized in His statement in Sacred Scripture – I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing, I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father (John 15:15, NAB, [usccb.bible.org]). If faith and spirituality combine as our outlook on life here on earth and the hereafter, our circle of family and friends, our participation in our parish family and the broader community help us to extend and expand on that outlook even when these interactions are seen as positive or negative.
Karl Rahner (a Jesuit theologian, philosopher and writer) described a Christian’s task in life as being in communion while using our gifts. He writes that “God wishes to communicate [with us] to pour forth the love which [God] is. “All exists so that this one thing might be: the eternal miracle of infinite LOVE. And so, God creates us out of love, we are the object of the Lord’s love – and as made in God’s image, as our lives unfold, we are an ever-astounding wonder, an unexpected but beautiful gift.
At Our Lady Help of Christians, Queen of Martyrs, Resurrection and St. Josaphat’s, we are a community of Faith in union with Our Creator on a Mission of Love. Next week we will examine how we as individuals can contribute to this Mission as a beautiful gift to the Lord and one another, as we develop our faith, our relationship with the Almighty and one another in a deep and lasting way to have far-reaching effects in our Diocese and beyond.
My soul longs for you Lord,
Like a desert thirst for rain.
It is your face I long for,
You alone are life to me. -- (“My Soul Thirsts” cited in Rojo, 103)
We long, we thirst, we sometimes ache for a deeper relationship with Our Creator. Our relationship with God and our personal spiritual beliefs help us to grow with others around us. We show God our love and we demonstrate our love for our neighbor by following the two great commandments of love (Matthew 22:36-40). By loving Our God with our whole mind, heart, and soul, with all of our strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and loving our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus, 19:18), we enter deeply into a relationship with the Lord and live out this love by caring for one another, especially those vulnerable placed in our midst. We satisfy our thirst by and through love.
God is love. Specifically, St Aelred of Rievaulx, a Cistercian Monk in the United Kingdom (c. 1167) taught that God is relationship, God is friendship. In love with His creation, Christ chose and then treated His followers not as slaves but as friends in both supporting and helping them grow in faith and character. This teaching can be summarized in His statement in Sacred Scripture – I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing, I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father (John 15:15, NAB, [usccb.bible.org]). If faith and spirituality combine as our outlook on life here on earth and the hereafter, our circle of family and friends, our participation in our parish family and the broader community help us to extend and expand on that outlook even when these interactions are seen as positive or negative.
Karl Rahner (a Jesuit theologian, philosopher and writer) described a Christian’s task in life as being in communion while using our gifts. He writes that “God wishes to communicate [with us] to pour forth the love which [God] is. “All exists so that this one thing might be: the eternal miracle of infinite LOVE. And so, God creates us out of love, we are the object of the Lord’s love – and as made in God’s image, as our lives unfold, we are an ever-astounding wonder, an unexpected but beautiful gift.
At Our Lady Help of Christians, Queen of Martyrs, Resurrection and St. Josaphat’s, we are a community of Faith in union with Our Creator on a Mission of Love. Next week we will examine how we as individuals can contribute to this Mission as a beautiful gift to the Lord and one another, as we develop our faith, our relationship with the Almighty and one another in a deep and lasting way to have far-reaching effects in our Diocese and beyond.
Recently, during on the Feast of St. James (July 25th) we hear proclaimed the words of St. Paul (2 Corinthians 4:7-15), “Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.” In another time of year, we also read in Isaiah (Chapter 63), the prophetic words that the Creator creates us and we know that the Son, Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirits recreates us in any area where we find brokenness -- O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands. We are formed by our Creator, that as we live in humanity, we have imperfections. However, as master potters inform us, something of the creator is always left on the imprint of the vessel of creation. We are made in the image of Our Lord. We are formed as human vessels to be filled with grace. In his letters, St. Paul reminds us that as we live in our Lord, God will remain faithful and keep us all firm until the end. Through the Holy Spirit, we are strengthened with His love and in His mission as we journey toward eternal life.
We pray to the Holy Spirit, that we as earthen vessels of varying types, through the power of God, are brought to wholeness of life as the Lord fills in the cracks, corrects those painted lines mistakenly made, and replaces the chips that are missing, that cause voids. God repairs us to create us to become what we were born to be -- to bring us to wholeness of life. As we face difficult trials, as we experience losses in our lives, as we experience challenges, we are strengthened by Our God who loves us. As He returns us to health and life, He helps others by sending us to go forth to help our family, friends, or others of our neighbors placed in our midst, on their ways to wholeness. We are taught by the Word of God spoken in sacred scripture this past weekend, we are to pray confidently and persistently in all our needs. As we continue our journeys of faith and love, we begin by lifting up our prayers to the Holy Spirit . . .
Prayers to the Holy Spirit for protection, strength, courage, guidance, rebirth, renewal, joy, and thanksgiving:
“Spirit of Peace and Love, teach me and protect me to follow in Your ways.”
“Dear Spirit of God, give me Your wisdom, Your graces, so that I may be filled up with awe and wonder.”
“Spirit of God, send me the strength and the courage to give witness to Your truth and to defend and protect the weak, the vulnerable and the powerless. Help me to be the voice of the voiceless in all I say and do.”
“Fill me with Your joy even when things are not going that well. Gift me with Your graces so my joy may be complete.”
"Breathe Your Spirit into my heart and soul, O Lord so my very may be filled with Your life. Let Your breath be upon me, O Holy Spirit, bring healing and life. Let me breathe in the Breath of God and breathe out Your goodness.”
“Spirit of All wisdom, reveal that which is hidden, clarify that which is confusing.”
”May You, Spirit of God, re-create me in Your image, O Lord. May I use Your gifts given to me so I may do Your work. Re-create my heart toward Your Sacred Heart and renew my world around me.”
“Thank You, God, for the incredible dignity You have given me by creating me. Allow me to show others respect in the dignity also given to their lives from the unborn to the elderly as You have left the imprint on each of our vulnerable souls.”
Dear God, may we trust in Your faithfulness and love and through Your Spirit, fill our voids and the emptiness of our vessels with the Divine and make us whole again so we can be what we were created to be. . . For this, we give Glory to God.
Next Week we will examine ways to pray that are powerful using liturgy and scripture that continue our recreation that always begins with our greatest prayer – the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as we become what we receive. God’s blessings and His Graces,
We pray to the Holy Spirit, that we as earthen vessels of varying types, through the power of God, are brought to wholeness of life as the Lord fills in the cracks, corrects those painted lines mistakenly made, and replaces the chips that are missing, that cause voids. God repairs us to create us to become what we were born to be -- to bring us to wholeness of life. As we face difficult trials, as we experience losses in our lives, as we experience challenges, we are strengthened by Our God who loves us. As He returns us to health and life, He helps others by sending us to go forth to help our family, friends, or others of our neighbors placed in our midst, on their ways to wholeness. We are taught by the Word of God spoken in sacred scripture this past weekend, we are to pray confidently and persistently in all our needs. As we continue our journeys of faith and love, we begin by lifting up our prayers to the Holy Spirit . . .
Prayers to the Holy Spirit for protection, strength, courage, guidance, rebirth, renewal, joy, and thanksgiving:
“Spirit of Peace and Love, teach me and protect me to follow in Your ways.”
“Dear Spirit of God, give me Your wisdom, Your graces, so that I may be filled up with awe and wonder.”
“Spirit of God, send me the strength and the courage to give witness to Your truth and to defend and protect the weak, the vulnerable and the powerless. Help me to be the voice of the voiceless in all I say and do.”
“Fill me with Your joy even when things are not going that well. Gift me with Your graces so my joy may be complete.”
"Breathe Your Spirit into my heart and soul, O Lord so my very may be filled with Your life. Let Your breath be upon me, O Holy Spirit, bring healing and life. Let me breathe in the Breath of God and breathe out Your goodness.”
“Spirit of All wisdom, reveal that which is hidden, clarify that which is confusing.”
”May You, Spirit of God, re-create me in Your image, O Lord. May I use Your gifts given to me so I may do Your work. Re-create my heart toward Your Sacred Heart and renew my world around me.”
“Thank You, God, for the incredible dignity You have given me by creating me. Allow me to show others respect in the dignity also given to their lives from the unborn to the elderly as You have left the imprint on each of our vulnerable souls.”
Dear God, may we trust in Your faithfulness and love and through Your Spirit, fill our voids and the emptiness of our vessels with the Divine and make us whole again so we can be what we were created to be. . . For this, we give Glory to God.
Next Week we will examine ways to pray that are powerful using liturgy and scripture that continue our recreation that always begins with our greatest prayer – the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as we become what we receive. God’s blessings and His Graces,
