 |
| Bl. Francis X. Seelos |
BY FR. BYRON MILLER, C.S.s.R.
Flannery O’Connor—the Southern, Catholic author who suffered from lupus—was admitted to a Georgia hospital. “What’s your bidnis?,” asked the woman in admissions, with carrot-colored hair and eyeglasses to match.” O’Connor responded that she was a writer. “A what?” “A writer,” repeated O’Connor. Whereupon, the woman demanded, “How do you spell that?”
The primary business of Father Seelos [Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.S.s.R.] was the salvation of souls, and his message was blunt to those who were in danger. While he praised Americans in general for their energy, he warned that a total preoccupation with business affairs could compromise their eternal salvation. He observed that if Americans understood spiritual matters as they understood worldly ones, we would have nothing but saints. Likewise, Seelos was equally candid in writing to a friend in Germany: “I had come to know your mind for business very closely, and my only concern is that maybe you are involved in worldly business so much that hardly any time is left for you to be concerned about the things of your soul’s salvation. . . . Yes, be careful for yourself, for much business brings many cares and many cares absorb one’s whole life, and one easily forgets the one thing necessary.”
Often the Church gives the wrong impression that it is only concerned with two preoccupations: What’s your bidnis in your bedroom? and, What’s in your wallet? Father Michael Heher wrote in The Lost Art of Walking on Water that we implore the faithful to get involved in our parishes, but what do we ask of them? “To donate sacrificially? To attend one of our self-help seminars or Bible studies? To jump through the hoops of our sacramental preparation? Where is the excitement in that? Where is the call to real service, for trusting faith in troubling times? We have come to consider high attendance at anything as a sign of success; we have forgotten that, on Pentecost, the standard was a bit higher: people had to be on fire.”
Of this Father Seelos was convinced: “I am sure and certain that we will one day bemoan in Purgatory our lazy and lukewarm conduct if we are not as fervent in receiving the holy sacraments as we should be. . . . Therefore it is good to think: It is Jesus, my divine and all-merciful Redeemer. He wants to burn without exception all my faults and imperfections in the fire of his all-merciful love.” In other words, for Seelos, the more concerned we are with our heavenly Father’s business of all-merciful love, the more on fire we will be; and the less concerned we are with our heavenly home, the more “on fire” we will be, when excluded from that heavenly home!
[October 5, is the Feast Day of Blessed Frances Xavier Seelos]
Byron Miller, C.Ss.R., is the Executive Director of the National Seelos Shrine & the Seelos Center, in New Orleans.
Flannery O’Connor—the Southern, Catholic author who suffered from lupus—was admitted to a Georgia hospital. “What’s your bidnis?,” asked the woman in admissions, with carrot-colored hair and eyeglasses to match.” O’Connor responded that she was a writer. “A what?” “A writer,” repeated O’Connor. Whereupon, the woman demanded, “How do you spell that?”
The primary business of Father Seelos [Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.S.s.R.] was the salvation of souls, and his message was blunt to those who were in danger. While he praised Americans in general for their energy, he warned that a total preoccupation with business affairs could compromise their eternal salvation. He observed that if Americans understood spiritual matters as they understood worldly ones, we would have nothing but saints. Likewise, Seelos was equally candid in writing to a friend in Germany: “I had come to know your mind for business very closely, and my only concern is that maybe you are involved in worldly business so much that hardly any time is left for you to be concerned about the things of your soul’s salvation. . . . Yes, be careful for yourself, for much business brings many cares and many cares absorb one’s whole life, and one easily forgets the one thing necessary.”
Often the Church gives the wrong impression that it is only concerned with two preoccupations: What’s your bidnis in your bedroom? and, What’s in your wallet? Father Michael Heher wrote in The Lost Art of Walking on Water that we implore the faithful to get involved in our parishes, but what do we ask of them? “To donate sacrificially? To attend one of our self-help seminars or Bible studies? To jump through the hoops of our sacramental preparation? Where is the excitement in that? Where is the call to real service, for trusting faith in troubling times? We have come to consider high attendance at anything as a sign of success; we have forgotten that, on Pentecost, the standard was a bit higher: people had to be on fire.”
Of this Father Seelos was convinced: “I am sure and certain that we will one day bemoan in Purgatory our lazy and lukewarm conduct if we are not as fervent in receiving the holy sacraments as we should be. . . . Therefore it is good to think: It is Jesus, my divine and all-merciful Redeemer. He wants to burn without exception all my faults and imperfections in the fire of his all-merciful love.” In other words, for Seelos, the more concerned we are with our heavenly Father’s business of all-merciful love, the more on fire we will be; and the less concerned we are with our heavenly home, the more “on fire” we will be, when excluded from that heavenly home!
[October 5, is the Feast Day of Blessed Frances Xavier Seelos]
Byron Miller, C.Ss.R., is the Executive Director of the National Seelos Shrine & the Seelos Center, in New Orleans.
No comments:
Post a Comment