With the coming of Christ, the gates of heaven were opened. And life on earth became an ongoing intercourse with heaven. In this time of polarization, anxiety, resentment and discouragement, it is good to pause on a Sabbath and recall some of the splendid, miraculous, heartwarming visitations from heaven in our time. (Since my birth 1947).
1. The Religious Revival in post-war U.S.A. After the suffering of the Depression and the horror of the War, a wave of gratitude and devotion swept our nation: widespread practice of religion, large families, an explosion of religious vocations, the flourishing of religious institutions, unheard of economic prosperity, a robust labor movement, flourishing working/middle classes, and widespread cultural harmony under a Catholic-friendly Protestant establishment. Iconic figures of the period included Billy Graham, Bishop Fulton Sheen, the young Thomas Merton, and Father (the family rosary) Patrick Peyton. This was a real Camelot period for the American Catholic Church. A time of great grace!
2. 12-Step programs, originally Alcoholics Anonymous and then related addiction programs, continued to spread in our country and beyond as a God-centered, efficacious, authoritative response to compulsions.
3. Ecumenical movement among the Churches moved to heal the rupture of the Reformation and reunite us all in Christ.
4. Internationally, a strong America assisted in the rebuilding of Europe (Marshall Plan) and Japan; contained the imperialist Soviet empire; and built a world order, however flawed, which allowed the spread of the Gospel, the work of the Church, global enjoyment of the liberties ( religion, press, politics), the rule of law, and a flourishing global economy (again, far from perfect) which lifted millions out of poverty.
5. Vatican II gathered together a symphony of reform movements (ecumenism, liturgy, Bible, social justice, holiness of the lay life, return to the sources, dialogue with the contemporary world); reconfigured Catholicism to address the current world; in continuity with Tradition; and was authoritatively interpreted and implemented by Popes Paul, John Paul and Benedict.
6. The Civil Rights movement triumphed as a remarkable Afro-American evangelicalism uniting all that is best in the post-war USA and definitively renounced systemic, institutional white racism. Along with this spectacular achievement we recall Chavez in the Farm Worker Movement and the multiple efforts to address poverty and injustice over the past decades.
7. Global Pentecostalism spread like wild fire and even inflamed the mainline Churches, including the the Catholic Church in the charismatic movement. The Churches moved towards greater unity in Christ, received an explosion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, surged of evangelical energies, and formulated a response to the Cultural Revolution. Parallel to this, in Evangelicalism, a new surge of renewal occurred in the Jesus Movement in the 1970s drawing many from the hippie movement to Christ.
8. Other lay renewal movements, led by charismatic figures, offered refreshing, creative and yet orthodox expressions of Catholicism to a quickly secularizing world: Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation, Focolare and others. Additionally, with the decline in the traditional orders, new, smaller expressions of the religious life emerged such as Friars of the Renewal and Sisters of Life.
9. The revelations of Divine Mercy, entrusted to the humble St.Faustina, slowly but persistently spread around the globe and found full expression within Catholicism in the papacy of John Paul. This "private revelation" is arguably the most significant single visitation from heaven in the last 100 years.
10. The Pro-Life Movement emerged as the defining moral crusade in the USA. God's grace is also manifest in a multitude of smaller, humble movements including homeschooling, Latin Mass, small Catholic colleges, our own Our Lady's Missionaries of the Eucharist, and institutions like the John Paul Institute for the Family and Institute for Psychological Studies both in D.C. In our time, devotion to our Blessed Mother Mary and her rosary, while diminished from the peak period 1945-65, remains strong among the faithful and has been revived by the alleged appearances at Medugorje.
11. John Paul and Benedict, in their papacies, personal lives, and teaching, embodied an inspired Catholicism that was flawlessly orthodox, intellectually profound, creative, and entirely delightful. Among so many contributions most significant is John Paul's catechesis on the human body and sexuality as the definitive answer to the sexual revolution. This core teaching on marriage/family was further enriched by scientific breakthroughs in Natural Family Planning in the 1970s.
12. Most clearly and purely, of course, heaven visits earth in the person of the saints. In these years we were graced with saints Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, John Paul, Jose Maria Eschriva, as well as uncanonized Catherine Doherty, Dorothy Day, Caryl Houselander, Adrienne von Speyr, Madaleine Delbrel, Carlo Acutis, Monsignor Giussani, Chiara Lubrich, along with countless martyrs under communism and Islamic terrorism and the lives of humble holiness around us.
It goes without saying that the ordinary life of the Bride of Christ, our Mother the Church, the hidden life of Nazareth continues steadily in ordinary families, parishes, and lives.
This very day we move and breath in the light and energy of these visitations. We exult in them, as we joyously await new ones.
Even as the post-war Catholic order has collapsed; even as the world plunges into multiple crises; even as the Church herself is in a chaos of scandal and confusion...
We renounce discouragement, timidity, confusion, anxiety, resentment, and the sadness of nostalgia.
We open our hearts and minds to the action of Christ who never abandons us.
We thank Him for the blessings of our time!
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