Michael Creavey's Blog, page 2

Trusting the Author of Life

It seems that Saint Augustine believed that only the present is truly, fully real to us. It is in this infinitely tiny instant that we think, speak, act, or fail to act. Only in the present do we interact with others and our environment. Here alone do we laugh and cry and dream and pray. The present is where we love and hate and live and die.

The great Bishop of Hippo invites us to recognize that once our past is indeed past, it can only become real to us once more when we, through memory, make...

Exfoliating the Soul

It's a fun memory, believe me. My brother Joe and I were strolling around the mall one afternoon, minding our own business and not in any particular hurry. We wandered from store to store, grabbed an Orange Julius along the way, chatted about life, the

Army, the family, politics, theology, conspiracy theories - the usual fare.

Suddenly we found ourselves passing by a kiosk loaded with a breathtaking array of Dead Sea salt exfoliating products. Since dudes aren't into that kind of stuff, we ba...

If You're Suffering...

If you are suffering, rest assured that you are not alone.

If you are suffering, know that you never will be alone.

If you are suffering, remember that others are likely suffering even more than you right now (and pray for them!)

If you are suffering, remember that others are likely suffering less than you right now (and be happy for them!)

If you are suffering, accept that it may not be over quickly.

If you are suffering, rejoice that it will come to an end some day, if not in this life th...

Leaving Everything

Recognizing the power of Jesus, Peter drops to his knees and cries out, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8). What remarkable humility! Saint Peter, upon whom Jesus would build his Church, is first and foremost a humble servant. It is no wonder that the office he has passed on to his successors bestows the title servus servorum Dei, "servant of the servants of God." Indeed, all true Christian piety and devotion to Jesus begins with a sacrifice, no matter how large or small,...

Beauty Beckons Us Beyond the Veil

Beauty. One of the greatest of all transcendent mysteries, it is an everyday point of contemplation and yet so elusive at the same time. What is it? How does it produce in me its unique effects so instantly every time I encounter it? How can one reality, one experience manifest itself in so many different ways? How can one word conjure up so many memories, journeys, reunions, and timeless moments where we met beauty face to face and embraced? What is this great mystery and how are to understand ...

Fight Courageously for Jesus

I came across the following reflection last week in the Liturgy of the Hours' Office of Readings for Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time and it's really been on my heart to share it with you (courtesy of Universalis). Please read, contemplate, and share this far and wide!

From the Catecheses by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop,Even in time of persecution let the cross be your joy

The Catholic Church glories in every deed of Christ. Her supreme glory, however, is the cross. Well aware...

"Know Thyself"...

Jesus tells Satan in rebuke: "It is written,'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (Matthew 4:4). He says this in full knowledge that he himself is God's Word, the heavenly Bread come down to earth. It is precisely this self-knowledge, knowledge that can only come from knowing the Father perfectly, that enables Jesus to do the Father's works.

Socrates taught the vital importance of self-knowledge as an indispensable foundation of a fully human ...

Meditation: Reflecting the Trinity

Thomas Merton wrote that God, as Creator, "holds us in being", meaning that he actively wills each one of us and speaks each of us into being at each moment. Any interruption in this act of loving creation would result in our complete and total disappearance from existence not only here and now, but in past and future as well. As Merton put it:

If I am true to the concept that God utters in me, if I am true to the thought of him I was meant to embody, I shall be full of his actuality and find him...

"Practice What You Preach" by St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop (1538-1584)

As the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Saint Charles Borromeo distinguished himself as a man of heroic virtue and dedication to Christ. When most of the civil and religious leaders fled a devastating plague that broke out in that city in 1576, St. Charles charged into the fray and spent himself ensuring that his flock was cared for in both bodily health needs and the deeper needs of the soul. For those of us who, in recent years, have been profoundly broken hearted by widespread failures of many o...

All Souls Day Meditation: A Good Death

On the Feast of All Souls, St. Ambrose of Milan speaks to us of the nature of death. Specifically, he speaks of a "good death", one in which we choose to abandon the deceptive promises and allure of the fallen world and embrace the truth - that we exist solely by the will of Almighty God, and He calls us to be with him forever in eternal life. His is the standard, and as Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father except through me." Certainly worth meditating upon today. Here's the full passage fro...