My family and I attend St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, so when I was in our local Catholic bookstore recently, I picked up a coin featuring an image of that saint. St. Catherine is the patron saint of several causes, including firefighters, nurses, sick people, and a few other things as well.

Based on the typo on the coin I bought (see the picture), I think we can adopt her as the patron saint of Toyota minivan drivers as well (Sienna, as opposed to Siena).

An online resource explains patron saints for us:

Patron saints are chosen as special protectors or guardians over areas of life. These areas can include occupations, illnesses, churches, countries, causes — anything that is important to us…

Recently, the popes have named patron saints but patrons can be chosen by other individuals or groups as well.

So I’m unofficially naming St. Catherine of “Sienna” as the patron saint of minivan drivers, especially of Toyota Sienna drivers. My family drives a Sienna, as do quite a few other parishioners and parents who bring their kids to our parish school. Every time we get behind the wheel, we can reflect on her life and ask her to pray for us!

Today is known as Reformation Day among Lutherans because October 31, 1517 was the date Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses — a date that historians consider to be the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

When I was a Lutheran (from my early 20s until my late 30s), I read the Augsburg Confession, which is the primary confession of faith for Lutherans, as well as the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, written in response to Catholic objections to the Augsburg Confession. I must admit that in reading these two documents, I did not understand why the Catholic Church objected to them. I had to deduce what the Catholic position was through the arguments made in the Apology.

Fortunately, I eventually was able to find the “missing link” — the Catholic rebuttal to the Augsburg Confession which prompted the writing of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. This document is known as The Roman Confutation against the Augsburg Confession and is available from the Lutheran Project Wittenberg. If you are curious why the Church said “No” to many of the Lutheran positions back in the 16th Century, I encourage you to read this document (available as a free PDF). It’s only 24 pages, and it proved to be a powerful influence on me becoming a Catholic. If you’d like to study it alongside the Lutheran documents, both the Augsburg Confession and the Apology are part of the Book of Concord, also available as a free PDF online.

ChurchYear.net has a nice entry about All Saints Day that gives a solid overview of the holy day: “All Saints Day is when the Church commemorates all saints, known and unknown. The eve of All Saints is known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. All Saints Day is November 1.” I also like the section answering the objection, “Isn’t Celebrating All Saints Day Idolatry?” Enjoy!

Oh, and although All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation, since it falls on a Saturday this year, the precept to attend Mass is abrogated (see the article “About Holy Days of Obligation“).

In the UK, atheists are getting aggressive…but not exercising much conviction.

The news article Atheists Plan Anti-God Ad Campaign on Buses reports that thirty buses in London will feature posters that read, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

So this was offensive for, like, half a second. When I read it again, the part about “probably” made me laugh. Here we have an atheist group that can’t even be fully convinced that God doesn’t exist. I guess that would make them more agnostic than atheists. Sounds like an organization with a slight identity crisis.

[Side note: If you ever encounter a self-professed agnostic, ask why they describe themselves using the Greek term instead of the Latin equivalent. Many don't realize that agnostic (Greek) is the same as ignoramus (Latin). Both mean "one who does not know."]

Back to the news story.

Now, I admit that this is a sad state of affairs and that a few people might be negatively influenced by this. Some will miss the underlying false assumptions of the ad: if you are worried and not enjoying life, it could be because religion might be oppressing you. Therefore, pretend that maybe God doesn’t exist after all — even we atheists/agnostics/ignoramuses can’t decide — and now you’ll be happy. Hopefully, most people will see through this lie. I tend to agree with one believer who was quoted in the news article: “Stunts like this demonstrate how militant atheists are often great adverts for Christianity.”

The truth of the matter is that God does exist and their are at least 20 solid, rational arguments for the existence of God. If you’d like to see them, they are summarized by philosophy professors Peter Kreeft and Ron Tacelli in their book, Handbook of Christian Apologetics. This same Dr. Kreeft makes a handful of these arguments available on his website’s featured writings section (see the article series Arguments for God’s Existence, beginning with Can You Prove God Exists?) and in free mp3 audio form (listen to Argument for God’s Existence and the separate lecture God’s Existence). So, if you don’t think that theism is rational, be open-minded enough to explore Dr. Kreeft’s arguments.

And if you’re searching for the meaning of life, I’ve not seen it better summarized than this:

God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven. (from the Baltimore Catechism)

If your life is miserable, living like an atheist is part of your problem, not part of the solution. The answers you seek are in being conformed to God’s will, not in conforming God to your will or pretending that God doesn’t exist. As St. Augustine put it in the opening of his Confessions:

Thou hast made us for Thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in Thee.

Thirty years ago today, Karol Wojtyla was elected the 264th pope and took the name John Paul II.

Truth be told, I was just a kid at the time — only 11 years old — and a Methodist kid at that. So I certainly had no emotional vested interest in this papal election news. It probably was the first time I even learned who the pope was. But still, I have memories of watching the white smoke rising on the television coverage, with the announcer explaining the significance.

It was odd that his predecessor had been elected just a few weeks earlier — then died after being pope for just over a month. How long would this new guy last?

Well, as you know, John Paul II reigned more than 26 years, the second longest papacy in history (or, the third longest, if you count St. Peter). For the people of my generation, he was the pope we grew up with.

I remember when the pope got shot in May 1981, the third of what seemed like an endless wave of high-publicity shootings (Dec. 1980: John Lennon; March 1981: Ronald Reagan). I also remember how odd it seemed to hear of him visiting his would-be assassin in prison two years later. John Paul II said, “What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.” Maybe there was something to this “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” thing after all.

God gave Pope John Paul II a long life. As he neared death in 2005 at the age of 84, many people made pilgrimage to the Vatican to pray for him — and a significant number were youth. The mainstream media found this baffling, as did many non-Catholics like myself. How could this octogenarian leader of a seemingly outdated religious system have connected with so many in their teens and twenties? Kids who ought to be self-absorbed materialistic Westerners? But this was the pope who launched the World Youth Day events. He connected to the young people. They would shout, “JP2, we love you!”; and he would often reply, “JP, too, he loves you!” The night before he died, he told the youth who had gathered to pray for him in St. Peter’s Square, “I have looked for you, you have come to me, and I thank you.”

It was about a year after John Paul II’s death that I began to discover the truth of Catholicism, and about two years until I’d enter fully into the Church. While much of my conversion came from wrestling with doctrinal points, I have to acknowledge a debt to the life of John Paul II. In retrospect, I think the way he lived a genuine faith under the microscope of the media (he was the first pope that had to deal with 24-hour cable news and the Internet) made an impression on me over his 26-year pontificate.

So today, in honor of the 30th anniversary of his election as pope, I have to join in with the crowds and shout, “JP2, we love you!”

The Travel section of today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured an article about a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France. This town is the site where the young Bernadette Soubirous saw several visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858. While the Catholic Church was initially skeptical, her claims were eventually recognized as worthy of belief following a canonical investigation, and the apparition is now known as Our Lady of Lourdes. St. Bernadette was canonized in 1933.

The AJC article does not present what I think is one of the most fascinating facts of Bernadette’s story – she is one of the Incorruptables, a group of Catholic saints whose bodies have remained free from normal decomposition.

Bernadette died in 1879 at the age of 35. Exhumation is a normal part of the investigation when a person is being considered for canonization. About 30 years after her death, Bernadette’s body was exhumed with startling results:

Bishop Gauthey of Nevers and the church exhumed the body of Bernadette Soubirous on September 22, 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors, and a sister of the community. They found that although the crucifix in her hand and the rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared “incorrupt” — preserved from decomposition. This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before burial in a new double casket.

The Church exhumed the corpse a second time on April 3, 1919. The body still appeared preserved, however, her face was slightly discolored possibly due to the washing process of the first exhumation.

In 1925, the church exhumed the body for a third time. They took relics, which were sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded so that the firm of Pierre Imans in Paris could make a light wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos. This was common practice for relics in France, as it was feared that although the body was uncorrupted, the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would make an unpleasant impression on the public. Imprints of the hands were also taken for the presentation of the body. The remains were then placed in a gold and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the mother house in Nevers. The site is visited by many pilgrims and the body of Saint Bernadette to this day remains intact despite being nearly one hundred and thirty years old.

Check out these photos of St. Bernadette’s body — and keep in mind that she died in 1879. Amazing!

One aspect of the Catholic faith that Protestants don’t understand – or at least, I didn’t understand when I was Protestant – is the idea that the righteous departed (i.e., the saints in heaven) pray for us.

Where do we get this idea that the saints in heaven are even aware of our prayers? Consider this passage from scripture:

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8).

Scholars commonly understand that the “twenty-four elders” mentioned are men, most likely the twelve apostles and the twelve sons of Jacob who headed the tribes of Israel. Note what these men do: they take the “prayers of the saints” (i.e., the saints on earth) in the form of incense to the Lamb (i.e., Christ). We see here scriptural support for the Catholic understanding that saints in heaven not only hear the prayers of Christians on earth, they deliver our petitions to Christ’s throne on our behalf.

Other passages in the Old Testament also show how the saints in heaven pray for us. For example, Baruch 3:4 petitions God to hear the prayers offered by the dead:

O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hear now the prayer of the dead of Israel and of the sons of those who sinned before thee, who did not heed the voice of the Lord their God, so that calamities have clung to us (Baruch 3:4).

In the book of 2 Maccabees 15, a vision is recounted involving two of Israel’s righteous dead – the departed high priest Onias and the deceased prophet Jeremiah – praying on behalf of the Jews on the earth:

Onias was stretching out his hands and praying for the whole Jewish community (2 Maccabees 15:12).

And Onias spoke, saying, “This is a man who loves the brethren and prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God” (2 Maccabees 15:14).

The saints in heaven are indeed interceding for us. How comforting to know that we have friends in high places!

Even though I attended the Atlanta Eucharistic Congress this past June, I did not get the chance to hear Matthew Kelly speak. It’s been a few months, but I finally picked up a one of his books and now I wish I would have heard his presentation.

I’m about 70 pages into his book Rediscovering Catholicism which was published in 2002. I think it’s fantastic! It’s one of those books that if I tried to highlight my favorite passages, about 80 percent of the text would be soaked in yellow ink. Here’s just one:

The authentic life begins with the simple but profound desire to play the part God has designed for us in human history. The unfathomable adventure of salvation begins when we stop asking, “What’s in it for me?” and turn humbly to God in our hearts and ask, How may I serve? What work do you wish for me to do with my life? What is your will for my life?

Our modern times have revolted violently against the idea of “God’s will.” Desperate to maintain the illusion of being in control of their lives, many modern Christians have either turned their backs on God, or created a new spiritual rhetoric that allows them to determine selectively God’s will for their lives. And yet, it is the very surrendering of our own will to God’s designs that characterizes the whole Christian struggle. The interior life is primarily concerned with this single dynamic of turning our individual will over to God.

God calls each of us to live an authentic life. He has designed this life to perfectly integrate our legitimate needs, our deepest desires, and our unique talents. The more intimately and harmoniously these three are related, the more you become truly yourself.

God doesn’t call you to live an authentic life so he can stifle or control you. He calls you to live an authentic life so that, from an infinite number of possibilities, you can become the-best-version-of-yourself. By calling you to live an authentic life, God is saying, “Be all you can be.” (pp. 57-58)

This book is deep and thought provoking, but written in a style that is inviting and allows for a quick read. Highly recommend!

I found this story in the Georgia Bulletin interesting: Deacons’ Ministry Is At World’s Busiest Airport. Two Catholic deacons minister to travelers at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport as part of the Interfaith Airport Chaplaincy. It’s nice to see that the Church makes the effort to be present for people even in places where they might not expect to find her.

And what a powerful witness to have these men in Roman collars visible in the community. One police officer states, “It does me good to see them. They are very approachable. I can go talk to them. They seem genuine, very good people. Just having the guys around has a calming effect.” One manager at the Transportation Security Administration is reported as saying, “I’ve never seen either one of them frown. They really bring a light. You can always count on them.”

This last remark underscores how important the witness of our lives can be to others. Even when we think no one is looking, our attitude and behavior can shine the light of Christ to others. And even if travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson don’t stop to speak to these Deacons, their visible presence in the midst of that hectic environment serves as a reminder to us that God is always with us even as we go about our busy daily lives.

Senator John McCain’s selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate is a definite home run. She is an outspoken pro-family and pro-life politician and will help strengthen the Republican ticket in this November’s election.

Palin is the mother of five children, including a son named Trig who has Down syndrome. Her statements last April about being the mother of a special needs child speaks volumes about her faith, values and character:

Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.

Contrast this with Senator Barack Obama’s troubling abortion stand and there is no doubt which way Christians must vote this November: McCain-Palin.