Welcome to Bishop Boyea's Disciples Together on the Way Challenge for Week 10, March 13 to 19:

"Take the opportunity to go to Confession and, if going to Confession is a healthy habit you have already formed, then my challenge to you is to invite a friend or family member to seek the Lord’s mercy through this sacrament in order to experience the healing of our Lord Jesus Christ."

* To find times and locations of Confessions in your area go to: https://masstimes.org/

* A guide on How to Go to Confession:  https://thelightison.org/guide-to-confession/

Bishop Boyea's Disciples Together on the Way Challenge for Week 9 is this: "Beginning Sunday,  nightly recite an Act of Contrition and, in doing so, to memorize it by the end of the week". Here's a suggested Act of Contrition from the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen."  
 

Dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

This week we begin a new set of challenges focussed on the theme of repentance. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines repentance thus: “Repentance is a reorientation of our whole life, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, and a turning away from evil. At the same time, it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by an often painful sadness which the Church Fathers called animi cruciatus or affliction of spirit and also compunctio cordis or repentance of heart.” Catechism of the Catholic Church 1431

How do we know what to be sorry for? That’s where this week’s challenge comes in. Starting Sunday, I am challenging you to make a nightly examination of conscience. How do we do that?

For help, let’s turn to Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He is the 16th century founder of the Jesuits. He is also often regarded as the unofficial patron saint of discernment. One of the few rules Saint Ignatius insisted upon for his fledgling religious order was that all Jesuits would daily examine their conscience – not once but twice! I’m only suggesting we do it once, at the conclusion of each day. The Jesuits call this Examination of Conscience The Examen. The word comes to us from the Latin meaning to “weigh accurately”.

You could describe the Examen as “spiritual stocktaking” at the end of each day.  We are to become better aware of our day, understand what we did or did not do, and take action to make some change.  

Right, enough theory. Let’s try it out! There are various versions of the Examen prayer in circulation but here’s one with six clear steps. We’ll reproduce all this in print so that you can use it each evening: 

Step One: Be Still. Take a moment to acknowledge God’s love for you and presence in this very moment. Rest with him in silence and stillness. Take a few deep breathes. 

Step Two: Thankfulness. Invite the Lord to show you what of this day you are most grateful for…small or big things...joyful moments or challenging ones that brought growth. Thank Him.

Step Three: Review your day. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead this time of reflection, helping you see with the eyes of God what took place in your day.  Take note where you had joy, life, energy, peace, closeness to God and where you had darkness, dryness, anxiety, heaviness of heart, etc.  Ask the Lord for understanding of the meaning of the various spiritual movements you’ve experienced.

Step Four: Repentance. As you look back across you day, see those moments where you sinned or fell short of saying “yes” to God’s promptings in given situation. And then? Ask God for forgiveness. You can use whatever words of sorrow well up from your heart or, if it is a help, you can employ a traditional text such as the following:

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

Step Five: Look forward to tomorrow. Ask God to show you ways you can learn from today’s experiences in order to make better choices tomorrow. 

Step Six: A Moment of Gratitude.  Give thanks for this time of prayer and the inspirations God brought with our own words or perhaps by praying a Glory Be or a Hail Mary.

I hope this prayer form blesses your journey in growing in deeper communion with our Lord. 

May God bless you throughout this week, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Yours in Christ,

+ Earl Boyea 
Bishop of Lansing

My sisters and brothers in the Lord,

Welcome to Week 7 of Disciples Together on the Way. This is our final week exploring the traditional Christian practice of asceticism or, to give it another name, self-denial. Why is this theme so important? Well, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states: “The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.” Hence, if we want to be happy…let us continue to learn to practice asceticism.

This week’s challenge is to exercise self-restraint in our speech. More specifically, each day, we’ll read the Epistle of Saint James Chapter 3, verses 1 to12, which is a beautiful meditation on the need to control the tongue.  

Each day we’ll attempt to put those verses into practice by becoming more intentional about our speech, working to avoid sins of the tongue and using our speech to bless rather than curse.

The Church has always taught that our words can be sinful, and even gravely so. Each Sunday during the Confiteor, we say: “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do . . .”

So how do we sin by our words? Let’s consider a few areas. Do we take the Lord’s name in vain? Do we use swear words, curses, or other profanities? What about gossip or detraction? The sin of detraction is when we disclose another’s faults to those who didn’t need to know.   

An aside. As readily as information is spread in our modern society, I sometimes think we have forgotten that detraction is a sin. 

Consider this story involving the 16th century saint of Rome, Philip Neri.  A woman once confessed to St. Philip that she had spoken to two or three persons of some small hidden fault of a friend of hers. As a penance, St. Philip had her to buy a chicken at the market and  bring it to him. Every step from the market to St. Philip she was to pluck a feather. When she finally handed St. Philip the featherless chicken, St. Philip told her: “Now go back the same way, pick up all the feathers you dropped and bring them to me.” She said, “But father, I cannot, for they been scattered over the city.” St. Philip said: “And also your detraction has gone all over the city and you cannot repair it.” Hence, let’s not ignore the sin of detraction.

Let’s consider a few more areas of sinful speech. Do we engage in calumny — false statements that harm others’ reputations? Do we lie? Do we boast or brag? Flattery? Insults? Dirty jokes? Sarcasm? Do we interrupt others when they are speaking? Do we control the tone of your voice, or do we find that we regularly raise the tone of our voice or speak in a bitter tone? Do we shout or yell? And last, but not least, how do we use social media?

Yes, there is much here. But don’t be discouraged! Ask God for help. He doesn’t expect us to become perfect in one short week. Rather, out of love for Him, spend each day growing in virtue in this area. And when you fall short, repent and begin anew.

So, to recap: Our challenge this week is to tame our tongue and to read James 3: 1-12 each day. Next week, we’ll begin a new theme and I’ll be back with another challenge.  Until then, may God bless you throughout this coming week, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Yours in Christ,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing

Next week on Thursday, February 24, over 800 priests, deacons, religious, parish staff and school teachers from throughout the Diocese of Lansing will gather to learn more about the implementation of Realign Resources for Mission across the diocese. Entitled “Made for Mission”, this one-day conference will afford participants an opportunity to talk, listen, discuss and, most importantly, pray with and for each other. 

In this Diocese of Lansing Podcast, Deb Amato of the Realign Resources for Mission's Office of Implementation looks forward to next week's conference and also gives an update on how the implementation of Realign Resources for Mission is going.

* For more on Realign Resources for Mission, go to: https://www.dioceseoflansing.org/office-bishop/realign-resources-mission-latest-news

My sisters and brothers in the Lord,

Welcome to Week 6 of Disciples Together on the Way. How did you get on over the past week in attempting to find time for meditative prayer each morning? If you succeeded, great! If not, keep trying. And please be assured of my prayers as you do. This week, we continue our pilgrimage together into the traditional Christian practice of self-denial or, as it is often called, asceticism. This week’s challenge will move us beyond ourselves and into another aspect of being a disciple, that is, helping others to be disciples. 

So, this week's challenge is to tell a friend or family member about the gift of fasting and to then invite that person into fasting from something together. This could be a household activity, such as where the whole household fasts from unnecessary screen use for the week. That’s just one example. There are many others.

If you’ve been with us over the past few weeks, you’ll know that this is our third challenge focusing on fasting. In our first challenge, two weeks ago, we began discovering the importance of fasting to the life of the Christian disciple. Last week, as I mentioned previously, we were attempting to wake up early to pray for 30 minutes each morning. If you completed those two challenges, you will now have a very recent experience both of fasting — whether from food or some other pleasure — and also had a week of prayer to help you reflect on your experience.

Did you notice anything beneficial from your fasting? Were you able to be more recollected at prayer? If you gave up some form of entertainment, did you notice that you had additional time, whether for God, for your family, or for others? Perhaps you found more silence? Did your hunger make you more attentive to the presence of God in your day? Or maybe your fast made you realize that your happiness had become too dependent on comfort and entertainment? Did your Friday fast lead to a more meaningful Sunday feast?

When we invite friends or family members to join us in this week’s challenge, we should share with them our experience of fasting and the personal benefits we experienced from that fasting. 

Hopefully that experience, both of fasting and of daily morning prayer, has helped us to see the good that comes from stepping back from comfort and pleasure and making greater space in our life for God.  Each week, in a little way, Fridays provide this opportunity. I have already mentioned that Fridays are days of penance but, perhaps, some of us are wondering why this is so. That’s a good question.

We remember Friday each week as a special day of penance because it was on Friday that Jesus Christ died to redeem us from our sins. Of course, we can never repay this debt. But we are nevertheless called to do penance for our sins and those of others and to unite our own sufferings with those of Christ crucified. So, each Friday, the Church obliges us to do penance, whether by abstaining from meat, or fasting, or some other way.

So, to recap: Our challenge this week is to tell a friend or family member about the gift of fasting and invite that person into fasting from something together. We might consider doing this with our household or family. And as many of us are too dependent on our phones and other devices, I’ll be limiting my screen use this week and recommend that you join me.  

Next week, we’ll finish our four-week theme of asceticism and I’ll be back with another challenge.  Until then, may God bless you throughout this coming week, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

+ Earl Boyea

Bishop of Lansing

Welcome to Week 5 of our Disciples Together on the Way challenge. How did you get on last week with our six days of fasting? If you embraced the challenge, I hope you feel the better for it. I suspect that you probably do. Hence, this week, let’s continue with our theme of self-denial or, as it is traditionally called, asceticism.   

This week our focus will be to increase our self-discipline and pursuit of being spiritually healthy by beginning each day with 30 minutes of prayer. Why pray? The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this:  

“The wonder of prayer is revealed beside the well where we come seeking water: there, Christ comes to meet every human being. It is he who first seeks us and asks us for a drink. Jesus thirsts; his asking arises from the depths of God’s desire for us. Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.” 

Many people find that the best time to pray is first thing in the morning. I know I do. It’s certainly the best way to start our day. Now, I know that not everyone is “a morning person”.  Some of us simply struggle to get out of bed. Even if we don’t have that problem we can often develop a morning routine which creates an obstacle to prayer. Perhaps we check our mobile phone immediately after waking up. Or perhaps we turn on the television or the radio or music or read the morning newspaper before embarking upon our day-to-day activities.

Regardless of where we fall within the scale of being a morning person or not, God is always thirsting for us to turn to him in prayer. Every day. Hence, it is those precious first moments of our day that often provide us with an unparalleled opportunity to enter into a peaceful, intimate and reflective conversation with our Loving Father that we can, hopefully, sustain throughout the day. 

Over 1500 years ago in north Africa, Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote that “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.” 

If that is so, just imagine the difference it could make for us intentionally to start each morning with 30 minutes of putting God first. What a difference that could make to the rest of our day…and to the rest of our lives. To paraphrase Bishop Fulton Sheen, those 30 minutes will become our “half hour of power” that launch us – and sustain us – through the rest of our day. 

The Apostle Paul also gives great insights into the peace and joy God can bring to our day when he tells us, “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7; RSV).

These words from St. Paul again provide us with reassurance that starting our day in prayer and thanksgiving to God will help us set aside our anxieties and bring peace over all we do.

And so, as a simple recap of my challenge for this week, I encourage us to begin our day this week with 30 minutes in quiet conversation with our Lord. 

To prepare ourselves to do this, consider going to bed 30 minutes early each evening in order to wake-up 30 minutes earlier each morning. If you have already formed this habit of prayer before rising in the morning … I ask you to please take a moment during that time of prayer this week to keep in mind those who are striving for the same and ask the Lord to encourage them on their journey.

So, rise and shine to the great morning that awaits us! God bless and I look forward to seeing you next week as we continue this pilgrimage as Disciples Together on the Way.   And may God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

+ Earl Boyea 
Bishop of Lansing

Welcome to Week Four of Disciples Together on the Way. I hope you enjoyed the first three on the theme of Praise. What a great starting point. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist." Amen. And, so, now to our next theme. For the next four weeks, our discipleship challenges will emphasize self-denial or, as it is often called, asceticism. 

Okay. Let’s get straight to it. This week’s challenge is to fast from something each and every day except Sunday. For example, fast from unnecessary mobile phone use; or time spent on social media; or watching TV; or alcohol; or desserts. In short: Think of something you’d really hate to go without…and then go without it.  So, take a moment in prayer today or tomorrow to ask God what it is you should give up this week.  

In addition, this coming Friday we will also fast from our normal amount of food. That means eating only one full meal with the other two meals reduced to something like snacks. 

Now if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t like fasting. Yet Jesus fasted. There’s also a long tradition in the Church of fasting throughout Lent and on other penitential days, such as Fridays. So as disciples of Jesus, it’s important that we not ignore either fasting or, more generally, asceticism. And I think we will even see that, when we embrace more self-denial in our life, we will find that life becomes more meaningful as we become less dependent on comfort and pleasure, more attentive to the Holy Spirit, and ultimately, more free to give and receive love.

Why should that be the case? To understand the need for fasting better, let’s turn to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catechism tells us that Jesus calls all of us to conversion and penance. This is not just an initial conversion to the Gospel, as important as that is, but it is a lifelong task! A daily conversion. What Jesus is truly seeking from us is an interior conversion of the heart, where our life is completely reoriented toward God and to the Gospel.  The Catechism says that this interior conversion primarily consists of three things: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. 

The 5th century Italian saint, Saint Peter Chrysologus, beautifully explains this. He says: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, almsgiving is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.” End quote. Enough said. 

So, if we are truly to be disciples of Christ, we must not neglect any of these three. Dare I suggest that — particularly in our modern world of comfort, distraction, and abundance — that we too often neglect fasting? Could this neglect of fasting and asceticism be limiting our discipleship? 

So, over the next week, let’s start to rediscover the importance of fasting in our lives. In our personal prayer each day, let’s consider ways that we can embrace fasting not just this week, but in our daily lives. Here are a few ideas. Did you know that every Friday of the year is an obligatory day of penance for all Catholics? While not required in the United States, many Catholics continue to embrace the traditional practice of abstaining from meat. The US bishops have also recommended treating Friday as a mini-Lent, making it a day of fasting and abstinence.   Not only can fasting help make our spiritual life more focused and prayerful, it also makes each Sunday that much more celebratory. 

Next week, we’ll continue our theme of asceticism and I’ll be back with another challenge.  Until then, may God bless you throughout this coming week, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Yours in Christ,

+ Earl Boyea&nb

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,

Welcome to Disciples Together on the Way. This is our third and final week focusing on the theme of praise. In our first week, we learned how praise puts us into right relationship with God and, as a result, also into right relationship with our brothers and sisters. In week two, we learned to pray the Blessed Virgin Mary’s great canticle of praise, the Magnificat, and realized that through such docility in prayer, God can make mighty that what is presently lowly. This week, we turn our song of praise to the Book of Psalms.
 
The Book of Psalms contains 150 songs. Seventy-three of the Psalms are attributed to King David. The majority were composed for liturgical worship. Many of them are songs of praise and thanksgiving. So why pray the psalms? In short, because Jesus himself prayed the psalms and he is our model of prayer.

Even while dying on the cross, the psalms remained on the lips of our Blessed Lord. In the words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And then from Psalm 31: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

As with Christ, so too with his Church. In Chapter 4 of the Acts of the Apostles, what language do the persecuted Christians employ to express their joy at the release of Peter and John? The Psalms! And, in particularly, Psalm 2, which reads:

“Why do the nations protest and the peoples conspire in vain? Kings on earth rise up and princes plot together against the LORD and against His Anointed One.”

After they prayed this psalm, we are told that the place where these early disciples were meeting was shaken; that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit; and that they then spoke the word of God boldly.

That is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that: “The Psalms constitute the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament…Prayed and fulfilled in Christ, the Psalms are an essential and permanent element of the prayer of the Church. They are suitable for men of every condition and time.” ((CCC 2596-7)

And so, to this week’s challenge: Over the next seven days, starting Sunday, I would like you to pray seven different psalms. Each of these seven psalms is a beautiful song of praise.

What is more, as you pray each psalm, I would like you to place yourself into the midst of the text. Place your own life, your own experiences, and those of the people around you, into those ancient yet timeless poems. Allow yourself to be inspired; to be helped; and to be healed, as you praise of God for all He has done, is doing, and will continue to do in your life. Here’s our list:

On Sunday, pray Psalm 19; Monday, Psalm 29; Tuesday, Psalm 33; Wednesday, Psalm 47; Thursday, Psalm 48; Friday, Psalm 65; and on Saturday conclude with Psalm 66. 

It has been rightly said that the Psalms are “a school of prayer.” If the public ministry of Christ was sustained by the Psalms and the evangelization efforts of the early Church was also fueled by the Psalms, then we too must pray the psalms if we are to be Christ’s disciples in contemporary society.   

So, enjoy this week’s challenge as we continue our pilgrimage as Disciples Together on The Way. And May God bless in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Yours in Christ,

+ Earl Boyea 
Bishop of Lansing 
 

Lansing, January 14, 2022
Feast of Saint Felix of Nola

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,

Welcome to Week Two of Disciples Together on the Way Challenge. How did you get on over the past seven days praising God and praising others? Well, I hope. If not, just pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again. The hallmark of the saints, after all, is that they never gave up!

This week we continue with the theme of praise, the form of prayer which “embraces all other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal” which is Almighty God. In the Fall of 1965, I entered Sacred Heart Seminary High School in Detroit. I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed my years at seminary. Sacred Heart in those days was a place of great learning and piety, of course, but also of great fun and friendships, many which persist to this day. One of the most enduring legacies of my years at seminary is this: praying Lauds (Morning Prayer) and Vespers (Evening Prayer).

In those years at the seminary, the Church was going through many changes and, as a result, we did not have use of the current four volumes of the Liturgy of the Hours. So, our daily morning and evening prayer was a bit haphazard. Still, we prayed the Psalms and, at morning prayer, we prayed the Benedictus of St. Simeon. At evening prayer, we prayed the Magnificat also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary.

The text is taken the Gospel of Luke’s account of an expectant Mary’s visitation to her similarly pregnant cousin Elizabeth. In the canticle’s first three verses, Mary proclaims to her kinswoman:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” (Luke 1:46-49)

What a beautiful hymn of praise to God. Mary recognizes she is lowly. So are we! And yet, through her perfect co-operation with God’s grace she will become loved and lauded until the end of time. There is the lesson for us. In praising God, we reflect, we magnify, we radiate, we share in the God’s great plan for his universe and all creation – you and I included. There lies the path to happiness as well as to Heaven. The popular 20th century evangelist, Bishop Fulton Sheen, liked to compare the radiance of Mary to the reflective light of the moon. He writes:

“God, who made the sun, also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. All its light is reflected from the sun. [Thus] the Blessed Mother reflects her Divine Son; without Him, she is nothing. With Him, she is the Mother of Men.” As with Mary. So too with us.

Hence, my challenge this week: I want each of us to recite the Magnificat every evening for the next seven days, starting Sunday. Ave Maria!

See you next week as we continue our pilgrimage as Disciples Together on the Way. Until then, may God bless you throughout this coming week, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

+ Earl Boyea

Bishop of Lansing