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Our faith calls for us to be courageous. What did St Paul say to St Timothy? He said, “God did not give you a spirit of timidity, the spirit of cowardice. He gave you the spirit of power, and of love, and of self-control. He gave you a spirit of courage.”

There’s a lot of great definitions that the Church offers us for courage, but maybe one of the best comes from CS Lewis. He says, “Courage is all of the other virtues (kindness, patience, humility, etc) at a sticking point. So, courage is all the other virtues at the point of being tested.

Said another way, it’s easy to be good when it is easy to be good. It is easy to be just, when it’s easy to be just, it’s easy to be prudent when it’s easy to be prudent. It’s easy to be honest, when it’s easy to be honest. But it’s difficult to be honest when its gonna cost me something. Catholic theologians have said for thousands of years if we don’t have courage, we actually don’t have any of the other virtues.

Courage isn’t about standing on the street corner and calling people to conversion necessarily. But in the silence of our hearts, do we have the courage to fast, to pray, to give alms? Do we care for people in need? Do we have the conviction in our hearts, that we won’t stand down when facing temptation, when our faith gets put to the test?

Courage is simply the willingness to do or say what needs to be done or said. Its also the ability to get back up after we’ve been knocked down.

What causes our tendency to stand down, to appease, to compromise when we hit that sticking point, when we are tested? From what I can tell by investing time looking at this the past week, all arrows seem to point to fear. Fear has been said to be the opposite of courage. Fear is destructive, it discourages, it distracts, divides, disheartens, deceives, defrauds, and a bunch of other “d” words, all authored by the devil.

How about this list of fears that might deter us from courageousness? Fear of rejection, failure, uncertainty, loneliness, change, being judged, loss of freedom, getting hurt, and (the big one) not being good enough.

OK then, if we have adequately identified courage as the important step in making moral decisions and overcoming temptation, and we know that fear is the dragon that we need to slay, how can we overcome our fears and be more courageous? Let me say it this way: What would you do tomorrow if you were absolutely certain that the Lord was with you?

What courage might that give us to step out from the safe and timid existence of going along to get along to be fearless for the Lord, if we knew that he was right there at our side with the assurance that he wouldn’t let us fail. What is he calling us to do that we might step into fully with both feet if we were sure that he was with us?

We can have courage not because of our own strength, but because of his strength. In Isaiah 41:10 we hear, “Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you.”

-from a Deacon Bill Homily

                                                    Memory Lane!            

As Hockey Season is ready to resume for the Pittsburgh Penguins, we thought a look back at some pictures over their 58 years. From the days of NHL expansion in 1967 to Mario to Sid, they have given us many thrills over the years!