From the Friars: Faithful to the Present Moment

The Memorial of Blessed Solanus Casey is celebrated on July 30th on the Franciscan liturgical calendar. After much suffering from a horrible skin disease, Fr. Solanus died in Detroit on July 31, 1957. He was known for the countless miracles that God worked through him. My father’s brother had a strange nervous disorder when he was a boy and the doctors were not able to help him. My grandmother took him to see Fr. Solanus at the Capuchin monastery. The holy priest prayed over him and told the worried mother took take him home and that he would be fine. And so it went, for my uncle and countless others who have similar stories.

I always try to visit the Solanus Casey Center when I visit my family in Detroit. On the walls of the museum/shrine there are written various quotes from the Blessed. One of these is: “The greatness of man consists in being faithful to the present moment.” A similar saying was: “We must be faithful to the present moment, or we will frustrate the plan of God for our lives.” This point is worth taking some time to ponder.

Because of struggles with Latin and German, Fr. Solanus was not given faculties to hear confessions or preach doctrinal sermons. Hence, he was given the seemingly lowly task of doorkeeper. But always faithful to the present moment, he became famous for listening to each person with great attentiveness and compassion. This irritated some of his Capuchin brothers because he was often late for prayers, not to mention the monastery becoming swamped with visitors. The Holy Spirit also inspired Fr. Solanus to begin a soup kitchen which continues to this day.

Our lives are filled with countless distractions. To be faithful to the present moment, to discern what would be most pleasing to God, we must pause and reflect. And we must have the interior freedom to choose the loving thing as opposed to the self-gratifying thing that often attracts us. Bl. Solanus never complained during his final agony. One last quote says it all: “I look on my whole life as giving, and I want to give and give until there is nothing left of me to give.”

Amen.
Fr. Peter