Shaun McAfee - Reform Yourself! : How to Pray, Find Peace, and Grow in Faith with the Saints of the Counter-Reformation

Shaun McAfee

Reform
Yourself!

How to Pray, Find Peace, and Grow in Faith with the Saints of the Counter-Reformation

Foreword by Paul Thigpen

2017 by Shaun McAfee

All rights reserved. Except for quotations, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, uploading to the Internet, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Published by Catholic Answers, Inc.
2020 Gillespie Way
El Cajon, California 92020
888-291-8000 orders
619-387-0042 fax
www.catholic.com

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN978-1-68357-054-7
978-1-68357-055-4 Kindle
978-1-68357-056-1 ePub

To you, the reader.
You are the Church.

Contents

Foreword

More than thirty years ago, I was a Protestant pastor working my way through a Ph.D. program in Church History at a Methodist university. The process was an essential factor in my eventually becoming Catholic. As Blessed John Henry Newman famously observed, To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.

As I studied, I learned almost daily not only how much I didnt know, but also how much of what I thought I knew was actually untrue.

One of the great surprises awaiting me when I studied what Church historians call the Reformation Period was the Catholic movement known as the Counter-Reformation. Many prefer to call it the Catholic Reformation , and for good reason: it was not just a reaction, a counter, to the Protestant revolt. The spirit of genuine reform within the Catholic Church, as opposed to her attempted reform through fragmentation, long preceded Martin Luthers posting of the Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517the episode commonly considered the birth of the Protestant movement.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of that event. Understandably, Protestants around the world are celebrating this year as a spiritual milestone. Meanwhile, many Catholics are seeking a better understanding of the situation that provoked Luthers action and its earth-shaking consequences. In their search for such understanding, and to learn how the Catholic Church responded and how its response can be spiritually fruitful even today, they would do well to read this book.

The sixteenth-century Church was in dire need of reform; few would challenge that observation. Moral decadence and corruption abounded at every level: from the infamous Renaissance popes to princely bishops, from sexually active and doctrinally ignorant priests to a laity that was oftennot surprisinglyclueless and confused by such failed leadership. Of course, there were good Catholics to be found in every place. But the lax and the loathsome seemed immovably entrenched, and all too often they were the ones in charge.

In the midst of this spiritual darkness, God sent a number of heroic men and women to bring about authentic reform. They faced considerable oppositionas did the leaders who, after Luthers movement found numerous followers, sought to reclaim those who had been lost to the Church. These bold, brave souls risked more than we can imagine to fulfill their missions of reform and reclamation, often laying their lives on the line to defend the Faith and to seek out those who had wandered away.

In these pages youll read about ten of these genuine spiritual heroes and what they have to teach us today. Their stories should stir us with admiration for their exceptional holiness, wisdom, courage, and perseveranceand often a fine sense of humor as well. But the author has given us much more than simple biography; he connects these stories to our everyday work of self -reform, of ongoing conversion, as well as to our baptismal call to explain and defend the Faith. Always, he approaches these saints with an essential question in mind: What can we learn from their example?

I trust this book will find a wide audience. My hope is that readers will respond eagerly to the challenges it issues through its perceptive look at ten extraordinary saints with profound lessons for ordinary Catholics.

Paul Thigpen, Ph.D.
Kennesaw, Georgia

Acknowledgments

When I was in the seventh grade my English teacher assigned the class to write a short story. I quickly got out my mechanical pencil and a paper, put my name and date at the top right corner, and raised my hand to ask, What should I put as the title?

Ive always remembered her remark: Why dont you write it first and then choose a title? She was right, and that advice has served me well as an author: work first, always. Its a mantra Ive applied to many aspects of my life, and a similar initiative was applied to this book. I wish to thank and acknowledge the team of professionals at Catholic Answers for finding the right niche for this book from content, to title, to the cover art. It was not what any of us had in mind from the beginning, but it is now a head-turning book from every angle and chapter. Thank you, sincerely, Todd Aglialoro, Tim Ryland, Jon Sorensen, and the rest of the team who contributed to the development of this book.

I wish secondly to acknowledge and thank my wife for her continual support of my writing: seemingly endless book buying, providing me with time to write on early mornings and late nights, and encouragement throughout the process. I could not have done this without you. Thank you, Jessica, my love.

Theres another contributing acknowledgement I would like to make and that is about the dedication. Like the title, this is one of the last things I finalize on a book. The morning I had to make a decision. I asked my wife, Whom should I dedicate the book to?

She provided a resoundingly fresh answer: Who did you think of the most when you were writing the book? The answer was easy: you, the readers . From the very beginning, and with each tippy-tap as I punched the keys, I wanted every word to be beneficial to the reader. I wanted to create a book that doesnt just help people learn about saints , but to learn from saints . What you have in your hands is a book made for you, to give you a courageous faith and a desire to persistently reform yourself, because you are the Church.

Introduction

It is said that if you want to become a saint, you must read the saints. But I say, if you want to become a saint, you must do more than read: you must study the saints! You must read the saints in detail, analyzing them to the degree to which you come to know your own friends and family, taking an interest in every detail of their characters. To know these saints, we must devote ourselves to them. Only when we do this can we become like them.

The first question to ask yourself, then, is: What saints should I study? Well, naturally, that depends. It depends on what sort of saint you want to become. Do you enjoy study and scholarship? Might you enjoy the work of preaching? Missionaries and service to others? If you want to become a saint of great intellect, you must study the academic saints: Augustine, Aquinas, Edith Stein, and others. To become a saint of great virtue you must study the virtuous saints: John Paul II, Maximilian Kolbe, Thrse of Lisieux, Mary of Egypt, Teresa of Calcutta. There are those who are deeply encouraged by the spiritual saints, the mystics, and saints who have performed astonishing miracles. If you want to imitate these saints, you must surround yourself with them as friends.

You should ask yourself what your primary vocation already is . A mother or father would do well to study the lives of those saints who had children. A priest would be smart to study the lives of the great pastors of souls. Even popes should study former popes and the bishops they admire. If you are already involved in a particular vocationas many of us areyou have an obligation to faithfully live out that vocation. This cloud of witnesses, the saints, will help you do both!