To the Band of Brothers: October 5, 2023

The last email I sent had to do with the powerful sacrament of confession. So, in that spirit, I am going to make one. I confess I have a bit of a pet peeve. It has to do with our improper use of the English language. I noticed there are words in the Shakespearean tongue we too often use incorrectly. The frustration that arises is the conundrum it presents to the listener. When you hear the misused word, do you simply let it go because you understand what the person is trying to say, or do you annoyingly interrupt and correct? That’s a tough one. 

Now, to be fair, there are three words in particular that rattle me the most. 

The first is the word “obsess.” How often do I hear people tell me about something they like and say they are obsessed with it? Someone discovers a new restaurant, and they tell you, “The food is so good, I am obsessed with it.” Or, they start watching a new series on Netflix and say, “I am obsessed with that show.” The problem is if you understood what the word actually means, you would probably not use it in that circumstance. Obsession comes from two Latin words, “ob” which means “against,” and “sede” which means “to sit.” It’s the same word we get “besiege” from. Ultimately, to obsess means you are so held in place by something (set in place) that you can’t do anything else. Your freedom is removed, you are unable to do anything else, you are hooked, addicted, and, ultimately, your ability to choose is removed. At the end of the day, to obsess over anything is bad.

The second word is “literally.” Boy oh boy, is this word abused. It too comes from Latin. “Literalis” means “belonging to letters.” In other words, the meaning of what is said belongs to the letters and words that make it up. So for something to be literal, it has to be exactly what the words say. If someone were to say, “I am so hungry, I can literally eat a horse,” then that person has a serious problem because Publix doesn’t sell horse meat and I’ve never seen it on the menu at Grazianos. Here’s another example, “I was so embarrassed, I literally died.” Impossible! If you literally died, then you wouldn’t be standing there telling the story.

Here’s the third word, “adore.” How often do I hear people say, “I adore her,” or “I adored it.” I get what they are trying to say. They want to express love so great they think adoration means taking it to the next level. The problem is that “adoration” doesn’t mean love; it means “to worship” or “to pray” (again, Latin). Somehow and somewhere, adoration went from being an exercise in prayer and wrongfully became an exercise in love. Again, I get it, but the word was never meant to be used that way. The word was meant to be used exclusively when referring to God and our relationship with Him.

The fact is, in our lives we only adore one thing… God. Adoration is reserved for the Almighty alone. To adore our spouses or our children or our friends means to practice, in a sense, idolatry. That clearly would violate the first commandment. Just when we thought the days of worshiping golden calves went out with the pagans of the Old Testament, we brought it back unconsciously with our misuse of vocabulary. Proper adoration is something that belongs exclusively for God. We adore God. We adore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We do not, I repeat, do not adore Mary or the saints of our Church. We adore God and God alone.

On Friday, we will be having adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Our Lady of Belen Chapel. This is the proper use of the term. In the Holy Eucharist is the real presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is his body, soul, and divinity sacramentally present in the Eucharist. It is for this reason the very ancient practice of adoration is good and necessary. We take a monstrance (from the Latin “mostrare” which means to show or demonstrate) and place the consecrated host. In the chapel, on the altar, in front of the monstrance we pray, worship, and adore the only One who deserves it. So real is the presence of Jesus that when we approach the monstrance we don’t genuflect, we kneel. So real is the presence that at no point in time while the Blessed Sacrament is exposed should he be left alone and unattended. As a matter of fact, I have seen some very devout and attentive Catholics refuse to turn their back to the monstrance when leaving the chapel and slowly walk backward when they leave the sacred presence. 

You will have an opportunity to exercise one of the oldest and most sacred traditions in the Catholic Church on Friday throughout the school day. I encourage you to invite your parents and grandparents to attend as well. Let them know that the exposition will take place in our beautiful chapel all day on Friday and they are welcome to come. They are welcome to literally adore Jesus.

Auspice Maria,