Who's Marc?

Marc's Secret Service is an easy to remember acronym to help the faithful remember the key things we should all be striving to do in our daily lives in order to become the saints that God created us to be, and as a result, to attain our ultimate good here on earth and in heaven!

Marc's Secret Service can be understood to mean...

M - Mass. Daily. 

A - Adoration. One hour. Every day.

R - Rosary. All four mysteries. Every day.

C - Confession. Weekly to bi-weekly.

S - Spiritual Reading. Half an hour. Every day.

S - Spiritual Direction. As needed. A spiritually knowledgable priest or religious is generally best. 

S - Study.  As often as you can!

What's the Secret? Is it a Secret??

First off, no! This "Secret Service" is not meant to be a secret! It might be a secret in the sense that people aren't going around, flashing a badge and proclaiming to every person they meet the things they try to fulfill every day. But, it is a secret in a certain sense: in the sense that these "obligations" aren't done for vain glory, but for the glory of God. And that means it's done naturally, oftentimes without anyone noticing (and that's the real goal anyway, to do things only for God's eyes). 

But at the same time, there is a secret behind all of this that I haven't mentioned yet. A secret that turns these holy sounding commitments into pleasing acts of love towards God. A secret that turns these spiritual "checkmarks" away from the hypocritical Pharisees, and towards the one true God.

It doesn't matter if you don't check off a single one of those items in your day. The only thing that matters is that you DO GOD'S WILL!!! St. Alphonsus Liguori, doctor of moral theology, says it way better than I ever could in his extremely short book called Uniformity with God's Will: “He who gives his will to God gives Him everything. He who gives his good in alms, his blood in scourings, his food in fasting, gives God what he has. But he who gives God his will gives himself, gives everything he is...that God’s will alone is our will. This is the summit of perfection…this should be the goal of all our works, desires, meditations, and prayers." Did you catch that? The summit of perfection is not contained in our actions and religious observances. Our perfection consists in how united our will is to God's will.

Do you not have a ride to mass? Have you asked everyone who might be able to take you and no luck? Or you show up to an evening mass only to find out it was rescheduled to the morning?

Did some sort of family obligation come up the day and time you were intending to go to confession and you can't fit it into your schedule again until next week? Did your little one get sick and you have to take care of them, meaning your intention to do spiritual reading is not going to happen tonight?

Did you pick up an early shift at work and now no churches around you have an adoration chapel open at this hour? Go to the next best option, doing your hour of prayer in the Church in front of the Tabernacle. All the Churches are locked? Pray outside! Or in a well recollected area in your house. Is an hour not possible today for whatever reason? Shoot for half an hour. 

Don't give up trying to fulfill these "obligations," but if they don't work out, don't worry! Entrust it all to the Divine Providence of God, who knows what He's doing. St. Thérèse, spouse of Jesus Christ and a Carmelite nun, wasn't even able to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist every day. She was able to understand that "everything is a grace," and that God can ask us anything, even refraining from receiving Him in the Eucharist, or praying as we desire. 

Venerable Francis Xavier Van Thuan was in a Communist re-education camp for thirteen years, including nine years in solitary confinement. There were days when the only prayer he could pray or think was, "Jesus here is Francis." And do you know what he experienced Jesus telling him one day? "Francis, here is Jesus." Jesus, all bloodied and wounded during His passion, suffering right along with Venerable Francis Xavier Van Thuan.

God knows what He's doing. Holiness doesn't consist in our own efforts or ideas of lofty prayer, but in our union with the will of God. And sometimes it doesn't look pretty and nice. St. Teresa of Avila said that she would have her nuns measure their growth in holiness, not by their feelings or sentiments, but by their obedience.

Everything that happens to you happens to you by the will of God, who is our loving Father. St. John of the Cross, while suffering an immense betrayal and physical imprisonment by his own religious brothers, was able to say, "God knows all things, He can do all things, and He loves me". The will of God is our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3), and if it happens to us, then we can rest assured that it is literally the best thing for us, for our sanctification. God is not some passive observer. "Oh, shoot. Oh gosh, I guess I'll just let this happen. I mean, what am I gonna do? Take away their free will? No, I guess I'll just have to let the bad stuff happen." WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! That is NOT how God the Father thinks. When he lets something happen, it is because He knows He can bring something better out of it. When Adam and Eve sinned, what happened? God became a man. When you suffered patiently and in union with God's will during that traffic jam, what happened? You grew in patience and virtue, and as a result became more free and happy to suffer. "All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28).

Holiness. It ain't always what it looks like. Remember that time when Jesus was watching the people cast money into the treasury and there was that Pharisee and poor widow (Mk. 12: 41-44)? The Pharisee looked so holy by giving so much money to the Temple, by practicing religious observances, and fulfilling all the "holy checkmarks". But what about that poor widow? Only two little coins? Psst, how could she be giving God anything? But Jesus Christ said, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” 

It doesn't matter if we go to the stake to burned as martyr, have all the knowledge in the world, or faith to move mountains (1 Cor. 13). If we lack love, if we lack that joyful and grateful response to each situation that God in His Providential Hand gives to use everyday, giving thanks in each moment (1 Thess. 5:16), then we are nothing...and we can never reach that level of transforming union that God wants to bring each and every one of us into here in this life to be completely perfected in the next. God lives in the present, and nothing is small in the eyes of God. "What we have to do is to give up everything that does not lead to God" ("The Ascent of Mount Carmel," St. John of the Cross).

Who are we Serving???

Finally, for every good secret service, just like the name implies, they're serving somebody. And it's done skillfully, and quietly. So who does Marc's Secret Service serve?

You! And him. And her. And everybody! Especially God. And the Blessed Virgin Mary, captain and queen of this whole operation. But it ain't some stone cold, "yes Ma'am" type of service. Nope, this is more like a hoodlum of little three year olds running around and obeying whatever their Mom tells them to do. Out of love. Not because they're capable of a single good act without the grace of God, but only because that's how God wants His one, big, happy family to be.

Notice what happens in the second luminous mystery of the rosary, the miracle at the wedding feast of Cana. Our Lady turns to the servants and tells them to "do whatever He tells you" (Jn. 2:5). All they did was put water into large jars! They didn't do anything important or noteworthy. In fact, when Jesus used their fidelity to turn that simple water into wine, no one even knew where it came from. In the same way, God turns our simple acts of love, obedience, and fidelity into life giving wine so that Our Lady can distribute these "spiritual gems" to the rest of our brothers and sisters. She is the one who knows where there is a lack of wine...a lack of love, faith, virtue, you name it! She is the one who goes to Jesus, her Son, on our behalf. Who's suffering for us prompts the Lord, in His compassion for her, to raise us from the dead so that He can return her child to her (Luke 7:11-17). Be faithful to those small, hidden things in your daily life. Live it with love and peace, trusting in God. Only then God can turn that water into wine. Only then can God can turn our faithfulness and love into graces for other souls.