Papal Intention for August 2018

This month Pope Francis invites us to pray for: The Treasure of Families

That any far-reaching decisions of economists and politicians may protect the family as one of the treasures of humanity.

While we're at it....

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life,
and make him blessed upon the earth,
and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Papal Intentions for May 2016

Papal Intentions for May 2016

Universal Intention: That in every country of the world, women may be honored and respected and that their essential contribution to society may be highly esteemed.
Mission Intention: That families, communities, and groups may pray the Holy Rosary for evangelization and peace.

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

The Joy of Imperfection

Readings for Sunday, December 27/ Holy Family Sunday:
1 Samuel 1:20-22, 24-28
Psalm 128
1 John 3:1-2, 21-24
Luke 2:41-52

Merry Christmas! Here I make my annual encouragement to keep those Christmas decorations up as we have only just begun the Christmas season. We have another two weeks of reflecting on the profound implications of the Incarnation of the Son of God. Today Mother Church celebrates the feast of Holy Family and invites us to reflection upon the mystery that the Son not only took on our humanity in flesh and blood, but that He even grew up in the midst of a family to be like us in all things but sin.

The Gospel we just heard about the finding of the Lord at the Temple is one of those that can be something of a sigh of relief for us all, and particularly for parents. We know that the Holy Family – the incarnate Son of God, the sinless ever Virgin Mary, and the pure and holy St. Joseph – is a model for families to look to and imitate, but I’ve heard from several people that they struggle with that model because it seems, well…perfect. The passage we just heard helps us to realize that while Jesus, Mary, & Joseph were sinless, that doesn’t mean that they were perfect. Sinless, but not perfect. I’m sure there were many nights when little baby Jesus didn’t sleep straight through the night (especially with that little drummer boy parumpapumpuming outside the door) and Mary and Joseph struggled to tend to His needs. I’m sure there were times when they were at their wits end trying to raise their son and discern what was best for Him. I bet that Mary and Joseph on at least a few occasions had little disagreements themselves that might have strained things a little bit. These and more remind us that thought they were sinless, they weren’t perfect.  

On Friday I was taking part in the annual tradition that my family often observes on Christmas Day of watching the movie A Christmas Story, the story of little Ralphie and his own experience of imperfect family life. As I sat there watching it I began to tie that experience with the story of the Holy Family and three things came to my mind and heart.

The first thing that struck me was ‘The Scott Farkus Incident’ when Ralphie beats up the bully that had been chasing he and his friends around the whole movie. As he was on top of the boy punching him relentlessly, a string of obscenities came out of his mouth that he didn’t foresee, intend, or have any ability to stop. The interesting thing about that is that it was exactly what his father would do at various points throughout the movie – sputtering and muttering a string of (more growls than actual words) obscenities. His father was an example that he followed to the ‘t’, although the example wasn’t really a good one. In contrast we have the Holy Family in the Gospel going up to offer the festival sacrifice in Jerusalem. They fact is that they, too, were setting an example. It was Jesus custom that only the father of the family had to go to Jerusalem to offer the sacrifice on behalf of the family, but St. Luke tells us that they all three were going up and that it was their normal custom to do so. Mary and Joseph were not only fulfilling obligations but were going above and beyond them, travelling together to celebrate their faith and to honor the Lord God. They were setting the example quite clearly for Jesus that ‘this is our faith and we are proud to profess it’ (as our baptismal rites remark).  They set the example and we can be sure that the child Jesus had learned the implications of it over the years.

The second things that struck me about the movie was when Ralphie went to help his dad change the car tire. What caught my ear was his response when his mom suggested that he go help: “Never had it even been suggested that I help my father with anything.” And as he hopped out of the car to help you could see the delight on his face and the enthusiasm in his voice. I know for myself that I can easily miss the immense good that can come from inviting others to do things along with us. Whether it’s children, grandchildren, godchildren, nieces, nephews, someone else’s kids, or even our peers or elders, there is a great gift in asking others to help with things. I can remember countless times where I was asked to help fix something or paint something at my house, knowing full well that my parents would have to go back and re-do it and clean up the mess I’d made trying to do it the first time. The bigger picture is that when we invite others to join with us, we honor their dignity and show them that they are loved and wanted. St. Joseph showed that same things to Jesus in this journey. It was custom also in the Jewish world that boys would become men in the eyes of the law at the age of 13 and would begin making journeys to the Temple soon themselves and so the fathers would begin to take them along when they were 11 or 12 to get used to the trip and introduce them to their faith. St. Joseph was essentially bringing Jesus along not only because Mary was coming but also to help him transition to manhood. I wonder what conversations were had. Did he teach him about the paths to take or places to stop along the way? Did they discuss the prayers that are prayed and what sacrifices are done and how? Did he explain why these things were done to begin with and help the boy to grasp the honor he was giving God? Surely the boy Jesus knew these and many other things, but it was at the invitation of Joseph that He began to be truly a son of the Father under the Law. How often do we do the same in our own lives?

The last point that this passage and the movie highlighted were that it is okay not to be perfect. When God took on flesh He did so not in a way that was sanitary and clean, away from our sinfulness and messiness. He was born in a place where there was no home to stay in and laid in a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. He came not to avoid the messiness of life but to walk with us in it and to sanctify us by it. We may not be sinless like the Holy Family, but we are called to do our best in the midst of the messiness that is this life. We are called to holiness not separated from our daily life, but in the course of it. And this the Holy Family teaches us. Jesus misunderstood, Mary and Joseph were frustrated and anxious. But at the end, they went home and all continue to grow in God’s grace and favor. May the Holy Family watch over us always and help us to be holy families to shine for others.

Papal Intentions for December 2015

Papal Intentions for December 2015

Universal Intention: That all may experience the mercy of God, who never tires of forgiving.

Mission Intention: That families, especially those who suffer, may find in the birth of Jesus a sign of certain hope.

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Our Father

"Don't touch the plates. They're hot."

Readings for Sunday, August 30 / 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm 15
James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Anyone who has recently seen me without my Mass vestments on can usually tell that my vestments have been in need of a little attention. Buttons have been missing the cloth covering, a few seams were torn here and there, a tear on one has been held together by safety pins for months, they’re a little too short, and admittedly no longer black but more of a dark gray. I’ve known this for a while. It actually began about a year ago when I went home and my mom told me it was time to start looking at getting new cassocks. I said ‘ok’ and continued on with life as normal. Next time I went home, the same exchange. Over the course of several months it happened more often than not when I would go home and it began to bother me a bit. Each time it was said I received it less as a critique of my clothing and more a critique of me; that there was something wrong with me. After months of the ‘you need new cassocks’ and ‘ok’ exchange mom finally just told me we were going to the store to look at the selection and so we went. I was already a bit worked up that day from other things and the cassock-critiques had worn pretty hard on me. Mom was looking at the rack of cassocks, all of which I didn’t like for some particular reason, and I was about 15 feet away looking at candlesticks. Her good friend joined us at the store and the two of them were talking and mom mentioned my cassock and she didn’t like how rough they were looking, this with me in earshot. In a moment of frustration I lost it and said something to the effect of ‘Well I guess I should consider it an act of charity that I don’t get to go home much these days, that way you don’t have to see me in it.’ As soon as the words came out my mouth I could feel things change. It hurt her and I knew it.

Very few words were exchanged after that. We rode silently to lunch and sat quietly at the table, each of us paying attention to other things around us rather than talking to each other. After lunch she dropped me off and I came back to the rectory. I was still upset and she was too. After a couple of days stewing things over I called her and apologized for what I had said and done and we experienced reconciliation and healing. I mention healing specifically because there was a wound that was inflicted, not to skin and bone, but to a relationship.

In the readings for today we hear a good bit about commandments, the law of God and the traditions of men. The commandments are good and holy things, but the problem is that most of us are never really sorry for breaking rules. I remember only one time in my life when I apologized to a rule for breaking it and that was in driver’s ed. Our teacher, Mrs. Paige, had a policy that any time we broke one of the rules of the road that we had to get out an apologize to the sign indicating the broken rule. I broke the speed limit (go figure!) and had to apologize to the sign for my infraction. After giving it a hug for good measure – I was and still am a bit weird – I hopped back in the car and off we went. I wasn’t really sorry for the rule being broken though. In fact most of the time I’ve felt sorrow for breaking rules it was more honestly sorrow that I had been caught.

That’s understandable when it comes to things like traffic laws and such. The problem is that we often and easily apply this laissez faire approach to commandments to the relationship that we’re invited to have with God our Father.

When we treat sins like mere rules and laws, we turn God our Father into the God our Master – a divine rule maker who we don’t have to care about personally but for whom we must ‘stay in line.’ To do this is to miss one of the greatest gifts that we have been given by God, namely, adoption in His Son. We are the Father’s adopted sons and daughters and He loves us as His own children. But that doesn’t mean He lets us simply do whatever we please. God never commands us to do or not do things ‘just because.’ There is always a purpose and reason. When my mom and I were sitting quietly in the restaurant, the waiter brought out our plates and told to us ‘Don’t touch the plates. They’re hot.’ I wasn’t upset that I couldn’t touch my plate. I appreciated that our waiter saved me the trouble of getting burned trying to reposition things. In the same way a father tells their child ‘don’t touch that’ to numerous things – open flames, open ovens, ant beds, etc. – all in the name of love. He does it not to restrict freedom but to preserve the child from pain. And the commandments of God? The exact same. I could go around committing all sorts of sins and reaping the rewards of physical, spiritual, and emotional pain and suffering and learn not to do those things eventually. Or I can simply listen to the Word of the Lord saying ‘my son, don’t do that, it’s not good for you’ and trust the Father who is showing His concern.

Last weekend we were faced with the call of Joshua to ‘decide today whom you will serve.’ Let us choose today once more not to serve a master of laws, but instead to embrace our Father. As we pray that prayer given so many years ago, may our hearts well up today with the joy of indeed being children of God and help us always to seek deeper union with our Father.

With Authority!

Tabernacle in progress...

Readings for Sunday, June 21/ 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Job 28:1, 8-11
Psalm 107
2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Mark 4:35-41

My first experience of something like being a father came at Camp Chosatonga, where I worked as a camp counselor for two summers during my seminary formation. Unlike many camps where the kids would come for a week and then head home, the kids at this camp came for 3 ½ weeks or 5 weeks, some staying the whole 9 weeks. It was great because I was actually able to get to know the kids and because I stayed in the cabin, had to make sure they were taken care of. I had to do things that typical dads have to do: make sure they eat, clean their room, brush their teeth, shower regularly, etc. I also had to worry discipline them, encourage them, and sometimes give them guidance and direction on things at camp or back at home. Years later I continue to reflect upon those two summers, as I still keep in touch with a number of the boys, now young men, who were there. And it hits me specifically that if those few short weeks 10 years ago had such a profound impact upon those children, how much more does the relationship with their own fathers have an impact?

Looking at the world around us we see that fatherhood is in a major crisis at the moment. 1 in 3 children today are raised in homes without their biological father. Many have no father figure at all.  Add to this the media portrayal of fathers as a bunch of Homer Simpson look-alikes who are generally incompetent, angry, childish, or unconcerned about their family, and you soon have a picture of fatherhood that is anything but inspiring. The importance of a father, though, is something that continues to be shown in research even if not in the media; how the presence of a father direction affects a child’s education, behavior, proneness to depress, likeliness to engage in drug use or premarital sexual activity, fidelity in their future relationships, and even their religious upbringing. Did you know that when the father attends church weekly the child is 70% more likely to be religious as an adult? That’s huge.

I don’t want to get caught up in statistics though, because every study can be tweaked to it’s own desired end. I want to start at the beginning: “Male and female He created them; in His image and likeness He created them.” It’s about what the Church refers to as the complimentarity of the sexes, the fact that men and women were created by God to be men and women and eventually fathers and mothers, and that both are images of God. This weekend’s scriptures show us an attribute of God that is traditionally ascribed to men, namely, authority.

Years past heard the regular reference to the father as the head of the family, which rubs many people wrong these days. They hear ‘head of the family’ and shrink back because we’re in an age of equality when everyone should be on even ground and there’s no differences in anything, but the simple fact is the being equal doesn’t mean we’re all supposed to be the same. Everyone one of us is different in the church today, but we each have the same dignity, the same right, and the same value in the eyes of God. The simple fact is that men were created by God and designed to be the head of the family and that women were created by God and design to be the heart of the family. Women are naturally more nurturing and caring,. Men are naturally more inclined to discipline and direction. Have any of the ladies every been frustrated because you’re talking to a man and he seems not to understand that you just need him to listen but he keeps trying to offer advice on how to fix the situation or take some action toward a resolution? It’s written in our very sexuality as men! Unfortunately wounded humanity has often taken what is a good attribute and brought it to a sad end. Men have often exercised their authority in a negative fashion by degrading, oppressing, and becoming domineering to other, specifically their families. This is not the type of authority that God desires to be show in men. Rather, the type of authority God seeks to have us men exercise is demonstrated by the Lord Jesus in the Gospel and described by St. Paul in the Letter to the Corinthians. Jesus, knowing the need of His disciples, rebukes the wind and sea and exercises His rightful authority not for Himself but only for the service of His disciples. Here the words of St. Paul about ‘no longer living for oneself’ become particularly important. Authority has been entrusted to men, but it is an authority that manifests itself in service for those entrusted to him. Jesus teaches many powerful things and works miracle after miracle, showing His authority in each case. Not one time is it for His own glory or benefit, but always for the good of the other, out of love and concern for the other to have life here on this earth and to prepare for life in the world to come. Earthly Fatherhood is called to be a living image of the Fatherhood of God that is ever patient, present, guiding and directing us in the path that will bring us the greatest eternal reward. It’s love in a different light.

Last weekend, if you remember, the scriptures were all about plants and how the farmer sows the seed and it brings for a blade, then an ear, then the grain, and then it’s harvest time, though the farmer knows not how. That passage made me think about how while God sometimes does miraculous things, the real action of God is in the everyday stuff of life; it’s in the daily growth of the plant that’s easy to miss unless we’re very attentive. This was in my mind when I went to my mom and stepdad’s house the other day to work on building a box. I arrived and my stepdad stopped what he was working on and sat down to have lunch with me. Then we went over my ideas and he asked me all sorts of questions about different options, what I was envisioning, whether my measurements would be right, and so on. Then we went to the garage and he showed me how to use the table saw, which we didn’t have when I lived at home. He pointed to the blade and said, “Don’t touch this.” We went through it all and then he helped me make the first few cut on the large sheet of plywood I was using. Then he went back to his work. Every now and then he’d pop his head into the garage and wave his fingers at me and ask, “Still got 10?” and I’d wave mine back and say, “Yes sir!” As I worked I was filled with gratitude because my stepdad was showing me the love of the Father in the way that men do it best, by exercising self-less authority and guidance. He took time from his project to simply be with me, to guide and direct me, to encourage me in my own work, to show me what to do and enable me to reach the end that I was aiming for. It wasn’t anything spectacular or miraculous but it was a reminder that God is always at work doing the same – making a point to be with us, guiding us, encouraging us, and directing us to eternal life. The love of a father.

So, fathers, I have a simple request and it is but an echo of Pope Francis’ recent addresses: play with your kids. It doesn’t matter what you do, just make time to play with them, to be with them, to guide and encourage them. If you do, you can rest assured that they’re in good hands because they won’t be receiving just your love, they’ll be seeing and experiencing the love of the Father through you.

The School of Nazareth

Readings for Sunday, December 28/ Holy Family:
Genesis 15:1-6; 21:1-3
Psalm 105:1-6, 8-9
Hebrews 11:9, 11-12, 17-19
Luke 2:22-40

This weekend Mother Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family, holding up for us the most perfect models of Jesus, Mary & Joseph. These giants of holiness are examples of every virtue we can name, which can easily lead us to discouragement and to question how in the world we can even look to them as models when we ourselves fall so far short of their example. In celebrating this most holy of families, it is important to remember that God doesn’t require of us the holiness of Jesus, Mary & Joseph but rather the holiness that we ourselves are called to and able to attain. And so we turn to this family to contemplate how it is that they lived and seek some encouragement in living our own lives. In a pastoral visit to the Holy Land, Blessed Pope Paul VI spoke of his desire to become a child once more and grow up learning in the ‘school of Nazareth’ where the Holy Family dwelt and where Christ grew in grace and wisdom. And so today I want to take a few moments and speak to the reflections he offered on that trip, that they might continue to bear fruit with us today.

Of the many things that the ‘school of Nazareth’ offers to us, we begin first with the aspect of work. Every one of us has some ‘work’ that we seek to accomplish in the course of our days. Some have 9-5 type jobs, others do shift work, some are out in the fields, some working in the home, students work on their studies, and those without work still have hobbies or some other task to accomplish in the midst of the day. These things are valuable in themselves and have a great dignity. They provide us opportunities for self-discipline, cooperation with God in some manner of creativity, service to others, and a means by which to sustain ourselves in this life. This work, however, can seem to be at time anything other than good and dignified, turning out to be something that consumes us rather than something that serves us and others. Admittedly this consumption takes place in certain situations or times of the year, but it should not be the norm and the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth helps us to focus all of that work towards it’s ultimate end: God. Catherine Doherty once said that “Every little thing should be done perfectly, completely connect to God. ‘This also, Lord, for love of You.’” When I read it initially, it seemed that it was saying to do everything perfectly and completely connected with God, but it was a call to do everything perfectly connected to God, completely connected to God. It is a call to give our best in the work that we do, knowing that sometimes it is rough to make things work as we desire, but doing all for love of the Lord. With each task we do, to look far off in the distance and see how it can benefit yourself and others and do it for love of them and God.

The second aspect we can contemplate in Nazareth is that of the family. In the Holy Family we see the perfect model of love and community, virtue and compassion, a strong foundation and a place in which children can grow into healthy adults. We see this clearly, but what strikes me even more for us today is the impact a family can have. In my office I keep a little bookmark that was given to me that says ‘One good priest can change the world’ and it includes a picture of Fr. Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus. It drives home how one priest’s work has literally changed the world through the ministry of the Knights. But if one priest can change the world, how much more can a whole family accomplish? We don’t have to look just at the Holy Family to see the effects. We can look to St. Augustine and Monica, who are known world-wide. Or St. Therese of Lisieux, who has millions invoking her intercession daily, and her family that didn’t do great acts of holiness but simply tried to live their particular call to holiness in their little town. And the world has changed. We can say the same for most of the saints as they most often came not from pagan origin but good Christian families trying to become holy people. Abraham and Sarah received the promise of generations as numerous as the stars of the sky and because of their faith it happened. And God isn’t done working with His people; what might happen if we decided today to become holier husbands and fathers, mothers and wives, children and siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles? What might happen if we try to be holy people making up holy families today?

This presupposed the last piece for reflection: silence. Silence is where the Lord speaks to us and silence is almost impossible to find today unless we intentionally seek it out. When we content ourselves to be always entertained by electronics, caught up in distractions, and working on todo lists, we miss that most necessary piece of our day in which the Lord of Creation wants to speak to us of those things and much more. The invitation, then, is to be people of faith just like Jesus, Mary & Joseph and to spend some time daily in prayer and reflection, pondering these things in our hearts as we await the voice of the Lord to make Himself known to us. I want to encourage you, if you aren’t already doing so, to spend at least 5 minutes a day in silence. You’ll be amazed at what God can accomplish in 5 minutes. But if we all spend those few minutes with the Lord it will permit us to follow Him and grow in grace and wisdom just as Christ did. Another fruitful activity might be the daily examination of conscience – the reflect back on the day with the Holy Family and see how the day went. To focus on a crucifix or other image of the Lord, Our Lady or St. Joseph and question ourselves. How did I love like You today, Jesus? How did I have faith like you Mary, Joseph? Where did I do well in serving others as I am called? Did I do my work well for the Lord or did I do it out of frustration? Where did the Father speak to me today? These and many other questions can give us ample opportunity to reflect on the ways in which God is acting daily in our lives and inviting us to journey with Him to heaven.

May the Holy Family be not only for us a model to follow but intercessors to fill us with the grace fo God and indeed make us holy people, holy families, to the glory of God and the Kingdom.

Papal Intentions for December 2014

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. 

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

Papal Intentions for December 2014

Universal Intention: That the birth of the Redeemer may bring peace and hope to all people of good will.

Mission Intention: That parents may be true evangelizers, passing on to their children the precious gift of faith.

How and Why

Readings for Sunday, October 26 / 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Exodus 22:20-26
Psalm 18:2-4, 47, 51
1 Thessalonians 1:5-10
Matthew 22:34-40

The questions continue. Last week we saw the transition from Jesus questioning others to them questioning Him, beginning with the malicious inquiry into whether one ought to pay the Roman tax or not. The question was brought up such that no matter the answer the Lord could face the penalty of death. The question this week, while probably not entirely pure in motive, was a bit more benign. To ask the question of which commandment was the greatest wasn’t so much a move to have the Lord killed as much as it was a sort of litmus test. The question of the greatest commandment was a commonly discussed topic in the days of the Lord and the response would often give insight into the individual’s theological beliefs and their ranking of what’s most important.

As Christians, we shouldn’t be surprised at the response of Jesus. I didn’t hear anyone gasp in shock as I read the passage just now and none of you has stood up and shouted that I’m a fool for believing it. It’s the basic premise of much of our daily interaction: love God, love neighbor. We know. Maybe too well. We’ve become used to it, comfortable with it. But the idea is a challenging one because it’s not something that can simply be marked off as complete. Many laws are such that they could lead us to a sort of ‘checklist Catholicism’. “Have you killed anyone?” “No.” Did you steal?” “No.” Those are clear ideas, black and white. But “Have you loved God?” and “Have you loved neighbor?” are never quite so clear because our love is often changes over time, depending on life’s circumstances, and a whole host of reasons that you and I know from lived experience. Ultimately, love isn’t just a yes-no type of question. To discern how we live out the commandment of love we have to look also at two other aspects: how we love and why we love.

When I was younger (at the Saturday Vigil Mass I said ‘young’ and the congregation chuckled, as I’m still very young compared to many of the them) I was a pretty messy child. My room generally looked like a pig lived there and it had recently been hit by a tornado and a hurricane one after the other. And inevitably there would come a time where my mom asked me to clean my room and I (not so politely) let her know that I didn’t want to. After the usual back and forth of me trying to wiggle out of this chore, I submitted and went to work on my room. How did I do it? By shoving everything in the closet, in my dresser, under my dresser, behind the tv cabinet, under the bed, and anywhere else I could hide stuff to make things look nice. All the while I was muttering under my breathe “I don’t wanna clean this stupid room. Stupid mom. I was gonna go have fun but not now…” and so on. Any merit that I might have gained from listening to my mom was immediately lost (and almost always wound up in the negative) because I did things not out of love but because I wanted to get what I wanted and the way to get it was to do what mom wanted, and I did it only begrudgingly at that. And it’s easy to do the same in the course of our daily life with others.

A thousand times a day we are faced with opportunities to love God and others. Sometimes we do really well. Sometimes we fail miserably. But the key is not simply doing or not doing things, but is the how and why behind them. I can come to Mass every week, but if I come simply to fulfill an obligation and don’t actually put forth an effort to worship, it’s not really an act of love that gains us much merit. I can do chores at home, tasks at work, homework for school, or any number of things, but if I do them without the right how and why - if I pursue them only to satisfy my desires - then I don’t really fulfill the call to love as much as I could otherwise. But with time and effort we can come to a way of living that helps us to see things much more like the way Jesus sees things. If we think rightly, then every action can become an action of love that can inspire us to do it more perfectly.

I may have mentioned it already, but it comes to mind again the trip I made to Madonna House in Ontario, Canada. Stacking wood for several hours. A menial task if I’ve ever done one! And yet the guy I was working with called to mind how each log would be used by someone to heat their home, to cook food, and provide for various other needs through the winter. With a little perspective things changed and each log stacked was a little act of charity. And the same can be with us. Each chore at home, each task at work, each kind deed not known by another soul. Everything, when we have our hearts in the right place, can become an act of love toward God or our neighbor.

This week I want to conclude a little differently, rather than just something to think about, I want to give you all a little homework. I want each of you to take a few minutes each night this week and reflect back upon your day. Find just three ways that you tried to show love to God or neighbor and, reflecting upon those three things, ask yourself ‘How did I love?’ and ‘Why did I love?’ When we ask these questions of ourselves they can help us to see where we might need to grow in charity toward others and sometimes it affirms us in the good we’re already doing. It’s simple – How did I love? Why did I love? – but when we approach the world through that lens, the lens of Jesus, the whole changes and our hearts change. How and Why.

HWP: St. John Paul II

Happy feast of Pope SAINT John Paul II! Today we celebrate the official feast of this man of God who had such a profound impact upon the Church and the world, and whose effects are still manifesting themselves as time unfolds. I keep in my office a little prayer card of Fr. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, that says 'One good priest can make a difference.' Pope St. John Paul shows us the truth of that statement. As a suggestion, maybe pick up something he wrote and start reading it - during his pontificate he wrote on just about anything you might find fascinating. So, I'll quit my gushing of this saint of God and get to this week's Half-Way Prayer: 

A Prayer to St. John Paul II

O, St. John Paul, from the window of heaven, grant us your blessing! Bless the church that you loved and served and guided, courageously leading it along the paths of the world in order to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Bless the young, who were your great passion. Help them dream again, help them look up high again to find the light that illuminates the paths of life here on earth. 

May you bless families, bless each family! You warned of Satan’s assault against this precious and indispensable divine spark that God lit on earth. St. John Paul, with your prayer, may you protect the family and every life that blossoms from the family. 

Pray for the whole world, which is still marked by tensions, wars and injustice. You tackled war by invoking dialogue and planting the seeds of love: pray for us so that we may be tireless sowers of peace. 

O St. John Paul, from heaven’s window, where we see you next to Mary, send God’s blessing down upon us all. Amen.

Faith's Mid-Term Exam

Readings for Sunday, October 19/ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 45:1, 4-6
Psalm 96:1, 3-5, 7-10
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5
Matthew 22:15-21

God acts in strange ways sometimes. One day I was at the seminary in the chapel and felt convicted that I needed to simplify my life a bit, so I prayed for the grace to spend less time on the computer, internet, and my phone. I concluded my prayer, went upstairs, sat down in my chair and swung around to work at my desk. In this swing I hit my knee on the desk, causing my solid glass picture frame to come crashing down directly on the screen of my laptop. Prayer answered! Not how I had expected and much more expensively than anticipated, but prayer answered.

For the past couple of weeks there has been a Synod of Bishops (a gathering of Cardinals, Bishops, lay men and women, and various professionals from across the globe) in Rome to discuss “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” That’s a mouthful of a title, but the basic idea seems great – how can the Church help families today to thrive in life and in faith. And so they had hours and hours of discussions on a whole host of topics, but interestingly enough, when the secular media read the document that was released half-way through the Synod as a summary of their discussions something entirely different came up – ‘The Church is Okay with Gays!’, ‘Ground-breaking changes in the Church!’ and ‘Church finally coming out of dark ages!’ And my first thoughts were basically (pardon my language) ‘What the hell does any of that have to do with the family!?’ Nothing! And with those announcements came a great uproar from all sides. Some greatly in favor of such changes and other in shock because they Church cannot make such changes. But in the midst of all of this, we have to realize one thing: this is a test. Do we trust God to work through all of this? It’s a test.

We don’t often think about God testing us these days. It’s not part of our concept of God and yet it is very much God’s concept of Himself. It happens all throughout the Scriptures, over and over again; testing the love of the people for God. We see one instance in our first reading from Isaiah about ‘the anointed, Cyrus.’ Such a description would have caused a great scandal among the Israelites because the anointed was the Messiah, the savior of God’s people, but Cyrus wasn’t even a Jew. He wasn’t even a believer! “It is I who arm you, though you know me not,” the Lord says of him. Talk about a test – the savior of the people chosen by God wouldn’t even believe in that God himself? Wow.

And it’s not just the Lord who puts us to the test, right? Sometimes we put God to the test, though we aren’t necessary supposed to do so. But that’s what happens in the Gospel this week. For the past few weeks, Jesus has been on the offensive, asking questions and speaking parables. But this week they come after Him with questions, beginning with that of the tax to Caesar. It was a good question because either way He answered it meant rebellion; to pay the tax was to rebel against the Jewish culture and apparently acknowledge an earthly ‘god’ in Casear, to not pay the tax was to rebel against Caesar and surely merit death. And to this quandary Jesus poses the question about whose image is there. In the coin, we see the image of Caesar and are challenged to give to Caesar what is his, but the next step is the catch – but we must give to God what belongs to God. The coin was in Caesar’s image, but what is made in God’s image? Us – you and me. And that’s the problem.

It’s hard to ‘give to God what is God’s’ because means that we must give God our entire self. Our mind, our heart, our will, our desires, our hopes, our dreams. It goes against one of our deepest desires, which is to have control. To have control means we can have some comfort in knowing what to expect of the future, we can put our trust in our own work and not have to interact with anyone higher (or so we think). So the real question here is do we trust God that much? Each night for the Church’s official Night Prayer there is a response that echoes the Psalms and the Lord Jesus on the Cross which says, “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.” I had prayed those words well over a thousand times but then one night I prayed them and looked at the crucifix and realized what was in the hands of the Lord: nails. “Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.” Into your hands I place my life, my will, ever wish I have for the future, there to be nailed with your hands to the Cross and there to die, trusting that the resurrection reality you have in store for me is that much greater.

With the Synod there were three main responses and to each of them the invitation is to trust. For those who are afraid that the Church is making all sorts of seismic shifts and changes, it is an opportunity to trust that the Lord who gave the Church the Holy Spirit to lead us in all truth and promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her will be faithful to us and protect us from the influence of the evil one. For those who are excited about the prospect of radical change in the Church, it is an opportunity to trust that the Lord who gave us the law of Love 2000 years ago has not abandoned us and that the Law that sometimes feels harsh, or exclusive is meant not to weigh us down but to lift us up into heaven. And for those who have no concern one way or the other, this time is a chance to trust that all of these things being discussed and the decisions to be made have a great importance in the life of the Church and the world.

God works in strange ways sometimes, but in those strangest of times we need only remember that it is likely a test to measure the extent of our love for the Lord. It is a test to see just how much we are willing to place our will into the crucified hands of Jesus. It is a test to see how firm we our in awareness of the Spirit’s action all around us. As we come to receive Holy Communion today it is an opportunity to unite ourselves to God not only in the flesh, but also to let our will become more conformed to His. Do we love God that much? 

HWP: Prayer to St. Monica

Today is the feast of St. Monica, that great woman of faith whose prayers converted her husband and her son, St. Augustine, to the Catholic faith and the promise of eternal life. The patroness of mothers, we invoke her intercession today to be the parents we are called to be and may we see our prayers bear the fruit of holy children, grandchildren, godchildren, and spiritual children, as we pray...

A Prayer to St. Monica

O Lord, Who taught Monica to persevere for the good of her family, help me to be a better parent to my children. Help me to have patience with them when they misbehave and give me the strength to guide them gently to the right path. Permit me always to forgive their misdeeds and keep me from speaking harshly or punishing unwisely. Please help me to be a beacon of goodness for them as they grow to adulthood and to be a good example to them in all that I say and do. Amen.

Bridges

Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado

Readings for Sunday, May 18/ 5th Sunday of Easter:
Acts 6:1-7
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
1 Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

I’ve always loved bridges. They fascinate me because of their function but also, often, because of their beauty. The highest bridge in the U.S. over Royal Gorge in Colorado, the longest rope bridge east of the Mississippi, and double-decker bridge leading into Cincinnati, and the numerous bridges sprinkled all across South Louisiana each in their own way give me pause to contemplate something incredible as travel over them – the ability to unite things that seem utterly separate.

That concept, though I never put it in such words, is what drew me to consider the vocation of the priesthood. In fact, in the early Church, the priest was often referred to by the Latin term ‘pontifex,’ which means ‘bridge-builder,’ because every priest is supposed to build bridges to unite humanity with the Divine. It’s the whole nature of the priesthood really and they do it by offering sacrifices. The role of the priest in the ancient Israelite community was to offer sacrifices and prayers to God on behalf of the people to keep them safe in His care. The ordained priest today does a similar action by offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and prescribed prayers each day to permit people to draw into communion with the Lord. The priest is a bridge-builder and the sacrifices that the priest offers are the means to building those bridges and strengthening them.

But the thing is this: it’s not just me and other ordained priests who are called to be bridge-builders. All of us are called to be bridge-builders and the Lord is inviting us to stop today to contemplate how good of a job we are doing.

Now here is where we get a bit theological, but stick with me! In First Peter we just heard of a people that is “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” We are that people! This phrasing was originally intended for the Jewish people but with the coming of Jesus is universalized and applied to every person who receives the gift of Baptism. Our baptismal ritual reminds us that every person baptized in Christ Jesus is anointed priest, prophet, and king. Christ Jesus is the One High Priest but because we are members of the Body of Christ by baptism, we participate also in His priesthood. Ordained priests do so in a different way, but we all participate in the priesthood of Jesus. But what does that priesthood look like? 

We hear the answer in the Preface before the Eucharistic Prayer today: Jesus Christ comes among us as the priest, the altar, and the lamb of sacrifice. This is significant because before Jesus, the priest and the sacrificial offering were distinct from one another - the priest offered a lamb, bull, wheat, etc. - but Jesus changes everything and makes the priest himself the offering, he is the one sacrificed. And the same with us. St. Paul put it this way in the Letter to the Romans: “I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” (12:1) To put it simply, the sacrifice that all of the baptized members of the Church are called to offer God in a priestly manner is their whole self: we give ourselves to God in offering, we give Him everything that we have, everything that we are, everything that we desire, everything that we fear, our whole life with nothing held back. That is what God desires of us. Our whole life is supposed to be a priestly act, an act of sacrifice that works to build up bridges between those around us and the God that loves us all.

We're hopefully all working as bridge-builders to some degree now, but for every one of us, myself included, there is still room to grow and become even better at drawing people to God. And there are three concrete things we can do to make that happen.

First – to use the words of Pope St. Pius X, “Don’t pray AT Holy Mass. Pray THE Holy Mass.” The best way that we can be better instruments of bringing people to Jesus is to get closer to Jesus our self and the place where that happens is here at Mass. If we enter into this celebration more deeply, things change. If we listen to the prayers and pray them for ourselves, if we spend time with the readings and question where God is speaking to us, if we offer our needs and the needs of others at the appropriate times in the Mass, we will be changed and that will change others. If we want to build bridges to bring people to God, there's not better way than to celebrate the most miraculous bridge in Eucharistic Holy Communion.

Second – sacrifice for others. There are a variety of ways to do this. We can offer a sacrifice of prayers for people and spend time praying for them. We can fast or abstain from food, drink, entertainment, or some luxury for conversion of others. We can offer up a sacrifice of our desire and do something with or for them so that they can see love in action. God alone changes hearts, but He often waits for us to ask Him to do so. So let us ask and offer some gift to help the bridge come together.

Third – be willing to be used. Sometimes one of the best ways to be a bridge between God and humanity is to simply invite people to get closer to God. This can be an invite to join you at Mass, return to confession, gathering for prayer as friends, or scripture sharing with a group. It can be by talking about your faith to encourage them in theirs. It can be a whole host of things. But often we can shrink back in fear of what others might think, say, feel, or do if we bring God into the picture. Be not afraid of what might happen but remember that God often speaks to us through others and that sometimes He wants to speak through us as well. 

I always loved bridges. But as much as I love marveling at them, it is much more beautiful to be one ourselves. Countless others of our family and friends and helped us draw near to God by building bridges to connect us to Him. May God grant us today the grace to continue building bridges for others so we can truly be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people all his own.