Christmas Traditions - presents!

Audio - click here (9:30am)

We have many Christmas traditions around the world, but some of the more common ones are full of symbolic meaning, even if you might not have noticed it.

Christmas tree:  Ps. 96 – “Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord, for He comes.” The Christmas tree is one way that we in our faith try to make these words a reality.  Trees don’t have voices, but with their lights and decorations they are crying out, in the midst of the world’s darkness, that the Light of the World is here to cover us in His Light. This is even more fitting for us who have just gone through the longest night of the year a few days ago – the night is passing away, the day conquers.

Cookies: Joel’s prophetic book ends with a prophecy about God dwelling in Zion (Jerusalem) and also says in v 3:18 “In that day, the mountains will drip sweetness, and the rivers flow with milk.”  The promised land, which symbolizes for us our Heavenly homeland, was always described as a land flowing with milk and honey.  Jesus is born today to lead us to that promised land, and yet we begin a foretaste of that even now, where he feeds us with the bread from Heaven, having all sweetness within it.” When Jesus is present among His people, all bitterness disappears, for God shares His honey and milk with us, the signs of his peace, concord, and joy.”

Presents:  I went out for a few presents for my family.  I was trying to pick something that would be really good for them.  You more you love someone, the more you want to give them a great gift.  Because the more you love someone, the more you want to show it in all kinds of ways, and a nice gift is one way of showing it.

But the greatest gift you can give, actually isn’t something, it’s someone.  Because the greatest gift you can give someone is yourself.  You give them your time, your energy, your attention, your forgiveness when they need it, your apologies when you need it, your love.  That’s the greatest gift.

God, who loves us infinitely, gives us the best gift we could ever ask for, something we wouldn’t even dare to ask for.  Christmas is where we see that gift for the first time.  Because God wanted to show His love.  He had always loved us, and had showed it in many ways, but now He shows it in the biggest way, through this special gift that is now visible to us.

That gift is Jesus.  Jesus is like a gift, a present, because He is God giving Himself to us.  Jesus’ entire life is the biggest way God shows His love for you.  He gives you Himself because Jesus is God.

What is always on the outside of the presents we get?  The stuff we have to tear off as fast as possible…?  Yes – the gift wrap also has religious symbolism, when we think about the gift of Jesus.  God in His divinity is behind the human nature of this little baby.  We don’t see his glory, but it is there hidden just beneath the surface – hidden so that we aren’t afraid to draw close to Him.

The gift of Christmas isn’t fully unwrapped until Easter.  It is then that we see everything that God wanted to give us.  But here, now, we already know that God has given us everything, even if we don’t know what that means, because here we see that God gives Himself to us.  He comes this close to us.  He isn’t afraid of our messiness.  He doesn’t wait for us to heal ourselves before He comes close.  He wants to heal us Himself, and so He must come close to us, so close that he wraps His glory beneath the veil of human flesh.  

Join the shepherds who run to adore this newborn king, this Messiah who redeems captive Israel from its enemies by shedding His own blood for us on the cross.  The shepherds didn’t take hours getting ready, washing their faces and doing their laundry and looking all prim and proper.  Rather, they went straightaway to see this King of Love, the heavenly Shepherd.  Let the human face of God unwrap its mystery to you, and thus find your healing in the light that he brings.  Then, with the shepherds, carry that light into the darkness that is fading but still present in the brokenness of our world.

Testimony.  I wish to invite forward ____________ to share about their own journey of unpacking the greatest gift that God has given her.  May it help us all to remember that God invites us to draw close to Him and give Him ourselves after His own example of self-gift.

Sunday 12/22/19 - Are we listening for God?

Audio: click here (11:30am)

Ahaz and Joseph have very different degrees of openness to God.

Ahaz has a sign from God right in front of him, and he refuses to give his attention to it.  Isaiah, God’s prophet, says “ask a sign from God,” and he says “NO THANKS.”

For Joseph, He can find God’s voice even in the less likely places – his dreams.  A vision is a vision, but it would have been easy to write it off as a dream.   But he doesn’t.

The difference between Ahaz and Joseph likely stems from their very different images of who God is.

Perhaps Ahaz sees God as a tyrant, who really doesn’t care about us. Or, maybe God is someone who will only take care of us in very rare circumstances, if we first are living a holy and upright life or do other specific things to win his favor.  Maybe for Ahaz God is someone who wants us to take care of everything on our own, and is very distant from us, refusing to get involved.

For Joseph, God is present and active in his life. God is Emmanuel - “God with us”

Do we expect God to be present and active in our lives?

Do we think God is with us?  Or more like He was with us?

Time-freeze

Audio: click here! (8pm)


If you are close to God, time is always short.

Have you ever had an experience where it seems like time froze?  That things started going so slow because your mind was moving so fast?  Some people say that in a car accident or some other close call, that their whole life flashes before their eyes.  Time may roll on at a steady pace, but it doesn’t always feel that way to us.  It may seem like some things take forever to get finished, like high school.  Or perhaps a bad meeting.  On the other hand, “time flies when you’re having fun.”

For God, time is very different.  It seems to him that everything is flashing by quite quickly.  For example, the prophet Isaiah gives this beautiful testimony about the coming of the Messiah “on that day” – but “that day” is going to be almost 600 years later.  God is speaking hope to the people of Israel, six centuries in advance.  That’s a long time, for us. 

But if you are in tune with God, time is short, or rather always urgent.  Like the prophet Isaiah did in the first reading, John the Baptist shows us this quite clearly in today’s Gospel.  He makes it clear that there is no time for dilly-dallying.

 “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (within reach)

“The ax lies at the root of the trees.”

“Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

Baby Jesus may be coming at Christmas, but we are challenged to be ready for the presence of Jesus the Messiah, the new King of David’s line, who will “judge the poor with justice” and “slay the wicked with the breath of his lips.”  When a just king comes to power, the only people that need to fear are the unjust.

If we haven’t been living as we should, (like the Pharisees and Sadducees) we hear the call from John to “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”

So are we going through life as if there’s all the time in the world?  Are we finding ourselves “sleepwalking” like spiritual zombies? John the Baptist or Isaiah have some good advice for us: Spend some time drawing close to the Lord and you will realize that time is precious, it flies away from us, and we need to make the choice now to give ourselves completely to Jesus.  He will be your king.  It makes all the difference if we live that way freely now, or if we live as if we are king.

One final note:  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  This theme also unites the reading from Isaiah to the Gospel passage.  The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is also yours by Baptism.  Ask that Spirit to stir up in you, to keep you awake, and to deepen your choice for Christ the King.  For time is urgent, and our time here is short.

Homily 12-1-2019

Audio!  9:00am Mass

11:30am Mass

“Let us go to God’s house”   (“run to meet Christ”)

Lots of things to be busy about.  Pulled in many directions.  Family, friends, co-workers, shopping, wrapping, baking cookies or other yummies, decorations, etc.  Easy to feel overwhelmed.

Don’t forget the more important things which should also be on that list: prayer; quiet; quality conversations that don’t take long but are the best way to say “I love you”; and going to Mass.

(“run to meet Christ” with righteous deeds)

Keep first things first and second things second.  Don’t lose your priorities in the midst of all the noise. Let’s do Advent right so that Christmas is really a joy for us.

In some ways the message of Christmas flips the image of today’s readings - God is coming to our house.

“Cleaning” the house for guests.  - The coat closet under the stairs.  The top of the stairs.

Never really dealt with the mess.  The house appeared perfect but certainly wasn’t, and things came back out eventually.

Advent resolutions (“new year”).  Let’s do Advent God’s way, not our own.  Let’s get our spiritual house truly prepared.  What are the first things you are called to keep first?  Ask God during this Mass what He wants you to focus on this Advent. 

Sunday Homily

Jesus prediction seems pretty frightening.  In the 1^st reading, God sounds mean and/or angry.

He’s not mean.  He might be angry, in an okay and holy way. 

Anger (my advice during Confession).

Have you ever noticed how people “go off” on social media nowadays about some perceived injustice or whatever other thing makes them angry, and they are praised for it?  I find that an interesting contrast to the times in Scripture when God appears angry (for the right reasons and the right causes) and yet we might be quick to write it off or brush it away.

God wants to set things right.  God will set things right.  We will like it (or not like it) inasmuch as we have been doing things right.  If we are, then there’s nothing to be afraid of, but rather only something to rejoice in: But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.

The final exam of life is an open-book test.  St. Teresa of Kolkata (“Mama T” as we called her in college) puts the answer “in our hands” we might say, with these 5-words from the parable of the sheep and the goats: “You did it to me”

But it’s not about knowing the answers, it’s about living them.

The saints are great examples for us.  They lived the answers of the final exam.   (2^nd reading):  Brothers and sisters: You know how one must imitate us. For we did not act in a disorderly way among you... we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you, so that you might imitate us.

For Advent, you are invited to study our patroness.  Please consider learning from her how to love like Jesus in our world today.  The book is phenomenal.  I was actually reading it when Bishop Rhoades met with me to ask me to be pastor here.  It was a sign to me of God’s hand at work.

Get ready for the final exam, for we know not the day nor the hour.  You know the anwers to the test (you did it to me).  Let Jesus consume you when you receive Him today in the Eucharist.  Then you have nothing to fear in this life.

Sunday Homily - Zacchaeus and Identity

Audio:

9:30am - click here

11:30am - click here

8pm - click here

Jericho – the oldest city continually-inhabited.

If you seek the Lord who is already seeking you, you will not be passed by. Your desire for God can even change His plans.

living from your identity.

World: what you do defines your identity. Your value comes from your productivity.

God: “If you remain in me, you will bear much fruit.” (Identity defines you, then living from that identity produces good works)

All of our sin comes from a corruption of our sense of identity. We forget who we are and whose we are. If we do it long enough we can even seem to lose our identity. We feel disconnected and isolated.

Jesus as the great healer of our souls comes to re-establish our identity and reconnect us with God (the original meaning of the word religion) and with each other.

God wants us. It’s all about this relationship.

Prayer is that daily relationship.

Praying in Humility with "the Jesus Prayer"

Audio: 
Sat 5pm click here

Sun 9am click here

Sun 11am click here

HOMILY NOTES-OUTLINE

Sirach: The one who serves God willingly is heard; The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds;

As we mentioned last week in our homily, humility is a prerequisite for all prayer.  The words of the Pharisee today, although they appear to be a prayer, really is not.

For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy. –Therese of Lisieux

The Pharisee isn’t looking toward heaven – he’s looking at himself.  It’s the sin of Narcissus, falling in love with his own reflection.

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grant pardon of sin. All hope consists in confession. – Saint Isidore of Seville

A great path to prayer and to humility is the Jesus prayer.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

The Jesus Prayer has two important purposes. The first is worship as with all prayer. The second is a discipline to help our soul gain control our overactive brains and create stillness so the Holy Spirit can work through us and help us live the virtues in union with God.

three stages of progress in its practice. You begin praying the Jesus Prayer by repeating the words of the prayer out loud or at least moving the lips. This is called verbal prayer. After some time saying of the Jesus Prayer becomes silent or mental and is repeated only in the mind. This is mental prayer. Finally, the Jesus Prayer becomes a continuous prayer in the heart, the inner core of our being. We begin with vocal prayer and do not force the move to mental prayer. This will happen naturally

In praying the Jesus Prayer, our holy Fathers tell us, we say it over and over hundreds of times as part of our daily prayer rule. It is best to add the Jesus Prayer to your morning prayers as this is when the mind is the quietest. Begin by saying the Jesus Prayer verbally focusing on each word. Repeat the Jesus Prayer continually for some time and then expand to longer. You will experience the challenge of dealing with your thoughts, the tendency for you mind to wander. Attention when praying the Jesus Prayer is important. Be sincere in your prayer and repeat it with contrition.

Prayer - Fire Within

Homily audio: 
9:30am click here.  
8:00pm click here.


You will lose the fight without prayer.  Tree beside running waters - Jer. 17, Ps. 1, Ps. 72.

Prayer itself is a battle.   (CCC)

There is so much more God wants to give.  “O souls, created for these grandeurs and called to them.  What are you doing?  How are you spending your time?” (John of the Cross)

Why so few?  “As he said all were called, I feel sure that none will fail to receive this living water unless they cannot keep the path.” (T. of A)

2 Any circumstances will work: growth in prayer does not depend on a person's immediate situation.: "the time is always propitious for God to grant His great favours to those who truly serve Him"

6 God gives prayer growth precisely according to our degree of readiness for it.  He forces no one.

(Helicopter trying to land.)

7 Retrogression is possible – backsliding into mediocrity.

John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila never say a thing about methodology.

Conditions for Growth: St. Teresa

Living, as we do, in a consumerist age that looks to technology to solve most of its problems, we will, unless immersed in a serious prayer life ourselves, assume as obvious that prayer is mainly something produced in a human manner.  This is partially true of beginning discursive meditation, but the trouble begins when the assumption is uncritically extended to all mental prayer.  That it is so extended is made clear when one reads books and articles on the subject of contemplation, or if one simply reads advertisements to see what is being sold (always the new "technique" or "mantra" or "process").  While some of this is good for some people at some times, the extension of it to most people at most times is more than misleading.  Extended indiscriminately, it becomes a dead end and more than a dead end.  It blocks real prayer growth.

For John and Teresa they have not a single sentence that speaks of methodology as a means to deep communion with the God of revelation.

 1 Primary need: to do God's will from moment to moment throughout the day.: The whole aim of any person who is beginning prayer-and don't forget this, because it is very important-should be that he work and prepare himself with determiniation and every effort to bring his will into conformity with God's will.

3 Conformity to the divine will does not mean merely that we fulfill the commandments, but also that we generously go beyond what is strictly required.: Everything we gain comes from what we give.  ... If you are to gain this, He would have you keep back nothing; whether it be little or much, He will have it all for Himself, and according to what you know yourself to have given, the favours He will grant you will be small or great.

4 Purification: from faults.  Even after she had been purified a great deal and was receiving "sublime contemplation" from her Lord, St. Teresa still saw an abundance of imperfections in herself: How I fail, How I fail, How I fail-and I could say it a thousand times-to get rid of everythign for You! ... How many imperfections I see in myself! What laxity in sevring you! Indeed I think sometimes I would like to be without consciousness in order not to know so much evil about myself.

5 Guided by Revelation, not by a naturalistic common sense.  (Follow God’s direction, not advice on technique)

**People advancing need to be especially alert to the subtle attractions to mediocrity that still lie before them.  The devil, says Teresa, is cunning with them, and he does not try to get them with obvious sins.  Prayer, she feels, is the best way to detect these allurements. God gives "a thousand warnings" (though Teresa doesn't list them, Dubay offers: loss of peace at prayer; pricks of conscience at small omissions and clingings; minor returns to worldliness such as overuse of frivilous intertainments or excesses in food/clothing/etc; corner-cutting of regulations; idle chatter)

 8 Virtue and Prayer are correlatives.  Earnest striving for virtue directly causes a deepening of prayer.  anyone who experiences being in love will readil understand how depth of love communion transforms style of life, and conversely, how style of life deepens (or damages) love communion. 9 Determination.  It is most important-all-important, indeed-that they should begin well by making an earnest and most determined resolve not to halt until they reach their goal, whatever may come, whatever may happen to them, however hard they may have to labor, whoever may complain of them, whether they reach teir goal or die on the road or have no heart to confront the trials which they meet, whether the very world dissolves before them.               

Specific Conditions               

1 Humility-Prayer is intertwined with reality - False humility thus gets us nowhere.  Not merely an intellectual acknowledgment, but must be reduced to practice.  Generous in sharing.  Obedience to human superiors (doesn't mean you can't talk or even question).  *Pride withers a vibrant prayer life*  Human blame is more secure that human praise (the latter she considered a torment: because like with Jesus, the soul is freed and it reigns when it is persecuted).  Self-defense/justification, while there are occasions when it is right, Teresa notes they are few (recall the silence of Jesus in His passion; also, it requires we rely on God's help to resist rebuttal; 3rd, in small matters that do not harm us, it can gain great spiritual victories; 4th, "we can never be blamed unjustly" even if it is for the wrong things; 5th, if you are vindicated by another means, your silence during the trial teaches much to the accuser; 6th, God will have others stand up for us when we need it (as Christ did).; 7th, gains freedom from concern and worry of others' opinion, and can rest more readily in God @ prayer). Detachment: A Note-Inner freedom from selfish clingings is so basic a condition for growth to maturity that an entire chapter in this book has been devoted to it (Ch 8).             

 2 Solitude: (not isolation!) a healthy turning toward one's beloved.  Try to put aside all unnecessary affairs and business.  Think of the plant choked up by the thorns in Jesus' parable.  For starters, a drastic reduction in our exposure to the mass media. Don't meddle in other's affairs.  Avoid Idle talk.  It is very important that those who visit us leave with some benefit, and not after having wasted time, and that we benefit too. Waste of time and prayer depth are incompatible.             

 3 Suffering and Growth in Prayer-Just as Jesus Himself had to suffer, embrace the daily crosses that are sure to come.  If the soil is well cultivated by trials, persecutions, criticisms, and illnesses-for few there must be who reach this state without them-and if it is softened by living in great detachment from self-interest, the water soaks it to the extent that it is almost never dry.  Teresa says thee trials God sends to those of deep prayer are often severe and intolerable, so that they cannot be borne were not God also to give special consolations. God gives help.  Love is the measure of our ability to bear crosses.             

4 Love-Generosity-Growth must happen in the midst of a life lived on a battlefield.  That battlefield is the people we are called concretely to love.

Parish Feast Day - Saint Therese - 8pm

Audio - click here!

From the autobiography of St Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin
Manuscrits autobiographiques, Lisieux 1957, 227-229
In the heart of the church I will be love

Since my longing for martyrdom was powerful and unsettling, I turned to the epistles of St. Paul in the hope of finally finding an answer. By chance the 12th and 13th chapters of the 1st epistle to the Corinthians caught my attention, and in the first section I read that not everyone can be an apostle, prophet or teacher, that the Church is composed of a variety of members, and that the eye cannot be the hand. Even with such an answer revealed before me, I was not satisfied and did not find peace.

I persevered in the reading and did not let my mind wander until I found this encouraging theme: "Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others." For the Apostle insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind.

When I had looked upon the mystical body of the Church, I recognised myself in none of the members which St. Paul described, and what is more, I desired to distinguish myself more favourably within the whole body. Love appeared to me to be the hinge for my vocation. Indeed I knew that the Church had a body composed of various members, but in this body the necessary and more noble member was not lacking; I knew that the Church had a heart and that such a heart appeared to be aflame with love. I knew that one love drove the members of the Church to action, that if this love were extinguished, the apostles would have proclaimed the Gospel no longer, the martyrs would have shed their blood no more. I saw and realised that love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love embraces every time and every place. In one word, that love is everlasting.

Then, nearly ecstatic with the supreme joy in my soul, I proclaimed: O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love. Certainly I have found my place in the Church, and you gave me that very place, my God. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and thus I will be all things, as my desire finds its direction.

9-15-19 Prodigal Son - our story

Audio: Click here!

After weeks of Jesus telling us to focus all our efforts on heaven and laying out all the sacrifices and renunciations we must make for the sake of the kingdom, it could be understandable if someone was feeling a little disheartened.  If it weren’t for the rest of what we know of the Gospel, these readings would make it seem that God wants us to do all the work while He sits back and watches us fight for first place in heaven.  But the reality is much different from these false appearances, and today’s Gospel (and the other readings) show us just how much God himself is desiring our salvation. It seems that based off these Gospels that God wants us to be saved much more than we do, and all Jesus was doing was asking for our desire to be saved to match God’s desire for our reconciliation.

God wants to find us.  This is the simple message of today’s reading, and really is the story of the Bible.  Go back to the beginning – the first thing God says in the Bible is: “where are you?”  No this isn’t a game of hide-and-seek with God, as if he didn’t know the answer to the question and really couldn’t see Adam & Eve – the one who knows our thoughts as easily as we hear the noise at the ND football stadium.  God says this for Adam’s sake.

The prodigal son has forgotten who he is.  “let me be a servant.”

The father wishes to restore that dignity: ring, sandals, robe.

Prodigal son story - Inspired masterpieces of art, music, and other stories.  It is probably the best short-story ever told.  Because it is something we all relate to.

Easy to see ourselves in this story.  We all have the chance to be the characters in that story, or to not be.  The choice is yours.

We all sin.  We can repent or not.

We all have someone to forgive and reconcile with.  We can do so or choose to avoid others.

We all have the choice between resentment or rejoicing, bitterness or mercy.

LOST SHEEP - Let God find you.

Letting Go

Audio: Click here!

A couple weeks ago: Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?"  He answered them,
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. 

Large crowds are following Jesus.  Many, perhaps, for not the best of reasons.  Some might be curious, others, suspicious, others just wanting to get away or catch the newest fad.

Jesus says: “count the cost.”

What are we holding onto that keeps us from being Jesus’ disciple?

Dying we find life. In losing ourselves, we find ourselves.  We are happy through not focusing on our happiness, but on the good of those around us.  LOVE makes us whole.

Monkey - Let go.

Give over everything.

He has done so for you.

Homily - Humility - Mother Teresa of Kolkata

Audio: click here!

In this parable today, Jesus wants us to face the fact that we really aren't big shots or VIP's.  The comparison game of getting on top and looking down on others gets us nowhere, like a game of running in circles, wearing yourselves out with no results.  The humility that Jesus calls us to is a simple awareness of the fact that what divides me from my fellow human beings is superficial stuff compared to what unites me to them.  I am much more alike them than I am different.  I need to be loved and to give love.  They need to be loved and to give love.

We encounter Jesus - and this was Mother Teresa's deepest conviction - first in the Most Blessed Sacrament and second in the poorest of the poor, indeed, in every fellow human being who is suffering.  For her, the presence of Jesus in the poorest of the poor was just as real as in the Eucharist.  Jesus teaches, 'truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'

We should not hide from abject poverty or run away from it.  For if we do, we are running away from Jesus.
That's why we are told to invite those who cannot pay us back.  Because we are inviting Jesus.

"Father, you will meet Jesus there in His distressing disguise as the poorest of the poor.  Our visit will bring joy. for the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.  The worst disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but the feeling of being unwanted."  Her words reminded me of something else she had said: "There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation than for bread."

So what are some ways we can put this into practice in our lives?  How can we burst the bubble of our pride and meet Jesus in others?
1. Supporting our food pantry.  This is one way we invite the poor to eat.
2. Associate with the lowly.  Don't chase after the "big shots" to talk with them and get yourselves a place among the important.
3. Give the person in front of you the attention they deserve.  Love them, and thus love Jesus in them.  He is in there if you can believe it.
4.

Homiy 8/25 Strive - Marathon

Audio: 9:30am Mass: click here

No room for complacency, cruise control, “taking it easy” in the spiritual life.

“broad road to destruction”  / “narrow road”

STRIVE – PERSEVERANCE – DISCIPLINE (virtue of Hope & courage)

Hebrews "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges." Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. 

Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. – they persevered, they strove with discipline in the journey of faith that lasted a lifetime.

Christianity is a race, and not a sprint race that’s requires one hard burst of ourselves.  Rather, a marathon.

Marathon Race – why I can’t beat my brother.  LACK OF DISCIPLINE to train.

We must make sacrifices for the sake of what we want.  We must organize our life for this one thing.

We must desire sanctity.  To be saints.  Holiness.  Discipline.

We were designed for this.

Revolution of Love

Audio: click here

The last verse of Hebrews Chapter twelve which is the conclusion of the exhortation we heard from today, says: For our God is a consuming fire.  The old testament reference in Deuteronomy, which the author quotes, also says the Lord is a jealous God.  Or other English translations say “zealous” because of the bad sense of the word jealous today that isn’t included in the original languages.  God’s heart is burning for us to live.  He created us to live a life in the fullest sense, and sin is the opposite of living a human life.  Sin is the least human thing about us, for we were created by Love, created in Love, created for Love.  God is that blazing fire of Love we were made for, and thus He wishes the world were ablaze. 

No, God is not an anarchist.  Except that he wants to see the revolution of Love take over the tyranny of selfishness, sin, slop and senselessness that we are swimming in day after day.

When you live for the Lord, it will mean opposition.  You won’t be creating much of a fan club with popular society if you spend day after day speaking against abortion, no-fault divorce, sexual immorality, immigration reform, and all the other things our faith stands for that go against the grain of our society.

It may not get you physically thrown into a pit to be left for dead, as Hebrews tells us “You have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”  (though this is true for far too many Christians today).  But it will very easily get you thrown into other types of mud in what we call “smear campaigns” that can turn social media into a flash fire of hateful comments and writing people off.  Sometimes it seems it’s just as evil today as it was for Jeremiah.

 We should pray for courage as we follow our Crucified Lord on this campaign of Christian service, this revolution of love. 

CCC1808 Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. Psalm 118 says "The Lord is my strength and my song."⁷⁰ And Jesus tells us: "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."⁷¹

We must keep our eyes on Christ as we follow in the faith that Abraham showed us in the reading from Hebrews last week.  Jesus is the “author and perfector of our faith.” He is our guide who ignites our torches with the flame of love.  May we embrace the division that Love brings, and through merciful forgiveness, absorb the pain, and bury it with Christ so that a new kingdom can be reborn.

John of the Cross: “Where you do not find love, put love, and then you will find it.”

Homily 8/4/19 - Brian Garland - Brevity of Life

Audio only:

9:30 Mass - click here

11:30 Mass - click here

Homily - Christian Waiting

Audio (8pm): Click here

“Where your treasure is, there also your heart will be”

How do we tell where our treasure is?

1 - Look at your calendar, how you spend your time, and ask why.  Particularly perhaps how you spend little bits of free time: 20 minutes here, an hour there.

2- Watch where your money goes, and ask why.

3 - How do you spend your mental energy? Watch where your mind goes.  What do you get worried/anxious about, and why?  What are the things that you pursue?

It doesn’t so much matter what we carry in this life, but how we carry it.  For what we carry is ultimately received from God as a gift.  How we carry it is our gift to God.  “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

A huge part of the Christian life is waiting. 

Chrism Mass, or ordination Mass.  “hurry up and wait” seems to be the rule of such big Church events.  We have to arrive 30 minutes or an hour ahead of time, and then we are ready in three minutes, the next 27 is waiting in line to get into church.  Sometimes they give us instruction like “Fathers you are going to walk in and genuflect and kiss the altar and sit down over yonder, etc. etc.” as if this is rocket science that we’ve never heard before - and oh my goodness, I better take notes or I just might mess this up!

But in some ways that waiting in line with all those priests is kind of like what the Christian life is like.  While I wait in line, I am focused on one intention, one goal: getting into that Mass.  Just like all of us, in this life, ought to be focused one one intention, one goal: seeing God face-to-face in eternity.  That is where I want my heart to be.  So man, I need to be sure that my calendar, my wallet, my mental energy, and every other part of myself points to that one reality I’m supposed to be focused on.

When I’m in line for Mass, I have vestments on, I am not playing basketball or staring at my phone bingeing on Stranger Things.  My focus is where I’m headed, so I don’t get wrapped up in stuff that leads somewhere else.  I can’t, and I admit it by the fact that I’m in vestments and waiting in line.  Do we live our Christian life in such a way that emphasizes we are on the journey?

The liturgy is an opportunity to reflect on what life is about, and to wait in line for the fulfillment that God will give.

It is a good type of waiting.  It is a way that we “get in line” for where God wants to lead us.  But we have to do this in so many other ways.

Ask God, beg the Holy Spirit to show you, where we may need to readjust our treasures, so that our hearts can be more firmly rooted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus that is burning with love for you.  Your heart was made for His Heart.

Mass Times Announcement

After a couple years of thought, prayer, and discussion about the Sunday experience for our parishioners, I have decided that our parish needs to make a change in regards to the number of Masses on Sunday morning.  As pastor of the parish, I obviously want to be able to celebrate Mass for my parishioners, to be their shepherd and guide as God has called me to be.  However, due to restraints of Canon Law, I am not allowed to be celebrating more than three Masses on Sunday except in case of emergency.  I have been giving up one, sometimes two Masses on Sunday for the past three years, and it doesn’t feel right.  So, instead of three Masses on Sunday morning, we will be switching to two Masses, starting in September.  This will allow for me to be pastor to the whole parish every weekend, as well as still have the energy for the other events that occur on Sundays during the year, including religious education, RCIA, youth group, and other special events.  Often I am so drained that I cannot do it all, and it is important that I be part of these ministries as well.

With some discussion about what would be the best rearrangement, I am confident that our Sunday Mass schedule should be Masses at 9:00am, 11:30am, and 8pm.  But we want hard evidence to confirm that with a super-quick (two question) survey after Mass today in the back of church, to be sure that no Mass would be overflowing.  So please fill out the quick survey to help us estimate what Mass attendance would look like under this proposed schedule of 9, 11:30, and 8pm (and of course, Saturday at 5:30).  It is expected that the 9am Mass would include many but not all from the 8am crowd and many but not all of the 9:30 crowd, with some opting for other Mass times.

I understand this is not an easy change, and that is why I have thought long and patiently about it before discussing it with the Parish Leadership Team and the staff as a whole and ultimately coming to the decision we have now.  While it will certainly be a difficult change because it will mean a new Sunday morning routine and saying farewell to what we were used to (including perhaps our favorite seats and our pew neighbors!), we are excited about the various opportunities this change will offer us.

Along with the primary goal of better ministry of presence as your pastor, another benefit of the new schedule would be the extra time between Masses, allowing for other parish initiatives during that time.  Community functions such as coffee & donuts or a pancake breakfast could reach a larger crowd more easily, as well as a great potential for parish-wide talks, presentations, or adult education series.

One of the primary concerns was the Religious Education program, which due to this decision would be forced to start 30 minutes earlier, from 10-11:30. However, by keeping the 11:30am Mass, our new schedule allows for two options for families to attend Mass together with their children who are in Sunday school.  If the children are early birds (or families need a freer afternoon), the family could attend the 9am Mass and be done by 11:30am.  If extra rest is needed, they could come to class at 10am and then stay for the 11:30am Mass.  I believe this adjustment will end up allowing RE families to participate more fully in the parish life.

It will also be a benefit to have fuller Masses (without overflow) to create a stronger community within the parish, and to allow for less strain on the musicians and cantors, liturgical ministers, and Mass coordinators.  This should make the Sunday experience better for everyone with more lively liturgies, and allow our eyes to witness more fully the vitality of the parish community!

This month of August will include more updates and information as we approach the new schedule date of Sunday September 1st.  Please keep each other in your prayers that this will bring a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit for our parish!

ASK .... for what God wants to give.

Audio: click here!

ARE WE ASKING FOR THE RIGHT THINGS?

ARE WE ASKING AT ALL?

We might be more like the prodigal son’s older brother: we complain because God doesn’t give us anything, but we actually don’t ever ask.  (and perhaps we at times are just as self-interested as the older brother: “a young goat with my friends.”).  Our image of God is the core of the problem.  We forgot who God is and who we are.

WHEN YOU BELIEVE A LIE, YOU EMPOWER THE LIAR.  You give them power over your life by letting the lie dictate how you perceive reality.

If Abraham’s story tells us anything, it tells us that God doesn’t get annoyed with me or simply tolerate me.  He loves me and wants to hear from me.

If we want to get something from God, we should Praise before we ask (as in the Our Father).  Of course, this sounds like we are tricking God or playing Him like we play our parents or others when we are working for something we want.  And of course it doesn’t really work that way.  In some mysterious way Jesus speaks of a certain power of prayer to “change” God, but it is really not as simple as we are changing His mind by buttering Him up.

 Kirkengaard and C.S. Lewis: “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes the one who prays.”  It hopefully lines us up to His divine plan so that our prayer eventually fits into the Our Father, and we begin to ask for what God wants us to ask.

II-II, Q. 83, a. 2, c: For we pray not that we may change the Divine disposition, but that we may impetrate that which God has disposed to be fulfilled by our prayers in other words "that by asking, men may deserve to receive what Almighty God from eternity has disposed to give," as Gregory says (Dial. i, 8)

While it is true that prayer does not (simply and absolutely) change God, it is also true that the good Lord regularly chooses to wait for our prayers before accomplishing his own will. Hence, to use a specific example, when God desires to save someone (and we mean when he desires this simply and absolutely, such that the person is among the predestined and elect souls who will certainly be saved), he yet chooses not to save them without their prayers. So, St. Augustine: “He who made you without you, will not save you without you.” That is, God will not save any who have attained to the use of reason without also moving them to will salvation and to merit it through prayers and good works.

Hence, prayer works and makes a difference not as though it changes God absolutely, but insofar as the Almighty chooses to receive our prayers as a means of accomplishing what he had already willed to accomplish from all eternity, namely, the salvation of his elect.

So once again: Are we asking?  Are we asking for the right things?

What does God want me to ask for?  THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Father, give me a deeper outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Renew my mind to seek the things that you want for me, and not the lies I have been told about who I am and who you are.

O Holy Spirit, soul of my soul, enlighten me, guard me, strengthen me, console me.  Tell me what I ought to do, and command me to do it.  I promise to be submissive to everything you would ask of me, and to accept all that you have for me.  Only show me what is your will.  Amen.

After a couple years of thought, prayer, and discussion about the Sunday experience for our parishioners, I have decided that our parish needs to make a change in regards to the number of Masses on Sunday morning.  As pastor of the parish, I obviously want to be able to celebrate Mass for my parishioners, to be their shepherd and guide as God has called me to be.  However, due to restraints of Canon Law, I am not allowed to be celebrating more than three Masses on Sunday except in case of emergency.  I have been giving up one, sometimes two Masses on Sunday for the past three years, and it doesn’t feel right.  So, instead of three Masses on Sunday morning, we will be switching to two Masses, starting in September.  This will allow for me to be pastor to the whole parish every weekend, as well as still have the energy for the other events that occur on Sundays during the year, including religious education, RCIA, youth group, and other special events.  Often I am so drained that I cannot do it all, and it is important that I be part of these ministries as well.

With some discussion about what would be the best rearrangement, I am confident that our Sunday Mass schedule should be Masses at 9:00am, 11:30am, and 8pm.  But we want hard evidence to confirm that with a super-quick (two question) survey after Mass today in the back of church, to be sure that no Mass would be overflowing.  So please fill out the quick survey to help us estimate what Mass attendance would look like under this proposed schedule of 9, 11:30, and 8pm (and of course, Saturday at 5:30).  It is expected that the 9am Mass would include many but not all from the 8am crowd and many but not all of the 9:30 crowd, with some opting for other Mass times.

I understand this is not an easy change, and that is why I have thought long and patiently about it before discussing it with the Parish Leadership Team and the staff as a whole and ultimately coming to the decision we have now.  While it will certainly be a difficult change because it will mean a new Sunday morning routine and saying farewell to what we were used to (including perhaps our favorite seats and our pew neighbors!), we are excited about the various opportunities this change will offer us.

Along with the primary goal of better ministry of presence as your pastor, another benefit of the new schedule would be the extra time between Masses, allowing for other parish initiatives during that time.  Community functions such as coffee & donuts or a pancake breakfast could reach a larger crowd more easily, as well as a great potential for parish-wide talks, presentations, or adult education series.

One of the primary concerns was the Religious Education program, which due to this decision would be forced to start 30 minutes earlier, from 10-11:30. However, by keeping the 11:30am Mass, our new schedule allows for two options for families to attend Mass together with their children who are in Sunday school.  If the children are early birds (or families need a freer afternoon), the family could attend the 9am Mass and be done by 11:30am.  If extra rest is needed, they could come to class at 10am and then stay for the 11:30am Mass.  I believe this adjustment will end up allowing RE families to participate more fully in the parish life.

It will also be a benefit to have fuller Masses (without overflow) to create a stronger community within the parish, and to allow for less strain on the musicians and cantors, liturgical ministers, and Mass coordinators.  This should make the Sunday experience better for everyone with more lively liturgies, and allow our eyes to witness more fully the vitality of the parish community!

This month of August will include more updates and information as we approach the new schedule date of Sunday September 1st.  Please keep each other in your prayers that this will bring a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit for our parish!