|
Last night, he had several of these knex building sticks and had made a staff with spokes on the top (looked like a monstrance) and was walking around the house singing the doxology...
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above the heavenly host
Praise Father Shawn and Holy Ghost.
AAAAMEEEN
Here's another RCIA story that is just as priceless: Sean is 9 yrs old and just received his sacraments at the Easter Vigil.
Hi,
I had to write you a note and tell you the funniest thing.... Sean convinced Karlie to "play church" this afternoon. Of course announcing that he was going to be the priest. So he gathered up a bunch of his stuffed animals that he thought needed to be baptized and confirmed and went in the kitchen to get some bread and water to be the Eucharist. And borrowed my old Missal to have the appropriate readings. He took all of it down to the family room, telling us that he is Father Shawn but spelled different. He sent Karlie back upstairs for some things to assist him in his baptisms and while she was upstairs Chris sneezed and of course Karlie says God bless you. Sean yells from the basement "STOP BLESSING PEOPLE.... I AM THE PRIEST! We just about lost it.
-------------
To see St. Mary's parishioner Nick Redd announced at the NET ministries team announcement, click here. He is announced at 48 min 50 seconds on the video. Check out NET's website.
Homily notes from Past & Present [updated 9.05.10]
Some Audio / MP3,WMA files from recent homilies:
23rd Sun OT, Sept 5, 2010 "NET: Requirements for Discipleship 9:30AM
23rd Sun OT, Sept 5, 2010 "NET: Requirements for Discipleship 8AM
22nd Sun OT, Aug. 29, 2010 "RSVP"
21st Sun OT, Aug. 22, 2010 "Heaven is not for everyone?"
Sun Aug 15, 2010, Assumption 'Introductions"
19th Sun OT, Aug 7, 2010 "The Film of my Life" 5:15pm
http://en.gloria.tv/?media=80391
copy and past this link or google others under: Stanley Villavicencio
16th Sun OT, July 18, 2010 "Easily Distracted"
15th Sun OT, July 11, 2010 "Well Taken Care of"
13th Sun OT, June 27, 2010 "Traveling light"
11th Sun OT, June 13, 2010 "Why do we cry?"
Feast of Corpus Christi, June 6, 2010 "The Most Important Meal of the Day"
Trinity Sunday, May 30, 2010 "Going Deeper"
Pentecost May 23, 2010 "Experience it for yourself"
7th. Sun Easter/Ascension May 16, 2010 "Jesus Farewell Gift"
6th Sun Easter, May 9, 2010 "Soaking up the Son from the Holy Land"
4th Sun Easter, April 25, 210 "We're in God's hands, everything is going to be fine"
3rd Sun Easter, April 18, 2010 "De ja Vu" moments all over again'
Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, 2010 'Getting your car washed'
Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010 "Why are you here?"
Good Friday, April 2, 2010 "The Lesson of Love"
5th Sun of Lent, March 21, 2010 "Timing is Everything"
3rd Sun of Lent, March 7, 2010 "Take off your shoes"
2nd Sun of Lent, Feb. 28, 2010 "The Masterpiece" Click for info on the painting
6th Sun Feb. 14, 2010 "Preparing for the 40 Day Retreat" 11am mass.
6th Sun Feb.14, 2010 "Preparing for a 40 Day Retreat"
3rd Sun Jan 24, 2010 "All Eyes are on Jesus"
2nd Sun Jan. 17, 2010 "The Finest Vintage"
Baptism of Jesus, Jan 9, 2010 "Taking the Plunge"
Epiphany, Jan. 3, 2010 "Hide and Seek"
Jan. 1, 2010 Mother of God, "Contemplating the Future"
Feast of "The Holy Family" Dec. 27, 2009 'Is the title copyrighted?'
Christmas 2009, "Merry Christmas"
4th Sun Advent Dec 20, 2009 'Unexpecting Mothers'
34 Sun Nov 22, 2009 Christ the King, Not your Avg King
33 Sun Nov 15, 2009 'Wait til Your Father Comes Home'
32 Sun Nov 8, 2009 "First things First"
Nov. 1, 2009 "Who would want to be a saint"
30 Sun Oct 25, 2009 "The 6th Sense"
29 Sun. Oct 18, 2009 "Risking it all"
26 Sun Sept. 27, 2009 "Climbing the Moutain"
25 Sun Sept 20, 2009 "Top Dog"
24 Sun Sept 13, 2009 "What do you want to do with your life?"
21 Sun Aug. 23, 2009 "Mass Desertion"
20 Sun Aug. 16, 2009 "Out of Reach"
17 Sun July 26, 2009 "Quality time"
13th Sun June 28, "The Divine Physician"
12th Sun June 21, 2009 "Sound Sleeper?"
Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2009 "The Shack"
Pentecost May 31, 2009 "The Perfect Graduation Gift"
6th Sun Easter May 17, 2009 "Lincoln Museum"
5th Sun Easter, Mothers Day "I am the Vine"
4th Sun of Easter, May 3, 2009 "The Good Shepherd Heals"
3rd Sun Easter, April 26, 2009 "Snap out of it"
2nd Sun Easter, April 19, 2009 "Divine Mercy, The Sales Event of the Year"
Easter Sun 2009 'Encounter with the Risen One'
Good Friday 2009 "Shocked at the Indifference"
Palm Sunday
5th Sun of Lent, March 29, 2009 "Show of Emotions"
4th Sun Lent, March 22, 2009 'Saving Private Ryan'
3rd Sun Lent, March 15, 2009 'Home Comings'
2nd Sun Lent, March 8, 2009 "The View from Mt. Tabor"
1st Sun Lent, March 1, 2009 "Be Prepared"
7th Sun 0T, Feb 22, 2009 "Change of Seasons"
6th Sun Feb 15, 2009 "The Heart"
5th Sun Feb 8, 2009 "Terms & Conditions" 9:30am Mass
5th Sun Feb 8, 2009 "Terms & Conditions" 5:15PM Mass
4th Sun Feb 1, 2009 'Directions'
3rd Sun Jan. 25, 2009 'Eye Contact'
2nd Sun Jan 18, 2009
Jan 11, 2009 Bapt of Jesus 11am Homily
Jan 10, 2009 Baptism of Jesus homily 5:15
epiphany homily Jan 4 2009
christmas homily 11am
christmas eve homily 4pm
3rd Sun Advent homily
2nd Sun Advent homily
1st Sun Advent homily
34th Sun OT Nov 23, 2008
33rd Sun OT Nov 16, 2008 mp3
30th Sun OT Oct 26, 2008 wav
26 Sun OT Sept 28, 2008 wav
Audio of Aug 17 homily: www.stmarysalton.com/staff/homily/20sun081708.wav
20th Sun 08
8.16.08
When I was first reading over today�s gospel, I don�t know about you but I found it kind of jarring, how Jesus treats this poor mother who�s pleading on behalf of her daughter who�s being tormented by demons.
Finally Jesus gives into her and grants her request but it doesn�t seem to fit the image of a Jesus who is so loving, compassionate, and merciful. It�s almost as if he begrudgingly gives into her request.
But if we look closer, things are not always what they appear to be and when we go back and revisit this encounter as it unfolds we discover there is something else happening.
First, Jesus never says, �no� to her. The gospel tells us: �he didn�t say a word� to her. It was the disciples who asked Jesus to �send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.�
And why was that? Because she was not a Jew, she was not a daughter of
Israel; she was not a believer in the Messiah, but a gentile, a pagan. She had no business requesting such spiritual favors; the cultural and religious norms of the day forbid it.
But as her discourse with Jesus unfolds, she revealed that she indeed did believe in Jesus. When she cries out to him, she says, �Have pity on me Lord, Son of David!�
Her persistence gave her the opportunity to reveal her growing faith in Jesus and Jesus was moved by that faith.
�O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.�
Today�s gospel reminds us, teaches us two things:
The 1st is that there is power in our pleading, an opportunity for our faith to grow as we plead our cause before the Lord, as we open our hearts and souls and declare how desperate we are for his mercy, how lost we are with out him.
Our prayers don�t have to be poetic, they don�t have to be polished, they don�t have to be checked for grammar in order for them to be heard as if they were going to be printed on the back of a holy card.
In fact, the more real, the more raw they are, the more powerful they are.
The 2nd thing we can draw from today�s gospel is that it reaffirms that none of us is outside God�s reach of healing love and mercy.
It can happen at times when some of us may feel that way. �He won�t answer my prayers; he either can�t hear or won�t listen to them. He�s not moved by them. He knows who I am, what I�ve done.
One can be easily tempted to resign oneself to not trying to get his attention, �why bother to bother him, he can�t be bothered with me.�
If ever that has happened or does happen to you, recognize the lie that it is!
It is not true! Jesus responds to the pleads of this woman, this poor mother in today�s gospel. Even though the cultural and religious norms of the day barred her from such access to Jesus; the reason Jesus was born, suffered and died, and rose again was to break through all such barriers so that NO ONE would be beyond his reach, his incredible love and mercy.
Life can throw it�s fair share of trials and tribulations at us, we can so easily be hurt and discouraged by the actions and words of others, and our own failures, it�s not uncommon for people to feel lost in this world, lost in the storms of life that don�t seem ever to really calm down.
It is the nature of sin to drive us away from God, to make us feel unreachable by his love and mercy. And we all sin. How often people feel they are confessing the same thing over and over again. We are all repeat offenders. That�s why we continually need to make use of that sacrament of confession.
Jesus does not want us to be afraid to approach Him in the sacrament of mercy, to place our woundedness before him and cry out for mercy. He will not deny you.
There are many obstacles that hinder people from making more frequent use of the sacrament of confession. One of them is just not being familiar with �how to go to confession� or remembering the act of contrition.
know you can make up your own act of contrition, or simply say, �Lord have mercy on me a sinner.�
Poor out your hearts to the Lord, don�t give up, he hears your loud cries, he hears your soft whispers, he hears all the prayers that weigh upon your heart.
As we continue with this mass, let us pray for the grace to persevere, in the daily struggles our life we will grow stronger, not weaker, and that we be granted the grace of knowing we are not just beyond his grasp, but how he longs to hold us in his loving arms. Every time we approach him in the Eucharist, he indeed does that.
In holy communion, we can run to him and he waits for us, and as we receive him today, to pray for the grace to deepen within our heart and soul that truth, that he loves us, he hears our every prayer, and in that intimate divine embrace we receive in holy communion, we are never beyond his reach, we are indeed held so tenderly and completely in his arms of love.
18th Sun 08
8.03.08
When I first returned from our little trip to the holy land I told some of you that I did not think I would ever read the scriptures the same again. I was surprised to learn that the
Sea of Galilee is actually a fresh water lake. I was really taken back by how beautiful the area was around there, almost resort like. I kind of laughed to myself as I walked down to the waters edge and enjoyed the gentle breeze coming off the lake: �no wonder Jesus spent so much of his time and ministry here, it�s so refreshing.�
As I reflected over today�s reading I went back to place where today�s miracle of multiplication of the loaves and fish took place.
I tried to place myself in Jesus� sandals as the gospel unfolds. Jesus hears word of John the Baptist death and attempts to withdraw to a desolate place by himself.
Was it because of news of John�s death that he withdrew? John after all was a relative, a second cousin. Maybe it was because news of John�s death meant that his own passion and death was drawing closer.
Regardless, the crowds that were drawn to Jesus would not wait for Jesus, could not wait for Jesus to return to them at another time. They were locked onto him. They watched as he got into the boat and set his course not far away, not far enough to out run the excitement and persistence of the crowd who couldn�t get enough of Jesus, they wanted more, they needed more.
And so Jesus disembarks from his boat and looks over the vast crowd that is quickly closing in on him and he is moved by pity for them and the gospel tells us he spent the rest of the day curing their sick; working his way through the crowds, gently touching each of them, as his divine power and healing flowed out of him, restoring broken and wounded hearts, souls, and bodies.
Can you imagine the excitement and joy that spread throughout that crowd as Jesus worked his way through them? Minutes turned into hours and before anyone knew it, it was getting late and no one had eaten yet. Who could leave such an experience, food could wait!
I really think the disciples were more worried about getting their own food than they were about the thousands of people who surrounded them.
�Hey Jesus, it�s been a long day, we�re hungry and there is no sign of this ever letting up.�
I�m not sure if you�ve ever had the experience of guests unexpentantly dropping in on you and the time flies by and then you come to that uncomfortable realization. Your hungry, your guests are probably hungry and you�re afraid to bring out your food because you know you don�t have enough to go around.
Take that situation and multiply it by 5,000 and now you get an inkling of how the disciples must have felt.
�Jesus, send them away so they can eat, so we can eat!�
Jesus tells them, �You feed them.� Show me what you have, �5 loaves and 2 fish is all we have�. It�s enough.
All eyes are on Jesus as the crowds are told to sit down on the grassy hillside. And what does he do, this should sound a little
familiar to us:
He took them, said the blessing, broke the bread
And gave it to his disciples who in turn gave it to the others.
And all ate and were satisfied.
Amazing! Miraculous! But it�s nothing!
Nothing in comparison to miracle he was just warming up to. The miracle that would first happen in the upper room on the night before he died when he took bread and wine and said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to his disciples telling them �this bread is now my flesh to eat, and this wine is now my blood to drink. Do this in memory of me.�
And since that first mass, when the bread of life was broken for you and for me, more than 5,000 much more than any number we could ever imagine, have been fed with the very same bread of life, Jesus himself, the bread that has come down from heaven, miraculous comes down to us again today, some 2,000 years later.
To be present on the slopping hills over looking the sea of Galilee must have been an amazing experience, a story those who were privileged to be present at, that most certainly was retold again and again and past down from generation to generation. �Your great great grandfather was their at that miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish.�
It�s nothing in comparison to the miracle we get to witness and participate in today! Do we realize the gift that has been given to us? Do we? Do I? When someone asks us on Monday, �how was your weekend?� Does it even cross our mind what happens today? Who it was we got to meet? Who it was we got to hold? Who it was we got to receive?
Jesus comes to us again this Sunday and every time we come to mass. But let�s stay with this Sunday, right now. And the same Jesus, who was moved by the crowd which quickly closed in on him, is moved again today, right now. He�s here. He sees into each of your hearts and he knows. He knows all. He knows if we really hunger and long for him or if we don�t. If as it says in our first reading:
We �spend our money for what is not bread, our wages for what fails to satisfy.
That which does not satisfy is obviously sin.
�Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life. I will renew with you the everlasting covenant.�
And that everlasting covenant is made available to us and renewed at every mass we attend.
�Take this all of you and drink from it, this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant, it will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven, do this in memory of me.�
Each of us is called to make a declaration of faith, �The body of Christ, Amen.� May our amen today and at every mass be loud declaration that nothing compares to the incredible miracle we are privileged to participate in whenever we receive Jesus in the in the Eucharist
15th Sun OT 08 while in VT
7.13.08
Do we have any green thumbs here? You who love to work on your gardens, your plants and flowers? Well, I admire you. I can stand back and appreciate your work but I�ll be honest with you, it�s my gift. I�ve tried the first couple of years of my priesthood just to keep a few plants alive in my office; I thought it would add a certain hominess when people come in but I kept forgetting that small detail of remembering to water them. And they all ended up dying. When I finally did take notice of them, it was too late, no matter how much holy water I used, those plants were not coming back to life.
I just don�t have the dedication, the commitment, the constant awareness that is needed to keep any kind of plant alive, unless maybe it was a cactus plant.
In today�s gospel we heard the
familiar parable of the seed and the sower and the various conditions of the soil that will either make or break the viability and the fruitfulness of those seeds.
What are the seeds that Jesus is talking about? What do they represent? The seeds that He has planted in us through his Church, are the seeds of faith, of salvation; bottom line, it�s our relationship with Jesus.
A question for each of us here to contemplate today, �What�s the state, the condition of my spiritual garden? Put in another way; How is my relationship with Jesus, is it growing? Is it bearing fruit? Am I being as attentive to it as I could, as I should?
Watched a movie the other night with the
family, a movie I�ve seen before and which I would recommend to all
families, �Evan Almighty�. Morgan Freeman plays God and he asks this newly elected congressman to build him an arc. To be a modern day �Noah�. This congressman turns to Morgan Freeman and says, �I�m sorry, Do I know you?� To which �God� replies: �not as well I would like�.
I wanted to hit the pause button, what a great question: �Do I know you?�
How we answer that question will tell us what the condition of our spiritual garden is in, how much those seeds that God planted in us have grown and born fruit.
Do you really know the Lord. Not the same as knowing about Him but to really and personally know Jesus.
Do you know Jesus like you know your husband and your wife, your
family, your good friends?
Do I more than just keep in touch? Do I think of him often? Are you on my mind, in my heart? Do I ever ask �What do you want Lord?� or is all about me?
That may not be an easy question to answer. I wish I could give a whole hearted YES to that question.
There�s so much that buys for our time, so many places to go, people to see, that at times we can find ourselves trying to fit God into our life. He�s lucky I made it to church on Sunday.
If the seed that God plants in us is the seed of faith, of a relationship that will lead us to eternal life, if we really believe that, then we shouldn�t try to fit God into our life.
Don�t try to fit God into your busy lives, build everything else around him. Put him first. Or at least struggle to put him first, desire to put him first, ask for his help:
Jesus help me prioritize my life!
Jesus gaves us the sacraments to help us do just that.
Every time we come to confession, we are saying, we are recommitting our lives to him, asking for forgiveness for our selfishness, for all sin is self centered and we are forgiven, healed, are spiritual garden of our soul is renewed, the weeds are pulled out.
And He waits for us in every mass as he plants the seed of himself within each of us. In the Eucharist Jesus, gives us the miracle grow that has the power to transform the spiritual garden of our soul instantly.
Lets pray for that grace as we continue with this mass to open our hearts to receive him, not just on our hands or our tongues, but to welcome him into our heart and soul, and acknowledged him, ask to really know him better. �oh my God, it�s you, I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed.�
June 29 Peter and Paul 08
(13th Sun OT)
As a young boy probably around 9 or 10 years old I had a conversation with my father about the power of prayer which I never forgot.
He told you: �you may never know how powerful your prayers were for others until you get to heaven. God may even wake you up in the middle of the night because someone out there desperately needs your prayers. And so it would happen from time to time, I would find myself awaken in the middle of the night and I would remember what my dad said and I would say a prayer for whoever needed it at that moment. My imagination wandered to think maybe it was someone in a car or motorcycle accident who was close to dying, and Jesus was asking me to pray for them.
I knew that if I made the extra effort to get out of my warm bed and drop on my knees, even if for just a few seconds, that that could add a little extra something to save someone�s soul.
Often I struggled if I would go the extra mile, especially if it was winter time and my bedroom floor was really cold.
There are so many things we could reflect on today as we celebrate the feasts of Saints Peter and Paul. But the one thing that stands out to me is the power of prayer.
Herod had made all the human calculations on how to keep Peter under lock and key. 16 guards all total, two of them stationed on either side with double chains, and locked gates. Peter, once the fisher man, now the prized fisher of souls had been caught, captured and every precaution taken to make sure he stayed in their custody. Evidently, Herod feared the possibility of a mob of Christian disciples might attempt to rescue their beloved shepherd and leader.
He was right to be on guard but he miscalculated on one thing, the power of prayer.
We heard in our first reading from Acts: �Peter thus was being kept in prison,
but prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf
It didn�t matter how many guards Herod would set to keep Peter held a prisoner in chains, or how many gates he put up to keep peter from getting out, when chooses to move, there�s nothing you can do to stop him.
St. Thomas Aquinas came up with 5 proofs for the existence of God, and one of them was that God is the unmoved mover. If something is set in motion, something had to move it, trace the cause of effects back far enough and you will come to God.
(Modern Analogy; trains and locomotive)
But God is moved my one thing. He is moved by love and he is moved by prayers of those He loves.
And when Peter was held captive, the early church community gathered and came up with a plan to rescue him, their weapon of choice was a no brainer, prayer.
They would call upon the power of God to set Peter free, and he did.
You just can not compete with the power of God and that is what today�s feast reminds all of us, that when we pray we tap into supernatural power, whether we feel it or not, we do. (It gives God the window of opportunity to pour out his power on those we pray for)
It�s not to say that there won�t be some bumps in the road as we go along, even the disciples had to battle the different storms that came their way.
It was no smooth ride for Peter and Paul, ultimately their faith, their love, their devotion to Jesus cost them their lives.
What can and should give us all some cause to pause, is how willing and ready they were to give their life for the one who gave His life for them so that they could know the promise and reward of eternal life.
The second reading to Timothy we believe was Paul�s last letter he wrote before he was martyred. We can hear his readiness to die in the words we just heard:
�the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me,
which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance. The Lord stood by me and gave me strength,
so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion�s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever.
It is a grace to pray with an expectant faith, it is a grace to be able to continue to put our trust in God when everything around us seems to be crashing in, going the wrong way.
As we continue with this mass, let�s pray for that grace, to tap into a deeper awareness, a confidence in the power of our prayers, not because it is us who is going to do the heavy lifting, but because we are calling upon God Almighty and he can move anything, he can soften the hardest heart, he can rescue those souls who are so wrapped in themselves, imprisoned by their own sin, we could be tempted not to try, not to pray fervently for them.
Jesus invites you, if you have a prayer that weighs heavily on your heart tonight, to bring that prayer to this mass, to this Eucharist, place that prayer on this altar today, and as you receive him in Holy Eucharist, whisper that prayer to him again, entrusting to him with all your heart, mind, soul and body.
Amen.
12th Sun OT 08
6.21.2008
Fear. What are you most afraid of?
Most people if not all, if they are honest, are afraid of something. It may be a real and rational fear or it be all together irrational and imaginary but even that doesn�t make it any less �real� to the person who is afraid.
So what are you most afraid of?
There are all kinds of fears, physical, emotional, psychological and I think we can add spiritual to the different kinds of fears that are out there.
Fear of heights, of flying, of the dark, of being alone, of being with too many people, of small places, of germs, of death, of hell, and let�s not forget the big one among most Catholics, going to confession.
Fear paralyzes us, it restricts our freedom to move, to love; fear of rejection, to live; for we are trapped in death grip of fear.
But Jesus tells in today�s gospel to �fear no one.� 365 times he repeats this message, this admonition to his disciples throughout the scriptures. 365 times! Why?
Because he knows, he knows how powerful fear can be; how crippling it can be.
And because FEAR is the greatest enemy to TRUST. And TRUST is the road that leads us to truly and really know who God is. And to really know God is to know His LOVE for us, for you and me.
�True Love casts out all FEAR.�
When we know how much He loves us, we will know we are safe from all that could harm us.
Jesus told us, �I have come to set you free�.
Set us free from what? Fear! And what causes fear? Sin!
In the garden, after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit from the tree, what do they do? They run and hide themselves from God. How irrational is that?
They were ashamed, they were afraid, they hid themselves, as if God wouldn�t be able to find them. But that�s what sin does, it distorts our vision, our understanding of God and his plan for our life. It makes us insecure, it makes us selfish, self centered and not God centered, it causes us to distrust God.
It�s subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, but whenever we sin, we are choosing something we believe is in our best interest, even when we know it goes against God�s plan as revealed in His Church.
Sin is probably the least thing any of us is afraid of. I doubt many people woke up this morning with this overwhelming fear, �oh gee, I don�t think I can get out of bed this morning, I�m afraid I�m going to sin.�
But it is the one thing, the only thing that Jesus admonishes us to be afraid of.
�Fear no one. And do not be afraid of the one who can kill the body but can not kill the soul; rather BE AFRAID of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.�
Sin is the devils work and his aim, his plan to ruin us, to blind us from knowing God�s love, from trusting in him and serving him. Satan�s one passion is our eternal destruction and sin is his tool to do just that. Jesus� one passion was to free us from his bondage, his vices, from his fear which keeps us from trusting God.
Jesus wants us to have a healthy fear of Satan and sin, not a paralyzing fear, not a overly scrupulous fear. There are plenty of horror movies out there that are obsessed with the diabolic and feed off of peoples fear and yet they are not leading people to a deeper loving and trusting relationship with Jesus.
Jesus wants us to be on guard for sin, for it attacks and weakens all of us. He also wants us to face our fears, to face our sins, to acknowledge the truth of our condition, that we are in need of a savior, that we can not save our selves, and that the devil is not an imaginary danger, but a clear and present danger as Tom Clancy would surely agree.
If sin is the devils tactic to defeat us, we need to be aware of those tactics.
And I know of no better way of becoming aware of his tactics as they relate to each of us individually, than confession.
In confession, we don�t run and hide from God, we run to him, and we face our fears, we face our sins, we acknowledge what we know deep down but don�t like to admit, that we are wounded, we are weak, and we can not save ourselves.
Let us pray for that grace as we continue with this mass, as we prepare ourselves to encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, we want to run to him with an awareness of our need for his mercy, for his healing, for his forgivness.
�Lord I am not worthy to receive you but only the say the word and I shall be healed, I shall be set free from any fear that holds me captive, that keeps me from trusting in you.�
10th Sun OT 08
They say, �a picture is worth a thousand words�, but I think the same can be said for the way someone looks at us. We can tell a lot by how someone looks at us. How many times have you gotten the look from your spouse, and it gave you plenty of information. Sometimes it�s a good look and sometimes it�s a bad look. The �I�m in trouble look, and they are really upset.� So often we know how to respond by reading the look we get.
At the very beginning of today�s gospel we heard:
�As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Mathew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, �Follow me.� And he got up and followed him.�
The response from Matthew is immediate. There is no discussion, no hesitation, but there must have been something Jesus spoke to his heart with the way he looked at him that gave Matthew the courage, the boldness, the grace to �Go all in Jesus�, and follow Jesus.
There was an immediate connection between the two.
Matthew didn�t have to say to Jesus: �Do you know who I am? What I do? And you still want me to follow you?
Jesus knew exactly who he was dealing with, he was well aware of how other might object to �the baggage� of Matthew being a tax collector.
But with those two simple words: �Follow Me�, he leaves it all behind.
In that split second decision, he made a decision that would forever change his life. He bet his life on Jesus and he won it all, eternity is the grand prize.
Eternity is the real sweepstakes Jesus invites us all to enter. Good news is he already paid for our ticket, but it�s not as simple as dropping the winning ticket in basket/drum and walking away.
Our very lives are the ticket, and to win the grand prize, eternal sweepstakes, we have to go all in with our lives, and give Jesus permission to be Lord of our life, to truly follow him, not just Sunday, but every day, every moment of the week.
Matthew had a choice every day after Jesus first called him, to continue to be his disciple. He had free will, he could have walked away from Jesus, go back to living his life, the way he wanted to. In John�s gospel, it tells us that there were some followers of Jesus who found what he said about the Eucharist, about giving us his flesh to eat, �a hard saying� and they no longer followed him.
So he calls each one of us today to follow him, to remain with him, and we have to make a response.
So what will it be today? Maybe the question is, what holds me back from going all in. We have to be real with Jesus. Don�t be afraid to be real with him. He wasn�t afraid to be real with us, he proved it on the cross with his life, we have today to prove it with our life for him.
Pentecost Sun 08
5.11.08
Very fitting that Pentecost happens to fall on Mother�s Day this year because what we celebrate today, the birth of the Church with the descent of the Holy Spirit 50 days after Easter, could not have happened without Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Mother of us all.
One of Mary�s titles is �Spouse of the Holy Spirit�.
Pentecost is not the first time the Holy Spirit descended upon anyone. There was someone else who was given the singular privilege of experiencing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit before Pentecost. That someone of course is Mary.
The Holy Spirit descended upon her at the Annunciation, when the angel announced that she would conceive and give birth to the Messiah, the Son of God, not by natural means by the supernatural outpouring of the Holy Spirit, did she conceive and bear the Son of God.
Thus, we can call Mary the �Spouse of the Holy Spirit�, for when Mary and the Holy Spirit join together, Jesus is born, Christ comes us among us, his presence is manifested.
Some might say, you Catholics give too much attention to Mary.
To which I would respond, if we pay close attention to the gospels, who is it that we find at the most critical moments in the life of Christ and in the life of the Church?
It�s Mary! Here are just some of the highlights; the Annunciation and the Birth, she intercedes on behalf of the newly weds at
Cana and Jesus performs his first miracle and it ushers in his public ministry, �his time has come.� She�s at the foot of the cross with John the beloved and his own mother, �Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.�
And today as we read in Acts, who is that we see gathered in the upper room as the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples? Mary, she is present for a second birth, the birth of the Church.
Do you know what �Holy Spirit� means? It can be translated �God�s Breath or Life�.
When God created Adam and Eve, he breathed his life into them.
In today�s gospel, Jesus �breathes� upon the disciples as he gives them His Spirit and power to forgive sins, telling them: �Whoever sins you forgive are forgiven them, whoever sins you retain are retained.�
Who here has been punched in the solar plexus before? Not a fun experience. I remember one of the first times I got punched in the solar plexus, I wasn�t sure what had happened to me, except for that I was panicking, desperately trying to breathe.
Each of us has been given God�s Breath to spiritually sustain us, to fill us with God�s life. It began when we were baptized and every time we received the sacraments, his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, deepened his presence in our life.
We have received the same outpouring of the Holy Spirit that the disciples gathered with Mary in the upper room received.
Jesus knew then as he still knows now, that his disciples would not be able to make it on their own without the grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He also knew then as still does now, that the reality of sin and temptation and the evil one, would always be a threat to try to knock the breath of God out of his children, his disciples who would be striving to live a life of holiness in a world that would constantly be luring them into a life of sinfulness.
That�s why he gave the first apostles and subsequent bishops and priests the power to be able to forgive sins, to restore the life of grace, to restore his holy breath whenever we would get spiritually punched in the solar plexus.
What�s scary about the reality of sin is that it can knock the breath of God right out of us but it�s not as perceptible as when we get punched physically in the solar plexus.
Regular and frequent use of the sacrament of confession is our only defense against the enemy of our soul who wants to knock the breath of God right out of us.
Confession forces us, as we stand in line, to seriously examine our consciences.
The first thing we need to ask, is not, �have I killed anyone? No.�
but HOLY SPIRIT, I invite you, I ask you to come and enlighten my mind, my heart, my conscience, help me to see what it is I need to ask forgiveness for, how may I have pushed you out of my life by being selfish, I now invite you back, and give me the courage to look at my sins honestly and confess them honestly, without holding back due to fear or embarrassment.�.
I know I preach on the sacrament of confession often and you know what encourages me to do so? Every couple of weeks it seems someone else comes to confession and they tell me, �Well, I�m finally here, I�ve heard you mentioning it in your homilies and I kept telling myself, �I know I need to go� but it�s just been so long and it makes it so much harder.
The longer you are away from the sacrament the more difficult it is to come back.
So if your one of those hold outs, and you know who you are, I�m inviting you to come back, Jesus is inviting you to come back. I�ve posted an examination of conscience on our webpage also known as a cheat sheet, we have some in the confessional, you can always ask for one to help you make a good confession.
But why do I keep preaching on this? Because I know from personal experience as well as the many many people who tell time and time again:�I am so glad I went. I can actually say I feel I breath easier and lighter.�
But of course, we laid our sins before the Lord and what did he do, and what does he do every time we approach him in that most amazing sacrament of mercy? He breathes upon us, he breathes his life into our soul. It�s one of the most amazing gifts he gives us, and how uplifting and spiritually encouraging it is to make use of it as often and regularly as we possibly can.
As we continue with this Mass, let us ask our Mother Mary, �Spouse of the Holy Spirit� to intercede for each of us, that we may experience an ever deeper outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our life.
6th Sun Easter 08
April 26, 2008
What kind of person are you? A secure or insecure person? If secure, what makes you secure? If insecure, what makes you insecure? I know it�s a loaded question I know. But I think it�s worth beginning to ask yourself the question�.
As I have been getting ready for our trip to the holy land I�ve been going back through the gospels and making notes of all the places Jesus went to with his disciples, how the crowds grew and grew where ever he went.
What it must of felt like being one of Jesus disciples, they learned very quickly how being with Jesus was always an adventure. It had to be very exciting to be part of something they knew was much bigger than themselves.
Just being around Jesus had to bring them a sense of confidence and security.
How when they were in the boat and the storm suddenly came upon them, it was Jesus they rushed to, it was Jesus they awoke from a sound sleep, �save us Lord�.
How they witnessed Jesus work the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves as thousands of people sat around them, hungry for some food/nourishment.
And then we come to today�s gospel where Jesus had been preparing his disciples for the greatest mission ever known to man, to share in his ministry of salvation of souls.
But he knows he must die and rise again and return to his Father in heaven before all that can happen.
�In a little while the world will not see me, but you will see me because I live and you will live.�
Jesus promised them �I will not leave you orphaned, I will not abandon you�. Jesus promised to be with them always by sending the advocate the Holy Spirit.
We know what happened to the disciples after Jesus died and rose again but before they received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
They were unsure of themselves, unsure what to believe, what to do, who they were.
St. Peter at one point decides to go back to fishing, that�s what he was, a fisherman. Although Jesus changed that once, and told him he would become a fisher of men, of souls.
But without the Holy Spirit the disciples were unsure, I guess you could say a little insecure of who they were, of what they ought to do.
They were pacing back and forth in the upper room, waiting but not sure why.
I think, maybe it was because his words still echoed in their hearts:
�He promised us he would not leave us orphaned, that he would come back to us, He promised!�
Right now in our liturgical season of Easter we are in that same place the disciples were between Easter and Pentecost.
We have two weeks to go before we celebrate Pentecost.
There is invitation for all of us to join with the disciples in praying for the Holy Spirit, the advocate promised by Jesus to come more fully into our lives. To fill us with a sense of identity and purpose.
A prayer I pray just before I proclaim and preach about the gospel:
�Come holy spirit come, come by means of the powerful intercession of the immaculate heart of Mary your well beloved spouse, send forth your spirit and we shall be recreated and you shall renew in us the fire of your love.�
Novena. It�s a prayer that is said nine times, often over nine days. The first novena in the church was prayed after ascension Thursday as the disciples prayed and waited for the promise of the Holy Spirit. Nine days later the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the upper room.
This Thursday there is in invitation for each of us to join that ancient Christian tradition of calling upon the Holy Spirit to come and dwell more powerfully, more deeply in our lives. We can not live the Christian life apart from the power we receive from the Holy Spirit. There are a lot of people out there and maybe in here trying, desiring to live the Christian life but by their own power and virtue and so often become discouraged. You can�t do it on your own power. Jesus knew that and that�s why he promised to send us, give us the advocate.
Jesus promised! You promised you would always be with us always and I am calling you on it, holding you to your promise, calling upon your spirit to be with me today, to sustain and empower me, to fill me with a security that can only come from knowing I am not alone, that you are with me always, in my thoughts, animating my actions and in the most powerful way, waiting for me in holy communion.
May our union with him today not end with this mass but may it only deepen throughout this day and this week as we continually call upon His Spirit, the Holy Spirit to remain in our hearts, in our thoughts, in all that we are and do.
Amen.
Begin be reciting the following prayer...
O Holy Spirit, Divine Consoler!
I adore you as my True God.
I bless You by uniting myself to the praises
You receive from the angel and saints.
I offer You my whole heart,
and I render You heartfelt thanks
for all the benefits You have bestowed
and do unceasingly bestow upon the world.
You are the author of all supernatural gifts
and who did enrich with immense favors the soul
of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the Mother of God,
I beseech you to visit me by Your grace and Your love,
and grant me the favor
I so earnestly seek in this novena...
State your request here...
O Holy Spirit,
spirit of truth,
come into our hearts:
shed the brightness of your light on all nations,
that they may be of one faith and pleasing to You.
Amen.
Come, O Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful,
and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
Recite the prayer of the appropriate day...
DAY ONE
O Holy Spirit, bestow upon us Your seven holy gifts. Enlighten our understanding that we may know You. Give us wisdom that Your will may be clear to us and that we may accept it. Grant us the gift of counsel that we may always perceive what is right. Fortify us that we may always be capable of fulfilling Your Divine Will. Inspire us with the spirit of learning that we may be able to penetrate more deeply into the truths that You have revealed. Let our hearts be steeped in the spirit of childlikeness that we may bring You joy. Let us have proper fear of God that we may never grieve You or wander from the path of goodness. Give us the fulness of Your gifts that we may glorify You. Amen. Look with compassion upon us, O Holy Spirit, and grant us the favor we seek in this novena... State your request here... if it be in accordance with Your Holy Will.
DAY TWO
O Holy Spirit, make me faithful in every thought, and grant that I may always listen to your voice, and watch for Your light, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You, and give myself to You, and ask You by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced feet of Jesus, looking at His Five Wounds, trusting in His Precious Blood, adoring His opened side and stricken heart, I implore You adorable Spirit, helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace, now and always, and grant us the favor we ask in this novena... State your request here... Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY THREE
Heavenly Father, You have called me to be a member of the mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. I ask You to give me these gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, that I may understand the follies of this world; understanding, that I may grasp more fully the meaning of my existence and the purpose of all things in the world; counsel, that I may always choose the proper way; fortitude, that I may remain faithful to You under the pressure of temptation.; piety, that I may revere You in all I do, think or say; fear of the Lord, that should the motive of love fail me, I may quickly be awakened to the eternal consequences of my deeds. Visit me by Your grace and Your love and grant me the favor I so earnestly seek in this novena... State your request here... Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY FOUR
O God, Who today by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, give us, by the light of the same Holy Spirit, a love for what is right and just and a constant enjoyment of His comforts. Pray Holy Spirit, that I may strive to learn more of my faith; that I may ever be conscious that reason in all its human magnificence is capable of grasping but a glimpse of the reality that is God. Pray that I may accept as the motto of my life: "All for the greater glory of God" and grant me the favor I so earnestly seek in this novena... State your request here... Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY FIVE
Come, O Spirit of sanctity, from the glory of heaven and send forth the radiance of Your light. Father of all the poor, light and peace of all hearts, come with Your countless gifts. Consoler in desolation; refreshment full of loveliness, come dear friend of my soul. In weariness send repose; breath gently cool refreshing breeze; console the desolate who weep alone. Light of Beatitude, make our hearts ready; come enter our souls. Without Your grace, man stands alone; he cannot be good or sure. Cleanse what is soiled; heal what is wounded; moisten what is arid. Bend the stubborn will; warm the cold heart; guide the wandering footstep. O Holy Spirit, we beg You to give us grace through Your sevenfold power and grant me the favor I so earnestly seek in this novena... State your request here... Give us merit for the present, and one day beatitude when we have finished our earthly journey. Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY SIX
O Father in Heaven, I beg You to send the Holy Spirit. May Your Holy Spirit remind me when I am apt to forget Your law. Your love, Your promises. May Your Holy Spirit strengthen my memory to recall frequently Your sanctity, omniscience, wisdom, and goodness, faithfulness, and love. May Your Holy Spirit encourage me when I am slothful; strengthen me when I am weak; enlighten me when I no longer can help myself. Breathe into me, O Holy Spirit, that I may do what is holy. Stir me, that I may love what is holy. Strengthen me, that I may preserve what is holy. Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may never lose what is holy and grant me the favor I so earnestly seek in this novena... State your request here... Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY SEVEN
Come, Holy Spirit, creator of all things: come visit our hearts with Your power. Fill with grace, friendly guest, the hearts which You have created. You are called the Consoler, gift from the hand of God, source of life, light, love, and flame, highest good. You are the pledge of sevenfold grace, finger of the Father�s hand, promised us by Him, and You make our tongues speak the truth. Cast light on our senses, pour love into our hearts. Grant our weak bodies strength that they may never grow weary of doing good and grant me the favor I so earnestly seek in this novena... State your request here... Keep the enemy far from us, give us peace always, let us willingly follow in Your footsteps that we may be far removed from sin. Grant that through You we may grow in knowledge of the Father and of the Son, and that we may ever strongly believe in You, the Spirit of both. Praise and honor be forever to the Father on the highest throne, in the risen Son of God, in the Consoler. Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY EIGHT
O Holy Spirit, life and light of the Church, give us thoughts higher than our own thoughts, and prayers better than our own prayers, and powers beyond our own powers, that we may love and live, imitating Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Come to us, Holy Spirit, come with the Father and the Son and grant me the favor I so earnestly request in this novena... State your request here... Vouchsafe to dwell within our souls and quickly make our hearts Your own. Quench in us the fires of hate and strife, the wasting fever of the heart. From perils guard our feeble life and to our souls Your peace impart. Let voice and mind and heart and strength confess and glorify Your name and let the fire of charity burn bright and other hearts inflame. Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
DAY NINE
O Lord, Holy Spirit, grant me sight to see the wondrous promise of divine love; insight to see my own weakness; delight in Your divine presence in my soul which You have made Your temple through sanctifying grace. I pray, O Holy Spirit, that I may be not doubting; that I be spared the pain of being alone without trust or hope in Christ; that my prayer may always be "My Lord and my God!" I pray that I may acquire a sense of retreat to prayer and recollection at various times in my daily life; for prayer is the bond that joins us to Christ. I pray that I may be aware of the physical needs of the poor and that I may share what I can with them in the charitable works of the Church. I pray, O Holy Spirit, that You will in Your mercy grant me the favor I have sought in this novena... State your request here... Amen. Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.
5th Sun Easter 08
It seemed immediately after the earthquake Friday morning everyone seemed to be conducting their own personal poll. �Did it wake you up? What did you think it was?�. So I want to conduct my own right now. How many people here were awaken by the earthquake? Knew it was an earthquake?
The first thought that came to my mind was, tornado. Up until Friday morning I had always felt pretty safe and secure in our brick rectory. But Friday morning that changed and I�ll admit it was a little �unsettling�.
In the gospel today Jesus assures us there does exist �the ultimate safe house� in which nothing can harm us. �Do not let your hearts be troubled. In my fathers house there are many dwelling places. � And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also maybe.
This dwelling place is not a physical but a spiritual structure.
But Jesus says that he is preparing a place for us. What does that mean? There is some kind of construction going on in heaven that deals with our eternal dwelling place but it also is happening here and now on earth.
How we live our lives here on earth will mirror what kind of dwelling place we will enjoy for all eternity. For our hearts and souls are where he desires to dwell.
St. Paul tells us that are bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Every day we either building up and adorning that temple with holiness, a place befitting Christ the King or we are tearing it down, profaning it by how we live, what we say and do.
There is a sign on one of the chuch�s on alby street that says, �God doesn�t just want custody on the weekends, he wants it all the time.�
I think some people think of coming to mass on Sunday as some kind of fire insurance. Just go to mass and be a nice person, and I�ll be assured a place in heaven.
I wish it were that easy.
How do we get to heaven, how do we assure ourselves of that eternal dwelling place? How can we know we are going the right way?
It's a question that Thomas' asks in today's gospel, it is a question we all need ask as well.
Jesus tells us in today�s gospel: �I am the way, the Truth and the Life.� Jesus is the road map, his life reflects what our life needs to look like. We already have the blueprints in the person of Jesus Christ.
The more we respond to his grace, and seek to know him and follow him, we will find we are walking along the WAY to heaven.
Every day we are given opportunities to conform our lives to his teachings, to HIS TRUTH.
Today, right now, we are given another tremendous grace is securing our eternal dwelling place, we are preparing a place for him to dwell with us in Holy Communion. Every mass we get temporary taste, glimpse of what our eternal dwelling will be like. It will be spending eternity with him.
Pray for the grace to respond to the gift he gives today, the gift of himself, that as we unite ourselves to him, we ask, we beg, we pray with all our heart, �Lord Jesus I want you to dwell in my hearts, in thoughts, in my mind all the time. Never let me loose sight of you, may my life reflect your life and my union with you in holy communion change me, heal me, and sustain me.�
When I have surrendered everything to you, I have no fear of anything else for my life has become one with you, because that is what holy communion is all about, union with the holy one.
Easter 08
I have a question for you all to ponder and try to answer for yourselves?
Why are you here?
Why have you come to this Church on this day?
What�s your answer? �it�s Easter?�
Or �Jesus rose from the dead? Someone told you have to go to church today because it�s Easter?
But what does that mean?
What does it really mean to you?
Or to ask it differently, �what does it really matter to you?�
We can look at Easter in different ways.
When you got in your car this morning to come to Church, are you aware of what your perspective on Easter was? I realize we can sometimes fall into auto pilot mode and so not really think about what we are doing.
So, I ask the question, �why are you here?� and some of you answer �It�s Easter�, and I ask you, �What�s Easter?�
Let me tell you what Easter is not.
Easter is not something we celebrate that happened 2,000 years ago.
That�s not Easter. Maybe I�m wrong, but I don�t believe that�s Easter. I believe there are plenty of people who might believe that, but I don�t.
That�s not Easter. If it�s not, then what is? Why are you here today? Why all the flowers, the music, why all the fuss?
Let�s look at the three people we read about in the gospel who were the first ones to go to the tomb that first Easter Sunday. Why did they go? What did they expect to see/find?
We know that Mary made her way to Jesus tomb early in the morning. Was it in hopes to encounter the resurrected Jesus? No, it wasn�t. She was convinced he was dead and buried, and so she made her way to his tomb with every intention to anoint his dead body with perfumed oils. So consumed in her own grief, her own heart ache and personal loss, when she arrives at Jesus tomb and see�s the stone rolled away, her first thoughts are NOT �he�s risen�, no it�s �who took his body?�
When Peter and John hear this news they both make a B line for the tomb. Although John outruns Peter and makes it their first. Fr. Jim identifies with Peter, see�s him as an out of shape guy much like himself and it explains why the young whipper snapper John beats him to the tomb.
But when they both went in, they saw things differently. John saw the empty tomb, the burial clothes neatly folded, and he believed. Peter did not, not yet.
Maybe another reason why Peter was lagging behind John in his arrival at the tomb, was he was still carrying a heavy burden, the memory, the guilt of his sin. He had betrayed his lord, his friend, how those words which came out of his mouth must have haunted him, �I tell you I do not know the man�, �he�s no friend of mine!�
The events of that Thursday evening and that dreadful Friday compounded the guilt and shame that must have weighed him down. He didn�t� come expecting to see the risen Lord because he couldn�t get his focus off himself, what he had done.
So, Why are you here? And what do you expect to find and see this morning?
An empty tomb over here? Beautifully decorated with flowers, maybe some familiar faces you haven�t seen in a while.
We are here to encounter the Risen Lord today!
We can celebrate/remember a loved ones birthday or anniversary after they have died, but it�s not the same as celebrating with them in the FLESH!
Later in John�s gospel, Mary does encounter the risen lord and she runs to embrace him and Jesus tells her �not yet�, but soon she will be able to hold him and touch him.
Soon the time would come when he would let all, not just a select few individuals hold and touch his resurrected body.
His plan was just beginning to unfold, and soon he would extend the privilege to all who would believe in him and his church, to encounter him hidden in the Eucharist.
What we celebrate today is not a memory, not a past event but an amazing reality, a miracle that supersedes any miracle that has ever happened or will ever happen;
Bread and wine are transformed into the resurrected Jesus, all of him, body, blood, soul and divinity.
Today and everyday, but especially Sunday�s, the Church calls all her children to come and receive the resurrected Jesus, to enter into miracle of Easter, to join the ongoing list of disciples who have discovered the truth and the joy of the resurrection.
As I look out at our church and see how packed it is, it�s exciting. But as Jesus looks out and upon each of you here, there is no one who escapes his notice, no one is lost amidst the crowd here, not from his perspective.
We can�t hide from God. At times we can run from him, think he doesn�t see me, maybe he doesn�t see me because I�ve fallen off the church wagon.
He wants us all to know, he see�s us always, wherever we are, whether we are here regularly at church or not, he see�s us and loves us, no matter what we may ever do, it wont� change his love for us, and he waits, he waits for us turn again to him, to come home, to know and to experience that love in a very personal and intimate way.
We all know family and friends who have drifted from the practice of their faith and there are plenty of reasons/excuses for why they no longer regularly practice their faith.
I�ve heard so many of them. And I�m sorry that the priest�s homilies are not always engaging, inspiring, or that you have felt betrayed or abandoned by the church in some way.
But here is the only reason we will ever need to remain steadfast in our Catholic Faith, because it is only here in the Mass, in the Eucharist, that you can encounter the one and only resurrected Christ, to receive the Living Resurrected Jesus into your own body and soul.
5th Sun Lent 08
I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is today�s gospel is packed; there is so much I can not wait to share with you. The bad news is, there is no bad news, the word gospel means, �good news�, it�s all good.
I have read this gospel many times, and as I was praying over this gospel again recently, there is one thing that just kept stopping me in my tracks. I�m not sure why, but it never struck as much.
When Jesus tells the disciples he�s going back towards Jerusalem to �awaken� Lazarus, they are strongly opposed to the idea. �What are you crazy, we were just there and they tried to kill you. Jerusalem was hostile territory.
Yet when Jesus makes it clear that�s where he�s headed, Thomas says something that really causes me to pause, and think it should make us all pause to reflect on it what it means for our life.
�Let us go and die with him.�
What an amazing change/contrast that takes place in a matter of seconds.
A quick calculation: We want to be with you Jesus, life apart from you no longer has meaning for us, so where ever you go, we go, even if it means death.
Of course we know that when Jesus returned to Lazarus home town, Jesus showed his power over death, that God has the last word over death.
We also know that when Jesus needed them most, they deserted him, they abandoned him, they ran from hid. They scattered on holy Thurs when he was arrested in the garden, and all but one abandoned him at the hour of his death.
That phrase, �let us go and die with him�, it sums up what it means to be a disciple. To follow Jesus, be faithful to him, never to turn away from him. �You must pick up your cross daily and follow me.�
But we don�t always do that. Whenever we sin, we turn away from him, we turn toward ourselves. All sin is selfish, self centered, self seeking.
We have the benefit of knowing the whole story, the Easter truth.
We have the HS, the sacraments,
We have a chance this lent, to recommit to him, make use of the penance service, and prepare ourselves to run to him this Good Friday.
Holy Thursday 08
Tonight as we do at every Holy Thursday service, we will have the washing of the feet. Some of you may wonder how are those who get their feet washed each year chosen.
This may not come as a surprise to you, but there is no box on our Stewardship cards for having one�s feet washed at the Holy Thursday mass.
I have yet to hear of anyone who calls the parish office wanting to serve in some way and volunteers to have their feet washed.
I must say, as one of your priests here at St. Mary�s it�s very edifying to see so many of you serving so many of us in so many different ways, some in very hidden and unknown ways.
It�s fitting that they did not volunteer, for the neither did the first disciples.
I�m sure those who are about to have their feet washed were taken back at first, �are you sure, me?� As were the disciples that 1st holy Thursday evening.
Holy Thursday was the first mass, where Jesus instituted the holy priesthood and so today it is a special feast day for all priests. On that Holy Thursday he gave a very powerful and moving homily that would forever ring in the heart and souls of those first disciples, yet he used very few words.
As I place myself there among the disciples, in Peter�s sandals if you will, all eyes are on Jesus as he gets up from the table and begins to get ready to wash their feet.
As I place myself in Peter�s place, I�m in disbelief in what I am watching, I�m horrified, it�s wrong, it�s all wrong. This is Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, and He is washing OUR feet.
And then Jesus comes to Peter, and he has gone too far. �Not mine Lord, No; I will not permit it, never! We are to serve you, not you us!�
Jesus knew that they would have a hard time understanding the lesson he was trying to teach them, a lesson he reminds us of again tonight.
�What I am doing you do not understand now but you will later.�
How humbling it must have been for them to let Jesus wash their feet.
In a word they must have felt, �unworthy�.
That�s an uncomfortable feeling; we don�t like to feel that way.
Chances are, many of us would have been inclined to decline Jesus� desire to wash our feet and used the excuse that we are not worthy.
And that is the truth of it, we are unworthy! But we can�t run from our unworthiness, we need to run to and embrace it.
I hear it again and again in confession, �Father, I don�t feel I am worthy of his forgiveness. And you know what I tell them, �your not�. His forgiveness is His gift to us, we can�t earn it. All we can do is learn to accept and embrace it.
Jesus taught his disciples a powerful lesson on service when he washed their feet. He left on them a powerful impression that would forever remain in their hearts. �I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.�
It is true for all of us, if we are going to serve the lord; we have to let him serve us with his Love. We can not give to others what we have not received from him. And we can not receive what He wants to give us until our hearts are humble and contrite.
�A humble contrite heart O God you will not scorn�.
Not everyone can have the experience of having their feet washed on Holy Thursday, and in a sense each of the men who will have theirs washed, represent all of us, Jesus� disciples today.
But each of us has an opportunity to have an experience that should bring a greater sense of unworthiness than just having your feet washed brings. We have the privilege to let the very same Jesus who washed the disciples� feet 2,000 years ago, come and wash over not just our feet, but our whole being, body and soul.
The incredible gift of the Eucharist compels all of us to examine our consciences, to acknowledge what may be uncomfortable to do, but which is true, how unworthy we are, how much in need of his mercy and grace.
And we are reminded of this reality at every mass whenever we echo those words again and again: �Lord I am not worthy to receive you only say the word and I shall be healed.�
Lord I am not worthy of all that you give me, but grant me a heart that is meek and humble like your own, so I can serve you with all my heart, my soul and my strength.
3rd Sun Lent 08
When I was younger, I remember playing basketball in the summer afternoon down at a local city park. I can remember actually saying to my friends as we finished, I was �dying of thirst� as I made my way over to one of the city�s water bubbler. Funny, how many time I would pass by it, almost repulsed by the constant flow of bubbling water. How unsanitary was that.
But on these hot days, after being so depleted of water, it seemed I couldn�t drink that water fast enough as I tried to quench my thirst. I felt like a thirsty dog, lapping up that water as fast as I could.
Today�s gospel is all about people who are dying of thirst.
The woman who meets Jesus at the well, was dying of thirst not so much physical as spiritual thirst.
There is a reason that she is the only one walking about a mid day, coming to draw water from the well. It is the hottest part of the day, most everyone else is inside, where it cool.
Not this woman, she comes to get her water when does to withstand the scorn, the cold and judging looks from others, the whispers of those who would say:
�There she is, the woman of disrepute, whose husband is she sleeping with now?�
She was thirsty for love, but as the song goes, she was �looking for love in all the wrong places.�
And finally, love came looking for her and found her fittingly at a well.
Yes Jesus is another one who thirst in today�s gospel, he thirsts to share, to give away his love, the living water which becomes a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.
Only Jesus love can satisfy our deepest longing of our hearts and souls.
It was in the hearts and souls of the people of Samira, who the gospel tells us began to first believe in Jesus when they head the testimony of this woman, who left the well and went and told them to come and meet the one who told her everything she had ever did.
They too thirsted to know Jesus and invited him stay with them, and he did for two days.
When the disciples retuned to the well, they found Jesus talking to this woman, they urge him to eat, �I have food of which you do not know.�
My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work�.
His work, his mission, passion, not be satisfied until he gave all he had so all would know and embrace his love.
On the cross, the very last words of his life, two words, �I Thirst�.
Not a physical thirst but a spiritual thirst, a thirst to let his love be known and embraced.
Today at this mass, he desires, he invites once again, as he invited and promised the woman at the well, to give to us life giving waters of grace, of his love and mercy.
He is the only thing/person who can satisfy the longings of our heart and soul.
St. Augustine said, �our hearts are restless until they rest in thee oh lord.�
Pray for the grace as we continue with this Mass, to make our hearts desire, the hunger and thirst of our soul, to be him alone who thirsts, who died of thirst for love of us.
2nd Sun Lent 08
As some of you may know, the flu has flown thru our rectory this past week and all except for Fr Chris have been waiting in our tombs like Lazarus waiting for Jesus to call him forth.
As the first sign of the flu began to show itself, I had a couple of conversations with people and I knew what they were going to say, �Go see a doctor, get some antibiotics, and be done with it.� Not what I wanted to hear.
Funny how when we want to avoid a certain topic how we can steer the conversation quickly from an area or subject we would rather not listen to.
After two days of relatively no sleep and increasingly feeling worse, I was finally open to listening and next thing I knew, it was as if the waters were parted and all of a sudden I had a doctors appointment and shortly after that a prescription, and here I am almost 4 days later and I feel like Lazarus coming forth from the tomb.
In today�s gospel Jesus chooses 3 of his disciples to go with him up the mountain to experience something that surely would change them for the rest of their lives.
1st, Jesus is transfigured before them, radiating and shimmering brightly. They get a glimpse of his divinity shinning thru his humanity.
Then they are privileged to witness the vision of Moses and Elijah who both appeared and were talking with Jesus
And if that was not enough, the final blow if you will, they hear the voice of God booming from the mysterious cloud that hovered over them, �this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him.�
At that what do they do? They hit the dirt/ground. Overwhelmed by the increasing manifestation of the divine, they throw themselves down, lying prostrate and afraid.
But what was the message they just heard, �listen to him� Listen to Him.
Listen to what? Listen to Jesus; to what he is telling them about himself that we will suffer and rise in three days, you might say he�s giving them a heads up.
But the first thing he says is, �Do not be afraid.�365 times he says that in the gospels, coincidence or god incidence, 365 days in a year?
But to listen to him, that can be a real challenge for us. What does that mean for you to listen to him? Are we ready to listen to what he wants to tell us?
I wasn�t ready to listen to the advice of others to tell me to go see a doctor; I thought I could work this out on my own. It�s the tragic flaw in all of us, independence; Trying to figure things out on our own.
Some things we might get by on that way. But the big picture, the meaning and purpose of our life, how we are to live, how we are to be happy, that we can�t do on our own, we need to listen to him, we need to want to listen to him.
Prayer as a one way conversation with God, we talk he listens. We�re done. As you know that�s just half of it, then it�s our turn to listen, to try to be open to what it is he wants to say to us.
Question for us, are we really listening.
Maybe deep down we are not sure we want to hear what he has to say?
What fear might be blocking us? It can be a scary thought to actually put our selves in a position where God might actually speak to our hearts. Maybe the thought of that makes us want to redirect the conversation, not go there.
The disciples were not ready to listen to the voice from the clouds; they had to be commanded, to listen to him.
Listen and hear, be open to what Jesus is saying.
This lent, is a call to be with Jesus in the desert, to make quit time with him, so we can hear him. Moses heard him on top of a mountain, Elijah in a still small voice of a gentle breeze.
We need not climb a mountain, turn in our hearts, listen to him, especially as we receive Him in the Eucharist
4th Sun 08
2.03 5;15, 6;30
Chances are we have all dealt with people who have had a real attitude.
How do we deal with people like that, we either tell them they need to step back and get an attitude adjustment or wish we could tell them to do so.
An attitude adjustment takes great humility, to honestly look at how one looks and treats everyone around them.
Today�s gospel, Jesus challenges all of us with an attitude adjustment.
That�s what the 8 Beatitudes are, they are blessed attitudes.
Chances are most of us are more familiar with the 10 Commandments than with the 8 Beatitudes. Especially when we think about Morality, how we are suppose to live and conform our lives to Jesus� way of living, of being his disciples.
In a sense the 8 B�s are more important that the 10 C�s. I�m not saying the 10 Commandments are not still commandments, and we need them to examine our consciences and as a guide for basic morality.
But when Moses went up the mountain and received the 10 C�s from God, he was given 10 basic do�s and don�ts to give to the people of Israel to try to keep everyone on the straight and the narrow.
But when Jesus goes up the mountain in today�s gospel he goes beyond the exterior do�s and don�ts, he goes to the very heart and soul reveals to us the attitude we must have if we are to be his disciple.
When you look closely at the Beatitudes you will see a reflection of Jesus� own attitude. How he is calling us to be more like himself, in how we look at life, at ourselves as we stand before God and our neighbor.
Remember Jesus summed up the 10 C�s and reduced them to 2, Love of God and Love of Neighbor, add these 8 Beatitudes to that and we have the new 10 Commandments.
As we continue with this mass let us pray for the grace for Jesus adjust our own attitudes, to conform our attitudes to his, by being
Poor in spirit,
Pure of heart,
Peacemaker,
Prepared to be Persecuted and insulted because we stand uncompromisingly for Truth, which is to say we stand uncompromisingly for Christ and reflect His Attitude in how we live our life.
It�s a way of living life and understanding life that will radically reshape who we are. Jesus calls all of us to live and embody these new commandments in our own lives.
Moreover, through our reception of the Eucharist, he gives us the power to do that. By drawing close to Jesus in the Eucharist today, let us pray for the grace for Jesus to conform our hearts, minds, and souls to become more like him.
Amen.
3rd OT 08
1.26 8, 11am
On the off chance there�s someone here whose unaware of what�s going on in the world of sports, the New England Patriots, or should I say, �my NE Pats.� Are going to be playing in the super bowl next Sunday.
You really do need to pray for Fr. Jim and Fr. Chris because as humble as I tried to be when the red sox won the world series this past fall, it was still a bit much to bear my enthusiasm as I tried convert them to join the red sox nation family.
Now the patriots stand to be the first team to go 19-0 and I�m trying my hardest to contain my joy and enthusiasm but I gotta tell you, it�s hard.
I convinced them last Saturday to watch the Pats-charger game and when I looked at the mass schedule for next weekend I thought maybe I had pushed too much, I was scheduled for the 6pm mass, which as you now know is in the middle of a particular football game I would particularly like very much to watch.
I resigned myself to a quick homily next weekend which means I would have to make up for it by giving a long one this weekend.
Yesterday we were all watching one of the sports channels with all the hype over this upcoming super bowl and Fr.Chris turned toward me and says: �hey Shawn, talking about the super bowl, what would you say about switching masses with me next weekend, I�ll take your 6pm and you�ll be able to watch your game uninterrupted.�
You can imagine how long I reflected on that offer before I got back to him. It was a no brainer, less than two seconds later, I contained my excitement with, �ah, ok, yeah, that would work for me, thanks brother.�
Chances are most of us have had moments when we can remember giving an immediate and enthusiastic �yes� to someone�s invitation.
I doubt very much many of you here would have to think long and hard about accepting free tickets to a Cardinals World Series game.
Ladies, think back to the moment your husband proposed to you.
What a grace to be able to give an immediate response and know at once your answer is �absolutely yes�. And to know you want to be with that person for the rest of your lives.
Takes great trust and love to make such a radical, life changing decision.
In today�s gospel when Jesus approaches his would be disciples, he calls them, He invites them to follow him, to leave everything that is familiar to them; family, work, friends.
When he called them and they didn�t flinch, their response was total and immediate. At once they left it all behind and followed him.
Wow, how did they do that? I find myself just marveling at how they were able to respond so immediately, without any hesitation.
Certainly, they did not realize yet that Jesus was God. But Jesus as God was talking to them and that voice went beyond their physical ability to hear, it traveled to the very depths of their heart and soul and resonated so loudly they could not resist it.
Of course they had free will and could have stayed put, stayed where it was safe, continued to live their life the way they wanted, they could have chosen not to follow him, that could have said no, and kept the status quo.
But they did not. And look how God took ordinary men, living ordinary lives and radically changed them, and not just them, but countless hearts and souls they would one day encounter as they brought the life changing good news of Jesus Christ.
What the first disciples had and what every true disciple of Christ needs to have, is the grace of detachment, a freedom that comes only when we really trust God with our lives.
And what Jesus called the first disciples to, he has called every other would be disciple to as well, surrender. But surrender is a scary thing. To let go of control of our lives is to be out of control.
Control is an illusion; we all like to think we are in control. It�s a comforting thought but it�s not real. It�s a paradox, only when we are completely out of control, when we give and surrender control of our life over to him, are we in control, in his hands of providence. I don�t want god as my co pilot, I want him to be the pilot.
The question to ask ourselves, are we there yet? Is God in control of your life right now? Have you given him permission to do whatever he wants with your life?
Is there anything holding you back? The disciples were holding their nets when Jesus called them, they had to let go of them and with that all sense of security. But when they let go they found freedom, freedom to follow Jesus, and not just an open hand but an open heart to embrace the love and the mission that Jesus was giving to them.
Today we have an opportunity at this mass and every mass we attend to renew and deepen our YES to him. To pray for the grace not to hesitate in wanting to be one of his faithful followers.
For He has already completely given himself to each of us in giving us the Eucharist. At every mass he entrusts his very self to us again and again as he is placed on our hands and on our tongues and into our hearts and souls.
We say at least with our action by walking down the isles of this church that we accept him into our lives but the real grace is to always go deeper and to take that action and turn it into a prayer of entrustment. �Into your hands oh lord I entrust my life�.
A prayer that we all need to make today and everyday, so it becomes so much a part of us, that whenever the time comes and find we are slipping away from this world and into the next, in that moment when we will realize how utterly out of control we are, that lived prayer of entrusting ourselves to the merciful love of Jesus will be our last prayer and the first prayer we make for all eternity.
2nd Sun OT 08
1.20.08 6;30, 9;30
A question I would like to invite you all to ponder for a moment: �Do you know how much God loves you? Do you know? What�s your answer, if yes why, if no why?
Do I know how much God loves me? I wish I could answer yes, but honestly the answers �no�. Why is it no? because if I really knew how much god loved me, I would never sin. Never. How could I? how could I turn away from his love? Because that�s what we do when we sin, we turn away from Love itself to a counterfeit love, an imposter.
Do you know how much God loves you? We can only begin to scratch the surface of that mystery, that reality while we are here on earth. But a lot can happen within us when we really begin scratching the surface, when we take the precious time to pause and ask that question, enter into that mystery of his unbelievable love for us.
We can only begin to scratch that surface of how much he loves us by asking another question: �how much do I know Him, really know Him?�
Knowledge of a person is intimately connected with our capacity to enter into a deeper love for that person.
In today�s gospel john says something a little surprising, he says twice that he did not know Jesus.
Impossible! They were 2nd cousins. Right after Mary conceived Jesus the angel told her to go and visit her cousin Elizabeth who was already 6 months pregnant with John the Baptist.
While John was in the womb he of Elizabeth, he was the first to notice the presence of the messiah as he did a few tumble saults in the womb as soon as Mary enter the house carrying within her womb the savior of the world.
Certainly, Mary and Elizabeth had other visits over the next 30 years and certainly Jesus and John would have known each other and as little boys gone outside to play together but only as close relatives, nothing more.
Nothing until the day when Jesus came walking along the shores of the Jordan and only then did John really know who Jesus was. Only then did he recognize not his cousin, but �Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world�.
He is the one of whom I said,
�A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.�
I did not know him
(Jesus existed before John as Son of God because he existed for all eternity, but in the mystery of the incarnation, as the Son of Man, sharing our humanity through Mary, John existed before Jesus, was born 6 months before he was. )
We know John was conceived about 6 months before Jesus, and so was born before him, not by months or years but for all eternity.
And so at every mass we are reminded of that revelation, the epiphany that first came to John as Jesus walked along the shore of the Jordan, of the full truth and reality of who Jesus really was, the Lamb of God to Behold, to acknowledge and worship but not just to behold but also to beheld.
To behold is to know and acknowledge who he is,
To beheld, is to receive him into your life and to love him and let Him love us, let the infinite reality of how much he loves us to slowly penetrate our finite minds.
If the people of our world really knew how much God loved them, there would be no sin. There would be no premarital or extra marital sex, there would be no rape or incest, there would be no unwanted pregnancies, unwanted life, there would be no contraception, there would be no abortions.
If only we knew how much God loved us, the world would be a different place.
And to the degree each of us enters into the mystery, of asking and desiring to know how much he loves us, will be the degree that we are able to bring into the world the power of his love which is the only thing that can and will transform it into that different place.
Baptism of the Lord 08
5;15,8,11
Last Sunday we celebrated the epiphany of the lord, the revelation to a handful of shepherds and 3 wise men the identity of the messiah, Christ the new born king.
Today, with the baptism of Jesus we celebrate another epiphany, a deeper revelation of who this messiah is and to a much greater audience than the select VIP�s of last week�s celebration. With the baptism of Jesus, it�s announced to the whole world who the messiah is, including Jesus� own cousin John the Baptist.
That is why John is so taken back by Jesus� request to be baptized. John knows Jesus does not need to be baptized; there is no sin in him. We heard John in today�s gospel say to Jesus:
�I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?�
Then why? Why was Jesus baptized?
Because His baptism was the occasion for it to be revealed to the whole world the mystery of who Jesus was as well as revelation of who we are all called to be.
After Jesus was baptized, the gospel tells us the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove and the voice of the father was heard saying: �this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.�
This is the first clear reference to the mystery of who God is as a trinity of persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
(NB: the word trinity is never used in scripture, but when we look closely we can clearly see the evidence of the mystery of 1 God as three divine persons.
What we celebrate today is also an epiphany of sorts for each of us, a further revelation of who we are called to be by virtue of our own baptism.
Every time we enter and leave the church we instinctively dip our fingers into the Holy Water, why? Because it�s something we just do?
We do it because we are supposed to recall what happened to us when we were baptized. Whether as infants or adults, our baptism radically changed who we are. It brought about forgiveness of original sin and any personal sin up to that moment and the Holy Spirit descended upon like it descended upon Jesus, filling us with all the necessary graces to know, love and serve our heavenly Father.
We are reminded of how our baptizism changed who we are as well as an opportunity for us to renew the vows, the promises we made/our parents made for us and we renewed again at our confirmation.
At that moment, when we were baptized we became His children, his son�s and daughters.
Bottom of my chalice an inscription to remind me who I am; �This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased�.
It came up in our RCIA class this past Thursday why do we baptize infants, why not wait till they are of the age of reason where they can choose baptism for themselves.
It�s possible you have been asked that question before, why do you Catholics do that?
Attention to bulletin Faith Facts corner,
First my answer is: Why not!
-First no where is scripture does it forbid such practice.
-Jesus himself said, �Do not prevent the little ones from coming to me.�
-we see in the acts of apostles as well as st Paul�s letters instances where a whole house hold, all the members of the family would be baptized all together.
- as to the objection that one should wait till the age of reason before one baptizes because an infant does not have the faith or the capacity to understand what is going on;
Neither does a baby understand the reasons for a bath but parents don�t wait till their children reach the age of reason to decide for themselves.
And the parents, godparents themselves provide the faith on behalf of their child. There are various examples in scripture where a parent or some other individual�s faith moved Jesus to work a miracle on behalf of someone else.
Jesus uses the faith of others as an avenue to communicate his healing and merciful love.
Jesus invites today at this mass, to call upon the faith that we received at our baptism to pray for ourselves and to pray for those we love, that our humble faith well be an avenue of grace for those we love, those who are sick, and those who have drifted away from their own faith.
Let us pray for the grace as we prepare ourselves to receive our lord in the Eucharist again to stir up within our souls those baptismal graces, those gifts of the Holy Spirit he has already given to us, that we may realize with greater faith the spiritual power and potential we each hold with in.
And as we receive Jesus in the Eucharist we become more and more the person God is calling us to be, that God himself will look into our hearts and souls and recognize a reflection of his son Jesus and say, �Behold this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.�
Christmas 07
6:30, 9:30
1st I want to say, �Merry Christmas�, better yet, �Blessed Christmas!�
Are there any new parents here? Well then you have your Christmas gift already, and chances are you have wrapped and unwrapped him or her many times already.
I remember talking to a couple who after their first child was born said, they couldn�t believe the hospital was going to let them go home with this new baby. The responsibility was huge. They had no idea really what they were doing; it would have to be on the job training.
I wonder how Mary and Joseph must have felt with the responsibility that was given to them to bring and raise the Christ child into the world.
When I was about a year old my grandmother came down from VT to Boston to help my mother with her 3 little ones. As it turned out she got particularly attached to me. My mom told me my nana just adored me and couldn�t put me down. Quite understandable, I�m sure you would all agree. Before my grandmother took the bus to go back up to VT my mother told my nana, �Take Shawn with you, we�ll be up and see you in a week.� �Are you serious? Are you sure? You�re going to let me take him home with me?� yes.
As I was thinking about this today, I called my mom and asked her to retell the story again and it was as I remember her and my nana tell me before with a couple of extra details I hadn�t known before. I thanked her, hung up the phone, and thought about it a few moments and then called her right back:
�Mom you got me thinking about this now, and I have ask you, how was it you were able to give me away so easily.� She laughed and then told me she knew how much joy it would bring to nana and poppy to have me to themselves for that week.
That they would just shower me with so much love and that there was no doubt in her mind that they would take very good care of me.�
She loved her parents, she trusted them and had faith that the gift her sweet baby Shawn was in good hands.
Today we are invited to draw near to the Christ child.
As incredible a privilege it is to just gaze upon him as it is a joy to gaze upon a newborn child, God wants to give each of us the privileged opportunity to be able to pick him up and hold him and love him and adore him.
And if that wasn�t enough, to take him home with us.
Why is to so many people throughout the world make it a point to be sure to go to mass on Christmas. Christmas without Christmas Mass just isn�t Christmas.
There�s a reason for that, �Christmas� means �Christ�s Mass�. And so Christmas without Christ�s Mass just isn�t Christmas.
But Christ�s Mass is more than something we traditionally do, like going to the annual Christmas party, drink a little eggnog, visit with those relatives and friends you haven�t seen since last Christmas.
Christ�s Mass is about stepping away from the business of our lives and coming into the presence of God, it�s about quieting our hearts and souls as we recognize and truly acknowledge the most important gift we could/ can ever receive, Jesus himself.
It is his Mass, his mass is the reason for the season, for all the celebrating.
And you know what�s amazing, there is only one thing He wants for the celebration of his birthday, and it�s you. He waits here, he�s been waiting here in this Church and in all the church�s throughout the world for each of his children to come home, to come back to him, to be with him.
Why is this mass so important, why does it have to be in a church? Because it is here, and here only he can give you his most precious gift, the gift of himself hidden in the Eucharist.
But you know, God takes a great risk today.
He risks entrusting his son into our hands, into hearts and souls, and not being loved, not being cherished, not being embraced, not being received in a state of grace.
But he takes the risk anyway, because that�s what love does.
This is what Jesus wants for his birthday, his Christmas gift, each of us here visiting him in His house which he again and again invites us to make it our home too. How many time I have heard it from people who grew up here at St. Mary�s and have moved a way and when they come back, they say, coming to St. Mary�s is like coming home.
This past advent season we heard a lot of confessions as people were preparing themselves spiritually to enter more deeply into the celebration of Christ�s birth by celebrating a spiritual rebirth and renewal through the forgiveness of sins.
One of the penances I liked to give was to just to ask the person coming to confession to pray for those who may drifted away from the practice of their Catholic faith, that this Christmas they may feel drawn back, drawn home, drawn to the sacrament of reconciliation so they again will be able to receive the greatest gift of all, Jesus himself hidden for love of us in the Eucharist.
Not just on Christmas, but every Sunday, every day there is an opportunity to let God entrust us with his most precious gift of his son, and to take him home with us to love and adore him until he comes and takes us home to be with him for all eternity.
4th Sun Advent 07
12.22.07 8,11am
Situations which seem impossible to try to explain except to say, �Things are not what they appear to be.�
In less than 48 hours we will be gazing upon Mary and Joseph and our little baby Jesus laid in the quaint little manger get away. But we are not there yet, and today�s gospel is a reminder that things are not always as they appear.
Mary and Joseph are not your ordinary parents; Jesus was not your ordinary baby infant. Nothing about their lives was ordinary, rather because their lives were so intimately caught up in the unfolding drama of the incarnation, of God�s plan to take upon himself our human nature, and be born like one of us, it�s all quite extraordinary to say the least.
To say that things were not as they appear to be would be one of the biggest understatements of all time.
Try for a moment to imagine what Mary might have felt and what she might have thought in trying to explain to her fianc� how it is that she is now pregnant.
Where do you start?
How about poor Joseph, try to imagine things from his perspective. The scriptures does not tell us that Mary ever tried to explain to Joe how she became pregnant. I�m sure he was more than just dismayed that his finance was found to be pregnant. He knew Mary to be a young woman of unquestionable character and purity, yet how else could he make sense of her pregnancy.
And so some things are indeed not what they appear to be but understanding them sometimes requires a little leap of faith.
Joseph however would need a little more than a leap of faith, more like a poll volt of faith as it took an angel that appeared to him in a dream to make clear the ways of the lord.
God had bigger and mightier plans for Mary and Joseph than anyone could ever have conceived. No Pun intended.
What�s really amazing, hard to believe, our God as almighty as he is, still chooses to rely on our faith, our trust in him, to realize his master plan.
Without Mary�s yes to God�s invitation to bear his son there would be no birth of a savior, and without the birth of Jesus, there could be no death. Without his death there could be no resurrection and without the resurrection, there could be no salvation.
Joseph had his own yes to make as part of god�s master plan and so do each of us.
It can be easy for one to think that their �yes� as insignificant, not as important or vital in the overarching divine scheme of things.
From our perspective, one can ask �what harm or difference does it really make, if I say �yes� or �no� to God.
But from God�s perspective the answer to that question clear and definitive, the difference is eternal.
The difference between our YES and our NO is an eternal difference, and not just for ourselves but for others as well.
Sometimes I don�t think we are fully aware of how our lives touch and affect others, especially in terms of the ripple effect of grace.
I know it�s something I am constantly reminded of,
I do what I do because I love what I do. I see things from my limited perspective as a priest. I do a baptism, I witness a marriage, I celebrate a mass, and I continue on my way, the extraordinary things I do as a priest are an ordinary part of my life.
But with each baby baptized, and couple married, and mass celebrated, a ripple effect of grace begins to spread out and continues to touch others in ways I could never have imagined. But God did, God imagined, God foresaw how those ripples of grace would spread out touching countless hearts and souls, although he has counted them.
And God is depending on all of us.
He is depending on you and me to continue to say yes to Him, and allow his grace to wash over us and through us to touch others in ways we could never imagine, but he did.
It�s amazing and humbling at the same time to think that God waits for our yes, our permission to let him work in our lives, so he can work in someone else�s.
Let us pray for the grace, as we continue with this Mass, this last Sunday of Advent, to deepen our own YES to god as we prepare to welcome Christ the newborn king into our hearts.
We pray for the grace to imitate Mary, who humbly said, �may it be done unto me according to thy word� not knowing all the details, accepting with great faith the mission that was given to her, to bare the Son of God to the world.
A mission he entrusts each of us with at every mass, because he has a master plan and we are part of it, to touch an unimagined number of hearts and souls which he has already imagined.
3rd Sun Advent 07
12.15.2007 6;30, 9;30
Today is the 3rd Sunday of advent which traditionally means, we are suppose to wear this pink, or rose color vestment. It also means we light our pink candle on our advent wreathe.
I heard recently that when a religion teacher asked her class why we light a pink candle instead of a purple one, a little girl responded by asking:
�Was it because Mary and Joseph were hoping it would be a girl?�
Of course we know that�s not why. The pink candle signifies joyful anticipation as we draw closer to celebrating the birth of Christ.
I called my sister Kristin last night and told her I was thinking about featuring her in my homily today and she said, �Ok, what did I do?� I told her
�you were born and when you were born what did dad do?� and she said, he named me Kristin Joy, for Joy in Christ�, I said, �ding ding ding.. And tomorrow is�?� and then the light bulb came on and she said, �Rejoice Sunday�. �ding ding ding�.
Joy is not something we can manufacture ourselves, St. Paul lists Joy as one of the fruits of the spirit. It�s so much more than just an emotion. True Joy can only come from Christ. And it is that fruit of the spirit the church calls us to enter into this Sunday.
One of the beautiful graces of our liturgical year with it�s different seasons is the way the church is always inviting us, drawing us to enter into the spirit of each season.
We need that, there�s so much competition for our attention in the busy world and lives we live, we need constantly to be drawn back to what�s most important, and that is our love for Jesus Christ.
And He is the only one who can give us that joy.
So this 3rd Sunday the Church invites to cultivate a deep spirit of Joy as we draw closer to Christmas.
But how do we get it? How does one obtain this gift?
The answer is hidden in the 3 letters of that little word, J-o-y.
By putting Jesus first,
Others next,
And You last.
I know that�s easier said than done. To truly live joyfully, to have that fruit of the spirit animate our lives, we need to continually examine our life to make sure things are in their proper order, Jesus first, others next and you last.
We need to examine our consciences, first by asking the Holy Spirit to show us where we need to root sin out our life. Sin is the ultimate spiritual kill joy and Jesus was born to die for us, to save us from our sins, to give us the power to overcome our own selfishness, to enable us to have generous hearts and souls that want to live first and foremost for him alone.
Tomorrow we will have a penance service at 7pm.
As we continue with this mass, let us pray for the grace for deeper outpouring of the fruits of the spirit, of joy and peace, that it would so consume and transform us and be evident to all around us. Especially as we receive Jesus in the Eucharist.
That whenever we sing any of the Christmas songs with Joy in them, they may be more than just words coming out of our mouths, but the spirit of Christ living and shining through us.
2nd sun of Advent 07
12.9.07 5;15, 6pm
Generally I am not one to get too excited about putting up Christmas decorations. I enjoy looking at them, the ambiance they provide, but I confess a personal lack of eagerness to put them up myself. It�s just not my cup of tea; maybe my mom ruined me at early age when it seemed there were never enough lights on our Christmas tree, and the pain of trying to find that one bulb that killed a whole string of lights.
Well, today was different. For the first time in a long time I actually looked forward to putting up our Christmas tree. Fr. Jim announced the other day that our Christmas tree had arrived; it was one of those artificial ones that had all the lights on it already. All we had to do is unfold the branches and put the four connecting parts together, and we were done.
10 minutes latter we had that bad boy up and running. Someone suggested we put some Christmas ornaments on it, and I said �No, it will ruin it, let�s keep it simple�.
Later I quietly asked myself, �Why do we decorate anyway?� Why the lights, the trees and wreathes, the Xmas cards and Christmas music, the seasonal eggnog which I have absolutely no desire for outside the Christmas season?
Why do we do it? Why do you do it?
-Just because it�s something your suppose to do.
-You don�t want to be the only house on the street to appear not have the Christmas spirit.
-I think I know the answer, at least for me; it helps to enter into the Christmas spirit.
Is that true for anyone else here?
If so, it begs the question, �what is the Christmas spirit?� and is it something we only need to get into once a year?
It is the purpose of this season of Advent to help us get into that Christmas Spirit, which is another way of saying, to get more into Christ�s spirit.
That is what we are saying when we say, we want to get into the Christmas spirit, isn�t it?
Today�s gospel John the Baptist was trying to get everybody ready for Christ�s coming, to get them into the Christmas spirit. How does he do that?
By preaching one homily over and over again, �Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!�
If you want to be ready when Christ comes, get honest with God and yourself and be sorry for your sins. Johns baptism did not bring about forgiveness of sins, but it was a beginning step to outwardly show sorrow for ones sin and to open ones heart for the one who could actually forgive those sins you are sorry for.
�I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.�
This second Sunday of Advent challenges us as we are putting up our Christmas lights and decorations to pause and reflect on what interior decorating are we doing in our soul? What am I spiritually doing to help me enter more into the spirit of Christmas?
Our Christmas preparations necessarily requires us to examine what areas of our life do we need to repent of sin. Sin is not something we can sweep under the carpet and ignore. It is because of that sin that Jesus was born, and Jesus was born to save us from our sins by his eventual death on the cross.
As we continue with this mass, let us make it our prayer, as we welcome Christ who is the Light of the World, to shine in our hearts and make us aware of those areas we need to humbly ask him for forgiveness and healing.
It is a prayer we are invited to enter into at every mass, that those words we say every time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, may be more than just words habitually repeated but prayed ever more each and every time:
�Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.�
1st Sun Advent 07 Missing 1st and 4th sun lent 08
12.2.07 8,11am
Happy New Year! Some might say, �You�re a little early father�. But the truth of the matter is, I�m right on time. The 1st Sun of Advent marks the first day of our new liturgical year.
But what is Advent really about? If I were to conduct a poll, I would bet the vast majority of you would say that Advent is a time or season to prepare for the celebration of Christ�s birth.
To that I would answer, �You are right and wrong�.
It�s really much more than that, the first season of advent lasted much longer than 4 weeks, it spanned hundreds of years and generations of families as the people of Israel patiently awaited the coming of the messiah, the Christ, the king who whose reign would never end.
That advent season ended 2,000 years ago, and we all know that Chris has already come.
There is another aspect or mystery to our celebration of Advent which we are reminded of every year and that is the 2nd coming of Christ the king. This is and should be for all of us just as real an expectation and preparation for his 2nd coming as was the 1st coming for generations of Jews.
This awaiting of the 2nd coming is not to be one of fear or trepidation but of joy. Why joy? Because when Christ comes again, it will mark the end of an age and the beginning of a new age, the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God, that has finally come and been fully established.
Most of us are familiar with the saying, �Every End is a New Beginning�.
Yesterday was the end of our liturgical year, today is the beginning of a new one. And that is what the word advent means, �Beginning or Dawning�.
Traditionally, people make New Year resolutions every Jan 1st.
Each of us here is challenged on this first Sunday of Advent to make our own spiritual resolutions for the New Year.
New beginnings can be very encouraging and an opportunity to start over.
One of the graces of a good confession is that we have a clean slate, an opportunity to start over, like a new semester in school.
As we start off our new liturgical year, what might be some new spiritual resolutions you can make as a way of preparing yourself to deepen your encounter with God.
Every mass is a sense is a like the microcosm of advent, we start off calling to mind our sins, making a resolution to turn away from sin and to deepen our commitment to Christ. We begin mass like that because we want to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ, and he comes to our world, to each of us individually, every time we come to communion.
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in whatever resolutions he is inviting us to make so that we can make this season of advent, truly a graced time to prepare our hearts and souls for his coming, which is every moment of every day, but ultimately it will prepare us for the final coming, when each of us come face to face with Christ our savior, whenever we breathe our last breath here on earth.
34 Sun OT Feast of Christ the King 11/26/07
After my first semester in the seminary I went home for Christmas break. My mom had a special Christmas present for the family, a surprise. Long story short, we took a train to NYC and saw the Christmas Show at Radio City, with the rockets, the wooden soldiers, and the very last scene was the grand finale and it blew me away.
It was a live nativity scene, I remember looking out of the corner of my eye, and seeing someone moving, the Wiseman with their caravan of camels were making their way to the center of the stage, shepherds surrounded the cr�che with their sheep, and a luminous star shone in the background. I couldn�t believe my eyes, and then I heard a voice begin to narrate a poem I had never heard before; it�s called �One solitary life�.
He was born in an obscure village - The child of a peasant woman - He grew up in another obscure village - Where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty
He never wrote a book - He never held an office - He never went to college
He never visited a big city - He never traveled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born - He did none of the things - Usually associated with greatness - He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three - His friends ran away - One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies - And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing - The only property he had on earth
When he was dead - He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend - Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race -
And the leader of mankind's progress - All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed - All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth - As powerfully as that one solitary life
So unexpected an ending of a Broadway type show. There are so many things about this One Solitary life which are so unexpected, beginning with his humble birth and ending with a most humiliating type of death. And yet, today�s gospel invites us to pause and ponder the mystery of how he died and at the same time honor him with this feast day of Christ the King.
Today�s gospel is a paradox. We are told today�s feast is that of Christ the King, and yet what we read in Luke�s gospel seems to bear no connection with what an ordinary person might expect to find in a king.
It is true Jesus breaks, shatters, obliterates for all time and eternity whatever expectations there are for a King.
What we heard today was a king that was not hailed but mocked, not cheered but jeered. He did not sit upon his throne but was crucified/nailed to it. To look upon him on the cross was not a sight for sore eyes but healing for poor souls.
At first reading, there seems to be only one clear reference to Christ as King, and that was the inscription �This is the King of the Jews�.
I discovered something yesterday while working on my homily that has given me some added insight into the meaning of today�s feast of Christ the King. It�s connected with one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
The hanging gardens of Babylon were built by the king of Babylon for his wife who missed the tree�s and gardens of her native home. Remember the Jews lived for many years under Babylonian captivity. They also experienced the daily practice of the king of inviting a lowly subject to join to dine with him in his garden. There an ordinary person would have the great privilege of walking and eating in the garden with the King.
In the language of Babylon � Aramaic � the garden was called �paradise.�
Now let�s look at today�s gospel with that in mind, and listen to the dialogue between the two thieves and Jesus. The Good Thief, meaning the one who had a change of heart, a conversion, turns to Jesus and says, �Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.� He acknowledged Jesus as Lord and King.
To that Jesus responds, �Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.�
The first person Jesus invites to dine with him in his Heavenly garden, in his kingdom in paradise is a condemned prisoner, a sinner like you and me.
He is known as the �Good Thief�, of all things you could say he stole, he is only known for stealing paradise, because hanging on the cross, he looked into Jesus� eyes, and recognized a king unlike the world had ever seen or known.
Today�s gospel challenges us to ask ourselves, is Jesus truly our king. Is he truly our Lord? Will we pledge our allegiance to him? It can�t be lip service, it has to come from our hearts and there needs to be evidence of it in our lives.
Fair notice must be given, to truly have Jesus as our King, we must be prepared to give up and over our life to him. Nothing else will cut it.
St. Augustine said: �Christ is not valued at all, unless he is valued above all.�
Let us pray for that grace, as we continue with this mass, as we prepare ourselves to enter into Paradise, because wherever Jesus is, there is paradise, and when we come to mass,
we for a time enter into paradise, a privileged time for each one of us to walk in his garden, not just walk in it, but also take it, to take him, to take all of heaven into our humble souls.
How unbelievable blest we are to have a King that looks with such love and generosity upon us, his subjects, and pray God, loyal disciples.
-----------------------------
29th Sun 07
10.20.2007
I watched a movie this past week that I would recommend to all of you, �Evan Almighty�. It�s a story about a guy who is elected to congress whose campaign slogan and promise was: �Change the World�. There was one scene that I didn�t expect to see in this comedy, it was like of all a sudden, the movie changed gears, it down shifted to a very real discourse on prayer and I think it can serve as an important faith lesson for all of us.
The first night in their big new home Evan, the congressman and his wife have an interesting conversation about prayer. How earlier in the day, one of their children had prayed for a dog, and then she asked her husband, �Do you want to know what I prayed for?� and she tells him, she prayed that they would become closer as a family. He tells her, �Honey you don�t need to pray for that to happen, I�m going to make that happen.�
And then she asks him, �What would he pray for?� and he really didn�t have a response. So she tells him: �you�re the one who said you were going to change the world, that�s a pretty big job. If it were me, I would take all the help I can get.�
Later that night, after thinking about what his wife says, he climbs out of bed, gets on his knees and begins: �Hello there, God, this is Evan Baxster, thank you for everything, the new car, the house is great, love it, I mean I did pick it out, but you created matter and everything. Joan makes a great point. I�m now in a position of great power and with great power comes great responsibility, so God, please help me change the world. Ok, I�m hanging up now.�
You could tell, prayer was not something he was comfortable with, he awkwardly made his way through it, but he was very honest in the way he prayed. He recognized he needed God�s help in fulfilling his campaign promise to �change the world�, but never imagined how seriously God would take him in helping him �change the world�. As the comedy unfolds he�s �asked� by God (although he really doesn�t have a choice once he�s made that prayer) to walk in the sandals of Noah and build an arc.
Evan learned a couple of things as his new mission unfolds, he learns the painful lesson that he is not in charge of his own life, God is. And try as he might, you can�t hide from God. And once he surrenders and accepts that truth, he finds things falling into place. He finds God helping him out in all kinds of ways, all the time. He also finds that whenever you say Yes to God, to accept his mission, his way of doing things, your going to be mocked, your going to be misunderstood, and chances are you are going to go against the flow.
I couldn�t help but laugh at the irony of a guy who was repulsed of having a dog for a pet might soon be surrounded by animals that are, shall we say, not so domestic. And his wife�s prayer that the family become closer, would be answered in ways he never foresaw. Nor did he ever think that prayer about changing the world might end up saving his family.
In today�s gospel Jesus tells a parable about the importance, no the necessity of praying always without becoming weary. To pray regularly, sometimes, can seem like a real challenge, but to pray always, is that even possible.
I got a sneak preview of a CD to get my feedback on it. It was entitled �The Truth� by Fr. Larry Richards and it is by far the best talk, homily, CD I have every listened to me in my life. One of the things he talks about on the CD is prayer.
If I were to ask you, �Did you pray today?� What would your answer be? Did you pray yesterday? We can have all kinds of excuses of why we don�t pray regularly or can�t pray regularly, to that the question follows, �well, did you eat yesterday, then food is more important to you than God? Did you watch tv yesterday, than TV is more important to you than God. We give evidence to what is really important to us in life by how much time and attention we give to it. Who do we really worship in our life, not just on Sunday?
For �some� people, prayer comes easily. They love it, seem to enter into without struggle and are energized by it. For others, the thought of really praying, is overwhelming. I can�t get into it, I don�t have enough time? I would really love to, but I�m so busy.�
The problem is God should not be something, someone we make time for. We need to build our lives around him, not him around our lives.
The vast majority of people, when asked if they believe in God, say absolutely �Yes�. But the real question, is or should be, �Do you have a relationship with him?�
What does that mean, to have a relationship with him?
Do you know him? We don�t say, �I believe in my mother or father, or husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend.� We say, we have a relationship with them. And if it�s a healthy relationship, it has to be much more than a x-mas card, birthday card, or a voice mail message.
Have you ever found it difficult to connect with someone, and it seems your constantly leaving voicemails with one another, and finally you connect, you talk, you have a conversation? Just leaving a message doesn�t cut it.
But sometimes, I think it can happen in our �relationship� with the Lord, we are just leaving messages, we�re not really connecting, we�re not really sharing with him, or listening to his response to what we have shared with him.
I had a spiritual director in the seminary who rarely said much, I would go and sit down and share with him what was going on, and he would just sit their and smile, and nod, I rarely heard any feedback from him.
Jesus wants us to come to him, to pray, to lay down all our concerns, fears, our hopes or joys� to surrender it all to him. In today�s gospel he gives us permission to �bother him� although it�s never a bother. He loves to hear from us his children.
But he also wants us to leave room for him to speak as well. And that can be really difficult for us, I know it can be for me at times, to be still and listen, be in his presence, remember, this is my relationship with the living and loving God. All relationships take time and work, and our relationship with God should not be any different.
I�ve shared with him what�s on my heart, and through prayer if we give him the opening he will share with us what� on his heart, that�s how we come to KNOW who he is.
Pray for that grace as we continue with this mass, to pray, to make our relationship with God more real. That God is not just someone we believe in, it�s someone we know, we trust, we entrust our lives, all that we have, want and hope to be, to him.
There is no greater opportunity for our hearts and souls to reach such depths of divine intimacy than in the Eucharist.
I give you permission today Lord, to use me.
------------------------------------------ to read past homilies go to : homily/frshawn.htm |
"It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness, he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives." (JPII at WYD 2000)
Just for Kicks: