New Year means renewed hope

Many people hope for world peace on this first day of the new year and some make resolutions to change parts of their lives in order to be the ones who cultivate peace within their own circle of influence. It's critical to recall that peace is more than the absence of conflict. It is a harmony that arises when those involved surrender to a greater reality and humble themselves in order to serve the other. How do we think the peace we pray for will come to exist? Terrorists will not suddenly lay down arms unless they are first convinced of a new way of perceiving the world. Therefore, what is most necessary is for Christians to pray for the conversion of all others to the true faith of Jesus Christ. Without Him there can be no peace. May the countenance of the one true God shine on the whole world. May our Mother bring all men and women closer to the heart of her Son. Resolve to surrender your life to Jesus. Pray for the growth of our holy faith, which gives us renewed hope every day that God has the power to transform all who surrender to Him.

Why do people lie and say they are Catholic when they represent the precise opposite of Christian Catholic tradition?

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=27050

There is not one shred of "overlap" between the enshrinement of immorality in law by SCOTUS and the sacred doctrine of the Church on marriage. The Church teaches what God ordains and admonishes what He condemns. Sodomy is not an act for which a person ought to be honored. The National Reporter speaks for itself and not, thank God, for the Church.

Reflection on Christmas 2015

1. As a seminarian at Saint Vincent, I often helped proofread student papers.  Not all of them showed outstanding knowledge of grammar and punctuation. 

 

2. I would often feel compelled to say politely “Commas are our friends!”

 

3. Recently I noticed a comma in one printing of the words of Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation

          “Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”

 

          “Blessed are you who believed, [COMMA - PAUSE]

that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”

 

If we read the sentence with a pause, we can appreciate the hidden causality.

Not only is Mary blessed because she believed but her believing is what makes the promise of the Lord come about for her and for the whole world.

 

Her faith allows the incarnation to take place, which is the source of our joy this evening.

 

4. Faith is living and effective. 

Believing makes things happen. 

Faith is a prerequisite for the outpouring of grace. 

 

Notice in Scripture how the Gospel writers tell us that Jesus was not able to perform many miracles in certain places – particularly in His own hometown – because of their lack of faith.

 

He could not perform miracles because no one was seeking them, no one was open to them. 

 

The people had become so familiar with Jesus that they did not see anything special in Him and they did not desire what He had to offer. 

 

At the same time, the miracles of Jesus all take place because of some need in the life of a man or woman or child who came to Jesus crying out “son of David, have pity on us!”

 

5. Jesus came into our world, humbling Himself to be born in a manger where

animals feed, the smell of sheep and donkeys hanging in the air. 

 

In order to proclaim the birth of the Messiah, the angels had to leave the glory of heaven and hover over a barn, singing “Glory to God in the highest!” to shepherds, not nobles or merchants.

 

In order to pay homage to the great King of Creation, the wise kings of the East had to kneel in the stable, dragging their fine robes through the filth.

 

My experience of helping a friend this past summer clean a barn…dung, skeletons, dirt, mold, garbage…

 

Sometimes life is messy.  Coming to meet Jesus Christ face to face means travelling a road that is not always pleasant, requiring us to become more humble and focus on what is most valuable.  What we become accustomed to or believe to be important is taken away but faith, hope and love endure.

 

6. Along the road of life, every human need, each of our own wounds and

sufferings, is an experience of our souls crying out for the healing power of Jesus Christ, who came into our world to heal the brokenness of humanity.

 

Jesus was not afraid of the messiness of life.  He embraced it in order to redeem it.

 

We speak of some situation as a “disaster waiting to happen” or a person as an “accident waiting to happen.”

 

Why do we never say something is a “miracle waiting to happen?”

 

In fact, every human need is an opportunity for the power of God’s grace to work in us in a remarkable way.

 

 

 

7. Readings of the first two weeks of Advent brought to mind the importance of

spiritual growth. 

 

Saint Paul says, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love,” “conduct yourselves to please God even more.”

 

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “Do not become drowsy!”

 

Faith is not a one-time statement of commitment. 

There are no comfortable plateaus in an authentic spiritual life.

Complacency is the enemy of grace.

 

Spiritual growth in daily dialogue with the Lord is the key to holiness, lasting joy and peace and, ultimately, eternal salvation. 

 

8. At Christmas, we come before the newborn savior with the awe and wonder of a

little boy memorized by a brand new train set whizzing around the Christmas tree, asking the Lord Jesus to give us an increase in faith, the courage to grow in our spiritual life, to forget the people who have hurt us in the past or the people upon whom we might desire to seek vengeance, and to abound in faith and love.

 

Because Mary believed, Jesus was born!

 

Christmas is a reminder to believe and to love, for our needs and our deep faith combine to form an invitation for Jesus to be born anew in us and to work great and miraculous things.

 

May we in the New Year ahead have even more faith, hope and love, and experience the goodness of the Lord in abundance. 

 

Christ is born!  Come let us adore Him!

 

Christ is among us.  He is now and always will be!

 

 

 

 

Advent Wisdom

Looking back on Advent as we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we can see three particular themes from the Sunday readings of the past four weeks.

 

1. Spiritual growth

 

Readings of the first two weeks of Advent brought to mind the importance of spiritual growth. 

 

Saint Paul says, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love,” “conduct yourselves to please God even more.”

 

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “Do not become drowsy!”

 

Faith is not a one-time statement of commitment. 

There are no comfortable plateaus in an authentic spiritual life.

Complacency is the enemy of grace.

 

Spiritual growth in daily dialogue with the Lord is the key to holiness, lasting joy and peace and, ultimately, eternal salvation.  What are you doing daily to deepen your relationship with God?

 

2. Vocation 

 

On Gaudete Sunday, various people in the crowds come to Jesus – each from different walks of life – asking what to do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus answers them, each in a way that corresponds to their own unique situation.  The tax collectors are to stop over-taxing for their own benefit, the soldiers are to be honest and not engage in extortion. 

 

How much time to you devote to discerning your vocation in life or discerning how the Lord wants you to fulfill your call to priesthood, marriage, or religious life – and the particular assignments or careers within your vocation – for His glory every single day?  Where in your family, your duties, your business or your community do you need to change your behavior in order to conform to God’s law and so inherit eternal life? 

 

3. Sacrifice

 

Hebrews reminds us of God’s Word:

When Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.’“

First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings, 
you neither desired nor delighted in.”
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.”
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this “will,” we have been consecrated 
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

Jesus came to “fulfill the law” not “abolish” it.  So, when the old law is taken away it is fulfilled by an even greater teaching.  The image of Jesus sacrificing His life on the Altar of the Cross reminds us most poignantly that sacrifice is not gone as an element of our faith but rather fulfilled, enhanced and given deeper meaning.

 

The sacrifices of animals in the Temple in Jerusalem, according to the cumbersome and burdensome ancient Jewish laws, is replaced by a new covenant and a new sacrifice, namely, the self-offering of Jesus, who is at once both priest and victim.  Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will in offering Himself on the Cross consecrates us who are baptized in the name of Jesus.  The Father is no longer pleased by slaughtering animals but He is pleased by Jesus’ self-abasement.  In the Mass the new covenant and the reality of the sacrifice of Calvary are made present for us. 

 

As Christians, we are branded with the indelible mark of Baptism, which compels us to live out the self-sacrificing love of Jesus.

 

How are we humbling and emptying ourselves to serve others each day?  How are we obediently following God’s will in order to build up the Church?

Rejoice! The Lord is near to you

Todays readings: God lifts the lowly and the needy from the dung heap. So when you feel like "crap" magnify the Lord as best you can anyway. Glorify the Lord by your life!

St Andrew

After Andrew had stayed with Jesus and had learned much from him, he did not keep this treasure to himself, but hastened to share it with his brother.

From today's office of readings.

As priests we are called to facilitate encounters between the faithful and the living Christ. Jesus and His Church have amazing gifts to offer and we are honored with the task of sharing those gifts with the world. May we meet Jesus everyday and prayer and always hasten to share Him with love.

Planned Parenthood or Planned Holocaust?

With the release of the video detailing Planned Parenthood's planned murder of babies and the sale of their body parts and organs we are seeing the truth behind abortion. It's not about helping women or providing the best medical care as the spin doctors would lead us to believe. Partial birth abortion, Kermit Gosnell, and now the sale of human fetal body parts demonstrate that the abortion industry is evil. The scenario is reminiscent of the situation in Nazi Germany in the 1940s. An evil plan to destroy lives was being perpetuated and there was a propaganda campaign to cover it up but while most people did nothing a small group of resistors tried to bring it down. So we can relate very well to the plight of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Kreisau Circle and the resistance to Nazi Germany. We face not just a "social issue" but psychopathy, murder, the work of the Evil One himself and a calculated campaign to destroy innocent human life for variety of reasons: racism, the destruction of certain unwanted persons, money, power, votes politics. It is an issue on which all people must be further educated and an issue about which our Christian leaders must speak out clearly but compassionately. People of all faiths, rally against this modern holocaust!

Planned Parenthood facing investigations over ‘abhorrent’ video on body part shipments | Fox News:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/07/15/planned-parenthood-facing-investigations-over-abhorrent-video-on-body-part/