Thursday, May 31, 2018

May 31 - The Visitation of the BVM


+ Today we celebrate the inauguration of the “Magnificat” and a Mystery of the Rosary: today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. Having just become the dwelling-place of God on earth in her own womb (by means of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to her and the overpowering of the Holy Spirit), Mary’s first impulse is to go and help her aged cousin, Elizabeth who is also miraculously with child (this child being John the Baptist – who would herald his cousin Jesus when the time was right and the years had passed).

The fact that these things happened was just an unrecognized part of the story of Jesus’ life (and John’s) – until this feast was formulated and promulgated in the 14th century – by the Franciscans – who wanted to use it as a means to end the Great Schism.  It only partially did what this intention had in mind; it brought some reprieve and healing to a divided Church.

Just as Mary proclaimed the greatness and glory of God – because of his very special nearness to her, not only in her heart, but also in her body; so too each time we receive her Son in Holy Communion we ought to be compelled and moved to proclaim his greatness and glory as well – for he dwells in our bodies too physically (if for a short while) but deeply in our hearts for as long as we focus on him afterwards, meditate on that presence and sing about it in our own songs of Magnificat throughout the day!

Knowing that Jesus is around, that he is in the world, that he can transform the world can make our days an adventure in apostolic ministry: through us God can formulate his Kingdom, and we can be rewarded for our efforts in cooperating with him in this work!

Let us be stalwart, generous and creative co-creators with God today, and co-redeemers with Jesus, who, by the action of their Spirit within us, can bring about great healing and great peace this day to every single person we come into contact with – young or old, male or female.

Blessed are all who believe that what is spoken to us by the Lord will be fulfilled!


Wednesday, May 30, 2018

May 30 - Wednesday 8th Week in OT


+ Our readings today give us a lesson in “perspective.” How we look at something matters a great deal. One of the great lessons that we can learn is to not be so “near-sighted” and “me-oriented,” but rather to get an accurate picture of anything actually, we need to be able to step back and see a broader and bigger picture, then it will be easier to see how everything we are trying to understand fits into the master-plan.

And there most definitely is a master plan: and the bigger, wider picture is salvation history. If people on the planet do not understand that things do not begin and end with them, then they are on the right track. The total story is thousands of years old, and the conclusion of it could be at any moment – for we are living in the end of the end times! We just seem to know that – and have that sense – and it is a valid sense, a real sense, and one that ought to help us reprioritize everything.

The first reading perspective lesson was seen with St. Peter trying to convince the Jewish people that the “ransom” that needed to be accomplished – in mending the fences between God and mankind – but that it could never be an earthbound ransom such as paying large sums of silver and gold, No! God had been offended, and so the ransom had to be literally ‘out of this world’ while at the same time ‘very much in this world, the world that did the offending’!

And so – the blood of one who was both God and Man at the same time would have to be offered, by the one Perfect Priest and Victim – and that would be Jesus, the Messiah – whom they killed, because they did not get the message about who he really was. Obedience then, the obedience of our faith in this person, and these things, can buy us into participation in their merits: life after our own death, victory after our own passions, joy after the vale of tears!

The perceptive lesson in the gospel passage is about James and John wanting special seating in the Kingdom to come, right next to Jesus. Jesus informs them that their perspective is a bit cloudy and they don’t know what they are asking: to sit near him would take an extra measure of sacrifice and “chalice-drinking” on their part – but even then, only the Father has direct say over the seating chart in heaven. Then, Jesus instructs all the disciples that if you want a seat close to me, then you will be the servants of everyone. And those who do that best – even to the point of death – will get closer – but again – immediate seating will probably be of Jesus Mother, Mary, and maybe even his foster-Father Joseph! We will see and know for sure when we get their. But we will only get their if we consider ourselves right sized – and then love every aspect of it!

The Alleluia Verse summarizes things nicely for us: The Son of Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Alleluia!


Tuesday, May 29, 2018

May 29 - Tuesday 8th Week in OT


+ The gospel passage today needs clarification. When Peter says “We have given up everything Lord to follow you,” Jesus in just one sentence “covers many bases:” – Yes, Peter, thank you for doing that, and for your sacrifice you who gave up everything, will get the value of everything back 100-fold (meaning: many, many times over). You will get houses, and brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and children and lands and persecutions and then, the icing on the cake, eternal life in the world to come. Not a bad exchange at all.

So, he not saying we will get a hundred houses: but the “value” of a hundred houses, and families etc. in that we will belong to the new family of God – a real, true, and authentic family – with God as Father, and each other – all over the globe – as brothers and sisters. And yes we will and must get the same kind of persecution that faced me, Jesus, but the golden ring at the end is ETERNAL LIFE IN A NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH!

This then is the meaning of the Scripture and is our HOPE this day! And the way that we access all this is to BELIEVE IN JESUS, but also simply to BELIEVE JESUS – believe what he says: and set our whole entire hearts and beings on it! It is his will for us to believe, to live in a very carefree way here in the world no matter what each day might bring – because each moment of the day brings God’s deep abiding presence, love, and healing remedies for it all! We must be still as a post, still as the post, the tree that Jesus was crucified on, so that we can obtain the blessed fruit of the resurrection!

So, let us, as it says in the first reading, “gird the loins of our minds and understand what God reveals, live soberly and joyfully, and set our hopes completely on the grace to be brought to us” at the slightest inclination and prayer that we need it!

Amen.

Monday, May 28, 2018

May 28 - Monday 8th Week in OT


+ The first reading for Mass today from the First Letter of St. Peter is a brief summary of what love God the Father has for us, humanity that at one point was doomed to eternal separation from him, and eternal death. But from the moment of that First Sin, God wanted to give his human creations HOPE, and imperishable hope, based on the death and resurrection of his own Son (the Word, made flesh), so that the possibility of eternal life, and bliss and happiness could be the lot of anyone who wants it. This itself is an astonishing statement really, who would not want it? who would want eternal loss and unquenchable suffering? Well, apparently some do, and will – because of God’s highest gift to mankind: free will, freedom of choice.

The Father who loves us first and always, with an unconditioned and irrevocable love, wants us to likewise, choose him – he doesn’t want to force us into a relationship with him. He trust us that much, that we will choose him – and be filled with joy as children forever.

The price we pay however, is to face a life of making good and bad choices as our fallen human nature sometimes gets in the way of our beset of intentions. And the bad choice that we and others make can bring on all sorts of trials and tribulations, from family disruptions, to major world wars and conflicts. And yet it is only by making right and good, just and merciful decisions that we can counter this relentless trend in the real world.

We remember today, Memorial Day, all those who put their lives on the line, and many of them lost them, defending these noble, just and true values and principles: the highest of which is to protect human freedom, in our own country and those of our allies and friends, or any who are in trouble.
The gospel passage talks about the rich young man who followed all the commandments of God, but was seeking still a higher goal – response to a higher calling: well, he got the calling from Jesus literally: “follow me” but if you want the pure stuff, the gold stuff, the highest experience possible of it here on earth – and in the next – get rid of your possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and then come follow me. This young man – just wasn’t ready to do that. And so he went away sad.

But I think we sell this generous and devoted young man short – if we assume that he never did come to his senses – and then do what Jesus asked – much like the Prodigal Son – and he did prioritize his values rightly, got rid of a lot of stuff that was really not essential and worthy of his spiritual quest – and then adopt a fully engaged almost monastic – specialized – kind of lifestyle – seeking God’s face – being led the God’s Son himself.

We can and ought to do the same things. Our fallen soldiers, men and women, gave their lives not so that we could have everything our little heart’s desire, and the heck with everyone else, freedom is not license – freedom is actually freedom-for, freedom for choosing what is right and good, truthful, beautiful just and peaceful – the rest is a myth – but a myth that could take down civilization if left unchecked.

May we choose rightly this Memorial Day – live in HOPE – for ourselves, our families and all strangers we meet each day. We are all interconnected in this great pilgrimage of life – we are all going the same direction, whether we know it or not – let’s know it then, and choose it, love it and live it!
Amen.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

May 26 - The Most Holy Trinity


The Most Holy Trinity – May 27, 2018

I –The Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below and there is no other.
R –Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
II – You received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
A – Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; to God who is, who was, and who is to come.
G –Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

+ Now that the entire Easter Season has concluded (last Sunday with the Feast of Pentecost), the Church today looks back on the past seven months. From the first Sunday of Advent until last Sunday - in our liturgies - we have seen dramatized and played out for us once again for our consideration, the work of the Most Blessed Trinity: the love of God the Father, who sent the Son [his very Word, the exact representation of himself]  into the world to be born among us, and to live and die and rise for our salvation: for the forgiveness of our sins and to open the gates of heaven that were surely locked forever due to the sin of our first parents.

And then, in order to preserve the life of the Son on earth for all ages: the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit: to “blow where he wills,”-  to inform and guide and direct the community of believers in the Divine Son and his eternal Father, [ the very Mystical Body of Christ]  in their personal lives of conversion from the world, and indeed the transformation of the whole world into the glorious kingdom of God, as it is meant to be transfigured and transformed.

And so this is what we celebrate today the activity of the Trinity on our behalf!

But we also need to back up even further and look at this Triune God as He is in Himself: for if this Trinity of Persons comes to dwell within us by our initiation into the Church by Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist: who is this Trinity? who is God in Himself? and what does it mean for us?

Though it can easily be stated, it cannot ever in this life or even in the next be fully understood: the mystery of God in his Threefold Oneness  may inadequately be described as: “the uncreated God, who simply is, loves himself, sees himself, and gives himself infinitely to an image of himself who is the Word, a second Person; in effect God utters one Word and that word is WORD, it is Son, it is everything that the Father is; and then in an ongoing process the Son and his Father look at one another and they sigh: they breathe out a breath of love for one another: and that breath of love is the Holy Spirit: the created manifestation of the love of the Father and the Son!

This is God’s own life that He lives all in Himself!” And it is this God, Three Persons bound together with a chain of love into One Being, who entirely at their own discretion chose to invite other persons to enter into their life.

God did not have to create anything because he needs nothing! But since he is not only an infinite dynamic of loving, he is also goodness itself, and beauty and truth; and so he would just naturally want to go outside himself and share himself with others who are in some sense like him: that is why he created the entire universe as a backdrop and then mankind to be the highest form of his earthly creatures – creating them persons (in his image); giving them intellect and free will so that they could freely choose to fall in love with him!

The rest is up to us: for those who have already or who want to fall in love with God – he has provided the fullness of truth, beauty, goodness and love in the Catholic Church – though lesser degrees exist outside of it – with its Word, with its Sacraments, with its Works of Charity done out of love for him; the Church invites everyone, everywhere to accept God’s call to a very intimate life of love with him and everyone else who likewise believes.

To put it simply: God goes out of himself and creates and loves us as persons; and if we have the Triune God living within us due to our baptism and life in the Church, then we must also go out of ourselves and love other persons as he loves, selflessly and self-sacrificial – empowered by the Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of Love, Joy and Peace.

Together we are all – all on the face of the earth – meant to cry out: Abba, Father; Jesus, Lord; Spirit, Comforter!

May it be so today and every day for more and more people until the Kingdom of God emerges fully in all its majesty, beauty and peacefulness here and hereafter!
Amen!

Saturday, May 26, 2018

May 26 - St. Philip Neri


+ St Philip Neri was one of the noble line of saints raised up in the sixteenth century to console and bless His Church.  After a pious childhood, the Spirit led Philip away from Florence and showed him the world that he might freely renounce it, led him to Rome, molded him in mind and heart and will, and then as by a second Pentecost, came down in visible form and filled his soul with light and peace and joy.

He wanted to go to India, but God wanted him to stay rather in Rome. There, he went on simply, from day to day, drawing souls to Jesus, showing them acts of charity, and binding them together by cheerful devotions, and thus the Oratory he founded grew up and all Rome was pervaded and transformed by its spirit. His life was a continuous miracle, he was nearly every day in a state of ecstasy. He read the hearts of men, foretold the future, and knew their eternal destiny. His touch gave health of body, his very look called souls in trouble and drove away temptations. He was light-hearted, genial and irresistibly winning: neither insult nor wrong could dim the brightness of his joy.

Philip died in his eightieth year, in 1595, and bears the grand title: Apostle of Rome.

The gospel passage today speaks of Jesus’ desire for his followers to be united in love of him, his Father and one another. He calls each of us, in some way, to manifest that love, as he did St. Philip Neri. It is easy when we get out of the way and let the Spirit lead us, wherever he would have us be, fill us with his essence of joy, and place people in our path to spread it to. It can’t get easier than that!

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.

Friday, May 25, 2018

May 25 - Friday 7th Week in OT


+ Today’s gospel reading is about the most misunderstood sacrament in the Catholic Church: and that would be “marriage!” The way God intended it to be “in the beginning” – and the way it is even with the best of intentions today are lightyears away from each other. Marriage in the beginning was a way for the man and the woman, God’s highest form of creation, persons, like himself, to mirror the blessed life of the Trinity – a “family of self-donation, self-giving, for the glory of God.”

When we get it into our heads and hearts that “it is all about God” and “not about ourselves at all – then we are seeing things rightly – seeing them as God intended them to be seen in the beginning. God’s greatest happiness is to see man and woman happy, but they can only be happy when they fully forget themselves and seek him, be accepted by him, and then live the dynamo of love that is life in the Holy Spirit.

We are however living in the last stages of the restoration of this original plan, after it has been almost decimated by the man and the woman. Almost, in that while the man and the woman still retain the likeness of God, they are still persons, but they live a wounded image of him – and must spend their lives on earth seeking to conform that image to the image of Christ the Redeemer, so to be ready to enter the heavenly marriage banquet.

And this is where we depart into a brief explanation of marriage as it is intended to be. For a couple to say: “We want to get married, because we love each other” – and that is the most important reason – then they have no idea what sacramental marriage is all about – and should not be married in the Catholic church. “We want to get married because we love God, and want to mirror his own Trinitarian being, in our lives of self-giving – which will be, God willing, creative of new life: children.” This is the correct answer in so many words. So, it’s not about them, it’s about God. And God enters fully into that kind of willingness to be a visible sign of his own life, and the marriage will flourish!

And this stance is to be a “coming attraction” if you will, or “marketing tool” in our day and age, for the end of time, the end of history, the end of the world, when the invited, who accepted the invitation, and are wearing their garments of self-sacrificial love and donation, will enter the Marriage Banquet of the Lamb of God – Jesus, the Messiah, Lord, Redeemer, Savior – and the new heavens and the new earth will begin!

What an amazing future we have, but we can participate in it now, we do participate in it now, when we try to understand it now, and live lives in the likeness of God, the likeness of Christ his Son, the likeness of true children of God!

What God has joined together, now human can separate!


Thursday, May 24, 2018

May 24 - Thursday 7th Week in OT


+ The gospel reading today provides three clear cut object-lessons for the disciple of Christ – following His Banner – to have a successful 24-hour segment that we know of as a “day.” And the three are these: that which attracts our attention visually, that for which we reach out and grasp with our hands, and lastly that which takes us “by the foot” or car, or bus to where we would go: these three things can make or break not only our happiness here on earth, but will most certainly determine where our treasure is, what our goal is, and how we are calculating that we are to achieve the goal.

And so, Jesus says: if your eye is your problem, and causes you to sin, cut it out! Now, he is not talking literally, of course, but he is talking really and symbolically spiritually: if what attracts your attention is not of God, not of creation, not of true beauty, not of realistic proportions and attitude, then you are looking at the wrong things, you are being duped by glitz and glamour, you are being deceived by the Serpent, you are not trusting God to place true value, worth, and moral integrity in your line of sight – and so, Jesus says: tear out these false “eye contacts” – and see things awesomely as they really are.

Then he says: if your hand is your problem, if you reach out and grasp all kind of objects, and projects, and entertainment that is not consistent with one living the gospel values, then shun those things, and reach out for what will help other people, and then deliver it to them, even in anonymous ways. It would be the joy of your day to do something for another without letting them know it was you – using your hands and your eyes and your mind and heart on their behalf, rather than your own.

And lastly, if your foot is your problem, cut it off! If you travel to places that are not consistent with gospel values, and this has to do with virtual travel as well on the internet – if you visit sites that you know to be causes of temptation to sin, by shopping, by lust, by greed – then high-tail it the other direction: for your own sanity in this world, and eternal life and happiness in the future: our feet, our cars are meant primarily to help others, and not ourselves: to go and get necessary supplies for the family, to carry them to legitimate places of recreation, to carry yourself to legitimate places of work to provide for the needs of others.

And so let us use our eyes, hands, and feet today in ways that build up other people, as we traverse that pathway to the fullness of the kingdom that awaits us. And we shall go to sleep tonight with a clear and peace-filled conscience – and the angels will minister to us and give us happy dreams! Amen.


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

May 23 - Wednesday 7th Week in OT


+ The readings today have to do with what should be a favorite topic for any true disciple of Christ: the will of God. The first reading classically rules out a predominating planning pattern that all of us are guilty of at one time or another: “Today, or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town, spend a year there doing business and make a profit” – sounds about right for our post-Modern and post-Industrial Age. The worldly minded would say: “Well, what is wrong with that statement? It sounds perfectly logical: we have to make plans; our economy depends on it.”

Well, yes and no! It is perfectly OK to make plans, with all of the thousands of details that go into them – but “whose plans are they really?” ought to be the underlying question to ask each and every step of the way forward.

If you think they are entirely “your plans” – then you are mistaken. Basic defense of that statement: GOD WAS HERE FIRST – all alone and by himself – in his totally self-sufficient Trinity of Being! Therefore, all plans, including the very creation of the universe and all its parts, and its highest form: mankind (male and female), are his: he implants in us ideas and inspirations on how best to co-create with him all that needs to be created, invented, and built for the smooth running of the human adventure on the planet.

So, “whose plans are they” to go and make a profit? – they are GOD’S fundamentally and basically – we just fill in the blanks. So, “if God wills” “God willing” “with the Green Light from the Master Architect” – would be an excellent way to begin making progress forward: and this applies from any venture, from getting out of bed in the morning, to going to any kind of work, school, playground, athletic event. This way, we can be assured of the best of all possible outcomes, sooner or later. Everything will not be smooth sailing, but God willing, it will turn out his way, which is always best.

In the gospel passage Jesus scolds the apostle John who is angry that those outside the “inner circle” (of Jesus) are casting out demons using his Name. No, don’t stop them, if by their fruits we can see that people are on our side, then, they are truly on our side; they can’t be for us and against us at the same time. The Spirit blows where it wills – for it is accomplishing God’s will, and that is the most important thing of all.

I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me – for this is the Will of Father, and it shall be done his way, in his time!


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

May 22 - Tuesday 7th Week in OT


+ We actually have amazing readings for mass today… they are all about being “right sized” “open-eyed” and “being humble to a fault” – and the message in both readings is that “child sized” is the way to go! CHILD SIZED in stature in relation to the entire universe, not only the world in which we live, child sized in attitude: that is “open-eyed” wonder, awe and amazement at what unfolds before it every brand new and adventurous day, child sized in expectations, wants and needs: a child wants everything that his/her Father wants to give it: and with our heavenly Father, as we think with our earthly fathers: they sky is the limit: my Dad can do anything for me, and give me anything because he loves me so very much.

Now whether this is a realistic posture in all families in the world or not, for whatever reason: there is an innate, infinite yearning and longing for these things. But, GOD OUR FATHER CAN BE AND DO THOSE THINGS FOR US without any effort on his part and without loss to himself in any way.

All he does is assign tasks to the Holy Spirit by means of which we are connected to the Mystical Body of His Son on earth, the Churches of Rome – not only the Roman brand, but the many other “churches” in union with the Church of Rome, where the true Vicar of Christ resides: the Roman Pontiff and Pope.

And so Jesus tells his distracted and worldly minded disciples that the “greatest” if they really need to know will be the lowliest, the humblest, the most trusting, open-eyed, and wonderfilled among them – who knows they are absolutely nothing in the sight of God – so that he can fill them with EVERYTHING THEY NEED to make their childhood in him abundant, overflowing with riches and joy, about things that really matter.
And so he says: ask rightly, and you will get it: ask in the Holy Spirit, for things that will increase and grow your spiritual childhood, into spiritual maturity, that will remain ever fresh, ever wondering, ever childlike – no matter what your age.

And you will attract and affect a whole new cadre of friends and strangers – people will intuitively and automatically be sent your way: just for a playful nod, a laugh, a smile, a word, time spent, however brief, and a sense of alienation, fear and loneliness will disappear – if only for a short while. The trick is to pray to the Spirit to send a steady supply of such “joy and gladness bearers” into our lives to fill our days, so that we can rest in peace and happiness when we turn the light out next to our beds at night!

The price of all this: what Jesus, likewise says in the gospel passage: I will go to Jerusalem to be maligned, maltreated, and murdered. But I willingly do that so that YOU can be restored to friendship with God, but also established as his true, dear and beloved adopted sons and daughters that can now last forever – if you but believe in me, and live like you believe it, in a self-giving loving way all the days of your life on earth!

Amen.


Monday, May 21, 2018

May 21 - Mary, Mother of the Church


+ Today the Church rejoices as it celebrates a wonderful new feast day in the Church’s calendar year:  it corresponds to the title “Mary, Mother of the Church” that Pope Paul VI, promulgated in 1964 – during the Second Vatican Council.

And, falling now as it always will on the Day after Pentecost – it is in fitting proximation to that feast which is of the day of the birth of Church – when the Holy Spirit fell upon not only the Apostles, but also Mary, and about “120 other persons” – the Upper Room must have been a veritable banquet hall!

Since Mary is the Architype of the Church itself, it is most appropriate to call her its Mother – as our gospel passage tells us that she most certainly is when Jesus gives his mother, Mary, to the Beloved Apostle John – as they both represent the Church – her, in its fullness already, and he, in its pilgrim journeying that will be the lot of all those born into its Mystical Reality by baptism, until the end of time.

And so we Hail Mary as not only Mother of God, but also of the Church – the new Real Presence of her Son in the world, vivified and impelled to works of charity and mercy until the end of time. May we count ourselves truly blessed to belong to such a living mystical entity, with such a humble, unassuming and focused on the Will of God model and Mother, the Blessed Virgin of Nazareth!

As our alleluia verse proclaims, so let us proclaim to at least one person we meet today: “O happy Virgin, you gave birth to the Lord: O blessed mother of the Church, you warm our hearts with the Spirit of you Son Jesus Christ, which you received yet once again, fresh fallen, yesterday in the grand illumination and launching of the “Bark of Peter,” our Spiritual Home forever. The Catholic churches who subsist under the Roman Pontiff: Francis, Bishop of Rome. Amen.



Sunday, May 20, 2018

May 20 - Pentecost Sunday


Pentecost Sunday – May 20, 20118

I –They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak.
R –Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
II – In the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.
A – Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
G –As the Father sent me, so I send you: Receive the Holy Spirit.

+ Today the entire Church celebrates its birth and commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit with great power on Mary and the Apostles; and into the hearts of all those who would believe because of their preaching and teaching and be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

On Ascension Thursday (10 days ago) Jesus announced that another Advocate, the Gift of the Father (and himself) would arrive soon, so that Truth may be firmly rooted now in the world (in the hearts and consciences of the faithful – and everyone else), and that there is now to be achieved no other goal than to experience the peace that the world cannot give: the peace which is the Spirit, the peace which is the forgiveness of sins, the peace and life which continues to flow forth from the pierced and Sacred Heart of the Crucified Christ.

But in order for there to be peace: we must seek after it, ask for it, and be ready to receive it, as it wants to fall upon us – not according to our own prescriptions, but rather God’s. And when it falls on us, it falls like the dewfall, to invigorate us, refresh us, enflame us and move us to ministries of service among the community of believers: and as St. Paul tells the Corinthians there are many different gifts and ministries but the one and same Spirit working through all of them to build one Church to glorify God who is one. All can now be one in Christ: from the many lands, from the many nations. “Jesus is Lord” – the One Lord - is the cry of the true Christian; it pierces the darkness of the world like a bolt of lightning – and by it the world can see where it is going, and be renewed from deep down inside  – for truth turns everything upside down!

What a spectacle it must have been for those gathered from many nations in Jerusalem to hear these twelve men, all Galileans, speaking to them in their own language – the one word of Praise, the one word of Victory, the one word of Hope – telling them that the Crucified is very much alive, and that forgiveness of sins must be preached to the ends of the earth! It is such a tragedy in life to carry around baggage and guilt that doesn’t really need to be carried anymore – all are invited to be free: free to be who God intended them to be all along – his children, his helpers in building a kingdom of love!

And so, it is up to us who have been baptized, confirmed and ordained to recommit ourselves today to our membership in such an astounding organism, and invite others to join it: the living Body of the Risen Christ; the Mystical Body of Love and Peace; and may our efforts in this coming “work season” of the “green-vestmented time of the Church year” (which begins today) be fragrant, fruitful, and above all, full of the blessings of God upon us!

Holy Spirit,
give us virtue’s sure reward;
give us your salvation, Lord;
give us joys that never end. Amen.
ALLELUIA!


Friday, May 18, 2018

May 18 - 7th Week of Easter - Friday


+ The gospel passage today, in which we see the classic scene of Jesus commissioning St. Peter to be the first leader of the band of Apostles sent into the world on Ascension Day to ensure the presence of Jesus to any who are interested, until the end of the world.

Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, and three times Peter says Yes, Lord, you know that I love you! Then feed my sheep, and tend my lambs! The Church is in your care now – but the promised Spirit will be sent and the whole organization will then become a living organism – in fact, it will be a Mystical Organization – it will be my Mystical Body – to which all humanity is invited to exist it – both in this life and forever in heaven.

May and June are typically “ordination months” in the Church calendar year – it is when men studying for the priesthood are ordained at their home cathedrals by the bishops (the successor of the Apostles) they promised to serve faithfully for life. Ordination Day in this diocese of Richmond will be held on June 2, at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. We pray for the three who will be ordained at that time. May the first fervor into which they will begin their ministry last a long time and may their productive years in the “vineyard of the Lord” continue to be fruitful until they reach my age – 70 in a few months – when they will be able to say: “I did the best I could, with what you gave me to work with, and the great people you sent me to serve!”

Come Holy Spirit with all your gift for the whole church. May we cooperate fully with your plan for the remainder of the Church’s life on this earth – no matter how long that will be. All we have is here, and now! Let each one be the best it can be! Amen.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

May 17 - 7th Week of Easter - Thursday


+ The readings today are charged with emotion. Paul, himself, a Pharisee, in his meeting with a convocation of Pharisees and Sadducees, got right to the heart of the matter: telling the group of his Pharisaical lineage, and then dropping the line that he knew would cause a fruckus, and it did! – addressing the Pharisees he said: “It is for our hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” And, bingo, “a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees. After a time of heated debate, scribes from the Pharisee party stood up and protested strongly, “We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel?” Then, Paul has to be taken from the meeting by military escort. But then, the next night the Lord appeared to him and said: “Courage, Paul! You have borne witness for me in Jerusalem, now you must do the same in Rome.”

And so Paul continued on his missionary journey: proclaiming the Risen Lord Jesus – and encountering opposition the whole way. It should not surprise us that when we witness on behalf of the Risen Lord Jesus, who will return and judge us on our acceptance of him, and our way of life based on the belief and acceptance, that we too will encounter opposition from those who simply will not ever concede and become candidates of a real conversion that will save their eternal necks. All we can do it speak out with words and deeds, and it is up to the Holy Spirit of God to do the rest.

And what is the bottom line of the Gospel message: Jesus explains this again in the gospel passage: to live united in the heart of God forever, as his friends, as his children, as his special possessions: filled to overflowing with joy and peace – and living not a boring life – but an amazing newness of real life, with our bodies restored, and the ability to do anything we want to do, and never get tired, never get hungry, never have another pain, never have grief again. And, now I say, who would not want that! Eternal life in the new earth is to be looked forward to, and not feared! This is Jesus’ point – and this is the point we must ceaselessly try to convey to everyone we meet up with every day!

Courage, we must take courage, and all the rest of the gifts of the Gift of God whose coming we will remember and celebrate on Sunday – Pentecost Day! And then make a difference in our own simple, uncomplicated, unique way!

Amen.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

May 16 - 7th Week of Easter - Wednesday


+ Today is the 6th Day in the Novena to the Holy Spirit week, and in ways great and small the Holy Spirit may be preparing each of us differently to celebrate the remembrance of the Birth Day of the Church – Pentecost – when the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father and the Son – and history has never been the same.

As we look around our country and the world today we can see that the disarray is at an all-time fever pitch – and this, no longer in pre-Internet, speed of delivering news – but in the almost irreversible decay and demise of basic morals and sacred principles and natural laws that all derive from the supernatural law to which we are all bound to observe one way or another.

St. Paul is addressing the church of Ephesus in the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles – and he is exhorting them that no matter what “savage wolves” may come among them they are to remain steadfast in what they have been taught, but more so what they have experienced of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit with its array of gifts: for the transformative power of the Spirit is contagious and wonderful!

A quick side not here: it is interesting that the Salvation Clock, if you will is reset on Pentecost Day – the Day of the Launching out into the deep of the World – the Bark of Peter – the Mystical Body of Christ – the Church: a living, supernatural living, breathing family of royal bothers and sisters. What came before is now over and accomplished – CONVERSION is now possible – and willing persons can leave behind their contrary and even sinful pasts – and they can literally start all over again in Christ.

This happened to St. Paul, by special invitation, when he was knocked off his horse and questioned by the Risen Jesus. The point here being, when once we, any and all of us, grasp the “salvific life saver” that God sends our way – we can literally BEGIN AGAIN – in our moral understandings, practices and teachings for other people! And what is better news, is that we can begin again each and every morning! because the decision for Christ – once made fervently and strongly – because of our human weakness needs to be renewed and refreshed every day. This is precisely why daily prayer – all day long to some degree prayer – and daily Mass is essential for those who can find time in their schedule to attend.

Come, Holy Spirit, renew within us your Spirit, your gifts, your encouragement and we plunge into the pool of daily life today! Because you are indeed with us – we can expect great and unexpected things to happen the more we let go and let you have your way!

Amen.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

May 15 - St. Isidore the Farmer


+ St Isidore who lived and died in the 12th century, has become the patron of farmers and rural communities – which comprises most of the Richmond Diocese in which we live. When he was barely old enough to wield a hoe, Isidore entered the service of John de Vergas, a wealthy landowner from Madrid, and worked faithfully on his estate outside the city for the rest of his life. Me married a young woman as simple and upright as himself who also became a saint—Maria de la Cabeza. They had one son who died as a child.

Isidore had a deep religious instinct and prayed many hours in the church. He would visit different churches around Madrid in order to pray as walked from one to another. In these walks he communed with God. He was known for his love of the poor, and there are accounts of Isidore supplying them with miraculous food. He had a great concern for the proper treatment of animals. He died May 15, 1130, and was declared a saint in 1622 with Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila and Philip Neri. Together the group is known in Spain as “the five saints.” 

The gospel passage today talks about two kinds of people chosen by Jesus: the Judases, and the hard-working very human holy ones. We each have a choice as to which kind we want to be: but, we must realize the almost disturbing fact that both kinds of people are perfectly free to choose the life they want: for God’s wants us to be free – so that we can freely choose to love him – above all else.

With St. Isidore let us take care of creation, animals, plants, crops and pets and people that God puts into our lives today to care for!
Amen!

Sunday, May 13, 2018

May 13 - 7th Sunday of Easter


7th Sunday of Easter – May 13, 2018

I –It is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us become with us a witness to the resurrection.
R –The Lord has set his throne in heaven.
II – Whoever remains in love, remains in God, and God in him.
A – I will not leave you orphans, says the Lord. I will come back to you, and your hearts will rejoice.
G –That they may be one just as we are one.

+ Today on this intermediary Sunday, this “Novena Sunday,” the “nine day period” (novem dies – Novena), in between the feasts of the Ascension of the Lord and the sending of the Spirit next Sunday at Pentecost -  with Mary and the Apostles gathered in the upper room - we pause and reflect on the whirlwind of activity – historically speaking – that has just occurred: God, the Almighty Creator has “pitched his tent” among his wayward creatures: becoming one of them so that he could redeem them as only a Man-God could. Jesus, God’s very speech became flesh – and he lived among us, interacted with us, effected powerful changes by means of his very words and actions and then planned a way to leave himself with us until the end of time by a sacramental organism called Church. This is all very exciting, and rightly deserves the category of “Good News,” or as would be said in our day and age: “AWESOME NEWS”!!

And then when he did everything he had come to do, last Thursday we celebrated the day when he returned to where he, in his divinity, had come from: and he set his throne in heaven – to be seated at the right hand of the Father – in his glory – forever. And so, Jesus is truly in heaven, yet still on earth simultaneously, in very real and substantial ways.

And this is our hope – as we reflect on the coming of the Spirit – that if we do what he commanded just before he left: love one another as he loved us: then we shall experience deeply his and his Father’s love in us, and we will have an enormous amount of good, beauty and truth that we will want to share with others.

In the gospel passage we read from the Priestly Prayer of Jesus (prayed immediately after the Last Supper): where he speaks not just of love in itself, but the unifying power of this love: he asks his Father to unify those who would believe in him – throughout the ages – unify them in both belief and in love: for faith must produce works or else it is lifeless. And all of this so our joy may be complete. Jesus knows the end of the story that is coming; and in a sense it is very much like a fairy tale: it is his deep desire that we will all live happily ever after with him – in joy and in peace: but until that last trumpet is sounded, it all depends on our choices, our willingness to cooperate with an abundance of grace given to get there.

God is like a Father who gives us all the pieces of a magnificent puzzle and all he asks is that we sit down, focus, concentrate and put the pieces together: beginning with the effervescent piece of faith, and ending with a host of good deeds done because we love him. He even sent Jesus, who knows how the entire picture is to look, and he is willing to help us piece by piece, but we must ask – he respects our freedom – so we must ask his help!

With Mary and the Apostles, today and all the days of this coming novena week, let us ask the Father to always send us exactly what we need, exactly when we need it.

The Lord has set his throne in heaven.


Saturday, May 12, 2018

May 12 - Saturday 6th Week of Easter


+ We have two very encouraging and comforting readings today at Mass.  The first reading talks about the “choosing” if you will, of Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew who has arrived in Ephesus, with an energetic and persuasive way of preaching about the new Way, the Way of Christ, in fact, the Way of Christ who IS the Way! And yet, he had only received the baptism of John, (for the forgiveness of personal sins) – we can imagine the fervor and fire he will possess when he is baptized in the Holy Spirit – the experience of Pentecost.

Recall now, we are Day Two into the “Novena Period” of virtually waiting and praying with the Apostles and Mary in the Upper Room for the arrival of the GIFT of the Father – the Holy Spirit – with his full array of GIFTS! for the operational integrity and manifestation of the Church, the new Mystical Body of Christ, to the world – steeped in sin and self-centeredness! We too can be like a new and fully energized Apollos and all the Apostles and disciples who were charged and sent on that day!

The gospel passage is sweet and full of hope and joy! For those fully engaged in the life of the Mystical Body – who are in tune with the way the Spirit works and moves – asking anything in Jesus’ NAME will get results and many times quickly – because our requests will not be selfish in any way – but totally other oriented. Yes, we can still pray for ourselves so that we can be all that we can be FOR OTHERS – but OTHERS ALWAYS COME FIRST! and if we don’t have many “others” in our life – well, if you are a member of said Mystical Body, then, yes you do – you are hundreds and millions, in fact, billions of brothers and sister who could use the help of your prayers to get them through the day – to bedtime – for this is all any of us really have to do!
The reason that Jesus wants us to be fully engaged in his apostolic life is that is produces and enormous measure of joy! Deep, abiding and persistent joy – that will last forever!

Remember all the good we do, the love we show, the times we went out of our way for the good of others – beginning with our family and friends – goes with us into eternity. It would not be an unlikely scenario – when we all get our bodies back – to talk about “the good old days – in the vale of tears” when such and such a thing happened, a look, the good that occurred because of it! It will be a grand and glorious time – as we abide deeply in the heart of Christ, who abides always in the heart of his Father and ours!

Alleluia! I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever! Amen!




Friday, May 11, 2018

May 11 - Friday after the Ascension


+ We have now entered the seclusion, privacy and prayerful environs of the Upper Room, where Jesus had eaten his last supper with his beloved Apostles just 6 weeks ago. They are gathered there with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to await the coming of the Gift that Jesus had promised would come to them “soon.” He had told them already what it was: an Advocate, a Reminder-er, a Teacher, a Consoler, a Healer, and Friend: but for some reason the grief of this chosen band is still very strong as the only thing they can think about is the physical loss of their Best Friend, their Teacher, their Savior. “Where did he go?” Why did he “abandon us? We are so sad.

And so we enter now into what we know of as a NINE DAY waiting period – the Latin for Nine Days being “Novem Dies” easily recognizable as “Novena” – and as we know a “Novena” is a NINE DAY PRAYER PERIOD recommended to obtain special graces and blessings leading up to a special Feast Day in the Church.

So, we are just in Day ONE now of this original novena – and it is rightly named: “of the Holy Spirit.” as Pentecost will be celebrated in 9 days’ time.

The readings for the day help us in this regard: the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that Paul is beginning to experience problems as he tries to proclaim Jesus as Lord, King and Savior of all mankind, he begins to be ill-treated, but not ever completely beaten down: for as Jesus tells him: “Don’t be afraid, Paul, to speak out, don’t be afraid to be silenced: because my word will not be silenced, nor will it be imprisoned long: you will be able, slowly, to get the Great Message out – and the world will be renewed, small group by small group, person by person – and I and my Father will be very pleased at how you cooperated with our Spirit.

And in the gospel passage, Jesus reminds us all that the persecutions and misunderstandings and slanders and calumnies that we will endure will all shrink away as a mother’s pain is extinguished when she sees her newborn baby and hold it in her arms! One day we will be the baby, we will be newborns in the Kingdom and the Father will hold us, rejoice over us, and pamper us forever and ever!

Come, Holy Spirit, come! Renew the face of the earth! Renew us all! Renew me in particular! Amen. Alleluia!




Thursday, May 10, 2018

May 10 - The Ascension of the Lord


+ Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. This was a glorious day for Jesus – this was another in a long string of somewhat confusing days for the disciples, now newly appointed Apostles.

For Jesus, this meant the end of his earthly sojourn – he had done completely and entirely what his Father had asked him to do here in our world – and now he was going home. It would be a new experience for him as Son of Man, but “old-home-week” as Son of God. He must have been very excited!

The brand-new Apostles were still scratching their heads wondering what it all could really mean. “He was just standing here talking to us – then he went up into the air and disappeared. Where did he go?” Even Jesus’ words assuring them that soon they would understand everything, did not make them feel and better. They would do as he said – go back to Jerusalem – back to the Upper Room (where they ate the Last Supper with him) and wait for this “promised gift of a Spirit, a Paraclete, an Advocate, a Teacher of Truth!”

For us, this is an example of how good things come to those who wait patiently for things to work out according to God’s will and plan. If we truly believe that even the details are in God’s hands – then we should be happy to wait – happy to go about our ordinary business until it is time for some extraordinary things to happen.


When the Spirit visits – when the Spirit comes – when the Spirit moves us in large ways – we know about it! It is unmistakable. But he is also there in the small ways – in the blessed details of our daily lives. In the ordinariness…in the monotony…in the routine!

For the next nine days (novem diem) we are invited, along with the Apostles to enter into a novena (novem diem) in anticipation for the arrival of the Holy Spirit in a powerful way. It might be a good idea to say some prayers asking God to prepare our minds and hearts for this outpouring.

A novena time is an emptying time – a time of cleaning house, spiritually – a time of repentance, sorrow and conversion – a time of interior poverty, humility and obedience – so that all of the benefits of the object of the novena can be had in their fullness – producing a great abundance of gifts and graces.

And so we pray – Come, Holy Spirit – come now – and teach us how to pray these next nine days – so that we can receive your Light, your Love and your Healing – everything that you have to shower upon us – as never before! Amen.

And, it would not be presumptuous, nor out of line for us to begin praying for the same outpouring of the Spirit, as fell on the Apostles and the 120 gathered with them – with the accompanying Gifts of the Gift: among which is the use of a new spiritual language to talk to God and he to us – where we do not understand what we are saying, nor what he is saying to us, with our ears, but with hour minds, hearts, and souls, we do “get the message” and we are equipped to do as God wills, for the good of others and our own good! Amen.


Happy New Year 202

  A Happy New Year to you all! I hope and pray I am able to keep this blog up to date now that we are entering into the New Year! I would li...