Questions from Religion Class

Who is responsible for sacramental preparation?

2010-08-09T14:24:00.007-05:00

There has been a new proposal floated out of the Vatican, specifically the Prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship, regarding the age of receiving First Holy Communion. Actually it is not necessarily new, but it has resurfaced as a new idea. It has been proposed that perhaps lowering the age of reception would be of benefit to the salvation of the little ones. This is true as to benefit but the question arises with regard to the age of reason. Is a child younger than the age of seven truly aware of what it is they are receiving and the concept of transubstantiation, what is truly and really received in the Sacrament?

I have been an advocate for the lowering of the age of Confirmation for the exact reasons cited above. If the Sacrament confers the gifts and graces we profess it to confer, then these children, in this day and age, would truly benefit from Confirmation at a younger age than sixteen or seventeen. They need these gifts to strengthen them against the evils of the secular world. But as a teacher of the faith for the past ten years, I wonder if it might not be more beneficial for a child to understand the reasoning and significance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation prior to receiving Holy Communion and to emphasize that what they are receiving is truly the Body and Blood of Christ. What is being proposed would be a return to the practice of conferring the sacraments simultaneously with the Sacrament of Baptism. This would place the reception of Communion and Confirmation with Baptism, Reconciliation would come along at a later date as needed.

Apart from the fact that the job of the catechist with regard to sacramental preparation is concerned would be easier, the teaching and catechizing would fall to the parents. The Holy Father has emphasized that the family should be the primary catechists to their children and I wholeheartedly agree. This is accomplished by word and action, done by parents who live the faith according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, parents who Know what the Catholic Church teaches. Ahhh, and there it is, the fly in the ointment. And this is my concern. My fear is that the receiving of the Precious Body and Blood will become taken for granted and will just be another practice one goes through while at a Sunday service, much like watching people recite the Our Father, no longer meaningful, just going through the motions. We must never lose sight of the fact that the receiving of this Sacrament is not a right, it is a gift given by God. We, as Catholics, adopted children of God have done nothing to merit this gift. Having the privilege of preparing second graders for the receiving of their First Holy Communion, I have witnessed the wonder and awe that they have experienced as they become aware of what it is they are receiving from God.

As parents, we must emphasize and reiterate the reverence due our Precious Lord. If the age for receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion is lowered and becomes a reality, we must remember our responsibility and example to never take the reception of Holy Communion lightly. Actually our children should witness our reverence for the Sacrifice of the Mass at all times, but if the formal preparation falls to parents then it would be a good idea for all parents to brush up on their catechism and be more aware of their example at Mass. You know, as parents we shouldn't wait, we should be mindful of our behavior in front of our children no matter the age, because we are the primary catechist. Get out your Catechism of the Catholic Church, register for a class given by your local Office of Religious Education, read the rubrics of the Liturgical Mass, brush up and be informed, remind yourself what it means to be a Roman Catholic and how we can arm our children, and ourselves, against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

Why is it so hard to get that Mary spirit in a Martha world?

2010-07-29T12:14:00.005-05:00

Today is the feast of St. Martha. I've always liked Martha, she was a take charge kind of gal. I always think of Martha when I hear those women who wail and moan about the treatment of women in the Bible and how they were depicted. She spoke her mind and was not afraid to confront the Lord Himself when Jesus was delayed in coming to see her brother Lazarus before he died. ..."if you had been here." Very accusatory of her, don't you think? I can relate, I react like that when I feel helpless and don't know what to do. You know the feeling, someone needs to share the blame or someone surely can make this better. Human beings do not like feeling helpless, it is a loss of control thing that gets us freaked out.

We also remember Martha was the one who wanted Jesus to fuss at Mary for not helping her in the kitchen while she was trying to serve Him, the honored guest in the house. Oh, how I can relate to that, I am ashamed to say. Call it a gift, or maybe a curse, but I can assess a situation and see what needs to be done and then I do it. Then I get all bent out of shape when no one helps me. This usually involves the kitchen dishes or the laundry. Like Martha, I get resentful and then I pout about it. I do eventually come to my senses and realize this is my problem and I need to deal with it.

I tried to read that book, you know the one about having a Mary spirit in a Martha world. It was right on target and gave some valuable information, but reading and agreeing then putting into practice are two different things. Easier said than done. I do find that prayer helps, and offering the tasks up truly helps, but when the family is sitting and eating and messing and mom is cleaning and picking up and washing and straightening, well, you get the point. I have come to realize that Jesus' message to Martha was a humbling one. I should choose the better part as well. It is my choice and I suppose my pride that makes me want the house to be neat. Of course I have to listen to it when the clothes are not clean or something is amiss, but that is a mom thing I suppose.

I think what Jesus wants from me is to pray about everything I do and then do it for the love of my family and for the love of Him. It was a message that He wanted Martha to take to heart and one for me as well. I hope that as I think of Martha today I will be mindful of the task I do around the house and to adopt that Mary attitude, to keep my eyes focused on the Lord.

Is a procession so imporant?

2010-06-07T19:12:00.006-05:00

I recently realized something about myself I am not particularly proud of...I am a liturgical bigot. I attended Mass in the Ordinary Form at a small town Catholic Church in my new home town. Like so many Ordinary form celebrations it was highly infiltrated by the protestant influence of the post Vatican era. The music was atrocious, the priest used the term "friend" so often I thought we were having a casual conversation around a round table, and the "icing on the cake" was the invitation to offer your own special intentions at the prayers of the faithful.

Yes, I have become a liturgical bigot. Yesterday was the celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi, The Body and Blood of Christ. I have come to believe that most dioceses have some sort of procession, or they should, to mark the witness of this "source and summit of our faith". The only mention of this at our Mass was the priest's regret the day was no longer celebrated on the Thursday as a holy day of obligation. I wondered at the green altar cloths but figured it was some sort of oversight on the part of the altar staff, the priest travels between two parishes, but no, it was no oversight. Green was the color of the day, go figure.

I fear for our Catholicity. I found out after Mass, there is no CCD program because the priest believes the parents are the teachers of the faith to their children and there is no need for any formal education. I looked around at the parents represented and wondered at their knowledge with regard to the doctrine and dogma of our Catholic faith. Yes, I have become a liturgical bigot. I happen to believe that the way we worship God and give glory to Christ in the celebration of the sacraments makes a difference in the way we conduct ourselves as Catholics. I believe that we must lead the charge against the loss of the dignity of the human person, that we must fight to regain the right of all life from conception to natural death and it all begins with the celebration of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

Yesterday was the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. It all began with a procession to Orvieto by a priest who doubted the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. While he was consecrating a host it bled down his hand and arm and onto the altar. He took it to the Papal dignitaries in Orvieto, in procession, and it is still visible to this day behind the altar in the Duomo. We should continue to process, we should continue to reverently show our Lord and Savior to all the world, to be proud of our Catholicity, the differences most noted in the Mass and the liturgy. It makes a difference. Yes, I am a liturgical bigot.

Why do we look like we are getting married?

2010-05-11T14:47:00.005-05:00

We recently celebrated as a parish our First Holy Communion Celebration. The girls were beautiful all in white and the boys were so handsome in their coat and ties. One of the little boys told his grandmother that he felt like he was getting married. Ahh, that was the point. Because indeed he was, as a member of the Church, the bride, he was getting married to the bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

I had several conversations with the girls about the significance of the veil because they did not want to wear them. I had a few ask why they had to wear white and why did they have to wear a dress. I sign of our times I suppose, but this was non-negotiable. The significance of the white dress and veil means everything when it comes to the visible sign of an invisible reality here. The white historically signifies the purity of the soul, while the veil is a sign of the mystery. Yet in this day and age we no longer want a mystery. In this day of instant gratification, our kids have to know everything. A mystery is lost on them.

In the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies was separate by a veil. It was mysterious, only the High Priest could enter and tend to the duties of keeping the incense burning and the candles lit. The bride was always hidden behind her veil, to protect her innocence and to present some mystery of what was to be revealed to the bridegroom on the wedding night. The bride was a gift, to be slowly revealed so the beauty of her person could be explored and discovered by her husband, her lover. This is our relation to Christ. We as the Church are the Bride, He the Bridegroom. He gives us his body to be consumed and this consummation binds us to Christ and we become one. This occurs with each Mass, it becomes for us a bridal banquet. He makes the supreme sacrifice for us, and then enters into us as a bridegroom enters his bride. It is for this reason that the priest, in persona christi, is a male. God is a He, Christ is a He, priests are male, He's, in the Catholic Church.

The male-female relationship is finely and beautifully apparent in the Catholic Church. There is a reason for this and it is most visible in the liturgy of the Mass. It is in the Mass when we witness the consecration and as presented above, Christ presents himself to His bride and the two become one body to go out and do the work Christ was called to do for God. Sadly these roles are constantly muddied and disordered by a secular world that insists that girls can only be equal or as good as boys if they can prove they can do the same "jobs" boys can do. It is unfortunate that girls are not encouraged to see the beauty in themselves, as girls, and to accept by the virtues of patience and obedience the gift of their femininity.

It saddens to me to see the girls in jeans and pants at Mass. I wonder at what point did we, as a society, lose the allure of being a girl. A girl that wore dresses and liked the way she felt all dressed up, "pretty as a picture." Oh I see girls wearing makeup, but now a days she looks like she might be working a street corner, it is not feminine, it sends the wrong message, and then she comes to Mass dressed like this. This is the devil's secular world at work here. Instead of fostering the positive attributes of the feminine mystique, our society has denegrated the fact of being female, which is what God created, to something that is looked down upon. Being feminine is seen as a weakness.

I pray for our society, but I pray for our girls. I pray that they will see the gift of being feminine for what it is. It is a gift to our counterpart, the masculine, the male. We must step back at some point and see that God creates for a reason and what He creates is reasonable. There is a place for the girls, but we must see that there is a place for the boys as well and it is not always our place, as girls, to be in their place, as boys. Embrace being a girl, being feminine. Rejoice in that which the Lord has made.

Where exactly does a missionary mission?

2010-05-05T11:05:00.005-05:00

Today I was talking with my 2nd graders about missionaries and the idea of mission work. I could tell that some of them did not believe that there are people in this world today who do not know God or have never heard of Jesus. I tried to show them some pictures of some far off places where missionaries work but alas, a sign of the times would not let me google because of a block on the computer. I realize that for some of them the world consists of their own making, what they know and what they have been exposed to.

Indeed some of the children have been exposed to alot in their young short lives and then others have no idea for they have been so protected. I so wish we could all stay so protected, to feel the unconditional love of our parents always. This is the love that Christ has for us, that comforting love that lets us know we are safe and will not be harmed. Children need this love, it is this that gives them confidence to grow and to try new waters yet still feel safe. Have you ever noticed a child looking at you and they seem worried,... until you smile at them. When you smile at a child they will grace you with a smile that is genuine and you get the feeling you just made someone's day special.

This must be the way for a missionary. To be able to make someone's day by just being there, ministering to a need that would not have been met if not for the grace and the sacrifice of the missionary. In many ways my family and I are being called to a new life. I think of it as being sent. We are not going to a third world country or even very far away, but it will be different and not overly Catholic. We will be missionaries to those around us who are not Catholic and I hope to make someone's day everyday, as I hope I have done here. It will be new and exciting full of new hopes and promises for the future.

I hope to continue this blog as I know the questions about our faith and the Catholic religion are never ending. I also hope to be able to clear up some misconceptions about our faith and to give some clear insight into a faith that has sustained over 2000 years of persecution yet is made ever stronger because of it. We can all mission to others. It is a callling we receive every Sunday at the end of Mass...go out to love and serve Christ and one another.

Birthday blessings for the Holy Father, deservedly so!

2010-04-16T10:31:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday, il Papa! ad mustos annos. What a blessing he has been to us. He needs our prayers, folks. This week offer your Mass, your adoration, your special intentions up for the continued good health and blessings of our Holy Father.

Pope Benedict XVI has been instrumental in putting policies in place that protect all victims of abuse. All because of allegations that have surfaced since the 1980's and 1990's. Any form of sexual abuse is a horror and a sickness that time has taught us can not be cured. As a parent learns to discipline a child, they might try many methods before realizing that a whipping with a belt does not work. How many times I have heard a parent tell me that they were whipped with a belt and they turned our alright, so they rationalize that as a reason they discipline with a belt as well. We now recognize that form of discipline as a form of abuse. Years ago a teacher could spank a child in the school, with the permission and sometimes blessing of the parent. Now, in this day and age that teacher and parent could be brought up on criminal charges for whipping a child. My point being we can not place rules of today on situations that took place years ago. Thankfully, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger recognized the situation for what it was, something that needed to be changed. He implemented new guidelines and practices that garnered protection for minors.

We are blessed here in our archdiocese to have an incredible policy to safeguard our children. In the United States, the USCCB have made great strides in protecting the dignity of the child and the woman. Sadly it came with a price. You have to walk through the darkness, unfortunately, to get to the light and the Catholic Church throughout the world is coming into the light. We are a strong Church, founded on solid principles and teachings, the teaching of Christ Himself. Be ever vigilant and pray for all victims of abuse. If you have been in the darkness and come into the light as a victim, please know that the graces of healing and forgiveness are strengthened in you by the sacraments. We have a strong spiritual leader in our Holy Father, may God continue to bless him.

as multos annos.

Are you immune to the trappings of the devil?

2010-03-31T10:20:00.003-05:00

We are in the midst of Holy Week and today is Spy Wednesday. So noted I believe to mark the betrayal at hand of Judas the Iscariot. This week Catholics are focused on the most sacred time in our Liturgical Year. Is it no wonder that the devil is doggin us on our quest for spiritual renewal as we seek the light of Christ on Resurrection Sunday morning?

And it seems that no one is immune, from the Pope to the smallest child trying so hard to keep his Lenten sacrifices. This week I have read spiritual reflections on Peter as well as on Judas. As I am saddened and sickened by what is a horrible abuse of children, I am even more disturbed by the attacks against our Holy Father and our Church. With the bias of the mainstream media it angers me to no end the one-sided story they report and then revel in the chaos they insight. Woe to those who cause scandal in the Church with their gossip and lies. This can only be the work of the devil who rules the secular world. God Bless Archbishop Dolan and others who have spoken out against this blatant abuse of the media. I ask you to please pray for our Pope and our Church, our bishops and priests, and all those suffering in our world today. We are reminded that Peter was so human, weak and fallen with his desertion of Christ, but then lead our Church with such conviction and determination as our first Pope. The Pope is not infallible, please remember that, he is human. The Pope can declare an infallible dogma with regard to our faith and morals, but the man is not infallible. We as a Church are truly blessed to have this man as our leader, to guide us and to give us our spiritual strength to ward off attacks from the devil. There is so much more to a story than what the devil would want us to know, sadly money and power is what sells a news story and the mainstream media has lost its way when it comes to morals and truth.

Our own schools are not immune. We have lost our way as a Catholic society to fight this secular world we live in. I remember a time when there were no field trips during Lent, or no parties scheduled because of the solemnity of the season. My professor was sharing with us in class the other day, he remembered keeping silent on Good Friday from the hours of twelve noon until three o'clock then as a class they would walk to church and meet their parents for Good Friday services. One of the student teachers said she couldn't imagine keeping the kids quiet for three minutes much less for three hours. We live in a different time and we have allowed it to happen. We have lost our identity as Catholics and what behavior is expected of us during certain liturgical seasons, Lent especially.

Tonight our parish is celebrating a Traditional Latin High Mass to jump start our Triduum services. It should be beautiful and I hope our Church comes together for the celebration. Sadly it will be second to ball games, dance practice or what have you because many catholics don't see the extra Masses as counting for anything. Well for many this is true, you only get out of something what you put into it. It's difficult to fight the secular world but we keep at it. The graces recieved from the Mass are priceless but the graces are not material, they cannot be seen so for many it's just not worth it. I can only hope that for those who make the sacrifice they experience the joy and beauty of the sacred Mass. Hopefully they will be encouraged to complete the final walk with Jesus beginning with Holy Thursday's Mass of the Last Supper and the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday as well as a Tenebrae Service Friday evening. Only after experiencing the final days with Jesus on earth can you truly appreciate the glorious significance of the Resurrection of Easter. It is this that is truly priceless.

Was it so important to know what Jesus wrote in the sand?

2010-03-24T10:50:00.006-05:00

Have you ever wondered about the true significance of this story? We seem focused on the mundane, for instance the first comment I hear from women are "well, where was the man? It takes two to tango... blah, blah, blah" or the younger set always wants to know "what did Jesus write in the sand?"

The true lesson wasn't about the role the man played in the act of committing adultery or why we need to know what Jesus wrote and if it was significant. The lesson is about judgment. Remember, Jesus tells the woman, "Nor do I condemn you, go and sin no more." He was acknowledging her sinfulness but not condemning her. Our true judgment will come for us when we go before God at our own final judgment. The Pharisees were trying to test Jesus on the Law of Moses and the Israelites, yet Jesus turns the tables on them. He reminds us we will be measured as to how we measure. For some it will be a harsh call. For the woman's accusers it was a humbling and pointed statement with regard to their own sinfulness. What is also interesting to note is that the accusers walked off before they heard Jesus' words of admonition. They were only baiting him, they could have cared less if the woman was stoned to death for her sin or not. For them the "fun " was over, Jesus was not going to play the game.

From the guilty to the innocent. The next day's reading brings us to Susannah, innocent yet accused of adultery and brought to judgment before the King. Susannah was spared because of her faith in the One, True God. It is our faith that leads us to righteousness. By our faith is reflected that which we do and the way we live our lives. Susannah had true faith and it was reflected in her prayers and in the confidence she had that God would spare her. We don't know for sure what happened with the woman caught in adultery but we are led to believe she went away with a new found faith in the One, True Christ. The woman was probably moved more spiritually because of the compassion of Christ and knew her sinfulness than if she had been stoned for the crime she had committed against the Law of Moses and died with no remorse only resentment in her heart for what she might have seen as an injustice.

If we pay close attention, woman will play a major role in the coming readings of the Gospel. It will be the women who watch and wait for Jesus during his Passion as well as on Resurrection Morning in the garden. It will be the women who get the "news" first, it will be the women who will keep the faith. Watch and wait for it...

Will God always forgive us?

2010-03-14T15:17:00.003-05:00

Today at Mass we heard the parable of the Prodigal Son. It has always been a classical favorite for the teaching of forgiveness. It is used in our children's catechism textbooks as the bible reference for the teaching on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. For me it is the first reference I have to God the Father as loving and forgiving as opposed to the God who wiped out the whole earth with a flood or burned Sodom and Gomorrah for the wretchedness of mankind. This parable speaks volumes about who God is as a father to us, yet the history of the flood and those two doomed cities reminds us of the power of God and his presence in creation.

The Prodigal Son is about so much more than returning to God and seeking forgiveness. God gave us an incredible gift in our intelligence. He trusts us to use our intellect for the good of all mankind. We are given this higher intelligence to make choices that are in alignment with what God wants for us. Ironic that when we speak of beings with higher intelligence we usually refer to aliens from outer space...just sayin'.

It's comforting to know that if we mess up because we have chosen that which goes against the will of God we can come back and seek forgiveness. We know God will forgive and with His grace grow in wisdom and knowledge. God wants us to choose for the good, He wants our choice to be a loving choice. We are all prodigal sons and daughters. As we learn from our sinfulness, hopefully we see the wisdom of God and we come to know what is the good, our good as well as the good for others.

As the father in the parable allowed the son to make his choice, God allows us to make our choices. It is up to us to think about what the consequences of those choices will be. Too often we don't see beyond the immediate gratification of our wants, we don't look at the big picture of who the choice affects. We are too influenced by "if it feels good, do it" mentality. Sometimes there will be difficult choices that bring pain. The father most probably felt pain knowing it wasn't going to end pretty for the son, but he let him go anyway. God experienced much pain giving up His only Son for the sinfulness of others, yet He did it out of love for us, His children of Creation. This could be the perfect example of "divine tough love". No parent wants to see their child hurting or in pain, yet there will be times a parent has to let the child learn by experiencing the pain. It's how we grow, it's called life.

We as parents can then be there to welcome those children home, to love them, comfort them and feel for them. What a gift we will give them, to help them build character and to watch them as they move along the journey God has called them to.

Who do we know who to listen to?

2010-03-04T15:40:00.003-06:00

We are in the second week of Lent and I hope everyone is keeping to their Lenten promises and growing in faith and perseverence. It is during Lent we hear some of the most familiar gospel stories as well as our most favorites. It could be they are favorites because they are so familiar.

This past weekend we heard the gospel story of the Transfiguration. I always thought it was Jesus showing the disciples his wondrous glory and revealing to them who he really is, God in the flesh, come down to give them hope and salvation. It just seemed so obvious, didn't it? And yes that is what the story is about, but it reveals so much to us about who we are and the promises for us as created by God. It speaks to what glory awaits us in heaven, if only we would listen and keep God's commandments.

In the Transfiguration, Jesus is revealed along side Moses and Elijah. He could have easily been glorified alone on that mountain top and God could still speak the words, "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." But the figures of Moses and Elijah are significant. Jesus is the new Moses, the keeper of the new covenantal Law, the true Keeper of the Law for He is the Word of God, Incarnate. Remember Moses' face shone so bright the people could not look upon him, he had to cover his face. Elijah was a prophet and now Jesus is revealed with Elijah present. The Israelites believed Elijah would appear before the coming of the Lord, this was significant for them. The Law and the Prophets were being fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Jesus in His glory was showing us what promises awaited us if we would but listen.

In another reading this week, we hear about the rich man and the beggar at his doorstep. The rich man dies and goes to the nether world, while the beggar dies and goes to lie in the arms of Abraham. The rich man is revealed the beggar man's fate and ask Abraham to send someone to his brothers to warn them of the consequences of their unholy actions. But Abraham reveals to him that he had prophets in his lifetime and they too have prophets to show them the way. It is a choice we make to listen and to follow God's Laws.

This is what Lent does for us. It is an opportunity to change our ways, to listen to the Word of God, to follow the teaching that has been given to us, and to make our hearts new. We have prophets all round us, beginning with our Pope and bishops and priests to lead and teach us about living a life in Christ. By our Baptism we are called to be prophets to one another, to serve others in their faith as well as their works. Are we listening to those prophets around us, are we open to the change of heart God is calling us to?

What does it mean to cross that River Jordan?

2010-02-22T13:04:00.004-06:00

I recently had the honor of sponsoring a candidate for our Archdiocese's Rite of Election. The Rite is traditionally celebrated on the first Sunday of Lent and begins the process of welcoming new Catholics into the Church. As I sat in the pew of our Cathedral, I was swept back in time to the year 1991, when I participated as a candidate getting ready to 'cross the River Jordan', as they say. I remembered all those many years ago, standing so proud and professing my faith, giving my Amen so strong, I was going to be a great Catholic. It only hit me yesterday, as I listened to their strong "I do's" and "I will's", that many of these candidates and catechumens have no idea to what they are agreeing to, not fully.

I didn't. In all honesty, I truly did not know what it meant to adhere to all that the Church teaches and what that entailed. What would I be giving up as to my own beliefs and convictions?Oh I believed in the consecration and transubstantiation of the Body of Christ, I knew that the bread and wine became the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. I believed in the Perpetual Virginity of Mary and knew what that meant, I also believed in her Assumption. But what I questioned was to why women couldn't be priest, I mean what was the big deal, other religions had female pastors, right? Poor me, I had no clue as to the true meaning of the Sacramental Priesthood and what true Ordination entailed. I also was somewhat of the "Nancy Pelosi" mindset, I certainly didn't believe in abortion, but what someone else did was between them and God. I was not to judge them. Well I was right about the not judging them part, but I was clueless as to my responsibility in the teaching and keeping of the faith when it comes to protection of the unborn and the rights of individuals in all aspects of life.

These are two examples of controversy when it comes to the teaching of the Church and my responsibility as a Catholic to adhere and be obedient to this teaching. I wonder if candidates and catechumens understand what apostolic means, I certainly didn't. I have come to understand so much about the deposit of faith that Jesus gave to the Apostles and especially Peter and how that is the teaching that has been handed down for these past 2000+ years and this is the reason this great Church has persevered all this time.

Even something like our Liturgical calendar I didn't take very seriously. Lent was a time to give up something as a sacrifice, no more, no less. When I began to live Lent as a spiritual desert and to walk the walk of Jesus during the Easter Triduum, then I got it. I understood the importance of why there should not be weddings during Lent, or (this is a big one) why we should not be having that big crawfish boil and beerfest on Good Friday. I was not LIVING my faith, I was talking the talk but not walking the walk. To identify myself as a Catholic, I must be willling to adhere to all the teachings of the Church and the Holy Father. I could no longer be a "cafeteria catholic". For a part of me that was strong willed and stubborn, this was a hard pill to swallow. But in all honesty, it was easy actually. I knew this was what my Baptism and Confirmation was all about. I, as all Catholics, are set apart for a holy purpose. That is our mission as disciples of Christ. There are things I don't agree with but I have come to know that this is based on ignorance on my part. My salvation is not of this world and it is not for me to agree or disagree, but to be obedient. God will take care of me.

I encouraged my friend to continue reading, praying and especially to get involved with her parish church. To make her Church of which she will be a valued member the center of her and her family's life. I encouraged her to spend some valuable time in the Adoration Chapel, to learn and grow in her faith, and to be open to the way the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit will work in her life. I do this because I speak from experience. I continue to learn and grow everyday by the power of the Holy Spirit and I see how Christ works in my life. I have a long way to go to get to the promised land, but the journey is so worth it.

2010-02-17T11:24:00.002-06:00

"...remember you are dust and unto dust you shall return.'

Prophetic words for us to begin our Lenten journey, just a reminder to us that we are not of this world. This world is so much material and stuff, but one day it will all pass away, as will we.

We were put in this place for God to do what He wills. He created us to care for His creation and to worship and glorify Him. Lent is a time to reflect on the love of others that God created us for. We are to love others as we love ourselves, but first we are to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind. Today as we are marked with the ashes of our 'physical'ness let us be reminded there is a spiritual glory awaiting us that will not pass away. We can know that as we embark on these next forty days we will be filled with the graces and virtues to strengthen us on our way. The love that fills us can then be shared with others and returned to God tenfold. It was for this that we were created.

Remember that all the 'stuff' will pass away, but the love never does, the Love of God will always be with us.

What is in store for your Lenten journey?

2010-02-15T19:53:00.008-06:00

In a few short hours another Mardi Gras will come to a close. This season has been a celebration for the record books. For us here in New Orleans this Mardi Gras had more meaning and feeling than those past. But Who Dat or not, the Lenten season is upon us and time for us as Catholics to remember what Jesus sacrificed for our salvation.

Before we left school for our Mardi Gras break, I reminded the students we would be entering our spiritual desert. I could tell by the look on their faces that they thought this was going to be an interesting way to look at the Lenten season. After all Lent reminds us of the forty days and nights Jesus spent in the desert. It was during this time He fasted and prayed, but He also fought the temptations of the Devil. In the next several weeks I will be writing and contemplating on the different aspects of Lent that have significant meaning to us as Catholics. I hope to explore the concept of true fasting and abstinence, the importance of prayer in our lives, and why real sacrifice brings us closer to our goal of being 'Easter people'.

I asked the children to think about their sacrifices, to put it in the context of doing it out of love, but not as a hardship. The idea is to come out of the desert a changed person. A true metanoia, a person better for the love of Christ. Someone said that if our sacrifice is for us, we are sure to fail. But if our sacrifice is for the love of God, then it means so much more for us because we seek the good that God created for us.

We begin our lenten journey by receiving ashes on our forehead marked in the shape of a cross. The ashes remind us that we are human and will one day die and return to the dust from which we came, as Adam was formed in the image of God from the dust of creation. We are marked much like the mark we receive at Baptism, marked as belonging to God with the oil of Chrism. This mark should remind us we are God's and knowing this arms us for our journey into the lenten desert to fight all the temptations we will be faced with. The visible sign of the ashes points to the invisible reality of what our baptism signifies. We die to self and live in the new life of Christ. What we need to ask ourselves is what is it about us that needs to die, what is it about ourselves that needs to change so we can become what it is God created us to be. For some this is very hard to acknowledge, so in our Lenten journey can we be open to the plan God has in store for us, no matter how much pain there might be in that acknowledgment.

As you embark on your own journey, I will pray for one and all and ask you to pray for me as well. I also encourage you to embrace the darkness of the Lenten season because the Light of Christ is so much brighter and beautiful on Easter morning, but keep in mind the words of Christ to His disciples...Do not be afraid for I am with you always.

Do you know the extraordinary gifts of St. Blaise?

2010-02-03T10:06:00.006-06:00

Today is the feast of St. Blaise. We will be having our throats blessed come the weekend. Odd, I always get a sore throat after having my throat blessed, hmmmm. It doesn't stop me from getting my throat blessed year after year, it is just something I've noticed.

We have recently celebrated the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas and The Presentation of the Lord. Our New Year, liturgically, starts off with a bang. St. Blaise isn't remembered for any incredible writings or teaching as St. Thomas is known for, nor is his feast as remarkable as the Presentation of our Lord at the Temple or not nearly as significant. We recall St. Blaise for a simple throat blessing. We get something tangible on his feast day. Actually we don't get the blessing on the feast day itself, unless it falls on the weekend and we happen to be at Mass. Could it be any easier for us? I wonder, a drive through blessing window maybe... Oh I digress.

Not much is known about St. Blaise. He was a bishop, who was martyred for his faith in Christ. It is believed a woman brought a young boy to him who had a fish bone stuck in his throat and St. Blaise cured him, hence the throat specialty. But did you know, St. Blaise is also known as the patron Saint of wild animals? He lived as a hermit for a while to escape persecution and while living in his cave, he cured the wild animals and communicated with them. Legend has it that when St. Blaise was arrested, he first stopped to 'speak' to a wild wolf who had stolen a poor woman's pig. The wolf released the pig and the pig was returned to the poor woman. I suppose he could be called the St. Francis of his time. So it would seem the wild animals had more respect for the man than the human beings he was most like in creation. Our intellect is an incredible thing.

Humans with their higher intellect are given this gift to discern the truth. It is said in the bible that Simeon and Anna discerned the truth of the Messiah upon seeing him enter the Temple with his parents. They didn't hear him speak or witness a miracle, they just opened their eyes to the truth that was revealed to them. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? We as humans do tend to over analyze a situation, my brother refers to this as analysis paralysis. It is just one more way the devil plagues us with doubt and puts up barriers to our faith. We must be more open to truth in seeking it out through prayer and contemplation. If we are in tune with what God has in mind for us, then the Holy Spirit will lead us. We have to be willing to let God lead us, He will put us where he needs and wants us. St. Blaise might not have seemed to be a shining example hidden away as he was, yet in and through his faith in Christ he is remembered eternally.

Everyday I look for what God has in store for me that day. I can plan til the cows come home, but always there is something better waiting for me, something that will bring me closer to God. Oh it might not always be fun and glorious, it might be sad and tragic. But what awaits me is God to help me through whatever trials and experiences I go up against. It is so much more exciting to watch and wait for the adventure that God has in store. That is our life, our life in Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, all for the glory of God.

St. Blaise, pray for us!

Is it fate, is it luck, or is it the hand of God?

2010-01-26T14:12:00.002-06:00

After our beloved New Orlean Saints made it into the SuperBowl this past weekend, there have been endless questions about the how they got there. I don't suppose this question is being asked of the Indianapolis Colts, it was to be expected. It didn't seem to matter they the Colts had a rocky start to the game or that they were behind for most of the game, the Colts are the Colts with the most beloved Peyton Manning, one of our town favorites, as quarterback and no one questions their abilities.

But the Saints....now that's a different story. This last game was not their prettiest win, nor was it their most well played, but win they did and they are going to the SuperBowl. Some people would say it was charma, kismet, luck, fate, destiny that the Saints would go to Miami this year. It was in the cards. Whatever the phrase of the minute, something had a hand in their going to the big game this year. Was it 'something' or 'someone'?

Our faith seeks understanding according to St. Anselm and if we delve far enough, that understanding always leads us back to a higher power that is not of our making. For Catholics that higher power is God, the One, the Good, the Beautiful, the Almighty God. It is through God that all gifts were made, that all gifts are given. God has had a hand in the outcome of the game because of the gifts He bestowed on those players. It becomes the responsibility of the player to hone the gift and to use the gift for the good of others. In this case it was for the good of a city beaten down and given up for lost. A city that has climbed back up from ruin and devastation and continues to climb and come back stronger. I always felt that New Orleans was given an opportunity to show others that you can come back, you can rebuild and you can be better. Isn't that what Baptism is all about? New Orleans has been washed clean and given new life.

In every interview I saw or heard, the players mentioned the city and the fans of New Orleans. It was for them they were playing their best, not for their own glorification, but to show a nation the city is stronger and a vital part of the country. That is the example "men for others". They have stumbled and fumbled but they never gave up, just like the city, they always came back stronger. It is for this reason that they will be the team to beat come February 7th. They are taking the gifts God has given them and using them to bring a city that was on its knees back to stand taller and prouder. So did God have a hand in the outcome of this game...you bet He did!

Why did Jesus get baptized?

2010-01-08T15:18:00.002-06:00

The decorations are all put away, the tree is bare and laying at the side of the road, the magic seems to have disappeared. Yet the mystery still remains and that is the magic of this incredible season. God becoming man for us is truly a mystery, one we can barely comprehend, but He did it for love of us.

Today we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. Another mystery that God brings to us to show us how He truly loves us and how easy it is for us to return that love back to him. When talking to the kids about Jesus' baptism, they are quick to tell me that Jesus got baptized, not because He needed it, but to show us we needed it. It is the one thing we need to do to wash away Original Sin. They are so correct, but then what? After the stain of Original Sin is cleansed from us in Baptism, then what? What is our responsibility to God after that?

We learn from the Gospel that when Jesus was found preaching in the Temple at the tender age of 12, He returned with his parents back to Nazareth and grew in wisdom and grace. Imagine the Son of Man needing to grow in wisdom and grace! After his Baptism, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray then returned to begin His public ministry of healing and teaching. I believe it was the combination of being filled with the Holy Spirit at His baptism and His discernment in the desert that Jesus realized in full what He was being called to do and His divine purpose as a human being, his fulfilling the promises made by God all those years ago to the Israelite people. Now for us we come to know this realization at our Confirmation.

When a child is baptized, he becomes as close to Christ as he will ever be. Think about this for a minute. It is not what you see, it is what you don't see that is significant. It is the invisible reality behind the visible sign that matters most to us as Christians and our salvation. The water we see washes away the stain of Original Sin that marks all of mankind handed down from our first parents fall from grace. We are marked with the Chrism oil as a sign we are now marked as belonging to God. We are His adopted children. The baptismal gown that is placed around us is white to signify we are pure, we have put on Christ. Our parents are given a lighted candle to show we are the light of the world, like Christ we are to be a light for others in our life. After all this we are now so much like Christ, God's own Son, we are truly children of God. How awesome is that? The significance of our baptism is almost too much for me to put into words. God did this for us, for our salvation. It is then at our Confirmation that we can reaffirm that act of faith and say yes to God, we understand what he has given us and we want a part of it.

It was very significant for Jesus to get baptized. He came to show us how to return the Father's love, but it is still left to us to freely give that love back to him. Once we realize we are more like Christ than we could possibly imagine, how could we ever turn our backs on God? It becomes easier to choose the path we want to take, easier to give thanks and easier to show love and forgiveness. But like Christ, we are marked as God's, we belong to God. We must be willing to live our lives for Him and there will be times it won't be so easy. Like Jesus there will be sacrifices and hardship and sometimes persecution for the sake of righteousness. Remember we are not of this world, we are meant for a heavenly purpose and it will be those trials that test us as willing to live as God's children. It is for this we pray. We pray for strength and guidance to live as Christ taught us and showed us. He came to redeem mankind for the purpose we were created. He came to lift us out of a quagmire that we can not climb out of alone. Man fell so far that man could not possibly be the redemption, it took God to send His Son to return us to our rightful place. What a gift He gave to us. Let us be thankful and celebrate Jesus' baptism with a commitment to live the call we received by our own baptism. We can continue this journey and we don't have to do it alone. God Bless and may we continue to love and serve the Lord and one another.

What does epiphany mean to you?

2010-01-05T10:21:00.004-06:00

With the New Year comes rejoicing, and the arrival of the Wise Men. It is the Epiphany, the time of the season when Christ is made known to those around him. The Wise Men represent the many different cultures and faiths who welcome the arrival of Christ into their lives and recognize the work of God at hand.

The twelfth night is so many things to so many different people. For some it is known as 'little christmas', the night the gifts of the Magi were brought to the Christ child. For others it signifies the time to take down the tree and other decorations and organize their lives for a new year. Down here around the New Orleans area, it is time to start celebrating age old Mardi Gras traditions of King Cake and parades of revelry prior to Lent. Yet with every significance Christ remains at the Center.

I have only recently wondered at the impact Christ must have made on the Wise Men. Here are three intelligent and learned men, non-Christian, non-Jewish, being moved to travel many miles to gaze upon....a baby. What power God has to manifest Himself in such a way. These men were not fools, nor were they foolish. They recognized the Salvation made known to man, yet there are times when we, knowing our faith, knowing what God has given to us turn away or walk away from that which has been made known to us.

What is even more interesting was the gifts the Wise Men chose to present to the Child...gold, frankencense and myrrh. The insight these men had, to choose gifts that spoke to the Who of the Person in Christ is truly amazing. The gold was to signify the kingship of the Child that would one day rule over Heaven and Earth which is amazing in itself, but did you ever wonder about the oil and incense. The incense was a direct reference to the divinity of the God-man. The Israelites would use the incense at the sacrifices to lift their prayers and offerings to God. The incense reminded them of the Glory Cloud of God who would sit on the Glory seat of the Ark of the Covenant when they rested in the desert during that long sojourn out of Egypt. The myrrh, a fragrant oil used for anointing was a direct reference to the anointing of the Kings, King David in particular, The Chosen One of God, the Messiah. But this oil signified the anointing with oil the women would use to anoint the body at the burial. How prophetic was that? These men got it. They recognized that little body as the Christ, the one chosen by God for our Salvation. Imagine the angels singing while the Wise Men knelt in wonder and awe...remind you of anything?

Next time you are at Mass and kneeling as you listen to the bells ringing, or singing "Hosanna in the Highest", think of those men so long ago who gazed upon the little child in a leanto shelter, with cows and sheep close by. Think of the honor and glory they gave to Him and remind yourself you too are in the presence of greatness, before you is lifted up the Body of Christ and soon you will receive Him into your body and become one with Him as a Bride becomes one with the Bridegroom. Now glorify in the closeness and oneness and ask yourself, do I do enough or give enough to this relationship I have with Christ? After reflection on those questions, go and make your New Year resolutions, do it for yourself and your relationship with Christ and watch how all the other relationships just fall into place. The results will not take place over night, but in time you will see a difference and it will amaze you. Go in peace to Love and Serve the Lord.

Do we go to Church because it is the New Year?

2009-12-31T17:49:00.003-06:00

This is really just a reminder....the 1st day of January is a holy day of obligation to honor our Blessed Mother, Mary Most Holy. Mary is the Patroness of the Americas and it is on January 1st that we celebrate and honor her as such. For us, the Church, she was the one, true Ark of the Covenant. With her yes to God and His will for her, she bore our Salvation to fruition.

I think about how she must have worried about raising Jesus and that responsibility she had. Did she worry that she had done an adequate job as a mother to God the Son. Can you imagine the panic when she realized the child she bore for God was left in Jerusalem. I lost my little girl in the mall once and my first, flash thought was, 'I have to tell her father, please help me find her.' Of course I did, but that feeling of panic was overwhelming.

Another reason Mary is so important to us is because she was given to us, as Church, from the Cross. When Jesus designated John as the son to care for Mary He was saying, followers this is your Mother now, take care of her. She became the giver and caretaker of the Church. It would be Mary who would intervene for us to the Father. You know how that is, whenever you did something wrong as a child, who did you go to first...mom, she could break the news to dad and help soften the blow.

Mary is such an incredible role model for women. Mary was perfect mother and wife and a wonderful example to young girls on living a chaste life of virtue. We have so much to be thankful for when it comes to the gifts given to us as Church. As we welcome in the New Year and ponder all those resolutions, let's remember all we have to be thankful for and to offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God the Father for all He has bestowed on us.

Happy New Year and many blessings for you and yours!

Heaven has been graced with a saint and this one needs no declaration.

2009-12-29T18:44:00.009-06:00

As most of you know by now, my husband's mother died this past Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family. I would be remiss if I did not give a place in my musings and thoughts to this incredible Catholic woman. Gloria, or Memaw, as she was so lovingly known was a gracious lady, and a true Catholic, not only by nature but by faith.

Actually the words do not do her the justice she so deserves. Gloria taught me what it means to be a woman of faith when being a wife and a mother. This is not to take from what my own mother has shown me or taught me, but Gloria impacted my life at a time I was wanting to learn and I was open to listening to the lessons she had to share. She taught me about giving in a marriage that was not always going to seem fair, she showed me a loving patience when giving so unselfishly to children. As Marie told Debra (from an episode of Everybody loves Raymond) "we are mothering". Gloria was mothering. Gloria was the Catholic wife and mother. I found that I wanted to be like she had become. She was gracious, loving and giving. She was a lady and I wanted to be just like her. I miss her terribly. I am not the only one.

Years ago we noticed a change in her behavior and found she was diagnosed with the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease. The family made loving, yet difficult decisions with regard to her care and she has been in a wonderful facility in Memphis for several years. We began to miss her many years ago, but her spirit remained with us whenever we visited. Several years ago I wrote a paper arguing that the brain is not the mind. I wrote this paper with Gloria in mind. Gloria was so much more than the physical body we watched deteriorate, her spirit, that soul gifted by God was still alive and full of life. Her 'self' was inside that shell and she still loved and was loved by those who cared for her. I remember her daughter saying once that now since her children were grown she could travel and enjoy her mother, she would not be able to. It seemed so unfair. A friend, a mom was lost to us.

There are so many memories I could share. I will always remember that glorious smile and the fact that she loved to sing. She loved music. It is with sadness that I realize there will be no music.... I know she will be singing up in heaven and enjoying the beautiful music of the angels. Gloria sat only after everyone else sat. She served others , she was our 'Martha', always tending to the needs of those around her. She was happy doing it, she loved caring for her family. I miss her terribly.

This is when we must realize we are not of this world, we are God's. Gloria was always one of God's. She can now be with Him where she was meant to be. I hope that Heaven is all she hoped it would be and more, I pray she is praying for us for I know we have been graced with a saint. Saint Gloria Jeanette, pray for us!

What does this birth mean?

2009-12-26T07:33:00.003-06:00

"...and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us..."

Next to the Resurrection, the miracle of the Incarnation is one the great mysteries of our faith. When Elizabeth spoke those words to Mary, "who am I that the Mother of our Lord should come to me", any one of us could have spoken those words. God has come to us, each one of us, to show us the way to new life. He came to show us that as human beings, which Christ was fully, we too can live a holy life. I always thought that was some sort of rhetoric cliche when I heard that God humbled himself to become a man. The reason for that was because I didn't know what those words meant, what the impact those words had on me as a creature of God.

I have come to understand that God so wants me to be like Him. At our Baptism, the invisible reality of the signs of the water, the Chrism oil, the white garment, the candle, it all points to our being made in God's image. As we look upon the Christ child in our manger scenes, think about the invisible reality of this visible child and the consequences this will mean for us as human beings. We are called to make intelligent choices, we are called to rise above the animalistic behavior that is instinctual and look out for our well-being and those around us. When we approach Jesus in the Sacrament of the Altar, let us worship and adore, then let us remember, He became like us to remove our sin, He became like us to show us...

...'Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, O Come Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord'

are we there yet?

2009-12-21T09:53:00.002-06:00

How many times have we heard that question or asked it ourselves? I wonder if Mary asked it of Joseph after many days on the road to Bethlehem, riding on a donkey, very pregnant and anxious to boot. As we have heard in the readings Mary has been visited by an angel and has visited with Elizabeth. The misconceptions as to the child's father has been cleared up and now Joseph and Mary have set out on the road to Bethlehem. Much has happened to these two in a short time, their stress scale would be through the roof. Maybe though not so much....

They were such devoted people, to the Lord and to each other. Think of the words Mary uttered to the angel, Gabriel, "...be it done unto me according to thy word." What incredible words of trust. I wish I could be so trusting. I question everything and I am so controlling. This is something I pray about often, to trust in the Lord's plan for me and to let go and let God. I know that sounds so cliche but there is something to that. I am forever giving advice to people to take it to the chapel and let God handle it, I could be more accommodating of my own advice. There are times when I do Know God is leading me in a direction that I can follow and He gives me the means to be in control. He knows me so well.

This last week of Advent as we continue to get ourselves ready for the joyful hope of the coming of the Lord, I pray that we all can be more trusting in what the Lord has in store for us and to say that 'yes' to Him more often. I hope you all have a blessed and exciting week as you get ready to welcome Jesus into your hearts and homes.

why throw in a pink?

2009-12-12T13:01:00.003-06:00

...as we wait in joyful hope...

The time is drawing near. We are waiting joyfully for the coming of Christ. As John the Baptist put it to the people, our salvation is at hand, repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, make straight your path. I love this time of year. It is really getting exciting. Everyday the house becomes more festive, the music gets a little louder, the smells of cakes and cookies baking fill the air.

This weekend we light the pink candle in the Advent wreath. The pink candle is truly a rose color that represents the joy of our salvation. It is the penitential joy we feel as we truly wait in joyful hope. We've been preparing and getting ready, now as we perform works of mercy and kindnesses for others we take joy and delight in the happiness we bring to others. As we cleanse our souls from sinfulness we feel the joy of the burdens lifted from our hearts and celebrate the coming of Christ into our lives.

Rejoice in the spirit of Christmas, the gift of Christ to one another. But don't forget to let Christ come into you. Accept the gift God meant for you, the joy of salvation brought by the birth of His only Son, Jesus Christ.

What do the candles mean again?

2009-12-06T14:44:00.003-06:00

It is the second Sunday of Advent and today we here about a simple man with a simple message, 'prepare the way of the Lord". The country of Israel is a political mess, look who's in charge, Herod, a tyrant if ever there was one, Caesar, well...we won't go there, Pilate a Governor, who knew his hands were tied as far as his political power of being in 'charge' was concerned. The people were starving for some SPIRITUAL direction. Can we relate? In many ways we can.

Our secular government has thrown God to the wayside and our Church is fighting tooth and nail to protect all human beings' rights from birth to the disabled to natural death. Our Church is in the business of saving souls, it's not about the feeling good of this world that will pass away. When will we get this through our heads? Only God knows and He is doing His best through the prophets He has given us of this day. I suppose that is what we use this Advent season for, to listen to the prophets of our time to remind us of the preparation we need to get ourselves ready.

I read that this second Sunday of Advent is a week of Faith. We need to have the faith of Mary and Joseph. They were visited by an angel to tell them something absolutely incredible. Mary would have a child of God, Himself no less, and was to accept this. Joseph was to go with the flow and accept this child as his and love Mary, no matter what. Now that is faith, could we do as well? Talk about your reality show and fodder for gossip. But what incredible news they had and yes they accepted this with such faith. We could be so blessed. As a matter of fact we are blessed. We are given the opportunity to receive Jesus in the Sacrament of the Eucharist everyday. It is our faith that opens this opportunity up for us. We believe that Jesus is truly present to us in the Sacrament. We prepare by going to confession, giving of ourselves to others, and carrying on Jesus' mission of loving others.

This Advent as we wait in joyful hope let us remember that it is our faith that gives us hope for a better life in Christ, to not give up on our secular society, to continue to pray for the conversion of those that have lost all hope, and to continue to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Get ready!

Have we been experiencing a liturgical drought?

2009-11-29T18:19:00.004-06:00

When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars. When peace guides the planets and love will steer the stars...

The year was 1969 and it was the Age of Aquarius. Dare I say the Church as well got caught up in the "Kum-ba-ya" of the day. It was on this day forty years ago, November 30, 1969, the 1st Sunday of Advent new liturgical reforms were implemented to the Mass. It was called the Novus Ordo, the 'new order' to the liturgy. The new reforms were implemented for several reasons, to foster an increase in the liturgical participation at the Mass and to try and encourage an ecumenical participation of those that had left the Church. I read a surprisingly spot-on article in the New York Times that addressed this exact issue. I then went and looked at some not too surprising statistics that reflect those changes in our liturgy today.

What caught my attention immediately was the number of years since the reform. For biblical scholars and those theologians attuned to the numbers, the number forty will not be lost. It was forty years the Israelites wandered in the desert and it was forty days Jesus spent in the desert fasting and praying before beginning His ministry. We spend forty days in Lent fasting and praying for our own spiritual conversion as we come out of the darkness of our sinfulness and into the light of Christ as an Easter people. Coincidence, I don't think so. I encourage everyone who reads this post to read some history on how the reform came to pass. It is sad in a way how a Pope of our faith can be taken advantage of and duped in such a way, yet duped he was. It was reported that after the reforms had been implemented he noticed his vestments that were laid out were the wrong color, when he questioned his Master of Ceremonies about this, the MC told him the week long celebration of Pentecost were no longer celebrated with the reform that he had signed and implemented. It was witnessed that when Paul VI heard this he broke down and wept, not realizing the impact and subsequent consequences the reform would incur.

Thankfully, Pope Benedict XVI has a few reforms up his sleeve and has been instrumental in bringing us out of our liturgical darkness and into the light once again. Why did he feel compelled to do this to begin with? The fact that he is a liturgist is a big part of it, whereas Paul VI was not. He recognized that with the loss of the Latin and other liturgical reforms this had done more harm than good and he planned to do something about it. Statistics have shown that before Vatican Council II and the reforms that were implemented 52 percent of all Catholics attended Mass on a weekly basis. Today only 21 percent of all Catholics attend Mass on a weekly basis. Interestingly enough those protestants that the reformers were trying to bring back into the fold, attend a liturgy that is celebrated in the Latin and in the pre-Vatican format, that being with the priest facing the east and leading the people in the act of worship.

With the issue of Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificate, he has lifted what was seen as a ban on the old Latin Mass. It was never banned to begin with but because of overzealous liturgical reformers the Latin in the Mass was considered outdated and the vernacular was the language of the day. It was felt that with the vernacular people would have a better understanding of the Mass and that this would foster a better and more fuller participation. The Blessed Eucharist was to be made so available to everyone it could be placed on anyone's hand while standing and the priest turned to the people so as to see and be seen. Pope Benedict has said that this immediately closed in a circle that just as immediately closed out God. The Pope has begun implementing receiving Holy Communion on the tongue while kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, and he has renewed a significant amount of Latin back into the prayers of the Mass.

Our Liturgy is getting ready to take on another reform soon. Recently the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to accept new translations for our Mass. You have heard the phrase "lost in translation". That is exactly what happened with the translation of the Mass after Vatican Council II implemented changes from the Latin to the vernacular. We lost so much of the richness to the prayers and the Scriptural translation. These changes will take some getting used to but the translations will be so much more accurate bringing a fuller meaning to what we are saying and witnessing. I hope as well more of the Latin will be used and the true meaning of liturgical east for priest and congregation alike will be implemented. My biggest hope is that once again we will kneel before our Lord and receive Him on our tongue. I firmly believe that with a more reverent appreciation of our Lord there will be a more reverent appreciation for the Mass and our liturgy in general.

A blog I follow by a very learned priest has as its motto, "Save the Liturgy, Save the World". I am beginning to see the point and find myself repeating that motto often as I attend some poorly celebrated liturgies. For I notice that with a poor liturgy there follows a poor and very lax following in the parish. There are many reasons for this and that will have to be a subject for another time. In the meantime, I encourage Catholics to embrace the changes and to also learn the meaning behind the reasons. It will all be worth it, all for the glory of God.

What are we waiting for?

2009-11-28T23:07:00.004-06:00

Happy New Year! Yes it is a new year for us as Catholics. We begin our new Church liturgical year with the season of Advent. We are celebrating the expectation and anticipation of the coming of Jesus. For the Jewish people it was the waiting and expectation of the birth of a Savior, for us as Catholics we anticipate the second coming of Christ. We wait in joyful hope....

To be honest it was only recently I knew what those words actually signified. Like everyone I decorated for Christmas shortly after Thanksgiving and then Christmas was over right after the actual day. I related that time of preparation to the material, I didn't do anything for me personally, my interior preparation, so to speak. I never thought about the waiting and the getting ready and what that was supposed to mean to me as a Christian. I remember one time I gave all my 5th grade students a small wrapped box of candy and made them sit it on their desk and wait until after Christmas Day to open it. The wait was very hard for them, but wait they did. I think there might have been only one student that opened his present ahead of time, but the others waited and seemed very proud of themselves for doing so. I told them that Advent was a perfect time to practice the virtue of patience. It was a lesson I learned as well. I think trying to teach them about the Israelites and those Jews that waited for a lifetime for a Savior to be born was something difficult to grasp. I'm not sure I was able to understand what all the fuss was about at that age. But having to look at a wrapped gift for three weeks would have been excruciating, the wondering would have killed me. I hope that with that one particular lesson and the celebrating of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I gave them some insight into 'getting themselves ready' to receive Jesus into their hearts and lives and to the changes in themselves they can expect by doing so.

A few years ago, we began to put off decorating the tree until just before Christmas Day. Everyday or so, I would put up a few more decorations and we would 'travel' the Nativity set until all the pieces came together on the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Wise Men would appear kneeling next to baby Jesus. This would take place over several weeks, all the cast of characters in different rooms of the house and the kids would anticipate whose room the Holy Family would travel to next to get to Bethlehem, located in a prominent place under the Christmas tree. It has remained a tradition in our house for many years now. I hope they will continue the tradition in their own homes someday. Doing this has helped me to truly appreciate the gift of the Christmas season, that it doesn't end on Christmas Day, it lasts a full twelve days to celebrate the greatest gift we have ever been given.

Last year at Lent we were preparing for a visiting priest to celebrate a Traditional Latin Mass in our parish and he was running a few minutes late. As we all sat in the pews, waiting, quietly reflecting and anticipating, it struck me that this must have been what it felt like. This feeling of wondering and not quite knowing what was going to happen, this must have been what the Israelites felt, what Mary and Elizabeth and Joseph must have felt while waiting for the birth of the newborn King. Or even Anna and Simeon, waiting all their lives for a Savior so they might be redeemed. That is the feeling at Advent. What excitement that must have been.

So yes indeed get ready and get prepared for Christ is truly coming. Anticipate Him and wait for Him and then fully enjoy the season, all twelve days of them. And then...lucky us, we can celebrate the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist every time we receive Him in the Mass.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T06:57:00.003-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I love this time of the year. Maybe because it's my birthday month, but I have always been drawn to the season of Fall. The colors of the changing leaves are glorious and remind me of a perpetual sunset. It's that time of the day when you might sit and reflect on your day, think about all you did that day , or all you failed to do...glass half empty, glass half full kind of thing.

I am so thankful for so many things, but especially my faith and the gift God has given me in the Eucharist. I have been given so much and it's times like these I know God has given me an opportunity to give back. I hope I can reflect that in my daily life. My husband teases me about the little pity parties I have once in a while, I mean really we're all entitled, right? I look back on those whiny Israelites in the desert and realize we all fail to fully appreciate the bounty we have been given...until we lose it or it has been taken away.

I look at the richness that is my life and I wonder what I have to grouse about. Do you ever whine or complain and then, almost immediately, you hear a story that makes your situation look laughable? That happens to me all the time, and I realize God has just humbled me to my knees. He has such a way of hitting you upside the head at the most opportune moment, well of course He does, He is all that is. Thankfully I have the insight to recognize these moments for what they are, teaching moments. Sadly there are some who don't, or can't see God for who or what He is. It is most unfortunate.

I watched a video the other day with my 2nd graders, it was Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I realized as we were watching that they actually made a mention of thanking God at least four or five times during the show and of course little Linus, the youngest and most insightful, offered up this beautiful prayer for all the bounty and wonderful gift of friends. It made me wonder that if the video were made today would there be a mention of God, in particular, anywhere in the piece. It made me think about our founding history, the ethics our country was founded on, and I thought how sad that there is even a debate about the mention of God in our Pledge of Allegiance or whether the fact that we should trust in God should be on our currency. These thoughts lead to even deeper thoughts that eventually make me angry and today is not a day to be angry. That can be discussed on another blog.

So I will get ready to go to Mass and give thanks to the Lord for what is just and right. I am thankful my family is all together and I pray that you, too are with family and friends and know that you are loved dearly. God Bless! and ...Happy Thanksgiving!

Are we missionaries?

2009-11-15T22:24:00.004-06:00

Today at Mass we had a visiting missionary from St. Lucia. We were reminded of our universal call to be missionaries to all. He reminded us that Jesus was first and foremost a missionary. He had been sent by the Father and he in turn sent the disciples out to all the nations to bring the 'good news'...to the end of the earth.

As I listened to him speak, I wondered how many people knew where St. Lucia was or considered the poverty of other countries. The deacon speaking to us said the children had to take their chairs with them from class to class because there was most likely not a chair in the next classroom. A mom sitting in front of me leaned over and asked her young daughter if she could imagine that. It was a wonderful teaching moment for them. Fortunately for our parish this talk of mission is not new to us. Our previous priest is now a missionary priest in Mexico and he made regularly trips with parishioners down to the mission prior to his leaving us. He made it a point to include missionary teaching in our school and parish. Our children learned to collect their pennies, toiletries, out-grown clothes, shoes and socks to be sent regularly to the mission. It was who we were as church and our families were very generous. Sadly because of flu and border violence our trips have been postponed but the generosity of our parish continues. We are truly blessed to have the opportunity to share our gifts with the missions.

This week before Thanksgiving our school begins their annual food drive for the needy of the parish. It always amazes me to see the donations overflowing the baskets. The students will also be filling the mission banks with their pennies to be sent down to the mission once again with a note wishing the parishioners of Saltillo a Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for it just seems natural to share all we have. I'm sure we don't often stop to be thankful for the chair or desk we have in the classroom, things we take for granted. After listening to the missionary remind us once again that we are called by our Baptism to be missionaries to one another maybe we will look at all those material possessions in a new light.

..go in peace to love and serve the Lord and one another...Thanks be to God!

Is it Christmas yet?

2009-11-10T12:50:00.004-06:00

I was walking through the mall a couple of weeks ago and lo and behold, there it was... the huge tree in the middle of the courtyard. It was decorated with lights, big red bows and large gold balls. Around the tree were animated reindeer and brightly colored packages, oh it was festive. What disturbed me was that it was 80 degrees outside and did I mention it was October?

Once again I was taken aback by the greed of the secular industry and the gullibility of the consumer. I was also saddened by the fact that by the time Jesus' birthday does roll around His followers will be so weary of the "holy-day" sights He will have been forgotten on day 2 of our Liturgical Christmas season if He hasn't been shoved to the back of the celebratory calendar already. Need I remind everyone this is a time of Thanksgiving, it's not Christmas yet!

I told the kids the other day we would be focusing on Thanksgiving the next few weeks, so everyday we would say or write about something we are thankful for. Interestingly a facebook friend posted this same thought on her page, to offer something everyday that one was thankful for. What a challenge.

Historicallly, the Israelites would go up to Jerusalem every year at the Fall Harvest and offer their first fruits and harvest to God in thanksgiving for all their gifts given them from God. They would live in tents to remind them of the time they lived in tents in the desert after leaving Egypt. This festival is called the Festival of Booths. This festival lasted seven days and culminated on the Sabbath. It was this festival that was going on when the disciples saw Jesus in the Transfiguration and they offered to build a booth for Elijah and Moses, remember?

The word eucharist means thanksgiving. In the Mass we give praise and thanksgiving to God for His Son given to us in Holy Eucharist. It is this breaking of bread that makes us one in Christ and we literally become the Body of Christ. As Church we have so much to be thankful for, first and foremost, Christ Himself. Let's not shortchange Him by not paying Him homage and giving Him his due at the true Christmas season. This season begins on December 25th and lasts until Jan 6th. Presently we are closing out our liturgical year with Ordinary Time. We will begin a new liturgical year on November 29th with Advent as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Why does religion class focus so much on doctrine?

2009-11-05T09:29:00.004-06:00

In one of my classes last semester we were discussing the oft times misconception regarding the teaching of the faith as opposed to teaching the children about having a personal relationship with Christ. I had shared a story about a parent who questioned the fact their child had a "D" in Religion when the child went to Mass every week and was an altar boy. I could not for the life of me get this person to understand the difference between teaching the doctrine of the faith and spending time in prayer with the Lord. They are not the same, as evidenced by the "D" in Religion class.

Religion as an academic subject can be difficult. There is a lot of "meat" to be learned. We have 2000+ years of tradition to live and learn. I mean tradition in the strictest sense of the word, the tradition with a capital "T". As a Catholic religion teacher I have great responsibility to help children come to understand why we as Catholics do the things we do and where it all comes from. I do stress the importance of knowing our faith in order to help them understand why it must be lived as well and this does include their prayer life.

I have mentioned before that we as Catholics are losing our identity as Catholics because we do not know the teaching of our faith. Our Catholic faith is rooted in Sacred Scripture and the Traditions of the Church. This deposit of faith has been passed down Apostolically, meaning apostle to apostle, pope to pope, bishop to bishop, for 2000+ years. That is incredible and it was meant to be because Jesus Christ meant for it to be. I tell my Confirmation class that when they go off to college the day will come, if it hasn't already, someone will ask them why they do such and such in the Catholic Church or why we don't do such and such. It is important for them to be able to defend the Faith, defend the teachings that have been safeguarded all these years. They are the future of our Church, hopefully there are some future priests and nuns in the mix as well.

I firmly believe, and this is where the faith and reason issue comes into play, that if a person knows and understands their faith, can reason and rationalize it, the faith will follow. To know this incredible faith of ours surely makes someone stop and contemplate the awesome wonder of what God has done for us. Some people have told me different, it is their faith and belief that keeps them rooted in the Church and they believe that it is this faith that will keep their kids in the Church. It is a personal relationship with Christ that will keep them Catholic. ummm I wonder....

The Catholic Church is so rich in Tradition and so rooted in Scripture. Other religions are Scripture based and encourage a personal relationship with Christ, but the Magisterial teaching that hands down that apostolic tradition is what keeps us grounded in truth. This is the reason the Catholic Church has been around all those 2000+ years. It is the truth and it is this truth that wells up in us to reach out for a personal relationship with Christ, the Truth.

As Catholics parents we have a responsibility to teach our children the prayers of the faith and to make sure they attend Mass regularly. The little "t" traditions of the Church come from the handing down the faith from parent to child. If a child sees a parent in prayer, or sees their parent genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament, that speaks volumes for the development of that child's personal relationship with Christ. I had a lady fuss at me once because the second graders I was with didn't all genuflect before entering the pew and wanted to know if I was teaching them to do so. I assured her I could teach them and remind them to genuflect until the cows came home but if they didn't see their parents doing it then I didn't have a leg to stand on. My point is that this lady thought it was my responsibility to teach them this so it must be my fault they weren't doing it. I teach them why we do it and can show them how but this must be lived by all Catholics to make an impact on the faithful.

This week we as Catholics are being encouraged to contact our legislators to vote "no" regarding a health care reform bill that does not mandate the refusal of using funds for abortion. As Catholics the respect for life, unborn and elderly and disabled, is fundamental to the dignity of the human being as created in the image and likeness of God. Yet I wonder how many have done so and how many make this teaching a priority in their faith life. In order to have this personal relationship with Christ I would think that this understanding of the human person would ironically be the basis of what is "personal". We know Christ because He was a person, a human person. It doesn't get any more personal than that.

What is the significance of All Souls Day?

2009-10-27T13:22:00.006-05:00

As mentioned in the previous post after Halloween comes All Saints Day. This year we will celebrate All Saints on Sunday, but on Monday our school community will celebrate All Souls Day. Not being a holy day of obligation I thought this would be a witness for the students to come together to pray for the souls of the dear ones who are in purgatory.

This morning while reading a blog I was reminded that it being the Year for Priests it would be appropriate to pray in a special way for the souls of the departed priests. In that the priests are marked by signs of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, they are still human and not always in a state of grace. We forget the man behind the clerics as a human being is tempted in all things and must reconcile his sinfulness to God as we all do.

There are special indulgences for All Souls Day as well as Plenary Indulgences granted to all the faithful who are truly repentant, attend the Divine Sacrifice of the Mass and offer prayers to Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest for the first Thursday of the Month during the Year for Priests. This would be an incredible week to offer for the souls of the departed priests. To receive a Plenary Indulgence, a person must be in a state of grace by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, prayed in accordance with the Pope's monthly intentions, an Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be, and celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned which the follower of Christ obtains through the intervention of the Church. Christ died for our sinfulness, but the sin is still ours alone and we make reparation through the Sacrament and with our penance. The Church as minister of the redemption authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the saints to the faithful follower of Christ. In a nutshell, indulgences shorten your time in purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains purgatory as a process, not a place. It will be suffering, but a suffering that cleanses the soul, a "purging" of temporal punishment due to sin. This is the suffering we will enjoin to Christ. There will be rewards in heaven after our own suffering on our own "cross". It makes sense, why would we be granted easy access to heaven when God's own Son suffered so? The reality is who will be in a perfect state of holiness at the time of their death, what are the chances? With the indulgences we are granted we pray for ourselves and others to have a shortened time in purgatory. If you pray for someone who has already made it to the Beatific Vision, those prayers will be offered for someone else.

This is how God's mercy is led to forgiveness and it becomes possible for the sinner who has repented sincerely, to share, as soon as they are capable of it, in the full enjoyment of the benefits of God's family. There is a connection made through prayer between those in heaven, in purgatory, and those still on earth. This is what points to that communion of saints. We are all in that number.

Do Catholics celebrate Halloween?

2009-10-22T15:10:00.004-05:00

It's that magical time of the year, and no I don't mean Christmas. While googleling images for this post I came across everything from the macabre to the mundane, so I settled for the pumpkin. It was either that or something with witches, black cats, devils, or the gorry, slasher trademark ala Mike Meyers. I get asked this question every year, the one about...is it okay for Catholics to celebrate halloween?

And I give the same answer, of course, as long as you as a Catholic understand the meaning behind the name All Hallows Eve. When I was growing up we always dressed in costume and traversed the neighborhood for goodies. My brother and I were always some sort of comicbook or cartoon character. We never went for the scarry or evil side of the celebration. It was meant to be fun and it meant a night to run around the neighborhood with friends going from house to house yelling and screaming just because you could. When my husband and I moved into our neighborhood twenty years ago we were thrilled to find that there was a block party that was planned for each halloween night. Everyone came out of the house and set up their tables of candy in their driveway so the kids could go house to house without worrying about going up to a darkened house and being frightened. It was not a night to be scared, but was a night for family and friends to come together in the 'spirit' of fun.

Of course this tradition is about as American as one can get. For Catholics we are reminded that the next day is All Saints Day. We pray and remember all those loved ones who have died and are in heaven as saints. The next day, November 2nd, is All Souls Day and we remember those souls who are in purgatory awaiting to be granted entrance into heaven by the prayers of all the faithful praying with the Church. As Catholics we have to be mindful of how we celebrate the night before All Saints Day. Sadly it has become for some a night to worship evil and many think that dressing as devils and witches is just in fun and has no real significance. As Catholics we must never give any credance to evil even in jest. Opening a door to the evilness in the secular world is just that...leaving the door open. Remember initially the night before All Saints Day was a pagan holiday celebrated in Ireland, it took the Catholic Church's influence to change the day into one of charity and commemoration of the dead. Men and women would go from house to house asking for food to be distributed to the poor and then ask the poor soul's to pray for the donor's dead.

Some still believe the gates of the underworld are opened on this night for ghosts, witches and devils to roam freely and cause havoc. I recently read an article that said people would masquerade so as to disguise themselves from the ghouls and goblins that roamed the lands, hence then they would not be bothered. There are many stories and folklore surrounding the history of halloween and how it came to be celebrated as we know it today. We as Catholics still need to be aware of the significance of All Saints Day. This is especially true when picking costumes for children and planning parties. Evil is real and we need to pray for the safety of our children and for ourselves. Have fun and be safe.

Happy Halloween!

When is a covenant more than a promise?

2009-10-17T17:45:00.000-05:00

...she glanced up the aisle and saw him, standing tall and proud. As the wedding march began she took a breath, looked to her brother who was walking her down the aisle, nodded and began the walk that would begin an incredible journey of two people committed to a lifetime of memories....

That was twenty-five years ago, October 19th, when I married my husband, Ben. I still remember thinking that my dad, who had been dead ten years, would have approved of my choice for spouse. I realize now it was not my choice but God's will that brought us together. As any married couple will attest we have had our ups and downs, our joys and sorrows, and have wondered how we could make it together another year much less five or ten. The answer to the wonder has been our faith, a deep respect for our sense of commitment, but I have come to realize it was the covenant we made in the sacrament that binds us to something neither one of us can break, nor would we want to.

I blogged recently on the commitment to the priesthood, the lifetime commitment to that call but it is the covenant, the binding promise made in the presence of God, that is the glue, the sealant of the two becoming one. Please don't get me wrong, I love my husband and I wouldn't trade him for the world. That's my point, we are married, we made a binding promise before God to not let 'man put asunder'. We recognize the fact there will be differences and we respect those differences. I have come to learn there is someone in charge of our domestic church and by God's natural Law, that person is not me, it is my husband (see blog, What's the Deal with the Veil?).

We recently discussed the idea of covenant in class, both in the class I teach and in the class I attend. It can be quite difficult to explain the idea that a covenant is more than a promise, it binds people to God as one people. ...and the two shall become one. Children who come from single parent homes, or broken homes have a difficult time accepting or understanding this concept of a promise kept no matter what. The secular media of television and music videos have no idea what it might mean to portray the Sacrament of Matrimony in light of God's covenant. Hence the term 'bonds of Matrimony'. It is a bond that forms a sacred kinship to God. My husband and I both realize the work that goes into married life. We have grieved the loss of a child, we have been separated by circumstances of war, we have had to deal with the unforeseen toll of illness and disability and it has tested us to what for some would have been the limit. As Catholics we value the sacredness of the Sacrament and for me that has made an impression that was lost on me before I became Catholic.

A covenant is holy, in that an oath is made in God's name, calling on God to bear witness to the vows recited by the bride and groom. Feminists whine about the fact that the phrase 'to obey' was in the vows and eventually they were taken out of the vows. But what happens to the other parts of the vows, sickness and health, for rich and for poor, in good times and bad... Those words don't seem to have much of an impact, one in three couples married will end in divorce before three years into a marriage. Where's the holiness in that?

Yes, a marriage takes work, commitment, a lot of prayer, respect and love. The love that is reflected in gift of self. But never forget that God made this covenant with us and will never forget the promises He made with His people, the People of God. He will not take it lightly. Remember He marries us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, He renews that covenant every time He enters into our bodies and we become one in the Body of Christ. We are bound to Him. To me that is one of the most important reasons a couple should complete the ceremony with the Eucharist. That binding of the Sacrament becomes so complete with both man and woman taking Christ into their bodies, the ultimate Bridegroom entering the Bride of Christ, the Church, represented so beautifully by this man and this woman....what God has joined together, let no man put asunder...

What does it mean for one to promote peace?

2009-10-09T15:06:00.000-05:00

As most of you know by now our president, Barak Obama, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for the year 2009. I am not going to rant and rave here about the choice made, as it has been done and I will not beat the dead horse, so to speak. What I would like to do is to introduce to you the other candidates who were also nominated... you decide, what does it mean for one to promote a sense of peace in the hearts of men?

Sima Samar is a women's rights activist in Afghanistan who "with dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."

"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three and a half year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'"

Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States."

Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."

Maybe I am missing the "big picture" and am not able to see how the love and care these people have brought to their countries has benefited the world, but the peace they brought to the lives they touched would seem unmeasurable. No, it doesn't sound like they gave any great speeches read from a teleprompter, and no they didn't travel around the world smiling for the cameras, but what they did was to give of themselves for the sake of others. President Obama could take a lesson.

no question, just sharing- Support a Catholic Speaker Month

2009-10-02T19:01:00.002-05:00

http://www.fallibleblogma.com/index.php/support-a-catholic-speaker-month-and-favorite-catholic-speaker-2009-results/

I know I usually post with the answering of a question, but today I get the opportunity to blog about a speaker I enjoy listening to regarding our Catholic faith. I want to encourage you to visit the website, www.brantpitre.com. If you ever get the opportunity to listen to Dr. Brant Pitre do so.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Pitre while attending Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans. I was able to attend his classes in both Liturgy and Sacraments. These are classes I will never forget. I learned so much because the passion this man speaks with is genuine. He also gives us the truth. He loves his faith and he is passionate about sharing his knowledge. He also lives his faith and this resonates through his lectures. Dr. Pitre has a gift and it has been a blessing to be a witness to this gift.

Dr. Pitre is a biblical scholar. He prides himself on knowing the Jewish roots of the bible and has studied extensively these roots. When I took the Liturgy class, I came away with a new found appreciation for the biblical references found in the liturgy. He approaches his teaching with an excitement that draws one in. He taught us about Jesus' fulfillment of the Jewish feasts found in the spring and fall. It was like opening a gift at Christmas, everyday brought a new present. I felt empowered with the knowledge he was imparting. I also came away with a love for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Our liturgy is solidly scripture based, God inspired, God given.

Dr. Pitre has a way of injecting humor into his lectures that is a dynamic all his own. Others have tried it, yet no one else can pull it off so naturally. Once again I refer to a gift given to him which he uses to teach the faith he is so passionate about. I encourage everyone to attend one of his lectures, it will be a treat. He has been voted #25 in the top 100 speakers. Celebrating Support a Catholic Speaker Month, the site www.fallibleblogma.com is promoting Catholic speakers along with websites and blogs that promote the teaching of the Catholic faith. Let's hope this has a positive impact on the secular world out there and helps to spread the truth about a faith we know to be the truth.

Have you ever met an angel?

2009-09-30T19:29:00.000-05:00

Today I met another angel. He came and he went, not so unnoticed, for he was very noticed, but he passed by our way in such a way as will be talked about for days and weeks to come. I say another angel for I met one several years ago that brought me comfort at a time when I thought all comfort was nowhere to be found.

Children often ask me if I believe in angels. We had this conversation yesterday, as a matter of fact, being it was the Feast of The Archangels. I tell them yes indeed I do and then point them in the direction of their guardian angels and St. Michael. They are fascinated by the stories of the angels, especially when told from a first hand perspective as evidenced in the book, All About the Angels. Makes me wish the show Touched by an Angel was still on the air, even though it was Hollywood, it had a wonderful message that kids can relate to.

Today a simple man wandered in to our Adoration Chapel and knelt down in prayer. Sounds ordinary, right! Wrong! This simple man was dressed too simply in long white linen robe (alb), no shoes, and was carrying a bible and blanket. He had long hair, drove no car, no bike, walked from we did not know where. It was reported upon entering the Chapel he showed such reverence before the Blessed Sacrament, the ladies in the Chapel were dumbstruck, ran out of the Chapel and went straight to the parish office to inquire if anyone knew of a play going on in the area. What ensued throughout the remainder of the day one can only imagine.

By the time I met this man, he was surrounded by any number of people, being interviewed by the local newspaper and explaining to a small group of children that Jesus loved them very much. I offered him some lunch provided by our school cafeteria, hey you never know. It wasn't going to be said we did not feed Him when He was hungry, if you know what I mean. He sat and visited with several of our office staff and explained his ministry.

He said he was a disciple of Jesus, following Jesus as the early disciples did. He left all he had behind him and went out to evangelize the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. He relied on the gifts of strangers for food and lodging and was on his way to Rome to appeal to the Pope for permission to start an order for his mission. He had been traveling in this way for fifteen years. He prayed with us and for us, as we did him in return. When he left us, he walked barefoot in the direction of a new destination. He touched us and our parish. For the rest of the afternoon, he was all we spoke about. For this moment in our lives we talked about God sending us this "angel", how he looked like Jesus, his spirituality and gentleness. I am still amazed by how this man transformed our parish with his simpleness. He did no miracles, nothing extraordinary, he was just there in our lives for a brief time.

This amazes me because people do these same things everyday. People are kind, they spend time in Adoration and pray everyday. What touched us? He dressed differently and some people wondered if he wasn't crazy. There were skeptics who thought we should send him on his way, but for the most part there was an excitement in the air. Questions were asked, "have you seen 'him'?" I mean who walks around barefoot, on concrete, for crying out loud. We found out later there is a website depicting his story in documentary form at www.jesusguy.com, but at the time we had no idea who he was or where he came from. It was shared with us that a woman who encountered him in the Chapel was overwhelmed with his presence and she broke down and wept, not from fear but from joy. She had been praying to God for guidance and help in some way and in walks this man straight out of the Bible. You can't make this stuff up. This is how our day went, sharing stories of miracles in our lives and how this man resurrected some feelings that gave hope to some that had lost hope for various reasons.

I wonder why it took this special instance to awaken a joyfulness in us that has been lacking for awhile. We only have to look at the Blessed Sacrament this man was worshiping to feel a joy like no other. We only need to reverently receive Jesus, the Body of Christ into our bodies to experience the wonders of God's grace and all that this grace promises for a life everlasting. Our society has made us so cynical and skeptical we find it difficult to trust in the gifts God gives to us. Be it Jesus in the Sacraments or an angel coming to share God's peace, we need to believe in the love God has for us and to accept the graces given to us no matter the form. Go be an angel for someone today!

Why does the priest add a drop of water to the wine at consecration?

2009-09-23T12:39:00.000-05:00

This question was posed to me the other day, why does the priest add that small drop of water with the wine at consecration?

We then began discussing that some priests use the tiniest drop while others will just splash some water in the chalice of wine. The simple explanation is that this is believed to have been the custom of the Jewish people. They would temper the wine with water according to the custom of that country. This would have been what Jesus did at the traditional Passover meal.

If we reflect on the invisible reality presented by the visible sign of the cup, the Lord's Passion comes immediately to mind. We remember that both water and blood flowed from the side of Christ when His heart was pierced. And this signifies our Baptism in Christ, to die to self so we can become one in Christ. At the point of the Mass, when the priest pours the water into the chalice, he recites almost sillently, "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity."

Our Church Fathers believed the water is understood as the people and the wine is understood to be the blood of Christ. When the water is mixed with the wine, the people are made one with Christ. We are now cojoined with Christ and nothing can separate the two. We become the Body of Christ, cojoined with Him. It could never be just the wine or just the water, there must be a comingling of the two. I read that the Council of Trent felt this was so vital that whoever denied this practice of mixing the water and the wine was to be excommunicated. Who knew something we see at every Mass could have such an effect on us as Church.

Do you remember that fateful day?

2009-09-11T10:10:00.000-05:00

I will never know, nor have I thought about, why I didn't turn on my television that morning or even the radio for that matter. We usually put on the news to listen to either the traffic or the weather to help us plan our day. This day was problably rushed to get Em and myself off to school, I suppose. Ben and Phillip were already on their way into town. I remember getting to school that morning and hearing bits of chatter about a plane crashing into one of the twin towers, maybe the pilot had a heart attack or something. Little did we know at that time it would be the 'or something'. Our priest, at the time, Fr. Benny immediately went into action and handled the situation of calming fears the only way he ever handled situations, with prayer. He hustled everyone in school, all 500 of us, into Church to pray the rosary. I have to say, at the time I still didn't know what was happening. There was speculation about being under attack but no one knew for sure what was going on. With everything going on in our own heads we, the teachers, principle and other adults were trying to present an aura of calm for the children, and for one another if truth be told.

It is what came after that stays with me the most. We came together as a nation to pray to God for guidance and to help us make sense of this senseless situation. The inevitable question was asked, "why did this happen?, how could God let this happen?" As a religion teacher I was asked this question countless times in the days to come. I had answers, but not the politically correct answers anyone wanted to hear. How do you explain to someone who knows a loved one is lost to them forever that in God's merciful love Good will come out of this evil. Sadly innocent people can be the consequences of someone else's stupidity. We can not even begin to question why someone lived and why someone else died that day, or any other day for that matter. I don't even have the adequate vocabulary to put this into words. I can't begin to speak for God. I can only offer prayers to ask for the wisdom and strength to go on and to appreciate the life I have been given to help others to go on.

We all have a part to play in God's plan of salvation. As God's people we are called to help one another participate in this plan. Those people that fateful day were sacrificed for a greater good. That day was a wakeup call to our vulnerability as a nation and to the evils that abound in the world today. How many times have we noticed that it takes a tragedy to get something done or to grab someone's attention? This was one of those times. We turned to God because we knew this was bigger than we could handle on our own, we came together as a nation to support one another as a country. We waved our flags, we wore red, white, and blue, we sang the National Anthem and God Bless America every chance we got. God is not a controlling God, but a loving God. He loved us as a people so much He gave us free will to make free choices. The caveat to that is that the choice is to be a loving choice for the common good, not necessarily for own personal good. Sometimes the choice we make for the good of all may be quite a sacrifice for us personally. Those men who drove those planes were only thinking of themselves, or in their convoluted minds what they believed to be for their own good. It was a choice they made that affected many people. As a Nation for a while we overcame this evil for the common good.

I have to believe God was with those people who died, He was giving them time for prayer and for many He allowed them time to say goodbye to loved ones. God is with each and every one of us to help us through our worst moments and to lead us back to Him. We must find comfort in that so we can put one foot in front of the other and continue on this incredible journey He has planned for us. We can not begin to imagine what goes on in peoples minds to be so full of hate and anger, but we can find solace in the fact that God loves us and wants the very best for us. That best is to be with Him in Heaven. We are not meant for this world, this world will pass away, we are meant to find our ultimate end before the Beatific Vision, standing in God's Glorious Presence. May God Bless us as we remember the significance of this fateful day, let us never forget.

What was Jesus and Mary's last name?

2009-09-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

The children ask me every year, did Jesus and Mary have a last name? Ironically Fr. touched on this in his homily this weekend, people were identified by their trade or by where they came from. Joseph was known as the carpenter, Jesus was often referred to as the Nazorean. A girl or woman of the household was associated with her father's or her husband's household. Slaves took the name of their master's house.

I ask the kids to identify what their parents do and then we identify them by their trade. We come up with labels of 'Bill the engineer' or 'Joe the computer technician'. It makes them laugh because they can see how the old trades evolved into some peoples last name, like Carpenter or Baker or Blacksmith. Today is Labor Day and I am reminded of all the labors people are called to in this day and age.

When God created Adam and Eve, He never meant for His people to be burdened with their labors. It was never meant to be a job. He gave Adam dominion to till the soil and care for His creation, but it was to be "a labor of love." The burden and toil of labor came as result of the Fall, a consequence to Adam and Eve's disobedience. We have been given the opportunity through Jesus Christ to offer those labors up for the glory of God and with those graces, the burden is lightened. Jesus says, "take up your yolk and follow me and I will give you rest."

How many of us find pleasure in the work that we do? How often do we look at our work as a job and have lost the joy it once brought to us. To know we are sharing a gift we were given by God to bring to someone else and take such a pride in the gift we cherished it and honed it so we could be the best God created us to be. And then....after sharing that gift with those around us, God gave us a Day in which to rest in His presence and give honor and glory to Him. A Day in which to thank Him and to receive Him into our bodies to nourish us for another week, all for the Glory of God.

I have found that if I brought a ho hum attitude to the work I have been given, that is all I've got...ho hum. You will only get out of something what you put into it. For some people that is a hard lesson to learn. But once we realize this gift in us was given by God, and we recognize that fact and then give God His due, an attitude change takes place. It may be subtle at first but our 'job' no longer seems like a job but truly becomes a "labor of love" just as God planned it to be.

the picture says it all...

2009-08-25T18:48:00.000-05:00

Our community was rocked by a tragedy over the weekend. This senseless act of violence didn't occur in our community directly but it affected us just the same. It affected one of our own so of course it affected all of us. We mourn the loss as if it were one of our own family members because indeed it did touch a member of our community so directly. As the Body of Christ we share the pain and loss of even one member of our Church community. We feel the pain as if it were our own.
One of my second graders asked me the other day if God created bad people. We had been talking about creation and how after God created something new each day He pronounced that creation good. I reminded her of this teaching and so naturally the next question was the why do people do bad things. I was waiting for the inevitable why do bad things happen to good people question but she really was concerned with the fact that if people were good why did they do bad things. She reasoned that they must be bad and that they must not love God. I asked her if she had ever gotten in trouble and done something "bad". She honestly answered yes she had, so I asked her if she loved God, she emphatically said she did. I let her mull that over in her head and then I reminded her we all make choices, some good and some not so good. Our actions are a reflection of the choices we make. She then asked that if someone had made a bad choice would God forgive them. I reassured her that yes God would forgive us if we were truly sorry and asked for his forgiveness.
I was reminded that God is truly a forgiving God when it comes to any transgression, but the key is to acknowledge our wrongdoing and we must be sorry for the transgression. I wonder if we realize the sorrow we must feel in our hearts when we have sinned against God and against one another. It must be a gut-wrenching, I am sick to my stomach for hurting you, kind of sorrow. We can not know what is in another's heart and it is not up to us to judge, that will be for God alone. We can pray for those that need to find their way back to God and know that ultimately justice will prevail in the final end, maybe not in this life but certainly in the life to come.
Out of every tragedy comes God's merciful love. Sadly for some it does take a tragedy to see the path their lives have taken. The tragedy that occurs is someone's darkness and from that darkness they may see the light eventually. Hopefully the light of Christ will reach these poor souls involved in the horrific events of this past weekend. It will take much for forgiveness to be won, both from the victims as well as themselves and from God. We as a community can pray for healing, the Body of Christ has been hurt, we as a community must help one another with the healing.

"What's the deal with the veil"?

2009-08-22T19:25:00.000-05:00

I wrote this in June, but considering the readings for this weekend's Mass I felt compelled to republish my thoughts on the wearing of the veil and the true meaning of submission with regard to Paul's teaching. So enjoy and God Bless.

I recently wore a veil to Mass and I got looks, no comments but looks. I had decided to begin wearing a veil because of learning about its significance and what I have come to learn about the woman in the order of creation. My thesis is about woman, Ishshah, "out of man" and what a magnificent creature we were created to be all by the grace of God. I have so many thoughts and feelings about this subject I'm not sure I can articulate it very well. It is going to come out disjointed and jumbled because there is so much in my head that wants to come out. But let me try.

In my research and more specifically in reading Pope John Paul II I realized woman is truly an incredible piece of the salvation picture. God made us women to give love and bring life into the world, but this was to be done with man. And because God is the Master Planner, He created an order to everything. In Genesis we read that God created out of man a helper, woman. But God created woman out of love, the woman was a gift to the man. And in man's acceptance of this gift he showed his love in return. Yet in this order, and because of the Fall, woman was to be subordinate to the man, as man is subordinate to Christ. Sadly this is read as the man is to dominate the woman. Submission is not the same as being dominated. Man and woman are to love and give the gift of self to each other. As I mentioned in a previous post, the woman is another "I" of the man. They are partners, giving mutual respect showing the dignity and respect afforded to human beings created in the image and likeness of God.

Now comes the significance of the veil. St. Paul tells the Corinthians "... I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman created for man.) That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head." It comes down to woman recognizing her place in the order of creation. We are all members of the body of Christ and in this instance Christ is the head and we are the body. In our families there is a head and that is the husband. As wives we respect the head and in return we are respected and revered as the support of that head. We work together and honor one another. One of my professors shared with us in class that in his family he listens to his wife and they discuss any major decisions that need to be made, but the ultimate decisions lies with him and she respects this.

Now I have to share with you that I am a very stubborn and strong-willed woman. I want to be heard and I want to be right. Does this make for a peaceful communion of persons in my family? No indeed. I have had to pray about this and admit that a lot of my marital problems are because of my stubbornness and my will having to be imposed. That's what I finally had to admit, it was what I wanted, not God's will for me. Something else I was reminded of by this same professor, it is my husband's responsibility to get his family to heaven and to make the decisions, with my help. It is my responsibility to build him up and pray for him and get him to heaven. Now is all this ever easy, no it is not. Marriage is hard work, but rewarding in the graces received through the sacrament.
I have begun to wear the veil out of respect for my place in creation. It does not mean I have less value than my husband, we are all valuable in God's image and likeness. But I do realize now after much reading and praying how I can be a witness to Christ as the head of all creation.

What is it that places us above the animals in the order of creation?

2009-08-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

"Dignity is worthless if we have not knowledge; knowledge without virtue only does us harm." - St Bernard of Clairvaux

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, considered the last of the Fathers of the Church and a Doctor of the Church. This quote comes from a reflection St. Bernard gave regarding the waste of the gifts we have been given or the opposite situation of glorifying those gifts given as our own and not coming from God.

Our dignity comes from the fact that we, as human beings, have been made in the image and likeness of God. We have been given an incredible gift of the intellect and the will. Animals and plants have been given no such gift. This fact puts us on a different playing field from other "earthly" creatures. We are able to think about a situation, judge the situation and act according to the good it will bring. An animal acts according to its nature, instinctually and out of habit. Our habits can be either virtuous, or become a vice which leads to sinfulness. St. Bernard warns in his reflection, "the creature, not knowing itself, distinquished by the gift of reason from the beasts confounds itself with them, not recognizing its peculiar glory, which must be formed within, gets led astray by sensible and outward things as a result of its own curiosity, and thus sinks to the level of the lower creatures." We must learn who we are as images of God. By coming to know ourselves as human beings and by practicing the virtues we rise above the animal instincts of a sensible nature. Sensible in that an animal uses sense instinct.

It is difficult to teach the concept of dignity to little children. Yet they do understand what it means to be respectful and that they too are worthy of respect. They might not be able to put humility in a sentence but they know when they have been embarassed or shamed. To be humbled can be a powerful lesson to learn. It takes our gift of intelligence to be able to discern this lesson of humility as a gift that comes from God and this too is not of our making. It is in ignorance that we "esteem ourselves" as less than what God has created us to be. I remind the children I teach to become what God created them to be, that is to be intelligent human beings, to rise above mere reaction and instinctual habitual behavior.

This teaching is lost on the secular world of today. In a world that promotes the teaching of a strict form of evolution or "intelligent design" there will not be the appreciation of a higher intellect that is a gift from a first cause. That first cause being God, Who created all in goodness and Who created mankind in His image and likeness. If we as a society are not taught to rise above the standard of animal, then animal we will be. Relativity, rationalism, materialism, and secularism all foster behaviors that dismiss the rewards granted by the practicing of virtues. Jesus ask in the parable "how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?". He refers to our faithfulness and living the life God created us to live once we enter the heavenly wedding banquet. Yes we need to be prepared but we would do well to teach those in our care what that preparation entails.

What will we do with this new day?

2009-08-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

I realize I have been in a "funk" since my last post, all doom and gloom. I have been thinking and discussing about the judgment of God on our society. It is like Moses allowing divorce among the Israelites, he only allowed it because of their hardness of heart, Jesus tells the Jewish people it was not always so, nor was it meant to be. Basically He was saying you wanted to divorce and wouldn't shut up about it, so here you go. I wonder now if we are not the same. God sees the chaos that materialism brings, God sees the destruction of the unborn and has allowed us to "reap what we sow". The evidence is in our liturgy, our Congress, our world leaders, our media, our schools, and sadly our Catholic schools have not been immune to the infiltration of this hardness of heart.

God has not turned his back on us, we as a society have turned our back to Him. Our society has deemed that its wants and needs come before God and in his infinite mercy and wisdom have granted us what our hearts desire. And in his infinite wisdom He will welcome us back with open arms once we realize the error of our ways. Like the Prodigal Son, He will enfold us in His loving arms and give us another chance to redeem ourselves. How many times have we granted a child something they wanted, not because it was necessarily good for them but because they wanted it or we just gave in. God as a loving Father is doing the same thing. He loves us and wants what is best for us and that is to get to heaven and rest in His Beatific Vision. But He wants us to do so willingly, He will not force us, that would not be love.

This morning while reading my prayers, I came across this in the Magnificat, "Every morning we arise afresh in Christ our light. Ancient Christian writers warn against 'morning demons': yesterday's worries and grievances returning to poison the new day." I realized that is what I had been doing, letting the doom and gloom of all my fears affect my attitude. I am still frightened, but I know this new day will bring me a new opportunity to love others and be Christ to someone else. Every day we are given a new chance to turn back to God and to help someone else turn back to God. So I will continue to fight for the unborn when it comes to legislation, I will continue to encourage my priest to face "ad orientem" and lead us in the liturgy and I will speak up when I see blatant materialism take over my Catholic community. God must come first in all aspects of our lives if we are going to set things right in our society. God has given us a new day, now what are we going to do with it?

pondering a queston....

2009-08-14T14:30:00.000-05:00

I am currently pondering a question that I can't seem to let go of. I can't even phrase the question properly or I'd post it. I thought if I put some thoughts out there on the table, so to speak, I could "see" it on paper and move toward an answer. For now remember we are Christians, and as Christians we suffer as Christ did, for the sins of others. Also too God's judgment, is just that, His judgment. We are to be obedient and to pray for ourselves, for others, and for society. Especially now we need to pray for our leaders and priests, even the ones who are doing less than stellar jobs. Sometimes these are hard lessons to learn, but I am coming to realize, in the grand scheme of things, it's not about me or about what I want. I am frightened, though. I am frightened for the direction our society is headed and I hope and pray to God that we, as Catholic Christians can reclaim our identity as Catholics and set the world aright.

What is the invisible reality behind the "anointing"?

2009-08-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

At our last confirmation class we focused on the use of the Chrism oils in the Sacrament of Confirmation. I could tell by responses and uninterested looks on my student's faces that this truly spiritual anointing had no real significance for them. I threw in the word "spikenard" to peak their interest, I used the analogy of a fighter using oils on his body or a bodybuilder using oils to enhance the appearance of the gleaming muscles, that got a grin. Okay we have cracked the surface somewhat, but still no real interest in their gain from the oil used at Confirmation and what this will mean to them.

It began to dawn on me how in this world of materialism and instant gratification, kids these days probably don't have an interest or real knowledge of "the invisible reality" that takes place in our visible world. That is the Catholic faith, the visible signs of an invisible reality. When we are anointed as Christ was with the oil of Chrism we are set apart, we are consecrated for a sacred use in God's plan of salvation. Christ, the word, means "Anointed One" When the Wise Men appeared before Mary and Jesus in Bethlehem, they brought myrrh, a fragrant oil that prefigured his anointing at his burial. When Mary washed Jesus' feet, she was chastised for using such expensive "spikenard oil". She was humbling herself by performing the most lowly of services, washing his feet. She was "anointing" him. We become associated with this service when we are set apart to continue Christ's mission with our own anointing at Confirmation. It becomes our responsibility to carry on this mission.

At Baptism we are anointed with the Oil of Chrism to set us apart as God's children. We have been washed and marked as Sons and Daughters of Christ. At Confirmation, the anointing sets us apart to continue the mission of Christ, even unto death. Strengthened with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are ready to do battle for Christ. Confirmation has been called the Sacrament of Martyrdom. Why? Because now we are ready to die for Christ, we use our "anointing" as a shield to fight the evils of the secular world. But we have to be open and willing to accept the responsibility given to us.

I pray for the children of this world today and what they have to deal with. I am encouraged to know that the Holy Spirit is with them in such a powerful way and I hope they come to understand just how much supernatural power they have been given to fight this increasingly secular world they live in.

"Why don't you ever go to the Latin Mass?"

2009-08-06T10:22:00.000-05:00

I was asked this question the other day by someone who knows very well my love of the traditional Latin Mass, now referred to as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. It is true, I rarely travel into New Orleans for the TLM even though I do love it. I explained to the person asking me the question that is was because my family attended the Ordinary Form, the Novus Ordo, as it is called, and it was more important for me to attend mass as a family. It may sound cliche but that old adage, "the family that prays together, stays together" is something I firmly believe in.

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration and no better place is this revealed to us than in the Mass, Ordinary or Extraordinary. Jesus in all of His glory is shown to us at the consecration, made present by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is made possible through the graces a man receives at his ordination when he becomes a priest. With the bishop laying his hands on the priest and with the anointing of his head and hands, the priest has been 'set aside', consecrated for the Lord. It is this that makes the Mass valid as a great prayer of thanksgiving when offered to God. Can one Mass be made more beautiful or can one Mass seem more spiritual? Yes, but at the moment of consecration when the priest is 'in persona Christi' the Mass is real and Jesus is on the altar made present in the bread and wine as the Body and Blood of Christ. We must never lose sight of this fact. Do I long for and pray for the Mass to return to the more traditional and for the Latin to return to the place it was meant to have in the Liturgy? Yes, I do but not because it is more real but because the reverence of the more traditional focus is given to God. We must always remember it is not about our likes and dislikes when it comes to giving honor and glory to God, the focus must always be on Him.

'ad orientem' vs 'versus populum'; why do we need to vote?

2009-08-02T06:58:00.000-05:00

As I sit watching the sun rise on this glorious Sunday morning, I am reminded of another Sunday morning where the Son rose and it brings to light ever more the argument for "ad orientem". 'Ad orientem' is Latin for 'toward the east' and this was a subject brought up by our pastor yesterday at Mass. I found this to be a teachable moment because...well he didn't.
As I have mentioned in previous posts our Mass is founded on rich tradition and Sacred Scripture. Historically the earliest Christian practices was to have the entire congregation face the east, the natural and cosmological symbol of the rising sun which is the perfect expression of our Risen Savior. Churches are built to face geographical East, or as Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, points out the position called "liturgical east". The priest is in the position of leadership guiding the congregation toward their eternal salvation and the Second Coming of Christ. The priest now leads the congregation in prayer and worship, offering our sacrifice to God. The priest is leading, not turning his back to the people as so many are want to phrase it.
Cardinal Ratzinger states in his book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, that with the advent of 'versus populum' the 'turned to the people' posture would lose sight of the worship to be given to the Lord and make the priest, the man, more of the focus. Unfortunately in many instances this has been the case. A priest I spoke with claims that now with the priest facing the people the worship space is closed and God is left out of the circle. There is no leading, we become closed in and self-centered, to use Cardinal Ratzinger's words. When this posture changed after Vatican Council II it was never meant to be about facing the people or centered around the priest. The discussion was brought about because of the construction in new churches that had free standing altars. Something was terribly lost in the translation of the general instruction and unfortunately God has suffered for it. Never was the priest encouraged to put his back to the Cross, he was to face the congregation at times of prayer to encourage participation, i.e. ..."now pray my brothers and sisters...".
Ironically our pastor's homily was about our reflection of the sacraments after we leave Mass. Do we convey what we believe in our everyday lives? And after attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion do we reflect the graces received in our actions toward others? All good points and something we can all ponder, but I found myself apologizing to Jesus again for our denial of Him during the Liturgy. Heaven forbid the priest should face Him instead of us, heaven forbid we miss out and not be able to see or hear what is going on. The priest reminds us of our actions after we leave the Liturgy, but what about the time spent in the presence of the Lord. Is that little head bob enough of a sign of worship or receiving Jesus on the hand and popping Him in the mouth enough to show Jesus He is really and truly present? Being dressed in our most casual attire is that another action to show Him we believe? Where is the sacrifice we are willing to make all for the glory of God?
The subject of 'ad orientem' is not debatable as far as I'm concerned, nor should we be voting on the position the priest takes at Mass. It is all about the glory and honor given to God. Until we realize it is not about us, sadly our lives will reflect our behavior toward God and all mankind for that matter.

What makes us catholic with a capital "C"?

2009-07-26T10:07:00.000-05:00

I recently received an email from one of my professors encouraging us to not miss the opportunity to learn more about the priesthood in this the designated "Year for Priests" by attending the upcoming Word of God Conference. As I read his post two things made an impression on me; (1) the designated year for priests has not been embraced with the fervor shown the designated Year of St. Paul. He was correct in his post that this year is more about learning about the ministerial priesthood than it is about praying for vocations, which should be done as well. Secondly as Catholics we don't always embrace the opportunities given to us to learn about the Sacred Traditions of our faith.

I am impressed, I must admit when someone shares with me they read their bible regularly at home, usually at night prior to bedtime. I have to say, my parents were avid readers but they did not read the bible and we were protestants. But if I were to ask that same person if they read something out of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or if they knew the Church's teaching on immigration, let's say, they might stumble for the correct words or give me the more popular secular view on immigration. Never more as this come to my attention than recently with the discussion on abortion. Remember as Catholics we are not "sola scriptura" but we have a teaching authority, the Magisterium, and much of this teaching is based on Sacred Tradition handed down in a deposit of faith that has been kept for over 2000 years.

Catholics identify themselves as Catholic because they were baptised Catholic, attend a Catholic Church and receive Holy Communion, although it's debatable as to whether they believe in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. For many, this is as far as their identity with the Catholic faith goes. We are losing our identity as Catholics because too many don't understand what the Church teaches and then when told or instructed don't accept the teaching because it doesn't go along with the main stream secular way of life they are living. Yes we all have a hard time swallowing the truth from time to time because our pride gets in the way, it's not what we want to hear. Yet if we claim to be one body in Christ, one Church, then that truth pertains to us as Catholic Christians.

My new go-to-book is the Compendium of the Catholic Church's Social Doctrine. In this day and age of politics, economics, health care and immigration it is our responsibility as Church to know what the Church teaches and the basis for that teaching. Also timely is Pope Benedict XVI's new encyclical "Caritas in Veritate". We are Catholics because we believe in the teaching of Christ and because He gave that teaching authority to the Apostles to continue His misssion. We are the Body of Christ, we must live as the Body of Christ, doing His work and continuing the Mission.

Do Catholics have a "prayer line" or a "prayer chain"?

2009-07-14T14:54:00.000-05:00

This question was posed to me the other day, a parishioner had come in to the office and wanted to know if we could advertise a "prayer line" or "prayer chain", she wasn't sure of the proper term. I thought about how I was going to phrase this and be tactful so I said, "well as Catholics we pray for one another in a communion of Saints, as Church, the term "prayer chain" is more a protestant thought". We began to discuss how we pray for one another and our prayers are joined with all the saints for the good of all the members of the Church. We have the ultimate prayer line.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it succinctly, "the communion of saints is the Church", (CCC 946). All the baptised members of the Church form the faithful body of the church with Christ as the head. We pray for one another always as Church because of that reason, we are one body. I remember when I was in R.C.I.A. and our catechist told us that in the prayers of the faithful when we pray for the Church we are all included at that moment in the prayers because that included all of us, as members of the one true body of Christ. I'll never forget how comforting that was to know. In every Mass said when the Church is prayed for I was being included. Pretty awesome!
The Catechism also reminds us that in intercession, that asking on behalf of another, is characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. It is an expression of the communion of saints, we pray not only for our own interests but also for the interests of others, even those who mean us harm. This intercession is in full participation with the intercession of Christ. (CCC 2635).
As Church it is important to remember just that, we are Church. We look out for one another and we pray for one another. We pray to Mary, Our Mother and to the saints for intercession. These are our prayer lines, let's use them.

What will the impact of Caritas in Veritate have on us and our culture?

2009-07-09T14:56:00.000-05:00

I have noticed two significant and quite polarizing news situations that have emerged before us as a society. First and foremost has been the much anticipated release of Pope Benedict's newest encyclical Caritas in Veritate, which I hope to read shortly. Second has been the buzz and fallout with the interview of Justice Ginsberg regarding the initial reason Roe v. Wade was allowed, to more or less suppress a certain aspect or culture of society, to put it as delicately as I can. Two views could not be more polarized.

Having not read the encyclical as of yet, I hesitate to comment. Having studied Catholic Social Teaching and having read the Pope's previous encyclicals, Deus Caritas Est and Spe Salvi, I feel it is safe to say he toes along the same line, the dignity and respect of the human being as made in the image and likeness of God are the foundation of what builds a society and what will continue to hold this nation together. Our economy will only stabalize once we all realize we are here for one another and not for profit. We must as a society look out for mankind. This encompasses fetuses at birth until natural death of the infirmed and elderly no longer considered productive in society. Who can determine that? Only God. It is a judgment call to say someone is productive or not, and we are not here to make judgments.

Last night at dinner, my mom and a friend of mine agreed they did not want to be burdens on their families when they got old and couldn't do for themselves any more. They both said they would "pull the plug" so to speak. So my mom says, "Debbie you have my permission to pull the plug, alright?" I looked at her and said it was not my plug to pull, only God could pull that plug when He was good and ready. Well that shut her up and she didn't say too much after that. Now my friend continued to say she would have this discussion with God when the time came, she would say, "God I know you don't believe in this but this is what I want." Now this cracked me up, we have so little regard for the omniscence of God.

The Pope is also calling on us as a society to give a helping hand to those countries that are considered not worthy because of their wealth or status as a powerful nation. That concept must begin at home, in our own neighborhoods, in our cities, our own states. I read a beautiful article today by Monsignor Guissani and he stated the same concepts that John Paul II focused on in so many of his writings. We only find completeness of self when doing for others. He says that when we witness another struggle it is natural for us, as human beings, to want to help them "with something of ours." He goes on to say that this is a need of ours that has to be met. If this need is not met we are incomplete beings. How many times has John Paul II stressed this "communio personarum", in that we are only complete human beings when freely giving the gift of self.

On the other hand Justice Ginsberg is saying, with no qualms by the way, Roe v. Wade was meant to keep a certain population from growing too large. And this is different from what Hitler did how? Now knowing that mentality it bogles the mind..... I can't even finish the thought. If we don't begin to see the worth of the tiniest human being or the oldest and sickest among us we will not begin to see the worth in others around us. They can lay their gifts at our feet and we will not recognize the blessing before us. What will become of us as a society, a nation if we continue with this disregard?

I encourage all Catholics, and non-Catholics as well, to please read the new encyclical. Think about what the Pope is asking of us as a society. And then I encourage you to read the Gospels again to see how this relates to the teaching of Christ and how we as Christians must bring this to fruition. You know it is up to us.

Has the Year of St. Paul brought any conversions of heart?

2009-06-30T08:28:00.000-05:00

And so marks the end of the Year of St. Paul. I was in Italy last year just prior to the beginning of the year dedicated to St. Paul and since then I have come to know a bit more about the man Paul. I participated in a bible study on St. Paul and I attended a lecture given by Dr. Chris Baglow about the life of St. Paul that focused on the Temple of the Holy Spirit and how our lives reflect this about us, we as temples of the Holy Spirit. Paul gave us such incredible teaching as to our being the 'body of Christ' by our participation in the Eucharist. As Catholics I still wonder how many people realize the implication of this teaching. That by taking in Jesus Christ into our bodies we become like Christ, we are temples of the Holy Eucharist. For the Israelites, the Temple in Jerusalem was the most holy place on earth because it held the Ark of the Covenant, the Word of God. The significance of what Paul was teaching was probably incredibly difficult for some Jewish people to hear, much less comprehend. There are times I want to shake some people out of their reverie for the implications of what this means for our lives.
When teaching the children about St. Paul, they can all tell me that his name was Saul and he was knocked off his horse by a blinding light and was cured and became a follower of Jesus. Sounds so simple. We have to realize that Saul was blind for three days before he experienced his "resurrection" and then truly saw the "light". I wonder what hell he descended to for those three days, what did he truly "see" before his resurrection? This is not so simple. When we experience a conversion, a metanoia or a change of heart, many of us will experience this gradually but for some it will be that God knocks us on our behinds to get our attention. When this happens do we see God working in our lives? God reveals many things to us we don't want to acknowledge. For our sakes He wants us to see our sinfulness, the ugliness in our lives before we can freely turn to God and be the person He created us to be. This conversion is truly a blessing, a miracle happening in our lives. Like St. Paul do we recognize the miracle happening in our lives? Do we recognize ourselves as 'Temples'? Sin and ugliness can be extremely painful especially when it's our own sin and pain. For God it's the struggles of our lives that make them worth living, living in Christ.

Are we prepared for our own life after death?

2009-06-26T10:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday when I heard about Ms. Fawcett's and Mr. Jackson's deaths I thought of a delightful and quite imaginative book written by Dr. Peter Kreeft called Between Heaven and Hell. It is written in dialogue prose and focuses on a conversation taking place between President John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley, who die within hours of each other in November of 1963. I wondered if Ms. Fawcett and Mr. Jackson were engaging in a similar conversation. The dialogue is philosophical in nature regarding the truth of heaven, hell and purgatory. It is quite thought provoking to say the least.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that "Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny" (CCC 1013). The Church encourages us to live our life in Christ and to prepare for our death to this earthly life and to live in the fullness of life with Christ in heaven. The question then becomes how do we prepare and are we prepared to let go of this earthly life and live in Heaven? Christ came to show us how to prepare. He was the perfect man exemplar for us. The teachings of the Church remind us of our obligation and responsibilty to live our baptismal call. It is through Baptism that sacramentally we have already "died with Christ" in order to live a new life, (CCC 1010).

There are people who believe that Faith alone will get them to heaven. Jesus taught us the corporal works of mercy and gave us the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes give us attitudes to adopt in living our vocation characteristic of the Christian life with the promise of sharing in the Kingdom of God, our just reward. This is about action, the workings of Christ, not just faith alone. Christ was all about faith and actions.

The Church teaches that heaven is the state of supreme and definitive happiness, the goal of the deepest longings of humanity (CCC 1023). Human beings are all about happiness and the perfect happiness can be found resting in the presence of the Face of God, the Beatific Vision. Whereas hell is a state of self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed. This self-exclusion is a free choice to refuse to believe and be converted from sin (CCC1033). It comes down to our choice and the choices we make in living our life here on earth. It begins here and now. Purgatory, the Church teaches, is a final purification after death for those in friendship with God, a final cleansing of human imperfection before being able to enter the perfection of heaven, (CCC 1031). I have been taught that one must walk through fire so to speak for this cleansing to take place, sounds painful to say the least.

So, what's it going to be, heaven, hell, or purgatory? God is our Judge, but the choice is up to us?

Why do priests need their own year?

2009-06-22T14:21:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Pope Benedict XVI has declared this the "Year for Priests", note: not the year of the priest. Now one might ask, why do priests need a special year set aside for them? Believe me they do! I get a lot of questions about priests and the priesthood, the most common of course being why can't priest get married?, and why can't girls be priests? Questions that will be addressed at another time when I've got more time to devote the space to a proper answer worthy of the Sacrament.

One of the things impressed on me as I studied the sacraments was the commitment it takes to one's calling in life. This is especially evident in the Sacrament of Holy Orders and Matrimony. The children will ask me if a man who is a priest decides he doesn't want to do it anymore can he quit? They ask if the Pope decides he doesn't want to be Pope anymore can he quit? It is difficult to find the words to explain to them the commitment these men have made to the Church and that this is a lifelong commitment. So many of the children come from "broken" homes and don't see commitment in their lives, they have difficulty grasping this concept. I try to impress on the children I teach that these men pray a long time about this "calling" from God and is this the right thing for them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that to be a priest is a vocation, a calling, not a "right" (CCC 1578). A man doesn't wake up one day and decide "I think I'll go apply for a job as a priest, I might like to do that". A man commits himself to service for the Lord and the Church.

Now once this decision by a man has been made to follow the Lord's call to the priesthood, Heaven help him! He is pegged. At a time when he should be supported and prayed for, lauded and celebrated, he is attacked. Much of this attack comes from the devil and well-meaning friends and family who have no earthly idea why he would want to do such a thing. So yes there needs to be set aside a year for priests because once a man does become ordained into the priesthood the attacks just keep on coming. Some attacks can be very violent and malicious, but some a quite subtle but stinging just the same.

Priests need prayers to stay committed to the sacrifice they have made. I was reminded this past weekend with the gospel story of the calming of the storm, how priests have their own storms that need calming, they are human and experience anxiety and fears just like everyone else. We need to be mindful of the commitment the priest has made to set aside time in prayer, amd his dedication to the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist. We als0 must remember he is praying for our salvation, he is committed to seeing us into heaven and he is our father and we must be obedient to him and to listen to him as we listen to our own fathers. It is difficult at times to hear the truth but our priests want only that for us, to know the truth about God and to learn the truth about what our Church has to teach us.

Please stop frequently and offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for our priests. We are blessed for the priests who have served us and for those who will come after us.

Can we love with a sacred heart?

2009-06-19T10:14:00.000-05:00

Today marks the celebration of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It has also been designated the "beginning of a "Year for Priests" in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the "dies natalis" of John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests worldwide" to quote our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

I recently took a catechesis class where the instructor made an effort to impress that we as catechists need to focus once again on the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation, 'is quite rightly considered the chief sign and symbol for that... love with which the Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings' without exception" (CCC478).

Ask any little child where Jesus is and he will tell you in his heart. Jesus poured out his divine love from the pierced human heart of his very human body. The heart has long been the symbol of love. In this instance Jesus shows his love not only for the Father but the love He has for all mankind. From this heart of Jesus poured forth the life giving sacraments of Baptism and the Precious Blood of the Eucharist. From his side came his Bride, the Church. He gave us life, our hearts beat because his most Sacred Heart made it so. Who wouldn't want to spend time in devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus? Would this devotion lead us to love with the kind of love Jesus shared, with a sacred heart? To focus on the Sacred Heart of Jesus might move us to be more forgiving, to show more kindness, to help us when we need patience with whatever task or "cross" that God brings to us.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me

Most Sacrd Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me

Do we realize the Mass is heaven on earth?

2009-06-16T12:48:00.000-05:00

I recently read Scott Hahn's The Lamb's Supper and I was fascinated with the comparisons he made between the Mass and that which was revealed to John in the Book of Revelation. Now I had been made aware of this in my liturgy class at Our Lady of Holy Cross and this peaked my interest enough to read the book, Dr. Hahn's not John's. Of course after reading Dr. Hahn's I felt compelled to read Revelation again. Which leads me to the question, how many of us enter the Mass with the notion we are in heaven? When I was a child I went with my friend to her Mass, not being Catholic, I was in awe of the beauty and glory of the liturgy. My protestant service was dull in comparison, there were no candles, incense, beautiful vestments, our meeting room was just that, a meeting room. Many years later I returned to a Mass and I was surprised to find some of the glory and beauty a little faded, so to speak. No longer did I see any incense or hear any bells ringing. The words were now in English and the people now seemed bored. They were dressed differently as well. As a child we went to that Mass in our dresses and I had to wear a veil on my head, I felt like a princess or a bride(ummm!). This time there were no veils, the girls had on shorts and jeans, no men in suits. Later I asked my friend what had happened and he said things had relaxed a little since the second Vatican Council. Well at the time I had no idea what that meant and didn't concern myself since I was not Catholic, yet.

I have come to understand many things since that time so long ago. I have come to understand that not all Masses are as lifeless as the one attended when I was older. I have attended many Masses that do seem to be heaven on earth with all the beauty and glory that was written about in Revelation. What I understand is the fact that no matter when and where a Mass is being celebrated it is Heaven on earth. The invisible reality is that there is a heavenly liturgy taking place at the moment the visible signs of the Mass on earth are taking place. The reality for us as Christians is that the moment we walk through those doors we have entered heaven. We bring our sacrifice, ourself, to the altar to offer to Christ the true and living sacrifice all our cares and woes. Now I ask you, if you are in heaven standing before the Lord what will your attitude and posture be? I wonder if people think about what the Mass re-presents and the meaning of all the words, symbols and signs(for an explanation of the incense see previous blog). People say they believe that Jesus is truly in the Sacrament at the words of consecration, but do they stop and think about the ritual that leads up to that consecration?

If you are someone thinking about this or wondering, I recommend Dr Hahn's book and then maybe you should read John's as well. Fascinating!

no questions, just news!

2009-06-12T11:37:00.000-05:00

Today it was announced that we have a new archbishop. Bishop Gregory Aymond, currently of the diocese of Austin, has been named Archbishop of New Orleans. I encourage all to pray for him and we will welcome him with open arms. Our prayers and well wishes also go out to Archbishop Alfred Hughes who has served our archdiocese through many trials and tribulations. God Bless them both as they continue in the apostolic tradition of serving our Church with their gifts and sacrifices.

What does the love of the family have to do with the Holy Trinity?

2009-06-08T10:28:00.000-05:00

As we have celebrated the Holy Trinity Sunday, I recalled this question that was posed to me one day while working on implementing our Catholic value standards. The standard reads "Live a life of loving kindness in family and community which reflects the communion of love in the mystery of the Trinity". The person asked the question how is the family connected to the mystery of the Holy Trinity. At the time I gave a very simple reply about the connection of the three persons and the love they have for one another that should be reflected in the family the same way. I was reflecting on this same issue again as I listened to the homily at Mass. It is indeed difficult for children and adults alike to wrap their heads around the concept of God being three in one. Once again we try so hard to bring God down to our level of comprehension and think we can figure Him out. But the fact is, His love is so perfect and so great He became like us to show us what true love is as the Son. Then once again loved us so great and so perfectly that He sent another perfect person, the Holy Spirit to be with us and guide us until He comes again. Well that is the love a family should be for one another. Pope John Paul II explained it beautifully in Mulieris Dignatatem and A Theology of the Body. When a man takes a wife she is the other "I" of him. They are one body now, a communion of persons. This is why the family is called the "domestic church" or ecclesia domestica. The love they share for one another, as a married couple, spills over in the creation of another person. This is the love that God has for us. He had so much love it spilled over into creation. Out of nothing He created all creatures, and then out of man He created woman, another "I" of the man. This is reflected most beautifully in the dignity of the human person, the only creature God willed for their own sake. Is that wisdom or what? The man and woman build up the Kingdom of God by building one another up in the eyes of God for the kingdom. It should be a perfect love, the love of the Trinity. And that love is shared and spills over into the community. Is this the love you share with your spouse and children? By the grace of God it is.

What is the "right" age for Confirmation?

2009-06-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

As we are celebrating the octave of Pentecost, the question comes up what is the age for Confirmation? My priest and I were having this discussion this morning. He has seen the changes take place with regard to it being done in the 8th grade as opposed to the 11th grade. I am doing preparation for 11th graders and for anyone who has dealt with this age group, it is difficult at best. Actually I can appreciate the arguments for both sides. Are we losing the kids in 11th grade because they are too consumed with the secular world and need the "armor" of the Holy Spirit prior to this age? Or is 8th grade too young for them to fully appreciate what the power of the Holy Spirit has to offer them in fighting the evils of the world? I don't think 8th grade is too young, in fact I think in this day and age we might want to catch these kids at 5th grade. Our archdiocese has a program called "Calling all 5th graders" which is designed to promote vocations to the 5th graders because studies have shown that 5th graders are the most interested in their faith and vocations at this age. Having taught 5th grade religion I can honestly say that at this age the kids are little "sponges" when it comes to information about their faith. I firmly believe we need to "armor" our children with the graces of Confirmation before they experience the evils of the secular world. The graces of the Sacrament combined with those of Reconciliation and then the Sacrament of all sacraments - Holy Eucharist, they will be forces to be reckoned with. Of course this must be combined with the love of the family as well as with the encouragement and support of the parish family, the Body of Christ. What do you think?

Did the flames burn the disciples?

2009-06-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

When discussing Pentecost the question always comes up, "did the flames burn the disciples?" My sharp witted response always is "You bet it did!" You have undoubtedly heard the phrase "on fire for the Lord", well there you go.... Fire is a powerful force. We are reminded of the flames of the burning bush, a fire that did not consume the bush but definitely got Moses' attention. The flames of the Holy Spirit were meant to do just that, get the attention of those in the upper room. It filled them with courage and conviction to go out and spread the good news, to not be afraid. We can only hope for some of that fire to burn within us as we reach out to others and spread the gospel message. It's that ignition of fire to burn in the hearts of our Confirmandi in preparation of the Sacrament so they will be just as enthused and "on fire" to go out and live the gospel. What is it that sets us "on fire" for the Lord?

*picture compliments of Fr. Z's blog "what the prayer really says"

a question of service

2009-05-25T09:38:00.000-05:00

Today is Memorial Day and I found myself pondering the question, how far are we willing to go to serve? Men called to serve our country give their lives to "serve and protect" and are proud to do so. It is so much a part of who they are and says much about them, their character and personality. The disciples who followed Jesus served him and others knowing their fate could well be that of Jesus himself, death on a cross. They were not afraid to stand up for their faith in Christ and what they knew to be the truth. This truth had become so much a part of them that to deny Christ and all He asked of them would be to deny themselves. Which brings me back to my question, how far are we willing to go to serve Christ? Are we willing to serve at all cost or only for the convenience to ourselves. Paul reminds us by our Baptism we are called to serve one another and to go and make disciples of all nations. When we are marked with the chrism oil at Baptism we are marked as children of God. Like Christ then are we willing to carry that cross to the end, no matter what the price?

the question of the 4th cup

2009-05-22T09:36:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended a talk about the 4th cup. Interestingly was the fact that this question was put to my theology professor one day in our class not long ago. I had never thought about a 4th cup before or what it signified. I was raised in a Protestant community and converted to Catholicism some 15 years ago, and had no idea what the Jewish association of a 4th cup had to do with anything. I have since been enlightened and once again am blown away by God's plan for our salvation. It turns out that the 4th cup used in the Jewish seder meal at Passover signifies the Passover being completed with the words, "It is finished". Now put your thinking caps on, where have we heard those words before? The words that Jesus speaks on the Cross after drinking the wine offered from the sponge of hyssop, the 4th cup, "It is finished" He is the Paschal Lamb of the New Covenant. The Passover into new life is complete. A coincidence, I think not. God's plan for our salvation is fully realized in Jesus. Once again we can see the New Testament revealing the mystery prophesied in the Old. I love this stuff, you can't make this up. I could go on and on but for now I leave you to ponder this incredible gift of revelation that God has given to us.

Why do we use "smoke" in Church?

2009-05-21T11:03:00.000-05:00

One of the most frequently asked questions from my second graders is why do we use incense or "smoke" in Church? They complain it smells and makes them cough. In fact I often notice many people begin to cough as soon as they see the thurible and it hasn't even been lit. The explanation is so magnificent and represents such majesty in giving glory and honor to God, I get very carried away when given the opportunity to answer this question. I hope this sheds some light on the subject. The incense reminds us of the "shekinah", the Glory Cloud of God coming down in the Temple of Jerusalem to accept the sacrifices made to God in the Temple. I remind the children of the visible signs of an invisible reality that we have learned with the sacraments. In using the incense, a visible sign, we are reminded of the sacrificial offering of Christ on the altar and God accepting the sacrifice. When the sanctuary fills with smoke from the incense it reminds us of God coming down and accepting our offering. We know that God in Heaven has come down to sit on the Glory Seat. What an incredible moment at that time of the Mass. No wonder we are bowed down in awe and prayerful worship. Aleluia!