Gift of Mercy

The entrance antiphon to begin our day states, "Do not abandon me, Lord. My God, do not go away from me! Hurry to help me, Lord, my Savior" (Ps. 37:22-23). Our God is there to help us with His great love and mercy. We have that assurance as we listen to Saint Paul's letter to the Romans. This is what Paul writes at the very beginning, "Brothers and sisters: the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you one disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all." We are truly a blessed and redeemed people. God has shown and continues to show us His unconditional love and mercy. Those are beautiful gifts that we are called to share with others. Pray that the gift of mercy and love will be ours and that we may live those gifts each day. God Bless You!!! A reminder that November 1 is a Holy Day of Obligation! Please be sure and get to church, either for the vigil Mass or the Mass of the day!

Priesthood Sunday

A blessed Priesthood Sunday to all the priests as they live their faith and service to God's people to the fullest! Of course, I include myself in this greeting as I strive each day to live this beautiful faith and vocation that God has called me to. As we mark this observance, there is a story that comes to mind. People will ask me is there anything that I can do for you Father? I can probably come up with several answers as I look over the daily duties and commitments, but there is one gift that really stands out and that is where this story comes from. When I was an associate pastor, I had the privilege to serve with two other priests, one active and one retired. The retired priest would help us out on the weekend and he loved hearing confessions. Two priests would be hearing confessions at the same time. Whenever I was in the confessional I would hear my share of confessions and then the line would stop. I would look out the door and the retired priest would still have a line and I thought, what is he doing that I am not? One Saturday afternoon, I needed to attend the Sacrament of Reconciliation so I went to this priest. He listened to me, gave me some encouraging words, and then he gave me my penance which was simply, "Pray for me!" That was it, there were no long prayers to say or do something for my neighbor, because I should already be doing that, but just that simple invitation to pray for that priest. Since then, I have given that penance to people whom I have come to know well and they say, "Are you serious?" Yes, I am serious, Pray for me!!! That is the gift that we can give to our priests, not just on Priesthood Sunday, but everyday! I am grateful for the people of God who pray for me and support me in all I do. In a special way this weekend, thank your priest for their service to the priesthood of Jesus Christ and for following God's call in their life. We are here to serve God and His people and what helps us along the way is your prayers!!! Thank You! Blessings to you all!!!

Saints Simon & Jude

The biography for our two saints today is short and to the point. "The name of Saint Simon usually appears eleventh in the list of the apostles. Nothing is known of him except that he was born in Cana and is surnamed 'the Zealot.' Saint Jude, also called Thaddeus, was the apostle who asked the Lord at the Last Supper why he was going to manifest himself only to his disciples and not to the whole world (Jn 14:22)" (Magnificat, 373-74). We hear the account of Jesus calling his disciples together, after spending the night in prayer, and calling 12 of them whom he also called Apostles, Luke 6:12-16. As I said at our daily Mass, we may not know too much about them, but we know that they were called by our Lord and were given the mission to proclaim the Good News. That is our call as well as we live in this present day. The Lord calls us to be his disciples and in doing so, we must deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him. Those early disciples and Apostles did that and we need to do the same. Let us follow the example of Saints Simon & Jude and may they intercede for us as we continue to the mission of the church that has been entrusted to us! God Bless You!!!

Staying Connected

As I write this blog, I think about the scripture passage where our Lord says that he is the vine and we are the branches. We need to stay connected to our Lord because he is the source of all life. Grace and strength comes from our connection to the vine. In his letter to the Romans, 8:31b-39, Saint Paul asks the question, "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?" To conclude his letter he writes his answer, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Is that our belief as well? If we were asked that question about what can separate us from the love of Christ, would we be able to say, like Saint Paul, "I am convinced..." We need to be firm in our confession of faith and what we believe. We might be the ones who separate ourselves from the love of Christ because of our sins, but we have the opportunity to repent, seek forgiveness, and turn back to God. Ultimately, God loves us unconditionally! He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. We live in the love of God everyday and we truly know that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ because it is always there! Bless You!!!

Celebration of Diaconate!

Today is a very special day for me! It was on this day, October 26, 15 years ago that I was ordained a deacon in the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception Church in Ferdinand, Indiana. At that time, the Archabbey Church at Saint Meinrad was undergoing extensive renovations so we needed a place to be ordained and the Benedictine Sisters were gracious in hosting us. There were seven of us ordained on that day, so Happy Anniversary to my classmates and to all of those in my class who were ordained deacons in 1996. This timeframe begins the journey towards celebrating our 15th Anniversary as priests in 2012. There are three levels in the ordained life: Bishop, Priest, Deacon. It was as a deacon that we made our commitment to celibacy and our promise of obedience. The Ordination to the Diaconate began a new page in our lives and that continues now as priests. There are many memories that I remember from that day but it is these words that have stuck with me. In fact, I printed these words and had them hanging in my room. These words come from the Presentation of the Book of the Gospels during the ordination rite: "Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach" (Catholic Rites Today, 464). Those were great words then and they still apply to my life today. I thank God for the gift of ordained life. May we always pray for one another and the commitments that God calls us to live! Have a blessed day!!!

Power of Endurance!

Sometimes I refer to myself as an "endurance biker!" That is the pedal version of biking. Endurance refers to the number of miles ridden, the elements ridden in, some of the places I have been that test your stamina: mountain biking, long distance trails, etc. In terms of Saint Paul's letter to the Romans, 8:18-25, endurance is a gift. Saint Paul is telling the Romans and us that we live in hope. "For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance." We are waiting for the coming of the kingdom of God! We wait in joyful hope and endurance for the full reality of the kingdom. Of course, we are called to build up the kingdom of God in our midst while we wait for the full kingdom to be revealed. The gifts that help us prepare for the coming of the kingdom are: faith, hope, love, endurance, and the list can go on. In the gospel, Luke 13:18-21, Jesus talks about the mustard seed and leaven as an example of the kingdom. They start out small but eventually grow and our faith and hope does the same. As the commentator states, "If we hope, like the man who confidently plants a mustard seed in the garden, then we are willing to wait with endurance" (Magnificat, 340). Let us pray for the grace to endure because all things are in God's hands and they will be revealed in His time! Blessings to you!!!

Saint Anthony Claret

We celebrate the memorial of Saint Anthony Mary Claret. Saint Anthony was born in Spain in 1807. After being ordained a priest he traveled many years through Catalonia preaching to the people. He founded a society of missionaries and, after being named a bishop in Cuba, he won renown for his pastoral zeal. He died in 1870 (Magnificat, 329). The prayer at Mass says this about Saint Anthony, "Father, you endowed Anthony Claret with the strength of love and patience to preach the Gospel to many nations" (330). Here we have the example of an evangelizing saint. Saint Anthony, as we heard, traveled many years preaching the gospel. Even in scripture, Jesus says the same thing, that he came to preach the Good News and that Good News is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The mission is still the same in our present day. Each one of us is called to be evangelizers, to proclaim the Good News, not just with words, but by our very example. People do watch to see how we live our lives, how we live our faith and we need to be a model. May the prayer that is used for Saint Anthony Claret be ours as well. Pray that God gives us the grace, strength, love, and patience that we need to preach the gospel to our brothers and sisters! God Bless You!!!