Offer It Up

Providence

2012-01-23T11:56:00.000-08:00

One of the great mysteries of the Christian faith and of life is Providence. Because it's a mystery, people over the centuries have debated the relationship between God's will and what happens in the world, between God's will and human freedom. Mysteries aren't problems to be solved and so we must humbly say that there are no definititive answers to the questions that arise when we consider God's Providence. In the end, though, and at every moment, we are faced with the questions: "Where is God in this?" and "What is God asking of me in this?"

I thought of this recently because of correspondance I've had with a friend named Tom who recently underwent open heart surgery. Before Christmas, as he was preparing for surgery, I wrote him the following:

"I often think of things like what you're facing as ways that God calls us to grow in particular virtues. Courage is one I see here and also surrender in trust. We always pray, in the Our Father, "Thy will be done," but we often say that out of habit and not really meaning it, not really thinking that God's way is the best way. Easy for me to say from this distance and not being in your shoes, but if all this (our lives, our faith) makes sense, then it has to be true."

I also recommended that he read about a man who tried to find God's will in something he never expected--being a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag. The man was Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J., and the book he wrote about his experience was "He Leadeth Me." After Christmas and before surgery Tom wrote me the following:

"I just finished reading He Leadeth Me........I am writing to express my thanks to you for recommending it. My daughter bought it for me as a Christmas present and I read it right away. What an amazing story it is! The faith he describes in the book is beyond my ability to describe but I am sure you have read it and know what I mean, I have asked Fr Ciszek to pray for me that I have a fraction of his courage & faith and if it is God's will, healing...."

Then, after his surgery and in the midst of recovery, Tom wrote me the following:

"It has been 10 days since the open heart surgery , which is hard to believe. I have been home since Sunday convalescing....The most difficult part is the pain management, at times I feel very good and cut back on the meds ,oxycodone, each time that has been mistake.....pain management & healing go hand in hand and when the pain returns it is very challenging....the surgery & subsequent wound healing has proceeded pretty well....I get vey tired and ,as I said occasionally have some very intense pain in my upper torso....Fr Jim of all the memories I will have about this whole experience and there have been many, the book He Leadeth Me is one I will never forget.....being aware of the Providence of God and its unbending goodness is such a comforting thought that i will continue to exclaim it the rest of my life."

Here are the significant passages from Fr. Ciszek's "He Leadeth Me." Though we may never understand the ways of Providence while we're on this side of eternity, that lack of understanding doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Somehow I think it was Providence and not coincidence that Tom and I met at a retreat house in Minnesota ten years ago.

“What I have tried to show in the pages of this book is how faith has affected my life and sustained me in all I experienced. That faith is the answer to the question most often asked of me (‘How did you manage to survive?’) and I can only repeat it, simply and unashamedly. To me, that truth says that God has a special purpose, a special love, a special providence for all those he has created. God cares for each of us individually, watches over us, provides for us. The circumstances of each day of our lives, of every moment of every day, are provided for us by him. Let the theologians argue about how this is so, let the philosophers and sophisticates of this world question and doubt whether it can be so; the revealed truth we have received on God’s own word says simply that it is so. But maybe we are all just a little afraid to accept it in all its shattering simplicity, for its consequences in our lives are both terrible and wonderful.

“It means, for example, that every moment of our life has a purpose, that every action of ours, no matter how dull or routine or trivial it may see in itself, has a dignity and a worth beyond human understanding. No man’s life is insignificant in God’s sight, nor are his works insignificant—no matter what the world or his neighbors or family or friends may think of them. Yet what a terrible responsibility is here. For it means that no moment can be wasted, no opportunity missed, since each has a purpose in man’s life, each has a purpose in God’s plan.”

St. Louis Marian Conference

2012-01-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I gave a retreat at White House, the Jesuit Retreat House in St. Louis. There were 77 men on the retreat, most of whom were alumni of Jesuit high schools and universities. After the retreat I moved to Bellarmine House of Studies, five houses near St. Louis University where the Jesuit scholastics live and study philosophy and theology after their novitiate. It's been a quiet and hospitable setting for me. I had all sorts of plans to visit people I know in the area but unfortunately that didn't work out.

On Wednesday I gave a talk at the local Serra Club, a group that works and prays for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. I spoke about the spirituality of offering that the Apostleship of Prayer promotes and how this can create a vocation-friendly environment in families and parishes. Ann Moloney, mother of nine who hosts a weekly radio show for moms on the local Catholic station (Covenant Radio), invited me to do an interview with her. We talked more about the spirituality of offering and how it can help busy Moms (and all of us) in the midst of daily activities which often seem to have no importance in the bigger picture but which, when united to the perfect offering of Jesus, have eternal significance. I was also able to record a 30 second spot to promote the Hearts on Fire retreat for young adults which is coming to St. Louis Feb. 24-25. Fr. Phil Hurley and the Jesuit Mission Band just returned from the Bahamas where over 50 people participated in a Hearts on Fire Retreat. They got rave reviews in the local paper.

Today the annual St. Louis Marian conference begins and I'll be giving three talks. Tonight I'll be speaking about "Fatima: the Call to Prayer and Penance." Tomorrow afternoon it will be "Pope John Paul II's Eucharistic Amazement" and on Sunday morning I'll talk about "Living a Eucharistic Life." I'm looking forward to the interaction that invariably follows giving a talk at a conference and meeting people at the table I'll have set up.

On Sunday afternoon I'll return to Milwaukee where I hear winter has also returned.

The Sacred Heart in Joliet

2012-01-06T12:21:00.001-08:00

I haven't been able to keep up with writing because of some extra responsibilities that came up during the holidays. I'm now in St. Louis (where the weather is sunny and 70 degrees!) giving a retreat to 77 men at the White House Jesuit Retreat House. On my way down I stopped to have lunch with a good Jesuit friend, Fr. John Belmonte, who is the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Joliet.

The following is from a letter he wrote informing the Diocese of a special initiative for this year:

Perfect Friendship: The Diocese of Joliet Sacred Heart Project

To teach children the Catholic faith that we ourselves have received and invite them to a lifelong friendship with Jesus Christ through His Church is our privilege as Catholic school educators. This year our diocesan schools have the opportunity to participate in a project to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The goal of this project is to introduce the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to our students, develop the devotional life of children and adults and create leadership opportunities for students and teachers.

The project will begin on Monday, October 17th, the Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and conclude on Wednesday, February 15, the Feast of St. Claude La Colombiere, both saints of the Sacred Heart. ... Bishop Conlon will conclude the project with a Mass with students at the Cathedral in which he will consecrate the diocesan schools and our students to the Sacred Heart.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a most effective means of our students living always in the company of our Lord who they meet in the Eucharist.

Last month I met with Fr. Belmonte and two of the teachers, Kathy Scholz and Ryan Wolcott, who produced a manual for this project. Their manual, which they hope to publish someday, is filled with many good age-appropriate materials for grade school students. One of the ideas was for students to create holy cards with an image of the Sacred Heart. Scattered throughout this post are copies of some of those laminated cards.

Another part of the project was to have eighth graders teach the younger children about the Sacred Heart. The following is from a story that St. Scholastica Grade School student Sonja Kukulis wrote about that experience. It appeared in the Woodridge Triblocal news website.

The main message taught was that Jesus is "all heart," and that He loves us and wants us to love Him too. We showed the students a picture of the Sacred Heart and explained it to them. Jesus is holding His heart, which is bleeding, has thorns around it, and a cross on top. All of this symbolism reminds us that Christ was willing to suffer and die for us; it also is on fire to symbolize God's light and Christ's love for us. We asked these students questions to make sure they understood what we were teaching them, and answered their questions as well. ... Each week the middle school students write one of the twelve promises that Christ gave to St. Margaret Mary. We explain how we can follow it in our lives. Students in the lower grades write about or color pictures that explain the twelve promises. At the start of every school day, we say the prayer to the Sacred Heart together. This is a great project because it teaches us about church history and helps us to grow closer to God and stronger in faith.

I'm sure that the Diocese of Joliet is going to be richly blessed by this Sacred Heart Project. May those blessings spread far beyond and touch the hearts of all!

The Christmas Dog

2011-12-25T13:09:00.001-08:00

While the Scriptures do not mention a dog at the first Christmas, it makes sense that there was one there. The shepherds probably had a dog or two to help them guard their sheep and the dog would have naturally followed them to Bethlehem. Yet, few Nativity scenes show a dog.

This year, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, Msgr. Robert Ritchie added a dog modeled after his own dog "Lexington." In fact, Demetz Art Studio in Ortisei, Italy, the same studio that carved the other figures in the Cathedral's Creche, created the Christmas dog as well.

One of my favorite places in the Holy Land is the church at Shepherd's Field. The paintings in the corners of the rounded ceilings show the various scenes of Luke 2: 8-20 where an angel appears to shepherds as they were tending their flocks and they go to Bethlehem to see the child about whom the angel had spoken. In each of the scenes there is a dog, barking at the angel

when it appears, racing off with the shepherds, and then adoring the Christ Child with them.

Here's a poem I ran across recently in a 1952 book edited by F. J. Sheed, The Book of the Saviour. It's by Sister Maris Stella and it's entitled "Christmas Carol for the Dog."

This is a carol for the dog
that long ago in Bethlehem
saw shepherds running towards the town
and followed them.

He trotted stiffly at their heels;
he sniffed the lambs that they were bringing;
he heard the herald angels sing,
yet did not know what they were singing.

With tail erect and tilted ears
he trotted through the stable door.
He saw the shepherds kneeling low
upon the floor.

He found St. Joseph watching by
Our Lady with her newborn Boy,
and being only dog, he wagged
his tail for joy.

There stationed by the Baby's crib
he kept good guard through the long night,
with ears thrown back and muzzle high
and both eyes bright.

When the three tall kings came at last
he barked a warning to each one,
then took his stand beside the Child,
his duty done.

Down into Egypt went the dog
when Herod slew the innocents.
He was not wise. He did not know
why, whither, nor whence,

but only, being dog, he knew
to follow where the Family led
to Egypt or to Nazareth.
And no one said

a word about the sharp-nosed dog
who stuck close to the Family then.
And yet, there must have been a dog.
This is a song for him. Amen.

Pope Benedict's Three Christmas Wishes

2011-12-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

On December 7 Pope Benedict used a tablet computer to light the world's largest "Christmas Tree" stretching more than 2,000 feet up the slope of Mount Ingino near Gubbio, Italy. As he did so, he shared with the world his three Christmas wishes. As we approach the birthday of our Savior, let's make these three wishes our own as well.

Before lighting the tree, I would like to express three wishes. … Looking at it, our gaze is naturally drawn upwards, toward heaven, toward the world of God. My first wish, therefore, is that our gaze, that of our minds and our hearts, not rest only on the horizon of this world, on material things, but that in some way, like this tree that tends upward, it be directed toward God. God never forgets us but he also asks that we don’t forget him. The Gospel recounts that, on the holy night of Christ’s birth, a light enveloped the shepherds, announcing a great joy to them: the birth of Jesus, the one who brings us light, or better, the one who is the true light that illuminates all. …

My second wish is that this reminds us that we also need light to illumine the path of our lives and to give us hope, especially in this time in which we feel so greatly the weight of difficulties, of problems, of suffering, and a veil of darkness seems to surround us. But what light can truly illuminate our hearts and give us a firm and sure hope? It is the child whom we contemplate on holy Christmas, in a poor and simple manger, because he is the Lord who draws near to each of us and asks that we receive him anew in our lives, ask us to want him, to trust in him, to feel that he is present, that he is accompanying us, sustaining us and helping us.

But this great tree is made up of many lights. The final wish I’d like to make is that each of us carry a little bit of light into the environments in which we live: our families, our jobs, our neighborhoods, towns and cities. May each of us be a light for those who are at our sides; may we leave aside the selfishness that so often closes hearts and leads one to think only of oneself; may we pay a little greater attention to others, give them a little more love. Each small gesture of goodness is like one of the lights of this great tree: Together with the other lights it is able to illuminate the darkness of the night, even the darkest ones.

And from the Apostleship of Prayer in the United States: A Blessed and Happy Christmas to all!

More Magis Reflections

2011-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

Here are the last three of the daily reflections that I wrote for the Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

We are made for union with God. We are made for a spousal relationship with God. In the Song of Songs and the Prophets of the Old Testament, we find this truth in vivid terms like the following verse from Isaiah 54: 5: “For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the Lord of hosts….”

This goal of human existence begins to find its realization in the Eucharist. It is there that the union between each individual and the Lord is most closely attained on this side of eternity. There the Church is formed. St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, taught about marriage by quoting from the book of Genesis: “For this reason a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Then Paul goes on to say, “This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church” (5: 31-32). Marriage is sacred because it reveals something of the intimate union that Christ has with the Church and with each of her members. It is a union that transforms. As Pope Benedict said in his final homily at World Youth Day 2005: “The Body and Blood of Christ are given to us so that we ourselves will be transformed in our turn. We are to become the Body of Christ, his own Flesh and Blood.” The two—Christ and each one who receives him in the Eucharist—become one flesh.

This is another way of viewing the “First Principle and Foundation” in the Spiritual Exercises and it is what answers a question that arises from today’s Gospel (Luke 7: 24-30): how can it be that “the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than” John the Baptist? John, the great Forerunner and Martyr-Witness to the Messiah, did not have the privilege of the union that we have every time we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Can we ever be sufficiently grateful for this privilege?

Friday, December 16, 2011

Jesus called John the Baptist “a burning and shining lamp” (John 5:35). The Lord calls you to be like John, to be a lamp that “shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5: 16).

You are called to burn with the love of the Sacred Heart which Jesus revealed to St. Margaret Mary, saying: “My divine Heart is so passionately fond of the human race, and of you in particular, that it cannot keep back the pent-up flames of its burning charity any longer. They must burst out through you.” To be on fire with the burning love of God requires you to draw near to the Heart of Jesus. It means being a “burning” lamp that is fed by the oil of the Holy Spirit who prays with you and within you. It means especially becoming one with the Sacred Heart that is given to you in the Eucharist.

You are also called to shine. Jesus called himself “the Light of the world” (John 8:12) and as he unites himself to you he calls you to be light as well (Matthew 5: 14). The light of a “shining lamp” is very humble. You don’t light a lamp and then stare at it. A lamp is lit not to draw attention to itself but to help people find their way. So it is with you. You are to be the light of the world in order to show people the way to the final destination for which God created the human race—heaven.

According to St. Ignatius, the goal of his Spiritual Exercises, and indeed the goal of all prayer, is to help us seek and find “the will of God in the disposition of our life for the salvation of our soul” (#1). It is God’s will that you be one with him forever in the Kingdom of Heaven. Through prayer you are united one day at time with this loving will of God that fills you with warmth and light, that makes you “a burning and shining lamp” that will guide others to the Lord just as St. John the Baptist did.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

We begin today the final days of preparation for Christmas with the “O Antiphons” (found in antiphon for Mary’s Magnificat at Vespers and in the Alleluia verse at Mass). We also have the Genealogy of Jesus according the Matthew. Besides giving us the human origins of the Messiah, it reminds us of the Providence of God which, in St. Paul’s words, can “make all things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8: 28).

The Genealogy does not paint a pretty picture. It includes a number of kings who led Israel away from God to the worship of idols. It also includes the names of four women, an unusual addition in the genealogies of the time. The childless and widowed Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute in order to have intercourse with her father-in-law Judah. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth was a foreigner. And Bathesheba was the unfortunate recipient of King David’s attention, leading to his committing adultery with her and orchestrating her husband’s death.

The Genealogy or Family Tree of Jesus included sinners in need of mercy and healing. This shouldn’t be surprising since it was to save sinners that Jesus took flesh and came into the world. Or, as St. Ignatius puts it in his contemplation on the incarnation, the “Three Divine Persons look down upon the whole expanse or circuit of all the earth, filled with human beings. Since They see that all are going down to hell, They decree in Their eternity that the Second Person should become man to save the human race” (#102).

In this final of Advent, imagine the Blessed Trinity looking out over the world. Out of love for lost humanity, God sent the Son to live and die and rise for your salvation. He wants you to be filled with “an intimate knowledge” of His love so that you may “love Him more and follow Him more closely” (#105) and in this way to continue the work of salvation.

Magis Reflections

2011-12-13T06:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some more reflections, for today and tomorrow, that I did for the Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality. While I was able to put in a word for St. Lucy today, I regret that I didn't say anything about one of my favorite Carmelite saints, St. John of the Cross, whom we celebrate tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Several years ago a radio station took a survey and asked listeners to call and answer the question: “Is love a feeling or a decision?” Almost 90% called to say that love is a feeling.

St. Ignatius would say that love is more than a feeling and it’s more than a decision. The second son in today’s Gospel (Matthew 21: 28-32) decided to work in his father’s vineyard and said he would do so, but didn’t actually go. The first son decided not to go and said so but in the end changed his mind and went. Who fulfilled the will of the father? Clearly the first son. Who, can it be said, loved the father more? While both would perhaps declare their love for the father it was the first son who proved that love by his deeds. As St. Ignatius wrote in the Spiritual Exercises, at the beginning of the “Contemplation to Attain the Love of God”: “love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words.”

This is the way God, whom St. John wrote is Love (see 1 John 4: 8 and 16), operates. God, as St. Paul wrote, “proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5: 8). The Son of God took flesh and offered his flesh on the cross for the salvation of the world. The Light of the world entered into its darkness and calls each of us to be one with him, sharing in the light and being light for the world (see Matthew 5: 14-16).

Today we honor a virgin-martyr of the early Church, St. Lucy, whose very name means Light. Like Lucy we must be lights for our world of darkness, but we are only able to be such in so far as we grow in union with the Light, in so far as we love God and our neighbor in deed and not just in words or feelings.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The disciples of John the Baptist approached Jesus and asked him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” In other words, “Who are you?” Jesus answered by telling them to report what they had “seen and heard,” what they had experienced. What about you? How do you answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” Do you rely on what others have said or taught, or can you report what you have “seen and heard” of Jesus in your own experience? This is the goal of Ignatian contemplation: to not just think about Jesus as you read the Gospel stories but to meet and experience him there. Imagining the Gospel scenes and putting yourself into the scene, conversing with the various figures, can help you to know the Lord in a deeper way so that you can answer the question “Who is Jesus?” from personal experience rather than from what others have said.

Pope Benedict made a similar distinction in his Wednesday Audience of October 8, 2008. He said:

Only with the heart does one truly know a person. Indeed, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were externally acquainted with Jesus, they learned his teaching and knew many details about him but they did not know him in his truth. … On the other hand, the Twelve, thanks to the friendship that calls the heart into question, have at least understood in substance and begun to discover who Jesus is. This different manner of knowing still exists today: there are learned people who know many details about Jesus and simple people who have no knowledge of these details but have known him in his truth: "Heart speaks to heart".

Old St. Joseph's Church

2011-12-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

I've been having a busy Advent. On the First Sunday of Advent I was still in Rome for the meeting of the International Advisory Council of the Apostleship of Prayer. Last weekend I was in Alhambra, California at Sacred Heart Retreat House for their annual Advent Retreat. And this weekend I'm preaching at all the Masses at Old St. Joseph's Church in Philadelphia. I'm here to lead a parish mission which begins this evening.

Today, at 5 P.M., we'll celebrate Vespers for this Gaudete Sunday. My talk is entitled "Heart Calls to Heart: Deepening Our Personal Relationship with Jesus." Tomorrow evening at 7:15, in the context of an Advent Reconciliation Service, I'll talk about "Meeting the Merciful Heart of Jesus." On Tuesday we will close the mission with Exposition and Benediction and a talk entitled "Take, Lord, Receive: Living a Eucharistic Life."

Old St. Joseph's Church is the Jesuit church in Philadelphia and its oldest Catholic church. It was built in an alleyway at a time in U.S. history when most of the original 13 colonies did not allow Catholics to practice their faith.

Periodically the Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality asks me to write a daily reflection for their subscribers. Below I've included my brief reflections for today and tomorrow.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

“Pray without ceasing.” Thus wrote St. Paul and over the centuries people have tried to figure out how to do this. For some, primarily in the Eastern Churches, it has meant praying “The Jesus Prayer”: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Or simply, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” uniting each phrase with one’s breath.

The Apostleship of Prayer encourages another approach—the Morning Offering. Here’s how the great Jesuit Fr. Walter Ciszek, whose cause for beatification has been opened, described this prayer in the account of his imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag and exile, He Leadeth Me:

In my opinion the Morning Offering is still one of the best practices of prayer—no matter how old-fashioned some may think it. For in it, at the beginning of each day, we accept from God and offer back to him all the prayers, works, and sufferings of the day, and so serve to remind ourselves once again of his providence and his kingdom. If we could only remember to spend the day in his presence, in doing his will, what a difference it would make in our own lives and the lives of those around us! We cannot pray always, in the sense of those contemplatives who have dedicated their whole lives to prayer and penance. Nor can we go around abstracted all day, thinking only of God and ignoring our duties to those around us, to family and friends and to those for whom we are responsible. But we can pray always by making each action and work and suffering of the day a prayer insofar as it has been offered and promised to God.

The Morning Offering, combined with an Examen or Evening Review of the day we have offered, can help us to seek and find God in all things, in all the people and events of our daily lives. In this way we better able to “pray without ceasing.”

Monday, December 12, 2011

Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Viva! Today we honor our Blessed Mother under her title “Our Lady of Guadalupe” and we remember how in December, 1531 she appeared to a humble Indian, St. Juan Diego, and gave him a miraculous image of herself as proof for the bishop of her appearance. The image, on material that should have disintegrated long ago, can be seen today in Mexico City.

When she appeared to Juan, she affectionately called him “Juanito” or “Johnny,” and said:

Know for certain, smallest of my children, that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God through whom everything lives, the Lord of all things near and far, the Master of heaven and earth. I am your merciful Mother, the merciful mother of all of you who live united in this land, and of all humanity, of all those who love me. Hear and let it penetrate your heart, my dear little one. Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart, or your face. Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need? Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain.

St. Ignatius had a deep love for the Blessed Virgin Mary and he often turned to her when he needed special help. He recommends the same to us during key meditations in the Spiritual Exercises. As Jesus could not refuse his mother’s request at Cana (see John 2: 1-11), so, St. Ignatius was convinced, that if we go to Jesus with his mother and then with Jesus and Mary to the Father, we will receive what we need.

On Fire with the Love of God

2011-12-03T17:31:00.000-08:00

The prayers at today's Mass in honor of the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier speak of fire and zeal and longing. The Collect or Opening Prayer asks that "the hearts of the faithful may burn with the same zeal for the faith" that burned in the heart of Francis Xavier. The Prayer over the Offerings reminds us that this missionary "journeyed to distant lands out of longing for the salvation of souls." Finally, the Prayer after Communion asks that the mysteries just celebrated may "kindle in us that fire of charity with which Saint Francis Xavier burned for the salvation of souls."

What was the source of this ardent zeal and longing for the salvation of every soul, every person? It was Francis Xavier's awareness of God's love for him and for all. It was the love of God revealed in Jesus whose heart, as we hear in today's Gospel from Matthew, "was moved with pity" for the crowds who followed him. Through the "Spiritual Exercises" of his closest friend, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Francis was captured by the love of God. His heart was set on fire and he could not keep the fire within but had to spread it to India, the Islands of the East, and Japan. On this day in 1552, on an island just off the coast of China where he hoped to spread the Gospel, Francis died.

Through Baptism we are called to be missionaries as well. We may not be called to leave home to evangelize people who have never heard of Jesus. We are certainly called to pray and offer sacrifices for the work of evangelization in the manner of St. Francis Xavier's co-patron of the missions, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. We can only do this if we, like St. Francis Xavier and St. Therese, are so captured by the love of God that we cannot keep the knowledge of this love to ourselves. With hearts on fire with the longing of the Heart of Jesus for the salvation of all people, we offer ourselves one day at a time for the salvation of souls.

On this day in 1844, a group of Jesuit seminarians who were on fire with the desire to be missionaries, were challenged to follow that call immediately by making an offering of themselves and their day for the spread of the Gospel. This was the beginning of the Apostleship of Prayer. Happy Feast and Happy Anniversary!

Last Night in Rome

2011-11-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

In an hour I'll be meeting a Jesuit who is one of the spiritual directors at the North American College, the place where U.S. seminarians live as they study here in Rome. It will be my first visit there and we'll celebrate Vespers with the community and have supper.

My meetings this week with the Advisory Council of the Apostleship of Prayer went well and were clearly guided by the Holy Spirit. From beginning to end I sensed the prayer support of many people from around the world. We basically began working on a strategic plan for the Apostleship. We were able to work on a mission statement, some objectives, and some practical ways that we will work to realize those objectives. One of the things that makes this a difficult task is the diversity of the Apostleship. In Latin America it takes the form of a more traditional membership model, something that is also true in the Philippines where members wear a special Sacred Heart scapular for meetings and when they attend Mass in their parishes. It is also very visible and growing tremendously in Africa. In Europe and the U.S. it seems to have taken on a form that is modeled less on societies with membership lists and more on groups that are connected via the internet. The beginning of the mission statement that we worked on captures both of these realities: "The Apostleship of Prayer, entrusted by the Holy See to the Society of Jesus, is a worldwide network of prayer that helps people find hope and meaning in their lives by leading them to a deep, personal and trusting relationship with the risen Christ."

Last Monday, before our meetings began, I was able to visit St. Peter's Basilica and the tomb of Blessed John Paul II, as well as to buy some souvenirs. I had "Pranzo," the large midday meal, with Cardinal Raymond Burke, a great friend of the Apostleship of Prayer who always includes our annual leaflet in his Christmas cards. Our meetings began on Tuesday and I was busy with those through Saturday when we met with Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, the General of the Jesuits and Director General of the Apostleship. On Saturday night we went to a place that figures into Jesuit history--La Storta--where St. Ignatius had a vision of the Father placing him with the Son who was carrying His cross. He heard the words, "I will be propitious to you in Rome." As we celebrated Mass in this tiny chapel, we offered our work to the Father with the Son, praying that the Holy Spirit would continue to guide us and the Apostleship of Prayer around the world. We were grateful that God had been so "propitious" to us during our meetings.

Touring Rome

2011-11-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Rome yesterday and spent the afternoon touring some of the places that I wasn't able to visit on my first trip here in February, 2010. It was a long walk from the Jesuit Curia, which is right next to St. Peter's Square, to the first church I visited--the Basilica of Saint Mary Major or Santa Maria Maggiore. This church figures into Jesuit history because St. Ignatius, when he wasn't able to get to the Holy Land to celebrate his first Mass, came to this church for that celebration because there is a relic of the manger of Jesus here.

On the way to the next Church I wanted to see--the Basilica of St. John Lateran--I stopped at the Church of St. Alphonsus Liguori where the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is venerated. St. John Lateran is the Pope's church, his cathedral where his "chair" or "cathedra" is located. I also discovered that it is the largest church in Rome. Perhaps you're thinking--but what about St. Peter's Basilica? Yes, that's larger but, strictly speaking, it's located in Vatican City, not in the city of Rome.

Lastly, I walked to the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem or Santa Croce. There are numerous relics of Christ's Passion there: pieces of the Cross of Jesus, one of the nails, two of the thorns, the board which Pilate had placed on the Cross declaring Jesus' crime, and a large piece of the cross on which the Good Thief hung. There is also the bone of the index finger of St. Thomas the Apostle who touched the wounds of Jesus with this finger and came to believe in the resurrection.

But after seeing these relics, a great surprise awaited me. In Santa Croce there is also the tomb of little Nennolina, a six year old Italian girl whose cause for canonization was opened a few years ago. I'd heard about her and so coming upon her resting place was a good surprise. This heroic girl was diagnosed with bone cancer when she was five and in time had to have a leg amputated. She made an offering of her sufferings and wrote letters to Jesus that are quite remarkable. Coming upon her tomb was the highlight of my day. It's one thing to visit churches, the beautiful buildings filled with history. It's another thing to come upon a holy "living stone" who is a special part of the Church, the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints.

Prayer

2011-11-16T13:18:00.000-08:00

I got back yesterday afternoon from my annual eight-day retreat which I spent alone in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin. I basically had no interaction with people and was able to walk on the trails of Peninsula State Park. I also immersed myself in the Gospels. I felt called to focus my retreat this year on the life and teaching of Jesus and my spiritual director affirmed that before I left for my retreat.

As supplementary reading to the Gospels, I picked up parts of the first volume of Pope Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth" where I found some interesting observations about prayer. Chapter 5 is a reflection on the prayer of Jesus, the Our Father. In the preface to his reflections on the actual parts of the Our Father, Pope Benedict writes:

God addresses every individual by a name that no one else knows, as Scripture tells us (cf. Rev 2: 17). God's love for each individual is totally personal and includes this mystery of a uniqueness that cannot be divulged to other human beings.

In other words, each of us is a unique individual and though we share a common human nature we relate to God in unique and very personal or individual ways. I like to put it these two ways: 1) there's a place in God's Heart made just for you and just for me; 2) each of us gives God a delight or pleasure that no other human being can give God.

Pope Benedict goes on to say:

We are all familiar with the danger of reciting habitual formulas while our mind is somewhere else entirely.

So often people ask me how to get over distractions in prayer. I usually respond with "Welcome to the club!" Isn't it consoling to know that the Holy Father writes about being familiar with distractions?

Then he goes on to talk about prayer as relationship and as the foundation of life.

Most importantly, though, our relationship with God ... should be present as the bedrock of our soul. In order for that to happen, this relation has to be constantly revived and the affairs of our everyday lives have to be constantly related back to it. The more the depths of our souls are directed toward God, the better we will be able to pray. The more prayer is the foundation that upholds our entire existence, the more we will become men of peace. The more we can bear pain, the more we will be able to understand others and open ourselves to them. This orientation pervasively shaping our whole consciousness, this silent presence of God at the heart of our thinking, our meditating, and our being, is what we mean by "prayer without ceasing." ... This is what prayer really is--being in silent inward communion with God. it requires nourishment, and that is why we need articulated prayer in words, images, or thoughts. The more God is present in us, the more we will really be able to be present to him when we utter the words of our prayers.

In these words I find two approaches to prayer. One is the necessity of spending some quality time with God. This is what a retreat is; it's what a daily period of personal prayer is. This is the "nourishment" that our relationship, our communion with God requires. But we also need a time of prayer in which "the affairs of our everyday lives" are related back to God. This is the Examen or Evening Review or Examination of Consciousness. Through this prayerful review of the day we look back at what we said we were going to offer to God when we began the day with our Morning Offering. We look not only at what we offered to God but what God offered to us--how God was present in the events and people of our day; how God was speaking to us throughout our day. We can in this way "pray without ceasing" because God is present in every moment of our day. The more attuned we become to God's presence there in the moments of our day, the better we will be able to listen and the deeper we will grow in our relationship with God.

God's GPS

2011-11-05T19:56:00.000-07:00

I happened to read a passage from Deuteronomy today and thought of a GPS. Since getting a Garmin GPS to help me in my travels last year, I've been pretty impressed. It certainly was very helpful to me when I had to maneuver around the freeway system of Los Angeles. Here's the passage from Deuteronomy 30: 11-14:

For this command which I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, "Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?" Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?" No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.

One way of thinking of "this command" in the passage is as the conscience which is part of every human person. Every person has an innate sense of right and wrong, of fairness. One boy hits another on the playground and the one who has been struck demands the opportunity to hit back to make it all "even-steven." There is an innate sense of the need for balance. Or if either sex is shown favoritism by a teacher in grade school, the other sex cries out that it is "unfair." These are not lessons that they learned from adults but a basic sense of fair play. It comes from their conscience.

St. Paul recognizes this as well in his Letter to the Romans, Chapter 2. In verse 14 he recognizes that Gentiles can "observe the prescriptions" of God's law "even though they do not have the law," even though they have never been taught the law. "They show the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them..." (verse 15).

Our conscience is an internal GPS guiding us in the right direction. But, as Paul indicates, our thoughts and desires can come into conflict with our conscience. We can then choose a path different from the one this God-given GPS indicates. Our conscience, if it is well formed, will protest "Recalculating!" It will try to get us back on track, going in the right direction. Tired of listening to our conscience, we might choose to turn it off.

Besides this spiritual GPS, God gives us two other helps for our journey through life to the goal of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. One is the Son, Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (see John 14: 6). He is the Truth about what it means to be a human being and the Way that leads to Life. He is the map that lays out the best path to follow to God's desired destination for us--heaven. We not only follow his teachings which guide us on our journey but we have him present with us in the Eucharist. He unites himself to us so that together we will take the best path.

The other help that we have is the Holy Spirit whose name, Paraclete (see John 14: 16), has many meanings including Guide. With such divine help, we have even more than a spiritual GPS. We have a power that not only points us in the right direction but also, as it were, takes the wheel with us. United to Jesus in Holy Communion and filled with the Holy Spirit, we do not drive alone but God is holding the wheel steady and helping us drive when we feel lost or too tired to continue.

Our conscience. Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit. God is doing everything possible to make sure we don't get off track on our journey through life. We just have to be humble enough to accept the help.

International Meeting and Renewal Process

2011-11-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

I'm scrambling to get ahead in my work of web and radio reflections because I have a couple long trips this month. From November 8 to 15 I will be away from the office making my annual retreat. After giving many retreats throughout the year it's time to make my own retreat.

Then, from November 20 to 28 I'll be in Rome for a meeting of an international advisory council of the Apostleship of Prayer that was formed a few years ago. The General Superior of the Jesuits, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, is the Director General of the Apostleship but he has a delegate who coordinates our work, Fr. Claudio Barriga. I am joined on his advisory council by the following Jesuits: Fr. Frederic Fornos (national secretary/director for France and coordinator of European directors); Fr. Rigobert Kyungu (secretary/director for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and coordinator of African directors); and Fr. Juan Antonio Medina (secretary/director for Uruguay and coordinator of Latin American directors).

In anticipation of the meeting, Fr. Barriga has asked us to invite people to pray a special prayer for both the meeting and our ongoing work of the renewal of the Apostleship of Prayer throughout the world. Here is that prayer:

Prayer for the Renewal of the Apostleship of Prayer

Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
about 160 years ago
you started a fire
in the hearts of men and women
that has spread all over the world.

They burned to tell your Good News,
to spread your gospel of love to all humanity.
Touching their hearts to the Heart of your Son,
you made them Apostles through Prayer.
You gave them to serve
the mission of your Church
in the heart of the world.

Today we men and women
of the Apostleship of Prayer
are still on fire with your love.
We still long to respond to the thirst
of our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Take, Lord, and receive our lives.
Blaze up in us again,
make us docile to your Spirit.
May the worldwide mission of prayer
you have entrusted to us
bring your loving presence
today as yesterday
deep into the heart of humanity.

The Spirit of Jeanne Jugan

2011-10-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

I'm finishing my retreat with the Little Sisters of the Poor whose foundress was canonized in 2009. St. Jeanne Jugan, also known as Sister Mary of the Cross, was born in France in 1792. We celebrated her birthday yesterday with special prayers at Mass and a birthday cake for dinner. Her spirituality includes the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart devotion of St. John Eudes whose congregation for lay women--the Third Order of the Admirable Mother--she joined. She was also deeply influenced by the Brothers of St. John of God who cared for the sick and took a vow of hospitality in addition to the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. After caring for a homeless elderly woman, even going so far as to giving up her own bed, she was joined by others who wanted to help and by 1847 they had started four houses for the elderly poor. By 1851 there were 300 Sisters serving more than 1,500 people in 15 houses. Blessed Pius IX approved them as a religious congregation in 1854. Today the Little Sisters of the Poor keep the spirit of their foundress alive in 32 countries on 5 continents.

When the canonization of Jeanne Jugan was announced, Francis Cardinal George, then president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said: "As the Church anticipates the canonization of Jeanne Jugan ... we might recall the words of Pope John Paul II at her beatification: 'God could glorify no more humble a servant than she!' The quiet but eloquent radiance of her life continues to shine out in the lives of the Little Sisters of the Poor today.... These residences are icons of mercy where Christ is welcomed and served in the elderly poor with the utmost respect for their dignity."

Last Sunday, Saints John and Paul Parish in Larchmont, NY blessed an icon of St. Jeanne Jugan and began a new ministry called "Family Jeanne Jugan." I've always thought that our local parishes should be places where people care for one another's needs. When people find themselves in need the first place that they should think of looking for help should be their parish. This would give tremendous witness to the world: "See how they love one another." Taking their inspiration from St. Jeanne Jugan, who gave up her own room and bed to help a poor woman, this Larchmont parish has committed itself in the following way:

"We will identify the elderly among us who are most in need. These individuals will then be matched with three volunteer families who will coordinate assisting with doctor visits, weekly errands and attendance at Mass, or Communion in the home. Together, these families and seniors will form a small community rooted in Trinitarian Love."

May this new initiative bear good fruit and inspire many others to follow the example of this parish and the Little Sisters as they reverence the dignity of people whom society at large is increasingly viewing as burdens.

Apostle of Prayer Canonized

2011-10-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Blessed Luigi Guanella is being canonized in Rome today. When he was a seminarian he enrolled in the Apostleship of Prayer which he saw as the perfect way to live out his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Mass readings for today, the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, are perfect for this great event. In the Gospel (Matthew 22: 34-40), Jesus gives the Great Commandment: "You shall love the Lord, your God, will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus tells us to love as God has loved us--completely. God has not only given us everything--our life and health, our talents and gifts--he has also given us his very self in giving us his Son Jesus who shared our life with its joys and sorrows. Jesus gave his life for us on the cross, offering everything for our salvation. This offering becomes present in every celebration of Mass where Jesus gives us everything of himself--his body and blood, soul and divinity, and his heart. Knowing this, our response is to love as God has loved us--totally, loving with our heart, soul, and mind, with our entire self.

Loving God so totally means that we will love what God loves. And what God loves is humanity, all his children, our brothers and sisters. Having received the heart of Jesus in Holy Communion, our hearts are moved as the heart of Jesus was moved when he saw those in need.

Matthew's Gospel speaks of the heart of Jesus being moved several times:

Matthew 9: 36 "At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd."

Matthew 14: 14 "When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick."

Matthew 15: 32 "Jesus summoned his disciples and said, 'My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way.'"

As the heart of Jesus was moved with pity for the crowds of people--poor, hungry, abandoned, troubled, disabled--so was the heart of Fr. Luigi Guanella. That makes sense. Totally in love with God, he shared God's love for those who were most abandoned by their families and society. The Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and the Servants of Charity now carry on Fr. Guanella's work.

Congratulations to them on the occasion of their founder's canonization! The Apostleship of Prayer shares the joy that one of its own has attained this glory. The recognition of Fr. Luigi's holiness and his powerful intercession inspires us to follow his example.

For more about St. Luigi Guanella, see this earlier post.

The Fire of God

2011-10-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

In today's Gospel (Luke 12: 49-53) Jesus, the Prince of Peace, says he has come not to bring peace but division. How are we to understand this paradox? In light of what Jesus said right before this: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!"

When God appeared to Moses (Exodus 3: 1-10) it was as fire, in the form of a bush that was on fire but not consumed. Yet, the fire of God does consume. According to Hebrews 12: 29, "our God is a consuming fire." What does God consume? Sin. All that is not worthy of him. All that is not holy. The fire of God is a consuming and purifying fire. We see this as well in 1 Corinthians 3: 10-17. Paul declares that we must build our lives on the one foundation--Jesus Christ. But the "stuff" of our lives, the materials with which we make our lives, have different qualities. Some of what we make of our lives is lasting and some of it is not worthy of God. At the end of our lives the fire of God's love will reveal what we've made of our lives and will purify them. As Paul puts it: "It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each one's work. ... But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire."

This is the fire Jesus came to cast on the earth--the fire of God's love. It is a fiery love that, in the words of Peter Kreeft, philosophy professor and popular author, "forgives sinners and destroys sins." For this reason, it is a love that divides, separating sinners from their sins and those who cling to their sins from those who seek to rid themselves of sin and seek God's mercy.

Ultimately, this fire is the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Thief

2011-10-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've heard that the earliest known image of Jesus depicts him as the Good Shepherd. Today's Gospel (Luke 12: 39-48) gives a very different image of Jesus. After warning his disciples that "if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into," he goes on to talk about the Son of Man coming "at an hour you do not expect." Like many of the parables which are designed to startle us into deeper reflection, so this comparison which Jesus makes is shocking.

Yet many people do think of God as a thief. There is a tendency to think of our lives as our own, not God's. Our gifts and talents and hard-earned possessions are our own, not God's. We see death as God stealing what is rightfully ours. The reality is that everything we are and have belongs to God. This was the meaning of last Sunday's Gospel (Matthew 22: 15-21). Jesus says to give the Roman coin back to the one whose image is on it and to give "to God what belongs to God." We who are made in the image and likeness of God and bear that image belong to God, not ourselves.

Our lives are a series of exercises in letting go. We practice surrender, preparing for the ultimate surrender when God will ask of us our very lives. Our practice of making a daily offering can help us. What also helps is the example of saints, like the North American Jesuit Martyrs whom we honor today, or St. Jeanne Jugan.

I'm giving a retreat to 17 Little Sisters of the Poor at their retreat house and summer vacation facility for seniors in Flemington, NJ. St. Jeanne Jugan, their foundress, was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2009. When Blessed John Paul II beatified her in 1982, he said: "Jeanne invites all of us, and I quote here from the Rule of the Little Sisters, to share personally in the beatitude of spiritual poverty, leading to that complete dispossession which commits a soul to God."

"Complete dispossession." This is not something we like to hear. In our "super-sizing" age where "more is better", St. Jeanne Jugan, like the Gospel, is counter-cultural. We tend to fool ourselves, thinking that we are in control. The reality is that God is God and we are not. We are God's creatures and beloved children. We and all we have belong to God.

Autumn Thoughts

2011-10-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

The weather in Milwaukee has been spectacular the past week, with sunny days and temperatures in the 70’s. Yesterday I had the chance to get out and enjoy the beauty of Autumn. I’m always thrilled to see the colors of the leaves made even more brilliant by the sun and silhouetted against a clear and deep blue sky.

There’s a paradox in all this. What makes us appreciate the beauty of these days is that it won’t last. The splendor these days is passing as Winter lurks around the corner.

You have to wonder: would we appreciate the beauty of an Autumn day if every day were sunny and every tree painted in these brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds? I don’t think so.

There’s a song by Warren Barfield, a contemporary Christian artist, which captures this truth. It’s called “Beautiful Broken World” and it begins with this verse:

Wonderfully arrayed on a bright autumn day
The leaves set the trees ablaze
I’m sitting here beneath
This decaying canopy
Sunlight sifting through the shade
It won’t be long
Until they’re gone away
That’s the price we pay

Then the chorus goes like this:

In this beautiful broken world
We laugh and then we cry
There’s a wonderful pain and joy
In death and in life

What makes life and its beauties so precious and something to be valued is the fact that it isn’t forever. As the bridge of the song goes:

Would the day still be as sweet
If it had no end

And the answer is “no.” It wouldn’t. Life in this “beautiful broken world” is precious and sweet because it doesn’t last forever.

As the trees let go of their leaves, so each one of us, in different ways and at different times, must let go of one thing or person after another until finally we let go of life itself.

We let go in order to be given more than we could hope for or imagine. In heaven we won’t have to let go and yet it won’t be boring. There, we believe, everything is more beautiful that the most beautiful Autumn day. Though it will be eternal, Heaven won’t be boring because it will be eternal not as a succession of one day after another, each one just like the last; rather the eternity of heaven will be an eternal “now,” a moment that lasts forever. We can’t imagine that because we time-bound creatures cannot conceive of life outside of time. The closest we can come is to savor the present moment—the “bright autumn day” with “the trees ablaze”—and remember… this is an hors d’oeuvre of the Heaven Banquet.

No Limits to God's Mercy

2011-10-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast day of St. Faustina, the Apostle of Divine Mercy. When Jesus appeared to her in the 1930's, he told her that his greatest attribute was mercy. His mercy, like his love, is infinite. The only limit to it is the one we place on it. In other words, God is always ready to forgive and even sends graces to move our hearts to return to him. We limit God's mercy in our own lives and in those of others by our refusal to receive mercy and to give mercy.

The Mass readings today underscore this. The Prophet Jonah is angry that God has forgiven his enemies after he fulfilled God's command to warn them that their sins were leading them to destruction. God shows Jonah that he wants to forgive and not destroy, that he is "concerned" over the more than 120,000 people "who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left." In other words: people who were never taught right from wrong, or who were taught it but really did not understand. They were like those who crucified Jesus and for whom he prayed: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

In the Gospel (Luke 11: 1-4) Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, calling upon God as Jesus himself did: "Father". God is the one Father whose human children made in his own image and likeness must forgive one another as their Father forgives them.

Jesus directed St. Faustina to write a diary that contained her thoughts, prayers, and the words of Jesus to her. In one passage (#723) Jesus said: "The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy." "Right"? That's not a word we would think of in this context, but Jesus declares that because he came to forgive sinners, they are the ones who have the most claim on his mercy.

Another passage (#1183) is a prayer that St. Faustina wrote. It sounds very much like the "one day at a time" spirituality of the Morning Offering:

"O Jesus, I want to live in the present moment, to live as if this were the last day of my life. I want to use every moment scrupulously for the greater glory of God, to use every circumstance for the benefit of my soul. I want to look upon everything, from the point of view that nothing happens without the will of God."

In another passage (#1582) St. Faustina sounds just like St. Therese of the Child Jesus who said that she would spend her heaven doing good on earth. St. Faustina felt that she would be so filled with God's love and mercy in heaven that she would be an even better channel for God's overflowing mercy to reach the world. She wrote:

"O my Jesus, I now embrace the whole world and ask You for mercy for it. ... Poor earth, I will not forget you. Although I feel that I will be immediately drowned in God as in an ocean of happiness, that will not be an obstacle to my returning to earth to encourage souls and incite them to trust in God's mercy. Indeed, this immersion in God will give me the possibility of boundless action."

Thus, St. Faustina is a great friend and intercessor. May we all become channels and instruments of God's mercy as well.

Becoming Little

2011-10-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

Today's the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, the co-patron of the Apostleship of Prayer. As Providence would have it, the Gospel for Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time (Luke 10: 17-24) is perfect for this saint.

72 of Jesus' disciples have just returned from a mission trip. They're filled with joy and tell Jesus: "Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name." Jesus shares their joy but then cautions them that they should not be so thrilled in the power they have nor in their accomplishments and success in ministry. He says: "Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." He tells them to find their security not in what they do but in who they are. They are to exalt not because they have accomplished great things (that can feed their pride) but because they are children of the Father. This is where their identity is to be grounded, not in anything external.

Then Jesus goes on to pray: "I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike." This is Therese who never went to college and who lived, from the age of 15 until her death at 24, in a cloistered Carmelite convent. In 1997 Blessed John Paul II named her a Doctor of the Church. Clearly her wisdom came not from books (except for the Scriptures) and classes but from God who reveals heavenly things to the childlike.

When Therese looked at the great saints--ascetics and apostles, martyrs and theologians--she did not see herself among them. She felt that she could not follow their way to perfection. So God inspired in her a new way. She wrote: "I wish to find the way to go to heaven by a very straight, short, completely new little way." Then, reflecting on all the new inventions of the 19th Century, she decided to seek an elevator that could take her to heaven. She wrote: "I too would like to find an elevator to lift me up to Jesus, for I am too little to climb the rough stairway of perfection." What could serve as her elevator to Jesus? His own arms: "The elevator which must raise me to the heavens is your arms, O Jesus! For that I do not need to grow; on the contrary, I must necessarily remain small, become smaller."

Centuries earlier another saint, the cousin of Jesus, put it another way: "He must increase; I must decrease" (John 3: 30). This goes absolutely against the grain of a world that wants to "super-size" everything, including the human ego. St. Therese reminds us that smaller is better.

Having a Heart Like Jesus

2011-09-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

I'm in San Diego these days with about 180 priests, giving presentations at their annual convocation. The focus of my talks is "Having a Priestly Heart Like the Heart of Jesus." At dinner last night I had the pleasure of sitting next to Bishop Robert Brom who told me a story that was sparked by something I said in my first talk.

I talked about God's love for us and how each of us, because we are completely unique, have a place in God's Heart that no one else can fill. In our uniqueness we give to God a pleasure that no other human being who ever lived or who is living or who will live can give to God. I used a quote from Blessed John Paul II: "Each person is unique, precious, and unrepeatable."

It was this quote that sparked a memory that Bishop Brom had of Pope John Paul. During the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Brom was studying at the North American College in Rome. He and a number of other seminarians were standing outside the Vatican one day when various bishops and cardinals walked past. One of them was the future Pope John Paul who stopped to greet the seminarians. Bishop Brom's Slavic name caught Bishop Woytila's attention. Years later, on his first "ad limina" visit to meet the Holy Father, Bishop Brom introduced himself at the beginning of their meeting. Pope John Paul remarked how they had already met. Bishop Brom tried to correct him, informing him that he was a new bishop and that this was the first time he was meeting His Holiness. Pope John Paul stopped him and reminded him of that day so many years before when he was a 25 year old seminarian studying in Rome.

Last night Bishop Brom told me that this was a particular gift of Blessed John Paul II. He met people and did not forget them. He truly had a heart like the Heart of Jesus which saw every person as "unique, precious, unrepeatable," and, we might add now, unforgettable.

"Take Courage"

2011-09-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

Today's first reading at Mass comes from the Prophet Haggai (2: 1-9). The Israelites have returned from exile and are back in the Promised Land, re-building the Temple in Jerusalem. They compare it to Solomon's Temple and get discouraged. It doesn't come near to the grandeur of that Temple which was built during the height of Israel's power. God addresses their discouragement through the Prophet Haggai.

He says "take courage" three times. He says "do not fear" and he says "work!" These are helpful words for all of us.

First, "do not fear." Fear and anxiety are feelings. The devil loves to use them to agitate us and get us off balance. When we are off balance we are more susceptible to his other suggestions and temptations. So, when we feel fear or discouragement, we must not give in to the feeling. We must reject it.

But we do not live in a vacuum so it's important to replace the feeling of fear with something positive--courage. It's common to think of fear and courage as mutually exclusive; to think that if you have courage then you never feel fear. The opposite is true. A World War I general once said that any soldier who told him he's never been afraid going into battle has either never been in battle or is a liar. The natural feeling to have going into battle is fear, and courage is to not let that feeling determine our action. Courage is a decision. It's an act of the will that rejects fear. It doesn't let the feeling determine the action.

That's where the third word of Haggai comes in: "work!" Having decided to reject fear and be courageous, we act. We put away the fearful thoughts and get to work. We don't worry about the results but we leave those in God's hands.

Padre Pio, whom we honor today, once wrote: "if any thought agitates you, this agitation never comes from God, who gives you peace, being the Spirit of Peace, but from the devil." When we feel fear or discouragement, we need to smell the sulphur behind it. Then we can reject it and "take courage."

The root of that word "courage" is "cor" or "heart." Another way of saying "take courage" is to say "take heart." The best heart we can take is the Heart of Jesus who readily gives his Heart to us in the Eucharist where he is present, body and blood, soul and divinity, including his Sacred Heart. The Eucharist gives us the courage of the Heart of Jesus, a Heart that accepted struggle, suffering, and finally death on the cross, trusting that in this way God the Father would take away the sins of the world and triumph over death.

Take courage! Live in union with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus!

The Martyrs of Korea

2011-09-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast day of the Martyrs of Korea, faithful Catholics who died for the faith in the Nineteenth Century and who were canonized in 1984 when Blessed John Paul II visited their native land. I visited there two years before and I couldn't help thinking about that trip today.

It was the summer of 1982, a few months before I was ordained a transitional deacon, and I went to Korea with a Jesuit friend, Fr. Larry Gillick. For the six weeks that we were there I served as his eyes and he served as my mentor in giving retreats around the country. You see, Fr. Gillick has been blind since an accident that took his eyesight when he was only seven.

We spent much of our thirteen hour flight from Seattle to Seoul worrying and fretting. What if the Jesuits who were supposed to meet us there didn't show up? How would we communicate with people and find our way to the Jesuit University of Sogang? What if they wouldn't let Fr. Gillick's big green tape player through Customs? What if we got sick from the food? What if we caught a strange Asian disease? And, one of the scariest thoughts, how were we ever going to manage the Korean toilets which we had heard were holes in concrete slabs and not Western-style "thrones?" It was one thing for me to consider this but it certainly caused more panic in my blind friend.

As we approached Kimpo Airport we finally did what we should have been doing instead of worrying. We prayed. Instead of surrendering to the anxiety, we surrendered to God and asked Him to get us safely through the coming six weeks.

Every night we sat down and wrote about the adventures of the day and God's goodness to us. We ended up calling this Journal "Kam-sa-ham-nida" which means "Thank you." For God answered our prayer as we had hoped and took great care of us.

I couldn't help thinking of our anxiety in contrast to the courage of the Korean Martyrs. We visited their shrine which is located on a high hill overlooking the Han River where many of them were thrown over the cliff to their deaths below. In the shrine was a museum with many of the gruesome instruments of torture that were used to elicit their denial of the faith. Surely some of them, especially those who were mere children, must have been afraid. But their faith and courage prevailed. God took care of them too, though not in a way that added to their time on earth. He took them to Himself in heaven and we are able to celebrate them today.

The fear that Fr. Gillick and I experienced as we flew across the Pacific Ocean seems so foolish now in light of what those Martyrs faced. Yet, we shouldn't compare. We all have fears and anxieties that at the time can seem pretty major. In facing them and not letting them control us the trick is the same one that those Korean Martyrs employed, the same one that we two traveling and fearful Jesuits employed. Prayer.

This is what St. Paul prescribed against anxiety as well:

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4: 6-7).

St. Patrick's in Tolono

2011-09-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm giving a parish mission this week at St. Patrick Church in Tolono, IL. Fr. John Cyr was kind enough to record my Sunday homily and to post it on their web site. They also have a Facebook page with some photos from the mission including this one.

When I travel to different parts of the country for parish missions, I like to spread the message of the Apostleship of Prayer wherever I can. Yesterday morning after visiting a few shut-ins, Fr. Cyr was kind enough to take me to St. John's Newman Center at the University of Illinois where I met some of the staff and left some of our materials. According to a Wikipedia article, this Newman Center is the largest in the United States. They even have a residence hall for 600 students and while we had lunch there I had the opportunity to meet with Msgr. Gregory Ketcham, the director, as well as some of the FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionaries who work there. In fact I had a "small world" experience as one of the young FOCUS missionaries turned out to be friends with some good friends of mine, Pat and Fran Coy, a deacon couple from Hill City, South Dakota. Today I'll be helping to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation with students from St. Thomas More High School of Champaign who are on retreat.

After being around the home office in Milwaukee for most of August, it's nice to be on the road again and experiencing how the Lord is at work in different parts of the country.

More on Forgiveness

2011-09-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Confession time: I received a thoughtful comment from "Do Not Be Anxious" who follows this blog and after writing my own comment in reply, I could not figure out how to post it. I've posted comments before but for some reason couldn't do so with this one and didn't have the time to play around with it. So, I decided to create another post responding to the comment.

"Do Not Be Anxious" wrote: "I subscribed to Touchstone magazine for a year, and the first issue had an article explaining how you could not forgive someone unless he asked for forgiveness --- ala the sacrament of Penance. I wrote a comment that Matthew 5 and 18 call us to reconcile with others, whether we have sinned against them (5) or they against us (18) --- and they have the same obligation. However, in 18 it says that if they do not seek forgiveness, we are to shake the dust from our shoes and move on. But, as I commented, nowhere does it say in the bible that we cannot forgive someone, even if they do not seek forgiveness. I've had many discussions about this, forgiving others even if they do not seek forgiveness. It seems to be an open question in Catholic teachings, never specifically addressed. Perhaps it gets down to a definition of forgiveness: is it a two-person thing, a reconciliation between people which requires both to participate (as confession implies) or is it merely a cleansing of one's feelings?"

My response: I would make a distinction between "forgiveness" and "reconciliation." I think every Christian is called to be ready to forgive. We are called to be like Jesus who prayed for those crucifying him and who therefore weren't seeking his forgiveness. He asked the Father to forgive them. We must have a heart like the Heart of Jesus that is always ready to forgive rather than condemn. When Jesus tells Peter to forgive 77 times--a symbolic number representing "always"--he wasn't asking Peter to do something that he was not ready to do himself.

But, as "Do Not Be Anxious" points out, while we must always be ready to forgive, that forgiveness may not be accepted. And until it is accepted, reconciliation has not happened. I may say to people who have hurt me, "I forgive you," and they, denying that they did anything to me, may reject my offer of forgiveness. I have forgiven but it has not been accepted and reconciliation has not occured. That person who rejects my forgiveness continues to be "bound" by denial and by the sin against me. This could be one way of looking at Matthew 18: 18 "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." Our binding is simply allowing the person to hold on to the denial and sin that they have chosen instead of our forgiveness.

If someone does not seek or accept our offer of forgiveness, we can, as "Do Not Be Anxious" points out, follow Matthew 18: 15-17. We can bring others and the Church with us. If they refuse even in the face of this, Jesus says: "treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector." That isn't quite shaking the dust from our feet, an image that is used in other places with regards to the apostles' preaching being rejected by a particular town. I've always found this line ambiguous because while the good Jew of Jesus' time--the Pharisee--would reject the tax collectors as sinners and would view the Gentiles as doomed--Jesus reaches out to them. Are we, in treating them like Gentiles and tax collectors, to continue reaching out to them with love and forgiveness? I think we could say that in doing so we would be following Jesus' example.

But I think there comes a time when, while we might be always ready to forgive, it doesn't help the process of reconciliation to keep confronting people who deny they've done wrong with their sin. Then it's best to pray quietly and constantly for them. This prayer keeps our hearts from becoming resentful.

"Do Not Be Anxious" also wrote: "Perhaps it also comes down to a question of the benefits of forgiveness. Does God benefit by my seeking forgiveness --- He is God, what can he gain? I can understand that I might gain something in a renewed relationship with someone if we reconcile together, but what do I gain if I unilaterally forgive him? Does he gain anything?"

What does God gain from our forgiveness? God desires reconciliation and peace for his children. We are helping to realize God's plan for humanity when we are ready to forgive and praying for it. Our prayers, we have to believe, can play a role in the conversion of the person who has hurt us. If heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents (see Luke 15), it must also be true that God rejoices over his children who have not let resentment take root in their hearts. God rejoices in his children whose hearts have become more like the Heart of his Son. Our desire to forgive, even when it is rejected, gives joy to God. Even if reconciliation does not occur, I gain because I have not allowed my heart to become hardened, and the offending party gains--my prayers and my love, even though they are at that particular time rejected.

"Do Not Be Anxious" ended the comment with: "Much to be thought on, on this thing called forgiveness." So very true. Thank you for the opportunity to continue the reflection.

Forgiveness

2011-09-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

These are challenging times and today's Mass readings are challenging. It's the 10th anniversary of what has come to be known simply as "9-11" and the readings are all about forgiveness.

The First Reading (Sirach 27: 30 - 28: 7) begins: "Wrath and anger are hateful things." They may be "hateful" but they are common. In the reconciliation room or confessional I hear sins of anger confessed frequently. Yet, is anger really a sin? Jesus got angry. Jesus, the sinless one, the all-holy Son of God, became so angry that he made a whip to drive animals out of the temple and turned over the tables of money-changers, scattering their coins. Anger itself isn't a sin. What we do with it can be. In fact, anger, as we see with Jesus, is the appropriate response to something that is wrong, to an injustice, to evil. We ought to get angry at some of the situations in our world.

Anger becomes sinful when we nurse it into bitterness and resentment, when we allow it to make our hearts hard, cold, and unforgiving. The best definition of resentment that I've heard is this: "Resentment is like taking a bottle of poison, drinking it, and hoping that the other person dies." Resentment really doesn't hurt the person who hurts us. It hurts and poisons us. It leads to alienation from other people and from God.

This is why some other words from Sirach are very important to hear: "Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin!" We don't have forever. Actually, we don't have forever in this world to let go of resentments, but we will have forever in the next life to be poisoned and forever alienated from God. Thus we must let go of resentments and forgive now.

In 1995 the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed. Today, in the plaza where the building stood, there are 168 concrete chairs representing the people whose lives were snuffed out that day. Timothy McVeigh was apprehended, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. In prison, awaiting his execution, he was visited by a Catholic priest, Fr. Charles Smith, who came to lead him to remorse and reconciliation. McVeigh was a baptized Catholic but had not been practicing the faith. The first visit did not go well. In a Catholic News Service story, Fr. Smith is quoted as saying: "I went to him and he threw his feces on me and called me all types of names and said, 'You can't be a priest because I've never seen a you-know-what as a priest.'" You see, Fr. Smith is African-American. McVeigh, poisoned by his racism and bitterness, rejected Fr. Smith. But Fr. Smith persisted and in time McVeigh sought God's mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. On June 11, 2001, Fr. Smith and Timothy McVeigh walked together down the corridor to the execution room where McVeigh was given a lethal injection.

It was reported that the reaction on the part of some people who had lost family members was: "That was too easy! He should have suffered more!" Having nursed their anger into a bitterness, McVeigh's death was not enough. They wanted his suffering.

Imagine for a moment those people passing from this life to the next and seeing Timothy McVeigh, who had sought mercy from God, forgiven and with the Lord in heaven. It's conceivable that having held on to their resentment for years they would say: "What's he doing here? How could you have forgiven him? You may have forgiven him but I will never forgive him for what he did to my family!" And conceivably they would choose to be separated from God rather than to forgive.

How do we forgive? It isn't easy and it's not once-and-for-all. We don't "forgive and forget" unless we have amnesia. Painful memories do not go away. They come back to haunt us and tempt us. Perhaps this is why in the Gospel (Matthew 18: 21-35) Jesus tells Peter he must forgive 77 times. On any given day the painful memory may return and the temptation to allow it to become a resentment might come back innumerable times. Each time we are challenged to forgive. Forgiveness, like love, is not a feeling but a decision, an act of the will. When the painful memory of how we've been hurt returns, we must forgive and pray for the ones who hurt us. We pray for their conversion and for their ultimate good. We don't want an ongoing resentment to keep us from the Communion of Saints in heaven.

Where do we get the power to forgive? From Jesus. From the Eucharist where Jesus speaks to us and gives his Heart to us so that we might be transformed and empowered to do what he did. At every Mass we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus in a miraculous way that actually makes these saving events present to us right now. The past event--Calvary--is made present and we hear Jesus once again pray: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Nine years ago I was working at the Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. I had just finished talking about the events of September 11, 2001, and a man followed me into a tiny individual conference room. He introduced himself as Vince Fahnlander and said that he was Tom Burnett's college roommate. I couldn't quite remember who Tom Burnett was but I surmised he had some connection with 9-11. Vince explained that Tom was on the plane that crashed into the field in Pennsylvania. After graduation Tom moved to California and got a job with a medical technology firm and Vince stayed in Minnesota. They lost contact with each other.

When Vince heard that there was going to be a memorial service for Tom at his home parish in Bloomington, Minnesota, he went. He almost thought that he was at the wrong place because the man whom the priest described didn't sound like the Tom Burnett he knew. Tom had quit practicing the faith in college and the priest described a man who went to Mass every day.

After the service Vince went up to Deena, Tom's widow, introduced himself and asked about what had happened in the intervening years. Deena explained that Tom had always been a hard worker and when he stopped coming home for lunch in 1997, she figured he was putting in extra hours at work. Six months before his death he revealed to her that he had been going to a 12:10 PM Mass every day instead of driving the short distance home for lunch.

In an article that Vince sent me, Deena explained: "He told me that he felt God was telling him he was going to do something. Something big. But he didn't understand what it was." Feeling God calling him to something, Tom thought that if he prayed more he would find the answer. Deena continued: "He knew that what he was going to do would impact a lot of people. And he knew one other thing: It had something to do with the White House."

Just imagine this average guy, much like you or I, having an intuition that God had a plan for him. That God was calling him to something else. He senses, as he prays, that this call has something to do with the White House and he thinks: "What does my life have to do with the White House?! I have any plans or desires to go into politics!"

On September 11, 2001, thousands of feet above the earth, Tom Burnett knew what his life had to do with the White House. He knew where the plane that had been hijacked was heading and he and others on that plane decided that at all costs they had to prevent a greater tragedy from happening. They acted and the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Where did Tom get the insight and courage to do what he did? I believe it was the Eucharist where every day he experienced a sacrifice that saved the world. There he found the strength that would one day help him to sacrifice himself.

Tom Burnett and the others are called heroes. We may feel that we are not heroes, but each of us is called to love heroically. We do that when we sacrifice ourselves for others--for spouse and for family, for our city and for our country, for our Church. The power to love in a sacrificial way comes from the Eucharist. The power to sacrifice our hurts and resentments, forgiving and praying for our enemies, comes from the Eucharist. In Holy Communion Jesus gives us himself, his Body and Blood, his Pierced Heart. In the Eucharist our hearts become more and more like the Heart of Jesus who did not pray for vengeance on his enemies but for their forgiveness.

The Prayer of Jesus and Ours

2011-09-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

At the Marquette University Jesuit Community where I live, we all come together once a week to celebrate Mass. This last Tuesday I presided and preached and here's what I said....

A favorite theme of the Gospel of Luke is Jesus at prayer. Today's Gospel (Luke 6: 12-19) begins with one of those scenes: "Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God." What was the prayer of Jesus like?

I imagine much of it was a time of loving communion with the Father in which he experienced himself as the Beloved Son. Knowing the Father as not only his own "Abba" but also the Father of all humanity made in the image and likeness of God, Jesus experienced in his prayer time the reality that other people were his brothers and sisters, beloved children of the Father. And today's Gospel shows us another aspect of Jesus' prayer. In his prayer he reflected on the decisions he faced and discerned the direction he was to take.

When Jesus came down the mountain he chose 12 apostles from his band of followers. Looking at these men it's obvious that this decision was not the result of human ingenuity and wisdom. It was obviously the result of God's direction in his life for God's ways are not human ways.

Just look at the weak and flawed people Jesus chose to be his closest friends and collaborators. Could you really trust Simon Peter to build your Church upon? He blew hot and cold. One day he might tell you that he was willing to face death with you and the next day he would deny that he even knew you. James and John were opportunists and climbers. They were the kind of people who would send their own mother to finagle getting positions of power and glory next to you.

My favorite examples, though, are Matthew and "Simon who was called a Zealot." According to Josephus, the Jewish historian of the time, Zealots were "Assassins." The Romans called them "Stabbers" because they carried small knives with which they would quickly dispatch the occupying soldiers or those who would collaborate with the hated Roman army. They were terrorists. Jesus calls one of them and Matthew, a tax-collector for the Romans, and expects them to live and work together with him. I can just imagine Jesus, in his infinite sense of humor, getting ready to send the apostles out two-by-two and calling Matthew and Simon the Zealot forward to be sent together.

Jesus called earthen vessels and enemies to be with him and work with him. Humanly speaking, nothing could have kept them together. Only Jesus could. And that's where our First Reading (Colossians 2: 6-15) comes into play. St. Paul tells the Colossians to focus on Jesus. He calls on them to be "rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith." Pope Benedict likes to remind us that our faith is not so much in a set of beliefs as it is in a person--Jesus. Only Jesus could have kept those 12 apostles together. Rooted in and built upon Jesus, they could be the 12 pillars of the New Israel, the Church. He was the source of their union of minds and hearts.

The same is true for us and for the entire Church. But how are we rooted in and built upon Jesus? Through prayer. First and foremost, through the Eucharist where we are in a very real way rooted in Christ, joined to Christ and transformed. But secondly, our personal prayer, like the prayer of Jesus on the mountain, roots us in Jesus. In that prayer we, like Jesus, come to know ourselves as beloved sons of Abba. In that prayer we experience others as our true brothers and sisters. In that prayer we come to know the direction God would have us take.

We are called to a deeper relationship than that of followers. We are called to be one with Christ, rooted in him and built upon him. As we grow in this union, our decisions and actions will follow.

Humility

2011-09-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'll be speaking at the monthly All-Night Vigil in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The theme is "Humility and Obedience" and the topic I've been given is "Humility."

In Matthew 23: 12 Jesus says: "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." This is a paradox that once again shows us God's ways are not ours. Humility leads to exaltation? Becoming low leads to being raised up? This is clearly not the way of the world.

Humility is about truth, about accepting the truth that I am a creature. The root of humility is the Latin word "humus" or earth. I am of the earth. Without God, I am nothing. This is reality.

But we, like our ancestral parents, tend to avoid and deny reality. The Original Sin and in fact every sin is a denial of the fact that we are creatures. As Adam and Eve chose to be "like gods" who choose for themselves what is good and what is bad (Genesis 3: 5), so do we, when we sin, try to do things our way rather than God's way. We grasp, as our first parents did, at equality with God.

The result was immediate: "the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked" (Genesis 3: 7). They became self-conscious, self-centered. Their focus became "ME - ME - ME." Just count the number of times Adam refers to himself in the short response to God's question "Where are you?" He said: "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself."

The antidote to this self-centeredness is humility. The best definition of humility that I've heard is this: Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. It's not putting yourself down and beating yourself up but getting yourself out of your self-conscious spotlight.

Jesus, who said "I am meek and humble of heart" (Matthew 11: 29), is the best example of this. He was not self-centered. Philippians 2: 6-9 says that Jesus, "though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, ... he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him...."

Jesus emptied himself of himself, of any self-consciousness. He was so other-conscious--conscious of both the Father and his brothers and sisters--that there was no internal spotlight focused on himself. What made him so unself-conscious? His relationship with the Father. He was so firm in his identity as the Beloved Son that he had nothing to prove. As a result, people flocked to him and wanted to know the secret of his happiness and peace.

We are called to be like Jesus. Every Lent we enter into a period designed to lead us through a process of conversion in which we die to ourselves in order to live more like Jesus. We begin Lent by getting in touch with reality. Ashes are put on our heads and we are told that we are dust, "humus," earth, nothing really. We are dust that is alive for a while but that will return to dust once again.

But remember where Lent ends--with Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. We are precious dust. To God, we are precious enough to die for, precious enough to be given the very Body and Blood of the Son, precious enough to be raised up as Jesus himself was. In God's eyes we are special, we are important.

Thus there is no need to "grasp at equality with God" like our ancestral parents. There is no need to exalt ourselves. Firm in our identity as Jesus was, we know there is nothing we need to prove, there is no need to exalt ourselves, no need to look good in front of others. We can get the spotlight off ourselves and focus all our attention on our God and our neighbors and in doing so we will find true happiness and peace.

"Duped?"

2011-08-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

I know that the first reading at Mass today (Jeremiah 20: 7-9) is a favorite of many, including my friend and fellow-blogger Anne Bender, whose blog "Imprisoned In My Bones" takes its name from this passage. The first lines ring true for most of us: "You have duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped." Sometimes I think of my vocation story in light of that line.

My parents grew up in the 1930's, a time of economic crisis known as "The Great Depression." In rearing their children they emphasized education as a way to get ahead or at least guard against economic difficulties. This was especially true for their only son whom they encouraged to get what in their eyes was the best Catholic education in the city of Milwaukee--at Marquette University High School--even though this meant economic sacrifices on their part. Thus I made my way from the south side of Milwaukee, across the Menominee River Valley, to a Jesuit high school, having never met nor heard of Jesuits. One of them played an important role in helping me negotiate the trials of adolescence and so when the time came to consider what I was going to do when I "grew up," I began to think about being a Jesuit priest. I wanted to do for others what he had done for me. And so, forty years ago I entered the Jesuit novitiate with the dream of working in an urban Jesuit high school just like the one from which I had graduated a year earlier. How much time have I spent doing that? Zero. Nada. No time. Not even during our novitiate apostolic experience when I worked at a non-Jesuit high school and parish grade school in the inner city of Omaha.

Am I disappointed? Do I feel that my dream has gone unfulfilled? No, not at all. God may have used the desire to teach in an urban Jesuit high school to lead me into the Jesuits, but what I've done since has been better than I imagined. God's ways are not ours. If I had known what I ended up doing or if I had known the challenges I faced in my Jesuit formation and life, I would probably have never applied. I would have been afraid. Yet now, in retrospect, I am grateful because God's plan was indeed much better than mine.

In today's Gospel (Matthew 16: 21-27) Peter, out of love, tells Jesus, who has just informed him and the others that he was going to suffer and be killed: "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." Peter loved Jesus and wanted to save him from pain and death. Jesus rebukes Peter for thinking in human ways, even though they arose out of love, rather than in God's way--the way of perfect love. Jesus loved Peter and all people and wanted to save them from ultimate pain--separation from God--and eternal death. His own suffering and death would accomplish that and he tells Peter not to stand in his way. He challenges Peter to pick up his own cross of sacrificial love and join him in the work of salvation.

This is the life of every Christian. It is the "simple and profound" spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer. We often quote today's second reading (Romans 12: 1-2): "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice." We do that by praying the Morning Offering, then striving to live the offering we've made throughout the day, and then reviewing the offering we've made at the end of the day. It's a "living" offering that needs to be constantly renewed because it can be easily taken back.

Blessed John Paul II often said that to love is to make a gift of yourself. We have been loved by God who proved that love my sending the Son to suffer and die. We return love for love now by making a total gift of ourselves, by offering to God the most precious thing we have--time--the seconds, minutes, and hours of every day, one day at a time.

When I entered the Jesuits I didn't plan on doing what I've ended up doing these past forty years, but I'm glad my plan didn't work out. God's plan was better even though it involved challenges and pain that I would have avoided had I known they were going to be part of the plan. But I wouldn't change any of that plan. Through it I've received more of God's love than I ever imagined. Through it I've been touched by God's love through my neighbor in ways that I never imagined.

In the end the story of God's dealings with us is all about love. That's why I prefer a different translation for the first reading. Where the New American Bible has the prophet saying that he has been "duped," the Jerusalem Bible has a different word that I think captures better my own experience: "You have seduced me, O Lord, and I have let myself be seduced."

More on World Youth Day

2011-08-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing to receive reports about World Youth Day and the Apostleship of Prayer's presence there. Jesuit scholastic Nathan O'Halloran has another beautiful reflection about his pilgrimage to World Youth Day. It can be found here at the blog "Whosoever Desires." I talked this morning with Fr. Chris Collins, S.J., the president of the U.S. Apostleship of Prayer's board of directors. He said that the "Hearts on Fire" events which we led at the "Love and Life" site in Madrid drew many young English-speaking people from around the world. One, a young woman from South Africa, came to every session wanting to hear again and again the message of the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and how we can return our love by making a daily offering.

He said our buttons, created especially for World Youth Day, "went like hot cakes."

I was particularly interested in hearing about the Saturday vigil where Pope Benedict was scheduled to consecrate the youth of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He said that he was about a mile away from the actual site of Eucharistic Adoration hearing confessions, but he heard from someone that while the Holy Father could not finish his prepared remarks because of the storm that hit, he made the consecration.

Here are a couple photos from our good friend, Archbishop Terry Prendergast, S.J. of Ottawa. His blog is always an inspiration and I always wonder where he finds the time to keep it current.

The numbers at World Youth Day far exceeded expectations. Archbishop Prendergast reports that officials had prepared for 750,000 people to come to the Saturday vigil and Sunday Mass. Estimates are that 1.5 to 2 million actually showed up.

On the Vatican Web site you can find the Missal with all the prayers for the various services and Masses of World Youth Day. I went there and found the prayer that was used for the Sacred Heart consecration. It's in Spanish but our able AoP assistant, Stephanie Schmude, translated it into English for us. It's not the official English translation but I wanted to share this beautiful prayer as soon as possible.

World Youth Day Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lord Jesus Christ,
Brother, Friend, and Redeemer of mankind,
Look with love upon the youth gathered here
And open for them the eternal fountain
Of your mercy
Which flows from your open Heart on the Cross.
They have come to be with you and adore you.
With ardent prayer
I consecrate them to your Heart
So that, rooted and built up in you,
They will always be yours, in life and in death.
May they never turn away from you!
Give them hearts like yours,
Meek and humble,
So that they may always listen to your voice and your commands,
Do your will,
And be praise to you throughout the world,
So that mankind, contemplating their works,
May give glory to the Father with whom you live,
In everlasting happiness,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
Forever and ever.
Amen

Magis and World Youth Day

2011-08-22T12:01:00.001-07:00

I've been in Milwaukee all week, holding down the fort at the Apostleship of Prayer national office. Fr. Phil Hurley has been in Spain. I've tried to follow the events of Magis and World Youth Day and want to share some of those experiences here.

What is "Magis?" It's Latin for "More" and it's a theme that appears in the life of St. Ignatius and the order he founded, the Jesuits. For St. Ignatius, it wasn't enough to live and work for God's glory. He wanted to give his life for God's greater glory. That's the "more," the "magis."

Magis was a pre-World Youth Day program that brought together, from around the world, people associated with Jesuit schools and apostolates. They broke into small groups and engaged in service projects and pilgrimages. Some went to the birthplace of St. Ignatius where he also experienced his conversion and some others went on the Camino, the road to Santiago Compostela, to the shrine of St. James the Apostle to which pilgrims have journeyed for centuries.

Since the Magis program did not accept pilgrims under the age of 18, some Jesuit schools, like Jesuit High in New Orleans, made their own pre-WYD pilgrimage to the Ignatian sites. I was inspired by a blog entry of one of their chaperones, a Jesuit scholastic or seminarian, Nathan O'Halloran, which can be found here. There are other photos and descriptions of their pilgrimage here. I commented on Nathan's blog that I found these to be a "virtual pilgrimage" for one who stayed home. Through these two links I not only saw the sights but also experienced some of the grace of the pilgrimage.

Fr. Phil Hurley and the Apostleship of Prayer were present at the largest English-speaking venue at WYD in Madrid, the Love and Life site. He was part of a panel that talked about prayer and he sent us the link to the video that Salt + Light TV from Canada made of the presentations. His own contribution can be found on the video from 1:36:40 to 1:47:34 at the following site:

http://www.livestream.com/wydcentral/video?clipId=pla_e759f459-dc2f-4e1d-b640-4b72744e4f6f

I commented on our Facebook page that I wouldn't be surprised if we start getting requests for Fr. Phil to sing after he displayed his musical talent in the video.

Though a rain storm spoiled some of the Saturday night vigil, I'll be blogging more about that another time....

Fr. Willie Doyle, S.J.

2011-08-17T08:02:00.000-07:00

Though he's not one of the 10 official patrons of World Youth Day (see the official site to find out who those 9 saints plus 1 blessed are), Jesuit Father Willie Doyle is someone to whom I'm praying this week. WYD 2011 officially opened in Madrid Spain yesterday, which happened to be the anniversary of Fr. Doyle's death during World War I. He was a chaplain and was killed in battle as he tended to the sick and dying.

I'm asking his intercession for the young people of the world during this important week for two reasons.

One is because he fits Pope Benedict's description of youth in his Message for World Youth Day 2011. Reflecting on his own experience growing up, the Holy Father wrote:

In thinking of my own youth, I realize that stability and security are not the questions that most occupy the minds of young people. True enough, it is important to have a job and thus to have firm ground beneath our feet, yet the years of our youth are also a time when we are seeking to get the most out of life. When I think back on that time, I remember above all that we were not willing to settle for a conventional middle-class life. We wanted something great, something new. We wanted to discover life itself, in all its grandeur and beauty. Naturally, part of that was due to the times we lived in. During the Nazi dictatorship and the war, we were, so to speak, “hemmed in” by the dominant power structure. So we wanted to break out into the open, to experience the whole range of human possibilities. I think that, to some extent, this urge to break out of the ordinary is present in every generation. Part of being young is desiring something beyond everyday life and a secure job, a yearning for something really truly greater. Is this simply an empty dream that fades away as we become older? No! Men and women were created for something great, for infinity. Nothing else will ever be enough. Saint Augustine was right when he said “our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you”.

I can't help thinking that Fr. Doyle embodied this desire for greatness. He was a hero in the best sense of that word.

But there's a second reason that I'm asking Fr. Doyle to intercede for the youth of the world. On Saturday, Pope Benedict will consecrate them to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Leading people to the Sacred Heart was Fr. Willie Doyle's own deepest desire. In a quote from his writings that appears in the book Merry in God, we read:

My intense desire and longing is to make others love Jesus and to draw them to His Sacred Heart. Recently at Mass I have found myself at the Dominus Vobiscum opening my arms wide with the intention of embracing every soul present, and drawing them in spite of themselves into that Heart which longs for their love. "Compel them to come in," Jesus said. Yes, compel them to dive into that abyss of love. Sometimes, I might say nearly always, when speaking to people I am seized with an extraordinary desire to draw their hearts to God. I could go down on my knees before them and beg them to be pure and holy, so strong do I feel the longing of Jesus for sanctity in everybody; and since I may not do this, I try to do what I find hard to describe in words--to pour out of my heart any grace or love of God there may be in it, and then with all the force of my will to draw their hearts into the Heart of Jesus.

Please join me in praying with Fr. Doyle for the youth who will be at World Youth Day and for all young people as they prepare for Saturday's consecration to the Sacred Heart. May Fr. Doyle intercede for each one of them and draw them into the Heart of Jesus!

To find out more about Fr. Willie Doyle, S.J. go to the blog "Remembering Fr William Doyle SJ". My friend Fr. Mark Kirby also wrote about Fr. Doyle the other day on his blog "Vultus Christi".

The Assumption

2011-08-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Mary's birthday in heaven. Though we also celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary's conception (December 8) and her birth (September 8), we remember her as well on the day she passed from this life to the next. This is the usual date when a saint is honored: their birthday in heaven. But in Mary's case, we have an extra reason to celebrate. We believe that Jesus not only welcomed her soul into heaven but also her body.

This makes absolute sense. One of Mary's titles is "Ark of the New Covenant." The Ark of the Covenant was the the special chest which the Israelites carried through the desert and into the Promised Land. It contained signs of God's guidance and care--the tablets of stone on which were inscribed the commandments that God had given to the Israelites to help them know how to live; some of the manna or bread-like substance with which God fed the People during their journey through the desert. Mary is truly an Ark as well because she carried within herself the New Law of Love and the Bread of Life--Jesus himself. Through Mary, God was more present to the world than ever before.

According to Blessed John Paul II, writing in his last encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia #55, "When, at the Visitation, she bore in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way a 'tabernacle' – the first 'tabernacle' in history – in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed himself to be adored by Elizabeth, radiating his light as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary." Thus it is altogether appropriate that no corruption should touch the Ark of the New Covenant, the first tabernacle in history.

We too receive the Bread of Life into our bodies. Blessed John Paul II also writes: "At the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood." We too, in a mysterious and sacramental way, become tabernacles.

However, we have sinned and, unlike the sinless Blessed Virgin Mary, we must experience the effects of sin in our bodies--death and the corruption that follows it. In the words of Genesis 3: 19: "Dust you are and to dust you shall return."

Christ's Resurrection and Mary's Assumption are our hope. Though sin leads to the corruption of our bodies, Christ promises to share the fruits of the Resurrection with us. He began with his own Mother Mary. Our bodies are not meant for corruption and annihilation but will one day, in a mysterious way, be joined to our souls and given a new and eternal life. Because we have eaten the Bread of Life, because we have become tabernacles for Christ truly present in the Eucharist, we too will one day be in heaven body and soul, just like Mary, just like Jesus.

Christ the Teacher

2011-08-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I spoke at a holy hour of "Roses for Our Lady," a group in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee that gathers at the local seminary to pray for vocations in the Church.

I asked them: Who was your favorite teacher? Who was your best teacher? Sometimes the two aren't the same person. Our favorite teacher might be someone who was nice and friendly and who pretty much let the class do what it wanted. Our best teacher might be someone who was tough and challenging.

Don Clifton, a professor in the School of Education at the University of Nebraska, developed an interview to find the best teachers. He discovered that all those teachers who were considered the best in their field according to their peers and administrators had one thing in common. When asked what they enjoyed most about teaching they responded that it was seeing growth in their students. Naturally, to achieve such growth they had to be challenging at times.

In today's Gospel (Matthew 15: 21-28) we see Jesus, the best of teachers.

At first glance Jesus appears harsh with the Canannite woman, telling her that it wasn't right to give the children's food to dogs. This was a common way for the Israelites to view pagans, yet Jesus softens this by using a term, according to commentators, that means "little dogs," "pets," or "puppies." The woman persists in her plea for help and Jesus, having challenged her to grow even deeper in her faith and seeing her growth, responds by healing her daughter. What joy it must have given Jesus, the teacher, to see her growth demonstrated by her "great" faith.

Pope Benedict is about to challenge the youth of the world. World Youth Day begins in Madrid, Spain on August 16 and on Saturday, August 20, at the Eucharistic vigil, he will consecrate the youth of the world to the Sacred Heart. This is not a symbolic gesture. It has significant meaning. He is placing the youth of the world into the Sacred Heart of Jesus, praying that they will truly be both rooted in the love of Jesus' Heart and strong in their faith. In a special preparatory catechesis, the consecration is called an act of faith. The Pope is challenging the young people of the world, as Jesus challenged the Canaanite woman, to grow in their faith.

The consecration is also an act of hope: "The Pope will consecrate every young person in the world, not only the ones present at the vigil. In today's youth we find the hope of the Church and of humanity. In this consecration, the youth will state, together with the Pope, that 'apart from Jesus Christ risen from the dead, there can be no salvation! He alone can free the world from evil and bring about the growth of the Kingdom of justice, peace and love to which we all aspire.' (WYD Message)"

And the consecration is an act of love: "In this consecration we will touch Jesus, and we will renew the grace of our baptism in which we were immersed in this Love."

Let's all pray that Christ our teacher, speaking through Pope Benedict, may help the youth of the world grow in faith, hope, and love this coming week.

Loss and Gain

2011-08-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

The Apostleship of Prayer has lost (and gained) a friend. A good friend and supporter of ours has died. As I thought about writing this, it came to my mind that while we've lost his presence here on earth, we've gained a friend in a place where his prayers can do even more good.

I wrote about Fr. Richard Tomasek last January when he wrote a message informing family and friends that the cancer with which he was diagnosed in June, 2010 had returned. He moved to the St. Camillus Jesuit community and care center in the Milwaukee area earlier this year and in the process donated all his books to the Apostleship of Prayer's national office. I met with Dick a couple weeks ago when such visits were shortened by coughing. The tumor in his lung had grown to a size that restricted his breathing and led to coughing spells when he tried to talk. In all of this he was strong and peaceful, worried only that the end could be a slow and painful process of suffocation. I couldn't help thinking how much this was like another great intercessor of ours, St. Therese of Lisieux, the second patron saint of the Apostleship, whose tuberculosis also led to her feeling that she was suffocating as she neared the end.

People around the world joined a prayer vigil for him so that in his final hours he would know he was not alone. Word that the end was nearing went out on Friday evening and Fr. Tomasek died at 4:05 PM on Saturday. I was not able to be there but another good friend of the Apostleship, Fr. Rob Kroll, who happened to be on retreat at the Jesuit community of St. Camillus, was there.

As we pray for Fr. Tomasek we also ask his prayers for us now that he has passed on to the Lord. I'm always reminded in these cases of the stories that are told of the early martyrs who, as they were being led away to death, were stopped by other Christians who had not been arrested and who would say to them: "When you get there. Put in a good word for me." Dick--Fr. Tomasek--please, put in a good word for us as we put in a good word for you now and pray that you are enjoying the vision of God.

The following is an obituary that my province sent out a few minutes ago:

Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of our brother Fr. Richard A. Tomasek, S.J., who was called to eternal life on August 6, 2011. Dick died at St. Camillus in Wauwatosa, WI, after a long struggle with cancer. He was sixty-eight years old, a Jesuit for fifty years, and a priest for thirty-eight years.

Born in Waucoma, Iowa on June 18, 1943, Dick attended grade school and high school in Waucoma and in Lawler, Iowa, before entering the Society at Jesuit College, St. Bonifacius, Minnesota, on August 14, 1961. During his studies he earned a B.A. in philosophy and letters from St. Louis University, an M.Div. from Weston School of Theology, and an S.T.L. in Christian Spirituality from the Gregorian University in Rome. Dick was ordained on June 2, 1973, in Waucoma, Iowa, made tertianship in 1978-79 in Ranchi, India, and pronounced his final vows on August 15, 1980, at Sogang University in Seoul, Korea.

Dick's fifty years as a Jesuit were full of good ministry in many places. He was a teacher - of Latin as a regent at Marquette High in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, of theology at Marquette High (1974-1978), of English at Sogang University (1979-1982), and again of theology at Creighton Prep in Omaha, Nebraska (1982-1991). He served as an associate pastor on several occasions. Above all, he touched the lives of many, many seminarians in his role as director of spiritual formation at the Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio (1996-2004) and the North American College in Rome (2004-2009).

Dick had a gift for making friends of those to whom he ministered. He traveled well, handled foreign languages well, and made the most of modern media to stay in touch with the many people he helped journey through life. Even when his cancer appeared and he was forced to return from Rome to care for his health, he managed a final year of parish ministry in Tucson, Arizona before settling in at St. Camillus to prepare to pass to the Lord he served so faithfully.

Writing

2011-08-04T07:10:00.000-07:00

It might seem that I am on the road a lot these days but I'm not. I'll be home in Milwaukee for the next three weeks and much of that time will be devoted to writing. I have several regular writing commitments:

a daily reflection for the Apostleship of Prayer web site which usually consists of long quotes from the saint of the day or from a papal homily, speech or letter that pertains to the monthly intentions of the Holy Father;

a daily two minute radio reflection for the "Morning Air" show on Relevant Radio and a condensed one minute version that can be used throughout the day and which also appears on our web site's daily reflection page as a YouTube video;

our monthly leaflets designed to help people pray for the Pope's monthly intentions;

a one page summary of the monthly intentions for the magazine Homiletic and Pastoral Review designed to help those in parishes who preach or prepare the Prayers of the Faithful incorporate the Pope's monthly intentions into the Liturgy;

a monthly 5 minute reflection on each of the papal intentions that is made into a YouTube video and can be found on our home page;

occasional blog posts like this one.

But in the coming weeks I'll also be working hard to finish a book. Last fall Ave Maria Press approached me about writing a book on the Sacred Heart and so in the past months, in between all the above writing and my travels, I've been writing that book. It's working title is "A Heart on Fire: Rediscovering Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." Three of the nine chapters have been sent to the publisher and I'm almost finished with three more. Now I have to work on the last three and also on quotes that will appear throughout the chapters and prayer exercises that will come at the end of each chapter.

Here's an outline of the book. In Chapter 1 I'll talk about the "heart" symbol and how it is a universal and perennial symbol of love. Chapters 2 and 3 will be what I like to call "The True Love Story." I'll talk about how devotion to the Heart of Jesus is really God's devotion to us and our response to that devotion. Thus, we can say that the devotion begins before time, in the Heart of God. I'll also go through how Sacred Heart Devotion developed in history. Since Sacred Heart Devotion is Eucharistic, in Chapters 4 and 5 I'll talk about how we encounter the Heart of Jesus in both parts of the Mass--Word and Sacrament. Chapter 6 will offer an explanation of an often misunderstood theological concept--reparation. In Chapter 7, which I've just begun to write, I will talk about Sacred Heart Devotion in terms of living a Eucharistic life and making a daily offering. Chapter 8 will go through various Sacred Heart practices (like personal consecration, enthronement, badges, and the 12 Promises), looking at them from a contemporary perspective. I'll also discuss the relationship between Sacred Heart Devotion and Divine Mercy. Finally, Chapter 9 will be a summary and conclusion.

That's the plan, so rather than writing about it, I'd better get down to actually writing the book. It's due at the publisher on September 1! The plan is to start advertising it in the winter catalog of Ave Maria Press and to have it in print and available next spring.

Mass Media in Missouri

2011-07-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in St. Louis giving a retreat to 84 men at the White House Jesuit Retreat House. I came a day early to do some video-taping at St. Joseph Radio in St. Charles, Missouri. I met this group in California last year and have begun to collaborate with them in producing CD's of talks and interviews as well as original DVD's. Lu Cortese is the woman of vision who began all this and the studios in St. Charles include a bookstore and even a coffee house known as St. Joe's Java.

Yesterday I went to their TV studio, IHS Productions, and after taping a one hour interview about the Sacred Heart and the Apostleship of Prayer with a local priest, Fr. Noah Waldman, I tried my hand at taping a show. We're hoping that it can become part of a series that would be offered to Catholic TV stations. I was a bit nervous because the sample show that I'd seen had the presenter seated in a chair talking to the camera. Thankfully the set in the studio had me behind a table where I could place my Bible, some notes, and my hands which tend to wander all over the place when I'm talking. I'm used to speaking to groups at a podium and this was a bit tricky because I spoke to a couple cameras which lit up, telling me when I should move my attention to one or the other of them. The talk I gave is one I often use on retreats--the Sacrament of Reconciliation from Jesus' Perspective--and so it flowed quite well and the technical people behind the scenes were happy with the way it turned out.

As I drove out to St. Charles yesterday morning I played a musical CD with which I prayed, offering praise to God for this opportunity and asking His help. I offered the coming hours up to God and prayed that all of them might be for His greater honor and glory and not mine. This is one of the beauties of "offering it up." In offering to God our day with its activities, we pray that His will be done and that as it is accomplished all praise and glory will go to Him.

Jesus' Grandparents

2011-07-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Grandparents Day! Now I know it is not the officiall U.S. Grandparents Day. Since 1978 that's been celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day which will be September 11 this year. But I like to honor grandparents today because it's the feast of the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary--Sts. Joachim and Anne--the grandparents of Jesus.

In the Eastern Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox, their feast day is September 9, the day after we celebrate the Nativity of Mary. I have a book by the Serbian Orthodox saint, Nikolai Velimirovic, entitled "The Prologue of Ohrid" and it has the following information about these saints:

"St. Joachim was of the lineage of Judah and a descendent of King David. Anna was the daughter of Matthan the priest, from the lineage of Levi, as was Aaron the high priest. Matthan had three daughters: Mary, Sophia and Anna. Mary married, lived in Bethlehem and gave birth to Salome; Sophia married, also lived in Bethlehem, and gave birth to Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Forerunner; Anna married Joachim in Nazareth, and in old age gave birth to Mary, the Most-holy Theotokos [God-bearer]."

In honoring the grandparents of Jesus, we're reminded of the tremendous influence that families have on the development of their children. Joachim and Anne must have been people of deep faith, a faith which they instilled in the sinless Virgin Mary, leading her to surrender completely to God's will at the Annunciation.

A few years ago Pope Benedict had the following to say on this feast:

“This occasion makes us think of the subject of education which has an important place in the pastoral work of the Church. In particular, it invites us to pray for grandparents, who, in the family, are the depositories and often witnesses of the fundamental values of life. The educational task of grandparents is always very important, and it becomes even more so when, for various reasons, the parents are unable to provide their children with an adequate presence while they are growing up. I entrust to the protection of St Anne and St Joachim all the grandparents of the world and bestow on them a special blessing. May the Virgin Mary who … - learned to read the Sacred Scriptures at her mother Anne's knee, help them always to nourish their faith and hope at the sources of the Word of God."

Lastly, though he is deceased, Fr. Al Lauer's wonderfully insightful reflections continue to appear on Presentation Ministries' web site. Today he reminds us that our lives, and every moment of our lives, have eternal significance. This is the meaning of the Daily Offering which unites the moments of our day to the perfect offering of Jesus on the cross and at Mass. Fr. Lauer wrote:

"Many grandparents don't feel they are having much influence on their children and grandchildren. We all feel frustrated by our limitations in impacting the world for Jesus. However, this feast day emphasizes that we have a much greater influence on our families and our world than the devil would have us believe. ... Everything we do for love of Jesus has personal, immediate, communal, international, and eternal significance. We are sons and daughters of God the Father. Our lives, actions, words, time, and decisions can be part of God's awesome plan of salvation."

Amen to that!

The Eros and Agape of God

2011-07-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

I'm at Christendom College this week, in a rural area near Front Royal, Virginia. I'm giving a class to 40 religious sisters, brothers, and priests who are part of the Vita Consecrata Institute. Last week the president of the college, Dr. Timothy O'Donnell, the author of the best current book on the Sacred Heart, The Heart of the Redeemer, spoke about the history of devotion to the Sacred Heart from Scripture to Blessed John Paul II. My classes this week focus on the spiritual and pastoral dimensions of the devotion. Today I directed the students to Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, where he writes about the eros and agape of God. Eros is not normally a word we associate with God's love because in our experience erotic love is disordered; it's wounded by sin which breeds selfishness. I think the best and most succinct presentation of the eros and agape of God's love can be found in Pope Benedict's Message for Lent 2007.

He writes: "In the encyclical Deus Caritas Est, I dwelt upon this theme of love highlighting two fundamental forms: agape and eros. The term agape, which appears many times in the New Testament, indicates the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other. The word eros, on the other hand, denotes the love of one who desires to possess what he or she lacks and yearns for union with the beloved." Now, God is perfect. How can God lack anything? What could God lack? It is the mystery of God who is Love itself that God created humanity for union with Himself. God loves us with an infinite love and desires only that we receive and return that love.

Pope Benedict goes on to point out that Old Testament passages in Hosea and Ezekiel and The Song of Songs "indicate that eros is part of God's very heart: The Almighty awaits the 'yes' of His creatures as a young bridegroom that of his bride." God's eros or passionate love of us is so strong that it leads to His agape, His self-sacrificing love. "On the cross, God's eros for us is made manifest."

Then he goes on to say: "Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced on the cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God's love, a love in which eros and agape, far from being opposed, enlighten each other. On the cross, it is God Himself who begs the love of His creature: He is thirsty for the love of every one of us. ... One could rightly say that the revelation of God's eros toward man is, in reality, the supreme expression of His agape. ... The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome His love and allow ourselves to be drawn to Him."

A simple way of seeing how the eros and agape of God is to think about our one English word "passion" which has two meanings. The Heart of Jesus is both passionate and wounded. The passion of Jesus for us led to His Passion.

The Mass Changes

2011-07-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Most Catholics are aware that changes will be coming to the Mass. On the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011, the Third Edition of the Roman Missal goes into effect with some significant changes to the prayers and responses in the Mass. Back in 2005 I remember how much time it took me to adjust to one little change that happened in the Eucharistic Prayer. I was so used to saying Pope John Paul’s name that after he died and Pope Benedict was elected to succeed him it took a while to get used to the change. In a few months I will need to pay close attention to the Sacramentary and the changes to the prayers that I’ve come to learn by heart and everyone will need the help of a booklet or a missalette to help them participate in the celebration of the Mass.

I think that’s a good thing. I see the changes as an opportunity to pray the Mass better. An unfortunate human tendency is to get into routines in which we repeat something and become so accustomed to it that our minds wander away from what we’re doing. I think that happens at Mass. It even happens to priests celebrating Mass when they go on “automatic pilot” and lose track of where they are and what they are saying. We all need to commit ourselves to “praying the Mass” and the changes in the language of the liturgy is a golden opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to doing that.

I recently ran across a very good book, one that can help all of us pray the Mass. It’s "A Biblical Walk Through the Mass" by Edward Sri and published by Ascension Press. This is a timely and timeless book.

It is timely because of the changes that are coming. In less than 150 pages Dr. Sri presents the changes and the reasons behind them. He shows how the new prayers and responses are much more Biblical and he explains the various parts of the Mass. I couldn’t help thinking of another Scripture scholar, Dr. Scott Hahn, and his conversion story. He was a Presbyterian who went to Marquette University to get a doctorate in theology and Scripture. One day he snuck into the lower church of Gesu, the church where I was ordained. Later, in his book “Rome Sweet Home” he called this a “fatal blunder” for he discovered that the Catholic Mass was not the superstitious worship that he had thought. It was, rather, “steeped in Scripture.” He wrote: “I wanted to stop everything and shout, ‘Hey, can I explain what’s happening from Scripture? This is great!’”

Dr. Sri’s book is the explanation of the Scriptural basis of the Mass. In that sense, it is not only timely but timeless. I wish that this book had been available when I was in the seminary 30 years ago. It is clear and concise. My copy is now thoroughly highlighted and I suspect I’ll be referring to it from time to time to help me to avoid routine and to pray the Mass with greater understanding and fervor. Its subtitle is definitely on the mark: “Understanding What We Say and Do in the Liturgy.”

"A Call to a Deeper Love"

2011-07-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast of the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Zelie and Louis Martin, and my friend Maureen O'Riordan, whose web site "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway" is a great resource, recently informed me that a book of their letters has just been published in English. It's called "A Call to a Deeper Love" and it consists of 16 letters of Louis which have survived and 218 of Zellie's letters. In his homily at the time of their beatification on October 19, 2008, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins said: "This beatification of Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin, whom Therese defined as parents without equal, worthy of heaven, holy ground permeated with the perfume of purity, is very important in the Church. My heart is full of gratitude to God for this exemplary witness of conjugal love, which is bound to stimulate Christian couples in practicing virtue just as it stimulated the desire for holiness in Therese."

Maureen shared with me part of a message she received from a young woman who wrote her senior thesis on Therese last spring. Here's what she wrote: "You don't know how excited I am about this edition of the letters of Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin coming out in English. It's just been bumped up to the top of my summer spiritual reading list. I'm incredibly excited to delve deeper into the world of these two married blessed. Since I myself have been discerning marriage as my vocation, it'll be wonderful to see what it means to be a saint as a married woman. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy so that I can start reading it. Thank you so much for letting me know about it!"

St. Therese enrolled in the Apostleship of Prayer in 1885 when she was twelve years old and is our second patron saint, along with St. Francis Xavier on whose feast the Apostleship began in 1844. I've always thought that St. Therese learned the spirituality of making an offering of her life and her day through both her parents and the Apostleship of Prayer, and so I'm interested in learning more about these two holy people through this book of their letters. I've ordered my copy through Maureen's web site and encourage anyone who is interested in St. Therese and the family in which she grew up to do so as well.

Receiving the Word

2011-07-10T06:02:00.000-07:00

Today I celebrated Mass with the Sisters of St. Francis, the group that owns the building in which the national offices of the Apostleship of Prayer are located. Here is a summary of what I said in my homily.

According to our First Reading (Isaiah 55: 10-11), God's word is powerful and universal. God's word accomplishes what it was sent to do. In Genesis we see that when God spoke, creation came out of nothing. Like rain, God's word comes to the whole world; it comes to the just and the unjust. God sows the word, scattering it over a variety of terrains and peoples, as we read in the Gospel.

But, as we hear in the Second Reading (Romans 8: 18-23), "all creation is groaning." All creation, including ourselves, is made for more than what we currently experience. We're made for more than sin and its effect, death. We're made for what Isaiah prophesied in Chapter 11: 1-9--a peaceable kingdom where there will be total harmony, a time when "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (verse 9). When will this be? In another letter of St. Paul's, Ephesians, we hear that it will be when our destiny is fulfilled, when the union for which we are made will be consummated, when God will be "all in all" (1: 22). Or, as Paul puts it a few chapters later, when we and all creation will "be filled with the fullness of God" (3: 19). In short, the groaning will be over when the seed of God's word is received and brings forth the fruit of eternal life.

The seed, the word, is a person. It is Jesus, the very Word of God. After the 2008 Synod of Bishops, Pope Benedict wrote the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini in which he said that the Word of God is more than a book, more than the Scriptures. It is the Living Word whom we encounter through the Scriptures. Throughout Verbum Domini Pope Benedict speaks about the "encounter" and the "relationship" to which we are called and which is facilitated through the Scriptures.

Jesus is the Word-Made-Flesh, God's perfect communication to creation. But communication is a two-way street. Spouses know this well. If one of them is reading the paper or watching television or surfing the Internet and the other is talking, communication does not occur. "Huh? What was that you were saying?" is the response to the one who asks a question, hears no response, and declares "You aren't listening!" God wants communication with us, the basis for a relationship. God does not want to talk at us but to us. God wants us to listen and receive His Word. God wants to talk with us, eager for our response to His communication. In Verbum Domini 86-87 Pope Benedict writes about this process which is called "lectio divina," divine or sacred reading. It involves not only listening to God speak through the Scriptures but also responding in prayer and in action, in the way we live our lives.

Prayer isn't easy. Many people get discouraged because as they read from a book or from the Bible they become distracted. The words seem to pass before their eyes while the thoughts in their minds are very different. This seems to be natural. Our minds always seem to race with thousands of thoughts. This is even more true today when so many distractions--radio, television, the Internet--are part of our daily lives. It isn't easy to focus on the words of a prayer or of the Bible. It requires hard work and discipline. When our minds wander away from the words on the page, we ought not get discouraged but should simply bring the words back into focus.

The ultimate example of this is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was receptive to the Word, not passive. She had focus. Her Immaculate Heart was not filled with the birds and weeds of temptation and distraction. Her Pure Heart was purely open and devoted to the will of God. And, as St. Augustine said, after receiving the Word into her Heart, she then conceived the Word in her womb. She received the Word first into her Heart and then gave flesh to that Word.

Every time we celebrate Mass we do the same. We encounter the Word in the proclamation of the Scriptures and in the Sacrament. We open our minds and hearts to receive Him. We open our mouths to praise Him and to receive Him into our bodies. We receive the Word so that He might be "all-in-all" in us. We receive the Word and are transformed. We receive the Word-Made-Flesh, His very Body and Blood, and become what we receive. Having received the Word in the Scriptures and Sacrament, we now give Him flesh and bring Him to others.

"Remember the Marvels the Lord has done"

2011-07-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

I prepared my homily this morning but neglected to look at the Responsorial Psalm and its antiphon "Remember the marvels the Lord has done." When I got up to proclaim the Gospel after hearing those words repeated between the verses of the psalm, I thought, "How appropriate!"

I'm in New York, at Fordham University, where we've just finished our annual meeting of the board of directors of the Apostleship of Prayer. In the morning I gave the director's annual report and Fr. Phil Hurley, S.J. followed me with his youth and young adult director's report which included videos and slide shows from our "Hearts on Fire" events. Having shared those two reports about the good things that we've been able to accomplish, we celebrated Mass with Archbishop Robert Carlson presiding. Thus, when I got up to preach, those words of the Responsorial Psalm resonated deeply in my heart.

We have much for which to be thankful and it is very clear that all we do is God's work. Our Mass readings today were just as appropriate as the Psalm Response. The story of Joseph, Jacob's son, and his brothers is a clear lesson that God takes what we do--our weaknesses, sins, failings, mistakes, and errors--and turns them into good if we let Him. So we can trust. That is also the lesson of the Gospel (Luke 10: 7-15) which challenges us to go forth with very little, trusting in God. It would be nice, I told the board, to have an endowment of a couple million dollars for the work we do, but not having one leads us to trust year by year on God's Providential care. Somehow, through the generosity of many good people, we can present a balanced budget to the board.

I get anxious about this. I breathe a sigh of relief when the annual board meeting is over. And I also hear the Lord telling me: "Let go. Don't worry. Let me handle things. Just offer yourself to me one day and a time and I'll take care of the rest."

HAPPY FEAST!

2011-07-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus! Today's readings present devotion to the Sacred Heart in three simple steps.

1. In our first reading (Deuteronomy 7: 6-11) Moses tells the Israelites that they "are a people sacred to the Lord." The "Lord set his heart" on them and "chose" them. This is all because "the Lord loved" them and "because of his fidelity." In other words: God is devoted to his people, to us.

2. St. John declares in the second reading (1 John 4: 7-16) that "God is love." He explains: "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins." This being the case, John continues, "if God so loved us, we also must love one another." Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not our devotion but God's. It is God's devotion to us revealed in the Pierced Heart of his Son. Our devotion is a response to God's devotion. Our devotion is expressed in loving all those for whom the Heart of Jesus was pierced, i.e. all humanity.

3. We learn to do this by responding to Jesus' invitation in the Gospel (Matthew 11: 25-30):
"Come to me... and learn from me." We come to Jesus in the Eucharist where we enter into his Heart through the Liturgy of the Word, listening to Jesus speaking to us and taking on his thoughts and feelings. Then, in Holy Communion, Jesus gives himself to us. He gives his Heart to us because he is fully present in the Eucharist. With this Heart now transforming us through Word and Sacrament, we can respond as we ought to respond to the great love of God revealed in the Heart of his Son, Jesus.

Summertime

2011-06-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging as much as I would like for a number of reasons. One is my usual schedule of talks and retreats, work in the office, and creating daily reflections for the web site and radio/YouTube. The other reason is that I'm working on a book that I was asked to write by Ave Maria Press. The subject is the Sacred Heart and so this project is a labor of love, but there are some pressures because it is due September 1.

While I'm holding down the fort somewhat in Milwaukee, my assistant for youth and young adult ministry, Fr. Phil Hurley, is on the road with the Jesuit Mission Band. He has pulled together a new group of young Jesuit priests and seminarians and they are going to five cities on the East Coast before going to Madrid for World Youth Day in August. They've been to Washington and Philadelphia already and photos from those events can be found on our Facebook page.

Tomorrow, after getting some regular maintenance done on the car and renewing my driver's license (has it been 8 years already?!), I'm heading to the Jesuit Villa in Waupaca, Wisconsin for a few days of vacation before our July 7 board meeting in New York City. Several Jesuit friends of mine gather each year around the 4th of July holiday in order to golf at Foxfire Golf Course, just five minutes from the Villa. It's an interesting course which, because of the way I hit the ball, plays differently every time I play it. Every year I have two goals: 1) to not lose a ball in the water that is on both sides of the fairway and in front of the green on the 9th hole; 2) to not lose to Fr. Tom Gaunt, the Executive Director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and a good friend since we first met at St. Louis University in 1973, our first year of philosophy studies as young Jesuits.

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

The "Admiral"

2011-06-23T13:38:00.001-07:00

From time to time a fellow Jesuit from my community at Marquette University calls the office and asks for the "Admiral." That's me. I'm the director of the Apostleship of Prayer but he refers to me as the Admiral of the Ship, the Apostle-ship that is. You can see: he's given to puns. So in light of this title I took the wheel of the boat that took us to Chambers Island last weekend for the retreat I gave there. Here's a photo to prove it, along with another shot from beautiful Holy Nam e Retreat House.

Door County Weekend

2011-06-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

Though I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I'd never been to Door County, the peninsula that sticks out into Lake Michigan and forms the bay for which the city of Green Bay was named. I'd never been there, that is, until this weekend.

The Diocese of Green Bay has a gem called "Holy Name Retreat House" that is located on Chambers Island, a 45 minute boat ride from the harbor in the town of Fish Creek. I gave a retreat there from Friday to Sunday on the theme "Put out into the Deep: Entering into the Heart of Jesus." My first talk was the homily at Mass on Friday evening and the two talks on Saturday were "The True Love Story: the Sacred Heart of Jesus" and "Entering into the Heart of Jesus through Word and Sacrament." On Saturday evening we celebrated a reconciliation service during a holy hour of exposition, adoration, and benediction. The retreat ended on Sunday morning with a talk on "Living in Union with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus through the Apostleship of Prayer" and with Mass for which some of the 60 or so "Islanders" joined us. Holy Name Retreat House, which is celebrating its 60th year, is a beautiful, holy place, one of only two English-speaking island retreat houses in the world, and I highly recommend it.

On my way to Door County I stopped at the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, the first and only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the U.S. There is a small church and in the crypt under it is a statue marking the place where Mary appeared in 1859 to a twenty-eight year old Belgian immigrant named Adele Brise.

I also visited the Catholic Youth Expedition camp located in Baileys Harbor. I know several of the staff members and it was a pleasure to spend some time with them, get a tour of the facility, meet some of the other young and enthusiastic staff members, pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with them, and have lunch. They were getting the place ready for the 140 people who were coming for the Father's Day Weekend Family Expedition.

Though it was a grace to experience for the first time God's beautiful creation--Door County--I am savoring the greater grace of experiencing God's work at the shrine and in the lives of the enthusiastic and faith-filled people at the Catholic Youth Expeditions and Holy Name Retreat House.

The Breath of God

2011-06-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked a question: "What's new about Pentecost?" Today, Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate a great event--the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles who were gathered in prayer, as tradition has it, in "the upper room" in Jerusalem. Mary had already experienced the overshadowing the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. When Jesus appeared to the Apostles on Easter night, as we hear in today's Gospel (John 20: 19-23), "he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Obviously Pentecost was not the first appearance of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit was present from the beginning of creation and throughout the history of Israel.

The first verses of Genesis are: "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters." That's the New American Bible translation. The Jerusalem Bible is a bit different and identifies the wind that "swept over the waters" as the Spirit: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water." It was the Spirit--God's wind, God's breath--that brought order to what was a "formless void": "By the Lord's word the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their hosts" (Psalm 33: 6).

The Spirit of God helped Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and govern them wisely. When the work became too much for one person, God shared his Spirit with seventy elders (see Numbers 11: 16-25), including two whose names were on the list of those chosen to help Moses but who were not present for the ceremony. When Joshua tried to stop them, Moses replied, "Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!" (11: 29). The Spirit even came upon an enemy of Israel--Balaam--who was commissioned to curse them but instead, after "the spirit of God came upon him," blessed them (Numbers 24: 1-13).

This Spirit raised up others leaders for God's Chosen People--the Judges--and empowered them with gifts to lead the people in God's ways. Thus, we have Othniel, about whom is written: "The spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel" (Judges 3: 10). The Spirit also "enveloped" Gideon (Judges 6: 34), "came upon Jephthah" (Judges 11: 29), and "stirred" the long-haired Samson (Judges 13: 25).

After the time of the Judges, the Spirit of God came upon the Kings the Israel and the Prophets. The Spirit of God "rushed upon" Saul (1 Samuel 10: 10; 11: 6) and then, after Saul sinned and refused to follow the Spirit's direction, the prophet Samuel anointed David and "the spirit of the Lord rushed upon" him (1 Samuel 16: 13).

Isaiah, in words that Jesus used at the beginning of his teaching ministry, declared: "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me" (61: 1). The Prophet Micah said: "I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, with authority and with might" (3: 8). When Ezekiel was called, it was the Spirit who "entered" him (2: 2) and "lifted" him up (3: 12) and "seized" him so that he went forth "spiritually stirred" (3: 14). The Prophet Joel, echoing the desire of Moses that all would have the prophetic spirit, anticipated an outpouring of God's Spirit with these words: "I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; Even upon the servants and the handmaids, in those days, I will pour out my spirit" (3: 1-2).

From this brief survey it's clear that the Spirit of God was at work in creation and in the lives of people from the beginning. What's so special, then, about Pentecost?

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost in a new way to make people a dwelling place and to transform them into true children of God. Through baptism in "water and Spirit" (John 3: 5), each Christian becomes "the temple of God" in whom "the Spirit of God dwells" (1 Corinthians 3: 16). Through baptism we "received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry Abba, 'Father!' The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8: 15-16).

The word "spirit" comes the Latin "spiritus" which comes from the Latin verb "spirare" meaning "to breathe" or "to blow." The Holy Spirit is God's Breath blown into each Christian giving him or her supernatural life. As our natural breath is essential for our body's life, so the Breath of God is essential for our soul's life, for the life that will continue after our natural breath leaves our body.

A good prayer practice involves praying with your breath. This can be especially helpful during times of anxiety or stress. On a purely natural level, it helps the body to relax by taking deep breaths. So why not make those deep breaths a prayer? As you breathe in, imagine God breathing the Holy Spirit into you. Hold the breath and imagine the Holy Spirit filling you with life and strength and all the spiritual gifts you need at that particular time. Then breathe out, sending the Holy Spirit upon the people or situations that are causing you fear and anxiety, anger and resentment.

After teaching his disciples the prayer we know today as the "Our Father," Jesus spoke to them (and to us) about prayer. He said: "If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?" (Luke 11: 13). In saying this Jesus reminds us that we are beloved children of God our Father and that the best gift we can receive is the Holy Spirit. All other gifts pale in comparison. This is why we join our voices with Christians everywhere praying "Come Holy Spirit!" The Holy Spirit has come but we tend to forget the Gift we've been given. We tend to lose our awareness and appreciation of the Gift of God given to the Church at Pentecost and to each of us at baptism. With our celebration of Pentecost we are reminded that God is as close to us as our breath, and just as essential for life, true life.

The Prayer of Abraham

2011-06-05T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night I gave a short talk at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee's monthly All-Night Vigil. My topic was based on the May 18 General Audience of Pope Benedict--Abraham and the Prayer of Intercession.

How did you learn to pray? What were your first prayers like?

I recall my mother kneeling with me beside my bed each night and praying for her and my father, for my sisters and other relatives, and for friends. Later, when I was tucked into bed, I might add a secret prayer--asking for something for myself, like a certain toy for Christmas. Sometimes I prayed in desperation, like the time my sister accidentally splashed dish water into Timmy the Turtle's bowl and he got very sick. I prayed that he would recover. He didn't.

When those prayers of desperation are not answered as we want, our faith is tested. That's especially true when we pray for important and good things--like the health of a loved one. When the loved one dies we ask: "Doesn't God hear?" "Doesn't God care?"

The answer is that God does hear every prayer and does care deeply for us, but sometimes the answer he gives to our prayers is the one that Jesus received in a garden called Gethsemane. Didn't the Father hear the prayer of his Beloved Son? Most certainly. Didn't the Father care for his Son? Yes. Then why? Why did the Father not take the cup of suffering and death away from his Son? Because God had a greater good in mind. It's truly hard to imagine, but God loved the sinful human race so much that he saved us through suffering and death, by sharing in our own suffering and death.

We're made in God's image and likeness. God is a Communion of Persons and as such God is Love Itself. Made in the image and likeness of Love, we're made by love and for love. That is our nature and our destiny. Through baptism we become children of the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus, temples of the Holy Spirit. We are called to believe this and to act on it.

What does that mean, to act on this belief about our deepest identity? It means loving as God loves.

Do you love God? Do you have God's love in your heart? Do you share God's concern for the world?

This is what brings us here to the monthly All-Night Vigil. We come together to pray for the salvation of all. We do so like Abraham who, according to Chapter 18 of Genesis, begged God to save sinful Sodom and Gomorrah. As Pope Benedict said last May 18: "By voicing this prayer, Abraham was giving a voice to what God wanted." What God wanted was not destruction but salvation. God wanted to save those two cities and Abraham's prayer gave voice to God's desire. Abraham's prayer opened, as it were, a channel for God's merciful grace to enter those cities. Unfortunately, that grace did not find a welcome, for there was no one to receive it. All rejected it, clinging instead to evil.

God desires to save. This is why God sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to Fatima in 1917. When she appeared in July of that year, the Mother of God revealed to the three children a terrible scene--Hell. Photos of the children that were taken afterwards show how badly shaken they were. They committed themselves to praying, fasting, and offering sacrifices for the conversion and salvation of sinners. The youngest, Jacinta, was particularly moved by what she had seen. She did not want anyone to go to that place of definitive alienation from God.

We are not so innocent. At one time or another we have held on to anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, and hatred. You and I have probably wanted to see our enemies--personal, ethnic, or national--rot in hell.

Not Jesus. He came to save humanity so that no one would rot in hell. He prayed for his enemies who crucified him. The New Testament calls us to bless those who curse us, just as Jesus did.

This is the prayer that unites us to God. This is the prayer that unites us to one another each First Friday and Saturday. Over the years it has united many, some who are no longer with us physically. They are with us spiritually now in a powerful way, praying and interceding with and for us. Good and gentle and holy Father Redemptus is with us tonight, praying.

Our prayer is that God may have mercy on all and give to all the grace to be converted, to accept the salvation that Christ won for us on the cross. We strive to make this a pure prayer, a pure channel for God's merciful grace to enter the world, a channel not clogged by rancor or bitterness.

This is the meaning of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These Two Hearts suffered for love of humanity, for sinners. The Heart of Jesus was pierced on the cross. The Heart of Mary was pierced by the sword of sorrow that only a mother could feel watching her own flesh and blood suffer and die that way. These Two Hearts continue to suffer for hurting humanity. They suffer for the terrible pains and sorrow people inflict on one another. They suffer for the consequences of sin that lead to self-destruction. Their suffering moves us to pray and do penance for the salvation of all those who suffer and for all who cause suffering.

Let us close with the words with which Pope Benedict ended his General Audience of May 18:

Dear brothers and sisters, the prayer of intercession of Abraham, our father in the faith, teaches us to open our hearts ever wider to God's superabundant mercy so that in daily prayer we may know how to desire the salvation of humanity and ask for it with perseverance and with trust in the Lord who is great in love.

The Feminine Genius

2011-05-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

Blessed Luigi Guanella is going to be canonized on October 23 this year. I first made his acquaintance last year when I gave a retreat to some Sisters of one of the congregations he founded. Last Friday and Saturday I was in Chicago for their "community days," an annual gathering which brought together 43 women from around the U.S., as well as from Mexico and the Philippines. I gave six talks and one of them was entitled "The Feminine Genius."

Today is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary when we remember how Mary, after receiving the news that she was to be the Mother of God, went to her kinswoman Elizabeth, an older woman whom Mary had just found out was pregnant. Her love and sensitivity to her relative's need overshadowed the shock of her own situation. She saw the need of another and responded to it.

That is the "Feminine Genius." It's no surprise that when Fr. Guanella saw the needs of the developmentally disabled people of Nineteenth Century Italy, as well as orphans, the poor, senior citizens, and whomever was marginalized, he turned to women for help. He founded the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence before he founded his congregation for men, the Servants of Charity. Though he may not have used these words of Blessed John Paul II--the feminine genius--he knew their reality.

Here are some excerpts from Pope John Paul II's writings about the feminine genius:

In our own time, the successes of science and technology make it possible to attain material well-being to a degree hitherto unknown. While this favors some, it pushes others to the margins of society. In this way, unilateral progress can also lead to a gradual loss of sensitivity for man, that is, for what is essentially human. In this sense, our time in particular awaits the manifestation of that "genius" which belongs to women, and which can ensure sensitivity for human beings in every circumstance: because they are human! --and because "the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13: 13). [1988 Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatis (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women on the Occasion of the Marian Year), #30.

[W]omen have the task of assuring the moral dimension of culture, the dimension, namely, of a culture worthy of the person.... How great are the possibilities and responsibilities of woman in this area, at a time when the development of science and technology is not always inspired and measured by true wisdom, with the inevitable risk of "de-humanizing" human life, above all when it would demand a more intense love and a more generous acceptance. [1988 Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World), #51]

Progress usually tends to be measured according to the criteria of science and technology. ... Much more important is the social and ethical dimension, which deals with human relations and spiritual values. In this area, which often develops in an inconspicuous way beginning with the daily relationships between people, especially within the family, society certainly owes much to the "genius of women." ... Perhaps more than men, women acknowledge the person, because they see persons with their hearts. They see them independently of various ideological or political systems. They see others in their greatness and limitations; they try to go out to them and help them. [1995 Letter to Women, #9, 12]

In a word, we can say that the cultural change which we are calling for demands from everyone the courage to adopt a new life-style, consisting in making practical choices--at the personal, family, social and international level--on the basis of a correct scale of values: the primacy of being over having, of the person over things. This renewed life-style involves a passing from indifference to concern for others, from rejection to acceptance of them. Other people are not rivals from whom we must defend ourselves, but brothers and sisters to be supported. They are to be loved for their own sakes, and they enrich us by their very presence. ... In transforming culture so that it supports life, women occupy a place, in thought and action, which is unique and decisive. It depends on them to promote a "new feminism" which rejects the temptation of imitating models of "male domination", in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society, and overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation. Making my own the words of the concluding message of the Second Vatican Council, I address to women this urgent appeal: "Reconcile people with life". [1995 Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), #98, 99].

The concluding message to which Pope John Paul II refers was part of the solemn closing ceremony of the Second Vatican Council on December 8, 1965. The bishops addressed special messages to various groups including the women of the world. Here is part of the message which once again makes clear how essential the feminine genius is for the good of the world:

Reconcile people with life and above all, we beseech you, watch carefully over the future of our race. Hold back the hand of man who, in a moment of folly, might attempt to destroy human civilization. ... Women, you who know how to make truth sweet, tender, and accessible, make it your task to bring the spirit of this Council into institutions, schools, homes, and daily life. Women of the entire universe, whether Christian or non-believing, you to whom life is entrusted at this grave moment in history, it is for you to save the peace of the world.

A Heart on Fire

2011-05-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

The other day, before my retreat in St. Louis started, I went to the Chancery and met with Archbishop Robert Carlson who is the episcopal member of the Apostleship of Prayer's board of directors. Afterwards, as I prepared to make a dash to my car through a thunderstorm that had quickly appeared during our meeting, I grabbed the most recent copy of the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper. I always like to read about the local Church in the places I visit and the cover story was on the four men from the archdiocese who will be ordained on Saturday. There was a brief biography for each of the four men and then some quotes. What soon-to-be Fr. Anthony Gerber said really caught my attention for what I'm sure will be obvious reasons. He said:

"I've learned that every day is a chance for us to offer our hearts to the Lord, to receive His Sacred Heart, and then to give His love to others. In this way, our hearts are set on fire. This is what I hope to be as a priest: one whose heart is on fire for Jesus and His Church."

In those few words Fr. Gerber captured the essence of devotion to the Sacred Heart. It's all about being filled with the overflowing love of the Heart of Jesus and communicating that love to all we meet. We open our hearts to Christ who gives us His Heart to transform ours. His Heart is, as the Litany of the Sacred Heart goes, "a burning furnace of charity" which melts and molds our hearts, uniting them to His.

Over the past forty or so years some people in the Church came to think that Sacred Heart devotion is old fashioned and has nothing to say to young people. I haven't found that to be the case and Fr. Gerber's reflection is another example of that.

Fr. Gerber, may you and all who are ordained this year have hearts on fire, hearts that are conformed to the Heart of Jesus.

Mistaken Identity?

2011-05-23T17:53:00.000-07:00

My good Jesuit friend Fr. Rob Kroll, who writes periodically for the Magis Institute, had a good reflection on today's first reading (Acts 14: 5-18):

We live in a culture that idolizes Hollywood stars graced with beautiful faces, athletes endowed with muscular bodies, rock stars showered with fame and fortune, and politicians wielding power. The attraction of beauty, fame, wealth, and power-and the desire to worship individuals possessing them-has existed in all societies and epochs, of course. The great temptation of the "rich and famous" is that they allow the adulation of the masses to go to their heads. They forget the divine source of all their gifts, and become puffed up with pride. Treated like gods by others, they begin to think themselves gods.

In today's reading from Acts, the crowds in Lystra seek to idolize Paul and Barnabas, worshiping them as gods after they heal a man crippled from birth. How might Donald Trump, Moammar Gadhafi, or Charlie Sheen respond if their supporters cried out like the Lycaonians, "The gods have come down to us in human form"? Fortunately Barnabas and Paul tear their garments and direct the crowds to the living God, humbly asserting that they themselves are mere mortals.
Each of us, too, can be tempted to pride. We might secretly aspire to be worshipped in some measure by others for our wealth, power, beauty, and talents-perhaps even our holiness! Let's remember today that all good gifts come from God and are to be used for His greater glory. May we humbly make the psalmist's words our own: "Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name give glory" (115:1).

I preached about this a little differently at the Jesuit retreat house in the St. Louis area where I began a retreat with 34 women this afternoon. The people of Lystra mistake Paul and Barnabas for "gods" because they see something of the divine in them. They perceive grace or supernatural power at work in and through them. This is how it should be for all of us.

As images of God we should reflect God to the world. As members of the Body of Christ, people should see Christ in us. I'm reminded of a song by the contemporary Christian musician Warren Barfield, "Mistaken." It brings these two reflections--Fr. Kroll's and mine--together. Here are a few of the lyrics:

Oh the more and more I disappear
The more and more He becomes clear
'Til everyone I talk to hears His voice
And everything I touch feels the warmth of His hand
'Til everyone I meet
Sees Jesus in me
This is all I wanna be
I wanna be mistaken
For Jesus

Do they only see who we are
When who we are should be pointing them to Christ
Cause we are who He chose to use
To spread the news
Of the way the truth and the life
Oh I want all I am to die
So all He is can come alive

This is the great mystery of the Christian life. In being emptied of ourselves we are filled with our truest, deepest self--Christ. We can say with St. Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2: 19-20). In dying to ourselves we are born to real life.

"In My 'Yes', Find Yours"

2011-05-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, on the flight back to Milwaukee from Los Angeles, I was able to read Pope Benedict's Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Vebum Domini" or "The Word of the Lord." A Synod of Bishops meets periodically and the last such meeting was in October, 2008. In 2010 Pope Benedict issued his reflections based on the planning documents and discussions of the Synod. That's what "Verbum Domini" is.

Three passages of that document speak very well to the "spirituality of offering."

1. "In stressing faith's intrinsic summons to an ever deeper relationship with Christ, the word of God in our midst, the Synod also emphasized that this word calls each one of us personally, revealing that life itself is a vocation from God. In other words, the more we grow in our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, the more we realize that he is calling us to holiness in and through the definitive choices by when we respond to his love in our lives, taking up tasks and ministries which help to build up the Church" (#77).

Our lives are a response. Each of us is called to respond to the great love that God has shown us when he offering everything to and for us. Our response depends upon the depth of our relationship with God. If our relationship is superficial, our response and our lives will be superficial. If our relationship with God is deep, our response and our lives will have depth.

2. "In the word of God proclaimed and heard, and in the sacraments, Jesus says today, here and now, to each person: 'I am yours, I give myself to you'; so that we can receive and respond, saying in return: 'I am yours'" (#51).

Jesus gives himself to us totally as the Word-made-flesh who continues to give himself to us totally in the Eucharist. In our Daily Offering we commit ourselves to making a return of love for love.

3. "The Gospel, on the other hand, reminds us that every moment of our life is important and must be lived intensely..." (#99).

Every moment of our lives is either a "yes" to God or a "no." Every moment either builds the civilization of love or contributes to the culture of death, the consequence of sin. Every moment can be lived intensely because it can be united to Christ's perfect offering on the cross and in the Mass.

Yesterday I was the guest spiritual director for Relevant Radio's daily call-in spiritual direction show, "The Inner Life." The focus of the program was "Marian Devotions." It was a lively show with several people calling in to share the story of the role that various devotions and prayers to Mary had played in their lives. A man named Dan talked about how had once questioned prayer to Mary and its significance. One day in prayer he heard in his heart these words: "In my 'Yes,' find yours."

I wrote those words down. Mary is the greatest example we have of responding totally to God's love. She said "Yes" with no "ifs," "ands," or "buts." In her "Yes" we can truly find the response to God's love that we want to make.

"The Most Outstanding Form of Devotion"

2011-05-18T05:42:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I was at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, California to give a retreat to about 75 women, mostly from the Las Vegas area. A third of them enrolled in the Apostleship of Prayer at the end of the retreat. The talks were based on a word from the foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus of Los Angeles, Mother Luisita: "For greater things you were born." On Sunday night I was able to dine with members of the Korean Apostleship of Prayer groups from Orange County and from a parish in Los Angeles where members gather on Saturday morning at 8:00 to pray together for the Holy Father's monthly intentions.

One of the things I enjoy about making long trips like this is having time on the plane and in the airport to read.

On the way to Los Angeles I read a 1951 book written by the U.S. Apostleship of Prayer director at the time, Fr. Arthur McGratty, S.J. The Sacred Heart Yesterday and Today is a survey of the devotion written in an engaging style. I found out a few things that I didn't know and ran across the following papal quotes about the Apostleship:

Pope St. Pius X in a letter to Fr. Joseph Boubee, S.J.: "No more effective remedy can be devised for the great and varied ills afflicting human kind than the Apostleship of Prayer."

Pope Benedict XV on October 17, 1920: "The Apostleship of Prayer is the most outstanding form of devotion to the Sacred Heart."

Pope Pius XI on March 13, 1926: "The Apostleship has continuously, even unto our own times, proposed to itself as an end peculiar to itself the advancement of the social reign of Jesus Christ amongst the peoples and the nations."

Pope Pius XII in September, 1948: "We, even as Our predecessors, have made it known and once more most willingly declare that it will make Us very happy if all the faithful without exception enlist in this sacred militia to swell the army of Associates."

Reading these, I was confirmed in the work I am doing. True devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not an individualistic piety. The closer we grow in a personal relationship with Jesus, the more we take on his thoughts, attitudes, and values. And the more we take on the mind and heart of Christ, the more our hearts go out to our suffering world. We are filled with the compassion Jesus has for the poor and suffering of the world, victims of both material and spiritual poverty and violence. We are also filled with Christ's desire for the conversion of sinners, those responsible for the sad state of our world. As Christ offered himself on the cross for the salvation of the world, so we join ourselves to his perfect offering when we participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and renew the offering we make there with our Daily Offering. This is why the popes of the first half of the Twentieth Century spoke so highly of the Apostleship of Prayer.

Consecration

2011-05-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

This evening I am going to celebrate Mass for a group of women who support one another in their spiritual lives. Part of that support has, over the years, included making and renewing the St. Louis de Montfort Consecration to Mary. I joined them in preparing for and then making this Consecration on December 8, 2003, a few months after becoming the U.S. director of the Apostleship of Prayer. We will renew the Consecration tonight and this is what I'll say in my homily.

Our first reading (Acts 8: 1b-8) begins on a very negative note--"a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem"--and ends on a very positive note--"There was great joy in that city [of Samaria]." What happened in the intervening verses to bring about such a change?

The persecution led the Christians of Jerusalem to leave the city and to scatter "throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria." They brought with them the Good News of Jesus. They brought healings, both physical and spiritual. Would these Christians have scattered had they not been persecuted? We don't know if they would have followed the command of Jesus to "make disciples of all nations" (see Matthew 28: 19), but we do know that God allowed the persecution to take place and used it to move the Church beyond Jerusalem. This is another example of what St. Paul wrote in Romans 8: 28: "We know that all things work for good for those who love God."

We struggle to believe that. Suffering seems pointless. We cannot see its value. We cannot see its effects other than the negative ones. Yet, as the Church has taught from the beginning, suffering has redemptive value. Blessed John Paul II was an example of that.

In Lent 2002, he asked Jean Vanier, the founder of L'Arche (The Ark), an international network of communities in which volunteers live with people who are mentally disabled, to come to Rome to address the press conference at which his Lenten Message was released. John Paul was 81 and suffering from Parkinson's. He was stooped, he walked with a cane, he slurred his speech, and he drooled. Vanier said the following:

"He's never been more beautiful. It is a blessing to have someone so fragile--he is an incredible sign for the world. He is teaching an incredible lesson in assuming his disability, his fragility and trusting in St. Paul's words: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'

"There is a great mystery around people with disabilities. It is a scandal, and we cannot underestimate the pain. The most oppressed people in the world are those with disabilities--in France, 96% of women who find out that they are carrying a child with disabilities will opt for an abortion. The disabled are often made to feel guilty for existing.

"It is scandalous, but it is the same scandal as the Cross. Many handicapped children cry out: 'My God, my God, why have I been abandoned?' It is the same cry from the Cross. This is the mystery--those who appear to be less human teach us to be human and those who are most rejected are those who heal us."

This is the lesson of Jesus that we are all called to follow. In today's Gospel (John 6: 35-40), Jesus says, "I am the bread of life." These are more than words, more than a metaphor. In John 12: 24, Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." Jesus is the grain that dies, the grain that is ground up to form bread to be consumed and give life. According to Pope Benedict, Jesus, at the Last Supper, anticipated his death on the cross and transformed it. In his homily at the end of World Youth Day 2005, he said:

"By making the bread into his Body and the wine into his Blood, he anticipates his death, he accepts it in his heart, and he transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence--the Crucifixion--from within becomes an act of total self-giving love. This is the substantial transformation which was accomplished at the Last Supper and was destined to set in motion a series of transformations leading ultimately to the transformation of the world when God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15: 28)."

Jesus can give life because he died. In today's Gospel Jesus goes on to say that he came to do one thing--the will of the Father which he says is "that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day." His entire will is united to the will of the Father which is that all people may come to eternal life in heaven.

Consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary is one practical way that we follow the example of Jesus. In this consecration we offer ourselves to the Mother of Christ so that she in turn will offer us to him. She will purify all that is not worthy of God. She will complete what is lacking. In offering ourselves to Jesus through Mary, we declare that we want to die to ourselves, to our self-will. We declare that we want to surrender ourselves completely to the will of the Father, as both Jesus and Mary did, trusting that God will make everything work together for our good and the good of those with whom and for whom we live our lives.

Roses for My Mother and Yours

2011-05-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

I started preparing after lunch. It was a perfect Mother's Day, weather-wise, with a bright sunny sky and a temperature hovering around 60. I knew from experience that I'd need some protection but I don't think a baseball cap really goes well with an alb and I don't have a biretta. So after lunch I put some sunblock lotion SPF 30 on my face and head. It was my final preparation before leaving for the 31st annual "Walk with Jesus and Mary."

I drove 10 minutes to the Milwaukee Archdiocesan Marian Shrine and saw all sorts of people I know from various organizations including our own Apostleship of Prayer. Many of our supporters and volunteers were there, gathering for a May crowning and Eucharistic Rosary Procession. Fr. Matthew Widder, ordained a year ago, carried the Blessed Sacrament around several blocks as we prayed the rosary and Fr. Don Hying, the rector of the local seminary preached. Deacon Christopher Klusman also participated. Deacon Klusman will soon become one of only 5 Catholic priests in the U.S. who is Deaf.

The event was sponsored by a group called "Roses for our Lady." This association of lay faithful was founded in the 1970's to "bring honor and glory to Jesus and Mary in our world today." They do this by the event we celebrated today as well as Eucharistic holy hours, special celebrations of Marian feast days, a rosary procession during Milwaukee's Festa Italiana, and a monthly holy hour for vocations at St. Francis de Sales Seminary. The current president is my good friend, fellow blogger, and Apostleship of Prayer volunteer, Anne Bender.

In his homily Fr. Hying talked about the significance of a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Milwaukee. Bringing the Presence of Jesus into the world reminds us of our obligation to bring Jesus into the world through our presence. From my perspective, this is what it means to be the Body of Christ. This is what it means to "live the Eucharist." "Ite missa est." Those are the words that were traditionally used at the end of Mass. "Go, you are sent." We are sent forth to bring Jesus into the world through His Presence in us and with us.

After Fr. Hying's homily, I led the following prayers of consecration:

O Mary, my Mother, I consecrate myself to your Immaculate Heart. I am all yours, and all that I have is yours. Keep me under your mantle of mercy, protect me as your child, and lead my soul safely to Jesus in Heaven. Purify all that I give you, and take it to Jesus, that He may use it to help save the world and souls. Amen.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, filled with infinite love, broken by my ingratitude and pierced by my sins and yet loving me still, accept the consecration that I make to Thee of all that I am and all that I have. Take every faculty of my soul and body, and draw me day by day nearer and nearer to Thy sacred side, and there, as I can bear the lesson, teach me Thy blessed ways.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have pity on the dying. Amen.

The day closed with benediction. It was a wonderful way to honor our Mother and her Son on Mother's Day. Lastly, here are the lyrics of a traditional Polish hymn that we sang:

Stainless the Maiden (Serdeczna Matko)

Stainless the Maiden
Whom He chose for mother;
Nine months she waited,
Bearing Christ, our brother;
Think of her gladness
When at last she saw Him:
God in a manger,
Bethlehem a heaven!

Lantern in darkness,
When the sick are sighing,
Threshold of brightness,
Comfort for the dying,
High she is holding
For a world adoring,
Hope of the nations,
Jesus Christ, our brother.

Communications

2011-05-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

Pope Benedict's General Prayer Intention this month is for all those working in communication media: that they may respect the truth, solidarity, and dignity of people. The Message he wrote for the 45th annual World Communications Day, which will be celebrated on June 5, is also timely: "Truth, Proclamation, and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age." This past weekend I participated in the annual conference of the Institute on Religious Life and the theme was "Go Make Disciples: Utilizing the New Media for the New Evangelization." In one workshop I learned that 50% of Americans have a Facebook account and 1/12th of the human race has one, making Facebook users the third largest nation in the world, after China and India. And then, on May 2, 150 Catholic bloggers gathered in Rome at the invitation of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Pontifical Council for Culture. Communication certainly seems to be on every one's mind these days.

The Internet has been a blessing for the Apostleship of Prayer. We've been able to get information out to people much more quickly than in pre-Internet days. When the Holy Father has an urgent prayer request, we can join him more easily in that prayer by sending an email out to all our members inviting them to pray with him.

I'll be honest: I know how to use some of the media but not much of it. I call myself a "techno-weenie." I really don't know what MP3 files are, I don't have an iPod, and I've never listened to a Podcast. Or have I?

Recently the National Jesuit News blog interviewed me via telephone and posted nine minutes of the interview as a Podcast on its site. In the interview I talked about my Jesuit vocation, how I came to know about the Apostleship of Prayer, and some of the exciting things we are doing these days.

One of those exciting things involves World Youth Day. On Sunday the logo of the Apostleship of Prayer was flashed on the giant screens in St. Peter's Square before the beatification ceremony. We are one of the sponsors of the "Love and Life" site for English-speaking pilgrims at World Youth Day next August in Madrid. You can see the video at the "Firm in the Faith with Mary" Facebook page.

I don't know if I'll ever catch up with all the communications technology out there, but it's good to work with others who know how to use it. Let's pray with Pope Benedict that we all make good use of the media.

Divine Mercy Sunday

2011-05-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

I led Divine Mercy devotions and celebrated Mass this afternoon at Sacred Heart Croatian Parish in Milwaukee. Here's what I said in my homily.

Divine Mercy Sunday is a celebration in response to a request from Jesus Himself. After His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, Jesus appeared from time to time on earth. The first such appearance was to Saul and it's recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. A millennium later, in 1210, He appeared to an eighteen year old woman, Blessed Juliana of Liege. He asked her to have a feast celebrated in honor of His Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, what we now celebrate as Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. Then, in 1673, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary and revealed His Heart on fire with love for humanity. He asked that a feast of reparation for the ways in which humanity had ignored His love revealed in the Eucharist be celebrated on the Friday after Corpus Christi. In the 1930's Jesus appeared again to a Polish nun, St. Faustina, and after revealing that His greatest attribute was mercy, asked that the Sunday after Easter be celebrated as a feast in honor of Divine Mercy. He asked that an image of Himself be painted with the words "Jesus, I trust in You."

When Jesus appeared after His ascension into heaven His message was always one of merciful love. This is the mercy we see in today's Gospel when Jesus appeared to His disciples on the first Easter Sunday and then a week later. Jesus wants to be known and to be loved. To truly know Him means to love Him. The natural response to knowing one is deeply loved is to love in return.

People sometimes ask me: Doesn't devotion to Divine Mercy take away from devotion to the Sacred Heart? This question almost makes it sound like there's a competition between the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy. The answer is "No." These are just different ways of expressing God's love. Devotion to Divine Mercy takes nothing away from devotion to the Sacred Heart. St. Faustina's Diary makes it clear that the two devotions are related. The mercy of Jesus is revealed through His Sacred Heart. The image He asked St. Faustina to have painted shows red and white rays, symbolic of the blood and water that flowed from His pierced Heart, emanating from His Heart. Just as devotion to the Sacred Heart takes nothing away from devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, but is a further expression of it, so too with Divine Mercy. In the Blessed Sacrament we meet the Risen Lord, touch His wounds, and sense the beating of His Heart, as Blessed Pope John Paul said in his Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine. There, in His Eucharist Heart, we find mercy, divine mercy.

All these devotions have their origin in one devotion--God's devotion to us. God is devoted to humanity, so devoted that He was willing to share our life and our death, even to the point of a terrible death on a cross. God devoted to us and our devotion is simply a response to His.

Ultimately our response is not so much one of feeling but of action. When Jesus appeared to Saul He asked why he was persecuting Him. He asked Saul to stop this persecution and to be merciful to His followers. So too for us: the merciful love of Jesus calls us to acts of love, to works of mercy.

When Jesus appeared to His disciples He said "Peace be with you." Then He sent them to continue His work, saying, "As the Father has sent me so I send you." Jesus was sent to reconcile humanity to the Father. We are sent to carry on His work of reconciliation and healing. Jesus empowers His Church to carry on His work by breathing on the apostles the Holy Spirit. Here we see the Sacrament of Reconciliation. All of us, sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, are called to carry on His work. We do that when, after confessing our sins, we do penance. We make reparation for our sins and the sins of the world. Our prayers and penances and sacrifices repair the damage of sin and bring healing and balance into the world. Only in this way will we have the community described in the first reading, when everyone held everything in common and prayed and broke bread together.

This is why prayers and sacrifices for the conversion of sinners are so important. They carry on the work of reconciliation that Jesus gave to the Church on that first Easter evening.

Why is conversion so important? Because it is the condition for mercy. After breathing the Spirit on His disciples Jesus said: "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." This almost sounds like there are conditions to mercy. Yet, God's love and mercy are infinite and unconditional. How is it that some sins are retained?

Freedom. Mercy, like love, cannot be forced. The only limit or condition on God's mercy is the one we put on it. God is always ready to forgive, but in order for true reconciliation to take place His mercy must be received. Forgiveness may be given but unless it is received, reconciliation does not take place. Mercy is offered but not accepted. In that case there is no reconciliation, no forgiveness, and the sins are "retained." Unless we recognize that we have sinned and need mercy, we cannot receive the mercy that God offers to us.

Therefore, we pray for conversion, for the recognition of sin, for sorrow for sin, and for the acceptance of God's mercy. Only then will we be truly free.

Jesus wants our freedom. He wants our love and our confidence in His love. He wants us to say to Him: "Jesus, I trust in You. Not in myself. Not in the stock market or the price of oil. Not in doctors and medications and cures for every illness. Not even in my family or my friends. You. Only in You, do I trust, Jesus. Why? Because You are mercy. You created us for heaven and your mercy is the only way, the only means by which we can attain this goal."

We will, as our second reading from the First Letter of Peter tells us, be tried and tested, just like Thomas. In that way our faith will be purified and strengthened. And through it all we rejoice because we have "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven." We "rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy" because we are attaining the goal of our lives and our faith--heaven. And all this is possible because of Divine Mercy.

IRL Conference

2011-04-28T14:33:00.001-07:00

Divine Mercy Weekend is coming and I'll be in Mundelein, IL, at the annual Institute on Religious Life Conference. The overall theme is "Go Make Disciples: Utilizing the New Media for the New Evangelization." I'm on the board of directors of the IRL and I'm excited about participating in this year's conference because at the Apostleship of Prayer we've been hard at work this year making better use of the new media. In fact, we just started a newer and better "fan page" on Facebook. If you go there you'll see photos of the volunteers who came yesterday to help us with our spring mailing.

Tomorrow, Friday morning, I'll be at Alma, MI Mercy Sister Marysia Weber's workshop on "The Effect of the New Media and Technology on Priestly and Religious Vocations." Then in the afternoon I'll set up a display table with some of our materials. Cardinal Francis George will give the keynote address in the evening.

On Saturday there will be various talks in the morning and workshops in the afternoon. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, MO will celebrate Mass and preach in the late afternoon. then in the evening there will be the annual banquet at which the IRL's annual "Pro Fidelitate et Virtute" award will be given. The recipient this year is a brother Jesuit--Fr. Kenneth Baker, who was the editor of the magazine "Homiletic and Pastoral Review" from 1971 to 2010.

Good Friday

2011-04-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

I will be leading my Jesuit community's "Celebration of the Lord's Passion" this afternoon. I can't help approaching this time of prayer from the perspective that St. Ignatius gives in his Spiritual Exercises. He invites us to not simply read the Gospel stories, to not just observe the scenes from the outside, but to enter into the story, to put ourselves in the Gospel scenes. We do that during the reading of the Passion when we prayerfully take on the roles of various characters and the crowd. But St. Ignatius would have us go even deeper. He would have us enter into the interior of Jesus and to experience what he thought and felt. We find this in the "Third Prelude" to the various Exercises in what is known as the "Third Week":

This is to ask for what I desire. In the Passion it is proper to ask for sorrow with Christ in sorrow, anguish with Christ in anguish, tears and deep grief because of the great affliction Christ endures for me.

With these words, St. Ignatius invites us to enter into the Heart of Jesus. We are to share his "sorrow" and his "anguish." We cannot experience his physical sufferings, but we can share his interior sufferings. We may even try to imagine what Jesus thought and felt as he looked out at the world from the cross. Imagine yourself there, one of the curious bystanders looking on to see this spectacle of blood and death. You are there in the crowd, but in a flash Jesus looks right at you. He catches your eye. You want to look away, but you are drawn to stay with the eyes that have caught your eyes. What do you see in those eyes?

Looking into the eyes of Jesus on the cross we see not condemnation but love, a deep personal love. Notice how the "Third Prelude" invites us to not only enter into the interior sufferings of Jesus but also to realize that he endured all this "for me." His suffering and death are very personal. If I were the only human person who ever lived, he would have done this "for me." He loves me with an infinite love. Our own experience of love is limited, for we humans cannot love with an infinite love. A deep and intimate love for one person naturally tends to be exclusive. Such love means there is less love for another, though parents will say that they love each of their children with an equal and total love.

St. Francis de Sales uses a striking image of God's infinite love. He says that the sun's light and warmth come to one flower and this doesn't mean that there is less light and warmth for the other flowers. If this is true for the sun, how much more true is it for the Creator of the sun and his love? Yet even this physical analogy of the sun pales in comparison to God's love. Clouds block the sun which sets at night, leaving the flowers in darkness. Not so God's love which is always there. Even sin, which separates us from God, doesn't extinguish the love of the Son on the cross. Remember, as St. Paul pointed out so clearly, "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5: 8).

The love of Jesus is personal but it is also universal. The Catechsim of the Catholic Church, quoting the Council of Quiercy in the year 853, states: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer" (#605). It is this universal love that leads us, in the "Celebration of the Lord's Passion," to offer a long set of "General Intercessions." In them we pray for the entire Church, for the pope, for the clergy and laity of the Church, for those preparing for baptism, for the unity of Christians, for the Jewish people, for those who do not believe in Christ, for those who do not believe in God, for all those in public office, and for all those in special need.

Perhaps, as we offer these long prayers, we could do so with the love of Jesus. Looking into his eyes on the cross, we see his love for us--a personal and individual love. We also see that this deep love is for everyone. As we pray for the various groups, let us look upon them with the eyes of Jesus. Let us see them as Jesus saw them from the cross. Let us pray for them with the love of Jesus in our hearts: a love that desires everyone to know his love, accept it, and be saved; a love that proves itself by dying even for those who have rejected it.

Holy Thursday

2011-04-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

As I travel I'm always on the lookout for good religious art, particularly images of the Sacred Heart. Last year, while giving a parish mission in the Peoria Diocese, I visited the Community of St. John. I came across a painting in a meeting room there and someone I was with took a photo for me on his cell phone and sent me a copy. Unfortunately, I have no information about the artist and origin of the painting, nor does the Community have any reproductions.

This picture of the Last Supper shows John drawing near to Jesus whose Heart appears as the Eucharist. Both the Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist are important for the Apostleship of Prayer. The Second Vatican Council called the Eucharist "the source and summit of the Christian life." All Christians are called to make an offering of their lives (see Romans 12: 1), joining their offering to the perfect offering of Jesus on the cross. This offering is made present for us to see and to unite ourselves to in every Mass.

But to offer all, to live the Eucharist in our daily lives, is humanly impossible. At the Last Supper Peter relied on himself and proudly declared that he would offer all, giving his life by loyally standing with Jesus to the end. We know what happened that very night.

John, on the other hand, drew near to the Heart of Jesus at the Last Supper. He found there the greatest love the world has ever known. And, as the Song of Songs (8: 6-7) says:

For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.

This love gave John the courage to act against his fears and to remain loyal to Jesus to the end, standing under the cross with Mother Mary.

It is this Heart brimming with true love and devotion that we now find in the Eucharist. This evening the Church invites us to spend some time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We draw near, as Pope John Paul II put it in his apostolic letter Mane Nobiscum Domine, "ready to wait patiently to hear his voice and, as it were, to sense the beating of his heart" (#18).

Come, let us adore Jesus and find in his Eucharistic Heart the love and courage to faithfully offer ourselves one day at a time to the end.

"When I Am Lifted Up..."

2011-04-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm giving a parish mission at St. Alphonsus Liguori Parish in Zionsville, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis but part of the Lafayette Diocese. It's a very active parish and their website is phenomenal. One could make it a home page just for all the resources it has. My mission is based on Pope Benedict's Apostolic Exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis" and each night I'm covering one of the three ways that the Holy Father describes the Eucharist: a Mystery to be Believed, Celebrated, and Lived. I'm also preaching at the 9 AM Mass each day.

Today I talked about the serpent on the pole and Jesus on the cross. Both are sources of healing but how very different each one is. In the first reading at Mass (Numbers 21: 4-9) Moses took the image of a serpent (which had bitten the complaining Israelites) and mounted it on a pole. "Whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived." The symbol of punishment, sin, evil, and death became the source of healing.

In the Gospel (John 8: 21-30) Jesus declared, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM...." Jesus, the innocent one and author of life, when lifted up on the cross, will become the source of life for all who acknowledge him as God. I couldn't help thinking of the crucifixion scene in an old movie where the centurion next to the cross, played by John Wayne, says "Truly, this was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27: 54). Jesus is "I AM," the name God revealed to Moses (Exodus 3: 13-15).

How is it that these two passages go together and that Jesus Himself used the passage from Numbers to refer to himself: "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3: 14-15)? Two passages from St. Paul can help us here. First, Galatians 3: 13: "Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree.'" And secondly, 2 Corinthians 5: 20: "For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." In other words, Jesus took sin and death into himself and in that way destroyed them because he, the innocent one and author of life, had the power to do so.

This action of Jesus is given to us anew in every Mass when Jesus is lifted up again. His passion and death are made present every time we celebrate Mass. In his being lifted up at the Consecration, sin and death are overcome and we believe in him. One way that people have traditionally expressed that belief is to silently pray, when the host is lifted up and then when the cup is lifted up, the words of St. Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20: 28). This is essential to what we believe about the Eucharist. Our belief is not only that bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, but that every Mass makes present the saving action of Jesus on Calvary. Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter announcing the Year of the Eucharist Mane Nobiscum Domine (#15), put it this way:

There is no doubt that the most evident dimension of the Eucharist is that it is a meal. ... Yet it must not be forgotten that the Eucharistic meal also has a profoundly and primarily sacrificial meaning. In the Eucharist, Christ makes present to us anew the sacrifice offered once for all on Golgotha. Present in the Eucharist as the Risen Lord, he nonetheless bears the marks of his passion, of which every Mass is a "memorial"....

Hearts on Fire in South Bend

2011-04-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night and Saturday morning I joined Fr. Phil Hurley, the Apostleship of Prayer's youth and young adult director, and three other Jesuits (aka the Jesuit Mission Band which included Michael Rossman and Joseph Simmons, both Jesuit scholastics or seminarians studying at Loyola in Chicago, and Fr. Brian Dunkle, a doctoral student at Notre Dame) for a "Hearts on Fire" event at the Sacred Heart Pastoral Center next to Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. These events for young adults began last summer and we have been able to continue them during the school year at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York). Next summer Fr. Phil and the Jesuit Mission Band will go to five East Coast Cities before going to World Youth Day where they will team up with the Knights of Columbus, the Sisters of Life, and several other groups at a site called the "Love and Life Center." A recent issue of the Knights of Columbus magazine Columbia had an article about all this. The Jesuit Mission Band will be giving presentations there throughout World Youth Day.

The South Bend event was my first experience of the "Hearts on Fire" retreat which includes talks, prayer, music, and a coffee house setting for socializing on Friday night. I was very impressed with how the retreat combined, in such a short time, key elements of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the offering and heart-centered spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer. Over 60 young adults came to the South Bend event and it was a blessing for me to be with them for part of their retreat.

Abundant Water

2011-04-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Today's first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 47, paints a picture of a tiny trickle of water that flows "from the right side of the temple" and becomes a river so high that it cannot "be crossed except by swimming." This water freshens and heals everything that comes into contact with it. Since this was the vision of a prophet, it's fair to ask, when was this prophetic vision fulfilled?

On Good Friday.

In John's Gospel, at what is called "The Cleansing of the Temple," Jesus said: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" (2: 19). Verse 21 explains: "he was speaking about the temple of his body." It was from this body, this temple, that the water which Ezekiel saw came forth. After His death, when the side of Jesus was pierced by a soldier's spear, "immediately blood and water flowed out" (John 19: 34). The Heart of Jesus is the source of the abundant water that freshens and heals. From His Heart, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth by transforming all who are baptized, all who are "born of water and Spirit" (John 3: 5).

Praise the Sacred and life-giving Heart of Jesus!

How Does God Delight in You?

2011-04-04T08:26:00.001-07:00

At 6 AM the storms rolled through Fenton, MO where I'm giving a parish mission, but no tornado. I preached at the 8 AM Mass and here's the gist of what I said. The readings of the day are Isaiah 65: 17-21 and John 4: 43-54.

When I was about four years old I was at my grandparents' house and was chasing my cousin Ronny around the dining room table. My father said, "Cut it out," and after a minute or so of obedience I started chasing Ronny again. I tripped on the rug, hit my head on the table, and started crying. My father said, "See. God punished you." This experience formed the way I saw God. I thought of God watching me, just waiting to catch me in some misbehavior and when He caught me, He would judge me and then punish me. God was policeman, judge, and executioner all rolled into one.

Our readings today give us a different image. Isaiah predicts that God's people will "be a delight," that God will rejoice and exult over them. One of the Sunday Prefaces during Ordinary Time says that the Father sees and loves in us what He sees and loves in Christ, His Son. That is because through baptism we have been joined to Christ. Yes, we are not perfect. Yes, we need mercy and healing. But in Jesus we receive that mercy and healing.

God made us for love, for union with Himself. He sent Jesus who performed "signs" like the healing of a servant in today's Gospel. John called this the "second sign" of Jesus. A sign points to something. The signs of Jesus point to two things: that He has divine power and that He has come to use that power for love, for healing. While physical healing is good, it is actually temporary because in the end we will all die. That's why Jesus enjoys healing people spiritually even more than healing them physically. He loves to touch the immortal part of ourselves and to bring mercy to our ailing spirits.

Most of us are "Half Empty People." You know the image: when you look at a glass, do you see that it's half empty or half full? Most of us tend to focus on what is missing, what is wrong. Today, why not take a moment to focus on the other part? Focus on the good that is there. Imagine God delighting in that good. Think for a moment: what are you doing that gives God delight? What is it about you that gives God delight? Savor that thought for a bit and be inspired to give delight to Him, always.

St. Paul's in Fenton

2011-04-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm at St. Paul's Church in Fenton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, where I preached at five Masses this weekend in order to drum up interest in the parish mission which will begin tomorrow evening and go through Thursday evening. On Monday night I'll be talking about "The Transforming Power of Baptism" and then on each of the successive evenings I'll talk about the Baptismal call to be prophets, priests, and kings or royal people.

It's providential that the pastor, Msgr. Michael Dieckmann, asked for this topic when I presented him some options a year ago. Baptism was the focus of Pope Benedict's message for Lent this year. In the first part of his message, the Holy Father wrote: "Baptism is not a rite from the past, but the encounter with Christ, which informs the entire existence of the baptized, imparting divine life...." We don't reflect on this enough. We tend, like Samuel in the first reading at Mass today, to judge by appearances. Like the Pharisees we focus on externals and do not appreciate the truth of Jesus and the truth of ourselves whose deepest identity is that of children adopted into God's family. Divine life is at work within us. In the conclusion of his message, Pope Benedict called Lent "the journey of conversion towards Easter [that] leads us to rediscover our Baptism." He continued: "This Lent, let us renew our acceptance of the Grace that God bestowed upon us at that moment, so that it may illuminate and guide all our actions."

The two priests at St. Paul's are in the process of moving back into the rectory which was extensively damaged by a tornado that landed on Fenton last New Year's Eve. I'm staying in a house that they rented less than a block from the church. Today the temperature reached 85 and storms are predicted tonight as a front approaches that will drop the temperatures back down into the 40's. Such drastic changes can only mean one thing: the possibility of severe weather. What are the chances that a tornado will hit here again just three months after the last one? Stayed tuned....

Magis Reflections

2011-03-31T07:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was doing my monthly interview with KWKY, the Catholic radio station in Des Moines, Iowa, when Eileen, one of the interviewers, mentioned that she had read my reflection the other day. The reflection to which she was referring was part of a series of daily reflections that the Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality provides to those who sign up for an email subscription. These short daily reflections on the Mass readings or saint of the day are written by several Jesuits from their perspective of the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius. From time to time, when one of them has a conflict and is unable to write, I am asked to "pinch write," as it were. Here are the reflections I wrote for the next three days:

Thursday, March 31, 2011

In today’s first reading (Jeremiah 7:23-28), God challenges His people through the prophet to listen to His voice and walk in His ways. He offers this challenge because, “This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the Lord…; the word itself is banished from their speech.” The statistics on Bible reading by Catholics are not very good. While 87% of those polled said they had a Bible in their home, only 8% said they read it every day. 32% said they never read it. Another survey says that the average Christian spends more time in one evening watching television than the entire rest of the week reading the Bible. Though the word of God may not be “banished,” it is certainly being ignored.

Lent is a time for greater prayer and if you haven’t made daily Scripture reading part of your prayer routine this Lent, it’s not too late. At a time when books were an expensive novelty, St. Ignatius made the Gospel the focus of most of his “Spiritual Exercises.” Moreover Pope Benedict, met in 2009 with bishops from around the world to discuss the role of the Word of God in the life of the Church. Last fall he issued his exhortation “Verbum Domini” which pulled together their discussions and encouraged us in the practice of “lectio divina,” the prayerful reading of Scripture.

In the Scriptures we meet the living Word, Jesus, who speaks to us today. We need not only to not ignore Him but to listen with an open heart. The hearts of the Pharisees who thought Jesus was in league with the devil were hard. They had preconceived ideas about the Messiah and judged that Jesus did not fit those ideas. Thus they rejected Him. Are you giving Jesus extra time this Lent to speak to your heart and to form it to be more like His own?

Friday, April 1, 2011

We are made for union with God. This is why the first of all God’s commandments, as Jesus told us in today’s Gospel, is: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” St. Augustine once wrote that we were made for God and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. It’s as though in each of our hearts there is a hole that only God can fill. We often try to take away the hunger pains, thinking we’ll be satisfied and find peace in the world—in possessions or in human relationships or in prestige and power. But ultimately nothing satisfies. In time we are always left empty and searching.

The question might arise, if we turn to God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, what about other people? Aren’t we supposed to love our neighbor? Yes, Jesus said that the second great commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” So if we are to love God totally, how can there be any love left over for the people God places in our lives?

The answer is simple. If we love God totally we will love what God loves, and what God loves is His human creatures. He loved them so totally that He became one with them and suffered and died for them. He gave Himself totally on the Cross and continues to give Himself totally in the Eucharist. To truly love God is to love our neighbor, but not in such a way that we try to fill up the God-shaped hole in our hearts with them or with any finite creature. We love them in the Lord. God blesses us with them so that we in turn may be a blessing that leads them to God. Saturday,

April 2, 2011

If we’re honest, at one time or another we would all like to be like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel (Luke 18: 9-14). We would like to be able to tell God, “I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous.” We would like to be so perfect that we wouldn’t need to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But, as with most of His parables, Jesus turns things around and says that this man did not leave his prayer “justified.” Rather, the poor sinner who “beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner,’” did.

Doesn’t God want us to be perfect? Yes, but God’s ways are not our ways and sometimes, just when we think we’ve got things together and have been pretty good of late, we slip into the great sin of pride. We congratulate ourselves and become complacent.

St. Paul experienced this. In 2 Corinthians 12 he tells about some wonderful spiritual experiences he had and yet how he had a “thorn in the flesh,” “an angel of Satan,” that afflicted him. We don’t know if this was a physical ailment or a particular temptation or moral struggle. We do know that Paul thought he would be a much better apostle without it so he begged the Lord three times to take it away. God said “no.” God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul’s particular struggle humbled him and brought him to his knees. It kept him from becoming proud. It brought him close to Jesus. This is the sacrifice that God wants of us: “a humble contrite heart” that knows it depends upon God for everything, including any good that it does.

2011-03-24T15:15:00.001-07:00

I'm in St. Paul, Minnesota these days. Actually, Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul. I'm giving an 8 day retreat based on the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius to a group of 12 Sisters who are members of an international congregation called the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver. Each day I give three half hour talks, meet with individual Sisters over a 4 to 5 hour period, celebrate Mass, and participate in a nightly holy hour. It's like being on retreat myself. I always find that in preaching the "Spiritual Exercises" the various reflections, especially on the life of Jesus, become deeper for me.

It's always a blessing for me to meet groups of consecrated persons whom I've never met or known and to find out more about their founders and their charism. The Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver were founded in 1894 by Blessed Mary Theresa Ledochowska (1863-1922). She came from a prominent Polish family, the niece of a brave archbishop who opposed the unjust laws of the German Chancellor Bismarck, who was detained for three years as a result and, when freed, went to Rome where he became the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, the Vatican office that organized the Church's missionary work.

Mary Theresa heard stories of cruelty and slavery in Africa and was particularly moved by a speech by Cardinal Lavigerie, the founder of the Missionaries of Africa (the "White Fathers"), who was traveling around Europe denouncing slavery. Here is part of it:

"Christian women of Europe! It is up to you to make these abominations known everywhere and to stir up against them the indignation of all civilized people. Do not leave your husbands, brothers and fathers in peace until they have used their authority, their eloquence and their goods to prevent further bloodshed. If God has given you a writer's talent, put it at the service of this cause: you will find none holier. Do not forget that it was a woman's book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, translated now into all languages, that helped bring about the emancipation of slaves in America."

Galvanized by these words, Mary Theresa set to work doing everything she could to bring an end to slavery in Africa and to help the missionaries there. She wrote a play called Zaida, after its heroine, which became a box office success. It was the beginning of her vocation. She wrote to her uncle, Cardinal Ledochowski, in 1889, asking him to find out if the Pope would support her efforts to end slavery by founding a new religious congregation named after the Jesuit saint who called himself "the slave of the slaves forever." He wrote back:

"My dear niece, I hasten to reply to your letter ... in order to dispel any doubts or uncertainty you may have concerning Cardinal Lavigerie's work against slavery, which has the full backing of the Holy Father. Could you imagine any work more worthy of interest or support? ... Do not be afraid then, dear niece, that you could possibly be taking a false step in joining, with so many others, the struggle against the slave trade, especially among the blacks."

With this encouragement, she began her life work of working and praying for the missions, especially in Africa. Her desire was not to go to the missions herself but rather, with the help of other Sisters, to publicize the situation and work of the missionaries and to collect funds to help them. She thought of herself and her congregation as the hidden root that fed the tree which bore the fruit. Everyone could see the tree and its fruit, but these were only possible because of the hidden life that came from the Sisters' prayers, sacrifices, and work to raise funds for the missions. It's a work that continues today through this small congregation of less than 300 Sisters and their magazine Echo (from Africa and other continents).

In her Easter letter of 1916, Blessed Mary Theresa Ledochowska, who was beatified in 1975, wrote about the joy of offering up all in order to bring souls to God:

"I wish you all the riches of peace and the joy of Easter and thinking especially of the beautiful Feast of Easter which, we hope, we will celebrate one day, all united in heaven, united also to the many souls which we will have the grace to save for Heaven by means of our work."

Family Consecration

2011-03-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I drove to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to St. Lambert Parish where I gave two talks on Family Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. On Friday night I told what I like to call "The True Love Story." It's the story of the love of God revealed in the Sacred and Pierced Heart of His Son. We often think of devotion to the Sacred Heart as something that we do, but the reality is that it begins with God. It begins in the Heart of God, the Communion of Persons that is the Most Holy Trinity. God in His very nature is Love, a loving Communion. The mysterious nature of love is to share. Though God was complete in this Trinitarian love, God wanted to love beyond Himself. Sacred Heart devotion really begins with God's devoted love for His human creatures whom He created for union with Himself. Sacred Heart devotion is really God's devotion and our response to it.

When humanity rejected God's marriage proposal and decided to seek a future outside of God's loving plan, God did not give up on us. The Son of God came to overcome the sin that broke the relationship for which we were created. From His Heart pierced on the cross gushed forth the water and the blood that overcame sin and united us to God. Through the sacramental life flowing from His side--water representing Baptism and blood representing the Eucharist--we are joined to the Body of Christ, to God.

Jesus ascended to heaven but has continued to appear from time to time to reveal His love in special ways. He gave all and He has appeared periodically to remind humanity of that fact and to invite our response. The natural desire when one knows he or she is loved is to want to return love for love. Jesus loved completely, not partially, and when we really appreciate that fact it is natural to want to love completely in return.

This is the meaning of consecration, about which I talked on Saturday morning. Through Baptism we are already consecrated to God, anointed with sacred chrism and set apart as sacred and holy persons, members of Christ's own Body. Individual or family consecration to the Sacred Heart is, in a way, a renewal of that initial consecration.

Where did the practice of family consecration come from? A letter of St. Margaret Mary, to whom Jesus appeared and revealed His Heart all on fire with love for humanity, has these words:

"No one who has a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart will ever lose his soul. Since all blessings come from our Lord, they will be lavished especially on those places where an image of the Sacred Heart is displayed to win him love and honour. In this way, he will mend broken homes, help and safeguard families in time of need."

Contained in those words are two of what are known as the Twelve Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Almost 200 years after St. Margaret Mary an Ohio businessman named Philip Kemper went through her letters and pulled out twelve promises which he had printed on cards and distributed. They became very popular. Promise 2 for those who are devoted to the Heart of Jesus states: "I will give peace in their families." Promise 9 states: "I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated." From these two Promises came the inspiration to consecrate one's family to the Sacred Heart and to "enthrone" an image of the Sacred Heart in a central place in the home.

Family consecration really took off through the efforts of one man, Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SSCC, the son of a Peruvian mother and a British father. He was born in 1875, ordained in 1898, and helped found the Catholic University in Valparaiso, Chile in 1905. A year later an earthquake destroyed the university and Fr. Mateo's health broke under the strain of the loss of his hard work. He went to Europe to recuperate and made a promise at Paray-le-Moniel: if his health returned he would devote the rest of his life to promoting the consecration of families to the Sacred Heart. His request was answered almost immediately and he fulfilled his promise, working for family consecration until his death in 1960.

As he began this work, though, he wanted to make sure that he had the Church's approval. He asked Pope Pius X, who was later canonized, if he could promote family consecration. The pope is quoted as saying to him: "No, no, my son. I do not permit you, I command you, do you understand? I order you to give your life for this work of salvation. It is a wonderful work; consecrate your entire life to it."

Family consecration is not magic. The ceremony of enthroning Jesus as the Head and Heart, the King and Center of one's family is not enough. Just as a marriage is more than the wedding ceremony, so family consecration is more than the enthronement ceremony. It must be lived. How?

First, it is important to prepare for the actual ceremony. The family should discuss the meaning of its consecration and be in agreement. They might go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation before the ceremony as a way of making this new beginning. They could meet, discuss, and decide upon a particular image of the Sacred Heart and the location for its placement.

Then, with the enthronement, the family declares its intention to live with Jesus as its King. He is no longer simply a guest in the house but the Lord of the household. Is there anything unworthy of Him in the house? Is there anything that is incompatible with His reign?

This consecration should be renewed from time to time, perhaps on special feast days like the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and the Feast of Christ the King, or on the First Friday of each month. Each member of the family, before leaving the house and upon returning, can acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus by pausing in front of the picture or statue and offering a prayer. The "Our Father" is a perfect prayer for it is the prayer Jesus taught and in it we ask Jesus to reign: "Thy Kingdom come!" The Morning Offering can be prayed together in front of the image. When arguments break out between spouses, among the children, between parents and children, the family members should go in front of the image and pray. After prayer, under the image, the difficulties can be discussed in a way that seeks a solution in light of that Heart which is "meek and humble."

Pope Benedict XV wrote to Fr. Mateo in 1915 and also encouraged him:

"You do well, then, dear son, while taking up the cause of human society, to arouse and propagate above all things a Christian spirit in the home by setting up in each family the reign of the love of Jesus Christ. And in doing this you are but obeying our Divine Lord Jesus who promised to shower His blessings upon the homes wherein an image of His Heart should be exposed and devoutly honored."

The Sign of Jonah

2011-03-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

The readings at Mass today speak about Jonah and how he was a sign to the sinful Ninevites. He was a sign that pointed out the errors of their ways. He was a sign that pointed them in the right direction--repentance.

Jesus did the same. In today's Gospel (Luke 11: 29-32), He called the people crowding around Him "an evil generation." They were headed in the wrong direction, looking for wondrous signs rather than what the signs were pointing toward--a conversion of heart that would lead to knowing and following Jesus. So Jesus called them to repent the way the Ninevites had done.

I can't help thinking, though, about how different Jonah and Jesus were. Jonah ran from preaching to the Ninevites. At first we might think it was because he was afraid that they would string him up for his challenging message, but the truth is told in the last chapter of the Book of the Prophet Jonah where he is angry and complains: "This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish." Jonah did not want the Ninevites--a foreign people and his enemies--to have any opportunity to hear the call to repent because he knew if they did repent, God would forgive. He wanted them to be destroyed by their sins.

It's clear that while Jonah was pointing out to the Ninevites, with one finger as it were, their need for repentance, he had three fingers pointing back at himself, unaware of his own need for repentance. Jonah was called to speak the truth--that the Ninevites were engaged in evil and needed to repent--with love, hoping and praying for their repentance so that God could shower His mercy upon them.

Jesus is a sign to people of all time. According to the Gospel of Mark, when Jesus began his public ministry He said: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (1: 15). Like Jonah, He calls for repentance, but unlike Jonah, He longs for people to admit their sins, ask for God's mercy, and then receive it.

Our Interconnectedness

2011-03-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Lent is off to a busy start. On Ash Wednesday I gave a talk to the Mother's Guild at my Alma Mater, Marquette University High School, and this past weekend I began a mission at St. Dominic's Church in nearby Brookfield, Wisconsin. On Sunday I also squeezed into the afternoon two talks on the subject of "Reparation" at the annual Lenten Afternoon of Recollection for the local chapter of Catholics United for the Faith. One good thing about giving talks like these is that it gives me material to share on this blog.

On the First Sunday of Lent we always have the story of Jesus' temptations in the desert. This year the first reading that accompanied that Gospel was the story of the first temptation in Genesis 3. The second reading from Romans 5 was the perfect accompaniment to both these readings. But there is something in all this that I used to protest against when I was young. Why did I have to suffer for the sin of Adam and Eve? Why did I have to suffer the consequences or effects of their sin? Why is there Original Sin? I could see why we call that first sin of our ancestral parents the "Original Sin," but why did I have to inherit it? St. Paul wrote that "by the transgression of the one, the many died," and that "by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one." It just didn't seem fair that "through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners."

I've come to see that lurking behind this question is sin--the sin of individualism. The fact of the matter is that there is no individual sin. What I do affects everyone else. It's false to justify sin by saying, "Well, I'm only hurting myself."

How is it that my sin affects others? First, humanity, according to Genesis, was made in the image and likeness of God. God is a Trinity of Persons, a Communion of Love and therefore Love Itself. We are not individuals isolated from one another but persons created for communion. To say that what I do only affects or hurts me is to deny who I am and who I am called to be.

Another way of looking at this is to think of the solidarity of the human family. God is the Creator and Father of this family. We are related to one another as children of the One Father. What one person does in this family affects the life of the family, for good or for ill.

Finally, as Christians we have been baptized into the Body of Christ. We are now not isolated individuals but interconnected parts. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12, describing the Body of Christ that we are: "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy" (verse 26). We know from experience how one cell in the physical body can harm and destroy the entire body. A cancer cell is one that has gone wild, that no longer serves the good of the body but grows and spreads. All it takes is one cell. In terms of the spiritual body that we are, this is even more the case. We are each cells in the Body of Christ and when one cell insists on its "will" rather than the good of the whole, rather than the will of the Head, the Body becomes sick.

So, while it doesn't seem fair that the one sin of our ancestral parents should be passed on to every generation, it's the reality of how things work in the interconnectedness of the human family made in the image and likeness of God, the Blessed Trinity.

But this is less than half the story, for the interconnectedness works the other way as well. Good cells affect the health of the entire Body. Jesus, as the Head of the Body, who came to repair the damage of the Original Sin, has done something that affects every human. In the Second Reading from Sunday's Mass, St. Paul writes: "But the gift is not like the transgression. For it by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned."

Lent is a time for each of us, individual cells in the Body of Christ, to grow in our union with our Head, Jesus. It's a time to make sure that the flow of Life from the Vine to the branches (see John 15) is clear and strong.

Spiritual Exercises Blog

2011-03-10T07:46:00.001-08:00

The Apostleship of Prayer began in a Jesuit seminary in France in 1844. The spirituality of making a daily offering comes right out of the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits. In his final "exercise," he invites the one making the "Spiritual Exercises" to respond to God's tremendous love by making a total offering of him or herself. The daily offering that we promote in the Apostleship of Prayer is a way that one can renew this total offering one day at a time.

As Apostles of Prayer, however, we try to focus not only on the daily offering and our prayer for the Pope's two monthly intentions. Jesus told the first Apostles at the Last Supper: "I no longer call you slaves,... I have called you friends..." (John 15: 15). to be an Apostle is to be a friend of Jesus.

Lent, with its greater emphasis on prayer along with fasting and alms-giving, is an opportunity to set aside some quality time for our friend. The "Spiritual Exercises" can help us go deeper in our relationship with Jesus. For the second year in a row, a group of young Jesuits is putting together a blog to help people make the "Spiritual Exercises" during Lent. I invite you to make the "Spiritual Exercises Blog" a part of your Lent.

Can We Have Fun?

2011-03-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Every month I'm a guest on Relevant Radio's daily call-in spiritual direction show "The Inner Life," hosted by Chuck Neff. Last week the producer wrote me about the topic for today's show and wondered if I wanted to talk about Lent. My first reaction was "No! We're going to have 40 days of Lent. No need to start it early." Instead, I thought it would be good to talk about Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday or, as it's often called in the Polish community of Milwaukee, Paczki Day. Is it OK for Christians to have fun?

Of course! Jesus had fun. Unfortunately much of our religious art makes Jesus look as though he never cracked a smile and never laughed. He appears very somber and even scarey. But this can't be the way Jesus really was. No one would want to go near Him. Certainly not the children. Yet Jesus attracted droves of people to Himself. So Jesus must have smiled, laughed, had a good time, and genuinely enjoyed life. He even described heaven in terms of a big party or wedding feast and when He participated in a feast where the wine had run out, He made more.

But what about "Fat Tuesday" and all the excesses we see? The tradition of over-indulging seems to have arisen from the logic that since we're going to have to fast and pray and go to confession, now's the time to party. This isn't really the best way to enter into Lent.

While Lent is a more somber and subdued time, a time when we see the color violet at Mass and don't sing "Alleluia" or "The Gloria," it's supposed to be a happy season. The Preface for Lent I which precedes the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass addresses the Father and says, "Each year you give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed." The Preface for Lent II has: "This great season of grace is your gift to your family to renew us in spirit." Do you think of Lent as a "joyful season," a "gift"? How can fasting and penance and sacrifice be joyful?

Our fasting with its accompanying hunger reminds us of our hunger for God. It's a way that we pray with our bodies as well as our minds. It shouldn't make us irritable and grumpy. If it does, then it would be better for us not to fast, for spiritual exercises that don't lead to greater charity are useless. As St. Paul wrote in his famous chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13, without love we are nothing. Without charity our knowledge and faith and even our martyrdom, should we be so called, are nothing.

True fasting and prayer should make us more aware that nothing on earth can ultimately satisfy us. We're made for union with God and while the things of earth may take away the hunger pains for a while, they ultimately don't satisfy. Our physical hunger should remind us of our spiritual hunger. We are, as St. Augustine famously wrote, made for God and so our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.

It all comes down to balance. Christians, following Jesus' example, enjoy life and its legitimate pleasures. Sin may make us feel good for a while but ultimately it's a poison that destroys us and others. It's OK to have fun today, to eat those wonderful Polish fruit-filled doughnuts known as Paczki. Have fun and give glory to God. Follow St. Paul's example, eating and drinking and giving glory to God who wants to be a part of every moment of your life. But don't go overboard for that will only lead to unhappiness.

St. Ignatius of Loyola counsels in a similar vein in the First Principle and Foundation of his "Spiritual Exercises." All earthly things and pleasures are given to us to help us attain the end for which we were created--the praise, reverence, and service of God--our salvation, our union with God who alone fills the restless heart. Thus we should use the good things of the earth in so far as they help us attain our end and we should reject them in so far as they get in the way of our attaining our end. This is real balance. Lent is a time to grow in this balance and that growth is what makes it a "gift" and a "joyful season."

Bartimaeus

2011-03-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

I like to tell the story of the time that I met with a group of grade school children at St. James Parish in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. I had finished everything I'd planned to say to them and still had 10 minutes left, so I asked if they had any questions. One little boy raised his hand and asked, "What's Jesus' middle name?" I pretty much knew where he was coming from with this question and so I asked him, "What's Jesus' last name?" "Christ," was his response, and this gave me the opportunity to talk about names at the time of Jesus and how "Christ" was not Jesus' last name but a title that means "The Anointed." Jesus didn't have a last name or a middle name the way we do. He would have been known as "Jesus bar Joseph," Jesus, the son of Joseph.

We see this as well in today's Gospel, the story of Bartimaeus. Mark 10: 46 says that as Jesus left Jericho, He encountered "Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus." Actually this is redundant. "Bartimaeus" means "Son of Timaeus." What was the man's first name? We don't know. It is as though, blind beggar that he was, no one really knew him. No one bothered to learn his name. He was just the blind beggar of Jericho, Timaeus' son.

Jesus, on the other hand, treats him with the utmost respect. Bartimaeus cries out, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me." Notice: he doesn't call Him, Son of Joseph, but makes an act of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the long-awaited Son of King David. And what does Jesus do? He asks him, "What do you want me to do for you?" Wouldn't it have been obvious to anyone, especially Jesus, that this blind beggar wanted to be healed? Yet Jesus treats him with respect. He doesn't make assumptions or jump to conclusions. He allows the man without a first name to articulate his desire. Only after hearing the man tell Him what he wanted--"I want to see"--does Jesus send him on his way healed.

Sometimes people wonder why we make intercessory prayer. Why do we ask for what we need when God knows everything, all that is in our hearts? God treats us with the utmost respect and doesn't assume that we really want what we think we want. God gives us time to think about what we're praying for and to ask with faith. In this way God shows us that He respects us and we grow in our faith by exercising it.

The Thumb

2011-03-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I began a parish mission in Huron County, Michigan. Fr. Peter Nwokoye from Nigeria is the pastor of three parishes in that area of the lower peninsula of Michigan that is known as "The Thumb." The parish mission is part of 40 Hours of Eucharistic devotion in this cluster of parishes.

Fr. Peter began yesterday morning with Mass and Exposition at St. Patrick's church in Palms, Michigan. I flew to Flint where Fr. Peter picked me up and we drove about 100 miles to get here. We closed the Exposition last night with Benediction and Mass. The overall theme of the mission is "Seeking the Face of Jesus in a Busy World" and last night I talked about "Meeting Jesus in Word and Sacrament." My focus was on the importance of preparing for Mass by going over the readings ahead of time and then prayerfully participating in Mass by striving to pay attention to the great mysteries that are being celebrated--Jesus speaking to us in the proclamation of the readings; Jesus making present His eternal sacrifice on Calvary; Jesus changing the bread and wine into His own Body and Blood and coming to us in Holy Communion. Through Word and Sacrament we are transformed and better able to see ourselves as members of the Body of Christ and meet Him in one another.

Today there is Adoration at SS. Peter and Paul church in Ruth where Fr. Peter's rectory is located. Four other priests will join us for dinner this evening and then we will celebrate Vespers and Benediction. My talk will be on "Meeting Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation" and the six priests will be available for individual confessions after Benediction.

Tomorrow there will be Exposition and Adoration all day at St. Mary's church in Parisville, a town that may be the oldest Polish settlement in the U.S. Panna Maria in Texas was founded around the same time as Parisville and so there is some question about which is the oldest. We will celebrate Vespers and Benediction again and tomorrow's talk will be the one in which I share the spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer--"Living the Eucharist in our Daily Lives."

For Greater Things You Were Born

2011-02-24T10:59:00.001-08:00

Last weekend I was in Alhambra, California giving a retreat to 94 women at Sacred Heart Retreat House. This evening I'll be giving a retreat to about 50 men at the Jesuit Retreat House on Lake Winnebago near Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

While the retreats in Oshkosh always follow the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius, the ones in Alhambra have a different theme every year. This year's theme is "For Greater Things You Were Born," a quote from Mother Maria Luisa de la Pena, also known as Mother Luisita, the foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who run the retreat house in Alhambra. Archbishop Jose Gomez, who will be installed as the new Archbishop of Los Angeles next Tuesday, quoted Mother Luisita when he was installed as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles last year. Before the retreat the Sisters provided me with a quote from Archbishop Gomez that helped me prepare the five talks I gave. Here's the quote:

Venerable Mother Luisita will tell everyone, "For greater things you were born." That's it, my friends. That is the Good News we are called to proclaim to our city, to our country, throughout this continent and world, "Para grandes cosas hemos nacido." Each one of us has been made for love and for great and beautiful things. There is no soul that God does not long to touch with this message of love. But He wants to touch those souls through us. So let us make our lives something beautiful that we can offer it to God. Let us do everything, even the little duties of our days, out of love for him and for the love of our brothers and sisters.

As I prepared my talks, I couldn't help thinking how well this quote captures the spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer. Here's a brief summary of the retreat:

Talk 1: "Put Out Into the Deep" Using the challenge of Jesus (see Luke 5: 4), which Pope John Paul II took up in his Apostolic Letter at the turn of the millennium (Novo Millennio Ineunte), I spoke about the call that all Christians have to go deeper in their prayer lives. The Sacrament of Baptism has transformed us. We are now called to be who we have been made to be--children of God. We are called to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy.

Talk 2: "Your Sins Are Forgiven You" In this talk I spoke about the obstacle to holiness--sin--and how in the Sacrament of Reconciliation Jesus waits for us in order to forgive us. In going to that Sacrament we give Jesus the pleasure of healing us spiritually, the thing that He most enjoyed doing when He walked this earth.

Homily at Saturday Mass: "I Believe. Help My Unbelief" I talked about how faith is a virtue, a spiritual muscle, which, like any muscle, physical or spiritual, needs to be exercised in order to develop and be healthy. Faith, like all the virtues, is not an "all or nothing" reality, nor is it a feeling; rather, it is an act of the will, a decision, a choice.

Talk 3: "Abide With Me" This talk was given right before a long period of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. I talked about the amazing gift of the Eucharist and how, according to Pope Benedict's Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, the Eucharist is a mystery to be believed, celebrated, and lived. I focused on what we believe and how we celebrate the Eucharist.

Talk 4: "I Am With You Always" In Novo Millennio Ineunte, Pope John Paul said that in order to go deeper in our spiritual lives our parishes and communities need to be "schools of prayer." I went through seven ways of praying that the Holy Father mentioned: "imploring help," "thanksgiving, praise, adoration, contemplation, listening and ardent devotion, until the heart truly 'falls in love.'"

Talk 5: "Be A Living Sacrifice" Here is where I talked about the Daily Offering as a practical way to implement Archbishop Gomez's challenge: to do everything out of love for God and love for our brothers and sisters.

Homily at Sunday Mass: "Be Perfect" Sometimes "the perfect" can be the enemy of "the good." The devil loves to discourage us and make us think that we should give up our efforts because the ideal of holiness to which we are called is too high for us. It is. We are weak. But God's grace is powerful. What is impossible for us, is possible for God who gives us His grace through the Sacraments. With our eyes fixed on our goal of holiness, we walk one day at a time, not giving in to discouragement but striving to make progress little by little.

Rome to Home and Home to Rome

2011-02-22T11:41:00.001-08:00

Today I spoke to the MOPS group at St. Monica's parish in the Milwaukee area. MOPS stands for "Mothers of Pre-Schoolers" and about 17 young women who meet every month gathered for a presentation that was designed to help the group to understand the Church better and to see how Rome connects to their daily lives. The timing was perfect because today is the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

The role of a mother is critical for society. Mothers are the first educators of their children. Some of the first words they teach their children include lessons about how to relate to others: "please" and "thank you" and "share with your brothers and sisters." All of these contain a standard of right and wrong. They are part of the first moral training of a child.

We live in what some have called an "age of relativism." "You have your truth and I have mine." The words of Pilate during his interrogation of Jesus are words that are commonly repeated today: "What is truth?" Once having agreed that there is an objective truth with objective values that tell us what is right and what is wrong, we naturally ask, "How do we know the truth? How do we know the truth about God and about ourselves, our human nature? How are we to know the truth about how we are to live?"

Many Christians will say that the Bible is "the pillar and foundation of the truth." That is where we are to go to find the answers. Yet this doesn't help us because there are so many different and conflicting ways of interpreting various Bible passages. And the Bible itself never states that it is "the pillar and foundation of the truth." What does the Bible say about this? St. Paul, in his First Letter to Timothy 3:15 is very clear. He tells Timothy that if he is delayed in visiting, he "should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth." If we want to know the truth, we go to the Church.

Jesus said much the same thing when, at the Last Supper, He told the apostles that He was "the way and the truth and the life" (John 14: 6). Jesus is not dead and gone. He is alive and present in the Church which is His Body. He is the vine and we are the branches (see John 15: 5). He is the Head and we, the baptized, are members of His Body. So Jesus, Truth itself, is in the Church and has sent the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth through the Church. Jesus also said at the Last Supper: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (John 16: 12-13).

Today we celebrate the "Chair of St. Peter," not a piece of furniture but the authority to teach the truth. Jesus gave this authority to Peter, according to Matthew 16: 18-19, when Jesus told Peter: "I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven." Then, again at the Last Supper, after Jesus celebrated the New Passover and predicted His betrayal and his disciples started arguing about which of them was the greatest, Jesus taught them that the greatest among them was the servant of all. Then he told Simon Peter that "Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers" (Luke 31-32). Clearly the power that will be at work in Peter won't be a human power, but divine. The power is one of loving service. St. Peter and his successors are to be the servants of the servants of God, teaching the truth with love and ensuring unity among the faithful.

Our family or Church history shows that this power is divine and not human. We've had schisms in which there were three popes at the same time. We've had a time when the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, lived in Avignon, France, and St. Catherine of Siena had to confront the one whom she called "Sweet Christ on earth" and tell him the Lord wanted him to return to Rome. This checkered history notwithstanding, "the netherworld," the forces of darkness and evil, have not prevailed against the Church built upon St. Peter and his successors. If we want to know the truth, we need to stay close to the Chair of St. Peter. We should go to the source for information about Church teaching. Don't trust what is written in the secular media but first go to the Vatican web site and read the Pope's words for yourself. Stay close to the Chair.

Besides providing true teaching, Rome also comes to the home by expanding our horizons. Our age tends to be very individualistic. We think in terms of ourselves, our parish, our diocese, and we are challenged to see that we are part of a worldwide family of God.

When St. Ignatius Loyola and his first followers decided to stay together as a new religious community, they went to the Pope to ask him where they should serve. They went to the one who had the big picture, who could see the needs of the universal Church.

When I give parish missions and visit the grade schools, I ask the children if they ever pray for others. After eliciting some of their prayer concerns, I ask if they ever pray for their pastor or their bishop. I tell them that at every Mass we mention the bishop by name in our prayers and we also mention the Pope. Then I ask them: "If the Pope asked you to pray for something, would you?" The answer is always a resounding "YES" at which point I tell them that every month the Pope has two particular prayer intentions for which he wants us to pray.

This is the work of the Apostleship of Prayer--to publicize these monthly intentions and to help people pray for them. From our beginnings in 1844, this prayer was not only of the mind, but also of our hearts and bodies. By means of the Morning Offering, we take each moment of the day--each thought and activity--and make of it a prayerful offering for the work of the Church and in particular for the Pope's monthly intentions. In that way, every moment of our days becomes part of the great work of evangelization and salvation. This is what St. Therese, whom many know as the Little Flower and who enrolled in the Apostleship when she was twelve, did. With the Morning Offering and prayer for the Pope's monthly intentions, we realize that we are not alone or isolated. We are part of a worldwide prayer community that's been estimated to number at least 50 million people. We pray for the Pope and for one another with each Morning Offering and we try to consciously live that offering during the day and then review it in the evening.

Rome to Home. The Pope teaches us the truth that we then share with our children. Home to Rome. We offer ourselves, our days, and our prayers for the Holy Father who shares with us his concerns through the monthly intentions.

"Perfect Servant and Faithful Friend"

2011-02-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Those are the words that Jesus used to describe the Jesuit saint whom my community is celebrating today. St. Claude La Colombiere died on this day in the year 1682 at the age of 41. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1992. Jesus called him His "perfect servant and faithful friend" when He told St. Margaret Mary that he was the one He had sent to confirm that the revelations of His Sacred Heart were authentic. The following is from notes that St. Claude wrote during one of his annual retreats.

My God, if only I could travel all over the world and proclaim in every country what you require of your servants and friends! When God revealed his will to this person [St. Margaret Mary], and she had communicated it to me, I told her to put it down in writing. I have no scruples about copying the words into my retreat journal, for it is God's will to use me in this cause. These are the holy woman's words:

"Being in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament one day of the octave [of Corpus Christi], I received from God excessive graces of His love. I was moved by the desire of making some return and of giving love for love, and he told me: 'You could not make me a greater return than to do what I have so often asked of you.'

"And showing me His divine heart: 'Behold the heart which has loved men so much that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming itself, to prove its love to them. And as thanks I receive from the greater number only ingratitude, because of the disregard, the irreverence, the sacrilege, and the coldness which they have for Me in this sacrament of love. But what is still more offensive is that these are hearts which are consecrated to Me. That is why I ask that the first Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi be dedicated as a special feast to honor My heart by making a reparation of honor, ... by receiving communion on that day to repair the indignities which it has suffered during the hours it was exposed on the altars. And I promise that My heart will expand to pour out with abundance the graces of its divine love on those who will render it this honor.'

"'But, dear Lord [she answered], to whom are you applying? To a wretched creature, a poor sinner whose very unworthiness would be capable even of preventing the accomplishment of Your plan? You have so many generous souls to carry out your purpose.'

"'Ah, poor innocent that you are [Christ replied], don't you know that I make use of the weakest subject to confound the strong, that it is ordinarily the smallest and the poor in spirit to whom I make my power visible with greater brilliance, so that they will not attribute anything to themselves?'

"'Give me, then,' I said to Him, 'the means of doing what you command.'

"It was then that He told me: 'Turn to my servant N. [Claude La Colombiere] and tell him from Me to do all he can to establish this devotion and to give this pleasure to My divine heart. Tell him not to be discouraged by the difficulties he will meet with, for they will not be lacking. But he must learn that he is all-powerful who completely distrusts himself to place his trust in Me alone.'"

In May, 2003 during my annual retreat I read various things about St. Claude, a true Apostle of the Sacred Heart. I asked for his help because I was anticipating a letter from Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, the Superior General of the Jesuits. It was the letter appointing me to be the national director of the Apostleship of Prayer and its arrival was delayed because it got lost in the mail. After the retreat, when I found that there was no letter awaiting me, I called the U.S. Jesuit Conference offices to ask if there had been a change in plans. There wasn't. A new letter was sent and I became the U.S. director on July 31, 2003. I went into this assignment with a desire to be an Apostle of the Sacred Heart the way St. Claude was and I've been consoled by these words of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary.

They echo St. Paul's words in his letters to the Corinthians. "God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God" (1 Cor. 1: 27-29). "But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us" (2 Cor. 4: 7). Jesus predicted difficulties for St. Claude in his life and his work. These difficulties were a sign that he was doing a good work that the devil opposed in every conceivable way. These difficulties led St. Claude to depend on God alone.

I find myself grateful today to be following in St. Claude's footsteps. I can't think of a better assignment in my Jesuit life at this time than to be an Apostle of the Sacred Heart.

Headed South

2011-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

In a little while I'll be leaving for Convent, Louisiana and a Jesuit retreat house called "Manresa on the Mississippi." I'll be leading about 110 men in a retreat that begins this evening and ends on Sunday afternoon when I'll fly back to Milwaukee. During the course of the weekend I'll be giving 11 half hour talks designed to lead the retreatants through the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius.

The Jesuits came to a former college in 1931 to begin this retreat center. I'll be giving the talks in this conference room. Unlike other Jesuit retreat houses up the Mississippi River--White House in St. Louis and Demontreville near St. Paul--Manresa does not have an optional recreation period when talking is permitted after dinner. From start to finish the retreat is silent. On the cover of their retreat manual is a quote from a man named Louis Yarrut:

"THE HOUSE OF SILENCE AND SACRED SOD,

WHERE NOBODY SPEAKS TO ANYBODY,

AND EVERYBODY SPEAKS TO GOD."

The chapel was recently remodeled and here is where we'll be celebrating Mass every day.

Lest anyone become jealous that I am leaving frigid Milwaukee where it was 4 below zero this morning, the weather forecast for the next two days in Convent includes a freeze warning. It's going to dip into the upper 20's at night. I'm sure the retreatants will blame me for bringing the cold, but before they can, I'm going to thank them for their Southern Hospitality--helping me to feel at home with the freezing weather.

Seek the Truth Above All

2011-02-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I spoke at the 545th Monthly All Night Vigil within the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The overall theme was "Be Not Afraid" and my talk was entitled "Seek the Truth Above All." Here is pretty much what I said:

One of the first lessons we learn when we are growing up is to tell the truth. It was a tough lesson to learn at times, especially when we did something wrong and wanted to hide that fact. Later, the importance of telling the truth as instilled in us when we watched TV shows set in courtrooms and heard an official ask a witness who is about to testify, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God." With a hand on the Bible, the witness answered, "I do," and sat down. To not tell the truth after taking such a solemn oath was not simply a lie; it was perjury and was punishable.

Yet the world today seems to have become more and more like Pontius Pilate. Remember the scene of Jesus' trial before Pilate (John 18: 37-38)? After Jesus declared, "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth," Pilate responded, "What is truth?" I hear in those words a contemptuous, cynical response. It's the response the world makes today. It's as though Pilate were saying: "You have your truth and I have mine."

Have you ever heard that. Or maybe you've heard that same line of thinking a bit differently. Perhaps something like this: "That may be true for you, but it's not true for me." I always want to ask someone who says that, "Well, how do you know what you just said is true?" You see, that response begs the question. Whether we recognize it or not, we all have some sense of objective truth.

Let's imagine the dialogue going a bit further:

"Look, all I'm saying is that you can't know anything for sure."

"But you seem pretty sure about that."

"No, no, what I'm saying is that there are no absolutes."

"But isn't that an absolute statement?"

"OK. OK. I'm just saying that it's wrong to impose your morality on me."

"Wait a minute. When you say it's wrong, aren't you imposing your morality on me?"

You see, behind all of these statements is a sense of truth, a measuring stick for objective reality. It's this that the Church proposes to people. Pope Benedict has often said that the Church does not "impose" its teachings but "proposes" them. The Church says: "This is true. This is false. This is right and this is wrong. What is true and right are better for you and for society as a whole."

But isn't the Church being "mean" and "intolerant?" Shouldn't we be open to all opinions? Not when it's a matter of life and death. Let's say we have a bottle of liquid here and on the label is a skull and cross bones, or as we see more often today, a face with the tongue sticking out--"Mr. Yuck." Some say that since we don't know where it came from it's probably OK to drink it. Others say that maybe the label is right, that there's poison inside. We take a vote. Those who don't agree with the label win. The majority says it's OK to drink it. Is this the way we would deal with a life-threatening risk? How much more foolish is it to go with personal or public opinion when it comes to the risks not only to our physical well-being but to our spiritual well-being.

There is right and there is wrong. It is not being intolerant to say so. It's being truthful and loving. It's truthful and loving to warn someone about the poison in the bottle that he or she is about to drink.

Some years ago I read the following words in a college student newspaper: "We will not tolerate intolerance!" Now, I know what they were trying to say: that we should treat one another with dignity and respect. But the fact is there are some things in our world that are intolerable. I would challenge anyone to go to Poland and visit the death camp known as Auschwitz and say that we should have tolerated that which is so clearly intolerable. I was there in the summer of 2006 and I saw the buildings where they have glass cases filled with the possessions of the people who went through the camp: luggage of all kinds, eye glasses, shoes for men and women and children. For me the most chilling exhibit was the glass case that was half-filled with human hair. We and the world look at this and nobody says, "Well, the Nazis had their truth and we have ours. It's just the way they were raised." No, we clearly recognize that what happened there was not right. That it was wrong. It was evil.

The Church speaks the truth to a world that has begun to have problems with the very notion of objective truth. The Church strives to speak the truth with love, for we know that it is not enough to hammer others with the truth. To do so would deny the dignity that we recognize in our fellow human beings. It is loving to warn others of the poison they are about to drink, but our hearts must always be filled with love, with the desire for the ultimate good of the other.

Jesus is the truth. He said so at the Last Supper (John 14: 6). When asked for "the way" to where He was going, Jesus replied "I am the way and the truth and the life." Jesus, being fully divine, is the truth about who God is, that God is Love. All God wanted to communicate to us, He spoke in the Word, Jesus Christ. And, being fully human, Jesus is the truth that tells us who we are, what it means to be human, what's our goal and purpose in life. We are beloved children of God. So much so that when humanity sinned and rejected God's plan, He did not abandon us to ourselves, but sent His Son to save us from ourselves.

Think for a moment of the first sin. God told our ancestral parents a truth and warned them: "Don't eat of this one tree. If you do, you will die." Satan said that God was lying. He told Adam and Eve that they could eat and they would not die. In fact, if they ate, they would become like gods and be able to determine for themselves what was right and what was wrong. The "Father of Lies" told a lie and convinced the first humans to believe it. They wanted the power to determine for themselves what was true and what was false. We know the rest of the story.

God sent His Son to testify to the truth of His love for humanity, a love that was willing to suffer and die in order to free humanity from the lie that God was jealous and really did not have humanity's best interests at heart. Jesus came and lived and died for the truth. In doing so He showed us the way that leads to eternal life. He is the way that leads to eternal happiness.

We gather because we are seeking the truth above all. We are seeking Christ above all. Don't settle for anything less.

The Presentation and Offering

2011-02-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

A blizzard hit Milwaukee last night and I've been home all day. I have plenty of things to do but the snow invites me to spend a little more time in solitude and quiet. One of my favorite books for prayer is "Divine Intimacy" by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD. There are two versions of this work that many consider a classic. One is the original version in one volume and the other is a more contemporary version in four volumes that follow the current calendar of the liturgical year and include reflections from the documents of the Second Vatican Council. Both versions are great for daily meditations.

As I read today's reflection for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord, I especially enjoyed a prayer from St. Bernard with which the reflection ended. In this prayer we hear how this feast, when Joseph and Mary presented Jesus in the Temple, is a reminder of all that Mary and Jesus offered to us, and how our natural response should be to make an offering of our lives. Both--the first offering of Jesus for and to us and the offering of ourselves--are very Eucharist, and you can hear the Eucharist overtones in this little prayer. Here it is:

O holy Virgin, you offer your Son, the blessed fruit of your womb to the Lord. For the reconciliation of us all you offer the holy victim that is pleasing to God, and God the Father will at once accept this new offering, this most precious victim, of whom he himself says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased..."

I too, O Lord, will willingly offer you my sacrifice, since you freely offered yourself, not through any need on your part, but for my salvation. I have only two poor possessions, O Lord: my body and my soul; would I could worthily offer you these two poor pittances in a sacrifice of praise! It would be better, much better for me to offer myself to you than be left to myself. In fact, if I remain alone, my soul is troubled, but in you my spirit is exultant as soon as it offers itself to you in complete dedication. Lord, you do not wish my death; shall I not then freely offer you my life? In very truth, that is ... an offering which please you, a living offering.

Mark

2011-01-31T15:12:00.001-08:00

Do you have a favorite Gospel? I don't know if I can answer that question myself. There are things that I like about each of the Gospels and each of them have unique stories or parables that aren't found in the others. So I have to admit, I don't have a favorite. Yet, going through Mark's Gospel these days in the weekday readings at Mass, I find myself admiring the concreteness of the details I find there.

For example, I find today's Gospel, Mark 5: 1-20, the story of the Gerasene demoniac, particularly vivid. I can just picture the poor man "crying out and bruising himself with stones." I can picture the terrified villagers trying to restrain him with chains and shackles which he pulls apart and smashes. I've often thought of this scene in conjunction with how I am tempted to "bruise" myself with past sins. I think this is common. Satan, who is also known as "the accuser," loves to get us thinking about past sins and beating ourselves up with them, even though we've confessed them and have been forgiven.

Today I learned something else about this passage. I subscribe to a bi-monthly booklet called "One Bread, One Body" which is published by a group in Cincinnati called "Presentation Ministries." They were founded by a great diocesan priest, Fr. Al Lauer, who died a few years ago of cancer. His daily one page reflections continue to appear in this booklet and online at their web site and I always find them very practical and rich in Scripture references. So here's part of today's reflection that got me thinking:

"Jesus left the district, as the people requested. However, by declining the request of the former demoniac to accompany Him, Jesus made sure that His truth, power, and love would stay in the area through the new life of the former demoniac.

"We have many places, businesses, cities, nations, families, and even churches where Jesus has been told to go away. As requested, Jesus left. However, He also has left us behind. We live in these cities and families. We work in these businesses and churches. Jesus is still present through us, the members of His body. We are to be "other Christs" in the Christ-less situations of our society. We are to be sacraments, signs of Christ's presence. We are to be walking tabernacles, invading the secular world by carrying with us God's presence."

I've always wondered about Jesus telling the healed demoniac to stay where he was rather than to follow Jesus. Now I have a better idea why He may have told him this. Also, knowing God's mercy and dropping the stones of past sins that I may be tempted to beat myself with, I find myself challenged anew to be a "walking tabernacle."

Thank you, Fr. Lauer and Presentation Ministries!

To Continue Dying

2011-01-27T11:12:00.000-08:00

When I was a student at Marquette University High School some 40 plus years ago, I first met Fr. Dick Tomasek. He was a Jesuit scholastic or seminarian at the time and I remember him playing guitar on one of the retreats we had. Since then he has moved into other ministries including several years as the spiritual director for seminarians at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio and at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Fr. Tomasek is deeply devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a supporter of the Apostleship of Prayer. He shared this spirituality with the future priests that he helped to form. Last summer he returned to the States and during his annual physical check-up was diagnosed with cancer. He had a tumor on his heart and surgery was performed. Since radiation and chemotherapy for cancer in that area were not recommended, he began a dietary and exercise regimen to fend off any recurrence. He went to work at St. Mark's Catholic Church in Tucson, Arizona.

The cancer has come back with a tumor appearing behind his eye. Surgery was performed and radiation and chemotherapy were recommended. Fr. Tomasek will be returning to the Milwaukee area to begin this next phase of his life.

Here is part of a letter that he wrote to parishioners at St. Mark's:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am immensely grateful for the many Masses, communions and prayers for my recovery. May this true treasury, like an overflowing granary, overflow to your hearts with grace as well! The Lord has rather abruptly invited me to continue dying. Of course, sharing a bit of His Passion is my greatest joy and stirs up my desire for God and folks of heaven, toward which we all journey. All it is a definitive "Yes, FIAT, let your will be done" and eternal life in Jesus gloriously begins! I will be happy to offer my own "prayers, works, joys and sufferings" (from the Morning Offering) for your own immense needs and graces.

Fr. Tomasek is an example of the mystery of "offer it up." Every day is a gift. Every moment can be made a prayer when it is offered to God for particular intentions. Our lives are practice for the final offering that we will make with our last breath.

"You Know not the Hour..."

2011-01-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

"You know not the hour...." These words of Jesus were spoken in relation to His Second Coming, but they can also apply to the hour of our passing from this life to the next. I thought of that this week because of Bob.

Bob was my step-brother-in-law. After my mother died the year after my ordination my father remarried. In fact, I presided at his wedding. One of the gifts of a priestly vocation is to be able to celebrate in a sacramental way the weddings, baptisms, and funerals in one's family. It's unusual, though, to preside at the wedding of one's own father. As a result of it, I've become part of another family and, though my father has since died, I remain a part of it.

Last weekend I got a call from Dan, one of my step-brothers. He informed me of Bob's death. I'd last seen him on New Year's Day when my step-family gathered for its annual Christmas celebration. Bob was 75 and was on his way to a health club to work out. According to witnesses, he put on the emergency flashers of his car and began pulling to the side of the road. Before he could finish, his car zoomed ahead out of control, took out several mailboxes, went through a culvert and hit a tree. Bob was dead on the scene. He must have felt the heart attack coming and tried to pull over.

I always enjoyed Bob. He had a beautiful combination of seriousness and humor. We played golf together with Dan and his son once a year. The emails I'd get periodically from Bob were either humorous, patriotic, political, or religious.

At his funeral on Wednesday, I talked about the pain of unexpected death. Though Bob went the way he'd hoped--suddenly and without a lingering illness--it's hard on family and friends who don't have the chance to say "good-bye." His family and many friends showed up at the wake and funeral Mass to do so, but it's not the same. One could say that his life was his farewell. I sensed that he was ready. He'd lived his life well. The love of Rita, his wife of almost 55 years; the love of his two daughters, their husbands, and children; the love of so many other relatives and friends--that love spoke of his love for them. While we didn't get the chance to say "good-bye" during his earthly life, Bob's love for us was his "good-bye." I think he left with no regrets and no unfinished business.

It strikes me: that's the way to live, since we know not the hour.

Unborn Jesus Our Hope

2011-01-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Several years ago George Peate sent me the manuscript for a book that he was about to publish with Life Cycle Books. He asked me to look it over and write a review that could be used in the advertising that appears on book covers and jackets. After reading his book I was happy to help. The book is entitled "Unborn Jesus Our Hope" and it is a wonderfully diverse and ecumenical reflection on the first nine months of Jesus' life. The full review can be found on his web site for the Unborn Word Alliance. George and his wife Michele also have a blog called "Unborn Word of the Day" in which they offer insightful commentary, inspiring spiritual reflections, and great art.

I met George and Michele on a trip to California some years back. They told me that on one of the annual March for Life events, the Archdiocese of New York had purchased cards with their "Litany of the Unborn Christ Child" so that everyone going to the March would be able to pray with this devotion to the Christ Child in the womb of Mary. I thought of this when I was preparing for yesterday's Mass and march sponsored by Pro-Life Wisconsin and I decided to take along my copy of the Litany to pray in front of the abortion mill.

As we prepare for the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision known as "Roe v. Wade", I think it would be a good idea to download this Litany for our prayer. I also highly recommend getting George's book and cards with the Litany and other materials, all available on his web site.

Witness for Life

2011-01-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

My good friend Peggy Hamill, the director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, asked me to preside and preach at a special Mass today. After Mass we marched to a local abortion mill where we prayed. In my homily I said the following:

Today's first reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (4: 12-16) says that the "Word of God is living and effective." The Word of God is the Scriptures. It is also the proclamation of the Gospel at every Mass where Jesus is present speaking to us. But it is more. The beginning of John's Gospel says that "the Word became flesh."

Jesus is this Word that is "living and effective." He is, as Hebrews says, "able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart." He knows what is in our hearts and the hearts of all people. And, reading our thoughts, He is, as the first reading says, a compassionate high priest who is able "to sympathize with our weaknesses." The Word became flesh and lived our human life. Sharing our human nature, He "has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin." Jesus knows the temptations and struggles of our hearts.

After His baptism, Jesus went into the desert where He was tempted. We read about this every year on the First Sunday of Lent. Jesus was tempted as we are tempted.

In the midst of forty days of fasting, Jesus was hungry and was tempted to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. This was against the plan of God, the natural law that God has built into creation. In our world today we see a similar temptation to reject God's plan for creation and to go against the natural law, to define marriage and life in our own way rather than to accept God's definition.

Next, Jesus was tempted to throw Himself off the temple, to do something flashy to get people's attention so that He could manipulate them for His own purposes. In this way He could amass an army of followers who would be pawns for His purposes. But humans are not pawns, not objects to be manipulated and used. Our world is tempted to use the media in ways to manipulate people. We're tempted to view others--babies in the womb, the terminally ill, "the other side," our enemies--as objects to be disposed.

Thirdly, Satan tempted Jesus to fall down and worship him, to make an idol of a creature, to honor the rebel and his rebellion. And so are we tempted to make creatures and our own desires greater than God, to follow the original rebel and to make his plans for the destruction of humanity our own.

Sharing our human nature and tempted in every way that we are, Jesus understands us. He understands our battle. This is why we see Him in today's Gospel (Mark 2: 13-17) going out to sinners, to those who are self-destructing through sin. He came to them and spoke the truth with love. He came to call and to heal sinners. He continues to speak to us, to our world. He continues to reach out to sinners and to heal us and our broken world.

He comes into our world today through us. St. Augustine once said that Mary first received into her Immaculate Heart what she would later conceive in her womb--the Word. She gave flesh to the Word in this way. When we receive Jesus in Word and in Sacrament, as we do at this Mass, we too give flesh to the Word. Pope John Paul II, who will be beatified next May 1--Divine Mercy Sunday and the first day of Mary's month (there are no coincidences when it comes to God)--wrote in his encyclical "Ecclesia de Eucharistia":

"At the Annunciation Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood. ... As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body of the Lord." (#55)

Before we receive our Lord's Body and Blood in Holy Communion, we say "Amen." Yes, I believe. Yes, I believe I am sent now to bring You into the world.

In a little while we will go forth to bring Jesus into the world. We will bring Him present in ourselves to a place of death. Like Jesus we will pray for conversion. Like Him we will sacrifice. Of course our sacrifice--the time we spend in the cold and wind--are as nothing compared to what He suffered on the cross for the salvation of sinners. But our prayers and sacrifices, joined to His perfect sacrifice, have great power, and so we go forth with confidence.

In closing, let us be strengthened in our hope and confidence by the words of Pope John Paul II from the conclusion of his encyclical "The Gospel of Life."

"The angel's Annunciation to Mary is framed by these reassuring words: "Do not be afraid, Mary" and "with God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30, 37). The whole of the Virgin Mother's life is in fact pervaded by the certainty that God is near to her and that he accompanies her with his providential care. The same is true of the Church…. Mary is a living word of comfort for the Church in her struggle against death. Showing us the Son, the Church assures us that in him the forces of death have already been defeated."