Consecration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.