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Read more about the article Blessed Be God Forever:  An Advent Prayer

Blessed Be God Forever:  An Advent Prayer

Today is one of my favorite Sundays in the Liturgical Year – Gaudete Sunday.  The priest wears the beautiful pink vestments and we light the pink Advent candle.  This is the day we focus on rejoicing that Jesus’s coming is near.  The music is always beautiful, but today so was the silence.

Growing up, there was always a separation between the Offertory Song in which people brought up the gifts of bread and wine and the collection money (for the support of the parish), and the prayers we spoke during the Preparation of the Gifts.  In recent years, the Offertory Song continues until the priest has completed all the Preparatory prayers in silence without our participation.  Blurring things together has caused us to miss so much of what is happening and has deprived us of the moments of silence we need to truly reflect.  Today though, the music stopped and then the priest was heard saying, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”  When we responded, “Blessed Be God Forever,” I was filled with the joy that this Sunday brings and I finally understood joy on a deeper level.

So many in our world seek happiness.  It is not wrong to be happy with our accomplishments, but when we only seek happiness in a secular way, it quickly becomes a pursuit of acquiring things and advancing our own goals and status.  Without God at the center, we only seek temporal happiness and forget to seek joy.  Joy is the state of rejoicing in the love of God.  When we stop to praise Him in spite of the vicissitudes of life, He reveals to our souls even greater depths of the love He has for us.  Thus we can experience joy even when we are not experiencing human happiness.

King David spent much time in silent contemplation and composed many Psalms praising God. He understood the connection between giving praise to God and receiving the gift of joy in return.  The Blessed Virgin Mary offered her beautiful canticle of praise, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices” (Lk 1:46) when she visited Elizabeth.  After months of silence Zachariah’s first words were “Blessed be The Lord.” (Lk 1:68)

This Advent we still have the opportunity for moments of silence, moments of prayer, and moments of praise.  We have time to make room in our hearts and invite Him in.  Thirty years ago I composed an Advent Prayer that I would like to share with you now.  May we all have a Blessed Christmas.

A Prayer to The Holy Family

Most Holy St. Joseph, my protector and guide, watch over me with the love and faithfulness you showed toward Jesus and Mary.  May I follow your example in humility and total submission to God’s will.  Teach me more and more each day to be obedient to the Will of God.

Holy Mary, Mother of God and my mother too, watch over me with your gentle care and teach me to walk in the way of holiness through charity, chastity (according to my state), obedience, and love for God’s Will.  Teach me to praise Him through all situations and to see His loving hands molding me as I endure difficulties.  Teach me to love as you love and trust as you trust.

My Beloved Jesus, who  humbled yourself to walk among us, may my contemplation of your great sacrifice cause me to love you more.  May your goodness and mercy teach me to forgive others.  Grant that I may always be as faithful to you as your Virgin Parents were.  And when I willfully lose my way through sin, hesitate not to run to me and bring me back to your fold.  My Shepherd of Goodness and Mercy, look not upon my sins, but upon my weakness and wretchedness.  Have compassion on me O God and teach me to be obedient to your patient instruction.

Holy Family, I desire to live as you lived at Nazareth – simply, humbly, and ever mindful of what is pleasing to God.  Teach me to serve God as you served Him and worry not about the problems of the day, but put my cares in our Loving Father’s hands so that I never lose my focus on Him and never cease praising Him.  Holy Family, intercede for me and bring me the graces I need to so that this prayer will come to pass.  Amen.

Continue ReadingBlessed Be God Forever:  An Advent Prayer
Read more about the article Be Ready, For The Son Of Man Is Coming

Be Ready, For The Son Of Man Is Coming

The Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent (Mt 24: 37-44) calls us to be alert to the coming of The Lord.  We do not know when He will return for the final Judgement, or if we will first experience our personal judgement at our own death, but we do know that Christ is coming at Christmas.  As we move forward with buying gifts for our families and friends, have we considered the birthday gift we want to offer Jesus?

We certainly can’t buy Him stuff because everything we have is really on loan to us by Him while we are here.  So what can we give Him that is truly ours to give?  The gift of our hearts is what He desires most, and while it is the simplest gift to give, it is paradoxically the hardest to give.  A heart worthy of being a gift to God takes a good deal of work on our part.  Advent is a call to do two things: turn away from being the innkeepers and turn toward being the shepherds.

The innkeepers had no room for Jesus and thus missed out on the precious gift of welcoming Him.  Their hearts were completely closed to Him, and this happens to us when we choose not to forgive. After starting with a good Confession, we must make room in our hearts for Him to dwell and this means dispelling the resentments, grudges, and stones of unforgiveness that are taking up room there.  The real challenge is to see that these things do not keep our enemies trapped and bound by our wrath – they keep us trapped.  Forgiveness does not mean that others “get away with” their wrongs, it means that we let God do God’s job and free up our time to build His Kingdom.  Forgiveness releases us, gives us peace, and prepares our hearts to receive numerous graces including the indwelling of Jesus who longs to be one with us. 

One of our most heroic saints, St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, demonstrates the power of forgiveness.  While he is being stoned to death, he prays for those who participate in the stoning, including Saul of Tarsus, who later becomes St. Paul.  Had it not been for Stephen’s prayers, there would have been no Paul and a great deal of the New Testament would have been absent.  Forgiveness goes well beyond healing our own souls; it brings graces that the entire world desperately needs.

Advent invites us to renew our commitment to the Gospel message, and to do the good that St. Paul exhorts us to do (Heb 13:16). Volunteering in a soup kitchen, putting up Christmas lights for an elderly neighbor, buying gifts for needy children, offering our musical or vocal talents in retirement homes, sending care packages to soldiers, or joining the Christmas choir at church are some ways we can reach out and bring Christ to the lonely and the poor. These gifts offered with love fill up our hearts so much more than they drain our wallets.  Our own loneliness is overcome by immersing ourselves in reaching out to others. Our sacrifice of praise (Heb 13:15) given to Him in the sacred music of Advent and Christmas fills us with His peace.  It is in the act of bringing Jesus to others that our souls recognize Him in them. This is how we transform ourselves into shepherds.  And like the shepherds who longed to see Him, He will reveal Himself to us and fill us with Christmas joy.

Continue ReadingBe Ready, For The Son Of Man Is Coming
Read more about the article Zaccheus: Today Salvation Has Come To This House

Zaccheus: Today Salvation Has Come To This House

The Gospel story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 is read with Wisdom 11 on the Sunday cycle Year C (a cycle that rotates the Gospels over a 3 year period) and read with Revelation 3 on the weekday reading.  These readings together demonstrate the mercy of God. Most of us know the story of this short-statured, wealthy tax collector who climbs a sycamore tree to see Jesus.  We are familiar with the self-righteous crowd who grumble that Jesus chooses to have dinner at the house of a sinner, but we are not used to seeing how much we are like Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus makes a startling choice. He runs ahead of the crowd, but instead of simply doing that and then standing in the middle of road where he would eventually cross paths with Our Lord, he climbs a tree.  Zacchaeus feels the calling, the pulling toward something new and better, and strongly desires it, yet he is not ready to get up close to Our Lord.  Well aware of his sins, he does not want to be inspected too closely. 

Each of us has had this experience at some time in our lives.  We have all sat in the tree wanting what Our Lord offers, but not feeling forgivable. We have all had moments where we felt so unworthy and so ashamed of ourselves that we did not want to go to Confession out of fear and embarrassment at what the priest might say.  Reflecting on the first reading, “But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent” (Ws 11:23), we realize this is exactly how Jesus approaches Zacchaeus.  Jesus sees his longing and his fear and walks up to the tree and extends an invitation. One might think that Jesus is inviting Himself to dinner, but what He is actually doing is inviting Zacchaeus back into the community that Zacchaeus has lost through his sin. He gives back to Zacchaeus his human dignity and respect, telling both Zacchaeus and the grumblers that Zacchaeus is not only loved, but treasured: “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made.” (Ws 11:24) Zacchaeus responds to Our Lord’s call with repentance (Lk 19:8) and joy.

Like Zacchaeus, Jesus meets us where we are: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” (Lk 19:10)  Once we have been found, we are invited to journey with Him. Our journey is one of continuing conversion, constantly striving to know Him better and love Him more. One sure sign that we have climbed back up in the tree is a lack of peace in our lives.  The events going on around us and in the news are unsettling and do require a great deal of prayer, but they should not make us live in fear.

How do we transform our spiritual lives so that we not small boats being tossed among the waves, but instead submarines in the deep water, unfazed by the storm far above?  We need to increase our trust in Him.  This starts with a good Confession.  Are we saying to ourselves “Well I have nothing to confess,” or “I confess the same sins every week”?  If so, this is an invitation to go into the deep water. Sin includes what I have done, said, or thought, as well as the good that I failed to do.  Inviting the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us is the way to uncover what is keeping us bobbing about the surface. Personally, I am amazed at what the Holy Spirit reveals to me, not only where I have fallen short, but also how it has affected others.  He gives me the ability to experience remorse and gives me a firm purpose of amendment.  And I am forgiven.  Even when I approach Him with trepidation, He meets me with open arms.  I can trust Him.  Every time.  It is this continual experience of revealing myself and still being met with unconditional love that builds up my trust in Him. It is this trust that is the source of peace.

This is the peace Jesus offers Zacchaeus when He says, “Today salvation has come to this house.” Jesus also asks to dine with us: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rv 3:20) What are you waiting for? Open the door.

Continue ReadingZaccheus: Today Salvation Has Come To This House
Read more about the article And They Were All Filled With The Holy Spirit

And They Were All Filled With The Holy Spirit

While Scripture does not explicitly use the word “Trinity,” the three persons of the Trinity are mentioned many times in the Bible beginning in Genesis. (“Let us make man in our image”)[1] Father is Creator. The second person, The Word, is given the name Jesus at the Incarnation. The Father creates through The Son, The Word.[2]  The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of God[3] and the Breath of Life.[4] “The Word of God and His Breath are at the origin of being and life of every creature.”[5]  The Holy Spirit “animates creation.”[6]

While many of the Israelites did not comprehend that there was a mystery of God as Trinity, some of them did have some sense of it. Abraham saw God as three persons. David and Isaiah both speak of the Spirit of God. The Blessed Virgin Mary, who wanted to know exactly what she must do to fulfill God’s Will, asked how she would conceive a child but never asked the Angel Gabriel who the Holy Spirit was because She already knew Him.

The disciples, having spent three years with Jesus, have some idea of the mystery.  Peter experienced the gift of knowledge when he proclaimed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”[7]  The disciples experienced the charismatic gift of healing when Jesus sent them out two by two, giving them the gift of casting out unclean spirits. [8]They have yet to be baptized by the Spirit, and so have a ministry marked by backward and forward steps, asking Jesus to destroy towns that don’t receive Him[9] and even deserting Jesus at the Cross.

It is at Pentecost that they all become transformed as the Holy Spirit visibly pours out all His gifts.  No longer cowering in fear, they courageously proclaim the truth in love.  The Crucifixion saved us from the penalty of our sins.  The Resurrection opened the gates of Heaven for us. Christ’s final act, the sending of His Holy Spirit, is the gift through which we can live heaven on earth and fulfill the prayer He taught us.[10] It is His Holy Spirit who completes the final gift of love – the birth of the Church.  The Sacraments of the Church make us Children of God and restore our communion with Him.  The gifts of the Spirit are given so that we may continue Christ’s mission to carry His Good News to the ends of the earth.

Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God “Father” and to share in Christ’s grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory.[11]

We are the Apostles of these times. We were chosen by God to live in these times and we too have a special mission to witness the faith. Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit would always be with us. Sometimes we are called to use our talents for God, but most of the time, we are called because of our weaknesses. It is when we are weak that we know we need to ask for His help. It is when we are weak that we know that it is God acting through us and not our own “wonderfulness” that is accomplishing the work. It is through the training of depending on God when we know what we cannot accomplish that teaches us to depend on Him in all things and praise His Goodness at all times. It is the continual search to do His Will and His Work that will bring to fruition “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done on earth as it is in Heaven.” When we put this into practice in our own lives then we will have true peace and live in the freedom and love that God has always intended for us.

[1] Gn 1:26

[2] Jn 1:1-3 and “God said” Gn 1

[3] Gn 1:1

[4] Gn 1:30

[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) paragraph 703, Gn 1:2, 2:7; Eccl 3:20-21; Ezek 37;10

[6] CCC 703

[7] Mt 16:16

[8] Mk 6:7 

[9] Lk 9:54

[10] Lk 11:2

[11] CCC 736 (St. Basil, De Spiritu Santco, 15, 36: PG 32,132.)

Continue ReadingAnd They Were All Filled With The Holy Spirit

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