Feburary 21 2025 - St. Peter Damian - Two wolves (school mass)

 There is an old Cherokee tale about a grandfather telling his grandson about the battle that takes place within each of us.

“My dear one,” said the grandfather” there is a battle within each of us between two wolves: The first wolf is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

The other wolf is good. It is: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee replied, “It depends on the one you feed.”

This simple but powerful story beautifully illustrates the struggle between good and evil inclinations within the human heart—something that the Church’s saints knew all too well. St. Peter Damian, whose feast we celebrate, spent his life recognizing the reality of these “two wolves” at war within him. Even as a brilliant thinker, writer, and monk, he acknowledged his own capacity for what he called “evil passions.” Rather than letting the “evil wolf” grow stronger through selfish desires, he chose the path of mortification and disciplined prayer, seeking to “feed” virtues like humility, obedience, and compassion.

St. Peter Damian fasted, prayed, and even undertook physical disciplines—not because he believed his body was evil, but because he wanted to train his heart to pursue what is good. He understood that the mind and body influence each other. By curbing his worldly impulses and offering small sacrifices to God, he directed his energy toward holiness rather than vanity.

In art, he is often depicted with a leather strap or whip to symbolize his desire of restraining the evil wolf---restraining and purifying his desires, so that the “good wolf”—love of God, fidelity, and charity—might flourish.

For us, the example is clear: we all face a daily choice of which “wolf” to feed. Will we indulge anger, greed, and pride? Or will we practice prayer, generosity, and kindness? St. Peter Damian’s life reminds us that true holiness is not an accident; it requires active cooperation with God’s grace and a decisive effort to nurture virtue over vice. Through prayer, study, asceticism, and works of mercy, we starve those destructive tendencies and allow the “good wolf” to thrive, leading us closer to Christ and deeper into the fullness of His love for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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As we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Damian—bishop, monk, reformer, and Doctor of the Church—we turn to God in humble prayer, asking for the grace to follow his example of holiness and service.

For the Church: That, inspired by the lives and writings of the saints, all members of the Church may grow in holiness and strive for ever greater fidelity to the Gospel.

For religious communities and monastic orders: That they may continue to be beacons of prayer, self-discipline, and service, modeling for all believers a life consecrated to God.

For all who suffer from insomnia or other ailments that disrupt rest and peace: Through the intercession of St. Peter Damian, may they receive the grace of healing, trust in God’s presence, and relief from their burdens.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life: That those called to serve may respond generously, offering their lives for the mission of Christ.

For the sick, the lonely, and those in need: that they may be open to the healing and strength that comes from a relationship of deep faith in God. And we pray in a special way for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, in this time of serious illness.

For our deceased loved ones: That they may behold the Lord fully in the eternal light of heaven, seeing Him face to face and rejoicing in His presence.

Almighty God, you raised up St. Peter Damian as a model of holiness. Hear our prayers, and grant us the grace to follow his example of prayer, penance, and zealous love for your people.

May 13 2022 - Our Lady of Fatima - Becoming like shepherd children

 

May 13 is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in the small village of Fatima in Portugal in 1917.  She appeared six times to Lucia, age 9, and her cousins Francisco, age 8, and his sister Jacinta, age 6, between May 13, 1917 and October 13, 1917.

Why did the queen of heaven appear to these young children, and not to the Pope, or to us?

Part of that answer is mysterious—God works in mysterious ways. But, likely, she appeared to children because children show us the enthusiastic acceptance of God’s Word that we are to have—unless you become like little children, says the Lord himself, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. In 1917, the world was on the verge of tremendous technological advancement, humans would be able to accomplish marvels that the ancients may never have dreamt of. And Our Lady appears, and tells the world to pray the rosary with the fervor of poor shepherd children kneeling in a field. 

She appeared to young children because many of us older children think of ourselves as too sophisticated to pray the rosary, too proud to go to confession, too learned to believe in hell and the devil, too cultivated to practice fasting.

After the apparitions began Francisco’s father discovered the boy sobbing in his room. When questioned why was he weeping, Francisco said, “I was thinking of Jesus who is so sad because of the sins that are committed against him.” Jacinta was so convinced by the vision of sinners falling to Hell that she began to pour herself into prayer and practice various corporal mortifications. “Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners,” Mary had told her. “Many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.” Jacinta responded, as did her brother, by prostrating themselves in prayer for hours, kneeling with their heads humbly bowed to the ground.

 They made all types of physical sacrifices, wearing tight cords around their waist, scourging themselves with stinging nettles, abstaining from water on hot days and other penitential practices. When both caught the terrible 1918 flu that took the lives of tens of thousands, they offered all of their sufferings for sinners. 

Having been told by Our Lady that she would take him to heaven soon, Francisco declined hospital treatment, bearing enormous pain with a smile and without complaint. Our Lady appeared to Jacinta and asked if she wanted to stay on earth a little longer to convert more sinners. She said yes. So the little girl allowed herself to be dragged from clinic to clinic, to have two of her ribs removed without anesthesia, valiantly sacrificing herself as a victim for the conversion of sinners and for the Holy Father, whom she knew from the vision would suffer much. 

When Saint John Paul II beatified them in Fatima 22 years ago today, he lifted them up as an example to the whole world of what Christ-like and Marian love for the salvation of others looks like. He stressed that their lives demonstrate that children can be heroically virtuous and reach “the heights of perfection” at a very young age, and if they can so can all of us. 

Echoing the words of our Lady, the Pope reminded all children of God, however young, “Our Lady needs you all to console Jesus, who is sad because of the bad things done to him; he needs your prayers and your sacrifices for sinners.” 

May we accept the summons to pray, do penance and mortification, and accept sacrifices like the dear shepherd children of Fatima as our dear Blessed Mother has taught for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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That the maternal care of Our Lady may bring protection to the shepherds of the Church and all who preach the Gospel.

That Our Lady’s devotion to the Divine Will of God will move government leaders to work to build a culture of life and peace to further the reign of Christ.

That through the penance and prayers of the Church, hardened sinners will return to God.

That the intercession of Our Lady will bring comfort and care to all who suffer disease, violence, and afflictions of any kind.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

We pray, O Lord our God, that the Virgin Mary, who merited to bear God and man in her chaste womb, may commend the prayers of your faithful in your sight. Through Christ our Lord.

November 12 2021 - St. Josaphat, martyr - Unity with God, Church, and Neighbor

 At the last supper, the Lord prayed for his followers—he prayed for the Apostles present with him in the upper room, and he prayed for the Church—that through the ages she would remain united in faith and love. "Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one.” While his death was looming, the most terrible of sufferings anyone had ever or would ever suffer, he was thinking of us and praying for us, for our unity in the truth of the Gospel, ““Your word, father, is truth…consecrate them in the truth”

The unity of the Church is always threatened by sin and error. And so we find the holy saints throughout history seeking unity with God through mortification, unity in the Church through right teaching, and unity with neighbor through charity. There can be no sanctity without mortification, right teaching, and works of charity.

St. Paul, of course, often wrote to the fledgling communities about avoiding anything that led to division. “With diligence preserve unity” he writes to the Ephesians, for “there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

St. Josephat spent his life laboring for the unity of the Church and was a martyr for Church unity because he died trying to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome.  He’s known as the apostle of union because he gave us life working for the unity of the Church. 

He was born into an orthodox family in 1580, but as an adult he joined one of the eastern churches that had recently returned to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Through education, reform of the clergy and personal example, Josephat succeeded in winning over the majority of the Orthodox in his diocese to full communion with Rome.  But those who opposed Church unity and communion with Rome plotted his death, and he was martyred in 1623. With furious cries of “Kill the Papist!”, He was struck on the head and shot and thrown into the river— killed by a mob who opposed his efforts.  

Like his Lord, Josephat died for unity. For the Lord indeed died that our unity with God destroyed by sin might be restored, and that the wounds of sin and division in the human family might be healed. As we know there are great divisions in our nation, there are many family members estranged from one another, there are many who have set themselves at odds with God through sin. Division caused by sin and pride always brings unneeded suffering, sadness and diminishment.

Through the intercession of St. Josephat and all the saints, seek that unity God desires for us, unity with Himself, unity with the Church, unity with neighbor for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the healing of the wounds of all Christian division and for success in the work of evangelization.

For perseverance in carrying our crosses in fidelity to the Lord Jesus.

For safety for travelers and for the homeless and destitute affected by cold and inclement weather.

That we may be attentive to the needs of the sick, the poor, and the despairing in our midst.

We pray in a special way during this month of November for all the faithful departed, for those whose names are written in our parish book of the names of the dead, all deceased members of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish, and our deceased family members and friends, deceased clergy and religious, for those who fought and died for our freedom and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

13th Week in OT 2018 - Monday - Don't get too comfortable

After Jesus left his home in Nazareth, he was an itinerant preacher—he moved from place to place—never getting too comfortable.  He and the apostles, who followed him for the three years of his public ministry, weren’t staying in luxurious hotels on their travels throughout Galilee.

Before following the Lord, most of the Apostles were fishermen, who after a long night of work would clean their nets then go home to their families. But meeting and following the Lord changed everything. They, like him, had no place to lay their heads. Especially, after his resurrection and ascension: the Apostles traveled far from their homeland in israel: to india, turkey, Greece, Italy, spain.


They couldn’t get too comfortable in one place, because they were tasked to spread the Gospel.  And this is an attitude that every Christian disciple is to adopt in a way.  To not get too comfortable in the world. You’ve probably heard that as Christians we are to “be in the world, but not of the world.”

The world has a way of lulling us to sleep, intoxicating us with its riches and pleasures, encouraging us to store up treasures here, rather than in heaven. We have to be very careful with worldly pleasures, for our home is not on earth, but in heaven. Many will spend their lives seeking earthly pleasure, at the cost of their souls.

This is why you hear stories of the saints putting pebbles and rocks in their shoes. Some of the saints would wear scratchy hairshirts.  I visited the room of a Franciscan saint in Viterbo, Italy, who slept on the same wooden board for decades.

Is it extreme?  Perhaps.  But it worked for them.  Little acts of penance and mortification helped them to fan the fire of their Christian fervor.

So, perhaps we each need some little act of mortification, or fasting, or penance every day to remind us not to get too comfortable—to remind us that we are not meant for this world.  We offer up those penances especially for those who are losing or lost their desire for heaven.

For the Christian, constant pleasure seeking is so dangerous. Selfishness is truly an enemy to faithfulness. So may we busy about fanning the fire of faith, offering up the sufferings of illness and inconvenience and working constantly on earth for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
 
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That all Christians may be deeply committed to the spread of Christ’s Gospel.

For our nation, as we celebrate our independence this week, that we may be always grateful for our freedom, but more importantly, use that freedom for God’s will, rather than our own.

For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, discouragement, loneliness, and those who are alienated from their families.  May they know God’s mercy and be gathered to the eternal kingdom of peace.

For all those who suffer illness, and those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice care, that they may be comforted by the healing light of Christ.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, the deceased members of our families friends and parishes, for those who fought and died for our freedom, and for Jim Steeber, for whom this mass is offered

13th Sunday in OT 2017 - To die to sin and live for God

Last weekend was the first Sunday the liturgical color was green since last February. We had the purple of lent, the white of easter, the red of Pentecost. And remember, after Pentecost we had the two great solemnities of Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi Sunday.

I was leading a support group the other night, and as an icebreaker question, each person was asked their favorite color. A few of the people said blue, finding blue to be peaceful and calm. But, I said, green--dark hunter green. For one, it was the color of my first car, a hunter green 1992 firebird. But, green is also the color of my childhood: I grew up running through the forests and fields out in my hometown of Madison, which is much more rural than here in Lyndhurst. Also, in high school and college, during the summers I would work in the nurseries, taking clippings from the different plants, grafting branches. One summer, for 8 hours a day, I simply watered plants and trees. So I associate that color green with new life. And liturgically, too, green is the color of new life, not simply of plants and trees, but the new life and growth which is to occur in our souls during this season after Pentecost.

In fact, though we Roman Catholics wear red on Pentecost, many Eastern Catholics wear green, not the fire of the Holy Spirit, but the new life He brings to the Church and to the Christian soul.

Spiritual growth is one of the foci of Ordinary Time. In spiritual life we are either growing or fading, ascending or descending, flourishing or stagnating. There are no plateaus in the spiritual life: we are either growing in our prayer life or falling away from vital practice, growing in a spirit of self-sacrifice or tending towards selfishness, becoming more patient or less patient, increasing in virtue or leaning toward vice.

God wants His children always growing, always learning, always becoming the people he made us to be. And in our Second Reading, St Paul provides us with two laws of spiritual growth.
The first law of spiritual growth is that we must die to sin: “You too must think of yourselves as dead to sin,” St. Paul says.

The second law is that we must live for God. Paul writes, “you too must think of yourselves… as living for God in Christ Jesus.”

What does "dying to sin" mean?

We are called to put to death our self-centered tendencies, all of them, our transgression of the laws of God, all of them. For not only do our sins hinder the life of God within us, they cause destruction in our lives, our families, and our society.

Flirting with sin, making little compromises with the commandments, or simply giving up and giving in to sinful inclinations and habits, these things suffocate the life of Christ in our souls.

And instead of living with interior peace, joy, meaning, wisdom, and courage, we end up exhausted, depressed, frustrated, with our relationships burdened with these attitudes and behaviors that should not exist.

Dying to sin is hard - because temptation is tempting. But God is on our side, and if we ask for his help, he will give it to us!

There is a story of from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The great saint was being overwhelmed with temptations to break his vow of chastity. He would pray, but the temptations just got worse. He knew something had to be done to wake himself out of this cycle of temptation. So on a particularly cold winter’s day, he stripped down naked and threw himself into a ditch full of snow. It was a shock to his system, and it was a way of showing the devil that he is willing to suffer in order to remain faithful to God.

Sometimes we only think of St. Francis as having this unique relationship with animals. But, the man was hardcore, he was serious about rooting out sin from his life. He knew that sin and the life of God were totally incompatible.

Yes, Our Blessed Lord is merciful to the most hardened sinner who repents, but he also calls us to purity, chastity, moral fortitude, obedience to the commandments. So, if there is a particular sin which keeps lingering, we do well to make frequent use of the sacrament of confession, but also to practice some mortification, some fasting, some act of self-sacrifice to put those temptations in their place.
The second law of spiritual growth is living for God. Dying to sin, resisting our self-centered tendencies, is necessary but not enough, if we wish to become the people God made us to be. We also need to do something positive. Christ calls us to action, he calls us to love. "Love one another," Jesus commanded us at the Last Supper, "as I have loved you".

Jesus isn’t simply talking about love as an emotion. He’s not saying that we need to walk around with dreamy eyes toward each other. Love is an action. It is doing what is best for a person. We are grow in our capacity to love as Christ loved by forgiving others when they offend or hurt us, by reaching out to those in need, and, as we reflected upon last week, by being bold in sharing with others the meaning and purpose that comes from knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ—spreading the Gospel.

I could give countless examples from the lives of the saints of what imitating Christ’s charity looks like. July 1 is the feast of St. Junipero Serra. When Pope Francis visited the United States last year, he canonized Junipero Serra, at the first canonization to be celebrated on U.S. soil.

During the time when our founding Fathers were fighting for our nation’s independence, the Franciscan Priest Father Junipero Serra traveled up the coast of present-day California, establishing missions, laboring for the spread of the Gospel.

Father Junipero was originally a university professor in Spain and a very learned man. But he heard the Holy Spirit urging him, not simply to share the knowledge of academia, but the knowledge of Christ. So he gave up his university career to come to California to teach the Native Americans about the Lord Jesus. He devoted himself to building churches and schools for the poor and the native people, catechizing those in his care and raising up dedicated priests to continue the Lord’s work.

During that time, when the civil authorities were violating the humanity and rights of the indigenous people, Padre Serra was devoted to improving their spiritual and material well-being—boldly fighting against their mistreatment.

For his work in raising up priests from the native population, Junipero Serra is a great patron Saint for vocation promotion.  There is even an international group for the promotion and support of vocations who look to his patronage called Serra International who have a chapter here in Cleveland and meet regularly to pray for vocations.

When his body was exhumed for the purpose of the canonization, it was shown that he had cancer of the legs, making the long hard journeys up the coast of California even more difficult.  Yet, he did so, out of love for God’s people, fueled by fervor for the spread of the Gospel.

Pope Francis called Junipero Serra one of the founding fathers of the United States and praised his willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the new World.

We might not be called to travel halfway across the globe to engage in missionary work, but each of us are called to help others know Christ, to die to sin and to live, not just for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.