31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - A priest's rosary

 You may remember, all the way back at the beginning of the month, I shared how the month of October is traditionally devoted to the Holy Rosary, and how the Holy Father and the Bishops encourage us to pray the rosary daily during this month. 

Pope Francis offered a message about the rosary recently. He said, “I invite you to pray the rosary, and to carry it in your hands or in your pockets. The recitation of the rosary is the most beautiful prayer we can offer to the Virgin Mary; it is a contemplation on the stages of the life of Jesus the Savior with his Mother Mary and is a weapon that protects us from evils and temptations.”

Catholics often get frustrated because of the many difficulties that arise in prayer, how difficult it is sometimes to pray. But, the Rosary is easy enough that a child can pray it, profound enough for a mystic to pray it, and they do, and concise enough that a busy person with a lot on their minds can pray it.

I’d like to share with you a method of praying the rosary that I’ve been using for a number of years now. I offer each decade of the rosary, each set of 10 hail mary’s for a particular intention. No matter which set of mysteries I am offering: the joyful mysteries, the sorrowful mysteries, the luminous mysteries, or the glorious mysteries, I offer each decade for a specific intention. 

The first decade I offer for my greatest challenges. If I have a difficult decision to make, or if I am having a difficult time being patient or charitable with a particular person, I offer that decade for them. The Lord says, pray, pray, pray for those who persecute you. So I offer that first decade for an expansion of my heart to love those it is difficult for me to love.

The second decade I offer for those who are sick and suffering. As pastor, many parishioners ask for my prayers, and during this second decade I bring to the Lord those of you who are sick and suffering. Those who are lonely, those who are addicted, those who are anxious, those who are preparing for surgery or dealing wit heavy burdens, those who are dying or grieving.

The third decade I offer for a flourishing of spiritual gifts in the parish. In the third glorious mystery, the holy spirit descends upon the church and in the third joyful mystery the christ is born into the world. So I pray for the Holy Spirit’s gifts, and the life of Christ to fill this parish, to make us more effective in our Gospel mission.

In the fourth decade, I pray for priests. Priests need to support each other in prayer, priests need prayer, constantly. For, the devil hates priests and is bent on the corruption of priests and undermining the holy faith of priests. So I take up the mighty spiritual weapon of the Rosary to pray for the protection of priests from evil and temptation and the flourishing of their ministry.

In the fifth decade, I pray for myself. We need to pray for ourselves—to humbly admit what we need from the Lord, and to pray to by docile to the divine will—to be humble and holy.  I pray for the grace to be crucified with Christ, like in the fifth sorrowful mystery, to honor our lady as queen of heaven and earth like in the fifth glorious mystery, to be broken and shared like the Eucharist as in the fifth luminous mystery, and to find Jesus in the hidden events of my life as he was found in the Temple in the fifth joyful mystery.

I invite you to use and adapt this method, to see if it work and helps to focus your prayers. Our Lady will assist every soul who prays the rosary to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as we heard in the Gospel today. 

On Thursday, I was making my holy hour and about to offer my rosary when I was moved to adapt my method slightly. Since, on holy Thursday, the Lord gathered with his apostles and made them the first priests of the church, and, since this weekend being priesthood Sunday, I thought I would offer my rosary particularly for priests.

So, as I said, I adapted my method a little bit. In the first decade of my rosary, I prayed for the priests that I am challenged to love, the priests who have left active ministry, the priests who have been found guilty of crimes, the priests who spread heresy, the priests whose personalities just rub me the wrong way. I prayed for them by name, and prayed for the grace to love them.

In my second decade I prayed for the priests who are sick and suffering: the priests, I know, who are very sick or dying or diminished by old age, the priests who struggle with substance abuse, addiction, or who are unjustly treated by their bishops, by their parishes, the media, or government. The priests who may be struggling with the promise of celibacy, priests who may be finding it difficult to pray daily as they ought, the priests that may be on the verge of leaving ministry without proper discernment, and priests with clinical depression, and the like.

In the third decade I prayed for a flourishing of the spiritual gifts in the priests of our Diocese. We need priests on fire with the Holy Spirit. We need priests filled with wisdom, who are not timid in speaking the truth, who are tireless in ministry, who are prophetic, who are able to discern and call forth the Spirit’s gifts from their parishioners. We need priests who will preach, like Jesus, in the third luminous mystery,  throughout galilee, going to the margins as Pope Francis would say, to bring the Gospel to the farthest ends of the earth.

In the fourth decade of my rosary, I prayed for the priests who died. Like the fourth luminous mystery, where the Lord shines in Transfigured Light, I prayed for the priests I have known who have died, that the perpetual light of christ may shine upon them, and that their time in purgatory, if any, will be lessened. I have known many good and holy priests who have gone onto their eternal reward, and I’m sure you have as well. Please do not forget them in your prayers.

Lastly, as I do in all my rosaries, I offered the last decade, again, for myself, especially that I may good be a holy priest and receive a share of the spirit that has animated the priesthood of so many of our good and holy priests in the diocese of Cleveland. I prayed for the prudence of Bishop Pilla, the keenness of mind of Fr. Jack Murphy, the warm compassion of Fr. Jim O’Donnell, the indefatigable energy of Fr. Pete Colletti, the liturgical reverence of Fr. Mike Woost, and piety of Fr. Sean Donnelly, and the fortitude in suffering of Bishop Richard Lennon, those close to him know how he suffered for the church of Cleveland like very few have suffered.

On this priesthood Sunday, I ask once again for your prayers for priests. If there have been priests who have insulted or hurt you or your families, please pray for them, and pray for the grace to forgive them, that any lack of forgiveness might not keep you from deep engagement in the life of the Church. Please pray too for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. I do not know the last priestly vocation to come from this parish, but we do well to pray that God may raise up good holy priests from the young men in our midst. The Church will need good and holy priests until the Lord’s return, and it is the duty of every Catholic to promote healthy priestly vocations through prayer and encouragement.

Priest seek to help the church love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. So please pray for priests, Pray the rosary, pray for vocations for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - Marriage in God's Plan

 
I mentioned to Cara, our Parish Secretary this week that the lazy days of summer have certainly come to an end here at Saint Ignatius.  RCIA is off and running, monthly Taize prayer services will be beginning this month, PSR is in session, the day school is already half way through its first quarter.  Our Clambake is coming up next Sunday, the basketball league is beginning sign-ups, weekly bible study is ongoing, , legion of mary and st. Vincent de paul continue to meet, our new monthly young adult group draws young catholics from across the diocese, we’re going to begin a repair project on our stained glass windows, and don’t tell our music director, but advent is only two months away.

And all this on top of the normal rhythm of parish life: the joy of celebrating daily Mass, confessions seem to be a bit more popular than when I arrived two and a half years ago, anointings, marriages, baptisms, parish staff meetings, even, really aren’t that bad. But, one of the highlights for me each month is our first Friday Eucharistic Holy Hour.

Last night, I had a wedding rehearsal, for one of our last weddings of the year and then we had our holy hour. And after a very long week, that holy hour really hit the spot. And realizing I hadn’t really come up with anything for my weekend homily, I so I asked the Lord what he might want me to preach on this weekend: both at our Saturday wedding and then for our weekend masses. And I began to see a little overlap.

Our first reading and the Gospel this weekend are readings chosen often by couples for their wedding Mass. I always think it’s rather profound that the era of livestreaming and twelfth generation iphones, couples choose for their wedding a passage from this 3500 year-old ancient text from the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. And in it, we find that the ancient biblical vision for marriage, God’s vision, is not outdated, it’s not a relic of the past we have yet to discard—like an embarrassing photo from our teenage years. It’s as relevant as ever, because it is truly God’s word.  

In this passage, our first reading, we read of the origin, the genesis of the first marriage in human history: a match made in the earthly paradise, in the Garden of Eden. 

Adam had been created first. And while working and laboring in the Garden, Adam experienced this deep longing: this longing not just for a friend, but a wife. The Creator acknowledged that this longing was by design—he says it’s not good for man to be alone…this longing for a wife was placed in the man’s heart by God from the beginning. It’s all part of the plan.  So God gets to work again, in order to complete his Creation. He puts the man into a deep slumber and creates a wife for Him.

Upon awaking from his deep slumber, the man let’s out this joyous exclamation when he glimpses his bride. He says, “AT LAST!” 

When I prepare couples for marriage, I meet with them for a minimum of six months, for many of them sometimes over a year. After all those years of dating and marriage preparation, their wedding day has “At Last” arrived—the day when two become one.

So what we have here in the very first book of the Bible is God’s Word teaching us that marriage is not a mere human institution, but has been established by God from the foundation of the world. “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife”—a holy longing placed in our hearts is fulfilled in the holy union of matrimony. 

This passage is of such great importance that Jesus quotes this passage verbatim in the Gospels. The Lord quotes this passage from Genesis in his explanation of why divorce is not possible and not part of the plan of God. In lawful, Sacramental marriage, like Adam and Eve, Bride and Groom become One—a new creation. They are joined together by God and cannot be separated.  What God has joined man cannot separate.

Most couples, when asked, “Why get married?” give a two-fold answer: “Because we love each other and want to start a family.” This answer is consistent with Church teaching that the purpose of marriage is twofold: unity and procreation—to be joined in mutual love and to bear children.

The Sacrament of Marriage is powerful because it helps couples be faithful to these two ends. That can’t be said for a couple who simply enters into a so-called civil marriage before a Justice of the Peace. Through the Sacrament of Marriage, celebrated according to Church law, God abundantly blesses husband and wife, giving them the strength they need to love and honor each other, for better, for worse, through sickness and health in an indissoluble bond. It also gives them special grace for the tremendously difficult role of being Christian parents, especially in the 21st century. 

Raising a Christian child now, in a culture which is increasingly hostile to our faith, is no doubt, one of the greatest challenges Christian families have ever had face. But through the Sacrament of Marriage, God’s special grace is there.

Additionally, the Sacrament of Marriage does something that most couples probably aren’t thinking of when they approach the priest for marriage preparation. The Sacrament of Marriage turns Christian Husband and Wife into a sort of living Sacrament—visible signs of Love. Christian husband and wife shows us that in this broken world, love is possible—love is real. 

This is why the Devil hates Christian marriage and does everything he can to pervert it, break it up, and undermine it as an institution. He hates it because it is a reflection of God. No wonder he wants to deface it and promote disrespect for it, to spread lies like “God never intended one man to love one woman for the rest of his life.” It’s a lie having its genesis with the Father of lies, who himself refused to love God for the duration of his life. The Devil doesn’t want us to believe in love, not true love, only in counterfeit, perverted substitutes: to settle for less.

Marriage matters.  It is bound up with God's plan for the world.  The self-giving generative love of husbands and wives shows the world that permanent, exclusive, faithful love is possible; and by God's permanent, exclusive, faithful love for us, we are saved.

If any of you are in a civil, non-Sacramental marriage, please give me a call, so we can work on rectifying the situation. Or if you and your spouse are having some marital problems and are looking for marriage help, I can share with you some resources that you will certainly find helpful if you give them a try. And if you are civilly divorced, please know that there continues to be a place for you in the Church, and I invite you to consider giving me a call to discern if it is appropriate to seek an annulment.

The Church needs strong, holy Catholic marriages and holy families—in which the Word of God is practiced and cherished. 

The month of October is traditionally devoted to the Holy Rosary. The Holy Father and the Bishops encourage us to pray the rosary daily during this month, and what better intention than to pray for marriages and families. Pray your rosary for those couples in irregular situations. Pray for spouses going through marital difficulties. Pray for the divorced, that they can know God’s healing and discern their role in the Church.

For each of us, celibate, married, or single, have a role in promoting happy, healthy, holy Christian marriage for the glory of God and salvation of souls.