October 2 2017 - Guardian Angels - Guarded in all of our ways

When I am over in the school It brings a smile to see the children’s faces light up when I teach them about the angels. The angels bring delight, it delights us to discover that God has placed an angel “to guard us in all of our ways”.

Every human being has his own Guardian Angel, and that guardian angel remains with the human throughout life whether in grace or sin.  The guardian angels ward off dangers to body and soul; they prevent Satan’s suggestions of evil thoughts, they help us to avoid occasions of sin and help us to overcome temptation; they enlighten our minds, and instruct us  and foster in us holy thoughts; our angels assist us in prayer, in both offering our prayers to God and praying for us; they correct us when we sin and urge us to repent; they help us to receive consolation in the hour of death; and they conduct our souls to God in heaven, or console us while in purgatory.

I think one of the great joys of heaven will be to meet our guardian angels, to know all the ways they guarded us, and helped to bring us to our heavenly destination. There is a joy in thanking our guardian angels. So, make sure you wish your guardian angels a happy Feast Day today!

While still on earth, now, it is to our advantage, to truly befriend our guardian angels, to call them to mind often, to pray to them, especially in moments of darkness, to guide us and enlighten our path. As we heard from the book of Exodus: “Be attentive to your guardian angel, and heed his voice. Do not rebel against him.”

The angels, who are more intelligent and more powerful, are nevertheless, at our service.  I think that is quite humbling, that these beings who are superior to us in so many ways, serve us, helping to guide our souls to eternal life.  They do all in their power to procure our salvation and increase our sanctification.

Yes, they may help us from time to time from physical maladies, from falling down flights of steps or getting into car accidents.  But more than protecting our physical health, they seek to protect our spiritual health helping us to know what is pleasing to God, and what is offensive to God.

May we know their protection, their enlightenment, and open to their guidance of these great guardians of ours for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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May the angels who stand ever before the face of God, nourish in us a never-failing hope of coming at last into God’s presence.

In gratitude to God for our Guardian Angels, may we be attentive to their inspirations, and through them be kept safe from sin, and faithful to the works of mercy.

May we like the angels, practice purity in both mind and body, and be guarded from every temptation to sin.

May the sick know the assistance of the angels in their illness and suffering.

For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of October: That all workers may receive respect and protection of their rights, and that the unemployed may receive the opportunity to contribute to the common good.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas and the consolation of their families. We pray.

Heavenly Father, may our prayers rise like a pleasant fragrance before you and be brought to your altar on high through the hands of your holy angels. Through Christ Our Lord.

26th Sunday in OT 2017 - The Little Way and Hidden Humble Acts of Love

On September 30th, 1897, a young Carmelite nun living in France succumbed to the effects of tuberculosis, dying in obscurity, known only to her religious sisters.

Upon their deaths, most people, particularly obscure Carmelite nuns, remain in obscurity, their lives fade into the hidden folds of history. Yet this particular Carmelite, Therese, has proven quite different. Within years of her death, her spiritual autobiography began to be read widely. Miracles attributed to her intercession began to be reported. In just a few decades after her death, the image of Thérèse of Lisieux would be immediately recognizable in the Catholic world. Canonization would soon follow. And at the hundred-year anniversary of her death, Pope St. John Paul II declared her to be a Doctor of the Church, a title given to only a privileged few of the Church’s saints, establishing Thérèse as one of the Church’s great authorities in regards to the meaning and purpose of the Christian spiritual life.

At the heart of Thérèse’s spirituality is the principle that holiness can be discovered not only in the performance of mighty deeds, but in a willing surrender to the purposes of God in the seemingly ordinary experiences of life. St. Therese the Little Flower taught that most of us are not called to do great things, but we can become holy by doing small things with great love.  She called this “the little way”—doing small things with great love.

In her autobiography, St. Therese wrote, “I applied myself above all to practice quiet hidden little acts of virtue; thus I liked to fold the mantles forgotten by the Sisters, and sought a thousand opportunities of rendering them service.” I think many spouses and parents already practice these thousands of hidden little acts of service for their families. These thousands of little acts are likely noticed by no one but God. But because they are noticed by God they are powerful, and infuse the world with his love.

The little way of St. Therese is the way of humility encouraged by our Lord. St. Paul speaks about the need for each of us to practice the humility of Jesus in our second reading. “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.”

Jesus’ own humility is most evidently seen in his embrace of the cross: the God of the universe becoming a slave, taking upon himself mockery, torture, humiliation, and suffering in order to restore humanity to grace.

You see why the world sees us Christians as so strange?  We hold up this image of this crucified slave and say that’s what God looks like, this is what love looks like, this is the meaning of life. And you too can become the person you are meant to be, by embracing this way of life, by taking suffering and hardship upon yourself for the sake of others, without complaint. Doing the laundry, cooking the meals, caring for a sick child or spouse, laboring diligently at one’s job: these things can be roads to spiritual growth, when we do them humbly and out of love.

In the Gospel, Jesus praises, not the son who makes empty promises to the Father, not the one who gives lip service, who claims to be the good son. Jesus praises the son, who actually goes and does the Father’s will.

The Christian faith is not a matter of lip-service, we do not get to heaven by simply telling people we are Christian, but by actually practicing this stuff, by subjugating the mind, the heart, the will, the bank-account, the leisure time to the will of God.  Real faith requires real action.

St. Therese, whose feast day is on October 1, reminds us that holiness is certainly within the reach of ordinary, simple people. God smiles upon those small acts of love, which puts the needs of other before our own, and through those acts of charity, God can enflame our hearts with a burning love and heavenly joy that nothing else in the world can provide.

This week, perform one act of charity per day, without expecting adulation or praise, a hidden act, that only God sees, or perhaps one chore per day without having to be asked.

May each of us be attentive to the little acts of service which God calls us to perform humbly, without notice, without any other reason other than it is good, a blessing for another. Through the life of charity, may God transform us into the people he made us to be, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

September 29 2017 - Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels - Protectors of the Human Race and the Church

When we started using the new translation of the missal in 2011, one of my favorite changes was the mention of the different choirs of angels in the Eucharistic prefaces: “with angels and archangels, with throne and dominions and with the hosts and powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory.”  Angels, archangels, thrones, dominions and powers are among the different choirs of angels, along with the cherubim, seraphim, principalities, and virtues.

The number of angels is nearly countless. Each human being ever having lived has been given a guardian angel to watch over them. We do not know the names of even our own guardian angels who watch over our every breath, but we do know the names of three of the archangels from the holy scriptures:

Archangel Michael, who is revealed to be the special protector of the people of Israel in the book of Daniel, and who is named as a sort of general of the angelic host in its warfare against the devil in the book of Revelation.

Archangel Gabriel also appears in Daniel’s vision, announcing God’s plan to lay-low the works of the Devil. On behalf of God, Gabriel sought the consent of the Blessed Virgin of Nazareth in bearing the Messiah who would bring the definitive defeat of Enemy of God through the cross.

Archangel Raphael accompanies, in the Old Testament book of Tobit, Tobit’s son Tobias on a very hazardous journey. Along the way, Raphael cures Tobit of blindness and drives away the demon Azazel who had been tormenting Tobias’ bride-to-be, Sarah. He also helps to restore the family fortune.

In the Eucharistic Preface for today’s Mass we hear how “the honor we pay the angelic creatures in whom God delights redounds to God’s own surpassing glory.” When we honor the angels, we honor God.   And since God has placed the angels as helpers of the human race, we ought to make use of their help, by invoking them, and by imitating their virtues.

Pope Leo XIII encouraged us to invoke particularly, Archangel Michael as a protector of Holy Mother Church and whenever the action of the Devil is suspected, spiritually or physically harming someone, causing violent temptations, storms or other calamities.

Pope Leo XIII lived in a time when Masonic, godless, anti-clerical, anti-church forces were congregating in Europe which were not only spreading error, but raising arms against Catholic populations. It is well known that Pope Leo was granted a vision of the supernatural and demonic forces which spurned this hatred for Catholicism, a vision in which the devil was given great sway over the earth during the 20^th century. And so he composed the St. Michael prayer, which was to be invoked for the protection of the Church. We will pray this prayer together at the conclusion of Mass, as was done for decades following Pope Leo’s vision.

We invoke the archangels and we seek to imitate their virtues, so that we may always know their protection, that we may be found like them to be cooperators with the holy will of God, that we may be found, like them, blameless in His sight, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For Pope Francis, Bishop Perez, and all Church leaders, that they may guide the Church to be strong in faith and generous in offering works of mercy to those in need. We pray to the Lord.

Through the intercession of St. Raphael may all who suffer from loneliness or sickness know the healing graces of our loving God.  We pray to the Lord.

Through the intercession of St. Gabriel, may God’s strength be with all those who work for the Spread of the Gospel.  We pray to the Lord.

Through the intercession of St. Michael, may all who are persecuted for the faith be protected against the wickedness and snares of the devil.  We pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy  and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

Heavenly Father, may our prayers rise like a pleasant fragrance before you and be brought to your altar on high through the hands of your holy angels. Through Christ Our Lord.

September 28 2017 - Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, martyr - "If I had a thousand lives to offer..."

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz is the first canonized Filipino martyr.  He was born in Manila around the year 1600 to a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, who were both Christians.  As a young boy he was educated by Dominican priests and served as an altar boy.  He became a professional calligrapher, transcribing documents in beautiful penmanship, and he was a member of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.  He married and was a devoted husband and father of two sons and a daughter.

His life took an abrupt turn when he was unjustly accused of murder.  The threat of arrest led Lawrence to flee his home.  He sought asylum with several Dominican priests who were going to Japan to do missionary work.

However, Catholics were being persecuted heavily in Japan.  All those who professed the Catholic faith, and especially missionaries were being jailed and even being sentenced to death by the Japanese.  Lorenzo along with the missionaries were arrested shortly after arriving in Japan and were subjected to unspeakable tortures.  He was killed by being hung upside down and exsanguinated.

As he was dying he said, “If I had a thousand lives to offer, I would offer them to God. So, do with me as you please."  Lorenzo was martyred for his faith, along with 15 Dominicans from Spain, Italy, France, Japan, and the Philippines.

In the Gospel, Herod the Tetrarch is greatly perplexed when Jesus persists in his mission even after John the Baptist had been beheaded. The powers of the world are perplexed by Christ. The Japanese torturers could not understand why Saint Lorenzo and his companion Christians willingly suffered for Christ. “The world does not know us, because it did not know him”.

The world does not understand why we remain true to the teachings of Christ amidst the changing moral values of the world.  It does not understand why Christians in the third world will often walk 3 or 4 hours to Church in Sunday day to celebrate Eucharist. It does not understand why we undergo the embarrassment of confessing our sins to a fallible priest. It does not understand why we fast and do penance and seek the mortification of the flesh. It does not understand why we sacrifice so much of our time and talent and wealth to help people we don’t even know.

And in the world’s lack of understanding, we say, along with Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, “if I had a thousand lives to offer, I would offer them to God.” In our temptations and our hardship, may we be found faithful to Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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That religious indifference in our country and around the world may be transformed to radical commitment to the Gospel of Christ.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

For the conversion of Atheists, hardened sinners, lapsed Catholics, and the conversion of all hearts.
For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September: “That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.”

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

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.

Sept 26 2017 - Saints Cosmas and Damian - Offering the hours of the day to God

Saints Cosmas and Damien were twin brothers, born in the middle of the 3rd century. They both studied medicine in what is now modern-day Syria. They practiced their medical profession with not only great skill but great charity, offering their services for free to those who could not pay. They are the patron saints of physicians.

Since they were so prominent in the community, when the persecution of Diocletian swept through around the year 303, they were put to death, refusing to apostatize the faith.

As holy Christians and holy doctors, they remind us how important it is to offer the whole of our lives to the service of the Church. If we are doctors, to use our medical training for Christ, if we our lawyers, do use our legal expertise for Christ, if we are retirees, to use our time for Christ.

Many make use of their professional training and their time to make a name for themselves instead of service for Christ. The time we’ve been given is meant for our sanctification: whether we are a day- laborer or an expert in our field. As St. Paul says, “In whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

How we use our time matters for eternity. Christians are to be diligent, they should seek excellence in their work and true refreshment in their leisure, they should pursue virtue and the perfection of their character, subjecting every hour of the day to the Lord’s glory.

Whether we are spending 8 or 10 hours in the office, or able to spend warm autumn days in the garden, or sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, it’s not a bad idea to call to mind every hour our Christian identity, to dedicate that hour to God’s will over our own, to ask God to bless that hour for his purposes.

When our day is continually offered to God, the events of our day, even the hardships, can become opportunities for meeting Christ. We meet him in our labors, others can meet him, through us, because we have offered our hearts and minds and our diligence to Him.

As the Jews, in our first reading, returned from exile, rebuild the Temple to be a house for God to dwell, may the saints help us to build our lives, our bodies, minds, hearts and sufferings into a Temple where God is worshipped, adored, and served, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Through the intercession of Saints Cosmas and Damien, we pray that all doctors, nurses, medical professionals and health care workers may use their training for God’s glory, always respecting the dignity of every human life.
For an end to all medical techniques which violate human dignity, for an end to abortion, euthanasia, IVF, and the destruction of human embryos.
That the dignity of works may be respected by their employers and by the state, and for the unemployed and underemployed.
For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September: “That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.” We pray to the Lord.
For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster and inclement weather, especially the people of Houston Texas, those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, and the imprisoned, for those who struggle to live the call of Christian chastity, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.
For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.
Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

Monday - 25th Week of OT 2017 - Returning from Exile, Rebuilding Your Life

The Old Testament Books of Ezra and Nehemiah detail the 50-year period after the Babylonian Captivity. For over a hundred years, Jews lived and worked in Babylon, cut off from their traditions, their history, their rituals, their stories, and their worship.  A generation of Jews grew up without knowing about God freeing their people from slavery in Egypt, they grew up without knowing the promises God made to Abraham, without the knowledge of the ten commandments or the promised land.  They grew up only knowing the gods and practices of Babylon-- a culture which practiced child sacrifice, polygamy, and other behaviors condemned by Jewish law.

Imagine if your children or grandchildren knew nothing about their family histories, knew nothing about their heritage, in fact, they had adopted practices which were exactly the opposite of the truths of their faith.  In a way, not knowing their history, not knowing their faith, you would say, that they did not know themselves.

The Old testament reading today details the turning point in this sad chapter. In October 539 BC, so this time of year, two thousand, five hundred, fifty-some years ago, the Persian King Cyrus defeated the Babylonians. A year later King Cyrus decrees that he will allow the captive Jews to return to their homeland. What inspired the King to make this allowance? We heard today…”The LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia” Cyrus even decrees that the Jews should be assisted in rebuilding the house of God—the Temple—in Jerusalem.

There is certainly a powerful spiritual analogue to this story of captivity and return. In our sin and ignorance, we are held captive, separated from God and the ways of the saving faith. Some Catholics fall away from the faith, some struggle to be free from very serious sins or addictions, for what seems like a hundred years. But, like Cyrus inspired by God, we receive the grace to break free from our sin, our addiction, our captivity, the fallen away Catholic comes home, the Christian struggling with sin is liberated.

But that gift of liberation and return, is given by God for a purpose. The returning exiles were tasked with rebuilding the Temple and recommitting to the works of God’s Holy Law. So, too Christians, freed from sin are tasked with offering right and beautiful worship to God, and must commit ever more fervently to the works of Christian Law, the works of mercy. We are freed from sin, that we may engage in the life of God, the life of mercy, to build up the New Temple of God, the Church, built with living stones.

As we heard in the Gospel, we are given the light of faith, not that it may be hidden under a bushel, but that it may be shared for the good of all, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For the Holy Father, Francis, our Pope, that he may be aided by the Holy Spirit in leading those captive to sin home to right relationship to God through Holy Church. We pray to the Lord.

That all Christians tasked with the spread of the light of the Gospel, may be faithful to that same Gospel in every dimension of their lives. We pray to the Lord.

For all those who have fallen away from the Church, those whose lives are darkened by sin, for the conversion of all unbelievers and those who have fallen into error, and the conversion of all hearts.
For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September: “That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.”

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

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.

25th Sunday in OT 2017 - The Mysterious Ways of God

For several weeks, our Gospels have contained some pretty challenging lessons. Where we find forgiving people difficult, Jesus teaches us that God forgives and we ought to forgive without limit. When most people were exalting the flashy faith of the Pharisees, Jesus extols the humble hidden faith of the poor widow, the repentant prostitute, blind beggar. Where most of us run away from crosses, Jesus teaches that his disciples must each take up their own cross.

The New Testament parables challenge us to grow in the practice of our faith, they shake us out of our complacency, and they often show us that God operates in ways quite different from the ways of man. Yes, challenging lessons as of late, yet, today’s parable of the Generous Landowner, is seriously puzzling, if not unnerving and somewhat vexing.

A Landowner goes out to hire workers for his field—a common practice in Jesus’ time, as it is still today. He hires workers in the morning, he hires workers at midday, and then in the evening, he calls more and more people to work in his field. Then the work day ends and he calls the workers together to receive their wages, but strangely those who have been working the least amount of time, he pays first. And he pays these people, who only worked a half-hour, 45 minutes, a full day’s wage. The workers who were there from the beginning of the day are a little upset when they receive the same daily wage.

Most of us hearing this parable would be quite upset if the same thing happened to us. It’s unfair. It seems unjust.

How does the landowner explain this apparent injustice? He says, “Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?'
If you were one of the workers, would you be satisfied with that answer? Who in Jesus’ time or in our time would say, “Oh yeah, that makes sense.” No, there is still something unresolved. One person worked nine hours, the other worked nine minutes. Like a little kid who gets the smaller piece of dessert than his sibling: “Not Fair!” It doesn’t compute, it doesn’t make sense.

And that’s one of the points of the parables: to find that place that doesn’t quite make sense. To help us understand things not from an earthly point of view, but from a heavenly point of view. What did we hear in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah? “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.”

Is God’s Wisdom, similar to human wisdom or different? Simply judging by the number of people who do not learn from their mistakes, God’s wisdom is far greater. Is God’s love, similar to human ways of showing affection or is it on a whole different level? The cross shows us, God’s love is greater.

The ways of God are often mysterious for the same reason the ways of parents seem so strange and unfair to their children. The parents sees so much more, they see how the piece of candy will spoil the child’s dinner, they see how a late bedtime will make the child cranky the next morning, they see how failing to discipline the toddler will lead to a spoiled teenager. The child sees from a very narrow point of view and often sees their parents actions as unjust, unfair.

 Analogously, we see from a very narrow perspective, a small point in time. So it is possible that things we see as unjust, aren’t from God’s perspective, who sees the whole of space and the whole of time, who sees all that is, and all that can possible be.

Just in the last month, we live in the wake of multiple hurricanes, earth quakes, floods, innocent people dying at the hands of terrorists. We see the wicked prospering, as the poor grow hungrier.
Today’s parable, challenges us to see even these tragedies from the divine perspective. Why does God allow these things to happen? God’s ways are not our ways. Perhaps all these events are opportunities for faith. Perhaps they are opportunities for the Church to reach out to the hungry with the food they need, to comfort the suffering with Gospel charity.

We may be quick to question the motive and wisdom of the Landowner, but likely knew some things that the indignant workers did not. What if he saw in his compassion that those who waited all day needed to feed their families; as they stood in the hot sun, anxiously, worrying about paying their bills, their debts, they began to be overwhelmed by a sense of failure. Yes they only worked for a half-hour, but doesn’t the landowner, God, see the suffering of the whole day. Who are we to be passing judgment on the mysterious ways of God.

I think that’s one of the problems of our age: it’s very judgmental toward God. Many, who claim to be unjudgmental, are actually quite judgmental toward the rules of the church, the commandments of the bible. They judge the moral teachings of the Church to be wrong, outdated, antiquated or backward. But making such judgments doesn’t make them so.

Our faith is mysterious. As Pope Benedict said, you can only see the beauty of the stained glass, from the inside.

Though his ways are difficult to understand. God promises understanding to those who seek it. He promises peace to those who pursue it, in Him.

When we come to Mass, we open our hearts to listen to God’s word speaking to us in the confusing events of our life. We hear him inviting us to trust in him, to unite our sufferings to him. Whether good or bad things happen around us, we are called to trust, whether certain commandments are easy or hard, whether we understand them or not, we are called to be faithful. Whether we are blessed with abundance, or receive much less than we think we deserve, we are called to give thanks.
Let us resound with the words of the Psalm: The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth”  for the glory of God and salvation of souls.