Thursday, May 16, 2013

Go forth and be the Hands and Feet for Jesus - Encourage, Pray, & Support!

Father Vincent Tobin, a monk from St. Meinrad, celebrated Mass for the Feast of the Ascension.   Father Vincent has been sharing the gift of priesthood for 54 years which he celebrated on May 12.   This was also Mothers’ day weekend and he reminded us the special vocation the mothers play in our lives and without them we would not be here.  

The main point I got out of Fr. Vincent’s homily was that we are now to do the work of spreading the good news of Jesus.   Fr. Vincent made the point that the disciples didn’t stand around lamenting when Jesus left.   They got on with the spreading of the Gospel.  They were the voice, hands, and feet of Jesus.  The gift of the Holy Spirit enabled them to do their job which comes at Pentecost, which we will celebrate next week. 


Fr. Vincent spent a few minutes in closing talking about the good work of St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.  They came to the US from Austria to serve the need educate priests and have been doing so for 154 years. Their education has expanded to serve formation of deacons, lay ministers, and those interested in the study of Theology as well.  They are at full capacity and really need support of the Church, which is all of us.  He asked us for help in three ways:

1)    Encourage those who may show a calling to a vocation to serve the Church as priests, deacons, religious, and lay ministers.
2)    Prayer for those discerning and pursuing a vocation to serve the Church and also those who educate and support the mission of St. Meinrad.
3)    Support the efforts of St. Meinrad through financial support.   





He did not go into details on how to do this, but mentioned a letter would be coming in the mail to each family.    St. Meinrad makes it very easy to donate through their web site, https://www.saintmeinrad.edu/support-us/donate/.    They also offer some free information on how to support St. Meinrad through wills and gifts of life insurance, http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/support-us/request-free-information/.    If you have not been to St. Meinrad I would highly encourage you to make a visit.  It’s located in the beautiful rolling hills of Southern Indiana.  The church there is magnificent.   The grounds are very peaceful to walk and they have many retreat programs.   If you have a family and go to Holiday world it’s a short 15 minute ride to get there.   They even have rooms you can stay at the Guest House, http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/visit-us/accommodations/.


Have a blessed week preparing for the Feast of Pentecost!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Deacon Steve's Homily - Sixth Week of Easter, cycle C - The peace that only Christ can give


As I reflected on today’s readings I thought about the world that we live in.
I thought about how our world seems to be in constant turmoil, dissension, and war.
I thought about what we all long for – and that is peace!
A few weeks ago the senseless bombings at the Boston Marathon took place.
Late last year the shootings at Sandy Hook ES occurred.
Innocent people lost their lives, and those that survived are now living with physical and mental scars.
It seems that we witness war, violence, and terrorism each and every day.
We ask ourselves ‘why’? We ask ourselves ‘where is the peace’?
I also thought about the everyday problems of life, the problems that we all experience:
Physical problems, financial problems, relationship problems to name a few.
We just want all of these problems to go away.
Did anyone attend the Matthew Kelly talk last month?
I loved the way he would make a statement and then ask ‘Yes’ or ‘Yes’?
And then the entire congregation would say a resounding ‘Yes’!
In the spirit of Matthew Kelly I say that all of us long for peace.  ‘Yes or Yes’?
Of course, the answer is ‘yes’ - we all long for peace.
In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus say:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”
What is this peace that Christ gives and that we all long for?

What is this peace that he gives, which is different from the world’s peace?

I’d like to share this story that may help answer these questions.

   "It seems that one day an artist was commissioned by a wealthy man to paint something that would depict peace.  After a great deal of thought, the artist painted a beautiful country scene. There were green fields with cows standing in them, birds were flying in the blue sky and a lovely little village lay in a distant valley. The artist gave the picture to the man, but there was a look of disappointment on the patron's face.  The man said to the artist, "This isn't a picture of true peace.  It isn't right. Go back and try again.

   The artist went back to his studio, thought for several hours about peace, then went to his canvas and began to paint.  When he was finished, there on the canvas was a beautiful picture of a mother, holding a sleeping baby in her arms, smiling lovingly at the child. He thought, surely, this is true peace, and hurried to give the picture to the wealthy man. But again, the wealthy man refused the painting and asked the painter to try again.

   The artist returned again to his studio.  He was discouraged, he was tired and he was disappointed.  Anger swelled inside him, he felt the rejection of this wealthy man.  Again, he thought; he even prayed for inspiration to paint a picture of true peace.  Then, all of a sudden an idea came, he rushed to the canvas and began to paint as he had never painted before. When he finished, he hurried to the wealthy man.

   He gave the painting to the man.  He studied it carefully for several minutes.  The artist held his breath.  Then the wealthy man said, "Now this is a picture of true peace." He accepted the painting, paid the artist and everyone was happy.

   And what was this picture of true peace??  The picture showed a stormy sea pounding against a cliff.  The artist had captured the fury of the wind as it whipped black rain clouds which were laced with streaks of lightning.  The sea was roaring in turmoil, waves churning, the dark sky filled with the power of the furious thunderstorm.  And in the middle of the picture, under a cliff, the artist had painted a small bird, safe and dry in her nest snuggled safely in the rocks.  The bird was at peace in the midst of the storm that raged about her."

This is the picture of peace that Jesus gives. It’s not a worldly kind of peace:

   - the peace of a spot in nature - beautiful and serene
   - the peace of a mother and child - tender and gentle
   - the peace of an absence of conflict  - where there are no storms or violent waves

But rather a peace of knowing that in the midst of the storms of life there is a rock which can shelter us.

There’s a place where we can nurture and raise a new generation without fear.

There’s a power that can spread its wings over us and keep us safe.

That, my friends, is the peace that Christ talked about.

This week let’s be mindful that true peace comes from Jesus himself.

Let’s remember that when we stay close to Christ, we will have the peace of Christ in our hearts and in our lives.

In a few minutes as we continue our liturgy, after we say the Our Father, we’ll hear Fr. Vince pray these words:

“My peace I leave you, my peace I give you…”

And then we will offer each the sign of peace.

And a minute or two later we will all pray the Lamb of God:

“Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us, Have mercy on us, Grant us Peace.”

We pray these words and offer each other the sign of peace at every mass.

When we pray them, may we always remember the gift of peace that Jesus promised.

And may we never forget his words ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.’

Because when we stay close to Christ, we have nothing to fear; we will have true peace!

Homily for Sixth week of Easter: Gifts of the Holy Spirit and Peace

Good morning.  I hope you are all still experiencing the joy of the Easter season, rejoicing in the Risen Lord.  These past few weeks I’ve had the joy of assisting at the Easter Vigil and Confirmation Liturgies where many of our parish members have received the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.   I see many of our parish member who have received these sacraments seated among you and they all look like they are filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

In today’s Gospel we hear about how to love Jesus: by keeping His word.  Jesus tells us that if we love him  “my Father will love us” and “we will come to him and make our dwelling with us”.    How incredible is that, God dwelling in us!   If we love God we get a foretaste of heaven by dwelling with God.


So how do we keep His word? Probably the first thing that comes to mind in keeping God’s word is following the Ten Commandments.  When we think of these what usually comes to mind, “Thou Shall” and “Thou Shall not”.  When we hear this what is our human nature? We want to challenge the rules, so if it’s “thou shall not” we are thinking thou shall! Many of us view Ten Commandments as a set of rules we are obligated to follow. 

Jesus invites us to do the same but says it another way:  Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.   He gives us the beatitudes as the way we show our love.  A few of them are:

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you

and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad,

for your reward is great in heaven.

So how do we do this, keep His word?   We need turn our minds from looking at the commandments as rules that we have to follow out of obligation to generous actions we do because of our love for Jesus. St. Basil says it well:

If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages,... we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands... we are in the position of children.

So if we think of ourselves as children of the Father, we are going to keep His word out of our love for him as a loving parent.

Keeping the word of God can be hard to do on our own, but Jesus tells us today that we are given two gifts to help us: the Holy Spirit and His peace.   Jesus tells us that, “the Father will send the Holy Spirit in His name who will teach us and remind us of all he has told us”.   Jesus

also gives us his peace, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world give do I give it to you”.  The peace is not worldly peace through the absence or war, violence, or trouble brought about through military might or government action.   Jesus’ peace comes through the hope of salvation and that He is with us through our trials.  It does not mean our life will be without troubles.  We can see by the witness of Saints, many of who are martyrs (St. Peter and Paul for instance), that these followers of Christ still suffered trials.  But they did so through the hope of salvation and being with Christ in eternal glory.

Since we are also given the gift of the Holy Spirit I’d like share with you some ways it helps us.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit help to make the best of the virtues of those who receive them. Virtues are habits and personal tendencies that lead us to act in a good manner and give our best effort.

I’ve brought some packages as examples of each of the gifts. Would any one like to help me showing off these gifts?  Each one of these packages contains a gift of the Holy Spirit and the fruits produced by these gifts.

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.  These gifts help the faithful to cooperate with the will of God.

The fruits of the Spirit are ways that the Holy Spirit helps to keep God's word.  As I said earlier we need this help as we cannot do this alone. The tradition of the Church lists twelve fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.   These are ways of acting that will lead us to love God and neighbor.

After the Easter Season is over we have a tendency to take the Holy Spirit and forget about it.  The Holy Spirit gives us the power to teach and remind us of God’s word.  The one thing we can do is to call on the Holy Spirit through short prayer that we can all easily pray, “Come Holy Spirit”.   Fr. Anto preached about this last week at daily Mass that it was a prayer that was taught to Blessed John Paul II by his Father.  This is a prayer that I pray quite often, especially before proclaiming the Gospel and preaching.   I also use it in helping to guide me throughout the day, especially when I’m in challenging situation or searching for the right thing to do.  I hope you’ll pray it as well to call on the Holy Spirit.

I’d like to close with something from Archbishop Tobin’s homily at Confirmation last week.  He asked: have ever seen the wind?   The answer was you can’t see the wind, but you can see what it does.   The same goes for the Holy Spirit.  You can’t see it, it’s inside of you; but you can see the effects of the Spirit by the good works that you do.   May the Holy Spirit and the peace of Christ animate you to love God and neighbor so God may dwell in each and every one of you!

Note 1: Pictures in this blog are from photobucket.com