Reflection from Fr. David: Following Jesus on the Way of the Cross with Mary

Dear brothers and sisters, in this world we cannot escape suffering, falls, wounds, rejection, punishment, death, burial, and resurrection. Today we gather here together to reflect on the passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ who suffered until his death on the cross. By reflecting on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, we hope to we can really understand and realize how much God loves us. After this spiritual pilgrimage, we hope we can each grow closer and have a sincere love for our Lord Jesus Christ and also for our neighbors.

Mary: The Strong Mother

St. Anselmus had a question for Our Lady, "Are you sure that you are able to bear to see Him, who is your own life, hanging on the cross?" We all know Our Lady as a mother and as a woman who is so strong, so steadfast, and so obedient to the will of God, able to endure whatever situation she is faced with. All of that was especially obvious when she remained faithful with Jesus all the way to the cross.

If we were in Mary's position, what would we feel when we see your own child whom we carried and raised having to suffer so much? Of course, our feelings would be shattered, and so would Mary's. It took such great courage and strength to be able to stand until the end, not only to see her son go through physical and mental torture -injured, insulted, spitted on, abandoned- until he died on the cross.

This was all experienced by Mary. With her courageous heart, Mother Mary followed Jesus' footsteps, which had been shedding blood, to the Mount of Calvary. St. Bernardinus himself once expressed: "If all the sufferings of the world were put together, it would still not compare to the sorrow of the glorious Virgin Mary".

What if we were in Our Lady's situation? What if there is such an important part of our lives that we have been protecting, nurturing, even fighting for in life, had suddenly been "taken away"? That the life had suddenly been lost, destroyed, damaged, suffered, sick, and experienced other painful things? Are we able to endure through it faithfully, never taking our eyes off Jesus, and surrendering everything to Him? Or do we run away from it all and blame Jesus?

Each of us has our own and different crucifix to carry. But it is our response in carrying that cross that will determine how our journey will be. Let us all learn from Our Lady. Our Lady remained obedient in her suffering when she had to see Jesus, who was her very life, hanging on the cross. She did not run away from it all, but she remained obedient to the end and keeping her eyes fixed lovingly on Jesus.

Indeed, sometimes as humans, we are so attached to what we have and have strived for, without realizing that they are all gifts and grace from God. That doesn't mean we shouldn't feel sad when we lose something precious, but let us not consume so much of our time focusing on our material loss, so much so that it causes us to take our eyes off Jesus. When we feel weak and helpless in carrying our cross, let us look at the crucified Jesus. We stand for a moment at the foot of His cross with Our Lady. We want to draw strength there to keep it going until the end. 

  121 Hits

Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: Providence Can Take Care of Tragedies

My dear brothers and sisters, St John points out that "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." And yet, in spite of his love, Jesus doesn't rush back to Jerusalem to heal Lazarus. Nor does he heal him from a distance, as he did with the Centurion's servant.

Jesus loves these friends, and yet he lets them suffer. He lets them experience their helplessness and weakness, the painful separation of death and the loss of a loved one.

Did he do it to punish them? Did he do it because he had no power to remedy the evil? No, he let them suffer precisely because he loved them. If God protected us from all suffering, we would make the mistake of thinking that earth is heaven, that we could make ourselves truly happy just by our own efforts.

But we live in a fallen world, a world in which suffering is inevitable. And God allows us to experience that suffering as a way to remind us that life on earth is a journey towards heaven - it's the path, not the goal. The goal is heaven, and the resurrection of Lazarus is an appetizer of heaven.

What matters in life is not being perfectly comfortable: what matters in life is knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ. Jesus uses our sufferings to help us to do that more and more. Our sufferings remind us that we are not God; they make us turn to God. He uses them as opportunities to act in our lives in new ways, revealing himself to us more completely, just as he did with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

In this way, he shows that his Providence is more powerful than even life's greatest tragedies. Nothing is out of reach for Christ's redemption.

Christ Bends Over Backwards to Prove That He Can Bring Good out of Evil

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days, and Jesus Christ calls his name, orders him to come out, and he does.

Death itself obeys Christ the Lord. The crowd must have been stupefied, wide-eyed with disbelief, awe, and wonder that silenced them as Lazarus stepped out from the tomb, and then burst forth in a storm of joy and celebration.

Martha and Mary must have been so awestruck and ecstatic that they didn't know who to embrace first, their brother or their Lord. Lazarus, as soon as the cloths were removed, surely gazed into his Lord's shining eyes with the deepest love and most determined, courageous loyalty that he had ever experienced.

It is no coincidence that the Church presents this scene to us towards the end of the Lenten liturgical crescendo: two weeks ago Christ told the woman at the well that he was the Messiah; last week he cured a man born blind, something no one had ever done before; and now he tops everything by raising Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus knows that in order to fulfill the Father's plan of salvation he will soon have to suffer humiliation, torture, and death. As that moment draws near, he performs miracle after miracle to bolster his disciples' faith, so that it will survive the horrors of Calvary.

And he is doing it to bolster our faith too, so that we can continue to hope and even in the midst of our crosses, which are nothing less than pieces of his Cross, which in turn was the undeniable proof that his Providence can bring good out of evil, just as it is going to bring Easter Sunday out of Good Friday.

Trusting Christ in the Midst of Troubles

To say that God's Providence includes tragedies does not turn tragedies into comedies. Lazarus being raised from the dead didn't erase the experience of pain and loss that Martha and Mary went through during his sickness and after his death. Jesus rising from the dead on Easter Sunday didn't erase the indescribable pain and sorrow of Good Friday.

Just so, our sufferings and struggles really are sufferings and struggles. And we must never think that our faith in Jesus will make them go away. We will always have to suffer and struggle in this life.

But Jesus has given purpose to our sufferings and struggles. We know that he allows them for a reason, just as a good coach pushes his players beyond their comfort zone, no matter how much they complain. When we accept Christ's cross in our lives, even through our tears, we grow in wisdom and spiritual maturity - just like Martha in today's Gospel passage.

Having purpose in our suffering also makes it possible for us to have peace in our sufferings. Christ has proven that he will bring great things out of the greatest tragedies. And so, when storms of evil rock our boats, even while we struggle to keep afloat, in our hearts we can be at peace. Jesus wants us to have confidence in him, to trust him no matter what.

Now, let's grant him his wish. At the moments we pray the Creed, let's pray it from the heart, expressing our unlimited confidence in Christ the Lord. And when he comes to us in the Eucharist, let's ask him to strengthen all hearts that are still seeking purpose in their sufferings.
  108 Hits

Reflection from Fr. David: Give Alms

The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us a basic definition of almsgiving: to provide for the material needs of the Church according to their ability (CCC 2041-2043). Giving money to the poor is one of the most concrete acts of charity to our brothers and sisters. But just as with fasting, almsgiving is more than just giving money.

Almsgiving is an act of justice that pleases the heart of God when we care for our neighbor in need, whomever it is or whatever the situation is. The hope when we give alms is that we will learn to be generous and more dependent on God to meet our needs, rather than providing for ourselves while forgetting the needs of others less fortunate than us.

Charitable giving is a very ancient practice; almsgiving was normative long before the time of Jesus. The Lenten call to almsgiving means making the needs of other people our own. One of the central lessons of the cross is compassion; the heavy burdens we carry help us to appreciate the suffering in others. Sharing our material goods is often just the beginning of real Christian giving. We are also called to share our time tending to people in need.

What is the definition of almsgiving?

The Catholic Church considers almsgiving "a witness to fraternal charity" and "a work of justice pleasing to God" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2462).

Almsgiving is the act of donating money or goods to the poor or performing other acts of charity. However, when defining almsgiving, it helps to understand the meaning behind the word itself.

The roots of the word "alms" can be found in ancient Latin and Greek words meaning mercy and pity. Similarly, the root of the word "charity" comes from the Latin "caritas," meaning love.

Charity, or almsgiving, is an outward sign of Christian love for others. Generally, it involves some type of sacrifice on behalf of the giver in order to provide for the needs of the other. In doing this, bonds of community are formed.

But almsgiving only happens during Lent, right?

While almsgiving is most closely associated with Lent, the practice of giving alms can, and should, be a year-round spiritual exercise for all Catholics and Christians. Giving alms is essential to fostering a deep spiritual life because it allows us to step outside of ourselves and focus on the needs of others.

More than simply giving money, almsgiving is an act of love that can deepen our prayer life and bring a greater sense of meaning to fasting.

Almsgiving incorporates the spiritual practices of prayer and fasting in a way that manifests itself by caring for our neighbors in need. It can deepen our prayer as we are brought into contact with our brothers and sisters who live in poverty and give us a greater understanding of what it means to go without while fasting.

It can also prompt important questions: Do I really need this? Am I consuming too much? Almsgiving provides us with a human connection and the opportunity to see the impact that works of charity can have on others

The importance of almsgiving

Almsgiving is an ancient practice that brings us into communion with one another in ways that extend beyond fasting and prayer. By caring for the needs of those around us, we are participating in the merciful work of the Church to provide for all members of our universal family.
  122 Hits

Lectors' Schedule, Easter and April 2023 (Revised)

  182 Hits

Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: Valuing God's Better Gifts

My dear brothers and sisters. Jesus gave this blind man two priceless gifts. First, Jesus gave him the joy of physical sight. For the first time in his life, he could see. All the things that he had known just by words, sound, and touch suddenly came alive.

Color flooded his mind and filled him with wonder; the visual symphony of the sky and the landscape; the subtle beauty of expressions on people's faces emphasizing the meanings of their words; the look of love and tenderness from his mother, which he had never seen.

Jesus had opened to this man a new, glorious, awe-inspiring world of human experience. Joy, amazement, and gratitude filled the man's mind and heart. He experienced a hitherto undreamed-of intensity of life.

But Jesus also gave him the gift of spiritual sight - the gift of faith. He enabled the blind man to recognize and see God in Jesus. He enabled him to encounter his Creator knowingly, face to face.

And the man was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and awe - so much so that he fell down at Christ's feet and worshipped him, right there in the middle of the crowded Temple.

Which gift did the man value more? His actions give us the answer.

He stood up to the powerful Pharisees, defending Christ's lordship, even at the risk of being expelled from the synagogue - making him into a social outcast. This man did not let the gifts of God blind him to the goodness of God.

We have also received two priceless gifts from God: our natural lives, with all that that entails, and our supernatural life, our knowledge of, faith in, and friendship with Christ. Which do we value more?

The Sacred Heart Is Not Indifferent to Our Love

Sometimes it is hard for us to admit that we don't follow Christ as closely as we should. But we really need to be humble. Only the truth will set us free to live an abundant life. When we prefer the lesser gifts to the greater gifts, putting our faith in second place, it pains Christ and wounds our souls.

Jesus made this especially clear in his famous revelations to St Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French nun who furthered the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the 1600s.

While she was in prayer, our Lord appeared to her, with his five wounds shining like five brilliant suns and his Sacred Heart burning like a furnace of fire. He told her how much he loves every single man, woman, and child, and how deeply he feels the ingratitude they show him by rejecting or belittling his friendship.

He appeared to her two more times. On the last time, he showed his heart on a throne of flames, wrapped tightly with a crown of thorns, and topped with a cross. He told her, "Behold this heart that has loved men so much that it has spared nothing to testify to them its love. And in return I receive from most of them only ingratitude by their irreverence and their sacrileges and by the coldness and contempt they have for me in the sacrament of love."

He then explained to her that he was speaking not only of great criminals and violent sinners, but most especially of those who claimed to be his followers but who had fallen into routine and empty ritualism.

It sounds harsh, but it is only because his love is so deep that our ingratitude is so painful to him. His love, his friendship, our faith, the sacraments - these are the gifts we should value most.

How to Grow in Our Faith

It's hard for us to keep our priorities straight. The pleasures of our natural life can be so vivid that we let them upstage our supernatural life.

We want to be popular, so we join in with the gossiping or the vulgar, locker-room talk. We want to be successful, so we condone the dishonesty and deception being used by everyone else to climb the ladder. We want to enjoy ourselves, so we make excuses when our conscience reminds us that there is more to life than just having a good time.

All of us here today are making an effort to follow Christ, to keep our priorities right, and yet, we still have our falls and failures. Only by strengthening our faith can we really progress on this path of authentic Christianity. We can do two things to strengthen our faith.

First, we can ask God to strengthen it for us. Just as the blind man asked Jesus to show him the Messiah, so that he could believe in him, we can ask God to show us more clearly his presence, truth, and love. How could he ever deny such a request?

Second, we can boldly defend our faith. When the blind man was interrogated, he bore witness to Christ. The more they tried to intimidate him, the more courageously he bore witness. Through that process, the eyes of his soul were gradually opened until he recognized in Jesus not just a man of God, not just a prophet, but the Messiah himself.

This week, God will give each one of us a chance to boldly bear witness to him. Let's make up our minds now to act courageously and faithfully then, so that our lives and the lives of others can be filled more and more with the saving light of faith. 

  101 Hits

Reflection from Fr. David: Fasting (II): The Benefits of Fasting According to St. Thomas Aquinas

Lent is penitential in character. This means that Lent is a time prescribed by the Church to engage in acts of penance and mortification in atonement for the sins we have committed. It is recognized that an integral part of repentance, defined as turning away from sin and back toward God, includes penance both as an expression of sorrow for having offended God and others and as a means of helping to redress the wrongs we have committed.

Fasting has long been recognized as an excellent means of penance, with many spiritual benefits. In the post-modern world, however, the practice of fasting as a means of spiritual benefit has fallen into disuse. The focus is more often on the physical advantages of fasting while its spiritual benefits are disregarded. The Christian recognizes the primary importance of remaining spiritually healthy in view of eternal life, as opposed to a myopic, pagan view in which the material and temporal are given all the emphasis.

What are some of the spiritual benefits of fasting? To explore that question, let's look at the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas teaches that fasting is practiced for a threefold purpose: 1) we fast "in order to bridle the lusts of the flesh"; 2) we fast "in order that the mind may arise more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things," noting that Daniel received a revelation from God after fasting for three weeks (Dan 10:2 ff); and 3) we fast "in order to satisfy for sins," as it is written in Joel 2:12: "Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning" (ST, II-II, q. 147, a. 1).

St. Thomas is pointing to some well understood truths in the Catholic spiritual tradition in terms of the spiritual benefits of fasting. First, he notes that fasting helps to bring the body or the flesh under the soul's control. When we fast, we force the body into compliance, which builds self-control and self-mastery, two important virtues in the Christian life. St. Paul speaks about how the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and vice-versa (Gal 5:17). Fasting helps to rectify that disorder, bringing the flesh under the spirit's control, as it should be.

Second, St. Thomas points out that fasting tends to raise the mind and heart to heavenly things, toward the contemplation of God. Fasting empowers us in prayer. It focuses the intellect on seeking to know God and the will on obtaining God as the greatest good. It helps to purify the desires and aspirations of the soul toward the divine beauty and truth of God. Christians who have walked the path of spiritual perfection for some time often report having powerful experiences of the presence of God while fasting. God finds our acts of voluntary suffering for the love of him irresistible.

Third, St. Thomas notes that fasting is a means of atoning for our sins, something we've mentioned already. Fasting is a means of taking responsibility for our sins; it helps us make amends before God for those times we have offended him, others, and his holy Church. This is not to say that fasting confers forgiveness for the guilt of sins. We obtain forgiveness for our sins from God by virtue of the merits of Christ's saving death and resurrection. We are forgiven the eternal guilt of sin through repentance and the sacrament of confession (see John 20:22-23). Nevertheless, we can make restitution before God for our sins through acts of penance like fasting.

Because we are sinners, the Church teaches that Christians are required to do penance. In other words, repentance and penance go hand-in-hand. An example of this is found in the sacrament of Penance. After receiving absolution in the sacrament, penitents are always given some type of penance by the priest who acts as the minister of Christ's forgiveness. Penance, then, is a universal requirement for Christians who commit personal sin.

  90 Hits

Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: We Have Two Types of Thirst

My dear brothers and sisters, we all experience two kinds of thirst in life, and unless we understand the difference between them, we will always be frustrated.

The first kind of thirst is horizontal thirst. We thirst for, we desire, the good things of this earth: food, drink, companionship, fun, entertainment, a nice house, a good income, success at work or school. It's part of our nature to desire these things; there's nothing wrong with them.

But we also have another kind of thirst - vertical thirst. This is a deeper thirst, a deeper desire. It's a desire for meaning and purpose. This desire is also built into our nature. There is nothing we can do to destroy it, just as there is nothing, we can do to destroy our natural desires for food and water.

But unlike horizontal thirst, our vertical thirst cannot be satisfied by our own efforts. Only God himself can satisfy it. And he created us like that on purpose. It's as if he put a homing device in the very core of our being, and it constantly draws us towards him, towards intimate, personal contact with his eternal, transcendent love.

This is why even when all of our horizontal thirsts are satisfied, when we have money, success, and pleasure, we are still restless. Our deeper, vertical thirst can't be satisfied by things of this world. As the Catechism puts it: "Man is made to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45).

The meaning and purpose which alone will give us true happiness comes from friendship with God in Christ, not from worldly success, pleasures, and human relationships. When we forget that, when we try to satisfy our vertical thirst with horizontal stuff, we put ourselves on the road to frustration, tragedy, and disappointment.

Jesus Gives a Drink

That's what the Samaritan woman had spent her life experiencing. She had had five husbands, the Gospel tells us, and now she was living with another man, and hadn't even bothered to marry him this time.

She was coming to the town well in the middle of the day, the Gospel tell us, the hottest time of the day, when none of the other women in the town would be coming to the well. She wanted to avoid them.

Here is a woman with great spiritual sensitivity, and yet, she is living a life of frustration and alienation, of loneliness and inner turmoil. She has been trying to slake her vertical thirst, which only God can satisfy, with horizontal stuff: human love, comfort, earthly pleasures.

She has learned the hard way that that formula doesn't work. She has learned that she needs a Saviour. She needs to find the "spring of water welling up to eternal life." She needs to find "the gift of God." She needs to discover Christ. And she does – Jesus reveals himself to her, and her life turns around, one-hundred-and-eighty degrees.

She runs back to the village announcing the good news to anyone she can find. And we know from the Gospel that Jesus and his disciples ended up spending three days there, and the whole town came to believe in him.

She and the people of her town had been wandering through a spiritual desert, their souls slowly dying the death of frustration, boredom, and meaninglessness, even while they enjoyed material pleasures and prosperity. But Christ changed all that.

We need look no further for the secret to happiness; Christ himself is the rock and the water flowing in the spiritual desert of this fallen world. 

  106 Hits

Reflection from Fr. David: Fasting

One of the questions people often ask is, why do we need to fast? Is it required? And what's the history of fasting in the Church?

What does it mean to fast in terms of Lent? To fast is to abstain from food. St. Thomas Aquinas notes that fasting consists of taking only one meal a day (ST, II-II, q. 147, a. 6). This definition has been refined recently by the Church in terms of what's allowed during Lent.

We can also make a distinction between fasting and abstinence in reference to the Lenten precept of the Church to observe the days of fasting and abstinence (CCC 2043). When abstinence is used in reference to Lent, we are speaking about regulating the quality of the food that is taken. For example, on Ash Wednesday, Friday of the Lord's Passion, and all other Fridays during Lent, Latin Rite Catholics are obliged to abstain from eating flesh meat. On Ash Wednesday and Friday of the Lord's passion, Catholics both fast and abstain from flesh meat.

What about the origin and history of fasting in the Church? There's an ancient practice of fasting in sorrow and repentance for sins found in the Old Testament. Fasting also accompanied fervent prayer to God. The idea was that fasting made one's prayer more acceptable to God. It was a way of demonstrating one's level of commitment before the Lord. These ideas remain valid today. God desires that we prove our love for him. As the old adage goes, actions speak louder than words.

In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus does not seem to emphasize fasting while his disciples are with him. When questioned about this by John's disciples, Jesus insists that fasting is inappropriate in times of joy. (Matt 9:14 ff; Mark 2:18 ff; Luke 5:33 ff). In other words, while Jesus and his disciples are together, it is a time of joy like a wedding feast, not a time for fasting. Jesus notes that when the bridegroom is taken away, then there will be fasting, which seems to imply fasting as a sign of mourning the loss of the bridegroom and also in anticipation of and preparation for his return.

In the early Church, we find that the apostles were familiar with fasting and did so prior to making important decisions to gain divine assistance (Acts 13:2 ff; 14:23).

In the concepts of anticipation and preparation for the Lord Jesus we find a connection to the practice of fasting and abstinence during Lent. Lent is a time of penance and atonement for sin in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord. Fasting and abstinence are integral to that preparation for several reasons, such as building virtue, self-mastery, and helping to avoid sinful tendencies that may ultimately lead to spiritual death in the case of mortal sin.

The practice of fasting during Lent finds its genesis in our Lord's journey into the desert where he fasted and prayed for forty days and nights in preparation to begin his public ministry (Matt 4:1-2; Luke 4:1-3). The forty days of Lent are in imitation of Christ's time in the desert. During Lent, the Christian walks into the desert with Christ and fasts so as to have the strength to avoid temptation with the help of God's grace. Lent is also a penitential season in which we strive to atone for our sins and purify our lives in preparation for the celebration of Christ's glorious rising from the tomb on Easter Sunday.

In ancient times, however, the forty-day period of Lent sometimes involved extended and more austere fasts, as some Catholics practice today. For example, some Catholics fasted each of the forty days (except for Sunday and sometimes Saturdays) up to the ninth hour or 3:00 p.m., which is the hour that Christ gave up his spirit on the cross (Matt 27:50). The intent was to unite one's suffering through fasting to the passion of Christ. Since our Lord's suffering ended at the ninth hour, so too was the fast ended at that hour. St. Athanasius recommended in his Festal Letter (AD 331) that Christians engage in a forty-day fast prior to a stricter fast during Holy Week.

What is clear in all this is that the ancient tradition of fasting in order to unite oneself to Christ, do penance in atonement for sins, and prepare for the celebration of the resurrection is an integral part of the Christian life. Lent in particular is that time when we engage in those penitential practices for the spiritual benefit of the entire Church.
  140 Hits

Further Post-Covid Pastoral Guidelines

  375 Hits

Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: The Secret to Fulfilment Is Listening to Christ

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in St Matthew's Gospel, God the Father speaks from heaven only twice. First in this passage of the Transfiguration, and the second in the passage when Jesus is baptized.

Both times he says essentially the same thing. Which is just to emphasize how important it is. He says that Jesus is his beloved Son, and we should listen to him.

Listening to Christ means getting to know him and following his lead. When parents instruct their children to listen, they want the kids both to hear and to heed what they are saying. God the Father does the same thing.

Jesus Christ is God's own Son, sent by the Father to be our guide to fulfilment, to the meaning and happiness we all long for. Christ alone is the answer, the secret to a life lived to the full.

He is not just one great philosopher in our history. He is not just a wise teacher. Jesus is the fulfilment of the long history of salvation that God traced throughout the Old Testament, represented in the Transfiguration by the appearance of Moses and Elijah.

He is God made man, whose glory is way beyond anything we can imagine. Peter, James, and John got a glimpse of it, and it terrified them, and they were no strangers to miraculous occurrences. Jesus' face shone like the sun - try to imagine that! His clothes became as white as light - picture that!

Jesus is our glorious Saviour - he came to change our lives, to "save us and call us to a holy life," as St. Paul wrote in the Second Reading. All we need to do is "listen to him," to turn our gaze to him, to follow him, and we too will be transfigured.

Abraham and Paul Escape Their Comfort Zones

My dear brothers and sisters, we must be realistic. Listening to Jesus, hearing, and heeding his voice in our life, is not always comfortable. Abraham discovered this, as we heard in the First Reading.

He was living happily and prosperously in the fertile land of Mesopotamia when God spoke to his heart. God invited him to leave behind his extended family, his business, his homeland, his security, his financial stability, his friends - everything, in fact. And he didn't even tell him where he was going. He just said, "Go to a land I will show you." But God had a plan for his life, a plan that would bring blessings to Abraham himself, and bring blessings to others through him.

Abraham listened. He didn't write off God's call to his heart, and he didn't ignore it. He stepped out of his comfort zone and put his trust in God. We can only imagine the turbulence it caused at first between him and his wife, and how awkward he must have felt trying to explain his decision to friends and colleagues.

St. Paul had a similar experience. He was on the fast track to success in the Jewish establishment when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and invited him to take a different path. And it was not an easy path.

That's why he writes to Timothy in the Second Reading, "Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God." Paul's share of hardship included multiple shipwrecks, imprisonments, calumnies, beatings, whippings, and, finally, martyrdom by having his head cut off.

Listening to Jesus, hearing and heeding his call, means accepting our share of hardship for the gospel. But it's well worth it. Otherwise, why would the Father have told us to do it?

"Taking Up" Something for Lent

Pope John Paul II said, in commenting on this Gospel passage, "Life changes when the heart has been 'conquered' by Christ" (JPII, Angelus, 24 February 2002).

We all love Christ, that's why we are here. But we are also here because we feel a need for our lives to change - we know we have not reached the spiritual maturity and peace of heart that we were created for. Our hearts need to be more fully conquered by Christ. But Christ is too respectful to conquer our hearts against our will.

Today the Father is inviting us to let ourselves be conquered anew by Jesus Christ. How? By spending more time in heartfelt prayer, by delving into the marvelous teachings of the Church, by steeping ourselves in the living waters of the Gospels and the rest of Holy Scripture, by accompanying Christ himself truly present in the Eucharist, by serving Christ in our needy neighbours, and most of all, by doing his will each day with faith, hope, and love, no matter the cost.

Most of us have probably given up something for Lent. That's good - it reminds us that we must govern our natural inclinations if we want to root sin out of our lives and become spiritually mature.

But maybe we also need to take up something for Lent. It is good to weed a garden, but it is equally necessary to water and fertilize, if we want the plants to grow. We still have most of Lent ahead of us. Let's take up something that will help us listen better to Jesus.

Christ is going to give himself to us again today in this Mass. Let's not leave without giving him something in return - a specific promise to become better listeners. 

  118 Hits

Reflection from Fr. David: Types of Prayer (4): Liturgical Prayer

Liturgical prayer is the official public worship of God by the Church as the Body of Christ. It tends to be more formal, with prescribed structure, rubrics, and words, and usually led by an ordained minister. The Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours are the most common examples of this sort of prayer. The documents of Vatican II speak of the Eucharist as "the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed" and "the font from which all her power flows," (Sacrosanctum concilium, 10). The Eucharist is the "fount and apex of the whole Christian life" (LG 11).

The Liturgy of the Hours, or Divine Office, is a liturgical prayer of praise based on the biblical prayer of the Jewish synagogues. In the early Church the Offices, or "hours." were celebrated both in the major churches and in the monasteries. The basic structure of an hour of the early cathedral Office would have included several psalms and canticles, the Gloria in excelsis, some intercessions, and a closing blessing and dismissal.

Vatican II sought to restore the original rhythm of the Office so that it might become again a prayer not just for priests and religious but for the entire Church (SC 100). It singled out Morning and Evening Prayer as "the two hinges on which the daily Office turns; hence they are to be considered the chief hours and are to be celebrated as such" (SC 89). Today the Liturgy of the Hours is prayed by an increasing number of lay Christians. Many religious communities pray the Office in the morning, at noon, and in evening, establishing a rhythm of prayer to the day.

Liturgical prayer is meant to unite the various parts of the Body of Christ into one body, with Christ, our High Priest at the head, represented by the deacon, priest, or bishop, leading us together to the Father. Because of the diversity of the members of the Body of Christ, liturgical prayer is more structured, with texts chosen from the rich history, scripture, and tradition of the Church, and focuses on the Paschal Mystery. In liturgical prayer, the royal priesthood of the baptized faithful is practiced as they offer the sacrifice of the Mass. There is not, however, much room for insertion of personal preferences or prayers. The liturgical prayer unites and transforms us – it changes us, we don't change it. It belongs to the whole Church, not to any one of us. It is the prayer to the Father by Christ, our High Priest who invites us to join into the life of the Trinity. Each liturgical celebration has a sacredness that surpasses anything else, so it is unmatched and irreplaceable (SC, 7).

Liturgical prayer and devotional prayer are meant to work together to lift our minds and hearts to God. Devotional prayer allows us to develop our personal relationship with the Lord according to the way that best suits each of us. That is why the type of devotional prayer one chooses is more subjective; even the manner of praying the same prayer may vary from one person to the next. Having established a relationship with the Lord in our devotional prayer life, we bring that to liturgical prayer, where it is united with the others in the Church and incorporated into the Paschal Mystery. Then both will form the foundation of a strong spiritual life.

Ultimately, between the two types of prayer, we learn to "pray constantly," to lift our minds and hearts to God at all times, as we walk together to our heavenly home. This is a difficult expectation, at least at first, but it gets better with practice. 

  112 Hits

Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: The Bread of Life Is Truth, Not Stuff

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if we only memorized one verse from the Bible, I would recommend the one we just heard: "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God."

If we happened to live 1000 years ago, I would probably recommend a different verse. But we live now. And right now, the biggest obstacle to our happiness and holiness is our culture's commercialist mentality.

The commercialist mentality says that all our problems can be solved by stuff, by bread. The commercialist mentality is the attitude encouraged by the commercials, advertisements, and billboards that we run into a hundred times a day, every day. The commercialist mentality says that if we have the right bank account, the right house, the right vacation spot, the right outfits, the right software, and the right job, everything will be all right.

All of these material things, all these loaves of bread, are good. They are part of this wonderful creation that God has generously given to us. But they are not enough. They are necessary, but insufficient. They cannot solve our most important problems.

Because the human soul is much greater than a machine. We need something much greater than fuel and axel grease to make our lives run smoothly. We need truth. We need to know and follow the truth about who we are and what we were created for. We need to drink in the truth that we are loved by God, personally, and that we are called to love him in return, with all the power and creativity of our being.

The deepest part of our soul is hungering not for bread, but for the Word of God, Jesus Christ, who is himself incarnate Truth and Love.

Story of An Expensive Orphanage

Imagine a family in which the mom and dad both have very successful careers. They make plenty of money and are quickly climbing to the top of their professions.

They can afford to give their children all the best things: a beautiful house with a huge property; the most prestigious schools; personal coaches for each child's favourite hobbies and sports; a full-time grounds keeper and a full-time housekeeper.

But because the parents' professions are very competitive, both mom and dad have to work extremely long hours. So they never see their children - not even on weekends, not even on vacation.

On the material side, those children would have everything. Yet, they wouldn't have the most important thing: a living relationship with their parents. For all practical purposes, they would be living in an expensive orphanage.

Those children will not be happy or healthy. They will not grow up to be well-balanced, self-confident, and capable of communicating with others, loving others, and making meaningful commitments. That's what today's culture is like. It's so focused on money and the pleasures money can buy, that it has tried to cut us off from our Father, from God.

But we cannot live on bread alone. Our minds, hearts, and souls also need to feed on God's Word - the Word of his love and truth, the Word that is Christ, present in the Eucharist. If that same family made less money (even a lot less), but was full of real, open, dynamic relationships, those kids would have a much better chance at a meaningful life.

Just so, our relationship with God, our friendship with Christ - this is what gives meaning to everything else. It lasts forever, unlike even the most expensive loaves of bread.

Renewing Our Commitment to Christ

Lent is a time when the Church invites us to pay special attention to God's Word, to the truth that Christ came to reveal to us - so that we don't forget what's most important.

There are many ways to do this. It could be as simple as spending fifteen minutes a day reading and reflecting on the Scriptures. It could mean taking more time to turn off the noise all around us and read, calmly and reflectively, a good spiritual book or a biography of Jesus Christ.

It could mean taking one of the weekends during Lent to go on a retreat - to go somewhere away from our normal surroundings and rediscover God's forgiveness and wisdom. It could mean finally following through on the commitment made long ago to really take time to study the catechism - that hidden treasure house of Catholic doctrine and wisdom that we pay much too little attention to.

Today Jesus will renew his commitment to us by coming once again, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the sacrifice of this Mass, and by offering himself to us as the true bread from heaven in Holy Communion.

When he does, let's renew our commitment to him. Let's not leave this church today until we have decided how we can best respond during this Lent to whatever inspiration God has placed in our hearts.

Jesus doesn't want this Lent to be "just another Lent." He has something he wants to do for each one of us, something that will help us grow in our knowledge of the truth and in our ability to live accordingly. Let's give him the chance.

  120 Hits

Reflection from Fr. David: Types of Prayer (3) – Contemplation (Thomas P. Rausch)

Contemplative prayer is a prayer of loving attentiveness to God's mysterious presence, even though that presence is not directly experienced but known only in faith. The prayer the young Samuel learns from the priest Eli provides a model: "Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening" (1 Sam 3:9). While mental prayer involves the active use of our faculties of imagination and intellect, contemplative prayer is more quiet, receptive, and affective. It is a prayer of the heart, a focus, a quiet awareness of God's presence sensed deep within us or suggested by the silence and solitude of a natural vista-a grassy meadow under an infinite blue sky or the heavens at night filled with stars. Sometimes that presence moves us to pray affectively, praising, loving asking pardon. Thus, contemplation involves not so much the imagination or discursive reason as it does the heart.

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who perhaps more than anyone else brought contemplation to the attention of contemporary men and women, describes it as a deepening of faith to the point where the union with God already given in our very nature is realized and experienced. It is not the result of some psychological trick but a genuine grace, something that comes as a gift and not as the result of our own use of special techniques. In his poetic language Merton describes contemplation as a door opening in the center of our being through which we seem to fall into an immense depth of silence and presence while our ordinary powers of thinking and imagination are stilled. It is at this point, when our natural faculties are quiet and in darkness and prayer becomes a simple awareness, that contemplation begins to shade into what spiritual writers describe as "infused" contemplation, the first stages of mystical prayer. The latter should not be associated with extraordinary phenomena such as voices, visions, and levitations. It is better understood as a heightening of contemplative prayer, in which a person enters into a more profound awareness of God's mysterious presence.

The Church has been enriched enormously by its spiritual teachers and its mystics, men and women like Bernard of Clairvaux, Catherine of Siena, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Jean Gerson, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, Francis de Sales, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. Mysticism is very much part of the Catholic tradition. But contemplative prayer is not something limited to mystics or those living the monastic or religious life; it can be practiced by all Christians. Today many people find what is known as "centering" prayer a helpful preparation for contemplative prayer. Centering prayer can quiet the mind and imagination and focus one's awareness. The approach is simple; one sits quietly with the eyes closed and turns in faith toward God, ignoring the thoughts and images that continue to flow from the imagination. Many find it helpful to use a "sacred word" such as "Abba" or "Lord Jesus" to focus their attention. When the mind wanders off, one simply returns to the sacred word. Centering prayer is related to the ancient Eastern tradition variously known as Hesychasm (from the Greek hesychia, meaning "quiet" or "stillness") or the Jesus Prayer, a way of centering oneself by repeating over and over again "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." 

  118 Hits

WCCM Contemplative Mass with Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB

  224 Hits

Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Lesson: For Christians, Humble Obedience Is a Virtue

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when Jesus says, "You have learnt how it was said," he is making a clear reference to the Old Covenant, the Law of Moses. That Law gave the Jewish people their unique standing among all the nations of the world because God himself had given it to them - God's finger had inscribed the tablets of the law.

For 1500 years, Israel's prophets and rabbis had interpreted it, applied it to changing circumstances, and exhorted the people to live it out. But never in those fifteen centuries had a faithful Israelite ever claimed authority over it.

After all, the Law had come directly from the Lord, so who could possibly have authority over it? So, when Jesus says, "… but I say to you…" implying an addition to the Law, his listeners are faced with something entirely new, someone who claims authority over the Law of Moses. He is requiring of them a new allegiance and making way for a New Covenant. The Sermon on the Mount was revolutionary not only in its ideas, but in the claims of the Lord who gave it.

And this claim, this implicit claim to have authority over divine law and, therefore, to actually be divine, has consequences. It means that his commands demand obedience. In the ancient world, obedience to a ruler was a familiar concept. In today's world, dominated by political democracies, it has become less so.

In fact, today's critical, self-sufficient, democratic mindset (so useful for politics) can even seep into the Church (where it's much less useful). But the truth of Christ doesn't change with fashions and referendums. In our relationship with Jesus and his Church, humble obedience to legitimate authority is a virtue, not a vice.

Obeying the Fourth Commandment

Obedience, for us Christians, is a positive virtue, not a necessary evil. It is such a central aspect of human life and spiritual maturity, that it even makes its appearance in the Ten Commandments, God's own list of our most basic moral responsibilities.

The Fourth Commandment tells us: "Honour your father and mother." This commandment singles out the obedience that we owe to our parents, but it doesn't stop there. Parents are the first authority figures. God delegates to them his own authority so that they can raise children properly.

But all of human society is full of relationships of authority. Legitimate authority always requires our obedience, unless that authority is being abused and trying to lead us into sin.

Imagine if everyone tried to invent their own traffic laws, instead of following the laws instituted by the legitimate authority. There would be chaos on the streets and driving would be unsafe. With the Fourth Commandment, God is teaching us that we all need to live the virtue of obedience to legitimate authority, instead of the vice of self-centered rebellion and anarchy.

Here is how the Catechism explains this aspect of the Fourth Commandment. As we listen to it, let's reflect on how we are living it out: 2199 The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship between members of the extended family. It requires honour, affection, and gratitude toward elders and ancestors. Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers, employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who administer or govern it.

This commandment includes and presupposes the duties of parents, instructors, teachers, leaders, magistrates, those who govern, all who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.

Jesus is the Lord, and if we claim to be his followers, we need to treat him like that by living authentically the virtue of obedience. And if we do, we will give him more room to bless us.

The Fourth Commandment, in fact, is the first one that points this out. As the Catechism explains: 2200 Observing the fourth commandment brings its reward: "Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you." Respecting this commandment provides, along with spiritual fruits, temporal fruits of peace and prosperity. Conversely, failure to observe it brings great harm to communities and to individuals.

As we continue with this Mass, let's renew our faith in Christ, the Lord, and let's ask him for the courage we need to obey whatever he commands. 

  145 Hits

Reflection from Fr. Tristianto: Types of Prayer (Part 2)

Mental Prayer

When we pray discursively, using our minds and imaginations to unite ourselves with God or to consider some divine mystery, we are doing mental prayer. Meditation is the most common form of mental prayer.

The Bible is a particularly rich source for meditation. We can ponder a passage of Scripture, reading it over, savoring its language and imagery, letting the Lord speak to us through the text. We can meditate on a scene from the life of Jesus, imagining the cure of the blind man for example, placing ourselves in the scene, taking the part of one of the characters in the story, seeing ourselves as the blind man, calling out to Jesus (or perhaps finding ourselves reluctant to approach him), feeling his touch, opening our eyes as for the firs time. When we meditate on the life of Jesus in the Gospels we allow its imagery and language gradually to become our own. More importantly, in making a kind of imaginative contact with the person of Jesus presented to us in the gospel mysteries, we discover the correspondence between his humanity and our own; Jesus becomes more real to us, and so we grow in love and appreciation of the Lord we cannot see.

One very fruitful way of growing in prayer is to take each day a brief passage from a particular Gospel, not a whole chapter but one a miracle story, a teaching or saying-and using it for our prayer. Some people find it helpful to see the readings for the liturgy of the day, listed in any missalette, for their daily prayer. This has the advantage of uniting them in their prayer with the liturgy or of preparing them for the liturgy if they are able to participate in the Mass on a daily basis. Others find helpful using a book of brief meditations such as the classic Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis.

Other forms of mental or discursive prayer might include a meditative reading of Scripture, a spiritual reading, doing an examination of conscience or "consciousness examen"-which means looking for God's presence in the events of our daily lives-or keeping a personal journal in which we reflect on our prayer experience and our personal spiritual journey. Those who pray regularly often find that they are led gradually from discursive prayer to a simpler, more contemplative way of praying. 

  118 Hits

Lectors' Schedule for March 2023

  182 Hits

CHANCERY NOTICE: POST-PANDEMIC PASTORAL GUIDELINES

  174 Hits

The Power of Meditation: Peace Within and Peace in the World, with Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB

  169 Hits

The Power of Meditation: Peace Within and Peace in the World, with Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB

  172 Hits