“Do not be afraid of holiness. It will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy. On the contrary, you will become what the Father had in mind when he created you, and you will be faithful to your deepest self. To depend on God sets us free from every form of enslavement and leads us to recognize our great dignity.” (from Gaudete et Exsultate [On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World] # 32)
Pope Francis recently wrote an Apostolic Exhortation on holiness. The above quote coming at the end of chapter 1 helps us to begin to understand why the call to holiness is such an important and necessary path of the Christian life. We may ask the question, where does holiness begin? The Second Vatican Council reminded all people the primary vocation of each woman and man, each boy and girl, each person was a vocation of holiness. We understand this the call to being in communion and part of the Body of Christ.
This weekend I will be helping to present a Worldwide Marriage Encounter (WWME) weekend with a team of three couples. One of the reminders we share with each other is this call to holiness; to be especially attentive to our sacramental love and life in the months, weeks and days leading up to the weekend. The reason for this is quite simple if we think about it carefully. We must be able as married couples and priest to show forth the love of God. Of course this does not mean we have lived perfectly in the time leading to our WWME weekend but rather we have continually placed our Sacrament into the light and love of God…most importantly in forgiveness and mercy.
“To the extent that each Christian grows in holiness, he or she will bear greater fruit for our world.” (#33)
This is true and has been proven over and over again. When I was teaching at St. Lawrence the Martyr Middle School one of my practices was to take 15 minutes before the beginning of school to pray and spend time listening to God. This didn’t mean my day wouldn’t be filled with the trials of Sixth Grade life and the families they were part of and it certainly didn’t mean my colleagues would be perfect and positively it wasn’t the fix to all my teaching foibles but in the mysterious work of God’s mercy and love I dealt with it better as the moments of stress and friction rose to the top. When I practiced prayer and chose to listen to God in love the holiness tank seemed a bit fuller and the temptation to fall deeper into sin was a little easier to resist…at least most of the time.
When we enter into the grace of prayer we discover our true and authentic self and vocation. When we seek to be attentive to our sacramental life; our vocational sacrament and those of Eucharist and Reconciliation we become grace filled vessels of love. This is the hope of our WWME ministry and the wonder of God’s call to holiness…to not just be good but to be great in our love for each other.
Pope Francis ends the First Chapter of the Exhortation with this quote about daring to be great, to be love and to be Sacraments of encounter.
“Do not be afraid to set your sights higher, to allow yourself to be loved and liberated by God. Do not be afraid to let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Holiness does not make you less human, since it is an encounter between your weakness and the power of God’s grace. For in the words of León Bloy, when all is said and done, “the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint””(#34)

God Bless
Fr. Mark

This weekend of May we celebrate Mother’s Day. Many of us will visit, call and celebrate with our moms and others will pray heavenly blessings for their mother’s who have gone before us. It is always a moment to reflect and rejoice in the blessings of God’s love shown through the love of our mothers.
My mom was widowed at a fairly young age. I was already out of the house along with many of my brothers and sisters (there are nine of us) but she still had several of us at home and in school. During my junior year of college I was studying at the University of Constance in Germany (West Germany at the time) and my mom came to visit for several weeks during the winter break. This moment of time was when I really got to know my mom well and she was able to know her grown son a little better. There were several things I remember well about mom’s visit. First were the visits to our German cousins and the second was the unplanned excursions that happened by accident. I am not a planner by nature. I had an idea of what I wanted to do and a very loose time line on how it would get done but the details to these things are always a little iffy in my work of planning. The great blessing I received from my mom on this visit is she just went along and allowed the sometimes haphazard planning of the trip to take its course. I know this was not easy for her to do but it was a blessing.
I tell this story because, I believe, it is one of the most difficult gifts mothers give to their children, not matter what the age, the gift of allowing them to be who they are and grow in the talents and blessings God has created them to share.
This is where mothers (and fathers) participate in a special way with the work of God. God allows us, through the gift of free will, to choose: to glorify or fall, to move forward or stumble, to create or destroy. God allows us to become always inviting in to glory, the creative and holy movement forward. It is often painful, our spiritual, moral, and physical growth as sons and daughters of God but we also are reminded of the suffering that often accompanies this growth and how no matter what God does not abandon us rather God invites us to come home and to be forgiven. This is the message of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
I know, in my own life especially, we as children will often disappoint and try the hearts of our mothers with our choices and our mothers through love will often cry in suffering over our choices and sins trusting through love and forgiveness we will grow and hoping in faith we will be safe in all we do. It is in these often silent trials of our mothers they become united more closely with our Blessed Mother in her many titles she shares as the Mother of God. As St. Pope John Paul II notes in “Rosarium Virginis Mariae”, Mary “offers us the incomparable example of her own “pilgrimage of faith”. As we contemplate each mystery of her Son’s life, she invites us to do as she did at he Annunciation: to ask humbly the questions which open us to the light, in order to end with the obedience of faith: “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38)” (#14)
As we celebrate and give thanks for our mothers, let us also pray in true blessing for the gift of their patience, gentleness and love shared. While none of our mothers is perfect, each bears the gift of life shared and forgiveness offered in the image of God’s perfect love.
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Where did the time go? It’s May already and each May 1st I get to celebrate the greatest gift of all: another year of life. Where did the time go? This year was #57 on the old ticker of life and it seems just like yesterday that it was #56 or a few days ago that my family and I celebrated #50 at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park or like a week ago when I celebrated #44 and was ordained a priest. The gift of this greatest blessing is the memories I have accumulated, the life experiences I have shared and perhaps the small amount of wisdom I have gained. It is hard to count them all, because of computer crashes and lost documents, but this is around Friday post #460. Some of them are lost to history but the 407 reflections that live on facebook are a good reminder of where I have been and hopefully point to where I will be going.
In that post from November 2010 I wrote about my first Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend (WWME) and shared this quote: “Venerable Concepcion Cabrera Armida a twentieth century Mexican mystic writes this beautiful image, “To open the heart is to surrender what is most intimate and personal. We all can enter into that open and empty space.”” One of the great blessings of looking back over the ### of life (and these are numbers not hashtags) is the blessings that they stir in our souls. In truth some of the reflections are hard to read, they talk about hurt, death, brokenness and sin. Sometimes they remind me that my heart may have been to hard to see the fullness of what I was writing about and at other times to delicate in skirting the hard truths about our Catholic faith. Maybe this is one of the reasons I don’t reread my reflections too often…but it is a good act of humility.
And some things don’t change much. In a couple of weeks I will begin my 8th year of presenting weekends for WWME as I will join couples from many parishes in the Bay Area for a weekend of growth and joy in the sacramental love of the God’s grace and blessing. It was something I looked forward to in November of 2010 and blessing that has grown ever greater as the years have gone by and my relationships with the community has grown deeper and stronger.
And speaking of marriage; I had the wonderful privilege of celebrating the wedding of my niece Sarah and her (now) husband John. It was a joyful reminder to me of how the Sacraments, but most especially Holy Matrimony, are gifts from God in uniting the world into a place of blessing and hope. I spoke to them about how marriage is founded on the virtues of faith, hope and love. Faith: something greater than you is being created and becoming in the world. Hope: that the future is filled with more than is realized than what is alone and apart. And Love: faith and hope will only survive in the sacrificial offering of one to the other in the continual act of sacramental love. As Venerable Concepcion says (and it’s true) “To open the heart is to surrender what is most intimate and personal. We all can enter into that open and empty space.”
God Bless
Fr. Mark

I have been packing a suitcase this week to head up to Seattle for a few days for the wedding of my niece Sarah to her soon-to-be husband John. As I was going through my closet choosing the “civilian clothes” I will need for the traveling and non-wedding time I noticed how full my closet has become…again. When I was assigned to St. Lucy Parish three years ago I did a pretty good job at culling much of the accumulation of clothes, books and other things that seem to gather unnoticed during the years. How did my closet get so full again?
I’m not a hoarder nor am I a clothes hound who wears a different outfit all the time and yet my closet is full again. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen in his book “The Seven Capital Sins” talks about the deadly sin of covetousness in this way, “Covetousness is an inordinate love of the things of this world. Such love becomes in hindrance if one is not guided by a reasonable end, such as suitable provisions for one’s family or the future, or one is too solicitous in amassing wealth or two parsimonious and dispensing it.” (p 81)
Surely we can agree my excess clothing in the closet is not a “solicitous amassing of wealth” nor would we consider it the “parsimonious dispensing” of the abundance…but we could agree a little spring cleaning is in order on a regular basis. It may seem silly and perhaps it may not be a deadly/capital sin and yet we could see the beginning of the sin taking hold in the heart of a person.
Where should we begin, maybe in the sweater area. I recently purchased two WWME 50th Anniversary sweaters and these went next to the 6 black and one blue pullover sweaters already in my closet, in addition to two cardigans, 4 sweater vests and the two zipper sweaters. Let’s do the math 2+6+1+2+4+2=17. Do I really need 17 sweaters? I certainly could rationalize having them all. Different styles. Different weight of cloth. Different needs for different days. Yes, all of this is true and added to this reasoning I have worn each sweater during this past winter. And yet, do I need 17 sweaters? No. So what am I to do? Simply put, to weed out the excess to begin to dispense of the amassing.
And while this may be a trivial beginning it is a spiritual exercise in so many different ways. When we begin to desire the things rather than use them for what they were intended, to be worn not to hang in a closet, we then we begin to fall into the sin of covetousness. And this can have very damaging effects on our spiritual and emotional life in living as a son/daughter of God.
Bishop Sheen continues with this powerful indictment of the sin, “The tragedy of our modern life is that so many put their pleasures in “desires” rather than in “discovery”. Having lost the one purpose of human living, namely God, they seek substitutes in the petty things of earth. After repeated disappointments, they begin to put their happiness not in a pleasure, but in the hunt for it, in butterfly existences that never rest long enough at any one moment to know their inner desires; running races hoping they will never end; turning pages but never discovering the plot; knocking at doors of truth and then dashing away lest its portholes be opened and they be invited in. Existence becomes a flight from peace, rather than an advance; a momentary escape from frustrations instead of its sublimation in victory.” (p 92)
Bishop Sheen’s reflection on these capital sins was written in 1939 and the truth of his words echoes through time because our sins remain the same. The true victory is turning over to God what is God’s and seeking his healing grace in the struggle to be free of the chains binding us to the objects around us and being able to hold gently the love which invites us into a greater joy, a greater peace, a greater life. Find a closet, whether it is in your home or in your heart and begin to dispense of the extras holding you back from God and find in this letting go a space to breath and break free.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

This weekend our Catholic Church celebrates Good Shepherd Sunday as a time to pray and talk about the vocation of priesthood and to honor those men who have followed Jesus in this vocation of love. Last week, in my letter, I talked about he ongoing call to vocation and how the focus needs to be on the “how we are being called” in following Jesus Christ.
In my life I have been blessed to know many great priests who have sought to follow God. One of my most fond memories is of Fr. Alex Affonso (may he rest in peace) with whom I served for a little over two years. Knowing Fr. Alex was a blessing in many ways. During the first months of our ministry together we were speaking about something and he recommended that I read the Encyclical by St. Pope John XXIII entitled “Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia” “On the Priesthood” St. Pope John XXIII wrote this reflecting on the life and priesthood of St. John Vianney who is the patron of parish priests.
It was in my conversations with Fr. Alex and reading this beautiful Encyclical that my understanding of “how we are being called” began to really take hold in my life. St. John XXIII and Fr. Alex wrote and talked about the dynamic and changing life of a parish priest. St. John XXIII writes about serving the people as a good shepherd, “Following in the footsteps of the great apostles of all ages, he knew that the best and most effective way for him to contribute to the salvation of those who would be entrusted to his care was through the cross. It was for them that he put up with all sorts of calumnies, prejudices and opposition, without complaint; for them that he willingly endured the sharp discomforts and annoyances of mind and body that were forced upon him by his daily administration of the Sacrament of Penance for thirty years with almost no interruption; for them that this athlete of Christ fought off the powers of hell; for them, last of all, that he brought his body into subjection through voluntary mortification. (#71)
In my copy of this Encyclical I have underlined and read this passage over and over again because the cross we bear continues to be blessed in being called but the gift continues to stretch and bless us in our service of God’s holy people.
I would often reflect on Fr. Alex’s own vocation story that started with his family’s conversation to Catholicism in Pakistan and the ostracization of their extended family because of this conversion. His studies in the seminary and service as a priest in his home country. But ultimately it was the lessons learned watching him serve the people where the understanding of the cross and the “how we are being called” was fixed in my heart.
Fr. Alex had cancer in his jaw bone that prevented him from speaking clearly, eating comfortably and was in constant pain…with all this he simply wanted to serve. One of my greatest sadnesses was having to ask him not to preach at Mass because of this problem. I remember the pain in his eyes but in the days, weeks and months to come I also saw the determination of a good shepherd as he faithfully, although in pain at times, continued with speech therapy and working on his accent to once more be able to proclaim the word of God.
I saw a man of kindness and prayer, once more from St. John XXIII, “The thing that keeps us priests from gaining sanctity” — the Cure of Ars used to say — “is thoughtlessness. It annoys us to turn our minds away from external affairs; we don’t know what we really ought to do. What we need is deep reflection, together with prayer and an intimate union with God.” The testimony of his life makes it clear that he always remained devoted to his prayers and that not even the duty of hearing confessions or any other pastoral office could cause him to neglect them. “Even in the midst of tremendous labors, he never let up on his conversation with God.”(#37) The simple kindnesses of listening, visiting and sharing time were often the comments you would hear. He prayed constantly around these works of kindness and one of the greatest blessing of my life was to pray with him the Divine Office on the final day of his life knowing that even then he was praying for our Catholic Church.
Please pray for vocations.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

(Prayer for discernment)
An honest prayer to discern God’s will

40 Hours Vocations Vigil

The next two weeks I am going to be sharing with you a little about priesthood and how the Church calls us to be in communion with one another. One of the greatest blessings in my priesthood is working in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter. (WWME) I know I seem to repeat myself often in this but one of the foundational principals that we work with in WWME is that the Sacraments of Marriage and Holy Orders are linked in their support and blessing of each other in growing the blessing within the lives of the priest and the husband and wife.
As a priest we are often asked how were we “called” or to tell our vocation story. This is easy enough done but for me it often misses the point because one of the great insights that I have gained in being a Marriage Encounter priest is that it is not so much “how we were called” but more importantly it is “how we are being called” in our vocation today and every day of our lives. I certainly love to share the story of God’s persistent love for me in how he continued to offer the gift of priesthood even when I was straying and living less than a saintly life but it is in the continuous call to conversion that the true and everlasting love story gracefully unfolds.
This, for me, is where the intersection of the two vocations, marriage and priesthood truly cross paths. The call to true conversion is an invitation to conform our lives to the great other, God and our spouse in each and every movement of love. This conforming can be like my morning walks. At least 90% of the time my morning walk follows a very set routine. I begin about the same time each morning, I wear the same shoes for the walk, I take the same route each and every time. It is a routine that becomes wonderful because it removes the where, how far and which way from my time of thought and prayer. But there is also a temptation: that I stop seeing, hearing and feeling the world around me. The temptation to spend too much time focussing on me and not on God’s blessings around me as I do my morning ramblings. And I do fall into this “not noticing” way too many times. Yet, there are the times when I am stopped in my tracks and see, hear or feel something different. It is here I am invited to conform myself to the other and focus away from my “self” and let the other enter into a conversation of love. When I allow this to happen my senses begin to see and notice the differences and even gaze in wonder at a house, a tree or a vista I had never noticed before even though I had walked the path a thousand times. Focussing on the now helps the walks to become an encounter with much more than just the steps, the breath and the exercise which is the real purpose for the walk.
This is also why, as I said above, we need to focus not on the “how we were” but more on the “how we are being” called in our vocation, whether it is marriage or a vocation to priesthood/consecrated religious life. The nostalgia of how I was called needs to be confronted with the cross of how I am being called in the reality a living encounter with Jesus Christ in the people I am called to serve as a priest. In the same way marriage is also a living encounter with Jesus Christ in the sacrificial love of husband and wife as they encounter the cross in the gift of self to the other. And very much like the walk, it is a continual rediscovering and opening our eyes to the other in our midst as we enter into conversations of hope, joy and a deeper understanding of the other. Our challenge is to stay attentive to the other that dwells deep within but is also apart continuously searching and re-engaging in the blessing and newness of love and life. It is the living encounter with the other’s abundance and generosity of Eucharistic love. Fr. Ronald Rolheiser O.M.I. shares with us these beautiful words about this encounter, “The Eucharist is God’s kiss. As Andre Dubus so succinctly puts it, “Without the Eucharist, God becomes a monologue.” He’s right. We need more than words, we need to be physically touched. This is what happens in the Eucharist and it is why the Eucharist, and every other Christian sacrament, always has some tangible, physical element to it––a laying on of hands, a consuming of bread and wine, an immersion in water, an anointing with oil. An embrace needs to be physical, not only something imagined.” (p 33 for “Our One Great Act of Fidelity”)
Our invitation is to live this Eucharistic embrace in our sacramental love of husband and wife, as priest and church. This is the true blessing, the true encounter with God who is love.
God bless
Fr. Mark

ps. Our next Marriage Encounter weekend is May 18-20, come and join me in this act of love.

www.sanjosewwme.org

The Octave of Easter is almost coming to an end. What is the Octave of Easter you may ask? Well, in truth, I really didn’t know about the Octave of Easter until my mid 30’s when as a teacher I began to attend more daily Masses. And often, because I taught mainly in Catholic Schools, I would attend weekday Masses after Easter because of vacation time, I noticed a difference. So what is the Octave of Easter. First and foremost it is the “eight days” of Easter beginning with Easter Sunday and ending on the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) During these eight days, “The Liturgy of Easter Week indicates that every day within the Octave is treated the same as the original solemnity of Easter.” (from “CatholicCulture.org)
Now this is news!
I will share with you a slightly longer quote about the Octave:“Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! The comprehension and joy of this amazing gift of Christ conquering sin and death by His death and resurrection cannot be confined to just one day. The Church as a mother understands the needs of man. Within the liturgical calendar there is a built-in pattern that corresponds to human rhythms: times of preparation and penance building up to major feasts with celebrations that are prolonged, and multi-level feast days spread throughout the year. The Easter Octave gives us time to impress upon our souls the mysteries, joys and graces of the greatest feast of the Church. Each day of the Octave the liturgy dwells on the mysteries of the resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection through the sacrament of Baptism.” (from “CatholicCulture.org)
So not only does the Church give you 40 days to prepare for Easter but she gives you 8 days to let the mystery fully sink into our hearts and minds. I bring this up because, like many people, we can hit the event, Easter in this case, and then quickly move on to what’s next. Not taking the time to let the joy, the blessing, the mystery and the grace fully take hold in our hearts. And it is very important that we allow the mysteries of life to rest peacefully in our hearts.
When I was ordained a priest on June 4, 2005 my pastoral assignment at St. Martin of Tours parish didn’t begin until July 1st. During the 26 days between those two wonderful days, I celebrate Masses of Thanksgiving at St. Maria Goretti on June 5, at St. Catherine of Alexandria on June 12 and finally at St. Anthony Parish in Greencreek Idaho on June 19. These great celebrations, along with daily Mass allowed me to peacefully begin to feel at home with the mystery of God calling me to the priesthood. It was a time allowing me to anticipate with great joy my first days, months and years of serving God’s holy people.
We can often forget the great gift that is given to us daily and the Octave of Easter is meant to help us remember how we are called to share the good news. I know that it is hard for many people to attend daily Mass and certainly the Octave for this year has almost passed us by….but….there still is the last day of the Octave of Easter which is the Second Sunday of Easter. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the Church jammed packed with people again. Really, wouldn’t that be wonderful.
Here is were we rest in the mystery and do the good work of calling family, friends and neighbors to come and celebrate with us each week. Our baptismal call is to be prophetic witnesses to God’s call of forgiveness and mercy. See you in the Eucharist.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

These days are full of energy, anticipation, anxiety and hope for the holy Church around the world. For parish priests the next few days are blessings that fill us with each these emotions as we await the great celebration of Easter morning. It is a time of quiet and prayer in which the songs of joy enter into the silence we are called to enter into through prayer and contemplation.
It begins a bit weird for me each year because each Holy Thursday morning as I pray my Holy Hour in front of the tabernacle I realize the next few days will be different. I will go and pray but the tabernacle will be empty as we begin the Triduum of our faith. That night we will celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper with the washing of the feet and procession with the Eucharist to a place of repose. The church will be left silent as we begin to journey with Jesus to Garden of Gethsemane and into the darkness of the night. Jesus will invite us to be with him, to pray with him and to walk with him. We will hear him speak the same words of hope and blessing he speaks to the disciples when he asks them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch.” (Mk 14:34) It is his invitation to seek him as we are to be transformed into the gift of new life. He has washed us of our sins and invites us to live with him forever.
“Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” (Jn 18:4-5) One of the eternal truths we know is our hearts were made for God and the search for God, even by those who do not believe, will always ultimately bring us into and encounter with the Cross of Jesus Christ. It is on the Cross of Salvation where we finally discover the true meaning of the peace Jesus offers to us each day. The peace which comes from dying to our sins and entering into a deep and intimate relationship with God in the Most Holy Trinity. “This cross is the destruction of enmity, the source of peace, and the chest of our treasure. Thanks to the cross, we no longer wander in the desert, for we have found the right way; we are no longer outside the palace, for we have found the entrance; we no longer fear the flaming arrows of the devil, for we have seen where the font of water is.” (St. John Chrysostom) This call to enter into the mystery of the cross is central to our Catholic faith which through the Eucharist we are united in love and blessing. As our Holy Father Francis echoing St. Paul reminds us, “Anyone who turns away from the Cross, turns away from the Resurrection.” (Pope Francis)
Our Paschal journey continues through Holy Saturday as we await in silence and contemplation the day of Resurrection. As we do with our churches, we are called to prepare our souls to hear and receive the Good news, “Jesus changes our sins into forgiveness and our fears into trust. In His Cross our hope is reborn again and again.” (Pope Francis)
Our Catholic Church prepares to welcome those searching and be renewed in the light of Christ. The church is once more filled with light as we sing and celebrate in prayerful hope the victory of life over death. “For the many great peoples who gather everywhere around the world to celebrate this solemnity in the name of Christ, the sun may disappear but the day does not end, for the brilliant Earth and dazzling sky take its place… allow the light to open our eyes, so that we may look upon the splendor of light with radiant eyes, able to see the causes for such a brilliant night with unclouded minds”. (St. Augustine)
May the light of Christ fill your hearts during the coming Easter Sunday and season that follows.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

“Forgive me father, for I have sinned” Those words are a powerful admission of our need for God’s healing grace. I have said them this past week and have heard them said many dozens of times in the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the numerous services I have and will be doing throughout Lent. This week I am scheduled to hear over 9 hours of confessions both at my parish and throughout the diocese. It is truly a great blessing.
One of the things, during these times of reconciliation, I have noticed is the number of people this year who have “confessed” to a difficult Lent. I may be noticing because of my own struggles this year or God has put it on my heart to be more attentive to this sin. Whatever the case we are never alone in our struggles.
A few years ago, during one of my more difficult Lents as a seminarian, I confessed my utter failure with my Lenten discipline. I had failed in prayer and in fasting over and over again. My giving of alms was done grudgingly and with little thought. The priest advised me to “bring your Lent into Easter.” This was not what I wanted to hear but it is good advice. Why? Because this is what the early church did.
Think about the Gospels. Peter failed spectacularly when he ran, denied our Lord and the walked away in despair. The Easter gift, bringing Lent into Easter, was the healing and the reconnecting with Jesus in feeding His sheep. The other disciples and apostles did much the same and in St. Thomas’ case, even disbelieved his friends when they testified to the resurrection…Jesus invited him and all the apostles into a new relationship: his Easter gift. If the goal of our Lenten journey is to become closer and more united with our Lord Jesus then Easter isn’t a “you’re done” day but rather it is a “let us continue in love” day.
Cardinal Robert Sarah shares with us this beautiful insight, “God is a discreet friend who comes to share joys, pains and tears without expecting anything in return. We must believe in this friendship.” (#175 from “The Power of Silence”) Let us continue in love because God is with us, as a discreet friend, in the journey, even when the journey may seem fruitless.
Where to we go from here? First, we begin again. Even in the dying light of our Lenten days we are still invited into the vineyard of the Lord. With only a few hours left a bountiful harvest can still be shared when we walk with Jesus. Take time in prayer to review your Lent with a spouse, child, parent or friend listening for the gifts and blessings God has shared…even if we think it didn’t go well. Allowing our hearts to hear Jesus speak to us we are often better able to see his abundant love and recognize the jewels that have been given to us which we often discard in our busyness. Last but not least, take time with the Passion readings these next days. Read them silently or as a family over and over again during Holy Week as we hear the voice of Jesus speak to us with grace and love. Prepare to break our hearts open to receive the Eucharist as Fr. Ronald Rolheiser OMI writes, “Eucharist, then, is meant not just to celebrate our joys and gratitude, but also to break us open, to make us grown in anguish, to lay bare our mistrust, to lessen our jealousies and break down the distances that separate us. What the Eucharist asks of us is vulnerability, humility, contrition, and forgiveness. Bitterness, hatred, and suspicion are meant to disappear at a Eucharist.” (p 111, from “Our One Great Act of Fidelity”)
Whether your Lent has been joyful or fruitful, whether it has been good or just okay, if it has been hard and laborious, or perhaps a failure and disaster, “bring your Lent into Easter” for it is here we continue to grow in grace as the Son who is our new Dawn shines the light of love into our hearts.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

As part of my work as a Worldwide Marriage Encounter priest I will often pick up and read different books about marriage, especially “devotionals” that seek to help the couple grow in love through prayer and acts of mercy in their marital life. One of the bonus points to all of this is what is asked of married couples in prayer and acts of mercy often apply to me as a priest in my relationships with the people of God. I have recently been going through one of these books “Forever: A Catholic Devotional for Your Marriage” by Jackie Francois Angel and Bobby Angel. I’m in the middle of the book, day 5 of week 3 where they write, “We promise fidelity not only in the “big moments” of marriage, but also in the little moments of daily life. In the daily grind of work, home life, raising children, and recreation, am I being attentive to my spouse? Am I recognizing the needs of the other person? Am I only focused on my own pleasure and desires? Do I allow little frustrations and annoyances to rob me of the joy of being with the person I love? We begin to live heroic, sacrificial love in the little moments of everyday life. Loving one day at a time leads to a lifetime of love.” (p 71-72)
I told you this works for priests too. Because while I may not be able to celebrate these daily trials as a husband or wife I do, as a priest, by changing the situations and focusing on turning the questions back towards God and the people I serve and serve with I can and do at times (daily) allow myself to love and be loved in the blessing of God’s Holy Catholic Church.
Faith and love are hard work. We need to allow this truth to sink into our souls. Faith and love are hard work but this does not mean faith and love are not joyous work, fruitful work, and of course holy work. When we focus on our acts of sacrificial love toward the other we then enter into the joyful work of love bearing much fruit in the image of God.
This is done, as they point out above, in fidelity to the promises we make towards God and each other. Our baptismal promises, the other sacramental promises we make whether as husband or wife, priest, religious or people journeying towards their vows to God and others. We do this in fidelity through choosing to work and love in unity rather than divisiveness in our lives. It is being attentive to the fidelity of love by not allowing the small sins to begin to creep into the greater loves we are called to share. It is the loving gift of healing I see so often in my ministry in Marriage Encounter in recognizing the reality of love…it is difficult but worth it to forgive in an act of love.
This means being attentive in our relationship with God and each other. When I was a sixth grade teacher at St. Lawerence the Martyr, before my call to the priesthood, my daily practice would be to get to school early and spend 15 minutes in prayer in preparation for the day. (Being attentive to God) But there were days when I “thought” I had too much to prepare for the day and prayer could be skipped. (Ignoring God) Inevitably those days didn’t seem to go a well as the days where I had taken time to pray. During the days where prayer began my work, I found that I was more attentive to hearing my co-workers, the students and their parents in the “daily grind” than at times can overtake us. It is a magic bullet…no…because…Faith and love are hard work. It seeking placing under us a good foundation to work upon, prayer and fidelity to our promises/vows, which allow us to build the loving relationship(s) God desires us to share.
After I had read the above reflection, I went to church to pray the Stations of the Cross and it focussed my prayer on the “hard work” our Savior Jesus Christ shared with us in carrying his cross inviting us to do the same. Why? Because the hard work of passion the leads to the joy of the resurrection and life in abundance. Yes, faith and love are hard work.
God Bless
Fr. Mark