Seeking peace in life is one of the ongoing mysteries we grapple with each and every day. Seeking peace and justice is, for the Christian, the continuing discernment of God’s call to serve and offer our lives to the other in love. I pray for peace daily within my own life and in the world. It can often seem like a fruitless and hopeless task and yet daily in prayer, morning, noon and night the seeking of peace fills the different prayers in my life.

In a powerful way the prayer for peace presented itself to me through a video shared about the “White Hats” rescue team in Aleppo Syria. The great tragedy and failure of justice and peace is vividly and terribly presented to us each and every moment as we watch this once thriving city being slowly ground to dust beneath the bombings, the shelling and the death of so many of its residents. It can seem hopeless…but then there is hope. The “White Hats” have been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. This group, “White Hats,” are members of the Aleppo community who have chosen to place their lives at the service of their fellow residents to conduct the dangerous rescue work of seeking survivors in the rubble and destruction that is overwhelming their home. The danger in their work is very real and present to them each day, as over 130 members of their teams have been killed during their work of rescue. It is a work of mercy that they choose to carry out in love of both neighbor and enemy.

It is a choice to stay, to serve and to offer their lives that brings the hope of peace to my prayers and actions. Within the rubble of their town, the rubble of daily lives for those who remain the service of the “White Hats” brings the reality of peace to this violent place. Their work of peace in seeking the broken, wounded and dead amidst the rubble and destruction caused by hate and violence brings hope to those who see their white hats walking the streets moving towards the injury of life to homes that once were full with the vibrancy of life but now lie vacant and ruined.

How can our prayers and actions help? Many people would simply say that they cannot help. Others will say that the destruction will never stop so why even try. While others may think that the death and violence are somehow deserved. As disciples of Jesus Christ we must flatly and emphatically reject these answers and we seek in the words of Blessed Pope Paul VI, “For that reason we think it extremely important to have an exact idea of Peace and to divest it of the false concepts which too often surround and thus deform and distort it. We say this to the young first of all. Peace is not a stagnant condition of life which finds in it at the same time both its perfection and its death. Life is movement, growth, work, effort and conquest, things such as these. Is that what Peace is like? Yes, for the very reason that it coincides with the supreme good of man as he makes his way through time, and this good is never attained totally, but is always being newly and inexhaustibly acquired. Peace is thus the central idea giving its driving force to the most active enthusiasm.” (From the 1972 World Day of Peace Message)

Our invitation from Jesus is to go out and seek to plant peace, justice and life into the ruins of sin and destruction. To be agents of hope whose foundation is one of prayer and conversation with our Lord Jesus who calls us each to service of one another. Pray for peace.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

I am way too busy…I have no time…I am up to my neck in everything…and the busy time of year hasn’t even begun. Deep breathe and pray. We have all experienced a day or week (month or year) like this in our life and during this time we can feel like the proverbial hamster on the wheel. A couple of Fridays ago, I commented to a parent waiting pickup their children “Aren’t you glad it’s the weekend.” I was met with an almost audible groan and slumped shoulders and this parent listed the litany of activities and things that needed to be done between 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Listening to the grand list made me groan.

Our faith tradition invites us over and over again to take pauses in life: a few minutes, a few hours, a few days and every once in a while a few months to reflect, rest and renew the eyes of our heart to see the wonder of God’s blessing that surrounds us in our lives. It is funny what we are willing to sacrifice to our busyness—we begin with sacrificing prayer and connection with God, we follow by sacrificing time with family and friends, we offer on the altar of sacrifice our time in exercise and healthy eating and we then end up burnt out, crabby and empty of life with the wonderful excuse of “I was too busy.” Yet, we know from experience, when we do pray, spend time with family, eat and exercise and the other activities that rejuvenate the body, mind and soul we seem to “have” enough time for all those busy things in our life.

How do we circle around to remember to pause and take time in our lives especially in our busyness and our routine forgetfulness of the need for pausing? The answer is very simple and believe it or not the answer is very natural…find a friend who will hold us accountable. Yes, it is the advice that every diet program gives, every exercise program, every relationship program and even every spiritual direction program offers and it is not new. “After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place He was about to visit.“ (Lk 10:1) God understands the need for community, companionship and support.

As a Catholic priest, I too seek out the spiritual direction in my life, taking time on a monthly basis to pause and talk about the health of my spiritual life as well as the many other aspects of ministry that cause me anxiety and worry. After years of pooh pooh-ing the idea, I now have a good friend who checks in with me weekly and to ask about my exercise time. Still working on the diet thing… because it is one small step at a time. The point is, when we choose to pause and do the work and actions that feed the body, mind and soul we are happier and healthier in our call to serve God and neighbor.

It is the joy of finding and discovering the generosity of time given. When we take time to pause, each short moment and each hour brings a fuller knowledge and understanding of how we are called to serve God through our brothers and sisters utilizing the talents God gives to me and to each of in the call to serve.

It has been one of those weeks…but…when I have taken the moment of pause, the breathe of pause and the prayer of pause, my Heavenly Father has been present, inviting and offering to me and to us all the joy of peace that is only found in Jesus Christ.

God Bless,

Fr. Mark

New shoes are always a little hard to get used to in the beginning. This week I bought my new sandals (two pairs) because I finally came to the conclusion that the old ones had finished their productive life and needed to be replaced.

Some people find it exciting and actually love getting new shoes. This isn’t my path. I like the old but true…the well worn and comfortable…the familiar…even when they become uncomfortable. I knew that I needed new shoes for work for many months; my feet were sore after a long day, the soles had begun to fail and many other indicators told me…new shoes. And if you know me, you know that I like walking sandals…so I ordered them and they arrived.

It is amazing what a difference new shoes make in a life. It does take some time to break them in…I need a little time to feel comfortable as the shoe stretches, molds and surrounds the foot. And there is the moment when you wonder why it took you so long to ditch the worn-out and old and replace it with the new?

In some way our spiritual life can follow this pattern as God invites us to step out of the old and into the new over and over again. Our spiritual growth invites us to try on the new shoes of prayer, service and sacrificial love in the ever-expanding relationship with Jesus Christ.

This often happens in a very natural way as we grow in age and wisdom or at least this is what we hope. It is why our continued seeking of God in prayer, service and sacrificial love need to meet the needs of our time in life and our relationship with God and his holy people.

For example, my relationship with God through the praying of the Rosary has changed throughout the years. The new shoes of the Rosary I now wear in prayer are much different than the shoes I wore as a young child praying with my family. In truth when I threw out the old shoes of the Rosary sometime in high school I never went to the closet to put on new shoes for many years but as time went on I discovered them in the treasure trove of our closet of faith and now the shoes of the Rosary have become shoes of meditative and thanksgiving that I slip on daily in the spiritual exercise of my soul.

It is searching out the presence of God that we renew and rediscover how we are called to walk in the shoes of life as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus. And don’t get me wrong in thinking we need to change just for change sake. Change comes as we begin to experience the deeper longing for something greater that draws our heart into the eternal love of God. The new shoes of prayer will be uncomfortable and challenging at first as we seek to wear them with joy and thanksgiving…it may even be hard to move out of the old and into the blessing of the new because the true danger lies in when we become comfortable in the un-comfortableness of the way things are and do not seek to grow towards God and away from sin. Jesus in the Gospel reminds us of this, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye?“ (Mt 7:4)

Jesus invites to not be afraid to move forward in our life of faith, hope and love, where we share willingly of our time, talent and treasure in the prayer, service and sacrificial love of discipleship. It is here we recognize how we walk with Jesus carrying forward the blessings of life.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

During this Jubilee Year of Mercy we have been month-by-month working our way through the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. This September we are looking at one of the most tangible and perhaps the one that we most frequently confront, share and are blessed with: Comfort the Sorrowful. It is the work of mercy that we meet everyday in our relationships with our brothers and sisters in life.

Comforting the Sorrowful comes very natural in many ways. We can often watch a father or mother with a child who is in the midst of a small sorrow that seemingly consumes all happiness around them quickly come to the child’s comfort. We see spouses, the husband or wife, reach out quite naturally to the hurt the other is experiencing in the moment. The problem comes when we begin to think about it, worry about it and then withhold ourselves from the moments of comforting or receiving comfort from another.

The examples in my life, as a priest, are numerous as I am sure they are within yours. Death is always the hardest whether it is offering comfort to a couple whose child has died or a husband or wife whose spouse has died. It may be a divorce, the abuse of drugs, alcohol or infidelity or pornography in a relationship. And the list could go on. The hardest part in my life is the tendency to seek to fix the problem—to look at the sorrow of the person as a problem rather than the reality of what they are feeling and experiencing at that particular moment.

Comforting the Sorrowful invites us to simply be present to the other in a moment of grace. It is helping the person in sorrow search for and discover the presence of Jesus Christ by our presence in love, mercy and prayer. We hear this again and again in our Sacred Scripture and in the tradition of our Church. When we begin to allow the presence of God to rest in the sorrowing heart then we begin to search for Jesus, ““Everyone is looking for You.”  He said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.”  And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.” (Mk 1:37-39) He offers us rest, coming to meet us on the Day of Resurrection, giving us life by giving his very self. God does this. He is our rest. (p 153)

This is what God does when we don’t try to fix sorrow but rather allow God to heal sorrow. God comes to us as we are, where we are and when we are—no matter who we are.

Comforting the Sorrowful is choosing to act as God acts. It is being with the other in the moment choosing to be the simple blessing of grace by embracing and holding with the other their sorrow for the eternal moment of love. We recognize this as the blessing of life. “So we are weak and weary, but we hope in God, who comes to meet us in the person of Christ. For the weak he becomes weak, to win over the weak—just as St. Paul followed in his steps and modeled for us (cf. 1 Cor 9:22-23).” (p 152)

God Bless

Fr. Mark

quotes are from, Grace in the Wilderness by Br. Francis de Sales Wagner, OSB

This past week I spent time with my family in Yellowstone National Park as we celebrated one of my younger sisters’ 50^th birthday. Happy Birthday Melissa (in November) It was a wonderful time and being able to experience the grandeur of God’s creation in such a beautiful place is truly a awe-inspiring and faith filled moment.

Each year in our Catholic tradition September 1^st is designated as a day of pray for the Care of Creation. In Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato Si (On Care for Our Common Home) he teaches, “Whether you are a person of faith or not, we all agree today the earth is a shared inheritance, meant for the benefit of everyone. This is especially true, however, for people of faith. We defend the right to private property but also teach that all such property has a social dimension to it.” (#93)

Being stewards of God’s gift of creation, and all of God’s gifts beginning with life, are at the center of the Gospel message and the invitation to follow Jesus.

During my vacation in Yellowstone we listened and saw how the stewardship and the care for this small part of God’s creation has been transformed over the years. A good example is the place of wolves, bears and coyotes in the overall ecosystem of the park and world, the understanding of how forest fires are part of the necessary life cycle of the park and ultimately how we as visitors to the park can effect and change the natural cycles and what we can do to minimize our impact. It is the stewardship of the treasure through our time and talent, appreciating the gifts given and seeking to share the wonder of creation with all people especially those who will be born in future years.

In the same way our spiritual stewardship and the care for our soul and those around us is transformed and made new over and over again as we grow in the love and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gift of our time, talent and treasure is seen new when we begin to understand how each gift is not independent of the other but how my gift weaves into the gifts of others to form, as St. Paul says “so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.“ (Rm 12:5) This is the true gift of stewardship; the recognition that shared gifts brings greater abundance and peace to our lives and the life of the world. The stewardship of our relation with God through the Church, through family and through the creation that surrounds us is the continual growth in offering our life through prayer and presence to one another.

“The world around us is filled with wonder and mystery. Every leaf, raindrop, or mountain trail holds within it the meaning we seek (#233) We do not separate beauty, awe and wonder from God. God is present in all things noble and beautiful. This is all part of the encounter with God. (#234) Such encounters with God do not require that we abandon the world but rather that we embrace it. The sacraments are filled with similar signs that move our hearts toward God.” (#235)

We discover our blessedness within God’s great plan when we seek the blessedness of others through the shared gifts God extends to us. The Eucharist we celebrate, especially on Sundays, is the embracing of the world through the recognition of God’s presence in our brothers and sisters through the sharing of life we live daily in the joys and sorrows we experience.

The invitation in stewarding God’s gifts is to share them through prayer and sacrificial offerings of love. Our call to be good stewards is participating in the invitation of all to come with us to the table of blessing where true life is found in the shared caring of life.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

The teaching of the Master on marriage is set – and not by chance – in the context of the ultimate and definitive dimension of our human existence. We urgently need to rediscover the richness of this teaching. By heeding it, married couples will come to see the deeper meaning of their journey through life. As this Exhortation (Familiaris Consortio) has often noted, no family drops down from heaven perfectly formed; families need constantly to grow and mature in the ability to love. This is a never-ending vocation born of the full communion of the Trinity, the profound unity between Christ and his Church, the loving community which is the Holy Family of Nazareth, and the pure fraternity existing among the saints of heaven. Our contemplation of the fulfilment which we have yet to attain also allows us to see in proper perspective the historical journey which we make as families, and in this way to stop demanding of our interpersonal relationships perfection, a purity of intentions and a consistency which we will only encounter in the Kingdom to come. It also keeps us from judging harshly those who live in situations of frailty.

All of us are called to keep striving towards something greater than our families, and every family and ourselves must feel this constant impulse. Let us make this journey as families, let us keep walking together. What we have been promised is greater than we can imagine. May we never lose heart because of our limitations, or ever stop seeking that fullness of love and communion which God holds out before us. (325)

With this last thought we end the journey through Laetitia Amoris. It has been a wonderful experience to reflect on the gift of love, marriage and family through the teachings of the Church. I know that in purposefully skipping Chapter 4, “Love in Marriage” I did not reflect fully on Pope Francis’ powerful reflection on St. Paul’s beautiful teaching from 1Corinthians 13:4-7, but I promise I will return to this in the future as it holds such great richness from our tradition.

“All of us are called to keep striving towards something greater than our families…” What are we striving for? To become the reflection of the Most Holy Trinity in our lives. It is a call to a unity of love, purpose and desire that drives us in the direction of forgiveness, mercy and compassion. It is a desire that we all aspire to but seldom live up to in our daily lives…and yet there are times in experiencing this moment, this timeless blessing the peace of Christ rests within our hearts, our marriages and our families and love grows..

In reading and reflecting on what Pope Francis has taught us in this beautiful document, I would sum it up into three important actions, each person, each married couple and each family should do to grow in faith, hope and love, or in other words become the reflection of the Most Holy Trinity.

1. Work—love is work. Family is work. Marriage is work. We must be actively engaged in the work of love, family and marriage on a constant and ongoing basis. It is not the work of drudgery, nor is the work of constant weight. It is the work of joyful presence where each action in mutual love is met with other actions shared and given. We are reminded throughout the document that the work of marriage, family and love brings joyful blessings and graces to each and every member of the family of God.
2. Forgive—to not be bound by the limitations, the hurts and the failures of love but rather seek the better, the truer and the more beautiful in the blessings of love. It is too often the reality in speaking with a couple in crisis they will readily catalogue the list of sins committed against them but look dumbfounded when asked to list the blessings. We know this truth: when we hold on to sins we cannot hold on to the blessings of life to the fullness God wishes us to do. Forgiving our beloved is an act of recognizing the reality of sin—letting go and then letting the blessings renew and rebuild the love God shares with us.
3. Live—to be with God. In living with God at the center of our relationships, especially the marital relationship, we allow each act of love to be an act of blessing. Whether it is the small words and works of kindness shared or the embrace of love that communicates, blesses and renews life within the relationship—we are invited to bring God into these moments of life—to be with God. While many people think God and the Church want to bind us up with so many rules where life becomes stifled and listless, we know this is not true. When we live with God and through pure and holy love share the gifts of abundance and generosity with others…especially within the marital bound…we live in true freedom where we unbind the sin which restricts joy.

May God bless you and keep you safe to woke, reconcile and live the life of a true disciples of Jesus Christ.

Fr. Mark

Led by the Spirit, the family circle is not only open to life by generating it within itself, but also by going forth and spreading life by caring for others and seeking their happiness. This openness finds particular expression in hospitality, which the word of God eloquently encourages: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2). (#324)

Growing up in a family with nine children the signs of life were always plentiful around the house. Being a member of a large extended family with literally hundreds of cousins running around and in a community that was connected through blood and faith in such and intimate manner was always a little crazy. The question, “Am I related to him/her/them?” seemed always to be answered with a yes to some degree or another.

As we move to the end of Amoris Laetitia (we have only one paragraph left) we come to the heart of the gift of hospitality. We are reminded in the beginning of paragraph #324 that the impulse of all family life is generosity in the invitation to share life and bless life in a intimate a holy way. The openness to life is the sharing of hospitality and generosity with the other. I can remember the many visits to Grandma Mary’s house (fraternal) and the celebrations at Grandpa Hank’s (maternal) with the numerous cousins, my uncles and aunts all running about, sharing food and drink along with the stories and laughter of the family gathered.

It is this sharing of life, when we gather and break bread, open our lives in stories and share music, laughter and tears where prayer and faith intersect with the daily work of life that the true blessings of family comes forth.

It is a tradition in our Catholic faith to bless houses, as we bless marriages to sanctify the unity of those living within the house of marriage and the more physical structures of the house. One of the prayers shared is at the door/entrance to the house, “O God, protect our going out and our coming in; Let us share the hospitality of this home with all who visit us, that those who enter here may know your love and peace.Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.” This short prayer, as part of the blessing of the whole house, expresses the meaning of the gift of generous welcome as we invite the presence of God into the center of the life of the family. The gift of open doors, of welcome and in sharing the blessing of life with one another is the opportunity to encounter Jesus at our door.

Our Holy Father Francis continues, When a family is welcoming and reaches out to others, especially the poor and the neglected, it is “a symbol, witness and participant in the Church’s motherhood”. Social love, as a reflection of the Trinity, is what truly unifies the spiritual meaning of the family and its mission to others, for it makes present the kerygma in all its communal imperatives. The family lives its spirituality precisely by being at one and the same time a domestic church and a vital cell for transforming the world. (#324)

As family, we always begin with the husband and wife and their call to welcome the soul of the other to take up residence in their heart, the house of the beloved. This welcoming then extends to children. It is a place where the welcoming of friends and family gather and the love of husband and wife flows through the graciousness of God’s blessings and where they meet the struggles, the hurts, and the sufferings in mutual love and hope in the mystery of the sacramental love shared between them. And we must pay careful attention to this last line of the paragraph where families are called, through the shared gift of love to transform the world. The spirit of hospitality, founded in mutual love, founded on the openness to life, founded with the generous gift of hospitality, where we truly recognize in and welcome all as the living presence of Jesus Christ into our homes does transform the world.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

I was returning from my morning walk the other day. As I picked up the newspaper from the front sidewalk I look over towards the church and saw three young men standing in front of the mural of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In my mind, I thought, “how wonderful that these three young men are spending a few moments in prayer with our Blessed Mother.” I walked over to greet them and as I was approaching the tell tale sign of the glowing smart phone in front of their faces, the swiping movement of their fingers and the intense concentration of each of them gave it all away…Pokémon Go.

Was I a little disappointed? Yes. Nevertheless I went over and spent a brief time in prayer, in the midst of the young men, praying the Hail Mary several times. I figure if it is good enough for an Olympic gold medalist in time of trial, it is good enough for me.

This month we are focusing on the first Spiritual Work of Mercy, “Instructing the Ignorant.” Don’t be afraid or offended by the words because in the sense of the work of mercy, ignorant simply means someone who does not know. I can imagine that the three young men standing in front of Mary that morning had very little idea of the symbolism, the blessing and the love they were looking at in the mural. It may be because they were not Catholic, Christian or were ignorant of the miracle of Guadalupe. It could be because they were so focused and distracted by their pursuit of one more pokémon that they were unable to see the beauty being made present in the image of Mary and the grace of the early morning.

The work of mercy, instructing the ignorant, is a call to be witnesses to the Gospel message and teaching by word and example the faith of our Church through our love of Jesus Christ. The great Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis reminds us in his book, The Screwtape Letters, that two of the devil’s greatest tools are distraction from the pursuit of holiness and the lack of charity of Christians towards each other. We are reminded by Jesus, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn 13:35) This should be the foundation of “instructing the ignorant.”

The first step in this work of mercy is to enter into the moment of humility knowing that we are all called to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn more deeply our faith in knowing Him who is our Savior. It has been my experience, and I know that I am not alone, that in “instructing” the doors of faith open wider and the joy of the Gospel is made real in the relationship developed and blessed in the conversation of faith.

Humbleness is removing the distractions of life and focusing on what is most important, the person who is with us, who needs us, who we are called to serve. It is acting like Jesus when he sees us and fills the deepest desires of our hearts with joy and blessing. In this we must be willing to stop, listen and open our hearts to his words.

“Instructing the ignorant” occur in each moment, every interaction and the daily conversations we share when we are willing to become the disciple next to another disciple searching for the truth of God’s love.

It would be my hope that the three young men, enthralled and consumed by the pursuit of virtual happiness would recognize the ultimate emptiness of their momentary obsession with the game and see in the Virgencita the true and lasting happiness in giving your life to God in and through Jesus Christ as Mary did each day of her life. It would by my hope in the small example of prayer and devotion I shared with them in the early morning may awaken in them a spark of faith that will burn brightly in their lives.

It may be a good prayer for all of us today and every day to ask: What in my life is causing me to be ignorant of God’s presence and teaching in my life? How can I remove this obstacle and grow closer in the knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ?

God Bless

Fr. Mark

It is a profound spiritual experience to contemplate our loved ones with the eyes of God and to see Christ in them. This demands a freedom and openness, which enable us to appreciate their dignity. We can be fully present to others only by giving fully of ourselves and forgetting all else. Our loved ones merit our complete attention. Jesus is our model in this, for whenever people approached to speak with him, he would meet their gaze, directly and lovingly (cf. Mk 10:21). No one felt overlooked in his presence, since his words and gestures conveyed the question: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk 10:51). This is what we experience in the daily life of the family. We are constantly reminded that each of those who live with us merits complete attention, since he or she possesses infinite dignity as an object of the Father’s immense love. This gives rise to a tenderness, which can “stir in the other the joy of being loved. Tenderness is expressed in a particular way by exercising loving care in treating the limitations of the other, especially when they are evident”. (#323)

Shortly after my heart attack a few years ago, while I was recuperating, my mom was down to take care of me as I got back on my feet. I remember one afternoon, I was reading in my chair and I looked up and saw my mom staring at me very intently. She was, as Pope Francis writes in Amoris Laetitia “present…giving fully of ourselves and forgetting all else.” I was at that moment meriting her complete attention, not for anything I could or should do for her but simply because I am who I am, I understood the gaze of Jesus. It was an unnerving feeling to be honest with you. It was the look of love we discover when we choose not to possess but be possessed by the greatest love.

I see this look of love many times as a priest…from the groom as he sees his bride enter the church for their marriage. I have seen it when the mother sees her husband tenderly hold their child. I see it in the shared look of the husband and wife in moments of laughter, joy, sorrow and suffering. I witness it the moments of dying as a husband caresses the hand of his wife or as a wife wipes every drop of spittle from the mouth of her beloved spouse.

Most tenderly, we experience the love in the embracing the limitations of our beloved in the moments of forgiveness, reconciliation and unity. This is the true beauty of marital love and the growth of love in the family. We are invited to look deeply into the beloved and embrace their limitation, to love them for who they are not who we wish them to be. It is the invitation to conform our soul to gently, tenderly and lovingly surround the beloved in the holy embrace of the sacramental grace we receive from God.

At times, we fool ourselves into thinking it is impossible to give this generous and abundant gift of love…I think we are wrong. What is harder for many of us is to accept and receive the gift of this generous love given. We fall for the temptation of thinking we are unworthy of this great love and choose to accept something much shallower and less gracious, worldly pleasures rather than holy and sacred love. It is when we do not accept the great love of God, believing in the dignity of our body and soul that we often cheapen our hopes and dreams of true and everlasting love.

When I met my mother’s gaze I truly met the gaze of Jesus for a brief moment and experienced what so many received and continue to receive in meeting the gaze of our Lord. The challenge we share is to not only see with the eyes of Jesus but to allow our hearts to be seen with Jesus’ eyes in the gaze of the husband and wife, the mother and father, the boyfriend and girlfriend, (friends etc… even our enemies) seeing, cherishing, and accepting the dignity of love we have been created to be and to live in the world.

God Bless

Fr. Mark