We are at the eve of Christmas. It is almost here. I am sure there are some of us who have last minute shopping to do and the last errands to run before Christmas day is here. If your experience has been like mine the time has slipped by and we cannot believe that the day is almost here. We now fall into the traditions of the year when we slip gently (or not so gently) into the time-honored blessings within our families.

 

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Lk 2:14) The words of prayer the angels proclaim in Luke’s gospel are words that rest in our hearts as Christians. We hear these words and are reminded of why we celebrate, why we give thanks and why we share the blessings of life with one another.

 

Christmas Eve and day are some of the greatest blessings for parish priests. It is extremely busy and the duties of the day often keep us away from our own families and yet we also see the glory of God’s holy people on full display. I, along with my brother priests in parishes, see the great possibilities that God places in our lives. We see families gathered and searching for holiness and hopefulness in their lives. We see young and old dressed in their Christmas finest seeking to bring the very best to give honor and glory to God. We see the smiles and embracing of good cheer and community of the possibilities of the family of God gathered in prayer and worship. We see churches overflowing with blessings.

 

We also experience the great dedication and love given by the volunteers and staffs at parishes around the world. The hard work of preparing and making ready for the celebration of the birth of Jesus our Savior and Redeemer is done by many people and is a blessing beyond all measure.

 

But there is an even greater blessing that we share…it is the continuing of Christmas in our lives. As a parish priest, we witness the numerous blessings that follow Christmas. Admittedly, we worry and fear for those who choose not to attend Mass and the celebration of the Eucharist throughout the year. We struggle with how to engage the seekers and doubters in a deep and profound conversation with God and his holy people. Yet, even in this, we continue to witness the grace and blessing of our Heavenly Father’s Christmas gift, his Son Jesus Christ, in the life of the world.

The poet Christine Rodgers, in her Christmas poem O Radiant Dawn, begins with this question “What could possibly come from this?”

 

We see Jesus, in his mother’s arms, surrounded by the heavenly host and the earthly wonder and as we sit and share our Christmas day and ponder God’s Word made flesh, “What could possible come from this?” Can true peace and blessing begin to grow in the world? Can true love and mercy flourish in our hearts and the hearts of all? Let us together pray as we celebrate the joyous coming of our Savior Jesus and know that our God is here with us in our journey because as Rodgers writes in the last line, Jesus has come so that through his coming as man in his passion, death and resurrection it is he “who would buy back the entire world.”

 

May God bless you with a holy and happy Christmas

Fr. Mark

Sometimes we can fall into the trap of becoming tasked orientated. That everything we do must have a definite and defined purpose and how we go about achieving the purpose becomes an objectified goal that must have a plan, timeline and end date. I often fall into this temptation.

Advent, in preparation for Christmas day, can fall into this task orientated routine very easily, from the celebrations we attend to the shopping we must do, to the planning of vacation for a few days of rest, it all can become more work and less peace that is the goal of Christmas day.

Peace, for all of us, is the discovering of true happiness and we contemplate something greater. The trick becomes discovering where the greater lies hidden in our lives. This discovery cannot be planed or mapped out, it cannot be tasked out or placed as an item on an agenda, it is found in a moment of discovery and awe that takes us out of routine and places us in the eternal. It is because the greater is often hidden in plain sight when we have “eyes to see and ears to hear” (Mt 13:16) and a heart to understand.

Happiness is searched for because we are not automatons that can simply be programed for happiness. Our desires change and how we communicate those desires to others changes too. No one asks for the same gift as a 25 year old that they asked for as a 5 year old. It is much the same way in our relationships, our sharing of love changes in the growing and deepening of relationships we have with friends, family, spouse, children and neighbor and yes, in our relationship with God. How we express and receive these acts of love in relationship change and grow and deepen with time and care both in prayer and in actions.

What is also true is the deeper our relationship of love becomes the greater the gift in the smallest things. We desire to give more out of love and choose to receive less. Our sharing of life and love pours out in the giftedness of life. And yet, knowing this we can often fall into a pattern of taking the love and the giftedness of life for granted where we loose the joy within the wants of daily concerns.

In this final week of Advent, these last days of preparation, we are invited to open our eyes in the search of the peace of true happiness grounded in our relationship to God. It is a reminder that presence in more important than any present in life. Being present to God, to family and to friends in the interchange of love is the true gift of peace. It is in this Jubilee Year of Mercy that we, in our presence of love to one another, become the embodiment of peace, love and mercy. Our presence doesn’t come with a plan, a task or an outcome. Our presence simply comes with the peace of Jesus Christ, born to us on Christmas day as we celebrate and sing out: Joy to the World.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

“For his mercy endures forever.” (Ps136)

Pope Francis in his Papal Bull Misericordiae Vultus gives us Psalm 136 as of understanding God’s mercy through the experience of the people of Israel. God is a God of salvation. This refrain “for his mercy endures forever” is repeated again and again as sign of hopefulness and grace in our Lord Jesus. When I first read the Papal Bull I was interested in this quote because in English it is often translated “for his love endures forever.”

In our understanding of mercy and love our Holy Father invites us to recognize that love is an essential part of mercy and mercy without love is empty and without hope. In our understanding of God’s love for us we recognize that he who is love offers us the gift of Mercy full of love. Through his son Jesus Christ who comes to us this Christmas, the face in the light of mercy shines forth in our lives and the lives of the world.

Throughout the Papal Bull we are challenged to see how mercy and love, intertwined through our relationship with God and how mercy calls us to the grace of the movement towards the great other in our lives. The call to mercy is to a deeper understanding of how we live in relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters. Mercy, in the lives of the Church, is not simply an abstract idea but concrete realities that are lived out in relationships of love. Mercy shines forth in brokenness and comes to completion in the healing grace our heavenly Father extends through the cross of Jesus Christ.

A simple example of how we can understand the gift of mercy is to look within families. A child, while throwing a ball in the house…a big no no…breaks a lamp. There must be some justice, the child needs to be punished but also shown mercy and forgiveness. The act justice, tied to mercy, shows forth an action in proportion to the hurt caused…you will go to your room and loose this months allowance…but in love the child is invited back into the grace of the family through forgiveness and mercy. This action of life giving mercy and love reminds the child that their dignity as a child of God, as a member of that particular family, is much greater and can never be lost through any one act of sin.

This is why mercy and justice must always be tied together as Pope Francis reminds us, “God’s justice is his mercy.” (20) All this can be very theoretical until we step forward and embrace the work of mercy and it is a blessing to have within the tradition of our faith the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy that lead and guide us in the active participation in the life of the family of God. (more on that later)

God Bless

Fr. Mark

Why do you pray? That is a question that is being posed in a very forceful way as a newspaper headline shouted out after the latest tragedy in San Bernardino this past Wednesday. “God Isn’t Fixing This” was the headline. I can agree on some level because God doesn’t fix us. He has given us free will to choose good or evil, to be with Him or the walk away from Him in sin. It is the fundamental question that all men and women of good will struggle with daily in our journey of faith.

Why then do we pray? I can remember clearly the first time that I encountered a person who didn’t believe in prayer. In college a young woman I knew was going through some very difficult times and in a brief conversation with her I simply said, “I will pray for you.” It is phrase I had said many times to many people. Her response was, “I don’t need your prayers.” I was stunned and shocked and did not know what to say. I did pray for her and even now, over 20 years later, I continue to pray for her.

Why do we pray? We believe as Catholic Christians that prayer changes us and through us changes the world. As our Church teaches, “Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to “little children,” to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom.” (CCC 2660) It is in our conversation (prayer) with God that we see His will and how we are called to respond to the needs of our brothers and sisters in the world. Simply put, prayer changes our lives, as we become the compassionate and loving children created in God’s Divine image.

Prayer, for us, is the first response to all situations in life and not an afterthought. Thanking God, praising God, imploring God’s mercy and healing, desiring God’s peace and compassion are first responses that help us and drive us to be the instruments of love in a world torn by violence and sin.

Prayer leads us to action where God will not “fix us” but God will heal us if we place our lives in His hands. That is why we pray, by entrusting our lives into the greater love that brings true and lasting peace we discover God and discover true life and we move towards the greater, the holier, the true and lasting peace that is only found in Jesus Christ. Why do we pray? Because prayer does change lives. Pope Francis believes this as he continually asks for our prayers. I believe it…pray and pray with confidence that God hears and responds to heal us in love.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

Thanksgiving is full of so many blessings. We should be able to sit and list the dozens and dozens of things that we are thankful for each year, each day and each minute of our lives. It is these moments of reflective gratitude in the recognition of the abundance of God’s love and blessings that help us to seek and discover the love of God in the grace of our lives.

One of the blessings of visiting my sister and her family for Thanksgiving day is they always have a jigsaw puzzle ready to be put together. I like helping my nieces and nephews, their spouses and my sister with the puzzle. The fascinating part of the puzzling process is how each person attacks the search for the piece. Some will pick up a piece of the puzzle and seek to find where in the greater puzzle that particular piece falls. Looking closely at the pattern, color while studying the completed cover photo until they find the location of the piece. Others will look at the puzzle and then begin searching the hundreds of pieces on the table for the correct size, shape and color needed. Some of us can spend hours in concentration while others a few minutes here and there as the puzzle slowly but surely takes shape and images become clearer and easier to see.

What is always true is that when we un-focus and relax in our obsession with finding the once piece that you know is there and you have tried to fit a dozen pieces in the one spot…it will always appear.

It is the challenge that we all can struggle with in our faith life and the mission that God desires us to live and follow as His sons and daughters. We can all become obsessed with the little things in life and how we fit in and how we are called to do this and that…. In my prayer life this is often the case when I ask God in petitionary prayer then quickly supply the answer of how God should answer my prayer. Or how we can look so hard for a blessing that we know should be in our lives and continually pass over the obvious truth of God’s presence in the moment. Or…the examples are many.

I fall into this trap again and again. And don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that God is trying to frustrate me or is hiding the answer so that I have to play a game of hide and seek with him, rather it is the mystery of contemplating God’s love that we often struggle with.

Which returns me to Thanksgiving. God has blessed us with everything. The glaringly obvious and those things we will never see or understand. God’s gentle whispers of hope and nudges of holiness are heard and felt when we are able to relax and not obsess over our worthiness of his love. We must search for but never fear that Jesus is with us, that he loves us and blesses us always.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

It has been a hard week to be a Christian. The terrorist attacks in Beirut, Paris and Nigeria and the many places that have not hit the news have continued to challenge us in how we live our faith in Jesus Christ in the world. As a former Marine we often spoke the words, “peace through superior fire power,” I know that ultimately that is not the answer and yet we can struggle with what our response should be and how we are called to protect our family, community and ultimately our world from the destructive force of terror and those who act in the name of God committing the atrocities that take innocent and vulnerable lives.

We know the answer: his name is Jesus. We also know we often fail to live up to our call to follow him. Because of this, as in the past so in the future, we will be called hypocrites for not living up to what we believe and fools for seeking to do so in confronting evil with love. We will argue and pray in the same voice as we seek to follow Jesus and reach out with love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness while offering justice and hope to the victims of these acts of violence as well as those who perpetrate these same acts.

What can we do? That is the million-dollar question moving forward. Once more we know the answer: his name is Jesus. We know in faith that he has conquered sin and death and our response to evil is always His peace given, poured out and shared. Our response is to be the Eucharistic people that we proclaim and live the Eucharistic life of recognizing our sinfulness and extending the mercy that God gives to us to our brothers and sisters. We must not be a people who hide behind the walls of our faith but a people who reach out in justice and mercy as workers in the field hospital of the world so in need of a hand of love.

We must trust in the Word of God, Jesus Christ from the beginning to the end. We must trust that he has conquered sin and death even when it seems evil has replaced peace and joy. We must trust that the devil who tempts men and women to act in ways that destroys the fabric of family and community is defeated by the Blood of the Lamb. We must see the love of God in the very violence and hatred because in that brokenness is the path to peace.

I trust that these acts of hatred have blown open the doors for the movement of the Holy Spirit to engage all people of good will to live the great Year of Mercy our Catholic Church is proclaiming in the coming year. In that we must be vigilant and not foolish trusting in Gospel of life. Our faith challenges us to seek peace as we live the virtues of faith, hope and love echoing the words of John the Baptist, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29) as we proclaim, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”(1 Cor 1:18)
Pray for peace…Our Lady of Peace…pray for us.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

There is an apocryphal story that floats around Catholic parishes that goes something like this: A family attended Mass for the first time at a new parish. They were from across the country and after finding the closest Catholic parish the parents took the family to Sunday Mass. The church was not very full when they arrived and like all good Catholics they sought a pew that was empty and furthest away from the altar without being in the very last pews, which were already occupied. As the beginning of Mass came closer the Dad felt a presence at his shoulder and turning in his seat he was confronted by a kindly looking elderly lady who in a stern and unforgiving voice said, “You are in my pew, please move.” We all laugh a little and maybe feel a bit uncomfortable at the story because in some ways it is true and not so apocryphal in our lives.

I thought of this story on reading and article on the patheos.com website by Lisa Duffy titled, You’ll Never Guess What’s Keeping Some Catholics Out Of The Church. In the article she noted that one thing that keeps us away from the Church is we have no one to invite us after we have drifted away. And I find this true. I often encourage people to invite their friends and neighbors, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers to come to Mass and celebrate with them. I am just as often met with frozen looks of dread at the thought of this invitation. But we are a Church and faith of invitation.

Think about it in this way. Our very first act as Christians is to be brought to Church by another. It’s called baptism. Mothers and fathers entrust their children to the divine love of God in the sacramental grace of baptism. When we celebrate Eucharist (the Mass) we cannot do it alone. Even if I, as a priest, celebrate Mass without a congregation I never do it alone. We are invited to come and hear and eat at the table of blessing. It is a dialogue that communicates the interaction of two as we extend ourselves to God and He reveals his constant presence in our lives. Each Sacrament we celebrate is a dialogue an offering and accepting of an invitation of love towards another.

Our invitation and welcome of our brothers and sisters, our accepting and welcoming the voice of the inviter shows an openness of heart to the other in our lives. God extends this invitation again and again as he accepts our invitation to dwell within our joys and sufferings as a permanent sojourner with us. And this is the wonder of our God: He sends us out to be his point person in inviting others. Although little bit scary it is also life giving and challenging in a good way.

Each one of us, as children of the Divine Father, is called to be the voice of invitation to others. Let each of us reach out in invitation as we ask someone, “come and sit in my pew.”

God Bless

Fr. Mark

 

www.patheos.com/blogs/lisaduffy/2015/11/youll-never-guess-whats-keeping-some-catholics-out-of-the-church/

“I am bound by the vows if have made, God, I will pay you a debt of thanks for you have saved my life from death.” (Ps 56:12)

One of the traditions of ordination is that you give holy cards to all who come to celebrate and participate in the Mass. I took this part of the preparation for ordination very seriously and thought long and hard on the image for the face of the card. I chose St. Joseph holding the child Jesus. I did this for the reason that my birthday falls on the Memorial of Joseph the Worker and his patronage and prayers for me during my life helped me to understand how I was to be a faith filled Christian man.

The second part of the tradition was the choosing of a piece of Sacred Scripture to place on the back of the card. This is a great challenge. But one line stuck in my head. It is the verse of the Psalm that is at the top of this reflection. It occurs in the Liturgy of the Hours in the daytime prayer on Thursday of week two and yet this line would cause me to pause and reflect on the blessing and generosity of God and how my call to serve Him and his holy people had saved my life from death.

We as a Church believe that prayer forms us. Prayer takes our soul and through the whispering of God’s love molds us into the people God has made in his own image. Prayer allows us to speak candidly with God and to humbly hear and act on his call to serve, to share and to bless.

In my vocation as priest I continue to discover the truth of prayer that forms the soul. Each day, for the past ten years, I have taken that short verse of the Psalm and offered it in thanksgiving to God. I offer prayer in the Eucharist, in each Sacrament I celebrate with the community, as a gift of thanksgiving to our God. It is in the repetition daily of this prayer that I struggle to do my Father’s will is living my vows and promises made at ordination. Yet, it is within this struggle that I truly discover the divine life of Jesus resting in my soul.

People will often ask, “What is the best part of being a priest?” I think each priest will struggle with this answer because God offers us so many blessings but I always come back to this one central moment: I am permitted to share the gift of prayer with others as a minister of God’s mercy. It is in prayer that the conversation of God’s love shines through the darkness and illuminates life with the peace that can only be discovered in the truth of Jesus the true Son of God. That is the true blessing, the best part of serving God and his people.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

 

 

God you did everything you promised and I’m thanking you with all my heart. You pulled me out of the brink of death, my feet from the cliff-edge of doom. (Ps 56:12) from “The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language”

 

As we celebrate All Souls Day at the beginning of Vocation Awareness Week we remember those who have died. Let us pray that many young men follow in the footsteps of these two great servants of God… Fr. Alex Affonso (+2013) and Fr. Mark Catalana(+2013). Pray for vocations.

 

VOCATIONS Awareness Week

We owe ourselves and all we have to the Church; may we work each day only in her name and by her authority and may we properly carry out the duties committed to us, and may we be joined together in fraternal unity and thus strive to serve her in that perfect way in which she ought to be served. (Pope St. John XXIII)

Continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life that young people ask the question and seek to hear the voice of our Lord calling them to serve him.

St. John XXIII pray for us.

Ps. the name of the future Catholic High School in Morgan HIll. St John XXIII College Prep

 

Misioneras Eucarísticas de la Santísima Trinidad(MESST) These wonderful and holy women have been serving in the Diocese of San Jose for the last 50 years. Caring for our brothers and sisters in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. For the 10 years of my priesthood I have been honored to celebrate Mass weekly with them at the MESST convent sharing the Eucharist, the breakfast table and experiencing the Sisters great humor and patience in helping me to learn and improve my Spanish. I am always humbled by their generosity and dedication to our Catholic Church. Thank you, Sr. Sylvia, Sr. Virginia and Sr. Graciela
Pray for Vocations….

 

“In calling you God says to you: ‘You are important to me, I love you, I am counting on you’. Jesus says this to each one of us! Joy is born from that! The joy of the moment in which Jesus looked at me. Understanding and hearing this is the secret of our joy. Feeling loved by God, feeling that for him we are not numbers but people; and we know that it is he who is calling us.” (Pope Francis from his letter to men and women in consecrated life)

Let us pray for vocations to the consecrated religious life

 

This is precisely what we mean when we call the ordination of priests a sacrament: ordination is not about the development of one’s own powers and gifts. It is not the appointment of a man as a functionary because he is especially good at it, or because it suits him or simply because it strikes him as a good way to earn his bread; it is not a question of a job in which someone secures his own livelihood by his own abilities…Sacrament means: I give what I myself cannot give; I do something that is not my work; I am on a mission and have become the bearer of that which another has committed to my charge…One can receive what is God’s only from the sacrament, by entering into the mission that makes me the messenger and instrument of another. (from Called to Communion by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Benedict XVI])
Pray for Vocations

 

 

We are all familiar with the well-worn phrase, “God writes with crooked lines.” The idea that the path that we travel with God is often not straight nor is it always easy to discern and yet throughout the journey God guides us and leads us through the twists and turns to the ultimate destination in heaven.

These crooked lines to heaven deal with the coincidences in our lives and the conveniences in our daily travels. Pope Francis in his words and actions reminds us that the coincidences in our lives are the prodding of God to serve him and to move from the comfortable conveniences that tempt us to take the easy roads and the paths that hinder the greatness that God has created us to be as his daughters and sons. The coincidences challenge us to be disciples who proclaim the Gospel message in our daily lives.

Earlier this week I was looking at some tweets on my Twitter account. One of the groups I follow on Twitter is “The Porn Effect” which fights against the negative and destructive impact on pornography on the lives of family and youths. There was a YouTube link that I went and viewed. Underneath the video, as with all videos on YouTube, there is a list of similar subject matter. As I looked down the list of videos almost all of them were from the same web site but one stood out as not the same, it was a basically a pornographic video.

This is where convenience and coincidence collide. I could have conveniently ignored it and moved on, but in faith speak, this was the coincidence of God’s prodding me to take notice and action against this invasion of sin. We know that the age when a child is first exposed to a pornographic image continues to become younger and younger. Focus on the Family reports that the age when children are first exposed to pornography is now 8 years old. (http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/sexuality/when-children-use-pornography/when-children-view-pornography) Yes, 8 years old!

Believe me, I do not enjoy writing on this subject and I am afraid to write on this subject and yet, in the coincidence of that simple YouTube moment the movement of God’s grace has prompted me to move from the convenience of turning away to the seemingly easier road and to walk this path of the cross with our Lord Jesus. Because in the end it is not that I am ignorant of the problem; whether in the confessional or at my computer I hear and experience the seemingly endless intrusions of pornography into my life and the lives of all people in the world.

The good news is that Jesus is with us and for us in this battle and with his healing grace we will not be devoured. (1 Pt 5:8) And our fight against this invasion against true love must begin within our families. You are not alone in the fight. The Diocese of San Jose with Our Lady of Peace Church is offering opportunities of prayer and information in this battle. On November 13 and 14 at Our Lady of Peace two nationally recognized lay evangelists, Jackie Francois and Matt Fradd, who will be speaking and helping us understand how we can protect our souls and those of our children from the devastating sin of pornography. Information about the conferences and registration can be found at, www.riseba.org the event is free and there are sessions for families on Friday evening (Nov 13) and on Saturday (Nov 14) in the morning for our youth (13-17) and young adults on the same evening.

Do not be afraid…but know that this sin is a reality in so many lives. Do not be afraid…

God Bless

Fr. Mark

 

www.pornproofkids.com

www.theporneffect.com

www.focusonthefamily.com