We are created for joy. “Catholic teaching about marriage and the family flows from the heart of our faith…Our God is not inaccessible and remote; we believe that God reveals himself in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the source for the hope, faith, love and joy that should animate Catholic family life. He is the reason we can trust the wisdom of Catholic belief.” (1)

The above quote comes from the opening chapter of Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive, which is the text for catechesis for the World Meeting of Families offered to us from the Bishops of the United States.

I have used texts from this book several times over the past few months but now that the meeting is happening in Philadelphia it may be good to retrace a few steps and also ask a question.

In the final Mass that Pope Francis celebrated in Cuba he asked us this one question, “Do you believe that Christ can transform your life?” This is a question of faith. It is a question of trust. It is a question of hope in the world. We ask this question because for many people God is remote and inaccessible. God is distant from our daily lives and we stumble and fall in lost hope for the goodness in life. The question the Pope asked in Cuba is the center of the life of the family because if we do not believe that God transforms our lives then what’s the point.

If we do believe then we believe that the Sacrament of Marriage also transforms the husband and wife. In fact, if we look at it backwards, we know the marriage of a man and woman radically transforms them as they grow in love and children are born into the marriage, even if we take God out of the equation. Place God at the center, when we believe he transforms us, then let the miracles begin. God’s transformation of the family is the radical gift of mercy, love, compassion and forgiveness lived with joy. We are all sinners and in God’s transformative grace we are able to seek the mercy, the love, the compassion and the forgiveness of God through the beloved sharing, giving and receiving this wondrous grace transform us.

And yet, we come back to the question, “do I believe?” If we believe then we must live and practice what we believe. If we believe then we will be transformed and made new…even in our sinfulness.

As the U.S. Bishops quote in the opening chapter of Love is our Mission from Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei, “To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, his response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light. In Christ, God himself wishes to share this path with us and to offer us his gaze so that we might see the light within it. Christ is the one who, having endured suffering, is the ‘pioneer and perfecter of our faith.’” (9) In relationship with our brothers and sisters we share in the accompanying presence of God. as we live and love always remembering that mercy, forgiveness and compassion fulfill love.

Let the Church say AMEN.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

The Pope is coming…the Pope is coming…the Pope is coming!!!!!!!!!!

In the remote possibility you have been sequestered in some deep dark cave for the past few weeks…the Pope is coming. There is much excitement in the awaiting the coming of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his visit to the United States. We may, in our excitement, forget why his is coming and the important work that is being done in preparation for his visit.

Why is Pope Francis coming to the United States? He is not coming to visit the President or speak before the United Nations or the Congress and he is not here to canonize Junipero Serra…although he will be doing all of those things and more…he is coming for the World Meeting of Families. If you haven’t had a chance to read Pope Francis’ comments and remarks on the family I would encourage you to take time and do a little reading. I would suggest the www.catholicnewsagency.com and search for articles on Pope Francis and the family.

I offer you the following quotes…

“The family is a school where prayer also reminds us that we are not isolated individuals; we are one and we have a neighbour close at hand: he or she is living under the same roof, is a part of our life, and is in need.”

Pope Francis is reminding us of the very basic catechesis of the family, that the parents are the first teachers in faith for their children. Through their words, actions and dreams they draw all to a closer relationship with God that does not isolate but rather gathers and grows the community of faith. Parents and families are seeds of goodness and joy in the community. This is good news where husbands and wives are living symbols of God’s love and mercy for one another, their children and the world.

“God calls men and women to be parents who believe in love, who believe in its beauty. I want to ask you, do you believe in the beauty of love? Do you believe in the greatness of love? Do you have faith in this? This is a daily faith.”                                                  

Marriage is founded on beauty and love. It is the faith filled moment of conversion to another in our lives. God, who is love and beauty, centers our relationships and centers our lives on the daily struggles to be living symbols of holiness (saints) in our world                                                                                                                              

“If these wounds are not healed in time, they worsen and turn into resentment and hostility, which (then) fall to the children,” he cautioned, adding that when the wounds are particularly deep, “they can even lead a spouse to search for understanding elsewhere, to the detriment of the family.”                                                                         

But we are also realistic: we are sinners and do sin. The hurt of sin needs the healing balm of mercy and forgiveness that comes from a relationship with God. This is why the daily acts of love and forgiveness lead us to the openness, to reconciliation and growth in love where our true calling to be beloved in the arms of God and our family becomes reality.

Please take time to pray for your family and all families and remember THE POPE IS COMING!!!!!!!!

God Bless

Fr. Mark

“To obey in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who his Truth itself” (CCC 144)

Faith is not a means to something further. It is not what we do in order to get into heaven. Mutual perfect faith would be heaven! Faith is its own end. To have faith is already to have come alive. “your faith has saved you” (Lk 18:42) is the way Jesus put it to the blind man. (Richard Rohr, What the Mystics Know)

The two quotes above remind us that faith as an act a submission to something greater than we are but also a movement of joy where we are fulfilled in our desire to be loved. As we remember the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, we are challenged to look with the eyes of faith into the world. In submitting to the greater we choose to work and journey towards that which is beyond our ability to understand or to even dream, it allows us to begin to see and act in the mercy and love of God. Living in faith means that we move away from the debilitating fear that often separates us from the other and drives a wedge between compassion and goodness in the community of love.

To be alive in faith, as Fr. Richard Rohr points out, is to be in a mutual and loving relationship. Fear and hopelessness deadens the heart while faith and love enliven and grow the capacity to love and be loved by the other.

A few years ago a teen came and complained that her mother did not love her and etc…(I will let you fill in the blank)….We had a wonderful and long conversation. It was difficult and hard to hear the words of hurt and anger because they conveyed the fear of not being loved. As we closed our conversation I asked her to do three things, the first was to pray for her mother at least three times a day, simply asking God to bless her. The second was to share one word with her mother at least three times a day: thank you. The third was a simple examination of conscience each evening looking not just at her faults but especially for the blessings received that day.

A couple of months after this conversation when we had a chance to chat again, the young lady was much happier. The relationship was better…not perfect…but better. The most remarkable thing she conveyed was that it wasn’t just her mother that she saw differently but her whole family and even her friends and teachers. To become alive in faith changed her perspective on the world.

When we look beyond ourselves into the eyes of God’s love with faith our world will change because we begin to know the graciousness and generosity of God’s mercy and love. Seeking to enter into his desire that we be united and joined in the unity of his love in and through faith.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

“The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.” — Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Earlier this week, this quote from Gregory the Great came across my twitter feed. (believe it or not, two years ago I could not have written this sentence) and it made me think about many things. What is love? Why are works of love so vital in our life? How are love and mercy linked together? All of these thoughts bounced together, with many others, as I considered my life and the world around us.

For me, love first and foremost is a work of obedience and sacrifice as we choose to serve something greater. When I was ordained a priest my act of love was in the vows that I chose to pray that morning before my bishop, family and the Church. It was in love that I entered into something greater than my priesthood and into the heart of the Most Holy Trinity where my choice to become less allowed the work of God to become more in my life and the life of the Church. Love is the surrender of my life to a greater love.

And this is where the works of love do great things. As St. Paul writes, “If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing“(1 Cor 13:3) or St. James “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (Jms 2:17) or Jesus even had a few things to say about the work of love “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.“ (Jn 13:34)

The works of love, the small and the great, sustain and feed the spirit and grow the vineyard of blessing. In my priesthood I have discovered this in the obedience to prayer, the hearing and contemplating the Word of God in Sacred Scripture and in adoration. But the works come into the fullness of joy when I chose to serve others in both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. It is our baptismal call to love and be loved by turning towards and serving Jesus present in our brothers and sisters. It is the choice to offer it up to God always and everywhere in the good, the bad, the joys and the sufferings.

Which brings us to mercy. The Year of Mercy is fast approaching and it would be hopeless to seek mercy if we do not have faith, hope and love in our hearts flowing through our works. I discovered the fullness of depth of God’s love in mercy on my last visit with Fr. Alex Affonso before his death. It was when he asked my forgiveness for the challenges and difficulties we had as brother priests that I understood with the depth of the gift of mercy as shared love. It was the humbleness to allow the greater love of God’s mercy to be extended as I too asked for forgiveness and prayers. Mercy ultimately is seeing and acting with the eyes of love, the eyes of God, as we encounter our Lord Jesus in each other. It was at that moment that I knew what the women caught in adultery experienced,(Jn 8:1-11) what the criminal on the cross knew,(Lk 23:39-33) and what the disciples in the upper room rejoiced in as our Lord Jesus spoke those simple words. “Peace be with you.” (Jn20:20-22) Truly love is an ocean of mercy.

God Bless,

Fr. Mark

Ps. If you wish listen to  “Ocean of Mercy” by The Thirsting for a spiritual boost.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7kb9UcOp8Q