Being a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Memorial Day Weekend has grown in importance over the years.. Growing up it was always the last holiday that marked the end of the school and the beginning of summer vacation. I began boot camp in San Diego two days after Memorial Day and celebrated my first Memorial Day as a Marine in Beaufort South Carolina.

The first and greatest change in honoring those who have died in the service of our country, as a member of the military, is the solemnness that marks the day. There are other days throughout the year when historical and special events pertaining to the branch of service are given a special honor, but this day is held in deep respect and remembrance of the lives given in the protection of freedom and of our loved ones.

The death of a loved one is always life changing and the death of a son or daughter in war is at times even more difficult to understand. Listening to the stories of the men and women who walked as brothers and sisters with those who died serving and sacrificing is hearing the whispers of voices of hope coming alive once again. It is a moment to be reminded once more of the dignity of life but also its fragility and priceless worth of each life when bound in love. These stories told and shared take on a sacred nature.

We as followers of Jesus Christ understand and live this experience. It is standing with Jesus in suffering and sorrow, walking the way of the cross with Him that we are able to fully embrace and honor the sacrifice. I remember one night at work with the Gunnery Sargent in charge of the night maintenance crew shared about his first tour in Viet Nam that began days before the 1968 Tet Offensive. I sat listening, with my 19-year-old bravado, to the story of life and death and how his friends died or were maimed. The voice of love and honor, even twelve years after the event, were still apparent and changed my heart.

During this Jubilee Year of Mercy we are called to listen more carefully for the voice of God in our conversations and our actions with and towards others. In the shared experience found through the conversations of life our hearts are softened to hear how we are called to reach out, respond and be touched by the other in our life. As Pope Francis writes in Misericordiae Vultus, “In this Holy Year, we look forward to the experience of opening our hearts to those living on the outermost fringes of society: fringes which modern society itself creates. How many uncertain and painful situations there are in the world today! How many are the wounds borne by the flesh of those who have no voice because their cry is muffled and drowned out by the indifference of the rich!…Let us ward off destructive cynicism! Let us open our eyes and see the misery of the world, the wounds of our brothers and sisters…let us recognize that we are compelled to heed their cry for help! May we reach out to them and support them so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship, and our fraternity…let us enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy…Moreover, we will be asked if we have helped others to escape the doubt that causes them to fall into despair and which is often a source of loneliness.” (#16)

When we choose to remember with the heart of mercy we are more apt to hear God’s voice spoken in the memorial of life. Our call to serve is a call to be with and walk with the poor, the broken, the sorrowing. It is to be with one another where we share the burdens and seek to grow in unity through the memorial of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. I pray that you have a holy and wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

Semper Fi–God Bless,

Fr. Mark

As part of my prayer life this year I have been reading from a book of short spiritual reflections by Fr. Richard Rohr OFM titled What the Mystics Know. Early in the book he reflects on Matthew 13:26-27 the “Wheat and the Weeds” (p 15) where he writes about the problems of good and evil and how in the spiritual life we are confronted with this reality, as we look within and see, the wheat and weeds of life growing together within us. I have returned again and again to these short reflections over the past few months as the echo in my heart and I seek to see how the co-existence of good and evil can be a mirror for my understanding of God’s compassion and mercy in my life and the life of His people.

I often counsel and console people both in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in brief chats that conversion happens both as a sudden and life altering event and as the slow slog through a life of searching for and living in holiness. I remind myself and them that we are called to sow the seeds of grace in blessing in the fields that are often overrun with the weeds of sin and through God’s blessing see the wheat of love begin to grow slowly and steadily. I listen to the fear and sorrow of family and friends who speak of loved ones who have strayed from the path of holiness and grace and how we, as God’s people, seek to witness in hope and call them into the fruitfulness of love.

It is the wheat and the weeds growing together within our hearts that help us to be vigilant and trusting in the mercy of God for all people because we too have reached out and received his mercy. Rohr gives us this short reflection, “Victory over sin is never total but rather a victory over sin’s power to overwhelm us or defeat us. The sacred signs [in the form of stories, images, symbols, or dreams] allow us to live with and walk with and through our sin to God. God’s help does not readjust our false self or polish up our self-image. Instead, God shows us the depths of our emptiness and sin so that we have nothing more to shock or humiliate us.” (p 21)

This month of May, the Spiritual Work of Mercy, Counsel the Doubtful, flows wonderfully from this above reflection. Not to be shocked or humiliated by our sin does not mean to accept it or to allow it to rule our life rather it is a time to open our hearts more fully and completely to God’s healing mercy. When we choose sit in counsel, to listen and hear, to speak and share doubts we become the light of God’s love shine on the weeds of our life.

How do we choose to counsel and be counseled in our life? Each of us suffers doubts about many thing and our doubts about God are compounded by our failing again and again to do the things we don’t want to do and fail to do those we are called to do to better our life and the world. It’s not a new problem…just read the Bible…where in the search for God, the search for peace, the search of justice holy men and women failed over and over again. Yet, the common thread is they continued to reach out to God and live with and work with the sin as they walk to God. The example we are called to follow.

We, as people of mercy, are called to accompany and share our story of walking with God in encouragement and patience. We counsel those in doubt in the reality of conversion and the call to follow Jesus. A conversion that changes our vision of the world and a conversion that asks us to walk through the field of sacrificial love. It is a field filled with weeds. It is also a field, when we choose to work and play in God’s image, we become abundant…30 or 60 or 90 fold…in true joy.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

The below quote from the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is a wonderful way to shine light on the sacramental gift that God chooses to share with us in growing our understanding of how the family works and how through our Lord Jesus we are called to move in relationship through a life of sharing the goodness of God with each other.

“The Gospel of the family also nourishes seeds that are still waiting to grow, and serves as the basis for caring for those plants that are wilting and must not be neglected.” Thus, building on the gift of Christ in the sacrament, married couples “may be led patiently further on in order to achieve a deeper grasp and a fuller integration of this mystery in their lives.”(#76)

We are reminded again and again that attentiveness in relationship is the needed light that helps the depth of understanding to grow between one another. While the Holy Father is speaking directly to the love between a man and a woman in the Sacrament of Marriage this advice flows down into the greater family and into all relationships in one manner or another. We understand this as Pope Francis writes, …(O)nly in contemplating Christ does a person come to know the deepest truth about human relationships…It is particularly helpful to understand in a Christocentric key… the good of the spouses (bonum coniugum)”, which includes unity, openness to life, fidelity, indissolubility and, within Christian marriage, mutual support on the path towards complete friendship with the Lord. (#77) It is this friendship with Jesus that is we are called to enter into on an ongoing basis. We are reminded that it is in the small things that the greater things grow further in life. The challenge that we all face is how in integrate a deepening faith in Jesus through our daily acts of love towards one another. This can be difficult to discover when we choose to isolate ourselves from one another. The ideal is found only when in friendship and conversation with our Lord we discover the dialogue is one of mercy and forgiveness.

We are able to build upon the foundation of love as we seek the better of ourselves through God’s blessings and where we see the other, which in marriage is our spouse, as the gift from God that offers us to contemplate in wonder how we are able to be the blessing of mercy, forgiveness and love in the world to our beloved. Living the Gospel message invites us to nourish one another is joy we find in the sacrifice of a committed choice to serve. It is choosing to in the reciprocal act of love, the give and take of relationship that invites, receives and grows each blessing in the wonder of God’s generosity.

This is where, for Christians, the life of prayer is so important and for the husband and wife become integral in their daily interaction. In prayer for each other and with each other the couple grow in the contemplation of the blessing of the other in their lives. It follows that this continues with the gift of children in calling and leading them into a deepening relationship with Jesus. It is a life of prayer that takes action in recognizing and serving the beloved where the physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual needs of the beloved are honored and cherished in trusting love.

In the vows of marriage, as the husband and wife speak the prayer, the words “I take you” are only possible because the other has given his or her self in surrender to the invitation of lasting and holy love. It is a reminder that man and woman in becoming husband and wife join with Jesus Christ in a grace filled relationship where in desiring the good of the other they show forth the love of God to the world.

God bless

Fr. Mark

What is your intention? This is a question that we often ask others but it should also be a question that we place in front of our self during our daily acts of service, sacrifice and love. As Christians our intentions should always be directed towards growth in holiness and unity with God and the people of God (the Church). I know this in my heart but it is very often hard to put into practice. Do I have to sit down before each decision and “really” think about my intentions? The simple answer is YES. Don’t panic because it really isn’t that hard. Jesus gives us this guidance, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.“(Lk 16:10a) in other words, if we form our conscience well in doing the small things then the intentions we have as we choose right from wrong becomes clearer and we then act upon these intentions with confidence and joy in doing the right thing.

This is especially true in our relationships, between husband and wife in a unique way, but also with each and every relationship that we share in our lives. Husbands and wives are entrusted with much in their choosing the sacramental call to be united as one in Jesus Christ and because of this they must be attentive to their intentions in the small acts of sacrificial love. The below quote from Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia gives us a glimpse into the teaching of the Church.

The Second Vatican Council, in its Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, was concerned “to promote the dignity of marriage and the family”(47-52). The Constitution “defined marriage as a community of life and love (cf. 48), placing love at the centre of the family… ‘True love between husband and wife’ (49) involves mutual self-giving, includes and integrates the sexual and affective dimensions, in accordance with God’s plan (cf. 48-49)”. The conciliar document also emphasizes “the grounding of the spouses in Christ. Christ the Lord ‘makes himself present to the Christian spouses in the sacrament of marriage’ (48) and remains with them. In the incarnation, he assumes human love, purifies it and brings it to fulfillment. By his Spirit, he gives spouses the capacity to live that love, permeating every part of their lives of faith, hope and charity. In this way, the spouses are consecrated and by means of a special grace build up the Body of Christ and form a domestic church, so that the Church, in order fully to understand her mystery, looks to the Christian family, which manifests her in a real way”. (#67) [all numbers inside the quote refer to Gaudium et Spes]

A few phrases and words struck me as very blessed, (1) mutual self-giving: It is not a one-way street in the blessing of love. Giving and receiving are not a tit-for-tat negotiation but rather a choosing to give in trust knowing the intention of the other is for your good and growth in holiness. (2) grounded in Christ: When we choose to be united with Christ then our intention will always be in seeking the good in the other. Choosing to act in ways to bless and lift up our spouse in true love that draws forth his/her holiness. (3) the spouses are consecrated: God blesses each of us but in the unique grace of the Sacrament of Marriage, the man and woman are consecrated to each other. They are in marriage made for each other in service where their intention, through God, is to be united as one in holiness and grace.

Once more, this is not an impossible task rather it is the fruit of the intention of holiness in acting towards the other in life. It is doing the work daily in the small acts of love that flow forth into the greater acts of love. It is growing in virtue of love as we encounter the other in our life with patience, gentleness and understanding. The humility to grow in love requires we work in the field of love. “Indeed, it is the daily practice of these virtues that draws couples into deeper connection with God. As theologian Richard R. Gaillardetz describes, “The spiritual challenge of our lives lies not in desperately setting aside moments for God alongside the other activities and commitments of our lives, but rather that of discovering within our basic human activities and commitments the possibility for communion with God.” We are invited daily to open our eyes to the presence of God, not despite the complex and often busy lives we have as couples and families, but through the relationships and commitments that mark our days.” (p. 47-48 from Project Holiness)

God Bless

Fr. Mark