Pope Francis says some remarkable things…and he also says some remarkably confusing things. The media world was abuzz with this one phrase, “the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null.” Oh my. He later amended his remarks to state “a portion” and not a great majority. This is still a remarkable statement. Many people have been dissecting Pope Francis’ words but I would suggest that we read them in light of Amoris Laetitia and the greater understanding of marriage.   I think if we look at it in this light then the words become less likely to shock us and more likely to spur us forward in hopefulness and faith.

 

In Chapter 6 of the Exhortation the Holy Father talks about the pastoral aspects about marriage and the man and woman preparing their life for marriage. It is a candid and forthright discussion of the realities of married life and how we, as the people of God, can support and grow the depth of love and understanding within the family.

 

Hope is the leaven that, in those first years of engagement and marriage, makes it possible to look beyond arguments, conflicts and problems and to see things in a broader perspective. It harnesses our uncertainties and concerns so that growth can take place. Hope also bids us live fully in the present, giving our all to the life of the family, for the best way to prepare a solid future is to live well in the present. (219) The gift of hope Pope Francis talks about is the ongoing growth of love. We understand all relationship, whether it is between us and God, husband and wife or the friendships that enter our life, are all on a growth pattern we individually experience. All married couples experience this blessing as it looks toward a future. The love of husband and wife naturally grows and the understanding of the reality of marriage also takes on a deeper meaning.

 

This process occurs in various stages that call for generosity and sacrifice. The first powerful feelings of attraction give way to the realization that the other is now a part of my life. The pleasure of belonging to one another leads to seeing life as a common project, putting the other’s happiness ahead of my own, and realizing with joy that this marriage enriches society (220) Pope Francis’ statement about marriage occurs as the process of stages. It is the process that moves through initial attraction to the stage of courting, engagement and finally the growth of marriage that creates the fertile field of faith and love where the common dreams of life become united in the husband and wife growing in understanding about the truth of marriage. This is the gift of the mystery of love where the search for the other invites us to “take” the other into our deepest heart as the man and woman pray on their wedding day.

 

Each marriage is a kind of “salvation history”, which from fragile beginnings –thanks to God’s gift and a creative and generous response on our part – grows over time into something precious and enduring. Might we say that the greatest mission of two people in love is to help one another become, respectively, more a man and more a woman? Fostering growth means helping a person to shape his or her own identity. Love is thus a kind of, craftsmanship…At every new stage, they can keep “forming” one another. Love makes each wait for the other with the patience of a craftsman, a patience which comes from God. (221) While some couples may not fully understand the Sacrament they become in marriage, there is the “forming” of the greater self which marriage engenders in the other. This is where the remarkable sentence of our Holy Father becomes clearer. As a priest, prepared intentionally and rigorously to become the Sacrament that I am, I too continue to grow in my understanding of how I am called to be part of salvation history as a priest. The married couple, prepared (maybe not as rigorously) too often within the greater influence of modern society also must continue to grow and be formed in the understanding of the sacramental nature of their unique and life giving love as husband and wife.

 

We are all works in progress. Pope Francis’ comment was not a condemnation of many marriages rather, I believe, it is a challenge to the Church, her ministers, and all married couples to seek to continue to grow into the blessing of grace we are called to be in God’s eyes.

 

God Bless

Fr. Mark

I am writing this reflection from the shores of Lake Tahoe. As I sit here in the quiet of the night I can hear the gently lapping of the water against the shore and the cool night air surrounding me as I pray and offer this small note. I am at Tahoe for a very specific purpose. I am the youth chaplain for the Diocesan Youth Retreat (DYR) that has been happening this week. We are celebrating this week of God’s joy with over 190 teens from many parishes around the diocese (St. Lucy has 7 teens, 2 leaders attending) and almost 70 staff members helping to bring the presence of God more fully into the experience of these wonderful and holy Catholic youth.

 

Our keynote speaker has been Fr. Augustino Torres CFR. He has poured out the grace of God in prayer, stories, song and the holy joy of serving God as a Franciscan priest. (http://franciscanfriars.com/ you can learn more about is order here)

 

At the retreat we have been focusing and speaking a lot about the Jubilee Year of Mercy (yes it is still going on) and how God’s mercy is present in the life of each person and how as young Catholics they can celebrate this mercy and share it with others.

 

The keynote talks have been amazing. The sharing the youth do in their small groups has been life giving. Listening to them asks and struggle with deep questions of faith and how to live their faith more fully in the world is a powerful blessing to hear and share with them. The playtime, the singing, the praising of God in word, worship and sacrament fills me with wonder. But I would like to share two specific events that have been impactful to me personally and I know, through speaking with and witnessing the teens celebrate God’s love are life changing.

 

The first occurred Wednesday evening with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I have helped at literally hundreds of retreats in the eleven years I have been ordained as a priest and without fail, the time of sacramental Reconciliation is always a powerful moment when the grace and love of God touches the heart of the teens. The ten priests who came to celebrate the Sacraments spent over three hours listening and counseling the young people in the healing mercy of God. And many times it is much more about the listening than the counseling. The burdens the young men and women gave over in blessing to Jesus Christ through this sacrament of healing were truly a movement of the Holy Spirit.

 

The second occurred on Thursday evening. After a full day of blessing, the celebration of a sunset Mass on the shores of Lake Tahoe we invited the teens to a time of adoration. Led by Fr. Augustino the young women and men spent nearly 2½ hours singing and praising the presence of Jesus the Eucharist. They were invited to bring their lives to the altar and offer themselves to the blessing of Jesus to seek and follow the path that God has called them to follow. It is often impossible in life to have anyone, let alone a teen, spend anytime away from the intrusion of the electronic siren call of the telephone or tablet but I witnessed the grace of these blessed and holy followers of Jesus loose themselves in the timelessness of God’s presence. The laughter and tears of prayer intermingled with the procession of candles representing their gift of self to God were brought with genuine joy knowing that they were loved and accepted by God.

 

I will return the parish tomorrow evening exhausted in body but renewed in spirit as God has blessed me in so many different ways with healing and mercy. If you are interested in seeing the pictures of the retreat you can go to any Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and use #DYR2016 to find the photos. It was such a blessing to serve with wonderful youth ministers from around the Diocese let by Row David from Holy Spirit Parish and the many other adults and young adults that helped bring God’s love and blessing to this remarkable week. Thank you Jesus.

 

God Bless

Fr. Mark

 

As we continue our journey through the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia we are reminded that the family is the foundation for all stable and just societies and the breakdown in family life begins the slow and painful breakdown of the greater society. Two things become very clear throughout the exhortation. First is the biblical foundation on the family as the symbol of God’s presence and love in the world. The second is the long tradition of Catholic teaching on the unity and blessing of the family as husband and wife with the fruitfulness of children.

 

As our school year ended at St. Lucy parish I have been thinking a lot about families and how we grow together in support of each other. We hear many times the oft repeated phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child” which is true to some extent but the village can only raise the child when there is a unity of purpose and a goal that respects the dignity and freedom of the mother and father in determining what is best for their sons and daughters. It is the unity that comes from a common dream and hope that unites us as one through God’s call to serve.   No family can be fruitful if it sees itself as overly different or “set apart”. To avoid this risk, we should remember that Jesus’ own family, so full of grace and wisdom, did not appear unusual or different from others…Jesus did not grow up in a narrow and stifling relationship with Mary and Joseph, but readily interacted with the wider family, the relatives of his parents and their friends. (182)

 

When we are able to live in the interaction where the child discovers his or her wider purpose in life is be loved as a child of God we then begin to see joy spring forth in vibrant and fruitful love. A married couple who experience the power of love know that this love is called to bind the wounds of the outcast, to foster a culture of encounter and to fight for justice. God has given the family the job of “domesticating” the world and helping each person to see fellow human beings as brothers and sisters….For their part, open and caring families find a place for the poor and build friendships with those less fortunate than themselves.(183)

 

It is now rare that we hear stories of families that welcome the stranger into their midst. When I was at St. Martin of Tours, John and Ellie, two true disciples would spend their gifts of time, talent, and treasure in service of the poor of the community. Often inviting strangers to meal and purchasing items for those in need. It was watching the Gospel come alive when they would tell stories of gentle kindnesses that influenced not only their children but also a parish to become more compassionate and generous with our gifts. Their example was always a challenge and call for others and me to “fight for justice” in small acts of charitable blessing. It wasn’t about changing the systems of the world it was about seeking the presence of God and serving Him in our sisters and brothers. The example of parents doing this allows their children to see and experience a different kind of generosity, one that flows not from the natural bond of biological connection but from the beating heart of love.

 

By their witness as well as their words, families speak to others of Jesus. They pass on the faith, they arouse a desire for God and they reflect the beauty of the Gospel and its way of life. Christian marriages thus enliven society by their witness of fraternity, their social concern, their outspokenness on behalf of the underprivileged, their luminous faith and their active hope. Their fruitfulness expands and in countless ways makes God’s love present in society. (184)

 

It is the act of Christian charity that grows the vines of fruitfulness in the heart of the family, especially the children who witness this love. When we allow our self to be extended, to be stretched in love, to be given the gift of sharing what we have for others we discover the peace of Christ in the marriage and the family, a peace that heals and binds the wounds of sin as we work towards a better and more just world. God calls each of us, through the family to be his hands, his face, his word of comfort to one another. It is who we are called to be as a living Church whose stones are broken and shared for all to see.

To end with my favorite quote from the last few years… For a parish to actually be a ‘family of families’ calls for concrete actions of hospitality and generosity. St. John Paul II said that ‘opening the doors to one’s home, and still more of one’s heart,’ is a mode of imitating Christ. (#88 from Love is our Mission: The Family Fully Alive)

God Bless

Fr. Mark

I had prepared to write on something entirely different this week from Amoris Laetitia and then I witnessed something so wonderful and beautiful that I needed to write this short reflection.

After morning Mass early this week, after saying goodbye to the people and walking back to the sacristy I saw a young and very pregnant women enter the church, sit down and begin to pray the Rosary, nothing too remarkable in that. When I came out of the sacristy to pray my morning prayers I looked over at the young woman and this was when the blessing blasted through: as she prayed the rosary lay upon her womb as a perfect circle, as if the prayers of Mary were surrounding the little child growing within the mother. I certainly paused wondered and began to ponder this in my heart as I brought my prayers to God.

It is this gift of life given through the procreative act of man and woman that we hear proclaimed loudly and with love. Pregnancy is a difficult but wonderful time. A mother joins with God to bring forth the miracle of a new life. Motherhood is the fruit of a “particular creative potential of the female body, directed to the conception and birth of a new human being”. Each woman shares in “the mystery of creation, which is renewed with each birth”. The Psalmist says: “You knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Ps 139:13).

Every child growing within the mother’s womb is part of the eternal loving plan of God the Father: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jer 1:5). Each child has a place in God’s heart from all eternity; once he or she is conceived, the Creator’s eternal dream comes true.

Let us pause to think of the great value of that embryo from the moment of conception. We need to see it with the eyes of God, who always looks beyond mere appearances. (#168)

Indeed, let us pause….

As I finished my morning prayer and got up to leave the church I glanced once more at this pregnant mother with the rosary in hand, not encircling the womb as before but draped over the unborn child.

“Pregnancy is a difficult but wonderful time.” Enough said. The gift of new life within the family is always an interruption in the patterns of life. Even when we look forward with great joy to the new member of the family there are many difficulties that can range from little inconveniences to the serious medical and health issues of mother and child. I have spent hours laughing with new parents and other hours praying and listening to the fears and doubts of new life. But whether it is in the former or the latter, the hope of love shines forth and the wonderfulness of the mystery of life grows ever greater as the father and mother looks forward in anticipation to what will be.

Then there is this little nugget placed for our pondering, “the Creator’s eternal dream comes true.” WOW!!!!! You and I, all people great and small are part of God’s dream for a world and peace, hope and love. Amen. Stepping back and being reminded that each of us is part of God’s greater plan, His dream, is mindboggling and invites us to look at life, especially new life, with eyes of blessing. If we can focus on the hope of the eternal dream of God how much different does the world look knowing God’s dreams that you and I are made to be participants in His Kingdom. And more importantly, we are all made to play our part however small or large. And even more, all life helps us to see and trust in God’s divine mercy and love.

Place this in the context of a parent’s love for their child…they dream of a future for their child(ren) that is not mundane but is filled with joy, blessing and hope…how much more so for our Heavenly Father. This dream founded in the protection and blessing of love…a Rosary of prayer encircling new life, a Rosary of prayer growing in love.

God Bless

Fr. Mark