This weekend the Catholic Church celebrates Priesthood Sunday, a day when parishes and communities are asked to pray for their parish priest and all priests around the world. It is a very special day for my brother priests and I as we receive the many blessings surrounding us as members of the Body of Christ. Pope Benedict XVI in his Holy Thursday homily in 2008 spoke these words, “”To serve the Lord”—priestly service precisely also means to learn to know the Lord in his Word and to make it known to all those he entrusts to us.”

The call to service in the Word or God is at the center of priestly ministry. The ordained ministry is founded on a special call to serve God and his people knowing our Lord Jesus deeply and with profound love. And this is the greatest challenge that we all face as disciples of Jesus…we can know a lot about him but do we know him?

This has been the greatest ongoing blessing of my eleven years of ministry: getting to know Jesus better each and every day of my life through sacramental service and love. It has been the daily and hourly conversations that I have had with our Lord: laughing and crying, singing and shouting, blessing and cursing as I seek to hear his voice ever deeper in my heart. And yes, I have failed miserably at times to hear this beloved voice whispering in my heart. Thank God for confession.

These moments of dialogue become moments of blessings because in this conversation of love I have discovered more and more each day I am not alone in my priestly ministry but it is founded and enlivened in and through relationships of love with those God has called me to serve. In my work in the parishes I have served and especially my work in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement I have grown in the understanding of how my vocation to serve is enlivened, enriched and made holy in the relationships of joy and love that God call me to enter into in the laughing and crying, the singing and shouting and even the cursing and blessing. It is here that Our Lord is calling forth the priesthood I am.

It is not the case that there is no hurts, frustrations and sadness’s in serving God in the ordained priesthood…those are the moments of crying, shouting and cursing…because it is through these moments, where in a conversation of love with my Lord Jesus, God’s graces flows forth in my greatest conversion, my greatest intimacy and my greatest blessings. In growing in the understanding that through sacramental relationships the blessing of God’s holy Church bring true peace and joy to my heart and to the hearts of the faithful.

Here is part of a prayer our Bishop gave to all priests of the Diocese of San Jose several years ago and a prayer I offer each morning, “Be with us this day. Give us the courage to be strong, loving and wise: strong in prayer, loving in service and wise ministers of your mercy.” This prayer is a constant reminder of the obligation to love, to serve and to be merciful in each interaction, thought and prayer. We become what we pray…or in the Latin, “Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi. Lex Vivendi”

On this Priesthood Sunday, please pray for your local priest, offer him a word of encouragement and bless him with a smile.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

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

A couple of weeks ago as I entered my office I saw the above image sitting on my chair. Almost everyone knows who Vin Scully is and his place within the culture of the United States. Our pastoral associate at St. Lucy, Andrew Brown, gave this memento to me, a Dodger fan (please forgive me), knowing that it would be cherished and honored in my life.

Of course there is the rivalry aspect of the Giants and Dodgers that comes into play as often the good natured banter and ribbing of each teams fan base which takes place as the ups and downs of the season occur as the pennants, world championships as well as the disappointments and losses break the hearts of the fans. Generally it is good-natured and most fans take in stride the abuse shared as the cheering for your team can become a little bit vociferous and obnoxious at times. There are also times when, sadly, the good natured-ness of the rivalry can step over what should be expected and hoped for in a sports rivalry.

The respect and honor between two rivals is necessary and helps to grow greater respect and joy in rooting for the home team. This comes about because as we know better the team we hope fails we know with a deeper and greater passion the team, which we love. It is the ability to sit in conversation, that may look a little bit like a argument, where we discover that the deep passions that unite us to our favorite team (the Dodgers) actually connect us in a wonderful and graceful way to those delusional souls who have a different favorite team (such as the Giants) for what ever strange reason.

With all fun aside, and sports and being a fan of a team should be fun, it is the respecting and honoring of others in all parts of our life that is at the heart of relationships and the greater community. It has become very apparent during this political season that the ability to listen, share and debate issues of great importance and which many people of strong opinions have become more about the destruction of the other person than about refuting the idea or position held. One of the greatest and most powerful symbols of this was at the end of the final presidential debate this week where the candidates, in an intentional and planned moment, refused to shake hands at the end of their debate. Why they chose not to take that small moment to recognize the other is puzzling and troubling.

It is the choosing to recognize the other person as worthy of respect, even of a handshake, that is at the center how we are called to be as sons and daughters of the living God.   I understand deeply held political, social and religious views that many people have because I too have deeply held beliefs that I will passionately defend and argue about with others. And I understand the religious, social and political beliefs are more important than any sports fandom, but ultimately we can learn from the field of competition and respecting each other. People always point to the end of hockey series, when the two opposing teams line up, winners and losers, to shake the hand of the other or after a soccer match where the teams walk to each other to share a word of sportsmanship after highly contested matches.

Ultimately, it is recognizing the dignity of the other, even in our disagreements and passionate beliefs, which bind us together and help to build respect and community. The next few weeks leading up to the election will bring more opportunities to refuse to shake the hand of the others in our life. Whatever candidate or issue you may support or oppose it is important that we seek to hear and, while we may disagree, respect the others in life. So don’t forget, as we hear the many arguments, to reach out and shake the hand and look the other in the eye and recognize that we are all children of God.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

One of the most remarkable things I have discovered during my years as a priest is how the Word of God infiltrates everything and everywhere in my life. I know that this has always been the case but I was blinded to it or took it for granted for much of my life in not recognizing His voice in my life. A great example came on Saturday afternoon of the St. Lucy Parish Fun Fest. I was visiting at the adult watering hole talking to the person pouring the drinks. He asked what was the Gospel for the weekend, actually what he asked was, “What was the lesson for the service?” When I told him it was the Gospel of the Ten Lepers his eyes lit up. We began a wonderful conversation about the reading and eventually about the reality of seeking and knowing Jesus. He told me that for many years he thought the one leper who returned had disobeyed Jesus because he was told to see the priest. Then he leaned in and said, “but he did see the priest because Jesus is the true priest and he knew where the source of true healing was to be found.”

Listening to his excitement in hearing this Word opened my eyes to another understanding. Full disclosure, it didn’t change the homily that I had prepared for the weekend, but it did put my mind on a train of thought towards the blessings that God shares with us in what we say and do in the world. It is a reminder that during this Jubilee Year of Mercy that each of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy are founded in the abundant and generous love God pours upon each and every person created in His likeness. We can feed the hungry but unless we recognize that true hunger is only satiated in God then physical hunger will never be fully satisfied. We counsel the doubtful realizing that it is only in the growing in faith and knowledge of God that doubt is truly replaced by confidence and trust in the grace that surrounds us. We can bear wrongs patiently and yet it is only through the offering of forgiveness and seeking reconciliation in an all-merciful and compassionate Father that the healing into true unity and love are brought about.

Which is a long way around the path to get back to the original point, the presence and blessing of God in each moment of our life. St. Peter is his First Letter reminds us to be prepared, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Pt 3:15) And it is with “gentleness and respect” that true conversion in conversations of love become more and more apparent. It is also true that we must know the person of Jesus to be prepared to give witness to our beliefs and practices of the faith. When we are able to look into our lives, with the eyes of faith, we begin to see and understand the omnipresence of God in every moment, whether in joy or suffering, in praise or persecution, we are aware that God holds us in the gentle embrace of love.

This is the challenge we face, to seek God in all things. We can and do become complacent in our relationships, where we begin expect good things rather than appreciate and give thanks the small and large blessings given and shared each day. Looking for God is not hard and believe it or not you will find Him in the most interesting places.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

I was blessed to celebrate a funeral Mass for an elderly woman this past week. She was never married and her niece and nephew were helping with the arrangements. She had for the past eight years suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and for the last five years had been unable to attend Mass at the parish.

As we planned her funeral her niece remarked that only a few people would be at Mass because of her age and family…perhaps as few as three. She also said several times how important her Aunt’s faith was in her life and very emphatically that this, the funeral Mass, would have been what she wanted and what she deserved. You cannot know how her conviction, to do what her Aunt would have done, warmed the faith of my heart.

As we come to this Jubilee Year of Mercy in our Catholic Church we focus this month on both a Spiritual and Corporal Work of Mercy: Praying for the Living and the Dead (Spiritual Work) and To Bury the Dead (Corporal Work). The encounter described above focuses this simple Corporal Work in a wonderful light. We seek to honor those who have died in a dignified manner, respecting both their wishes as they lived but also treating the body with blessing, recognizing it as the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking with others about your wishes at the time of death, giving instructions through a Will or other document or planning your funeral before you die is not morbid or fatalistic rather it is recognizing a blessing received, life, and seeking to help your friends and relatives honor your life as a son or daughter of God. The Diocese of San Jose asks me, and all priests, to place in our files a copy of our funeral plans as a way of helping to celebrate the Funeral Mass with joy and blessing.

We need to remember that we are anticipating something greater as we pass from death to life in our Lord Jesus. The small fruits of heaven we have tasted on earth are bound to the greatest fruits attained in the presence of our God. In honoring the dead through prayer and burial we join in the heavenly hosts joyous reception of the soul of our beloved in anticipation of the second coming of Jesus.

That’s the theological but as I noted above the decision to celebrate this woman’s life with a funeral Mass warmed my heart because too often I have been saddened by a family who chooses not to celebrate the life, faith and love of a their deceased relative. In doing so, often leaving friends and fellow parishioners unable to join in recognizing the joyous blessing that God shared with us on earth in the person of the one who died.

Let me clear, no funeral is easy. I understand this deeply. Two of the most difficult and heart wrenching moments in my life have been at the death of my father, Maynard and my younger brother Mitch. In both cases, even in the sorrow and sadness, the celebration of the Funeral Mass brought the memory of their life into clearer focus as we prayed together and listened to the stories of life. For me, it is remembering the image of the upper room after Jesus’ death, crammed with his apostles, his mother and his disciples…all friends…I can only imagine the stories, the laughter, the tears, the prayers, the songs and the meals they shared as they waited.

As Christians we know that their wait was not in vain, rather their gathering and being together as one, ultimately brought true life back into their hearts. It is the same gift of life the Jesus offers us today. Let us pray.

God Bless

Fr. Mark