First and foremost, I wish each of you a blessed and holy Thanksgiving weekend and a peaceful “black Friday” in the hopes that time with family and friends will remind us of what we already possess and be satisfied in the love that surround us.

My moment of preaching.

As many of you know I have celebrated weekly, throughout the 11 plus years as a priest, with the Sisters of the Eucharistic Missionaries of The Most Holy Trinity (MESST) with Mass followed by my lessons in Spanish around the breakfast table as we share stories of hope and blessing…and yes complain about life too….we are human.  But mostly it is about the celebration of life and the gifts that God shares with us.  On Monday of this week I was blessed to celebrate with them as they marked the 80^th anniversary of the founding of their congregation.  It has been a great year of blessing for the sisters as they have also marked the naming of their founder, Fr. Pablo Maria Guzman, as Venerable in our Catholic Church. Venerable is one of the steps that move a man or woman in the process of being recognized and canonized a saint.

I think all people are fascinated by holiness.  I often look at pictures of St. John Paul II or St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta in prayer and am brought to great peace in my heart.  It is as if I am spying a moment of great grace and conversation with our Lord Jesus that is bringing forth the gift of life which is the gift of holiness. Knowing that and seeing that in the recognized Saints of the Church gives me great joy and peace because I will often see the same graceful peace in those who are caught in prayer, in looks of contemplation and in holy moments of service to our brothers and sisters.

It happens all the time.  A few weeks ago at our retreat for the children and their families preparing for First Reconciliation we offered them a time of prayer where they came to the crucifix in veneration and prayed together.  Watching them and praying with them was a moment of joy for me.  One of the children, as he came forward with his family, touched the cross with such gentleness, caressed the image of Jesus with holy tenderness and entered into a sacred moment of communion as his family prayed with him.  It is the image of holiness.

Visiting a family whose mother was in her final hours.  Praying with them, anointing her, sharing God’s love with her and her family.  Watching her children touch and speak words of blessing and love as we knew the peace of our Lord Jesus filled the room and filled their mother with the invitation to come and follow him to paradise.  It is the image of holiness.

It is walking into a silent church and seeing a man or woman deeply in prayer as they carrying the words of thanksgiving, the words of sorrow, of trouble or of hurt, the words of joy, of peace or of hope quietly and assuredly to the feet of Jesus.  It is the image of holiness

This is the grace of life lived out each day if as our Lord Jesus reminds us, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mk 4:9) And we with eyes to see…let us see the presence of God the surrounds us.  This is what each of us should be doing every day but especially this time of Thanksgiving. In it we will be and see the image of holiness.

God Bless

Fr. Mark

It was a week that started off with a lot of stuff going wrong.  Off the bat on Monday morning, poured my coffee after Mass, settled into reading my emails, looking at the agenda of the week, feeling pretty good about myself….then….spilled my cup of coffee on the laptop.  Big sad face.  Called myself a stupid idiot under my breath and then the process begins of trying to put everything in order and asking myself what to do next and how to recreate and gather the week together without the one tool that helps you to organize and do all the work you are used to doing????  I guess I could blame it all on Donald Trump but that may be stretching it a bit far…I must take responsibility for this myself.

One of the normal human joys and failings is that we are always looking for someone to solve our problems at the same time we are looking for someone to blame our problems on…and believe it or not they often turn out to be the same person.  In faith we often do, and rightly so, look to God for the solution to our problems and at the same time, and wrongly so, blame God for all the problems in our life and in the world.  It is that small and necessary understanding that we “look to God for solutions to” rather than “we want God to solve” our problems that is the moment of growing in faith, hope and love in our life. For me it is the work of choosing to frame my life differently form the “What if I had…?” to the “What if I do…?

We can, and often do, spend considerable amount of time, energy and treasure on the, “what if I had?” questions of life.  In my journey of vocation the biggest question that came up over and over again was the “What if I had recognized and answered God’s call to the priesthood in my twenties?”  It is an impossible question to answer as my spiritual director continually reminded me during my formation.  I could blame all sorts of people, myself and certainly God for not making it clearer what He wanted me to do in life and yet all of that was empty thought because it didn’t happen.  The bigger question wasn’t about God solving the question it was the seeking of God’s presence and how that presence brought me to the ultimate “yes” in my life.

In the daily examen it is a question that we must all be answered each day anew.  In reviewing the day and seeking God’s presence in the good things and the bad, in the moments when I acted as a blessing and those when I chose not to act as blessing, and how God through the people around me helps me to grow in love throughout the day was the movement from the looking at the world in regret and defeat and choosing to seek out the hopefulness of joyful faith where the new day begins “What if I do…?’ and “How can I grow in…?”

When we choose the possibilities of hope, we then move from the doom and gloom of a coffee covered computer to the reality that while it is a wonderful tool of ministry and life that can and will be replaced, what cannot be replaced is the person with whom I speak each morning, noon and night, Jesus Christ, and how he is made present in my daily life with and through others is the greatest and true blessing that I can and should celebrate each day.

It is a lesson learned and relearned each time I choose to act in truth.

God Bless,

Fr. Mark

This past week has been filled with many blessings and joys as important dates and blessings surround us in so many ways. Today as we celebrate Veterans Day I remember my time serving our country in the Marine Corp, (1979-83) whose birthday (241 years) we celebrated yesterday (November 10, Semper Fi). It was also the week, in which we participated in the election of a new president, my tenth, that has continues to give me new perspectives on how we move forward as a people. And last and certainly not least National Vocation Awareness Week where we as a Catholic Church offered prayers and encouragement to those our God calls to discern to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.

When I returned home for a short leave after finishing boot camp, my parents picked me up at the Lewiston Airport. They then took me to lunch. It had been a long trip home. My flight from San Diego to Boise had been delayed and I spent the night in Boise before catching a connecting flight to Lewiston. As I sat in the car we talked and chatted, when we arrived at the restaurant my Dad pulled me aside and in a voice and look I will never forget he said in not so many words, “If you ever talk like that in front of your mother again…” Of course I had been talking “like a Marine” dropping swear words right and left. My Dad was no angel with language but apparently I went way beyond the pale. I remember this because it began the slow process of learning that words and the words we use matter in our conversations and how we act and interact with people.

I bring this up for one reason. Like many people I was a bit shocked by the outcome of the presidential vote. As I looked at my social media accounts I was stunned and puzzled by the number of people who were using hashtags that contained one profane word in particular and the number of comments that were laced with profanity. It was hard to read and look at as these posts came from people whom I respected and would have not thought to respond in such a vulgar manner.

The use of profanity, swear words, is something often confronted in modern society, whether it is in writing, song or conversations, the use has invaded almost every aspect of life. I am not a puritan in this matter, I do confess on rare occasions the swear word passes my lips, but for the most part I can move through daily life without them.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when talking with people who confess using foul language, I try to remind them of God’s blessing and how He desires us to, both in word and action, to build up—rather than tear down, to bring about love and unity—rather than hatred and isolation. And sadly, that is what swear words do…they are ugly and weak words that show the nature of destruction and isolation of the person rather than the desire to understand and grow together into something greater.

I know that in conversation with those who are despairing the election I give this advice and am told “you don’t understand” and maybe I don’t. But let me assure you that while I am afforded great respect in many places for the collar I wear daily, I have also been spat upon, shouted at, cursed and accused of the most vile acts, without cause for simply being who I am…remembering the words of Jesus, “Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Lk 6:22-23) are often small comfort at the time but are always there in my heart.

If our ultimate goal is the peace of Jesus Christ in our hearts and in the world then the price is to listen, to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and to act as Saints. There has been a pre-election phrase by Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles that has floated around social media where he simply states the true duty and call of each Christian, “If we want a greater America, we need to become, by the grace of God, greater saints.”

We must be open to listening to the other, allowing the other to enter into the hurts and pains as we share both our sorrows and joys. That is the cost of sainthood…acting with love.

We can rant and rave with the profanity-laced tirades that are floating about but ultimately this only drives us deeper into the isolation that separates us from Jesus the work of the Gospel. Winners or losers, we are all children of the one true God. I would invite you to watch the video link below…see the joy and excitement of those who win, the sorrow and pain of those who lost…but most of all see the humanity of peace as they come together to see each other as children of God. In both large and small ways, can we not seek to do the same?

God bless

Fr. Mark

www.theguardian.com/football/video/2016/aug/31/barcelona-youth-team-console-japanese-squad-soccer-world-challenge-video

“I’m not ready yet.” or “We’re not ready yet.” is often the plaintive plea I hear from young adults who are in a serious and committed relationship but have not taken the step towards marriage YET. This attitude is more often than not reinforced by their parents who counsel them to wait and then are surprised when they do wait for much longer than they would wish for their children, in their desire of happiness for them.

The idea of “not ready” for the vocation of marriage is brought out of, I believe, fear rather than hope. The fear is a real thing with many families experiencing broken marriages and struggling relationships our young adults can see the advice to wait as a hopeful cure to the fear of hurt within the marriage.

Of course, this is all a great lie. Marriage is never easy and most couples I know will tell you honestly, the only thing that ultimately prepares you for marriage is living and loving marriage itself. There is a truth in this reality but also we need to remind ourselves that the preparation for the vocation of marriage as with any vocation is founded in the love of family and the example and support given by family, friends and the community.

This truth is also present in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Rather than the cry “I’m not ready yet.” we more often hear, “I’m not holy enough yet.” as the stated reason for not saying “yes” to God’s invitation to serve in these two wonderful vocations.

The coming week, November 6-13, is Vocation Awareness Week in the Catholic Church where we pay special attention to the vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.   As a vocation who entered seminary formation at a later age, 39, I understand in a special way both cries/excuses that I hear from young men and women who are called to either marriage or priesthood and consecrated life. It is an excuse that I used too.

How do we, as a Catholic Church, help and support the formation of our young people for their proper vocation in life?   The easy answer is prayer. The more difficult answer is example. The hardest answer is encouragement and support. All three are necessary and vital in growing the heart and soul in preparation for the proper vocation of each person but it is also important to recognize the third step brings to fruition all that we desire for in the joy, peace and happiness of life.

Two quick stories…I still remember one of my older sisters, Molly, telling me many years ago that their parish had asked them to think of a young man who may have a calling to the priesthood. She gave them my name. I didn’t respond to the call at that time…it took many more years…but in a small way it was the voice of encouragement and support that helped me to think that it was possible, that someone saw something in me that I could not and perhaps, just perhaps, God was call me to the priesthood. (He was)

Second, several years ago, a young lady who had just graduated university and was in one of those serious and committed relationships talked about her future plans in life and the hope one day should would be married…I asked the simple question of, “Why are you waiting? You will never be more ready than you are today.” Her mother standing next to me had a horrified look on her face. Later talking to the mom we had a deeper discussion about happiness and the struggles of life and how waiting would never take those away, in fact it may make it even harder, but that support, prayers and hope of family and friends would be the greatest blessing. And of course the ultimate question…”Would it make you happier to see them just live together?” The answer was no.

We will never be completely ready to answer God’s call to marriage, the single life or priesthood and consecrated life because we are all works in progress. But, our progress will be more joyful and our lives filled with greater peace when we choose to embrace and walk in our proper vocation in hope rather than fear.

Pray for vocations. Live your vocation in joy. Encourage and support those you believe have vocations to the priesthood or consecrated religious life. Thanks.

God Bless,

Fr. Mark