What are you giving up for Lent?  That question is burnt so deep into my Catholic imagination that no matter how often I talk about this phrase being backwards and the wrong way to approach our Lenten devotion, I still go back again and again…What are you giving up for Lent?
Yet, it remains a good question.  Lent is a time to take on but also to ”give up” certain things for Lent.  The trick of course remains the reality that what I choose to “give up” during Lent is bringing me closer to God and transform our lives into the image of the divine.  When we do the “give up” things it often ends with the binge at the end.  As a child my family’s go to “give up” was chocolate.  We would suffer for the 40 days of Lent and then on Easter morning gorge on the chocolate of the bunnies, eggs with the addition of the jelly beans and other sweets.  The problem with this was the suffering and fasting from chocolate was only pointed towards the end product…Easter Sunday…then everything went back to the way it was on Fat Tuesday the day before Ash Wednesday as we began the long and dreaded wait for the next Ash Wednesday to begin Lenten journey and the sacrifice and “give up” chocolate again.
I am sure in some way, this practice did have a good effect on my spiritual journey but it certainly did not seem that way during my childhood. So how should we think about our Lenten discipline and what should we “give up” for Lent?
What we sacrifice (give up) for Lent should be difficult and should lead to some sort of spiritual transformation.  One way of doing this is to tie the sacrifice (fasting) to our prayer life during the season.  The discipline of fasting should empty us to allow the presence of God, found through our prayer, to fill us and sanctify who we are as God’s holy children.
This, of course, takes planning a daily work. Matthew Kelly’s “Resisting Happiness” which we have been reading and talking about these past two months is a good way of thinking how we can accomplish this work of love.  Much like we are called to identify those moments of resistance, we may look at the list we have written or the area where we have encountered the greatest resistance and see if this is an area of fasting and sacrifice for Lent.  If we are able to identify a specific goal of fasting from the particular resistance, then we can begin to bring it to daily prayer in recognizing the blessing that flow from “giving up” this resistance to happiness.
So, what am I going to “give up” for Lent?  Well, I am going to be fasting from a particular computer game that I love to waste a little bit of time with each day.  I often play Mahjong tiles to procrastinate from the often needed work that needs to get done.  Is the worst thing in the world, no…but it does lead me away from both work and prayer times and it is wasting time…so that is what I am giving up.  How will I link this to my prayer? I will use my “wasted time” to pray with two small devotionals that I am using this Lent.  One which will be shared by my entire parish community “Refresh and Renew Your Life” and a second Lent and Easter with the Church Fathers”.  Rather than play the game I will take time pray and be with Jesus.
Attached a brief video from Busted Halo about the meaning of Lent.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Ash Wednesday & Lent In Two Minutes

The language of “Resisting Happiness” is becoming more ingrained in my mind. It became clearer earlier this week when my parish, St. Lucy, presented to our community a film entitled “Screenagers” as a way of understanding how to, as a family and community, use the blessings of technology in a responsible and life giving manner.
In this documentary two things were abundantly clear: (1) teens and parents know that there is a problem and (2) they resist the solutions they know will bring them happiness as individuals and families.
And what will bring them happiness? They often spoke about how they craved more connection. They knew they were satisfying it with the false connection of electronic touches, the lie of importance and the satisfaction of a “like” a “heart” or a kind typed word over the true connection of a touch, a smile and look into the eye of the other. They also understood that they were accepting the false life of lives edited and discussion about what they saw rather than the true relationship building blocks of the messiness of real life and the speaking of hopes, dreams and passions in a life lived out in joy.
This truly sounds like “Resisting Happiness” on a grand scale. What was remarkable about both the film and the panel discussion afterwards was the honesty in knowing that there were no silver bullets offered, no one size fits all solutions, no quick fixes or easy ways out. There was only one small piece of advice offered over and over and over again, said in different words by different people. What was the advice? You have to talk about it. Not text about it, tweet about, snapchat, Facebook, our Instagram something cute, profound, silly or controversial, it is to simply talk about it.
It is the most human of responses. It is the response that God has built into our hearts, the need for connection. But the temptation is to break the profound connection of love and replace it with something cheaper that seems easier and less stressful but ultimately never fulfilling.
This is the center of our relationship with God and others. We talk about it. I would invite you to pray with the Psalms for a couple of weeks to see how personal and open the writer(s) of the psalms were when they spoke to God. It was a messy and hard relationship. One filled with doubt and confidence, fear and trust, suffering and joy and the sacrificial blessing that comes with love. It is hearing and knowing the voice of God near to us and hearing His voice whispered in the voice of others.
Of course, I am laughing at myself a little bit at as I write this post being sent out electronically to be read and pondered within the world of unconnectedness. And that’s okay. We also know that God has many ways of getting to us to take time with His Word. But in the end we must, with intention and hope, stop and talk with the other in our life because all true relationships are built on knowing the other’s fullness and not an edited version.
As we continue to read Matthew Kelly’s “Resisting Happiness” we might ask the question…What would have been the outcome of his spiritual journey if his friend John had only tweeted, texted, Facebook’ed or emailed all they words of wisdom that he shared? Would the journey have lasted more than a few steps?
I have only one more Friday post before we begin the discipline of Lent. Please continue to search and seek out the human connection. Sit down tonight and have a glass of beer or wine and listen to the voice of your wife or husband in sharing your desires. Turn off the distractions that become our resistance to love. Take time with the family, not just watching life go by but participating in the work of the Holy Spirit.

God bless
Fr. Mark

This Sunday, February 12th, the Catholic Church celebrate “World Marriage Day.” It is a day to honor and thank all those members of our family and community who witness daily to the sacrificial love of Sacramental Marriage.
“Are you spiritually healthy? Are you alive spiritually? Are you thriving are you just surviving? When we are spiritually healthy we tend to be focused, invigorated, patient, and generous. when we aren’t healthy spiritually we ten to be irritable, restless, and discontented..” (p 43) Yes we have taken a step back and gone once more to Chapter 9 in “Resisting Happiness”. I had a parishioner recently talk with me about the book and he said, “this book is a year long read.” I responded, “It should be a book we re-practice every year.” Because if we simply read it and set it down without practicing the steps and challenges outlined throughout the book, then it will be a nice memory…but not a lasting gift.
I chose the quote above because too often in my ministry as a priest and working with married couples in Worldwide Marriage Encounter I hear this echoed in their marital life. “We seem to be just surviving. My husband/wife is always irritable, angry, unloving.” and many other phrases to this point.
This of course is not what marriage is or was meant to be. Much as in any other facet of life, we have good habits to to good things, so in marriage we must also develop good habits to do good things. If we habitually criticize our wife or husband, then slowly the flame of hope and desire will be lessened in the relationship. If, on the other hand, we speak words of blessings habitually to our beloved, then the flame of love increases and grows.
But recognizing that we are human, therefore sinners, therefore need help in growing, seeking and maintaining habits of love we need God in the marriage. It is as simple as that. But we always seek to complicate matters. Our spiritual life, which feeds the life of our vocation, married, single, priest and religious, helps us to un-complicate our love and relational journey.
Just a couple of really quick spiritual/relational ideas…
1. If we spend quality time with God each day this should draw us to quality time with our beloved each day.
2. If we spend time with God each day in intimate conversations (prayer) then this should lead us to spend time with our spouse in intimate conversation daily.
3. If we take time learning more about our faith then we should take time learning more about our husband/wife, often called listening.
4. If we find joy in knowing God then we should share this joy continually with the gift God shares with us in the act of sacramental love.

It can become those habits of blessing where we pray with God and spouse, no explanation needed. Where we speak with God and spouse, it’s not about a list of what we did but the sharing of hopes, dreams, the vision of life united in love. Where we take time together, sharing walks, date nights, weekends away, filling the well of love. And ultimately where we share the completeness of who we are in the sacramental joy of love.
I leave you with a few words from Archbishop Fulton Sheen, taking about the ideal of love. There are also a few opportunities to strengthen your marriage with the links and information listed below.
“Everyone believes in the eternity of love, and eternal love is found only in God. To just the extent that the sparks of earthly love are stolen from the great heart and hearth of God does earthly love remain abiding. They who posses this “fides” every now and then are cast into the ecstasy of love and are lifted to a higher dimension of ravishing affection, but knowing its Source and Origin, they whisper to themselves in sweet anticipation of heaven: “If the spark is so great, oh, “what must be the flame!”” (p 132 from “Three to Get Married” by Fulton Sheen)

God bless
Fr. Mark

Lenten Retreat: Practicing the Works of Mercy in Marriage – March 4th

Need the perfect gift for your spouse this Valentine’s Day? Give your beloved the gift of your time and love by attending a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Weekend. The next Marriage Encounter Weekend is March 17-19, 2017 in Mountain View.  For more information visit our website at: http://sanjosewwme.org or contact Ken Claranne at applications@sanjosewwme.org or 408-782-1413.

https://stca.org/blessed-and-beautiful

This week we will take a brief respite form “Resisting Happiness” to talk about the consecrated religious life.  Why am I doing this? The answer is simple, this Sunday our Catholic Church prays for those women and men who have vowed and consecrated themselves to live as signs of God’s love in this special vocation.
We begin with this teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church when it states: “Religious life derives from the mystery of the Church. It is a gift she has received from her Lord, a gift she offers as a stable way of life to the faithful called by God to profess the counsels. Thus, the Church can both show forth Christ and acknowledge herself to be the Savior’s bride. Religious life in its various forms is called to signify the very charity of God in the language of our time.” (CCC926)
There is a lot to say about consecrated/religious life and there are many of us who have benefited greatly from the gift of religious sisters and brothers in our lives.  They have formed us in faith and other gifts of life that are often to many to count.
I can begin with my experience of the Benedictine Sisters of St. Gertrude Monastery in Cottonwood Idaho with Sr. Monica and Sr. Leutfreda in 1st and 2nd grade.  It continued throughout my teen years as the presence of the Sisters within the community formed us in generosity of spirit following the Rule of St. Benedict and the example of faith filled lives.
When I entered the St. Patrick’s Seminary I had the great blessing of knowing the Oblate Sisters of Jesus the Priest.  They ministered at the seminary if a variety of ways.  They prepared our meals for us, which many people, including us seminarians, would often mistake as their primary work.  What was hidden behind the scenes was their prayer life, especially praying for us, who were studying for the priesthood.  Each sister had a list of specific seminarians she would pray for throughout the day and the sisters would have one sister constantly praying for us infant of the Blessed Sacrament. I am so blessed as their prayers gave me and many the courage to preserver during many crisis, especially the abuse scandal in the early 2000’s.
Now as a priest I am blessed to be chaplain for the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Most Holy Trinity. (MESST) They act as my moral support, my prayer partners, my companions in ministry, my Spanish instructors and many other blessings.  The sisters give life to me and so many other people they encounter.
The upshot is the need for our prayers for vocations to the consecrated religious life, both sisters and brothers, as a continuing sign of God’s love for each of us.  Please take time to encourage young women and men in their call to serve God, to ask the simple question…where are you calling me to serve?  And remind them and ourselves to not be afraid, to seek the face of God and give thanksgiving for the holy religious sisters and brothers who have sacrificed and given their lives in service of our brothers and sisters.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

(Two other quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church)
“From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved. “(CCC 918)

“As with other forms of consecrated life,” the order of virgins establishes the woman living in the world (or the nun) in prayer, penance, service of her brethren, and apostolic activity, according to the state of life and spiritual gifts given to her. Consecrated virgins can form themselves into associations to observe their commitment more faithfully.” (CCC 924)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQMHexekBrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z41KDofiWfg