“Trying to get rich by lying is chasing a bubble over deadly snares” Proverbs 21:6

This past week on Tuesday at Mass, during the 25th week of Ordinary Time, we were presented with a reading from the Book of Proverbs, (much of the weeks first readings were from Proverbs) in which the above quote was proclaimed. Reading this wonderful poetic line of Sacred Scripture has stuck in my head for the days that have followed…and it is here I wish to begin my weekly reflection.
The image of “chasing a bubble over deadly snares” brings up many funny and dangerous pictures in my head. Growing-up reading and watching the comics of 60’s and 70’s with the slap-stick violence that often occurred my mind would wander to images of Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck or the Cat from Tom and Jerry…chasing the forlorn goal of actually catching the Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny or the mouse and quickly finding themselves in a situation that would cause them great physical harm and interrupt their unending quest to capture their prize. And I can do this with a chuckle.
Then I think of this “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) where the deadly snares literally become deadly as we chase after the lies and riches of the world. It is here the chuckles end and the spiritual work begins where I look into my heart, listen to the voice of my sisters and brothers, and look at where I am standing and ask my question, “Am I chasing a bubble?” or more often, “What bubble am I chasing?” I wish I could say that most of the time I answer with a wonderful…”I’m right on track…my God compass is at true North!” sadly the answer more often than not is…”Let me count the ways.”
The hidden traps of sin and temptation are often unnoticeable if we are focused on chasing the things of the world. It is important that as men and women we understand the gifts of the world and how we are called to share, use and celebrate these blessings from God and at the same time making sure these gifts do not overwhelm our sense of thanksgiving and allow ourselves to be controlled and trapped in “chasing the bubble.”
Our Catholic Christian faith offers us several remedies to discover what is leading us over the deadly snares but they are remedies that take practice and hard spiritual work. One of the greatest and easiest way is to have a spiritual friend. A person who believes and listens with love and care. This isn’t spiritual direction but rather a “spiritual friendship” a person who will call our faults out and not allow us to make excuses for our bad behaviors. Second is frequent sacramental confession. This is once of the blessings of our faith…frequent confession helps us recognize the patterns that begin to develop, to receive the graces of God to resist the temptations of how we are chasing our bubble of sin by recognizing how we are being lured into the traps. Third is a nightly examine of conscience. Each night before bed I spend 15 minutes in examining my conscience and offering night prayer. It is a time where we once again can take stalk of how our day was and follow the patterns of life. This practice combined with daily prayer can and will be fruitful. Last but not least is spiritual reading. Whether it is Sacred Scripture or good spiritual books, God speaks to us and often will whisper the warnings we all need to hear.
The best part of this reflection was of course watching a few of the old cartoons on the internet. God is very good.
Please continue to pray for the sanctification, purification and healing of our Catholic Church.
God bless,
Fr. Mark

In an interview Catherine de Hueck Doherty was asked this question, “And where does that faith come from?” Her reply was this, “That faith comes first from Baptism, secondly from falling in love with God. Thirdly, from my family. Fourthly, from my environment. The Russian environment of older days. Right here. It’s very strong in me. But I can give it to you; it’s all yours for the asking.” (p 72)
Who was Catherine de Heuck Doherty? First and foremost she was a woman of great faith. She was a Russian Baroness, a wife and mother who escaped the communist revolution and became the founder of the Madonna House Apostolate. She has been declared “servant of God” as her cause for canonization goes forward.
Her name came to mind earlier this week when I was looking for a book and found Fr. John T. Catoir’s book “Encounters With Holiness” on the shelf. In this book Fr. Catoir interviews different women and men who are example of our Catholic faith. I had read the book several years ago and what struck me most forcibly during my reading of her story was the determination and dedication to living the Gospel message even after the tragedy of loosing all she had in the Russian communist revolution. But I also think that her story gives great hope of how the search and discovery of holiness and joy can transform our lives and the lives of each person we encounter.
Each of her four marks of faith remind us of the need for relationships with God and each other. Baptism is a gift offered, usually by our parents, and nurtured and shared in the growth of family and the greater community . The growth is what connects the first and last mark together as we are united in love of God. It is the “falling in love with God” through relationships of love that is so vital in our time and place. In founding the Madonna House Apostolate she chose to step outside the norms of her time and place and do something greater in seeking to build a place where holiness could be nurtured and sent out as seedlings on the wind to be planted and grow in communities throughout the world.
And while we may believe we could never do what Catherine Doherty has done…that is not the point. The point is choosing to live a life in love with God, (that’s called holiness) and doing so in creating the environment (that’s the community) where all the sons and daughters of God thrive in the joy of love. This should be the goal of each and every Christian: to call forth holiness in our own lives and in the lives of others. I often share this with engaged and married couples that the true work of husband and wife is to bring forth holiness in seeking the very best in their beloved. This is what God does by inviting us into an intimate and passionate relationship of Divine love.
In this time of scandal when distrust in the leaders of our Catholic Church is real and often justified, we can look at the four marks of Catherine Doherty’s faith with hope and joy. She doesn’t say faith comes from a priest, a bishop or any one person but her faith comes from a lived relationship, yes within the Church, but more importantly in love with those in her life as she recognizes the presence of Jesus Christ in each person she meets. During times of stress we often want to isolate ourselves and not talk about the hurt, the pain and the loneliness caused by the grave sin of abuse in our Church but we see the healing only in our relationship of love with God, His holy Church—which is each of us united around the one altar in sacrificial love.
Perhaps, we could take one more peace of advice from this holy women as she is asked, “(W)hat can be done to alleviate the loneliness that many of us feel? Is it talking it out to someone, or listening to someone?” She responds, “That’s it” listening. Listening with love. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist, a psychologist, or a consultant…Listen because you love this person.” (p 72)
Please continue to pray for the sanctification, purification and healing of our Catholic Church.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Home

Home

Each soul must seek some Sinai
Where God’s great truth are told;
Must find God’s revelations
Writ on shining plates of gold. (from “Some Sinai” by William L. Stidger)

One of the lessons learned early in life, especially as we grow in love of God and neighbor, is the good and bad often stand so very close together in our human experience. The poem, “Some Sinai” that is quoted above reminds us of this in a very real way.
We all know the story of Mt. Sinai. The story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and the story of the Israelites turning towards the false gods out of impatience and fear. The story of the goodness of God turned away from and then once again received in repentance and forgiveness of the mercy of God. We must all stand at the foot of our own Mt. Sinai in love of God and neighbor. It is an act of obedient and gracious love where we are transformed into a new creation where the love of God becomes the central focus of our lives.
Here we discover a true transformation because we know in every fiber of our beings the truth and will of God but sadly through our sins we act against this truth. When we think of the scandal within our Church we can begin to understand the Sinai moments of pain and sorrow but also the hope of transformative moments of grace and healing.

Each soul must seek some Sinai;
Some vision-haunted place;
Some silent, sacred, singing shrine
To see His lighted face. (from “Some Sinai”)

As the poem ends, we are reminded of our need to confront the “vision—haunted place” in order to fully see the face of our God. As difficult as the next years will be, we must confront this vision and the reality of sin in our Church, family and life. Just as the Israelites wandered forty years in the desert. This truth can be daunting and we may want to shy away from it and even say, “We don’t want to do this any more” and turn away from the difficult and hard journey before us.
But we must remember our Sinai story and the forty years fo growing in purification, holiness and trust in God as we prepare to enter into the holy land of life blessings. And like the desert journey, there will be more sin uncovered, more false steps but there will be healing and peace, because this is what God promises us.
During the desert journey we are reminded that God’s love and hope was shared in the prefiguration of the cross (Nm 21:4-9) as they were healed of the bites of the serpents.
It may sound monotonous, but it is true: the only answer to all the hurts/sins of life are found in seeking the mercy of God found in the Cross of Jesus Christ. As Christians our Mt. Sinai is discovered on Calvary and the sum of the Commandments are seen on the Cross. We discover and live our Mt. Sinai only in prayer, in sacrifice and in service to God with one another.
Please continue to pray for the sanctification purification and healing of the Catholic Church.
God Bless,
Fr. Mark

September 9, 2018 is International Buy Your Priest a Beer Day. What better way to celebrate the Lord’s Day than with a beer given and shared by those around me and all the priests throughout the world. With all the heaviness and hurt that I have been writing about for the past few weeks and I will be writing more about in the future…let’s talk about God, prayer, the spiritual life and beer for this week.
Several years after university my roommate from Holy Names College began the hobby of brewing beer. This was in the first wave of what is now fairly common. Darby living in the basement of his grandmother’s house in San Fransisco was a wonderful friend. Between bike riding, working, studying and the many other things we were doing we found time to brew some wonderful beers. One thing I learned very early on was: I am not a brewer, I’m a taster. It is way to technical and precise for my skill set. I observed that choosing to brew a beer was part technician and part artist. To brew a great beer you must be too precise whereas as a baker (my skill set) is much more forgiving in the creation of a great bread. So, what about the brewing of beer brings us closer to God, helps us to pray, grows our spiritual life and gives us joy.
Beer brings us closer to God: when we recognize a gift as blessing we then begin to understand how God calls us to be united in love. One of the greatest joys we had in brewing the beer was the community and unity of working together. There was a wonderful gift in the community that was formed. Yes, there was the gift of enjoying the product of Darby’s labor but more importantly their was exploration of the art of brewing seeking new flavors to be pulled out of the barley, hops and other ingredients all the while remaining within the boundaries naturally flowing from the act of brewing. In much the same way our faith asks us to joyfully pull forth from our lives the flavors of God’s love for us as we seek to more fully know and understand the truth of Jesus gift of the Cross and Resurrection.
Beer helps us to pray: This is a pretty simple leap…because with each home brew attempt there is a leap of faith necessary. There is the making and the prayers that all has gone well in the first step. There is the bottling and waiting for the fermentation and settling of the beer. There is hoping for the taste and texture dreamed about in the fashioning of the beer. And finally there is the expecting and rejoicing on the day the bottle is opened and the beer is enjoyed. All of these actions are prayerful in nature as we come to God. We must have faith for even the first steps in our conversation with God to begin as we patiently wait and hope in the blessings of life even through the failures (and there were many) knowing the conversation would continue to be learned and joined in a deeper understanding of expectation and rejoicing in the wonder of God’s divine love when we see Him face to face.
Beer grows our spiritual life: Beer grows the virtue of prudence. One of my favorite podcasts is “The Catholic Man Show” and the first part of the show is always a review a “manly beverage” and talk about the flavor of the drink but they also remind us that drinking involves the virtue of prudence. Simply put we are called to govern and discipline ourselves through the use of our reason. Now granted, prudence was not a virtue that I practiced with great discipline in my youth but like all virtues, they are learned through time and practice. Our spiritual life, as St. Paul reminds us (1 Cor 13:11 and 3:2) is being nurtured into a greater understanding and richer blessing of God.
Beer gives us joy for life: At the end of the day, all the work done, the waiting over, the food cooked and the beer opened the circle is complete as the community gathers to share the fruits of the labor. (sounds a little like Mass) We join in the true blessing of God where conversations of life; the joys and sorrows, the happy and sad moments equally gathered and blessed in our gathering where two or three are gathered.
As I finish I know these little thoughts can be applied to many, many things because God’s goodness is in all things when we join together with one another in love. May God bless you and please continue to pray for the sanctification, purification and healing of our Church.
St. Arnold, patron of brewers… pray for us.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Article by Elizabeth Scalia “Why I Won’t Leave…

https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/digging-my-heels-into-light-why-i-wont-leave-the-church/5894/