Advent can be busy…and it isn’t even Advent yet…but I am already busy…yikes! I guess one of the biggest challenges we face each December/Advent is how to make space for prayer, contemplation and being with Jesus. I can’t say that I am always the best example to follow because this time of preparation (Advent) is a time of many liturgical and Church things that must be done and cannot wait for when I am in a ”better place” to deal with them.
How do we make space? The easiest and truest answer is…we simply make the space. It is an act of the will and an act of discipline in our lives to take time and make the space for listening to the presence of God in our movement towards Christmas Day. It begins with the will and the choice of doing something or anything for that matter. I would suggest that the “thing” must stretch you spiritually. If it doesn’t do this then there is really little point to the practice because we are being called into a deeper conversation and conversion with God…therefore we must dig deeper than we feel comfortable with. Second, don’t be discouraged. Advent is only 23 days this year, December 2nd until the 24th…it isn’t that long. Third, we need to take the dive in to the prayer with someone as a spiritual companion. The easiest person is a spouse, a child, a parent or a sibling…the second easiest would be a friend or even someone who sits close to you at Church…it all works but the spiritual friend reminds us and encourages us to stick through the 23 days.
Three easy but challenging steps…1. Choose 2. Persevere 3. Seek help and give help. Okay, now go and do it.
First we choose…there a literally hundreds of Advent helps we can use. My suggestion is the prayer time be at the minimum 10 minutes. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it can be if we fill it with the voice of God. You might choose an online daily message (see below for suggestions) that may only take two or three minutes to watch or read. Then we slow down and take the time to reflect and maybe write a few thoughts down. We may choose to write a daily challenge or promise to help us remember the message of the day. Don’t short change yourself by watching or reading and then running back to life without taking time to talk with God. You may also find a print version/a booklet that has daily guides for helping us through Advent. Or we may use the daily Gospel or other reading from the Mass to pray with our Lord Jesus as we hear him speak to us in the quiet of our heart.
Second we persevere…we will miss a day or cut short our time or something else will get in the way…we can deal with this…because tomorrow will come. The biggest and greatest hurdle we can often face is our expectations and how we respond when we fail to live up to our own high expectations. Believe me, each Advent or Lent I enter into these seasons with this firm conviction: I will not miss one day or cut short one hour of my quiet time with God…and then things go sideways. It can be disheartening but we need to take up our prayers and once more follow him. Sometimes my most fruitful time of prayer comes after I have missed a day or gave God less than I should have because of my selfishness.
Third and most important seek help and give help…there is a reason Jesus sent out his disciples two by two…it is because we all need encouragement and help. A few years ago I began asking for help during Advent and Lent. I have a priest friend from another state and we email each other our brief thoughts each day. It isn’t hard and it keeps us both focused on the daily blessings of our time with the Lord. It is also beneficial because of the insights we share deepen our reflection and open our eyes to things we may not have heard because of our own hurts and sins.
We are a people called to holiness and prayer is the road of holy love of God and neighbor. Please take time to pray and seek others and invite others to pray with you.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

online resources.

Daily Gospel usccb.org/bible/readings

Dynamic Catholic https://dynamiccatholic.com/best-advent-ever

Busted Halo Advent Calendar https://advent.bustedhalo.com/

Word on Fire with Bishop Robert Barron https://adventreflections.com/

For St. Lucy Parish Parishioners

formed.org daily reflection and a weekly study you can join and It’s FREE and has both adult and children daily reflections.

In this week of Thanksgiving, I would like to begin with the last paragraphs of Ned Coletti’s book “The Big Chair” where he writes, “The lovers of baseball and sports have also earned a tip of the cap—a standing ovation. Without fans there are no games for pay, no sports careers to work toward, no fun and games in the toy department of life… I look back on in awe while I look forward to the chapters of life to come. None of it is possible without the unfailing grace and majestic blessings from God. With respect, immense gratitude, and deep love.” (p 422-423)
I offer you this short quote because it focuses us on what is most important.
We must have love…for baseball, for life, for one another. It is important to give thanks for this love. Our passions and loves direct us toward a greater good and a joy-filled life where we learn to share these passions with others. I remember sitting in the stands of the Savanah Braves stadium as a young Marine with Rick cheering on the game. Neither of us interested in the Atlanta Braves or their farm system but both of us sharing a love of the game. Or as a young man watching the Seattle Mariners with Carl in the Kingdome, one of the worst places to enjoy a game to be played outside. Often with only a few thousand people echoing about the huge expanses, but sharing a beer and stories of life and baseball.
We must be thankful to others for what we share…without others (the fans) baseball while still fun becomes less than it could be but with others it becomes a life-giving moment in time where we see a future and hopefulness in the next player, the next child, the next relationship of grace. To be thankful of life around us, the small moments of joy for the “next” moments of encounter in life.
We must have awe…I think in our technological society we are in awe of what things can do but seldom in awe of the person who helps and serves our growth into the person God is calling us to be in life. We become thankful for the little miracles that begin to surround us and share these miracles in awe because they unite us with God in so many different aspects of life. Awe draws us closer to greatness and draws from us the joyous truth of being created for the better, the greater the more holy in life.
We must take time….acknowledging our past, present and future as the shapers of our lives where the experiences we share form the hopes of what will be in the world. It is the disappointments of the fall darkness transformed into the bright hope of spring time and a new season. It is honoring and loving the grandeur and disappointments of the past and at the same time letting go to embrace the unknown and hopes of a future where dreams are born into the reality of goodness.
We must live in gratefulness…God’s unfailing grace surrounds us and supports us even in the difficult autumns of life. Gratefulness and gratitude remind us of the fragility of life and love and how we are invited to daily take up that love (the cross) and follow him who is our God. It is in gratitude sharing the gifts we have, whether it is a 98 mile-per-hour fastball or simple works of mercy, each gift brings blessings to those who share in the awe-inspiring joy and love of life. The call to be grateful is one of stewardship of time, the most precious gift we can share, for we do not know the hour or the time, but we trust in the eternal gift of life that will be offered if we simply love.
My prayers for each of your at this time of Thanksgiving is to share life in joyful abundance and to offer a word and gift of love to all you encounter in life.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

The attack has begun again. They will go on full offensive mode next Friday, November 23, 2018. What is the attack? Why November 23rd? Well, the attack is the Christmas shopping season and Black Friday is its largest attack on the spiritual welfare of our finances. As a people called to live a life of stewardship of God’s gifts of time, talent and treasure we are often afraid of bringing our “treasure” into the spiritual conversation with God because we are often fooled into thinking that money falls outside of the spiritual life….it doesn’t. In truth it is a very import part of our spiritual life and growth.
This was brought clearly to my mind this week with the terrible and disastrous fires that consumed Paradise CA and endanger so many people as-well-as the fires to the southern part of the California around Malibu. Almost immediately on facebook was a “friend” who posted a fundraiser for their “friend” to help by a small camper trailer for use because their house had been destroyed. Then a request from another “friend” to help a crisis pregnancy center that had been destroyed and needed help to rebuild and continue to help the expectant mothers during this devastating time. And then I began to think about the many other “asks” we are going to receive in the next few weeks leading up to Christmas…yes even asks from the local parish…to help support the many worthy causes. On top of all of these “asks” there will be the stresses of the Christmas shopping and how we share gifts with family and friends. If all this seems overwhelming, it is to me, then we truly need to place God in the center to help us figure this all out.
First and foremost…there are many good causes who ask us to help them but we also understand the care we are called to have in stewarding our financial resources. What are we to do? It all begins with a conversation about love: love of God, love of family, love of stranger. Why is this conversation important? It places our values into a perspective of generosity. Love is an act of generosity that stretches us to see the goodness of God in all we do in the world, including the stewardship of our treasure.
Let’s begin with this dream Kerry Alys Robinson shares in the introduction to her book “Imagining Abundance” where she writes, “Picture yourself as an agent of change for your faith community bringing to full fruition what most think is impossible… What would you need to have such an impact? Many in the world see limitation, scarcity, insurmountable obstacles, and inability, while yearning for the opposite. There is no magic wand, no secret formula, no set of perfect preconditions for profound positive impact. Yet everyone can be an agent of transformation.” (p. 1) If we have started with a conversation of love, then all obstacles begin to be transformed as we see the possibility of goodness in each blessing and challenge placed in front of us.
Ultimately, I am writing this to begin a conversation during this season when so much is asked of us around our treasure and how we are called to use this gift. The conversation of love is recognizing our call to holiness and the vocation of holiness is one of community united together. Frank J. Hanna reminds us of this when he writes, “If we fail in this vocation to be holy, then, it seems to me, it doesn’t matter how great our wealth may be, or crippling our poverty: we’ve failed our fundamental vocation and failed at the most important task that was given us.” (P 129 from “What Our Money Means”)
As family we are called to share in these discussions of love as we look toward how we are called to be good stewards of our time, talent and treasure. We allow our whole family is invited into a conversation of generous love. When we begin to recognize what is most important we begin to choose abundance over scarcity and realize sharing what we have with others will help us to see God’s work in the little moments of life. I invite you to enter into prayerful conversations of discernment with God and family as we enter this joyful season of anticipation.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

I would invite you to study and pray more on this subject with one or more of the books below.

I will be giving a talk to parents of children preparing for First Holy Communion tomorrow about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and why we are Christian. It’s a wonderful talk to share with these parents and it is something we should all be thinking about and pondering on a daily basis. Because it is not about doubting or trying to prove our faith in Jesus Christ isn’t false but rather it is looking deeply into the mystery of life and discovering our purpose and the truth of who we are.
We might look at it form the angle of these two books: Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP “What is the Point of Being a Christian?” and The book by Trent Horn, “Why We’re Catholic: Our Reasons for Faith, Hope and Love.” The two titles always remind me of our search for truth in faith and reason and how we always seek the answer coming from different directions.
We can begin our discussion from the positive standpoint as to “Why We’re Catholic” in this way we “tackle” the hard questions about our faith and look with reason into the why’s, the how’s and the where’s of what we believe. This approach is very important in many ways but never fully answers some of the deeper questions we have from our human experience because in some way it assumes we can be reasonable about faith.
If we look at our faith with the question, “What’s the point?” then we are not so much faced with the reason side of faith, rather we are faced with the belief side of faith which is trickier and much harder to grasp at times. I think the lived experience of being a Christian in the modern world and our witness to the faith helps us to understand the question but the harder part is how do we talk to others, witness to others and bring others into a relationship with Jesus Christ…what’s the point?
This is where the two angles, the two different approaches must be joined. We cannot live and witness to Jesus Christ unless we know, in faith and reason, the harder, deeper and often difficult questions of our faith. You may notice I didn’t say answers. An answer is surely part of knowing the question but, as a former school teacher, it is often better to thoroughly know the question: what is it asking, before we delve into trying to answer. Anyone can quote scripture, but to know Sacred Scripture, to know the Word of God which is the great question is the true goal, to know the person as we seek the answers is the greatest question we can pose and ponder as disciples of Jesus Christ.
To look for “the answer” we must first know the question and honestly ask the question. This of course means opening our heart to change and conversion where we hear Jesus cry out “repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk 1:15) To many times we ask question where our prejudice closes our heart to hear the good news of God’s desire that we be converted and saved. We must be honest in desiring the truth, the truth of Jesus Christ because if we don’t ask the questions, or do so only with a closed mind and heart then there is no point, there is no answer that will satisfy.
I have always intellectually known why Jesus ends the beatitudes with the promise of persecution. But as our society deserts truth more and more often, to speak God’s truth of repentance and forgiveness becomes the cross we all must learn to bear.

Fr. Radcliffe ends his work with this paragraph of challenge and hope where we respond with the yes or no of faith, “We must give each other courage and renounce collusion with the powers of silence, the powers of the tomb. We can refuse that auto censorship, which is always fearful about what other people might think if one were to say the truth.’ Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me’ (John 14.1). We can enjoy moments of Sabbath together, sharing even now in God’s own rest.”(p 212)

God Bless
Fr. Mark

This weekend the Diocese of San Jose will celebrate the ordination into the transitional diaconate of two men: Victor Trinidad and John Hoang. At their ordination Victor and John will be asked to commit themselves to a life of service and love, a life of service and love that will be strengthened through their relationships with the people of God. In my work in Worldwide Marriage Encounter we recognize how the Sacraments of Holy Orders and those of Holy Matrimony mirror one another as Sacraments of relationship.
While the below promises are but a small part of the ordination rite I would ask you to reflect on how God calls us all into a relationship of love in the proper vocation we are called to live.
Are you willing to live a chaste celibate life? This is the promise that so many people focus on because it seems so counter to our culture…but this has always been the case. It is a call to chaste celibate love were the relationships of the ordained are found in the friendships and bounds of intimacy that our outside of sexual activity. The call to celibacy must always be first found in chastity were we form our hearts and minds to seeing the beauty of God’s creation as faithful witnesses to true and holy love. In a similar way the husband and wife promise to be faithful in a chaste intimate love where they form their hearts and minds to see the beauty of the other and exercise the beauty of their sexual love in an intimacy exclusive of all others. While not as counter cultural, think about how many people today decry marriage and pooh-pooh the idea of chaste faithful love.

Are you willing to be ordained? This same question is echoed in the question to the husband and wife in asking them if they have come to the altar freely and without coercion. This is a question when answered freely and with love informs the next two questions to be asked. It reminds both the man to be ordained and the woman and man to be married they are offering themselves to something greater and something that goes beyond their individual self and is joined in a mysterious way to the other.

Are you willing to dutifully fulfill the ministry? I often think when people look at what priests and deacons do in their ministry they look too often at the outside and not the inside of the life. Just as husband and wife must choose to interiorly conform themselves to the other the deacon and priest must do the same. We can look at the duties of husband and wife in the same way we look at the duties of priest and deacon and miss the mark completely. The willingness to fulfill the ministry is not a willingness to exchange one thing for another but the desire to give and share all that you are with the other. For the husband and wife this is a sharing of one to the other in a profound intimacy, for the priest and deacon is too is a sharing of oneself with God through the community of the Church in a blessing of love.

Are you willing to live the life? As the sacramental union of husband and wife is an eternal gift, “until death do us part,” so the desire to live the life as a priest and deacon is a choice to know we are bound in a sacramental bond to God and His holy Catholic Church. The formation of a man to be ordained a deacon and then priest take more than five years where he is asked the difficult question about sacrifice and suffering in the name of Jesus Christ. It is the desire and hope of the Church that when the man steps forward he is at peace with the choice of following God’s call to serve. I remember talking with a friend as we shared experiences of our sacramental days where he said when he saw his wife enter the church on their wedding day his heart both exploded with excitement and joy at the same time a deep peace grew as he knew his bride was his Sacrament.

Are you willing to pray for the Church? This should be easy enough…if you are unwilling to pray daily for and with your beloved you should rethink your decision to enter into marriage and certainly as marriage grows the prayer of both husband and wife as individuals and a couple should grow deeper and stronger…same with the priest and deacon.

Are you willing to obey your Bishop and Church? Last but not least…obedience. To obey in love is perhaps the hardest question to ascent to because it requires a total gift at times that hurts deeply. In this we recognize what St. Paul meant when he called for both obedience and sacrifice even unto death to self in the gift of love. Obedience in love requires that we trust our beloved that all they will ask of us will bring us closer to God and enrich and strengthen our Sacrament. If we place that much trust in God through our Bishop or our spouse then obedience becomes a joyful gift we offer and receive daily in our life.

Please pray for Victor Trinidad and John Hoang in thanksgiving for their yes. Please continue to pray for the sanctification, purification and healing of Our Catholic Church.

God Bless
Fr. Mark