Thoughts From Fr. Mark

“It was to be necessary for God himself to become that one righteous person. And this is the mystery of the Incarnation: to guarantee a just person he himself becomes man. There will always be one righteous person because it is he. However, God himself must become that just man. The infinite and surprising divine love was to be fully manifest when the Son of God was to become man, the definitive Righteous One, the perfect Innocent who would bring salvation to the whole world by dying on the Cross, forgiving and interceding for those who “know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). Therefore the prayer of each one will find its answer, therefore our every intercession will be fully heard.” (Pope Benedict XVI and all quotes from the General Audience 18 May 2011)

One of the most common requests I receive as a priest is the simple phrase, “Father, would you please pray for…. The requests are varied and range from very urgent and at time grave to the small and continuing troubles of family, country and world. This request for intercession is something we need to be attentive too and hopefully bringing prayers into the center of life. Because our call to intercede in prayer goes deeper than the response we find often in the secular world where to “I will keep you in my thoughts” is the pail response to prayer.
Pope Benedict uses the famous story of Abraham seeking mercy for the people of Sodom. The reality is this conversation between God and Abraham is greater than the surface bargaining and testing that are first noticed, rather as he notes, “In this way he brings a new idea of justice into play: not the one that is limited to punishing the guilty, as men do, but a different, divine justice that seeks goodness and creates it through forgiveness that transforms the sinner, converts and saves him. With his prayer, therefore, Abraham does not invoke a merely compensatory form of justice but rather an intervention of salvation which, taking into account the innocent, also frees the wicked from guilt by forgiving them.” (Pope Benedict)
The greatness and deepness of intercessory prayer is we place ourselves inside the suffering and hurt were we participate in the lives of those we pray for even when they are on the other side of our planet. Abraham steps in and takes up the cause of not only the just but the sinner too and we are called to do the same as disciples of Jesus Christ. As noted in the first quote above, God becomes one of us in the presence of the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, Jesus, where he intercedes, he steps into the world to be present to all where he reminds us, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (LK 5:32) The call we have to intercede for others, in prayer, is an invitation to move more deeply into their lives in a relationship of love where we begin to see them as sisters and brothers worthy of love because this is how Jesus/God sees us.
It is important, as Pope Benedict reminds us, to remember our prayers are for those in need…including our enemies and even those who commit the most heinous crimes against society, “Yet the Lord does not want the wicked to die, but rather that they convert and live (cf. Ez 18:23; 33:11); his desire is always to forgive, to save, to give life, to transform evil into good. Well, it is this divine desire itself which becomes in prayer the desire of the human being and is expressed through the words of intercession.” (Pope Benedict)
Whether the intercession of prayer is for a person suffering from cancer or another suffering from the self imposed prison of addiction our call, as disciples of Jesus Christ, is to reach out, to step into, to walk and be with the other in the unity of love. It is only here that we find the fullness of God’s mercy and healing grace.
Please pray for me…I am praying for you.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

“Dear brothers and sisters, the prayer of intercession of Abraham, our father in the faith, teaches us to open our hearts ever wider to God’s superabundant mercy so that in daily prayer we may know how to desire the salvation of humanity and ask for it with perseverance and with trust in the Lord who is great in love. Many thanks.” (Pope Benedict)

“The problems that weigh heavily on the hearts of men are the same today as in the ages past. What is man? — [who am I?] — What is the meaning and purpose of life?” (Pope Benedict XVI from General Audience 11 May 2011)

The above statement by Benedict XVI is an age old reality. As we grow from childhood dependent upon our parents and family and begin the search for “who we are” as individuals we begin to ask these very important questions. And the reality of this great question on the purpose of life is that it is a good and necessary question. The willingness to look beyond the superficial and into the deepness of the heart and soul where relationships are discovered is the difficult and often avoided area by many people, including people of faith.
And in truth, the superficial is much easier and often more sensually satisfying in the short term moments of life. The idea of delayed gratification is thrown away quickly with the rationalization of; “Why wait for something that may happen when I can take and do the lesser of the something right now?” But at the same time, we know deep down the goods that come from preparing, sacrificing and waiting are what truly brings peace and joy into our hearts.
Pope Benedict XVI in the same audience continued, “The “digital” man, like the cave man, seeks in the religious experience ways to overcome his finiteness and to guarantee his precarious adventure on earth. Moreover, life without a transcendent horizon would not have its full meaning and happiness, for which we all seek, is spontaneously projected towards the future in a tomorrow that has yet to come.”
This seeking, this quest for the greater is a found in the discovery of a relationship of love that is “beyond” the natural experience and into a conversation that draws out a reality of the infinite in the lives of each person. It is a discovery of a relationship of movement towards a greater desire for unity where the joy and happiness God calls forth in life is lived to the fullest.
There is an experience I will often share with young men asking questions and discerning a call to the priesthood or those young women doing the same for consecrated life. In my first year in seminary one of my classmates and someone who became of good friend announced he was leaving formation. Personally, for me, this was devastating. He was a good, positive and genuine man who I believed would be a great priest and yet in seeking the greater with an open heart to God’s call he knew God had a different plan for him, (and I am sure his wife and children would agree). But it was only in prayer, a deep conversation of relationship with God and others, was he able to discern and choose the path God called him to live. Pope Benedict reminds us in this same talk, “St Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of history, defines prayer as “an expression of man’s desire for God””
God has called each of us to a mission in life, a mission that is unrepeatable by any other person and we discover this mission in our prayer of blessing and adoration…in our desire for God’s presence and relationship…our response to the greater. It is a discussion of love where Jesus calls us his friends (Jn 15:15) and invites us to speak with him and search him out in prayer as a friend. As Pope Benedict points out, “I can be forced to kneel — a condition of indigence and slavery — but I can also kneel spontaneously, declaring my limitations and therefore my being in need of Another. To him I declare I am weak, needy, “a sinner”.” It is in the recognition of my limitations where I search for the other in hope and blessing—through conversation, through prayer knowing it is here the glory of love, the glory of God is found.
God bless
Fr. Mark

Man bears within him a thirst for the infinite, a longing for eternity, a quest for beauty, a desire for love, a need for light and for truth which impel him towards the Absolute; man bears within him the desire for God. And man knows, in a certain way, that he can turn to God, he knows he can pray to him. (Pope Benedict XVI)

“We know well, in fact, that prayer should not be taken for granted. It is necessary to learn how to pray, as it were acquiring this art ever anew; even those who are very advanced in spiritual life always feel the need to learn from Jesus, to learn how to pray authentically. We receive the first lesson from the Lord by his example. The Gospels describe Jesus to us in intimate and constant conversation with the Father: it is a profound communion of the One who came into the world not to do his will but that of the Father who sent him for the salvation of man.” (Pope Benedict XVI from 4 May 2011 Audience)

A little while back a young couple came to visit me because of some problems in their relationship. I asked some questions to get to know them, to find out what they did and how their home life functioned and after about 30 minutes of this conversation I asked them a simple question, “How do you pray at home?” There was a few moments of silence and she then asked me, “Did I mean like the ‘Our Father’ or something else?” This began a very wonderful conversation about prayer: praying for each other, talking to God, asking for blessing and giving thanks through prayer.
Pope Benedict reminds us in the quote above about the reality of the work of prayer. While prayer is a natural outpouring at many times during our life, we also need to be attentive to the continual practice of prayer so we may not just run to prayer when we need it but allow prayer to draw us deeper into relationships of love, thanksgiving and care for God and others in our life.
Prayer takes attentiveness on our part so we are ready because as I stated above it is a natural gift to share but when we are not attentive to prayer it can’t atrophy much like our physical nature. A great example of this is our children’s summer break and the slide backwards many of them experience in their reading and math skills so when they return in the fall for the next grade they often need to relearn what they knew because throughout the summer they did not pick up a book to read or do a math problem to keep the mental growth increasing. The spiritual growth of prayers works the same way…if we don’t use it daily.
We are reminded there are five major types of prayer: Blessing and Adoration, Petition, Intercession, Thanksgiving and Praise. Each of these types of prayer have a place within the prayer life of each person and family/church. We need to practice each type to once extent or another because if we don’t, then we can begin to fall into the mumbling of the great prayers, like the “Our Father,” where they become just words rattled off without thought rather than the deep and profound conversation with a loving God, loving family and community.
As we talked about prayer, this couple began to ask the harder questions about their desire for a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. But they wanted to know, how do we do this? For each of us the answer will be a little different and yet looking at the five-forms of prayer we all have the same compass pointing towards Heaven, pointed towards God who is love.
In my prayer chest I always like to start with blessing and asking the question, “Where did I experience/see/feel/hear God’s blessing today?” Trying to be as specific as I can by just not noting the beauty of the day (which is important and a wonderful blessing) but seeking to be very specific, especially in the who and when, in naming the blessing(s) as I recall my day and more importantly begin to offer blessing and then thanksgiving when I have these little experiences of the miracle of God in my life. Pope Benedict XVI notes in the same audience, “Human life is a fabric woven of good and of evil, of undeserved suffering and of joy and beauty that spontaneously and irresistibly impel us to ask God for that light and that inner strength which support us on earth and reveal a hope beyond the boundaries of death.”(Benedict XVI)
This young couple has a long and holy journey in front of them full of growth with all the sufferings and blessings of life and relationships. Please pray for them as they seek to live as God’s son and daughter it is part of the great intercession we can offer as family, as the Body of Christ.
God bless,
Fr. Mark

God Bless America
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above
From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home

As we celebrate the 4th of July this week and look back at our history and forward to our future as people of faith we may call to mind the blessings of life and the hopes and dreams we see in how we are to go forward. As a Catholic priest one of the first “tempest in a teapot” I was faced with was the song “God Bless America.” I can’t remember which national holiday it was but directly after Mass I was confronted and excoriated by several parishioners about why we didn’t sing “God Bless America” at the end of Mass. Later on in my priesthood after another national holiday I was confronted and excoriated by several parishioners on why we did sing “God Bless America” at the end of Mass…and throughout the years this has continued because it is not something I think too much about and often it slips by my notice. But it has been something I do think about from time to time and seeing this song as prayer (to sing is to pray twice according to St. Augustine) is important…because the call to blessing is very important no matter who we are and to whom and where our prayer intention is headed. Jesus reminds us, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Mt 5:43-45) It is where our prayer/song becomes the reaching out of healing and blessing towards all people.
“God bless America” specifically in this song, The United States of America, if we added this to a list of prayers we may not have any objections but yet at the end of Mass there are many. If we consider the prayer we may begin to see the blessings is simply offered. I often pray these words to many people during the day. As a sixth grade teacher I would often say to my students, “God bless you Peter” to which in the beginning they would respond, “I didn’t sneeze.” It is a short prayer that we hopefully utter many times in our lives and days to family, friends and yes, enemies. It is a short prayer we send towards many parts of the world and many peoples in different situations and places in times of need. It is because we understand that whether it is “America” or any other country, place or group…it is the people who we seek to bless because the second phrase is about love, “Land that I love.”
Love is the understanding that with faults and failures we still love. I bless and desire my family, friends and each person I meet to be blessed because I hope for the better, the more holy, the fuller dignity to grow within that particular person but also in the community and world we inhabit. It is because we understand whether an individual person or a land, we love through failures and faults, not dismissing or forgetting them, but forgiving and moving forward in the growth of generous love. I will never be 100% in-sync with any person, I know my own faults and failures and know them also in family and friends and yet it is in love I draw closer because I know their presence makes me a better man. In the same way we should have this same hope for our communities, our country and our Church…not because any are perfect but because we are made better when we seek unity rather than division. It is here we have the desire, as Christians, for our God to guide and lead us through the darkness into the light of charity and justice. And I would hope this is where we all desire to be.
Just some thoughts about a simple song shared and blessed.
God Bless you and America
Fr. Mark

Merciful Jesus, I consecrate myself today and always to Your most Sacred Heart.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore, that I may ever love You more and more.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I Trust in You!
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Your love for me.
Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like Your Heart. Amen

It has been one of those weeks full of some very stressful spiritual and emotional moments added to that the normal work with interruptions and a busy schedule and the time for reflecting and writing has just slipped away and has been difficult to find…so what am I to do?
Very simple, I will take some spiritual advice I often give…don’t be hard on yourself. If you don’t have the time for everything do what you can. Finally, a little bit of prayer is better than no prayer.
Here is a short reflection with just a little bit of writing. Let’s begin with a quote from Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, “Although a great deal of nonsense has been written about the interior life of men in our day, it is still true that the twentieth century is still closer to God than the nineteenth century was. We are living on the eve of one of the greatest spiritual revivals of human history. Souls are sometimes closest to God when they feel themselves farthest away from Him, at the point of despair. For an empty soul, the Divine can fill; a worried soul, the Infinite can pacify. A self concerned, proud soul, however, is it accessible to grace.” (p17 “Way to Happiness”) These words always bring solace to my soul knowing even in the darkness God’s will is being done. Even in a week of craziness, pain and trouble, God’s will is being done. Even realizing these words of solace were written in the 1950’s God speaks to us through Sacred Scripture and says, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” (Ps 90:4) Stay faithful. Stay true. Stay in the presence of Jesus.
So…that is it for the week with these final words from St. Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away;
god never changes
Patience obtains all things
whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices. Amen

God Bless
Fr. Mark

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We are not there yet….but we can be with the help of everyone together…So once more, thank you to all who have supported our “Clean Shave for a Clean Start” campaign…if all goes well we will be shaving on the steps of St. Lucy Church on July 14th at around 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. The money we are raising is to close the gap in the ADA and Capital Campaign so we can confidently plan for the renovations knowing we have the resources on hand to complete the full project. Attached is the link to donate…all gifts, large and small, are important in building the camaraderie of a community of joy.

If everything goes to plan in about one month I will be beardless. The fun and the silliness of our “closing the gap” campaign is bearing great fruit and it looks like the shaving will occur. I found myself the other evening as I brushed my teeth getting ready for bed to really take a good look at my beard and thinking in my mind…”Boy, does my beard look good!” and then sigh at the thought of it going away.
Many people have expressed the support of the beauty of my beard but for some odd reason many, many more have a dislike for my beautiful beard. Whatever the case I will be happy to sacrifice my beard for the good of the parish and the happiness of my Mom and my other family and friends who would like to see the beard go the way of the wooly mammoth.
Now, there is a spiritual gift involved in this for both those who are giving and hoping the beard goes and for me and the remnant who know beauty when they see it. The gift of giving in hope is a blessing of generosity and of community. Choosing to give of the self and join in a movement of good are important aspects of becoming one in a unity that makes us better in who we are as friends and neighbors. It is in building camaraderie we discover the blessing of who we are beyond the what we do.
It is also true for me, who will be loosing the beauty of the beard, and my loyal companions that we too build this unity and joy but also in the sacrificial offering of something greater. It builds the heart of humility of knowing there is a greater and grander plan God has for us in life.
Ultimately it is the camaraderie of who we are and not what we do on which I wish to focus. I know it took the beauty of the beard to get to this point but it is an important point. When the Catholic Church talks about vocation and how our Bishop Oscar Cantú from San Jose talks about building a culture of vocation this is the reality of the word: it is who we are and not what we do. If I use myself as an example: my vocation in the Catholic Church is that of an ordained priest. As a priest I do many things, and some of these works are reserved only to a priest, the calling to a vocation is still about becoming who God has made us to be created in his own likeness as sons and daughters. My mission isn’t to “do the work” of a priest but to conform my life to Jesus Christ in my vocation as priest. The becoming who we are cannot be done in isolation from the Body of Christ, the people of God. And this is how we understand all “vocation” as St. Paul reminds us, conforming ourselves to the image of Jesus is the ultimate goal of everyone. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Eph 5:25) In other words, dying to ourselves helps us find our true calling to serve and love our brothers and sisters.
Once again we cannot die to ourselves simply for ourselves…we must always do so in service of a greater good, a holy cause which draws a deeper and more profound love from our hearts. This is always first and foremost found in our prayer with and for others seeking to understand the blessings we have received and are called to share with the community.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

So once more, thank you to all who have supported our “Clean Shave for a Clean Start” campaign…if all goes well we will be shaving on the steps of St. Lucy Church on July 14th at around 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon. The money we are raising is to close the gap in the ADA and Capital Campaign so we can confidently plan for the renovations knowing we have the resources on hand to complete the full project. Attached is the link to donate…all gifts, large and small, are important in building the camaraderie of a community of joy.

https://paybee.io/quickpay.html?handle=stlucy&ppid=33#optionList

https://paybee.io/quickpay.html?handle=stlucy&ppid=33#optionList

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.
This may be the most common prayer said by Catholics throughout time. It is a prayer that begins and ends all other prayers we may say throughout the day. It is the complete and full acknowledgment of the Trinitarian love of God. It is a prayer of blessing we offer to each other over and over again.
Why am I talking about the Sign of the Cross? This Sunday we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. And this is an important blessing within our faith and our understanding of who God is in our lives and how he desires to be in communion with his creation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior’s grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father. The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations and difficulties.” (#2157)
We can often see sports athletes make the Sign of the Cross. Many soccer players make this sign as they enter the game and baseball players often will make the sign before an at-bat. It is a reminder that these players aren’t making the Sign of the Cross to not swing at a ball outside the strike zone or to score a goal. They are making the sign as an offering to the glory of God. I remember many years ago in an interview a player was asked by a reporter why he made the Sign of the Cross? The player simply responded, “It was an act of thanksgiving. Thanking God for the gift of being able to play a game he loved so much.” He added, “While he never asked God to help him get a hit. He did ask God to help him do his very best.”
This of course is a wonderful and perfect answer. We make the Sign of the Cross as an act of thanksgiving in seeking to do the will of God in our lives, as we seek to allow God to fully participate in our lives. But this isn’t always what happens.
I like so many Catholics can fall into the hand wave habit of the signing of myself. I watch in fascination at times to the quick wave of the hand, the abbreviated motion, the half finished and other forms of the Sign of the Cross that happens at Mass, meals, meetings, in the street or wherever else Catholics pray. It can become, like many memorized prayers, a rote habit that looses all meaning and we fail to appreciate the power of the Cross in our lives. The Sign of the Cross is a mark of our faith and a tool to help us remember the presence of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in our lives.
We are called to remember through this simplest of prayers how the Most Holy Trinity calls us into a relationship of love which they model. Jesus throughout the Gospels reminds us, his disciples, of how he and the Father are one and how he will send the Holy Spirit upon us to unite us as one with the Father. This is a promise we remember and hope to fulfill each time we make the Sign of the Cross.
My challenge for all of this week is each time we “cross” ourselves we do so intentionally recalling he words and the great mystery we profess. Trusting that this simple prayer surrounds and protects us from “all temptations and difficulties”
God bless
Fr. Mark

ps…don’t forget to click the link to support the Clean Shave for a Clean Start campaign….I thank you for your support.In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…Amen.

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This should be kept in mind, in particular: whatever a priest may plan, resolve, or do to become holy, he will have to draw, for example and for heavenly strength, upon the Eucharistic Sacrifice which he offers, just as the Roman Pontifical urges: “Be aware of what you are doing; imitate what you hold in your hands.” (#56 Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia Pope St. John XXIII)

The quote above is one of my favorite as a reminder how I, as a Catholic priest and follower of Jesus Christ, am called to conform my life. Many of you know that this past week on June 4th I celebrated the 14th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. And I would like to take some time to reflect on my journey and how we are called to seek God in our vocation that is proper to our lives. When I entered the seminary in the fall of 2000 I had know idea of the blessings, the thorns, the joys, the sorrows and yes, the cross that God would ask me to share. I was heading off to my pastoral year at St. Catherine of Alexandria parish when the priest abuse scandal became widely known and I remember living in shock, anger and frustration during those months as the list of names and those removed from ministry continued to grow. But it was also a time of great spiritual growth and understanding how when we, as Catholics; priests, religious and laity, choose to conform ourselves to the Eucharistic sacrifice, we begin to see how the mercy, love and healing grace of God converts hearts and helps us overcome sin and continue to participate and work in the vineyard of our Lord.

Configuration to Christ in sacramental ordination places the priest at the heart of God’s people. It allows him to participate in a way proper to him, an in conformity with the whole structure of the ecclesial community, in the triple munus Christi. The priest, acting in person Chirsti Capitis, feeds the flock, the people of God, and leads them to sanctity. hence the need for credible witness to the faith in all aspects of priestly life and in his respect for the celebration of the sacraments. (p 22 “The Priest and the Third Christian Millennium”)

God placed me into the heart of his Church. It began at St. Martin of Tours, then Holy Spirit, then St. Catherine and now at St. Lucy. He placed me in the heart of his Church in my work with Worldwide Marriage Encounter and the Engaged Encounter community. He placed me in the heart of his Church in guiding parish schools, helping families to grow and nurture their faith. He has place me in the heart of his Church in my work with the young adults of our valley with the Young Catholic professionals and most recently in helping a faithful Catholic woman to found a ministry reaching out to young single mothers to help them heal and be re-united to the Body of Christ. In doing these ministries (and a few more) God has placed me into the heart of his Holy Catholic Church to witness to his love, his mercy and his forgiveness by seeking the face of his son Jesus Christ in all whom I am called to serve.

“The first service to render to the community is prayer. And therefore, time for prayer must be given a true priority in our life. I know that there are many urgent things: as regards myself, an audience, a document to study, a meeting or something else. But if we are not interiorly in communion with God we cannot even give anything to others. Therefore, God is the first priority. We must always reserve the time necessary to be in communion of prayer with our Lord.” (p 50 “The Priest: A Bridge to God” Pope Benedict XVI)

It is during those dark times that the Eucharist and prayer became real and my conversations with God became deeper and life-giving. It is where, in God’s classroom of silence, I discovered a beloved Father who waited for me with patience and my priority became His will and not my own. Yes, I still have my times of ego but they become less and less as I live with in the heart of his Church and see the example of the many holy people, who are the Catholic Church, seeking to do the ministry of God’s grace and life in the world. I have discovered my prayer with God, centered on the Eucharist, has become his voice whispering in my soul.

““Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” St. Peter expressed this well when he held up the example of a reverent and chaste life that wins over even without a word those who refuse to obey the word. It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the Church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus the witness of poverty and detachment, of freedom in the face of the powers of this world, in short, the witness of sanctity.”(#41 Evangelii nuntiandi Pope St. Paul VI)

When Pope St. Paul VI wrote the above quote I am sure that he had know idea of the scope and damage the scandals of the last 20 years would do to the priests ability to witness to the faith. But here is the great part…St. Paul VI didn’t write this above quote to just priests…he wrote it to every faithful Catholic…he called us all to be witnesses to the faith and in doing so inspire priests, bishops, cardinals and even Popes to live their vows with joyfulness and hope…to truly be the holy people God calls us to be. As I end this short letter, I ask you to do three simple things: first celebrate the Eucharist as often as you can…it is life giving and our strength against evil, second pray daily for the sanctification of our Church and the holiness of your priests…it does work and it is powerful and lastly, as Pope Francis reminds us again and again, be joyful…bless those we meet and know with a joyful heart even as we carry our cross.

ps…as an anniversary gift to me…you may consider donating to our Clean Shave for a Clean Start Campaign…there is a link attached to the email

God bless
Fr. Mark.

Come and join us next Friday June 14th for this time of prayer and blessing for Sri Lanka

God Bless
Fr. Mark

Earlier this week I received two checks and a can of shaving creme. Later in the week I was given a check and in the payee line had the words, “St. Lucy Fr. Mark debearding.” It was accompanied by a little heart, so I guess that made it okay.
As many of you know my parish, St. Lucy, is in the middle of a mini-campaign “Clean Shave for a Clean Start” with the prize being my “debearding.” It has all been great fun (at least until the razor hits the face) but it is also part of who we are called to be as a Church in our Catholic faith. The Gospel message of Jesus Christ is a message of joy and deep peace where we conform ourselves with God’s blessing and love.
Don’t get me wrong, we are raising this money for a very serious purpose and we vitally need the support of the parish community to reach our goal so we may move forward with confidence in the renovation projects at St. Lucy but we are to do so knowing God walks with us. Pope Francis reminds us of this when he writes, “Hard times may come, when the cross casts its shadow, yet nothing can destroy the supernatural joy that “adapts and changes, but always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved”. That joy brings deep security, serene hope and a spiritual fulfillment that the world cannot understand or appreciate.” (Gaudete et Exsultate #125) The “deep security and serene hope” are the gift of unity and joy. Yes, there are difficult moments and financial worries which we all can carry but ultimately in trust and hope we place these doubts into God’s hands allowing Him to lead us forward.
In any campaign, whether it is raising funds, deepening our prayer life or loosing weight we recognize how when we are united with one another we the find strength and courage to move forward. Pope St. John Paul II in writing on the Eucharist describes how this unity flows from our participation in the banquet (the Mass) with all of God’s holy people, “Eucharistic communion also confirms the Church in her unity as the body of Christ. Saint Paul refers to this unifying power of participation in the banquet of the Eucharist when he writes to the Corinthians: “The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:16-17). ( Ecclesia de Eucharistia #23) While the campaign can be fun and joyous, like my Mom’s video, without the participation of the Church in moving forward we are never able to fully live in the joy and blessing of our vocational calling to holiness. Holiness comes with a sacrificial joy finding it foundation in our Eucharistic life as St. John Paul II points out, we are “constantly renewed and consolidated by sharing in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, especially by that full sharing which takes place in sacramental communion. We can say not only that each of us receives Christ, but also that Christ receives each of us.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia #22)
Being united with the other, whether it be family or friends, is an invitation into a conversation of love and joy. It is a blessing of the energy that is found in joy, in the coming together for a common good where even in struggle and pain there is a deep sense of satisfaction. This can never happen in solitude and will never happen in solitude when we are in a daily prayerful conversation with God. As Pope Benedict XVI in his wisdom writes, “When I can no longer talk to anyone or call upon anyone, I can always talk to God. When there is no longer anyone to help me deal with a need or expectation that goes beyond the human capacity for hope, he can help me. When I have been plunged into complete solitude …; if I pray I am never totally alone.” (Spe Salvi #32)
Even in our fears there is the hope and blessing of God’s goodness and love because of His desire to enter more deeply into our lives. I pray deeply for the continued growth in stewardship in our Catholic Church knowing when we share our time, talent and treasure we are made better as a community. I pray daily for others to join us in building a new and greater Church filled with saints and sinners who desire a deeper unity with Jesus Christ. Because even in the trials and tribulations of life we are reminded by our Holy Father Francis, “Like the prophet Jonah, we are constantly tempted to flee to a safe haven. It can have many names: individualism, spiritualism, living in a little world, addiction, intransigence, the rejection of new ideas and approaches, dogmatism, nostalgia, pessimism, hiding behind rules and regulations. We can resist leaving behind a familiar and easy way of doing things. Yet the challenges involved can be like the storm, the whale, the worm that dried the gourd plant, or the wind and sun that burned Jonah’s head. For us, as for him, they can serve to bring us back to the God of tenderness, who invites us to set out ever anew on our journey. (Gaudete et Exsultate #134)

If you wish to donate to the “debearding of Fr. Mark please click on the link below…thank you and God be with you!
Text the word CLEAN to 38470 and pledge today or
https://paybee.io/quickpay.html?handle=stlucy&ppid=33#optionList

Checking off the boxes of life. Is that how we choose to live our lives? Often times we can begin something with great love, enthusiasm and enjoyment and as time goes on the routine and the often mundane aspects of whatever it is begins to remove the luster from the action and we begin the just, “check off the box” and move on to the next thing on our list…where we just “check off the box.” And while we can point out many things in life where we do the “checking off” this is not how God has intended us to live.
As a priest I can fall into this temptation and it can even become a sin as I “check off the box” of my ministry. This is why yearly retreats, days of prayer and renewal and good friends are important because they are the checks and balances agains falling into the routines and habits that begin to suck the joy and blessing out of life. It is when we practice the intentionality of knowing God and one another more deeply we form life-giving bonds that do not permit us to live life “checking off the boxes.”
Pope St. John Paul II when reflecting on his 50th anniversary of priesthood wrote this about these relationships, “I was able to grasp more fully how much the priesthood is linked to pastoral ministry and the apostolate of the laity. A close connection, or, better, a mutual correlation, exists between priestly service and the lay apostolate.” (p 54 from “Gift and Mystery”) We are reminded by St. John Paul II of how the connectedness of our mission within the Body of Christ is a life sustaining gift we are called to nurture and cherish. When I am able to be in a communion of service with those who I am called to serve then the checking off of boxes becomes an impossibility as I am confronted with the face of Jesus each day.
And this is true for each and every member of the Body of Christ, young or old, married, single, consecrated or ordained, male or female…it doesn’t matter because we are all called into the same service…just in different ways.
Retreats, taking time away from the ordinary. Retreats can be very formal…at a retreat house or other setting…or they can be informal such as a week at the beach. What makes it a retreat and not simply another vacation is the intentionality of bringing God into the daily movements of the day. I highly recommend a “retreat” experience in the formal sense but if not then when you head off for a week of “vacation” don’t forget to bring God. Take time daily for spiritual reading, prayer with the family, times to share the blessings received that day, laughing with each other in the joy of God’s love and speaking from the heart about the desires and hopes of the future and entrusting them to God.
Days of Prayer, (or hours, or minutes) unite us with God. These aren’t days of sitting down, kneeling and isolation rather they are days of listening to a voice of love. If you are married, if you have children, if you are very busy with work…all of these are challenges but challenges which can be overcome with the desire to love another greater. Prayer, either alone or with others, helps us to reassess where we are at in our life and our relationship to God and others. We should always know why we are going to pray and for whom we are asking God’s intercession and why we are offering thanksgiving. If a husband takes his wife into prayer: offering the gratitude and blessings of their relationship then the desire and gift of service comes more freely as he is able to see her as the treasure of love given by God and not simply another thing to deal with in the day.
Good friends: People who will call your bluff and hold you accountable for your choices. A while back a friend called me and asked if I was available for golf…I looked at my very busy schedule and said,“no.” He then asked the last time I had picked up my clubs (it had been a long time) and when he heard my answer told me he was booking a tee time and to clear my calendar. The resistance was great…even my days off had become work…then I heard his wife in the background call out…”and you can come to dinner. The kids will love to see you.” I think there may have been a conspiracy brewing but ultimately the calendar was cleared, the game was played the dinner was celebrated and the community was joined.
Our Holy Father Pope Francis leaves us with this beautiful reflection from the closing paragraphs of his Apostolic Exhortation “Amoris Laetitia: The Joy of Love” where he writes, “It is a profound spiritual experience to contemplate our loved ones with the eyes of God and to see Christ in them. This demands a freedom and openness which enable us to appreciate their dignity. We can be fully present to others only by giving fully of ourselves and forgetting all else. Our loved ones merit our complete attention. Jesus is our model in this, for whenever people approached to speak with him, he would meet their gaze, directly and lovingly (Mk 10:21). No one felt overlooked in his presence, since his words and gestures conveyed the question: “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mk10:51). This is what we experience in the daily life of the family. We are constantly reminded that each of those who live with us merits complete attention, since he or she possesses infinite dignity as an object of the Father’s immense love. This gives rise to a tenderness which can “stir in the other the joy of being loved. Tenderness is expressed in a particular way by exercising loving care in treating the limitations of the other, especially when they are evident”” (#323)

God Bless
Fr. Mark