Thoughts From Fr. Mark

Each morning when I begin my Office of Readings I begin with two simple phrases: “O Lord, open my lips—and my mouth will proclaim your praise” followed by “The Lord is Risen, Alleluia.” These two short prayers remind me, as they remind the Church, of why we open our eyes, our hearts and live our lives each day. It is a call to live and proclaim why we choose to serve in joy.
If you have been reading me for a while you know the struggles and joys of serving our holy Church. Ultimately, we always serve with hope where my lips and voice are called to recall my heart and the heart of all to the service of the Joy of the Gospel, as our Holy Father Francis reminds us over and over again.
A part of the joy is to find fun and laughter in service of God…which gets me to the beard that resides on my face…the beard which I have offered to God on behalf of the people of God…the beard that I hope will put a lot of “fun” in the fundraiser at my parish St. Lucy.
Believe it or not the beard has been a source of much controversy in the life of the Catholic Church. You can even go to the Catholic Encyclopedia and there is a whole article on the pendulum of opinions on the wearing of beards by priests and clerics. Every morning when I sit at my prayer altar and look up at the images of the saints that hang on the wall before me I see many bearded saints, men of great holiness whom I call upon to pray with me and saints whom I hope to emulate in my call to serve God’s Holy people. If you want to read a short history I will place a link below to the online Catholic Encyclopedia.
My reasons for a beard are complicated and with a bit of vanity on the top. My first beard began shortly after my discharge from the Marine Corps. Four years of shaving and short haircuts found its rebellion in not shaving and allowing my hair to grow to a proper length. The beard disappeared when I started working but came back in full and complete vengeance when I studied in Germany while attending Holy Names College (now University) and from that year on (1988) I have had a beard on my face, with a few minor exceptions, for the last 30 years.
Why the beard? Some of it involves a contrary spirit to the times. When I began the beard it wasn’t a common practice as it is today. I liked my face better with a beard. Yes, there is vanity. But mostly it has become the reality of how comfortable I am with my beard…it has become a part of me. I like to say it gives me a sense of courage, wisdom and uniqueness (yes, more vanity) I feel I would not have if I shaved my beard….but I will…for a price.
When this fun fundraiser was proposed…I was a bit, well really more than just a bit, resistant to the idea. But each time we shared the idea with someone the laughter and joy, much like at Mass last Sunday, ultimately drew my heart to be open to the joy, the fun, the blessing that will occur. What am I truly sacrificing…check out the link to the “Catholic Gentlemen” below. Humbly I will walk forth clean shaven, when we make our goal, and share the joy by leaving behind the vanity of the beard and sharing the joy of the Gospel.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Donate to the Clean Shave Clean Start campaign below

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

An Ode to the Glories of the Beard

https://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=1610

Lord, grant me patience to allow my children room to grow from their mistakes.
I want so much to protect them and to help them through the hard lessons of this world.
Help us to growing understanding and you find common ground, calmly and patiently growing in unconditional love for you and for one another.
Mary, Mother of us all, help me to be a patient mother.
(from “Talking to God: Prayers for Catholic Women” by Julie Dortch Cragon)

This weekend our country celebrates Mother’s Day, a day of great blessing and joy for many families who celebrate mothers, both new and old, in their role in the cooperation in God’s plan for families in the world. I begin this article with a prayer because it is in prayer that the Christian mother finds herself united more closely with God the Father and the earthly father of the child or children in her life.
Prayer, we know, is an essential link to our life with God. It is our daily conversation and our intimate time with our God in living our lives and sharing the daily graces and sufferings, the daily blessings and struggles as we seek to follow Him through our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is also true, when we bring our prayers to God for family, and in a special way for our children we find our connection with God not only strengthened but our connection and intimacy with spouse, children and family grows in strength and unity.
I know we understand this on a deep level where it almost seems natural as we journey through life…we hope and pray our young people grow in grace and peace in their lives but I also know just as we often put prayer on the back burner in our own lives for many reasons they busyness of the world often distracts us from truly offering prayer to God for those we love in all circumstances of our lives.
I remember at a Worldwide Marriage Encounter meeting several years ago how a couple shared the story of prayer and dreams for their children. They shared how they struggled with their children with arguments and stress filling the days. As they began to pray God inspired them to share their prayers with their children…not just the earthly desire for safety, good grades and a successful future but more importantly for their desire for them to grow in holiness, happiness and fruitfulness apart from the material. It is a reminder to us all: we are more than our material successes and failures, we are children of God. “Perhaps there is no greater gift we can give our children than the gift of our prayers. As parents we, almost without thinking, nursed their bodies and their minds throughout our daily activities with them, but it is in the praying fervently for our children that we can help the life of grace flourish within their souls, aiding God in transforming them into the children He desires them to be.” (from “A Parent Who Prays” by Katie Warner)
On this Mother’s Day weekend we are constantly reminded of how our mothers have prayed for us and hoped for our growing closer to God as the ultimate goal in our lives. We are reminded how God, the giver of all life, transforms us and invites us into a unity of love and grace.
Let us recall the gift of life where we are made in God’s holy and divine image. Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminds us of how each child, born into the world, through the mother’s life-giving love is made in the image of God seen in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. “Motherhood recalls that the best lives are those in which the physical and the spiritual development are never separated, as in the mother and in her child’s education; both grow together. Precisely because of the soul, there is body development at each instant. The Christian mother is like Simeon, who took the forty-day-old Divine Child into his arms. But the true picture is not that he bore the Child, but the Child bore him. The mother, too, will see herself not merely physically bearing a child, but the Child, composed of the body and soul inseparably, bearing her.” (from “Three to Get Married” by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen)
Happy Mother’s Day!
God Bless
Fr. Mark

As I begin the 58th year of my life it is a great blessing to share my ministry with so many wonderful people. It is always interesting to look back to see where God has led you to be and to look forward in the hopefulness of blessing and peace that Jesus Christ offers to us.
The month of May always starts with my birthday and the recognition how the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker fills my life with joy. And the greater joy for the Diocese of San Jose was the transition to a new bishop, Bishop Oscar Cantú, who began the shepherding of our local Church on the 1st of May. As I have talked about before, the whole of my priesthood and my training in seminary has been under the watchful eye of Bishop Patrick and so for the very first time in my priesthood I will have to remember a different name in the Eucharistic prayers but also learn the new blessings that come with a new bishop in the diocese. But a few things will remain the same, in the Decree from the Second Vatican Council, “Christus Dominus: Concerning The Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church” we are reminded that pastors and priests, under the guidance of the bishop have two important missions. First and foremost is care of souls, “In exercising this care of souls, pastors and their assistants should so fulfill their duty of teaching, sanctifying and governing that the faithful and the parish communities will truly realize that they are members both of the diocese and of the universal Church…Moreover, the care of souls should always be infused with a missionary spirit so that it reaches out as it should to everyone living within the parish boundaries. If the pastor cannot contact certain groups of people, he should seek the assistance of others, even laymen who can assist him in the apostolate.” (#30)
There is a lot of church speak in the above passage but the main thrust is as our Holy Father Pope Francis puts it, to “smell like the sheep” to “go out to the boundaries” and especially to listen and proclaim the Gospel message with joy and hope. To be “infused with missionary spirit” is the invitation to be open to seeking new ways to talk with our brothers and sisters, both Catholic and non-Catholic in the example of Jesus Christ. In doing this we fulfill the second mission, “In the exercise of their teaching office it is the duty of pastors to preach God’s word to all the Christian people so that, rooted in faith, hope and charity, they will grow in Christ, and as a Christian community bear witness to that charity which the Lord commended.’ (#30)
But wait, there is more…”Christus Dominos” as do so many of the Church teachings, reminds us of the call to all baptized Christians to do the work of evangelization. It is perhaps the greatest joy that I experience is this work of evangelization with the people of the parish as their wisdom, enthusiasm and joy fill the Church with the breath of life and the hope of a more peaceful future. The whole point is of course a universal truth that has been lived out through the ages in our Catholic Church: it is made up of the living stones of individuals and families called to serve God. Popes come and go. Bishops come and go. And yes, pastors and priests come and go. But who remains is Jesus Christ…yesterday, today and forever…as we pray so very often. The gift we each bring, no matter our place within the Body of Christ, is a gift of blessing and love. Each of us is invited and called to share in the building of the Kingdom of God’s holy Catholic Church. How are you going to use your gift(s) today?
God bless…He is Risen Alleluia
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.

Prayer is a powerful and integral part of every Christian life. It’s a call to be in direct conversation with the Most Holy Trinity and to walk with our Lord Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, on his Way to the Cross. Prayer is also a powerful guide to a life of holiness and grace.
The prayer above is my daily consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While I was teaching in New Mexico in the early 1990’s I found a book that was donated to the mission about the devotion to Jesus’ Sacred Heart. I read about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and began for the first time in my life to willingly pray a Novena and it is the above prayer that I begin each day and the prayer I end all other prayers with, whether it is my morning office, the sacrifice of the Mass, my Rosary it is the prayer that calls me to the most intimate part of Jesus and to rest within his Sacred Heart.
When people ask me how to pray, I can share with them basic strategies and some sound advice that are readily available from a host of reliable Catholic spiritual guides and evangelist. These open us up to some basic forms of prayer but I always end with the understanding and truth that where or when we encounter Jesus in prayer He will lead us into a path that bonds us ever closer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I remind them of how prayer is like marriage. I can share with them sound principles, that are tried and true guides to building a strong, loving and enduring marriage but it is only when the man encounters the woman in a deep and profound conversation of love that they will begin to see how the advice becomes alive in their unique relationship with God and each other. (See my Worldwide Marriage Encounter ad below)

“Be with us this day.
Give us courage to be strong, loving and wise;
strong in prayer,
loving in service,
and wise ministers of your mercy.” (DSJ prayer of priests)

This short snippet from the prayer all the priests of the Diocese of San Jose were given and asked to pray a few years ago has become a staple of my daily prayer too…especially in my morning prayer. This call to action is a reminder of how our prayer changes throughout our lives. Prayers we find powerful and impactful today may slowly fade away as we hear the call of God to follow him into a new and more profound relationship. It is similar to how when reading the Gospels, such as the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20) we see and understand different aspects of Jesus’s call to become fruitful and life giving in our lives. I pray the prayer above not because I was asked but because it has, particularly this small part, touched my life and moved me to be stronger, more loving and gracious in the service of God’s holy people.

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: (St. Teresa of Avila)

Lastly, I end with a prayer that has been a blessing for many years, first as the Taizé prayed during the Holy Thursday adoration, but also a part of my spiritual journey of singing these simple but beautiful truths of God’s love in our life. St. Theresa of Avila a Doctor of the Church reminds us of the trust we are to have in God’s plan. It is a prayer I use during my night prayer as a way of calming and opening my heart to the restful sleep I desire. Finally, I offer you words of much greater wisdom that I have from Archbishop Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, “Prayer consists not in the saying of words but in the lifting of our heart and mind to God. Our divine Lord Himself warned us: “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words” (Matt. 6:7). In the same spirit, St. Augustine said: “We may pray most when we say least, and we may pray least when we say most.”…Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8). The joy of a Christian comes not from intermittent devotions and vocal prayers, but by living the Christ life intimately and to such an extent that even in our failings and weakness we may still betray our familiarity with Christ, as did Peter in the moment of his weakness: “You also were with Jesus the Galilean … Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you” (Matt. 26:69, 73). (from “Wartime Prayerbook by Venerable Fulton J. Sheen)

Fr. Mark

Each Good Friday is a time of silence and reflection. It is a time for all Christians to look deeply into the Cross of Jesus Christ and seek meaning, hope and courage to confront the sin of the world. We have all watched in sadness the fire that consumed Notre Dame in Paris earlier this week. And these big events can consume us in many ways but they can also help us to focus on what is most important, especially the suffering of so many around the world. Throughout the week I have been hearing stories…yesterday, Holy Thursday, a friend ask me to pray for Nicaragua as they suffer and as violence continues…earlier I received an email for a parishioner from Venezuela asking for prayers for her family as one member is sick and cannot get the medical care needed…a parishioner from Nigeria asked for prayers for his village and country as a church was burnt and the people were threatened if the celebrated the faith…and there are members of the Coptic Christian community in Egypt whose churches were destroyed and closed for Holy Week.
Fr. Ronald Rolheiser in his book “The Passion and the Cross” writes, “God didn’t spare Jesus from suffering and death and Jesus doesn’t spare us from them… the cross and resurrection of Jesus reveal a redeeming, not a rescuing, God. (p39-40) We all fall into the trap too often of seeing God as an instrument of taking away all bad things, a God who will wipe away those who hurt and bother us, a God who destroys. What Fr. Rolheiser is reminding us is God is a God of relationship. A God who desires us to turn away from evil, violence, hatred and sin and to embrace a different path, a path of mercy and forgiveness.
“The best place to start is with God. What the cross tells us, more clearly than any other revelation, is that God is absolutely and utterly nonviolent and that God’s vulnerability, which the cross invites us into, is a power for community with God, and with each other. What’s being said here? How does the cross reveal God as nonviolent?” (p 35) Trying to answer those last two questions has been the Christian project for the past 2,000 years. How do I follow God? It is a reminder of how God invites us into a community. This is why coming together is so vitally important and the individualistic spiritualism of modern society is so harmful. Choosing to come together renews in us and reveals to us how God acts through the gifts of one another. In the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, the great saint reminds us, we are all called to be instruments of love living in the freedom of Christ-like obedience to the will of the God who is Love. Choosing to lead, guide and hope in love leads us away from coercion, force and vanity which the choosing to sin too often enslaves the souls of those Jesus has called to discipleship.
We are also reminded how this call to peace is rejected by the world of sin. It is, as Fr. Rolheiser writes, the throwing away, the discarding the abandoning of the most vulnerable and weak of society. “The crucified one is the stone rejected by the builders, the one deemed expendable so that normal life Will not be disrupted. But the crucified one is also God and there is a special intimacy with God that can be had only in standing, as did Mary and John, near the cross, in solidarity with the crucified one, the one who is being excluded.” (p. 41) Sometimes like, Mary and John, we are simply called to witness in silent love…but the witness must be present. It may look like the vigil of those praying outside an abortion facility, silent witnesses to the suffering and pain, the masking of the horrendous acts of violence against the innocent occurring within or it may look like the spouse quietly sharing the suffering of their dying loved one, holding a hand and caressing the soul with words and touch.
It is these acts of love where we come back to the understanding of how God has “redeemed” us and not “rescued” us from sin and death. It is in these acts of generous love where we discover the depth of our own enduring love which moves beyond passion and into the quietness of being with and the gentleness of obedient trust. The Cross reveals how forgiveness and reconciliation endure in love knowing the better within the other in our heart. “Sin is a betrayal of love. However, you first have to be loved and, however dimly, sense that love before you can betray it.” (p 44) Jesus in the silence of the Cross overcomes and frees us from betrayal and invites us once more to endure with him God’s gift of life in love.
The situations of violence and hatred we can believe are too great and too difficult to deal with so we will close our eyes to these crosses, to the Cross of Jesus but faith and love allow us to open our eyes and reveals the hopefulness of our cross united with Jesus’ Cross. “What the cross of Christ reveals is that when we are so paralyzed by fear and overcome by darkness that we can no longer help ourselves, when we have reached the stage where we can go longer open the door to let the light and life in, God can still come through our locked doors, stand inside our fear and paralysis, and breathe out peace.” (p 47)
Let us pray for men and women of good will this Easter season to embrace the cross of peace, the cross of justice, the cross of love.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

One of the greatest blessings of the Lenten Season for a Catholic Priest is the celebration of the Chrism Mass that is traditionally done on Holy Thursday morning but for pastoral reasons the Diocese of San Jose celebrates the week prior. It is a great blessing for me personally but also for our Church because it is a time when the vast majority of the priests serving in the diocese come together for a day a prayer and then con-celebration of the Mass with our Bishop. It was made even a greater blessing this year because our Bishop Patrick, who is retiring this year, celebrated his last Chrism Mass as the shepherd of the Diocese of San Jose. As I was thinking about the 20 years Bishop Patrick has been our diocesan bishop I thought that as both a seminarian and then a priest I have had the privilege of taking part in all but the very first one of these holy celebrations.
Reflecting on my years of priesthood, I try each year to read one book on my ministry and this year I chose “Priests for a New Era” by Msgr. Francis D. Kelly. While this book spoke directly to the ministerial priesthood many of the lessons apply to the baptismal priesthood we all share as sons and daughters of the living God.
Early on Msgr. Kelly takes on one of the over-arching sins of our present age that of busyness or as he calls it ”super-activism.” I often see this in myself and my brother priests but also in many young families as they run about to different events, practices, appointments where many meals are eaten in cars, quality time becomes the handing off of one child for another as they race off and family time becomes exhausted moments of zoning out before bed just to begin again.
The quiet pondering and time for deep reflection and conversation are replaced by the checking off of the boxes of “what needs to be done.”
“The antidote for this is a true quest for a spirituality that deepens the priest’s character and convictions and orders his life. Being pulled in many directions requires of the priest discipline and fortitude and a rule of life that prioritizes the spiritual over all else. It will not suffice “to go with the flow.”” (p 24) The struggle we must enter is to intentionally take time each day for prayer but also for time with others in listening and focussing on the true person in front of us and not just what the do or what needs to be done but who we are as children of God.
And this requires help and discipline…We are always faced, as a Catholic Church, with reality that there are not enough priests. At St. Lucy we are reminded that just a few years ago there where four priests where we now are served by two, and one of us also serving at St. Francis High School. Allowing others to help us carry the load is always a challenge of humility. “When in the early Apostles began to find themselves overwhelmed by the administrative and spiritual demands of the community, they established the diaconate, justifying this delegation of work by the principal: “This will permit us to concentrate on prayer and the ministry of the word.”(Acts 6:4). (p 33) The Apostles sought help when needed as both priests and families we can often “hunker down” and try to do it all when both family, friend and neighbor are there for support and blessing. Jesus reminds us, “And surely I am with you always.” (Mt 28:20) but do we look for Jesus in those who surround us in love to help us and guide us in our ministry as parents, spouses, priests and sons and daughters?
When we seek help, we seek love. Love as Msgr. Kelly reminds us is the first and last word in life. We are made in love and our death finds us in the arms of love. And it is true that in the Catholic priesthood my call is to chaste celibate love… but all people are called to live chastely in the sexual expression of husband and wife or the preparing our hearts to receive our future spouse. In either case, it is understanding how God’s love flows into our lives with joy and blessing. In my ministry with Worldwide Marriage Encounter I see daily how the spousal love of husband and wife is united and strengthens my call to chaste celibacy by living out healthy relationships with God’s holy people. “The final word on celibacy must be in Word on love. Celibacy is a supreme witness to the reality of God’s overflowing love. The Christ event—his Incarnation, Passion and Death, and Resurrection—proclaimed that the fundamental force behind the universe and our lives is the love of God.” (p 51) This fundamental force is the gift and grace of sacramental love shared by God.
Lastly, Msgr. Kelly shares this quote from Basil Cardinal Hume on the need to be able to share our story of God’s love with others. We cannot share it if we do not know God and live with God daily. “It is easy to get caught up In the “institutional” aspect of the Church. But it is so refreshing just to ponder the mystery of God, just wondering what God is like. I think that is what people want us to talk about: “What is God like; what does he mean to you, what have you discovered? Tell us about it, and tell us how to find God.” I never cease to be amazed by the spiritual thirst and hunger there is in people, I fear that we may not be feeding it. To quench that thirst is one of our most important functions. But people what to hear from us our personal experience of God and that for some priests presents a problem.” (p 37) Do we live only the institutional aspect of family…or do we share the story of love with God and others?
God Bless,
Fr. Mark

Please pray for your priests.

This past week I had the blessing of seeing the movie “Unplanned” with Fr. Steve and Fr. Joseph. And while it was very difficult to watch with the subject matter of abortion so baldly presented the themes of redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness were the true and ultimate gifts this powerful movie placed into my heart. I am not a movie reviewer nor do I wish to review this movie but I would highly recommend it to anyone to help to better understand the grave tragedy of abortion in our society, communities and families.
As followers of Jesus Christ we believe in the reality of redemption, reconciliation and forgiveness within the community and family but most importantly with our God. “Of all human events recorded in history, none is more appalling to the human mind, none more appealing to the human heart, than the tragic scenes and events surrounding the Passion and Death of Our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.” (p 10 “Christ’s Darkest Hours” by Rev. Clement Henry Crock) As we near the great Easter mystery, the moment of forgiveness offered to us from the Cross of Jesus Christ, can be seen through this act of love, this call to life and the blessing of unity that is destroyed when we choose sin and divisiveness in our daily lives.
One of the most powerful images in the movie “Unplanned” was the change in the pro-life movement through the passage of the 8 years of the story. At the beginning of the movie the protesters were angry, shouting, condemning and threatening in many instances. By the end of these years there is a conversion of mercy and forgiveness; they became prayerful, quiet and trusting in God’s will even in the midst of this terrible wound inflicted upon our world. It is the model of Jesus’ Passion played out where Peter begins the night with sword drawn but it ends with the peaceful and quiet prayer of our Blessed Mother and St. John the Beloved Disciple at the foot of the cross in loving witness to the death of our Lord and Savior for the forgiveness of our sins.
This is the reality of redemption we must all choose to live in all circumstances of our lives. All to often we fall to easily into condemnation in the noisy and distracted world that surrounds us where we barely take a breath of thought before we jump into the next constructed crisis given to move our eyes away for the call to intimate and lasting relationship. We must begin to once more contemplate the scene on Calgary, the Cross with a woman and young man at the foot looking up at the tortured body with love and silence not distracted by the jeering of so many but remaining constant and true in their hope of a greater love. As St. John Chrysostom reminds us “Adoring the Cross means taking up part of its weight, being like the man from Cyrene who lightened Christ’s burden on the path of suffering. Adoring the Cross means being aware that we are not alone in the struggle against sin, and that even the worst of thieves can reach heaven by looking to the Crucified Christ.” (from Discourses on the Cross and Thief)
“Taking up part of its weight” is choosing to walk with in love and mercy and join with God in the healing acts of love we are all called to share in as disciples of Jesus Christ. Because as “Unplanned” shows clearly…redemption is for each of us offered in Jesus’ Passion, forgiveness is extended to all through the pained whisper of love from the Cross, reconciliation is the union of love as we embrace the Body of our Lord.
“Holiness does not consist in not making mistakes or never sinning. Holiness grows with capacity for conversion, repentance, willingness to begin again, and above all with the capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.” ~ Pope Benedict XVI
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Life is not for the faint of heart. A few years ago California tragically passed into law assisted suicide thereby opening the door to grave evil and the diminishing of the dignity of life. We as a Catholic Church believe strongly that each life has dignity and value and adds special grace and blessings to the Body of Christ. As a Catholic priest I have had the opportunity to counsel families on the value of life at all stages and recognize the struggles of living with illness and dealing with end of life choices as we walk with loved ones to the moment of natural death.
Last week I wrote about redemptive suffering because I wasn’t prepared to fully write about an experience I had recently encountered where the culture of death, through assisted suicide, was so immanent and present in being promoted as the best solution. The situation in a nutshell is a person with a long standing illness had been taken to a local hospital for care and expressed to a medical professional that they were tired and wanted to die. The person jumped into action calling hospital staff to witness to the statement and then beginning to push and promote the various ways that death could be administered to the patient. There was great horror and fear from the family who knew this was not the intention of their loved one…but the medical machine continued to push. As I write this, life is winning in this small case as the patient and family continue to share the blessing of God’s love with each other, even in this difficult and hard case of illness and suffering.
I spent much time the last few weeks praying over my response and how we can better understand why life is sacred and holy and how living this life fully, even in suffering, brings about goodness and blessings. And so we come to the stations of the cross.
Take up our cross: We are all at one time or another called to take up the cross of suffering through illness. Sometimes this suffering is grave and at other times momentary and passing but nevertheless we are called to follow Jesus as he commanded, “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Lk 9:23)
Family sees us in love and we see them in love (like Mary): As we begin to carry the cross of illness and suffering we find the blessings of family and the deepness of love. The care and compassion of the family give us strength and courage to offer all we are and have in love. :“All you who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering, which has been dealt me” (Lam 1:12). “It is the Sorrowful Mother who speaks, the Handmaid who is obedient to the last, the Mother of the Redeemer of the world.” (from St. John Paul II Way of the Cross)
Meeting the stranger who offer help: When we choose to carry the cross of suffering with love we encounter the stranger who becomes the blessing in our lives. Many times at funerals the family gratitude and love of the “stranger” who came to care for their loved one is truly a graced moment. “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.” (Mk 15:21) (3a) how it transforms lives—the encounter with suffering changed the life of Simon and as he shared his experience with his sons transformed their life and the life of the community…we never know the lives we touch no matter what stage of life we are living.
Those who will care for us in extraordinary ways: Veronica is never named in the Gospels and yet her story and the miracle she participates in lives on in our faith. When we choose to be like Jesus in our suffering we allow others to participate in the service of love thereby conquering fear and death and bringing us into the fullness of life in the service of our those who are carrying the cross of suffering, as Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:7-8)
Knowing those who pray for us: Prayer is powerful and when we allow ourselves to ask for and receive the prayers of the community it strengthens us to persevere and grow in a deeper connection with Jesus Christ. “Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me weep for yourselves and for your children.” (Lk 23:28)
Living God’s will even when we feel humiliation: Being cared for by another is always a struggle…even small children begin to rebel early as they say “I can do it myself” to their parents. Humbling ourselves as we are stripped of our abilities opens our hearts and the hearts of others to share in the suffering and allows us to share, experience and be united in love. “And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.” (Mk 15:24) The world wants to strip us naked of dignity but we are called to a deeper and full unity of love.
An example of faith for others: Jesus’ words from the cross remind us of life and how even when all our hope seems to have vanished we shine forth as an image of God when we seek to be united with him. We, in love, are invited to ponder Jesus’ seven last words as a reflection of redemptive suffering. “I thirst.” (Jn 19:28)
When the other is able to recognize our dignity: “When the centurion standing there in front of Jesus saw how He had breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”” (Mk 15:39) In baptism we are called to be sons and daughters of the one true living God. Choosing to walk with Jesus Christ we are recognized, even in suffering and death to be holy and filled with bountiful worth in His holy image.
Death comes for us all: After his death on the Cross; Mary his mother, John the beloved disciple, Joseph of Arimathea and many other cared for the body of Our Lord…we do the same…because God is Love.
I apologize for the length of the reflection this week. Below are two links from our US Bishops that help to explain the Catholic position concerning assisted suicide.
God bless
Fr .Mark

Click to access Top-Reasons-to-Oppose-Assisted-Suicide-final.pdf

Click to access to-live-each-day-with-dignity-hyperlinked.pdf

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section. God Bless Fr. Mark

Lent 27 March 2019; In Chapter 18 in “Rediscover Jesus” Matthew Kelly talks about yearning for home and how ultimately this yearning should lead us to our heavenly home. The desire for heaven is found in how we live our lives and what we value in life this the chapters title “Jesus on Lifestyles.” For those of us who lived through the 80’s we remember the show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” which by its very title we can see is antithetical the Gospel values. There is nothing wrong with being “rich or famous” but when it becomes the goal and the lifestyle then we are placing our trust in the worldly and making false gods out of things and stuff and not looking towards the true God’s in whom riches and fame find love and meaning. This is where healthy detachment becomes a necessity and one of the ways the Catholic Church invites into a spiritual detachment that is both healthy and holy is the practice of tithing the first fruits of our labor. As someone who has practiced tithing for over 25 years, as a lay person, a seminarian and as a priest I can testify to the benefits of discovering happiness and holiness not solely in what I have or don’t have but who I am in the eyes of God. Here is a little food for thought on tithing.

Lent 2019 Rediscover Jesus Week #1 and #2

PRAYER: Jesus, open my eyes so I can see every person I encounter each day as you see them. (p 83) this prayer from “Rediscover Jesus” reminds us of how we are chosen to love radically and differently as followers of Jesus Christ. When I was first ordained I was introduced at my parish to Andy and Martha (not their real names) an elderly couple who were both suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. My visits to their home were always a trial as conversation was difficult and the behavior was unpredictable. But every once in a while there was a moment of clarity where you could once more see the person in their fullness. As I continued my visits those moments knit together allowed my heart, my eyes and my ears to begin to know them as God knows them and to see them as God sees them. Thank you Jesus for your patience in opening the eyes of we who are blind. God Bless, Fr. Mark

How much are you willing to suffer? That is a hard question to answer. Many people may begin with another question: Why am I suffering? or What is the goal of my suffering? Both very good questions. In Matthew Kelly’s book “Rediscover Jesus” he spends the whole of chapter fifteen on this question.
Why would I choose to suffer? Pause for a second and begin to answer that question for yourself. (PAUSE) If you have never asked or answered that question then Lent is a good time to “take time” and ponder this important Christian question because the invitation of Jesus to enter into suffering is a real part of the Gospel. In fact in a couple of weeks we will hear all about suffering as we hear the readings from the Gospels of Jesus’ Passion and Death.
So, let’s begin with that: Why would Jesus choose to enter into suffering? The only answer that makes any sense is one simple word: LOVE. And if this is the answer for Jesus then as disciples, and Christians as members of the Catholic Church we should be able to answer in the affirmative also…I choose to suffer for love. Once more this is not to say we suffer for the fun of it or in some pleasurable way but rather we suffer for the love of the other knowing the grace grown through love helps us to move into the love of God and the other.
Pope St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter “Salvifici Doloris: Of Human Suffering” looks at the mystery of suffering in the light of our Christian faith. He writes, “The Cross of Christ throws salvific light, in a most penetrating way, on man’s life and in particular on his suffering. For through faith the Cross reaches man together with the Resurrection: the mystery of the Passion is contained in the Paschal Mystery. The witnesses of Christ’s Passion are at the same time witnesses of his Resurrection. Paul writes: “That I may know him (Christ) and the power of his Resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead”.” (#21 SD)
This is the Way of the Cross that as we pray with Jesus carrying his cross we encounter love along the way; Our Blessed Mother, the accidental stranger, the caregiver, those who pray for and with us and finally the one who proclaims our dignity even in death. (I will have more to say on this next week) It is a trust that along the road we will encounter the great love that sustains us in an even greater love in and through Jesus Christ.
St. John Paul II continues, “The path of Paul is clearly paschal: sharing in the Cross of Christ comes about through the experience of the Risen One, therefore through a special sharing in the Resurrection. Thus, even in the Apostle’s expressions on the subject of suffering there so often appears the motif of glory, which finds its beginning in Christ’s Cross.” (#21 SD) It is clearly paschal because St. Paul believes the Passion and Death was followed by the Resurrection. The promise of truth bound up in life. We are always mindful of our true destination…our true home. This means we must continually seek out and encounter Jesus in all aspects of our life. Through prayer, service and emptying ourselves through fasting we offer our lives in love.
“This is the meaning of suffering, which is truly supernatural and at the same time human. It is supernatural because it is rooted in the divine mystery of the Redemption of the world, and it is likewise deeply human, because in it the person discovers himself, his own humanity, his own dignity, his own mission.” (#31 SD) In this discovery we find Jesus Christ present in healing our lives of sin, division and fear. It is an of generous love where we are broken and shared in the true Paschal Mystery of love.
Matthew Kelly reminds us that the world sees suffering as worthless and without sense (p 73-74) while we see it as an act of love, an act of life and an act of God’s grace growing in our hearts.
God bless
Fr. Mark