Thoughts From Fr. Mark

Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

The nice people do not come to God, because they think they are good through their own merits or bad through inherited instincts. If they do good, they believe they are to receive the credit for it; if they do evil, they deny that it is their own fault. They are good through their own good-heartedness, they say; but they are bad because they are misfortunate, either in their economic life or through an inheritance of evil genes from their grandparents.

O Key of David,
opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!

Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth…Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because he called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ, and respect its voice as the very voice of its Founder, and the suspicion will grow, that if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Since it is other-worldly, it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ Himself.

O Root of Jesse’s stem,
sign of God’s love for all his people:
come to save us without delay!

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates. My reason for doing this would be, that if Christ is in any one of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was when He was on earth in the flesh. If you would find Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world..

O Leader of the House of Israel,
giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai:
come to rescue us with your mighty power!

When you think of the condition the world is in now you sometimes wish that Noah had missed the boat.

The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist…The denial of God springs from a man’s desire not to have a God–from his wish that there were no Justice behind the universe, so that his injustices would fear not retribution; from his desire that there be no Law, so that he may not be judged by it; from his wish that there were no Absolute Goodness; that he might go on sinning with impunity. That is why the modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion–he would be incapable of such a resentment if God were only a myth.

If bringing of children into the world is today an economic burden it is because the social system is inadequate; and not because God’s law is wrong. Therefore the State should remove the causes of that burden. The human must not be limited and controlled to fit the economic, but the economic must be expanded to fit the human.

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: ‘I am Who am.” The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: “I am who am not.” Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.

Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is a good book.

The world blesses not the meek, but the vindictive; it praises not the one who turns the other cheek, but the one who renders evil for evil; it exalts not the humble, but the aggressive. Ideological forces have carried that spirit of violence, class-struggle, and the clenched fist to an extreme the like of which the world before has never seen.

(Repose) reminds us that all actions get teir worth from God: “worship” means “admitting worth.” To worship is to restore to our workaday life its true worth by setting it in its real relationship to God. Who is its end and ours.

Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

Many people make the great mistake of aiming directly at pleasure; they forget that pleasure comes only from the fulfillment of a duty or obedience to a law–for man is made to obey the laws of his own nature as inescapably as he must obey the laws of gravity. A boy has pleasure eating ice-cream because he is fulfilling one of the “oughts” of human nature: eating. If he eats more ice-cream that the laws of his body sanction, he will no longer get the pleasure he seeks, but the pain of a stomachache. To see pleasure, regardless of law, is to miss it.

Change your entire point of view! Life is not a mockery. Disappointments are merely markers on the road of life, saying: “Perfect happiness is not here.” Though your passions may have been satisfied, you were never satisfied, because while your passions can find satisfaction in this world, you cannot.

Every earthy ideal is lost by being possessed. The more material you ideal, the greater the disappointment; the more spiritual it is, the less the disillusionment.

I wonder maybe if our Lord does not suffer more from our indifference, than He did from the crucifixion.

The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen…Memorial of St. Nicholas….It is not particularly difficult to find thousands who will spend two or three hours a day in exercising, but if you ask them to bend their knees to God in five minutes of prayer they protest that it is too long.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)

the Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order.

Evil may have its hour, but God will have His day.

But in a conflict between truth and darkness, truth cannot loose.

It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the tines in which it lives. Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times.

Deep sorrow does not come because one has violated a law, but only if one knows he has broken off the relationship with Divine Love.

Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

As the “no” of Eve proves that the creature was made by love and is therefor free, so (Mary’s) Fiat proves that the creature was made for love as well.

The world might have expected the Son of God to be born in an inn; a stable would certainly be the last place in the world where one would look for him. The lesson is: divinity is always where you least expect to find it. So the Son of God made man, is invited to enter into his own world through the back door.

But when finally the scrolls of history are complete, down to the last work of time, the saddest line of all will be: “There was no room in the inn.” The inn was the gathering place of public opinion, the focal point of the world’s moods, the rendezvous of the worldly, the rallying place of the popular and the successful. But there’s no room in the place where the world gathers. The stable is a place for outcasts, the ignored and the forgotten.

Judge the Catholic Church not by those who barely live by its spirit, but by the example of those who live closest to it.

A Catholic may sin and sin as badly as anyone else, but no genuine Catholic ever denies he is a sinner. A Catholic wants his sins forgiven–not excused or sublimated.

It is typically American to feel that we are not doing anything unless we are doing something big. But from the Christian point of view, there is no one thing that is bigger than any other thing.

Because we live in a world where position is determined economically, we forget that in God’s world the royalty are those who do His will.

What we over-love, we often over-grieve.

The principle cause of discontent is egotism, or selfishness, which sets the self up as a primary plant around which everyone else must revolve. The second cause of discontent is envy, which makes us regard the possessions and the talents of others as if they were stolen from us. The third cause is covetousness, or an inordinate desire to have more in order to compensate for the emptiness of our heart. The fourth cause of discontent is jealousy, which is sometimes occasioned through melancholia and sadness, and at other times by hatred and those who have what we wish for ourselves.

Satan may appear in many disguises like Christ, and at the end of the world will appear as a benefactor and philanthropist–but Satan never has and never will appear with scars.

November 10 2022 is the …. birthday of the founding of the United States Marine Corps…it is also the Feast of St. Leo the Great. And then we have November 11, Veteran’s Day and the Feast of St. Martin of Tours. As a U.S. Marine veteran these celebrations back many memories of the four years I served but also of the many life lessons I learned and how they continue to guide and effect my life as a man, a Catholic and a priest.

As I digest and think about how the state of California has become not only a place where abortion is tolerated but where, after the passing of Proposition 1, it is not only promoted but also now celebrated fills my heart sadness. In some ways I knew it was a forlorn hope that the proposition would be defeated by vote but it was a true hope based on a true desire for the protection of the most vulnerable in our society, the protection of life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. My hope was in our Catholic tradition that all life has dignity and this dignity and gift is discovered in our creation in the likeness of our Heavenly Father.
And while my spirits are dampened my hope remains firm because of the promise given to us in Jesus Christ. On Wednesday morning, as I went to Holy Hour, my reflection book began with this quote from the Gospel of St. John, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33) We are reminded that Jesus does not promise us a world without sin and suffering, but he does promise us faith, hope, love and the knowledge of his victory over sin and death. The firm gift of faith that evil, while present and maybe even looming large in the moment, will not have the last word.
It is a reminder this battle may be lost but the war, the spiritual victory will be won if we preserver in faith and trust. In the Marine Corps we learned very early that “no Marine is left behind” and each and every exercise we did was a drum beat in our heart and mind how true this needed to be so that each Marine stood beside the other in trust and confidence, no matter what, on the battlefield. And perhaps, for us today and in the coming years, we must to be reminded in prayer and adoration how we are called to leave no person, even the baby in the womb, behind for the expedience of our own life.

God’s second reminder to me was in the Thursday morning readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, where St. Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rm 8:18-21) It is in this hope we are called as people of faith to continue the conversation of conversion to the culture of life. We hear about the rising tide of depression, anxiety, fear and loss of hope as the world turns from God seeking fulfillment in the transitory and ultimately empty fields of momentary and worldly conquest and pleasures. In the hope and defense of life, we once more proclaim the sovereignty of the Kingdom of God in humble service of all people. In directing our desire and hopes to Love we discover the fulfillment of joy and peace that celebrates, treasures and proclaims the goodness of each life created in the image and likeness of God.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
    for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
    till the storms of destruction pass by.
I cry out to God Most High,
    to God who fulfills his purpose for me. (Psalm 57:1-2)

So my hope may be bruised but not broken, and like so many years past, in January I will climb on the bus and travel to San Francisco for the March for Life. Not because Proposition 1 was approved, but because of my belief and trust that all life is precious and holy and good. We pray for life.

God bless
Fr. Mark

“There is the discarding of children that we do not want to welcome with the law of abortion that sends them to the dispatcher and kills them directly. And today this has become a ‘normal’ method, a practice that is very ugly. It is really murder,” Pope Francis (from Catholic News Agency article dated Sept. 27 2021)

https://www.dsj.org/bishop-oscar-cantu-statement-on-the-passage-of-proposition-1/

The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen…short videos

the more materialistic a civilization is, the more it is in a hurry.

He was lonely, until he found God.

External circumstances may condition our mental outlook and our dispositions, but they do not cause them.

Our modern world has produced a generation of rich politicians who talk love of the poor, but never prove it in action, and a brood of the poor whose hearts are filled with envy for the rich and covetousness of their money.

Humility is the pathway to knowledge. No scientist would ever learn the secrets of the atom if, in his conceit, he told the atom what he thought it ought to do. Knowledge comes only with humility before the object which can bring us truth.

The egotist standing alone in his self-imagined greatness, lives in the world of a lie, because the truth about himself would puncture his self-inflation.

Repose–true leisure cannot be enjoyed without some recognition of the spiritual world, for the first purpose of repose is the contemplation of the good.

ever before have men possessed so many time-saving devices. Never before have they had so little time for leisure or repose. Yet few of them are aware of this: advertising has created in modern minds the false nation that leisure and not working are the same–that the more we are surrounded by bolts and wheels, switches and gadgets, the more time we have conquered for our own.

The rapidity of communication, the hourly news broadcasts, tomorrow’s news the night before–all these make people live on the surfaces of their souls. The result is that very few live inside themselves. They have their moods determined by the world.

Even Friendships are matured in silence. Friends are made by words, love is preserved in silence. The best friends are those who know how to keep the same silences.

Short video reflection of The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

Happiness must be our bridesmaid, not our bride.

Our enjoyment of life is vastly increased if we follow the spiritual injunction to bring some mortification and self-denial into our lives.

The fact is: you want to be perfectly happy, but you are not. Your life has been a series of disappointments, shocks, and disillusionment. How have you reacted to your disappointments? Either your became cynical or else you became religious.

If a ship is sailing on a polluted canal and wishes to transfer itself to clear waters on a higher level, it must pass through a device which locks out the polluted waters and raises the ship to the higher position. Mary’s Immaculate Conception was like that lock..[[T]hrough her, humanity passed from the lower level of the sons of Adam to the higher level of the sons of God.

The world is in a state of mortal sin, and it needs absolution. Vain platitudes and ‘regeneration,’ ‘the Constitution,’ and ‘progress’ are not going to save us, even though we go on shouting them louder and louder. We need a new word in our vocabulary and that word is God.

The better we become, the less conscious we are of our goodness. If anyone admits to being a saint, he is close to being a devil…The more saintly we become, the less conscious we are of begin holy. A child is cute as long as he does not know he is cute. As soon as he thinks he is, he is a brat. True goodness is unconscious.

Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals

Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace without soul peace.

We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative.

If we wish to have the light, we must keep the sun; if we wish to keep our forests we must keep our trees; if we wish to keep our perfumes, we must keep our flowers–and if we wish to keep our rights, then we must keep our God.

I have been thinking about marriage a lot lately in preparing several couples and seeing this preparation come to fruition in Holy Matrimony. I have also been preparing to present a Worldwide Marriage Encounter experience at the end of October. I truly love and am inspired by the Church’s teaching on marital love and the blessings flowing from this love. Ministering in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter community has shown me the deep and profound lived experience of so many wonderful men and women who share this bond through the joys and sorrows where the become signs of the great sacramental grace God shares with us. It has been a support to my priesthood helping me to be a better (I pray) priest and man.

I love the writings of Pope St. John Paul II and our current Holy Father Francis have shared with us on marriage. I am inspired by the words of the Second Vatican Council in their teachings on marriage especially in Gaudium et Spes; The Church in the Modern World. When I was recently searching for something on Marriage I was surprised to discover Dear Newlyweds: Pope Pius XVII Speaks to Married Couples. Pope Pius XII sat on the chair of Peter from 1939 to 1958 during some of the very darkest times in world history. I was fascinated to discover that just as St. John Paul II had weekly audiences as he taught was to become what is now called the “Theology of Body,” Pope Pius did something similar with marriage, calling together young married couples to talk and teach about the joy and grace God offers, through the Church, for their marriages.
I was reminded by Pope Pius Xii in one of the first brief sections of how the liturgy of the Mass and the Rite of Marriage are two of the most instructive teachings for what marriage is and how we are called to live life. He writes, “All this takes place with a solemnity at once grandiose and simple: the bride and groom are kneeling before the altar of the Lord; they are in the presence of men, witnesses as well as relatives and friends and in the presence of God who, invisibly surrounded by the angels and the Saints, validates and sanctions the obligations solemnly vowed.” (p. 8)

The grandeur of the Sacrament is such a wonder and joy. The simple act of a man and woman speaking the prayerful words of the vow, becoming a covenant, a sign and symbol of the love the Trinity in the world where we are called to be a witness to the breaking in of the Holy Spirit into the lives of this new untarnished Sacrament of love. Sometimes we can forget amiss the many details of life and the pondering of what comes next what we witness daily in the Sacraments we live and are in the world. We listen without hearing, we watch without seeing, we quickly walk by without participating in the great gift God lays at our feet. We know the truth of this when we are intentional in our actions in the blessing we receive and share.
And then as the newly married couple waits in anticipation of the reception of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity or our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic feast, we pause for a moment…we break the pattern so that we can hear, see and participate in a blessing.
When I was able to celebrate and witness the marriage of a cousin several years ago, one of the attendees noted to me at the reception, after Mass, how often the liturgy mentions the openness to life in accepting children. She had listened and heard the good news of life that is promised by God in and through the grace of the Sacrament. Pope Pius XII teaches, “There is an important detail in the liturgy of the holy mass: after the Pater Noster, the priest, turning toward the bride and groom, invokes the divine blessing upon them in a prayer which touches the innermost fiber of their hearts and overflows with moving wishes for the future.” (p 8)
What beautiful and moving prayers are offered to the newly married couple when the community prays over the husband and wife pouring out the love of God in the powerful words of blessing. We hear these words prayed in part of the nuptial blessing:
“Look now with favor upon these your servants,joined together in Marriage,who ask to be strengthened by your blessing.Send down on them the grace of the Holy Spiritand pour your love into their hearts,that they may remain faithful in the Marriage covenant.”
God is so very good in offering us this wonderful gift of participating in His creation and witnessing the love flowing from the most Sacred Heart of His Son into the world through the man and woman joined in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
God Bless
Fr. Mark
If you wish to read the several options for the Nuptial Blessings you can check them out on the website listed below.
https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com/staff/list

(side note… I got half way through the article and stopped…saved the article under the title “baseball sucks” I guess I am not over it yet!)
I can’t wait for Spring! The sadness of the Dodgers crashing out of the playoffs (congratulations Padres fans) is still heavy on my heart but there is next year.

One of the things you learn is things always don’t go the way you think they will. As a baseball fan for over fifty years you learn the ups and downs but most of all you learn the failures happen much more frequently than the successes. This year being a prime example. I can remember in 2001 when the Seattle Mariners won 116 games and failed to make the World Series and how difficult that was to my friends and family who were certain their team was the very best and would surely walk through the playoffs and receive the long cherished ring of a champion. And I remember the 1988 World Champion Dodgers team having won 94 games beat a New York Mets team that had won 100 games and had dominated the Dodgers in the season series and then went on to beat the Oakland Athletic Bash Brothers 104 win team that no one expected them to even touch with a ten foot pole.
Baseball is hard. With a couple weeks left in the regular season on twitter one of the non-official Dodgers sites tweeted out “This game is easy” during one of those moments when a winning streak was in progress and all parts of the game, hitting, pitching and defense were a clicking. I replied to the effect, “This can quickly turn into being bounced out the playoffs in the first round. Don’t anger the baseball gods.” Fifty years of disappointments with five successes (Championships) in my lifetime but only three, 1981, 1988 and 2020 that I can remember a test to this truth .
I remember a former major leaguer in an interview (I can’t remember who at this writing) who said the hardest game you play in the next one. Baseball is unrelenting and you are never know when the next hit or run will come and the attention and focus needed must come day in and day out. Baseball is hard.
I am now at the God part of the talk…thank you for indulging me…see the note above.

Faith is hard. The practice of our faith is hard. Living our faith is hard. I have been a Catholic for 61 years. I have had some great days in the minor leagues of faith learning in the bosom of my family. Watching some masters at work teaching the faith and absorbing the culture of Catholicism in a great and loving parish and community.
And upon reaching the major league of faith…that is leaving home…I went through some terrible slumps where I hung on the vapors of faith leaking out of the remnants of what was given and finally embracing the hard work that faith demands in the last years of college and truly beginning to fall in love with God.
But the funny thing is…I still go through slumps. Some easily identifiable and where the “fix” can be worked on with focus and determination. Others are mysterious and I can seem to be flaying at the plate swinging through each prayer and spiritual exercise not making contact and wondering if I will ever pray again until the day when through perseverance and trust the feeling of solid contact comes naturally and I simply thank God for the gift of blessing. And just as natural is the team, the parish, my brother priests who surround me where those magic moments when we are all pulling in the same direction makes the “game’ of faith seem so easy but always knowing the reality of how it can so easily slip away and faith becomes so very hard again.
And of course…I can feel like the old manager, who at the one hand knows the game of faith so very well, how it is deeply set in his bones, who holds great respect for the depth and beauty of the game of faith, the life of faith, the love of faith who seeks to pass on just one tiny bit to see it grow in another who loves the game.
Baseball is hard…Faith is hard…we will fail, we will go through slumps but God is always with us to pick us up with the clutch hit…
God Bless
Fr. Mark.

Wisdom of Fulton Sheen–short video reflections

In every friendship hearts grow and entwine themselves together, so that the two hearts seem to make only one heart with only a common thought. That is why separation is so painful; it is not so much two hearts separating, but one being torn asunder.

10/30….There is a tendency among many shallow thinkers of our day to teach that every human act is a reflex, over which we do not exercise human control. They would rate a generous deed as no more praiseworthy than a wink, a crime as no more voluntary than a sneeze…Such a philosophy undercuts all human dignity….All of us have the power of choice in action at every moment of our lives.

10/29…There are angels near you to guide you and protect you, if you would but invoke them. It is not later than we think, it is a bigger world than we think.

Skepticism is never certain of itself, being less a firm intellectual position than a pose to justify bad behavior.

Learning comes from books; penetration of a mystery from suffering.

If, in his pride, he considers God as a challenge, he will deny Him; and if God becomes man and therefore makes Himself vulnerable, he will crucify Him.

Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale is registered and recorded.

Politeness is a way of showing externally the internal regard we have for others. Good manners are the shadows cast by virtues.

Our intellects do not make the truth; they attain it they discover it.

Character is to some extent judged by what a man does with his falls. A pig falls into the mud and stays there; a sheep falls in and climbs out.

Finite intelligence needs many words in order to express ideas; but God speaks once and for all within Himself–one single Word which reaches the abyss of all things that are known and can be known. In that Word of God are hidden all the treasures of wisdom, all the secrets of sciences, all the designs of the arts, all the knowledge of mankind. But this knowledge, compared to the Word, is only the feeblest broken syllable.

Psalm 62:11 “For God has said only one thing: only two do I know: that to God alone belongs power and to you, Lord, love”

Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times
at the word of Elisha, the man of God.
His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean of his leprosy.

Naaman returned with his whole retinue to the man of God.
On his arrival he stood before Elisha and said,
“Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.
Please accept a gift from your servant.”

Elisha replied, “As the LORD lives whom I serve, I will not take it;”
and despite Naaman’s urging, he still refused.
Naaman said: “If you will not accept,
please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth,
for I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice
to any other god except to the LORD.” (2 Kgs 5:14-17)

An unfinished homily….there are times when you get half a homily and then the Holy Spirit leads you in a different direction. Last Sunday we heard in our first reading this small part of the story of the prophet Elisha and the Assyrian general Naaman. The Church gives us the end of the story but it is important to know the whole story to get the sense of fear and danger the King of Israel must have felt as Naaman came to visit. Naaman was not a simple visitor or even and peaceful envoy, he was a general of an army that had devastated surrounding nations and conquered many peoples and nations. He is only coming as a last resort and the urging of his underlings and slaves.
Why did God grant him the gift of healing? Just like we often see in the Gospels Jesus healings are often surprising and don’t always fit the mold. Elisha’s command in strange, to plunge seven times in the Jordan and Naaman isn’t quite sure and once more needs to be convinced to do this.

My homily thoughts were going to focus on “please accept a gift from your servant.” Now the gift wasn’t a gift card for dinner, it was silver, fine linen and other precious gifts. In other words it was a lot of stuff. My point in Elisha’s refusal was…You can’t buy or pay off God! Sometimes we think that we can purchase a favor from God with a promise of some type of payment or after we receive a blessing from God to buy our way out of continued conversion.
Elisha reminds the newly believing Naaman; God doesn’t want something, He wants some one…He wants you. Just as God offers himself to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are called to offer ourselves fully to Him.
Give thanks to God for the many blessings and share them in the sacrificial service of our brothers and sisters.
Just half a homily.
God Bless
Fr. Mark.