The Burning Question in the SOLT Asia-Pacific Seminary

Last night I had a holy hour with the Daughters of Mary in Pili, Camarines Sur,
When I got the inspiration and resolution to write this post

One of the most common things I hear in the SOLT Asia Seminary, the school for candidates for the priesthood, is the desire to want to pray better.  Here is what we are teaching them.

Desire to Pray and Determination that Comes from It

Teach me how to pray! Thank God first for the desire, for if you are even asking that question you have already come a long way. The fact that you are hungry for God, that you want more of him in your life is a sign that he is already very active, and that you have responded.  St Teresa of Avila repeats many times that THE most important part of prayer is that you do it, that you keep the desire to pray very strong to perservere no matter what happens.

Clean up the Place of Conversation - Your Soul

Go to confession and confess every mortal sin.  A mortal sin kills the life of God in your soul and according to the Council of Trent (yes we do still follow that council like we follow all of them) a person in the state of mortal sin will only be able to please God with the prayer of repentance.  If you try to pray in the state of mortal sin or with an intense attachment to venial sin, it is like sitting and talking to someone in a room that has cow manure all over the floor and walls and big dangerous animals freely roaming.  You would spend most of your time being preoccupied with the stinky mess and the dangerous creatures, unable to engage in conversation at all.

Don't just confess the stuff that bothers you.  Take the Ten Commandments and comb your conscience for evil, especially the deeper stuff you might not have confessed in the past.  St Teresa of Avila also says (you will hear me speak a lot of her so just get used to it, she is the doctor of the Church on how to pray) that THE biggest obstacle to holiness is unconfessed mortal sin and a lack of hatred for venial sin and therefore an unwillingness to uproot it.  

What is a mortal sin?  Anything that is against the Ten Commandments even lying and coveting, you knew it was wrong; and you did it anyway - in short a mortal sin is bad, you know it, you do it.  Be sure not to be too general, but as the Church recommends, confess all your sins in kind and number.  If you don't it would be like trying to weed a garden by pulling the tops of the weeds and leaving the roots, or pruning them so they come back stronger.  Renounce each sin with the same freedom which committed them as brutally honest as you can, and you will find true cleansing.  Confess any venial sins and attachements to sin that you struggle with too.  A person who prays will immediate see the result of using the Sacrament of Penance to free their interior for prayer.

Get a Quiet Place, Especially in Front of the Exposed Blessed Sacrament

There is nothing like sitting before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It is like sitting before the sun, well actually the Creator of a million suns before you.  If you can't do that, go to your room and shut the door and speak to your Father in private. What Jesus means here is not just a room in your house, but the room in your soul where God is pleased to dwell - in your inmost heart of hearts.  There, in your baptized soul you will discover the presence of the Most Holy Trinity waiting for you.  He has always been there, but you haven't been there.  Receed from all sensible things and retreat into the depths of your being like you are a sheet and you want to grab the corners and pull them in to the center.  This is the image St Teresa of Avila uses for recollection - you collect your scattered self in the center of your soul.

Get a Book, Especially the Gospel for the Mass of the Day

St Teresa of Avila says that it was 18 years before she could go to prayer without the help of a book, and even then she felt like she was in a boat without oars.  Get the Gospel for the day's Mass and read it slowly.  Again.  Slowly.  When a word graces you, strikes you, illumines you, or touches you stop and enjoy it, soak in it and let it penetrate your heart.  When you do this, you are permitting God to speak to you the way you would read a love letter from your heart's fondest.  Soak in that word or phrase until you feel the grace hit you and you absorb it, then move on to the next, moving from grace to grace, from light to light.  Sometimes one word is what you will stay on for weeks, or some image that will nourish, correct, illumine, and fortify you.

Make Acts of Devotion, Love, and especailly Worship

Let what you read move you into worshipping the One you are reading about, expressing sentiments of Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication.  Yes you guessed it, that spells ACTS.  So make ACTS of union with God.

Hopefully what happens next is that you begin to perceive God's personality.  The best way to describe this is like resting in the loving awareness of his kindness, or bathing in his personal love for you.  This is the gold.  This is when you BEGIN to pray.  Yeah, that's right, don't get too excited.  After all that, you have only just started.  This is when the fun begins, the surprises of his Love, when he starts moving you into places you didn't know you could go, when you go into prayer and come out a different person, a loved person, a joyful person, and transformed person.

Make Resolutions.  Do something with the Grace you have Received

One of the biggest mistakes for prayerful persons is that they don't act on the Word and avoid making concrete, practical, or measurable resolutions. It is altogether possible that God gives a person a grace that they render fruitless like holding water in a sieve. They sit on it, suffocate it, or fearful that it is some kind of finite fleeting thing, try to enjoy it all for themselves, afraid to multiply it.  Big Mistake. Big.  

The Word will never be given you without giving you also a mission.  It will make you aware of the suffering of the people right next to you that you didn't notice before.  It will open your eyes and see the world differently, and make you act differently in it.  A person who comes out of prayer without a resolution to act differently is like the seed that was sown on the path and the birds of the air came and snatched it away so that they forget the Word and never allow it to change them.

Give Thanks for Graces Received

Thanksgiving, according to St Teresa of Avila, helps us deeply accept graces given, thus opening ourselves to more graces.  You wouldn't talk an hour with the most amazing life-changing person ever and then not say goodbye and thank you.  You don't just get up and walk out.  Thanksgiving is also a kind of conclusion and summary of what the conversation was about with a plan to talk again soon.

Schedule Your Prayer Life

You schedule the most important events in your lfie.  MAKE A DAILY APPOINTMENT WITH GOD! Put prayer as an event in your iCal or Event Planner.  It is the most important thing you can do.  If you are at all serious about growing in prayer you will schedule at least one half hour of silent meditation with God a day.  In the seminary we spend half an hour in silence before the Blessed Sacrament after finishing a half hour of communal vocal prayer.  

Remain in Prayer All Day Long

Vocal prayer is not oposed or separated from mental prayer.  Hopefully you enter into contemplative prayer while vocalizing words.  The best example of this is the Rosary.  Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta would warm herself up to mental prayer with the Rosary, which she used to teach others how to pray.  She would say, "Pray with your eyes open," for if you do, "the time will come when you won't stop seeing Jesus with open eyes all day long."

May Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity pray for us that we may truly have communion with God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Great Kindness of St Francis Xavier

In this Year of Consecrated Life, let me offer tribute to one of the religious missionaries that has had great impact on missionary consecration: St Francis Xavier.

He did great things, preaching the Gospel to the ends of the earth, baptizing tens and thousands, singing catechetical songs in Asian dialects to little children, converting hardened sailors by his gentleness, healing the sick, and letting the poorest know the closeness of God.

What was greatest about this saint was his kindness.  Divine Charity, the eternal Love of God needs a human face, needs to be made real, present, and active to those who do not know what it is.  The face of divine Love is kindness.  The great zeal of charity that shone forth from his mighty deeds was an emanation of the superabundant kindness he spoke about that came from the Cross through the Sacraments of the Church.  He felt such a debt to divine kindness that he considered his missionary travels simply repaying the debt.

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen said there are three reasons people come to know the faith of Jesus Christ:

1. Kindness

2. Kindness

3. Kindness

Fr Tom Gier, the SOLT missionary who started our Filipino and Papau New Guinnea Missions, who stopped an 18 year old tribal war, and has at least 70 priests from my community and different dioceses who attribute him as the inspiration of their vocation, said there are three things that are necessary for mission:

1. Kindness

2. Kindness

3. Kindness

There really is only one reason people leave the Church.  It is because someone is unkind, harsh, or rude to them, because they do not see the kindness of Christ and the fullness of the witness of his mercy lived out.  Yes it is also because the Church is misrepresented in her teachings, but the greatest teaching of the Church is, you guessed it, kindness, the human face of divine charity.

The Kindness of God and therefore of the Saints of God (Which we are all called to be):

-Understands what a person is going through, accepts where they are at, listens, is patient, is accepting of a person's circumstances.

-Knows that harsh and unkind people are that way because they have not known kindness and the more a person is insulting, rude, and irritable, the more they are need of kindness.

-Doesn't look for kindness but looks to give kindness.

-Is generous, gratuitous, and is impatiently waiting for any opportunity to show kindness.

-Can only be given by one who has first received kindness from God and his friends.  If you find yourself unkind, it is probably because you need to humble yourself before God and beg him for the grace to accept his kindness.

-Is first and foremost available in the Most Holy Eucharist and in the Sacrament of Penance, from here flows a divine fountainhead of kindness to water the earth.

To obtain kindness from God I highly recommend the miraculous novena of grace of St Francis Xavier.  I prayed it every day as a religious novice, begging God that my religious missionary witness, would always be a manifestation of kindness.

Here it is:

This Miraculous Novena of Grace was revealed by St. Francis Xavier himself. The cofounder of the Jesuits, St. Francis Xavier is known as the Apostle of the East for his missionary activities in India and other Oriental countries.

In 1633, 81 years after his death, Saint Francis appeared to Fr. Marcello Mastrilli, a member of the Jesuit order who was near to death. Saint Francis revealed a promise to Father Marcello: "All those who implore my help daily for nine consecutive days, from the 4th to the 12th of March included, and worthily receive the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist on one of the nine days, will experience my protection and may hope with entire assurance to obtain from God any grace they ask for the good of their souls and the glory of God."

Miraculous Novena of Grace to Saint Francis Xavier

O St. Francis Xavier, well beloved and full of charity, in union with thee, I reverently adore the Majesty of God; and since I rejoice with exceeding joy in the singular gifts of grace bestowed upon thee during thy life, and thy gifts of glory after death, I give Him hearty thanks therefore; I beseech thee with all my heart's devotion to be pleased to obtain for me, by thy effectual intercession, above all things, the grace of a holy life and a happy death. Moreover, I beg of thee to obtain for me [mention your request]. But if what I ask of thee so earnestly doth not tend to the glory of God and the greater good of my soul, do thou, I pray, obtain for me what is more profitable to both these ends. Amen.

Offering Mass Without a Congregation is a Beautiful Gift for a Priest

I offered Mass alone today ad oriented on the Feast of St Francis Xavier

Mass is primarily about Jesus offering his holy Sacrifice to the Father. In his mercy, he takes us up into that sacrifice.  For this reason, even if a congregation or server is not present, the priest should not feel the slightest hesitation, or feel out of place, to offer the holy Sacrifice alone.  The General Instruction of the Roman Missal Chapter IV section C has a special instruction for the occasion of Mass without people, or Sine cum Populo. I have attached it to the end of this post, and you can see it here.

Some people, even professors at the local seminary (at least that is what my seminarians tell me) say it is not right, a priest should never celebrate Mass alone.  I could not disagree more, especially if it could mean that a priest would opt to not celebrate a Mass simply because no one is around.  The value of one Mass in incalculable.  Here are a few quotes on the power of one Mass:

Once, St. Teresa was overwhelmed with God’s Goodness and asked Our Lord “How can I thank you?” Our Lord replied, “ATTEND ONE MASS.”  

When we have been to Holy Communion, the balm of love envelops the soul as the flower envelops the bee. ~ Saint Jean Vianney 

It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass. ~ St. Pio of Pietrelcina 

Some point out this instruction as a reason why a priest should never celebrate along and that it is wrong:

211. Mass should not be celebrated without a server or the participation of at least one of the faithful, except for some legitimate and reasonable cause.

The very fact that the same instruction the next sentence continues, "In this case the greetings and the blessing at the end of Mass are omitted," means that there are very legitimate reasons for celebrating Mass alone.  Otherwise it would not give an entire instruction on how to do it that follows.

If you are a priest or seminarian reading this, here is your legitimate and reasonable cause: if you would not celebrate Mass that day, if you would go one day without the holy Sacrifice of the Mass it is like going a day without the Sun rising, without eating, without living.  If it means you won't have Mass that day THIS IS YOUR LEGITIMATE REASON.  I don't know how to say that clear enough or loud enough.  Forget whatever else you have heard.  That simply is very poor logic and terribly incorrect according to the life of grace, and especially for your own good as a priest, and for the good of the whole Church and all mankind that benefits from the grace.

This is the mind of the Church which you can read about in the recently clarification of the Holy See on this matter in the Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (110) which reads:

“Remembering always that in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice the work of redemption is constantly being carried out, Priests should celebrate frequently. Indeed, daily celebration is earnestly recommended, because, even if it should not be possible to have the faithful present, the celebration is an act of Christ and of the Church, and in carrying it out, Priests fulfill their principal role.”

If you haven't celebrated Mass alone try it the next time a day goes by and there is no one around.  God will speak to you.  Personally I especially like two moments, the elevation of the host, which because I am alone I can do it much much longer, and the homily - God gives a much better homily than you do if you stop for a good while and listen to him speaking only to you.

It is an opportunity to hear the real celebrant, the principle one, Jesus Christ himself, speak to you as a priest and show you the value of what you do at the altar so that when people are once again around, you will offer the sacrifice with greater love, devotion, attention, and reverence, and it will be more fruitful in the lives of the faithful.  We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"It is Christ himself, the eternal high priest of the New Covenant who, acting through the ministry of the priests, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. And it is the same Christ, really present under the species of bread and wine, who is the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice." Catechism of the Catholic Church 1410

I have learned to set aside, for the benefit of my priesthood, and therefore for the benefit of those I serve, to take a day off a week.  It is my day of prayer, of rest, my day where I imitate Jesus Christ who turned away from the sick, the suffering, the poor, the crowds, and his own apostles, to go to the Father and seek him in private, giving us an example.  I find that if priests don't take a moment to turn away from those clamoring for attention, they will turn away from them permanently and be unavailable, caught in escapism, hide in the rectory, and disengage from the very ones to whom they were sent.

It is especially on my day off that I enjoy saying Mass alone.  I frequently offer the Mass for special needs and occasions entitled, "For the Priest Himself."  Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen offered the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary once a week to compensate for any of his failures in ministry, excesses, defects, faults or imperfections.  For me, this Mass is where I beg God to grant graces to those whom I have failed to serve, or at least to fill up with the merits of Jesus and Mary any deficiencies in my ministry as a priest.

Here is how to celebrate Mass alone, straight from the 4th edition of the GIRM:

Chapter IV-C. Masses without a Congregation

Introduction

209. This section gives the norms for Mass celebrated by a priest with only one server to assist him and to make the responses.

210. In general this form of Mass follows the rite of Mass with a congregation. The server takes the people's part to the extent possible.

211. Mass should not be celebrated without a server or the participation of at least one of the faithful, except for some legitimate and reasonable cause. In this case the greetings and the blessing at the end of Mass are omitted.

212. The chalice is prepared before Mass, either on a side table near the altar or on the altar itself; the missal is placed on the left side of the altar.

Introductory Rites

213. After he reverences the altar, the priest crosses himself, saying: In the name of the Father, etc. He turns to the server and gives one of the forms of greeting. For the penitential rite the priest stands at the foot of the altar.

214. The priest then goes up to the altar and kisses it, goes to the missal at the left side of the altar, and remains there until the end of the general intercessions.

215. He reads the entrance antiphon and says the Kyrie and the Gloria, in keeping with the rubrics.

216. Then, with hands joined, the priest says: Let us pray. After a suitable pause, he says the opening prayer, with hands outstretched. At the end the server responds: Amen.

Liturgy of the Word

217. After the opening prayer, the server or the priest himself reads the first reading and psalm, the second reading, when it is to be said, and the Alleluiaverse or other chant.

218. The priest remains in the same place, bows and says inaudibly: Almighty God, cleanse my heart. He then reads the gospel and at the conclusion kisses the book, saying: MAy the words of the gospel wipe away our sins. The server says the acclamation.

219. The priest then says the profession of faith with the server, if the rubrics call for it.

220. The general intercessions may be said even in this form of Mass; the priest gives the intentions and the server makes the response.

Liturgy of the Eucharist

221. The antiphon for the preparation of the gifts is omitted. The minister places the corporal, purificator, and chalice on the altar, unless they have already been put there at the beginning of Mass.

222. Preparation of the bread and wine, including the pouring of the water, are carried out as at a Mass with a congregation., with the formularies given in the Order of Mass. After placing the bread and wine on the altar, the priest washes his hands at the side of the altar as the server pours the water.

223. The priest says the prayer over the gifts and the eucharistic prayer, following the rite described for Mass with a congregation.

224. The Lord's Prayer and the embolism, Deliver us, are said as at a Mass with a congregation.

225. After the acclamation concluding the embolism, the priest says the prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, you said. He then adds: The peace of the Lord be with you always, and the server answers: And also with you. The priest may give the sign of peace to the server.

226. Then, while he says the Agnus Dei with the server, the priest breaks the eucharistic bread over the paten. After the Agnus Dei, he places a particle in the chalice, saying inaudibly: May this mingling.

227. After the commingling, the priest says inaudibly the prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, or Lord Jesus Christ, with faith in Your love and mercy. Then he genuflects and takes the eucharistic bread. If the server is to receive communion, the priest turns to him and, holding the eucharistic bread a little above the paten, says: This is the Lamb of God, adding once with the server: Lord I am not worthy. Facing the altar, the priest then receives the body of Christ. If the server is not receiving communion, the priest, after making a genuflection, takes the host and, facing the altar, says once inaudibly: Lord I am not worthy, and eats the body of Christ. The blood of Christ is received in the way described in the Order of Mass with a congregation.

228. Before giving communion to the server, the priest says the communion antiphon.

229. The chalice is washed at the side of the altar and then may be carried by the server to a side table or left on the altar, as at the beginning.

230. After the purification of the chalice, the priest may observe a period of silence. Then he says the prayer after communion.

Concluding Rites

231. The concluding rites are carried out as at Mass with a congregation, but the dismissal formulary is omitted.

Advent Suffering Makes us Capable of Enjoying More Christmas Joy

It sure wasn't an easy trip for a very pregnant Virgin Mother and St Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  If it wasn't the rough road, it was the bighting cold; if not the crowded paths, the dusty trails; if not the uncertainty of what they would find, it was the constant rejection again and again of lodging, and ultimately the humiliation of them both knowing that the child in Mary's Immaculate Womb was the Son of God, and seeing and witnessing firsthand how he is to be greeted by a cold cave meant for barn animals?

Why would God almighty, who ordains all things, who holds the universe in a span, aware of every rain drop, knows where the wind comes and goes, and arranges sweetly each molecule, allow his chosen servant to suffer?

Why does he allow us to suffer?  Why do I have to suffer?

The truth is, that if the road to Bethlehem was not rough and strewn with humiliations and rejections, we would not be made more worhty to enjoy the birth of the Savior.

Ever been on a pilgrimage?

Same idea.

Aches and pains, late transport and missed flights, flat tires, complaining co-journeymen, discomfort, waiting, waiting, waiting and more waiting, meager portions, sour food, expensive lodging, rude hosts, rude guests, etc. etc. etc.  Each and every single one of these very difficult details is permitted or even ordained by God to humble us, quelch our pride, to quiet our self will, to remind us once again that we are not God.  We are powerless, not in control, and need to abandon ourselves to providence in order to begin to find peace amidst any and every assortment of difficult situations.

Fr Flanagan, the founder of my Society of Apostolic Life, SOLT, says this:

"Remember that God does not afflict creatures merely for the sake of afflicting them but in order to make them more capable and worthy of receiving blessings and treasures prepared for them."

"By Suffering: The vapors of sin are allayed; The excesses of the passions are crushed; Pride and haughtiness are humiliated; The flesh is subdued; The inclination to evil is repressed; The will is brought within bounds; The movements to stray are corrected; Divine love and pity are drawn down; Suffering is embraced with patience; We seek to imitate Christ."

What happens when a person with a very pure, even Immaculate Heart suffers?  It illicits from them an even deeper praise and adoration of God than was possible without the pain.  It makes pure love even more pure, until Love is so pure that it becomes so real, so enshrined, enthroned, enfleshed, even Incarnate in a given moment.

How fitting and perfect it was for Mary and Joseph to suffer greatly before the Savior was born!  How perfect and fitting that we should suffer and so enter into the glory of divine Love manifesting itself in a new way, that Jesus Christ would be born into our hearts and lives in a new and profound way.

Therefore, it is so important that we not fear suffering, that any attmept for self-medication, escapism, excusing ourselves, blaming, sluffing off the measure of suffering that we are asked to carry.  I think about this very much before I ask for relief from suffering.  What if, just what if this suffering is given to me to bring about in my life a new manifestation of God that I have never known before, graces I have never yet received, love never yet known?  I am very careful of trying to justify it, or fix it, or change it.  Like Our Lady, I beg God for the grace not to react to it, but to ponder it in my heart, waiting for the purpose and plan, especially its most beautiful fruit to be manifested.

May the prayers and intercession of Blessed Mary and good St Joseph help us in our Advent way, especially when it seems difficult, toilsome, rough, and futile.  May God bring us to be more worthy of Christmas joys through Advent pains.

Advent Contemplating Jesus in the Womb of Mary

Listen to my homily:

  If you have trouble listening click here.

We often see Jesus in a certain way, crucified, risen, glorious, but do we contemplate him ever as he was in the womb of Mary?  Try it.  You'll like it.  It will change you.  It might heal you.  You and every other human person went through this silent darkness as you awaited the advent of your own life on earth.  Go back, go back to the womb of Mary and contemplate the little redeemer who prays and loves you from the silent holy darkness of the Immaculate Womb of Mary.

Today I discovered something. The glorious Deadlift, and why priests shouldn't be afraid of fitness.

My first thought was, “O Deadlift, where have you been all my life and why have I not known thee?” What an amazing lift! It engages all my muscles and demanded more strength than I have ever asked of my body.

No this is not a deadlift, but a warm up military press. Only picture I had.

To those of you who do not know what a deadlift is:

It is one of the most difficult lifts that engages all of the body’s major muscles.  You place a metal bar on the ground and start adding weights. I found myself comfortable with 100 lbs.  Then you pick up the bar standing up straight.  And set it down.  I picked it up and set it down 56 times in the short period of 7 minutes, stoping every 30 seconds to catch my breath.  That means I lifted almost three tons in seven minutes.  Booya!

And to those of you who are now asking yourselves, “Why is a priest doing such a thing, doing a deadlift, and then blogging about it? What does this have to do with God, the Church, and being holy?

Quite simply, Jesus was buff.  He was the perfect man, fully developed.  He was so, not just because he worked as a carpenter, or as the Greek in the New Testament calls him, a Tekton, one who worked predominantly in those days with stone, lifting heavy stone, cutting sharp stone, finishing hard stone.  He was well built not only because he is in the highest perfection that a man could be as the Incarnate God made man, but because it would make him the perfect sacrifice to carry a very very very heavy Cross.

I have recently made this discovery as a priest and as a man, how beautiful and good and worthy it is to care of, and develop my body.  It is so not just because lifting weights releases endorphins which help my immune system, which particularly helps me in this mission in the Philippines, where getting sick quite frankly is the pits. It is good to become well built not just because chemicals are released by my body that actually boost my mood making me happy and feeling light and very strong.  It is good to become well built, because by being a priest, I am also a Victim.  I am a sacrifice.  I suffer.  A lot.  It is part of my life, and I have found that being healthy, eating right, and dedicating time to being fit, like the Lord Jesus who was fit enough to cary a very heavy Cross squarely and joyfully on his shoulders, makes my life closer to the life of Jesus Christ.

I am a formator of seminarians.  Basically what that means is I live with future priests, and firstly by my example teach them how to be priests.  Quite a few of them actually have started lifting weights, working out, and watching more closely what they eat as well.

Barbel curl of 35 lbs.

In my last parish I lost 80 pounds and made it into a kind of slim-a-thon, to raise money for the parish, but also to raise an awareness of being healthy, having self control, and exercising will power to not follow a self-gratifying consuming culture.  I dare say that it made the Gospel more attractive, appealing, and I do believe that it did contribute to bringing people to love and serve Jesus Christ.

Getting fit helps with asceticism.  It makes you more frugal.  It focuses you.  It also makes you a better version of yourself.  The testosterone your muscles make doesn’t just make your more strong in body, more joyful, and more certain, but also can aid you to transfer the work of the body to the work of the spirit, in choosing good and avoiding evil.

It is not that hard to get fit. You just do it. What is hard is to have the will to do it, to want it, and to make choices that contribute to it.

Advent is a good time to make difficult choices, to take up penance, especially of doing what you should be doing anyway but fail to because of different circumstances or weaknesses.

This Advent, the priest I am staying with told me that he is committing to working out in the gym three times a week, and was in fact recommended by his spiritual director, to be consistent to this commitment would focus him on the rest.  It is good to have people around you that are all choosing to be healthy, and to cultivate accountable relationships, brothers and sisters, who will not drag you down, but lift you up, and remind you of the lofty calling you have to the life of perfection not only of charity, but to become the best version of yourself possible.

I encourage you to make part of your discipleship, the disciplining of your body, that you may become fully alive, awake, and ready for the coming of the Lord!

Year of Consecrated Life: Looking at the Past with Thanksgiving, Living the Present with Passion, Looking to the Future with Hope

Sorry it has been so long since I published. I am picking it back up again for Advent.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. It is also the first day of the Year of Consecrated Life, the first day of the Year of the Poor designate by the Philippine bishops, and the time of preparation for the Holy Father's visit to the Philippines in January.

Listen to my homily for today:


If you have trouble listening, click here.

Advent is a season where the whole Church, the mystical Body of Christ is carried in the womb of Mary, for this reason it is a season of silence, and a certain darkness is veiled over us to focus on what is most important, the divine life growing inside of us.

Mary is the one who can synthesize these four rather large concerns we have today: the Advent season, the Year of Consecrated Life, and Year of the Poor.

The Holy Father points to three aims for the Year of Consecrated Life:

1. Look to the past with gratitude:
2. This Year also calls us to live the present with passion.
3. To embrace the future with hope should be the third aim of this Year. 

He published this letter a few hours ago, and in it he addresses young religious:

I would especially like to say a word to those of you who are young. You are the present, since you are already taking active part in the lives of your Institutes, offering all the freshness and generosity of your “yes”. At the same time you are the future, for soon you will be called to take on roles of leadership in the life, formation, service and mission of your communities. This Year should see you actively engaged in dialogue with the previous generation. In fraternal communion you will be enriched by their experiences and wisdom, while at the same time inspiring them, by your own energy and enthusiasm, to recapture their original idealism. In this way the entire community can join in finding new ways of living the Gospel and responding more effectively to the need for witness and proclamation. 

Here are the expectations he has for this year:

1. Witness of consecrated joy - they see us as men and women who are happy!

2. I am counting on you “to wake up the world”, since the distinctive sign of consecrated life is prophecy. “Radical evangelical living is not only for religious: it is demanded of everyone. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way.”
At times, like Elijah and Jonah, you may feel the temptation to flee, to abandon the task of being a prophet because it is too demanding, wearisome or apparently fruitless. But prophets know that they are never alone. As he did with Jeremiah, so God encourages us: “Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you” (Jer 1:8).

3. Men and women religious, like all other consecrated persons, have been called, as I mentioned, “experts in communion”. So I am hoping that the “spirituality of communion”, so emphasized by Saint John Paul II, will become a reality and that you will be in the forefront of responding to “the great challenge facing us” in this

new millennium: “to make the Church the home and the school of communion.”[5]
To this end, I would ask you to think about my frequent comments about criticism, gossip, envy, jealousy, hostility as ways of acting which have no place in our houses. This being the case, the path of charity open before us is almost infinite, since it entails mutual acceptance and concern.

4. I also expect from you what I have asked all the members of the Church: to come out of yourselves and go forth to the existential peripheries. “Go into all the world”; these were the last words which Jesus spoke to his followers and which he continues to address to us (cf. Mk 16:15).
Don’t be closed in on yourselves, don’t be stifled by petty squabbles, don’t remain a hostage to your own problems. These will be resolved if you go forth and help others to resolve their own problems, and proclaim the Good News. You will find life by giving life, hope by giving hope, love by giving love.

5. I expect that each form of consecrated life will
question what it is that God and people today are asking of them.

Here is the thrust of the Philippine Bishops letter of the Year of the Poor:

THE GAZE OF THE CRUCIFIED LORD

In the sign of this crucified Lord, now resurrected, we your Pastors, invite you to the celebration of the Year of the Poor. Behold Jesus, poor. No image of Jesus, poor, surpasses this one. Jesus hangs from his Cross stripped of his clothes, his dignity, his possessions, his power, his strength. He is fully one with the unwashed, the oppressed, the scorned, the powerless, the miserable, the outcaste. In the Year of the Poor, look into the eyes of the crucified Lord. There is no experience richer. 

Homily for the Thanksgiving Mass of Fr Ryan Real, SOLT

A new priest is a gift of the newness of God. He is a sign of the glorious Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, a manifestation of Gods love and care. Our only response could be gratitude, and that is why we are here today, to give thanks to a God for his superabundant mercies and kindnesses.

We are so very grateful:

-NOT ONLY because God created Fr Ryan. When his parents cooperated to become instruments of God's Love and Power God willed to breath into existence something that never existed before in the universe. He decided out of love, he willed to create, Fr Ryan's soul directly out of nothing. God called Fr Ryan. He called him into existence. We are truly grateful for this. 

-NOT ONLY are we grateful for the many gifts he has given Fr Ryan. It can be said that Gods love for the Church is manifested in endowing and gifting the Church's ministers with a whole variety of blessings and gifts.

I remember the first time I ever met him. I was struck by some very particular gifts God gave him. And here I don't mean to puff up Fr Ryan or his family, but as I said to give thanks and praise to God. 

-Gift of faith, and to see all things with the eyes of the mysteries of faith. This is a very important gift for a priest to have, to spiritualize our human experiences. He must constantly help people find God's purpose and plan, especially in the midst of all the many hardships, aches and pains which they have.

-Gift of idealism. The first conversation I had with Fr Ryan was about contemplation, prayer, and how each soul was made for prayer like fish were made for water. It's so important for priests to have this sense of idealism so they know the way things should be, or rather, where the need to go. Priests need to have this gift so that they can see people in the beautiful way that God sees them. Did you know that God sees us as he desires us to be? He loves his sons and daughters according to the holiness to which he calls them. He doesn't see as primarily as sinners, adulterers, idolaters, thieves and liars. He sees us as his children. Unless a priest has the gift of idealism he would never see Gods children the way God does. But don't worry Fr Ryan is not going to float up and away to ivory towers and rainbows in the sky. God never gives the gift of idealism without giving the other gift of a thirst for realism. 

-Realism for Fr Ryan and every priest is this. Just as we are right now, exactly as we find ourselves in this very moment, with all our faults and failures, pains and passions, pride and presumptions, with all the blindness and foolishness we have. Exactly as we are right now God loves us. God loves us exactly as we are. A priest has to show this reality and live in this reality very deeply, especially with those caught in sin. In fact another word for realism is humility. It is Vitamin A - Acceptance. 

-Another place where I see Fr Ryan express this gift of realism is in his sense of humor and a sense of irony. Fr Ryan's jokes are almost always about placing two things together that we don't normally think of. And I dare say Gods sense of humor is like this too.  A priest must help people with a sense of humor to help them laugh at themselves, and not take themselves too seriously. This is because we are not where we should be. When we see the lofty calling of sanctity to which we are called and then take a look at where we are now we could despair, we could get really sad, but humor in this situation is based on the hope that the God who mightily and tenderly loves us will indeed bring us by his power to where we need to go. 

-Another gift God gave Fr Ryan is a keen intellect. A priest needs a keen intellect not just to know a lot of things and read a lot of books or tell people big words but to put on the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ? According to scripture it is this - to humble oneself. Though he was in the form of God. Jesus did not deem equality with God, but humbled himself. A priests mind, Fr Ryan's mind is to humble himself beneath every other creature and to ask himself, using the powerful and creative spontaneity of the Spirit to discover the way that each person needs to find to God. A priests mind doesn't shrink before each and every person, trying to bring all into communion with the most holy Trinity. 

-We give thanks too that God gave Fr Ryan a missionary heart. A priest terribly needs this today. To love All with the very Sacred Heart of Jesus, to seek the salvation of all souls and the willingness to go to the ends of the earth to proclaim the Salvation that comes only from The Lord Jesus Christ.

-A gift of real relationship with Our Blessed Mother. Fr Ryan has a close friendship with Mother Mary. Notice I didn't say merely a devotion, or a practice of saying the rosary, or wearing the scapular. A real relation includes devotion but goes far beyond it. A priest desperately needs to stay close to Our Lady, but also to lead souls to her, especially persons who are very broken, or those called to a very intimate communion with Jesus Christ. A priest is very much like Our Lady. He carries Jesus to others, gives The Lord flesh in the sacraments and is an advocate and merciful guide to union with Christ, very much like Mama Mary. 

-God gave Fr Ryan a vocation to SOLT. Not just to be a priest, but a SOLT priest. At first Fr Ryan thought that this meant he had a calling to contemplative life. Someone just told me that he thought Fr Ryan would be a great missionary. Which is it? A contemplative or a missionary? Both! By joining a missionary community that bases it's whole existence on communion with the Blessed Trinity through Mary, Fr Ryan is called to be a contemplative in action. 

It also means Fr Ryan is called to work on Ecclesial teams of priests, sisters, and laity, called to live in the communion of the Church of the three vocations and to shine forth the communion of the Trinity. 

St Pope John Paul the great said that our present age demands a very particular kind of holiness, a spirituality of communion, a holiness of relationships. He said that this is the way of the Church for the third Christian millennium. He said:

"It is within the Church’s mystery, as a mystery of Trinitarian communion in missionary tension, that every Christian identity is revealed, and likewise the specific identity of the priest and his ministry. Indeed, the priest, by virtue of the consecration which he receives in the Sacrament of Orders, is sent forth by the Father through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ, to whom he is configured in a special way as Head and Shepherd of his people, in order to live and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in service of the Church and for the salvation of the world. . .Consequently, the nature and mission of the ministerial priesthood cannot be defined except through this multiple and rich interconnection of relationships which arise from the Blessed Trinity and are prolonged in the communion of the Church, as a sign and instrument of Christ, of communion with God and of the unity of all humanity” (Pastores dabo vobis, no. 12).

Although all these gifts are amazing and especially God is amazing, who continually pours out many graces upon us in new priests. We are NOT ONLY grateful for all these wonderful things. There is one gift that we are most grateful to God for today. It is that he has granted Fr Ryan a share in the One, eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ. 

God spoke and created the heavens and the earth. He spoke, he willed into existence Fr Ryan at the moment if his conception. But what we are truly grateful for today is that in a few minutes Fr Ryan will speak the words of consecration and by his words God almighty will come into the world in a new way. This is the amazing part of priesthood. That the creature created by the Creator will speak and bring forth the Creator. That God in his amazing humility will allow his priest to spread his divine substance in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. It was for this reason that St Jean Vianney said of the priesthood that it is "a masterpiece of love of the Heart of Jesus."

We are grateful God has granted Fr Ryan the power to forgive sins. This gift is absolutely astonishing. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that yes, we agree with the Pharisees and some of our contemporaries who say, "Only God can forgive sins." Yes this is true, but the amazing thing about the priesthood of Jesus Christ, is that Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who is co-equal or consubstantial, one in being with God the Father speaks through the priest and says, I absolve you! What great love he has for us! That he allows us to hear not just with our heart, but with our ears what Jesus said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven." 

God has blessed his hands that when he blesses, the eternal and holy power of God flows forth to bless the people, the earth, so return all to the goodness of which it was made. 

God has blessed the voice of Fr Ryan and given him the gift of sacred preaching, that he may speak the previous words of salvation, saying the good things that men need to hear, the things that will really help them. 

God has configured Fr Ryan in the church as an alter Christus, an other Christ, to lead Gods people into the mystery of his love. 

So how should we express our gratitude to God for this wonderful gift? What can we do to say thank you to God

Here are three P's I will give you to help you remember.

Pray

Pray in thanksgiving for this gift. Offer prayers of thanks to God but also pray for Fr Ryan. He has a lot of responsibility and has now become the prime target for the attacks of the evil one. Pray for his protection. 

Priest

Ask this new Priest to exercise the gift of priesthood. Ask him for confession, to offer a mass, to intercede at the altar for you and your intentions. Ask for his blessing, to bless your home, your religious articles. Ask him for priestly assurance, consolation, or advice. Help him exercise the gift of priesthood. 

Please 

Please, please, please, do not be an obstacle to Fr Ryan's ministry but a help. Do not say to a man who has just pledged his life in celibate gift of his manhood to God, "Gusto mo kasawa? Don't you wish you could get married?  This is like going to a newly married man saying, well she is not much to look at, don't you wish you married someone else. Why not just slap his face. Actually it is the face of Christ you slap when you say things like that to his priests. 

Jesus Christ was and is celibate. Fr Ryan gave and will give the gift of his life, his manhood, his inmost intimate being as a life long companion and friend to a spouse who is Pure Love itself. I assure you that giving your heart of hearts over to pure love is nothing but a real recipe for happiness. 

In a study over 7 years that psychologically tested over 3700 priests in 32 different diocese the results were amazing. 

75% of the priests said they were very happy with the gift of celibacy

90% said they had deeply satisfying and fulfilling relationships with people

92.5% said they were very happy with the choice of their life's profession

If you are grateful for Fr Ryan in this very happy life he has chosen then support him in it. 

Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet Novena for an Outpouring of God's Tender Kindnesses Upon Those Who Need it Most

From Good Friday, April 18th to Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27th, 2014 there is the Divine Mercy Novena.

Click here to learn more.

This Divine Mercy Sunday a special gift of mercy will be given to mankind, the canonization of Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed Pope John XXIII.

Pray with us the novena, begging God for graces for all mankind.

The Divine Mercy Novena

Jesus asked that the Feast of the Divine Mercy be preceded by a Novena to the Divine Mercy which would begin onGood Friday.  He gave St. Faustina an intention to pray for on each day of the Novena, saving for the last day the most difficult intention of all, the lukewarm and indifferent of whom He said:

"These souls cause Me more suffering than any others; it was from such souls that My soul felt the most revulsion in the Garden of Olives. It was on their account that I said: 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by.' The last hope of salvation for them is to flee to My Mercy."

In her diary, St. Faustina wrote that Jesus told her:

"On each day of the novena you will bring to My heart a different group of souls and you will immerse them in this ocean of My mercy ... On each day you will beg My Father, on the strength of My passion, for the graces for these souls."

The different souls prayed for on each day of the novena are:

DAY 1 (Good Friday)  - All mankind, especially sinners

DAY  2 (Holy Saturday) - The souls of priests and religious

DAY 3 (Easter Sunday)  - All devout and faithful souls

DAY 4 (Easter Monday) - Those who do not believe in Jesus and those who do not yet know Him

DAY  5 (Easter Tuesday) - The souls of separated brethren

DAY  6 (Easter Wednesday)- The meek and humble souls and the souls of children

DAY  7 (Easter Thursday) - The souls who especially venerate and glorify Jesus' mercy

DAY  8 (Easter Friday) - The souls who are detained in purgatory; 

DAY  9 (Easter Saturday) - The souls who have become lukewarm.

During the Solemn Novena leading to Divine Mercy Sunday, 

theChaplet of Divine Mercyshould be offered each day for the

day's intentions.

The Resurrection Demands a Response: What are you Going to Do About it?

This homily was given at the Easter Vigil liturgy at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, Saturday, April 19, 2014.

Eucharistic Miracle July 24, 2013, Guadalajara Mexico 

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The pastor of Mary Mother of the Church, Father Jose Dolores Castellanos Gudino, said that while he was kneeling in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, he saw a flash of light and heard a voice.

“Ring the bells so that everyone comes,” the voice allegedly instructed. “I will pour blessings upon those present and the entire day. Take your small tabernacle for private adoration to the parish altar and put the large monstrance next to the small tabernacle. Don’t open the tabernacle until three in the afternoon, not before.” 

“I will perform a miracle in the Eucharist,” the voice continued, “the miracle that will take place will be called, ‘Miracle of the Eucharist in the incarnation of love together with our Mother and Lady.’ Copy the image that I will give you now and show it to others.” 

The voice then reportedly told him to share this with all of his priests to aid in their conversion and that he would fill all souls with blessings.  Fr. Gudino said that after hearing the voice he could only say, “My Lord, I am your servant, let your will be done.”

With local people gathered at 3 p.m., he recounted that he “approached the tabernacle and upon opening it the host consecrated by Our Lord Jesus Christ was covered in blood.”

According to the priest, the voice also told him to establish an adoration chapel and to allow any scientific study necessary to confirm the miracle

I have heard about Eucharistic miracles happening in a place far far away in century long long ago.  I have never heard of something happening so close to our time and place.

Usually God shows a miracle as a reward of faith or to help people believe.  History is full of these kinds of miracles, the most famous is the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano Italy, when a Basilian Monk was doubting during the Mass, asking God for a sign to help his unbelief, then to his amazement, during the consecration, when the priest was saying the words that transform the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus, the host started bleeding.

Jesus worked many miracles during his lifetime.  He healed many sick, cleansed lepers of disease, gave sight to the blind, made the lame walk, cast out demons, and even raised from the dead.  

He also preached amazing sermons.  One time, he preached so powerfully for three days straight that people forgot to eat. They felt so full hearing Him speak, but then because He had compassion on the crowds, he fed them with the miracle of the multiplication of loaves.

At the sight of all this, many still did not believe.  Jesus told them, believe in me because of the works that I do, for the works themselves testify to me.

Why did they not believe?  They chose to not believe. They decided that if they would believe in Jesus Christ, it would mean the end of their reign, their own power, title, position, or little kingdom they had set up in their minds.

All Christ’s preaching had an open invitation about. This seems to be the powerful thing about his parables:  They ask, they demand a question to be asked.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

The prodigal son asks, are you going to come back to your Father. The parable of the sewing of the seed asks what kind of seed are you going to have - the kind that falls on the path, the kind choked by the world of thorns, or the kind that falls on fertile soil.  The good samaritan asks, are you going to help your neighbor?

Not just his miracles, not only his parables, but His very life asks a question.  Indeed, His glorious Death and triumphant Resurrection asks a question,

The central mystery of our Faith is celebrated this very night - the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, is THE MIRACLE OF OUR FAITH, THE SIGN WHICH SHOWS US GOD, THE PARABLE WHICH ASKS US:

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

People have all sorts of religious experiences, they are given gifts all day every day, which include the gift of a heart beat, of the sun rising, of their family and friends loving them, they are even given amazing things like this Eucharistic Miracle in Guadalajara - all of these are a deep SIGN of GOD.  They are supposed to make us respond, to make a decision.

The Holy Mass is the most amazing SIGN OF GOD, because unlike all other signs, it also contains the SIGNIFIER.  It is not only THE MIRACLE of GOD but it is the GOD of MIRACLES.  

Every time we celebrate the Most Holy Eucharist, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is presented to us again.  Indeed the Church tells us that every Sunday is to be celebrated as a mini-easter, a day of faith, a day of the Church, a day of the family, a day of rest.

This past Sacred Triduum, Fr James told me today that he believes God is doing something in this congregation. I know Fr James and I are not the only one who is aware of this. I know many of you can feel it too.

I believe Jesus is showing you as a people, a gift of new life, showing you the Resurrection in a powerful way.  

I believe he is calling you as a community to love one another in a new and powerful way by living in closer friendship and fellowship the bonds of faith and family.

I believe he is calling you men to be strong in moral conscience, to stand firm in holiness and purity of heart.

I believe he is calling you women to be beautiful in love’s kindness and sweet patience.

I believe he is calling you children, you young people, to be joyful, to be alive, to be disciples, just as Jesus at age 12 became a teacher, that you would go out and share your faith with your generation.

I believe he is calling you to throw open the doors of your church and your hearts to go out to byways and highways and invite the many, the lost, the broken, the needy, the poor - to know Jesus Christ in the powerful way of life in his One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I believe he is calling you to clean up this part of town, to renew the homes, streets, and business, but a social order that is leavened and influenced by the holy Gospel.

He IS calling you.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Tonight there is one thing you must do.  It is work. In fact, it is the work of the entire Easter Season. It is not easy, but God the Holy Spirit invites you to do it - REJOICE.  The work of mightily praising and worshiping the Lord in full throated gleeful rejoicing and praising is something that demands every fiber of your being to stand up and sing.  

He is inviting you to wear upon your hearts and faces the sign of the Resurrection - to smile. Smile at God and smile at one another.  Smile!  Smile Catholic Church! God loves you. He has redeemed you. You shouldn’t look, as Pope Francis says, like you just got out of a funeral.

St Augustine can help us here.  He says that we have to gather from our whole being, the joy of all the angels, saints, the victory of every poor soul, the happiness of every single person rescued in the pits of hell.

“Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him.” -St Augustine, discourse on the psalms

We should gather up all the petitions, praises, adoration and from our inmost being, from the depths of our souls, from our guts we let it rise up from our hearts to out mouths with the great battle cry:

ALLELUIA!

Let this battle cry in the holy season of Easter help us, train our minds to be consumed not by our own foolish distractions and sorrows, but to be fixated on the Eternal Easter - the eternal joys of heaven and let us cry out

ALLELUIA!

The Passion of Christ is Our Victory to Face Down Death and Win

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