God's Work in Advent is comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.” (40,1). We cannot be messengers of God's consolation if we do not experience first the joy of being consoled and loved by Him.

With these words, the Holy Father reminds us that Advent is a time of great comfort, a time when we are consoled by the Lord. Another consolation, the Holy Father says, is the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. He prayed on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception:

"Knowing that you, who are our Mother, are totally free from sin, is of great comfort to us.  Knowing that evil has no power over you, fills us with hope and strength in the daily struggle we have to face against the threats of the evil one."

Mary is, Comfort of the afflicted. We her children, having been consoled by her, become ready share her tender kindness with the afflicted, the poor, the distressed, and those who, for whatever reason, are lost and not capable of drawing near to the consolation that God gives. God seeks the lost sheep. In the Gospel for today we read:

Jesus said to his disciples:

“What is your opinion?

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,

will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills

and go in search of the stray?

And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it

than over the ninety-nine that did not stray.

In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father

that one of these little ones be lost.”

This is an Advent Gospel. It should be read differently than we normally read it. It is supposed to help prepare us for the coming of the Lord, so that Christ may be born into our hearts at Christmas in a way we have never known him before. If we work to level the mountains of our own self will, we prepare room for God to fill up our valleys.

One of the mountains in the Church today that needs leveling, is the spirit of triumphalism, the preaching to the choir, to cater to a select group who "get it" and spend our time patting ourselves on the back. It is not an exclusive club for the found, a place where we sit comfortably with the one found sheep. Pope Francis, speaking to a gathering for the diocese of Rome said,

"In this culture — let us tell the truth — we only have one, we are a minority! And do we feel the fervour, the apostolic zeal to go out and find the other 99? This is an enormous responsibility and we must ask the Lord for the grace of generosity, and the courage and patience to go out, to go out and preach the Gospel. Ah, this is difficult. It is easier to stay at home, with that one sheep! It is easier with that sheep to comb its fleece, to stroke it... but we priests and you Christians too, everyone: the Lord wants us to be shepherds, he does not want us to fuss with combing fleeces! Shepherds! And when a community is withdrawn, always among the same people who speak, this community is not a life-giving community. It is barren, it is not fertile. The fecundity of the Gospel comes through the grace of Jesus Christ, but through us, our preaching, our courage, our patience."

Pope Francis is trying to do this in the Church, to make it a Church for the lost, a home for the 99 lost sheep. Yet there are "found sheep" within the Church resisting, or perhaps we should call these what they are, unsheperdable goats. Are you a goat? Do you have a problem with the shepherd doing this? Got mountains that need leveling? This is the work of God right now in the Church, and he will never be able to fill up the rather huge valley where the lost sheep have strayed if the found don't get rid of their mountains of pride.

God is good, and in his goodness comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. We may be in need of a very deep shift of our attittude. It perhaps might be more than some of us can handle. This is true especially for those who struggle with hope, who have trouble seeing God working in the Church today, who think everything is falling apart. 

A survival reaction is to withdraw into a fortress, to regroup and take shelter in an attitude that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, so I want to distance myself from it, even distance myself from the lost sheep, or yes, even the "lost shepherds," those Church leaders who seem to don't focus on how lost everyone is or how bad everything is, but are trying different ways to comfort the many afflicted souls, the 99 lost sheep instead of the 1 who is comfortable in their fortress.

Let us hear God calling us to seek the lost. This is what can save the found, can redirect them, can humble them. When the Church focusses all its strength at doing what it is supposed to, to be a hospital for sinners, a refuge for the weary, and a consolation for the afflicted, it is then Christ can be born in her, placed in her like the poor manger that she is, fit to hold the King of kings, amidst the rejection, the coldness, the darkness of this world. There in spiritual Bethlehem, accompanied by Immaculate Mary, good St Joseph, and the host of angels, she shall sing a new song to the Lord, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to those of good will."

May Mary, the Immaculate Conception, in her great gentleness, comfort the afflicted, and in her great gentleness, afflict the comfortable, that Christ truly may be born in the Church in a new way this Christmas.

It is Possible to Stop Sinning? 5 Things to Help SinLess

For the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I asked Our Lady if I could stop sinning.

I am not talking about stopping from being a sinner, or not having the power of sin working in my heart that is on the road to redemption, nor am I presuming to be better than the just man, who, as Proverbs says, falls seven times a day (24:6).

What I asked Our Lady, was to get rid of the mindset of sin, the thick layer of error of the doctrine of the world, that crusts on my mind that becomes the background setting of things I end up having to confess in the Sacrament of Penance.

Martin Luther, arch-heretic, put it this way, "If you're going to sin, sin boldly, for the mercy of God is greater than your sin." Yeah that's the world talking. Not. God. Perhaps the Catholic version goes like this, "You can go to confession afterward, so you might as well enjoy for the moment." What a crock! So you forgot that sin wounds you? Why don't you just take a hammer and smash your fingers and then go to the Emergency Room?

Another way of putting it: everybody's doing it, so go ahead. Sin? Yeah it's normal. Those people that don't like it are weird. Again. Not. God. The norm of humanity, that we learn from Our Lady's Immaculate Conception is that, deeply, more deeply than we can understand, we were made for good. It is so deep in us that St Thomas Aquinas says that we cannot do evil unless it first appears to us as a good- which is another word for temptation.

In asking Mother Mary to stop sinning, I mean to ask her to be given a clear sight of the meaning and purpose of each act that I do, that I get rid of all other ends or goods, but the highest Good, God himself. Not what others are doing or not doing, not what is socially or ecclesiastically acceptable, but what God actually wants.

Here are 5 ways to accomplish what I am talking about:

1. Pray to Mary. A lot.
Ask. Don't just ask. Ask the one who when she asks God is not refused, i.e. knows how to ask. For most of this, it is just pure grace, which would explain why what I am saying will make sense, if you still don't quite get where I am coming from.

2. Place your death before you every day.
You were born yesterday and you'll be dead tomorrow. All you got is today. I mean really, I remember kindergarten like it was literally yesterday, and for the God to whom a thousand years are a day, well 30 years are not even a minute.

3. Ask where it will lead, to God or away, to heaven or to hell.
Why? Why are you doing that, saying that, thinking that? Is it going to bring you uptown or downtown, upstairs or downstairs, to heaven or to hell.

4. Go to confession. A lot.
I mean weekly, at least. Most of the time the errors of the world are in us because our conscience is rusty and dusty, and the sense of sin is non existent. If you writhe when I say, HELL, SIN, EVIL, and start making justifications, there is a good chance your heart needs a good cleaning. You wouldn't clean your kitchen once a month, and you have to cook there. Well you conscience is where most of your acts are cooked up.

5. Get rid of every possible occasion for grave sin.
Throw it out. Throw it away. Don't shake hands with it anymore. Don't play with it. Just get rid of it. If it causes you to sin, cut it off. Don't even attempt this one if you haven't 1-4. It will feel like you're cutting your arm off.

Here's the reason why I felt so emboldened to ask Our Lady for the grace to not sin again, the Sacred Liturgy. It is full of allusions to the Sinless Virgin helping us become sinless. So it is in fact the Church that leads us to ask Our Lady to become sinless as she is.

Opening Prayer:
Grant, we pray that, as you preserved her from every stain
by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw,
so, through her intercession,
we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.

First Reading:
I will put emnity between you and the woman (Genesis 3:15)

Second Reading:
He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. (Ephesians 11:6)

Gospel:
Hail, full of grace! (Luke 1:26)

Prayer over the Offerings:
Grant that, as we profess her...
to be untouched by any stain of sin,
so, through her intercession,
we may be delivered from all our faults.

Preface:
For you preserved the Most Blessed Virgin Mary
from all stain of original sin,
so that in her, endowed with the rich fullness of your grace,
you might prepare a worthy Mother for your Son
and signify the beginning of the Church,
his beautiful Bride without spot or wrinkle.
She, the most pure Virgin, was to bring forth a Son,
the innocent Lamb who would wipe away our offenses;
you placed her above all others
to be for your people an advocate of grace
and a model of holiness.

Prayer after Communion:
May the Sacrament we have received,
O Lord our God,
heal in us the wounds of that fault
from which in a singular way
you preserved Blessed Mary in her Immaculate Conception.
Through Christ our Lord.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary Magnifies and Glorifies Jesus Christ

Mass Readings for today

Listen to my homily given to priestly candidates:

If you have trouble listening, click here.

Without Stain. Sin Macula. That is what Immaculate means. If you were God and you could make your own mom, I think you'd make her without sin too. That's exactly what God did. Jesus, true God and true man, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, saved his mother from sin, but unlike the rest of us, he applied the power of his Salvation at the moment of her conception. That is why we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary today, December 8th.

To make extra clear to all the faithful, the Church declared it a dogma. The most certain truths about Christianity are dogmas, the highest form of scriptural interpretation, i.e. what Scripture really means when it says, "I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman" (Genesis 3:15), or calling mary "full of grace" (Luke 1:28), in greek kecharitomene. Dogmas are things that we believe are not in any way the teachings of any man, but the teachings of Jesus Christ himself. The formula of this proclamation reads:

"We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful." -Ineffabilis Deus by Blessed Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854

Why is celebrating this Solemnity so important?

Mary reminds us that we were made for God not for sin. If it is possible for one of our race to never sin, it is possible for all of us to become free of it eternally. It also makes clear that it is possible for us to never sin gravely. Ever. Again.

She overthrows the spirit of the world

Mary is a good Mother. If we are dirty she is going to give us a good cleaning, even scrubbing behind the ears. One of the errors of the world, one of its doctrines that is shoved down our throats constantly is that sin is perfectly normal, not only that it is ok to do, but that someone who does not sin must be quite abnormal. This is a lie. We are not made for sin, the same way the most precious treasure chest is meant to hold riches, not to be thrown in the mud.

A fish is made for water. A man is made for air. Mix them up and they die. We are made for God. Takes us away or substitute and we too will die. Eternally.

She frees from the spirit of the flesh

Mary's Immaculate Conception is a privileged mystery, or truth about Jesus' relationship with her, that is powerful in freeing people from the sins of the flesh. By showing us that we were not made for sin, for lust, for impurity, for fornication, adultery, or even the interior gaze of fornication or adultery of our spirit, she shows us how to not make provisions for the spirit of the flesh. She shows us to not permit excuses. 

Adultery and fornication always claim very good excuses. You are tired? Your work is exhausting? You feel lonely and maybe your wife doesn't quite understand you all the time? You think that is justification to go looking elsewhere? You don't feel good about your marriage? Or perhaps you are single, or a committed celibate? You feel lonely and your life is hard? Your prayer life is dry and no one really is there for you even though you are there for everyone else? There are always excuses. Mary's Immaculate Conception reveals to us that no excuse is ever justifiable cause for sin. Sin is abnormal, and you were not made for it. Got trouble? Quit playing with it, or fussing about it and GIVE IT TO GOD!

She liberates from attachment to sin

Her Immaculate Conception is the refuge of all those who are entrenched in sin, who need a deep shock, some powerful God voltage, to boost them up out of their sins. This is especially true for those who struggle with obsessions of any kind, those things which seem to make sin almost involuntary, the deeper kind of bondage that Our Lady breaks: depression, deep self-absorbtion, alcoholism, drug addiction, anorexia, self-mutilation or cutting, porn addiction, or any lust addiction, or any kind of thing that renders us incapable of freely giving ourselves to God and to each other in self-mastery.

She pushes back hell's rusty gates

She is also promised to be the one who crushes the head of the demon in Genesis 3:15. "She shall crush the head of the serpent." The foul vermin of hell suffocate at her Immaculate fragrance, and to approach Mary is to depart from their clutches, to embrace heaven, to be held in eternity's embrace.

The Immaculate Conception inspires great confidence in God's power

Never has it been known that anyone ever went to her and was left unaided. To ask her is to receive from God. She is so perfectly united with Jesus as his chosen instrument through which he prefers to bestow blessings that to go to Jesus without going through intercession is like the fool who claims to see the stars better without a telescope, to view cellular development without a microscope, or to walk rather than take the speed train. She said, "My soul magnifies The Lord" (Luke 1:46). This is a true description of what she does.

Her intercession engenders humility

You wouldn't ask an important person, like the president, prime minister, or the pope directly for a favor unless you were their favored assistant. Guess what? You're not, but Mary is. Yes you have immediate access to the Father through Jesus and all you need do is ask Jesus, but the problem is that our asking is full of sin, self-will, and often impure motives. Mary's is not. No one goes to the Father except through Jesus (Jn 14:6), but no one goes through Jesus except through Mary. Jesus is the head of the Church but Mary is the neck through which the whole Body relates to him. Jesus is the King, but he has raised up his Queen, "the Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon at her feet, and a crown of twelve stars," (Rev 12:1).

She reveals God's utmost tender kindness

Mama. You can't say it without thinking of a baby being nurtured and held, diapers being changed, or a baby crying out in need. That is who she is. She is your mama. God relates to us his power, especially through the power of Christ's Cross and glorious Resurrection, but it is the gaze of Mary, that we encounter the gentle invitation to discover God's sweet ineffable tenderness. Just take a look at any icon of Mary holding her baby, which seems to say, "Would you like to hold him?" Look at any image of Mary pregnant with God in her womb. The most obvious way of contemplating that the tinier and hidden God is in your life, even like a fetus, you would have to go through the Mother to communicate with the Son.

May Mary, the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, pray for us, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!

Embracing the Future, Hidden Glory, with Hope (3 of 3)

 Amidst a crazy storm, such peace, joy, and embracing the future with real hope.

The three aims of the Year of Consecrated Life, to look at the past with thanksgiving, live the present with passion, and embrace the future with hope, beautifully coincide with St Bernard's "three comings of Christ" from his Advent Sermon. This is the third of a three part series reflecting on this.

Read part I: Looking at the Past, at Bethlehem, with Thanksgiving

Read part II: Living the Present, Calvary, with Passion

How do we Embrace the Future with Hope?

We read on Easter Sunday:

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4

Notice how it begins in the past tense, "you have been raised with Christ," describing what grace has already accomplished, present tense,"seek the things that are above," on how to conduct ourselves in light of the past, and in future tense when referring to the fulfillment, "you also will appear with him in glory"?  The past, present, and future, are all "hidden in Christ with God." The way we have access to their meaning is Jesus Christ. He IS their meaning.

We can embrace the future glory with hope because we embrace Christ. A person reveals a lot about themselves when they reveal what they think the future holds. Want to know what the secular world thinks, just look at the wide array of dystopian noir films about how dark and dreary the future will be. Robots will take over the world and destroy it. Tyranny and erratic domination will eventually be the norm of future governments. Man will escape the control of his own capacities and it will ultimately destroy him. Really? Sad to be you if that's what you really think.

However sad this is, it is by far much worse when the prophets of the doom are actually not in the secular world, but in the Church. The forecasters of destruction often are lacking one simple thing: HOPE. They do not see the future hidden in Christ with God because they do not see the past or present that way. They do not see. As Pope St John XXIII said,

"At times we have to listen, much to our regret, to the voices of people who, though burning with zeal, lack a sense of discretion and measure. In this modern age they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin … We feel that we must disagree with those prophets of doom who are always forecasting disaster, as though the end of the world were at hand."

Guess what? The end of the world is at hand. Jesus ushered in the end times, and there have been wars and rumors of wars, and nations rising against nations, great distress for the past two thousand years. What do you do about it? That is the real question. Of course we live each day as if it were our last, of course we live as if Jesus is coming back soon, hopefully very soon, but that doesn't mean that you sow seeds of discord, breed malcontent, and get busy hatin', or even go so far as attack the Holy Father because you think the Church is falling apart. Man has always been falling apart.

The good news is that God is alive and very active in his Church. This is the message that a consecrated person is supposed to broadcast with all of their actions and words, especially those on social media. They are to be prophets of the living Mercy of God, not prophets of doom.

The future: the priestly candidates I live with and serve,
the hope of the Church.

The good news that allows us to embrace the future in hope is especially visible in a seminary. Here newly professed consecrated men are discerning and preparing to become priests. Pope Francis gave a special message to young consecrated persons in his letter for the Year of Consecrated Life:

"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."

The young have much to offer and much to teach us. There are a few men living in my house who are constantly sowing seeds of hope. By their idealism, their way of moving that reveals they actually believe that with God all things are possible, by their moral uprightness and desire for what is good, they cannot help but engender hope. The young are a gift of hope to us.

This is also true of young institutes and societies. I have great hope for my own community, for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity because it is so young, only 56 years old, and you could say that it can offer the Church the "freshness and generosity" while being open to be guided by older communities in the Church, "enriched by their experiences and wisdom, while at the same time inspiring them, by [its] own energy and enthusiasm." 

God of course is my hope, which lies hidden in Christ with God, but he uses my community to be a living sign, to BE a tangible, incarnate embrace of the future with hope. I pray fervently for my community every day, that each and every single person, priest, consecrated person, and lay person may show the Church how to embrace the future with a living hope.

May all communities, young and old, bear great fruitfulness in the witness of the good things yet to come. May Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity bring about that communion of religious families for mutual enrichment and hope.

Typhoon Hagupit Leaves with Minimal Damage and We Invite you to Thank God with us

Thanks for your prayers. Though the winds still blow and rains still fall, the worst of Typhoon Hagupit (Ruby) is over. No major trees down. Our electricity remained all the way through, which is somewhat of a small miracle considering it usually gives out in heavy rains. Most especially we are grateful that everyone is alright, that it has passed with minimal structural damage and minimal deaths considering Supertyphoon Haiyan (Yolanda) last year.

I do not wonder why, all of a sudden for no apparent reason, the storm decreased in intensity, or why 1 million people were inspired to evacuate, which drastically reduced the mortalities due to storm surges and fallen debris. Obviously this is due to the power of prayer. Although intercessory prayer is very powerful and crises have a way of rousing people to repent and seek God, equally or even more important  is the prayer of thanksgiving.

I invite you now to join our community in thanking God, through the intercession of she who is the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose feast we celebrate tomorrow, Monday, December 8, 2014.

May God be praised, adored, and glorified, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Living the Present, Calvary, with Passion (2 of 3)

The aims of the Year for Consecrated Life, to look at the past with thanksgiving, to live the present with passion, and to embrace to the future with hope, beautifully coincide with St Bernard's, "three comings of Christ" taken from his famous Advent Sermon. In this post (2 of 3) I will look at living the present, Calvary, with passion.

St Bernard says that the "intermediate coming," i.e. the present one, is invisible and more illusive than the other two. For this reason it is much easier missed, or expected to be a display of omnipotence rather than the presence of the Crucified Lord, recognizable only in the lives of those who believe:

"It is invisible, while the other two are visible...In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty."

Above you see typical Filipino children: joyful, poor, playful, in search of food as much as they are in search of adventure. I live at a seminary here in rural rice farming community of Camarines Sur, Philippines, and almost every time I go into Naga City, I encounter very young street children. They always have a way of waking and shaking me up, of calling me out of myself, and making me aware of the present situation.

The present situation is Calvary. God does not appear in glory as the just judge, not yet. He comes to us in disguise as a beggar, asking for our attention, for a scrap of love. The truth of the eternal and perfect unconditional love of God is not known, the face of the Kingdom Christ came to share is marred often beyond recognition.

In the Philippines, the bishops have declared, "The Year of the Poor." In the message for this year, "The Gaze of the Crucified Lord," we read:

"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."

Jesus Christ in his disguise has to intrude into our lives in order for us to even be aware of the present. Yesterday I had two such little messengers on the street intrude. I felt my leg being flicked, and I didn't have to look down to know what that meant. I saw two smiling boys, brothers arm in arm, begging for food. They were there to remind me once again of the present moment, of my own present moment, of my own poverty, and responding in compassion was the only way I could truly reply, and still call myself a man consecrated to God. We were right next to a street vendor selling corn on the cob. I bought them one, broke it in half and said in their dialect, "Jesus loves you. Be good and stay out of trouble." Many of the street children sniff glue to blunt their pain or commit petty thefts. I looked up and there was a group of people smiling at me to actually see a religious taking care of the very ones for whom he ought have preference. It was a wake up shake up experience reminding me of who I am.

Living the Present in the Passion of Christ

Are you aware of what is going on right now from God's perspective (the only objective one)? In the Church, in the world, even in your soul according to God's grace? To say that you do, is to lapse into presumption. Because sin, not only divides us from God, from each other, and even from ourselves, not only are we truly not present to God, to our neighbor, but we cannot say that we are even really present to ourselves. We are not present to the present.

As the Advent collect reads, "since we have no merits of our own," we need the merits of Jesus Christ, that he obtained for us by his Most Sacred Passion, in order to be present to the present. It is also his glorious disguise of poverty, littleness, and vulnerability, that intrudes into our narrow scope of existence to wake us and shake us up.

A consecrated person, is a person that has woken up, that has been made aware of what is really going on, most especially made aware of the real crucified face of the love of God. The love of God in the present moment appears very poor, does not put on heirs, is not sophisticated and streamlined, but is the humblest thing beyond our imaginings. It is only a person who has truly woken up, that can, as Pope Francis is asking of consecrated persons this year, "Wake up the World!"

The other great wake up call that consecrated men and women have are their vows, particularly that of obedience. If I want to really understand my own situation I need to look at my obedience. What is God asking of me right now? What is he focussing me on? What is my daily bread, my daily sacrificial offering of my life entail? I should ask, what is my assignment?

Superiors really are THE prophet in our lives. They are the authenticated representative of God's providential Will, that mediate to us what God is really asking of us, and what he is not asking of us. Married people have this too, which comes from their vows to each other. In serving married couples, I ask them to be very careful of their wife or husband, of what they are saying, desiring, or asking of them, because there is no greater prophet who mediates God's will than the one they have been vowed to obey.

Granted, the deeper vows of our baptism that have bound us to the Most Holy Trinity are an even more primordial prophet that reveal God's ultimate Will, but the vows we have taken to obey the particular and specific present community, person, and circumstance, reveals the true cross that we have been asked to carry.

This is made even more clear when a spouse, or even a superior, God forbid, is unfaithful, or lacking in any way to their vows of baptism, for what they lack, we are asked to fill up in the beauty of true love's ugliness, i.e. its real sacrifice, the one we never thought of when we were first engaged, or in our novitiate, when love's discovery of the other was only in principle and novelty. Please don't misunderstand me, many times it is not a superior who is unfaithful, for they are usually chosen for being upright and level-headed, but they frequently ask of us to do difficult things, to reveal love where there is not, to bring fidelity where there is not, be hope where there is not.

This where we see the present, that it is really Calvary, and the demands of what love, true love, of which St Paul says, "bears all things" is asking us to carry. This too is where secondary causes such as superiors or spouses reveal the first and final cause, the Love of God, which obedience and the radical demands of this Love, are the only thing that can free us and reveal to us the reality of the present Calvary.

How to LIve the Present with the Passion of Christ

God's plan of consecrating our poverty to God will undoubtedly bring us to the Passion of Christ. The source, summit, and center of consecrated life is Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist. There the treasure chest of merits of his Sacred Passion are wide open to us. There we appropriate the sufferings, joys, hopes, lights, and glories of our life into eternal life, where we truly realize the present moment with Passion.

The Sacrament of Confession too is where the merits of the Savior are applied to us particularly, where Jesus is present to our naked poverty, who we really are, men and women in need of his mercy.

The poor also are the living crucifixes, to remind us, to wake us and shake us up, that we make shake up and wake up this world, that is in most desperate need of God.

Community life! What a crucifixion, what a glory! It is the place where we can either be sucked dry or fanned into flame that was once given us. God is calling each community to go to the Passion of Christ collectively. It calls for consecrated persons to courageously enter into a frank and open dialogue with the members of their household and not fear to honestly and charitably make an examination of conscience, not pointing the finger, but lifting each other up with helping hands, as we encounter our brother's and sister's poverty through the lens of our own poverty, the invitation to respond in love, "for by bearing one another's burdens we fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2).

Finally the Church, now more than ever, is experiencing its own poverty. Ecclesiastical crucifixions are ever so common, where circumstances in communities, particularly scandals against chastity, poverty, and obedience rock the foundations of the Church. Here we are asked to respond with charity's particularly mature prudence and a very firm resolve to not fail to be present to the Church. For the redemption the Redeemer is leading his consecrated people through at this point in history, could only be to wake up and shake up the world, as to its own desperate need for redemption.

May God grant us saints! That is what is needed now more than ever, that the grace of consecration, of public profession of the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.

May Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, bring each consecrated man and woman to be on fire with Christ's Passion, and bring forth a harvest of holiness for the redemption of all mankind!

Looking at the Past, at Bethlehem, with Thanksgiving (1 of 3)

Pope Francis in his Message for the Year of Consecrated Life gave three aims: to look to the past with thanksgiving, live the present with passion, and embrace the future with hope.

St Bernard said there are three comings of the Lord:

We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible...In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty.

It struck me how these truly fit together:

1st coming: Bethelehem	2nd coming: Sacraments	3rd: Final Judgement
View Past with Thanks	Live Present with Passion	Embrace Future with Hope

I am going to do a three part series on each of these comings, on each of these aims of this Year of consecrated life.  This first post looking back toward Bethlehem at the birth of Christ and at the birth of my religious family, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity.  In looking back, the words of Pope Francis are a beautiful guide:

"Recounting our history is essential for preserving our identity, for strengthening our unity as a family and our common sense of belonging.  More than an exercise in archaeology or the cultivation of mere nostalgia, it calls for following in the footsteps of past generations in order to grasp the high ideals, and the vision and values which inspired them, beginning with the founders and foundresses and the first communities.  In this way we come to see how the charism has been lived over the years, the creativity it has sparked, the difficulties it encountered and the concrete ways those difficulties were surmounted.  We may also encounter cases of inconsistency, the result of human weakness and even at times a neglect of some essential aspects of the charism.  Yet everything proves instructive and, taken as a whole, acts as a summons to conversion.  To tell our story is to praise God and to thank him for all his gifts." -Message for the Year of Consecrated Life

What is so striking about the birth of the Virgin Mary's baby, the Incarnate God, in the cold dark cave of Bethlehem is his poverty, littleness, vulnerability, that his birth was accompanied by rejection, placed in a manger where animals were kept.  This perhaps also could describe the birth of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, or I suppose, the beginnings of any religious community.  It begins in littleness, poverty, and vulnerability, and is usually accompanied by rejection and survives by being kept in the humblest of places.

Life begins small, in seminal form, and no one quite knows what it will become.  Even if you you look at a pinecone and know it will become a tall pine tree, you don't know quite what shape the branches will take, or even if it will survive being planted.  The beginning is a very delicate time.  

As I recall the history of my community, what takes shape is a kind of particular geography, or specific landscape, of thanksgiving.  Taking the Holy Father's aims personally did the same for me.  A few days after being ordained a deacon, I made a 7 day retreat.  The sole meditation of the retreat, was simply recalling my life in SOLT.  I had with me an iPod, in which a picture of each member was stored.  I simply looked at the face of each member of my community and tried to see the face of Jesus Christ.  What happened was amazing.  Of course, I did see, as the Holy Father, suggested, some short-comings and inconsistencies, but more prominent was the mercy of God in each person's life, how God had called each one to become part of something much greater than themselves, to be a member of a religious family.

Once again, one night here in the seminary during Eucharistic Adoration, I looked back at the past 14 years of my life in the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, trying to recall each assignment, and person or family that I met, all the members, especially my teammates, the religious sisters, permanent brothers, priests, consecrated widows, permanent married deacons, single and family laity, even the men and women in formation who are no longer with the community with whom I have had contact.  What arose in me from this kind of recalling was a very deep hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity.  "How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?  The cup of salvation I will raise, I will call on the Lord's name."

I would encourage every consecrated person to try this: recall not only the history of your community, but your own history in it, making it as specific as your memory will allow. I suppose it is really like looking back on that covenant that God has made with you, like an old married couple, or perhaps newlywed if you are freshly professed.  Two things tend to happen, the acceptance of your own littleness, poverty, and need for God, and the recognition of God's faithfulness, his grace and mercy.

Perhaps you need to take this time to also forgive anyone who has hurt you in any way in your community. People bump up against each other. That is what we do. It is unavoidable. With faith we can see always and in ever situation, the primary cause and final end of each moment in history, Jesus Christ, the Lord of history, history's true goal, the final end of each person, and their true completion and perfection. If this is so, then it is easy to find the Love of Christ to forgive them. It is then that we sincerely ask God for the grace to truly look at the past with thanksgiving, not merely as a religious exercise, but as a reality that becomes enshrined in our hearts as a purified memory. God makes all things new. Even the way we look back at past events.

May this Year of Consecrated Life bring forth a hymn of praise and thankgiving to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  May Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity accompany us and guide us to live our consecration to give God the maximum glory possible.

Batten Down the Hatches, Hagupit Has Introduced herself

My window is now sealed and a Benedictine Cross guards the shutters. The only time I have ever shut my windows is with a typhoon. I've done so because Supertyphoon Hagupit (known locally as Ruby - yes Filipinos like knick names), has said hello. Fast gusts of wind, rain falling horizontally and then disappearing and calming down again - this storm has introduced herself.

Even though the official landfall isn't until tomorrow night at this time (Saturday 5-6pm) because she is so big, we have already started to enjoy her presence. She is said to be 700km or 445 miles wide.

I just finished shopping for the 100 people soon expected to arrive here, an official typhoon shelter. The brothers are in an extra ordinary good humor. I love to see them this way, it is in crisis that they have shone the most. Really the best has started coming out if these future priests. It is difficult to describe the magnanimous hope this engenders to see such a thing. God is very much alive and moving in amazing ways in their lives for the life of the Church.

Please continue to pray for the aversion of this storm. St Faustina, the "Secretary of Divine Mercy'" was told by The Lord Jesus, that the prayer of Divine Mercy, the offering to the Father the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, is particularly helpful to calm storms and avert disasters.

Tomorrow, first Saturday of the Month, we will still host the 2000 hail Mary's in reparation and supplication for the salvation of the world. Then on Sunday night we will host an all-night Vigil in honor of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

It is quite a beautiful thing to pray amidst such fury. We did the same when typhoon Glenda hit. Perhaps one of the most riveting experiences of my life was leading, or rather shouting at the top of my lungs amidst the raging typhoon, the rosary before the exposed Blessed Sacrament, begging God for safety for especially all the families in our care.

Join us as we journey forward through the raging storm. Hail Mary...

Pray the Divine Mercy chaplet for us.

Supertyphoon Hagupit (Ruby) Preparation Reflections

The air is charged, almost electric. It feels funny, different. Animals are on edge. People hurry. Stores are packed with people getting last minute supplies. Wind is at a gentle calm, almost a kind of gathering calm, the rain comes in spurts. Some people in nervous chatter.  Most in humorous acceptance, in that gentle yet pointed Filipino way of accepting sufferings and storms of life.  Here we go again. Another supertyphoon.

Supertyphoon Hagupit is scheduled to visit us here in Naga City this Saturday.  It is about the same intensity as Supertyphoon Haiyan that hit last year, rendering tens of thousands homeless and taking countless lives.

This time there is a serious threat to the people living at the foot of Mt Mayon Volcano about sixty miles from here. There has been pouring out on to the side of the mountain, fresh red lava every day for about two months. Several thousand tons of water is about to hit that lava.  The last time this happened with typhoon Reming in 2006, the lava and boulders the size of houses came crashing down the mountain side killing thousands in minutes, wiping out entire villages like wiping clear a chalkboard.

"Don't worry. Those people are already being evacuated. They learned already from the last time. This is normal. I grew up with this, living here in typhoon alley of the Philippines. We learn and adapt with each typhoon how to better prepare." said a priest who grew up a few miles from here.  It is true. The people here are quite used to it.  In fact, last July, when typhoon Glenda hit us, there were no fatalities because people in houses that would easily collapse had evacuated days before.

Our seminary here is a local typhoon shelter.  It is solid brick with a sturdy typhoon proof roof, with a lip that covers the edge so the wind cannot pick it up.  We are busy cutting the tops of trees down that would fall, supertyphoon proofing anything and everything we can.  The generator that was bought last time is getting primed and warmed up, ready for another month of no electricity. Mineral water bottling at the water purification center has gone into overtime.

We are also preparing for the local village to take refuge here like they did last time.  Twenty families, eighty-five persons, even a nursery was set up with a one day old baby and mother. Is it coincidental that the seminarians were going to have a family retreat this weekend that was cancelled, with teachings, activities, and children's program.  I told the priest in charge of the retreat jokingly, "It looks like the family camp is back on." Most probably we will end up evangelizing the families that come here like last time.  We also brought them to Mass and hours before storm landfall had a Eucharistic procession to ask God to placate the storm.  Thanks be to God, there were no deaths, no major injuries, except injured property.

Please pray for us.  Pray that we have the wisdom and courage to respond to this supertyphoon.  All is a gift, to lead us deeper into communion with the Most Holy Trinity.  We only pray that it might not be such a rough road.

May Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity protect us, guide us, give us shelter in the storm, and show us how to become a shelter to all who need it.

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.