Superior Priest

Seeking the Blessings or the Woes? (C19O6)

The Church is in Crisis for the last year of 2018, but it has been taking place for the last 5, 10, 30, 70 years, but we are experiencing it in a pronounced way now. Who will still be in our churches in 20 years, not just a priest problem, but a whole problem.

Fr. Fish from Washington DC says, "Said it before, and I’ll say it again: working for the Catholic Church in America in 2019 feels something like working for Blockbuster Movies in 2005. We’re still arguing about how we should display the DVDs, and meanwhile our current model and customer base is about to collapse." Here is a link to more of his comments.

Strangers in a Strange Land by Archbishop Chaput, “The real problem […] much more stubborn. The real problem with the world is us” (17) “The reason the Christian faith doesn’t matter to so many of our young people is that—too often—it didn’t really matter to us. Not enough to shape our lives. Not enough for us to suffer for it.” (7). “the appetite for comfort and security has replaced conviction” (12).

There is not a problem with the teachings of the Church. The Gospel remains the Gospel. What we have went wrong is that we have often not lived out the teachings of the Church. Priestly celibacy is not the problem for the clerical sex abuse scandal it is because priests did not live out their priestly celibacy.

God or Nothing by Cardinal Sarah, “While Christians are dying for their faith and their fidelity to Jesus, in the West, me of the Church are trying to reduce the requirements of the Gospel to a minimum” (280)

Clement Shahbaz Bhatti a Pakistani Catholic politician who was murdered for the faith on March 2, 2011 had written earlier, “High-ranking positions in government have been offered to me, and I have been asked to put an end to my battle, but I have always refused, even at the risk of my own life. My response has always been the same. I do not want popularity, I do not want positions of power. I only want a place at he feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my actions to speak of me and say that I am following Jesus Christ. This desire is so strong in me that I consider myself privileged whenever—in my combative effort to help the needy, the poor, the persecuted Christians of Pakistan—Jesus should wish to accept the sacrifice of my life. I want to live for Christ, and it is for Him that I want to die” (God or Nothing, 279-280)

Archbishop Chaput talking about the 21 Coptic Christians that were killed on Feb. 15, 2015 “What happened next did not make headlines. On the Christian television, Beshir Kamel, the brother of two of the murdered men, thanked ISIS for not editing out the men’s last declaration of faith in Christ because it had strengthened his own faith. He then added that the families of those who were killed were ‘congratulating one another.’ He said: ‘We are proud to have this number of people from our village who have become martyrs… Since the Roman era, Christians have been martyred and have learned to handle everything that comes our way. This only makes us stronger in our faith because the Bible told us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us.’ When the host asked whether he could forgive ISIS, Kamel relayed what his mother had said she would do if she saw one of the men who killed her son: ‘My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [him] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven.’ When the host invited him to pray for his brothers’ killers, Kamel prayed, ‘Dear Dog, please open their eyes to be saved and to quit their ignorance and the wrong teachings they were taught’” (Strangers in a Strange Land, 215)

“The West urgently needs to set its sights on God and. The crucified Lord, to look ‘on Him whom they have pierced’ to rediscover their trust in and fidelity to the Gospel, to overcome its weariness” (God or Nothing 282).

May we not purse the woes of riches and having All speaking well of us, but instead the blessings of God in our poverty, hunger, and persecution so we may leap with Joy with Jesus. “As Christ’s disciples, we are constantly on an exodus. Christians always remain nomads, in search of God, on a difficult but rewarding pilgrimage” (God or Nothing 282).  2/17/19

Personal, but Not Private (C19O5)

The Church is in Crisis for the last year of 2018, but it has been taking place for the last 5, 10, 30, 70 years, but we are experiencing it in a pronounced way now. Who will still be in our churches in 20 years, not just a priest problem, but a whole problem.

Fr. Fish from Washington DC says, "Said it before, and I’ll say it again: working for the Catholic Church in America in 2019 feels something like working for Blockbuster Movies in 2005. We’re still arguing about how we should display the DVDs, and meanwhile our current model and customer base is about to collapse." Here is a link to more of his comments.

But there is hope. The church started with its founder being killed and the disciples being scared locked in a room, yet here we are. What went wrong. Some want to blame our history, teaching, morals, but I would say it is not because of our tradition, but because we haven't lived it out.

Governor Cuomo, a Catholic, signed the Reproductive Health Act that is an aggressive expansion of Abortion law in New York that allows abortion up to the moment of birth for the ambiguous health of the mother. The Catholic Church strongly against this measure has come out against it with no avail. Cardinal Dolan and Governor Cuomo have been at odds and fighting. Here is an article on the back and forth.

Governor Cuomo in a published Op Ed on Wednesday stated. "As a Roman Catholic, I am intimately familiar with the strongly held views of the church. Still, I do not believe that religious values should drive political positions." However what does drive political position if not religious values? Polls? Personal whims? Political ambition? Selfishness? Convenience?

Cardinal Dolan properly responded "The civil rights of the helpless, innocent, baby in the womb, as liberal Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey once remarked is not about 'right versus left, but right versus wrong.' ... Governor Casey again: 'I didn’t get my pro-life belief from my religion class in a Catholic school, but from my biology and U.S. Constitution classes.'"

Governor Cuomo also said in the published Op Ed on Wednesday "I was educated in religious schools, and I am a former altar boy. My Roman Catholic values are my personal values. The decisions I choose to make in my life, or in counseling my daughters, are based on my personal moral and religious beliefs."

Cardinal Dolan properly responded "Yes, religion is personal; it’s hardly private, as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and struggle for civil rights so eloquently showed. Governor Cuomo’s professed faith teaches discrimination against immigrants is immoral, too. Does that mean he cannot let that moral principle guide his public policy? Clearly not."

In other comments Governor Cuomo said, "I have my own Catholic beliefs, how I live my life. ... That is my business as a Catholic,” Cuomo said. “I don’t govern as a Catholic. I don’t legislate as a Catholic." I would also venture to say that he doesn't live as a Catholic and no one will become Catholic or continue to be Catholic because of his "personal faith"

We learned our faith from what was passed onto us. How do we pass on our faith? Through one person's radical living of the faith can change the world. St. Peter's response to Jesus to cast into the deep and leave all to become a fisher of men changed the world and we are still talking about it today. St. Paul persecuted Christian, then became Christian and became one of the greatest evangelizers of the Church. Mother Teresa helped change the world, and Dorothy Day changed the way the US responds to the poor all because there faith was personal and informed everything they did.

The Lord asks "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" Will we respond "Here I am!" and Cast into the deep?

A little bonus at the end from GK Chesterton that I quoted in the Saturday evening Mass and then took out because it wasn't absolutely necessary.

“Tradition means giving a vote to most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” Chesterton goes on to say: “Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father.” from Orthodoxy chapter 4 

 

 

 

 

Teaching Mass- Liturgy of the Eucharist

Teaching Mass on the Liturgy of the Eucharist. I hope you can learn something to help you pray the Mass in a greater way.

Held at the parish in St. Joseph. Sorry about the scratchiness of the sound. I had to put the microphone in my pocket which did not help. I hope you learn something from this and here is a few follow up links if you would like to read more.

Bringing up the gifts

Catholic Spirit Article from Fr. Margevicius on the Gifts

Our Sunday Visitor Article on the Gifts

Water and Wine

EWTN article on the Water and Wine

2/5/19

Love Endures All Things (C19O4)

St. Paul tells us beautiful words today in the second reading about LOVE, but what does it mean to us?

We use the word love in many different ways. I love Oreos, I love the Packers, I love Mom or Dad, and I love God. All these uses of love are not the same thing. When we say God is Love we don’t mean it in the way that we love Oreos. Scripture tells us what God’s love is like and sometimes it is gentle and merciful and other times it disciplines and purifies. “The Lord disciplines the one He loves, chastises every son He receives” (Hebrews 12:6); “A father corrects a son he loves” (Proverbs 3:12).

God wanted to us to concretely know his love so the second person of the Trinity freely became human and freely laid down his life, because “There is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend” (John 15:13).

The love of a marriage is not determined by the amount of butterflies and emotions that take place at the wedding, but is proven, purified, and perfected in freedom and choice everyday of 10,000 papercuts.

Love of God is not proven by how excited or emotional you are to pray, but when you go to pray that you do. There are times of dryness and desolation in prayer. Those are not bad prayer times, but times that God gives you to freely choose him in love. May we not reason as children, but reason as adults who can see that eating ice cream for every meal and always getting what we want is not good for us.

We are called to not live comfortable lives, but lives of the love of God which endure and bear all things. We often fail, and so we are grateful that God’s love and mercy endure even when ours doesn’t and so we come once again to the altar of his sacrifice, grace, and mercy to be filled with his divine love to love God and neighbor. 2/3/19

Exodus90: Prayer, the Cross, and Sin

This was a talk given to our group of men doing Exodus90 at the parish. Exodus90 is not a painful masochism, but is a virtuous walk of prayer helping to integrate the suffering of the cross in our life that keeps us in our weakness, failure, and sin always looking towards Jesus Christ. Below you can find the pdfs of the sections read.

Here is the pdf of the section in Worshiping a Hidden God by Archbishop Martinez. It is an amazing book and you can purchase it on Amazon for many more amazing insights. 

Here is the pdf of St. Bernard (1090-1153) from a homily for Song of Songs.

https://exodus90.com/

2/2/19

Telling Our Story (C19O3)

I’m not much of a salesman but I find that I can promote how awesome Wisconsin, cheese curds, packers, Hogan Heroes, the United States. We as Catholics have an even better story of history for where we are and yet we don’t talk about that and that has consequences.

“The reason the Christian faith doesn’t matter to so many of our young people is that—too often—it didn’t really matter to us. Not enough to shape our lives. Not enough for us to suffer for it” (Strangers in a Strange Land by Chaput, p.7)

The Catholic church has done so much out of following Jesus Christ and his mission of salvation through his Church, sacraments, prayer, charity, and love.

Hospitals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hospitals#Roman_and_Persian_Byzantine

My mistake on Francis Bacon, was not a Franciscan priest. Roger Bacon was a Franciscan priest who contributes to the scientific method (https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/scientific-experiments/scientific-method3.htm).  I had misread that. Francis Bacon was Christian an Anglican, but the point still stands that the scientific method was only possible in a Christian understanding of an ordered, intelligent world. https://reasonfaithscience.com/

Galileo Controversy https://www.catholic.com/node/5525

Catholic Church is the greatest charity organization in the world. And has contributed to the whole culture and world then can be understood. https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700210479/Commentary-History-shows-contributions-of-Catholic-Church-to-Western-civilization.html

Religion and faith are not private, it effects our whole life. May we tell the great story that we have and continue to effect the whole world from generation to generation in living the story. 1/27/19

Liturgy of the Word-Teaching Mass

You can listen to the audio from my teaching Mass I did on the Liturgy of the Word. It is not nearly as good in audio form as in person, but it will have to do. Here are resources that give more information on certain topics I talked about.

Thanksgiving https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=2030

Faith of Fathers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_of_Our_Fathers_(hymn)

Forgiveness of venial sins http://wdtprs.com/blog/2017/11/ask-father-venial-sins-forgiven-during-mass/

Kyrie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrie

Gloria https://epicpew.com/gloria-history-mass-hymn/

Readings for the day http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012219.cfm

St. Jerome quote on the Word of God in papal encyclical Verbum Domini “The sacramentality of the word can thus be understood by analogy with the real presence of Christ under the appearances of the consecrated bread and wine. (CCC 1373-1374) By approaching the altar and partaking in the Eucharistic banquet we truly share in the body and blood of Christ. The proclamation of God’s word at the celebration entails an acknowledgment that Christ himself is present, that he speaks to us, (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 7) and that he wishes to be heard. Saint Jerome speaks of the way we ought to approach both the Eucharist and the word of God: “We are reading the sacred Scriptures. For me, the Gospel is the Body of Christ; for me, the holy Scriptures are his teaching. And when he says: whoever does not eat my flesh and drink my blood (Jn 6:53), even though these words can also be understood of the [Eucharistic] Mystery, Christ’s body and blood are really the word of Scripture, God’s teaching. When we approach the [Eucharistic] Mystery, if a crumb falls to the ground we are troubled. Yet when we are listening to the word of God, and God’s Word and Christ’s flesh and blood are being poured into our ears yet we pay no heed, what great peril should we not feel?”. (In Psalmum 147: CCL 78, 337-338) Christ, truly present under the species of bread and wine, is analogously present in the word proclaimed in the liturgy. A deeper understanding of the sacramentality of God’s word can thus lead us to a more unified understanding of the mystery of revelation, which takes place through “deeds and words intimately connected”; (Dei Verbum, 2) an appreciation of this can only benefit the spiritual life of the faithful and the Church’s pastoral activity.” (Verbum Domini, 56)

Nicene Creed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed

Universal prayers http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/order-of-mass/liturgy-of-the-word/universal-prayer.cfm

1/22/19

Ask Mary (C19O2)

We ask other people to pray for us…should we not also ask Mary? In the Wedding Feast of Cana we learn the amazingly powerful ability of Mary to intercede and go between for helping others in their need. May we also ask for her help and follow her direction to “Do whatever He tells you”. 1/20/19

The Most Important Event of Your Life (Baptism of the Lord-19)

Baptism and Salvation in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)

CCC161: Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since without faith it is impossible to please [God]' and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life but he who endures to the end.'"

CCC1257: The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude; this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit." God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.

CCC1129: The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. "Sacramental grace" is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior.

CCC265: By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light.

01/13/19

Exodus90: Virtue and Asceticism

This was a talk given to our group of men doing Exodus90 at the parish. If you would like to hear about how asceticism and virtue are linked please listen, but all so be ready for a lot of stumbling and audible pauses with an unpolished presentation.

https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20110308_1.htm

https://exodus90.com/

01/12/19