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The Weight of Relationship

23 July 2010 - 1:45pm — joyce

 By Jeremy J. Priest

“Christianity is good because it keeps people moral.”
“Christianity is bad because it makes people complacent.”
“Christianity is bad because it establishes structures of sin and oppression.”
“Christianity is okay…if that’s your thing; if that does it for you.”
Christianity is none of these things. Either Christianity is true or its not. Its truth does not stand on its usefulness or benefits; the relative self-fulfillment of its followers; the actions of its adherents.
 

Summer Time, Biblical Time, and Church Renovations, Oh My!

8 July 2010 - 3:33pm — joyce

By Jeremy J. Priest

St. Augustine said that he knew what time was until someone asked him what it was. Though there’s so much more to biblical time, I thought it would be beautiful to contemplate an aspect of it.
 
Biblical time stands out from the way other cultures understood time. This is contrasted with the ancient pagan idea that the cosmos was eternal and time was something cyclical, without beginning or end, doomed to repeat without end. It sounds strange and simplistic to say, but biblical time has a beginning and an end to it. Yet, it’s not so dull as all that. 
 

St. Thomas and the Beholder

2 July 2010 - 9:44am — joyce

By Jeremy J. Priest

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many people repeat that phrase without knowing who uttered or wrote it. Actually, the man to pen those words probably dictated them to his secretary, Brother Reginald. When Thomas Aquinas dictated it the words were somewhat different: “pulchra dicuntur quae visa placent.” It might be translated as such: “things are called beautiful upon being seen.” Part of what St. Thomas was getting at here is that beauty is subjective, but not in the way we usually think. Beauty is subjective in the sense that it needs a subject to recognize it: a red rose must be gazed upon for one to receive its beauty. 
 
What is beauty, then? For St. Thomas, beauty is a perfection of the being of an object. Dr. McNamara puts it this way: “When we know things easily and deeply because they clearly manifest what they are, we call them beautiful” (22). Put simply, “When we experience a beautiful thing, we get a flash of the understanding that God has of that thing;” the idea God had in His mind when He created it. 

The Cross and Renovation

24 June 2010 - 3:28pm — joyce

By Fr. Will Prospero, S.J., Pastor

No doubt our renovation has been the cause of many sufferings and blessings! This past Wednesday brought many volunteers together for the long anticipated “grouting party,” where we slopped grout into the cracks of our new porcelain floor. Norm Assmann lead the charge, instructing and coaching more than twenty volunteers! Much blood, sweat, and tears have been poured out into this project, but together we have a strong sense that we are doing something beautiful for God. Having the glory of God our goal helps us to make the required sacrifices with joy. United together in this project has enabled us to make sacrifices in solidarity with each other.
 
The goal of this renovation, ultimately, is to give greater glory to God. To Him alone belongs all glory and praise. When we loose sight of this goal we can get caught up in daily frustrations and begin to allow them to become roadblocks and sources of despair.
 
God does not will this. He wills that everything be offered for His greater glory. In this way, we find true meaning in our lives for we are living according to how we have been made from the very beginning. We have been made for God, created in His own image and likeness, to love and to serve Him alone.
 

WHY RENOVATE?

18 June 2010 - 11:04am — joyce

By Father Will Prospero, S.J., Pastor

As you are aware, St. Mary’s is undergoing a renovation. While the renovation is cosmetic in nature, our intention is to make our place of worship a true meeting place between God and us. We come here primarily to worship together the living god of Jesus Christ, who is also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So we worship the God of the patriarchs and the same God who comes close to us in Jesus Christ. Worshipping God well makes us like God and keeps us close to Him.
 
Our church’s configuration has changed since its original form in 1959. Certain liturgical documents after the Second Vatican Council brought some confusion about the placement of the tabernacle. There was bit of experimentation about the best way to emphasize the altar as center of worship, and to promote personal devotion to the presence of Christ in the tabernacle for worship outside of Mass. Separate spaces for personal devotion to the Blessed Sacrament were encouraged. However, after seeing a decline in belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, new norms are being published by Church leaders to help us to keep the sacred Presence of our Lord in our devotional lives. Now, the Church asks that the tabernacle be visible from every place in the church. Our old configuration prevented this from happening. Removing the wall and moving the tabernacle to the center will allow for us to see the tabernacle from everywhere in the church. At the same time, our altar will be architectually the focal point of our new configuration.
 

"The Love of the Heart of Jesus"

11 June 2010 - 1:08pm — joyce

-By Jeremy J. Priest

 

“The priesthood,” said St. John Vianney, “is the love of the heart of Jesus.” My first experience of this was as a high school student, playing football as we always had Mass a few hours before we played. [As an aside, such an experience of the Mass was an amazing gift that formed my heart to associate holy things with manly things.] I don’t remember much of what was preached at those Masses, but I remember the Shepherd’s heart of the priests who celebrated those Masses with us. 
 
After Mass, the team would all line up and, one-by-one, receive a personal blessing from the priest. As a player it made me think of lining up to go out for battle on the football field. Yet, as I look back, it speaks of the love of the Heart of Jesus walking with us in this ordinary moment of high school life. A few years later, when providence brought me to a deeper conversion, I encountered the love of the Heart of Jesus through those same priests through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. 
 

"Why Be Catholic?"

2 June 2010 - 2:11pm — joyce

By Jeremy J. Priest

The Most Rev. Robert Carlson answered this question at a talk he gave at Central Michigan University in January of 2009. His answer: “because of the Eucharist.” 
 
Jesus is made present to us in the liturgy in many ways: through His word proclaimed; through His priests in His Sacraments; through two or three fellow believers gathered together; and most profoundly through the Sacrifice of His Body and Blood made present in the Holy Eucharist. Yet, the Eucharistic presence surpasses the others. Pope Paul VI said it this way: “This presence is called ‘real’ not to exclude the idea that the others are ‘real’ too, but rather to indicate presence par excellence, because it is substantial and through it Christ becomes present whole and entire, God and man.”
 

Glory Be...

28 May 2010 - 4:10pm — joyce

By Jeremy J. Priest

Mysterious Hunger
Pope John Paul II wrote those words almost 31 years ago, yet they still resonate with us today. But why? Why does love make the world go ‘round? Why do we sacrifice so much for even a glimmer of it? Why do we sell everything once we have found it? Why are we hard-wired for love? 

Come Holy Spirit, Come!

17 May 2010 - 3:27pm — joyce

 

By Father Will Prospero, S.J.
 
As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday we are reminded once again to remember and to thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit which He has given to His Church. Jesus Christ is the “Anointed One,” the one who is anointed with the Holy Spirit, sent from the heart of the Father, to bring salvation to all who receive Him. From our baptism we share in this anointing.
 
One way to appreciate this gift of the Holy Spirit is to look to our celebration of Holy Mass to see how we pray through the Holy Spirit. We begin Mass with the sign of the Cross, calling on the Triune God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are brought into the Church and made children of God through the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit we received at our baptism. We have been “grafted on” to the vine of Israel and made children of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. After the Sign of the Cross, we mention the Holy Spirit several times including, but not limited to the following: Greeting (commonly); Gloria, Opening Prayer, Creed, Eucharistic Prayer, and Final Blessing.
 

The Ascension

14 May 2010 - 2:23pm — joyce

By Jeremy J. Priest, Pastoral Assoc.

The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven has always been a bit of a mystery to me. It still is. In fact, it’s a great mystery: it’s something so full of meaning that it’s inexhaustible. Yet, I always wondered, why? Why did Jesus have to leave? Why couldn’t He have set up His millennial kingdom and reigned for a thousand years on earth? Why does the sending of the Holy Spirit happen after Jesus ascends to the Father? 
Simply put, I don’t know. But perhaps we can delve into the depth of this mystery a little. 
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