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PURIFICATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

25 February 2010 - 3:31pm — joyce

By Fr. Will Prospero, S.J.

During Lent the three catechumens in our parish will participate in the “Rites Belonging to the Period of Purification and Enlightenment.” These rites include “Scrutinies” and “Presentations.” The Scrutinies normally happen on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent (because of Spring Break we are moving the Third Sunday Scrutiny to the Second Sunday, which the Church allows). The Church describes in part the Scrutinies as follows:
 

Why Daily Mass?

19 February 2010 - 12:36pm — joyce

By Fr. Will Prospero, S.J.

In the “Our Father” prayer Jesus teaches His disciples to pray: “give us this day our daily bread.” God is the One who feeds us the food that sustains us. Are we aware of our hunger for God? Vatican II teaches that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Christian life. Do we experience the Mass in this way? Do we look forward to Sunday Mass? Sunday Mass can become routine and lose meaning, which may lead to missing Mass occasionally or even regularly. When young people tell me that they miss Sunday Mass on occasion or regularly, this tells me that there is something missing in their spiritual lives. If Sunday Mass is not the most important hour of our week, something is wrong.

 

Saved in Hope: St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Peter, and the Good News

5 February 2010 - 3:09pm — joyce

 -By Jeremy J. Priest

Pope Benedict begins his encyclical about hope with a story of hope from the life of St. Josephine Bakhita – whose feast we celebrate on Monday, the 8th.  “We who have always lived with the Christian concept of God, and have grown accustomed to it, have almost ceased to notice that we possess the hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God.”  Josephine Bakhita lived without hope because she lived without God. 
Born in Darfur, Sudan sometime around 1869, Josephine was kidnapped at age nine and sold into slavery.  “Eventually,” Benedict relates, “she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged every day till she bled”—bearing 144 scars on her body.  In 1882 she was purchased by an Italian trader who brought her back to Italy. 
 

Desires Down Deep

29 January 2010 - 5:10pm — joyce
-by Jeremy J. Priest
 
So many times we keep the deepest desires and needs of our hearts to ourselves. We dont tell Jesus about them. Why?
Jesus first words in Johns Gospel are a question, What do you seek? The disciples tell Him their deep desire: they want to see where hes staying. Jesus responds to their deep desire and says, Come and see.
Jesus wants to know our hearts desires. He sometimes finds that spot in our hearts that needs to be touched, to be poked, and He touches it (or allows it to be touched). He does this in order to draw us out. Frequently he pokes where we need to be healed so that well come to Him with our needs.

How to Be Pro Life

21 January 2010 - 2:36pm — joyce

Jeremy, I (Fr. Will), and fifteen CMU students traveled to Washington D.C. this past Thursday for the annual March For Life to the Supreme Court, to protest legalized killing of innocent humans. A major part of our commitment to the protection of human life stems from the fact that every human life is created with a sacred dignity that cannot be disposed of because some law. Some laws are just wrong.

 

WHY DO CATHOLICS KNEEL?

14 January 2010 - 2:41pm — joyce

Several points of this reflection on kneeling are drawn from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s, The Spirit of the Liturgy. 

 
Kneeling does not come from any culture, contrary to those who claim that kneeling is the product of western culture. It comes from the bible itself and its knowledge of God.  Kneeling occurs many times in the Old Testament and New Testament.  The Greek word for kneeling, “proskynein,” occurs fifty-nine times in the New Testament, twenty-four of which are in the book of Revelation, the book of the heavenly liturgy, from which the Church takes as her standard for her own liturgy.
 
One of the most significant moments in Jesus’ life on earth occurs in the garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. Jesus’ agony in the garden follows the institution of the Lord’s Supper with his Apostles. In the Gospel of St. Luke Jesus prayed in the garden on his knees, signifying the moment that he truly enters his passion. In this gesture Jesus takes upon himself the fall of man, who is brought low by his sins. In this place of human anguish Jesus cries out to his Father that the cup of suffering might be taken from him; ultimately Jesus surrenders his will to the will of the Father: “Not my will but yours be done.” He lays the human will in the divine. He takes up all the hesitation of the human will and endures it. Herein resides the very heart of our redemption. Jesus as the new Adam is tempted in the garden to reject God, just as Adam was tempted in the garden of Eden. Here, however, Jesus as the New Adam, surrenders his will and obeys the will of his Father, thus beginning the full redemption of what was lost by Adam’s sin.
 

The Father's Son: The Baptism of the Lord

8 January 2010 - 2:20pm — joyce

 

The Father's Son: The Baptism of the Lord
 
"You are my beloved Son; with whom I am well pleased."
 
To talk about God's fatherhood is almost cliche to us today and has even drawn the ire of modern feminists.  Is this just a pious thought that is far from the heart of the Christian faith?  God can be 'mother' too, right?  Perhaps it's better to speak of God as 'parent,' instead of Father; or even 'Source of All Being'?  
 
The Old Testament calls God 'father' only six times, and then usually metaphorically.  The New Testament starts out in much the same way in Matthew's Gospel.  We hear about a 'son,' but it's not until Jesus' great "Sermon on the Mount" that he introduces us to the "Father" seventeen times!  
 

Advent Joy

11 December 2009 - 5:21pm — joyce

 

Lets listen to the words of joy in todays Mass:
Entrance Antiphon: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near. -Philippians 4:4,5
First Reading: Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O daughter Jerusalem! -Zephaniah 3:14
Responsorial Psalm: Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel. -Isaiah 12:6
Second Reading: Brothers and Sisters: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Philippians 4:4
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Why this URGING to joy? Arent we already joyful? With the decorations and countless Christmas parties and graduations and celebrations? Look at all the joy! Sometimes it feels superficial.
Yet, these words of Scripture remain and call us deeper. We simultaneously see great suffering in this time of year. People hurt deeply during festive times, and during Christmas especially.

SILENCE AT MASS

4 December 2009 - 5:25pm — joyce

 

Both the Second Vatican Council and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) encourage full and active participation of the faithful at Mass. One way this full and active participation comes about is through silence. The Instruction on the Mass provides several places where silence is appropriate, to enable the faithful to participate more fully in the mysteries being celebrated. God speaks to us in the silence, that place of interior openness to God’s Holy Spirit moving us and enlightening us in His ways. In silence our hearts become more receptive to the movements of the Holy Spirit. If we are to give our hearts to God, we must have interior silence where we possess our hearts and can thus offer them freely to God.
 

Advent Antidote: Mary

25 November 2009 - 12:02pm — joyce

 

 

Advent never comes too soon. This season comes to us at perhaps the busiest time of the year: exams, final projects, and holiday preparations (shopping, cooking, etc.). The days seem to be getting heavier and heavier, that is, darker and drearier. This reality makes the silent and humble spirit of Mary the perfect antidote for what is coming upon us.  Mary knew the desire of her people for freedom and for something new.  Mary’s silent yet eager yearning to see the face of the child who is hidden in her womb, shows us the right path through Advent. 
 
Throughout the year we look for Jesus. We search for him in many different ways. All of creation seems to enter this search in a powerful way as our days get shorter and darker, and our nights get longer. Even the temperatures continue to fall. All of this makes us look for something bright and warm, something new. The baby Jesus himself is God’s answer to this yearning of all creation. Mary felt this longing in a particular way because she carried within herself the Someone whom she knew would bring something totally new into the world, something very good that would warm our hearts and bring new light to the human race.
 
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