Born for Us and for Us Given

 

The First Mass of Christmas

St. Dominic, Canton

 

Gloria in excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!

        The grace of God hath appeared to all men, instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires… looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ… that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable… (three quotes picked out of the full text of our Epistle from St. Paul to Titus)

        When I was quite young, maybe already in elementary school or somewhere into young adulthood, I used to think that perhaps the reason Christmas was considered more popular by many Catholics than was Easter had to do with the sentimental character of everything surrounding Christ’s Nativity. You know: all the Christmas Carols, the beautiful crib scenes? Now that I am older, I know better.

        The profound truth is that the Star of Bethlehem leads those among us who are truly wise by way of Bethlehem to the Cross and to the glory of the Resurrection. The life of the Son of God, born among us as a Man, from beginning to end is God’s great work for the salvation of the world. The Savior’s total outpouring to save us from our sins begins with the Incarnation, with God becoming Man, And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger… Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy…  

        Now, I am saying this not because I want to deny or correct sentiment which fills our hearts in this winter night, but because I want to affirm it. Our emotion and affection are rightfully there both in the stable at Bethlehem and at the foot of the Cross on Calvary. Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross should tear us up inside and move us to renounce sin, entrusting every aspect of our living to the God Who gave Himself up for all of us, And you, when you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he hath quickened together with him, forgiving you all offences: Blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he hath taken the same out of the way, fastening it to the cross. And despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open shew, triumphing over them in himself. [Col. 2:13-15] The Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version (p. 3144). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.

        But Christmas should move us just the same. The work of our salvation begins in earnest at the Crib, away in a manger… as the carol goes, where we contemplate that poor little Baby, our True King, our One and Only God! In the Credo and in the Last Gospel of St. John at Mass we bend the knee at the words ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST, and the Word was made Flesh. At the Name of Jesus, spoken by us or by others in our stead, we bow our heads.

Our proper names are not earned but rather given to us, and so was it with Jesus as well. The Archangel Gabriel, at the Annunciation, told Mary the Name of her Child. Joseph too heard His Name before Christ’s birth. Matthew 1:20-21: But while he thought on these things, behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. The Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version (p. 2625). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.

        ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST: The Incarnation is always there present. Christmas is always there at every Mass, just as surely as the Sacrifice of Calvary is there in its unbloody renewal. At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow, for He was destined to save His people from their sins. I suppose you could say that the sweet wood of the manger is no less precious to us than is the sweet wood of the Cross.

        Rejoice in the feast! Bow your head and bend your knee before the great work of our salvation accomplished for us in Jesus, born for us and for us given!

Gloria in excelsis Deo! Glory to God in the highest!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Behold I send My angel before Thy face

 

2^nd Sunday of Advent

4 December 2022, Canton

Epistle: Rom 15,4-13

Gospel: Matt 11,2-10

 

Praised be Jesus Christ!

This Sunday we recognize Saint John the Baptist as being very much in the forefront of our Advent reflection. This Sunday’s Liturgy does not give us a complete picture of Christ’s Precursor, however. Elsewhere in the Gospels the Lord speaks of the Baptist as the greatest man born of woman. In other places we read of John baptizing Jesus in the Jordan and of his martyrdom in prison at the order of King Herod, who could not bear the Baptist’s witness to the truth.

Here in this Sunday’s Gospel, the Lord renders John high praise, but He does more. By focusing on John He draws His listeners’ attention to Himself. What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? In the words of Jesus, in presenting us this particular passage about John in prison from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Church is teaching with the same heart and mind of Christ to explain to us what the Savior taught about Himself. The Church does so as Jesus did by speaking about the mission and ministry of St. John.

We can see also on this occasion that the Lord Jesus did not hold back but spoke openly to all. In the words of St. Matthew: Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John. On this occasion, the Lord spoke not just to His chosen disciples but to all who would hear Him. He spoke to the multitudes, as the Gospel says. Jesus in His public ministry spoke to everyone, and he spoke clearly: But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet. In speaking of St. John the Baptist, Jesus is speaking clearly of His own person and mission: For this is he of whom it is written, Behold I send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.

Fair or not, let me characterize one of the crises of Catholicism, especially in the course of the last century and in particular in the western world as a crisis of faith in Who Jesus truly is, a failure to take the Christ at His own word. Too many in the Church have been ashamed to accept Jesus and speak of Him as He did of Himself, whether in His “I am” statements, in which He laid His cards on the table and clearly spoke of Himself as God’s Anointed One, as the Messiah, as the Son of God, the Son of the Eternal Father, or whether He did as here, What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? The Lord clearly identifies John as His Precursor, the one who was to go before the Christ to prepare His way. Jesus points to John’s confession of Him as the Lamb of God and makes it His own.

We need to keep in mind that the Lord Jesus is always and everywhere unmistakably clear about who He Himself is. His reference to John the Baptist amounts to a complement about the Lord’s own clear and unambiguous statements about Himself. Jesus in His humanity did not need to discover His nature as God. We know that already in the first words the Gospels record of Him at age 12, when after Mary and Joseph found Him among the elders in the Temple. The boy Jesus knew Himself to be the Son of God and He knew His mission for the salvation of the world. He explained His behavior to His Mother and foster father Joseph in St. Luke’s Gospel (Lk 2,49): And he said to them: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?” [The Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version (p. 2771). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.]

Let it be clear too that this lack of faith in Christ as the Messiah, the Savior of the world, is not limited to the Church in our day. We need but think about what happened when the Lord pronounced the Bread of Life discourse recorded in John’s Gospel Chapter 6 (Jn 6,61-70). 

Many therefore of his disciples, hearing it, said: This saying is hard; and who can hear it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them: Doth this scandalize you? If then you shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe and who he was that would betray him. And he said: Therefore did I say to you that no man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father. After this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered him: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. [The Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version (pp. 2873-2874). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.]

These days again, during Advent, I have had occasion to ponder what must be interpreted as hostility toward the Church and toward Christ and His teaching, born of hatred for our Catholic faith and ultimately for Christ Himself. I know, in our lukewarmness we get very uncomfortable about that word “hatred”, especially when it comes up in Jesus’ ultimatum about discipleship (Lk 14,26-27), “If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” [The Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version (p. 2816). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.] Like it or not, we cannot straddle the fence, like St. John we are called to decide for Christ and His Truth.

While we need to challenge ourselves with the words of Jesus about Himself, maybe at least for this Sunday and for this 2nd Week of Advent, we can take a cue from the Lord and let Saint John the Baptist set the tone and be our challenge to embrace fully and live out consequently our faith in the Lord Jesus Who comes to save us.

In my private chapel at home in Sioux Falls, on the wall above the altar, I have an image of St. John the Baptist. He’s not one of my patron saints but the Baptist, more than any other saint I guess, represents for me, yes, a penitential lifestyle preparing the way of the Lord, but also and primarily a fearless and unflinching adherence to the truth. Join me especially this Advent in trying to find the humility and the courage to look St. John straight in the eye and ask him to help you embrace his faithful witness even unto prison and death for love of our Savior. We cannot put off deciding for Christ as we do not know the day or the hour of our death. The actuary tables showing our life expectancy are not a guarantee that we will make it past tomorrow.

Would that Jesus will be able to say of me and of you on judgment day what He said of John! For this is he of whom it is written, Behold I send My angel before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

O Come, Emanuel!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Adoration as the Anchor for the Christian Life

 

 Tuesday, November 22nd, 4:00 pm, Conference #3

Eucharistic Adoration in Our Parish,

What can We Strive to Accomplish Spending Time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament?

        O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving, Be Every Moment Thine!

        Above all, I want to compliment the parish on its annual commitment to 40 Hours Devotions. Your faithfulness to this annual appointment is something great, which I am confident bears good fruit for the sake of the parish. 40 Hours is indeed a special time, a graced time for a parish, but it can be instructive as to how we should be living our everyday lives as Catholics as well. Without all the solemnity of the grand exposition on the high altar and without the input from an outside speaker, parish life should be marked by regular time devoted to Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament, by regular times of prayer and reflection no matter whether at home or in my parish church, or… both, and.

As we know, the three marks of a true Catholic believer are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These are the classic Lenten practices, but not only. If we would save our souls, if we would gain heaven, then the path all year and our whole life through is that of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

        Almsgiving, caring for the poor and the needy, giving of our material substance for the sake of those who do not have enough of this world’s goods covers a multitude of sins. If we would make amends for what we have done wrong or have failed to do in life, then besides our genuine sorrow for sin and our recourse to the sacrament of penance to confess our sins to the priest, we need to make satisfaction. Almsgiving, giving to the poor and needy, our charity for love of God and our neighbor is primary in that work of satisfaction. It is the kind of reparation which is meant to heal. To use the example of major surgery or recovery from a gravely debilitating illness, we may be healed, but we still need physical therapy to get us back into shape. By making satisfaction we repay a debt, but we also get ourselves back into shape, we fix things or make them better. Almsgiving is the classic in that not only are we helping the needy and poor, but we gain their prayers for us before God, Who truly or better hears the cries of the poor, whether in lamentation or in rejoicing and thanksgiving. That’s almsgiving, then there is fasting, no less a mark of the true Christian, the practicing Catholic.

        Fasting from food and doing other kinds of penance fits in well with our profile of the genuinely Christian life and for the same reason that almsgiving helps us conform our lives to that of Christ. It is not that we can seize or take heaven for ourselves by our penance, whether it is abstaining from meat on Fridays (which is still the preferred Catholic penance not only for Lent but throughout the whole year). Nor is it that by cutting our food intake particularly during Lent that we are racking up points for heaven. Rather as God’s good children by adoption through Baptism, He waits for us obviously by our contrition to let Him into our lives, our sorrow for sins forgiven is more evident in our willingness to make satisfaction and lets Him into the depths of our heart. Fasting is not so much meant to cause us pain as it is to give us more time away from eating and meal preparation, time for our thoughts to focus more on God. By our confession of our sins and failings to the priest and by working to make amends we are just acting as we ought as Catholics, no matter what our state in life. We are doing our duty as surely as we would seek to do in simply human terms, should we hurt or offend anyone whom we truly love or respect. Our sins may be forgiven in the sacrament of penance, but the wound or stain left behind by our sins needs healing or further scrubbing on our part. If I had to point to the greatest defect of Protestantism in many of its forms, it would be just that: denying our part as God’s children, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ through Baptism, in opening our hearts and lives fully to God. In the Beatitudes we say, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God”. From whence is that purity of heart supposed to come once we have messed up by sin? Sorry, Martin Luther and John Calvin, but God does not just impose a pure heart upon us, disregarding our need to cooperate in our own convalescence after being wounded by sin. Our loving Lord knows us better than we know ourselves and respects the freedom which is ours both to do good and to do evil. He would have us participate/cooperate in the process of healing which we call making satisfaction. When I fail and offend God or when I wrong my neighbor, love requires that I give evidence of the sorrow or regret which stands behind my simple “I am sorry, please forgive me.” That is called making satisfaction for sin once forgiven and the classic means are almsgiving, fasting or penance, and prayer.

        The topic of prayer in that triad of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, draws us closer to our discussion of Adoration. In my four years in Ukraine, I received a lot of icons, sacred images usually painted on wooden tablets, as gifts. Some of these icons were new and some were old (antique, if you will). When it came time for me to leave Kyiv for Bern, Switzerland, I had to have someone from a government agency in Kyiv come and inspect them and authorize the export of the older icons. In most cases they allowed the export of those older ones because they were so damaged, even though still precious to me as gifts from friends. There was one icon still in good shape for being over 70 years old; it was a domestic icon nothing expensive, painted for family use. There was not a speck of goldleaf or gold or precious stones on it. Any place on the wood where you could usually have seen gold there were painted little flowers instead. That was the Ukrainian way for hand painted images for the average Christian home. Mine was the very first icon I had received as a gift on coming to Ukraine; it was an image of Christ the King seated on His Throne. As is typical, His right hand was raised in blessing and in His left hand He held an open book and written on the double page were the words in Ukrainian, “Never stop praying”, or if you will, “Pray unceasingly”. I could imagine this lovely picture hanging in the home of a believing family. Never stop praying! As Catholics we should be praying constantly, which is as much to say that we should always have our minds and hearts lifted to God.

        As we Catholics get older, no matter if we are priests, religious, but especially for lay people, married or not, if we are also getting better at living our faith, then we are naturally drawn toward prayer and toward that ideal of praying constantly. It is that constancy in prayer which purifies our hearts such that we might be able to see God clearly when we meet Him on the day of our particular judgment. Satisfaction for sins committed and forgiven is what will cleanse our eyes and heart, to clear the way for us to skip Purgatory and be ushered directly into His Presence. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, these are the marks of the life of any true Christian. Let’s get back to talking about Eucharistic Adoration!

        A lot of years ago, I could not tell you how many for sure, 25 maybe 30, the very softspoken pastor of Holy Cross Parish in Hutchinson, Kansas, back then my mother’s parish, in agreement with his parishioners instituted Perpetual Adoration 24/7, interrupted each year only during the Easter Triduum from Holy Thursday until Easter Sunday. The parish had a small Adoration Chapel off of the vestibule in church and they generally had two people signed up to cover every hour day and night all year long. Faithfully, up until her last illness my mom took Sunday afternoon from 3:00 until 4:00pm, which was one of the hardest hours to fill (I think because that is family time, but maybe because of sports on TV, like golf? No idea!). There were also people from the other two parishes in town who volunteered for certain hours at Holy Cross, but it was basically the parish which faithfully bore this challenge. The other two parishes also had Adoration programs of their own. Not bad for a town of less than 34,000 inhabitants and not even overly Catholic by percentage of the population! The pastor of Holy Cross was a very wise, humble, and holy priest. He did not do everything perfectly, but he certainly inspired confidence and respect from his parishioners. I don’t know it for a fact, but people in the parish claimed that he had stated that their faithfulness to Perpetual Adoration would always protect them from tornadoes and other bad storms, which as you know are kind of a thing in central Kansas. In fact, I am not aware that the church ever suffered storm damage of any kind.

        In Switzerland in my last assignment abroad as a papal nuncio I was personally connected with a couple city-wide programs of Perpetual Adoration. The one in Freiburg has gone on for many years and another in Sion which had started more recently was also doing very well despite all the problems with the Church in Switzerland, yes, despite the fact that only a tiny percentage of Swiss are practicing Catholics. Both programs were held in centrally located churches and they were organized and run by lay volunteers. In the case of Sion, the people were raising no small amount of money on their own to restore an old, abandoned church in the town center as their adoration chapel.

Speaking about things closer to home, over the years Adoration has only grown in popularity here in Eastern South Dakota. The most popular format which I have encountered in parishes of the diocese of Sioux Falls seems to prefer the whole day, morning to evening, or perhaps ongoing exposition and Adoration for 24 hours once a week. Other parishes schedule a parish holy hour once a week, often as in the good old days combined with the recitation of the Rosary and opportunities for confession.

In the United States, there are religious groups that have made it their aim to promote Perpetual Adoration. They will come if invited and give parish missions to help motivate and organize your Adoration program.

        What is the best format? I couldn’t really say. Team efforts and around the clock schedules throughout the whole year are truly admirable and I am sure they bear fruit both for the individuals and for the parishes involved. Ultimately, however, what is important is that Adoration can be a key component and therefore decisive in renewing the faith for individual Catholics, for parishes and for whole dioceses, faith in Christ really and truly present in our midst. We mentioned in talk #1 that the USCCB has recommended 40 Hours Devotions as a key component for the first year of the three year effort at Eucharistic Revival in the United States, for the sake of renewing the faith of Catholics in the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. As we know, the heart of 40 Hours is round-the-clock Adoration of our Eucharistic Lord solemnly exposed upon our altar (hence the title 40 Hours).

        Although they are getting older, the priests of the John Paul II generation, are a particular witness to the renewal of faith which comes through Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. You will still meet middle aged priests who attribute their vocation to the priesthood to a World Youth Day and/or more especially to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I am sure that is also true of vocations to sisterhood and the religious life.

Let’s focus briefly on my title for today’s talk: Eucharistic Adoration in Our Parish, What can We Strive to Accomplish Spending Time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? I will keep my answer simple.

         We can strive, we can hope to change hearts starting with our own, to soften or melt hardened or frozen hearts. Eucharistic Renewal certainly demands of us a return to our catechism lessons and to the truths of our faith, but it is also meant to shake us up a bit. Just as surely as getting up on a Sunday morning and moving across the threshold into church for Mass can be a personal statement which defines us, so too, making time regularly for adoring the Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament can mold our hearts and transform us into people focused on Christ within His Church.

        The other day we celebrated the feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. As a tiny little girl, she would walk to church with her parents, the king and queen of Hungary. Mom and Dad set this example for their daughter, and little Elizabeth took it to a whole new level. We can do the same with our example. Without being preachy or scolding, we can share something most precious with family, friends and even coworkers, capturing hopefully their imagination and their hearts for Christ Who dwells among us in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.

        I have the impression that everyone has a pet theory for the why of this dramatic loss of faith in the true Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. If people really care about the faith, they can tend to be quick to point a finger of blame in this regard.  The important thing is not to let anyone discourage you from seeking the Face of God. If on the one hand you encounter someone who scoffs at the notion and doubts openly that we are suffering a genuine crisis of faith, then walk away from that person! He or she either is in denial or does not care and will bring you nothing and may even tear you down. For everyone else, even if their preferences in church music or their complaints about Sunday Mass not being to their taste can be annoying, let them go and have recourse directly to Our Lord dwelling in the Tabernacle on the Altar. Pray constantly! Seek His Face! Our parish church should be the forecourt of Heaven. It should be a silent and beautiful space for God, Who comes and knocks at the door of our hearts. Each of you has a responsibility to bring that truth home, not so much by your words as by you example, by the longing of your heart to which you give evidence through every fiber of your being.

        As I said in giving you your 40 Hours assignment in my Sunday homily, important is seeking His Face. Stopping by church whenever you are in the neighborhood to visit your loving Lord, even if just for a couple minutes, is a great thing. If you don’t get out much or cannot get out because of health issues or whatever, then retreat into the silence of your heart just the same and seek Him.

        Most of us have read or heard consoling stories about the comfort people find in coming into church and seeing the sanctuary lamp glowing and indicating that Christ is there in the Blessed Sacrament. As a small child in Catholic grade school, at some point Sister tried to encourage us to stop by church to make a visit to Jesus in the Tabernacle. We must have been quite small, and she was concerned lest we walk into a non-Catholic church by mistake. She said, now if you come in the door and the first thing you see is a cloakroom, turn around and leave, as it can’t be Catholic. It is the lamp which indicates the Presence of Christ waiting for us there in the Tabernacle. He is our welcome and not some thoughtfully placed coat hanger.

        Thank you for your attention, for your example to me of faith and prayer! May the Lord abundantly bless the family of St. Thomas here in Madison! May He prepare you to make the right choices as things may become more difficult with the changes required by “Set Ablaze”! Seek His Face! Never stop praying!

        O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving, Be Every Moment Thine!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

In the Beauty of Christ

 

Tuesday, November 22nd 

6:45 PM, Benediction,

7:00 pm, Mass and Homily

Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Rv 14:14-19

Lk 21:5-11

 

Praised be Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!

        Our 40 Hours has drawn to a close on the Feast of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr, patroness of organists, organ and church music. She gets that title for having joyfully sung the praises of God in her daily life.

        Cecilia is another example of the power for good of the Christian home. Thanks to her parents, to a good Catholic home life and upbringing, Cecilia lived her faith to perfection and received her hoped for reward of being able to she her blood for Christ, the love, the only love of her life.

        Mary, the Mother of God, represents to pinnacle of holiness for us. We know and profess that because of her sinlessness from the moment of conception, that the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary did not suffer corruption, but that at the moment of death she was assumed body and soul into heaven. That’s why the Oriental Church speaks rather of her Dormition, her sleeping, and avoids the term death altogether with its connotations of sin and physical corruption.

        We know the example over the centuries of other saints who because of their sanctity did not know corruption in the grave. There is the example also of St. Catherine of Siena, whose body in life was marred by the effects of illness and disease, but who upon death was restored to an extraordinary beauty. The open wound on the forehead of St. Rita of Cascia healed just as soon as she died.

        St. Cecilia was one of the first of those kind of saints. She was a lovely woman, whose heart belonged solely to God. All the attempts by pagans to kill her outright failed and she managed to convert many of the soldiers who guarded her in her captivity. They could not even chop off her head. She lived on for three days with her head partially severed and then freely gave up her spirit to the Lord of her life.

        Centuries later, they opened her tomb and found her body as fresh and supple as on the day of her burial. There is a beautiful baroque sculpture in white marble by Stefano Maderno from the year 1600 which depicts her body just as it was found.

        The point of this is that sanctity, holiness, as witnessed by the saints and in our case today by St. Cecilia on her feast day, holiness is beautiful and attractive. It is not that we seek physical beauty, but rather that we seek the fullness of life in God which beauty suggests.

Whether believing people are necessarily more attractive and healthier is not our motivation for striving for holiness, but rather it is the indication of what life is supposed to be about.

Let us seek the Face of the Lord always and set our hearts on His Kingdom of light, happiness, and peace.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us!

Lord, lead us into the joys of Your Kingdom!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Parish Renewal Kindled by Eucharistic Recommitment

 

Monday, November 21^st, 7:00 pm, Conference #2

“Set Ablaze” – Parish Goals

for Eucharistic Recommitment

O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all Praise, and all Thanksgiving, be every Moment Thine!

I confess that I am stretching it or cheating a bit in order to get the Diocesan Program: Set Ablaze UNLEASH THE FIRE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - Planning a New Structure for our Diocese, to fit as a topic to discuss during our 40 Hours. I am doing it with my added subtitle: “Set Ablaze” – Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment. I think I am justified in doing so, because faith in Christ’s Presence at Mass in the Blessed Sacrament and our ironclad commitment to worshipping Him really and truly present there on the altar especially by way of our participation at Sunday Mass is the heart of the matter which is the Catholic Church.

Some years ago I was visiting with one of my mentors among our diocesan clergy. Twenty years older than me, he has passed away in the meantime. Some years ago at lunch on the occasion of one of my visits home, he mentioned that he had told his brother the surgeon, that when he could get away to their lake cottage for a long weekend, he should not feel obliged to drive into town for Sunday Mass. I said to him, “Monsignor! My mother would never agree with that advice.” He looked sort of shocked and so I explained that as my mother clearly understood the key to our Catholic identity is not our words, the line we preach or profess but the fact that we get up on Sunday morning and move across that threshold to participate at Mass. To quote Saint Justin Martyr: We cannot live without Sunday. Or as Vatican II put it: The Mass, the Source and Summit of Christian Existence.

My suspicion is that the biggest question you might have is where does the word “recommitment” in my title for this talk come from? A simple answer would be that faith demands commitment from us, that we invest something, more than something of ourselves personally and as a parish in the Holy Eucharist, which as the II Vatican Council taught, I repeat, is the Source and Summit of our Christian existence. You cannot claim to believe without taking a stand. I cannot really recite the Creed at Mass or the Apostles’ Creed at the beginning of the recitation of the Holy Rosary without thereby taking a stance. Professing the Creed is an essential way for me as an individual or for us as a group to declare where we stand. I believe, or we believe, that you cannot make a profession of faith without a personal investment. The recitation of the Creed cannot just be mouthing words; professing the Creed must have consequences for my life.

So! Back to “Set Ablaze”! Its main focus in this early phase, in which you are all invited to get involved, is on discussion of what the diocesan website calls the Current Reality. The internet page includes tables of Population Demographics, Parish Data, Priest Data, and an initial proposal for How to Plan for the Future including Maps of the proposed 27 pastorates being planned to group together for the next 10 years the present 118 parishes of the diocese. Nothing is fixed in stone, if you will, changes in the formula are always possible. I have heard stories from other dioceses using similar programs, which are still making adjustments after 5 years, or which have not been able to fully implement their plan. We will have to see how it goes here in Eastern South Dakota.

Madison is supposed to be part of a 1 priest pastorate, including the parishes of Epiphany, Howard, and Ramona; basically, that is one priest for two counties of the State. That is one priest for four parishes, with a maximum of three Masses per Sunday. You do the math in terms of what that means for your parish which presently has its own pastor and provides a Saturday vigil Mass and an 8:00 and 10:00 on Sunday morning! I hope that will explain why my focus this evening is going to be on Eucharistic Recommitment. Your present convenience may soon be history and practicing your faith will require more of you. “Set Ablaze” is asking for your insights, your prayer, your readiness to contribute to the project, and I am saying that at the heart of it all is your and your family’s commitment to the Holy Eucharist, come what may.

Just as was noted in my first talk about the studies especially in the United States pointing to a crisis of faith among Catholics concerning their belief in Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist, so here too the charts and tables show that the Catholic population of Eastern South Dakota has not kept pace with the growth of the State over the last 10 years. The report very optimistically pegs new priestly ordinations at 1.5 per year for a total of 15 in the next 10 years, while calculating with retirement at age 70 that during the same time period there will be 29 priests going into retirement and hence (if we get the 15 new ones) 14 fewer priests to serve the diocese’s 118 parishes.

The Set Ablaze Prayer on the diocesan website is also very inspiring.

Heavenly Father, Send forth your Holy Spirit! Set our hearts, minds, and wills ablaze with the fire of your Divine Love. Help us to receive your love, delight in that love, and then share it with others. Renew us and our diocese through a great outpouring of your Holy Spirit as we seek to know and embrace your holy will. As we share our ideas for the future of our diocese, guide our thoughts, words, and actions so they reflect your goodness in all things. May we trust and rely more fully upon You, so that your holy will is accomplished in and through each of us as your beloved sons and daughters. May we be led with faith, hope and charity as we discern new ways to live as Catholics. Inspire us to live as dynamic Lifelong Catholic Missionary Disciples, so we can assist You in passing on our beloved Catholic faith to present and future generations. Amen

        What is this outpouring of the Holy Spirit supposed to look like? What are we waiting for from God? What can we hope for in terms of new ways to live as Catholics? How is this inspiration to live as dynamic Lifelong Catholic Missionary Disciples going to work out?

        The other day I watched a short historical documentary on some of the transformations which have taken place in the Windy City (Chicago) since the great Chicago fire of 1871: wooden houses lost in the fire gave way to a millionaires’ row, which was soon replaced by all sorts of factories, now replaced by business towers and high rise luxury apartments. All very radical changes, which probably brought with them the rise and fall of no small number of parish churches and schools. One of the nice things about living in South Dakota is that presumably, nothing quite so stark or radical will be expected of us or our descendants. All well and good, but that is all the more reason for us not to neglect the spiritual dimension of it all and, yes, to focus on what I call Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment.

        Some years ago, a group of Irish priests flew me from Bern, Switzerland, to Ireland and took me to the Marian Shrine at Knock in the western part of the Emerald Isle for an overnight. I gave two talks to the priests, one the first evening, and a second after breakfast in the morning, and then I presided over a closing Mass in one of the Shrine’s chapels, before they brought me back to Dublin. My assigned topic was reverence in the liturgy. These priests were from every age category and fairly equally divided between young, middle aged, and older. Most of them were regular parish priests, but all of them felt their people and they themselves were starving spiritually due to the lack of reverence in the way Holy Mass was being celebrated by a lot of priests in Ireland, and because of the difficulties they themselves experienced in trying to get a handle on that problem in their various assignments. Very few of them knew the slightest about the Traditional Latin Mass and I still remember the excitement of one of the younger men at his first experience (there was no congregation in Knock, just us priests) of us all concelebrating, facing the altar and the Crucifix (we call that celebrating “ad Orientem”, toward the east, focused on Christ, Who will come from the East on the clouds of heaven, to judge the living and the dead).

        Much of the burden, though not all of it and not entirely, for a worthy and reverent celebration of Mass rests on Father’s shoulders. He has to know how to carry himself, how to speak, and he has a big part in the preparation for the liturgy, in terms of the disposition of the sanctuary, of vestments and sacred vessels, but also in terms of training servers and seeing that they are there to assist him, and of training lectors in particular. You have to support him in his efforts and help him out as you are able.

        Two little stories about servers! A few years back, I was in the parish church in Kreuzlingen in the eastern part of Switzerland, not far from the borders with Germany and Austria, just above Lake Constance. In the sacristy there must have been a dozen servers of all ages, all smiling, dressed and ready to go. Besides lectors and sacristans, there were some other adults there too. Just as the pastor came through the door, I announced to all present that for me a goodly number of servers is a sign of a good pastor. And he smiled and shouted, Look! Here come four more!

        When I was a child, serving Mass was something you as a child or a youth took on very much by yourself. Nobody much had weekend plans except to go to Mass on Sunday and maybe for Benediction and Confessions on Saturday evening, or Stations of the Cross on Friday evenings during Lent. Most of us could walk or bike up to church. During the school year, among 8^th grade boys, we took turns for a week at a time of being sacristan. I would walk up to the Cathedral from home to be there at 6am on school days to set up for the first Mass at 6:45, then serve the private Mass of the priest in charge of Catholic Charities, and then set up for the sung High Mass of the pastor. In our more mobile society, sometimes even if parents like and trust their priest, they won’t accept a commitment on the part of children, either to Sunday, let alone to weekday Mass, as it might cramp their calendar plans for a weekend getaway or for sporting events and the like. “Set Ablaze” – Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment?

        The other story is more recent. I was visiting with one of our parish priests in Sioux Falls who was pointing out how different two parishes in the same town could be. Years back he had inaugurated the practice of having black shoes in the various sizes available for those servers to wear, who did not have their own black shoes. The idea was to avoid the distraction for people in church of having to look at all the possible combinations of footwear which might otherwise be seen on the altar. In the former parish it was no problem and yet today, after three or four intervening pastors, that is still the custom: servers wear black shoes on the altar. In his new parish he tried to inaugurate the practice and got pushback from parents. The thought never crossed my mind back in my talk to the priests in Ireland, but avoiding neon sneakers, flipflops, and more just might be a way to add to the decorum conducive to a reverent celebration of Holy Mass. We all have our part and it can be more significant than at first glance.

        Yesterday in my talk, I complimented Father on his generous schedule of confession times. He’s done his part and you need to do yours so as to be worthy of the reception of Holy Communion. Given the way confession has been practiced in the Western Church since the re-evangelization of continental Europe by the Irish monks in the 7^th Century, you can use confession not only for absolution from sin but as a source of spiritual direction, for your growth in holiness and commitment to Christ present in the Holy Eucharist.

        In connection with my suggestion about choosing the more reverent practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue, I mentioned the chewing gum thing and our obligation to keep the Communion fast. Present church law requires that we fast from solids and all liquids except water for one hour. For the priest that means for one hour before Mass and for the faithful one hour before Holy Communion. Basically, what that means is that unless Father really preaches long on a Sunday, you can’t take your latte and donut along in the car to church. Offer it up and frankly consider freely taking on some additional penance to demonstrate your love and reverence for your Eucharistic Lord. It may be a signal grace if you are able to accept the reduced schedule of Sunday Masses here in the parish which may come as soon as next summer.

        When I was a child, if there was a funeral Mass on a given day, the daily Mass fell out in favor of a Communion service, because Father could not binate, that is celebrate two Masses. Trimming back your Mass schedule and sharing your priest with three other parishes will cost you a much more radical commitment to get to Sunday Mass. It is something we all need to pray about, and which ultimately will serve to underline and strengthen whatever we may undertake as a Eucharistic Commitment or Recommitment. Do it!

        I cannot quite decide whether my duty in this talk is to lay out a comprehensive program or not for “Set Ablaze” – Parish Goals for Eucharistic Recommitment. I would encourage you to do so in your personal life and to the extent possible discuss something like that as a parish. There is nobody here present who would be capable of convincing me that at the heart of the matter is not our faith in Christ really and truly present in the Eucharist.

O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all Praise, and all Thanksgiving, be every Moment Thine!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

A child will Lead the Way

 

 Monday, November 21st 

4:00 pm, Mass and Homily

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Thirty-Fourth or Last Week in Ordinary Time)

Rv 14:1-3, 4b-5

Lk 21:1-4

O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving be every Moment Thine!

        One of the sobering aspects of the liturgical renewal since Vatican II has to be the tragic lot of certain feasts and memorials in the official, universal, church calendar. Some saints days and feasts devoted to mysteries of the faith disappeared without a trace back 50 years ago in the calendar reform. Unexpectedly, especially under Pope Saint John Paul II some of them have made their reappearance. The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Temple in Jerusalem is just such a one of these.

        From the Gospels we know nothing of Mary’s infancy and childhood. The Blessed Virgin comes on the scene in the Gospel with the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel that she was to be the Mother of God. All we know about her before that time, her parent’s names, Joachim and Ann, everything we know from the Church’s Tradition which, it is important to remember, is the source of the 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is the Church which gave us the New Testament, and which canonized for us the inspired books of the Old Testament as well.

        Mary in her Presentation offers us a preeminent example of childhood sanctity, something we encounter in the lives of a lot of the saints, especially of those who as children lived intense lives of communion with God and died young as well, some as martyrs and just as many whom the Lord took home to Himself already in their childish or youthful perfection in His Divine Love.

        As we continue to contemplate Christ present here on our altar in the Blessed Sacrament, the King of our hearts and Ruler of our lives, let us also reflect upon the Mother of God, on Mary, conceived without original sin and never in all her days on earth tainted by even the least moral flaw.

We cannot claim anything like that for ourselves, so let us pray as the Church does on the feast of St. Aloysius Gonzaga: “O God, giver of heavenly gifts, who in Saint Aloysius Gonzaga joined penitence to a wonderful innocence of life, grant, through his merits and intercession, that, though we have failed to follow him in innocence, we may imitate him in penitence.”

With Mary and all the saints, please, God, that it would be so!

O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving be every Moment Thine!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Eucharistic Revival

 

Sunday, November 20th 

4:00 pm, Conference #1, followed by Vespers

Our Goals for the Three Years of Eucharistic Revival

O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving, Be Every Moment Thine!

In preparation for our 40 Hours, I looked at a short video recently which notes that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops foresees this particular devotion (40 Hours) as one of the components of the National Eucharistic Revival presently under way in our country. That’s good! Even if I may not be up on many things that are going on in the Church and am not a member of the Bishops’ Conference, I find this to be good news. Besides, one of the neat things about being retired is I can always use my status as a retired person as my excuse for not really being a mover and shaker on policy issues, pastoral or otherwise. From looking at the part of the diocesan website devoted to the various aspects of the same Campaign launched earlier this year on Corpus Christi Sunday, year one for the planned three-year Eucharistic Revival here in the U.S. there are some good things there to report.

In the end, regardless of how things turn out nationally or of whether the big Eucharistic Congress planned at the conclusion of the three years to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, will be kind of a high point or climax to the whole effort, my first interest and priority really is to do my part to revive or deepen the faith in the true Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist and please God, do so especially here in our diocese and, yes, most especially right here and right now in your Parish of St. Thomas in Madison, SD. I think the matter is important and I think that the need for renewal is a very real one, even here in God’s Country.

In the video they talked about doing 40 Hours around the States at least at deanery level if not in every parish during this first year of the Revival Campaign. In point of fact, this weekend our 40 Hours also has relevance for the whole Brookings Deanery. We will see how combining the two things (our 40 Hours and the Diocesan Road Show for the Eucharistic Revival) works out here for the Deanery. It would be my hope that the two efforts will complement each other and mutually enrich one another.

As I read on the website, the diocesan campaign is meant to transform our parishes and the diocese, starting from this grassroots level, and thereby to have a powerful positive impact on the Church at large. The internet page devoted to Eucharistic Revival has two great prayers to download. Of the two, I especially like Bishop DeGrood's Prayer for the Diocese.

Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Thank you for your great love for us. Help us to know, love and serve you above all other things. Fill our hearts and minds with a deep knowledge and love of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Through Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service may we be fruitful missionary disciples by loving you, others and ourselves as you love us. Deliver us from all evil and heal, convert, form and unify everyone in your merciful love. Please inspire and raise up many healthy, happy and holy vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, marriage and consecrated life. Come Holy Spirit, enlighten, guide and inspire us to make good choices according to the Father’s holy will for the wellbeing of all. Amen

My recommendation would be for us in this my first talk of our 40 Hours to let Bishop DeGrood’s prayer inform our reflection and dictate the parish goals here in Madison for the three year revival. Let me quote or draw out three sentences from Bishop’s prayer!

1)               Through Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service may we be fruitful missionary disciples by loving our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by loving others and ourselves as God loves us.

2)               Deliver us from all evil and heal, convert, form, and unify everyone in the merciful love of the Blessed Trinity.

3)               Please inspire and raise up many healthy, happy, and holy vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, marriage, and consecrated life.

I hope no one will be puzzled if I say that the first of these three intentions is the hardest one for me to explain.

Through Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service may we be fruitful missionary disciples by loving our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by loving others and ourselves as God loves us.

When I say that Number 1 is the hardest, I do not mean that it is the hardest to understand of the three, but rather that it is the hardest to get a handle on.

This first intention of Bishop’s prayer is clear enough and very succinct. The Bishop explains just how I/you can be a fruitful missionary disciple. We can do so simply by loving our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by loving others and ourselves as God loves us. Basically in terms of the Gospels and of what we learned back in catechism, we can reach our missionary goal by living out the two great Commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. For us Catholics as indicated by Christ and His Church, the road less traveled to that goal passes by way of the Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service. Even so, at the core of the matter are the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor.

        We don’t need an excuse for inviting the whole Church and our parish in particular to a Eucharistic Revival. To deepen our faith in Christ truly present in the Holy Eucharist is beyond a doubt a good thing. Truth to be told, it is an absolute necessity. Sadly, however, today in the Church, we find ourselves in the midst of a crisis of faith. According to various surveys taken here in the US, not even a third of the people who claim to be Catholics believe in the doctrine of the transubstantiation. That is bad enough, but the real shock is that many people unashamedly declare that they do not believe that in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass through the words of consecration spoken by the priest, the bread and wine, while preserving their outward appearance, truly and substantially become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and our Lord. Perhaps even worse, despite their unbelief these people march up and take Holy Communion (Please note: The word “take” is improper. We don’t take Holy Communion but rather we receive the Lord in Holy Communion.). Such people doubt the teaching of the Church and they do it openly and without shame. I guess we could blame it on ignorance or lack of culture. However you cut it, it boils down to the same misery. There are countless people claiming to be Catholic who don’t believe what the Catholic Church has taught about the Eucharist always and everywhere.

        What is the problem? Well, granted faith in the true Presence has always been a struggle, but probably not since the Protestant Reformation or before that since the crisis of faith which occasioned the Eucharistic miracle and the feast of Corpus Christi, has there been such a crisis of faith in the real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Today numbers of people like never before since the great apostasies are unashamedly denying Christ’s Presence, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, upon our altars. That is a big problem which strikes at the very heart of what it means to be Catholic, of what it means to be part of the one Church founded by Jesus Christ to continue His work of salvation until the end of time.

        Bishop DeGrood’s prayer is that through Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service may we be fruitful missionary disciples… That involves doing more than just going through the motions on our own terms. Sixty years ago the fathers at the II Vatican Council talked about and encouraged the active participation of the faithful at the Sacred Liturgy. Unfortunately, too often we have missed the point on the significance of that concept, saddling ourselves with a lot of tasteless music, meant to be popular, with a failure to be attentive in church, especially to dress respectably, to keep silence and focus our attention on the sacred action which unfolds through the ministry of the priest. A half century along, still battling with sound systems in church, we have failed to gain the upper hand for a discursive, talk or discussion based model of worship. Maybe we can hear and understand the priest or deacon, but more often than not the service of lectors is a hit and miss affair. What is it or how is it that we should be fed at Sunday Mass? Is it the talk which counts?

        One of the most interesting and exciting developments of recent years in the Catholic Church has been the growth in popularity of Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. There are countless witnesses in the Church of people who have found their way back to the practice of the faith through Adoration. Any number of young people have discovered vocations to priesthood and to the religious life contemplating Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament exposed upon our altars. Through Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service may we be fruitful missionary disciples.

Too many people seem to claim the right to refashion the Church in their own image or preference. Somehow, they miss the point that Sunday in the Catholic Church was never intended to be, nor can it be a bible thumping, knee slapping, sing-along. When St. Justin Martyr, who died a martyr’s death in the year 165 precisely because of his attachment to Sunday Mass, declared that he and his fellow Christians could not live without Sunday, he was talking about the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the weekly renewal in an unbloody fashion of Christ’s once and for all sacrifice for the salvation of the world on the Cross of Calvary. The “gathering us in” is not the primary action of the Mass. While keeping the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor is the prime part of Bishop’s first petition, we must see it in a specifically Catholic way as centered on the action of the priest in the liturgy, enriched by our ongoing personal prayer and works of charity. Through Mass, adoration and other forms of prayer and service may we be fruitful missionary disciples.

In the old days of 40 Hours, the preacher could go on for hours, but I am aware that ADS (attention deficit syndrome) is not so much a defect as it is the recognition that a preacher can overdo it. I better get on to the other two petitions in Bishop’s prayer!

Bishop DeGrood’s second intention: Deliver us from all evil and heal, convert, form, and unify everyone in the merciful love of the Blessed Trinity.

We need to pray and do so constantly: Lord, spare Your people! Deliver us! Not only through Your direct intervention in the life of the world and in our lives, but through the other Sacraments beyond the Holy Eucharist!

The statistics tell us that if parents are joyfully welcoming children into our world, nonetheless they are sometimes dragging their feet or even failing to have those children delivered from the power of evil through the saving waters of Baptism. There is no excuse for not baptizing children if we truly love them. If it is in our power, we should want to free a child from the power of Satan as soon as we can after birth and then through our own teaching and good example to lead them to Christ and at the proper time strengthen them for the fight against the minions of Hell through the grace of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation. That is what the Catholic Church believes and teaches even yet today.

Deliver us from all evil and heal, convert, form, and unify everyone in the merciful love of the Blessed Trinity.

Let us add the Sacrament of Penance, unto the forgiveness of serious sin committed after Baptism, and the Anointing of the Sick for those in danger of death especially to those graces available from the sacraments to heal, convert, form, and unify all whom the Lord wills to save and sanctify.

Just a few words on Confession, on the Sacrament of Penance! We know that we should have recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation whenever and as soon as possible, if we are aware of serious, mortal sin in our lives. You cannot excuse yourself from the objective moral order nor from the precepts of the Church which bind us under pain of grave sin. The most common failing among adult Catholics has to do with missing Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. We know that in the case of impossibility we are not bound. But too many people excuse themselves on any pretext. If you miss Mass through your own fault, then you need to get to confession as soon as possible and not approach to receive Holy Communion until you have been absolved and done your penance. From what Father tells me about your schedule of confession times here in the parish, you are fortunate and with an honest effort should have no difficulty getting to confession.

(U)nify everyone in the merciful love of the Blessed Trinity. Because of the orderly way we come up to Communion, people feel under pressure to come up and receive Holy Communion worthy or not. Believe it or not, nobody else is or should be paying any attention to you at Communion time. They should be focusing themselves on the Lord Who comes to feed them. Besides, if people were more serious about keeping the fast before Holy Communion and not just sticking their chewing gum under the seat of the pew at the last minute, they would think twice about their being unprepared or irreverent in the way they receive. By way of an aside, I am beginning to suspect that probably gum or other chews or breath mints are a very good argument against the reception of Communion in the hand. I repeat: Talk of “taking Communion” is improper. We don’t take Holy Communion but rather we receive the Lord in Holy Communion. I know hand Communion is legal but I would invite you to give some thought to whether you might better focus on the Lord by receiving Him on the tongue, and why not, on bended knee.

And Bishop’s third petition: Please inspire and raise up many healthy, happy, and holy vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, marriage, and consecrated life.

A big part of Eucharistic Revival is having the sacraments available and despite what some people in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will claim, that can only happen if we have priests. Why has our diocese always been short on homegrown priestly vocations? I remember as a young man, as a seminarian, hearing Bishop Hoch, a native vocation from Elkton, explain his determination not to go to Ireland to recruit priests for the diocese of Sioux Falls. He said, “People in this diocese have to learn to provide.” 50 years later we are still waiting. My prayer for vocations goes: “from our parishes, from our families, from our homes”. Parents and Grandparents, your witness of faith in Jesus really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament not only could be but is that which will inspire enough young boys to be kneeling down by their beds to say their nighttime prayers and add: “O Lord, grant that I might become a priest after Thine Own Heart!” It is a matter of faith, which would draw with it vocations to religious orders both of women and of men, apostolic, monastic, and contemplative. One of my great discoveries in these almost two years since retiring home here to Sioux Falls is what a gift a good and holy permanent deacon can be to a parish or apostolate in rallying people to Christ the Good Shepherd.

I better stop and invite you to take time then, if you have not already done so here before the Blessed Sacrament, to examine your conscience. Pray like that poor dad in the Gospel, who cried out when challenged by Jesus for having requested the sign of his child’s healing, “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!”

Eucharistic Revival is the cornerstone for the success of any other undertaking for us personally, in our families, in our parish, for the sake of the life of the Church. We’ve go work to do! We are too much in denial! Our lives need to change! As St. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6,11-13:

“We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return - I speak as to children - open wide your hearts also.” [Harper Bibles. NRSV Catholic Edition Bible (pp. 1070-1071). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.]  

O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving, Be Every Moment Thine!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI