Yesterday, I had an opportunity to connect again with my novice master, Fr. Nick Ayo, CSC at our Holy Cross Novitiate in Cascade, CO. I was in the first class of novices in Cascade in 1978-79. I really appreciated our reunion in the novitiate house after all these years. Fr. Nick lives and ministers at Notre Dame, IN.
First Profession of Vows for six members of the Congregation of Holy Cross took place on Saturday July 30, 2016. Rev. E. William Beauchamp, CSC, assistant provincial, presided at the Eucharist and received their vows. He is embracing David after his profession of vows. The ceremony took place at Sacred Heart Church, Colorado Springs, CO.
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
On Saturday, July 30 at Sacred Heart, we celebrated the First Profession of Vows of six young men in the Congregation of Holy Cross. Thank you for praying for these men who will return to Notre Dame this week for four years of graduate studies. I am grateful to have our Holy Cross novitiate in Cascade and for the novices to join us throughout the year. Our next class of novices will arrive in a couple of weeks.
Also, Fr. Neil Wack, CSC will be preaching here at Sacred Heart this weekend. He served here as associate pastor a number of years ago, and is now our Vocation Director for the US Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Welcome, Fr. Neil!
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Luke’s gospel (12:13-21) sets our priorities on the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” This passage challenges us in our human priorities and offers us a check and balance for our consciences and how we live our lives.
Luke is always trying to pry our hands and hearts off of greed, mistrust, and the accumulation of possessions. Why does this gospel writer focus on this? He focuses on our earthly possessions and even our human relationships and ties because he understands the value of what Jesus is offering us: the Kingdom of Heaven. Luke, in his community nearly a hundred years after Jesus Christ, believed that he would soon return. Luke wants us to be prepared for Jesus’ Second Coming. Luke does not want anyone left out of the true value of Christ, our place in the Heavenly Kingdom. He does not want you to be left out either.
We live in a very complicated time in history where greed is real. We value having more and saving less. We want to be more prosperous than our parents. We cling to and are even addicted to our technology. Our lives have become much more self-centered even as instant communication with the world has expanded our horizons about the needs of people. Our face time with people, with friends and family, has diminished with our noses in our phones. The world opens up with a click or a password, yet the deep human needs of others often elude us. We need to get our hands dirty in the real needs of people and not just read about those needs on our phones. Our possessions are many, and our ties to greed and having “more” are tight and secure. We need to listen to Jesus.
It is easy to store up stuff. It is not as easy to relate to what Jesus offers. It is easier to cling to possessions than to cling to harmony, forgiveness, love, and kindness. Our attention span is short and Jesus is trying to make a dent in what our hearts desire. He wants to be in relationship with us, but so often we just do not have time for him. We have little patience for how he can change our hearts.
So how can you become rich in what matters to God? This treasure is simply a relationship. Sometimes even religion gets in the way of what Jesus offers us. Most people see faith and religion as a set of rules to keep so they will get to heaven; what religion and faith really offer us is the way to crack open our hearts to look at the love God has for us and how we live that love in the world. The reason why Jesus wants to get our attention through our possessions is so that we can learn to share what we have with other people. Jesus offers us love and calls us to share love in the world and to work diligently for justice. Jesus offers us forgiveness and challenges us to forgive others. Jesus offers us healing and so we are to work among the marginalized and broken to make healing manifest in our world.
Jesus wants us to examine our relationship with our “stuff” so that we can ultimately call Jesus our true possession. Jesus wants us. He desires our pain and ambiguities. He wants to live fully in our priorities so that we can bring him to other people.
Here are some questions to consider this week:
How might Jesus be calling you into a new priority of prayer and service?
What stands in your way in moving toward a deeper relationship with Jesus?
Is it possible for you to put limits on frivolous activities and use your time for self-reflection, prayer, and putting yourself in the shoes of people who suffer or who possess less than you?
Is it possible for you to value prayer as a way to create real and radical change in your life? Can you move away from using prayer as a means to validate your own prejudice, hatred and self-absorption? Can you move away from using prayer as a way to always be correct and to validate your own way of thinking?
Can you find some peace this week and rest in prayer and gratitude?
Blessings,
Ron
On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Luke 12:13-21
What are you being asked to let go of in life? How is God calling you to let go of your attachments or relationships? What is it that God is asking you to embrace?
“God, open up!” Sketch: Ronald Raab, CSC
Sunday July 24, 2016
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear Believers,
You may know our Holy Cross novices from Sunday mornings when they served in various ministries during this past year at Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. I invite you to support their vocations in the Congregation of Holy Cross as they make their First Profession of Vows this coming Saturday, July 30, at 10:00 a.m. in Sacred Heart Church. Please join us in the Eucharist this Saturday to pray for these vocations within the Church. They need your prayer and you need their witness.
After their profession of vows, these six men will return to the University of Notre Dame for four years of graduate school before professing final vows and being ordained deacons. A year after that, they will be ordained priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
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Fr. Neil Wack, CSC, vocation director for the Congregation of Holy Cross, will be preaching at all of the Masses next weekend at Sacred Heart. (Fr. Neil served in the Tri-Community some years ago and is very eager to see you all again!) Pray for him and all of our men in formation.
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Luke’s gospel (11:1-13) is incredibly full of insights and grace this weekend. Jesus speaks to us about living a generous and persistent life of faith. He teaches us the words of the Lord’s Prayer, and tells us a story about getting beyond selfishness. This weekend’s gospel is a powerhouse of love.
Jesus says some of the most important words in the gospels: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
I understand that at first glance these words do nothing for a wounded warrior coming back from war to his home in Colorado Springs. I know these words cannot be used willy-nilly for the people who lost loved ones in Orlando this past June. These words are difficult to swallow when a husband tells his wife at dinner that there is another love in his life. I know these words are difficult to take into our hearts; we resist them, even, because our lives have not turned out the way we hoped. But no matter our life and the circumstances that shape it, God is invested in the human heart.
So often we look to other people to fill the gaps in our prayer. That never works. We blame God for destruction and violence when often mental illness, or hatred, or religion-gone-wild is to blame. God does not leave us orphaned. Love within is there to heal, to reconcile, and to bring about a new way of living. Our safe place in life is the love of God.
These words of Jesus are not wrong or off base. These words are not pious piffle. They are there in today’s gospel to form our hearts and our vocations within the Church. These words are an act of created love from the divine mouth of Jesus.
I invite you to sit with these gospel words from Luke this week. Use them to find what you need in your life and heart. Here are some thoughts to consider:
Ask …
What do you most need from God today?
What are the obstacles you carry within your heart that keep you from asking for what you need?
Do you know how to pray from your heart?
Do you have the courage to ask?
Do you have the courage to receive an answer that is not what you asked for?
Seek …
Are you willing to live a more generous life?
Are you willing to let go of past hurts and seek the face of Jesus?
Do you have the courage to extend your talents and love to others?
How have you sought the Lord before?
What difference does prayer and service make in your life?
Knock …
Are you stuck in a rut in your old age?
Would you be willing to knock and open the door to the love God has for you?
What resistances do you hold on to in yourrelationship with Christ?
What if Jesus opened to the door to you? How would you react?
How do you pray for this new opening?
Blessings,
Fr. Ron
On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
(This edition does not have the usual opening and closing)
Pray and do not be discouraged by your worry and discontent. Prayer is a relationship and not just a one time knock on the door of the Kingdom.
“Saint Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles”: Pencil, Ronald Raab, CSC
But go to my brothers and tell them, “I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20
We celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene today. We honor her as the “Apostle to the Apostles”. Mary peered into the empty tomb. She saw and believed. She proclaimed the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection to many people and towns. She also believed because Jesus cured her of seven demons. Mary believed in Jesus’ mercy, forgiveness and healing powers.
Mary Magdalene is often portrayed holding a red egg. One legend tells the story of Mary going to Pilate and proclaiming the Resurrection of Jesus. He told her as he faced a bowl of eggs that he would only believe in the Resurrection if one of those eggs turned red. She went to the bowl of eggs and picked up one and held it…and it turned red.
Mary is one of my favorite saints. I admire her transformation. She boldly proclaimed the Resurrection to the disciples when fear had seized them. She courageously lived from the healing that Jesus offered her.
Mary’s witness extends throughout the ages. She is a model for all of us who search for change in our lives. She is a disciple to our fear. She is a believer even when we do not think life could be different. I long to believe as she believed. I want one of those eggs.
Dear Believers in Jesus,
We listen to very familiar story in Luke’s (10:38-42) gospel today. Martha and Mary vey for Jesus’ attention. Martha is anxious about getting household chores finished since Jesus is their guest. Mary wants simply to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his life and wisdom.
This story has always been a witness to the contemplative life, that a life of prayer is greater than an active life. This story has in the history of the Church guided people to monastic life rather than an apostolic community. However, this story really is the combination of prayer and service for all Christians.
I have written and spoken many times about the link of prayer and service. This is the mission of the Church. There is no way to unlink these two elements of common, liturgical prayer and the people of God being sent into the world to make something happen.
I was taught in graduate school to always link the two, to move out into the world and do something. I still hold on to this teaching that this story tries to link together. Our prayer becomes limp and lifeless if we do not put into practice our call to help people. The real needs of people become the mission of our prayer to put love, forgiveness and hope into practice.
Martha and Mary are icons of the mission of the Church. Especially in this Year of Mercy, we listen attentively to the words of Jesus, to find the consolation and healing of Jesus’ Real Presence. We also go out into our lives, to put this love to work, to offer others the consolation and forgiveness into practice. The world needs God’s love. The world needs the mercy that we put into practice in our workplaces, schools and homes.
In these summer months, I hope you will have time to sit at the feet of Jesus. Rest awhile. Pray in silence. Contemplate your place in the love Jesus has for you. Make sure rest in part of these hot, summer days. Find a place along a hillside to rest. Pray in your back yard. Hike and pray. Sit. Be. Offer your life to God in the silence of your heart.
Also, I hope that you may reflect upon how you serve God. Reflect on your gifts and talents and see how you can offer those gifts to people in our world, neighborhood and family. Be in the Church. Do something. Live something. Offer something. Witness to God and let your life be lived for the good.
In your prayer time this week, here is a litany to help you sit at the feet of Jesus and to put his mercy into practice.
LITANY OF MARTHA AND MARY:
Reflection on Mary:
Response: Help me sit at your feet, O Lord.
Jesus, I sit at your feet longing for your presence…
Jesus, I sit at your feet and hope you will listen to me…
Jesus, I sit at your feet and offer you my pain and disappointments…
Jesus, I sit at your feet and speak the truth of my life…
Jesus, I sit at your feet and feel your consolation in my heart…
Jesus, I rest my suffering in your love…
Jesus, I rest my stubbornness in your gaze toward me…
Jesus, I rest my fear in your saving heart…
Jesus, I rest my grief in your passion and death…
Jesus, I rest my guilt in your kind words for me…
Jesus, I pray in silence and you hear me…
Jesus, I pray in stillness and you care for me…
Jesus, I pray in calm and you give me rest…
Jesus, I pray in quiet and you give me hope…
Jesus, I pray in peace and you offer me healing…
Reflection on Martha:
Response: Help me serve you, O Lord
Jesus, you send me into a live of service…
Jesus, you send me to mend relationships…
Jesus, you send me to heal the past…
Jesus, you send me to offer my life to others…
Jesus, you send me to offer peace…
Jesus, you call me to serve those most in need…
Jesus, you call me to heal the sick…
Jesus, you call me to proclaim freedom to captives…
Jesus you call me to live the message of love to all…
Jesus, you call me to bring hope to the downtrodden…
Jesus, you challenge me to proclaim Good News…
Jesus, you challenge me to attend to people in poverty…
Jesus, you challenge me to serve without cost…
Jesus, you challenge me to risk my life and faith for other people…
Jesus, you challenge me to extend my heart and hands in a service of love…
Blessings to you all this week,
Fr. Ron
On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 17, 2016
Luke 10: 38-42
We learn how to rest in the presence of Jesus and we learn how to serve people. This connection of prayer and service is the key to this passage about Mary and Martha.
