Easter Decorations

Good Friday at St. Lawrence

Holy Thursday decorations

Actor's faith and family come first

Click here for a story about Neal McDonough, who was recently fired by ABC because of his refusal to film sex scenes. His reason?

He's a family man and a Catholic, and he's always made it clear that he won't do sex scenes.

"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned..."

Question of the Day

Why is it that the same "purists" who have no trouble coming to Midnight Mass at Christmas complain when an Easter Vigil might start at, say, 9 p.m.?

How ya feelin' today, Laurie?

I really haven't been writing about the articles that have been coming from the New York Times. I figured, "It's Holy Week, and this is what they do: come up with something to write that, if read, puts a bad taste in your mouth about the Roman Catholic Church." Do I make light of it? Absolutely not. But like the rainstorm that is hitting the window next to me as I type this, there's very little I can do about it. Michael Deaver, former media guru to Ronald Reagan, once gave the advice, "Never argue with anyone who buys ink by the barrel!".

In a way, you have to pity the Times. Subscriptions are dwindling. Their company now has layoffs upon layoffs about as often as I get e-mailed coupons from Borders. Maybe Laurie Goodstein is just trying to make herself "necessary" to her bosses before the next round of layoffs. Maybe this is retribution for the Catholic Church's objections to the Democratic party's push for their healthcare agenda (the timing seems about right). Maybe this is just something that gives the enlightened ones the giggles as they watch Manhattan Catholics make their last minute visits to Church for Holy Week, searching for some Priest to hear their confession? My personal opinion is that, as Pope Benedict leads the the events of Holy Week, they simply want the caption underneath the video footage to read, "Pope leads services amid allegations" [add ominous organ music here - or dramatic chipmunk].

Today an article is out and about the blogosphere from the man who was Judicial Vicar (the chief canon law expert) for the Milwaukee Archdiocese when the whole question of bringing ecclesiastical charges against Fr. Murphy came up. It's a long article, much longer than our sound bite mentality, attention deficit inflicted minds can normally take in one reading. But, if you're genuinely interested in knowing where a professional journalist for one of, what was, one of the most respected newspapers in the world got it WRONG, then read the article. This is bad research, approved by bad editing, confirmed by bad publishers. I think the "old grey lady" has a touch of Dementia.

Now, on a supernatural level (I am a Priest, after all), let's look at this in the context of Holy Week. For the last week or so, roughly about the time this story has been out there, we've been reading at Mass the stories about how it is getting more dangerous for Jesus to be out and about. The Scribes & Pharisees don't want him to make them irrelevant. The Herodians like things the way they are. The Romans just want peace and quiet. None of them have been able to sway his followers away from supporting him using the truth, so they're resorting to lies.

If they did this to Jesus Christ, should we be shocked that it's happening to his Vicar?

Palm Sunday at St. Lawrence Church

Solemnity of the Annunciation

"The mystery of the annunciation to Mary is not just a mystery of silence. It is above and beyond all that a mystery of grace. We feel compelled to ask ourselves: Why did Christ really want to be born of a virgin? It was certainly possible for him to have been born of a normal marriage. That would not have affected his divine Sonship, which was not dependent on his virgin birth and could equally well have been combined with another kind of birth. ... We find the answer when we open the Old Testament and see that the mystery of Mary is prepared for at every important stage in salvation history. It begins with Sarah, the mother of Isaac, who had been barren, but when she was well on in years and had lost the power of giving life, became, by the power of God, the mother of Isaac and so of the chosen people. The process continues with Anna, the mother of Samuel, who was likewise barren, but eventually gave birth; with the mother of Samson, or again with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptizer. The meaning of all these events is the same: that salvation comes, not from human beings and their powers, but solely from God - from an act of his grace."

Joseph Ratzinger, 1977

Prayer over the gifts today

From the Sacramentary:

"Lord, as we come with joy to celebrate the mystery of the eucharist, may we offer you hearts purified by bodily penance. Grant this through Christ our Lord."

A better translation of the Latin:

"Lord, as we prepare to celebrate your sacred mysteries, please grant that, as a result of our bodily penance, we may display a purity of heart that will be pleasing to you. We ask this through Christ our Lord."

Whoa Nelly, "bodily penance" for Lent? How often do you hear talk of THAT anymore? You mean Lent isn't just about giving up cookies or saying naughty words?

Now, on that topic, I'm off to the gym for an hour of bodily penance (to make up for the St. Joseph's pastries last Friday).

Sometimes a father has to take his kids to the woodshed

From the Pope's letter to the Catholics of Ireland:

"You betrayed the trust that was placed in you by innocent young people and their parents, and you must answer for it before Almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon your confreres. Those of you who are priests violated the sanctity of the sacrament of Holy Orders ..."

Passion Sunday, 2010

T.G.I.F.(a.a.S.)!

My pal Father Guy, over at Shouts in the Piazza, has a blog entry about an ecclesial eclipse that is set to take place tomorrow.

On March 19 each year (unless it's a Sunday, but that's for another blog entry), the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Joseph. The Church ranks this as a Solemnity, the highest ranking for a feast day. The effects of a Solemnity will be noticeable: white vestments will be worn (and not Lenten purple), the Gloria will be sung or recited (which we lost during Lent), the Creed will be recited at a weekday Mass, and prayers proper for the feast day itself will be used (compared to the Lenten propers). This will give us, as it were, a day to "step out of Lent".

Where it gets interesting comes in the fact that, this year, the Feast falls on a Friday of Lent, which us normally a day of abstinence. As Fr. Guy points out in his blog, Canon 1251 of the Code of Canon Law says that when a Solemnity-ranked feast day falls on a Day of Abstinence, the Solemnity wins.

This means that, tomorrow, one does not have to abstain from meat, in honor of the Feast Day of Saint Joseph. In addition, if you have given up sweets as a Lenten sacrifice, you could indulge yourself a little bit tomorrow. As Fr. Guy's blog entry says, one may still choose to abstain, but one is not required to do so.

"But what about St. Patrick?", some of you ask. "Is this why we can eat corned beef on a Friday of Lent?" In a word, "no". The feast day of St. Patrick (like Sts. Casimir, Frances of Rome, John of God, today's Cyril of Jerusalem, et al.) does not rank as a Solemnity (for most places - I'm thinking that there are exceptions like New York and Harrisburg - whose Cathedrals are named for St. Patrick). Even the weekdays of Lent take precedence over the feast days of Saints, and this technically "downgrades" them from memorials to commemorations. This is why you rarely see anything outside of purple vestments during Lent (compared to Ordinary Time, when you see all the liturgical colors). It means that in the case of our American obsession with corned beef in honor of Ireland's own, a dispensation should be asked for and received by the local Bishop. Universal law does not allow you to do it, so it needs a relaxing of the law by the one who is able to do so for his flock. You're fine with the cabbage and potatoes.

So, yes, enjoy this moment when the Solemnity of St. Joseph (the

moon) blocks the Lenten

abstinence rules (the sunlight) from Catholics worldwide (the earth). Eclipses only come around once in a while, but they're worth checking out when they happen.

Thank God it's Friday (And a Solemnity)!

Happy Laetare Sunday!

Genesis 7:11

"...on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth."

Naaman: tough guy, but great skin!

One night, when I was young, my friends and I decided to go to play Bingo at a local Byzantine church. We had nothing to do (and were still under 21, so Atlantic City was out), we figured it'd be fun.

So there we were. In a church hall. Cigarette smoke hanging like a haze in the air. If you've ever been to Bingo (or worked a Bingo as part of a deal to lower your child's Catholic school tuition), you know the rest of the story:

• Upon walking into the room, we lowered the average age of the hall by 15 years.
• We only played like 2 cards each. "Specials? What the heck are specials? You mean they're not included in the price?"
• We sat in seats that "belonged" to other people. Not that they were there. Not that their names were on the chairs. Not that there was any "Reserved" signs on the tables that we ignored. We were "shoo-ed" away from the first three tables we wanted to sit at, because the same people put their same butts in those same chairs for years.
• We didn't have the proper Bingo equipment: some sort of craft show produced carry-all. A collection of pictures of children and grandchildren (heck, they could have just been the pictures that come with a new wallet, for all we knew). Nor did we have Bingo chips to mark the cards.
• We made noise. Evidently you're not supposed to talk to each other during Bingo. To think, we could have gone to the library on a Friday night.
• We didn't join in the attacks on the Bingo caller: "You're calling the numbers too fast, too slow, with too much of an accent, with food in your mouth, etc.
• AND THEN THE WORST OFFENSE POSSIBLE: one of us actually won. We acted like he just hit the game winning home run in game 7 of the World Series, high five-ing each other. But then we saw the looks, the stares, the glares. We're not supposed to win. We just showed up tonight. We only played 2 cards. We didn't have the chachkis that invoke the bingo-gods from on high. In short: we were OUTSIDERS who got something.

Understand that, and you get Jesus bringing up Naaman the Syrian in today's Gospel. They thought God needed them more than they needed God, and Jesus let 'em have it, to the point that they wanted to kill him.

Today's First Reading tells the story of Naaman that Jesus alludes to in the Gospel, the story that everyone in that Synagogue in Nazareth knows. Naaman was a non-Jew and the commander of the King of Aram's army, and a leper. Eventually Elisha the prophet will cure him, and there's some interesting lessons we learn from it:

1. The God of Israel cures a Gentile. God has power over everyone.
2. Naaman brought loads of treasure, presuming a cure would have a price to it. How many people treat God as if He is a commodity they can "buy" (or "rent") as needed?
3. Naaman doesn't have to renounce his former faith before God cures him. Nor does he have to go through a catechumenate before getting cured. Nor does he need a "sponsor certificate".
4. Naaman only finds out about this by a seemingly coincidental chain of events: Naaman's wife's servant girl starts the ball rolling. But then the King of Israel thinks this is just a set-up to provoke a fight between the nations, and his lamenting is what gets Elisha's attention. Naaman then bounces from the King to Elisha. Sometimes the craziest quests bring us the greatest victories.
5. Naaman's retinue goes from a royal palace to Elisha's simple front door. Sometimes the thing we're looking for can be found in the place we least expect to find it.
6. Elisha doesn't talk directly to Naaman. Nor does he see him, touch him, or say magic words. Remember, the prophet is only God's mouthpiece. It's God that is curing Naaman.
7. Naaman is offended that Elisha won't come out to see him, and is ready to go home. If Naaman's servants weren't there to convince him to bathe in the Jordan, he'd still be a leper. How many people don't go to Confession because they don't think God can forgive them?
8. God doesn't just remove the leprosy and restore his skin to what it was: the skin of a middle aged man. His skin is restored above and beyond, to that of a baby. No need to buy Clinique for Naaman on his birthday! When God gives, He gives in abundance.

Three more weeks until Holy Week begins. Get clean in Confession!

*WTF?

Caught this headline scrolling on the bottom of one of the cable news channels, while at the gym this morning:

"Shorter skirts better for the economy"

*WTF = What's This Fashion? - what did you think I meant?

a hypothetical

OK, this one goes out the the Priests:

Today is, on the calendar, the first Friday of the month of March.

On the liturgical calendar, it is Friday of the Second Week of Lent.

According to the rules, one must celebrate the Lenten weekday (which takes precedence over any celebration of a Votive Mass in honor of the Sacred Heart, which is an option during Ordinary Time).

Are ya' with me so far?

On First Fridays (theoretically in honor of the First Friday devotion), myself and the Deacons of the parish make Communion calls to homebound parishioners.

But, if there is no First Friday liturgical devotion today, could a pastor, hypothetically, intentionally NOT make Communion calls?

[I know, I know: "But, Father, these people wait for you each week".]

I know what the answer is on the emotional level. I'm asking on the catechetical level. Could this be a "teaching moment" in a penitential season, to show that Lent is different from the rest of the year? Is asking the homebound to make a "Spiritual Communion" as a Lenten sacrifice "over the top"?

For those who have not had a Priest come to your home to bring Holy Communion to a loved one who is either sick or unable to get to Mass, realize that they days seem to be long gone when the house would have a reverential silence from the time the Priest entered the door with the pyx containing Our Lord. Gone are the days of someone in the family meeting you at the door with a lit candle, and a table laid out with a white cloth and candles and a crucifix.

So, anyway, all you clergy out there, ponder my question and let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I'm off to do my Communion Calls.

Whoops!

From this morning's Gospel:

"There was a ... man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen"

Always a great exercise in self-awareness at 8am as I'm standing in the sanctuary dressed in a linen alb and a purple chasuble. Too bad he ends up dead and in Hell.

2nd Sunday of Lent

Church of the Transfiguration, Israel

Friday night

The view tonight just before Stations and Adoration. Myself and my two Deacons rotate who presides; it's nice to be able to just sit in a pew and pray.

Madagascar

From today's bulletin of the Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 26 FEB 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:- Erected the new ecclesiastical province of Toamasina, Madagascar, raising the current diocese of Toamasina to the status of metropolitan church and assigning it the suffragan dioceses of Ambatondrazaka, Moramanga and Fenoarivo-Atsinana.

Hmmmm, Madagascar? new province? Anyone want to be a bishop? I know four guys.

Mount Media

In response to someone who asked about where they can get the Abp. Dolan talks, here is a LINK to a website for a guy who records all the retreats. He also has some fine photos of the Mount, the grotto, and the Emmitsburg area.

Ode to the Church

In my trips to the gym, lately I've been listening to talks given by Abp. Dolan at a retreat he gave at Mount St. Mary's Seminary back in 2008. In the talk I listened to this morning, he read a poem by the Italian poet Carlo Carretto, entitled, "Ode to the Church":

Now much I criticize you, my church,

and yet how much I love you!

You have made my suffer more than anyone

and yet I owe more to you than to anyone.

I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal

and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.

Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised,

more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure,

more generous or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face -

and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you,

even if not completely you.

Then too - where would I go? To build another church?

But I could not build one without the same defects,

for they are my defects.

And again, if I were to build another church,

it would be my church, not Christ's church.

No, I am old enough, I know better.

Lent: Day 7

It's been a bit quiet here when it comes to blog entries. I mean, here we are at the start of Lent; you'd think I would have profound things to say?

So Ash Wednesday (for Priests, "Dirty Thumb Day") came and went, and so the Lenten season has begun. Like most other people, I began with great resolutions: spiritual, person, professional.

How's it been going for me? Nothing so stellar, yet.

But that's the thing with Lent: You can always start again. Lots of people make resolutions that, if they fall, have no intention of going back to it. Sort of a "Zero Tolerance Policy". Lent's not the Olympics: it's not about in what place you finish; it's about the fact that you finish.

Some things have already made me nuts (and these come from south of my locale - across the boundary line in another diocese, lest I be accused of "ratting out" my own diocesan brethren).

I hear a neighboring parish regularly has a Lenten parish penance service at which they give general absolution, and that many Catholics (amongst my parishioners) flock there to avoid individual confessions.

Some parishioners were telling me about a repast they attended after a funeral this past Friday (a Friday of Lent). They encountered a Deacon who was proudly consuming some chicken. When they asked him if a dispensation allowed them to eat meat on a Lenten Friday, this clergyman told them he could do it because he was "over the age" when he didn't have to follow the rules of abstaining from meat, and (checking them out) so could they. Someone needs to tell the Deacon that Canon Law says that being older than 59 can get you out of Lenten fasting, but that's all it gets you. Abstinence from meat, in Canon Law, is something for every Catholic 14 years and above. How long has he thought this way? How many people watched him eat meat and presumed, if a Deacon is doing it, they can do it as well? Would you accept your doctor or lawyer not knowing the rules? I don't know if he doesn't know the rules, or if he knows the rules and chose not to follow them. But either way, not good.

On another front: new bishops for Scranton and Ogdensburg today. I went to seminary with a few Ogdensburg guys, and the Scranton diocese borders part of my own diocese. God bless and sustain both bishops-elect.

That's all for now.

Ash Wednesday, from a Priest's perspective

A pretty decent analogy. Just substitute ashes for bullets or words like "ammunition".

1 Cor 9:25

In a story related to the recent announcement about baseball player Grant Desme's pursuit of the Priestly studies, Yahoo sports has a STORY about Sr. Catherine of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, formerly olympic speedskater Kirstin Holum, and her journey from the life of a world-class athlete to religious life.

Video of Dominican Sisters on Oprah

Click here for all four segments from the recent Oprah Winfrey show in which she interviewed religious from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. It was phenomenally positive.

Video of Dominican Sisters on Oprah

Snow in Rome

Anyone who has visited any of Rome's ristorantes, trattorias, osterias, or pizzerias, has seen it: the obligatory picture on the wall of the eatery after one of the rare snowstorms that occur in Rome. The other day one of those such "photo op" snowfalls took place, and Rome Reports has a story about it.

B16 today

From today's Ad Limina address to the Bishops of Scotland:

"Hand in hand with a proper appreciation of the priest’s role is a correct understanding of the specific vocation of the laity. Sometimes a tendency to confuse lay apostolate with lay ministry has led to an inward-looking concept of their ecclesial role. Yet the Second Vatican Council’s vision is that wherever the lay faithful live out their baptismal vocation – in the family, at home, at work – they are actively participating in the Church’s mission to sanctify the world. A renewed focus on lay apostolate will help to clarify the roles of clergy and laity and so give a strong impetus to the task of evangelizing society."

In the end, it's not what we do, but who we are.

WARNING - *P.O.D. pics to follow

* P.O.D. = "Piously Over-Devotional"

Today I spent part of my day off up in Newark, visiting St. Lucy's Church on 7th Street (in the shadow of the Cathedral Basilica), a gem of the Archdiocese as well as the State, in my humble opinion. When I was in the seminary, I learned the "POD" term as something used by enlightened liturgists who wrote articles about how "worship spaces" that were filled with such cluttering distractions were not really conducive to worship in a post Vatican II community. The great church historian, Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, used to say something like, "There are no new heresies in the Church; just old ones with new names." The movement in the 70s and 80s to make Catholic churches look like Quaker meeting halls was simply the iconoclast controversy with new window dressing.

Here are some pics I took which show a very POD church. If loving this is so wrong, then I don't wanna be right.

God love you, Blase, but...

... I can't get figure out what the attraction is to this very simple sacramental. I mean, there are your "regulars", and them being there I can understand. But add to the mix the Catholics (albeit bad ones) who don't think they have to go to Mass each Sunday, or go to Confession on a regular basis. Is it superstition? Should we capitalize on people wanting a blessing on certain feast days all year round (just imagine what we would bless on St. Agatha's feast day)?

Here in my little corner of the Lord's vineyard, I blessed throats three times today: once at the daily Mass at 8am, then when CCD was about to end at 5pm (a Liturgy of the Word service), and then for the commuter crowd coming home at 7pm (again a Liturgy of the Word). Morning Mass was more full than usual. The 5pm service had about 75 people (of which 40 were CCD students), and there were about 25 at the 7pm service. Not bad.

PS - poor St. Ansgar. Same feast day. Rarely celebrated.

"Cast your nets [for a 3 pointer]"

This is Bishop John Barres of Allentown conducting a basketball clinic, I'm assuming, during Catholic Schools Week. Talk about creative "Thinking outside the box"!

Jan. 28 - St. Thomas Aquinas

On today's Feast day, I think of Bishop Ahr High School, located in my diocese, which was "St. Thomas Aquinas High School" until the early 1980s. At the time, Bishop (now Cardinal) McCarrick wanted to change the name to honor recently retired Bishop George Ahr of the Trenton Diocese, in whose diocese the school was until Metuchen split from Trenton in 1981. The story is told that, when Bp. McCarrick proposed the name change to Bp. Ahr, he was dead-set against it. He had visions of newspapers' sports sections' headlines that would someday read, "Bp. Ahr defeats Immaculate Conception", and that wouldn't do for a man who chose the episcopal motto, "Mary, my hope".

Sure enough, on the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas, what's the headline in the Star Ledger?

"Bishop Ahr defeats McCarrick"

I always knew who'd win that fight.

Anyway, most people only know of Aquinas because of seeing him in a stained glass window or a statue in a church. If this is you, the English Dominican blog, "Godzdogz" has a great article about St. Thomas you'll like.

Presence

Today's readings all have to do with God's presence.

In the 1st Reading, the assembled Israelites stood and listened attentively, then bowed down and prostrated themselves, as Ezra read from the law of God. After 70 years of exile, those who were children when they left their homeland, along with those who were born in exile and had only heard what adults had told them about their promised land, were now "home". Clearly, they understood that the book of the law was, for them, God's presence among them. Even today, where is the tabernacle in synagogues? Right smack dab in the center, prominent, on a raised platform (no "side chapels around the back" for Jews when it comes to the תנ"ך).

In the Gospel, Jesus has returned to the Synagogue in Nazareth, a place he must have known well. He reads Isaiah's prophecy of, well, himself. He reads, then sits in the chair (a sign of authoritative teaching) and tells the assembly that, today, they have seen Isaiah's prophecy fulfilled. They were in the presence of God, whether or not they comprehended it at that moment.

Jumping back to the 2nd Reading, St. Paul gives us that beautiful "Body of Christ" analogy. If we can recognize Christ's presence in the Word (we stand for the Gospel, we pray that the words may permeate our mind, lips, and heart, and the responses go from the 3rd person "Thanks be to God" to the 2nd Person "Glory to YOU, Lord", and, "Praise to YOU, Lord Jesus Christ") and presence on the altar or in the Tabernacle, only then can we make the jump to his presence in everyone we know (and even those we don't).

See? It's all about presence. Easy.

Desme to Padres, with a chance for Cardinals

Click here for the story buzzing around baseball about the Oakland A's Grant Desme, who is leaving professional baseball to study for the Priesthood.

PS - WARNING - I am not responsible for any damage done by yourself to your computer or any other furniture, should you choose to read the comments that some people have left.

B16 on World Day of Prayer for Communications

First, an introduction from Rome Reports:



Now, if you want to read the Pope's message, click HERE.

Finally, if you don't want to read the whole message, here are excerpts:

"Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word."

"Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different 'voices' provided by the digital marketplace."

"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis."

"Yet priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a 'soul' to the fabric of communications that makes up the 'Web'."

"To priests in particular the new media offer ever new and far-reaching pastoral possibilities, encouraging them to embody the universality of the Church’s mission, to build a vast and real fellowship, and to testify in today’s world to the new life which comes from hearing the Gospel of Jesus, the eternal Son who came among us for our salvation."

"He is out of his mind"

The Gospel reading at today's Mass tells us that Our Lord's relatives thought this about Him. In a way, can you blame them? He hasn't been around Nazareth for a while, his carpenter shop has been empty, even his mother walks around a bit sad that her son is gone. Add to that the fact that they're hearing stories about Jesus: he expelled an evil spirit, he healed a man paralyzed, he's bouncing from village to village and sees himself as some sort of Rabbi (he learned to be a craftsman from his father; they don't remember him being sent off to apprentice with a Rabbi). Plus, he went out and got himself new friends: some fishermen, ok, but a member of the Zealot party? A TAX COLLECTOR? Seriously, can you blame them?

If you're a Priest, no doubt you've heard the "out of his mind" line said about you, usually right after phrases like: "What do you mean we have to go to Mass every Sunday?", "Why won't you allow my brother to be a Godparent? He's a better Wiccan than he ever was a Catholic!", "Why can't we play my father's favorite song at his funeral Mass? He loved Pink Floyd".

If you're a seminarian, you probably heard the line the first time you told your family you were thinking about becoming a Priest. You probably used it more than a few times when you met your confreres and teachers in the seminary. And, it was probably said about you in evaluations when you asked your summer assignment pastor why he doesn't preach about contraception around the anniversary of Humanae Vitae?

If you're a Catholic husband or wife, you're spoken of in this way when you go anywhere in public with more than two children. Our culture congratulates you when you have one child, accepts the fact that you have two children (you had one of one sex and you were either successful or not in having one of the other sex), and begins to question you when you have more than two.

Congratulations, you're in good company.

Feast of St. Agnes

Roller coasters have never been my thing in amusement parks. Come to think of it, most rides aren't, either. To me, the rides exist as something to make it exciting when you walk past one and see an unexpected place to buy food or souvenirs.

But this one time, I was at an amusement park on a trip with a bunch of kids, who bugged me to go on a roller coaster with them. At first, it was easy to say yes. The line was huge and there were lots of conversations going on to distract me from thinking about what I was about to do. But as we crept closer and closer to the front of the line, I was starting to get this bad feeling in my stomach. I was looking for some believable excuse to bail out of the line, when I saw them: kids, probably about 9 or 10 years old, excited as they were coming off of the ride, begging the adult with them to let them go on the ride one more time. Suddenly, the twisting of my stomach stopped. If young kids could handle it without fear, so could I.

That's the effect, I think, Saint Agnes had on the Christians of Rome. Everyone lived in fear of the Roman Empire, and especially the absolute authority the government had to order you killed. She taught them, by her example, to be brave and to face the fears head on. "If she can do it,", hopefully they believed, "why can't I?" If she can face death with a sense of hope, then we can do at least the same.

As we honor her feast day today, I think of the two churches in Rome named for her. The first one in the midst of the Piazza Navona, on the site of her martyrdom, is called Sant' Agnese in Agone. Very easy to spot, though not open all of the time. You almost have to pounce when you see the doors open. The second one, at the site of her burial, is called Sant' Agnese Fuori La Mura. I've only been out to this one once, and here's a picture of the tomb containing the relics of St. Agnes.

"A leper approached Jesus"

The very words should cause us to gasp, because it probably did so to early Christians.

Lepers were considered "dead men walking", and were banished from towns and villages. For a leper to approach someone without the disease was to bring about a death sentence upon himself (someone who couldn't be trusted with staying away from infecting people had to be killed for the good of society). The opening prayer for the First Week of Ordinary Time asks God to help us to do His will with "courage and faith". For this leper to approach Jesus took both of those things; he was either going to get cured or get killed.

Put yourself in the sandals of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, when the leper approaches Jesus. There would be no surprise; they probably would have smelled the leper before they saw him. The face, hands and feet become a mass of nodules. The muscles and tendons contract until the hands look more like claws. The vocal chords ulcerate and so the voice becomes hoarse and breathing is more like wheezing. The muscles around the eyes deteriorate so that the leper can only stare straight forward. Discolored patches would appear on the skin, that eventually putrify.

THAT'S what approaches Jesus.

Mark (but really Peter) tells us the man knelt before Jesus, which could not have been easy to do with his muscles. He speaks to Jesus, forcing words through those vocal chords. But more than that, we read that Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him! He didn't have to touch the possessed man a few verses before in order to heal him. He didn't have to tough the leper; he wanted to. Maybe to give this man the first human contact he's probably had in years. Maybe to freak out the Apostles. Maybe both.

For whatever reason(s) he did it, what Mark tells us next must have been amazing to watch: "The leprosy left him immediately". Imagine seeing what the Apostles saw: leather-like skin turning pink, muscles growing, wheezing stopping, his voice clear. It had to have made them all speechless.

What ailment do you have? What eats at your body (or soul)? Have you knelt in front of the Lord and begged him, saying, "If you wish, you can make me clean"?

Now the extra credit: What if he doesn't wish to heal you? What if he says to you, like St. Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you to heal yourself"? Would you still love him? What is, rather than saying "no", the Lord is saying "not yet"? Do you have the patience?

Matthew 25:13

"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

"I know who you are"

So THAAAAT'S how the demon knew who Jesus was! Those crazy apostles...

But seriously, folks...

Today's readings teach us about the awareness of God's presence.

Hannah is in the Temple, pleading with God for a child. Eli doesn't realize how intense Hannah's prayer is, and thinks she's loaded. He should have realized that, in God's presence, anything can happen.

Jesus, along with Simon, Andrew, James, and John enter the synagogue in Capernaum for the sabbath, where week after week men came to be in the presence of God. This day, however, they were in the same room with God, and didn't realize it. Yes, they were astonished by Jesus' teachings, but no one made the connection. That is, no one except the man possessed by the unclean spirit. The demon knows immediately that God is present.

We're at the time of year when football playoffs mean people are shelling out hundreds of dollars to sit in a stadium to watch a game they could literally watch for free (with a better view)! It'll build up to the Super Bowl, where people will pay thousands of dollars for a seat in Dolphin Stadium. Why? Presence. Because there's something about being present in the place where the game is being played.

We're at the time of year when lots of politicos will be spending hundreds of dollars to attend the inaugural ball for the incoming Governor of New Jersey. They'll buy special clothes, get their hair and nails done, some will rent limosines, etc., all to simply be in the same room with the new Governor; to be in his presence.

How long would you stay in line to get a "meet & greet" with your favorite celebrity? Hours of waiting for 30 seconds of "face time". Why? Presence.

Do we have that awareness of the difference God's presence makes? Do we go into church aware that we are entering the presence of God? How many times do we clergy make light of that fact, barely stopping for a genuflection or a prayer when we have to get something in the church?

Why them and not me?

Two great readings as we jumped back into Ordinary Time at Mass today.

In the first one, Elkanah gives food to both his wives, though Peninnah was bugged that hubby gives Hannah a double portion because she's childless (and Peninnah never lets her forget it).

In the Gospel, Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee, where he calls Simon, Andrew, James, and John to follow him. Now, there were more than two boats along the shore, and certainly more than four fishermen there. What made Jesus choose them and not the guys in the next boat? I like to think about the boats tied up between Simon and Andrews' and James and Johns', and the guys who worked on them. Imagine them seeing Jesus walk past, say something to S., A., J., & J., and they all walk away. Imagine them wondering, "What's wrong with us, Jesus? What are we, chopped liver?"

How many times do we forget about what God has given us or done for us, and focus on what we don't have or didn't get because someone else did?

Scott Hahn had a great analogy to tell the difference between envy and jealousy. Envy, he said, is when you see your neighbor's new car and decide to get a second job to make money to buy yourself one. Jealousy is when you see your neighbor's new car and decide to scratch the paint job with your keys.

The Baptism of the Lord

On this Sunday's feast, part of my homily dealt with this stained glass image in my parish. When the church was built, it was the window in the Baptistry; now it's in the Reconciliation Room (or whatever the trendy term is nowadays. Personally, I'm all for "Penalty Box").

I love the little quirks of the picture: I love that the Jordan River is all of 18 inches wide (just enough for Jesus to stand in). I love that John the Baptist has a bunch of shamrocks growing behind him (I suppose it's because of the actions of the whole Trinity, but more realistically it's probably because the Pastor at the time was of Irish ancestry). I love the angel holding Jesus' cloak. I love that Jesus is looking at John's garment and wondering, "What's up with that bump?"

After Mass someone came up to me and said, "Father, thanks for telling me about that stained glass window. I've never seen it before." It took all of my self-control to make some sarcastic comment about her frequency of Confession. But by then I had 3 Masses, and I was a little tired, so I chose to punt.

Remember me? I used to write on this blog.

It was after a recent funeral that a Deacon who reads this blog made the comment that I hadn't really written anything on here in a while. Checking out my own blog, I realized it had, indeed, been more than six weeks since I put anything of significance out into cyberspace (the pictures and links notwithstanding).

First, let me note that today is the 150th anniversary of the death of Philadelphia's own St. John Neumann (although, to be more precise, it's more like "Bohemia's, New York's, Niagara's, Pittsburgh's, Baltimore's and Philadelphia's own Neumann"). While our current Year for Priests perhaps got its impetus from the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Vianney in 1859, it is significant to note Bishop Neumann's anniversary this year. Last year I wrote a blog entry about Neumann and his ties to New Jersey (including my own diocese), and you can read that by clicking HERE.

Now, about me absence from the blogosphere. Being Administrator of a parish for the first time (as well as being the only priest here), it amazes me how much faster my day goes! Each day I wake up early (though I should get up earlier and go to the gym, but that's for another entry), have a cup of coffee, head to the church, say Mass, come back here, and then it seems like I blink and the Angelus bells are ringing at 12 noon. I think to myself, "Let me just finish this one thing before I eat lunch", and suddenly it's 2pm! I grab lunch and a riposo (a holy priest once told me, "A good priest wakes up at 5:30... TWICE a day!"), and then it's time for evening meetings, whether with individuals, couples, or parish organizations.

What it means is that some things take a back seat, and amongst them has been this blog. Unfortunately some of my friends have also suffered, since I don't really get to see them or spend time with them as I used to. Certainly my waistline has suffered, since I've been eating weird hours and usually the food that is the most convenient to get quickly. In the meantime, I've also been spending my computer time tweaking my parish's new website, and time I spend doing that takes away from blogging.

But with a new year comes new optimism. So I begin to reorganize my life and catch up on things. Today, in writing a blog entry, I can check another thing off of my list of "things I need to start doing again".

There, I feel better.

Christmas at St. Lawrence

The new Venerable Servants of God

Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli)

Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyła)

...and 36 hours later

Fiesta di Nuestra Señora di Guadalupe

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

"Let us then avoid sin, and pray to Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, for a pure heart. 'Ave Maria, gratia plena!' Holy Mary, as you were full of grace on earth, so you are in heaven full of glory, as Queen of Heaven. But you are still full of grace for us poor pilgrims of earth. For thou art, as the Holy Father tells us, the treasurer of heavenly grace. Through thy hands graces are dispensed, which thy divine Son has merited. Thy hands are filled, as thou didst once appear to a Saint with shining jewels, the heavenly treasures of grace. Oh, stretch forth thy merciful hand, enrich and bless us, Mary! and keep us in the state of grace. Pray for us, Mary! Amen."

St. John Vianney

Feast of St. Francis Xavier - Dec. 3

On today's feast it's only right to show you a picture of one of the coolest relics in Rome. I give you....

THE RIGHT ARM AND HAND OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER

The picture comes from the website for the Church of the Gesù in Rome. In fact, if you click HERE, they have a few pictures from the San Francesco Saverio capella, to the right of the main altar and directly across from the St. Ignatius Loyola chapel. The arm was brought to Rome in 1614.

How many times had that hand held the Host at Mass? How many times was it raised to absolve sinners? To anoint the dying? To anoint during baptism?