I've been memed!

Don't know what being memed means? Here's a definition. Thanks Domini Sumus.

1. One book that changed your life
The Sabbath by Abraham Josua Heschel. I know, I know, that's not Christian. But all Christians can understand Christ a little better by reading Heschel. This book showed me how the day of rest is what re-orients our life to God. Man was made for the Sabbath and the Sabbath was made for man.

2. One book that you've read more than once
The Lord of the Rings. Love it!

3. One book you'd want on a desert island
I wish it was the Bible and I know I would need it but I don't know how I'd survive without my brievary! I know the psalms are all there but I could find all the material for prayer that I would ever need in my brievary.

4. One book that made you laugh
DON'T HATE ME!!!! Rush Limbaugh is a big, fat, Idiot by Al Franken. It was vulgar and contained way too many swear words but I really don't like Rush Limbaugh and this book helped me explain why...dialogues are supposed to be two way not playing something someone says and then commenting on what they say. Franken is not always right but he's right in many of his criticisms of the conservative media.

5. One book that made me cry
This is a tough one, not only because I'm a guy and, therefore, never cry but because I don't read frustrating works. But, if you were looking for books that should have been a lot better, on the top of my list was "Lake Wobegon Summer 1956" which had one funny part and then really sucked after that.

6. One book you wish had been written
How to make a young man know that priesthood/celibacy is a great life. I not only wish that I could write it, I wish I could explain it.

7. One book you wish had never been written
Duh Vinci Code. If you know me, you know that I believe this is the most evil book ever written and that it will only cause evil. People who think this book will cause people to think about religion and that all publicity is good publicity are ignoring the problem that we are beginning to experience within Christianity: freedom is not defined as the ability to tell God what he should be/do.

8. One book you're currently reading
The Collar by Jonathon Englert. REALLY BAD THEOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS!!! But, I'm waiting to see what's going to happen with some of the guys. One of the guys is the typical liberal wacko straight out of the sixties/seventies: women priests, married priests, communion for anyone even unbaptized, church should be out in the trenches and doing everything different, destroy the church and her history and that's going to be good. He's either going to leave seminary or have to change.

9. One book you've been meaning to read
Let me start a list:
Christian Faith and Same-Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections. by Thomas Hopko
Deep Conversion Deep Prayer by Thomas Duba SM
God is Near us by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Priestly Celibacy Today by Thomas McGovern

Cardinal Johannes Willebrands

Probably no one really knew who this man was but he worked tirelessly for the ecumenical movement to make us one again. Who's gonna fill his shoes?

A better tribute than "Have you forgotten"

I don't like the song "Have you forgotten" by Toby Keith. First of all, I don't like his voice. He's got a problem with what I call forced vibrato. But, secondly, he acts like a schill for the Bush administration. I haven't forgotten about the World Trade Center. Have you forgotten that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with that and that while we waste precious resources fighting that war, the real war on terror OSAMA BIN LADEN, continues to make movies and reinforce troops. I want to shout, "no, I haven't forgotten. How in the heck did you?"

So, I don't like the song. I found this video using Enya's song "Only Time", which I find to be a better reminder of that awful day.

God or the GIRL

So, I found out here that the one guy in the series "God or the Girl" that was supposed to have gone to the seminary never went.

It's not a huge surprise. I was encouraged by the fact that he was one guy that seemed to have celibacy in correct perspective. But, he was too affective. You can't depend on God to make this vocation feel comfortable. It's innately uncomfortable.

Just as the grains of wheat are gathered, so let your church be gathered

In one of the earliest descriptions of mass, called the Didache, this prayer was prayed over the bread, “We thank you, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You made known to us through Jesus your Servant; to you be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom; for yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever.” I was thinking about that the other day when something strange happened. I looked around the student center and asked myself, “Where are all the students?” Now, you may ask yourself if I’m totally oblivious to what is happening around me or if I had a temporary memory loss, but let me assure that, you that life at St. Thomas is not like a Soap Opera. Instead, what happened was that I became acutely aware that I’m really looking forward to having the rest of our parish back. It’s not that I don’t appreciate those of you who have stayed here the whole time; our resident parishioners and student parishioners who were here for the summer, but, to use an image borrowed from Pope John Paul II, our parish has two lungs and one of them has been gone for a while. It will be nice when we have them both back.

The ironic thing is that you would have received an entirely different response from me two or three months ago. I was ready for some peace and quiet after several 2:00am moments of being awoken as the bar crowd walked by my window. I actually looked out as Buchanan hall one Saturday morning when all kinds of moving vans and trucks were pulling up to take students home and I said to myself, “good, get those kids out of here” now I want them back so that our parish can get back to normal.

Our gospel today is both a culmination and a transition: it is the culmination of what has taken place the last two Sundays. These past few Sunday’s we’ve been hearing a consecutive set of readings from the gospel of Mark. You might remember two Sundays ago, Fr. Ev preached about how the apostles were sent on mission and Fr. Ev also challenged us to go on mission. Last week, I preached about the return of the apostles and how they were not given time to reflect on their evangelical mission because they were overrun by people. I challenged us to persevere through the tough times in order to carry out the mission that we began. The next story in Mark is the very story that we heard today but, as you may have caught, we transitioned to the Gospel of John. Same story, just expanded a little bit…enough to fill five Sundays talking about the bread of life. The transition to this is this miracle story of the feeding of the 5000 and all that surrounds it. Just like last week, we recognize that the success of the apostles evangelical endeavors has led to a large crowd that seemed like sheep without a shepherd, to use terminology from the gospel of Mark. In John, however, there is no demand for food. Jesus just knows their hunger and desires to feed them. I imagine most of us can sympathize with the hunger of the crowd. But, imagine being Phillip who heard that it’s his responsibility to feed them. It seems impossible. It would take 200 days wages to feed 5000 people! It takes Andrew’s cool head to see that Jesus wasn’t going to leave them without hope. He was probably at the wedding at Cana when Jesus turned Water into wine, he knew he could feed the hungry masses. Because of a boy’s five loaves and two fish and the faith of Andrew, the whole crowd is fed such that there is even more left over than when they started.

I think it deserves to be said that there are a few messages that aren’t quite central for this reading. The fact that there was enough left over that they had to gather it up is not just an ecological message about not wasting food, even though that’s a good message that we Americans need to hear. Nor is this gospel merely a message about sharing, as though the crowd, upon seeing the young man turn over his meager fish and loaves, opened their bags and started giving over what they had. It’s obvious from their reaction, wanting to make him king, that a real miracle happened here similar to the miracle that Elisha did in the first reading. Despite how important an ecological message or a message about sharing is, neither of them really has to do with this particular passage of scripture.

Instead, taking the next step from the previous two passages in Mark, Jesus is trying to tell us that his message needs to go out to all people, not just either to those who want to hear it or those who act like they want to hear it. Our goal, according to the second reading today, is “to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace”. God wants us all to be united under Jesus Christ “with all humility and gentleness, with patience.” Just as Jesus gathered the fragments together, so we are called to gather the lost sheep together, especially the ones that are hardest to convince.

In the next few weeks, we will go through a difficult transition with the arrival of several new parishioners. Many of them will walk into St. Thomas and experience a liturgy like they have never experienced before. Let’s face facts; we do things here that don’t happen in most other catholic churches. This is intimidating and, again to be honest, it turns some people off. One thing that can help people make the transition to St. Thomas a little easier is quite simple: helping them know that even as strange as our liturgy might seem, they belong here. This is part of our common mission as baptized Christians – to welcome the stranger and help them feel united to us. It’s not just the role of the staff or even just the role hospitality ministers. All of us are called to do what we can to gather the people of God together so that, “(e)ven as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom; for yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever.”

The Collar

I was reading this book called The Collar by Jonathon Englert about a group of second-career seminarians at Sacred Heart Seminary in Hales Corners, Wisonsin. Now, admittedly, the author was denied access to two other seminaries after being told he would have access. The sexual abuse crisis seems to have forced some vocation directors to re-think the exposure they want their seminarians to have. Nonetheless, it looks like the actual stories of the men will be good so I'm going to stick with it. One complaint that I have is that the author tries to explain complex theological issues but is wrong. For instance, an annulment is not when a person's civil marriage is considered valid while the sacramental marriage is considered invalid. There is one marriage here. The whole marriage is considered flawed from the beginning. Not being a theologian, who can fault him for that mistake? Plus, the book is about the life of these guys who have all lived "other lives" that are now considering priesthood, not about annulments.

The author described what happened during orientation. One evening they did a Native American prayer service before supper and sang a song based on the Mickey Mouse Club song in which the spelling of the letters to Mickey Mouse was replaced by S-A-C R-E-D H-E-A-R-T during supper. I almost lost my lunch...and this was right before going to bed! This is how you want to present prayer to new seminarians?

Seminarians need to know the church's prayer. Why not pray liturgy of the hours and chant the Salve Regina during supper? Believe it or not, I've never experienced Native American spirituality or sang campy pop quasi church songs before and I think I'm a pretty well formed priest. But, if you start chanting "Regina Coeli, laetare" I can sing along because I did it at St. Paul Seminary. If they aren't rooted in the church's teaching, how can they possibly ever be considered a competent spokesman for the church?

Please Pray for Cardinal George!

This just fresh from Zenit

Cardinal George Undergoes Cancer Surgery

missa en espanol

Unfortunately, many dioceses will probably have a conversation like Bishop Slattery had in Tulsa. The church in the United States has to face the fact that there are several people who have as central concerns...

illegal immigration: People shouldn't break the law to enter the U.S.;
How did your ancestors get here? Unless they were Native Americans, they were illegal immegrants.

people who do come here should learn English;
Have you ever tried learning a foreign language? Give them a chance!

people who want to live in America should not wave Mexican flags
Drive around the country. People have flags of their ancestors hanging on the walls. It's okay to be a proud American who is also proud of his Irish/German/Polish ancestory. Why can't they be proud of their Mexican ancestory?

This is simple racism. This has nothing to do with protecting our borders. September 11 had nothing to do with Mexicans. These are good people who haven't bought into the abortifacient/contraceptive bias that American society has sold itself. Perhaps what we should be really scared of isn't immigration, it's why immigration makes sense to employers.

Go visit oxfiles!

oxfiles.blogspot.com has done it again. Even though the person only posts once a month, it's still hilarious when he does. The new sign on my door says....

The both-and of Catholic Faith

When most people think of faith, we think of a kind of trust in the divine action of God. God works in our lives. We trust that he does. You gotta have faith, right.

WRONG!

Faith is a far more complex topic than that simple definition. The catechism says, "Both a gift of God and human act by which the believer gives persoanl adherence to God who invites his response and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. It is this revelation of God which the church proposes for our belief, and which we profess in the Creed, celebrate in the sacraments, live by right conduct that fulfills the twofold commandment of charity (as specified in the ten commandments), and respond to in our prayer of faith. Faith is both a theological virtue given by God as grace, and an obligation which flows from the first commandment of God." p. 879 of green second edition. The entire first section of the catechism deals with faith.

So faith is not a simple-minded trust. It is both a gift and a responsibility.

A classic illustration: An old man or woman is in her or his house as the flood waters come to overcome the house. Several times, people try to save the person but, each time, the person sends them off because they have faith. Finally the person dies and goes to heaven. The person gets angry either at the Father or Jesus or St. Peter and one of them responds, "Hey, I sent all these people to help you. What more could I have done." Point: faith isn't pie-in-the-sky trust. It's intellectual trust and trusting in God working through other people.

So, should people be shocked that a church has lightening rods? Or that we take out kids to the hospital when they are sick instead of church? Of course not. That's not breaking faith. That's knowing and understanding that God is not a divine pupeteer. He gave us each other and expects us to take care of what he has given to us. Faith has been given to us and we trust in it but we must also nourish it. We give trust in God but we also trust that God has put people in our life to serve us.

Catholicism holds two things that seem contradictory together. It's one of the things I love about it.

From the Pope's address to families

"In contemporary culture, we often see an excessive exaltation of the freedom of the individual as an autonomous subject, as if we were self-created and selfsufficient, apart from our relatiohsip with others and our responsibilities in their regard. Attempts are being made to orgainize the life of socity on the basis of subjective and ephemeral desires alone, with no reference to objective, prior truths such as the dignity of each human being and his inalienable rights and duties, wich every social groups is called to serve. The Chruch does not cease to remins us that true human freedom derives from our having been created in God'es image and likeness."

From the July 9 Homily of the Holy Father in the Valencia, Spain for the World Meeting of Families

You are the good shepherd leading us into everlasting life.

Before I begin my homily today, please join me in praying for the peoples of Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine; that they will know Christ Jesus who, as St. Paul said in the second reading today, preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who are near. Let us call upon our Lady, Queen of peace, for all the war torn parts of this world that the hearts of all world leaders will be moved to peace as we pray Hail Mary….

Late one already too late night, I was disturbed. I could not find the peace of Christ that unites east and west, Gentile and Jew, sleep to the weary mind. I had trouble falling asleep with a multitude of thoughts on my mind. I thought about my friend who has stage four lymphoma and all the many treatments he will have to endure. I thought about my friend who will be headed to Iraq in a couple of months after having already spent a tour of duty in Afghanistan. I thought about the high speed rail project that I think we need to connect Des Moines, Ankeny, and Ames and who I need to contact about it. I thought about what life would be like if I were president and how I would change things. I also thought about a few things that I actually could accomplish. For instance, I thought about the projects from work that I didn’t get done that day. In fact, I was in the middle of convincing myself that I couldn’t telephone someone who had called to schedule a wedding that day when, at last, my brain could fight no more. I fell asleep at 2:00am. Forty five minutes later, my own phone rang. I looked at the clock and debated if I wanted the answering machine to take it but then I begrudgingly made my way to the telephone, (Pause) and boy am I glad I did.

It was a parishioner who was going through some very serious relationship problems with his wife. I believe I have met the man before but we were far from being well acquainted. After 45 minutes of listening and trying to help this lost sheep, I not only felt like I gave him peace-of-mind, but I hung up the phone, went directly to bed, shut my eyes, and got the best five hours of sleep that I’ve got in some time.
We probably all know what it’s like to have busy schedules. If you are a parent, I imagine you are incredibly well acquainted with this phenomenon. With the beginning of the school year just a few short weeks away, it’s good to sit and reflect on how we deal with the busy times of life. The disciples of Jesus are dealing with evangelical busy-ness for the first time in the gospel. Last week, Father Ev preached about how they were sent out on mission. Today, the disciples have come back from that mission of preaching, healing, and calling people to the mission of Jesus and not they need time to reflect on what has happened. In some ways, they have been wildly successful, perhaps even too successful because they find themselves overrun with people who need shepherding, people who need to be missioned. Despite their best efforts to get away, going even so far as to cross a lake, the crowds find them because these people feel lost, like sheep without a shepherd.

Sometimes we are the lost sheep who need good shepherds to lead us along the way. They may be counselors, health officials, priests in the sacrament of reconciliation, or a good friend. Sometimes we get to be the good shepherds who answer the call to listen and be God’s presence for someone whose life seems out of control. Yet, in truth, haven’t there been times in our lives when we have been God’s bad shepherds? Haven’t we all used excuses not to fulfill our call to service? Sometimes we say that we are too tired or overburdened to help someone. Sometimes we use racism, sexism, or other biases to substantiate selfishness. Sometimes the repeated demands of people and children weigh upon our last nerve until it seems we can take no longer. We probably all know people who are lost, people whose lives seem to be spinning out of control. Sometimes we are unable to help them because, unfortunately, some people like their lives to be totally out of control. But, how often do we not help people simply because we don’t feel like we have the time or energy. Sometimes we are authentically out of gas. We haven’t any more to give and we need our Sabbath rest to recharge and re-center our lives on what’s important. Yet, we can’t become like the bad shepherds from the first reading who have their leadership stripped from them by God. Despite our busy-ness, we remain on mission, spreading the word of God. We cannot retreat to deserted places as a way of escaping our call to mission. Do we take the time to be good shepherds or are we so single mindedly searching for deserted places that we don’t recognize our neighbor’s needs?

Fun with Philosophy

My freind Kate sent me this great philosophy cartoon from www.qwantz.com. If you click on the picture it should blow it up in a new window. It's got the best of both worlds: dinosaurs AND logical reasoning. Does it get any better than that?

Interviews with priests

This diocese is doing something called "Fishers of Men" a project for searching out young men who are interested in priesthood. Part of the process is going around and doing interviews of priests. That has been so good for me. I think every newly ordained priest should have to do this. It has given me a new appreciation for the priests of this diocese. It's way too easy to label someone and forget that they have histories that have made them the men that they are today. It reminds me of how blessed that I am to be part of this very unique oppertunity.

They also remind me that they have all weathered storms but have felt centered in the eucharist. I need to be better at finding the eucharist as my central point of prayer and as my source of strength. I need to remind myself that that is what the eucharist is and what is always has been.

Double Effects

I love the Lord of the Rings. I have the extended version of each of the movies and I try to watch each one at least once a year. I think they tell a lot about good vs. evil and use Christian imagery to tell a great story. You can imagine how frustrated I am to read this, then. So part of the profits are funding stem cell research You support a movie that promotes christian values and the people take your money and use it against us. There's just no justice on this earth.

Lebanon's Patriarch

I'm afraid I agree. I don't think anyone should be kidnapped but to kill tens if not hundreds of innocent civilians in order to take out a terrorist organization because they kidnapped 2 soldiers isn't right. Sorry Israel. I love you but this isn't just.

Some thoughts about the Holy Land

Having lived in the Holy Land for a while with Palestinians and taken classes with Israelis, I still don't feel like I have a great answer to the problems there. Abtout the best thing I can think I can say is that, in some way, no one belongs there. It's true that the Israilites were there in ancient times, in the time of the Old Testament. It's true that they were removed by the Roman empire and, for all intents and purposes, replaced by the Palestinians, though I don't get the feeling like they had a sense of ownership at the time.

How to solve the problem? Is it, as my Jewish prophets professor suggested, that Arabs can't stand a Jewish state? They have no fondness for that land. They have always looked down upon the Palestinians as less than Arabs until 1947 when they became martyrs for a cause? Or do we feel sorry for Palestinians who have been displaced by the communal guilt of the world over the massacre of World War II? I'm just not sure that there is a hard and fast answer. I am extremely skeptical of the answer that this has to do with having a democracy in the middle east and Muslim fears of cultural diversity, though I clearly remember crossing from Israel to Egypt and being told not to be caught alone with a woman because her husband will kill you if he finds out. If that was true in Israel, I would not be typing this blog. If I were to suggest a lesson we christians can learn from the situation, I would say that we can't become so fixated on a place or a building. Christianity is about a person - Jesus Christ. If St. Peters were to be destroyed tomorrow, the church would perdure. When the majority of Europe is Musilm, Christianity will still exist. As long as there is one good Christian somewhere in the world, the Spirit will be with us and there will be hope.

It's too darn hot!

In the midwest, it's hot. We hit 94 degrees so far today and it feels all of it. I decided that today was a good day to give the people of Gilbert a missa briva, a short mass. 45 minutes and we were all out of church.

So, I had an abbreviated homily, needless to say. I talked about simplicity of life and how this is an important aspect of the Christian life. It's not purely pragmatic. In other words, it's not just about not having too much stuff sitting around. It has to do with not letting the stuff of life get in the way of our mission of evangelization. The stuff of life should always give way to the path to holiness. Then I sat down and we went on with life.

Thoughts about Europe and other thoughts that keep you awake at nght

The other night, I thought about what Europe will look like when they, basically, succeed in their self-imposed genocide. It's a fact that in almost all of Europe, society is not having enough children to replace the current generation, an event I call the self-imposed genocide. That's probably too dire of a term to impose, though. But, I thought it was just brilliant. I was convinced that I had an idea of a column in a magazine righ before I went to sleep. I awoke and realized that I was just ranting about "facts" from "souces" that would immediately be discounted by the majority of people. But, I was convinced the night before that I had, basically, invented the wheel.

Do you ever do that? My mind races before sleep about all kinds of things. Sometimes it's about a disagreement I've had with someone, sometimes it's about esoteric subjects of which I'm studying. Sometimes, I'll realize that I'm keeping myself awake just by tossing ideas around in my head. Or, I'll think that I have an excellant idea for a homily or a post and then I won't remember it the next day. That's frustrating! The human mind is fascinating and proves to me the existence of God. It's just too complicated for it not to have been intended that way. Maybe instead of saying that it proves the existence of God, I should say that it gives me new appreciation for God's creation and his love.

Gone for a few days

I'm in the process of collecting interviews from priests for a program that is taking place in the fall so I'm going to be gone to Dubuque for the next couple of days. I'll probably be uunable to post during that time but, do not fear! I will be back on Sunday and hope to post then my homily and update you on what happened in Dubuque. Have a great (hot) weekend!