Friday, February 28, 2014

Visit to Oldenburg, Indiana

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit the Sisters of St Francis in Oldenburg, Indiana.  What a wonderful place.  We had a guided tour of the grounds and buildings where the sisters live.  A big thank you to my friends Anne and Mary for bringing me there, and for a wonderful fried chicken lunch!

Oldenburg is known as the City of Spires with its strong Catholic presence and the spires of the church buildings. 

Hallway of the convent. 

The Eye of God over the entrance to the chapel. 

The Chapel where the sisters celebrate mass and their daily prayers. 

3/2/2014 – 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Matthew 6:24-34

     Don’t worry.  Don’t worry about what you eat and drink.  Do not worry about the clothing you wear.  Do not worry about the future.  We get good advice from today’s Gospel, reminding us not to spend all our time worrying about those things that are not the most important things in life.   But sometimes, it seems like all we human beings do is worry.  The poet Mary Oliver had this to say in her poem “I worried”:

I worried a lot.  Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

     Yes, there is so much we can worry about, isn’t there?  We worry about things that matter, about things that we can change, but unfortunately we also worry about those things we have no influence over at all, things that we can’t control.  Mary Oliver is able to conclude her poem this way:

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up.  And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.


      Some of us might be worried about the changes we see around us: changes in the world, changes in our Church, and even changes in our parish.  Think about, that in the last year, we at St James have a new pastor, a new bishop, even a new pope.  One of the prisoners I write to on a regular basis sent me an article he found in a magazine, entitled: “Pope Francis: The Times They Are A-Changin’.”  I love that Bob Dylan song.  The title of that article is so apropos, because the times are definitely a changing’. 
         We celebrated the Year of Faith recently, which was called in part to commemorate the convening of the 2nd Vatican Council in the Catholic Church in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.  People usually remember that one of the goals of Vatican 2 was to update and modernize the Church, to have it speak to the modern world in a way that the world can understand, to read the “signs of the times.”   But many forget that Vatican 2 also called us to a return to the Early Church, to the apostolic traditions where we started. 
         If you look around us here at St James, we are trying to reach out to people in our modern world.  We live in a world where technology cannot only keep us better connected with others, but this technology can also isolate us as well.  As the pastor here, I want us to have the best liturgies possible, to see how we can be faithful both to the teachings of the Church and to the reality around us as well.  Pope Francis wants us to be a warm, welcoming Church, so we are reaching out and welcoming those around us at the beginning of mass with a greeting.  We are also trying to incorporate the traditions and devotions of our faith in our liturgies and in our Lenten observances in a very meaningful way.
       I’ll give you an example. We are now going to have 3 opportunities during Lent to journey with Jesus with the Stations of the Cross – after the 12:10 mass and at 6:00 pm in English, and at 7:00 pm in Spanish.  I think you’d be very hard pressed to find many parishes that offer 3 different chances to pray the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent, 2 of which will have Benediction aftwards.   
        Where are these changes coming from?   Some of them come from a desire to have mass here at St James as an engaging, faith-filled, joyful encounter with God.  We come not only as individuals practicing the Catholic faith, but we are here to be a faith community, a community where we not only live out our vocation as disciples of Christ, but a community that makes disciples as well. When I first came to St James, some of the priests told me that our parish here is one of the hidden gems of our diocese, and in many ways, I have found this to be true.  We do a lot of things very well here at St James, but we always want to find ways to energize and engage ourselves constantly as disciples of Christ. 
         We can worry about the changes that are going on in the Catholic Church, in our parish, about where we are going as a community of faith, but we trust in the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us on our way.  And I use our parish’s patron saint as our inspiration as well.  James went to Spain to bring the Gospel to the people there, but when he came back to Israel, he thought that he had been a failure in his missionary efforts.  And we know from the Gospels that James was the first of the apostles martyred.  His body was brought back to Spain for burial after his death, where it was forgotten and then found by accident about 800 years later.  People from all over the world now travel as pilgrims to the place where James is buried – they come to James in this ancient pilgrimage tradition in the midst of the modern world in their search for God.  Last year alone, more than 215,000 people officially arrived as pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela – to the Cathedral of St James.
         As we get ready to begin our Lenten journey, we are called to set aside our worries, to trust in the Lord, to live out our Catholic faith to the fullest, to journey with Jesus during this holy time.  I know that many of us here have a great passion for our parish – of wanting it to be a place where we all can seek the Kingdom of God, and then proclaim that Kingdom to the community around us.  As we seek God’s Kingdom, we enter into the holy time of Lent this upcoming week as we come to mass on Ash Wednesday to receive that smudge of Ash on our foreheads, to turn away from sin and proclaim our belief in the Gospel.   We’re called to pray the Stations of the Cross each Friday and to come to our Lenten Reconciliation Service later in this month of March.  We are to pray, to fast, and reach out to others in works of charity.   No matter where we are in the our journey, we are to seek God in all things, even in the midst of the things that are worrying us. 

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Our Lady of the Duesenberg


My friends Anne and Marty Belcher in Indianapolis are always a big support to me.  On my visit to them last month, I took this photo of Our Lady of the Duesenberg, a running joke that we have.  Marty is very knowledgable in vintage cars.  When Marty's dad passed away, this statue of the Virgin Mary came with a floral arrangement - we deemed her to be Our Lady of the Duesenberg, in honor of the Duesenberg automobiles.

King Cake


King Cake is a tradition during the Mardi Gras season before Lent here in Mississippi - probably a tradition that came to us from nearby Louisiana.  My friend Margaret Campbell gave us a King Cake from the marvelous Broad Street Bakery in Jackson - what a wonderful treat.

Snow in Tupelo, Mississippi



       Having lived in Winnipeg, Canada, as well as in Chicago and Cleveland, I know all too well what a cold, snowy winter is like.  Here in Mississippi Snow is unusual.  Last week, we had a dusting of snow one morning, which created a beautiful setting around our parish office building.  

Capitol Building - Jackson, Mississippi



Cathedral of St Peter the Apostle - Jackson, Mississippi





Last week, I was in Jackson for the Day at the Capitol.  We had a mass at the noon hour with Bishop Kopacz as a part of that day.  Our Cathedral is truly beautiful and a landmark in Jackson.  

Crosses - a witness to the Gospel of Life



Each year in the month of January, right before the anniversary of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision, the Knights of Columbus at St James Catholic Church put up crosses to proclaim the Gospel of Life to the world.  It has become somewhat of icon in our community here in Tupelo especially since our church is located up on a hill on busy Gloster Street near the mall and the shopping district.  It is a silent witness that says a lot without any words.  

St James the Greater Catholic Church - Tupelo, Mississippi




Monday, February 24, 2014

2/28/2014 – Friday of the 7th week in Ordinary Time – James 5:9-12

      Wow, it is the end of February.  Where do the days go?  We see the passing of the days, we get caught in our busy schedules with so much we need to get done, and the one thing we truly lack in the modern world is patience.  Lacking patience and having a temper are two of the things I often hear about in the sacrament of reconciliation.  We hear about patience as a theme today as well in our first reading from the Letter of James.  We are told not to grumble amongst one another, to be steadfast and patient like Job. Patience is not any easy virtue, we know all too well.  Patience doesn’t come easily for most people, and true patience doesn’t really come from our own will.  Patience is found in persevering, according to James.  Patience is about having faith in God and allowing his grace to work within us.  Within our patience and our perseverance, we find the purpose that the Lord has for us in our lives.  We will need patience and perseverance as we start our Lenten journey next week, as we journey those 40 days with Jesus.  May we pray for the steadfastness and fortitude that we need. 

2/25/2014 - Tuesday of 7th week in Ordinary Time – James 4:1-10

       Jesus tells his disciples about the journey that awaits him, of how he will turned over the authorities and will be killed, yet will rise again after three days.  In a little more than a week we will begin our Lenten journey, we will begin journeying to the cross.   The cross and the passion of Christ are events that bring great suffering and difficulty to him.   However, with the cross comes hope and resurrection, comes salvation and redemption for humanity.  We are excited about our Lenten journey here at St James, of our theme of seeking God in all things, in whatever reality we are experiencing in the here and now of our lives.  What Jesus tells his disciples next is important to us as well.  We are not to journey with Jesus on his way to the cross with the desire to be the greatest, but rather we should do so through service and humility and gratitude.  As we start our Lenten journey next week with that smudge of ash on our foreheads, may the Lord help us to receive his Kingdom with the heart of a child. 

2/27/2014 – Thursday of 7th week in Ordinary Time – Psalm 49


     We hear a very interesting psalm this morning.  It proclaims: Blessed are the poor in spirit. The kingdom of God is theirs.  We hear this phrase a lot – poor in spirit.  It is one of Jesus’ proclamations in the beatitudes.  But what does it really mean?   I associate being poor in spirit with humility, in putting God first in life.   Being poor in spirit means that you are willing to disassociate from anything that takes you away from the Kingdom of God.  When some people hear the term “poor in spirit,” some people might think it to be a pejorative term, but in reality, I think it is anything but that.  Think of the rich man who put his possessions first, who was sad because he saw those possessions as being important and essential to his life, who would not let them go in order to enter God’s kingdom.  Being poor in spirit means being willing to walk by faith, willing to take risks in our life of faith.   If we are poor in spirit, we truly hunger and thirst for God.   I wonder if we are truly poor in spirit.  If the kingdom of God is ours.  

Sunday, February 23, 2014

2/26/2014 – Wednesday of 7th week in Ordinary Time – James 4:13-17

      Today’s Letter of James tackles the subject of arrogance in our lives, of how we often eschew the humility God calls us to by thinking we have control of our lives and of the future. It seems like we take our health for grant when we aren’t having any problems, and then something can strike us suddenly without any warning or notice.   Then we know that we are not in control of what the future brings. When I think of humility, I think of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, who served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996.  Chicago’s priests can be a very feisty lot, but Bernardin was very beloved by both the priests and the people in this very important Catholic center in the Midwest. Bernardin humility can be seen in the works he undertook as Archbishop: being a voice in the Catholic-Jewish dialogue, bringing Liberal and Conservative elements in the Church in America together in the Catholic Common Ground Project, and speaking out against nuclear proliferation.   In a book about Saints that I am currently reading, written from the perspective of Protestantism, Bernadin is noted as one of the great pastoral leaders of the 20th century and a man who one day could become a saint in our Church.  May the Lord help us to emulate the humility that Cardinal Bernardin lived out in his life.  May it lead us to confront the arrogance and selfishness that can take over our lives.

2/24/2014 – Monday of 7th week in Ordinary Time – James 3:13-18

      We can think of a lot of different virtues that we can have in our lives – tolerance, intelligence, gratitude, moderation, selflessness.  When you think of virtues such as these, they seem to be a bit more easy to define in comparison to the virtue of wisdom, which is mentioned in our 1st reading from the Letter of James today.  The Letter of James is all about living out a faith in God in the midst of the struggles and reality of our world.  James says that wisdom come out of humility, not selfish ambition or bitter jealousy.   Perhaps we can say it was wisdom that guided the father in today’s Gospel to seek out Jesus to heal him.  And the father is able to reach into his heart and say – “I do believe, Jesus, help my unbelief.” I always tell people that we should be embarrassed or dismayed by our unbelief or our doubts, but how we use our disbelief and doubts in order to search for God.  May the Lord help our unbelief.  May he help us find the wisdom that transcends our own selfishness and pride.  
 

2/23/2014 – el séptimo domingo del tiempo ordinario – Mateo 5:38-48

     Hay un cuento sobre Alejandro Magno – el rey de Macedonia en el cuarto siglo antes del nacimiento de Cristo.  El tenía el imperio mas grande en el mundo antiguo.  Alejandro estaba en el desierto con su ejercito.  Los soldados estaban sin aguo, y no podían encontrar un oasis.  De pronto, los soldados miraron una caravana de camellos desde una distancia.  Ellos fueron a la caravana y consiguieron su agua – una cantidad muy pequeña, y pusieron en un casco.  Alejandro Magno recibió este casco lleno de agua en la presencia de sus soldados – estos soldados tenían mucha sed.  Alejandro no bebió el agua.  Tomó el casco y tiró esta agua precioso en la arena del desierto.  Alejandro explicó a su ejercito  – “Si no hay agua suficiente para todos mis soldados para beber – no hay agua para mi para beber.”  Había un aplauso muy fuerte de los soldados – ellos tenían mucho orgullo de su rey.             
      Alejandro Magno mostró que estaba un líder extraordinario – el hizo mas de las expectativas del pueblo – él tenía la lealtad y la fidelidad de su pueblo. Pero, no hay una comparación entre Alejandro Magno y Jesucristo como lideres – como la manera que Cristo desafía las expectativas y guiaba el pueblo de Dios.  En el Sermón del Monte, Jesús instruía a sus seguidores para hacer cosas que ellos no pueden imaginar – para presentar la otra mejilla, para amar a nuestros enemigos, para orar para las personas que nos atacan.  Conocemos que son nuestras expectativas como cristianos.  Pero, conocemos que es la tarea mas difícil que podemos imaginar – casi imposible para hacer en una manera constante. Que Jesús nos dice al fin del Evangelio de hoy es mas increíble – para ser perfecto como su Padre celestial es perfecto.  En verdad, en la realidad de nuestro mundo, no podemos estar perfecto, pero tenemos un desafío por la parte de Dios – para nos esforzamos hacia la perfección, para vivir los valores del Reino de Dios con todos nuestros esfuerzos, para vivir el propósito que Dios tiene para nosotros.
     Tenemos la llamada de compartir el amor de Dios con nuestro prójimo en la luz del mensaje radical, pero tal vez tenemos una barrera en nuestra vida.  Tal vez hay algún miedo, algún memoria, alguna herida, o algún resentimiento como barrera de vivir en luz de Cristo, de tener el amor de Cristo en nuestra vida en su plenitud.  Con estas cosas, a veces es difícil para amar, para perdonar, y para ayudar a nuestro prójimo en la manera que Dios nos llama en nuestro camino.  Es difícil para dejar las cosa en nuestra vida.  A menudo, cuando estamos enojado contra alguien o cuando tenemos miedo, buscamos venganza.  Pero, hacemos daño a los demás en el proceso, hacemos daño a nuestra alma y nuestra fe.  La ira y la cólera que quedan en nuestros corazones pueden destruirnos mas rápido que una enfermedad o una arma. Jesús se daba cuenta de eso.  El mensaje de Cristo es radical – es fácil para mirar este mensaje como algo diferente, como algo mas suave.  Hay sabiduría en el mensaje de Cristo – es muy diferente del mensaje del mundo.  Si nosotros como cristianos no vivimos este mensaje y llevarlo al mundo, nadie lo escuchara.