Anima Christi of St Ignatius of Loyola

In honor of the feast day of Ignatius of Loyola, here is another one of his prayers.  

Anima Christi 

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

Good Jesus, hear me.

Within the wounds, 

shelter me from turning away. 

Keep me from the evil one. 

Protect me at the hour of my death. 

Call me into your presence. 

Lead me to praise you with all your saints. 

Forever and ever. Amen.

8/5/2016 – Friday - Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major – Matthew 16:24-28

     Today, we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome, one of the four major basilicas in that holy city.  It might seem strange to us that we dedicate an important feast day in our Church to a building, especially since the emphasis after the Second Vatican Council has been about how the Church is more than a building, how the people themselves are the Church, the Body of Christ.  Yet, this basilica is an important center of worship of our faith; it's dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary tells us a lot about our faith as well.  The Basilica of St Mary Major dates back to the 4th century, with the current building dating from the 5th century, right after the Council of Ephesus declared Mary to be the “Theotokos,” the God bearer, the Mother of God.  Before I came to Tupelo, I was the pastor of St Mary Catholic Church in Yazoo City, a parish that was founded prior to the Civil War and that had a beautiful church building built in 1907, so I feel a deep emotional connection to the feast we celebrate today. 

      The feast we celebrate today is a testament to the faith that has been passed down to us throughout the centuries.  Jesus tells all of us today: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”  Most likely, we have heard this command that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel countless times.  We know the words, but if we truly listen to them, then we realize that their meaning is so radical, so revolutionary. In a society that prides itself in individualism and accomplishments and the accumulation of material wealth, denying oneself and voluntarily taking up a cross is very revolutionary and goes against what most people in our society want most.

       In December of 2010, when I had the opportunity to travel to Rome for the international choir congress with the St Richard Youth Choir, we had the honor of having a private mass with Cardinal Bernhard Law at the Basilica of St Mary Major where he was rector that at that time. That mass was one of the greatest moments of our trip.  When Cardinal Law greeted the youth and their parents personally, I saw their faces light up with great awe and joy.  What a faith-filled experience that mass was, as we celebrated mass in that beautiful church dedicated to the Blessed Mother, as we received Christ in the Eucharist in a basilica dedicated to his mother.  As Catholics, as we honor Mary, as we honor the Mother Church in Rome, may we grow closer to our faith, may we gain in our understanding of Mary as the Mother of God, our Mother, and the Mother of our Church.

8/3/2016 – Wednesday of the 18th week of Ordinary Time – Matthew 15:21-28

      This may seem like a non-traditional view of Christ’s life and ministry, but I truly believe that the Gospel reading we hear today shows us that Jesus changed and grew into his ministry and into his understanding of his mission as the Son of God.   In his interaction with the Canaanite woman from the region of Tyre & Sidon in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus at first does not treat her with very much respect.  He initially tries to ignore and avoid her requests to heal her daughter.  Then very bluntly, Jesus tells her that he came only to preach to the people of Ancient Israel, that helping her, a Gentile, instead of helping a Jew, would be like taking food away from a child and giving it to a dog.  Yet, the Canaanite woman never gives up on Jesus.  Jesus recognizes her great faith and agrees to heal her daughter.  Perhaps, in this interaction, Jesus is brought to a greater understanding as to his mission and ministry here on earth. Perhaps Jesus realizes that he is meant to be open to more than just the Jewish community.  Like the Canaanite woman, we also are to be persistent, persevering, and tenacious in the way we live out our faith, in the way we search for the presence of God in our lives, in the way we seek out God's will for us.  May we always live out our faith with courage and conviction like this Canaanite woman in our Gospel today.

8/2/2016 – Tuesday of the 18th week of Ordinary Time – Psalm 201:16-18, 19-21, 29, and 22-23

       The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem was a very traumatic event for the people of Israel - that is what we hear about in this morning's psalm.   A. They placed their hope in their belief that the Lord would rebuild their Temple, that he would restore their nation to power and might.  I know that many people are frustrated with our own country right now,

as it seems to be heading away from Christianity and toward a very secular agenda.  We are frustrated with politicians that don’t understand what the common person is going through, that seem so obsessed with their own gains and their own reality, being oblivious to the pain and suffering of others.  We see corruption, dishonesty, and political scandals, and we are fed up with the status quo. Yet, we cannot give up.  We need to try to have a voice in the way we vote and in our selection of our elected officials.  The psalmist pictures God from on high, listening to the groaning of the prisoners, releasing those who are sentenced to die.  There are times when it feels like that our cries are not heard, when it feels like God is not in control.   We are to walk in faith each day, placing our trust in the Lord, working for the establishment of his kingdom.  It is hard sometimes, especially in light of the injustices we see and the frustrations we have, but the Lord will give us the strength to endure.

Celebrating the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola - his prayer for generosity - 7/31/2016

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

We especially remember our dear parishioner Betty Montgomery who passed away 2 years ago in a tragic accident the day after the feast day of Ignatius of Loyola. She had a great love for Ignatius of Loyola and Jesuit spirituality.  May she rest in peace.  

7/31/2016 – 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23, Luke12: 13-21

      It is hard to believe, but this summer marks 19 years since Princess Diana of England was killed in a tragic car accident in a tunnel in the city of Paris.  Not only being a glamorous princess, Princess Diana earned the love, respect, and admiration of many throughout the world for her charity work and for the way she reached out to many of the poor and oppressed of the world in great love and compassion. More than 2.5 billion people around the world watched her funeral on TV in 1997.  Her friend, English singer Elton John, brought tears to the eyes of many when he sang his song “Candle in the Wind” at her funeral.   Yes, the flame of a candle can go out so easily with the blow of wind.

And our life here on earth can seem as fragile. We can live to an old age, or we can die when we are young, but all of us will die one day when our earthly lives will come to an end. 

     The strong words from Ecclesiastes really gets our attention this morning: “Vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity!”   These thought-provoking words seem on the surface to be very pessimistic and cynical, but what do they really mean?   The Hebrew word “hebel” that is translated into the English word “vanity”, is the Hebrew word for breath or, more specifically, for the fleeting vapor that we see when we breathe into the cold air.  The author of Ecclesiastes is telling us that life can be like a fleeting breath: filled with emptiness and futility.  We human beings often attach ourselves to material things, thinking that these things will make us more secure or more appealing, thinking that these material things will satisfy our desires and our needs and make us feel like we having meaning in life.  Often these things just leave us empty and wanting more, especially when we compare them to God and to the eternal life of God’s kingdom. We definitely don’t start out with a comforting message in our readings this morning, but rather it is a message that calls us to reflect upon life and our earthly existence.

      We know that giving thanks and expressing gratitude to God is not only an important part of our Christian faith, but gratitude and thanksgiving are important parts of our secular world as well.  Think of how the holiday of Thanksgiving is such an important part of the fabric of our American society.  And saying thank you to someone is one of the first things we learn to do as a child.   In the Gospel today, there is a rich man who is blessed with a bountiful harvest.   This rich man’s Jewish tradition would call upon him to give thanks to the Lord in the form of prayers, fasting, and almsgiving.  But instead, this rich man hoards his riches, sharing them neither with God nor with his fellow brothers and sisters.  Instead, he plans to enjoy himself, to “eat, drink, and be merry”.   Jesus calls this man foolish because he puts all his trust and values in the material things in the world, not in God.   The rich man is unable to see beyond himself, being selfish to his very core.  The rich man gave no thought to the poor and the hungry.  He did not think about the laborers who brought in the harvest for him.  He feels no responsibility to share his blessings with them.   The foolish man is perhaps exemplified by this Roman proverb: “Money is like sea water; the more a man drinks the thirstier he becomes.” 

       We contrast this rich man in the Gospel who was so self centered and so tied to the materialism of the world to the poor, humble French priest, Father Jacques Hamel, who was martyred last week in Normandy in France by two men who claimed to be militants with Islamic State.  Father Hamel, who was 86 years old, was still very active in his ministry, having served 58 years as a priest.  In contrast to the bitterness, anger, and hatred in the hearts of these terrorists who act out so violently against their fellow human beings, Father Hamel had this to say in a recent parish letter: “Let us hear the invitation of God to care for the world, to make the world we live in a warmer, more friendly, more human and fraternal place.”  What a wonderful, faith-filled outlook on life Father Hamel must have had.  Ironically, Father Hamel was martyred just outside the city of Rouen, the same city where seven centuries ago a young woman named Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, declared a heretic. Just 25 years after her death, Joan of Arc was declared a martyr of the faith and innocent of heresy.  She is now a beloved saint in our Catholic faith.

      In our life of faith, in our participation and membership in a parish, we can easily get distracted by vanities as well.  That can really hold us back in our journey of faith, because our relationship with our community of faith is so important to that journey.  Recently, a friend sent me an article entitled:  “5 ways to be unsatisfied with your church.”  It was written by a Protestant pastor, but I saw a lot of parallels with what happens in our Catholic parishes.  The first thing the author cited was having an attitude of consumerism, rather than the desire to truly participate and engage.  It seems like the consumeristic culture of our modern world has tried to take over almost every facet of our society.  We want the latest technology in our cars and in our homes.  We go to a movie theater expecting wide rows and extra padded seats that lean way back.  We come to church, and a lot of us have the same attitude.   Just like when a movie starts in the theater, some of us go to church, we sit in the pews and expect the production to begin.  We want to be entertained, and then want to leave, satisfied when it is all over.  The author of this article stated that some of the most dissatisfied of his congregation, and the most vocally critical, were the ones who would occasionally show up for the Sunday church service, but would not participate in religious education classes, service projects, and ministry within the church. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and just criticize, isn’t it?  There are a lot of parishioners here who are so intimately engaged in our parish in so many different ways.  But, it would be good if all asked ourselves:  Am I truly engaged in my parish?  Am I truly a member of my parish community?  Or do I just come with the attitude of a consumer? 

      Our readings today call out to us to look at the priorities we have in life, to look at the things we consider to be our riches and our treasures.  Lord, help us to grow in our holiness.  Help us to be loyal to our journey of faith.  Help us to be true disciples. 

7/28/2016 – Thursday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time – Matthew 13:47-53

     We have been hearing a lot of different parables in the Gospel readings at mass lately.  Today, we hear the parable of a huge net that hauls in all kinds of fish, in which the fishermen will separate the good from the bad.  Jesus explains that at the end of the age, the angels will take the wicked, separating them from the righteous, throwing them into a fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.  There was a fiery place outside of Jerusalem called the Valley of Hinnom, also referred to as Gehenna.   Jeremiah refers to that valley as a place where the pagans sacrificed children as offerings to the idols.  Both Isaiah and Jeremiah refer to that place as a symbol of the destiny of the wicked, as fiery furnace and place of torment where there will be no consolation or comfort, a place for those who will be excluded from God’s divine blessing in eternal life.  I remember once when a rabbi was asked a question by a Christian about the specifics of heaven and hell, of how the Jewish people conceptualized those two places, he explained that the Jewish faith places greater emphasis on their conduct in this current life, in obeying God’s will and following his law and commandments, as opposed to trying to imagine what heaven and hell will be like for them.  In this Year of Mercy, in which we are called by Pope Francis and our Church leaders to be merciful like the Father and to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in our daily lives.  Lord, help us to follow your word in our daily lives.

7/29/2016 – St Martha – Friday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time – John 11:19-27

      Last Friday, we celebrated the Feast day of St Mary Magdalene, an important disciple and evangelizer from the Early Church.  In fact, the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas called Mary Magdalene “the apostle of the apostles” for the way she announced Christ’s resurrection to the apostles and to the world.  Today we celebrate another woman who was a devout follower of Jesus’ and one of his beloved friends – St Martha.  One may wonder why we have special feasts to celebrate these two women from the Early Church.  Perhaps it shows us the importance that women had in Christ’s original group of disciples.  Perhaps it also draws attention to the important role women have in our modern Church today.  Martha is always mentioned in the Gospels in conjunction with his sister Mary, but Martha gets a feast day all to herself.   There are two options for the Gospel reading for the feast of St Martha.  The first option comes from the Gospel of Luke, with Martha busy preparing a meal for Jesus and trying to show him hospitality, while her sister Mary wants to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his teachings.  The Gospel we hear today is from John’s account of the raising of Martha’s brother Lazarus, in which Martha, in a daring leap of faith, declares her belief in Jesus as the Messiah, the long-awaited one:  “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”  There have been a lot of different interpretations and reflections on the Gospel readings concerning Mary and Martha.  In fact, you already heard a reflection from me a couple of weeks ago when we had the reading from the 10^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel on the 16^th Sunday of Ordinary Time.  What we can say is that Martha has a very practical, lived reality aspect of her faith.  Martha definitely is faith put into action.  When her brother dies, she is able to say that she believes he will rise again because she knows who Jesus really is: the Son of God.  The Church needs both Marys and Marthas.  The Church needs priests of different stripes and colors as well – theologians, canon lawyers, missionaries, theologians, Diocesan priests in the small towns in the Delta, rectors at the cathedrals, intellectual Jesuits, contemplative Benedictines.  The Church always has had people of action and people of prayer, people of the establishment and the prophetic voices of the poor.  As we celebrate Martha today, let us learn from her experiences, and may we look for balance in our lives. 

7/27/2016 – Wednesday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time – Matthew 13:44-46

      We have been hearing different parables in our Gospel readings this week. It is striking to me that the treasure in the parable is found by accident. The person was probably not even looking for that treasure when he found it.  Our life of faith is that way as well.  We can have a plan for how we want our faith life to unfold, but Jesus can come to us in very unexpected ways.  Perhaps those surprise visits from Jesus are the greatest treasures we can have on our journey of faith.  I know that as a priest, I can have a “to do” list with everything I want to get done on a certain day, but then so much can happen to do away with my plans.  On the website for the pilgrims going to the Camino of St James in Spain, so many people planning their pilgrimage don’t want to leave anything to chance and try to plan each little detail to the greatest extent possible.   The trouble with that is that sometimes it does not leave much opportunity for God to interact with us in those unexpected ways.  A big part of pilgrimage is being open to God in those unexpected ways.  Even if we are happy and content with our lives, Jesus can come to us out of the blue and really upset our plans, can’t he? Let us try to open up our hearts to those unexpected ways God speaks to us in our daily lives.

7/26/2016 – Memorial of Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Tuesday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time – Jeremiah 14:17-22

      The people of Israel are suffering, yet they are not afraid to ask God why.  They cry out to God: Have you cast Judah off?  Is Zion loathsome to you?   The people acknowledge their own sins and the sins of their fathers, sins that were committed against God.  They ask God to remember the covenant that he made with them, to forgive them in honor of his own name.

       We live in a society where so many people aren’t willing to acknowledge the wrongs that they have done.  It is so much easier to blame the system, to blame someone else, to sue someone, to not take responsibility. The people in the Old Testament were confronting God in the midst of suffering from a great draught.  I wonder if some of the people of California and the American West who are in the midst of a terrible drought ever cry out to God in the same way.

        In the midst of this acknowledgement by the people of Ancient Israel, we celebrate today the memorial of St Joachim and St Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  They are not mentioned by name in the Bible, but they have been honored since the days of the early Church.  Tradition tells us that Joachim and Anne were an older couple without children when they were given the gift of a daughter.  When their daughter, Mary, was with child herself, both Joachim and Anne were notified separately by an angel of the Lord of this good news, which was the same way Joseph and Mary both heard the news of the upcoming birth of Jesus.  C. Since their daughter was specifically chosen for this special role in the history of salvation, we can only imagine the holiness and example of faith that Anne and Joachim gave her as she grew up in their home.  We celebrate the lives of Anne and Joachim and the example of faith that they are for us.

       I remember having a conversation with a young man from Shreveport, Louisiana who was helping us paint the church after the tornado.  He was of an Evangelical Protestant background; he asked me in a lot of questions about our Catholic faith. He could not get over that we in the Catholic faith don't go by Scripture alone, but rather have the teachings of the Magisterium and Tradition to help us with what the Church teaches of the faith.  A lot of what we know about Mary and Jesus is filled in by what the Magisterium and Tradition teaches, by what was passed down to us from the Early Church.  Let us celebrate the lives of Anne and Joachim today.  We give thanks for their place in the history of salvation.  Let us do so in the same spirit of humility in which the people approached God in the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah today. 

Prayer to St James - Camino de Santiago de Compostela

We prayed this prayer on our pilgrimage walk on July 23 at our parish in Tupelo, Mississippi in honor of St James the Greater and his Way of St James in northern Spain.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, our loving Father,

You guide us along a path on our pilgrimage on our life,

You guide us to eternal life and to our promised inheritance in heaven,

Pour out your blessings upon all of us this morning as we make this pilgrimage in honor of St James the Greater, our parish’s patron saint.

We thank you for gathering us from all walks of life as we journey together as a community faith on today’s pilgrimage journey.

Today, in a special way, we honor those people of faith who have passed down the faith to us, for their courage and steadfastness.   

We ask that you strengthen our steps with your grace,

that you enlighten our hearts with your love.

We offer this pilgrimage in acknowledgment of our own sins and for the sins of the world.

We offer this pilgrimage for peace and justice, for healing in our city of Tupelo, in our state of Mississippi, and across our nation. 

We offer this pilgrimage in solidarity with the poor and those who are burdened with so many things. 

We offer this pilgrimage for the sick and shut-ins of our parish, our families, and our community.

May this journey of faith help us be aware of your blessings and your grace at work in our lives. 

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, your holy Angels and the community of saints surround us with love and lead us to the joy of your Beloved Son.

Through the intercession of James the Greater, may God keep us whole in body, mind and soul, safe from every attack of the enemy.

As we celebrate this pilgrimage in the midst of our Year of Mercy, we ask that you bless us with your mercy, O heavenly Father, and make us merciful like you are merciful. 

We ask this prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with the Father, in communion with the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer to St James - Camino de Santiago de Compostela

We prayed this prayer at the beginning of our pilgrimage walk on Saturday, July 23 in honor of St James.  I very freely adapted this prayer from a prayer made by Pope John Paul II when he made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1989.  

We approach you today St James on your pilgrimage walk.

We honor your memory and we ask your protection.

As we honor you in Tupelo, Mississippi,

Far off from Spain or Jerusalem or Rome,

We remember how you walked in the footsteps of Christ

Bringing his name and his voice to a far off corner of the world.

With Peter and your brother John and the other apostles

You were one of the pillars of the Early Church.

That faith that all of you followed has reverberated throughout history,

a faith that we are proud to profess as Catholics today.

Come, with us, St James on our journey today,

May your prayers and intercessions bring us closer to Christ

And may you help energize and refresh our faith.  

We honor the way that you bring people from all over the world to your holy city of Santiago de Compostela where you are pilgrim and host,

apostle and patron. 

Santiago, on our own pilgrimage through life, help us imitate your zeal and fearlessness.

As the patron of pilgrims, especially help our youth be evangelizers of the Gospel to the world. 

Above, all St James the Apostle, teach all of us throughout the world that Christ is today and always the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

May almighty God bless us on our pilgrimage journey today – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  AMEN. 

Prayer for Pilgrims - Camino de Santiago de Compostela

We prayed this prayer for pilgrims at our pilgrimage of St James that we had in Tupelo, Mississippi on Saturday, July 23.  I adapted a prayer that I found on a prayer card that I brought back my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in January 2016, which was my fourth pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.  

Lord, you called your servant Abraham out of his homeland.

You watched over him throughout his wanderings.

You guided the Jewish people through the desert.

We ask to watch over us & guide us as celebrate our patron, St James, the Greater today.

Be for us our companion on our journey,

our guide as we try to find our way,

our strength in the midst of our fatigue,

our fortress in the midst of danger,

our resource on our itinerary,

our shadow in the heat,

our light in the darkness,

our consolation in the midst of dejection,

and the power of our intention.

Under your guidance may we travel safely and unhurt. 

May you help us reach the end of our journey.

Strengthened with gratitude and thanksgiving,

secure with happiness in our hearts,

may we reach our eternal home.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.