1 August 2020 - St Alphonsus Liguori - Confirmation - Matthew 5:13-19

      We celebrate the sacrament of confirmation today.  We want to thank all of our youth for being so patient during the pandemic.  The big day is finally here for us to be able to celebrate with you. The readings we are using today are the readings for the feast day of St Alphonsus Liguori, the saint we celebrate today.  I know that you all chose saints for your patron saint for the sacrament of confirmation, a tradition we have in our faith. Throughout the history of Christianity, God has sent different people to found religious orders, to bring a certain charism to our Catholic faith and to bring a certain message to the world.  Yesterday, the saint of the day was St Ignatius of Loyola, who in the time of the Protestant Reformation founded the Jesuits, an order who has sent missionaries all of the world.  The Jesuits pledged their allegiance in a special way to the Pope at a time when the authority of the Pope was being questioned.  Today, we celebrate Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. He was born into a noble family in Naples in Italy.  He actually worked in a very prestigious career as a lawyer before becoming a priest.  St Alphonsus founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer – the Redemptorists – in 1732.  This congregation’s goal was to teach and preach to the poor in the  cities, to bring the Gospel to that reality.  God used Alphonsus Liguori and the Redemptorists in preaching his message in a very specific way, in bringing his message of love and mercy to the world.  He encouraged people to have a strong devotion to Mary and the Blessed Sacrament.   

        We hear a wonderful Gospel message today as we celebrate your confirmation.  In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us that we are to the salt of the earth - to bring a special flavor and seasoning to the world. Also, we are called to be a light shining in the world.  We are not to cover our light, to hide it, to be afraid to have our light shine.  Rather, we are to shine our light all over the world.  We live in a world today where a lot of people want to destroy things and tear things down.  Yet, Jesus tells us that he came not to destroy the law and the message of the prophets that God had previously, but rather, he came to fulfill and build up.  That is a great message we are to hear today, how we can be a light in a good way, how we can bring the message of God to the world in a productive, healthy way.  

      When I think of the sacrament of confirmation, I think of the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit comes to all of you in a special way to bless you and to fill you with the love of God.  Normally, the bishop comes to us here at St Jude to celebrate this sacrament, but due to the pandemic, he has delegated this sacrament to his pastors.  He sends all of you his blessings and best wishes as we celebrate this wonderful sacrament with all of you and your families and with our community of faith here at St Jude.  

Prayers of the faithful - 31 July 2020 - 17th week in Ordinary Time

Lord Jesus - you call us to new life. 

Christ Jesus - you call us to be missionary in spirit. 

Lord Jesus - you guide us to justice. 

Presider: Confident in God’s love and mercy, we present now our prayers and petitions. 

1. For our Church, may we continue to reach out to others in love, embracing the marginalized and all those in need. 

2. For our own and government leaders throughout the world as they address the many pressing issues of our time, may they be open to receiving wisdom and understanding from God. 

3.  For parents, may God provide them with the wisdom and understanding they need to discern what is best for their children’s future. 

4. For research scientists, that they find a vaccine or cure for Covid-19; for health care workers that they be protected from this viral infection; and, for us, that we each do our part to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. 

5. For the faithful, may they single-heartedly and zealously seek the kingdom of heaven. 

6.  For the sick and shut-in, for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, and for those prayers we hold in our hearts today. 

Presider: Loving God, we know it is you who in all things works for good, please grant us the eyes of faith to see the many ways you graciously accomplish these works. We make our prayers through your Son Christ our Lord forever and ever. AMEN. 

Mass readings - Confirmation - 1 August 2020 - Feast of St Alphonsus Liguori

FIRST READING          Romans 8:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has freed you from the law of sin and death.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do,
this God has done:
by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.


RESPONSORIAL PSALM          119:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Doce me, Domine, iustificationes tuas.

R. (12) Lord, teach me your statutes.
How shall a young man be faultless in his way?
By keeping to your words.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
With all my heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commands.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
Within my heart I treasure your promise,
that I may not sin against you.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
Blessed are you,
O LORD; teach me your statutes.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
R. Lord, teach me your statutes.


ALLELUIA          Mt 5:16
Sic luceat lux vestra coram hominibus ut videant vestra bona opera et glorificent Patrem vestrum.
Let your light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.


GOSPEL           Matthew 5:13-19
Jesus said to his disciples:
"You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

31 July 2020 - St Ignatius of Loyola - Friday of the 17th week in Ordinary Time - Jeremiah 26:1-9

      We hear harsh words that the prophet Jeremiah delivers to the people of Israel, which took place about 6 centuries before Christ’s birth.  Even though the people were told that disaster would befall them if they did not repent and turn back to the Lord, they become angry and indignant, wanting to put the prophet Jeremiah to death.  Sometimes we don’t want to hear what God says to us, do we. In my prison ministry, I remember one prisoner at the state prison in Yazoo City telling me that when he was in the process of doing the act that put him into prison, he knew that God was trying to give him the message that he was doing something that was wrong, but he did not want to hear what God was saying and did it anyway.   Sometimes we turn our back on the Lord and ignore what he is telling us.  Through Jeremiah, the Lord tells the people of Israel that they will be treated like Shiloh if Israel does not repent.  Shiloh was an ancient shrine that had been destroyed by the Philistines. 

       St Ignatius, the saint we celebrate, would admit that for many years in his life, he had turned his back on God. Ignatius was born in late 15^th century in 1491, the year before Columbus sailed for America.  Ignatius actually had a brother who sailed with Columbus. Ignatius was the youngest of 11 children from a family in the Basque country in northern Spain.  He was trained to be a member of the royal court and to be a solider, but while fighting at the siege of Pamplona in 1621, he suffered a broken leg that had to be re-broken after it was not set properly.  His friends carried him more than a hundred miles back from the sight of battle to his family’s ancestral home.  Ignatius was confined to his bed for a long period of time during his recuperation from his injuries, where he learned about saints such as Dominic and Francis of Assisi and where he read stories about Christ and his ministry.   This brought about a profound conversion of faith. After spending time as a hermit in a cave and time wandering as a pilgrim, where he was able to reflect and ponder, Ignatius enrolled in the university of Paris at the age of 30 to become a priest, a very advanced age to be in formation for the priesthood. He had to study Latin with young boys in order to get ready for his study of theology.   Even though Ignatius had turned his back on God for most of his early life, he had opened his life to God.  From the humble beginnings of his conversion, to the way he wrote his spiritual exercises while trying to discern God’s will for him in his life, Ignatius of Loyola went on to found the religious order of the Society of Jesus – the Jesuit -  an order of priests that still has great influence in Catholicism today.  We celebrate Ignatius of Loyola today – and pray that his prayers and intercessions accompany us on our own journey.

2 de agosto de 2020 – decimoctavo domingo del Tiempo Ordinario – Mateo 14, 13-21

      La narración en el Evangelio de San Mateo hoy es mas de un milagro que Jesús hizo en la multiplicación de los panes y los peces.  La muchedumbre estaba buscando algo.  La muchedumbre tenía hambre.  Ella estaba buscando algo para llenar esta hambre.  La muchedumbre tenía hambre física  - pero otras niveles de hambre también.  Pero, estaba buscando el Salvador, el Mesías, el centro de su espiritualidad.  Nosotros, los fieles de nuestro mundo moderno, buscamos algo también.  Buscamos algo para satisfacer el hambre en nuestro espíritu, el hambre en nuestros corazones, el hambre de la búsqueda de significado en la vida.

       Hoy, como un don de Dios, tenemos el milagro de la Eucaristía, el milagro del cuerpo y la sangre Dios. Hoy, en la santa misa, recibimos a Cristo como alimento de la vida nueva.  Estamos unidos en la Iglesia, en la Eucaristía.  Estamos unidos como el Cuerpo de Cristo en el mundo, el Cuerpo de Cristo para continuar sus obras aquí.  Los discípulos miraban la muchedumbre y ellos tenían miedo – ellos querían dispersar la muchedumbre porque ella tenía hambre.  

E. Jesucristo no quería dispersar la muchedumbre.  Al contrario, Jesus quería unirla. 

       ¿Cómo puede la comunidad hispana de nuestra parroquia alimentar los miembros de nuestra comunidad de fe como Cristo alimentó a la muchedumbre en el Evangelio de hoy? A veces, es un desafío y una cruz para nosotros. Todo el mundo está sufriendo en la pandemia en este momento.  En los Estados Unidos.  En México.  En los países de América Latina.  La comunidad hispana aquí en los Estados Unidos también. 

       Hoy, celebramos con los miembros de nuestra comunidad en una manera especial, con las familias con niños que van a celebrar su primera comunión. Como la muchedumbre tenía hambre en el evangelio, yo sé que los niños en nuestra clase de la primera comunión tenía mucha hambre para recibir este sacramento, porque con la pandemia, estaba imposible para celebrar la misa por muchas semanas.  Tenemos mucho gozo en nuestros corazones para celebrar este sacramento con estos niños y estas familias.  Pero, recibir este sacramento no es el fin.  Es un sacramento que puede alimentarnos todos los días de nuestra vida.  Como Cristo con la ternura que tenía por la muchedumbre con hambre, él tiene ternura por nosotros también con el hambre que tenemos en nuestra vida.  

Bulletin Reflection - Ignatius of Loyola - 2 August 2020

   Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was born in the Basque country in Spain.  After living a very material worldly life as a solider, he had a profound religious conversion while recuperating from a devastating battle injury at the Battle of Pamplona.  After a long period of discernment and studies, he found his calling in God.  He became a Catholic priest and the founder of the religious order of the Jesuits. We celebrated the feast day of St Ignatius on July 31.  One of his most famous prayers is the Suscipe, which comes from the Latin word for “receive.”  The Suscipe prayer had its origin in the monasteries in their prayer of Psalm 118.  Ignatius’ Suscipe prayer comes near the end of his spiritual exercises, a set of prayers, reflections, and contemplative exercises.  

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,


my memory, my understanding,


and my entire will,


All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.


To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.


Give me only your love and your grace,


that is enough for me.

       Giving over our will and our desires to God’s will is quite a radical concept in our world today, isn’t it?  It draws us out of our comfort zone.  It calls us out of our selfishness and our self-centered desires into complete faith and trust in God.  The Suscipe calls us to be detached from our worldly desires and accomplishments.  It calls to surround ourselves with God’s grace and love.  The spirit of the Suscipe is a lifelong journey for us, not something that we accomplish in a week or a month.  Yes, Lord, may your love and your grace be enough for us.  

Reflection - Our Present Challenges

      This time last year, I was finishing up the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola in the Basque Country of Spain.  It was a wonderful, faith-filled experience for me, a time of prayer and reflection that helped me look at the reality of my life through the lens of my faith and through the lens of the spiritual exercises.  My heart is filled with gratitude for those who accompanied me throughout that experience.  

      Last weekend at Mass, I spoke about the feast of St James the Apostle that we are celebrated on July 25.  As most of you know, pilgrimage has been a very important part of my life as a priest.  This upcoming weekend, I had reservations to travel to California to start hiking the California Mission Trail founded by St Junipero Serra in the 18th century. I had hoped to visit many of the old historic California missions. Unfortunately, with the up-surge in the pandemic, those travel plans are now postponed.  However, as I think of the significance of the California Mission Trail to me, I think of how some in our society are attacking our Catholic faith right now, targeting the destruction of statues of Jesus, the Blessed Mother, and other saints that are located on church grounds, not even publicly owned property, protesting the existence of these statues on church-owned property.  Yet, at the same time, what I have experienced in pilgrimage is a spiritual experience that welcomes anyone from any walk of life, to travel beyond their daily lives and their comfort zone, to experience something different in their lives, to experience both an inward and an outward journey of spirituality and renewal.  The love and welcome I have received from different pilgrim support groups and those I have met on pilgrimage has had a huge effect on me.  It gives me hope and energy during the challenging times in my life.  

      At a time when we see so many people lash out in ugly words on social media sites, at a time when we see many people want to loot, vandalize, and destroy, I know that this is not what our faith is calling us to do.  Our faith calls us to hope, action, life, and love, not to vandalism and destruction.  I know that this has been a difficult time in our faith.  But we have been through many other difficult times throughout Church history.  I just read a book about the history of the Jesuits.  With the founding of the Jesuits in the 16th century, they swiftly became one of the largest religious orders of priests and brothers in the world.  Then, they were banished from certain countries and from the entire Roman Catholic realm for a period of time, with their schools and property confiscated.  Yet, they came back and once again became a very influential group within the Catholic Church and the field of education.  They met great opposition and challenges at different times throughout history, yet have survived to continue their lives of faith and their ministry.  As a society, we are going through a very difficult time right now.  Yet, through it all, God will give us the faith to endure.  

        Blessings to all of you.  Have a blessed week.  Father Lincoln

Poem - Antonio Machado - The Wind, One Brilliant Day

       This weekend, I quote the following poem by Spanish poet Antonio Machado (1875 - 1939) in my homily.   This Sunday actually happens to be his birthday - July 26.  I had the privilege to visit the humble apartment in Segovia where he lived most of his adult life and where he wrote most of his poems.  

       In the imagery of Machado’s poem, the Lord can come to us in a quiet whisper and a calm breeze with the Good News of salvation, with a call for us to follow him that can be as subtle & as beautiful as the smell of jasmine blooming on a hot summer’s night.   Yet, if we’ve neglected our faith, if the garden of our soul has not been cultivated, we might not be ready to receive his message, no matter how beautiful and inviting that message may be. 

THE WIND, ONE BRILLIANT DAY

One clear day the wind with the

aroma of jasmine called my heart:

"In exchange for my aroma I'd love to

 have the fragrance of all your roses."

"I have no roses, there aren't any

 flowers in my garden; all have died."

" I will then take the fountain's waters,

the yellow leaves and the withered petals."

The wind left...My heart wailed....

" Soul, what have you done to your garden?"

LLAMÓ A MI CORAZÓN, UN CLARO DÍA

Llamó a mi corazón, un claro día,

con un perfume de jazmín, el viento.

-A cambio de este aroma,

todo el aroma de tus rosas quiero.

-No tengo rosas; flores

en mi jardín no hay ya, todas han muerto.

-Me llevaré los llantos de las fuentes,

las hojas amarillas y los mustios pétalos.

- Y el viento huyó... Mi corazón sangraba...

Alma, ¿qué has hecho de tu pobre huerto?

A Busy Weekend at St Jude - Bulletin Reflection - 26 July 2020

     We celebrate several things this weekend.  First of all, Saturday, July 25, is the feast of St James the Greater, the patron of the Camino of Santiago pilgrimage in Spain, which I have hiked five different times.  It is one of the main pilgrimages in our Catholic faith, having started more than 1,000 years ago.  There are many lessons learned on the pilgrimage of St James, and many wonderful quotes about it.  One pilgrimage remarked: “Don’t come to the Camino looking for answers.  Instead, come with an open heart and you may be surprised by what you find.”  Another pilgrim stated: “I could not think of a better living expression of peace than going on pilgrimage.”  I first went on the Camino of St James in 2003, a year before I entered seminary.  It will always be a big part of me.  And I will always identify as a pilgrim.
        This weekend we also start our Masses celebrating First Communion and Confirmation with our children, our youth, and their families.  It is always a great joy for me to celebrate these sacraments as a pastor with the faithful.  These Masses have been delayed several months because of the pandemic, but the joy we will feel in our hearts during these celebrations will not diminished.   We send out of prayers and blessings to our children, our youth, and their families.
          Finally, we say goodbye to Denis and Margaret Riordan and their family as they move to Florida.  It has been a joy having them in our parish.  We wish them well, but we will very much miss them.  From Margaret’s contributions to our music program, to Tommy and Jack serving at Mass, to the joyful presence in our parish of their other children and the entire family, we are very thankful for the presence they have had in our parish.  It has been a blessing having them here in our St Jude family.  
        Blessings to all of you.  Have a blessed week.  

27 de julio de 2020 - Ciclo A – decimoséptimo domingo del tiempo ordinario - Mateo 13:44-46

       El sábado, celebramos la fiesta de Santiago el Mayor, uno de los apóstoles de Jesús.  Cuando viajaba a España en el año de 2003 para caminar por la ruta de peregrinación de Santiago, tenía la oportunidad de visitar otros sitios religiosos en España. Uno de los lugares más interesantes que visité fue la ciudad de Segovia, que es la ciudad donde San Juan de la Cruz pasó sus últimos días y donde está enterrado.  También, visitaba la casa del poeta español Antonio Machado en Segovia, que ahora es un museo.  En este humilde apartamento, Machado escribió la mayoría de sus poemas famosos.  En uno de los poemas, Machado escribió sobre el estado de su alma. Esto es lo que escribió Machado:

Llamó a mi corazón, un claro día,
con un perfume de jazmín, el viento.

(El viento explicó) -A cambio de este aroma,
todo el aroma de tus rosas quiero.

(Yo respondí) -No tengo rosas; flores
en mi jardín no hay ya, todas han muerto.

(El viento dijo) - Me llevaré los llantos de las fuentes,
las hojas amarillas y los mustios pétalos.

Y el viento huyó... Mi corazón sangraba...
Alma, ¿qué has hecho de tu pobre huerto?

       Como escribió Machado, nuestra alma puede ser un hermoso jardín, con flores y un aroma dulce. O nuestra alma puede ser un jardín donde todas las flores están muertas y la tierra está seca.
        Hay muchas cosas que podemos reclamar para nuestro tesoro en la vida —- muchas cosas.  En los últimos años, ha habido programas de televisión de realidad sobre los acaparadores, sobre las personas quienes acumulan posesiones materiales al extremo, de tantas pilas y montones de tantas cosas, y ellos no tienen espacio para moverse en sus hogares.   Esta parábola de Jesucristo habla sobre los grandes tesoros que las personas encuentran en la vida: tesoros enterrados en un campo tan maravilloso que uno está dispuesto a vender todo para obtenerlo, o una perla que el comerciante finalmente encuentra después de muchos años de búsqueda.  El punto de todas estos cuentos es que el reino de Dios es ese tesoro para nosotros - este tesoro es mucho más valioso que cualquier cosa que podamos obtener aquí en la tierra.  Sin embargo, podemos estar tan atrapados con nuestros tesoros materiales.  Algunas personas en nuestra sociedad están listos para vender sus almas por la acumulación de riquezas materiales. Algunos de ellos pueden comprometer su salvación por la fama, el poder, la popularidad.  Ese es el sentimiento que Antonio Machado intentó capturar en este poema.  El Señor puede venir a nosotros en un murmullo tranquilo y una brisa tranquila con las buenas noticias de salvación, con un llamado para que lo sigamos, que puede ser tan sutil y hermoso como el olor a jazmín que florece en la noche de verano.  Sin embargo, si hemos descuidado nuestra fe, si el jardín de nuestra alma no ha sido cultivado, es posible que no estemos listos para recibir su mensaje.
       Cuando estuve en Roma con el coro de la parroquia de San Ricardo en 2010, visitamos la basílica de San Pablo fuera de las antiguas murallas de Roma.  Por muchos siglos, los funcionarios de la basílica habían tratado de encontrar el lugar exacto donde estaba enterrada la tumba de San Pablo.  Los funcionarios descartaron un lugar de tierra porque parecía que era roca sólida, por lo que pensaron que no había forma de que San Pablo pudiera haber sido enterrado en ese lugar.   Sin embargo, resultó que no era roca, era solo tierra que se había endurecido durante tanto tiempo que era dura como la roca.   Este es el lugar donde finalmente se encontró el tesoro, debajo de ese suelo duro y duro, donde finalmente se encontró la tumba de San Pablo.   Al igual que el suelo que puede volverse duro como una roca, nuestros corazones pueden volverse tan duros que podríamos no pensar que este es el lugar donde encontraremos nuestro tesoro, por lo que comenzamos a buscarlo en otros lugares.  Pero Jesús nos dice que debemos seguir buscando el tesoro que solo encontraremos en el reino de Dios, ya que este es el único tesoro que vale tan buen precio.  Es el mensaje que Cristo nos da hoy. 

Prayers of the faithful - Feast of St Mary Magdalene - 22 July 2020

Lord Jesus - you call us to a life of discipleship.
Christ Jesus - you proclaim the kingdom of God.
Lord Jesus - you bring us the Father’s love.

Priest: As we honor St Mary Magdalene today, we approach God in trust and confidence in our prayers:
1. We pray that like St Mary Magdalene, we may have a boldness and vibrant faith born out of love, that we live out our faith in perseverance and joy.
2. For our spiritual leaders and our governmental leaders, that the have the wisdom and courage to lead their people during these challenging time. 
3.  We pray in thanksgiving and gratitude for our many blessings we have in our lives, that we may recognize those blessings and use our blessings and gifts to reach out and help others.
4. For those who may be struggling in their faith, for those who are battling additions or struggling with different types of illnesses of mind, body, or spirit, for healing and wholeness. 
5. For our medical professionals, our first responders, and the men and women in the military. 
6. For the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, for their entry into eternal life.
7. For those prayers we hold in our hearts.
Priest:  With humble hearts, we make these prayers through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever.  AMEN.

Prayers of the faithful - Memorial of St Mary Magdalene - 22 July 2020

Lord Jesus - you call us to a life of discipleship. 
Christ Jesus - you proclaim the kingdom of God. 
Lord Jesus - you bring us the Father’s love. 

Priest: As we honor St Mary Magdalene today, we approach God in trust and confidence in our prayers: 
1. We pray that like St Mary Magdalene, we may have a bold and vibrant faith born out of love, that we may live out our faith in perseverance and joy. 
2. For our spiritual leaders and governmental leaders, that the have the wisdom and courage to lead their people during these challenging times.  
3.  We pray in thanksgiving and gratitude for our many blessings we have in our lives, that we may recognize those blessings and use our blessings and gifts to reach out and help others. 
4. For those who may be struggling in their faith, for those who are battling additions or struggling with different types of illnesses of mind, body, or spirit, for healing and wholeness.  
5. For our medical professionals, our first responders, and the men and women in the military.  
6. For the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, for their entry into eternal life. 
7. For those prayers we hold in our hearts. 
Priest:  With humble hearts, we make these prayers through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever.  AMEN.  

Reflection on Search and Pilgrimage

The call to pilgrimage is an ancient rite in our Church.  Since the early centuries of Christianity, the faithful came from different parts of the world as pilgrims to visit the Holy Land and the places that were significant to Jesus’ life and ministry.  Later, when travel to the Holy Land became difficult, places like Santiago de Compostela in Spain and Rome became popular pilgrimage destinations.  In our modern times, places like Lourdes and Fatima have drawn the faithful to pilgrimage.  This Saturday, we celebrate the feast day of St James the Greater.  He is the inspiration for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain (Santiago means James in Spanish, and Compostela comes from the Latin for field of stars, as the Milky Way is said to guide that pilgrimage trail.)

Receiving a call to go on pilgrimage is an important part of the pilgrimage journey.  At the heart of it, pilgrimage is also intrinsically connected to a search for the sacred in our lives as well.  In connection with this, I thought of the author Walker Percy, who has strong ties to Mississippi. Percy is considered one of our great Catholic philosophers and thinkers.  He and his brothers were raised in Greenville, Mississippi by the famous Mississippi Delta Percy family.  I taught at Greenville High School for four years (from 2000 to 2004), where Walker Percy and the acclaimed Civil War historian Shelby Foote were classmates.  The Moviegoer, the unexpected winner of the National Book Award in 1962, is one of my favorite books.  I have read it several times and will likely read it several times more.  Here is a great quote from this remarkable book.  Not only is a search important to pilgrimage, but we are all on a search for something in our lives.  We as disciples of Christ are specifically called to a search on our journey of faith.  If you have not read it, I highly recommend The Moviegoer. 

“What is the nature of the search? you ask. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”  ― Walker Percy, The Moviegoer

Blessings to all of you.  Have a good week.  Father Lincoln. 

26 July 2020 – 17th Sunday in ordinary time - Cycle A – Matthew 13:44-46

This weekend we celebrate the feast day of St James the Greater, one of Jesus’ apostles.  When I traveled to the country of Spain in the summer of 2003 to hike the pilgrimage route of St James, I had the opportunity to visit some other religious sites around the country of Spain.   One of the most interesting places I visited was the city of Segovia, which is the city where St. John of Cross spent his last days and where he is buried.  I also got to visit the home of the famous Spanish poet Antonio Machado in Segovia, which is now a museum.  In this humble apartment, Machado wrote most of his well-known poems. One of Machado’s poems talks about the state of his soul.  This is what Machado wrote:

One clear day the wind with the
aroma of jasmine called my heart:

( The wind said:) "In exchange for my aroma I'd love to
 have the fragrance of all your roses."

(I replied:) " I have no roses, there aren't any
 flowers in my garden; all have died."

(The wind then said:) " I will then take the fountain's waters,
the yellow leaves and the withered petals."

The wind left...My heart wailed....
" Soul, what have you done to your garden?"

        As Machado writes, our soul can be a beautiful garden, with beautiful flowers and a sweet aroma.  Or our soul be a garden where all the flowers have died and withered, where there is nothing be dead plants and parched ground. 
         There are a lot of things we can claim for our treasure in life, many, many things.  In recent years, there have been reality TV shows that have addressed the issue of hoarding in our society, how some people accumulate material possessions to the extreme, to the extent that they accumulate so many stacks and piles of so many things that they barely even have space to move around in their homes. 
         Jesus’ parable today addresses the great treasures that people find in the lives – buried treasure in a field that is so wonderful that one is willing to sell everything in order to obtain it, or a pearl that a merchant finally finds after many years of searching.  The point of all of these stories is that the kingdom of God is that treasure for us, far more valuable than anything we can obtain here on earth.  Yet, we can be so caught up with our material treasures here on earth that nothing else matters.  Some in our society are ready to sell their souls for the accumulation of material wealth and riches.  Some of them may end up compromising their salvation for the sake of fame, or power, popularity or worldly success.  That is the sentiment that Antonio Machado tried to capture in his poem.  The Lord can come to us in a quiet whisper and a calm breeze with the good news of salvation, with a call for us to follow him that can be as subtle and as beautiful as the smell of jasmine blooming on a hot summer’s night.  Yet, if we’ve neglected our faith, if the garden of our soul has not been cultivated, we might not be ready to receive his message, no matter how beautiful and inviting it may be. 
         When I was in Rome with the youth choir from St Richard Church in Jackson back in 2010, we visited St Paul’s basilica outside the ancient walls of Rome.  For centuries, Church officials had tried to find the exact place where Paul’s tomb was located.  One spot of ground was ruled out because it looked like it was solid rock, so they thought that there was no way Paul could have been buried on that spot.  However, it turned out not to be rock, it was just soil that had been hardened for so long that it was hard as rock.  This is the place where the treasure was eventually found, below that hard, hard soil, where the tomb of St. Paul was finally found a couple of decades ago.  Just like soil that can become hard as a rock, our hearts can become so hard that we might not think that this is the place where we’ll find our treasure, so we start looking for treasure in other places.  But Jesus tells us that we need to keep searching for the treasure that we will only find in God’s kingdom, for this is the only treasure that is worth such a great price. 
         The great Catholic writer Ron Rolheiser writes that there are many tragic ways to die in our world, but there are two ways that are most tragic of all.  If we die without expressing the love we have in our hearts for God and for our brothers and sisters, or if we die without feeling the love that God has for us, without feeling the love of our brothers and sisters, that is the greatest tragedy of all.  Indeed, God is love.  And since we were made in the image of God, we are called to love, we are called to experience the love of others.  May we keep searching, may we never give up until we find the treasure that awaits us in God’s kingdom, in God’s love. 

21 July 2020 - Tuesday of the 16th week in Ordinary Time - Matthew 12:46-50

    In his parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked the question: Who is my neighbor?   There was a lot of discussion about who was identified as neighbor in Jesus’ day. Maybe that is at the heart of what is going on in the world today:  Who is our neighbor?  What should our relationship be with our neighbor?  In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks: Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?  We can say that we belong to someone, but do our actions and our words match with what we believe?  

      When Jesus’ was pointing to his disciples, saying that they were his brothers and his mother, I don’t think that Jesus was lessening the importance of his mother Mary and his earthly father Joseph. As Christ says elsewhere in the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother”. The family of our Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. It is a family that he gathers to himself. It is a family that we are a part of as his disciples.   He welcomes us to his family to do his will because that is our destiny in our discipleship in Christ.  To be faithful to our vocation as disciples, to be faithful to our purpose in life, we are to fulfill the hopes and dreams that God has in store for us.   And as a member of Christ’s family, we are called to holiness, we are called to strive toward perfection.  It is a perfection that we will never achieve, but we are to strive toward it and to do our best.  At the end of our days, may Christ be able to say to us: “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

24 July 2020 – Friday of 16th week in Ordinary Time - Matthew 13:18-23

     We celebrate the feast day of a Lebanese priest today named St Charbel Makhlouf.   He was born in a small village in Lebanon in 1828 to a very humble family.  His father, a mule driver, died when he was 3, so he was raised by an uncle.  He entered the Monastery of St Maron in Lebanon and was ordained a priest.   For the last 23 years of his life, he lived as a hermit in the desert where he practiced a life of strict fasting and of strong devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.  People sought him out for his prayers due to his reputation for holiness. 
       The life of a hermit is austere and difficult, and it might be difficult for the average person to see God’s love and mercy in such austerity and discipline.  Yet, God calls us all in different ways, and when we follow that call and choose that life that is meant for us, it is a liberating and life-giving experience.  Finding where God’s love and mercy exist in our lives is one of the main challenges we have as followers of Christ.
In 1965, at the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI state the following at the beatification of St Charbel: “A hermit of Mount Lebanon is enrolled in the number of the blessed… a new eminent member of monastic sanctity has by his example and his intercession enriched the entire Christian people … may he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance and asceticism, to liberate the soul in its ascent to God.”
       In our Gospel today, we hear Jesus explain the parable of the sower, which we heard in our Sunday Mass a couple of week’s ago.  God can sow his word in our lives in different ways.  It is up to us to provide soil that will be receptive to his word, that will allow his word to grow within our souls and within our lives.   We are all not called to be a hermit in the desert like St Charbel.  But, we can still learn from the values by which he lived his life. 

22 July 2020 - Memorial Mass commemorating St Mary Magdalene - John 20:1-2, 11-18

The Church recognizes the role of Mary Magdalene as one of the first witnesses to Christ resurrection and as a true and authentic evangelizer.  In recognition of her important role in the history of the Catholic faith, Pope Francis raised the July 22 memorial of St. Mary Magdalene to a feast on the church's liturgical calendar back in 2016. 
          The Catholic faithful remember Mary Magdalene as one of the women who remained with Jesus throughout his suffering and death on the cross, in addition to being the first witness to his resurrection.  Our reading from the Gospel of John today focuses upon her visit to Christ’s tomb.  She arrives at his tomb, finding it empty, and she breaks down weeping.  She does not recognize Jesus when he appears to her.  She is blinding her grief and her own failings.  She is overwhelmed by the death of Jesus and by her our struggles.  
We hear Jesus instruct Mary Magdalene to deliver a message to his disciples about his death and resurrection, that he is going to his father and our father, to his God and our God, instructing us that we have the ability to have a personal relationship with God.  Through those instructions, Christ is teaching us that through his suffering and death, he has indeed transcended his earthly death and has opened the gates of heaven to us.  
I think that we can relate to Mary Magdalene, because her journey is so relatable.  We can be blinded by our own fears and our own hardships.  However, the faith and courage of Mary Magdalene is an example of faith for all of us to follow.  Mary Magdalene learns to have faith and trust in the presence of Christ’s love and mercy.  Mary is the apostle to the apostles.  She brings them news of Christ’s resurrection.  Her witness was so important to the Early Church.  
We honor Mary Magdalene today.  We unite our prayers with her prayers.  

Reflection for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

This past week, we celebrated three different feast days in our daily Masses, reflection different aspects of our faith.  On Tuesday, we celebrated St Kateri Tekakwitha, a native American woman who lived in the 17th century.  She is known as the Lilly of the Mohawks.  Her family died from a smallpox epidemic, which also left her very scarred.  She converted to Catholicism at the age of 19 and lived out her faith in the midst of many challenges and sufferings.  She died at the young age of 24.  She is the patron saint of ecology and the environment, people in exile, and native Americans.  
St Bonaventure was celebrated on Wednesday.  Born in the 13th century, Bonaventure was a great theologian and philosopher in the medieval period.  A Franciscan priest who lived in the era right after the death of St Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure was the Minister General of the Franciscans and is considered as their second founder.  Bonaventure is recognized as a Doctor of the Church. 
Finally, on Friday, we commemorate the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, France.   They were 16 members of the Carmelite order who were put to death on July 17, 1794 in the era right after the French Revolution for refuse to vacate their monastery when the new French government was very hostile to the Catholic faith.   The story of the Carmelite martyrs is the subject of a famous opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites, written by French composer Francois Poulenc in 1957.  It is a very popular opera that is performed often by major opera companies throughout the world.   The feast day of the Carmelite martyrs is commemorated the day after the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 
I found these three feast days that we commemorate within the same week to be very reflective of Church and our faith, showing different aspects of our faith from different eras, different cultures, and different walks of life.  We honor those who have come to the faith as converts, such as St Kateri.  We honor the great scholars and theologians of the Church, such as St Bonaventure.  We honor the martyrs of the Church, those who have made sacrifices and who have been willing to give up their lives for the faith. 
Blessings to all of you.  Have a blessed week.  

19 July 2020 – el Decimosexto domingo del Tiempo Ordinario – Mateo 13:24-30

      Como la semana pasada, hoy, escuchamos una parábola del Evangelio de San Mateo. En esta parábola, Jesús habla sobre la maldad y la bondad que existen en nuestro mundo.  En la historia de nuestro mundo, siempre la gente pregunta: ¿Por qué existe el mal? ¿Por qué existe el sufrimiento?  ¿Si Dios es poderoso, si Dios es omnipotente, como podemos entender nuestro Señor con la existencia de la maldad en el mundo?  ¿Como podemos vivir como discípulos de Jesucristo, como podemos proclamar su Buena Noticia y el reino de Dios si tenemos estas preguntas?  Si, hay otros mensajes en nuestro mundo que son más atractivos que el mensaje de nuestro Señor. No es fácil para ser fieles a nuestra fe si tenemos muchas preguntas, si no entendemos. Hay muchas voces diferentes en nuestra Iglesia Católica. ¿Como podemos ser fieles a la palabra de Dios y al mismo tiempo respetar los derechos humanos, respetar las opiniones de nuestro prójimo y tener tolerancia en nuestros corazones? ¿Como podemos reconocer la presencia de Dios en todos los mensajes y todo el ruido que tenemos en el mundo?
       En la parábola que Jesús nos da en el Evangelio de hoy, el explica que el bien es al lado del mal por el mismo camino en nuestro mundo.  El trigo crece en el campo al lado de la hierba mala. Pero, podemos entender en las enseñanzas de Cristo que el mal va a desvanecer al final del camino al final de nuestra vida con la fuerza de la bondad de Dios.  En la parábola, cuando el trigo y la hierba mala empiezan a crecer, no puede reconocer cual es malo y cual es bueno.  Puede decir que en nuestra realidad humana y en la realidad del mundo, el bien y el mal andan juntos. En el reino de Dios, necesitamos sembrar las semillas, necesitamos vivir con sinceridad.  El mal va a crecer en nuestro mundo, por supuesto, pero podemos sembrar el bien donde hay el mal. Necesitamos tener confianza – confianza en Dios y confianza en nuestra fe.   Necesitamos tener esperanza -  la esperanza que hay la posibilidad de transformar nuestra vida y nuestro mundo - una transformación que debe veneer de Dios.  Cuando empieza, la palabra de Dios es como una pequeña semilla – una semilla de mostaza - casi insignificante al inicio.  Sembramos la bondad de Dios en su palabra al lado del mal que existe en el mundo. Cada uno de nosotros - cada seguidor de Jesucristo - debe decidir: ¿cual es la cosecha que vamos a escoger?
      Para saber lo que es bien y lo que es mal, tenemos que recibir diaria el alimento que tenemos en la palabra de Dios.  Es un alimento espiritual que entre en nuestros corazones como nuestra comida espiritual.  En verdad, no somos jueces de nuestros hermanos y hermanas. Tenemos la llamada de fe de dejar el juicio para Dios.  En lugar de juzgar, necesitamos sembrar y amar. 

17 July 2020 - Friday of the 15th week of Ordinary Time - ISAIAH 38:10, 11, 12ABCD, 16

      Our psalm today is not actually from the psalms, but it comes from the prophet Isaiah.  In the refrain, we call out – You saved my life O Lord; I shall not die.  Yet, we view life differently as disciples of Christ, don’t we?  Our eternal life is more important than the length of our life here on earth. 

       This is relevant to the group of saints we recognize today.  We honor 16 Carmelite nuns as the saints of the day.  Most people in our modern world wouldn’t even know about them at all.  The government that took control during the French revolution ordered the Carmelite monastery in the town of Compiegne closed in 1790.  Yet, in 1794, 16 nuns were arrested on charges of living in a religious community, refusing to leave the monastery.  This was against the law in post-revolutionary France.  The nuns were sentenced to death in Paris, and were killed on the guillotine while they sang the Salve Regina.  They refused to bow to a government that condemned their Christian way of life.  

Today, we have a media that tells people that they should abandon organized religion.  We have a government that tries to define what religion is and what it isn’t.  We see religious statues and churches defaced and destroyed in protests.  Perhaps this group of nuns speak to us in a special way this year.  In fact, near the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, I watched an opera production form the Metropolitan Opera of New York - Dialogues of the Carmelites by French composer Francois Poulenc, based on the story of these Carmelites nuns.  Composed in 1954, it is considered one of the most popular of modern operas written in the 20th century. 

     In hearing the story of the Carmelite nuns who were martyred in France and of Isaiah stating that the Lord saved his life, I think of these French Carmelite nuns who were willing to die for the values of their faith.  These brave courageous ladies speak to us in the reality of our day. 

16 July 2020 - Our Lady of Mount Carmel Penitential rite and Prayers of the Faithful

Lord Jesus - you are our King and our humble servant - Lord have mercy. 
Christ Jesus - you are the son of Mary, the Christ-bearer - Christ have mercy. 
Lord Jesus - you are a living presence among us - Lord have mercy.  

Prayers of the faithful: 
Priest:  We unite our prayers with the prayers of Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, for our needs, the needs of the Church, and the needs of the world. 
1. We pray for the all men and women in ministry in the Church - that they may all call on the strength of our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in their leadership roles.  We continue to pray for Bishop Kopacz during his time of vacation and rest in Pennsylvania. 
2. We pray that all the nations of the world and their leaders may work for true economic justice and equality. 
3. For the poor, the stranger, and the oppressed - that they may be welcomed by our community. 
4. That all youth, like Mary, may be open to God’s call in their lives, that they may say “yes” to serving others.  
5. That we may trust in Mary’s intercessions and imitate her virtues.  
6. For the sick and shut-ins, the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, and for the prayers we hold in our heart.  
Priest: Gracious God, you chose Mary to bear our Savior.  Hear the prayers of your children and grant them in the name of your son Jesus Christ, our Lord forever and ever.  

16 July 2020 - Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Matthew 12:46-50

This morning I was at the Carmelite monastery in South Jackson with four other priests and many of the faithful from the Jackson area celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sister Jane’s entrance into consecrated life.  The actual anniversary was supposed to take place a couple of months ago, but because of the pandemic, plans changed, just as so many of our plans are changing based on this new reality.  

        Today, we commemorate the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patronal feast of the Carmelite order.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, Mount Carmel was a place of refuge.  Historically, it is thought have been the site of Elijah’s cave.  In the first book of Kings, Elijah challenges 450 prophets of the pagan god Baal to a contest at the altar on Mount Carmel to determine whose deity was genuinely in control of the Kingdom of Israel.  In the Christian era, Hermits lived on Mount Carmel in northern Israel beginning in the 12th century, dedicating a chapel there to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  They soon celebrated a special mass and office of readings dedicated to Mary.  The feast day was officially recognized by the Church in 1726 under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  This group of hermits evolved into the religious order of the Carmelites, the religious group that has given our Church the great saints and mystics Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and John of the Cross, all three doctors of the Church, as well as the Carmelite sisters Teresa of the Andes and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein). 

       There are a lot of details we do not know about Mary’s life.  However, from the Scripture passages we do have of her, we learn a lot about Mary, about her role in our lives of faith, and about her role in the Church and in the history of salvation. Mary is the paradigm of discipleship in the Gospel of John. She responds to the Word of God made flesh, manifest and glorified.  Our Church also sees Mary as a member of the community of saints, in which all of us believers, both those on earth and those in eternal life, are joined together as a sacred community by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Mary is the mediator of blessings.  She is the most powerful intercessor of those who most desperately need her help.  

       Mary is not only Jesus’ mother, but she is our mother.  Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that whoever does the will of the Father is his mother, brother and sister.  We are to emulate Mary in our life of discipleship as we journey each day in faith. As we come to Mary today, honoring her as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, we stand in solidarity and love with our beloved Carmelite sisters in South Jackson, and all of our brothers and sisters throughout the world.  We honor Mary today as we acknowledge our need for her motherly love and help in our lives of faith.  

19 July 2020 – 16th Sunday of ordinary time – Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Matthew 13:24-43

      Today, we hear another parable from Jesus about sowing seeds.  Last week, we heard about the sower who scattered seed in different types of soil.  Today, we hear about two sowers who have very different motives. The farmer sows good seed in his field, preparing for a bountiful harvest, while his enemy sows weeds amongst the wheat, hoping to destroy and sabotage what the farmer has planted.  Biblical scholars claim that Matthew was talking about a weed called darnel, a very common destructive weed in Israel that resembles wheat.  When wheat and darnel grow next to each other as small plants, they look exactly alike.  The farmer can only tell the difference between them when the plants mature and the grain start to form. 

        Jesus’ parables may seem simple on the surface, but they give us many rich teachings when we delve into them and break them open. In today’s parable, the servants ask the master if he wants them to pull up the weeds to get rid of them, but the master warns them that if they try pulling them up, they’ll uproot the wheat and destroy the harvest.  The master wants to allow the wheat and weeds to grow together in the field, not separating them until harvest time, but the parable doesn’t tell us if the master’s judgment was correct, if this ended up as the right decision for a successful harvest.  Reflecting upon this parable, we might ask ourselves what Jesus’ goal could be in telling about the weeds and the wheat.  If we assume that the master’s judgment was right and provided for a bountiful harvest, today’s parable might be trying to assure us that the wheat will survive the attack of the weeds sown by the enemy, that the forces of good in the world will survive the forces of evil. We’re called to trust in the Lord, to trust the Lord’s judgment in the end times, to trust in his ability to do the separating of the wheat from the weeds when that time comes. We live in a modern world today where intolerance and judgment are so pervasive.  We have seen this taken to the extreme during the months of the pandemic, haven’t we? Even within our own Church, some might think that there is only one way of being a true Catholic.  We might want everyone to live out the Catholic faith the same way we live it out.  We might be unwilling to listen to other voices within our Church that are perhaps a bit different than our own.  Perhaps we don’t want to recognize the diverse ways our Catholic faith is expressed and lived out in the world.  When you go to mass in a different culture or in a different part of our country, the mass is very recognizable even if you don’t know the language, even though there are different styles and approaches that give a unique flavor to the mass.  The same could be said about the different ways we live out our faith based upon different cultures, personalities, and interests. We are all recognizably Catholic, but there is also a diversity of expression within the realm of Catholicism. 

        Being open to different facets of our faith and learning to grow in the ways we see God are perhaps connected to the attributes that are prescribed to God in our 1st reading from the book of Wisdom, attributes that we are called to emulate and practice in our lives. The book of Wisdom sees God’s justice and leniency coming from his power, mastery, and strength – quite a paradox, isn’t it?  Wisdom sees God governing us and judging us in justice, in clemency, in kindness.  God could use his power over us in a very heavy-handed way, but he doesn’t.  He calls us to trust in his love and mercy, to respect him and honor him, but not in a fearful way, rather in a healthy, loving way.  Showing that same sense of justice mercy, love and respect in the way we interact with our neighbors, in the way we live out our Catholic faith in the great diversity of expression that exist – that is what we are called to do.  Perhaps you were not expecting this message in today’s homily, which reflects the richness and beauty of the parables that Jesus give us in his teachings and ministry.  As we live out the spirit of the Eucharist in our lives, as we are nourished by the body and blood of Christ, as Christ lives within us in this very special way, may we marvel and respect the rich diversity that exists within our Catholic faith.  That is truly a way for the Eucharist to have an affect on our lives. 

Help Us Build Communities in God's Vision of Justice

As I mentioned at the Masses last weekend, I was very edified by the meeting we pastors in the Pearl Ministerial Association had with the Mayor of Pearl last Saturday.  We came from different Christian denominations, different views of living out our life of Christian discipleship, and different walks of life, but we came together with open hearts and a desire to be leaders of justice and peace in our community.   We are hoping to get together again in August.  I hope that we pastors in the Ministerial Association will be able to come up with some tangible plans of how we can collaborate together.  

I found this wonderful prayer on the US Catholic Bishops website.  I love the spirit of this prayer.  I want us to be a community of bridge builders here at St Jude in Pearl.  I want us to reach out to others in the community and in the world.  May the words of this prayer penetrate our hearts.  The words of this prayer really speak for themselves.  

 

Holy Spirit, we praise and thank you!

You anoint us
     

to bring glad tidings to the poor
     

to proclaim liberty to captives
     

to recover sight for the blind
     

to free the oppressed
     

and to build communities in keeping
     

with God's vision of justice.

Show us how to be 
     

a light in the world
     

the salt of the earth
     

seeds that sprout love
     

and leaven that infuses humanity
     

with the desire to promote
     

human dignity and solidarity.

Help us to listen with open hearts so that
     

those in poverty can lead our efforts to
     

proclaim a more hopeful vision
     

liberate captives from injustice
     

heal the blindness of the powerful
     

free us from self-centeredness
     

in order to build communities that are merciful and kind. 

Amen.