Returning Soon, Very Soon

Hello, I have not forgotten you. My laptop has just been released from the "computer clinic." The concussion resulted in the severe damage to the monitor part of the laptop. A replacement was secured. Now I am tweaking the hard drive. Tomorrow morning, after the 8 AM Mass, I will be leaving town, yes again. This time I will be traveling to Dallas to be with Bishop Kevin Farrell as he is installed as the new Bishop of that huge diocese ... over a million Catholics and no auxiliary Bishops! Square miles? 7,523! Imagine trecking around that loop.

As to my vacation, let me share with you a couple of pictures that I took ... with the intention of using them in this blog. More later.

The pathway to the Miami beach! Which, I did not use except early on the morning I returned to DC. Sun and Milt Jordan do not mix too well!

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY: 15 Apr 07

Well, as you can read, I have found a computer. I will do this reflection then my fingers will absent themselves from dancing over the keyboard! The computer doctor's first diagnosis for my damaged laptop: crack screen. Pray that it is only that.

Second Sunday of Easter — 2007
The power of prayer, the power of belief, the power of fidelity to the will of God: these three powers are not impossible virtues for anyone of us to achieve in a lifetime. We may not be perfect at prayer, belief or fidelity but with at least the purpose or intention to strive for those grace-filled gifts we can achieve remarkable wonders. Yes, “wonders.”
Remember the characters Jesus attracted, especially the group, known as the Twelve. There was not one rocket scientists, not one Bill Gates. Surely there was no one who stood out for his absolute perfection. They were men who found it had to believe at time. There men who fell asleep in prayer. There were men who denied Jesus, even led his captors to him. Yet, yet, yet just listen to what a writer composed about them some years after Jesus had risen.
Many signs and wonders were done among the people,
at the hands of the apostles. (Acts 5:12-16)
The apostles, the motley crowd, grew in their belief and conviction. What do you imagine brought about such power among them? Well, the words from St. John’s gospel might be a clue. How could the many appearances of Jesus not impact the hearts and minds of the Twelve, even the heart of the doubter, Thomas. How could Jesus’ words to them and us not stir hearts and strengthen intention?
Imagine this: “As the Father has sent me,” the Risen Christ said to the apostles and us, “so I send you.” This was okay for the apostles: Jesus was present to them. What about you and me? “Blessed are those who have not seen but believe,” Jesus said.
What the apostles came to understand and appreciate is the “mercy of God.” On this octave Sunday of Easter we hear about Thomas’ weakness, his doubting that Jesus had risen. During the time of this appearance to the apostles, Jesus gave to them and their successors an ability to care for weaknesses that might separate them from God the Father. At this occasion he instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation. IT is a clear manifestation of the mercy of God.
Pope John Paul II, on May 5, 2000, established Divine Mercy Sunday. Actually what he did was restore and first and second century practice of the early Church. This special Sunday celebration is always to be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter Sunday. Those of you my age and older may well remember that this Sunday was called White Sunday. The feastly day of Divine Mercy is somewhat different. Usually feast days honor saints or an event that is somewhat concrete: the Nativity, the Resurrection, etc. No feasts are celebrated for an abstraction like mercy. Mercy Sunday is a event that has continued since Holy Week, the first Holy Week, down to this week. I believe the apostles realized how their own weaknesses, their doubting, their fears — all were forgiven by the mercy of God.
So convinced that the mercy of God could change a person’s life, especially their own life, they actually took time to know more and more about Jesus and what he was trying to teach their dullard hearts. Their conviction, their commitment, enabled them to go among the people, healing those in need while changing their hearts.
And you? And me? Do you believe you can do the same? Probably not ... for many of us. But there are some among us whose very words bring a healing peace to those in need. What a marvelous gift! It is your, it is mine if we but deepen our awareness of God’s goodness, his mercy.

Major Interruption

Unfortunately there will be a disruption in my blog postings. Tomorrow, I hope to be able to take my computer to the computer hospital. Accidentally our housekeeper knocked my laptop from its stand to the floor. And, on Tuesday, I will be away for six days getting some much needed change of venue and pace. Surely Whispers and one of the two prayer sites in my links part of the blog will afford you with some personal reflections. My computer, it seems, may have suffered a concussion. All that the screen produces now is a psychedelic pattern of many colors. It looks like what I can only imagine a concussion might look like!

DAILY REFLECTION: 13 Apr 07

Do we have the moral courage to speak out when we should? Do we have the moral courage to act when we should? Recently the American Jesuit Provincials published a document in which the issue of personal responsibility in the corporate reality of institutions was challenged. Here is what the Provincials' wrote about American's accepting moral courage as a principal of their faith: Yet some of that [U.S.] faith is nominal and domesticated, often inclined to ignore the cross as it focuses on self-fulfillment and the protection of privilege…Yet this status [unequalled power of the U.S.] has not engendered a broader sense of solidarity with the rest of the world, but rather a pervading disregard for the realities and urgencies of the poor and disenfranchised.

The first sentence seemed to grab my attention. 'Tis very easy to let our faith become nominal and domesticated. I would like to react in a way that could make that thought go away. But, it is, I fear, too real in many corners of our churches. Is our faith something that we use for our own self-fulfillment and the protection of privilege? This is surely an easy temptation to let come to life in our hearts.

Interesting Presentation Overlooked by the Press

In a posting on Catholic News Network, the editor makes the following remark: "The sex-abuse crisis within the Catholic Church was brought on in large part by a collapse in the traditions of ascetical discipline, especially among the clergy. That is the argument of an important book about the crisis, and after years of research on the topic, I find that argument persuasive."

After Ascetism: Sex, Prayer, and Deviant Priests is the title of the book prepared by Linacre Institute. The following is a sentence from the forward to the book which Linacre authorized to CWNews: The truth is that the deficiencies that caused the scandal were not merely rooted in a few disturbed individuals, but rather, were common deficiencies and aberrations in the religious purpose and intellectual formation of priests dating back to at least the 1950s.

Daily Reflection: 11 April 07

Today, we remember the story of the two disciples, not Apostles, who were leaving town, Easter Sunday evening, heading away from what could be trouble for them. They were fearful. They were sad. They felt genuine loss.

St. Luke, remember he was not one of the Apostles, gathered his information from the stories of those who survived the events of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. So, his observations come from the story as it evolved over the several decades before Luke penned his life of Jesus.

Nonetheless, what is good for us to call to mind is what Jesus did: he "broke open" the scriptures in such a way that the disciples said their hearts were afire as they listened to him.

This event certainly is a reminder of the power of reading Sacred Scripture daily. Just several verses, read three or four times, can be a cause of turn around in our lives if there is need for that. It can become a source of deepened relationship with the Lord.

When is the last time you opened the bible or any book with scripture included within and read some verses? When? How long ago? Really, we should make time each day just to read a few verses. If we do, in a short time the Holy Spirit will be breaking open the Sacred Scriptures for us.

Daily Reflection: 10 Apr 07

Well, after a busy Sacred Triduum and a day just hibernating after spending Easter Sunday evening and Easter Monday in peaceful quiet and relaxing calm with the Carthusians monks in the currently showing movie, Into Great Silence which I heartily encourage your seeing although it is swift three hours long , let us get back on track. God bless those men who live an austere life but one that surely brings them closer to the love and understanding of the Risen Lord Jesus.

In today's readings beginning with Luke's accounting of St. Peter's speaking to the Jewish people, affirming that the man that was crucified was indeed made the Christ by God the Father. Stunned by these words, the people naturally inquired: "What are we to do?" Surely this might be the question we could be asking even after we have celebrated Easter Sunday. What are we to do now? Peter is very clear, to the point and without any equivocation: "Repent ... and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Someone spoke with me yesterday, Monday, about his feelings earlier in the morning. He related how his feelings after reading some of the psalms was such that he actually felt himself in a quandry. He was faced with encountering what we often call metanoia. His participation in the Sacred Triduum liturgies had been the ordinary but it was Easter Sunday's readings and Monday mornings post mortem evaluation of his "new life" guaranteed by the risen Christ, had squarely placed him before God with the need to change his life. Yet, it was so painful because he did not know what he would do now once he changed. No metanoia is easy. Ask anyone who has had to address drug or alcohol addiction. To reach the top of any ladder requires a climb.

However, the Risen Christ has promised us that he is no longer our teacher but our brother. ("... but go to my brothers). When Mary Magdalene met him in the cemetery, the Risen Christ told her not to stop hugging him for a reason. He was not longer the teacher, the one who had given them the guidelines for good living. Now he was different. She, and all of us, have to let go of what she knew of him before Good Friday and Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday so that she and we can have the fulness of what he had become ... the Risen Christ who stands with us in whatever challenges we are confronting. This is the joy of Easter we are celebrating. Easter Sunday does not automatically and instantly remove that we may have found as a way of living or behaving or thinking that puts distance between ourselves and the Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.

Holy Thursday Homily: Benedict XVI

Rocco Palmo, Whispers in the Loggia composer, has translated Pope Benedict XVI's Holy Thursday homily. I know we are fortunate to have someone who knows the "mother tongue" of Rome. What else could we expect from a South Philly native? Now to the (lengthy but inspirational) homily.

Dear brothers and sisters,The reading from the Book of Exodus we’ve just heard describes the Paschal celebration of Israel as the Mosaic law established its binding form. In the beginning it could be that it was a spring feast of nomads. For Israel, though, it transformed itself into a feast of commemoration, of gratitude and, at the same time, of hope. At the center of the Paschal meal, ordered according to strict liturgical regulations, was the lamb as symbol of the liberation from slavery in Egypt. For this, the Passover haggadah was an integral part of the meal on top of the lamb: the narrative recounting of the fact that it was God himself who liberated Israel “by his uplifted hand.” He, the mysterious and hidden God, revealed himself to be stronger than the pharaoh with all the power he had at his disposal. Israel did not forget that God personally took into his hand the story of his people and that this story was continually rooted in communion with God. Israel did not forget God.The reading of the commemoration was surrounded by words of praise and thanks taken from the Psalms. The thanksgiving and blessing of God reached its culmination in the berakha, which in Greek is termed eulogia or eucaristia: blessing God becomes a blessing for those who bless him. The offering given God returns to bless man. All this raises a bridge between the past and present and toward the future: the liberation of Israel was still incomplete. The nation also suffered as a small people in the area of tensions amidst great powers. Its recalling with gratitude the act of God in the past, it became at the same time a petition and hope: Bring to completion what you’ve begun! Give us lasting freedom!This significant meal of the masses Jesus celebrated with his own on the evening before his Passion. At the outset of this context we must understand the new Passover, which He has given us in the Holy Eucharist. In the accounts of the evangelists there exists an apparent contradiction between the Gospel of John, on one hand, and that which, on the other, Matthew, Mark and Luke communicate to us. According to John, Jesus died on the cross precisely in the moment in which, in time, the paschal lambs were slaughtered. His death and the sacrifice of the lambs coincided. This means, however, that He died on the vigil of Passover and thus wasn’t able to celebrate the paschal meal – this, at least, is how it appears. According to the three synoptic Gospels, then, the Last Supper of Jesus was a paschal meal, in which traditional form He inserted the novelty of the gift of his body and blood. Until some years ago, this contradiction seemed unsolvable. The majority of exegetes were of the mind that John did not wish to communicate to us the true historic date of the death of Jesus, but chose a symbolic date to make evident the most profound truth: Jesus is the new and true lamb who shed his blood for us all.The discovery of the writings of Qumran has in the meantime found a convincing and possible solution that, while not accepted by all, could still have a high level of probability. We’re now in a place to say that what John related is historically precise. Jesus really spared his blood on the vigil of the Pasch in the hour of the slaughter of the lambs. However, he celebrated Passover with his disciples probably according to the calendar of Qumran, so at least a day prior – it was celebrated without a lamb, as the community of Qumran didn’t recognize the temple of Herod and kept vigil for the new era. Jesus therefore celebrated the Pasch without a lamb – no, not without a lamb: in place of the lamb he gave himself, his body and his blood. And so he anticipated his death in a way coherent with his word: “No one will take my life from me, but I myself will offer it” (Jn 10:18). In the moment when he offered his body and blood, He gave real completion to this affirmation. He Himself offered his life. Only so did the ancient Pasch obtain its true sense.St John Chrysostom, in his Eucharistic catechesis, once wrote: What are you saying, Moses? The blood of a lamb purifies men? Saves them from death? How could the blood of an animal purifiy men, save men, have power over death? In fact – Chrysostom continues – the lamb was able to constitute only a symbolic gesture and thus the expression of wait and hope in One who would be able to complete it that by which the sacrifice of an animal was not capable. Jesus celebrated the Pasch without a lamb and without a temple and, still, not without a lamb and without a temple. He himself was the awaited Lamb, the true one, as John the Baptist foresaw at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry: “Behold the lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). And He himself is the true temple, the living temple, in which God lives and in which we can find God and worship him. His blood, the love of Him who is simultaneously Son of God and true man, one of us, that blood is able to save. His love, that love in which He gave himself freely for us, is that which saves us. The nostalgic rite, in some ways lacking efficacy, that was the slaughter of the innocent and immaculate lamb, found its response in Him who has become for us both Lamb and Temple.So at the center of the new Passover of Jesus, there was the Cross. From it came the new gift brought by Him. And so this remains always in the Holy Eucharist, in which we can celebrate the new Pasch with the Apostles along the course of time. From the cross of Christ came the gift. “No one takes my life, but I myself offer it.” Now he offers it to us. The paschal haggadah, the commemoration of the saving act of God, has become a memorial of the cross and resurrection of Christ – a memory that doesn’t simply recall the past, but attracts us into the presence of the love of Christ. And so the berakha, the prayer of blessing and thanksgiving of Israel, has become our Eucharistic celebration, in which the Lord blesses our gifts – bread and wine – to give himself in them. Let us pray the Lord to help us understand always more profoundly this marvelous mystery, to love it more always and in this to love Himself more always. Let us pray for help that we not hold back our lives for ourselves, but to give them to Him and so work together with Him, that men might find life – the true life that can come only from He who, Himself, is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Amen.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2007
CONFESSIONS: 7:00 until 7:55 PM
Fr. Jordan
TENEBRAE SERVICE: 8:00 PM
Fr. Jordan
Please see separate posting about Tenebrae

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2007
EVENING CELEBRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER: 8:00 PM
Msgr. Duffy

FRIDAY, APRIL, 6th, 2007
STATIONS OF THE CROSS: Noon
Fr. Leo Lefebure

The Seven Last Words of Jesus: Noon
Fr. Jordan will be preaching in a collaborative service at St. Anne's Church located at Tenley Circle. ( A long-time commitment.)

Evening Celebration of the Lord's Passion: 8:00 PM
Fr. Leo Lefebure

HOLY SATURDAY, April 7, 2007
CONFESSIONS: 9:00 AM
NB the only scheduled confession period on Saturday

EASTER VIGIL SERVICE: 8:00 PM
Fr. Jordan

EASTER SUNDAY, April 8, 2007
MASS SCHEDULE: 8:00 AM, 10:30 AM.
PLEASE NOTE: There will NOT be a Mass at 6:00 PM on this evening.

EASTER MONDAY: The Parish Offices will be CLOSED. Masses as usually scheduled.

TENEBRAE SERVICE: WEDNESDAY 8:00 PM

The following article should be helpful and informative for you should you never have attended a tenebrae service. It is prepared by the Sisters of Carmel. It is worth a read. Tenebrae
Tonight, Wednesday, April 4, 2007 beginning at 8:00 PM.

This will be a deeply spiritual way of beginning your Holy Sacred Triduum. BUT please read the article so you know what to expect. This is a service that many may find different. It surely is a moving experience.

Daily Reflection: 4 Apr 07

In spirituality the desert or wilderness is symbolic of the struggle to obey, heed, and listen to the voice of God who calls and issues the invitation. It is often tortuous, twisting, challenging involving purging, purifying, cleansing so that one's personal self can experience transformation through the process of dying to the old self and rising to new life, a life of total trust and intimacy with the One Who Calls. [words of Fr. Ernest Varosi, CR]

These words remind this pastor of the words in today's responsorial psalm
"I have become an outcast to my brothers ... because zeal for your house consumes me." Of course it raises questions. Am I a Catholic priest who gives my life to the priesthood of Jesus Christ? Is my life afire with a genuine effort to make Jesus the end-all and be-all of my day? The picture, artist unknown, is a depiction of Jesus in the temple, filled with zeal for his father's house. Where are in our lives?
Can you not ask the same questions of your life as we enter the 40th day of Lent and the beginning of the Sacred (three day) Triduum? How would you answer those questions in your heart? Remember it is very easy to quickly gloss over these thoughts!

Great to be a Gator

Thanks to Mike Segar, Reuters, for this picture that shows the excitement and jubilee that has taken the Gatorland folks. What an exciting game. My only disappointment is that Georgetown was not the competitor so that this UofF alum could have had a marvelous evening with my brother-in-law and nephews, proud G'town grads.

"They became the first team to go back-to-back since 1992 and the first ever to repeat with the same starting five." From an AOL sports news article.

Go Gators!

Daily Reflection: 3 Apr 07

The gospel in Today's Readings is a clear contrast between Jesus and the disciples in their understanding what God's will is for them. Jesus saw where his future would take him. His friends could not get there with him. Peter, in particular, try as he may, cannot change the course of events. In the gospel section just prior to this part of St. John's writing, Peter had pleaded with Jesus to wash much more than his feet if it would associate himself more closely with Jesus. But as we know and read, Peter would falter.

What about us? Doesn't Peter's way, his wishes, his speaking out not symbolize the struggle most of us have at one time or another in our own lives? Aren't there times when we want something else, something more? Aren't there times when we make promises to God about what we can do for him only become like Peter and falter?

We have to learn, no matter what our age might be that God knows what is best for us. God knows what we can handle. His Holy Spirit is there for us to guide and lead. We have to be open to the Spirit; we have to listen. We want to follow Jesus. We do not want to walk out on him as Judas did. Paul's words in Romans (12:12) are meaningful: "Let joy be your hope. Be patient in your trials."

Today's Readings are abundant with hints of the Passion. In the gospel reading please note the presence of God's people. While they do not recognize what is happening, these people are with Jesus as his life and the active ministry is ending. Their new life, their new ministry, is about to begin.

Martha, serving the meal. Lazarus is present, too. Mary is there with the oil she uses to anoint his feet. The enemies are not missed: Judas and the chief priests "plotting to kill Lazarus too." One priest writing a reflection on the reading commented "But at the center is a celebration very much like a rehearsal for the Last Supper." The formation of the Church is occurring here.

Were you there? We sing that on Friday. Today the question could be, "Are you there with him today?"

Eternal Rest.

Heavenly Father

We continue our prayers for John Paul II

whose life among us ended two years ago today.

Millions were touched by him during his lifetime.

May his canonization be brought about

in accord with your will.

As I write, I have before me one of Pope John Paul's zuchettos, the small white cap that he wore. It is a gift that I shall treasure forever because it reminds me of the times I was privileged to concelebrate Mass and pray with him. I recall so vividly the times we sat together at his dining room table and I heard a frail man speak with intention and great wisdom about the Church. What a remarkable gift those moments were. Let us pray that the recently announced miracle will indeed be evaluated positively by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Eternal rest grant unto him, Lord.

From ABC News, Channel 7, April 1, 2007

Catholic Church officials reach a key milestone in the drive to make Pope John Paul II a saint Monday, closing an investigation into his life and handing over a dossier detailing the purported miraculous cure of a nun who prayed to him. The events come two years to the day after John Paul died - a remarkably fast pace that underscores the church's keen interest in beatifying John Paul and responding to the calls of "Santo Subito" or "Sainthood Immediately!" that erupted after his death.Pope Benedict XVI put John Paul on the fast track for possible sainthood just weeks after his April 2, 2005, death, when he waived the customary five-year waiting period and allowed the investigation into his predecessor's virtues to begin immediately.Such a waiver had only been granted once before, to Mother Teresa.Benedict will not attend Monday's ceremony at the St. John Lateran basilica to close the investigation into John Paul's life, a key step in the process of beatification and canonization. He was, however, scheduled to celebrate a Mass later in the day at St. Peter's Basilica to mark the second anniversary of John Paul's death.Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Polish prelate who is spearheading the beatification cause, acknowledged recently that his probe was completed unusually quickly - particularly considering the vast amount of material that had to be collected.About 130 people were interviewed, historians gathered books about John Paul from libraries around the globe, and theologians studied his private writings to determine if he ever wrote anything heretical.
Critics also had a voice, although Oder said the vast majority of the criticism was not against John Paul as a person but against some aspect of his teachings or church doctrine. "To tell the truth, this doesn't weigh heavily on the merit of the process itself," he said.Such complicated investigations often take decades or centuries, not a matter of months."But speed doesn't mean a lack of seriousness," Oder said. "Aside from the dispensation of the delay to start the process, we have not sought any other waiver."Indeed, he dismissed renewed calls by John Paul's longtime private secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland, to proceed to canonization immediately, saying the church's procedures must be respected.John Paul's cause has been bolstered by the testimony of a French nun, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, who says she was cured of Parkinson's disease after she and her fellow sisters prayed to the late pope.The nun, 46, emerged from secrecy last week, telling a news conference in France that she felt reborn when she woke up two months after John Paul died, cured of the disease that the pope himself had lived with.The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedures require that a miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession be confirmed before beatification. A second miracle is necessary for canonization.Simon-Pierre is expected to attend Monday's events in Rome and to be on hand as her superiors deliver to the Vatican the documentation supporting her testimony about the purported miracle.After receiving the documentation, the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints will appoint medical experts to determine if there are medical explanations for the cure. Theologians will then determine if the cure came as a result of prayer to John Paul.If panels of bishops and cardinals agree that John Paul led a virtuous life and that Simon-Pierre was indeed miraculously cured, they will forward the case to Benedict. He will then decide if his predecessor deserves to be beatified, the last formal step before possible sainthood.Beatification allows the candidate to be called "Blessed" and honored locally or in a limited way in the liturgy. Canonization is an infallible declaration by the pope that a person who was virtuous to a heroic degree in life is now in heaven and worthy of honor and veneration by all the faithful.

Daily Reflection: Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007

A day late, but nevertheless a thought that will, I hope carry you through the week, Holy Week.

As Jesus was riding a colt down a roadway, surrounded by enemies and friends alike, what do you think his emotional state might have been? While we call to mind Christ the King, how about Jesus the man, most likely frightened ... just as he would be in the agony in the garden?

Think of one of those frightening moments in your life ... the most scary event that you can recall. I recall well and will never forget a time when I was fighting a fire with Scranton (PA) firefighters and the floor gave way over a roaring inferno below us. Obviously I made an escape with two other firefighters. But in that moment it was almost a moment of freezing. Remember Jesus was man at this point. He could not be one moment all knowing God and then human man in the next.

He accepted the role of man for the Father so as to guarantee our freedom from sin and punishment for our sinfulness. Imagine Jesus riding along, probably smiling and waving but knowing from his understanding of OT readings he had studied and learned as a young man that the Messiah, whoever he would be, could expect a very painful ending to his life. Again, all for me and you.