Down Time

Unfortuantely the blog machine will be down for a few more days while some repairs are made to the machinery at this end.

The Marine Marathon went passed the church early this morning. It was the 35th minute of the almost two hour race for the winners of the event. But imagine 34000 runners going past the church. I should have been out there with a collection basket!!!! Never miss an opportunity ... especially for the ones who came running into the hall to use the bathrooms!!!

See you later in the week. Have a good week. Hope the Redskins win today ... and not by just a point or two ... although any win is a win.

One Last Post for the Day

In reading through some of the writers for Catholic World News, a pen name Diogenes notes this:

"Can you imagine what kind of candidates we would attract to the U.S. Senate, for example, or to any other high-ranking political, corporate or academic office if a commitment to lifelong celibacy were an essential, non-negotiable requirement?"

-- Father Richard McBrien, addressing the Voice of the Faithful convention yesterday.

At least an interesting thought in light of all the apologies etc. that seem to be sprouting on Capitol Hill.

Pope In America

They say that when a good wheel is working don't try to fix it.

With that thought in mind, I suggest you switch to my link to Whispers in the Loggia to learn more about the upcoming April visit to the Nation's Capital.

As we all have come to learn, "Cardinal" Rocco certainly has those Roman connections that keep him out front.

Soon, very soon, I hope to sponsor a fund raiser for the young blogger from Philadelphia here is DC so that he can replace some of the money he has had to put out for his travel, his computer that seems to have worn tired of his pounding away on the keyboard, and his auto which no doubt is worn down from all of his Delaware Valley visitations. Watch for that event to be published here and to quote the Vatican Source of Sources ... you read it here first!

Wednesday Reflection: October 24, 2007

OUR HELP IS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

Today's readings are rather serious. The words brought me to a serious reflection on how prepared my soul is for the time when the Lord will issue that call to meet him. Maybe it is getting older, maybe it is the aches that come with being in my mid-sixties, whatever, these readings do make me think about my readiness to meet the Lord. None of us, I am quite sure, is ever perfectly ready to answer the call to meet the Lord. The readings today stress heavily the importance of seriously looking at our lives and how ready we might be to meet the Lord. At the same time there is the wonderful reality that God is always there for us, ever waiting for us to be thrilled by the graces he sends to us each and every day of our lives.

So, the reality is this: do we just move along with the invulnerable mindset of teenagers and young adults who think that life will go on for years and years? Or do we take the time regularly to examine our consciences and our relationship with God? Each day offers us so many graces: do we actually take the time to use them?

Tuesday Reflection: October 23, 2007

Today's two readings remind all readers and people who reflect on them of the frailty of our lives and the extraordinary gift that has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ, the crucified, following the "gift" of Original Sin from our first parents, Adam and Eve.

Life is a fragile commodity we share. It is with us all the time. However, how long the "all the time" is remains a mystery. One never knows when the moment will be with us when the voice of God calls, "Come home."

Yet, the greatest of consolations is what St. Paul in the Romans reading for today's liturgy. The sin of Adam and Eve brought death to all of us but the gift from one man, the Son of God, brought us new life.

Monday Reflection: October 22, 2007

Luke's gospel, Luke , helped me to recall the unjust judge from Sunday's gospel story. At times my mind feels battered by distractions, battered as was the judge by the elderly woman. How many are the times when I feel that my life is so filled with things ... all kinds of things ... some bought, some gifted to me. Surely these are things that distract my life for what is supposed to be its primary focus ... time for the Lord. One of the more modern types of greed that many of us, including myself, might have to deal with is a kind of greed we do not hear mentioned too often: always storing up things or projects that I/we have to do. These become moments that fill up the day, that seem to tire and frustrate and, ultimately, block my/your growing wealthy in the matters of my/your spirituality ... the wealth that we should be amassing in the silos of our lives.

Lord God, let this gospel strengthen our resolve to overcome weaknesses that keep me from you. Strengthen my resolved to store up more time each day in prayer and other devotions that draw me ever closer to you . Amen.

Sunday Reflection: Missionary Sunday and Prayer

Today your Church is celebrating Mission Sunday throughout the world. When is the last time you said a prayer or two for the men and women working in mission lands? Unfortunately, I suspect, the world of communications seems to have diminished our attention and awareness of missionary work even though we are constantly reminded of the unrest that exists in so many far away places.

The readings and our need to support missionaries with BOTH our financial assistance and prayers serves, along with the readings to speak about prayer. Not too long ago, a friend called to talk to me about his "miserable" prayer life. Praying made no sense, was so terribly difficult, didn't do him any good, was simply boring and, lastly, just took too much time. Quite a conversation, as you can imagine. So let's look at possible "natural" medicines for these dilemmas.

There are three Ps for prayer that will bring a sure cure to the pains of prayer without having to take any pills. The three Ps are: PERSONAL, PERENNIAL and PERSISTENT. If anyone having difficulty with a prayer life ... and we all truly need a spiritual life ... incorporating the three Ps will quickly bring about the beginning of a new route for the prayer.

Prayer has to be PERSONAL. The constant repetition of formulaic prayers eventually ends up in emptiness and boredom for most people. Prayers like the "Ave" or the "Pater Noster" (just to give you a little Latin!) can become a sure-fire trip to the doldrums. Our minds do not work that way. Imagine if husbands and wives, parents and children only spoke to one another by reciting a memorized paragraph over and over again. Marriages would fall apart, relationships between family members would not exist. There has to be conversation, sharing of our experiences (How was it at work today? How were things here at the house today? or What happened at school today? How are the grandchildren doing? Do you have any homework problems?)

Imagine being God for just a second or two. Might not be hard for some of us ... we sometimes seem to think we are in charge of everything!!! But imagine what life would be like if you were God and all you heard were "Ave" and "Pater Noster" over and over again with nothing else happening. Boring! Boring!

Prayer has to be personal. It has to involve me and my problems. While away I found a good chunk of time each day just to be with God after reciting a part of the Daily Office with the priest I was visiting. It led me into that "just want to be here with God, looking at his beautiful creation. My life had been so busy around the parish since returning from the first part of my vacation that I am afraid I have to say that the good Lord was getting short shrift ... those days of quick hellos. I need your help. Why is this happening now? Where are you leading me today? And then .... off to the next phone call, appointment and meeting. God is the most patient contact I have. No one else would put up with such nonsense. And, like everyone else, I return to the work again, fortified by a battery recharge and hopefully a spiritual tune up. We all need to realize that our prayer has to be personal if it is going to be genuine prayer.

The second P: PERENNIAL. Yep, it has to be that. For prayer to be fruitful and enjoyable, it cannot be seasonal. It isn't a winter or spring experience. Prayer has to happen every day. Even in the very busy world we living in, the very busy world we so often make for ourselves, we have to take some time each day to be personal with the Lord. Did I stop to offer up to God the time to type this reflection and the graces I would enjoy in deciding what to type for your prayers and thinking? Will I remember to thank God when I close out on this posting and go to the church for Sunday Mass? How about throughout the day training yourself to stop when you begin or end an activity or assignment with just a moment or two of prayer ... to sanctify the work at hand? Once in the habit, then prayer will become PERENNIAL.

The third P is like the elderly woman in the gospel: PERSISTENT. If there is one thing that prayer has to be it is PERSISTENT. Maybe God made it that way so that we would continue to throw ourselves upon his love and care each day, many times each day. We all have needs for ourselves, our loved ones, our missionaries, our world, our troops, our government leaders (?), and those who simply need our prayers. These are the nitty-gritty realities of life in our world and the nitty-gritty of coming to God. The story about the woman is for me one of those stories Jesus uses to show his sense of humor. Read the story again and you will understand.

So, you also can say a week's regeneration has filled my mind with many thoughts and have given my typing fingers cramps. My legs may have been doing five miles of walking each day but now my fingers are telling me enough, enough. No so much so fast.

Let's thanks God for the generosity of the men and women who leave their homes, families, cultures to go far and wide to help others. God bless them in their work. Interesting is this: to be a successful missionary, a person has to be PERSONAL, PERENNIAL and PERSISTENT. Interesting thought, isn't it.

God bless you. Let us each day pray for one another. OREMUS PRO INVICEM. Latin again, Let us pray for one another.

Writer's Return

No, I did not die. No, I did not permanently leave town. No, there was no vocational crisis. It was quite simple. I was dead tired. I had pushed myself too hard too far. And, fortunately, there were two weeks of vacation left ... so I decided to do a two-fold corporal work of mercy. I knew it was time to take care of me for a few days and to visit a priest friend who has had to retire because of heart problems.

I had a good rest with much walking each day ... even seven miles on the last day having worked up from 3 miles the first day.

So, now I have returned to my laptop and my audience. I will, hopefully, post a few pictures during the week ... once the throw away camera is developed. Neither camera nor laptop made the journey this time. And there were only two calls to the office. Why does retirement seem so enticing????

Anniversary Weekend

Today, in a relatively quiet manner, we celebrate the 98th anniversary of the establishment of our parish. Originally the parish was a part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore as were all of the parishes in the District of Columbia, Maryland along with many other areas such as Arlington, Richmond and Wilmington, Delaware.
The theme easily attributable to the gospel of today’s liturgy wonderfully reflects the spirit of those men and women who joined together with the founding Pastor, Fr. Yingling, to begin a new experience of faith. It was a daring acceptance of a challenge to their faith.
The apostles asked the Lord to increase their faith so they could be more effective in the mission to follow him that they had accepted. Jesus’ response, however, must have surprised the growing number of followers. "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed ...." Imagine what they must have thought when he replied, as we heard it in Luke’s account, that a faith even that small could uproot a mulberry tree and replant it in the sea.
I would imagine that these working with Fr. Yingling must have asked him a similar question. "Do you believe we can make the parish succeed?" What must those people think today? Surely from their heavenly home they must be most proud of the success subsequent parishioners, including yourselves, have brought to their initial beginning.
Likewise their must have been great excitement in their hearts as they listened to the words of their new pastor who could easily use the insight of St. Paul’s words to Timothy: "Stir into flame the gift of God." Unfortunately that thought became a reality twice: this church that we are in today is the third edifice on this site. The first Pastor and his successor would have to remind the ashened faces and damaged spirits of the parishioners: "God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love ... [to] bear your spirit of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God." And, I would point out, that this site was given to the Archbishop of Baltimore by a very generous woman ... the great aunt of our choir director, John Warman.
For us today the vision is real. The challenges today are a bit more. From an operating budget of few thousand dollars at the beginning to the almost two million dollar costs of a contemporary parish, we have grown. We continue to seek a fulfillment of their founding mission among us.
Our mission today is somewhat different. I believe we are called by God to follow his Son in way that becomes a sign to others that our faith has a special meaning for each of us. Just as we expect our own school to be truly "Catholic" in a world that challenges that vision, we, the parishioners, are expected to be a sign to others of a Catholicism that truly is the faith that Jesus instilled in the hearts of those who followed him.
Today our challenge , regardless of our age, is to "proclaim the greatness of the Lord" (Magnificat anima mea Dominum), as Mary said of herself when she was asked to accept a special invitation to follow God’s will for her, to become the mother of his Son. "Proclaim the greatness of the Lord": That should be our motto. The sentiment of those words should be the driving force that impels us to know our faith and to guard our faith.
As we draw closer to our centenary celebration in 2009, let us renew our faith, the faith so special and so strong in the lives of the founding parishioners. We give God thanks for their strength, the determination in passing on the faith on this holy ground where we stand today. As we recall this special moment, let us pray that we too may be looked upon by our successors in the years and century to come as parishioners who did all that we could to preserve the faith of our fathers and to entrust it to the children who will become the parishioners of the future.

Wednesday Reflection: October 3, 2007

Today's Readings give us a few words that focus on some serious business in our lives. The primary object is "freedom." Stop for just a moment ... even from reading further ... and reflect on the extent that God's gift of freedom is for us. We have the freedom to do what we wand. Even if we do wrong, our God willingly reinstates our freedom. His there no matter the intricacies we get ourselves involved with. Again, is it not our habit in our face-paced world to overlook the goodness of God that results in our freedom rather than consider what good God is to us.