Veni Sancte Spiritus!

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle C

Ex 17:8-13; Psalm 121:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; 2 Tm 3:14-4:2; Gospel: Lk 18:1-8

I want to teach you a very short prayer and song today – so I brought my conductors baton to help out. The prayer is “Veni Sancte Spiritus” which is Latin for “Come Holy Spirit”

[[START WITH A CONDUCTORS BATON – ASK THE WOMEN IN THE PARISH TO STAND AND TEACH THEM THE HIGHER PART TO VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS

THANK THEM AND THEN ASK THE MEN TO STAND AND DO THEIR PART – THE BASE PART

THANK THEM]]

An image of God - the Choir Master
I am sure that some of you were not expecting to come to choir practice today. The reason why I asked you to sing is because I would like to give you an image of God that you might not have – that is the image of God the Choir-Master.

A Good Choir Master seeks the best out of each singer
A Choir Master is the leader of a choir who helps everyone to sing in unison, on key and to the same tune or melody. A good choir master will see the talents of his singers and then find the right part’s for them to sing in the choir.

Christ is the best Football Coach
However, this is Bronco’s season so perhaps a better image is that God is like a good football coach. If you have ever had the opportunity to train under a good coach then you have an idea of what I am talking about. Think back to those days in practice when the coach pushed you harder than you thought you could go – he was always encouraging you to run a little faster, to hit a little harder. Bit by bit you were molded into the player that he always knew you could.

[[BRIDGE]]

Each one of us has a vocation to fill – just like Moses
Last week we started to preach about vocations here in the parish. The first reading gives us an idea of how God uses each persons individual vocation to bring about His kingdom. In the first reading today God is very much acting in the coach role. A superior army that is attacking them to destroy them outnumbers the Israelites. God uses the vocations of various people to protect his children. He uses Moses to pray, and Aaron and Hur are to help Moses in his prayer. Joshua is the general and it is his vocation to plan the fight and to choose the men to fight it. The chosen men are the soldiers who carry the fight to the enemy and ultimately bring about the victory. Would God have been glorified if Moses had prayed but did not have the help of Aaron and Hur, or if Joshua planned the battle but the chosen men did not fight? No, it took everyone responding to their vocation to bring victory for God’s people.

God is calling each of us to our own vocation
The same is true for our Church today. God is calling each of us to our particular vocations. It is up to us to listen to that call and then to respond to God with our hearts. God is the coach calling each of us here our vocations – the questions are; do we hear Him and do we have the courage to say “Yes” to Him?

Some of us here today are asking the questions “What is a Vocation?” or “How do I discover my vocation?”

What is a Vocation?
At the core our vocation is who God created us to be. It is fundamentally who we are. When we discover our vocation our response is “I should have been doing this all my life!” – It radically changes our understanding of who we are and makes us more complete, more whole and more purely who God is creating us to be.

How do we discover our Vocation(s)?
The first step to discovering what our vocation is to enter into a relationship with God. When we take time in our lives to invite God into our relationships and into our work, then we can begin to listen to the directions that our Heavenly Coach is giving us.

Discovering Diakonia in the Colorado Prairie
For me, I discovered my vocation to be a Deacon while I was helping out at a retreat center in North Eastern Colorado called the Peace Huts. I moved to Colorado 22 years ago after I got out of the Navy. I did not know anyone in town except for my immediate family. I was studying in college when I met some young adults at Spirit of Christ Catholic Church. One of them was trying to build a retreat center out near Akron but needed help with organization. God used my skills in organizing to help to get the retreat center built. Along the way I began to share my life with Him and He began to share His dreams for my life with me.

One of the dreams God had for me was to be a Deacon. I told him that he would have to first convince my wife, and I stopped worrying about the problem.

Flying home from Rome
Two years later on a plane flying back from Rome my wife Tina turned to Father George who was accompanying us and asked him if I had spoken to him about the Diaconate. You could have knocked me over with a feather because I realized in an instance how serious God was in his dream for me. Tina and I spent the next three years discussing and discerning what this vocation would mean for us and our family and finally in 2003 I entered the seminary and began to study to be a Deacon.

What have I discovered since being ordained?
Last year I called a friend of mine from Wisconsin. When she picked up the phone she said – “You seem really upbeat today, what have you been doing?” It was Sunday and I had spent the day here at the parish, serving the Mass, baptizing a baby, and visiting the sick in the nursing home. I was excited. The funny thing about being a Deacon for me is that it is not draining but energizing. I think that the reason why is that when I am serving God with all of my heart and my soul I am able to meet people in the most profound moments of their lives and see how God is working with them – what an amazing experience.

What can each one of us do to better understand our own vocation?
But enough about me, how about you? The first thing that each and everyone of us can do is to begin to share our lives with God. When we get up in the morning ask Him what His will is with us. Be open to the idea that God might be coaching us for something we haven’t even dared to dream about. Reflect on the souls of our children. Ask God to provide for them out of his abundant love. Help our children to better understand God’s will for them in their lives.

Pray for the members of our parish who are pursuing their vocation
There are men and women in our parish who are trying to figure out if they are called to be a Priest, or a Deacon or a Sister. They have the courage to consider the God’s call in their lives. There are men and women in our parish who are discerning if God is calling them to be married to one another. Pray for them that God helps them to choose His will. We have three seminarians who are currently preparing for ordained life. Arturo Ariza, one of our own parishioners who used to lead the Hombres para Cristo is studying to be a Deacon. Ryan Tydball and Brother Clarance Wetegrove are preparing for the priesthood and are here. The Franciscans in the Convent have another 3 men who are spending this year asking God if they are called to follow Jesus as Franciscan Brothers. Pray for them.

Do we have the courage to live God’s Dreams? Veni Sancte Spiritus…
In the Gospel today Christ teaches us that God’s dreams for us are greater than we can imagine. If a wicked judge will give a just judgment to a nagging widow then how much more will God give us what is good? Do we have the audacity to live God’s Dreams for our lives? Let us pray for God to give us that courage!

[[FINISH BY SINGING VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS TWICE THROUGH]].

For whom the bell tolls…

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Dt 18:15-20 Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9 1 Cor 7:32-35 Mk 1:21-28

Eastern Europe
A Cardinal who grew up in Eastern Europe once shared with a group of young people why church bells were so important to him. “They remind me of my Baptism, of my faith and my mission in life” he said. In his country the Church bells were rung every morning at sunrise to remind the people to begin their day with a prayer of thanksgiving to God. The job of ringing the bells belonged to the altar boys who had to get up before dawn, and walk down to the Church in the dark in order to ring the bells at sunrise.

When the communists took over Eastern Europe they wanted to destroy the Church, so they imposed a curfew until dawn to try to prevent the ringing of the church bells. This cardinal, and his boyhood friend were committed to serving God, and so they would get up early in the morning and sneak over to the Church to ring the bells. One morning when it was his friend’s turn to ring the bells, he was shot for violating the curfew. This tragedy devastated the village, but every day, the bells of the Church still spoke out…

Ringing Bells make a Joyful Noise
At St. Anthony’s we begin every Mass with the ringing of the Church bells. Our bells have always made a joyful noise to the Lord because they call us to open our hearts to God so that we can receive His love. In a certain way our bells are the voice of our Church, because when we hear them, we are reminded of God, our faith and our Baptism.

It takes two to ring the bells
There are two people involved in the ringing of the bells, the one pulling the rope, and the ones listening to the sound. All of us who are baptized have this dual vocation in our lives; we have a responsibility to listen to the sound of the bells (to listen to Christ) and to be a bell for Christ by living our witness to the Gospel before our friends and family.

Listening to Christ
The first reading today contains a stern warning to those of us with this dual responsibility. In it, God warns Moses and all of the prophets (That is us sisters and brothers) that we need to hear the truth – that is the whole truth, and not just the parts of the Truth that we are comfortable with. It is not enough for me to simply hear the Churches teachings on abortion and not hear her teachings on immigration or war, or to hear the Churches teaching on the liturgy and not hear her teachings on the care for the poor or the sick. If we want to be faithful listeners, then we need to hear the whole truth.

How do we listen to Christ?
The response for the responsorial psalm today says, “If today you hear his voice harden not your hearts”. This means that we have an obligation to listen to Christ each day. We listen to Christ through attentive prayer. God has created each one of us with a specific mission in mind, a specific vocation, a calling. If we never listen to Christ, then we can only become aware of our vocation when God sneaks up behind us and whacks us over the head with the spiritual 2x4 (two by four).

Christian Life is Baptism flowing out into the world
The word Vocation means “one who is called”. There are two different connotations of the word vocation that I would like to address today; our baptismal vocation, and the vocations of service that we might be called to in Marriage or Holy orders.

Christian Life is our Baptismal Vocation flowing out into the world.
Fix in your minds the idea that at the moment of your Baptism God placed into your soul a rich spring, welling up with the purest, sweetest, cleanest water. Our Baptismal vocation is not a split instant in our life, but rather the water from this spring welling up within us and flowing out into the world over the course of our entire life. The grace that we received at Baptism remains effective for all eternity – and it desires to permeate into all of our relationships and interactions, washing them clean through the grace of God. Sadly, many Catholics receive this spring at Baptism and then seldom turn again to listen to the voice of God resonating in their souls. Some of us gathered here today may share this experience. For all of us, the readings today call us to listen anew to the bells of the Church!

Have a Conversation with God
I want to encourage all of us gathered here today to make time in our lives to listen to God. Specifically, we can take 10 minutes in the morning as we begin our days to reflect quietly with God about the people that God is calling us to be the bell of the Church for today. This is what God and Moses were doing in the first reading. They were reflecting together over the people that God had entrusted to Moses. Listening to God in prayer this way helps us to become aware of the ways that the grace that God has given us at baptism is flowing through our lives and into the world. It is also a way to become aware of when God is calling us into a more specific vocation – a vocation of service.

All are called to listen and dialog today
In the Church there are two sacramental vocations of service, marriage and holy orders. As a married Deacon, I need to be attentive to both of these calls, but all of us have a need to listen to God about both of the sacraments because all of us experience these sacraments in our lives. Those of us who are single, or young are called to listen and dialog with God about where He is calling us to serve and how he is calling us to serve. If we are ordained, or married, then we too have an obligation to dialog with God about how he is calling us to live out our sacraments today.

This means that like Christ, the prophet that Moses and God spoke about in the first reading, we have an obligation to listen to the whole truth of God in our sacramental life and not to shy away from the teachings of the Church that we find difficult or inconvenient. In this sense all of us need to hear the bells, and all of us need to be bell ringers…

Don’t be anxious about the things of the World.
St. Paul warns us today not to be anxious about the things of the world, but rather to trust in God. The reason why St. Paul warns us about this is because anxiety strangles our ability to listen to God and prevents us from trusting God.

Married People – Trust in the Lord
When it comes to marriage, do we choose to listen to Christ about contraception, or be anxious about the burden of children and so we contracept? Do we place other things above our vocation to serve one another out of love? Where in our marriage do we need to invite in the healing love of God. How can we allow him to enter into the wounds of our love and redeem them, heal them? In what ways are our marriages thirsty for the flowing, cleansing, refreshing, life-giving waters of baptism?

[[PAUSE]]

Bishops, Priests and Deacons – Trust in the Lord
For those of us in Holy Orders, are we faithful to the vows we made at our ordinations? Are we humble to His Will readily following the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our ministry? Does our life of prayer continue to grow and deepen? Are we holding fast to the faith of the Church – the whole faith? Are we obedient to our Bishop, listening to him as good sons ought to? Do we continue to conform our lives to the example of Christ?

[[PAUSE]]

Pray for Vocations – Pray for our married couples
All of us experience the sacrament of marriage – either as husbands and wives or as sons and daughters, and so all of us are affected by the fidelity of those married couples in our community who are called by God to live out this sacrament. Let us pray then sisters and brothers for the married couples of our parish that God may give them the grace to live out their sacrament faithfully, and fruitfully.

Pray for Vocations – pray for our Bishop, Priests and Deacons
Likewise all of us here experience the sacrament of Holy Orders. Without it we could not gather week after week to receive the Eucharist and to celebrate the Mass. Let us take some time this week to pray in a special way for those in Holy Orders and those living the religious life. That they might be faithful to their vows taken at ordination and so reflect the love of God to the World.

Listen and Trust in God and you will discover your vocation
All of us here are called to a vocation in life. The way that we begin to discover this vocation is to listen to God and to trust in God.

To those of us here today that have not yet received either of these two sacraments I want to offer you this reassurance. The decision to enter the seminary to study for the priesthood or diaconate is a serious decision, however, it is not the final decision to be a priest or deacon but rather the next level of listening and trusting in God to see if He is calling you to Holy Orders. In the same way becoming engaged is a serious decision but it does not mean that you are married, but rather that you are going to spend some time considering marriage seriously. Engagement and entering the seminary means that we are willing to listen to God and to trust that He will make his will known to us.

To those of us here today who are living in Holy Orders or Marriage – we too have the same challenge: to listen to God in the context of our vocation and to trust that God will provide for the needs of our ministry. If we do this we will become better wives, better husbands, better priests and better deacons.

Brothers and Sisters when we listen to God we hear the peal of the bells. When we trust in God, we are the ones who are ringing the bells. Go and make joyful noise to the Lord this week!

How does God enter into our plans?

Third Sunday of Easter Cycle A

Acts 2:14, 22-33 Psalm Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11 1 Pt 1:17-21 Lk 24:13-35

Planning sets us apart from the other creatures

One of the things that set us human beings apart from all the other creatures on this planet is our capacity to plan. As humans we have the ability to think about what has happened to us, or to those around us and to plan so as to improve our lives.

Dogs and Cats Planning?

Think about this. When was the last time you saw your dog sitting down with the estate planner to write out a will, or your cat planning out her retirement, or your canary bird thinking about a business plan for being cute and sweet sounding?

Humans plan all the time

Animals don’t – but we humans do. While it would be silly to see your dog sitting down with the Financial section of the newspaper to see how his investments in Purina Dog Chow is doing, we don’t think twice when a human is planning. How many of us here are planning to buy a new car or a vacation this summer? How many of us here spend time planning our families? How many kids we will have, where we will live, what we will do? Or, if you are younger – planning what you want to be when you grow up? A Mom, or a Dad, or a Priest? How many of us here are thinking about our retirement or planning for our death?

Planning is how we achieve at a good goal

At the heart of all planning is working to achieve some good goal. The goal of planning a vacation is a relaxing time at the beach, or in the mountains – to have an enjoyable time. The goal of planning a family is to have a happy, fulfilled life and the goal of planning for our retirement and our death is to help those whom we love.

What is God’s involvement in our plans?

The question that we are called to reflect on today is that of God’s involvement in our plans. All of us here today have many plans for our life, but how many of those plans include God?

[PAUSE]

To look at this question from another angle, It is clear from the readings today that God has a plan for us, and that He is actively working his plan. How does God work into our plans?

How does God enter into our plans?

The Gospel today shows us how God enters into our plans, and how we can respond when he does. In the Gospel today the two disciples are on the road to Emaus. Why?

[PAUSE]

They are sad about what has happened to Christ, they are leaving town, dejected, depressed. Things didn’t go according to their plan. On Palm Sunday things were going like gangbusters, Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This was the time and place where their plans for freedom from Roman oppression were going to be realized. Then came Good Friday, Christ was crucified. Being good Jews they stayed in town for the Sabbath, and now it is the morning after the Sabbath (Sunday) and they are getting out of town.

Christ is the Good Shepherd – going after his Lost Sheep

It is at this point in their plans – the lowest point of their plan that Christ meets them on the road and He begins to walk with them. At this low point of their plans they begin to talk with Jesus about where they are at – truthfully from the heart. Jesus then responds by sharing their struggles, and then showing them how their struggles tie into God’s plan for their lives. At the end of the day, they come to the inn and share a meal with one another. It is in the breaking of the bread – the Eucharist that they recognize Him – They see how God has entered into their plans and where their plans must now lead them.

The Road to Emaus ends up being God’s Plan

You see, when the disciples set off from Jerusalem that morning they did not know that they were cooperating with God’s plan. They were thinking to themselves, anyplace has got to be better than this place. What they didn’t realize is that they were actually going to Jerusalem, it wasn’t until they encounter Christ in the Breaking of the Bread at Emaus that Christ shows them their vocation.

Letting God into our plans is how we learn our Vocation

Along the way they were met by Christ, and as they shared with Christ, they learned from him and realized that He was giving their journey a purpose, a mission, a vocation. Their encounter with Jesus set their hearts afire so that at the end the day they were doing the will of the Father – they proclaimed the resurrection of Christ to the Apostles!

Imagine being the one to tell the Pope the most amazing piece of news in the history of time!

Where is God in the Plan’s for your life?

If we went to a retirement planner to plan for our retirement he would not say to us - go each week and buy a powerball ticket - then you will be taken care of in your old age - no! He would encourage us to hard work, discipline, saving, so that when we get to an old age we can retire. Likewise, St. Peter exhorts us not to trust in treasures like silver and gold, but in what is eternal - the Blood of Christ. When we are planning for after retirement - after we die, we need to follow the same advice - to pray for conversion, to fast and to open our hearts so that God's plan for our life can be realized - eternity spent in communion with Him.

Vocation, Holiness and Mission

Nativity of St. John the Baptist
Is 49:1-6, Psalm 139:1-3, 13-15, Acts 13:22-26, Luke 1:57-66, 80

Today is the Birthday of John the Baptist and the Church invites us to reflect on the nature of Christian life – on our Vocation, Holiness and our Mission.

Charles de Foucauld
In 2005 Pope Benedict XVI beatified Charles de Foucauld. Charles was born into wealth and spent much of his youth on empty pursuits. As a young man he entered the famous military academy of Saint Cyr, where he was expelled for smuggling his mistress into the academy (a big no-no). He was later re-admitted, where he graduated, sent to Algeria in the Cavalry and expelled for behavior reasons (public concubinage).

After being expelled from the Military Blessed Charles went back to North Africa and explored for a couple of years, living among the people and making maps and diaries. He was awarded a prestigious medal by the French Geographic Society. Afterwards Charles returned to France. He was listless, bored of life, he had lived life abundantly, but not been fulfilled.

While living in Paris, his cousin encouraged him to speak with a famous confessor at that time, Abbe Huvelin which he did and it led to a conversion in his life. Charles said – “The moment I realized that God existed, I knew I could not do otherwise than to live for him alone.”

Today the Church calls us to reflect on our mission. The Scriptures today reflect the fact that each of us were created for a specific mission, for a specific purpose. In the Church we call that purpose vocation.

What is Vocation?
“Every vocation in the Church is at the service of holiness.”
John Paul II described 4 ways of discover my own vocation
· Talk about the Word
· Pray with one another
· Participate in the Sacraments – The Mass, Reconciliation, Marriage and Holy Orders
· Seeking the Face of Christ in my Brothers and Sisters (JPII’s Prayer).

The goal of vocation is to grow in Holiness.
After his confession with Abbe Huvelin Charles went on a pilgrimage to the Holy land and ended up being the gardener at a convent of Poor Claire nuns in Nazareth. Charles discovered his own vocation in his service to the nuns, and to the Muslim men who he worked with in the Monastery.

How is Vocation / Holiness manifested in Marriage and Holy Orders?
The holiness of marital love,
the harmony of family life, / parish life
the spirit of faith with which the problems of daily life are confronted,
openness towards others, especially towards the poorest, and
participation in the life of the Christian community

What is Holiness?
Pope John Paul II described Holiness as
· intimacy with God,
· the imitation of Christ, who was poor, chaste and humble;
· the unreserved love for souls and a giving of oneself on their behalf and for their true good;
· the love for the Church which is holy and wants us to be holy, because this is the mission that Christ entrusted to her"

Holiness is to be …transformed into a radiant reflection of the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

There are 3 ways to know that I am living out my Vocation.
· Reflect on your life to see if your decisions are illuminated by the intelligence of faith.
· Learn to know and contemplate Christ's face
· Discover in Him our own authentic identity and the mission that the Lord entrusts to us.

How does Prayer guide Holiness?
Prayer, developed and lived, will help us to be guided by the Spirit of Christ to collaborate in building up the Church in charity. We grow in desire to encounter Christ so that we can be free to be the children of God.

Three Questions about my own call to Holiness.
How is my Faith? Do I know my Faith? Do I examine my Faith (Examination of Conscience).
Do I contemplate (think deeply), allow myself to be in the presence of Him –
In my Spouse?
In the Sacraments (Eucharist / Reconciliation / Marriage / Holy Orders)
In the Body of Christ (My Brothers and Sisters)
What is my Mission? It is a secret mission just for me, and God has given me the secret decoder ring.

Mission
The whole world wondered what marvelous things the would be in store at the wonder of the Birth of John the Baptist. In the same way the staff at Saint Cyr’s wondered the life mission was for this young man who entered their academy. It was in his pursuit of his vocation that Charles discovered his mission, his vocation, the path to Holiness that God had called out for him. It was not in great military expeditions, nor in intrepid explorations, but rather in the quiet humble life of living out his life as a priest in the Moroccan desert that he would come face to face with Christ in the local people.

Through his trials of life – his military training, his failures and successes that God prepared him to be a hermit in the desert. In his ordinary life as a gardener in the Holy Land and in North Africa Charles’ life reflected the life of the Trinity. The local Muslims referred to him as Marabout, or, "the holy one." – a testament to the progress that Blessed Charles had made during his life.

Today through the readings God says “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” – Today we are called to reflect on our vocation, on our mission and to evaluate where we are on the road to Holiness.