Thursday, December 17, 2009
Want to travel the world, be a seminarian!
Our seminarians are headed all over the place. Some will be here for the Archbishop's Christmas party on December 28th, and the parent luncheon on the 29th. Actually, most will be here. But there are many seminarians on the move. Nick Blaha is already in the Holy Land. Nathan Haverland is in Rome for Christmas. A seminarian we just accepted yesterday, a transfer from the Wichita diocese, Agustin Martinez-Delgado, has flown to be with family in Mexico. Quentin Schmitz and Mark Ostrowski are headed to represent the vocation office at the FOCUS conference in Orlando. Then let's not forget that Daniel Stover is headed on a CRS mission trip to Ethiopia in February between quarters. Plans are in the works for all of us hopefully to be in Spain for the World Youth Days in 2011! Isn't it great to be a seminarian?
Late night or early morning?
I've finally had a chance to make a plan. Just need a few gifts, mostly for godchildren and nieces. Thankfully my family does not overdo it with gifts. Mostly for the children. I've waited as long as I can prudently wait to shop. I think I can get most everything in two stores, located almost right next to each other. Both are open till 11pm on Friday night, and open at 7am on Saturday morning. The plan is this - to go at 9:45pm Friday, or 7am sharp on Saturday, and to be done in one hour flat. Can it happen? It must!
God is coming closer, doing more, than we think!
Homily for 17 December
KC Young Adult Group
Holy Spirit Parish
Year for Priests
The Chiefs will one day again win the Super Bowl. It may not be in my lifetime. You see, it is different being a Chiefs fan versus being a Jayhawk basketball fan. My faith in the Chiefs wanes a little more each year. Each year they seem farther away from their goal of winning a Super Bowl. For Jayhawk basketball, it is just the opposite. We know that they are one of the best teams, almost every year. We expect them to win it all, almost every year. There is great anticipation, excitement and expectation at the beginning of the NCAA tournament, every year.
Advent is supposed to be more like Jayhawk basketball than Chiefs football. We are supposed to be ready, awake, fraught with anticipation that the Lord continues to come closer to His people who always want to wander from Him, that he wants to do more for His people who insist instead on helping themselves. We are to expect the Lord to come and to deliver his justice, his peace, and his salvation, as the psalm invites us to pray. And we are to expect it this year, if not sooner, like the Jayhawks winning the national championship.
The promise Jacob made to his Son Judah however was a promise that was not to be fulfilled for a long time; well, the Gospel shows it took hundreds of years - 42 generations. I don't have that long to wait for the Chiefs to win a Super Bowl. But the promise we hear in Genesis, and the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise that we see in the Gospel, remind us that throughout those 42 generations, God was always acting. He was always doing more than people were able to experience, and He was always moving closer to His people than they were able to perceive. God throughout those 42 generations was not absent, even though He appeared to be so many times when the promise of salvation was nearly extinguished. But the promise continued through history, and God never stopped acting, according to the Jacob's promise that the scepter would never depart from Judah.
And so as we pray at Mass, we 'wait in joyful hope' for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. Whether we feel our spiritual life is languishing like the Chiefs, or flourishing like the Jayhawks, we wait in joyful hope and try to see the coming of Jesus Christ, knowing that he is coming closer, and doing more, than we are able to perceive. We know that just as something the Chiefs are doing now might one day allow them to win the Super Bowl, even if it takes more than a lifetime for them to do so, so also the way we welcome Christ now will bring about the day when his kingdom that has no end, will bring the fullness of justice, and lasting peace, to the earth. +m
KC Young Adult Group
Holy Spirit Parish
Year for Priests
The Chiefs will one day again win the Super Bowl. It may not be in my lifetime. You see, it is different being a Chiefs fan versus being a Jayhawk basketball fan. My faith in the Chiefs wanes a little more each year. Each year they seem farther away from their goal of winning a Super Bowl. For Jayhawk basketball, it is just the opposite. We know that they are one of the best teams, almost every year. We expect them to win it all, almost every year. There is great anticipation, excitement and expectation at the beginning of the NCAA tournament, every year.
Advent is supposed to be more like Jayhawk basketball than Chiefs football. We are supposed to be ready, awake, fraught with anticipation that the Lord continues to come closer to His people who always want to wander from Him, that he wants to do more for His people who insist instead on helping themselves. We are to expect the Lord to come and to deliver his justice, his peace, and his salvation, as the psalm invites us to pray. And we are to expect it this year, if not sooner, like the Jayhawks winning the national championship.
The promise Jacob made to his Son Judah however was a promise that was not to be fulfilled for a long time; well, the Gospel shows it took hundreds of years - 42 generations. I don't have that long to wait for the Chiefs to win a Super Bowl. But the promise we hear in Genesis, and the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise that we see in the Gospel, remind us that throughout those 42 generations, God was always acting. He was always doing more than people were able to experience, and He was always moving closer to His people than they were able to perceive. God throughout those 42 generations was not absent, even though He appeared to be so many times when the promise of salvation was nearly extinguished. But the promise continued through history, and God never stopped acting, according to the Jacob's promise that the scepter would never depart from Judah.
And so as we pray at Mass, we 'wait in joyful hope' for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. Whether we feel our spiritual life is languishing like the Chiefs, or flourishing like the Jayhawks, we wait in joyful hope and try to see the coming of Jesus Christ, knowing that he is coming closer, and doing more, than we are able to perceive. We know that just as something the Chiefs are doing now might one day allow them to win the Super Bowl, even if it takes more than a lifetime for them to do so, so also the way we welcome Christ now will bring about the day when his kingdom that has no end, will bring the fullness of justice, and lasting peace, to the earth. +m
Monday, December 14, 2009
Vocation events
This fall has been amazingly busy with seed-planting. The future is very bright for religious vocations. Here are a few pics from the recent NCYC convention we hosted, and one showing the snowballs flying during our Encounter With God's Call visit to 
Conception Seminary 
College!
Conception Seminary 
College!
Family!
Looks like I'll be able to spend Christmas in Hoxie again this year! We had a good time over thanksgiving eating and playing Wii and yes, there was just enough snow left in certain places to get into a good snowball fight with my nieces (7 of them!). Here my goddaughter Meghann takes a shot of us warming up for the twilight snowball fight. We had a blast until, you guessed it, we got called in for dinner!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
A proposition of faith
Homily
Monday of the 3rd Week of Advent
John of the Cross, priest and doctor
Year for Priests
For daily readings, click here
Jesus many times will be elusive in the Gospels. It can almost seem like he is being difficult, or coy, or evasive or deceptive. He does not answer the question posed him in today's Gospel, even though He easily could have. But Jesus is not just toying with the chief priests and elders who approach him. Looking upon them with love, he knows the answer to their question lies within them. He sees the possibility of the chief priests and elders coming to faith in Him, and instead of telling them who He is, and giving them the possibility of doubting what He says, Jesus instead gives the scribes and Pharisees every opportunity to profess faith. Unfortunately, in this episode, they do not.
Beginning with his birth in the most humble and obscure of circumstances, Jesus comes among us not to command faith, but to propose it. Being deeply in love with us who enjoy the real freedom that comes from our being created in the image and likeness of God, God in his plan for the redemption of that freedom does not take any of it back, but instead lowers himself so much that it remains possible for us to disbelieve in Him. Surely, God could have revealed Himself in such a way as to overpower our freedom, in effect, taking some of it back. But he chose instead to reveal himself in such a way that would appeal to our freedom, and in such a way that it would take the very best that is within us to believe in Him and to enter into a relationship of true love with Him. +m
Monday of the 3rd Week of Advent
John of the Cross, priest and doctor
Year for Priests
For daily readings, click here
Jesus many times will be elusive in the Gospels. It can almost seem like he is being difficult, or coy, or evasive or deceptive. He does not answer the question posed him in today's Gospel, even though He easily could have. But Jesus is not just toying with the chief priests and elders who approach him. Looking upon them with love, he knows the answer to their question lies within them. He sees the possibility of the chief priests and elders coming to faith in Him, and instead of telling them who He is, and giving them the possibility of doubting what He says, Jesus instead gives the scribes and Pharisees every opportunity to profess faith. Unfortunately, in this episode, they do not.
Beginning with his birth in the most humble and obscure of circumstances, Jesus comes among us not to command faith, but to propose it. Being deeply in love with us who enjoy the real freedom that comes from our being created in the image and likeness of God, God in his plan for the redemption of that freedom does not take any of it back, but instead lowers himself so much that it remains possible for us to disbelieve in Him. Surely, God could have revealed Himself in such a way as to overpower our freedom, in effect, taking some of it back. But he chose instead to reveal himself in such a way that would appeal to our freedom, and in such a way that it would take the very best that is within us to believe in Him and to enter into a relationship of true love with Him. +m
A clue from the kids
Homily for Gaudete Sunday
St. Lawrence Catholic Center
13 December 2009
Year for Priests
For daily readings, click here
Presents under the tree. The kids know how many. How big. They are guessing what's inside, knowing that what's not under the tree now, Santa might bring later. Kids anticipate Christmas morning with joy. Watching kids can teach us how to celebrate Gaudete Sunday. Kids are full of joy as Christmas draws near. They know that the fulfillment of one of their deepest wishes, if not all of them, lie within the mystery of those gifts under the tree.
The people following John the Baptist were filled with this kind of anticipation. They were filled with excitement and joy, at the prospect of soon being in the presence of the long-promised Messiah. They wondered if they were already meeting him in John the Baptist. They rejoiced, while the rest of the world remained in sleepiness and fear, at the chance they might have to meet the person who could make all things new.
Unlike kids, us older folks do not expect anything under the tree to fulfill our deepest desires nor to complete the mystery of who we are. It is not material gifts, but the meeting of a person who loves us and sets us completely free to love, that completes us. But just in case we are not joyfully anticipating such a meeting, such a chance to see the very face of God, if instead we find ourselves busy with finals and a million other important things, just a glance at the kids can set us aright. It just takes a moment to recapture Advent joy, if we take Jesus' advice to remember always to turn and be like children. We can take our advent cues from the kids. Like them, it is now the time for us to rejoice on this Gaudete Sunday, as we have passed the midpoint of our Advent expectation of Christmas. It is time to rejoice, for not just presents, but the Lord Himself is near. The Lord, who wishes to visit his people, to join them in the very circumstances of their lives, is near. The Lord, who wishes to make all things possible again for those who welcome the chance to act through him, with him, and in him, is near. My friends, this is the cause of Christian joy. Not that we are able to escape our lives and enter into some magical kingdom, but that the Lord is coming to visit us, right where we are, in the very very humble circumstances of our lives, and he is ready to choose once again to build his home and his kingdom in our very midst, as surely as he once came among us in the lowly circumstances of Bethlehem.
John Baptist, the greatest prophet ever, reminds us we must perform the corporal works of mercy, and to live in justice, if we are to joyfully welcome this visit by the Lord, instead of fearing it or wanting it delayed. Let us turn from sin and be baptized with water once again, so that we are joyfully ready to be baptized by the Lord Himself, a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. The Lord's coming means that we are no longer limited by the coldness of our sinful hearts, but can act through Him, with Him, and in Him, whose heart is always aflame with the love of the Holy Spirit. +m
St. Lawrence Catholic Center
13 December 2009
Year for Priests
For daily readings, click here
Presents under the tree. The kids know how many. How big. They are guessing what's inside, knowing that what's not under the tree now, Santa might bring later. Kids anticipate Christmas morning with joy. Watching kids can teach us how to celebrate Gaudete Sunday. Kids are full of joy as Christmas draws near. They know that the fulfillment of one of their deepest wishes, if not all of them, lie within the mystery of those gifts under the tree.
The people following John the Baptist were filled with this kind of anticipation. They were filled with excitement and joy, at the prospect of soon being in the presence of the long-promised Messiah. They wondered if they were already meeting him in John the Baptist. They rejoiced, while the rest of the world remained in sleepiness and fear, at the chance they might have to meet the person who could make all things new.
Unlike kids, us older folks do not expect anything under the tree to fulfill our deepest desires nor to complete the mystery of who we are. It is not material gifts, but the meeting of a person who loves us and sets us completely free to love, that completes us. But just in case we are not joyfully anticipating such a meeting, such a chance to see the very face of God, if instead we find ourselves busy with finals and a million other important things, just a glance at the kids can set us aright. It just takes a moment to recapture Advent joy, if we take Jesus' advice to remember always to turn and be like children. We can take our advent cues from the kids. Like them, it is now the time for us to rejoice on this Gaudete Sunday, as we have passed the midpoint of our Advent expectation of Christmas. It is time to rejoice, for not just presents, but the Lord Himself is near. The Lord, who wishes to visit his people, to join them in the very circumstances of their lives, is near. The Lord, who wishes to make all things possible again for those who welcome the chance to act through him, with him, and in him, is near. My friends, this is the cause of Christian joy. Not that we are able to escape our lives and enter into some magical kingdom, but that the Lord is coming to visit us, right where we are, in the very very humble circumstances of our lives, and he is ready to choose once again to build his home and his kingdom in our very midst, as surely as he once came among us in the lowly circumstances of Bethlehem.
John Baptist, the greatest prophet ever, reminds us we must perform the corporal works of mercy, and to live in justice, if we are to joyfully welcome this visit by the Lord, instead of fearing it or wanting it delayed. Let us turn from sin and be baptized with water once again, so that we are joyfully ready to be baptized by the Lord Himself, a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. The Lord's coming means that we are no longer limited by the coldness of our sinful hearts, but can act through Him, with Him, and in Him, whose heart is always aflame with the love of the Holy Spirit. +m
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)