From Our Deacons' Corner
This Hard Truth Will Help You Bear Much Fruit
/This Hard Truth Will Help You Bear Much Fruit
April 25, 2018 By: Chris Mueller
I live near the wine country of Southern California. Just minutes from my home are countless rows of grapevines. The vineyards make for a lovely spring afternoon drive. The beautiful green leaves of the vines wave in the gentle breeze, and one can easily find him/herself transported to Tuscany or some such famous location. That is what it looks like now as the vines ripen and prepare to bring forth fruit for the harvest. Once the harvest is complete, and the season moves from summer to fall, the vines begin to change. The branches, once abundant in foliage, turn brown. The leaves, once lovely, fall. The time for harvest has passed, and the time for pruning has come.
The vine grower cuts back the lovely vines of spring and summer. He aggressively prunes them to avoid disease and rot. Walk through the vineyard in winter and you will see what appears to be a wasteland. It isn’t. It just looks that way. Another season of fruit and harvest will come, but this season of pruning must pass first.
In John 15:1-8, Jesus tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches. Most of the time when I hear that, I want to think of the springtime vineyard, and that is part of the story. It is clear from the reading there is an expectation that, if you are in Christ, connected to the vine, you will bear fruit. If there is no fruit coming from your branch, then there is a good chance the branch is sick, or may not be connected to the vine like you thought it was. You may not be connected to Christ. Regardless, no fruit means the branch is dead or dying, so the vine grower cuts it off.
Fruitful Branches Need Pruning
OK, easy peasy, bear fruit and we can avoid the shears. That sounds great. Just be a good Christian and everything will be awesome … except Jesus continues the metaphor. Not only do the fruitless branches get cut off, but “every one that does [bear fruit] he prunes so that it bears more fruit.” Remember the winter vineyard scenes I described a little earlier? It looks terrible. It looks dead, but it is not. The vine grower is actually preparing the vineyard for a new harvest. He needs to cut back the vines in order for the vineyard to continue to thrive. In our spiritual lives, that often takes us by surprise. Not every season is harvest.
Sometimes God prunes. The Lord knows how to tend to his people. He is not content with last year’s harvest. He expects us to continue to bear good fruit. God works in us so we can do that.
God loves you and honors you so greatly that, right now, where you are, when you say “yes” to his will, he will use you to accomplish his work. He will bear fruit through you. But, God loves you. He is not content to leave you right where you are. He wants to work in your life to make you holier, more like him. That can be really hard. The letter to the Hebrews gives some insight into how we deal with this pruning.
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons … For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 7-8, 10-11)
Preparing for the New Harvest
If we are going to grow, and stay alive in our faith we need to allow God permission to prune us. Yes, I love the harvest seasons of life. I love when I can see God moving in and through me. And no, I do not look forward to, or seek out, times of trial or pruning. I do not seek them out, but I do know that I need them. When trial comes, rather than rebelling, we need to submit our lives more deeply to Christ. It is during those seasons that God is working, preparing for the next harvest. We need to be pruned. We need to have the sick, sinful parts of our lives cut back so that a new season of harvest can come.
DEACON TOM'S HOMILY: THURSDAY APRIL 26TH, 2018 IN THE FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER
/The theme from today’s readings is: “if you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.” In all the Gospels, Jesus draws us to him; to hear, understand and accept his doctrine. Last Sunday we heard: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” But he is drawing us not only to his words and voice, but to himself.
He wants us to cling with all our hearts and minds to him as a person, not just as a mighty teacher. Nowhere is this personal, heart-to-heart appeal of Christ more clearly expressed than in today’s Gospel passage. But to really appreciate this passage properly, we must place ourselves into this scene.
Jesus is now preparing his disciples for what is going to happen to him. He was intensifying his revelation of love. He has a sense of urgency and he calmly walks over to the large water jug and begins washing their feet. Only Peter breaks the silence, but he quickly quiets down. Jesus then says, “If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it[1].”
Jesus sends us a clear signal by washing his disciples’ feet. If we are willing to serve others with the same spirit of humility and hospitality, there will be a place at the eternal banquet for us as well. And indeed, there is something remarkably blessed about serving others. The Saints have echoed this blessing through their lives of self-giving love, and one of Pope Saint John Paul II’s foundational thoughts is that humanity finds itself by making a sincere gift of itself. We sing the words of Saint Francis’s prayer, “. . . for it is in giving that we receive.”
Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, says our Church must be a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. Pope Francis continues: “we are an evangelizing community that knows that the Lord has loved us first[2], and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast[3]. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, so let’s try harder to take the first step and to become involved.”
However, sometimes we miss the forest for the trees. We focus on the little things right in front of us, our everyday concerns and preoccupations, and lose sight of the big picture of God’s plan for our lives. This can be true even with our acts of faith. For example, we can be so focused on getting to Mass on Sunday and saying our prayers every morning that we lose sight of their significance or power. Or we can be so intent on getting God to answer a need that we fail to see how much he has already done for us and how much he promises to do for us if we stay close to him.
Today Saint Paul shows the people in Pisidia the big picture. He outlines how God’s plan has unfolded over thousands of years, and how it has culminated in the sending of Jesus as Savior. Everything God has promised, Paul proclaims, is coming true now in Christ.
But, what has God promised? That if we believe in his Son, we will have eternal life[4]. That all things work for our good[5]. That he will be with us forever, in this life and for all eternity[6]. This is the big picture—the “forest”—that we need to focus on in the midst of the “trees” of our everyday concerns and obligations. God keeps his promises! He has a plan for us!
No matter what the specific circumstances of your life may be, God’s overall vision for you never changes. Whatever hardships and suffering you may be experiencing now, however your life is unfolding, keep God’s love and his purposes in the forefront of your mind, and you’ll be more peaceful.
Through Jesus, God has fulfilled his promises. He loves us, he is willing to forgive us, and he invites us to spend all of eternity with him. This vision can inspire you when you rise in the morning and when you go to sleep at night. It can remain with you throughout the day. Everything else in your life fits into this plan—a plan not just for today or tomorrow but for all eternity!
[1] (John 13:17)
[2] (1 Jn 4:19)
[3] (Lk 14:23)
[4](John 5:24)
[5] (Romans 8:28)
[6] (Matthew 28:20)
Pope’s Morning Homily: May We Recognize Whom We Must Resist, Who Come From the Evil One
/Pope’s Morning Homily: May We Recognize Whom We Must Resist, Who Come From the Evil One
During Morning Mass, Francis Reminds ‘May We Know How to Open Ourselves to New Things But Only Those That Come From God’
APRIL 24, 2018 14:57 DEBORAH CASTELLANO LUBOV
“May the Lord grant us the grace of knowing how to resist those that we must resist, those who come from the evil one, those who deprive us of our freedom.”
According to Vatican News, Pope Francis stressed this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta as he reflected on the central role of the Holy Spirit in the disciple’s life, looking at the day’s readings.
Recalling today’s Gospel from St. John, the Pope noted that the doctors of the Law’s observance of the law became rigidity. Placing themselves at the center, Francis noted, they remained untouched before the works the Holy Spirit accomplishes.
The Holy Father highlighted their inability to “discern the signs of the times” as a type of prison. He prayed we nowadays are instead able to discern such signs in order to make the decisions that we need to make in that moment.
“They received a law that was life, but they ‘distilled’ it,” he stressed, noting, “they transformed it into an ideology and thus they toss and turn it and are unable to move beyond. Anything new for them is a threat.”
Reflecting being docile to the Spirit, Francis stressed the opposite is true of the child of God for whom the Holy Spirit is central. The first disciples who were docile before what was new to them, as seen in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostoles — Francis said– is the attitude which led them to sow the Word of God in ways that were not “tried and true.”
“They remained docile to the Holy Spirit and accomplished something that was more than a revolution.” The Holy Father suggested they put the Church in motion showing us that a Church can only achieve its balance like a bicycle—only when it is in motion.
There are two contrary ways to describe a person’s reaction to the breath of the Holy Spirit, the Pontiff said, closure or openness. Openness, he said, characterizes the disciples and the apostles.
Recognizing there will always be resistance to the Holy Spirit in the Church, the Pope concluded with this prayer for us to be granted strength of the Spirit: “May the Lord grant us the grace of knowing how to resist those that we must resist, those who come from the evil one, those who deprive us of our freedom.
“May we know how to open ourselves to new things, but only those that come from God. May he grant us, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, the grace to discern the signs of the times in order to make the decisions that we need to make in that moment.”
Pray and Listen: What Philosophers Are Saying About Evangelization
/Pray and Listen: What Philosophers Are Saying About Evangelization
Lately I’ve been taking my cues for evangelization from philosophers.
Maybe I need to get out more.
But, in all seriousness, its been philosophers who have taught me some of the greatest lessons on evangelization that I’ve ever learned—and it’s really changed how I think about sharing the faith. So, I thought I would share what I’ve learned. And maybe it’ll change how you think about it, too.
What I’ve lately learned from philosophers is the notion of a worldview—the way in which we see the world; the lens through which we view kind of everything. And while the idea of a worldview wasn’t necessarily new to me—it’s the kind of stuff we learned in high school—I’d never really considered how profoundly different competing worldviews can be and how they shape and impact faith.
And faith sharing.
What philosophers like Doug Beaumount, Randal Rauser, and Carrie Gress have taught me recently is that we can’t change a worldview with a conversation.
And that’s fundamental.
Take me, for example. As an non-denominational Evangelical, I began a journey towards that Catholic Church that lasted almost 10 years. Along the way I met certain people who wittingly or unwittingly planted certain seeds in my life. I read particular authors at particular points; I encountered interesting ideas and information at regular intervals; and, finally, I made the leap to become a Catholic.
It wasn’t overnight, and it wasn’t in a hurry.
And if someone had stopped me on the street to debate the theology of the Real Presence five years into my ten year journey I probably would’ve dismissed them out right. Or, worse, they could’ve set back all the progress I’d made. Maybe a crazy-eyed Catholic encountered at the wrong time would’ve put me off exploring the faith any further at that point.
Lately, what I’ve learned about evangelization is that convincing someone of the incredible riches of Catholicism isn’t something that can happen in a single conversation.
No matter how good our apologetics might be we’re talking about doing the hard work of shifting worldviews: Fundamentally changing the way someone sees everything.
And that takes time.
And while there is certainly a place for activities like street evangelizations, debates, protests, and challenging dialogue what I’m coming to understand is that this shouldn’t be the norm for evangelization—or, at least, it shouldn’t be our only way of doing it. Because in an increasingly secular culture these activities alone aren’t going to win hearts and minds to Christ.
So what is?
Philosophers like Dr. Carrie Gress suggest something as radical as prayer.
Prayer and the hard work of living a fruitful, attractive, and holy Catholic life open to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.
(Which, honestly, is probably more difficult to do than to debate a dude on the street corner.)
What will make in-roads into the lives of our non-Catholic friends, family members, and co-workers? Praying, praying more, and living a life open to the work of the Holy Spirit.
In my own journey into the riches of the Catholic Church it was seemingly random people offering a kind word, or an provoking question, or a patient ear. It was encountering the right thing to read at the right time. It was, looking back, this enormous string of tiny little events that crescendoed with a radical shift in my worldview—and a leap into the arms of Holy Mother Church.
Not one singular moment or well-reasoned critique of my Evangelical faith structure.
What have philosophers taught me about evangelization? Two huge takeaways.
First, that what we need to do the most is to pray, to listen to the Holy Spirit, and to realize that we’re dealing with fundamental shifts in people’s perspectives.
Often the best we can do is hope to plant a seed in fertile ground with the way that we live, with our prayers, and with the simple things that we say. If we’re quiet and still and live prayerful lives we should be open to hearing from God if and when He asks us to step out in faith to offer that patient ear, word of wisdom, or thought-provoking question.
Bottom line: pray, and pay attention to the Holy Spirit.
And, second, we can’t expect to move mountains with one conversation. Shifting a worldview takes time and those seeds we plant might only be seeds for a very long time until someone else comes along, led by the Spirit, to do the watering.
If we expect people to shift their opinions after only a few encounters we’re sadly selling those people short. We—all of us—have worldviews built up and reinforced over great big periods of time and we can’t expect anyone with any integrity at all to tear that down overnight—apart from a massive movement of the Spirit.
But, be assured, the Spirit is at work and it was Jesus, after all, who told us that we should expect to be able to move mountains. Just recognize, it doesn’t always happen with a single shove.
10 Ways to Open Up to the Holy Spirit.
/I am looking forward to the 6:00 pm Mass on June 23rd when our Lifeteen and Adult Confirmandi receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit from Bishop Mike. During the Confirmandi’s preparation we have tried to open up their hearts and minds to be ready to receive the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray for them and encourage them with our attendance on June 23rd.
10 Ways to Open Up to the Holy Spirit
The Gift of Gifts, the Paraclete, the Counselor and Consoler, Friend, Sanctifier, Third Person of the Blessed Trinity—all of these are different titles given to the Person of the Holy Spirit. In an earlier article we explained the power of the Holy Spirit to transform sinners into great saints—as we saw in the Apostles, and especially Simon Peter. Saint John XXIII actually said: “The saints are the masterpieces of the Holy Spirit.” A future saint can be you and me.
In this article we would like to point out ten specific ways that we can deepen our knowledge, love, intimacy and union with the Holy Spirit and thereby allow Him to do the work of transforming us from sinners into saints. It can be done if we become docile instruments in the hands of God who is the Holy Spirit! “Come Holy Spirit, come, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary!”
1. Prayer
Form the habit if praying to the Holy Spirit on a frequent basis. You could pray the traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle within us the fire of your divine love.” If you like, try the hymn in Latin: “Veni Creator”; or the Sequence prayed on Pentecost “Veni, Sancte Spiritus.”
Or, you might sing the classical hymn to the Holy Spirit, “Come Holy Ghost.” Or it might appeal to you to pray the Litany of the Holy Spirit. Never forget, you can pray and talk to the Holy Spirit using your own words, simply speak to Him from your heart.
2. Acts of the Apostles
Read the book from the Bible, “The Acts of the Apostles”. Written by the Evangelist Saint Luke, this book clearly shows the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles—especially Saint Peter and St. Paul—as well as the formation of the primitive church. As you read be keenly attentive to the presence and workings of the Holy Spirit and beg Him to work powerfully in your own personal life! “Come Holy Spirit come….”
3. Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Get to know the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. You received the Gifts of the Holy Spirit the day of your Baptism. These Gifts were fortified the day of your Confirmation. However, these Gifts must be used and exercised. If these Gifts are not used then they become rusty, dormant, and inactive. Memorize them and study them.
Here they are:
§ Wisdom,
§ Knowledge
§ Understanding
§ Counsel
§ Fortitude
§ Piety
§ Fear of the Lord
These gifts, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, perfect our intellect and our will so that we can know God more clearly and love Him more ardently.
4. Silence
We must cultivate zones of silence in our daily lives, even though many of us have to combine the Martha and Mary (The Active and the Contemplative) in a harmonious balance. Still, the danger is to launch ourselves into a frenetic activism whereby there is little time for prayer and much less for silence. The Holy Spirit speaks to a heart that is ready to listen in silence. With Samuel in the temple we should pray: “Speak O Lord for your servant is listening.”
5. Docility
Silence is a prerequisite to move on to the next step—docility to the Holy Spirit. A person who is living in the state of grace, honestly pursuing a life of holiness and seeking perfection will be exposed to heavenly inspirations that come from the Holy Spirit. The key is an ability to listen to these gentle but insistent inspirations, discern them coming from God and then the most difficult is to follow and obey these inspirations.
The Holy Spirit is, so to speak, a “Gentleman” and will never force Himself upon anybody. Rather, He waits patiently for us to respond and then He can work very powerfully only if we are silent, humble and obedient.
6. Spiritual Readings
Highly to be recommended, with respect to learning to be docile to the Holy Spirit, is the reading of a spiritual masterpiece The School of the Holy Spirit, written by the French spiritual master Jacques Philippe. The essence of this book is very clear and simple. If we want to arrive at sanctity of life we must get to know the Holy Spirit, love the Holy Spirit and manifest this knowledge and love by being docile to His heavenly inspirations.
7. Be Careful and Alert
The work of the devil is to discourage us, make us sad and to push us into desolation and then despair. Be aware of the workings of the Holy Spirit. The workings of “The sweet Guest of the soul” are the direct opposite of the devil.
How does the Holy Spirit work? St. Ignatius of Loyola in his rules for discernment specifies how the Good Spirit works. He strengthens our resolve to follow Jesus and fortifies our faith, hope, charity. He infuses peace and joy and energy to follow the Lord. He encourages us to lift our mind to heaven. He consoles us with the thoughts of the eternal salvation of our soul. Therefore, do not allow the devil to discourage you, but let the Holy Spirit encourage and strengthen you.
8. Prayer, Penance, Power, Perseverance, & Perfection
Try to connect these “5 P’s” to union with the Holy Spirit; all are necessary for a constant and growing union with the Holy Spirit. We must pray to the Sanctifier. Also, as Mary and the Apostles acted in the Cenacle for this powerful novena, we must practice penance or self-denial. However, the journey can be long and cumbersome, we must persevere and if we fall bounce back. Then if we are faithful to the first 4’P’s the Holy Spirit will bring us to perfection in the following of Jesus.
9. Loneliness? Problems?
If you experience loneliness and are weighed down by many problems then never forget to enter into the depths of your soul and speak to the Holy Spirit whose name is “Sweet Guest of the soul”. You will recognize that you are really not alone and that your problems and crosses are not as heavy as you think. Rather, the Holy Spirit can help you to resolve your problems or at least help you to cope with them.
10. Mary and the Holy Spirit
Mary is the Daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son, and she is the Mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit. St. Maximilian Kolbe has written brilliantly on the intimate relationship between Mary and the Holy Spirit.
If you want to have a powerful invasion in your heart of the Holy Spirit, a personal Pentecost experience in your life, then why not turn to Mary. As the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles the day of Pentecost through Mary’s prayers and presence, He can descend into your soul through the prayers and presence of Mary. “Come Holy Spirit, come, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”