Thoughts mid-July

And a scribe came up and said to him, "Teach, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." - Matthew 8:19-20

First let a little love find entrance into their hearts, and the rest will follow. - St. Philip Neri

Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if He wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength. - St. Philip Neri

The Church is the meeting of the cross bearers, a support group for people with weighty ones. Look around you at Sunday Mass. Everybody has splinters in their shoulders. - Timothy Cardinal Dolan

Put your hand in His hand, and walk alone with Him. Walk ahead, because if you look back you will go back. - Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

Oh I heard a thousand stories
Of what they think You're like
But I heard a tender whisper of Love
In the dead of night
And You tell me that You're pleased
And that I'm never alone
You're a Good, Good Father
That's who You are
That's who You are
That's who You are
And I'm loved by You
It's who I am
It's who I am
It's who I am

Sometimes, I have a truly difficult time in knowing that I belong to this Body, to this Church, to anything. And in those times I feel the weight of this relentless longing and desire to belong somewhere. To someone. To be loved and know that I am loved. And this should ultimately come from a centering relationship and service to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the fact that I am not feeling this or aware of it, leads me to think that I do indeed have a very, very long way to go in following Him. And I pray that someday I will actually be able to serve Him well and in love. Until then, here's to keeping on trying.

Untitled and Unfinished

Time and the Enemy deliver a crushing blow,

For opportunities lost, long ago,

I stand here trying to clutch,

The remnants of my broken soul.

Short Thank You To My Core Team

I have been blessed with an amazing Core Team this year at St. Thomas Aquinas in College Station Texas. I wrote this thank you to them, and I wanted to share more of the reflection like excerpts. Christ is King. Jesus Saves. Praise God for His Mercy.

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I am very grateful to all of you for everything that you have done this year to volunteer with our teens. I cannot express how much you have helped me in really working to show Jesus to these teens. I pray that you will continue to have a blessed Advent as it draws to a close, and a wonderful Christmas as we celebrate our Lord’s nativity. The antiphon for the Invitatory in the Liturgy of the Hours for this time of year is: “The Lord is close at hand; come, let us worship him.” That is something that I really want to encourage all of you to do. As we get closer and closer to Christmas, and our lives continue to get busier with preparations, family, friends, and activities, I really encourage you to take a moment to be still with the Lord.

Through the Psalmist, the Lord has told us: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10) Oftentimes around Christmas, we get caught up in everything that we are doing, did we set up the tree? How are the cooking preparations? Did I wrap the presents? Are they ready for Christmas? Did I remember to buy the presents? When are we traveling? Have we packed everything? Did we forget anything? Do we need to go back for what we forgot? Are we there yet? All of these things are important as we get ready to celebrate the Nativity of our Lord with family and friends. But it would be good for us to pause and remember, why we are celebrating the Nativity of our Lord.

In St. John’s Gospel we are taught that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not an thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shown in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) We remember that the reason for the Nativity was the Crucifixion and Resurrection. We remember, that we were lost in darkness without hope, and that God came to us. We remember that the Lord of the universe has offered Love to us by coming to us. This Love which is radical, beautiful, and transcendent has made a profound impact on our lives as the Lord has entered into relationship with us. And we are left to be able to share this Love and relationship with others all around us. So as we eagerly move into the week of Christmas, let us remember to pause be still with God who is our Savior, rejoicing that He has saved us from darkness.

I am so grateful to you! And everything that you have done this year! There is not a way that I can adequately thank you for everything that you have done for our teens and programs. Going into Christmas, I love the image of the shepherds who were given the glorious news of the Birth of Christ! I pray that we will have the same joy as those noble shepherds in sharing the good news of Jesus and worshiping God! Please contact me if you have any questions or need anything over this Christmas break. I am very grateful for you and love each of you. I leave you with the account of the Shepherds at Christmas.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night,. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peach among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angles went away form them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they say it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

- Luke 2:8-20

Lonely

It's incredibly hard to learn, that people will not be there for you.

That sometimes, even people you consider your closest friends, will not be there for you. Usually this is painful because they have been there for you in the past, but when that changes, it is something that can be really hard to deal with.

Because you're alone.

You can even be with those people, hanging out with them, sitting across the table from them, and still be alone. And that's hard.

Because you're alone.

We Shall Fight

Winston Churchill famously said:

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.

Speech in the House of Commons (4 June 1940).

This is a really famous quotation about the resolve of the British Empire and people in the face of the evil tyranny of National Socialism as it swept across the continent. I think that in the Church we can still take some inspiration from this tenacity:

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in Europe, we shall fight on the airwaves and internet, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in world, we shall defend our Church, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the airwaves, we shall fight in our schools and in our workplaces, we shall fight in our homes; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, our country or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Church beyond our shores, armed and guarded by the Holy Spirit, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old.

God helps us to Love

We really are left in a great journey trying to understand what love is, how it works, and the way that things can come out of it. I have really been left in a great gap over the past year. And in that gap I have realized that I am also being wrapped up in the love of Christ. This realization has not come easily. In fact it is something that has been very hard won. But Christ has helped to cultivate good things in my heart.

I am very grateful for the faith community of St. Mary's Catholic Church. This environment has been good for me in several ways. Here I was received into the Full Communion of the Church. Here I fell in love, and I also lost that. But I have come to realize, objectively at least, that the entire time I was really being wrapped up in love.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the deaths of President John F. Kennedy, author Aldous Huxley, and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis. All three of these men left their marks on society and culture. How we as people interact with the world and with each other. But Lewis left us something else, understanding in how to approach God when it comes to love.

I grew up in a very loving Christian home, and one of the things that we always got to do was learn lessons of life from stories. Tales of adventure and valor, quests of intrigue and mystery. Lewis was the author of some of the first stories that I read. From Lewis, I learned about Aslan, how he was not a tame Lion, but that He is Good. Later on I learned that I needed to learn to know Him in my world, by a different Name, and come to Love Him even more.

I am very thankful to Lewis for teaching me these things about God. About how much we mean to Him. And how in a very concise thought, he can show us how God teaches us to Love.

God lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it. - Mere Christianity

We are all so dependent upon God. For absolutely everything. He is Love, and so He helps us to Love. God is teaching us to Love. Thanks be to God. May we love Him with complete devotion and passion.

The Terrible Darkness

Darkness is such that I really do not see - neither with my mind nor with my reason. - The place of God in my soul is blank. - There is no God in me. - When the pain of longing is so great - I just long & long for God - and then it is that I feel - He does not want me - He is not there. - ... God does not want me. - Sometimes - I just hear my own heart cry out - "My God" and nothing else comes. - The torture and pain I can't explain. 
- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, M.C.