Hi folks,
I may have told you all before about one of my favorite things to do while I was assigned as pastor of Emmanuel Church in Albany and Holy Cross Church in Burkesville. I would have a group of students from Holy Cross College in Worchester, Massachusetts come and spend their spring break doing service and outreach work with the poor in Clinton and Cumberland Counties. Most of these young adults were from the cities of the Northeast. So even being in rural Kentucky was quite a big change in what they were used to. I’d make it a point to take them out on one of the nights they were there to a place out in the middle of nowhere to look at the night sky. For some it was the first time they had seen the Big Dipper. For most it was the first time they had seen the Milky Way. For all it was a religious experience as they got a glimpse of the vastness of God’s creation and their humbling privilege to be a part of it.
Again I’m reminded of those students when I read the first line from this weekend’s first reading from Genesis. God makes a promise to Abram (soon to be Abraham). He asks our first patriarch to look up at the numbers of stars in the sky and try to count them. Then He promises him that his descendants will be that numerous. Abram then makes a covenant with God showing that our God will be his only God.
In the Gospel (from Luke 9) God shows Jesus’ favorite Apostles the completion of the covenant that He started with Abraham. Jesus is transfigured before James, John, and Peter. They get a sneak preview of God’s plan for Jesus and us. God shows the disciples Jesus in a glorified state talking with Moses and Elijah about His trial, death, and resurrection in Jerusalem. Then God identifies Jesus to the three followers as His Beloved Son with the instruction to “listen to Him.”
We are part of that same legacy and promise given to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and the Apostles. St. Paul says that “our citizenship is in Heaven.” When we truly grasp the love that God has for us; when we catch a glimpse that the design of our lives is meant for so much more than what we can fathom; when we begin to see that we too are part of the compassionate and forgiving Body of Christ; then we too begin to live our lives only for God.
Peace and Blessings,
Fr. Chuck Walker
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Don't Tempt Me
Hi Friends,
This First Sunday of Lent shows us Jesus fighting off the temptations of the Devil by turning to the help of God. His temptations were real and strong just like ours. But He was able to overcome their lure by His trust in His Father.
Before He was tempted Jesus had just spent forty days in prayer and fasting. As we begin our Lenten journey of prayer and fasting let’s get serious about fighting the sin and temptation that we face. The best way to do that is by practicing some penance. Practicing penance not only helps us stop sinful and unhealthy behaviors, it also helps us involve God in fighting off the temptation to sin, and it helps us establish virtuous and healthy habits to replace what was sinful. The following is an article concerning penance from Creighton University’s Online Ministries Lenten Website. I hope you find it helpful.
Practicing Penance
When I sprain my ankle, part of the healing process will involve physical therapy. It's tender, and perhaps it is swollen. It may be important to put ice on it first, to reduce the inflammation. I may want to wrap it an elevate it and stay off of it. Then I will need to start moving it and then walking on it, and eventually, as the injury is healed, I'll want to start exercising it, so that it will be stronger than it was before, so that I won't as easily injure it again.
Penance is a remedy, a medicine, a spiritual therapy for the healing I desire. The Lord always forgives us. We are forgiven without condition. But complete healing takes time. With serious sin or with bad habits we've invested years in forming, we need to develop a therapeutic care plan to let the healing happen. To say "I'm sorry" or to simply make a "resolution" to change a long established pattern, will have the same bad result as wishing a sprained ankle would heal, while still walking on it.
Lent is a wonderful time to name what sinful, unhealthy, self-centered patterns need changing and to act against them by coming up with a strategy. For example, if the Lord is shining a light into the darkness of a bad pattern in my life, I can choose to "stop doing it." But, I have to work on a "change of heart" and to look concretely at what circumstances, attitudes, and other behaviors contribute to the pattern. If I'm self-indulgent with food, sex, attention-seeking behaviors and don't ask "what's missing for me, that I need to fill it with this?" then simply choosing to stop the pattern won't last long. Lasting healing needs the practice of penance.
Peace and Blessings,
Fr. Chuck
This First Sunday of Lent shows us Jesus fighting off the temptations of the Devil by turning to the help of God. His temptations were real and strong just like ours. But He was able to overcome their lure by His trust in His Father.
Before He was tempted Jesus had just spent forty days in prayer and fasting. As we begin our Lenten journey of prayer and fasting let’s get serious about fighting the sin and temptation that we face. The best way to do that is by practicing some penance. Practicing penance not only helps us stop sinful and unhealthy behaviors, it also helps us involve God in fighting off the temptation to sin, and it helps us establish virtuous and healthy habits to replace what was sinful. The following is an article concerning penance from Creighton University’s Online Ministries Lenten Website. I hope you find it helpful.
Practicing Penance
When I sprain my ankle, part of the healing process will involve physical therapy. It's tender, and perhaps it is swollen. It may be important to put ice on it first, to reduce the inflammation. I may want to wrap it an elevate it and stay off of it. Then I will need to start moving it and then walking on it, and eventually, as the injury is healed, I'll want to start exercising it, so that it will be stronger than it was before, so that I won't as easily injure it again.
Penance is a remedy, a medicine, a spiritual therapy for the healing I desire. The Lord always forgives us. We are forgiven without condition. But complete healing takes time. With serious sin or with bad habits we've invested years in forming, we need to develop a therapeutic care plan to let the healing happen. To say "I'm sorry" or to simply make a "resolution" to change a long established pattern, will have the same bad result as wishing a sprained ankle would heal, while still walking on it.
Lent is a wonderful time to name what sinful, unhealthy, self-centered patterns need changing and to act against them by coming up with a strategy. For example, if the Lord is shining a light into the darkness of a bad pattern in my life, I can choose to "stop doing it." But, I have to work on a "change of heart" and to look concretely at what circumstances, attitudes, and other behaviors contribute to the pattern. If I'm self-indulgent with food, sex, attention-seeking behaviors and don't ask "what's missing for me, that I need to fill it with this?" then simply choosing to stop the pattern won't last long. Lasting healing needs the practice of penance.
Peace and Blessings,
Fr. Chuck
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Whoa! I said WOE!!!!!
Dear Sisters & Brothers,
I'm impressed with how generous the parishioners of St. Ambrose, St. Ignatius, & St. James are. We're especially generous in times of need & to people in need.
Through your generosity our St. Vincent de Paul Society gives well over $100,000 (and closer to $125,000) to help our neighbors who can't afford their monthly staples. We're always there to pitch in when Helping Hand Ministries needs volunteers to make phone calls, deliver toys & Christmas baskets, serve meals, run & contribute unselfishly to a fund drive, or donate needed coats, food, clothing, & anything else that's needed. We completely outdid ourselves recently in our response to our sisters & brothers in Haiti. So far you have contributed probably more than $30,000 for their relief from the desperate conditions they find themselves as a result of the earthquake that hit them a month ago. We are very generous indeed.
Today I'd like to ask you to answer the question, "Why is that so important?" Do we give and volunteer just to make us feel better about us? Do we give to hear others say good things about us or to think well of us? Do we give begrudgingly or out of guilt? Why is it that we are so generous?
I'm hoping that we are so unselfish for the same reason that Jesus spoke the words of the beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke this weekend. His beatitudes are different from St. Matthews version. He has four "Blessed are you(s)", followed by four "Woe to you(s)". He says blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, & the insulted and hated. Then He says woe to the rich, the well fed, the laughing, & the well thought of. The point of His sermon was to tell His disciples to put pleasing God & serving others (especially those the world thinks are insignificant or not blessed) in front of their own needs. Only by putting God & others first in our lives will we disciples ever be really happy (or blessed).
This was completely upside down thinking when Jesus spoke it in some little Galilean field 2000 years ago. It is still upside down thinking to our ears today. But it is the honest truth.
We try to make ourselves happy by filling our lives up with stuff, luxuries, entertainment, power trips, inflated egos, & sensuality. We think that we can make our ownselves blessed, holy, & happy. Jesus' "woes" are a wake up call to us disciples. Only by completely emptying ourselves for God's sake and for the sake of others (as He was going to do for us) will we ever know what happiness & holiness is.
Is this why we are so generous? Let's keep on sacrificing of ourselves until that is the reason why we give.
Peace & Blessings,
Fr. Chuck
I'm impressed with how generous the parishioners of St. Ambrose, St. Ignatius, & St. James are. We're especially generous in times of need & to people in need.
Through your generosity our St. Vincent de Paul Society gives well over $100,000 (and closer to $125,000) to help our neighbors who can't afford their monthly staples. We're always there to pitch in when Helping Hand Ministries needs volunteers to make phone calls, deliver toys & Christmas baskets, serve meals, run & contribute unselfishly to a fund drive, or donate needed coats, food, clothing, & anything else that's needed. We completely outdid ourselves recently in our response to our sisters & brothers in Haiti. So far you have contributed probably more than $30,000 for their relief from the desperate conditions they find themselves as a result of the earthquake that hit them a month ago. We are very generous indeed.
Today I'd like to ask you to answer the question, "Why is that so important?" Do we give and volunteer just to make us feel better about us? Do we give to hear others say good things about us or to think well of us? Do we give begrudgingly or out of guilt? Why is it that we are so generous?
I'm hoping that we are so unselfish for the same reason that Jesus spoke the words of the beatitudes in the Gospel of Luke this weekend. His beatitudes are different from St. Matthews version. He has four "Blessed are you(s)", followed by four "Woe to you(s)". He says blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, & the insulted and hated. Then He says woe to the rich, the well fed, the laughing, & the well thought of. The point of His sermon was to tell His disciples to put pleasing God & serving others (especially those the world thinks are insignificant or not blessed) in front of their own needs. Only by putting God & others first in our lives will we disciples ever be really happy (or blessed).
This was completely upside down thinking when Jesus spoke it in some little Galilean field 2000 years ago. It is still upside down thinking to our ears today. But it is the honest truth.
We try to make ourselves happy by filling our lives up with stuff, luxuries, entertainment, power trips, inflated egos, & sensuality. We think that we can make our ownselves blessed, holy, & happy. Jesus' "woes" are a wake up call to us disciples. Only by completely emptying ourselves for God's sake and for the sake of others (as He was going to do for us) will we ever know what happiness & holiness is.
Is this why we are so generous? Let's keep on sacrificing of ourselves until that is the reason why we give.
Peace & Blessings,
Fr. Chuck
Monday, February 1, 2010
I'll Be Calling YOU- OOO- OOO
Hi folks,
When I was a fifth grader at St. Francis School in Loretto the 5th-8th graders went on a field trip to the Kentucky Fairgrounds. There in the East Wing were Catholic missionaries from all over the world and representing religious orders from all over. Their goal was to interest us in religious, and particularly in missionary, vocations. There was a priest dressed in an all white robe who was playing a game that really fascinated me. He smelled like cigars. But he had mazes on sheets of paper and we had to work them with a pencil by looking at what we were doing through a mirror. When I got my chance to do it I zipped right through it, while other kids were having a real tough time trying to do all of the lefts and rights while looking at things reversed. His point in doing this kind of puzzle was just as this exercise forced to think in a different way, so we were being asked by God to think about our lives and our future in a different way. I spent a long time at his booth eventually helping him get more kids to do the puzzle. Before I left with my school mates to return to Loretto he told me that he thought God had a special purpose for me and that he thought I could be a good priest. God had planted a new seed in me!
All three of today’s readings are about God’s callings. We hear Isaiah’s call in the first reading. St. Paul gives his account of his own call from God in his First Letter to the Corinthians. In the Gospel we see Jesus (a carpenter and travelling preacher) trying to give fishing instructions to professional fisherman. It would be similar to me going into the operating room and telling the surgeon, “Cut right there!” But Jesus was trying to get Peter, James, and John to start doing some reversed thinking themselves. Instead of fishing for smelly fish Jesus was asking them to help Him fish for needy people. Their tendency was to blow Him off and humor Him. But Jesus changed their whole lives and they received a new purpose and a new vocation in life.
We are all called to serve God. More importantly, God never quits calling us to service. Whether we are 11 or 111 God wants us and needs us to take a look at our lives and ask God, “Where do you need me now?” But we need to have ears, eyes, minds, hearts, and souls receptive to God’s call. Sometimes it takes a priest who smells like cigars to wake us up. Sometimes we have to be challenged in our normal daily routine. Sometimes we think that we’re too old, or too young, or too dumb, or too smart, or too (you fill in the blank) to be something special for God. But God is always trying to step into our “sometimes” and help us be something new for Him. Please pray that you will hear God and respond with generosity the next time He calls.
peace,
Fr. Chuck
When I was a fifth grader at St. Francis School in Loretto the 5th-8th graders went on a field trip to the Kentucky Fairgrounds. There in the East Wing were Catholic missionaries from all over the world and representing religious orders from all over. Their goal was to interest us in religious, and particularly in missionary, vocations. There was a priest dressed in an all white robe who was playing a game that really fascinated me. He smelled like cigars. But he had mazes on sheets of paper and we had to work them with a pencil by looking at what we were doing through a mirror. When I got my chance to do it I zipped right through it, while other kids were having a real tough time trying to do all of the lefts and rights while looking at things reversed. His point in doing this kind of puzzle was just as this exercise forced to think in a different way, so we were being asked by God to think about our lives and our future in a different way. I spent a long time at his booth eventually helping him get more kids to do the puzzle. Before I left with my school mates to return to Loretto he told me that he thought God had a special purpose for me and that he thought I could be a good priest. God had planted a new seed in me!
All three of today’s readings are about God’s callings. We hear Isaiah’s call in the first reading. St. Paul gives his account of his own call from God in his First Letter to the Corinthians. In the Gospel we see Jesus (a carpenter and travelling preacher) trying to give fishing instructions to professional fisherman. It would be similar to me going into the operating room and telling the surgeon, “Cut right there!” But Jesus was trying to get Peter, James, and John to start doing some reversed thinking themselves. Instead of fishing for smelly fish Jesus was asking them to help Him fish for needy people. Their tendency was to blow Him off and humor Him. But Jesus changed their whole lives and they received a new purpose and a new vocation in life.
We are all called to serve God. More importantly, God never quits calling us to service. Whether we are 11 or 111 God wants us and needs us to take a look at our lives and ask God, “Where do you need me now?” But we need to have ears, eyes, minds, hearts, and souls receptive to God’s call. Sometimes it takes a priest who smells like cigars to wake us up. Sometimes we have to be challenged in our normal daily routine. Sometimes we think that we’re too old, or too young, or too dumb, or too smart, or too (you fill in the blank) to be something special for God. But God is always trying to step into our “sometimes” and help us be something new for Him. Please pray that you will hear God and respond with generosity the next time He calls.
peace,
Fr. Chuck
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