Vain repetition??

This is one phrase from the gospel's that I always struggled with. Jesus said this in reference to the religious on the street corner praying for everyone to see...to see just how holy they were. What is vain repetition? Are they the prayers that we say over and over again like the prayers we memorized as kids? I think vain repetition is a matter of conscience that only the prayer needs to discern.

How is our prayer life individually? I think one can say it is vain repetition when you have done all these prayers and you have no idea that you just prayed. Our memorized prayers are vain repetition when they no longer have anything to do with heart-felt worship, but have become boredom and going through the motions because we think it is our duty. When we reflect on the time we just spent in prayer and you realize that all that came to mind was tonight's dinner plans and the upcoming weekend. It is so easy to pray a litany of prayer and realize I did not have but a few thoughts directed towards God.

This week at the kids mass, the reading came up on Jesus' teaching of the Lord's Prayer from Luke's gospel. One thing I mentioned to the kids about the prayer that it was short. We can do the Lord's prayer in 15 seconds. Jesus taught us to pray and this is what he gave us. With the tradition of the Church and the many devotional prayers we have...this is wonderful for reflection us as we meditate on God. For our personal prayer, take the advice Jesus gave us when He said "pray like this." Jesus gave glory and praise to God, Jesus prayed for God's will and not His, He made a petition for a daily need, He petitioned that we forgive like God forgives us...which is a mandate of our Christianity, and Jesus prayed for protection from the evil one. That is a short and marvelous prayer.

One of the greatest thing about making our own perfect prayer, instead of using the same one all the time, is that it forces us to think and be present to God. God wants His child (you) to be present while talking. We ask God to help us make our own perfect prayer many times a day praying like Jesus did and perhaps not always using Jesus' word's, but the words of our own hearts. That is the step to a strong relationship. See you in a couple weeks.

Job moments

This week, the daily readings are taking us on a quick tour of the book of Job. It is a nice opportunity to reflect on how easy we have it as Americans in a way. Job always stayed loyal to God in his trials, but God still needed to break down his pride. Job wanted his friends to have some pity on him because he was not the cause of his own suffering. They were not buying his pity party, but God was using them to expose some character flaws in Job. Job knew God was the source of his blessings, but he wanted his friends to acknowledge that he was special also. Pride is a hard thing to give up, especially in this world. We want the praise and thanks of the world when we should only be caring about three persons opinions...that of the three persons of the Trinity.

It is so easy to feel sorry for ourselves at times. Last week at the parish was as busy a week for me since I have been here, and it was laced with some illness and aches. The temptation is to go "woes me" to everyone who asks. I did succumb to that temptation a few times, but I also took delight in leaning on God to keep me focused and give me the strength to continue. To give me the words that I needed to be of help to others. It was one of the more prayerful weeks and peace filled weeks I've had in a great while.

The Job moments in our lives help us to recapture that feeling of who my strength is and who it is that will deliver me from my anxious moments successfully. Is it God or will it be myself? To wake up tired, sick, and hurting with a confident prayer to God and knowing everything will turn out ok becasue God "has our backs" is a great way to go through life. Find that rest in God in the Job moments of your life. It is what faith is all about.

What is the Good News??

The daily mass readings are taking us through the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians for the past few weeks. In today's (Thurs, 9/16) reading from the 15th chapter, Paul defines what the good news of the gospel is. We hear the term good news all the time but have we ever stopped to think what it means. The good news of the gospel is not everything contained in Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Paul is very specific about what the good news is. He calls it the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The four gospels contain the life and teaching of Jesus by four different witnesses. John does not contain the Eucharist and while distinct, all four highlight a different aspect of Jesus. What all four gospel's do contain are the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus...the good news. The good news is about what Jesus has done for us...not His teaching. The good news is about Jesus' saving act.

Paul focuses on the resurrection as that is the highlight of the good news. That first Good Friday and Holy Saturday left all the disciples of Christ dejected. It was not until the good news of the resurrection surfaced however, that the Church would take form. All the teachings of Jesus would have been for nought without the resurrection. Would anyone have cared about Jesus and His message had he not been raised from the dead? Perhaps the most zealous, but the disciple's would have returned fishing. The resurrection inspired and transformed the disciple's into the incredible professes of the life of Jesus because the hope of something better came when Jesus overcame the grave.

We the Church find our hope in the resurrection. It inspires us to become followers of Jesus and livers of His message and everything He stood for. When Jesus conquered death however, it gave the Apostle's and all of us a reason to profess the message contained in the whole of the Bible. With joy, we share the news that as humans, we do not have to live for the moment only, but for something better than what we experience on earth. The resurrection tells us we do not have to live in despair at the death of our most cherished relationships. That is the good news. Jesus Himself is the good news and that he died for us, was buried, and rose from the dead.

New martyrs??

Pastor Terry Jones and his Church have decided it to be a worthy stand for God by burning copies of the Koran on Saturday in Florida. Political, military, and religious leaders around the country have denounced this plan as one that will bring possible retaliation against our military and possibly citizens, along with the fact that Islamic extremists will use this as a recruiting tool to foster more violence. Jones states that we have to take a stand. Who knows what he means by this, but it looks like he is willing to make some martyrs.

I guess it is much easier to make a stand in the confines of your own community as long as trouble stays on either side of the ocean. Other innocents will be put in harms way for this stance. Terrorism is not going away anytime soon, but do we need to pour gas on the fire. It is easy to become a martyr with Christian extremism. Go to an Islamic country and burn a Koran...you can probably be martyred quickly. If we look at the history of martyrs, they were all standing up for Christ and Christ's ways in hostile or unknown territory promoting the Gospel. I cannot think of any martyrs who stayed home and denounced another religions beliefs with a challenge and stated they were in danger also and could possibly be harmed. They were in harms way seeking to spread the name of Jesus only.

A martyr stands for Christ and does not seek martyrdom. It is a gift from God to be chosen for that honor. We don't seek martyrdom and we do not offer other people for the task. Christianity does not need to pick fights...Jesus states to turn the other cheek. This pastor has hundreds of Scriptural references to back down gracefully on his position and hopefully, he finds the wisdom to do that.

Are you smarter than a ??

The daily Mass readings will be taking us through Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthians for the next few weeks. Aside from Paul's letter to the Roman's, there is probably no better teaching of theology in Scripture. It is Thursday Sept 2nd and we are in the third chapter where Paul is teaching about the wisdom of God and the wisdom of humanity. Paul does not have a high opinion of human wisdom. In fact, He states that the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. He is not the only one to say such things. Isaiah and the Psalmist's are but a few that come to mind stating the foolishness of human wisdom.

There is no doubt that the human mind is capable of great thought and incredible inventions. Where science is taking computer capabilities is astounding. That does not mean that it is the right thing to do or the smart thing to do. Paul states in Verse 18 that we should become fools. In a real way, we are God's fools, but it is better than being the world's fool or even worse, a fool for the devil. God invites us to reconsider our own counsel and wisdom. We may be smart, eloquent, a great debater, have many degree's. To be the most eloquent does not mean that one is right. "Book smarts" does not mean wisdom and it does not guarantee a good decision making process. I would state that most priests are pretty "book smart," but one of the jokes we constantly heard at Seminary as we prepared events that had many priest participants, was that it was easier to "herd cats together" than to get priests to their places and do the same thing even liturgically. Many people can do the hard things in life, but struggle with what others would call easy.

Look at the revelation of God's wisdom to us and contrast that to what we see as human wisdom. God's wisdom sent His Son to die at the hands of the very people He was trying to save. God's wisdom allowed so many of His followers be martyred. God's wisdom allows us to suffer as innocents. God's wisdom allowed Saints to lead lives of deprivation and suffering to inspire us. God's wisdom chose sinners as His best friends and disciples. It was God's wisdom who chose the weak to show His power. It is God's wisdom to humble us so that we rely on a power greater than ourselves. Human wisdom relies on its own power and there is the folly of what Paul is getting at. It is not bad to have wisdom, as long as it humbles itself before perfect wisdom.

Lemons into lemonade

My classmate Fr. Luke Strand was recently rewarded with a cease and desist order from the corporate lawyers of Best Buy for trademark infringement for his use of a decal on his car which uses the term "God Squad," which happens to resemble Best Buy's well known "Geek Squad " trademark. After publication in the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, it seemed this issue went "viral." USA Today, many west coast papers, WTMJ talk radio, and even a four minute interview with national cable Fox News network were but a few of his interview requests. What seemed to be a negative for his ministry, came a backlash of negativity to Best Buy and people actually defending God and the message of the Gospel.

I know Luke did not want to harm Best Buy, but through all the press he has been given and interviews, He was able to proclaim the good news of Christ and the love of God to a national audience. That is what He has always been about...praising God and God rewarded him with that opportunity to do it on a large scale for a brief time. It was nice to hear Catholics coming to his defense and the general public for that matter in a society that so often wants to shut down the merest mention of God. The Church looked good in this matter and even the press seemed to respond positively.

It is God who blesses the work and produces fruitful opportunities for all of us as long as we do things with the motive of glorifying God and not ourselves. As Fr. Luke would say to anyone "Praise the Lord and God Bless you."

Lost another good one

Congratulations to the La Crosse Archdiocese for their new Archbishop that once again will take its toll on Milwaukee. Losing Archbishop Dolan was hard but he was a great hope for New York. In the same way, La Crosse is receiving a good and Holy man. I did not know the new Archbishop Callahan until he was announced as an Auxiliary Bishop for Milwaukee. He lived at the Seminary for his entire stay as a bishop of Milwaukee. Often, he looked "dog-tired" at the end of the day when he came home but if you met him in the hallway, he wanted to say high and encourage us even when we recognized every bone in his body screaming to go to bed.

I do not know how many Masses or times I heard him preach, but the totality of these and his witness to us about Jesus gave us all an opinion of great holiness. I was fortunate to be in a class that became the first he ever ordained as a new bishop. In April 2008, he ordained me and four others to the diaconate. Five minutes before ordination began, he called us into a private room for a prayer and he began weeping at the privilege God gave him to be there. He stated that he began praying for the unknown men he would ordain that very day he was asked to be a new bishop. A few weeks later, he found himself in the hospital and our entire class went to visit him. He wept as we gave him communion and blessed him together. He never took for granted the blessings of God.

Again, he ordained my class to the Presbyterate the next year. Our class had the good fortune of saying goodbye privately as we took him to dinner last week. On this feast of St. Clare, (Aug 11) we say goodbye to him and wish him good luck. He will not need good luck though as Christ is the beacon he follows in this life along with that Franciscan model of life that Francis and Clare exhibited. Luck is something for the superstitious...with Christ it is a certainty.