Author: Christine Jordan

Dear Friends,

Today the color of my chasuble has changed.  I don’t wear violet, today I wear rose, not pink. This rose color is a visual symbol that Christmas is getting closer. Just as the dark night sky begins to glow with a pale, rose-colored light as the sun starts to rise, so too the color of my vestments goes from dark to light.  The true light of the world is coming.

In our hearts too the color should be changing. For the first weeks of Advent, we’ve meditated on our need for God; we’ve meditated on our sinfulness, and on our helplessness in achieving salvation on our own.  Today we switch gears. Without forgetting our need for a Savior, we focus our attention more on that Savior himself.

Christ came on the first Christmas into a stable in order to lift up this fallen world.  And he wants to come again into our hearts this Christmas and every day for the same reason, to raise our fallen hearts.  When Jesus came to earth, he met the blind, and gave them sight; he met the poor, and gave them hope; and he met the lame, giving them strength.

He’s begun the very same work in us, and he’s eager to continue it. We are sometimes blinded by ignorance and selfishness, and so he offers us light in the teachings of his Church. We are sometimes poor in virtue, and so he fills us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are sometimes lame and unable to pray as we should, or to bear witness as we should, or to love as we should, and so he heals and strengthens us in the sacrament of reconciliation and nourishes us with His very self in the Eucharist.

Today is Gaudete Sunday, and this word Gaudete means rejoice.  And we rejoice because we know that Jesus came to open a path from earth into heaven. Even in the midst of pain and sorrow the joy of the Christian is the joy of a hope guaranteed by God himself.  The joy of hope is a true joy, and Christ is its source.

This past Monday was the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  And for many years it’s been a tradition for families to set up their nativities right after this Solemnity.  We do it to relive with Mary those days full of trepidation that preceded the birth of Christ.  Now St. Francis set up the first live nativity in the year 1223.  In that year at Christmas St. Francis found himself in the small town of Grecchio.  This was a small Italian town built on the side of a mountain.  And St. Francis wanted Midnight Mass to be celebrated in a place large enough so that all of the people in town could attend.  Their Franciscan chapel was much too small.  So St. Francis went looking for a larger place to celebrate Mass.  And he found the spot.  He found a cave like niche in the side of the mountain near the town square.  “Perfect” he thought, so in this niche within the rock of the mountain he placed an altar.  And then he was inspired, this cave like niche reminded him of the very first Christmas where our Lord was born in similar circumstance.  He said to his brothers, “I want to make a memorial of that Child who was born in Bethlehem and in some sort behold with our eyes the hardships of His infant state, lying on hay in a manger with the ox and donkey standing by.”  And that’s what they did.  He found a manger for a crib and filled it with hay.  He then found both a donkey and an ox and tied them up next to the crib.  There were probably even a few sheep running around.  And that’s where the people of Grecchio celebrated Midnight Mass in the year 1223.  They celebrated Mass in a stable with a manger in their midst and with the townspeople crowding in and around animals.  At that Christmas in a very profound way the townspeople of Grecchio mediated on the hardships and humility of our infant Lord born into a stable.  They also meditated on his infinite love for us to be born in such a way just for us.  This custom of making a Christmas crib was probably not unknown before this time, but this use of it by St. Francis is said to have begun its subsequent popularity.  So we can thank St. Francis for this custom of setting up the Christmas crib.  I can tell you I have five of them set up in the rectory.

I’d like to end with a poem that was sent to me last week.  It’s about a woman named Bilfina.

Bilfina, the Housewife, scrubbing her pane

Saw three old sages ride down the lane,

Saw three gray travelers pass her door—

Gaspar, Balthazar and Melchior.

“Where journey you, sirs?” she asked of them.

Balthazar answered, “To Bethlehem,

For we have news of a marvelous thing,

Born in a stable is Christ the King.”

“Give Him my welcome!” she said

Then Gaspar smiled,

“Come with us, mistress, to greet the child.”

“Oh, happily, happily would I fare,

Were my dusting through and I’d polished the stair.”

Old Melchior leaned on his saddle horn,

“Then send but a gift to the small Newborn.’

“Oh, gladly, gladly, I’d send him one,

Were the hearthstone swept

and my weaving done.

As soon as I’ve baked my bread,

I’ll fetch him a pillow for his head,

And a coverlet too,” Bilfina said.

“When the rooms are aired and the linen dry,

I’ll look at the Babe,”

But the three rode by.

She worked for a day, and a night and a day,

Then gifts in her hands, took up her way.

But she never found where the Christ child lay.

And she still wanders at Christmastide,

Houseless whose house was all her pride.

Whose heart was tardy, whose gifts were late;

Wanders and knocks at every gate.

Crying, “Good people, the bells begin!

Put off your toiling and let love in.”

In these remaining days of Advent, don’t let busyness get in the way of meditating upon Christ in the crib, don’t hide Jesus until the 25th, keep him out in plain sight.  Using the image of Christ in the crib to lift your heart and mind to the heights of heaven.  Put off toiling and let love and joy in.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

Today’s first reading from Isaiah is a reminder of the Jesse Tree, a symbol sometimes used in Advent. The real Jesse tree is the genealogical family tree of Jesus.   Now during Advent families will sometimes decorate a tree with ornaments depicting Jesus’ ancestors.  An ornament each day is place on the tree until the 25th of December and on that day a Jesus ornament is placed at the very top.

In the history of art the usual depiction of the Jesse Tree shows Jesse, the father of King David, asleep with a tree growing from his side (reminding us of Adam and the rib that was taken from his side).  Various people from scripture particularly those listed in the genealogies of Matthew and Luke are then shown in the branches leading from the base of the tree until finally we find Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at the top.   At St. Catherine’s in Portage you can see a Jesse painted on the wall behind the statues of the Holy Family.  The tree’s roots are made up of the Tribes of Israel.  The Star of David is at the center of the tree.  And Jesus the King is at the top.

Our reading from Isaiah today is one of the most beautiful passages in scripture.  It describes a leader sent from God, a leader who will bring peace to the world.  To the people of Judah listening this was an intensely important message of hope.  At the time of this prophesy the kingdom of Judah had had a succession of kings where every king was worse than the one before him.  At the time of this prophecy, King Ahaz is on the throne.  He inherited the kingdom from his father King Jotham.  He inherited a kingdom that was surrounded by powerful enemies and at the same time he inherited a kingdom that was weakened by internal division.  Ahaz’s people could not work together, they didn’t trust each other.

Eventually Ahaz found himself under siege by both the Kingdom of Israel to the north and the kingdom of Syria to the south.  Isaiah’s message to King Ahaz was very simple.  Isaiah told Ahaz, “If you remain faithful to God and keep your people faithful, then Judah will triumph.”  But King Ahaz didn’t trust God.  Instead, to save his throne, he entered into an alliance with Assyria.  The country of Assyria was feared by everyone in the Middle East, Israel and Syria included.  But this alliance came with a cost.

With this alliance Ahaz had to give up the worship of Yahweh, and in place of this right worship he had to worship the false gods of Assyria.  And to worship these pagan gods Ahaz had to practice child sacrifice.  Because he did not trust God, Ahaz sacrificed his own son to the idols of Assyria.  With this act the royal line of Judah couldn’t have moved any further away from Yahweh.  With the kingdom losing its soul Isaiah turned his attention to the people to offer them hope.  The stump of Jesse, meaning the royal line, was being cut down, however, he assured the people, and that the line of Jesse would not end.  As we heard, “On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.  And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.”

Now in the Gospel we hear from John the Baptist and his message, by contrast, is hard and relentless.  “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  “Every tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down.”   However his message too offers hope; because like Isaiah he too speaks of this tender shoot from the stump of Jesse, the messiah is coming, get ready, and his message of repentance affected hearts.  The people flocked to him repenting of sin and changing their ways.  What of us?  Is there anything in our lives that needs reforming?  Is there anything we want to change?  Now is the time, during this season of hope, now is the time.  with each passing week our Advent wreath gets brighter and brighter with the light of Christ.  Our Lord is coming and we are closer to that moment right now, than we were yesterday.    We’re closer to Christmas and we’re closer to the end of time, is there anything we want to change in our lives?

We are part of the Tree of Jesse.  Through baptism into Christ we have become part of the royal House of David, this is our inheritance.  King Ahaz lost his inheritance because of his self-interest.  He was more focused on preserving his throne than in preserving his faith and the faith of his country.  Has our self-interest caused us to choose ourselves over the Kingdom of God?

Jesus, the tender shoot of Jesse is our hope and our promise.  Let us prepare for his coming.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

 

Dear Friends,

In the first quarter of the twentieth century there was a young man, Pier Giorgio Frassati, and he loved climbing mountains.  It was his number one hobby.  On weekends and school vacations he’d be in the Italian Alps practicing his climbing skills.  And he didn’t go alone he always brought a cohort of friends.  To the top, verso l’alto was his motto, always climbing as high as his skill and ropes would take him.  Now this young man was also a great prayer and he brought his rosary with him on these mountain treks and as he made his way to the top he would stop multiple times on the craggy ledges to not only rest but to also contemplate the greatness of God.

Pier Giorgio was born in Turin Italy in 1901.  He was born into a very wealthy and influential family.  His parents were not too religious but they made sure that their children went to Mass every Sunday and that they learned the catechism.  Very early on Pier Giorgio showed a great compassion for the poor.  Walking home from school he’d sometimes give away his coat and sweater and shoes, coming home almost naked, his mom was not amused.  Or if poor people knocked on their front door looking for handouts he’d give away dinner and empty the pantry of food.  As he got older his philanthropy grew.  He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society and any allowance he received went to helping those in need.  His dad never knew the money he gave him was going to help the poor.

Pier Giorgio, a Third Order Dominican, received communion every day, confession every week, and many nights he would spend in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, with his skis lying next to him.  They say he loved to sing, but he sounded awful, so he would have to sit in the back so as not to distract too many people.  He has been described as athletic, handsome, and bounding with charisma, he also had a reputation as a practical joker.  His pranks included short-sheeting priest’s beds. In 1925 Frassati died after contracting polio from a man he was helping.  He was only 24.  As the funeral procession left the Turin Church his family was surprised to see the numbers of poor people lining the street to honor their son.  The poor were just as surprised to see that their benefactor came from such a rich and powerful family.  In the early 20th century Frassati’s story became well known and it inspired Catholics across the world including a young Polish student Karol Woytjla, future pope.  In 1990 Pope St. John Paul II beatified Frassati calling him a man of the beatitudes.  Pier Giorgio’s body is incorrupt and he’s a patron of the youth.

As I stated earlier Pier Giorgio loved climbing mountains, “To the top” being his motto.  In many of the photos we have of him there are often mountains in the background.  In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, he speaks of a mountain, “In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest mountain and raised above the hills.  All nations shall stream toward it.” Two questions:  Is the mountain of the Lord’s house the highest mountain in our life?  Is praise and worship of God more important to us than anything else?  Pier Giorgio climbed the mountain of the Lord.  He came from a wealthy family; and he could have climbed the mountain of wealth.  He came from a powerful family; and he could have climbed the mountain of power.  He was handsome and charismatic; and he could have climbed the mountain of pleasure.  Yet even with all these blessings he chose the mountain of the Lord.  He used every blessing he received, money, influence, and charisma in service to climbing the Lord’s mountain.  Experts in spirituality often tell us, if we don’t have the love of God first in our lives then we won’t know what to do with the other goods and blessings in our lives.  These other goods and blessings could very easily become the mountains we end up climbing.

Now after telling us that the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established as the highest mountain Isaiah goes on to say that people will climb this mountain for instruction.  “Come let us climb the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may instruct us in his ways and we may walk in his paths.”  Isaiah is saying to us, come to the temple to be instructed.  Today many people get their instruction from TV, internet, movies, magazines, newspapers, and music.  We need news of what is going on in the world around us, but when these sources become the determiner of value in our lives then something is wrong.  Where do we go for instruction?  75% of our Catholic brothers and sisters stay away from weekly Sunday Mass.  Where do we go for instruction?  People used to go to Church for the answers; going to Church is our version of going up the mountain of the Lord.  We go there seeking the wisdom of our ancient religious tradition, because truth is timeless.

This is our mountain; you could call it Mount St. Jerome.  Pier Giorgio used to encourage his friends as they climbed with this phrase because they always lagged behind, he said to them, “Higher and higher there, you can hear the voice of Christ!”  Come to St. Jerome; come to the mountain week after week and you will hear the voice of Christ!

I want to end with a question that Pope Francis once posed, “Do I adore the Lord?  Do I adore Jesus Christ the Lord?  Or is it half and half, do I play the play of the prince of the world?”  To adore till the end, with loyalty and faithfulness this is the grace we should ask for this advent.

Let us become great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

Today, the solemnity of Christ the King is the last Sunday of the Church’s year.  This solemnity is a relatively new one; it was only instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.  It was begun during a time in which certain secular rulers were launching dictatorships which were expressions of hate and destruction.  Through this solemnity Pope Pius XI wanted to reassert the ultimate and universal kingship of Jesus Christ and his law of love and truth.

Next Sunday begins Advent, and with it comes the beginning of a new year for the Church.  All this year we have been reading from the Gospel of St. Luke and at the very beginning of his Gospel, we find a great promise.  A messenger from God tells a very young woman from the village of Nazareth that she is going to conceive a child, a son, whom she is to call Jesus.  And the promise goes like this:  “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Her child is going to be a king.  And not just any king, but the great promised Prince of Peace, the Redeemer–King for whom people had been hoping and longing for centuries, the One who would bring to the whole world peace and salvation.  But now at the end of the year at the end of Luke’s Gospel we hear what sounds like a mockery.   Our Savior has been crucified.  His throne is now a Cross his crown is made of thorns and for royal company he has two criminals, one to his right and one to his left.  (I don’t have a good segue for this next part)

A while back I was at Borgess Hospital visiting with an older woman by the name of Eugenia who was just waking up from anesthesia and she began to tell me a story that she had heard many times while she was a little girl growing up in Poland.  This story is about the child Jesus and his parents Mary and Joseph as they made their way to Egypt escaping Herod’s massacre.  At a certain point in their trip the Holy family stopped at an oasis for a much needed rest.  Traveling in the desert can make one quite dusty and the baby Jesus was in need of a bath and it just so happened that another young family was close by and they were preparing a bath for their own young son.  So the Blessed Virgin Mary approached that young mom and asked if she might use some of that bath water for her baby Jesus.  The young woman said, “yes, you can use all the water we have, bathe your baby first and then afterwards I’ll bathe mine.”    That young mother who said this and was very generous in giving the Holy Family first use of the water because her own baby was afflicted with a terrible skin disease and she didn’t want any other baby to contract the disease.  So Mary bathed Jesus in the offered bath water and afterwards the young mom bathed her own suffering son.  And after that bath her son was miraculously cured of his disease, no more suffering.   The woman telling me this story from her hospital bed then went on to say, “You know, Fr., pointing her finger at me that baby, cured of his disease and his suffering, would grow up to become the good thief crucified at the right hand of Christ.”  After the woman in the hospital finished telling me the story I thanked her and told her I’d repeat her story someday.

This childhood account of Jesus is not part of scripture so we have no way of knowing if it’s true.  It did however; bring comfort to a woman who was suffering in a hospital bed and was not so sure of what would happen next.  She was comforted by a King who even as a baby was present to someone’s suffering.  She was comforted by a king who suffered with her, always there in the midst of her own suffering.  And we see this too with the good thief.  Jesus suffered right along with this man.

In those few short hours that the good thief endured on the cross next to our dying Savior he made great progress in the spiritual life.  He made great progress in faith, hope, and charity.  The cross took everything away from him.  All he had left was his mind, his voice, and his heart and these he gave totally to our Lord.  He turned his heart to Jesus in faith and hope by asking for a place in paradise.  And in charity he proclaims the innocence and holiness of Jesus, and even tries to convert the other crucified thief.  Our King is a king whose throne is a cross and with the crosses we bear he is always there with us.  St. Augustine once said that the Cross is, “A great spectacle:  a great jest for the ungodly, but a great mystery to the godly; it’s a great mark of disgrace to the wicked, but a great evidence of faith to the godly; ungodliness, as it looks on, laughs at a king bearing the wood of His punishment instead of His scepter:  while the godly behold a king bearing the cross on which He was to be nailed.  He is scorned in the eyes of the ungodly for that very thing in which the hearts of the saints would thereafter glory.”  We glory in the Cross of our King because it’s our ladder to heaven.

The next time we come into a difficulty, or we suffer, or circumstances seem to be beyond our control let us remember the good thief.  Let us remember his faith, hope, and charity. And let us make his words our prayer, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

No power in this world can remove or destroy what our king gives; and that’s eternal life.

Pax et Bonum,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

Today’s gospel gives us an end-of-the-world feeling but Jesus doesn’t give us any specific information as to when it will happen.  He does, however, warn us to be alert and to be on the lookout.  He doesn’t want us to live carelessly or superficially but at the same time he doesn’t want us to get into a panic about the end of the world.

What Jesus announces in today’s Gospel isn’t harmless:  “There will be hardship.” But when it’ll happen we aren’t sure because we aren’t given any dates.  And even if we aren’t visited by earthquakes, famines, or pestilences, smaller things may occur:  our health may fail, marriages may struggle, death will take away our loved ones, businesses may fail, and jobs are sometimes lost.  These are hard and when they happen to us they can feel like the end of the world.  So how do we deal with it?  Jesus gives the answer and his reply is stand firm, trust in me; I will not let you fall.  I will give you the wisdom, I will give you the words I will give you the strength.  “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” 

In our Gospel we heard, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.  There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”  Hearing this reminds us of so many horrific events that have occurred throughout the centuries even up to our own day.  I have a story from a period of great suffering when the world around many people was ending.  And it’s a story about a woman named Irena Sendler.  And for those whose world was ending she acted as the heart, hands, and voice of Christ.

Irena Sendler was a Catholic social worker at the time of the German invasion of Poland.  And she was a senior administrator in the Welfare Department. In 1942 the German army herded hundreds of thousands of Jews into a 16-block area that came to be known as the Warsaw Ghetto.  The Ghetto was sealed and all the Jewish families behind its walls awaited a certain death.  Irena was so outraged by what was happening that she wanted to fight back so she joined Zegota, the Council for Aid to Jews, organized by the Polish underground resistance movement.

With her connections in the Welfare Department Irena was able to get a pass in order to gain access into the Ghetto.  She visited everyday bringing food, medicine, and clothing.  But 5000 people were dying every month from starvation and disease.  She had to do more, she thought, and that’s when she decided to help the children get out.  Irena at first began smuggling the children out one at a time in an ambulance.  But that was too slow so she recruited workmen to help with the smuggling.  Children were taken out in gunnysacks, body bags, toolboxes, potato sacks, and even coffins.  Some entered a church in the Ghetto which had two entrances.  One entrance opened into the Ghetto, the other opened into the Aryan side of Warsaw.  The children entered the church as Jews and exited as Christians.  Irena accomplished much of her incredible deeds with the assistance of the Church.  She once said, “I sent most of the children to religious establishments; I knew I could count on the sisters.”  No one ever refused to take a child from her.

With her connections in the Welfare Department Irena was able to give each child a forged identity document.  They were placed in homes, orphanages, and convents and Irena carefully noted, in coded form, the child’s original name and his or her new identity.  She kept the only record of their true identities in jars buried beneath an apple tree in a neighbor’s back yard.

Eventually the Nazis became aware of Irena’s activities and in October of ’43 she was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured.  Her legs and feet were broken but they couldn’t break her spirit.  She trusted.  Irena was hated for doing the work of our Lord.  Yet she trusted our Lord knowing He would help her through it all.  He would not let her fall.    Sentenced to death Irena was saved at the last moment when members of the underground resistance bribed one of the Gestapo agents to halt the execution.  She escaped from prison but for the rest of the war she was pursued by the Nazis.

After the war she dug up the jars and used the notes to track down the 2500 children she had saved and tried to reunite them with their families.  However, most of their families were dead.  Irena never considered herself a hero and always said, “I could have done more.”

Because of our Baptism we can say along with St.  Paul as he writes to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”  And for those children whose worlds were ending Irena was Christ’s heart, hands, and voice.  Our Lord will help us through any difficulty, any hardship giving us his wisdom and strength, maybe even using us in the process to help another.  Let us imitate Irena, probably not on the same grand scale, but let us trust in our Lord when our world or someone’s world seems to be ending and let us be as Christ forgetting about ourselves and acting the way Christ himself would act, because maybe God is using us to be as his heart, his hands, and his voice.

Pax et Bonum,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

There once was a woman who made a deal with Death:  she told Death, “Don’t come to get me unless you first give me a warning.”  Give me a warning before you take me.  Death accepted her demand and the woman lived life without fear of death.  She took courage from the thought that she could attain salvation by repenting like the Good Thief, at the last moment by making a good confession after she got her warning.  One day, after many years, Death suddenly came for the woman, but she objected furiously, “This isn’t right! She said.  You promised me that you’d warn me before you came!”  “And since you haven’t warned me about your arrival, I’m not ready for death.”

But Death calmly answered, “Dear sister, I don’t do you any injustice.  God has given you warnings about my arrival for many years now.  How long has it been since your hair starting turning grey?  Didn’t you notice the signs of aging the gradual reduction in the glow of your skin and the wrinkles?  These were signs that the time to leave your physical body was approaching. You didn’t take these signs seriously.  You wasted your time and now there’s no time left.  You have to come with me.”  Helpless and sad the woman followed Death.

Now there was a young man in college enjoying his youth.  Believing he had lots of time before Death would arrive, so he lived without cares or worries, not thinking much about the future.  However, Death came for him too.  The young man shouted angrily, “I won’t come with you! I have not received any warnings like you gave to the old woman who died.  My hair hasn’t turned grey and I have no wrinkles.  This isn’t fair! I want to keep living!”  Death answered the young man saying, “Dear brother, I show you no injustice.  Sufficient warnings were given to you too.  Don’t you remember the death of your college classmate in the car accident?  Don’t you remember the boy in your neighborhood that died from illness?  Don’t you read of the deaths of young people in the newspaper every day?  All these were your warnings.  I come in search of any human, anytime, anywhere.  However you discarded the message that you should always be prepared for my arrival.”  With great sadness, the young man also followed Death.

One of today’s greatest theologians, Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna Austria, recently attributed the declining influence of Christianity, in the West, to the decline in our awareness of the bigger picture.  The bigger picture of Heaven.  He argues that since so many modern Christians don’t take seriously the Four Last Things of the four last things of death, judgment, heaven, and hell.  And by ignoring these last four things we’ve become less dynamic, less purposeful, and less committed.  We are less committed to doing great things for Christ, the Church, and the world.  He goes on to say that it’s as if Christians have lost the orientation that for centuries defined the direction of our journey.  We’ve forgotten that we are pilgrims and the goal of our pilgrimage is heaven.  He says we don’t long or yearn for Heaven the way we used to, we take it for granted that we’ll all get there, but will we? Scripture says no such thing.  Without an awareness of the big picture we have no reason not to get swallowed up in  earthly self-indulgence and earthly self-centeredness.

One thing we can do to keep the grace of the resurrection and the grace of Heaven in our lives is to keep death in mind, to not forget about it.  Our society doesn’t like to think about death and eternal life that may be why we have so many gadgets and entertainments to distract us.   The Church has always encouraged us to keep death in mind.  Many of the Saints kept skulls as reminders of their own eventual future death.  But some might ask, can we keep death in mind without becoming morbid and depressed?   Yes, we can.

Our Lord doesn’t want us to mope around. He wants us to live life to the fullest, just as he did and all the saints before us.  Those most focused on Heaven do the most good on earth.  One easy and effective way we can keep death and Heaven in the mind is to simply pray the Rosary every day.  This is going to be an advertisement to pray the rosary.  The Rosary keeps the bigger picture in mind in two ways.  First, it uses the two beautiful prayers of the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  The Our Father directs our hearts to heaven, and even mentions heaven.  The Hail Mary reminds us that we don’t live forever by ending with the phrase, “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”  Second, the Rosary combines those prayers with a meditative reflection, in Mary’s presence, on all the events in Christ’s life – from his birth through his resurrection.  Praying through the different mysteries of the rosary every week takes us on a complete tour of the bigger picture of Heaven.

As you might expect I have a story about a man whose conversion involved praying the rosary.  His name is Bartolo Longo.  In 1841 Bartolo was born into a devout Italian Catholic family that prayed the rosary every day.  When he was ten Bortolo’s mom died.  From that time on he slowly drifted from the faith.  When Bartolo entered Law School he became involved with the occult, taking part in séances, orgies, and fortune telling, at one point even practicing as a satanic priest.  Unsatisfied with merely practicing his new pagan religion he also felt it was his duty to publicly ridicule Christianity and he did everything within his power to get rid of any Catholic influence in the public life of his town.  He even convinced many other Catholics to leave the Church and participate in the occult rites.

Bartolo lived this lifestyle for ten years.  He was a lawyer by now living in Pompeii.  He was materially successful however; there was no joy in his life.  He was depressed, paranoid, confused, and nervous.  He lived within a constant storm of anxiety.  It was during this time that he would take to the streets at night, just walking about aimlessly, despairing about his life.  It was during one of these walks, while coincidentally standing outside of a small dilapidated chapel that he heard the words, “Return to God!”  In the silence of the night he heard it again, “Return to God.”  In fear he sought out a Catholic professor, who convinced him to leave his satanic practices.  This professor also introduced him to a priest who heard his confession.   He hadn’t gone to confession in over 15 years.  At this early point of his conversion he again would find himself walking the streets at night, still looking for that peace, again he found himself outside that dilapidated chapel, and there in the quiet of the night he heard the words, “If you seek salvation, promulgate the rosary!”  “If you seek salvation, promulgate the rosary!”  Teach people to pray the rosary.

And that is what he did.  After re-learning it himself he taught people to pray the rosary,.  He visited every home in that valley, giving everyone a rosary.  He formed a confraternity of the rosary; he formed missions to promote the rosary.  He even restored that little ramshackle chapel where he first heard that still small voice.  Bartolo had found the peace he was seeking.  Now Bartolo wasn’t an immediate success but with time many people in that valley came to love and pray the rosary. Bartolo continued promoting the rosary into his old age he would evangelize young people at parties and in the local cafes.   He died in 1926, at the age of 75.  Pope Saint John Paul II beatified him in 1980 calling him the Apostle of the Rosary.   That little ramshackle chapel would eventually be enlarged and re-consecrated as a basilica officially renamed the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompeii.  Many miracles have been reported at this basilica.

To keep our minds focused on the bigger picture of Heaven, of where we want to go, helps us to live each moment of life in God’s light.  Again, those most focused on heaven do the most good on earth.  Tomorrow, we may not have the chance to love; so we love today.  Tomorrow, we may not have the strength and health to work; so we work sincerely today.  Can we repent tomorrow?  Can we forgive tomorrow? Can we help others tomorrow? We can’t be sure.  Today is the day gifted to us by God.  Let us live this day in His truth and beauty and goodness, using this day as if it were the last.  This is the best way to prepare for eternal life.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

I have a story about a man named Armogastus; he was a royal count who lived in the 5th century.  He was a close collaborator with King Theodoric who ruled Italy.  Theodoric was a very powerful man in the Byzantine Empire second only to the emperor himself.  The bad news about Theodoric, however, is that he was a heretic.  He was an Arian who didn’t believe in the divinity of Jesus.

Theodoric was a heavy handed ruler and for the sake of unity he demanded that all of his royal officers and nobles believe the same thing, that they all become Arians.  All the nobles and officers quickly obeyed the king’s command, all except for Armogastus.  He refused to abandon the Catholic faith.  The king tried argument and reasoning and persuasion to bring Armogastus into the Arian Church.  The king liked Armogastus and didn’t want to lose him as an advisor.  The king eventually grew frustrated and gave up.  So he offered Armogastus a choice; he could either renounce his Catholic faith, or he could die.  “Then I at once choose death,” Armogastus answered.  Instead of executing him right away, however, the king decided to torture him for a time.  Armogastus responded to all torture with complete resignation and prayer.  He could not be broken.  Theodoric would have eventually beheaded him but the Arian priests stopped him, saying that it would only cause Armogastus to be honored by the people as a martyr.  Eventually Armogastus was stripped of his royal title, all his wealth, and he was banished from Italy.  He spent the rest of his days in Carthage as a herder of cows.  Before dying he said, “It is a glorious thing to be dishonored before men in the cause of God.”

For our first reading, this weekend, we heard from the book of Wisdom.  This book was written 100 years before the coming of Christ and it forms a preparation for the fuller teachings of Jesus and his Church.  And in today’s first reading we hear of the theological concept:  love of predilection. Which is a fancy way of saying, God’s love comes first.  Before anything happens in our lives God’s love is there first, always willing the good.  As we heard, “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made…and how could a thing remain unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?  But you spare all things because they are yours.  Lord and lover of souls!”  Our spiritual tradition is built upon this passage.  Everything that exists has been willed into being by God and is sustained in being by God.  We can think of it in this way; the universe and everything in it exists and is sustained in being by God in the very same way a song exists and is sustained in being by a singer.  Our Lord continually sustains us and wills us into being.  If He were to stop we would cease to exist.  That is love.

Now we sometimes think that we have to earn God’s love saying to ourselves, “If I’m good God will love me.”  But this is wrong.  God’s love comes first.  We should be thinking instead, “I’m good because God loves me.”  Armogastus was spiritually courageous, he gave witness to his faith by defying a king,  enduring torture, and finally exile.  And he was able to do all of this because God loved him first.  He was virtuous in response to the one who loved him first.

Now what about the bad, Zacchaeus was a very bad man.  As chief tax collector he stole from his people, and he stole from the tax collectors beneath him.  He was probably the  most hated person in his community.  How does God deal with a person like that or with a gangster, or a murderer, or a rapist?  How does God deal with the worst of the worst?  Again we go to the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, “O Lord and lover of souls…you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O Lord!”  Jesus, face of the living God, looked at Zacchaeus and said to him, “Come down, I’m staying at your house.”  Jesus is not being soft on sin; he knows who Zacchaeus is and what he does.  But he is also a lover of souls, both the found souls and the lost souls and he does all he can to save them.  Staying at the house of Zacchaeus is a metaphor.  Jesus is moving into his life, in a sense saying, “Zacchaeus, I want to be the Lord of your entire life.”  Love comes first; Jesus loved him and realizing this Zacchaeus repented and salvation came into his house.

Our souls are meant for eternity, we were created for it.  Heaven is our true home and we have no future whatsoever apart from the love of our Lord.  So let that love inspire us to give witness to our faith like St. Armogastus.  Let that love draw us to repentance like Zacchaeus.  Let that love more and more take over our life remembering that no matter where we go or what we do Love is there making the first move, waiting to be received.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

These past few weeks in the Gospels we’ve been hearing about prayer.  And today we hear two prayers, the prayer of the tax collector and the prayer of the Pharisee.  And so I ask the question, why was the tax collector’s prayer better than the Pharisee’s prayer?  His prayer was better because he made a connection with God; he was praying to God, while the Pharisee only made a connection to himself, he was praying only to himself.  Saying to himself look at me I’m so holy.

At that time tax collectors were despised by the Jewish community.  Tax collectors were the Jews who collaborated with the occupying Roman forces by collecting taxes from their fellow Jews.  They often collected more than the law required and pocketed the rest. They were considered ritually unclean and had no right to enter the Temple.  St Matthew was a tax collector before our Lord called him to be an apostle. The Pharisees were the exact opposite.  They were the most respected members of the Jewish community, the elite, and the undisputed religious leaders of the nation.

And yet, Jesus praises the tax collector’s prayer and criticizes the Pharisee’s prayer.  Theologians see in the tax collector’s simple 8 word prayer, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” a complete summary of Christian spirituality.  There are many monks who pray this prayer as they meditate.  This prayer, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” when prayed devoutly from the heart makes a connection with God because it recognizes two things.  First it recognizes God’s greatest quality in relation to us, his mercy.   The word mercy comes from the Latin word “misericors” which when broken down to its two parts is miser:  wretched, miserable and cor: heart.  Literally the word mercy, means to take someone else’s wretchedness and misery into one’s own heart.  There are old holy cards from the 19th century that depict this.  They show the soul in the form of a little bird flying into the pierced opening of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  That’s what our Lord does with us; if we let him, he takes us into his merciful heart.  Second, the tax collector’s prayer recognizes his need for that mercy.  He accuses himself of being a sinner, someone who has selfishly abused God’s gifts and has used his neighbor for selfish gain.  The Pharisee’s prayer on the other hand shows no knowledge of God’s mercy or of his need for it; his prayer is an exercise in self-admiration.  Our Lord wants to take us into his heart, but he can only do that if we let him, acknowledging our need for mercy.

Bernard Nathanson was such a man who late in life came to realize his need for mercy, his need to be drawn into the heart of our Lord.  No one did more to legalize abortion in this country than the famous atheist doctor, Bernard Nathanson.  In the 1960s, he and a handful of collaborators set to work to legalize abortion.  As he recounts in his book they fabricated statistical studies, they leveraged the media dishonestly, they lobbied Washington, and they mounted a legal strategy that manipulated abused women.  They used every means available, much of it immoral.  He helped to open the door to the more than 60 million abortions that have been performed in this country since 1973.  75,000 of which were performed by Dr. Nathanson himself, he even aborted his own child.

But with the development of the ultrasound things changed for Dr. Nathanson.  The ultrasound enabled him to see what happens inside the womb during an abortion.  It stopped him cold.  He stopped performing abortions and became a pro-life activist.  But he still couldn’t sleep at night.  Often he’d wake up in a cold sweat haunted by the thousands of lives that he had ended. He began to think about committing suicide.   He just couldn’t live with himself.   As he says in his book he needed to wash away his sins, but he couldn’t find a way of doing it.  At this point in his life, he witnessed a silent pro-life demonstration outside an abortion clinic in New York City.  It was a moment of grace.  He saw people praying; he saw their faith and he saw their peace, he was intrigued and began to think there might be some hope for him.  A priest reached out to him soon afterwards and in 1996 at the age of 70 Dr. Nathanson was received into the Church at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.  He was baptized, confirmed, and made his first holy communion.  His sins were forgiven.  Asked later why he entered the Catholic Church he said, “No religion matches the special role for forgiveness that is afforded by the Catholic Church.” 

Our Lord loves going after the sinner he loves going after each of us.  This is one of the characteristics of our Lord that we should brag about and think about, and delight in.  No sin is too big for Christ’s mercy.  We should never doubt the size of his heart.    His mercy is infinite like the ocean.  Even the greatest sins are small and finite when compared to the immensity of his ocean of mercy.  We could think of all our sins as fitting into those small plastic buckets we take to the beach, all of our sins heaped into that bucket.  It’s very foolish to think our little bucket is too large and deep to be ever filled to overflowing by his ocean of mercy.  The only thing that can hold back God’s mercy is when we refuse to receive him.  He will not force his way into our life.  He respects our freedom but as soon as we turn to him and reach out to him in reconciliation he rushes towards us and floods us with is his mercy, forgiveness, and grace.

This is why Jesus praised the tax collector’s prayer the tax collector knew his bucket was empty of grace and only contained sin, and so he let it be filled with mercy.  The Pharisee on the other hand thought he could fill up his bucket all by himself, so he turned his back on mercy.  Today’s first reading told us that, “The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds it does not rest until it reaches its goal.”  Sirach also tells us that God is paying attention to the pleas of widows and orphans, the two most helpless groups of people in the ancient world.  We too are helpless in our spiritual life, we need God.  Only God knows the extent of the weaknesses, the wounds, and the sins that torture our souls.  And today God is reminding us that he not only knows about them, but he’s poised to overwhelm them with his grace.  All we have to do is turn to him, and say from the heart, “O God be merciful to me a sinner.” 

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

At the very first Christmas after traveling 90 miles on a donkey while very pregnant, giving birth in the extreme poverty of a shelter where animals are kept and then placing her newborn in a manger, a trough that animals eat out of; Mary is never shown to complain.  In the face of humiliation, poverty, and rejection she doesn’t complain, instead as we read in the Gospel of Luke she prayerfully, “Kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:18).

Mary’s response to these trials and humiliations can serve as a model for how we should handle the little crosses we face each day.  How do we respond when our life is disrupted, when other people or events shake up our life and our plans suddenly have to change?  How do we feel when we are not treated well, when we are not recognized or appreciated or not given the attention we think we deserve?

Many of us become anxious when difficulties come our way.  We may panic and worry and pour all our energy into trying to fix the problems all on our own.  Or we may just sulk when things are not going our way and complain when we’re not being treated well.  Mary’s example, however, reminds us that no matter what may happen in our lives, we go to God first asking God what he might be trying to teach us through these crosses that come our way.  Perhaps we have the opportunity to grow in patience or humility.  Or maybe God wants us to grow in greater trust or surrender of our own willfulness.  There will always be suffering in this fallen world, but God can bring good from those difficult situations and use them to help us grow in certain ways that are for our spiritual good.  The next time something frustrating or painful happens in our lives, we should pray and ask God what he is trying to teach us through these crosses.  We, like Mary should keep all these things, pondering them in our hearts.

I have a story about a 5 year prayer of the heart.  About 30 years ago there was an Irish evangelization movement that brought hundreds of young men and women to Dublin.  These young people felt called to evangelize the British Isles.  These young people were randomly assigned to groups of two.  These groups of two, either two men or two women, were then randomly assigned a city to evangelize.  They would spend a whole month in that city.  These young people were not allowed to have money and they could only bring one change of clothing.  For all of their needs they had to rely on the generosity of the people they encountered.  After one month of evangelizing they would be picked up and taken home.

Katie and Susan, strangers to each other, were paired together and sent to London.  They arrived late in the day and it was almost dark.  They had no money, not even for an emergency.  So they decided to stop at the first Catholic Church they could find.  They found a Church but it was locked, however, there were lots of lights on in the rectory so they knocked on the front door.    And after a few knocks the door was finally opened by a nervous priest.  Katie and Susan told Father about their evangelization program; showed him their documentation and then asked his if he had a place for them to stay and possibly a bit of food to eat.  Even though there was plenty of food and space in the rectory and the empty convent next door. The priest quickly turned them away without even thinking about it.  Katie and Susan even offered to stay in the church, sleeping on a pew.  But the priest denied them.  He didn’t even send them away with a snack.  The priest watched as they walked away.

Katie and Susan didn’t know what to do.  But across the street a new building was going up.  So they decided to sleep there.  For their first night in London they slept in a cold, drafty, under construction apartment building.  With a street lamp outside of his window to help him see, the priest watched them enter the building and he could see them clearly in the first floor apartment huddled in a corner.  The priest didn’t sleep very well that night.  He tossed and turned and every couple of hours he got up to see if the young women were still there in that building across the street.  They were, huddled in the corner looking very cold.  Finally, at five in the morning Father couldn’t take it any longer.  He got up and went to the building.  He wanted to invite them into the rectory for a few hours of rest and a big breakfast, but they were gone.  Katie and Susan hadn’t slept very well and they had had enough so they got up and left.  Father never saw them again.  The rest of their month went very well.  Katie and Susan met some wonderful people through their efforts of evangelization and they always had enough to eat and a place to rest each night.

Fast forward five years, unknown to each of them Katie and Susan again sign up for the evangelization project.  And out of a hundred women Katie and Susan were again randomly paired up.  And again, out of the many cities available, they were randomly assigned to go to London.  Katie and Susan were amazed and happy to see each other again.  They hadn’t spoken to each other in a very long time; they didn’t even expect to see each other.  What are the odds they said that we’d be back together again, going back to London.  Once in London the very first place they wanted to visit was the Church where the priest had turned them away five years previously.  They were going to try again.  So they knocked on the door and the very same priest opened it.  They were about to say, “You probably don’t recognize us” but before either of them could get the words out of their mouths.  Father burst out saying, “Please forgive me, I should never have turned you away; it was like turning Christ away.”  After calming down a  bit the priest went on to explain, “Every day for five years I’ve prayed for you both but mostly every single day over the past five years I’ve prayed to God for the opportunity to ask you to forgive me.”  And now here you are, “Please forgive me.”

This is the power of prayer.   Pray always without becoming weary.

For five years that priest pondered in his heart repeating and asking for the chance to make amends face to face.  His persistent prayer, I am sure, softened his heart and made him more generous and open in all the other areas of his life.

Pray always without becoming weary.

Because of the fall of our first parents our hearts have the tendency to become knotted in worry and anger, and anxiety.  But let us look to the example and intercession of the BVM, who can lead us to God the undoer of all knotted hearts.  At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we lift our hearts to the Lord.  At that moment give him your cares, give him your worries, give him your sorrows, give him your anger, give him your anxieties, give him your prayers, give him your joys, give him your thanks, give him everything.  And in return let our Lord give you the prayerful heart you are meant to have.

Let us become great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

 

Dear Friends,

In ancient Israel, there was nothing more pitiable than a leper.  Since the disease was contagious lepers were prohibited from entering any town.  When they were on the move and walking about they had to continuously make a loud noise and shout, “Unclean!” so that people would know that a leper was approaching and they could clear the area.  They couldn’t be within 50 yards of a healthy person.

Their life was one of total isolation: no friendship, no sense of belonging, no affection.  And in today’s Gospel we meet 10 of them.  They stood off at a distance and shouted to Jesus saying, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”  There’s something about this man, they just knew he could help them.   And Jesus heard them, and saw them, and he really looked at them, into them.  Our Lord may have been the first one in years to see them not as monsters or freaks but as men and women made in his image.  We want to be looked at in the very same way.  We want that look from our Lord; we want that same divine gaze.  Spiritual writers will say that that look from Jesus is the look of Divine Innocence.  In Luke’s gospel the centurion who witnessed the death of Jesus states, “This man was innocent beyond doubt.”  Jesus embodies harmlessness and this harmlessness is sometimes foreign to us because we sometimes want to harm others, whether it’s in anger, frustration or in comments we make.  We want to harm.  The brokenness within us wants to harm.  But when we look into the face of Divine Innocence, when we look into the face of Jesus and it has to be into the face and not just at the face.  When we behold and look into the face of Divine Innocence, this is to know that we are accepted and that our sins are forgiven.  There’s no scowl or a furrowing of the brow.  None of the things we do when confronted by someone else’s sin.  This innocence of divine love is experienced by us as mercy.  Divine love meets with the evil we have done, and remains love.  Divine love meets with the evil we have done, and remains love.

Now sometimes it’s hard for us to look into the face of someone we’ve wronged.  Just think back to when you were a kid and couldn’t look your dad in the eye after doing something he told you time and time again not to do.  But you did it anyway and you were caught.  You couldn’t look him in the eye; you could only stare at your shoes.  You didn’t want to see the scowl and the disappointment in his face. Sometimes it’s the same with Jesus we find it difficult to go to him.  We find it difficult to look into his face.  Instead of going to Jesus when we struggle we sometimes go to an artificial consolation, maybe its possessions, or gadgets we buy, going after some pleasure, some diversion, or any of the multitude of distractions our world can throw at us.  But our Lord’s face is the one face we should never fear looking into.  He’ll never look away and there will never be a scowl.  In our struggles let us look to the loving face of Christ.

I want to share with you a prayer by Fr. Emory Petho.  This is the priest we went to for confession; he was my Dad’s pastor back at his home parish of St. Mary’s in Burnside.  He helped me to see the face of Jesus in the confessional.  Fr. Petho died 28 years ago and he’s buried just a few feet away from my parents.  He wrote this prayer about the face of Jesus.  There are many people who have a devotion to the holy face of Jesus.   This devotion is based on the miraculous images of our Lord’s face found in the Shroud of Turin and Holy Veil of Manopolo.

Be my Joy

Holy Face of Jesus

Be my Strength

Holy Face of Jesus

Be my Health

Holy Face of Jesus

Be my Courage

Holy Face of Jesus

Be my Wisdom

Holy Face of Jesus, image of the Father

Provide for me

Holy face of Jesus, mirror of thy Priestly Heart

Be my zeal

Holy Face of Jesus, gift of the Spirit

Show me Thy love

Holy Face of Jesus, saddened by sorrow

Grant my requests through Thy merits.

Amen

By Fr. Emory Petho

 

In the midst of our own struggles and temptations and sins do we always seek the face of Jesus, seeking him in scripture, in prayer, the sacraments, the tabernacle, the monstrance? We all have a bit of leprosy, something that separates.  We all have something that embarrasses or humiliates, something that makes us want to stare at our shoes.  Maybe no one else knows about it.   In the midst of our own struggles, temptations, and sins do we always seek the face of Divine Innocence?

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley