Category: Pastor’s Corner

Dear Friends,

Have you ever found yourself following a school bus?  And when this happens do you just feel a big wave of impatience flow through your body knowing that you’re going to be stopping many times?   Sometimes the buses let you pass, sometimes they don’t and sometimes you’re afraid to pass them.  It’s a good time to practice patience. 

Not long ago I found myself following a bus and we came up to a red light.  So, there I am behind the bus waiting patiently.  But I then notice all these little faces staring back at me from the back window, staring at me from that door that’s always in the back.  I don’t know why they weren’t just sitting facing forward, but there they were, just staring and grinning.  Maybe they could sense my discomfort, and then it happened they all just started making faces at me.  And so, I made a face right back at them.  I was smiling, they were smiling, and their childish antics just made me laugh. 

Today in Mark’s gospel Jesus takes a child and places him in their midst and says, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”  And if we were to look at the parallel gospel passage in Matthew its put a little differently, St. Matthew writes, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  To become like children, however, doesn’t mean we become like the kids on the bus behaving childishly.  Rather, it means humility.  The apostles were acting envious and ambitious, and they were arguing about who was the greatest.  Jesus has just revealed to them the Christian Mission and this mission is all about self-forgetting love.  And this self-forgetting love lets the love of God surge through us and out into the world.  And here are the apostles arguing about who’s the greatest, a big contradiction to the mission.  And our Lord’s solution to this arguing, to this envy, and to this ambition is a little child. 

There is no little child who’s ambitious to rule a kingdom or to be in first place in a kingdom as the apostles were.  St. Hilary a fourth century saint once commented on this gospel by saying this about little children, “They follow their father; they love their mother; they wish no evil to their neighbor; they have no care for riches; they don’t hate; they believe what is said and they regard as true what they hear.” When we imitate these characteristics of little children we imitate the humility of our Lord. 

In Saint Mark’s gospel we’re told that when we receive a child in Jesus’ name, we receive him.  Again, this speaks of humility.  The word for child in both the languages of ancient Aramaic and Greek can also mean servant because in those ancient societies children were viewed as non-persons without any legal rights or status of their own.  Jesus is teaching his disciples to have a whole new esteem for and accountability towards those who are the most helpless and inconsequential.   Today that would include the unborn, the aged, the imprisoned, the poor, the homeless, and the immigrant.  Our treatment of these persons is the measure of our treatment of God Himself. 

St. Therese of Lisieux, a French saint, who died at the age of 24 in 1897, was made a Doctor of the Church in 1997.  Pope St. John Paul II elevated her to this status because of her doctrine of Spiritual Childhood.  Her diary, The Story of a Soul, is well worth reading.  Get it.  St. Therese had this child-like trust in God and like Jesus; she called him Abba which means daddy in Aramaic, a very affectionate and warm word.  At any moment she felt no fear in flying to God.  She went to him with all her wants and needs.  She went to Him with everything.  Even in moments of sin she felt no fear in going to God.  She had grabbed him by the Heart she would say.  She has a story in which she relates this child-like confidence in God’s love and our spiritual goal of higher and higher sanctity.  She writes of a little child who is beginning to stand up but doesn’t yet know how to walk.  And this child is determined to reach the top of the stairs to find her father, she lifts her foot to climb up to that very first step.  But it’s a wasted effort!  She keeps falling back without being able to go on.  Therese accepts this starting point, the child can’t climb even the first step, but she can lift her foot.

Therese then tells us to be this child.  And we can be this child by practicing the virtues, to keep trying to keep lifting your foot to keep trying to climb the stairs of sanctity. God only asks for your good will and that you keep trying. 

Therese then says, “If you have faith, know that from the top of the stairs our Lord is watching you, and he is waiting:” At the top of the stairs, our Lord is looking at you lovingly.  Soon, conquered by your efforts, He will come down himself, and, taking you in His arms, will carry you forever into His Kingdom where you will not leave Him again.  But if you stop lifting your little foot, if your stop trying, He will leave you on earth for a long time.  Keep trying, don’t give up, you will grow in sanctity.

It would be ridiculous to try and climb the stairs if God were not at the top watching and waiting for us.  And when He judges that we are ready, He comes to carry us up.  Here’s the seeming contradiction; our apparently fruitless and futile effort in the spiritual life, our repeated visits to the confessional produce a result.  It wears down our pretentions, it wears down our hardness of heart, and it wears down our pride, to make us pliable and docile to the way of our Lord. 

Therese then finishes by saying, “I am no longer distressed at seeing myself always at the bottom of the stairs.  I know I’m powerless to even lift myself up one step, I let the others go up and I am happy to keep on lifting up my little foot by continual efforts.  I am therefore waiting in peace for that blessed day when Jesus will come down to carry me up in his arms.”

My prayer for us today is that we take the same trusting attitude towards God our Father.  That we have this certainty of being loved by our Heavenly Father which makes possible our surrender, our complete trust, and our lack of fear.  And all three of these; surrender, complete trust, and lack of fear are the hallmarks of little children to whom Christ promises the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Have you ever found yourself following a school bus?  And when this happens do you just feel a big wave of impatience flow through your body knowing that you’re going to be stopping many times?   Sometimes the buses let you pass, sometimes they don’t and sometimes you’re afraid to pass them.  It’s a good time to practice patience. 

Not long ago I found myself following a bus and we came up to a red light.  So, there I am behind the bus waiting patiently.  But I then notice all these little faces staring back at me from the back window, staring at me from that door that’s always in the back.  I don’t know why they weren’t just sitting facing forward, but there they were, just staring and grinning.  Maybe they could sense my discomfort, and then it happened they all just started making faces at me.  And so, I made a face right back at them.  I was smiling, they were smiling, and their childish antics just made me laugh. 

Today in Mark’s gospel Jesus takes a child and places him in their midst and says, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.”  And if we were to look at the parallel gospel passage in Matthew its put a little differently, St. Matthew writes, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  To become like children, however, doesn’t mean we become like the kids on the bus behaving childishly.  Rather, it means humility.  The apostles were acting envious and ambitious, and they were arguing about who was the greatest.  Jesus has just revealed to them the Christian Mission and this mission is all about self-forgetting love.  And this self-forgetting love lets the love of God surge through us and out into the world.  And here are the apostles arguing about who’s the greatest, a big contradiction to the mission.  And our Lord’s solution to this arguing, to this envy, and this to this ambition is a little child. 

There is no little child who’s ambitious to rule a kingdom or to be in first place in a kingdom as the apostles were.  St. Hilary a fourth century saint once commented on this gospel by saying this about little children, “They follow their father; they love their mother; they wish no evil to their neighbor; they have no care for riches; they don’t hate; they believe what is said and they regard as true what they hear.” When we imitate these characteristics of little children we imitate the humility of our Lord. 

In Saint Mark’s gospel we’re told that when we receive a child in Jesus’ name, we receive him.  Again, this speaks of humility.  The word for child in both the languages of ancient Aramaic and Greek can also mean servant because in those ancient societies children were viewed as non-persons without any legal rights or status of their own.  Jesus is teaching his disciples to have a whole new esteem for and accountability towards those who are the most helpless and inconsequential.   Today that would include the unborn, the aged, the imprisoned, the poor, the homeless, and the immigrant.  Our treatment of these persons is the measure of our treatment of God Himself. 

St. Therese of Lisieux, a French saint, who died at the age of 24 in 1897, was made a Doctor of the Church in 1997.   Pope St. John Paul II elevated her to this status because of her doctrine of Spiritual Childhood.  Her diary, The Story of a Soul, is well worth reading.  Get it.  St. Therese had this child-like trust in God and like Jesus; she called him Abba which means daddy in Aramaic, a very affectionate and warm word.  At any moment she felt no fear in flying to God.  She went to him with all her wants and needs.  She went to Him with everything.  Even in moments of sin she felt no fear in going to God.  She had grabbed him by the Heart she would say.  She has a story in which she relates this child-like confidence in God’s love and our spiritual goal of higher and higher sanctity.  She writes of a little child who is beginning to stand up but doesn’t yet know how to walk.  And this child is determined to reach the top of the stairs to find her father, she lifts her foot to climb up to that very first step.  But it’s a wasted effort!  She keeps falling back without being able to go on.  Therese accepts this starting point, the child can’t climb even the first step, but she can lift her foot.

Therese then tells us to be this child.  And we can be this child by practicing the virtues, to keep trying to keep lifting your foot to keep trying to climb the stairs of sanctity. God only asks for your good willand that you keep trying. 

Therese then says, “If you have faith, know that from the top of the stairs our Lord is watching you, and he is waiting:” At the top of the stairs, our Lord is looking at you lovingly.  Soon, conquered by your efforts, He will come down himself, and, taking you in His arms, will carry you forever into His Kingdom where you will not leave Him again.  But if you stop lifting your little foot, if your stop trying, He will leave you on earth for a long time.  Keep trying, don’t give up, you will grow in sanctity.

It would be ridiculous to try and climb the stairs if God were not at the top watching and waiting for us.  And when He judges that we are ready, He comes to carry us up.  Here’s the seeming contradiction; our apparently fruitless and futile effort in the spiritual life, our repeated visits to the confessional produce a result.  It wears down our pretentions, it wears down our hardness of heart, and it wears down our pride, to make us pliable and docile to the way of our Lord. 

Therese then finishes by saying, “I am no longer distressed at seeing myself always at the bottom of the stairs.  I know I’m powerless to even lift myself up one step, I let the others go up and I am happy to keep on lifting up my little foot by continual efforts.  I am therefore waiting in peace for that blessed day when Jesus will come down to carry me up in his arms.”

My prayer for us today is that we take the same trusting attitude towards God our Father.  That we have this certainty of being loved by our Heavenly Father which makes possible our surrender, our complete trust, and our lack of fear.  And all three of these; surrender, complete trust, and lack of fear are the hallmarks of little children to whom Christ promises the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Sixteen years ago, I promised to pray from the breviary 5 times a day until my death.  It is the prayer of the Church.  The Church is always at prayer, and someone somewhere is always praying the breviary.  The breviary is set up in a four-week cycle, at the end of those four weeks you start all over again.  Now during those four weeks of prayer one will pray at least once all the psalms of the bible.  One of the very first psalms of the first day of the first week is psalm 63 and this psalm speaks of thirst.  It begins like this, “O God, you are my God, for you I long…My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.” 

Each one of us has a thirst.  We were born with a thirst.  There are several ways that people seek to satisfy that thirst.  Some seek to satisfy it with power, possessions, pleasure, or prestige, but these never completely satisfy.   Only our Lord, only Jesus, the divine fountain of Grace, can satisfy that thirst.  The author of psalm 63 knew that only God could quench his thirst, “O God, you are my God, for you I long…My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water.” 

I have a story about a man who sought to quench his thirst, and it took him a while to go to the Divine Fountain.  In 1491, the year before Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue a boy was born into a wealthy noble Spanish family.  He was the youngest of eleven children and he was baptized with the name Inigo.

Growing up Inigo was trained to be a soldier, and he had great dreams and aspirations of being a great warrior rescuing damsels in distress.  He immersed himself in the concerns of the courtly life of the castle preoccupying himself with the politics of the time. He quenched his thirst with power and honor and earthly glory.  In one of his first battles, however, a cannon ball shattered Inigo’s tibia.  His broken leg was badly set, and it didn’t heal very well.  It was very crooked.  The surgeons thought it best that the leg be re-broken and reset.  And so it was, but then a knot of bone developed just beneath the knee.  This bit of bone had to be sawed off.  As you can imagine Inigo had months of recovery.  He was confined to a bed in his parents’ castle.  And although his leg eventually healed, he would walk with a limp for the rest of his life. 

Now during those long days of being confined to bed Inigo asked for books to read.  He wanted books about war and soldiers and heroism.  But all that could be found in the castle were two books, one on the life of Christ, and another on the lives of the saints, so he read.  He was disappointed but he read them anyways, at first only to pass the time, but after a while he began to enjoy them, and he began to spend whole days in reading and re-reading them.    At one point he said to himself, “These saints were men just like me, why can’t I be a saint too?”  And in this fervor, he made great plans to visit Rome and the Holy Land and to join a monastery.  But these thoughts didn’t last.  He soon began to think again about the glory of becoming a war hero freeing cities, rescuing people in distress, and if it was a damsel in distress, all the better.  But these thoughts too went away.  And then it was back to Jesus and Saints.  So, during his months of recuperation, he flip-flopped between wanting to seek worldly glory and heavenly glory.  One day it was the world, the next day it was heaven.  During this time, he noticed a difference in his heart.  When thinking of battle-field glory he was for a time filled with delight, but it didn’t last; he noticed that he would later be filled with certain bitterness and heaviness of heart.  However, when thinking of Jesus and the Saints, thoughts which came from God, he found that his soul was filled with consolation, peace, and tranquility.  He came to realize that only God could bring contentment to his soul.  He began to repeatedly pray to God, “What can I desire besides you?”  Inigo found that his thirst was only truly quenched by our Lord.  At the age of 33 Inigo began his studies for the priesthood.  It took him ten years.  And today we know him as St. Ignatius of Loyola founder of the Jesuits. 

St. Ignatius began his life like the deaf-mute of today’s Gospel.  He was deaf to the Word of God, and he wasn’t communicating that Word to anyone. He had a thirst, but he was looking in all the wrong places to quench that thirst.   But then his ears were spiritually opened, and he began to speak of our Lord, in both his words and his actions.  He had his own ephphatha; his soul was opened to faith and his thirst was quenched.  Bishop Barron once said that Jesus, by placing his finger into the deaf mute’s ear was plugging the man into the divine current. He was plugged into God. And once hooked up he was able to hear the saving word and then to speak of it to others.  We hope for the same we hope to be hooked up to that divine current.  Psalm 63 speaks of this, the Psalmist is filled by God, and he can’t remain silent, he says, “My soul shall be filled as with a banquet, my mouth shall praise you with joy.”  And when we are hooked up to that divine current, we tell everyone with our words and our actions. 

St. Ignatius once plugged into the divine could not keep quiet.  He went on to do great good for the Kingdom of God.  And today we are still learning from him.  He’s still teaching us.  St. Ignatius had a favorite prayer that really kept him plugged into God.  It’s the Anima Christi prayer.  He began all his holy hours with this prayer.  Many people pray this prayer after receiving Holy Communion. 

From our mother’s womb, in fact even before you were conceived, you had been personally called to an eternal, enthralling embrace with the Blessed Trinity.  This is the only real satisfaction of our thirst and it’s through Jesus, through his healing touch, through every Eucharist, through every sacrament that he’s saying to us ephphatha!  Be open, be open to my grace, hear me, let me live in you, and then speak of me, don’t hide me.  So let us pray that after every sacrament, during all our prayer that we are open to that healing grace, open to that divine current. 

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

August 19th was the Feast day of St. John Eudes, a French Saint who lived in the 17th century. His parents Isaac and Martha were farmers. They wanted children desperately but were having a hard time conceiving. So they made a pilgrimage to a nearby Shrine dedicated to Mary Mother of God. They walked all day to get there. They prayed for a child. And they were heard, and John was born soon after. Five more children would follow.

The Eudes were a devout Catholic family. John learned from them a great love of Jesus present in the Eucharist, and he learned to have a deep devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. There’s a story from when he was very young. One day he went missing. His parents searched all day for him. They searched through the house, the barns, the fields, the woods, and down by the river. John was nowhere to be found. They feared the worst and in that frightening moment they went to church to pray. When they got there, they breathed a sigh of relief, they found their son. He had dragged a chair to the high altar, so that he could climb up onto the altar. So, there he was sitting on the high altar with his ear pressed against the tabernacle. “What are you doing John?” They asked. “I’m listening to Jesus.” He said.

John would go onto become a priest. He founded an Order called the Society of Jesus and Mary. Their purpose was to form and train future priests. John spent most of his time visiting parishes, raising money for his order, and preaching missions. His main lifelong message was this, “Our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves.” “Jesus is the source of all holiness.” We must make our heart His! We must make our heart His!

In the language of the Bible the heart is the inner depth of a person, its where all the great decisions of life are made, are we for God or are we against God. It’s the source of love and joy but also the source of grief and anxiety. It’s the source of thought, will, and conscience. And today in the Gospel Jesus is telling his people that their hearts are far from him. And the Lord always wanted their hearts. He wants our hearts. And if he has our heart, he has everything.

Now something that St. John Eudes would preach often about is that “Mary is the model of Christian life.” Mary is the one who gave her heart to God, more than anyone else.

At the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel asked her, and I paraphrase, “Will you give God a human nature?” She answered with a full-hearted yes! So, then God took from this woman a human nature. And in this human nature He taught us, He sanctified us, and saved us.

Now for the rest of us, everyone who is reading this, God asks us a similar question, He asks, “Will you give me your human nature?” “Barb, will you give me your human nature?” “Roger, will you give me your human nature?” Will you give me your heart? To give him our human nature is to give Him our heart. It’s probably a question He asks of us every day. Today, “Will you give me your heart?”

He asks this because our Lord wants to continue His incarnation in each one of us; He wants to live his life in each one of us. As Mary gave him a human nature he continues His incarnation, He continues His presence by us, giving Him our human nature, giving Him our Heart. Our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves.

As St. John Eudes once wrote, Mary is the model of the Christian life. She gave herself totally to God. In our 2nd reading St. James tells us, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your soul.” This word is the word of Scripture, but also the Word made flesh. So after we receive Holy Communion as we walk back to our pew we are in a very real way like Mary. We have received Jesus’ body into our body we have become a living tabernacle, and we are carrying Jesus into the world. This is serious business and our Amen after receiving the Body and Blood of Christ means, “I stake my life on this!” So, if Mary is the model of the Christian life, then one way we can imitate her is in her prayer. And the prayer I’m thinking of is the prayer she prayed after receiving the Lord into her body and soul.

Soon after the Annunciation Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth greets her with the words, “Blessed are you who believed” after hearing this Mary prays the Magnificat, a prayer of one who has totally given her heart to God. It begins with the words, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” She is giving her all to God. Maybe we make the Magnificat our prayer as well.

My prayer for us today is that we never tire of giving our Heart to Jesus, forming Him more and more in ourselves. Every time we profess the creed with faith, every time we receive the sacraments with faith, every time we do good, and every time we pray Jesus is formed more and more within.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Today we are presented with something very disturbing.  St John tells us, in today’s Gospel that our Lord’s teaching about the Eucharist, which we have been following over the last few Sundays, was so difficult, so shocking, that “many of his disciples” simply refused to accept it. And as a result, they stopped following Jesus and they returned to “their former way of life.”  There was a large crowd of people surrounding our Lord in the synagogue of Capernaum.  Many of them had witnessed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves just the day before.  And yet, when he tells them about the Eucharist, so that his divine life will become our nourishment, they turn their backs on him.  God’s creatures turn their backs on their Creator.

And so, then he looks at his closest disciples, he looks to the Twelve Apostles, the ones he has chosen to become the foundation of his Church.  He doesn’t offer some kind of watered-down explanation of the Eucharist to convince them to stick around.  Instead, He simply asks them: “Do you also want to leave?”

It was a moment of crisis.  The Twelve didn’t understand, rationally speaking they didn’t understand the mysterious doctrine of the Eucharist any more completely than everybody else.  So why did they continue to follow the Lord?  They continued to follow Him, because they trusted in Him.  They put more faith in the person of Jesus Christ, the Lord, than in their own limited ability to understand God.  And that was a wise thing to do.  By consciously exercising their faith amid that crisis, and not just depending on their own limited, their own error-prone understanding, they lifted their spiritual maturity to a whole new level.  Trusting in God during a moment of crisis, they grew in faith. 

In the famous Frick Collection of art, located on Fifth Avenue in New York City, there is a small renaissance painting by Jan van Eyck that illustrates this well, faith in the midst of crisis.  In the center of the painting the Blessed Virgin Mary holds the child Jesus. They are enthroned and she is wearing rich and beautiful gowns.  Kneeling in front of Mary and Jesus, in an attitude of prayer, is depicted the Carthusian monk Jan Vos who paid for the painting.  He is most likely praying for the monastic community of which he was the superior, and where this painting was originally placed.

Two saints are also included in this painting.  On the left is St Barbara.  She was an early virgin martyr, and devotion to her was very popular during the middle ages.  Hoping to discourage young men from bothering her, St. Barbara’s temperamental and jealous father had locked her in a tower.  Locked in the tower her only visitors were her father and her maid.  Her maid was a Christian and very talkative and they would talk for hours about Jesus and the Catholic faith.  Barbara became a believer and asked for baptism.

After her baptism St. Barbara had three windows installed in the top of the tower in honor of the Trinity, which became one of her symbols in art.  When her father found out that St. Barbara had become a Christian, he was furious.  No daughter of his was going to become one of those Christians.  He used torture to make her recant her newfound faith.  When that failed, he executed her with a sword.   He died too not long after, he was struck by lightning. In Christian art, the palm branch, a sign of victory, is the symbol for martyrs.  In this painting, St Barbara is holding a palm branch. And she offers it to Jesus and Mary.

On the other side of the painting is a depiction of St Elizabeth of Hungary.  She was a noblewoman from the Middle Ages who was widowed at an early age.  She was so beautiful and revered, that princes, kings, and even an emperor sought to marry her after her husband had died.  But she turned all of them down – even the emperor.   She turned them down because she felt that God was calling her to serve the poor.  So, she spent the rest of her short life as a Third Order Franciscan, feeding, visiting, and serving the poor and needy of her deceased husband’s kingdom.  In this painting, she his holding out towards Jesus and Mary a jewel-encrusted imperial crown, the crown that could have been hers.

As portrayed in the painting, then, both saints are joining the monk in his petition to the Lord.  And what do they use to give weight to their prayers?  They use the symbols of their suffering, of what they gave up out of love for Christ.  St Barbara’s faith had been tested by her martyrdom, and St Elizabeth’s faith had been tested by the emperor’s proposal.  And now, in heaven, these tests are their greatest glory.  They offered to God their struggles and that trust in offering their struggles became their path to holiness and glory in Heaven. 

When we stay faithful to Christ through difficulties, through temptations, and through tests, we too grow in holiness, and store up treasure forever in Heaven.  Times of testing are meant to be times of spiritual growth. 

When faith grows in the heart of a Christian, a lot of other virtues start growing too: wisdom, courage, humility, hope, and Christ-like love.

If we want to grow in these virtues, our faith must become more conscious, more mature.  How can we help that to happen?  We do it the same way that Peter and the other Apostles did. Their moment of crisis occurred after they had been living and traveling with Jesus for two years.  During that time, they had gotten to know Jesus in a very personal way.  The Lord was not distant or abstract; the Lord was their companion, their leader, and their friend; they had a personal relationship with him.

And so, when that moment of crisis came, that moment in which their faith was challenged, they were ready to respond.  Even when they couldn’t see the whole picture themselves, they believed that Jesus could, and they knew that Jesus, the good shepherd, the Holy One of God, would guide them well.

Sooner or later, every Catholic, faces a religious crisis, a situation in which our faith is challenged, in which we don’t understand fully why God does what he does or asks what he asks or why He has let something happen.

When that happens, that is the moment when we can rise to a new level of spiritual maturity.  But only if we have been nourishing our faith by getting to know Jesus Christ, the person, knowing Him through a conscious life of prayer, Eucharistic adoration, study, and a sacramental life.  If our Catholic faith has been reduced to following a list of rules and routines, it will be much harder to survive and thrive in those moments of testing. 

Certainly, God will never give up on us, but unless we have a real relationship with him, we may end up giving up on him.  And there is no greater tragedy in life than that.

Our Lord is asking us what he asked the Twelve: “Do you also want to leave… as so many others have done?”  I hope we say NO! I hope we say that we believe in the One who died for us.  We believe in the One who has the words of eternal life, the One who feeds and strengthens us with His own Body and Blood.  My prayer for us today is that our friendship with the Lord will grow always stronger, a friendship that is a strong comfort and anchor in any difficulty or crisis we might ever face. 

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

From the dialogue On Divine Providence by Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor

The bonds of love

My sweet Lord, look with mercy upon your people and especially upon the mystical body of your Church. Greater glory is given to your name for pardoning a multitude of your creatures than if I alone were pardoned for my great sins against your majesty. It would be no consolation for me to enjoy your life if your holy people stood in death. For I see that sin darkens the life of your bride the Church – my sin and the sins of others.

  It is a special grace I ask for, this pardon for the creatures you have made in your image and likeness. When you created man, you were moved by love to make him in your own image. Surely only love could so dignify your creatures. But I know very well that man lost the dignity you gave him; he deserved to lose it, since he had committed sin.

  Moved by love and wishing to reconcile the human race to yourself, you gave us your only begotten Son. He became our mediator and our justice by taking on all our injustice and sin out of obedience to your will, eternal Father, just as you willed that he takes on our human nature. What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down from the heights of his divinity to the depths of our humanity. Can anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?

  We image your divinity, but you image our humanity in that union of the two which you have worked in a man. You have veiled the Godhead in a cloud, in the clay of our humanity. Only your love could so dignify the flesh of Adam. And so by reason of this immeasurable love I beg, with all the strength of my soul, that you freely extend your mercy to all your lowly creatures.

Dear Friends,

In some of the smaller towns of Italy the celebration of the Assumption begins with two processions.  The first procession begins on the outskirts of town and heads down the main street to the town center.  The people in this procession carry a statue of Mary.  The symbolism behind this procession is that it represents Mary on her way to Heaven after her life on earth came to an end.  Now at the very same time the second procession also begins on the outskirts of town, but this one begins on the opposite side of town.  This one too heads down the main street to the town center.  The people in this procession carry a statue of Jesus.  The symbolism behind this second procession is that it represents Jesus going out to meet his mother as she arrives in Heaven. 

The big moment in the celebration comes when the two processions meet under an arch of flowers in the center of town.  When this meeting takes place, both processions stop, and the two statues are made to bow to each other three times.  The bowing symbolizes Jesus welcoming his mother at the gates of Heaven.  When the bowing ceremony is over, the people carry the two statues side by side, in a single procession to the parish church.   The symbolism behind this procession is that Jesus is leading his mother to her throne, in Heaven.   When the procession arrives inside the church, the two statues are enthroned in the sanctuary, and the townspeople celebrate the Mass of the Assumption.  This Italian celebration expresses in a simple visual way the profound truth that we celebrate on the Feast of the Assumption.  The truth that after Mary’s life on earth, she was taken bodily into Heaven. 

A theologian once explained the assumption of Mary into Heaven by using the concept of love.  He said that love is like fire, it burns upward.  And since love is basically desire.  Love seeks to become more and more united with the object that is loved.  Now we all understand the law of gravity.  Gravity is what keeps us firmly planted on the ground.  But there’s also a law of spiritual gravity and that Law of Spiritual gravity is the pull on our heart by God and the closer we get to God the greater the pull.  This divine pull on our hearts is always present, and it’s only our refusal and our weakness due to sin that keeps us earth-bound. 

Now Mary knows how to love.  She’s free of original sin and she never committed sin.  Her body didn’t wage war with her soul; there was no opposition between body and soul.  Her heart and soul were totally directed to God and His will.  Now given the intense love of our Lord for His Blessed Mother and the intense love of Mary for our Lord, the saints will say that this love is at such an advanced stage it would be great enough to “pull the body with it.”   Mary’s love for God was so great that her body followed her soul.  Do I understand all the mechanics of the Assumption, no?  But I do believe it.  God willed that Mary should be in Heaven in both body and soul.  And I think that one reason the Church gives us the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary is to proclaim loudly to the world the sacredness of the human body.  Each human body is made to be a temple of the Holy Spirit more beautiful, in God’s eyes, than the grandest cathedral.  Each of us is a marvel of creation made in the image of God, a masterpiece of his love.  And even though we were wounded and disfigured by sin, we have been remade by the Redeemer, more beautiful than before. 

By proclaiming the dogma of the Assumption, the Church shows us what God thinks of human flesh; human flesh is worthy of eternal glory and of union with the Most Blessed Trinity.  Not only does Jesus bring his human body to heaven, but he wills that his Mother Mary should be with him as well, in both her body and soul.  The two of them, Jesus and Mary together, await all of us when we will one day join them too, body and soul.

Although we wait, we believe in the glorification of our body and soul together in heaven.  First Christ, second Mary, and then finally the entire church, or as St. Paul says; “all those who belong to him.”  And this gives us great hope.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Carlo Acutis was an Italian boy who died of leukemia on October 12, 2006.   He was 15.  He was a well-loved teenager who had a knack for computers.  He programmed computers, edited films, created websites, and lay out and edited comics.  He was gifted at anything related to computers, even adults with computer engineering degrees considered him a genius. 

One of his most significant computer ventures was to catalogue all the Eucharistic miracles of the world.  He started the project when he was 11 years old.  At that time, he told his parents, “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven.”  He then asked his parents to take him to all the places of the Eucharistic miracles. All the sites acknowledged by the Church. After two and half years the project was completed.  Carlo researched over 136 Eucharistic miracles that have occurred over the centuries in different countries around the world.  He collected them all into a virtual museum creating a website to house it. 

Carlo was a normal teenager who was joyful, sincere, helpful, and loved having friends.  He also prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament and went to Mass.  His biographer has written that he remains an inspiration to those who aren’t sure you can be both holy and normal.  Carlo is to be canonized soon. 

Have you ever asked yourself, what does God want from me?  Maybe in a moment of frustration or darkness, we sometimes forget that God wants faith, and trust, and reliance on Him.  Carlo knew this, the Israelites, however, didn’t know this.  The Israelites had been rescued from slavery.  They had experienced miracles.  They saw with their own eyes what God had done for them.  They had seen and experienced the 10 plagues; they had seen and experienced the parting of the Red Sea, walking between walls of water on dry land.  They had seen the miracles, yet they grumbled and complained and wanted to go back to slavery.  They grumbled complaining, “Does God know what he’s doing?  Does he have a plan?  Did he bring us out here to kill us?”

Do we ever ask these same questions?  What is God doing?  Does He have a plan?  We are like the Israelites, we are on a pilgrimage, this is the desert, this is not home, do not get comfortable this is not our home.  We are on a pilgrimage just like the Israelites in the desert. 

Now to remind the Israelites of his presence and to feed them he gave them the daily gift of Manna, that miraculous bread from Heaven.  The word Manna in Hebrew means, “What is it?”  Now there are two things to note about Manna.  First, once the Israelites reached the Promised Land the Manna stopped.  No more Manna, once they were in the Promised Land they didn’t need it.  And second, the Manna was not just to eat, but also to be adored, they had a tent called the tabernacle, and inside Manna was kept, they called it God’s presence in our midst. 

The Israelites had Manna for their pilgrimage in the desert and we have the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is our pilgrim food for the journey, when we get home, we will no longer need it.  But here we need it.  Someone once said, to not go to Mass is to die of hunger while sitting next to a banquet.   The Eucharist is to be consumed and adored.   Carlos wrote on his website, “Our aim has to be the infinite and not the finite.  The Infinite is our homeland.  We have always been expected in Heaven.”  This is not our home, Heaven is our home, Heaven is our Promised Land. 

If ever we are tempted like the Israelites to ask, “God what are you doing?  Do you have a plan?”  Look to the incarnation and life of Jesus, born a man into poverty, suffering and dying on a cross and then resurrecting three days later.  That was not the end, God had a plan, he is not weak, He knows what he’s doing.  Then beg for an increase in faith, beg for an increase in faith. 

I want to end with two things to do and three things to be. 

Two things to do:

1.   Come to Sunday Mass every week, our Lord gives to us Himself in the Eucharist, when we don’t feed on Him, we become weak, and we struggle in our faith. 

2.  Come to Mass during the week, this is a way to grow in faith, something changes in us the more we feed on God. 

And now three things to be.

1.  Be daily in the presence of the Crucifix, a reminder of what God has done for us. 

2.  Be daily in His word, a reminder of what he has promised us and not promised us. 

3.  Be weekly in the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist, church is open until 5 everyday, St. Philip has the adoration chapel. We have adoration in the Parish Center Chapel Sunday 2:00 pm to Wednesday 8:00 am, and all-day Friday. 

Carlo Acutis once wrote, “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”  As Christians to always be close to Jesus that’s our life plan too.  Let us pray for the grace to not forget.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J.

Dear Friends,

Not long ago I visited the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration down in Mishawaka.  Their adoration chapel is open to the public and if you haven’t visited them, I highly recommend that you do.  While I was there, I spent some time talking with one of the older sisters, Sr. Dorothy, and she was telling me about their foundress Blessed Maria Theresia Bonzel.  Mother Maria was born in Germany back in 1830 and by the time she died in 1905 her order was 1500 strong.  There were 1500 sister spread across Europe, the United States, and South America. 

Mother Maria had a strong devotion to St. Joseph, and she credited St. Joseph for many miracles in her life.  And if you visit the sisters’ chapel in Mishawaka, you’ll notice that all the windows depict some aspect of St. Joseph’s life.  At one time Mother Maria was paying a visit to all her sisters spread out across the United States.  At the first convent she visited, however, things weren’t going so well, there was very little food to eat.  So, she asked the sisters, “Where is your shrine to St. Joseph?”  “Oh, he’s in the closet” they answered.  Mother Maria didn’t like that answer.  So, she said, “Let’s fix that.”  So, they quickly made a shrine to St. Joseph and dragged him out of the closet and began to pray to God through his intercession.  They soon heard a knock on the door and when they opened the door there was a man loaded down with groceries.  He gave them the food and after bringing the bags into the house they went to the door to thank him, but he was gone.  There was no sign of him.  There wasn’t even anyone walking down the street.  They never went hungry again. 

Our Lord satisfies our hunger.  He will sometimes satisfy a physical hunger, sometimes in a miraculous way.  But how much more; does our Lord always want to feed us spiritually, to satisfy, and fill us with contentment. 

When was the last time you walked out of Mass feeling well fed, satisfied and content?  Is it an every week occurrence (or every day for those of us who go everyday)?  If not, something is wrong. 

This is not about the homily or the music.  Homilies and music are crucial parts of the Mass.  We should do the best we can with the homily and the music, they should help us to enter into the courts of Heaven, so that we can join in the worship of the angels and saints around God’s throne.  But we don’t go to Mass, or at least we shouldn’t go to Mass, for the homily or the music. 

Today’s Gospel tells us that the crowds were pressing in around Jesus.  They were men and women just like you and me.  They had cares and fears and anxieties.  They had jobs that they were concerned about and family members who were sick; they were dealing with the loss of loved ones they missed greatly, and some had a sense of meaninglessness in their lives; they were men and women, like you and me, who could get stuck in a rut and they wanted more out of life. 

And so, they pressed in around Jesus, eager to hear Him, to see Him, and to meet Him.  They came to Him expectant and hungry, not just for food but for meaning in their lives, for a sense of purpose.  And Jesus breaks open the bread, feeds them, and they are stuffed, they are well fed.  And there’s lots left over. 

That scene in the Gospel is supposed to be happening here and now at this Mass.  The miracles that we hear about all through the Gospels continue to happen in our midst today through the sacraments.  The sacraments aren’t empty rituals; they’re powerful encounters with our Lord, the One who created us and wants us to find happiness. 

Does the Gospel we just heard, happen here at every Mass?  Do we leave feeling well fed, satisfied, and content?  I know in my life, especially in my twenties, I didn’t leave Mass full.  I simply left, trying to beat the priest out of the church. 

But if we come to Mass primarily for what God wants to give us, and what He wants to give to us and does give to us is Himself, so then if we are not leaving full, the burden must be on me and you to change that.  Our Lord does His part, we must do ours.

For the next few weeks at Mass, we’re going to be hearing from the Gospel of John.  In these weeks ahead we’re only going to hear from John chapter 6.  John chapter 6 is a key part of the Gospel.  It’s the chapter often referred to as the “Bread of Life discourse.”  It’s where Jesus speaks to the crowds and to us now, about the extraordinary gift of the Eucharist. 

The Eucharist is the center of our life.  Objectively speaking, there is nothing that we can ever do in this life that can compare with what happens when we receive Communion.  That’s because, by the power of the Holy Spirit, ordinary bread and wine are changed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus, so when we receive the Eucharist, we feed on God, we feed on His divine life, we feed on His power, and we feed on His love.  That’s why we don’t chew gum when we come to communion, that’s why we wear nice clothes when we come to Mass, because nothing can compare with this.  And yet often for many of us we don’t leave full and feeling well fed, amazed and transformed.  How can we change that?

Since we are going to be reading from John chapter 6 for five weeks, hearing over and over again about the Eucharist let me suggest we try an experiment.  Let me suggest we all try to do three things and see if Mass changes for us.  First, let’s try to get here a few minutes early.  And when we get here, let’s take some time to pray, to ask God to help us understand the Mass; let’s ask Him to help us to encounter Him; let’s ask Him to reveal Himself to us with all our cares and our concerns.  Second, don’t leave Mass before I do.  What could possibly be more important than saying “Thank You” to the One who made you, loves you, and has just given Himself to you to eat?  Take a minute or two to say thanks, and to reflect on what has happened and Who has just entered into you.  And third, try to read the Gospel before you come to Mass.  Come prepared, come both hungry and expecting to be fed. 

Our Lord heard the prayer for food of those Franciscan sisters.  How much more does He want to satisfy our spiritual hunger?  Ask for it.  Our Lord is saying to you right now, “Draw from my Body and Blood given to you all the graces of which you stand in need.  So many receive little from their daily communion at My altars because they expect so little.  Ask and you shall receive.  Consult the saints.  Learn from them what it is to ask great things of Me, to ask boldly, confidently, and joyfully.  And thank Me for the effect of my Body and Blood in your body and blood, in your soul, in your mind, in your heart of hearts.  The Eucharist is transforming for all who receive Me with faith and with confident devotion.” 

God has so much more for us than what many of us are settling for.  He always does His part.  Let’s try in the weeks ahead to work more on our part. 

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Our Lord’s voice has power, his voice has healing and so the people were drawn to his voice, and they listened.  As we heard in the Gospel, “They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at that place.”  And when our Lord saw them, his heart was moved with pity for them for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them, and they listened.

Cardinal Dolan of New York once related a story from a time when he was part of a study group on tour in the Holy Land.  One day while hiking, the group encountered two shepherds enjoying conversation and a smoke.  And while these two shepherds had been talking their two grazing flocks had become completely mixed.  Through their guide, the group asked how the hundreds of sheep would sort themselves out and follow the correct shepherd.  Eager to impress these tourists, and hoping for a big trip, the two shepherds stood at a distance from one another, yelled something incomprehensible, and began walking in opposite directions.  Immediately, the sheep fell in line behind the proper shepherd.  And then the two shepherds began to show off, they exchanged clothing and once again stood apart and shouted.  So familiar were the shepherds’ voices to the sheep that these cute (but not so bright) animals ignoring the disguised outward appearance again followed their own shepherd.  They knew the voice even in disguise, and they listened, and they followed.

Do we know our Shepherd’s voice?  He’s still speaking to us.  How do we hear Him?  Can we hear Him in the noise of the world?  Or are there conversations, books, shows, movies, songs, images, blogs, or videos that drown out the voice of our Divine Shepherd.  Our Shepherd can speak to us anytime or anywhere but to hear him best we need silence.  The prophet Elijah never heard our Lord in all the noises of the world.  He didn’t hear Him in the wind, or the earthquake, or in the fire, it was only in the silence that Elijah was able to hear our Lord’s still small voice.  So, we need silence and, in that silence, we need contemplation.  I believe that all Catholics are called to be contemplatives, this is not something just for the nun in the convent or the monk in the monastery, contemplation is for everyone. 

So, what is contemplative prayer? TheCatechism tells us that, “Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2715).  Contemplation is the prayer of the heart.  Contemplative prayer may focus on a word or a saying or one may simply be in the presence of God.   It is the prayer of the listening heart.  The goal of contemplative prayer is to enter into the presence of God where there are no words, concepts or images.  It is the prayer of being in love.

How then do we actually do contemplative prayer? , here are some suggestions that may help you.

In Church before the Blessed Sacrament – sit or kneel.  Gaze into the Tabernacle or look into the Monstrance.  Be still.   Ask Mary to help you to pray.  Pray to the Holy Spirit.  Then peacefully repeat a word or a phrase:  saying Jesus; or Jesus, I love you; or Jesus I trust in you; or Father; or Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, etc.  Don’t continue to repeat the word or the words over and over again.  Only use the word or the phrase when your mind begins to wander.  Focus your gaze on the Eucharist.  Be open to whatever Jesus is asking of you.  Listen.

At home – sit or kneel.  Close your eyes.  Again, be still. Ask Mary to help you to pray.  Pray to the Holy Spirit.  As before, repeat a word or a phrase, rooted in the scripture, the creed, a prayer or an aspect of our Christian faith.  Do not repeat the word or words over and over again.  Remember to use the word only when your mind begins to wander.  Focus your gaze on the loving presence of God.   If you begin to feel embraced by God, be still and be silent.  Just allow the Holy Spirit to pray within you.  Listen.  Do this for 10, 15, or 20 minutes a day. 

A Contemplative Catholic is not made in a day, it takes practice.  To be a truly deep contemplative Catholic is the work of a lifetime.  It requires solitude, silence, sacrifice, and study.  It requires the obedience of faith, even when it’s difficult.  But it’s something we can all do. St. Teresa of Avila once said that contemplation is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us.   

I end with a story.  It’s about St. Peter Julian Eymard.  His feast day is August 2^nd, and his life is one that revolved around the Blessed Sacrament.  He would often say, “Without the Blessed Sacrament I should have been lost.”  St. Peter Julian was born in France in 1811.  When he was 5 years old, he wandered away from home.  His family searched for hours.  They looked everywhere.  Finally, after many hours, they found him in the church.  Somehow, he had dragged a stepladder to the front of the tabernacle.  And there he sat on the top with his ear pressed to the door of the tabernacle.  When they saw this, they asked, “What are you doing?”  And he simply answered, “I’m listening to our Lord.” 

May we be as intent on listening to our Lord. Our Lord’s voice has power His voice has healing, may we be that good sheep who knows the voice of his shepherd. 

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley