Category: Pastor’s Corner

Dear Friends,

Two of the most memorable words from today’s Gospel are “rock” and “keys.”  “Rock” refers to that unshakable foundation our Lord has given to his Church: the papacy. “Keys” refer to the divinely guaranteed guidance and authority that the papacy will steadily provide about what we should believe and how we should live – faith and morals.  As St Augustine once said: “Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia”, where Peter [the papacy] is, there the Church is.  Where the papacy is, there is the Church.  This is why we call the pope Christ’s Vicar on earth, the visible head of the Church.

There is also a third memorable image in today’s Gospel.  After talking about the rock and the keys, Jesus says that “the gates of the netherworld” will not prevail against his Church. The rock and the keys tell us how the Church is structured, but this phrase tells us what the Church does:  It overthrows the kingdom of the devil, breaking down the gates of evil that closed upon the world after original sin.  The Church is no passive organization, no religious or social club; it has a mission.  Being Catholic means being part of a spiritual army called and strengthened by God to fight and conquer sin and evil, both in our own lives and in the greater society around us.

Today’s gospel is represented by one of our windows; it’s the window back in the northeast corner by the choir loft.  In that window we have the keys given to Peter signifying his guidance and authority in matters of faith and morals.  And up in the heavens is a keyhole reminding us of what is bound (locked) on earth is bound (locked) in heaven and what is loosed (open) on earth is loosed (open) in heaven.  And beneath the Papal coat of arms on the shield is a ship representing the world-wide Catholic Church.  Many times in art the Church is represented by a ship.  The church is even sometimes called the Barque of Peter, where a barque is a type of sailing ship.

I have a story about a ship and this story comes from a saint’s dream.  In May of 1862 St. John Bosco had a dream.  St. John Bosco was a man gifted with many prophetic dreams throughout his life, they came true.  Now in this spring time dream St. John Bosco saw a naval battle, a great ship was in the midst of a ferocious conflict at sea.  This great ship is surrounded by a large enemy fleet that’s bombarding it with cannon balls and bombs, and ramming it with their pointed prows.  A man dressed in white stands at the tip of the ship’s bow attempting to guide it safely to the shore.  On either side of the great ship are two tall pillars through which the ship must pass in order to arrive at shore.  On top of one of the pillars is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the words, “Help of Christians” written below; on the top of the other pillar, which is a much taller and grander pillar, is a large white Communion Host, with the words, “Salvation of the Faithful” beneath it.

Each time an enemy ship succeeds in creating a gash in the side of the great ship a breeze arriving from the two pillars patches up the hole and repairs it.  At one point, according to the text of Bosco’s dream, the captain in white falls down wounded and dies, and from the men in the enemy ships great and riotous cheers erupt.  But it is short-lived because almost immediately, the other men in the great ship elect a new captain, also dressed in white, who rises up to continue to guide the ship to safety.  The battle continues to rage fiercely, but the new captain eventually succeeds in steering the ship between the two pillars, bringing it into port.  As soon as it’s anchored to the two columns all of the enemy ships that had fought against it flee, and in their haste to get away they collide against each other breaking into pieces.  And suddenly, the waters are still and a great calm reigns over the sea.  The gates of hell will not prevail against our Church.

St. John Bosco understood the great ship to be an image of the Church, the captain in white to be a symbol of the pope, and the enemy ships as representing the enemies of the Church, subjecting her to persecution.  The two pillars and the images resting on them represent the protection and help that Heaven provides the pilgrim Church on earth.  Heaven doesn’t forget us!

The Holy Father often asks us to pray for him.  He needs our prayers.  Our Lord has entrusted him with working toward the salvation and pastoral care of every living soul on earth, not just for the Catholics, but for everyone.  He has many people helping him, but there are still some crosses that he alone has to bear.  Let us pray today for the Holy Father, pray for everyone who works with him in the Holy See so that he will safely guide this Great Ship to the Heavenly shores.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

In the middle ages when a young man wanted to join a Benedictine Monastery he’d show up on their doorstep and ask to join the community.  Many times the young man would be turned down and the door would be shut in his face.  If he was persistent, however, he’d sit by the door and wait.  He’d wait in the cold and rain or whatever the weather threw at him.  Maybe a day or so later a brother would open the door and tell him to, “Go away, we have no room.”  But if the young man really wanted to join the community he’d stay right there by the door.  This might go on for quite some time, days or weeks, with a brother opening the door every few days to discourage the young man telling him, “You’re not wanted,” or “You’re unfit for monastic life,” or “Come back next year,” or “We’re not accepting applications right now, thank you for your interest.”  If that young man persisted and stayed by that door eventually he’d be let in to become a novice.  That community of monks knew, by his persistence, that the young man waiting by their door was truly hungry for God.    Many of the young men waiting by the door walked away becoming discouraged by the test.  Only those who were really starving for God were let into the community.  Those starving for God persisted.

In today’s Gospel we see a model of persistence, a model of persistence in prayer.    This Canaanite woman is met with rejection three times before our Lord acquiesces to her request.  She is met first with silence, “Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.”   I’m sure we’ve all had a similar experience.  We’ve asked God for something, something that isn’t trivial or selfish and we are met with silence.  We can identify with this woman.  This woman, however, does not give up she’s not put off by our Lord’s non-response, she continues to call out him.  The disciples say, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.”

In the second rejection our Lord tells her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”   The Canaanite woman is not fazed by this rejection.  It’s not her fault she not an Israelite.  So she prostrates herself acknowledging Jesus as Lord saying, “Lord, help me.”  She says something many Israelites are not willing to say.  Again our Lord rejects her, a third time, saying, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  Again the woman is not put off by the rejection; she is humble not disagreeing with Jesus, saying as, “Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from table of their masters.”  I’m sure our Lord had a smile on his face when he heard this clever comeback, telling her, “O woman great is your faith!  Let it be done.”

What do we make of these three rejections and then the granting of her prayer?  Theologians tell us Jesus is testing the woman so she can know how great her faith is.  In this seeming three-fold rejection our Lord is preparing the Canaanite woman to receive the gift, the healing of her daughter.  When we are inspired to persevere in prayer, when prayer is not answered right away, our Lord is giving us time to let our hearts and souls expand in faith and trust so that we are one day able to fully receive the gift. So that we’ll be in a position to properly appreciate what we are given.   Seeming divine resistance strengthens faith, just as resistance training strengthens a muscle.

Not a single one of our prayers is ever lost.  Sooner or later, each will be answered; perhaps not at the time or in the way we imagine, but when and as God wants, in his plans that surpass our understanding.  Our prayers are not always answered as we would want, but the act of expressing them, giving voice to them, always brings us closer to God and attracts a certain grace that we will one day see very clearly and that will fill us with wonder.  What is most important about praying for something is not the something but the connection with God that’s established and developed by means of it.

We look to St. Monica as an example of one who prays well, a woman who established that connection with God.  Her feast day is later this month on August 27^th.  If we go to Mass on that day in the collect we’ll hear, “O God who console the sorrowful and who mercifully accepted the motherly tears of St. Monica for the conversion of her son Augustine.”  Monica prayed over 15 years for the conversion of her son.  St. Augustine in his autobiography wrote that God graciously heard her and did not despise the tears that watered the earth in whatsoever place she prayed.   St. Monica in persisting in this prayer of petition became a saint. Faithfully praying for her son expanded Monica’s heart and soul expanding her humility, her faith, and her trust.  She needed 15 years of expansion and that prayer connection to God bore fruit, she became a saint.  Praying for her son was her path to sanctity.   A prayer connection to God will always bear fruit, both for ourselves and for the people for whom we pray.    Bearing fruit in ways we would never imagine.  So we never give up on prayer, even if God seems to be responding in silence.

My prayer for us today is that we imitate St. Monica; the young would be Benedictine, and the Canaanite woman, always persistently standing outside the door calling to our Lord.  In faith we know the door will open.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

In some of the smaller towns of Italy the celebration of the Assumption begins with two processions.  The first procession begins at the outskirts of town and heads down the main street to the town center.  The people in this procession carry a statue of Mary.  this procession 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 making its way to the town center.  The people in this procession carry a statue of Jesus.  This second procession 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.  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 Solemnity of the Assumption.  It’s the truth that after Mary’s life on earth, she was taken bodily into Heaven.

On November 1^st 1950 Pope Pius XII made this solemn proclamation, “Mary the Blessed Virgin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.”  So even though the church has believed and taught this dogma of the Assumption for nearly two millennia it wasn’t solemnly defined until 1950.  When I first learned of this I was kind of surprised, why wait until 1950?  But then I read somewhere that there are two reasons that a Pope will solemnly define a dogma.  First, is its denial if there is a certain group within the church that denies a certain teaching, the pope will solemnly define it.  And in solemnly defining a truth the Pope hopes to end any confusion or contradictions among the faithful. This is how we got the creed, denials to the faith were rebutted and over time truths were defined.  And the second reason a Pope may solemnly define a dogma is the appropriateness of the teaching to a particular age.  Back in 1950 no one was denying the truth of the Assumption of Mary it was, however, the perfect time to define this dogma and proclaim at the same time the sacredness of the human body, how the human body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

The year 1950 followed one of the bloodiest decades of our human existence.  Six million Jews were experimented upon, murdered, and cremated within concentrations camps.  They were treated like animals or worse.  Two hundred and forty thousand Japanese, many of them Catholic, were killed after two atomic bombs were dropped. Overall, during World War II around 78 million men, women, and children perished during that horrendous conflict.  Human flesh had seemingly no value, no sacredness.  At that time in history the Church responded by showing 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 the Son of God bring his glorified human body to heaven, but he wills that his Mother Mary should be with him as well, in her glorified body and soul.  The two of them, Jesus and Mary together, await all of us the sons and daughters of Mary, the brothers and sisters of Jesus who, professing the resurrection of Jesus and the assumption of Mary, are being prepared for the day of eternal glory.

Today’s world too is in need of a reminder of the Assumption.  Our world of 2020 tells us that human flesh has seemingly no value, no sacredness.  There are wars waged on people in the Middle East and Africa because of their faith.  Our world glamorizes pornography, enslaves young girls in human trafficking, experiments on human embryos, kills the unborn, and in certain parts of the world, U.S. included, the elderly and disabled are euthanized.  We today, are in need of the constant reminder of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption.  We are in need of a reminder of the value and sacredness of the human body.  What happened to Mary will one day happen to each of us.  So let us be preachers of the Assumption and the sacredness of the human body doing so by monitoring the speech we use, the websites we visit and the TV shows we watch.  By carefully evaluating the governmental representatives we elect, practicing all the corporal works of mercy, and by praying, praying for an end of violence, the many forms of violence against the human body.

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.

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Thursday August 4^th is the Feast day of St. John Vianney.   He’s the only parish priest ever to be canonized a Saint.  This gives me something to work for.  St. John Vianney lived in the early 19^th century in small remote French village by the name of Ars.  He was ordained a priest at a time when the French Church had been devastated by revolution.  Churches had been destroyed and priests and nuns had been martyred.  People didn’t know their faith and they weren’t going to Mass.  However, all that changed during the forty four years of Vianney’s priesthood.  By the time he died thousands were flocking to Ars every day.  And Vianney would spend up to 16 hours each day in the confessional drawing people closer and closer to our Lord.

Recently I read a book about St. John Vianney and in that book one passage really stood out to me.  This passage was part of a homily in which Vianney has an imaginary conversation with a stranger visiting Ars for the first time.  He begins “At the sight of the church’s steeple you might ask yourself, what’s in there?”  And Vianney would answer, “The body of our Lord.”  And the stranger would ask, “Why is He there?”  And Vianney would answer, “Because a priest has passed by and said the Holy Mass.”  Vianney goes on to say, “And if we really understood the Mass we would die, not of fear, but of love.”  If we really understood the Mass we would die of love.

In today’s Gospel we hear of the miracle of the multiplication of the five loaves and two fish.  It’s the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels, and Mark and Matthew even record two instances of this multiplication miracle.  It must be important, very important.  Jesus, “Took…blessed…broke…and gave.”  These are the words of the Eucharistic mystery, the Eucharistic miracle.  These same words (took, blessed, broke, and gave) which describe Jesus’ actions are also the same words used at the Last Supper and they’re the same words used at every Mass where Jesus gives us the totality of His life.

Our first reading from Isaiah tells us, “Thus says the Lord…come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.”  Listen to his word, listen to the Word made flesh, receive that flesh and have life.  As Vianney said, “If we really understood the Mass we would die, not of fear, but of love.”  And that understanding begins by listening.  I haven’t always been the best listener during Mass.  Maybe some can identify with this.  When I was younger I would sometimes get easily distracted during Mass, maybe staring at the most popular girl in my class, who happened to be sitting in my line of sight across the church, I’d stare and daydream, not paying attention.  And I would do this until her 6’ 10’’ dad looked my way. Or even talking I sometimes talked during Mass.  Once in college, when I first started dating this girl, we’d go to Mass together.  And during one of those first Masses that we attended together, we just talked and talked oblivious to everything.  It must have been really bad because at the sign of peace, the lector came down and told us to be quiet.  She told us we were distracting everyone, the priest especially, we weren’t that quiet, our whispers were not very good whispers.  We were mortified, we never said another word.  I’m thankful to that woman who had the courage to challenge us, to challenge us to be silent and to listen.  To actively listen, listening for the words of the Eucharistic miracle; took, blessed, broke, and gave.

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Graham Greene was an English Catholic novelist.  He died in 1991 and almost everything he wrote had a Catholic theme.  He once wrote a short story entitled, “A Hint of an Explanation,” which in summary goes like this.  David is a young boy growing up as a Catholic in a small village in Scotland in which nearly everyone goes to Church.  The exception is a man by the name of Blacker.  He is both the village baker and the village atheist.  He is widely known to detest Catholics and the Catholic Church.

There’s a toy shop in the town and in the window of that toy shop there is a long and beautiful train.  David stops to look at it every day.  Blacker has seen David looking into that window and how he is obviously dying to have that set of trains.

One day Blacker meets David in the street and says that he has a deal to propose.  If David would only pretend to receive communion one Sunday and to put the host in his pocket and later deliver the host to him, he would deliver the train set to his front doorstep the next morning.  “It’s got to be consecrated!  It’s no good if it’s not consecrated,” Blacker said.  “Why do you want the Host?”  David asked.  “Never you mind.  That’s my business,” said Blacker.  Blacker even threatened him with a razor, saying he had a master key to all the houses in town.  If David didn’t help him he’d make him bleed in the middle of the night.

David actually started to do the terrible thing Blacker suggested.  He took the host out of his mouth and placed it in his pocket.  He later wrapped it in a bit of newspaper.  And he spent one terrible day and one terrible sleepless night with what, he was becoming more conscious of by the hour, was the Blessed Sacrament, our Lord himself present in his divinity and present in his betrayed, sacrificed, and risen humanity.

Morning came.  Blacker appeared beneath his bedroom window.  “Have you got it, boy?” “Give it to me” he said, “Quick!” “You shall have the train in the morning.” “You can’t have Him,” “Go away!” yelled David.  “I’ve got the razor,” threatened Blacker.  David reasoned that the only safe place for the Host was inside of him and so he consumed the host, paper and all.

Until that moment David had been bored by Mass and he had received Communion more out of routine than anything else.  It’s just what you did.  But in that moment, with Blacker standing beneath his window, David realized what a treasure he held all wrapped in newspaper.  This was our Lord, this was Jesus.  David found his treasure, he came to his senses, and he was willing to give up something he dearly wanted.  That train set just didn’t matter anymore.

Today’s Gospel invites us to make our Lord and His Kingdom the number one priority in our life.  One way to grow more and more in making Him and His kingdom number one is to spend more time with Him.  Spend more time with Him here in the Church.  He’s in the tabernacle just waiting for a visitor.  Come sit with Him at some point during the week.  The farmer sells all that he has in order to obtain the treasure.  The merchant does the same, selling everything to buy the pearl.  What would you be willing to give up in order to spend extra time with our Lord here present in the tabernacle, the treasure of our Church.

Our Lord’s heart beats with love in the Sacrament of the Altar, and his heart is wounded, sliced open, always ready to receive us, to receive our petitions, our pleas, and our desires.  Go to His Heart wounded by love and present in the most Holy Sacrament.  Be bold and confident in what you ask.  His heart is open and ready to receive you and all your petitions.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher Ankley

Dear Friends,

A while ago I went to the hospital to see a woman who’s dying.  I went there to anoint her.  When I entered the room I said, “Hello, you’re on our hospital list.”  But she wasn’t hearing so well and she thought I’d said, “You’re on our impossible list.”  She smiled after saying this, but it got me to thinking.  Nobody’s on an impossible list, everything is possible with God.

On July 6^th we celebrated the feast day of Saint Maria Goretti.  You may remember I spoke of her on the 5^th of July.  Maria was born in 1890 in Northern Italy.  She was born into a poor farming family and her father died when she was very young.  Her mom struggled to put food on the table for Maria and her five siblings.  On a hot July day in 1902 Maria sat outside mending a shirt.  A neighborhood boy by the name of Alexander came to the house.  This boy had been in the habit of repeatedly pestering Maria with advances.  She always resisted and told him to go home.  On this day, however, he dragged her into the house and because of her resistance he attacked her with a knife stabbing her repeatedly.

An ambulance brought Maria to the hospital and it was seen at once that she couldn’t possibly live.  In those next few hours Maria showed more concern for her family and the man who attacked her.  She prayed for Alexander and she forgave him, hoping to one day “See him in Heaven”, she said.  The man who killed her was Alexander (Alessandro) Serrenelli.  He was an eighteen year old who was very much addicted to pornography and in his own words said, “My behavior was influenced by pornography and the bad examples of friends which I followed without even thinking, I was not worried and looking back now at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself.”  After being captured and tried, and still being considered a minor, he was sent to prison for thirty years of hard labor.  He began his sentence in an unrepentant rage.  He even attacked a young priest who was sent to see him in his cell.

After three years of hard labor Alexander was finally willing to let a local Bishop visit with him.  He later sent this Bishop a thank-you note and in that note he told the Bishop about a dream he had had.  He wrote that he had dreamt of Maria Goretti and in this dream she had given him a bouquet of white lilies, which in the dream, immediately turned black and disintegrated when he touched them.  This dream marked the beginning of Alexander’s conversion.  Peace began to invade his heart, he began to live a constructive life, and he began to live in repentance.  After twenty seven years of his sentence Alexander was released three years early for good behavior.

After leaving the prison the very first person he visited was Maria’s mom, he asked her to forgive him.  Which she did saying, “If my daughter can forgive you, who am I to withhold forgiveness?”  They went to Mass together and they received the Eucharist together, kneeling side by side at the communion rail.

Alexander eventually became a Third Order Capuchin and spent his remaining days working quietly as a gardener for The Brothers of St. Francis Monastery.  He lived long enough to see Maria Goretti become a canonized saint of our Church and in 1970 he died a peaceful death.

Why have I told this story?  I’ve told it because I think because it’s a story that gives hope, because in the eyes of God nobody is a lost cause.  Nobody’s on the impossible list.  Repentance and conversion are always possible and sometimes they’re even a miraculous.  The Gospel always calls us to repentance and in today’s Gospel we’re called to it twice.  Jesus says, “But I tell you if you do not repent you will all perish as they did!” This call to repentance, however, is also combined with divine patience.  The fig tree is given more time to bear fruit.  We are given more time to bear fruit. God is patient. And with our rationalizations and stubbornness in not wanting to always follow the narrow way or the good path we need a God who is patient.  We are all, at one time or another that non-bearing unproductive fig tree.  But God lavishes us with his grace waiting for us to produce abundant fruit and this fills us great hope because our God is kind and merciful he is quick to bless and slow to punish.    Nobody is on an impossible list.

I want to end with something Alexander wrote just before dying, “I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones of life.”

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

There is an expression that says, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the saints.  In the middle of the 17^th century nine years after the Jesuits Isaac Jogues and John de Brebeuf were martyred by Iroquois warriors, a baby girl was born near the place of their martyrdom, that place is now known as Auriesville, in upstate New York.

That baby girl would one day be known as St. Kateri Tekakwitha.  Her feast day is on July 14th.  Kateri’s mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan.  The Mohawks were the boldest and fiercest warriors of the Five Nations of Native Americans.   Kateri’s mom would not give up her Catholic faith she taught her children the prayers and the basics of the faith.  When Kateri was 14 a small pox epidemic swept through the village, many people died including her entire family.  Kateri was very sick and almost died and after recovering her face was left disfigured with pock marks and she was half blind from the disease.  She was adopted by an uncle who succeeded her father as chief.

When Kateri was 19 the Jesuits (black robes) finally made their way to her village.  They were amazed to find a young woman among the Mohawks who knew about Jesus and the Catholic faith.  Kateri remembered and practiced all that she had been taught, very impressive for the culture in which she lived.   She loved Jesus and wanted to learn more.

Her uncle and many of the Mohawks hated the coming of the Black robes – Jesuit missionaries- but they could do nothing to them because of a peace treaty with the French that allowed their presence in the villages with Native Christian captives.  Kateri was moved by the words of the Black robes and she soon got up the courage to ask for baptism.  On Easter Sunday when she was 19 she was baptized and given the name of Catherine, Kateri in her language.  With her baptism and refusal to take a husband, life got very hard for her.  She was treated as a slave and because she would not work on Sunday, she received no food on that day.  But even with these difficulties her life in grace grew rapidly.  She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized and was powerfully moved by God’s love for human beings and saw the dignity of each of her people, even though they treated her terribly.

Because of her conversion Kateri was in great danger.  At times stones were thrown at her and she was beaten with sticks.  To get away from the abuse each day she would go into the woods to pray before a cross she had made out of twigs.  Eventually Kateri escaped to a Christian village near Montreal.  And it was 200 miles of walking to get there.  In that village her faith bloomed.  She made her first communion and made a private vow of virginity.  Kateri lived a simple life of prayer and charity caring for the sick and the orphans.  Every day she went to the chapel to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  The chapel opened at 4:00am and she was always the first one there.  It’s said that during adoration her face would take on an almost angelic glow.  It was very powerful, so powerful, that people would come to the church just to watch her pray.  She inspired many people with her devotion and her penitential practices and her charity in caring for the sick, aged, and orphaned.  Their faith was strengthened by her example.

So what about us?  Is the faith of others, the faith of those around us, strengthened and edified by our example?  The majority of us in the pews this Sunday don’t need to worry about being the “seed on the path” or the “seed on the shallow soil.”  If we were that kind of seed, we probably wouldn’t still be coming to Mass.  I think that the majority of us need to watch out for the third type of soil:  “some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.”  Our Lord tells us that the seed among the thorns does not die, it just becomes unfruitful.  In the same way we may show up for Mass on Sunday but the rest of the week is lived disconnected from Sunday.  We might be getting caught up in the distractions of American culture.  Spiritual writers will say that the greatest threat to Christians in Western countries is the constant allure of a culture of comfort and ease, where Christians are more concerned about 401ks than about eternal life.  Is there evidence that we are living this life with the Next Life in view?

St. Kateri, every day, spent some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, the practice kept her fruitful.  That’s probably not possible for everyone, but I would challenge everyone reading this, to at some point this week to make a visit to a Church. Sit before our Lord present in the Tabernacle.  Maybe even meditate on this prayer.

O my beloved Jesus, I am happy to be in Thy presence.  Thy psalmist said it:  “To be near God is my happiness.”  There are no words to describe what it is to have Thee – God from God, Light from Light, Very God from Very God – so close.  Thou art hidden, but I see Thee.                                               Thou art silent, but I hear Thee.                                                         Thou art immobile, but Thou reachest out to draw me in and hold me against Thy Heart.                                                  One, who possesses Thee in the Sacrament of Thy love, possesses everything.                                                                  Because Thou art here, I lack nothing.                                  Because Thou art here, I have nothing to fear.                        Because Thou art here, I cannot be lonely.                    Because Thou art here, heaven itself is here and myriads of angels adoring Thee and offering Thee their songs of praise.                                                                                           Because Thou art here, I need not search for Thee anywhere else.                                                                           Because Thou art here, my faith possesses Thee, my hope is anchored to Thee, my love embraces Thee and will not let Thee go. 

When you come to sit in church bring our Lord your stress, your anxieties, your problems, and then in silence, listen.  Let Him till the soil of your heart, let Him pull the weeds and thorns choking your heart.   Let the waves of love just wash over you! To sit before the Eucharistic Face of our Lord is to become ever more fruitful.

St. Kateri died at the age of 24 and the last words out of her mouth were, “Jesus, I love you.”  These were also her first words the moment she stepped into eternity, “Jesus I love you.”  May these words, these four simple words of “Jesus I love you” always be ours as well, seven days a week, so that we bear fruit a hundredfold.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

A yoke is a farming contraption that hooks two animals together, so that they can work together as a team.  In some Middle Eastern countries poor farmers will sometimes yoke a tiny donkey with an enormous camel.  They work well together, and they’re joined together for whatever the farmer needs them to do, plowing a field or pulling a huge load, it’s the camel that does most of the work and carries virtually all of the weight forward.  The smaller donkey is yoked but he doesn’t carry much of the weight he carries very little of it.  In this we can understand something of what Jesus is telling us when he encourages us to take up his yoke, his.  We sometimes shrink back at the load pulled by this yoke.  We sometimes feel how small we are and how incapable we are to bear the weight.  To carry the farming metaphor a little further; when we look at that huge open field before us waiting to be plowed we sometimes lose heart.  But, we are not yoked alone.  To bear a yoke is to be coupled to another.  We are part of a pair.  It is our Lord’s yoke and we are but the tiny donkey, while he is the immense camel.  He’s not asking us to pull our fair share, He’s only asking us to be with Him in his work.  And in this relationship He purifies our work, He makes our work His.

The Gospel for today is also the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.  This solemnity, where we remember the infinite love of our Lord, was given to the Church back in the 18^th century and it was given in response to visions received by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.  In one of her visions our Lord said to her, “Behold the heart which has so much loved humanity that it has spared nothing, even exhausting and consuming itself in testimony of its love.”  This solemnity was also given to our Church to help counter the heresy of Jansenism which denied the love of Christ for everyone.  Jansenists saw God as a harsh judge and punisher.  They had forgotten our Lord’s divine love and mercy.

St. Margaret Mary was a Visitation sister and as you can imagine when she reported her visions of Jesus and his Sacred Heart she was not immediately believed. Some thought she was a bit off, so spiritual specialists were called in.  One of them a Jesuit by the name of Claude de la Columbiere, later St. Claude de la Columbiere, was chosen to speak with her and be her spiritual director.  Columbiere found her and her visions of Jesus to be quite credible.  One of my favorite teachers from Seminary was Fr. Jake Moriarty, and he once told us a story about the relationship between St. Margaret Mary and St. Claude de la Columbiere.  Fr. Jake had no proof that the story was true, “but it should be!”  He said.  He said this with a sly grin on his face.

When Columbiere was interviewing Margaret Mary he gave her a task.  He said to her, “Next time you speak to our Lord, ask him what sins I confessed in my last confession.”  St. Margaret agreed and when our Lord next appeared to her, she told him, “My spiritual director wants proof that it’s really you I’m speaking to,”  and so she asked, “Jesus what sins did my spiritual director confess to you in his last confession?”  And our Lord looked at her and answered, “I don’t remember.”  I’m not sure if this incident is true or if it ever happened but it should be true because it expresses very simply the merciful love of our Lord.  He pulls us to his heart, he yokes us to himself.  He loves us, he forgives our sins, and he forgets them.

St. Therese of Lisieux said this of our Lord and his merciful Sacred Heart, “He has a heart burning with tenderness who will be our support forever, who loves everything in us, even our weakness and He never leaves us day or night.”  St. Therese goes on to explain this statement with a story.  It’s a story about two disobedient boys.  They’ve done something wrong and they know that they deserve to be punished.  And so when the father comes home and sees what they’ve done and he begins to walk toward them to punish them.  The two boys behave very differently.  One of them runs away in fear and trembling, knowing in his heart of hearts that he deserves to be punished.  The second son is much more crafty, but crafty in the right way.  The second boy does the opposite:  he throws himself into his father’s arms telling him that he is sorry to have hurt him, that he loves him, and that he will prove it by being good from now on.

But that’s not all:  that child then asks his father to punish him with a kiss.  Of course the boy’s love has to be genuine, with a real desire to behave better, but he has a real daring trust in our Lord, he has yoked himself to our Lord’s heart.

The one, who approaches our Lord frequently in the sacrament of reconciliation, in the Eucharist, and in adoration of the Eucharist will discover that he/she is yoked to our Lord’s heart in an unbreakable bond of love.  He/she will discover, by personal experience that our Lord shares in all his/her sorrows, that Our Lord brings him/her relief in affliction, that Our Lord carries his/her burdens with him/her and that he/she is never, not even for a moment, forgotten or left  alone.

Our Lord knows our problems, struggles, sufferings, stress, and he knows our sins.  He wants to give us rest; He wants to give us relief by drawing us into His presence by drawing us into His Heart. His heart was sliced open on Calvary so that we might enter into it.  In his heart we find reconciliation and rest.  Let us be yoked to His heart.

“Come unto Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  For My yoke is sweet, and My burden light.”

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

On the outskirts of Rome there is a church by the name of, “Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis.” Which translates to, “Church of,
Lord where are you going?” According to the tradition of this church, (tradition with a little “t”) during the persecutions of the
Emperor Nero, Peter was running away from Rome. And as he was fleeing the city he met Jesus on the way. And so he asks Jesus,
“Lord, where are you going?” To which Jesus responds, “I’m going to Rome to be crucified again.” This shames Peter, so
Peter then gains the courage to continue his ministry and he returns to the city, where eventually he is martyred by being crucified
upside-down.

This little episode is not part of the Canon of Scripture but it is consistent with a scene from John 13:36. In that passage, right
before the Passion, Jesus predicts Peter’s three time denial. Peter, not totally understanding says to him, “Master where are you
going?” Jesus answers, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.” This is a prediction of Peter’s
own eventual crucifixion.

Jesus went to the Cross, Peter went to the Cross, and every Christian ever since has gone to the Cross. And it starts at the very
beginning of our Christian life. St Paul writes in our second reading, “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” We were baptized into the Cross, which we are reminded of every time we enter
our church and bless ourselves with holy water.
And in our Gospel we heard, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Whether we
follow Christ or not, we will suffer during our earthly journey. But if we choose to suffer with Christ, our suffering will take on a
meaning and fruitfulness beyond anything we could have imagined.
Jesus today is inviting all of us, once again, to take up our crosses and follow him. He knows that by following him, even though
it’s hard, we will discover the meaning and lasting happiness that we long for. Let’s not ever leave Mass without responding to
this invitation. And we can’t respond to it unless we identify what cross he is asking each one of us to take up, and unite it to
Christ’s own cross. Maybe your cross is an illness, or the illness of a loved one. If so, when Jesus comes to you in the Eucharist,
unite your suffering to his. Say to Him, “Jesus I do this with you.”
Maybe Jesus is asking you to leave behind a sinful habit – dishonesty, lust, greed, or neglect. Habits are always hard to change,
but with God’s grace, all things are possible. Our Lord knows that sin only makes us miserable. If that is the cross he is asking
you to embrace, he will give you the strength you need. When Jesus comes to you in the Eucharist, unite your suffering to His.
Say to Him, “Jesus I do this with you.”

Maybe he is calling you to a new project, or to set out on a new path. Maybe you feel fearful at the prospect, at the uncertainty, at
the risk. Jesus comes to you in Holy Communion. He wants to be your strength, your confidence, your courage. And so
he feeds your soul with his soul, your body with his body, your blood with his blood, and your humanity with his divinity. This is
the love of our God – a love that makes himself present in our lives. It is a love that never leaves us alone, that never leaves us to
carry our cross alone. When Jesus comes to you in the Eucharist, unite your suffering to His, say to Him, “Jesus, I do this with
you.”

Our Lord asks us to take up our cross, but only so that, by dying with him, we can also rise with him, and live with him, meaningfully,
here on earth and forever in heaven.
At that church on the outskirts of Rome, Peter asked our Lord, “Where are you going? To which he answered, “I’m going to the
Cross.” Each one of us is asked the same, “Christian, where are you going?” How do we respond? Whether we follow Christ or
not, we will suffer during our earthly journey. But if we choose to suffer with Christ, our suffering will take on a meaning and
fruitfulness beyond anything we can imagine. And to avoid the Cross is to avoid the life that follows.

St. Paul says in our 2nd reading, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in
newness of life.” This fills us with great hope.

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

A reading from the works of St. Bonaventure

 With you is the source of life

You who have been redeemed, consider who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives life to the dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, while even the hard stones are split. Consider how great he is; consider what he is.

In order that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept on the cross, in order that the word of scripture might be fulfilled – ‘They shall look on him whom they have pierced’ – God’s providence decreed that one of the soldiers should open his sacred side with a spear, so that blood with water might flow out to pay the price of our salvation. This blood, which flowed from its source in the secret recesses of his heart, gave the sacraments of the Church power to confer the life of grace, and for those who already live in Christ was a draught of living water welling up to eternal life.

Arise, then, bride of Christ, be like the dove that nests in the rock-face at the mouth of a cavern, and there, like a sparrow which finds its home, do not cease to keep vigil; there, like a turtle-dove, hide the fledglings of your chaste love; place your lips there to draw water from the wells of your Savior. For this is the spring flowing from the middle of paradise; it divides and becomes four rivers, then spreads through all devout hearts, and waters the whole world and makes it fruitful.

O soul devoted to God, whoever you may be, run to this source of life and light with eager longing. And with the power of your inmost heart cry out to him: ‘O indescribable beauty of God most high! O pure radiance of everlasting light! O life that gives life to all life! O light that illuminates every light, and preserves in its undying splendor the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your godhead from the dawn of time!

‘O water eternal and inaccessible, clear and sweet, flowing from the spring that is hidden from the eyes of all mortal men; the spring whose depths cannot be plumbed, whose height cannot be measured, whose shores cannot be charted, whose purity cannot be muddied.

From this source flows the river which makes glad the city of God, so that with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving we sing to you our hymns of praise and by experience prove that with you is the fountain of life; and in your light we shall see light.