Category: Pastor’s Corner

Dear Friends,

I know of a young woman in the Detroit area who is making her way back to the Church.  She walked away from the Church for a number of years and her story goes something like this.  She grew up in a very large suburban parish.  Went to Mass every Sunday with her parents and every year she was enrolled in the religious education program.  The teen years were a particularly volatile time for her and she started becoming attracted to doing what she called “dumb stuff.”  By the time Confirmation came around she had done, again in her words, “lots of dumb stuff,” and she was hoping for some sort of a clean break and a fresh start.

As part of her Confirmation preparation, there was a penance service the night before she received the sacrament.  This young woman spoke of how for nearly two weeks straight she had been thinking and praying about going to confession and doing all she could to prepare herself.

The evening finally came and, a number of visiting priests were brought in to help hear confession.  She found herself in line with one of those visiting priests and she noticed the other teens ahead of her were coming back from the sacrament rather quickly.  “Man, they must all be really good kids!” she thought.  Finally it was her turn to celebrate the sacrament and as she met the priest he told her, “Tell me one sin.”  “Huh?!” she said.  “Tell me one sin,” he repeated. “But Father,” she answered, “I don’t have one sin.  I’ve got lots of sins. I’ve done some bad stuff.”  “We don’t have time for all that,” he said, “There are lots of people out there.”  And when she heard that, she shot back, “Then, forget it!” and she walked out.  That moment she said, along with a couple of other incidents, made her decide to just throw the whole faith out the window.  “If they’re not going to take all this seriously,” she said, “Why should I.”

That young woman from Detroit was looking for a fresh start, and a new beginning.  And on this Second Sunday of Advent John the Baptist appears on the scene, telling us prepare yourselves for a fresh start, prepare yourselves for a new beginning, but first you must repent.  To prepare yourselves for the new life of grace and mercy and peace that Jesus wants to bring you, you must first repent.  This young woman from Detroit serves as a great reminder of what psychologist and psychiatrist have increasingly been saying for years now.  If we truly want to be emotionally well, we must own up to what we have done; we must be accountable.  We must stop blaming others for our problems.  We must, in John the Baptist’s words, repent.

This woman from Detroit stands also as a great reminder that repentance is not merely some external sort of command that is issued by prophets like John the Baptist.  There is deep within all of us a felt need to expunge from our memories and our minds and our hearts those things that we have done that have hurt others and ourselves.  Much like our body, when attacked by a virus, will physically try to expel that virus from our system, so too the soul wants to do the very same thing when sin is present.  For just as sickness is contrary to health, so too is sin contrary to the fullness of life we were made for.  And just as the body usually returns to health after it throws up, though the moment of expulsion might not be all that pleasant, so too does the soul.

The young woman from Detroit, and all of us, long in the words of today’s first reading to, “Take off the robes of mourning and misery” that come from our sins and to exchange them for the garments of joy and peace that come from receiving the Lord’s mercy and grace and love.  And that happens in a unique and wonderful way in the great gift Jesus has left us in the sacrament of reconciliation.

“Oh, this desire, this need of the Father of Mercies to retrieve His lost child and give him life!  That is the Heart of God!  Remember that, each time you pick yourself up after a fall, the feast of the prodigal son is renewed.  Your Father in Heaven clothes you again in His most beautiful cloak, puts a ring on your finger, and tells you to dance with joy.  In a living faith, you will not approach the confessional with dragging feet, but as if you were going to a feast, even if you have to make a great effort each time to humble yourself and to conquer the monotony of the routine. After the absolution, you should dance like the prodigal son did at the request and for the joy of his father.  We do not dance enough in the spiritual life.”  From Fr. Jean D’Elbee’s book, I believe in love.

Contrary to how many people think, the Church is not “hung up on” guilt and sin.  What the Church is “hung up on” is freedom, the Church is “hung up on” virtue; the Church is “hung up on” wanting us to live lives of integrity and authenticity; and finally the Church is “hung up on” love.  Sin is merely the failure to live all of these things well.  And the beautiful gift of confession allows us all to leave behind our failures and to begin all over again in our lives.  That’s what the young woman from Detroit wanted to do the night before her confirmation, but didn’t get the chance.  That’s what many of us, perhaps, have been wanting to do for years:  to begin again, to start anew, to change directions, to leave behind something that’s been keeping us from true freedom and joy.  If this is so, come to the sacrament!  It is the single most under-used and under-valued gift God has given us.

Jesus is not calling you to be just a good person, that’s boring.  Christianity is much more than just being a good person, it’s so much more than that.  Jesus is calling you to be a new person, a new creation, not just converted in mind but transformed in body and soul.  And living as a new creation means that we hate and avoid sin right now, not out of fear of punishment, but because of who we are, we are Christ’s.  We belong to Christ, as Christians we are little Christs and so we say, “I avoid sin because it’s just not me.”  Love is what unites us to Jesus, not obedience or fear, but authentic love.

In these days of trying to find a great deal on a gift for a loved one, the greatest deal in town just might be the one found in confession.  We enter wearing robes of mourning and sorrow and leave wrapped in God’s love and mercy with a chance to start all over again.  May the Lord bring to completion the good work He has begun in all of us.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

From a sermon by Saint Anselm, bishop

Virgin Mary, all nature is blessed by you

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendor by men who believe in God. The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.

Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.

To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.

Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.

Dear Friends,
Friday was the feast day of Blessed Miguel Pro. He was executed on November 23rd in 1927. Miguel was a Mexican Jesuit priest executed under the presi-dency of Plutarco Calles after trumped up charges were made against him. He was charged with the bombing and attempted assassination of the former Mexican President Alvaro Obregon. Miguel’s arrest, lack of trial, and lack of evidence gained prominence during the Cristero War. Known for his piety and innocence, he was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988. At the time of his martyrdom Mexico was under the rule of a president who was fiercely anti-clerical and anti-Catholic. Historians have called this period of Mexican history the most “fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.”
Miguel was born in 1891. He was born into a middle class mining family, the third of eleven children. Miguel entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1911. He was noted for his charity and ability to talk about spiritual matters without being boring. He was both a practical joker and prayerful. Miguel studied in Mexico until 1914 when the massive wave of governmental anti-Catholicism forced the novitiate to dissolve causing the Jesuits to flee to California.
The Mexican government of that time prohibited the Church from operating schools, they outlawed all Monastic orders, forbade public worship outside of churches, and priests and religious sisters/brothers were not allowed to wear clerical clothing in public, religious were also denied the right to vote and were not allowed to comment on public affairs in the press.
Miguel was ordained in 1925. His studies were completed a year later and he returned to Mexico. Fr. Miguel served a Church that had been forced under-ground. And he adopted many interesting disguises in carrying out his secret ministry. He would come to houses in the middle of the night dressed as a beggar to baptize infants, to marry couples, and to celebrate Mass. He would appear in jail dressed as a police officer to hear confessions and to bring Holy Viaticum to condemned Catholics. When going to fashionable neighborhoods to get money for the poor, he would show up at the doorstep dressed as a fash-ionable businessman with a flower in his lapel.
Fr. Miguel was a priest in Mexico for about a year before being arrested in early November of 1927 and falsely charged with the bombing and attempted assassination of the former president. There was no trial and he was executed by firing squad. President Calles had the execution meticulously photographed and the newspapers throughout the country carried the photos on the front page. One can still find these photos on the internet, they are very powerful. The President thought that the sight of the pictures would frighten the Cristero rebels into a retreat. It had the opposite effect.
Before his execution Fr. Miguel blessed the soldiers and knelt to pray. He held both a crucifix and a rosary and his arms were stretched out in imitation of Christ Crucified and at the end he shouted, “May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, you know that I am innocent! With all my heart I for-give my enemies!” and before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Fr. Pro shouted out, “Viva Cristo Rey!” – “Long lives Christ the King!”
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. This may seem like an alien concept to us who live in a democracy but it is theologically correct. Our King and the way of life he calls us to is not something that’s voted in or out. Our King is the Lord of our life he is the lord of every aspect of our life (he should be). He governs our private life, our public life, our physical life, our spiritual life, our intellectual life, and he governs all our relationships. Like Blessed Miguel Pro we absolutely submit our lives to the King of the Universe.
In our first reading of Mass from chapter 7 of the Prophet Daniel we read that, “One like a son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.” If we were to read the verses of chapter seven leading up to our first reading we would have read of great beasts of vio-lence rising from the sea. Scholars tell us these creatures represent all earthly kingdoms that have wreaked havoc on the world throughout the centuries. These creatures, these rulers, are brought before the Ancient One; they’re brought before God who passes judgment. The Ancient One gives the Son of Man everlasting dominion that will not be destroyed. This was a distant hope for Daniel but for Christians this prophecy is realized in Jesus Christ the King who reigns over all kings.
In the Gospel we read that our King testifies to the truth. And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to his voice. Pope Benedict throughout his pontifi-cate had spoken out against the dictatorship of relativism a way of thinking that seems to govern much of modern life. A way of thinking that says truth is what you want it to be. It’s a private decision. When truth is relativised when there are no moral absolutes, an environment is opened for tyrants to come in and impose their will, to impose their version of truth. Blessed Miguel Pro resisted this, the Cristero movement resisted this. Countless men and women throughout history have resisted tyrants and their false claims of truth.
Now some today would like to limit freedom of religion to freedom of worship only, keep it in the Church on Sunday. But at our Baptism, we were not only anointed as priests meaning we offer fitting worship. But we were also anointed as prophets and kings-which means we witness our faith beyond the church building, and we serve others beyond the church building. Our faith teaches us that we are of service to one another not when we enable each other in soci-ety to sin, but when we help each other not to sin. This is why it’s so important to vote with a true Catholic conscience. This is what religious freedom is really about – freedom to live virtue and avoid vice; our best examples of it are the saints, whose virtue helped to build up civil society as well as the Church; and we live it best when we follow Jesus in listening to his voice, the voice of truth, even when embracing His truth may include embracing the Cross as well.
Christ on the Cross, crowned with thorns, is our image of a King and his Kingdom – life lived for others, even unto death. I’d like to end with a prayer writ-ten by Blessed Miguel Pro:
I believe, O Lord, but strengthen my faith
Heart of Jesus, I love you; but increase my love
Heart of Jesus, I trust in you;
But give greater vigor to my confidence.
Heart of Jesus, I give my heart to you;
But so enclose it in you
That it may never be separated from you.
Heart of Jesus, I am all yours; but take care of my promise
So that I may be able to put it in practice
Even unto the complete sacrifice of my life. Amen.
Let us be great Saints,
Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

What is wisdom?  Who is a wise person?  Two historical people known for their wise answers asked these very same questions.  Solomon in Ecclesiastes asked, “Who is like the wise man and who knows the explanation of things?”  And Socrates is the other who asked these two questions.  Socrates spent his whole life on a quest for wisdom.  His quest looked a lot like Solomon’s, but unlike Solomon, Socrates died without finding it.  At the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon finds true wisdom and he finds it in the only place it can be found, in the Word of God.  For us that Word is Jesus himself and everything he said, fulfilled, and represented.

Socrates never acknowledged the word of God, and so he never found that true wisdom.  But that didn’t stop people from coming to him looking for wisdom.  There is a story of a young man who came to Socrates looking for wisdom.  Socrates took him to a pond and led him chest-deep into the water.  And there he asked him, “What do you want?” the young man said, “Wisdom, oh wise Socrates.”  So, Socrates proceeded to push him under the water.  After about 30 seconds, he let the boy up and asked him again, “What do you want?”  Again the young man sputtered, “Wisdom oh great and wise Socrates.”  So Socrates pushed him under the water again.  30 seconds passed, 35, 40. Then he let him up.  “What do you want?”  This time the boy was gasping and choking.  But between breaths, he managed to get out, “Wisdom, oh great and…”  This time he didn’t even finish his sentence before Socrates dunked him under again.  30, 40, 50, 55, one full minute later, Socrates finally let him up.  “What do you want?”  This time the boy said, “Air! I need air!”  And that was the lesson.

Socrates told him, “When you desire wisdom as much as you just desired air, then you will have it.”  Air is something we don’t pay a whole lot of attention to until we don’t have it.  And when we don’t have it, it’s the only thing we can think about.  Think about that time you got the wind knocked out of you.  As Christians we want the kind of wisdom that passes the test of faith.  We want the wisdom of the words that will not pass away.  And we want the Word himself, made flesh, who will not pass away.  So let us pursue this wisdom as if our life depended on it.  And it does, our eternal life.

A few weeks ago we heard of the rich young man who had a lot of possessions, but he wanted something more.  His question to Jesus was, “Good Teacher, what must I do to share everlasting life?”  That rich young man had health, wealth, youth, and life.  But he knew that a virus, or a thief, could change that in a moment.  And even if he could avoid such sudden loss, he knew that even at best all that he treasured was temporary.  The unrelenting tick of the clock would slowly rob his youth, erode his wealth, and eventually take his life.  And then what?

Perhaps the young man had been in the crowd on a mountain some months earlier when Jesus said, “Do not store for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:19).  Or maybe he had been in the synagogue of Capernaum when Jesus said, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (Jn 6:22).  At any rate he wanted what every one of us wants, peace and security, life and happiness that lasts, happiness that never ends, we want that heavenly wisdom that never passes.     And all of this is within our reach right now.

A little theology lesson.   As we know, God exists outside of time.  But when Jesus entered into time, time freaked out, because time cannot contain Jesus or any of the events in his life.  Jesus is not limited to those 33 years of life on earth two millennia ago.   Jesus is both true man and true God and because he is true God his life cannot remain in the past, his life transcends time.  And here, is the beautiful and awesome thing about being a Christian.  When we were baptized we were filled with the very life of God, his sanctifying grace, and as the water was being poured over us our souls received the Divine virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.  And it’s these virtues that allow us to transcend time, and be with Jesus at all the important events of his life.  Amazing!

Example, whenever our heart is moved with faith and charity at remembrance of some event of our Lord’s life, maybe the crucifixion, for example, then we are mystically transported to that event of our Lord’s life, we are there to love him and console him.  And in a very real way we are more present to Jesus than one of the soldiers who was there physically but had no faith or charity.  The wisdom of Jesus, the words of Jesus, the Word made Flesh himself, cannot remain in the past, He transcends time.   Our faith, our hope, our charity keeps us very connected to the eternal Word.

Theologians tell us the Mass is the most perfect prayer we can offer to God the Father.  It makes present to us, all the life-saving events of Jesus.  A priest once said that we should think of prayer, any prayer, but Mass especially, as sitting before God and that with every breath we take in we are breathing in God, we are breathing in the breath of God.  He resuscitates us and fills us with the air of Divine Wisdom.  This is the air we want to breathe, the air of peace, the air of security, the air of life, and the air of happiness that lasts.  The Mass is where we take in the wisdom of the words that will not pass away and we take in the Word himself, made flesh, who will not pass away.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Today it’s all about widows.  At the time of Jesus and before, widows along with orphans were the most vulnerable members of society.  They were at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.  There was no governmental welfare system or safety net for them.  They relied on the support of extended family or if there was no family they begged.  In our first reading the widow was down to her last meal.  She was as low as you can go.  There was no support, no future, and no hope.  Or so it seemed.  Then the divine entered into her life, at her greatest point of vulnerability the divine entered into her life, and she was ready.  Elijah meets this widow when she is down to her last bit of food, and he knows this, but he still asks her to give (share) it to him.  At the bottom of her life she is asked to give and to give.  And she does.  The great spiritual principle is this:  When we are linked to God who in his essence is gift then we can give and give and never run out.  He replenishes us.  This is the divine logic, the economics of Heaven.  Abundance comes from the willing gift.  Abundance comes to us when we are willing to give.  The widow gave out of her want and for a whole year the flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry.

In the year 258 A.D. the Roman Emperor Valerian issued an edict ordering the death of all Bishops, priests, and deacons.    The pope at that time was Sixtus II and he along with six of his deacons was the first to be killed.   At that time in the whole city of Rome there were only seven deacons, so only one remained alive.  His name was Lawrence and since he was the only remaining Pope’s deacon he became the highest ranking church official until another Pope could be elected.  And as the highest Church official the emperor called him to his palace and ordered him to hand over all the treasures of the Church.  Lawrence agreed saying, “The Church is indeed filled with many riches,” “But I need time to gather all the treasures.”  He asked for three days to gather everything together. The emperor agreed.  But instead of gathering the deeds to property or gold coins, during the next three days Lawrence gathered as many Christians together as he could.  He gathered the poor, the infirm, the widowed, the orphaned, the suffering, and the sick and this was the treasure he presented to the emperor.  And with this group of people standing in front of the emperor Lawrence said, “See the wondrous riches of our God.”  As you can imagine, thinking as the world does, the emperor was furious and in a rage he ordered the immediate death of Lawrence.  Lawrence was killed on a gridiron set over a slow fire.  He was roasted to death.  Lawrence is honored as one of the great martyrs of the early Church.

Lawrence was very correct in presenting the People of God as the Church’s greatest treasure.  You and I my friends are that treasure, that body of Christ, and as Christians we share, we give of ourselves.  We follow that divine logic and economics of Heaven.  When linked to the God who is gift then we can give and give and never run out.  There is that saying with the three Ts.  As Christians we give of our time, our talent, and our treasure.  And we give not from our surplus but from our want.  Blessed Theresa of Calcutta once said, “That we should give until it hurts.”  A hard saying, but one lived out in our Gospel of today.

To the eyes of the world, to the eyes of the emperor, it would seem that the Pharisees are the treasure of the church, and in their own eyes they probably are.  They recite lengthy prayers and they give vast sums of money to the Temple.  But Jesus sees things differently, sitting down opposite the treasury he observes everything, he observes with divine logic.  The widow only gave two small coins.  She gave not out of her surplus, as the rich scribes had done, but out of her substance.  She gives the last thing she has and she does this all for the glory of God.  Her gift meant that she would have to rely on God even more to provide her next meal.  When we are linked to God, who in essence is gift, then we can give and give and never run out.

Bishop Barron repeatedly says, “When we want our faith to increase, then we need to share our faith with another, when we want our joy to increase, then we need to become a bearer of joy, making others joyful, when we want our quality of life to increase, then we need to give our life away serving others.”  This is the divine logic, our being increases in the measure we give it away.   And God always replenishes us.

Let us be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

St. Joan of Arc once said, “Serve God first of all.”  St. Joan of Arc,  was a French saint who lived in the 15^th century during the 100 years war between England and France.  She lived at the time when France was very close to being totally defeated.  At about the age of 12 Joan experienced her first vision she heard voices, and she listened.  These voices were later identified as St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret of Antioch.  Over time these voices revealed to her the mission God had intended for her.  She, a simple peasant girl, was to save France.  At around the age of 16 she was told to present herself to the leader of France’s army, and she listened.  She listened to God’s word given to her through the saints.  After being investigated and in a “What do we have to lose attitude” she was allowed to lead the French army.  And so she did, leading the French army to many victories making it possible for Charles VII to be crowned king of France.

At around the age of eighteen Joan was captured and sold to the English and placed on trial for heresy and witchcraft.  And even though she couldn’t read or write she defended herself with great theological insight.  But in the end she was condemned.  On May 30^th, 1431 she was burned at the stake.  Twenty years later the Church totally exonerated her.  If you want to learn more a good book to read is “Joan of Arc” by Mark Twain.  He said himself that this was his best book.  He spent months in France doing research in preparing to write it.

Now Joan’s lifelong motto was “Serve God first of all,” or we might say, “Listen to God first of all.”  She was always listening.  This is very similar to what we read in our 1^st reading and Gospel.  Both Moses and Jesus say, “Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”  This command is the great Sh’ma, the most sacred prayer in Jewish tradition; it’s recited every morning and night by pious Jews.  It’s written on bits of parchment and placed on their foreheads, arms, and on doorposts.   It is the defining prayer and belief never to be forgotten.

The Sh’ma is just as important for Christians; because we too are claimed by this great prayer.  It’s our defining prayer too.  The very first word of the Sh’ma is “Hear” and this word calls us to obedience to God’s word, and like Joan of Arc we listen.  We are called to hear God’s word.  We don’t just set our own agenda; we don’t just go our own way. And in calling for our obedience our Lord tells us to love Him with the entirety of our being, He’s the only one we are to love and we are to love Him above all things, as we’ve heard many times, with our whole heart, whole soul, and all our strength.   So, Holy Moly, how do we do this?  Maybe we begin by knowing that God is the source, the ground, and the goal of all things.  The Lord is not one being among many, he is the One the One creative source of all things.  Even as we desire a particular thing we can desire God in and through and under those things.

Suppose we desire to watch a baseball game.  It’s a lazy Saturday afternoon and we want to sit in the Lazy boy and watch a game.  This is a good desire, nothing wrong with it.  But seen in the light of the Sh’ma we see the beauty and complexity of the game as being reflective of the perfection of God’s being.  Suppose we desire a delicious meal, this is good.  But seen in the light of the Sh’ma we appreciate the food as something that strengthens us for God’s service.  We savor the meal as a foretaste of the delight of Heaven.  Suppose we desire another person, this can be good if we see that person, that potential spouse, our spouse, or friend as a gift from God, someone meant to lead us closer to God.  In light of the Sh’ma we see everything as a reflection of God.  We love God in and through and under everything. We can desire God even as we desire worldly things if we see everything around us in God’s light.

I want to end with something about obedience.  Moses in the first reading calls us to obedience and Jesus in the Gospel calls us to obedience.  The great Sh’ma is a call to obedience.  And maybe we don’t always understand the nature of obedience to God. This obedience is something that’s done in love.  We listen to God because God is the God of love, and when Love speaks to us, we want to respond.  Love is attracted to love and obeying God is an act of love.

Now part of this obedience in love is attending Mass every Sunday and every Holy Day of Obligation like this past Thursday’s All Saints Day.  Our Lord asks us to do this and it’s a shame that many Catholics do not fulfill this basic loving obligation to God.  As an aside it’s still a mortal sin to miss Sunday Mass or Mass on a HDO.  If we miss Mass we have to go to confession before we can again worthily receive Holy Communion.

Now some will say, and some have told this to me directly “No offence Father but I’m bored at Mass I don’t get anything out of it.”  But this is the wrong approach.  We don’t come to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be entertained.  We come to praise God, to Thank God, to repent of sin, to petition God, and of course to receive the Holy Eucharist.  Mass is preparing us to praise God for all eternity in Heaven.  At every Mass God will give to us.  We have the opportunity to be filled with His grace and we may not feel it emotionally, but He’s always giving.

A way to prepare for Sunday Mass is to pray during the week every morning and night in the great tradition of the Sh’ma reminding ourselves that all things are of God.  Maybe the Sunday obligation begins as an act of simple obedience but with time, hopefully, it is something done out of love with our whole heart, soul, and strength.  Listening to and serving God first of all.

May we be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

From a sermon by St. Bernard, Abbot
Let us make haste to our brethren who are awaiting us

Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honors when their heavenly Father honors them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honor from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning.

Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them.

Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory.

When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head, crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple robes are a mockery rather than an honor. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in splendor with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory as belongs to himself, its head.

Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession.

Dear Friends,

St. Mark’s gospel is very good about showing us the very human side of the apostles.  I have a copy of what a consulting firm might have said about the original 12 apostles.  This consulting firm wrote:  It is our opinion that the 12 men you have picked to manage your new organization lack the background, educational and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would lend itself to undermining morale. We feel it is our duty to tell you that the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau has censured Matthew for unfair business practices. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot both have radical leanings and both registered high on the manic-depressive scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, has a keen business mind and possesses contacts in high places. He is highly motivated and ambitious. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your comptroller and right hand man. We wish you every success in your new venture.”

James and John, two of Jesus’ earliest and closest disciples could hardly have chosen a more tactless moment for their request to be seated at his right and left.  They were probably dreaming about their future prominence so they were completely oblivious to his words about imminent suffering and death.  When Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup I drink?”  They eagerly answer, “We can!” They don’t yet realize what they’re agreeing to.  In the Old Testament, a cup is a metaphor for what God has in store for someone, whether a cup of blessing or a cup of wrath.  It’s only on Golgotha that James and John will realize the deep irony of their request.  They will see that at the right and left hand of Jesus will be two thieves also crucified.  Suffering, the Cross, is the unavoidable doorway to glory, for Jesus himself and his disciples.  The cross is the ladder to heaven.  All the apostles were called to drink the cup that Jesus drank.  From the consulting firm’s description of the apostles at the beginning you wouldn’t think this possible.  But God’s grace builds on nature and with his grace mighty things can be done.

I have a story about my very first convocation as a newly ordained priest.  The convocation is a chance every year for all the priests to meet with the new Bishop and to get to know him better and for him to get to know us better.  Unknown to me it’s a tradition at this yearly convocation for the newly ordained to be a main celebrant at one of the daily Masses.   And part of being the main celebrant means giving a homily.  I thought it was tough preaching in front of a huge church assembly but try preaching in front of fifty priests.  But that went well everything went well until communion.  And that’s when it happened.  The non-permanent altar collapsed and all three cups of consecrated precious blood spilled everywhere.  This spilling of the precious blood made vivid to me the last line of today’s Gospel, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  He gave his life.  He spilled his blood for us.  He emptied himself totally.

Every Mass we attend we are able to participate in that one sacrifice that took place 2000 years ago.  Each Mass makes present to us today the one sacrifice of Christ and the Mass allows us to drink the cup He drank and to join our sufferings to his suffering.    An old priest once told me that at the elevation of the Sacred Host and Precious Blood, in addition to adoring the Lord, we are to offer up all of our sufferings to God the Father, to unite our sufferings to those of Christ’s.  All physical, mental, social, and financial suffering can be offered.  Our bodies, by being joined to the body of Christ, can be transformed into instruments of redemptive grace.  Our sufferings, willingly united with His, become in a mysterious but real way the means of grace for others.

Fr. Andrea Santoro, an Italian priest who lived and worked in Turkey, wrote this before he was martyred for the faith in 2006, “I am here to dwell among these people and enable Jesus to do so by lending him my flesh…. One becomes capable of salvation only by offering one’s own flesh.  The evil in the world must be borne and the pain shared, assimilating it into one’s own flesh as did Jesus.”

May we be great saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

There’s a priest I know and his church has an Adoration Chapel that’s open twenty-four hours a day.  The chapel has only a few visitors at certain hours of the day and sometimes the visitors that do come to the chapel are not there to pray.  So it’s this priest’s job to occasionally check on the chapel throughout the day.  One night, he came upon a well-dressed man reclined in a pew, looking very comfortable, and this man was smoking a cigar.  He even brought his tray to collect the ashes.  The priest’s first impulse was to yell at the man for smoking in the chapel.  But, he held his tongue, and instead asked the man, “What are you doing here?”  The smoker replied, “I’m talking to Jesus.”  The priest was surprised by the man’s answer, he hadn’t expected this reply.  The man was obviously a man of faith who believed that Jesus Christ was present within the Eucharist.  The priest left him alone to his prayer but did warn him to be careful with the cigar.  I don’t recommend smoking here at St. Joseph’s.  The only smoke we allow comes from candles and the thurible.  (“The smoke of the incense went up before God and with it the prayers of God’s people.”) Now that smoker knew where to find Jesus.  That man looked upon Jesus and Jesus looked upon him.

In today’s Gospel Jesus looks upon another man but that man doesn’t seem to know he’s looking upon the Son of God. That man calls Jesus a good teacher and in response, Jesus says, “No one is good but God alone.”    Jesus isn’t denying the fact that he is good.  But what he’s doing, is inviting the man to reflect more deeply on why he calls him good.  Is Jesus good because he’s a wise teacher and powerful miracle worker?  Or is it because he treats everyone with kindness?  Or is there a more profound basis for Jesus’ goodness?  Does the man recognize that ultimately, God alone is good, and that what he perceives in Jesus is not merely unusual human qualities but the infinite goodness that belongs to God alone?

It’s not surprising that the man’s youth and wealth are not enough to make him happy.  Many people know this.  The man acknowledges, after all, that he has yet to attain eternal life, which he asks Jesus to help him find.  For this young man the law, morality, a good life … were not enough.  They were a good start, which is why Jesus mentions them first and looks lovingly on the man’s attainment of them.  But, Jesus does not say, “Well done, you have kept the law.  Congratulations!  It’s enough that you’re a good person.  Go in peace.”  No.  Jesus insists that the man is still lacking “he’s lacking one thing.”  He lacks Jesus.

This young man is maybe the most moral man in all the gospels, but he misses out on what his heart was made for.  In the end, the man goes away sad because he’s unable to part with his possessions.  He was attached to things.  He was a good man but not a happy one.  He had many good things, but he didn’t possess Jesus.

We read in the Gospel that Jesus looked at this man with love, “Looking at him he loved him.”  But that man doesn’t seem to have noticed this gaze of divine love, he’s too preoccupied with his own thoughts.  If he had noticed this loving gaze his heart would have been captivated and it would have moved him to surrender all his earthly attachments.  Why does Jesus tell him to sell all that he owns?  Perhaps because the man is bound by his possessions and attached to the independence they made possible.  They were the earthly treasure that was keeping him from freely receiving the heavenly treasure that was standing in front of him.  Jesus wants to set the man free to follow the true longing of his heart without any reservation.  Jesus is asking this man to become as dependent on God’s providence like children who are dependent upon their parents, because it’s to the children that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs.

A modern day example of one who was dependent upon God’s providence is Dorothy Day.  In 1933 she was one of the co-founders of the Catholic Worker Movement.  The movement’s aim is to live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ.  One of its guiding principles is to show hospitality towards those on the margin of society.  Dorothy Day, who died in 1980, lived a life of voluntary poverty and service to the poor.   Her trust in God was so complete that she would say, “God sends you what you need when you need it.”  

We studied Dorothy Day’s spirituality at the Seminary and it’s no surprise that the Eucharist had first place in her spiritual life.  She attended daily Mass and had the habit of meditating afterwards where she would often say, “I shall rest happy in the presence of Christ on the altar.”  Receiving Jesus in the Eucharist and praying before Jesus in the Eucharist gave Dorothy Day the strength and courage to serve Jesus in the poor that surrounded her.  Unlike the rich young man Dorothy Day recognized Jesus’ loving gaze and that divine love captured her heart.  It so captured her heart that she surrendered all her earthly attachments.  And for that she is on the path to becoming a recognized Saint in the Church.

Not all of us are called to this type of life that Dorothy Day led but our Lord is asking all of us to not be attached to earthly things, to not put things ahead of him.  And so we work at detachment from things, we work at making our Lord number one.  In the old days Friday was a day of abstaining from Meat.  At Vatican II, except for during Lent, Catholics received a dispensation; we no longer had to give up meat on Friday.  But the understanding was that in place of giving up meat; we would do something else instead; doing some form of penance, fasting, work of charity, or work of piety.  These acts were to express our love and our respect and our honor for the Lord.  If we aren’t already, let us make Friday a special day for our Lord.  These Friday practices can help us grow in our detachment of things.  Is there something in our lives we just can’t seem to live without? Then give it up on Friday, create an empty space to be filled by Jesus.  Let us always possess Jesus.

Christ there in the tabernacle, in his humanity and divinity, is like the sun.  We bathe ourselves in this sunlight which warms and heals us (Dorothy Day).

May we be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

More than a century ago a university student, who thought he knew everything, boarded a train in France and sat next to an older man who seemed to be a peasant of comfortable means.  He looked to be simple yet well off.  The student noticed that the older gentleman was slipping beads through his fingers.  He was praying the rosary.  So the student inquired, “Sir, do you still believe in such outdated things?”  “Yes, I do.  Don’t you?” said the older man.  The student laughed and admitted, “I don’t believe in such silly things.  Take my advice.  Throw that rosary out the window and learn what science has to say about it.”  “Science, what do you mean by science?  Perhaps you can explain it to me.”  The older man asked speaking very humbly and looking as if he was about to cry.  The university student noticed that the man was deeply moved and to avoid hurting his feelings any further, he said, “Please give me your address and I’ll send you some literature to explain the whole thing to you.”  The man fumbled into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out a card.  On reading the card, the student lowered his head in shame and was speechless.  The card read:  “Louis Pasteur, Director of the Institute of Scientific Research, Paris.”    The deluded student had encountered his country’s leading chemist and the man who would give the world the scientific process that would bear his name – pasteurization.  Louis Pasteur was a man of science but he was also a man of faith.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  Faith and science are not mutually exclusive, truth is truth.  Whether from faith or science truth never contradicts.

The rosary is an ancient prayer, it’s simple and yet very profound.  Pope St. `John Paul II said it was his favorite prayer and he called it a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness.  Pope Leo XIII proposed the rosary as an effective spiritual weapon against the evils afflicting society.  Pope Paul VI called the rosary a Gospel prayer centered on the mystery of Jesus’ saving incarnation.  To pray the rosary is to contemplate the face of Christ with his mother Mary.

The whole month of October is dedicated to the rosary and today October 7^th is normally the Feast day of our Lady of the Rosary.  This feast day was established in 1573 by Pope St. Pius V.  The purpose was to thank God for victory over the invading Turkish army at Lepanto a naval victory off the coast of Greece.  And this victory was attributed to praying the rosary.

The development of the rosary has a long history.  It was first, a practice of praying 150 Our Fathers.  While the monks were in the chapel praying all 150 psalms the working brothers out in the fields would pray the Our Father 150 times keeping track with knotted cords of string.  Later there was a similar practice of praying 150 Hail Mary’s.  Soon a mystery of Jesus’ life was attached to each Hail Mary.  The Dominicans did much to shape the rosary we pray today.  They used it to teach and convert those who had left the faith mainly those who denied the humanity of Christ.  In the 16^th century the rosary had developed to its present form with the 5 joyful, 5 sorrowful, and 5 glorious mysteries.  In 2003 Pope St. John Paul II added the Luminous Mysteries, mysteries focusing on the public life of Christ.

To pray the rosary is to contemplate the face of Christ.  And this is the task of every Christian, to look upon the face of Christ, to recognize its mystery amid the daily joys and sufferings of his human life, and then to grasp the divine splendor of the Risen Lord seated in the glory of heaven at the right hand of the Father.  Pope St. John Paul II said that in contemplating Christ’s face we become open to receiving the mystery of Trinitarian life, experiencing the love of the Father and delighting in the joy of the Holy Spirit.  St. Paul’s words from 2Cor3:18 can be applied to us:  “Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit.”

I urge everyone to pray the rosary.  Carry it with you at all times.  Dig out that First Communion Rosary and carry it with you.  If you have a spare few minutes pray a decade.  Get a booklet on meditations for the various mysteries; they are a great aid in our contemplation.  Or as St Ignatius of Loyola would advise; place yourself into each of the mysteries. For example at the nativity ask yourself, what do I see?  What do I hear? What do I smell?  What do I feel?  Or at the Crucifixion; what do I see?  What do I hear?  What do I smell?  What do I feel?

Come early to Mass to pray the rosary.  Pray the rosary during the week.  Pray it with the whole family.  As a kid my family would pray the rosary together.  And those are some of my fondest memories.  Probably what you’d expect a priest to say, although there were times that I’d get annoyed with my brother Matt.  He’d kneel too close to me and he’d blow his hot breath all over my face.  I just wanted to pound him.   It doesn’t have to be perfect; just get the family together to pray.  Those memories of Matt just make me smile now and they make me love him even more.

The rosary is a treasure to be rediscovered.  It creates an atmosphere in which to contemplate the mysteries of God.  We sense that Jesus and Mary are with us in all the joys and sorrows of our life.  And it builds hope in us that God will bring us to share in His glory.  Use the rosary to grow closer to our Lord.

May we be great Saints,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley