Category: Pastor’s Corner

From the treatise On the Mysteries by Saint Ambrose, bishop

To the newly baptized on the Eucharist

Fresh from the waters and resplendent in these garments, God’s holy people hasten to the altar of Christ, saying: I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gives joy to my youth. They have sloughed off the old skin of error, their youth renewed like an eagle’s, and they make haste to approach that heavenly banquet. They come and, seeing the sacred altar prepared, cry out: You have prepared a table in my sight. David puts these words into their mouths: The Lord is my shepherd and nothing will be lacking to me. He has set me down there in a place of pasture. He has brought me beside refreshing water. Further on, we read: For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall not be afraid of evils, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff have given me comfort. You have prepared in my sight a table against those who afflict me. You have made my head rich in oil, and your cup, which exhilarates how excellent it is.

It is wonderful that God rained manna on our fathers and they were fed with daily food from heaven. And so it is written: Man ate the bread of angels. Yet those who ate that bread all died in the desert. But the food that you receive, that living bread which came down from heaven, supplies the very substance of eternal life, and whoever will eat it will never die, for it is the body of Christ.

Consider now which is the more excellent: the bread of angels or the flesh of Christ, which is indeed the body that gives life. The first was manna from heaven; the second is above the heavens. One was of heaven, the other is of the Lord of the heavens; one subject to corruption if it was kept till the morrow, the other free from all corruption, for if anyone tastes of it with reverence he will be incapable of corruption. For our fathers, water flowed from the rock; for you, blood flows from Christ. Water satisfied their thirst for a time; blood cleanses you forever. The Jew drinks and still thirsts, but when you drink you will be incapable of thirst. What happened in symbol is now fulfilled in reality.

If what you marvel at is a shadow, how great is the reality whose very shadow you marvel at. Listen to this, which shows that what happened in the time of our fathers was but a shadow. They drank, it is written, from the rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. All this took place as a symbol for us. You know now what is more excellent: light is preferable to its shadow, reality to its symbol, the body of the Giver to the manna he gave from heaven.

Beloved, see what a marvelous thing love is; its perfection is beyond our expression. Who can truly love save those to whom God grants it? We ought to beg and beseech him in his mercy that our love may be genuine, unmarred by any too human inclination. From Adam down to the present time all generations have passed away; but those who were perfected in love by God’s grace have a place among the saints who will be revealed when the kingdom of Christ comes to us. As it is written: Enter your chambers for a little while, until my wrath and anger pass away; and I shall remember a good day and raise you from your graves. We are blessed, beloved, if we fulfill the commands of the Lord in harmonious, loving union, so that through love our sins may be forgiven. For it is written: Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose mouth there is no deceit. This is the blessing that has been given to those who have been chosen by God through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

We should pray then that we may be granted forgiveness for our sins and for whatever we may have done when led astray by our adversary’s servants. And for those who were the leaders of the schism and the sedition, they too should look to the common hope. For those who live in pious fear and in love are willing to endure torment rather than have their neighbor suffer; and they more willingly suffer their own condemnation than the loss of that harmony that has been so nobly and righteously handed down to us. For it is better for a man to confess his sins than to harden his heart.

Who then among you is generous, who is compassionate, who is filled with love? He should speak out as follows: If I have been the cause of sedition, conflict and schisms, then I shall depart; I shall go away wherever you wish, and I shall do what the community wants, if only the flock of Christ live in peace with the presbyters who are set over them. Whoever acts thus would win great glory for himself in Christ, and he would be received everywhere, for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Thus have they acted in the past and will continue to act in the future who live without regret as citizens in the city of God.

Dear Friends,

Matthew Talbot was an Irishman born in Dublin in 1856.  His parents were very poor and he was the second of twelve children.  Most everyone in his family was an alcoholic.  At the age of twelve, as was the custom, Matthew left school and began working to support his family.  His first job was in a store that sold wine.  It wasn’t long before he was sampling the wine in the backroom.  At age sixteen he got a job with the Port and Dock Board where he worked among the whiskey stores.  While still a teenager Matthew Talbot was a confirmed alcoholic.

When drunk he became very hot tempered, he got into fights, and swore heavily.  He spent most if not all of his paycheck at the bars and pubs of Dublin.   And if he didn’t have enough money he would buy drinks on credit or sell his possessions, selling anything that might get enough money to buy just even one drink.  And if desperate enough he would even steal.  He refused to listen to his mother’s plea to stop drinking.

After drinking for sixteen years Matthew finally lost his own self-respect.  One day when he was totally broke, he loitered on a street corner waiting for his friends who were leaving work.  It was payday and he was hoping that one of them would buy him a drink.  None of them did.  No one offered him a drink.  Dejected he went home and publicly resolved to his mother, “I’m going to take the pledge, and I’m not going to drink anymore.”   His mother smiled and told him, “Go, in God’s name, but don’t take the pledge unless you’re going to keep it.”   As Matthew was leaving the house she called out, “May God give you strength to keep it.”

After leaving the house Matthew went straight to confession and took the pledge not to drink for three months.  The next day he went to Mass and received Holy Communion something he hadn’t done in years.  From that moment on in 1884 when he was 28 years old, Matthew became a new man.  After he had successfully fulfilled his pledge for three months, he made a life long pledge never to drink again.

And he never did.  But it wasn’t easy he told his sister, “Never look down on a man, who cannot give up the drink, it’s easier to get out of Hell.”  But with the grace of God he maintained his sobriety for the next forty years of his life.  He found strength in prayer, daily Mass, the Eucharist, Confession and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He studied his faith and read the great spiritual masters.  And he got a new job away from the whiskey.   With this new job in a lumber yard he paid all of his debts and became very generous with the poor.  The converted Matthew never swore, was good humored and friendly to everyone.

At the age of 69 as Matthew was walking to Church he collapsed and died.  In his coat they found a note that read, “Three things I cannot escape:  the eye of God, the voice of conscience, the stroke of death.  In company, guard your tongue.  In your family, guard your temper.  When alone guard your thoughts.”  After his death Matthew was recognized as one possessing heroic virtue, something with God’s grace that he had grown into.  At this time Matthew Talbot has been declared venerable by the Church.  He’s on his way to canonization.

Now suppose we were to pose a question to someone who knew Matthew during his dark days and we were to ask, “Do you see Matthew as a child of God?” and “Do you see Christ in him?”  They probably would have a hard time saying yes.  But as Christians we always try to see the face of Christ in others, even if we only see a dead Christ within the tomb.  I once had a discussion about this with my cousin Bill and my Mom.  Mom was a nurse and she always tried to see the face of Christ in her patients.  And it was easier with some patients than others, she told us about one patient she always had difficulty in giving him his meds.  He just wouldn’t take them even in applesauce.  So Mom kept reminding herself, “face of Christ, face of Christ, face of Christ.”  But my cousin Bill asked her, “Do you think that patient saw the face of Christ in you?”  Mom had to answer no, “He probably saw someone who was impatient and very irked.”  It works both ways.  We look for Christ in others as they look for Christ in us.

In today’s Gospel Jesus comes home and at first he is met with curiosity and amazement but then the criticisms begin.  They didn’t see the divine in Jesus, they didn’t see Christ the Lord in Jesus, they thought they had him all figured out, they asked themselves, “Who does he think he is?”  “He’s just one of us.”  “How come he thinks he can preach to us, the people of his hometown?”  It was only with time that they gradually realized who Jesus was.  He was the Lord. He was divine.

I want to end with two observations, the first about Jesus and the second about us.  First Jesus, how were his neighbors in the village and his relatives to know that the child who grew up in their town bore within him such a secret, that he was God’s Son made man?  His everyday life in Nazareth was too unassuming.  It is a little bit like that today.  God’s presence in our midst is often hidden and easy to overlook.  Think of the Eucharist, think of your neighbor.  Today, too, Christ is with us but He’s with us in, “everyday clothes,” and only the eyes of faith perceive him, perceive Him in the everyday ordinary clothes of bread and wine and in the ordinary clothes of our neighbor.

The second observation is about us.  How often are we mistaken about those people closest to us?  Every one of us has his or her unsuspected qualities.  It’s often an outsider who is more aware of these qualities than our own family.  How great it is when we discover the treasure within those people closest to us the treasure within those people sitting next to us.

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Faith, we see this in the lives of the saints, we see men and women who exercised their faith until it filled them with a truly supernatural hope and courage.  St. Jan Sarkander is a good example.  After his young wife died childless, he was ordained a parish priest and he served valiantly in the eastern Czech Republic during the early 1600s.  Those were very hard times, especially because of the Thirty Years War, a horrible conflict between Protestants and Catholics that ripped Europe apart.  When the war reached the area around his parish, Fr. Jan escaped into Poland to avoid being captured by the occupying Protestant forces.

But he couldn’t stay away for long because he worried about his people.  After five months he returned to the war-torn Czech Republic to be with his parish.  Soon after his return, a Polish army of Catholic soldiers moved in, and a bloody battle seemed unavoidable.  Jan desperately wanted to avoid any killing and bloodshed.  So trusting in Christ, he marched into the Polish army’s camp carrying a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament.    This was both his shield and a chastisement to the Polish forces.  Good Catholic guilt.

Fr. Jan won a hearing with the Polish field commander, and no battles were fought in that region.  The Protestant Baron leading the rebellion, however, later arrested the future saint as a spy, mistakenly blaming him for the arrival of the Polish troops.  Jan was imprisoned.  They wanted him to renounce his Catholic faith and to break the seal of confession to give them secret information about the opposing leaders.  He was tortured, stretched on a rack, beaten, and set on fire, but he stayed faithful to his priestly duties until death.  Challenging an army with no weapon but the Eucharist and protecting the seal of confession even under weeks of torture, this is the courage that a mature faith gives us by casting out our self-centered fears.

Now in our Gospel we heard two examples, two stories of this great and mature faith.  Each story though separate parallels the other.  Both the woman and the girl are dead, one physically and the other spiritually.  At that time according to Mosaic Law a hemorrhaging woman was considered ritually impure.  And if you go to the book of Leviticus in the Old Testament you’ll find all the prescriptions, and laws, and directives that guided the life of the faithful Jew.  Leviticus lists what they could touch or not touch, what they could eat and not eat.  Now for this woman considered unclean anything she touched or sat upon also became unclean.  Any person she touched would become unclean.  She would’ve been shunned by her husband and all the people of her community.  She wasn’t even allowed to enter the Temple to worship.  So for twelve years she had been kept at a distance, kept at a distance from her family and her friends and from God.  She was a pariah who couldn’t participate in all the ordinary things of life.  I’m sure that on top of the physical suffering there was a tremendous amount of psychological and spiritual suffering.

Now this woman has been to many doctors and it’s only gotten worse.  But she’s heard of this healer named Jesus, the messiah maybe, and in her deep faith she reasons, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be healed.”   And so she touches Jesus, and in doing so, according to Mosaic Law she’s made him unclean.   And the crowd was very uncomfortable with this woman touching Jesus and when found out she approaches Jesus in fear and trembling.  She has done something very terrible; she’s broken the Law of Moses.  But a miracle has happened, Jesus isn’t made unclean the exact opposite has happened the woman is cured and made clean.  She is restored to life in her family and in the community.  She can worship again in the temple.

Now in the other story we hear of Jairus the synagogue official.  And he too exhibits a deep faith in Jesus’ ability to heal.  He would have been a prominent layman whose duties would have included oversight of synagogue activities and finances.  This man’s humble posture before Jesus, he fell at his feet, is remarkable in view of the fact that Jesus’ last visit to the synagogue ended with a plot to kill him.  Now Jesus, when he gets to the house of Jairus, does something forbidden by Mosaic Law he touches the dead girl’s hand.  This would have made him impure.  Only the immediate family could touch the dead body.  But his healing touch raises her to life.

Through these two miracles Jesus puts an end to the ritual code found in Leviticus.  He was not made unclean.  Contact with Jesus made the unclean clean.  The New Israel, the Church, is brought about through contact with him.  His touch brings life.  As we heard in the first reading, “God did not make death.”  It was the exact opposite he created us to have life, and to have life to the fullest with him.  When we kneel before the priest in the confessional and open our hearts to God’s mercy, we are like Jairus kneeling before Christ in Galilee.  When we touch the body and blood of Jesus under the appearance of bread and wind in the Eucharist, we are like the woman with hemorrhages.  In both instances Christ’s divine life flows into our wounded lives.  The same Jesus of the Gospels is still at work through the sacraments, still present and active in history, still healing, giving life, and strengthening those with faith.  And so we approach the sacraments with humble faith.

Let me end with a couple of questions. When we approach our Lord in the sacraments, do we approach him like one in the crowd we heard about in the Gospel who half-consciously jostles up against him preoccupied by many other thoughts?  Or, do we approach Him in the way of the afflicted woman or Jairus?   Because they are models for us in the way to approach Jesus.  While crowds of people were bumping into him as he walked along, the woman with hemorrhages and Jairus purposefully set out to meet him and to touch him.  They trusted his power.  They trusted his touch.  Their deep faith brought them into contact with Jesus and as a result they experienced dramatic healing.

God did not make death so with every sacrament we receive we receive divine life.  Let us ask always for healing let us ask always for life.  Where do I need healing?  Where do I need life?  How do I need healing?  How do I need life?  St. Jan Sarkander went to his death defending the great truth of the Eucharist and reconciliation, may we be like the kneeling Jairus and the afflicted woman approaching Jesus with faith trusting in his power and in his touch.

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

Today we remember the birth of John the Baptist, the greatest of all prophets.  It fell to him to point others to Jesus, to give his people knowledge of salvation. And I think that each and every one of us has a bit of the John the Baptist within us.  If we don’t, we should. Each of us should be pointing others, directing others to Jesus, both by words and example.  Priests direct their people to Jesus.  Parents point the way to Jesus for their children.  Husbands do this for their wives and wives do this for their husbands.  Brothers and sisters do this for each other and we do this for our friends.

Now all of us are familiar with the words of John the Baptist.  Like, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” If we have a bit of the John the Baptist within us, some of his characteristics, we too prepare the way of the Lord.  And we’ve all heard the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” We too behold the Lamb at every Mass.   And finally John the Baptist once said this about Jesus, “He must increase, I must decrease.”  With these simple words, he must increase, I must decrease, John the Baptist summarized our life as a Christian.

In all things we want Jesus to increase, we want him to increase in our hearts, in our prayers, in our families, in our parishes, in our places of work, in our studies, in our leisure, in our entertainment, and finally in our society.  We want Jesus and His ways to increase within our society.  At the time of Jesus and John the Baptist the king decreased the space for all the things of God.  The king did not want to hear the voice of religious truth; the king did not want to permit the preachers that freedom to preach.  John the Baptist did not give in.  He spoke the truth about the sanctity of marriage.  And for his fidelity King Herod had him imprisoned and beheaded.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States have declared a Fortnight for Freedom, asking Catholics to engage in a great hymn of prayer for our country.  The Bishops have asked us to look to the great saints of History whose courage we can emulate.  The fortnight began on June 21^st, the vigil of the Feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, who like John the Baptist were beheaded by a king who didn’t want them to speak the truth about the Church and the sacred bond of marriage.  During this coming week we celebrate the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who likewise were martyred by the Roman emperor for their preaching  of Jesus Christ.  The fortnight ends on July 4^th, the day when we celebrate our American liberty.

Our first, most cherished liberty as Americans is religious freedom.  It’s the first freedom listed in the First Amendment.  It’s the foundation of all our freedoms, and if Americans are not free in their consciences, in their religious faith, in their corporal works of mercy, then all freedoms are in jeopardy.  When the government commands us to do what God commands us not to do, then our long history of freedom is in grave danger.

Our Bishops have identified several attacks on religious liberty.  The mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services that all employers, including Catholic agencies, provide health insurance for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs, is a national assault on religious liberty without precedent in our history.  There are other worrying measures at the state and local level too, laws which prohibit the spiritual and charitable assistance given by the Church to undocumented immigrants.

When the government says that we must do what our faith forbids us to do, or when it says we cannot do what our faith mandates – then we too might be called to have the courage and the voice of John the Baptist.

Let us pray for religious freedom and let us be great witnesses for our faith.  This is no private matter.  In our lives who will increase?

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

Dear Friends,

With this parable of the mustard seed Jesus is helping his audience grasp the mystery and grandeur of God’s Kingdom.  And because the kingdom is a divine reality it can’t really be fully defined or contained in human explanations.  It can, however, be understood by using analogies, word pictures for our minds that help us to think and ponder and meditate at a deeper level.

For Jesus the thing of earth that is most suitable as an analogy to the kingdom is a tiny seed and Jesus emphasizes its smallness.  For the Jewish audience hearing this for the very first time, this would have come as a surprise.  For them a more predictable comparison would be a mighty army.   They expected their messiah to be a great earthly ruler commanding a large battalion of soldiers.

But no, the kingdom is like a mustard seed, “The smallest of all seeds on earth” the most insignificant of seeds.  But Jesus adds once sown, “It springs up and becomes the largest of plants.”  And in mentioning the large branches that shelter many birds Jesus is reminding us of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel who writes of a lofty tree that symbolizes an empire that gives protection to all people of all races and languages.

Early Christians saw in this parable of the mustard seed Jesus Christ himself.  Jesus crucified, a young man on a cross dying alone and mocked was the mustard seed.  But from this despicable low beginning, through the power of the resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit a great church was born that now reaches every continent with over a billion souls.  This growth is not due to human methods.  This growth is due to God’s hidden power.  Only with Him can we do it.  Jesus speaks with utter assurance of the future success of the Kingdom urging his disciples, urging every one of us, to persevere with hope and patience.

Now this parable of the mustard seed is repeated over and over and over again in the history of the Church.  We see it in the saints and their works and we see it in ourselves too. We see the mustard seed in St. Francis, one lone man considered crazy and deranged at first who, as we know, went on to found and form a world-wide order of both men and women.  We see the mustard seed again in Mother Theresa one lone sister going into the slums of Calcutta but emerging to form another world-wide order helping the poor in every major city of the world.  And in a last example we see the mustard seed in St. Charles Lwanga a Ugandan whose feast is celebrated on June 3^rd.

On June 3^rd, just two weeks ago 500,000 African Catholics came to the site of his martyrdom in Namugongo to celebrate his feast day.  St. Charles was a page to King Mwanga back in the 1880s.  King Mwanga was a violent ruler who demanded certain favors from the court pages and attendants.  As the oldest page Charles tried to protect the younger ones from the king’s advances.  This enraged the king he wanted nothing to do with Christianity.  He expelled the missionaries and at one point locked his royal household staff within the gates of the palace saying, “Those who do not pray stand by me, those who do pray stand over there.”  Those who prayed were martyred; Charles Lwanga was among this group.  The Christians were taken on a 37 mile trek to the place of execution at Namugongo.  Wrapped in reed mats the Christians were burned to death.  Charles endured the flames without complaint and the very last words to come out of his mouth were a long drawn out sigh of “Oh God.”  A century ago there were hardly any Catholics in Africa; today it is the fastest growing religion with over 400 million.  Through the grace of God the mustard seed grows.

Now we can see this mustard seed in us as well, both physically and spiritually.  Back in 1991 John Cardinal O’Connor of New York founded the Sisters of Life.  They are a religious community of nuns founded with the apostolate of protecting and enhancing the sacredness of all human life.  Part of their religious habit it a medal of our Lady and on the back of the medal is the inscription, “Nothing again would be casual or small.”  It is meant to be a reminder that all human life, no matter however seemingly small or insignificant in the eyes of others, is important.  The great beauty of the human person, created in the image of God, begins with the joining of just two microscopic cells, smaller even than the mustard seed.  And yet those two cells grow and develop to be the people we see all around us.  Through the love of God the seed grows.

We see this in our spiritual life as well.  Holiness is a process.  Sanctity doesn’t usually happen all at once.  But when we persist in the grace of the sacraments of reconciliation, the Eucharist every Sunday, and prayer and good works every day, there is growth, usually imperceptible to us.  God is always at work within us bringing his plan to completion.  “The seed would sprout and grow we know not how.”  My prayer for us today is that we never give up on God and His grace because He is always nurturing that seed within our soul.  Through the love of God the seed grows.

Peace and all good,

Fr. Christopher J. Ankley

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 or-der 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 riv-ers, 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 illumi-nates 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.

Dear Friends,
There once was a rich young man by the name of Alexis. He lived in Rome during the fourth or fifth century and he
lived at a time when it had just become legal to be a Catholic. People could finally practice the Christian faith out in the
open. Both of Alexis’ parents were devout Catholics and his father was a senator. Alexis’ parents taught him the faith and taught him to be especially charitable to the poor. When Alexis was a teenager, he decided that he wanted to give up everything, give up his wealth and give up his place of privilege in Roman society. He wanted to live a life of poverty and prayer, and he wanted to do this all for God, but his par-ents had other plans for him. They had arranged for him to marry a rich young woman. And because it was their will for him he went along with it. He really listened to his parents. Yet on his wedding day when he saw his bride for the first time, he had second thoughts, this woman was smart, loving, and beautiful, and she would be a great wife, but even so, he asked for her permission to leave her for God. She gave him the permission. So he left.
He made his way to Syria, where he lived the life of a beggar. Any money he received he first shared with the many poor people around him using only what was left over for himself. When he wasn’t begging he was praying in the various churches of the city. After living this way for several years people began to recognize him for his extraordinary holiness. People would come to him for advice and to ask for his prayers. They called him the living saint. And this made him very uncomfortable. So after seventeen years in Syria he made his way back to Rome and to his parents’ house. He came as a beggar to his own house where he’d grown up. His parents didn’t recognize him and so he started living under the stairs leading up to the front door. His parents allowed him to live there not knowing who he really was. And there he stayed spending his time begging for food, praying in the churches of Rome, and teaching the homeless about God. With his parents never realizing who he was, even though they passed him and looked at him every day as they went to and from their house.
Now the servants of that house were quite cruel to Alexis and though he could have ended all these sufferings just by telling his parents who he was, he chose to say nothing. Alexis lived this way for 17 years. It was a hard way of life. And one morning the servants found him dead under the stairs. But before burying him they went through his few possessions even going through the pockets of the jacket he was wearing. And in one of his pockets they found a note. The note explained to them who he was and how he had lived this life of penance and prayer from the day his wedding was supposed to take place until then, a total of thirty-four years. Writing that he did it all for the love of God. Praying and sacrificing for the people of God.
When Alexis’ mother came to look and to hold the dead body of her son she cried out, “My son, my Alexis, I have known you too late! You were there all the time and I never really saw you.” She was heartbroken. This was a good and charitable woman but she had seen her son every day for seventeen years yet she didn’t really see him. She had heard her son every day for seventeen years yet she didn’t really hear him. She had invited her son into her home yet she didn’t really invite him in. He got only as far as the space beneath the stairs. It was a superficial relationship. Alexis’ parents looked at their son every day for 17 years without ever seeing him. And then it was too late.
On this Feast of Corpus Christie, Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus we are reminded that at the end of our life our soul will see at last our Lord who we have possessed all along in the Eucharist. At that time will we say to our Lord using the same words as Alexis’ mom, “My Jesus, my Lord, I have known you too late! You were there all the time and I never really saw you!” After a lifetime of receiving the Eucharist did our soul really see who he or she was consuming?
In the middle ages people rarely received the Eucharist. They might receive on a special occasion or a milestone event in their life like an anniversary, but it was very rare for them to receive Holy Communion. And if they were not receiving the high point of the Mass for them were the two elevations. The elevation of the Sacred Host and the elevation of the Chalice of Precious Blood. Bells were rung to remind them of the importance of these two moments. At those moments their eyes were focused intently at the Eucharist. And in those moments they received Jesus into their soul through the sense of sight. They were taking in the Divine through the sense of sight. As poets will sometimes write, the eyes are the windows into the soul. That’s why we take care to keep custody of our eyes, guarding them against the profane and the impure. What we receive through the sense of sight really has an effect on our soul. That can be for good or for bad. But when we look at something that has true beauty, that true beauty has a way of lifting our soul to heaven. And so we look at beauty, we look at the Eucharist. Those people in the middle ages through the sense of sight were making a spiritual communion with Jesus.
Before ever tasting the Eucharist, we see the Eucharist and in faith we get a view of Heaven. To look upon the Eucharist is to practice Heaven, because in Heaven for all eternity we will look intently on our Lord. We won’t be golfing or playing cards in heaven, we’ll be adoring God. That’s why adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is so good for us. Its practice for Heaven. Even if it’s difficult for us sit there/kneel there, good things are still happening to our souls.
On this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ we remind ourselves that we should occupy ourselves with simply looking at him who is looking at us. Keeping him company, talking with him, praying to him, remembering what a privilege it is to be near him and to receive him into our very being. Let us always look with love upon the one who has known us and loved us from before all time.
Peace and all good,
Fr. Christopher J. Ankley
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ June 3, 20

A letter by St. Athanasius
Light, radiance and grace are in the Trinity and from the Trinity
It will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition, teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by the Lord, proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers. For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to lapse from it, he would no longer be a Christian either in fact or in name.
We acknowledge the Trinity, holy and perfect, to consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this Trinity there is no intrusion of any alien element or of anything from outside, nor is the Trinity a blend of creative and created being. It is a wholly creative and energizing reality, self-consistent and undivided in its active power, for the Father makes all things through the Word and in the Holy Spirit, and in this way the unity of the holy Trinity is preserved. Accordingly, in the Church, one God is preached, one God who is above all things and through all things and in all things. God is above all things as Father, for he is principle and source; he is through all things through the Word; and he is in all things in the Holy Spirit.
Writing to the Corinthians about spiritual matters, Paul traces all reality back to one God, the Father, saying: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of ser-vice but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in everyone.
Even the gifts that the Spirit dispenses to individuals are given by the Father through the Word. For all that belongs to the Father belongs also to the Son, and so the graces given by the Son in the Spirit are true gifts of the Father. Similarly, when the Spirit dwells in us, the Word who bestows the Spirit is in us too, and the Father is present in the Word. This is the meaning of the text: My Father and I will come to him and make our home with him. For where the light is, there also is the radiance; and where the radiance is, there too are its power and its resplendent grace.
This is also Paul’s teaching in his second letter to the Corinthians: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. For grace and the gift of the Trinity are given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Just as grace is given from the Father through the Son, so there could be no communication of the gift to us except in the Holy Spirit. But when we share in the Spirit, we possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Spirit himself.

Dear Friends,
Last week we remembered the Ascension, the day our Lord returned to Heaven but not before promising to send the Holy Spirit. And today on Pen-tecost we remember when the Apostles and Mary received the Holy Spirit as in tongues of fire. Now Saturday of this week is the Feast day of St. Philip Neri, he’s one of my favorites. For the collect of that Mass we will pray about the Holy Spirit as a holy fire. We will pray, “O God … gra-ciously grant that the Holy Spirit may kindle in us that fire which he wonderfully filled the heart of St. Philip Neri.”
Now some have called St. Philip Neri, Mr. Happy go Lucky. He had a great sense of humor, sometimes shaving off half of his beard. Or making some design in the stubble of his beard. He was eccentric but at the very same time he was also very holy and humble. He was a priest who lived in Rome during the 16th century. And the beginning of that century marked a very low point in our Church’s history. There was corruption, priests were not celebrating Mass or the sacraments, and people didn’t pray, or even know their faith. But Philip Neri helped to change that, through his joyous and holy example, he brought many back to the faith. And for that he’s been called the Second Apostle of Rome. St. Paul being the first.
There are many stories about St. Phil Neri. A certain bishop once visited Philip Neri for dinner. This Bishop was not the best example of Christian charity. And to help serve the meal Philip used the assistance of a monkey; however, the monkey was dressed to look just like the Bishop. The monkey wore a tiny miter on his head and carried a tiny crosier. I’m not sure the Bishop got the message. Philip’s penances given in the confes-sional were sometimes creative. Once a prideful young man came to him to confess, for penance the young man was made to carry a tiny dog wear-ing a big pink bow. The young man had to carry this dog all around Rome for a month. This is not something a young man would do at that time. It would have been a very humbling experience. Because of his joyful holiness many were attracted to St. Philip Neri. His room would always be filled with visitors seeking his advice, his prayers, and the sacraments, the sacrament of reconciliation especially. He brought people closer and closer to our Lord.
St. Philip Neri arranged spiritual talks, discussions and prayers for his penitents. He was also known for his pilgrimages. He would organize day long pilgrimages where he and his band of followers would visit the seven Basilicas of Rome where they would pray in each one of them. And in between the visits to the churches there would be parades, music, picnics and lots of laughter. Now because of his exuberant joy he became suspect, so he was investigated, the higher ups wondered “Why is this man so happy?” But nothing sinful was ever found, he exhibited true Christian joy, a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Some of Philip’s followers became priests and they came to live together in community. This was the beginning of the Oratory, the religious institute he founded, and still operating today. Philip’s advice was sought by many of the prominent figures of his day. He’s one of the most influential figures of the Counter-Reformation, mainly for converting to personal holiness many of the influential people within the Church itself.
As I said before, the collect, the opening prayer, for the Feast day of Philip Neri, speaks of the Holy Spirit. That prayer will ask God the Father in his love to kindle in us the fire of the Holy Spirit who so filled the heart of Philip Neri. This prayer refers to Philip’s personal Pentecost. As a young man Philip would walk to the catacombs every night and pray to the Holy Spirit. One night he felt a violent inrush of the Spirit and with this inrush he felt a tremendous heat and his heart began to beat wildly. From that time forward (for more than fifty years) any time Philip became lost in deep prayer his heart would beat wildly and loudly. So loud that those close to him could hear it. At his death they found that his heart was twice the size of a normal heart pushing two of his ribs outward. His enlarged heart, however, never affected his health.
Many times when we try to explain the Holy Spirit the words heat and fire are used as an explanation of the Spirit’s power. With the Holy Spirit St. Philip Neri felt a tremendous heat. In Luke’s gospel Jesus says, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kin-dled!” (Luke 12:49). Few words in the English language get our attention like “fire.” (People follow fire engines) If not stopped, fire will devour everything in its path. It’s relentless, the more it consumes, the more unstoppable it becomes. Fire breeds fire. It cannot be satisfied. As long as there is fuel and the conditions are right it will continue to burn. And this is the image that Jesus chooses to convey the nature of his love for us. “I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and would that is were already kindled.”
Now in the Old Testament Moses too spoke of this fire. Some of Moses’ final words to the Israelites were these: “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God!” (Deut 4:24). Jealous because God will not be content until we find our rest and satisfaction only in Him. Con-suming because he removes all that is sinful and unworthy in us. At Pentecost this divine fire touched the disciples. At baptism and confirmation this same fire touches us. And this fire of the Holy Spirit, like all fires, needs to be sustained. If it is to burn it needs to be sustained and it is the Eucharist that feeds this flame within our heart and soul. The Eucharist is the most perfect way to sustain the fire of the Holy Spirit. There are other ways, but the Eucharist is the most perfect.
For St. Philip Neri it was the Eucharist that was his joy. Sometime the Masses he celebrated would take up to four hours to complete. After the consecration he’d just stand there lost in thought at the great mystery before him on the altar. His altar boys learned to take a break at this point, they’d leave for a two hour coffee break, putting a “do not disturb” note on the chapel door. They’d come back after two hours to help finish the Mass. And at night he’d spend hours in prayer before the Tabernacle. The Blessed Sacrament fed the flame of the Holy Spirit within his heart. And the proof is his life where we see all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and joy, most especially joy.
Everything available to the saints and those first disciples at Pentecost is available to us. The Eucharist adored outside of Mass and received worthily at Mass will keep the flame of the Holy Spirit burning hot and bright within our Heart and Soul. Catholics should be the most joyful and spirit filled Christians around.
“O God … graciously grant that the Holy Spirit may kindle in us that fire which wonderfully filled the heart of St. Philip Neri.”
Pax et Bonum,
Fr. Christopher J. Ankley
Pentecost