Our Divine Mercy cookie cake

I had wanted to make a cake for Divine Mercy Sunday but since I didn't bake any cookies during lent, we all had a hankering for some so I made a cookie cake instead. Notice the Divine Mercy image behind the cake that our Polish priest gave us. I don't know Polish but at least I know what it says!

Divine Mercy Sundy-Deacon Joe's Homily

For those of you that know me, I do like to play a little golf.  I was drawn to the game because I think it’s simply miraculous that someone can hit a little ball into a hole that is 400+ yards away in 4 swings or less (on occasion anyway).  When I first took up the game a few years ago, I noticed something I thought was amazing.  All over the course, I would hear golfers shouting out to Jesus and God.  “What a religious group of people golfers are!” I said to myself.  When I returned to the clubhouse I remarked to the attendant how impressed I was with the all the “prayer” going on.  Imagine my disappointment as the attendant explained to me that it wasn’t exactly prayer happening out on the course.  It goes to show that things may not always be what they seem.

It can be said of today’s Gospel that things may not be what they seem.  St. Thomas or “Doubting Thomas” can be very misunderstood.  He may seem to us that he did not want to believe unless he definitively saw Jesus, that he was being relentlessly stubborn.  Let’s, however, take a look at St. Thomas in a different way.  Imagine if you woke up tomorrow morning and the first person you see tells you that the price of gas just went down to 10 cents a gallon.  What would your reaction be?  I know what mine would be, “You’ve got to be kidding!  That’s unbelievable!”  I’m guessing your reaction would be very similar.  That’s where St. Thomas was.  He loved Jesus so much that the news of the resurrection was so wonderful that it was too much for him to handle.  It wasn’t that he didn’t want to believe that Jesus had risen, it was more that the news was just too good to be true.  And that is seen in St. Thomas’ response once Jesus shows St. Thomas his wounds.  “My Lord and My God!”, St. Thomas exclaims.  What a beautiful response!  In that response, St. Thomas gives us an example of complete surrender and total faith in Jesus as the true Son of God and the Way to eternal life.  Imagine how Thomas felt from that point.  The One he loved so much, who he saw die on a cross, was alive and with him again!  He must’ve been overjoyed. 

St. Thomas leads us to the true Joy of Easter.  Rejoicing at the risen Lord.  The good news, as St. Thomas found out wasn’t too good to be true, was Jesus risen from the dead.  This is a fact!  This fact is what our faith is based on.  Jesus had indeed conquered all!  This isn’t just good news, this is great news.  This isn’t just great news, it’s wonderful news!  This isn’t just wonderful news, it is the best news of all!  We live!  We win!  What could be better than that?  10 cents a gallon for gas?  Not even close!

But do we really embrace the good news?  Are we living a life that shows our faith?  Are we living in the ways of our future life in heaven?

This is the challenge of the New Evangelization.  Vatican II was 50 years ago.  Vatican II opened the doors of the Church not so much for people to come in, but for the Church to go to others.  As Christians, as Catholics, to evangelize properly we need to be able to draw other to Jesus.  The only way we can draw them is to show them the true love, joy, and happiness of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Last Sunday, this Church was filled to (or beyond) capacity.  The ability to fill our Churches every week exists, but God is relying on us to show his true love to others.  And it starts with really believing the “good” news and expressing it from the inside out.  In the Holy Chrism Mass a week ago this past Thursday, our most wonderful Bishop, David Zubik, told a story in his homily that I’m going to borrow today, because it’s right to this point.  When he was a young seminarian, Bishop Zubik once had the opportunity of receiving advice from John Cardinal Wright (then Bishop of Pittsburgh in the late 60s).  Now Bishop Zubik, our young seminarian, was expecting to hear something very profound such as “tend the flock” or “Be a man of prayer” or something deeply theological.  However, Bishop Wright simply looked at him and said, “David, I have one word for you…smile”.   

Smiling of course, in this world can be a challenge.  This may come as a shock to you, but we are all different.  And we are all human, we all have imperfections.  What saddens me, and I believe Our Lord too, is that we don’t overcome our differences and live in His love.  I’m not a big Facebook user (this is probably why), and on the rare occasion I do log in, invariably, I’ll see someone posting something derogatory about some other person or group.  No doubt I could open the floor right now and engage debate about being a Republican or Democrat.  But, Jesus asks us to overcome our differences and live as one.  WE are the Church, WE are the Body of the resurrected Jesus.  WE need to seek the one truth of God and Our Lord Jesus Christ in order to become that one body.

I want to share a little segment of the “Catholicism” series that some here at our parish have been studying over the last 10 weeks or so.  Fr. Robert Barron, the series host, in one part discusses what happens to us after our death.  Fr. Barron discusses heaven “Eye has not seen, Ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love him.”  (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Conversely, Fr. Barron also discusses Hell.  Fr. Barron uses the vision of a big party, to which we’ve been invited, but instead of joining the party, we stubbornly sit in a corner and refuse to have any fun.  Realistically, we put ourselves in hell.  We put ourselves in hell by not giving of ourselves to work to overcome our differences.  We judge ourselves by rejecting God’s love and mercy.

Speaking of mercy, today is Divine Mercy Sunday.  The revelations to St. Faustina back in the 1930s, brought to light something that was really already going on in the Church.  St. Augustine (around 1500 years earlier) called the entire Octave of Easter “the days of mercy and pardon” and the 2^nd Sunday of Easter as “the compendium of the days of mercy.”  God’s love and mercy are really what Easter is all about.  Jesus took on our sins in the greatest act of love and mercy.

Through Divine Mercy we receive the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of God’s Love as we saw in the first part of our Gospel today, and then we can experience the truth and victory we hear of in the First Letter of John.  It is through Divine Mercy that Jesus gives us the sacraments of reconciliation and even more importantly the Eucharist where we can directly encounter the resurrected Jesus.

In our meeting the resurrected Jesus, if nothing else we know we can conquer our sins and we can conquer our death through the risen Lord.  This is the good or again I’ll say best news of all that should give us every reason to rejoice and be glad and want to share that gladness with others.  You can start sharing right now with a smile.  

Tuesday within the Octave of Easter

It was a blessed Easter Sunday that we had at our home. Tired from the Triduum liturgical schedule and the Easter preparations, we relaxed as best we could. Deacon Joe performed his 'parts' beautifully at the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral, Mass of the Lord's Supper, the Good Friday Passion for which he chanted, Easter Vigil for which he sang the Exsultet very well, and Mass Easter Sunday. No, I wasn't involved in those parts but attended those with children so that should count for something, especially sitting in the Cathedral for three hours with a three year old who found that if you kick the pew hard enough it echos throughout and makes a cool sound! I also listened to and helped the deacon for WEEKS (may have been months, whose counting) of chanting 'Exsult, let them exsult, the hosts of heaven" and the subsequent 5600 stanzas.

We enjoyed a quiet day at home preparing a meal. Our oldest children who worked arrived home in time for our feast as did a few of my relatives. We enjoyed our dinner and my first ever lamb cake.

Notice that it didn't droop. I made it with pound cake so it was sturdy. But I had to keep it in the refrigerator so the icing wouldn't fall off. Whoever would open the refrigerator was usually met with screams as a giant head greeted them. As of today, half a head is still in there and it's creepier than ever. Oh well maybe I'll eat it later as it's within the Octave of Easter and fasting is discouraged as we should be celebrating!

Happy Easter! Have some chocolate and celebrate.

Been a while...

Haven't posted in over a month. I've been trying to focus on an extended spiritual retreat. I just finished reading Consoling the Heart of Jesus for the second time. I read this book last Lent and felt transformed by it. As I started Lent by reading the Way of Perfection by St. Teresa of Avila, I continually felt that I was being called to reread Consoling the Heart again. Fifty pages into the Way of Perfection, I finally put it down and picked up Consoling the Heart. Once again, I feel transformed by what I've read. Based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and heavily influenced by St. Theresa's writings and detailing her Act of Merciful Love and St. Faustina's writings especially Divine Mercy, it makes it readable for the average lay person. For the second year in a row, I've come away with a not only uplifting experience but newfound insight into God's mercy.

We're looking at a busy Holy Week here. I've been helping Deacon Joe master his singing 'parts' for the Good Friday service and the Exsultet for the Easter Vigil. I have to admit that he surprised me how well he sings. I've known him for almost 27 years and yes, I've heard him sing, but not that much, and he's pretty good. I'm looking forward to hearing him on Holy Saturday evening when he sings his almost ten minute 'solo.' (Is that what I should call it?)

In the meantime, we have confession, track meets, clergy dinners, meetings, multiple jail visits, the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday at the Cathedral (which I'm supposed to take the little boys to, but I'm not sure how they will fare after several hours), Mass of the Lord's Supper, Good Friday Service, preparing for the Easter Vigil, then Easter day. I'll be looking forward to spending Easter home cooking a meal, that should be easy. I'm sure that my favorite deacon will be collapsed in a chair in front of the Masters next Sunday. Oh, and I am excited that my children will all be home for Easter dinner, although my two oldest have to work during the day. It's so rare that they are ever home for a weekend meal.

May your Holy Week be an opportunity to grow in faith!

Deacon Joe's Homily for Second Sunday of Lent

A woman dies and goes to Heaven. God tells her that she's not supposed to be there yet and He's sending her back to earth for 40 more years. Realizing that she was going to live for 40 more years she decided to get some 'enhancements: face lift, tummy tuck, liposuction, new nose, new hair color. She leaves the doctor's office after her surgeries, walks across the street and is promptly hit by a bus. 

When she gets to Heaven she asks God why she's back so soon and He responds, "oh, I didn't recognize you."

  

That story has two lessons in it.  One, we shouldn’t be vain about our outward appearance, God made us just fine the way we are.  And two, we need to be prepared, because we never do really know when Our Lord will call us home.  You could also say the story is about transfiguration, but in the complete opposite sense of our Gospel today, because instead of changing into what God wants us to be for His glory, that woman changed into what she wanted to be for her own glory. 

The woman in our story made a choice.  She chose to change her outward appearance, and move away from the natural beauty God had given her and make herself into something she was not.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to maintain a nice appearance, but the woman in this story goes to an extreme, as if how God made her wasn’t good enough.  God gives us all we need to be able to fulfill His plan for us.  Some are more beautiful than others, some are smarter than others, and some are more resourceful than others.  Who are we to question God’s plan?  However, God gives us freedom, freedom to be able to choose whether or not we want to live according to His plan or not, and what’s worse is that sometimes we even think we can alter God’s plan.

Let’s take a moment and talk a little more about freedom.  This is an important topic in our world right now, given the dynamics going on between government services and religious freedom.  (Comment).  Our culture defines freedom as doing whatever it is you’d like to do, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.  In its most fundamental form, freedom is choice.  But, what is it that you really want to do?  I’m not sure most people in our culture today know how to answer that question.  Is our deepest desire to live a life of doing nothing but pleasing ourselves?  Is that fulfilling?  I could bring up many, many examples of how pleasing ourselves only leaves us empty at the end.  The life of St. Augustine is testament to that, he really did try everything, (few are that bold).  Or deep down, in our souls, where the image of God lives, do we want to live with God as the center of our lives, and fulfill what He created us to be?  Just by being here, I believe all of you are answering yes to the 2^nd question.  You realize that our fulfillment and happiness lies in being able to do what God our creator asks of us, and not in pleasing ourselves.  This is real freedom.  The true definition of Freedom is to be able to be all God intended us to be.  “Freedom is not doing what we want, but doing what we ought” (to quote Blessed Pope John Paul II).  To say it in a slightly different way, our own desires enslave us, so true freedom is only found with God.  Without freedom, we cannot choose God, we cannot choose life or love.

One of the greatest examples of that true freedom is found in the story of Abraham.  Being the father of 5, there have been many, many times when I’ve had to fight the urge to kill one of my children (only kidding of course…).  In all seriousness, my children are a blessing, a true gift from God and I treasure them dearly, along with their Mother.  There is nothing more important to me in this world than my family.  Whether you are a parent or not, there is someone in this world that I am sure is or was very near and dear to you.  I know you, as I, would offer ourselves in their place if the threat of harm came to any of them.  I really wonder how any of us would do if we were faced with the same trial as Abraham.  Could we willingly sacrifice someone who is so precious to us?  The lesson here is that Abraham, freely acted in the trust of the one true God, and did not withhold his only Son from God, the Son who meant more to him than anything else in the world, as Isaac was Abraham’s future.  Abraham could’ve tried to make a deal with God, “OK, God, well Isaac, uh, I’d rather keep him, he is the Son you promised me and all, how about we go with 10 sheep and 2 lambs, or maybe some doves and a calf instead?”  No, without even questioning God’s command, Abraham, in love with God through his true freedom, was able to understand that God held the keys to his fulfillment and happiness and trusted everything to Him.

St. Paul reinforces this lesson in his letter to the Romans.  St. Paul demonstrates to us that the story of Abraham was really a typology (or foreshadowing) of God giving up His most precious Son for our sake.  In true love and freedom, God does not keep anything from us as through the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we share entirely in the Heavenly Kingdom right here and now.  And if we have God, what else do we need?

The culmination of freedom is found in the Transfiguration.  God calls us all to be transfigured.  Our freedom to choose is the basis for our transfiguration.  Transfiguration is really what Lent is all about.  Lent is the time for us to be honest with ourselves about who we are, how we are living, what is enslaving us and preventing from experiencing God’s love in true freedom, and how we need to change (to be transfigured) in order for us to say yes to God’s plan and become whole, become Holy.  God reveals Jesus’ future glory, in fact OUR future glory in God, through the Transfiguration, a vision of heaven and how beautiful we can become.  Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah, the Law (Moses) and the prophets (Elijah) to show that all things are fulfilled in Jesus.  But, Jesus also gives the Transfigured vision to the disciples so that they can peer into the future.  It is that vision that is supposed to carry the disciples through the immense suffering of the passion.  In the same way, Jesus gives us the Transfigured vision to carry us through our most difficult times.  Regardless of what happens here on earth, we can look to our eventual victory and glorified life in God in the Transfiguration.  God speaks in the Transfiguration saying that “This is my beloved Son”, which we recall from Jesus’ baptism, meaning that when we’re transfigured to our Heavenly form, we complete the action our baptism has begun.  God also tells us to “Listen to Him” because Jesus has the words of everlasting life and hope.  If we can trust in God completely, we will allow Him to transfigure us into the wonderful creature we were intended to be from the inside out.  If we trust God completely we can see through the world’s definition of freedom and know peace and fulfillment in our daily lives by our living in God’s freedom.  As we come forward together to the table of the Eucharist in a few minutes, I ask you to reflect and be thankful for the freedom we have to come and worship together and the freedom we have to be able to receive the Body and Blood of Our Lord together.  And as you receive Our Lord today, open your heart and let Jesus in to transfigure you into what God created you to be where you will find true freedom, happiness, peace, joy, and fulfillment. 

Life as a deacon's wife (so far)

It's been almost eight months since my husband's ordination and while I think that it will be several years before I feel comfortable assessing what life is truly like as a spouse of a deacon, I've gained at least a partial perspective of what it's like being the significant other to a clergyman.

What I have been most surprised about is how well Deacon Joe has adapted to his role as a deacon. By that I don't mean that we have mastered scheduling. I don't think that will occur until sometime around the time of our three year old child's graduation...from college. But what I mean is how it seems that his gifts have matched almost perfectly with his assignment.

I always felt that Deacon Joe would be great working in men's ministry. Never during formation did he get the impression that he would end up in prison ministry, but that's where he is and it's been going extremely well. The men there really want to reform their lives and feel that someone cares about therm. His ministry is sparking interest within our own parish and community to serve the needs of those imprisoned. He also seems to be doing pretty well within the parish. He has a voice made for speaking and I can't count the number of times that someone has said that they like his voice or thought that his homilies were insightful.

We had gone through a rough patch for several months before his ordination because his job was eliminated. Wondering if he should proceed with ordination, he discussed it with his formation adviser and knew that the job setback would be minor. In fact, a month after ordination he found a new job for slightly less pay with very little travel and more fulfilling work. Amazing how it seems that everything in his life led up to this point in his life.

So what about me? This has been a major transition time for me. I think that the job insecurity stressed me and the uncertainty of what would happen jobwise and where he would be assigned weighed on me so much that when the dust cleared and everything was in place, I found myself numb. Coupling that with reigning back on my commitments so that my husband could focus on his ministry and picking up most of the domestic responsibilities, I felt like a new mother stuck at home with an infant thinking "what am I supposed to do?" Maybe the analogy isn't the greatest, but I'm not sure how to explain it. For many deacon's wives, they are older and their lives aren't marked by the daily demands of young children. I'm certainly not complaining, I believe that our family is giving witness to living out our faith but it has been a challenge to meet the demands of his diaconate ministry when older children need a car to get to work, I am begged to substitute teach a CCD class and someone needs to watch the little children at the same time.

So do I think more is expected of me now? Yes, but only that I give up my husband more. He's asked to attend more gatherings, meetings, and functions, and well, someone has to be home with the little ones so that falls on me. Once again, I'm not complaining, if anything his ministry actually seems less of a commitment than I expected. But sometimes I worry that my older children get stuck babysitting too much when I'm expected to also attend but so far they've been wonderful especially my 14 year old 'go to' babysitter. My children have remarked that they are often called the 'deacon's kids' and seem to be expected to know all the answers of a religious nature. I don't think that's a bad thing, it's allowed us to dialogue about a lot of subjects. Of course, as I've told my children, being the deacon's kids mean that they are being held to a higher standard. I have to tell myself the same thing all the time when someone cuts me off in traffic or I find myself about to yell at my boys in the grocery store. Chances are that someone there knows that I'm the deacon's wife and boy would I hate to hear someone say, 'did you hear what the deacon's wife said?!"

Which brings me to one last thing that I'm trying to get used to: people knowing me because of my husband but me not knowing them. They may not know my name, but they know who I am. I was a competition baton twirler in high school and back then I loved the limelight. I parlayed that into a career in public relations where I felt very comfortable speaking in front of people. But I admit that I'm not used to the attention that we receive within the parish. I really would rather blend into the background, I guess that's why where the children and I used to sit in the front of the church, now we sit close to the back.

So as I navigate through this unchartered area, I have a more heightened awareness of protestant minister's wives and what they go through. This is my husband's ministry, but it's mine too because I live it everyday. As time goes by, I hope that I can write more about my experiences. Although in the rest of the world, the average age of a deacon is significantly lower than in the United States, I think that in the future, we'll see younger deacons here and as a result younger and very probably larger families who have very different needs when there are young children involved.

So I look forward to sharing some of those experiences, but not now, Deacon Joe needs the computer to write a homily.

Emptying ourselves of the temporal

"My heart is restless until it rests in You"

-St. Augustine

The science community has done studies that shows that humans are "hard-wired' to believe in God'. While within that community, it can become an excuse to try to understand people's need for faith, I think that it speaks volumes about what humans have already known for thousands of years.

The fact is that we may be 'hard-wired' to need God, but certainly that is the way that we were created. God did put a longing in our hearts for Him that we won't fully understand in this lifetime. But in His love, he has also given us glimpses of that love by allowing us the ability to love others because we are made in His image. It is in that love of others that we can have a partial understanding of the love and unity that we desire in this lifetime.

Unfortunately so many of us have made either a conscious or unconscious decision to turn away from God and remain restless because in our yearning for God, we replace Him for something else. St. Thomas Aquinas said that there are four substitutes that humans turn to for fulfillment: wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. While in the short-term, these substitutes can be fulfilling, ultimately they are only substitutes for what we really long for. Eventually we will become unfulfilled with them and seek more of them to try to fulfill our restless hearts. Like a drug, these things promise great things, but only deliver an addiction that will never make us happy.

When we turn to God to fill our hearts, then these substitutes will have no power over us. While we may have those things in our lives, they will be used to give glory to God and we will recognize what they are. 

Our culture has propped these substitutes us and made them more important than anything else and certainly they can provide us with comfort and pleasure, but they are not infinite and will only last a short time. If we always put ourselves first above everything else, we will never be happy. But if we can detach ourselves from these things then we will be able to see God's will for us in life and will experience lasting peace. 

As we approach Lent, may we be able to empty ourselves of those things that hold us back from that loving union with God.