Come Lord Jesus Come

Peace be with you all.  Today, December 1, 2013 marks the beginning of a new year.  Maybe not of the calendar year, but of the liturgical year that our Catholic Church follows.  We begin the new season of Advent, a time to prepare our homes and our hearts to receive our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes as He comes always at Christmas.  It is also to help us prepare for the time when He comes again for the second coming, when all will be brought to salvation in His great glory.  It's nice to have all the wreaths, the candles, the cookies, and the festivities, but if we don't prepare for Christ during this season, what do we truly have?  This Sunday's readings remind us of this season of preparation.  "You know not the time nor day that He comes, so always be ready."  This phrase from the Gospel sums up these next three and a half weeks.  Preparation for the King of Kings.  As we prepare, it's not for our glory that all we do reflects upon.  It is for the Lord, and for the Lord alone that we focus our efforts so that we, though not knowing the time nor the day when He will come, we will always be ready for our Lord and our God.  

The Andrew Dinner

“Andrew sought out Peter . . . and brought him to Jesus.” (John 2: 41-42)

Andrew Project is an opportunity for priests to invite young men ages 14-35 to consider the call to follow Jesus as priests. The program includes an evening of prayer, sharing a meal together, and interacting with Cardinal DiNardo and other priests.

A few days ago, on October 11, 2013, I visited St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, Texas (The Theology School of the University of St. Thomas) because I was invited to the Andrew Dinner to consider the holy life as a possible vocation in the future.  The night consisted of eating a dinner in the holy presence of His Eminence Cardinal DiNardo and other priests and deacons of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, listening to each individual priest or deacon's story of the path to God's call, and adoration time to begin the process of discerning God's call.  What I gathered from the evening is that in each person's lives, we are called to service to God and His People.  A hint of this is the reason why Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony are Sacraments at the Service of Communion.  The Communion in that phrase is not just Holy Communion of God's flesh and blood given to the Church, but an eternal covenant between man and God to serve forever.  In Matrimony, a man and woman promise to God to be open to children in the process of procreation as husband and wife and to raise those children  to serve God.  In Holy Orders, a man is promising his whole life to serving God and His People.  Both of these sacraments are in communion with God's Word & Will.  Then there is also the simple life of a brother or a sister in which vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are taken to ensure simple service to God and His Will.  And then there is even just single life eternally which God looks upon in favor too.  All of these require service in some form, but service nevertheless.  

St. Lorenzo Ruiz & Companions Feast Day: 25th Sunday In Ordinary Time

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Lorenzo Ruiz & Companions.  He was the first canonized Filipino Saint of the Catholic Church, and he was a religious man who died for his faith in Japan.  Starting as a son of a Filipino mother, and Chinese father in 1600, he was an altar boy and devout Catholic from the start.  He learned Tagalog (Filipino Language), Chinese, & Spanish growing up with parents and Spanish Dominicans. He became a husband and father, living a good life until he was accused of murder.  He then sought asylum with Dominican priests who were traveling to Okinawa, Japan.  There, they were caught by Japanese pagans, and arrested for the faith.  They were then executed through torture and beheading, but died for the faith, inspiring more faith in that region of the world at the time.  Blessed Pope John Paul II canonized St. Lorenzo Ruiz as the first Filipino saint, along with his companion priests Antonio Gonzalez, Guillermo Courtet, and Miguel de Aozarza, Vicente Shiwozuka de la Cruz, and another layman Lazaro.  In this Sunday's Gospel, we read that Jesus teaches his disciples that in order to serve God in the correct manner, we must serve him wholeheartedly, and no other idols.  We cannot be the servant who serves two masters, as we will come to hate one and devote ourselves to one in the end anyways.  We have to try to devote ourselves to the true and correct master, the God Most High.  He is the one who loves us for all of time, and will give us true happiness, life, and love.  No other masters, both literally and figuratively can give us eternal happiness.  Sure, we can receive temporary happiness from certain things, but God gives us true happiness through love.

Vocations-"Come & Follow Me"

This weekend at mass, we learned that there is no such thing as excuses for someone who wants to follow Christ.  In the 1st reading from the Book of Kings, we heard that Elijah was sent to call Elisha to serve God as a prophet.  Elisha didn't want to leave, so he made the excuse that he must first, "say farewell to his family."  In the Responsorial Psalm, "You are my inheritance, O Lord," we learned that the true, correct mentality that we should have of having the Lord as our first and most important priority over everything else.  Then, in St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, we heard the witness to Christ's Body & Blood as true satisfaction at last in a world where satisfaction in little and big things is rarely found.  Finally, in Luke's Gospel, we learned from true, physical example that when Christ calls us to follow him to immediately follow Him without hesitation, at least for those who want to keep their reservation of a place in Heaven by the Lord's side.  Even though we say this, we also in modern society want to closely examine our vocation before we choose it, and look at all possible positives and negatives before making a decision.  This also applies to all of our day to day choices.  "As Christ said, 'Give me a drink,' it was the love of His poor creatures that He, the Creator of all things, desired."  No matter what choices we make, or what path we take, the Lord will always be there, and love us.  

The Body of Christ: A Diverse, Yet Beautiful Worship

The Lord be with you readers!  This is a blog created for Electronic Bloggers and readers who are also Catholic or are interested in the Catholic faith.  The topic I would like to open with is a common misconception about the Catholic Church.  The stereotype goes as the following:  If you do not do what God or the Church commands, you go to hell, and that's that.  What the truth is, is that we, as a Catholic people, are nothing like that.  One of the things we teach that we quote from Our Lord Jesus Christ is that, "God did not send his Only Son, the Messiah, down to earth to condemn all its people, but rather to save them."  Each person, I believe as a strong Catholic has their own unique relationship with God, therefore also having their own style of worship and conversation.  There is no particular way to pray or worship, but rather, a specific type that can only be found in each individual.  What the Church is made up of is a force of imperfect sinners, but through the mystery of the Holy Eucharist is transformed into the Body of Christ.  The Catholic Church is not a harsh or strict force that commands you to worship very precisely in a specific manner, but a force of modern day shepherds present to guide us, as the sheep, to the True Lord God Almighty, and help our relationships grow closer to Him.  A thing I was taught through personal experience in a very fast manner is that prayer is not just rambling endlessly in the darkness to air, but rather, a simple prayer that acts as a conversation.  It has been quoted in Holy Scripture that, "You are to pray simple and from the heart, as Your Lord In Heaven knows already what you need and what you seek."  If we apply this to true life, we are not to just talk to ourselves in a long spiel of meaningless words, but rather pray to the Lord, and open our hearts, minds, and spirits for a response.  We are not alone, and there is a God.  If you say otherwise, I say very respectively, I beg to differ.