“You say, ‘the Lord’s way is not fair!’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?” I know that sometimes you too might want to speak thus to me. “Your ways are not fair!” Whether it be Catechism, or the altar servers. Maybe it is the incense or the amount of English or Spanish that is used. Sometimes it is because of the volunteers that we have in charge of different things; because we would rather do it, or we think we could do a better job. Like our reflection last week on comparisons (the devil’s favorite temptation), likewise this week God is inviting us to reflect upon “whose ways are unfair” and to try to give him not only our yes but our labor as well.

I really appreciate, in all honesty, when you bring to my attention things that are not working well, that you are struggling with, or that you would like to see changed. Sometimes it can be hurtful, or saddening, sure; but I always appreciate when one of my flock, when one of my sons or daughters has the confidence in my love and care to bring things to my attention! Yet, far too often, we carry biases or hurts and we do not approach one another with the benefit of the doubt or with charity. I can’t expect everyone to think I’m wonderful or perfectly wise – if even God is accused of being “unfair” how much more so must I be, since I am actually often unfair! Yet, like in our comparisons, or like this charge to God or to our pastor’s, we often risk pointing out “the splinter in our neighbors eye while ignoring the beam in our own.” Is it unfair for me to ask of you what you are asking of your child in attending catechism classes? Is it unfair of me to invite you as parents to be the “primary educators” of your children when you are asking me to teach them the faith? Is it unfair to give boys a space for their ministry on the altar when we have no vocations and when men are leaving the church in droves? Is it unfair to have a few volunteers when no one else is willing to make the commitments to serve?

St. Paul today reminds us, when we want to complain that “God’s ways are not fair,” that it is in a way true! His ways are more generous than fair, for He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave… becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” It is us who are not fair. Who do not say “yes” to God when He asks something of us, or who, saying “yes” then fail to fulfill it or love Him as we ought. He went beyond what was fair and has offered us everything. Even the law is a gift of His generosity, not merely something we have to do to be fair to Him, but what we need to be happy. Even though I am not yet like Christ. Even though I am not yet as generous, patient, wise, or graceful, I promise it is my desire and my intent. I too am emptying myself for you – there is no other reason to be a priest, especially not today. I invite you this week, not only to “remember the mercies of the Lord,” but to ask if our ways are fair. Is there more that we should be offering to the Lord? Has He asked something of us? Let us be moved today to gratitude because though it would be fair for God to abandon us in our wickedness, He instead gives us His very self in Holy Communion.
 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his
vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.”
Though still far from the perfection of heaven, I desire our parish to be “like the kingdom of
heaven,” to model what the Church Herself is for us here below. Though I am eager for this
vocation retreat that has me in Ruidoso this weekend, I am sad to not be with you all this
weekend as we hear this Gospel proclaimed with the universal Church.
Like “the landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers,” we went out inviting families to
catechism classes, we go out inviting you to participate in the life of the parish, as minister’s or
as disciples in prayer, and we agree on a certain “wage.” We know what we are signing up for,
what the expectations are, what “it means to ask for catechism or for confirmation” like we
note in our contracts at the beginning of the year. Yet so often, we then turn around and look,
not after what we have agreed too, not what we are receiving or what we are offering, but at
one another! It’s a common trick of the Enemy, to lead us to comparison, and it happens far too
often in our parishes and communities.
How much might we wish that we might be free from these needless comparison’s, that we
might live like St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians seeking only that “Christ be
magnified in my body, whether by life or by death..” If we were not so tied to this world, to
counting our coins or our minutes, or even counting the coins or minutes of our neighbor, but
only counted Christ to such an extent that we too could say: “for to me life is Christ, and death
is gain.” It’s not an easy standard to live by, to be sure, and it is also easy for me to give in to the
temptation of simply nursing my wounds and seeking consolations and joys here in this life. Yet,
“His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways, says the Lord.” So he invites us
(scoundrels as we are seeking after ourselves more than for others), to “forsake our way, our
wicked thoughts, and turn to the Lord for mercy.”
You and I are here at the invitation of the Savior. You are reading this bulletin, you are at our
Mass, you are in this church because you have been invited by Jesus to follow after Him. That
means leaving behind our earthly/natural thoughts and desires, and seeking the
heavenly/supernatural thoughts and desires of the Christ who we are trying to follow. He has
already told us our wage and our work. He promises Eternal Life, but He also promises a share
in His Cross, in His sufferings, in His passion… in His death. There is no other vineyard, there is
no other wage! It is why my only goal in catechism, in Mass, in Confession, in conversations
with those who desire more, is as St. Paul put it: that you “conduct yourselves in a way worthy
of the Gospel of Christ.” You see, the rest of it is secondary. The rest of it really is tiresome. If
we seek only for Christ to be magnified, we don’t need to ask questions about “how much can I
get away with?” Or, “how little can I do and still receive the sacrament?” We won’t care that,
“his mom hasn’t shown up for weeks but I am sacrificing a lot to be here.” For to us, life is Christ
and death is gain, we know what lies before us and what we must do, His Gospel is clear. Let us
pick up our crosses, let us follow Christ, let us not begrudge His generosity, but receive instead
of His generous mercy.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his
vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.”
Though still far from the perfection of heaven, I desire our parish to be “like the kingdom of
heaven,” to model what the Church Herself is for us here below. Though I am eager for this
vocation retreat that has me in Ruidoso this weekend, I am sad to not be with you all this
weekend as we hear this Gospel proclaimed with the universal Church.
Like “the landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers,” we went out inviting families to
catechism classes, we go out inviting you to participate in the life of the parish, as minister’s or
as disciples in prayer, and we agree on a certain “wage.” We know what we are signing up for,
what the expectations are, what “it means to ask for catechism or for confirmation” like we
note in our contracts at the beginning of the year. Yet so often, we then turn around and look,
not after what we have agreed too, not what we are receiving or what we are offering, but at
one another! It’s a common trick of the Enemy, to lead us to comparison, and it happens far too
often in our parishes and communities.
How much might we wish that we might be free from these needless comparison’s, that we
might live like St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians seeking only that “Christ be
magnified in my body, whether by life or by death..” If we were not so tied to this world, to
counting our coins or our minutes, or even counting the coins or minutes of our neighbor, but
only counted Christ to such an extent that we too could say: “for to me life is Christ, and death
is gain.” It’s not an easy standard to live by, to be sure, and it is also easy for me to give in to the
temptation of simply nursing my wounds and seeking consolations and joys here in this life. Yet,
“His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways, says the Lord.” So he invites us
(scoundrels as we are seeking after ourselves more than for others), to “forsake our way, our
wicked thoughts, and turn to the Lord for mercy.”
You and I are here at the invitation of the Savior. You are reading this bulletin, you are at our
Mass, you are in this church because you have been invited by Jesus to follow after Him. That
means leaving behind our earthly/natural thoughts and desires, and seeking the
heavenly/supernatural thoughts and desires of the Christ who we are trying to follow. He has
already told us our wage and our work. He promises Eternal Life, but He also promises a share
in His Cross, in His sufferings, in His passion… in His death. There is no other vineyard, there is
no other wage! It is why my only goal in catechism, in Mass, in Confession, in conversations
with those who desire more, is as St. Paul put it: that you “conduct yourselves in a way worthy
of the Gospel of Christ.” You see, the rest of it is secondary. The rest of it really is tiresome. If
we seek only for Christ to be magnified, we don’t need to ask questions about “how much can I
get away with?” Or, “how little can I do and still receive the sacrament?” We won’t care that,
“his mom hasn’t shown up for weeks but I am sacrificing a lot to be here.” For to us, life is Christ
and death is gain, we know what lies before us and what we must do, His Gospel is clear. Let us
pick up our crosses, let us follow Christ, let us not begrudge His generosity, but receive instead
of His generous mercy.

 

“Remember your last days, remember death and decay, and cease from sin!” This first reading can seem a bit macabre for most, but not only is it incredibly Catholic, it is part and parcel with the great clemency that God invites us into in the Gospel today! St. Paul beautifully bridges the two, reminding us that though our free will might give us an improper illusion, we are not an island, we do not live merely for ourselves! “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord, so whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” While so many in our modern world want to “do whatever makes you happy,” or “just do you,” everything we do involves God – because we are His, His creation, His children, His people. This reminder doesn’t stop there, though, because we will be His after we die as well. If we live according to His will on earth, we will live with Him forwever in Heaven, and we will find our most perfect joy! But if we live our life here below rejecting Him, we will spend eternity separated from Him and so eternally separated from our Joy and Life – an eternity of suffering without God. Truly, both in this life and in the next, our most fundamental identities are God’s.

 

Let us hear in today’s Gospel then an invitation to think of heaven. Let us lift our hearts to that Kingdom “likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with His servants,” and so be filled with hope in the great clemency of God. We on our own, will nourish wrath and anger, we will hold tightly to our resentments and to our bitterness, we cannot give what we do not have! But, God offers us pardon first, He calls us to Himself to settle the account, and although we could never repay the offenses we have done (because when we sin against the infinite God, we carry an infinite debt), He free’s us of guilt, of suffering, of pain. He did not first ask if we are forgiving, or if we are generous, He did so without hesitation or question! His disappointment came when the servant, having received the fullness of grace, could not then share it with another. You and I, we cannot share if we have not received. We cannot give, if we do not have! This is one of the reasons I must return so often to the Confessional myself, because without receiving mercy, I am not very merciful. The more I look up to the Father who forgives, the more I experience that forgiveness, the more I see His patience towards me, the better I am able to give that to you – to my family, even to myself. God is waiting to give you the fullness of life. His arms are still open on the cross pouring out Blood and Water for your restoration. Don’t forget that He is waiting for you in the Confessional, He wants you to come over and over again so that receiving you might be able to give. We are not here because we are perfect, but because we don’t want to choose our sinfulness and our wrath. We don’t want to choose an eternity without God. We choose conversion, repentance, we choose forgiveness and grace. And we choose to let Him begin to forgive in us. Confessions are Tues-Thur at 5pm, Saturdays at 4pm and any other time you would like. Come and receive. 

Beloved,

With such beautiful readings (with so many different messages) I want to thank you today for the way in which you have sought to fulfill what St. Paul exhorts us to in our second reading, the way that many of your have “love[d] your neighbor as yourself”. It was a gift for our community to share in the life and ministry of Fr. Ricardo, and many of your really showed him the love of a Christian Community. Thank you especially to all of you who gave him financial support, and those who opened your homes to him – he was moved, and so am I. You showed that same generosity of spirit for the Chile Festival, and it is incredible to report that we raised $12,000 with a few donations and all of your hard work! This is almost a whole month of Sunday Collections, and is a large help for our community. I know that a few of you really carry the brunt of the work, others with donations, but I know that this witness is a real testament to the whole community, and God willing, it can help each of us desire to offer more of ourselves to the One who has offered everything for us.

As we begin a new year of catechism I know it is going to become more and more obvious to us that we are in need of more space here in Hatch. This is partly why we have made our Saturday Vigil Mass at 5:30pm Bilingual (fulfilling the Sunday obligation), but it is also why we are trying to do work on our sacristies, and hoping to expand the space inside of our little church. I know we are still in need of classrooms, and I am working with some architects who though they have been incredibly slow, have offered their work so far free of charge and are helping us brainstorm about what is possible and what is needed. With Catechism on different nights of the week we are “making it work” for now, and I hope that you can see more progress in our church while we work towards plans for the classrooms.

Know of my fervent prayers for our students and families this year for catechism, and my depe love for all of you gathered here!

God bless,
Fr. Ivan
 

“Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam… et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum." This is what is written around the inside of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, in mosaic letters that are 6’7” in height and proclaiming solemnly what was proclaimed in our Gospel passage today:  "You are Peter (‘rocky’) and on this rock I will build my Church, to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven."
 
It’s a remarkable feeling, being inside that magnificent basilica, the largest Church in Christendom, with a dome that stands at 450ft (160ft taller than the US Capital and 145ft taller than the Statue of Liberty), covering an area of 5 acres, and fitting about 60,000 people inside. This historic Church is not only massive, but it is also one of the most beautiful works of art in the world today, and more importantly it is sacramental (a visible sign of an invisible reality). Indeed, if you stand at the center of the large dome, looking up at those incredible gold mosaic letters, as you read again Christ’s promise to Peter, one realizes that the metaphor and prophecy have become a literal fact. Peter, the Vicar of Christ on earth, the cornerstone upon which his Church is founded is also the literal foundation of the Basilica of St. Peter’s – the central church for the Universal Church of Christ. Standing at the center of the dome would not only place you upon the principal altar, but it would place you directly above the tomb of St. Peter and the bones that remain of him there. This basilica, built 500 years ago, was built directly atop where St. Peter was laid to rest after his crucifixion and death. Even though they no longer knew exactly where the bones were at rest, the Lord guided all things for the fulfillment of His law.
 
I do hope that a number of you can one day visit Rome, and one day that we can visit together! It helps come alive what God is promising in the Gospel today, and it helps confirm in us the trust and confidence that Christ has been speaking of these last two weeks. When we see his promises take on flesh in the world, it helps them take flesh in our heart. It is what allows us to confide in the Pope and the Church. Over the last two weeks, He has given us the confidence to walk out upon the waters of the world towards Him, the confidence to ask for help like the Canaanite woman, and now He now shows us that we might have this same confidence in His Church! We all know many people who have abandoned the Church, many who attack Her and the doctrines She teaches, but even when we don’t understand the theology, even when we don’t know the truth, we can trust in Her like we can trust in Christ. We can try to understand, we can study and learn, but most of all we can trust in Him and His goodness.
 

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Today we have one of the more difficult Gospel readings for those who hold a saccharine view of the Savior. We find an image of the Christ that doesn’t show “kindness” and “tolerance” or the many other supposed virtues that our society holds as of greatest value in our world today. The creed of “not causing offense” is not one that we find originating in our Lord, and the Gospel today announces that reality with great force – especially for those who view the Savior like the world would attempt to view Him. Our Lord even goes further than this “divisive” language and tells the woman who begs Him help that it “is not right to take the food of the children [to] throw it to the dogs.” Can you imagine the response a Christian would get today at such a remark? Just this past week a sitting US Representative in Ohio created controversy after he told a Christian woman that she must delete her “tweet” because in it she said that “There is no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.”  This small statement, this central belief of all Christians for the history of our faith was attacked by a few sitting Representatives for being “bigoted,” “divisive,” and “hateful;” even though Christ Himself said: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through me.”

If Christ would be mocked and reviled for truthfully claiming that He is the only means of being saved, what would the modern world make of His statements today that seem so much more difficult to understand? Indeed Christ has come to redeem us, to offer Himself for the salvation of all – to bring God’s Son’s and Daughter’s into their Eternal Inheritance. But who are His Son’s and Daughter’s? Who has been adopted into the Father’s House? The baptized and those who keep His commandments. Christ was not telling the Canaanite Woman that she could not receive grace, nor that He did not come for her, He was telling her that in order to receive His grace, she must be a child of God, a daughter of Israel. Indeed salvation and healing were open to her and her daughter the entire time, but she first had to make that Act of Faith, to submit to Him as Lord, to confess her need of the Savior. This is how the Sacraments work, how the Church works, how I try to work. I was sent here for you, for those of you who are here weekly trying to live out your faith, even if imperfectly.  I was not sent here to take care of the soul that refuses to believe but rather attacks the Church and her minister’s daily. This Church, my care, and the sacraments are open to everyone, but they are open to everyone who will humble themselves before God and His Church. It is why I go to confession so often myself – to humble myself and to be able to receive the scraps of grace that He might give me, to open myself to Him and receive.

Our Lord was not worried He might offend us, He was worried that we would not realize our pitiable state and our need for Him. He was not worried we would feel hurt, He was worried that without some hurt we would not long to be Children of the Most High! He was not worried that we would take insult in being called dogs, but He was worried that never recognizing the fleas on our back we would not seek to be washed in the waters of Baptism. What is it that worries us?
 

“Brothers and Sisters: we know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” These words proclaimed in every Roman Catholic Church today throughout the world give me strength and fill me with joy even when apart from you all. By the time of your reading this letter I will be either 40,000ft in the air (for those at the vigil Mass), or I will be in Madrid waiting for a flight to Porto with 98 other pilgrims from our diocese. In truth, I am really excited to experience my first World Youth Day, and I marvel at what God is doing because I was rather obstinate in my distaste for attending WYD. Living in Rome for four years meant I have had plenty of opportunities to attend Papal Masses, and while that is truly a gift, these Masses are also difficult for anyone who loves the Eucharist. At some of the canonization Masses I attended there were easily 50,000 people crowded into the plaza of St. Peter’s for the Mass, but more than half of those present were simply on their phones, many other’s in loud conversations, and the focus on Christ seemingly lost. We all know how easy it is to get distracted at Mass here in our little church by babies or cell phones or our calendar for the week? Well now you have a crowd of 50,000 to distract you! To be honest my heart would often break seeing the unworthy reception of Holy Communion and the disrespect for the Holy Sacrifice in those large papal Masses, and so I had no desire to go to an even larger one with a few hundred thousand people in Portugal!

It is difficult for me to be absent from this community on a Sunday, and I neither wanted to go myself, nor did I want to take anyone from our parish community – not thinking that the benefits would match the cost. And so these words of St. Paul are truly a balm: “all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.” I need not remain stuck on the difficulties and deficiencies of others or of these large events, but have trust that He will use it for good. And we truly believe this! Not that every single thing that happens is good, but that God can work good from all things. Eight months ago, I was obstinate that our parish would not be participating and yet now, I am in Europe with 5 young adults from our community and with a fire for His love. God is truly doing something great in our Diocese and in our parish, and we cannot forget that He will work all things for good. We must learn to give thanks at all times and for all things so that we can “count it all joy.” Please pray for Fatima, Saul, Luis, Juan, and Angel who have not only been helping me to lead our youth here, but who are being called through this World Youth Day to encounter Christ who is the pearl of great price spoken of in the Gospel. Indeed, I can accept 19hr travel time and crowds of hundreds of thousands only because I have found that pearl of great price, and I sold everything to have It. Christ is all I need, He is all I want, He is worth everything else I have. And so I follow Him. So I rejoice with all things for He will work them for good. May you who are praying for us, you who are united to us in Portugal through the one faith, one Mass, one Lord, receive the grace today to recognize in that Sacred Host lifted above the altar, the pearl of great price. May you know the gift He is to you, the love He has for you, the good that He will work from all that we suffer and know.

You are in my continual thoughts and prayers, and on the altar with me and the Holy Father in these days.  – Fr. Ivan
 

In the book of wisdom today we heard that God gives His “children good ground for hope, that [He] would permit repentance for their sins.” As we’ve been blessed to celebrate confessions on Sunday’s during Mass these last few weeks with another priest here present with us, we are being invited to this good ground for hope and to the joy that confession brings!

Most non-Catholics abhor the idea of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and unfortunately most Catholics also carry a strong dislike and distaste for it! Not only are far too many Catholics in grave sin because they do not follow the precepts of the Church which require at a minimum the confession of their sins once a year, but even when we rarely go, we go with a greater fear and distrust than we do to the dentist! Well, I know I am odd for many reasons, but my absolute love for both the dentist and for Confession just add to that difference and strangeness! I love the dentist because it is never a painful experience for me, but a cleansing one. I have good teeth, and I take care of them well, and so even while the hygienist is cleaning, they do not grimace but compliment. It’s true I don’t always floss, and my permanent retainer after braces always needs extra attention, but even if I never have cavities or major work needed, there is always a need for deeper cleaning. We hate the dentist when we don’t do that daily care we should and when the dentist has more difficult and painful work to do – and confession can be similar. We need to daily be taking care for our souls, making daily examination of conscience’s and making daily an act of contrition at night. This is what Protestant’s say they do and that we should – confess directly to God! But we know that that isn’t enough. God has given us the priest and the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we can be sure of our cleanliness and to take care of the big offenses that have separated us from Him, a priest to do the big things that we can’t do for ourselves – like the big things the dentist does that we cannot do simply by brushing our teeth or flossing.

I admit it’s an odd analogy, and one that came to me only upon sitting down to write, but one that should bring to mind for us the importance of confession and the possibility of growing in love of it. Even if we don’t have any mortal sins on our conscience (no cavities in our teeth), we need a more thorough cleansing and a fresh start. I love the dentist because it doesn’t hurt but it cleanses, it refreshes, it renews. Even if I felt like my mouth was clean before, I come out feeling new, and our soul needs that too. And the more often you go to confession, the more often you make a daily examen of conscience, the less it hurts and the more you find its merits and gifts. God has given us “a good ground for hope in the repentance of our sins,” and He wants you to know how good that repentance is. Look up an examen of conscience (make it daily with an act of contrition), come back to the Sacrament, receive the cleansing and renewal He wants to give to you and so receive the “good ground of hope” that He wants to give you.
 

Beloved,

May the peace of Christ, the love of the Father, and the great communion with the Holy Spirit be with you. I am so grateful for another year of life, and for another year of ministry here with you. I’m not sure how many of you have felt these past two years “smooth sailing” or how many people I have unintentionally offended or made feel unwelcome – but the words of St. Paul in our second reading ring out so clearly for our parochial endeavors even as they do for all humanity! “All creation is groaning in labor pains even until now,” he says. Indeed, being brought into new life is not an easy task but like pregnancy and delivery it is full of sufferings and groanings! Though I earnestly desire to be “all things for all people,” though I desire to “offend no one,” I know that the very nature of our created world is one that is filled with groaning in labor pains. St. Paul even grounds this communal difficulty in our personal sufferings, that “we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” This is more than the groaning of old age whenever we try to sit down or stand up, this is the groaning of our spirit as we try to do the good and avoid evil. But we must labor ourselves, indeed unless we do, we won’t have life. We must groan within ourselves if we are awaiting that redemption for which we were made! For “we were not made for comfort,” as Pope Benedict XVI would say, “we were made for greatness.”

I say this to you as we are gathering together a new parish council and a new finance council, and as we prepare to make big decisions for the future of our parish community. I say this to you as we begin another year of catechism and some of our decisions are going to feel heavy and difficult. I say this as we will to try and improve baptism and marriage preparation, but most of all I say this to you as you take up your role of sanctification and of raising your families in the faith. It isn’t easy to change our lifestyle, to bring ourselves closer into that communion, there are labor pains as Christ is born in our hearts and in our homes! But it is necessary. And there is no greater joy. As a priest, as one who has laid down his whole life for Christ and His Church, I know these pains well! It’s true that this life closer to God and further from the world can feel lonely, that there is a separation and that there is a great deal more work than there is compensation! But there is not life on earth more blessed than mine own. There is no life on earth that brings you so large a family, so many joys or sorrows. And this is true for every truly Christian life. There will be sadness, there will be losses and difficulties, but there will be a peace and joy that you cannot find anywhere else. It’s worth it. When you let Christ be born again in you and in your home – it will cost, but the reward is far greater than what we give. He is inviting you to follow Him, He is planting His seeds of grace in your heart… will you till the soil and let His life bear fruit?

In His Most Sacred Heart,
Fr. Ivan
 

Nearly two weeks ago a number of you gathered to share a meal with me and celebrate the Priesthood of Jesus Christ that I have been granted a share of, and so many of you wrote a beautiful card or offered a generous gift. It is difficult to express just how much that meant to me, but I want to say thank you. Thank you to all of you who have shown some measure of support or love in the past two years, who have offered a kind word, who have motivated me to fidelity and prayer, who have not only seen a young man doing his best but have seen in me the High Priest who is to be a bridge between heaven and earth.
Two days after that wonderful evening of my ordination anniversary I set out with 32 of our parishioners to Dallas to attend the Steubenville Conference with our youth. The Seminary was a gift, Six Flags was a blast, and the Missionaries of Charity were beautiful! Yet when Friday night came and we entered the large conference space of the convention center and we found ourselves surrounded by 4,000 high school kids (and their chaperones), the kids saw the stage lights and felt the speakers in their bones and they were shocked. It really is impossible to describe what the experience is like, but it is, like one of the speakers said, Catholic on hype. I’m not sure if all of our kiddos had the Spirit filled experience I had hoped, they aren’t as good at showing their gratitude as you were when you joined my anniversary dinner, but I am convinced that each of them had an encounter, each of them received a moment of grace, each of them heard at least a whisper from Christ. Each of them who went on this crazy adventure their father invited them on received a new experience of God and were opened more to His Love.
This weekend marks the beginning of my 3^rd year with all of you, if you can believe it! I know that I hardly can. Three years ago I celebrated a Votive Mass of the Precious Blood in this beautiful little church consecrating my ministry and all of you into the life that the Precious Blood of Jesus alone can offer. Three years ago I began to invite you to follow me on this crazy adventure with me, to experience aspects of the faith that were likely new, and to be ever more opened to His Love. While I have tried to give my all to you, to care for all of your needs and to sacrifice myself like I did this past weekend for our kiddos, I’m similarly not sure if you all have had the Spirit filled experience, I had hoped for. Like many of our youth most of us are also not good at showing our gratitude, but I am positive that many, many of you, like our youth, have at least had an encounter, a moment of grace over these past two years together. And there is little else that I can hope for or do. Neither you nor I can force anyone to faith, we cannot even force the faith in our own hearts! All we can do is be faithful to watering the seeds we have been given and wait for God to bring forth its growth. I know that I am not perfect, but the good news is that I don’t have to be, because the One who is Perfect is the One who is inviting you to follow Him, and I am just His vicar and vessel.
Today as we speak of the intense and incredible calling God has for each of us in Mass, I want to write to each of you who have “given a cup of cold water” to me throughout these years. So many of you have given words of consolation or gifts of comfort because I am a disciple, and as the Lord says in the Gospel, I am confident you will “not lose your reward.” Thank you for serving your Church and her leaders, thank you for serving me, even as I have come to serve you. Thank you for being willing to follow me, because even if I am young and my ideas crazy, I promise God has a great adventure in store for us. I renew myself to you this year, and ask you again to follow me. Follow me on into another year together, follow me into a deeper love for God, follow me as we build up His Mystical Body here on earth! Let us be made worthy of His love, worthy to follow Him.
 

El Espiritu de Dios esta en este lugar! Truly the Spirit of God, sent upon the Apostles gathered in the upper room 2,000 years ago is still living, moving, and sanctifying today. Do you know Him? Do you feel His presence or know His voice? For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17), and how we need His freedom! This weekend we have spoken about the great gift God gave to us through the Spirit in being made one – one body, one spirit in Christ. We spoke of how the Spirit healed the sin of Babel so that we might all understand God speak in the one language of love, the language of the Church! But if we had more time in the homily we might have taken this meditation further to this beautiful like from 2 Corinthians cited above which tells us that the Spirit of God gives us freedom. This is due to His power, to His sanctifying grace in our hearts – but it springs from what we spoke of today, that union in the Church that the Spirit of God gives to us. The apostles received the Spirit of God (as we heard in the Gospel) in order to bind and loose sins, the priest calls the Spirit of God upon the bread and wine to transform them into His Body and Blood; it is by water and the Spirit that we are born to new life in Baptism and sealed in the Holy Spirit in our Confirmation! The Spirit brings freedom because He casts out the devil and his minions and He brings the Father and the Son to dwell with Him in our hearts and homes.
You are fighting with your spouse or find yourselves distant? Your hearts that have grown cold need the fire of the Holy Spirit to rekindle Love in your marriage. Your children have left the Church and you don’t know what to say to them? You have tried to speak on your own and have not called upon the Spirit of God to grant you a tongue of Fire, you need to trust in God’s promise that “the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you must say” (Luke 12:12). Truly the Spirit of God that speaks through the Church cannot be separated from the Church – but He is not bound to a church building! No the Spirit of God who Our Church pours out upon us is meant to live in us, to dwell in us, to move us and be our source of life. While we meditate upon the great works of the Spirit through the Church, we must not forsake the way this Spirit wants to live in us so that we will be the Church, one Body, one Spirit in Christ. This weekend I challenge you to listen to the Latin Mass Chants we sang and that you can find on our website – I challenge you to meditate upon the grandeur of what it means to be catholic (universal) – but most of all I challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit into your heart again. Call upon Him with simplicity and faith… Come Holy Spirit, Come Holy Spirit, come and make your home in me… teach me how to pray… Come Holy Spirit, enkindle the hearts of your faithful.

A common and ancient prayer to the Holy Spirit:

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray.
O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
 

Happy Ascension Sunday! Today, though it should be joy filled in itself for the great feast we are celebrating, is more jubilant for our parish community as we join our children in their First Holy Communion’s. 40 children are receiving their Eucharistic Lord for the first time this weekend at our parish, and how inspiring it is for us to see their faith and desire for this great sacrament! In the Ascension of Our Lord He promised His disciples that He would not leave them orphan’s, that He would send them the Holy Spirit who would do even greater works in them and would bring them into the very life of the Trinity for which we are all created. As we see the great faith of our children this weekend and hear Christ’s promise continue to echo throughout the world, it offers us the chance to meditate upon what we leave for our kids. Christ knew He was called back to the Father, that His mission here on earth would last a short while, but He was planning ahead for that time, knowing that He would not be with his disciples forever, He made a plan for their inheritance.
            Many of you also make plans for your families here below, and if you aren’t, you should! Life Insurance policies in case the father or the mother passes away; a savings account to pay for funeral costs; a will that clearly lays out the inheritance and the desires of the parents for their families; a next of kin, who will be the legal guardians of the children should both parents pass away; etc. There are many things we can and should do to make sure that our children and families are protected here on earth and an accident doesn’t leave them struggling or without help. Even if you haven’t made these important preparations, many of you do work hard to provide your families with a home and vehicles and opportunities you did not have as a child. Yet how many of us are working hard to leave our families with a spiritual inheritance? How many of us labor to ensure that they will not lose the faith but have the eternal life that is offered in the sacraments?
            The greatest inheritance you can give your children is a life of faith, is life with Christ! In Baptism they received a promise of heaven, and you have prepared for them a mansion in heaven with God! Yet, more and more of our children are abandoning that heavenly home in order to try and buy a bigger house here on earth. They forsake their friendship with Christ for “cool friends” at their school, and they lose the grace that clothed their souls for name brand clothing for their skin. What matters most of all is the spiritual inheritance that was left to them – to set them up to live as faithful Catholics, to know, love and serve God in this life so to adore Him forever in Heaven. Isn’t this the inheritance your parents left you? A faith that shaped their whole life? Isn’t this what our forefathers fought and died to defend? Don’t ever stop receiving the Sacraments, going to confession and receiving Holy Communion, this is your inheritance, this is what Jesus has left for you! If you are faithful in these things, if you learn the faith, if you hunger and thirst for holiness – your kids will too; and that is the greatest thing you can leave them.
 

Happy Mother’s Day! While you all are gathered around the altar today with your families and with Fr. Joe who generously agreed to offer the Holy Sacrifice for our parish, I am in Phoenix with my own family and my own mother. One of my dear cousins with whom I was raised is getting married on the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima in Phoenix, and I naturally had to come and celebrate the Mass with them. To be honest, it was difficult for me to be away this weekend (it can always be a bit difficult), because I am so grateful for you all, and wish I was there to show that gratitude to our special mothers in the parish. A mother’s love is truly unique, special, necessary in our life and it is something fundamentally Christian. A mother’s love is a Eucharistic Love, you could say, as she must give of her own body to bring life to her children, like Christ gave of His own body so that we might have life! The sacrifice of a mother, especially a mother who is open to life, who is blessed with many children, is a sacrifice like the one that Jesus made for us – a total gift of one’s body and being for the other.
We have the religious sisters in our community and in the Universal Church that are like Spiritual Mother’s for us, that give of their whole life, of their fertility and their future for our sake too! But the priest who is tasked with being father, is also often tasked to extend the motherly love of the Church to his flock (especially when parishes don’t have religious sisters). Our Church is that perfect Mother that Christ entrusted to us, the place where we are born (into eternal life in baptism), where we are fed (in Holy Communion), taken care of when we are ill (in the anointing of the sick), and where we are loved in our trials and joys. This is clear for me even in my “abandoning you” this weekend while I witness and bless the marriage of my cousin and her admirable spouse. It was less than a year ago that I buried her father, who I had anointed, confessed and brought Holy Communion to during his battle with cancer. I buried her grandmother two months ago, and now I get to be there at the day of greatest joy (and sadness without her father). It is in that place of Our Mother the Church that I am privileged to be present in the most trying moments and the most joyful ones, that the Church is the constant presence and consolation in each of our lives, like she will be for my cousin again this weekend.
            I know that sometimes we have a rocky relationship with the Church (with her ministers and members more accurately), but we cannot forget that this relationship is like the one we have with our own mothers. It is a relationship and a love that we can never truly abandon! Today as you gather at the Eucharistic Table, as you come together as one family and celebrate your earthly mothers, do so with the knowledge that you are gathered with your Mother the Church. I wish I was with you all but I offer you this small token of that heavenly Mother as a gift to our beloved mothers in the parish. I hope you will remember your parish community when you pray with the rosary, and that your children and all your family will learn how to rejoice with you at Mass, will enjoy coming to pray, will learn to love our Mother the Church like you do. Happy Mother’s Day, and God bless.

• Fr. Ivan

In our First Reading from the Book of Acts, we hear how the growth of the Church began to cause friction between the disciples, between her members, because they began to feel neglected and separated. We can find in this community of the New Israel a corresponding reality to the Israelites in the desert with Moses. In the 18^th chapter of Exodus we read of Moses who was growing tired, now not because of their complaining and grumbling, but because the work was too numerous and the people in too much need. I feel in some ways that our community is experiencing some of these growing pains too, aren’t we? It seems as though there is less and less time in my schedule to offer to people, and more and more regular meetings to attend. Some of us may even be inclined to complain about the many things that are not being done like the Christians in the Acts of the Apostles; but the answer is the same to our community as it was to the community in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and to Moses and the Israelites 3,500 years ago!

As we have more young people here weekly, as we try to offer more catechesis to our families, as we try and engage new liturgical ministries and work on building projects and more, others are needed. “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table,” (Acts 6:2) the Twelve said to the needy crowd of the faithful. “Why do you sit alone and judge and all the people stand around you from morning until evening,” Moses’ father-in-law asked him; “what you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will become tired and weak. For the work is too much for you. You cannot do it alone” (Ex 18: 14-18). The Church, who is a hierarchy, who has Her head in the successors of the Apostles, who has received from Jesus priest’s as pastor’s, is not meant to be led by the pastor/priest/bishop alone! Even Moses, who alone was the leader of the people, unique in his gifts, charism and ministry did not serve or lead his people by himself.

I cannot lead this community alone either. It is true that I am the father of the family, the head of this community, and it is true that I have the final say/decision in regards to what we as a family will be doing, but I cannot do it alone. There are many generous people in this parish who serve and offer themselves, who have made the growth and life this parish has possible! But there are certainly more of us who are happy to come every week to be fed, throw a few bucks into the basket and feel satisfied. Do we need a men’s group? Get it started! Do we need a bible study for mothers? Find a program, set a time and make the invitations! Want your children to be involved, to enjoy the faith and grow in freedom? Be involved yourself. Today, as we hear the Twelve elect and appoint helpers for the people, I want to invite you to help your community as well. There is so much more we can be doing as a church, but I cannot do it alone, both you and I will just get tired if I alone try to carry the whole weight of the communities needs. What are you gifts and talents? How can you serve this community? How can you give of yourself so that others may also have life? It is true that all must donate the Tithe, the 10% of our income, but we must also be giving God at least 10% of our time! Be it in prayer, or service to His Church. If we all do what God has made us do, if we are who He has made us to be, then we will see in our valley what they saw in Jerusalem: “the Word of God [will continue] to spread, and the number of the disciples [increase] greatly.” (Acts 6:7) Who is willing to come forward? Who will say yes? The Lord is calling, He is calling you.
 

Today in the First Reading we continue hearing from St. Peter’s Pentecost Homily in the Acts of the Apostles, and though we haven’t spoken much about it the past couple of weeks, his homily provides some important food for thought, and since I am not preaching about it today, this is a good place for these thoughts to go! It’s incredible, isn’t it, that Peter’s first homily could bring about 3,000 conversions – in other words twice the population of our little village! As the words this first Pope preached “cut to the heart” of the people who heard him, as they desired to change their life, Peter called them to the sacraments. Faced with the Truth they had heard, the people gathered that day asked him and the other apostles: “what shall we do?” Peter didn’t respond like our Protestant brothers and sisters, he didn’t say something like, “now you have to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior into your heart to be saved;” but rather he answers them: “repent, and be baptized every one of you.” Peter does not ask simply for “faith,” though this is the foundation for the baptism the people seek (they want to repent and be baptized because they now believe), rather Peter invites them to a sacrament, and one that he claims has real power. Sometimes our Protestant brothers and sisters view their baptism simply as a symbol – as an outward representation of the inward faith that they claim is what actually matters – yet Peter here speaks of baptism in the way we would speak about it as a sacrament, saying that they must be baptized “for the forgiveness of your sins.” This is what Baptism does, it forgives our sins, washes us clean. And it is something that, because it effects a true change in us, is something that is for everyone – as Peter says: “for you and your children.” He doesn’t say that baptism is something “for you and your children if they have reached the age of reason and can choose it for themselves,” like most Protestants would, but Peter says that baptism is for everybody, and that everyone is in need of it since it is what washes away our sin and gives us a share in the life of Christ. Many Protestant’s may not even know this, but the most famous “Protestant” (protestor of the Church), Martin Luther himself spoke of the need for baptism for children saying that in the Old Testament you could be brought into the covenant as an infant through the right of circumcision and so it wouldn’t make sense for the covenantal love of God in the New Testament to be more exclusive than the Old Testament. Soon we will hear in both Acts 13 and Acts 16 a description of households receiving the grace of baptism all together – the father, his wife, his servants and his children all being baptized! Why do we baptize children in the Catholic Church? Because that’s how the apostolic Church did it, the earliest Christian’s understood baptism this way, and we still do too. Christ is the Good Shepherd and He wants to bring us all into His flock, to bring us all to restful waters and green pastures and He has left us a vicar (someone to stand in His place) on earth, the successor of Peter the Pope. When we are united to the Pope we are united to Peter and so united to Christ and we see that our practices are like those of the early Church – that those first homilies still ring true throughout the world today! Let us give thanks for the gift of Baptism and the gift of the Church that has preserved these treasures for us for thousands of years so that you and I might still come to know the Good Shepherd and may have a share in His eternal life. 
 

This week we hear in our Gospel one of the more beautiful passages of the New Testament, the familiar account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. While it is true, as we said today in the Mass, that Christ wants to make Himself known to us through the Breaking of the Bread, I have also been reflecting on a different aspect of this Gospel for us. Reflecting especially on children soon to receive their First Communion, of the Pre-Confirmation kids on retreat who all confessed and received Holy Communion last week, and how our confirmandi and their sponsors will soon themselves go to confession to receive Communion. All of this has reminded me that it isn’t only Christ who is made visible in the Mass, in Communion, but it is His Mystical Body as well! We know who belongs to Christ, who His members are, by those who come to Mass and those who receive Holy Communion. I’ve come to realize that the most important thing you can do to support your priests is just show up, just being present in Mass and being attentive in it! Because I see Christ’s strength and presence in the Church when you are present at the Breaking of the Bread. I know our community is doing well when we don’t fit inside of our church – I know my homilies are speaking to souls when the Communion line lasts longer and longer. I see Christ in His Body, when you are at Church and in Communion.

Recently some parents have been worried their children may not “pass” the First Communion test and that I would not let them receive Eucharist if they did not have everything memorized. My response to them has been the same as I’d tell you now, I am more worried about a child if his parents do not go to Mass, or have not been attending catechism classes like they promised, than I am worried about a child who forgets his prayers. I know a child has a fighting chance at faith, not because they can memorize some sentences, but because they are a part of Christ’s Church and receiving His Sacraments! I was so proud at our Pre-Confirmation retreat because I finally saw everyone receive Jesus and it was clear that everyone wanted to have Jesus in their hearts! You will know someone is a follower of Christ, is a member of His body, in the same way that the disciples in Emmaus discovered the Christ: present in Holy Communion. This is why one of the precepts of the Catholic Church is to receive Holy Communion at least once a year. We must confess at least once a year and must receive Holy Communion once a year if we are going to consider ourselves Catholic – and part of this is because it is in Communion that we see Christ and can see Christ in this community. The only thing that should stop you from receiving Him in Communion is a mortal sin – and even that shouldn’t stop you for long if we offer confessions 5 days out of the week! As we encounter the Risen Lord today in His Eucharistic Host, let us encounter Him in one another here present, and beg Him the grace to be made like unto Him. As you see Christ lifted above the altar today, know I will see Him in you, and rejoice when you receive Him.  
 

“O, Love Eternal, You want Your holy image painted
Revealing to us Your Mercy’s unmeasured fount-head,
Blessing all who come to those brilliant rays that glow,
The blackest soul shall turn as white as snow.
O, sweetest Jesus, here You’ve raised up Your mercy’s throne
To come to our aid and comfort sinner’s souls
From Your open Heart, as from the purest fountain flows
Consolation for repenting hearts and souls.
And to this image honour, glory, praise
May the souls of humans never cease to hail,
As every heart its tribute to God’s mercy pays
Now and forever and ever, all the hours and days.” – St. Faustina

Blessed Easter, and blessed Divine Mercy Sunday! I can hardly express how blessed our Easter Triduum was, how blessed I felt as your father to see our house so full at each of the Mysteries we celebrate together over those sacred days. Thank you. If we want our priest’s to be faithful, if we want them to persevere, the most important thing we can do is be present. To show up, and to let God begin to transform us with His grace. To do what so many of you are doing.

As we celebrate this Second Sunday of Easter, this Sunday of Divine Mercy, our parish feast – we see what happens when we show up in the assembly! We read in today’s Gospel, how just gathered together, even with the doors locked and afraid, Jesus came into the midst of His Church to bring them peace. So Merciful is His love that the first word He says to those who abandoned Him, to those who left Him, to those who left His Mother, is PEACE. Peace be with you! What joy must have filled those hearts to hear from the one whom they had betrayed, the all powerful one who conquers such a terrible passion and its death, a word of peace. Shalom, He spoke, be a peace, be filled, be whole! I don’t know how your Lent went, or how devout your Holy Week was, but will you let Him today speak to you His peace? Will you receive His mercy that speaks first, not in condemnation but in love?

Look upon His image in our Church, this image that St. Faustina wrote so beautifully about in the first page of her diary, the first words we see above! Here we look upon the face of that mercy, the face that the apostles were blessed to see 8 days after His Resurrection when He appeared in their midst with His words of Peace. We see that terrible wound in His side from which His heart was emptied at His death, now transformed! That wound of His love, continues to pour forth His mercy, for His Heart is inexhaustible. If you will come into this Light, if you will look upon His face, you too can hear Him speak like the apostles did. You too, even if the blackest soul, shall turn as white as snow! For from His open Heart, as from the purest fountain flows, consolation for repenting hearts and souls. May the King of Mercy reign forever! Blessed Feast Day, my blessed children,

God bless you. Fr. Ivan

O truly Blessed Night! So sang Holy Mother Church in her beautiful Exultet last night with great joy at the inversion of the devil’s snares and the victory of Christ over death. With great reverence we sang out to the dignity of the candle itself, that pillar of fire made by mother beesto provide light for the world, and to the night herself who “alone knows the hour when He rose from the underworld.” The mysteries of these last few days teach the attentive disciple more than the most learned philosopher or theologian ever could. The prayers of our Mother the Church provide more beautiful explanations than the most eloquent preacher. Today as we
sing out with joyful acclamations Glory to God in the Highest, and Alleluia to our King, we can rejoice because death has lost its sting, sin has lost its power! Indeed, now the “night is as bright as day,” for in the darkness of the night, in the depths of the underworld, Light has shown and has scattered all shadows. What cause can we have for fear when we live in this Easter joy? What darkness can oppress us when we live in the Light of His Resurrection? In our Christian faith we proclaim this same reality every Sunday. It is why we should actually beabst aining from meat, not just during Lent but all year! Just like we should be dressing more formally not just for Easter but for every Sunday! We have dedicated these last few days to the
mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection with a great focus, depth, and love, but we are meant to “relive” this same mystery every week. Each Friday to recall the Lord’s passion, the terrorizing of His flesh and so abstaining from consuming all earthly flesh (in abstaining from meat), and each Saturday in the rest of the Lord’s tomb, resting ourselves with our families so that each Sunday we may be filled with joy, draw close to Christ in His Church and exult anewwith all God’s holy people.

Even if this reality should enliven our hearts each week, this week we are not yet finished with this great feast. Like the Sunday itself (the 8 th day), and like all great Feast’s as a sign of their eternal significance and reward, we celebrate Easter not as a simple day, but as the sign of the eternal day by celebrating it for 8 days straight. As we gather together on this Easter Sunday, we are also invited to come to God on Easter Monday, Easter Tuesday, and so on, so that we may truly realize the power of His Resurrection and live as an Easter people. We will gather each day for Mass, for adoration and to sing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and I hope you will join us! We will continue passing out raffle tickets to the children and youth who come to Mass
during the Octave and I hope you can join us for our great Parish Feast Day – the day of Divine Mercy Sunday. Next week we will pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy together one last time at 3pm and then raffle off the swimming pool! We did not write down names or phone numbers so you must be present to win. Other prizes will be shared, games will be available, and food for sale! I hope you are able to join us in all these celebrations and most of all, are able to enter into the true celebration of Christ’s Victory over death. Blessed Easter, dearly beloved!
- Fr. Ivan

Blessed Passiontide! How beautiful and how sad this day that we celebrate together, how incredible it is to relive with Our Lord the passage of our salvation. To imagine the loneliness He felt as He processed into Jerusalem to great fanfare and acclamation, knowing that they would all abandon Him, knowing that their shouts of joy would soon become shouts of condemnation or the abandoning silence of the fearful. Indeed, these days will be filled with sadness, but their sadness is not overwhelming, for at in mystery we also carry the refrain that will be sung at Our
Easter Vigil when Holy Mother Church acclaims: Oh happy fault that gained for us so great a redeemer! We are saddened by His suffering, heartbroken when we realize as St. Alphonsus wrote in his Stations: it was not Pilate that condemned you to die… nor was it the weight of the Cross that caused you to suffer so much, but it was my sins. I love these high holy days more than any other, I love them more than Christmas or birthdays, I love them because never is it more obvious how much He loves us.

On Holy Thursday, after instituting the priesthood, after giving us the Most Blessed Sacrament, Jesus began His passion with His Agony in the Garden. Do you remember His cry to Peter, James, and John? Do you remember how your Savior, in anguish for the pain He was about to endure began to sweat His Precious Blood onto the stone beneath His adorable hands? He lamented to His closest friends: can you not stay awake with me but one hour? Knowing how tremendous His passion was soon to be, He hurt most of all that His closest friends could not stay with Him for even an hour of His suffering. Won’t you stay with Him this week? As you look upon that cross, and you look upon His destroyed flesh, can you not offer Him an hour? I implore you in the name of our Lord, to join His Church for the Holy Triduum this year. Come to
Mass on Thursday night, come to adore the Holy Cross on Friday, and come in the darkness of the night to receive the Light in the Easter Vigil. It was our sins that caused His terrible Passion – let us at least offer Him our presence. Let us console Him in the Mass like Peter, James, and John could not console Him in His agony. Let us enter then into this Passiontide seeking the one whom we love. Let us go with the words St. Thomas said in our Gospel last week: “Let us go to
die with Him.”

Midway through our Lenten journey, Holy Mother Church begins our Mass crying out in the words of Isaiah: Laetare Ierusalem, et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam; Gaudete cum Laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis, ut excultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her! Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.” Most churches (including our own) don’t sing the antiphons that are prescribed for each Mass, so you may not even be aware of this voice that reverberates today throughout the whole world, but this call to rejoice is a call to rally the troops in the middle of this campaign of fasting and penance. It is why today the priest is often in a rose-colored chasuble and why some flowers are permitted on the altar. Beyond all of the technical things I would love to say about how we celebrate our liturgies in order for every aspect to speak to us the way the Church intends, I want to speak to you clearly in this small
message what so many subtle changes are meant to do without even a word. And so I beg you: be joyful! Exult, be satisfied and consoled, be filled with joy, you are the New Jerusalem, God’s Holy Church, and you love her.

I know, I know, there are a million reasons not to be filled with joy, right? Money is tight, your kids aren’t doing well in school, you and your spouse haven’t gone on a date in a decade? Maybe it’s the in-laws or the loneliness is pressing upon you tightly. Legitimately, each of you likely has a number of reasons to not be filled with joy. But here, today? “Be joyful, all who were in mourning!” Today, in the midst of the desert of this world, in the silence and dryness you face, you have come to this place as an oasis, so rejoice. Here there is water flowing from the rock, here is the well of Jacob, here there is Living Water. Even if just for this moment, choose to rejoice, to see God’s love and His will in your life – see His gifts and give thanks.

One of my favorite scripture passages comes from the often-overlooked letter of St. James who writes to us: “Count it all joy, brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” All of this, he tells us matters because, “blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.” For years of my life I have repeated those words in some of my most difficult moments: count it all joy…. Count it all joy…. Count it all joy…. Indeed these words of the Saint are the same exhortation that the Church brings to you today in Her entrance antiphon: though you were sad, be filled with Joy, because the cross
has set you free. Even our suffering can be for us a joy, because the cross is how we are united to Christ! It was through that wood of the tree, that Christ reversed the original sin of our parents from the tree in the garden, and so we find our joy in the deepest pain and sadness of all creation’s history. While we enter into this Lenten season with a fast, while we walk with Christ now to His Passion and death, we also enter to walk with Him to His Resurrection. Everything we do here leads us to Him and the joy of Eternal Life. While we might still be in the middle of the desert, while your cross may still be heavy, today take some time to rejoice in thegood news that Jesus has won. He has already won the victory, and when you are faithful to
Him, He will be victorious in your heart too.

Beloved,
Is it strange for you still to be called “beloved”? Is it difficult to be receive the effulgent praises of the Most High? YOU are His beloved child, in you He is well pleased. Yes, even now, even in your sin. You may be far from Him because of your sin. You may be cut off from His grace because you have not returned to Confession or to the Holy Communion that awaits you every single day, but He is still pleased in you. You see, God makes a difference between us and our sin, even though the devil does not. The Accuser (Satan) tricks us by telling us that our sin is no big deal (don’t worry you don’t have to get married in the Church, its not big deal!”// “its just one little beer you can have another!” // “no one will notice if you take $50, and you deserve it, just do it.” // “go ahead and eat another slice of cake, you can start a new diet next month, don’t worry about it, its no big deal”); but then, once we have fallen, he convinces us that our sin now defines us! He lies and he accuses, and we begin to believe that we are the sad and pitiful things that we have done. But don’t let him trick you. Don’t believe his lies! You are not your sin. You are beloved. It’s true that God hates our sin, and He detests all who would lead others into sin, but He does not detest you. No, He waits for you. Every day this Lent He has been waiting for you in the confessional, waiting to welcome you home, to remove the weight of your sin from your shoulders and to set you free!

Aren’t you tired of your sin? Aren’t you tired of the devil’s lies? You are worthy. Not because of your merits, no, we both know you haven’t earned His love or grace; you are worthy because He died for you. He made you worthy by His love! And the Son who took on flesh for you, who died for you, He still intercedes for you – begging the Father to see Himself in you. This Sunday we hear of the Lord who finds the Samaritan woman at the well – and like all the stories of the old testament when a man finds a woman at a well, a wedding is soon to follow. Moses, Jacob,
Isaiah, they all met their wives at a well, the sign of life and of joy, and so Christ invites you to the well today too. Here He invites us to the “living water,” to the spring that runs but does not go dry, and to the living water which prepared a woman for her wedding. The well of our baptism was indeed like a wedding for us as well, when our mortality was wedded to Christ’s immortality, when our humanity was wed to His divinity. This Eucharist is the “wedding feast of the Lamb,” we say each Mass. Do you not realize it is your wedding feast? This is where Jesus gives Himself to you! This is where the Bridegroom of our souls makes us one with Him.

Don’t listen to the enemy who says you are unworthy, listen to the Lord who tells you again today: my beloved, my beautiful one, come. You are weary and you are thirsty. You need rest and a drink, come to the well of grace, come to the Fount of life, here when you commune with your God, you will find rest. Beloved, today if you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts, He waits for you with a love unknown, with a love for which your heart was made.

Until Heaven we possess,
Fr. Ivan

Blessed 2 nd Sunday of Lent! I struggled quite a bit this week to write this letter to you all, not feeling particularly inspired nor any particular problem that need be discussed… I know that is how it often feels for you as well when you fulfill your role as spouse or parent, doesn’t it? Cooking another dinner without much energy or joy, without a recipe you’re dying to try or a strong request from anyone in the family? Maybe it is listening to your spouse or responding to their overtures for love – each of us is called to “deny ourselves” each day. After all, isn’t that what the cross taught us love is? To die for the other, to pour oneself out for their good, even if we don’t really want to do it. This weekend we hear the Gospel of the Transfiguration which
reminds us as we begin Lent that self-denial is really worth it. That cross and death Jesus is always announcing? It is only a moment in time, a part of the journey, what we are really made for is that glory He showed Peter, James, and John. And that’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? It makes the crazy Lenten fast, the difficult days of serving our family, and the many times we must deny ourselves all worth it – because the glory awaiting us is unlike anything we’ve known or seen.

One message I’d like to share though, besides our shared experiences in serving our respective families and the hopeful note that awaits us, rests on that wonderful sacrament we’re all invited to this Lent: Confession. And aren’t most of us usually feeling a bit uninspired to confess? A bit reluctant, without a strong desire or joy in going to the confessional? Like the other ways we are called to love our family despite our own “wants”, is the love we show when we humble ourselves before the Lord and beg His mercy in the Confessional. Sometimes we should do it most of all when we don’t want too – that’s what love is, after all. Our confession can be a bit like the cross, a way in which we now pour our hearts out to God, giving Him everything we have – after all, all of the good things we do begin with His inspiration, and all we truly have of our own are our sins. When I go to confession it is, thankfully, not usually because
I have some urgent and dire sin, but because it is where I remember who I really am and who God really is to me. We have spoken so much about rediscovering our identity this Lenten Season: “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” In the confessional I don’t have to be your spiritual father, I don’t have to be the teacher or the doctor, I don’t have to pretend even to myself, but I remember how often I fall short. Of the impatience, the lack of discipline, the wandering eyes or thoughts,
my lack of prayer or my idolization of the world or my work. And I can go on my knees before God and admit honestly and fully who I am and who I have been. The more incredible thing though? The more important aspect? Is that there I am invited to remember that though I am impatient, He is patient with me; though I am unfaithful, He never fails to love. I remember what love the Father has bestowed on me, and I am lifted up again by His grace. I remember I am His.

Come back to confession. Don’t let your fears, your sins or your pride keep you from recovering your true identity: sinful, but redeemed. Let God transfigure you through His grace and absolution, and even if you don’t really want to do it, show Him how much you love Him by offering Him your heart, humble and contrite. The Father never ceases to wait for you there.

We have buried the Alleluia, we have begun our Lenten fast and are preparing to offer
alms again to those in need. Today as we begin this journey in the desert with Christ we are reminded of how important these practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving really are. The readings today bring forth a couple of figures that some Catholics unfortunately do not believe in: Adam, Eve, and the Devil. While the Church has not (and likely will never) comment on how we came to be here on a biological perspective, she has stated definitively that there were an original Adam and Eve, that all of humanity began from one man and one woman. (Interestingly enough, the more science evolves the clearer this seems to be!) These two figures are not simply a nice story, but they tell the true story of our fall from grace and of the great love of God for mankind. The other figure that we find with our first parents in the garden, and who
makes an appearance again in the Gospel with Christ, is an often equally diminished
figure/person. The Catechism asserts that “behind the disobedient voice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called Satan or the devil.” (CCC 391). Created good by God, the devil refused to submit to God and His plans for creation and the salvation of the human race. In his jealousy at the Incarnation, Satan led a number of angels to rebel against God and continues in his hatred to try and lead mankind away from God and to put them under his own dominion.

Before baptism, and during the Easter Season often in place of the Creed the faithful arestill asked: “do you reject Satan? And all his works? And all his empty promises?” This question is asked and it has in fact been answered by all of you, because he is real and we must make that rejection every day. If Satan tempted our first parents in the garden, if he tempted Our Lord in the desert, he will certainly tempt us in this world. The devil knows that we are weak and vulnerable, but he uses the same tactics every time, and so we can learn from Christ and be on guard! He tempted Adam and Eve with a “triple concupiscence” as it is called: to the flesh (the good food of the apple), eyes (possession of that which they wanted), and of pride (a self exaltation). The devil used these same three temptations with Our Lord today in the Gospel,
tempting Him to make bread from a rock, to take possession of the whole world, and to command the angels to come and prove who He truly is. The devil, for as scary as he can be, for as much damage as he can afflict, is really not so scary after all: he becomes like a horror film you’ve seen 20 times! You know the jump scenes and you know the gore, and you know the ending. This Lenten season while we rediscover our identity in Christ, we ought not forget about the real identity of Satan. We must be “sober and alert for our opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pt. 5:8). We must draw near to the sacraments which offer our protection and avoid mortal sins which can give the devil a foothold. Seek God this Lent, because when He is the center of our life, no enemy can enter! And let us enter into our Lenten practices with greater zeal because they are the remedy for the three temptations of the devil. We can combat this triple concupiscence with these acts
that we are given in the Church this Lent: fasting (giving up the goods our flesh desires so they cannot control us, nor the devil tempt us), almsgiving (the sharing of what we possess rather than seeking to possess more for ourselves), and prayer (to confess that there is a God, we are in need of Him, and to grow in love of Him). God has come to defeat the enemy through you, and invites you to take up these weapons seriously to work alongside Him in this work.

“Be holy, for I, the Lord your God are Holy… be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” These are the words of God for us on this last Sunday before we enter into the Lenten Season this year, and they are words that set a truly high bar for us and offer a perfect entrance into the season which we are entering into. The whole of our Christian life is summed up into this call, into the call to holiness, to be like God. Too often I hear people tell me, “oh no padre, I can never be a saint.” There is a great humility in this, for sure, and it is a part of the humility which will drive the Lenten Season we will live together, but it is a false humility – one that denies who we are. We were created in the image and likeness of God, we were created to know, love and serve Him in this life so that we can live with Him forever in heaven. A saint is one who lives with God in heaven, a saint is someone who is in heaven. If we are called to live with God, if we want to be in heaven, we are called to be saints, we should want to be saints.

This desire is necessary for our Christian life. We must know these words with which we are called by God to be like Him, and we must strive to conform our lives to Him and to His perfection. Yet, we know our sin so well, don’t we? We know how hard it is to do the little things each and every day, to love our enemies and to put God above all things. This is why we begin every Mass confessing our sinfulness and begging God His mercy, and it is why we are invited to enter into Lent each year for 40 days. God invites us into the desert like He invited Christ after the Baptism in the Jordan. We enter into a period of fasting, penance, and prayer so that we might humble ourselves and know our true identity. One called to holiness, but one that cannot be holy with God! We were made for something incredible, but we cannot live that perfection on our own – without Him or His help we will be unfulfilled!

This Lent, I beg you to take God’s invitation seriously. Take up the practice of fasting and abstinence not just on Fridays but on Wednesdays; find something to give up that would daily remind you of your poverty and your need for help. Take up an added aspect of prayer: go to daily Mass once a week, add a rosary into your daily or weekly habits, read one of the Gospels or commit to going to confession. The Lord is waiting for you and He is inviting you into the desert this Lent so that you might hear His invitation to holiness and discover that true worth for which you were made. Mass will be celebrated Mon. – Thur. at 5:30pm, Fri at 7am. Confessions Mon – Thur. 5 – 5:30pm and Wed. 6 – 7pm as well as Sat. 4 – 5pm. Stations of the Cross Fridays out at Rincon at 5pm.

My dear family,
As we continue hearing the words of Our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount, He speaks to us today of some of the biggest vices and sins that we fall into: anger, lust, divorce and remarriage, and the swearing of oaths. In this section of His Sermon, Christ begins what are known as the “antitheses,” the section in which he compares and seemingly contradicts the law of Moses and the Old Testament to what He offers. While some might try to use this passage like the ancient Marcien Heretics, to deny the need for the Old Testament, Christ is rather clear here that He came to fulfill, to complete the Old Testament, not to destroy or supersede it. One of the most important things we have to know in order to read the Bible and understand it, is
that Christ is indeed the key. In order to understand the story of Noah and the flood we must know Christ. In order to understand Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, we must know Christ. In order to understand Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac, we must know Christ! Not because those events did not truly happen, they did, but because He is what brings light to ALL things, and to all Revelation. This is why we hear today that Jesus did not come to abolish “one iota,” not one letter or the smallest part of one letter of the law. He gave us each letter, each law, and He did so to prepare us for Him and for the fullness of revelation that He would give to
us once He had come. What does all of this mean? It means that everything matters. All of it! That time you fell off of your bike and scraped your knee, the time you got the best birthday present ever, the time you learned how to cook, it all matters. Most of the time, we forget what has happened to us, we forget the bad and most especially we forget the good, but every iota, every little aspect of our life is taken up by God. Whether you make your bed in the morning or brush your teeth, whether you respond with love to your spouse or say hello to your neighbor, it all matters. We certainly know this from a psychological point of view, that to be successful in big things we
must be constant in small matters, but it is also true in our spiritual life. God wants all of it! He created you, and He holds you in being, and if He allows anything to happen to you, it is so that it can lead to a greater good, so that it can bring glory to God and salvation to man. It’s hard to see the big picture, it’s hard to understand why anything happens the way it does, but once we are in heaven everything is made clear. Once we are in heaven all things will make sense and we will see how Jesus did not destroy even the tiniest part of our life, but He brought it to its fullness. Let us try more this week to pay attention to the “little things.” Let us pay attention to the little ways we love each other, and the little things God and His Church ask of us – after all, it all matters in the end!

• While one of the most famous, and even most loved passages of the New Testament, the Beatitudes we hear today are also some of the most difficult to understand because they are so paradoxical. Like the “paradox” upon which our faith is founded (the Incarnation – the Immortal becoming mortal, God becoming man, the one without beginning being born, etc), these beatitudes can confound us if we do not seek the wisdom to understand them. While I may not be able to fit a good description of all of the beatitudes, let’s take a little look at what some of the more paradoxical statements might mean! Below are some excerpts from Msgr. Charles Pope to help us understand the more difficult beatitudes and how we can live them out: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of God is theirs. In other words, how blessed and thriving your life becomes when you are no longer so desirous of the passing wealth and pleasure and preoccupations of this world, but have your heart centered on the eternal glories of heaven: These glories are for us a promised treasure and will not disappoint! Blessed indeed are we if we grasp this truth.
  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. In other words, how flourishing and blessed your life becomes when you are no longer emotionally addicted to the need for worldly happiness and accept that this world has its trials. The mournful are not depressed; rather, they are comforted and strengthened, understanding that our afflictions in this age produce glory for us in the next (e.g., 2 Corinthians 4:17). Even in woe, there is a serenity that comes from this acceptance of sorrow and suffering.
  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. In other words, how blessed and flourishing your life becomes when your desires are turned from passing worldly things and are focused on what brings true happiness. We hunger for God’s word and devour it when we find it. We rejoice to see God put sin to death in us and bring about virtue. We are satisfied when we see what God is doing in our lives; how flourishing then our lives become when we desire what really produces joy.
  Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. In other words, how blessed and flourishing your life becomes when you have your heart increasingly centered on one thing, the kingdom of God. (The Greek term, translated here as “pure” is more literally translated as “single-hearted.”) It is so easy for us to feel torn by contrary drives and wishes. The Book of James says that the man of two minds is unstable in all his ways (1:8). Blessed are those who can say, with St. Paul, “[T]his one thing I do. … I press on to the prize marked out for me in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13).How blessed and flourishing life becomes when we are single-hearted and centered on one thing, one purpose. We “see God” because we are no longer distracted by so many lesser things.
  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. In other words, how blessed and flourishing your life is when you are no longer obsessed with worldly popularity and so fearful of what others think of you. How liberating to be free of such a wearing and futile life focused on pleasing fickle human beings. So much fear and inner division goes away when we can receive this gift from God!
  Life flourishes and gives a deep, stable, serene and confident joy as we focus on what really matters and leave behind the trifling and ultimately unfulfilling things of this world to seek what is above.
  This is what the Lord is telling us in these Beatitudes, that we will be blessed (joyfilled) when we live, not for this world, but the next, not for these pleasures, but to please God. May we be blessed then, as we live by the Beatitudes and so live with Christ.