Fr Mike's Notes

  I don't tend to watch a lot of news anymore as it can simply be too depressing.  I sometimes miss events that maybe I need to be aware of, or aware of violence affecting many peoples, or something messy in the political arena.  I admit that may not be the best thing for a priest to say, but I must be honest.  The world is very ugly at times (or rather, humanity is). I just read a letter from a Church official whose diocese had to file for bankruptcy due to the seemingly constant litigation against the Church in the realm of sexual misconduct and abuse of minors.  It costs a lot of monies not simply in paying out settlements to victims when priests are found guilty, but the amount of money paid to the lawyers is astronomical.  As I have said in past homilies or articles I've written, it takes a special and creative mind to come up with new lows of evil for society.  Each time I've seen another lawyer ad that preys upon the emotions of people who MIGHT...

  The Christmas season has begun.  Celebrations and attendance at masses were maybe a little bit less than they once were.  There are several theories as to just why attendance is down in churches in general.  The theory I subscribe to the most of any is simply that there are fewer Catholics walking the earth.  Simple statistical analysis ought to prove my thought.  The number of people per family is down too.  So really, no matter the religion -- Catholic or not, attendance would be down.   At my current parish assignment, a trend in the Catholic society continues -- FAR MORE people are choosing to attend Christmas Eve Mass at whatever the earliest time any Church may have.  While the parish must have permission from our local bishop/vicar's office to even offer Mass before 4pm (trying to keep in line with Rome), we offer 3pm and 3:15pm Masses.  I know it sounds very strange to have Masses that begin only 15 minutes apart, but the ...

 Sorry I am a day late...this was given on Dec 24 at 3:15pm Mass  A couple of weeks ago, we had our annual Ho Ho Breakfast with Santa.   Children were encouraged to make little wishes for Christmas in one area of the gymnasium.   Some drew pictures in crayon, some wished for hope, love, peace, for Jesus to have a good life, and several other average wishes.   However, the best one was “a pug, a squishmallo, gold and silver.” Sometimes it is still difficult to grasp even for a priest.   And maybe that is the way it should be – difficult to grasp.   The mystery of the Incarnation is like no other mystery – THE SON OF GOD TRANSCENDS TIME AND SPACE TO TAKE ON HUMAN FLESH, RECEIVED FROM HIS MOTHER.   I recently was told by someone that Jesus’ DNA is still in the world.   That would be interesting to see under a microscope, don’t you think?   Remember your biology classes in high school?   Male chromosomes and female chromosomes, right?...

I mentioned in my post yesterday that today is what I believe to be the absolute coolest non-biblical reading in the Liturgy of the Hours.  Liturgy of the Hours is the Church's prayer book.  Moreover, some would go a step further and say that the Christian Prayer version of the collection of psalms, songs, Scripture, and more is more widely used.  For my first several years of seminary and priestly ministry, I used the Christian Prayer book.  However, I had been hearing for many years that the full, 4-volume set of the Liturgy of the Hours was far superior to the 1-volume Christian Prayer book.  I finally gave in and got my own copy of the full set and those encouraging me were not kidding. In the Christian Prayer book, there are just a very small number of samplings of non-biblical readings -- readings not in the bible usually written by saints or from special Church documents from tradition.  That is where the 4-volume set is so much more fruitful for me....

  As I look forward this Advent, I am reminded that we are not only looking ahead to the celebration of the Lord's Nativity, but also to His glorious return -- His second coming.   I was speaking with a few people over the last 24 hours who have been in some turmoil in their lives recently.  It's happened with my family too.  What comes to mind whenever I hear about the various ways people are suffering in our world today, God is STILL in charge.  He hasn't given up on humanity.  And as I am counseling some people and reminding myself at the same time, humanity has given God ALL KINDS of reasons to give up on us, yet, the Father has not sent Jesus to bring it all home.  He has not stopped loving us and filling humanity with grace.  We as the human race remain stubborn in recognizing such grace.  There are more than a few people in our recent history whom the Church recognized as being crowned to be saints; however, every one of those ind...

  As the Octave before Christmas begins today, the Church begins these special days asking us to reflect on Jesus' family tree.  I know a whole bunch of people who think this passage is a COLOSSAL waste of time to read or listen to at Mass.  I assure you that it's no waste of time.  Personally I think it's fun.  There are definitely many names of people in the passage that you never hear of anywhere else in the Bible, though there are a few.  Naturally in a culture dominated by males, we hear about "N. became the father of N." starting with Abraham.  It's sort of strange that Matthew doesn't go all the way back to Adam; however, the reason he doesn't go back to Adam is that the original covenant between God and human beings was made with Abraham.  He really is more of the dominant figure to the Hebrews in their tradition.  Think slightly forward to the scene of Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus -- how does God expand upon "I AM."  He ...

Yes, I know it happens every year around this time.  Time moves so much faster.  Everyone thinks it's about the holiday rush to go here and there, then there to there.  While that has a little bit of truth to it, the truth is simply that there is less and less sunshine/daylight from day to day until the Winter Solstice on December 20th when daylight hours begin to get longer once again.  Less sunshine means usually means less time awake too.  So the concept of time moving any faster is simply an illusion. Friends, I just read an article criticizing a Cardinal of the Church for discouraging people from kneeling as they receive the Eucharist.  Frankly, I think postures during the Mass do make a difference to the holiness for everyone at Mass.  For instance, I know that some people are still unaccustomed to bowing during the praying of the Nicene Creed when we profess the Incarnation.  "And became man."  It's a simple gesture that we as a Church...

We have all experienced some sort of loss, and they are especially difficult to handle around the holidays.  I know I can be a little far out in the far reaches of the universe at times, but it's a very comforting place to be in my book.  I look at the uber-vastness like the picture above and think about just ultra-insignificant we ought to feel, yet God has each of us in the palm of His hand. If you were reading my bulletin articles before I started this blog, you would know just how much outer space has meant to me, particularly as I listen to some astrophysicists talking about things that are light-years away from Earth, yet won't normally give credit to God for the order of it all.  For instance, why does the above picture seem to be in the shape of a spiral or maybe concentric circles?  Referring to the Big Bang Theory (not the TV show), how does the particle of nothing explode into such perfection?  Some people would say it's still a ton of chaos out there...

  Something that happens at St. Cletus approximately once a month is a guest speaker will be invited to give a formational talk with some time to pray.  It's called "An Evening of Prayer and Reflection."  Normally, the presentation is only given in English; however, this time, there were two nights, first in Spanish two nights ago, then last night in English.  Fr. Mario Serrano, OFM is bilingual and a very dynamic preacher.  His insights last night were very impressive on St. Francis' understanding of The Gift of Incarnation. If you know anything about St. Francis, you probably have seen depictions of him wearing a brown-colored habit with a tonsure (a purposefully cut bald-spot -- not all Franciscans have them in the world today).  What I learned last night was that he was NOT born into poverty.  He was actually kind of spoiled as a young man.  It was after being captured in a military battle that his life began to change.  His captors knew ...

" Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;     look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west     at the word of the Holy One,     rejoicing that they are remembered by God." (Baruch 5:5) The above verse is part of the first reading for this coming Second Sunday of Advent.  It's a great image for me because it brings me back to the Holy Land pilgrimage I was on in 1999-2000 with my seminary class.  It was a great trip, and there are lots of incredible memories.  However, I listen to the prophet Baruch "Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights"  The way Jerusalem is built up in elevation and from walking along the ramparts of the great city (the tops of their walls), one can see for miles to the east.  but Baruch is not simply telling us because we can see forever, but that all of God's children are going to be called back one day -- and not simply the "holy ones."  ALL of God's children....