33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 23

Day 23

I had an acquaintance who died when he was young. He knew he was dying and a few weeks before he died he told his buddies. When I die, go to my grave sometime and have a drink with me. For many years after he died, his friends would gather at his grave and raise a glass to him (actually it was a can--they were all beer drinkers!)

I've used that story to explain the Eucharist. His friends were fulfilling their friend's dying wish. We we celebrate the Eucharist we are fulfilling Jesus' dying wish. "Do this in memory of me." 

After my parents died, many of my brothers and sisters would gather on their anniversary for Mass at Little Flower Parish. For several years, I always had a Mass on their anniversaries. There is a powerful connection between the Eucharist and death because it is really a connection to the resurrection.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We cannot separate what happened on Holy Thursday from what happened on Good Friday from what happened on Easter Sunday. It all goes together for our salvation.

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 22

Day 22

With today's chapter, we are 2/3 of the way to our consecration on Holy Thursday!

There was a time in my spiritual journey where I thought fasting was simply an old fashioned discipline that we really didn't need to practice any longer. About 20 years ago I changed my mine. I don't fast all the time, and now that I have officially been diagnosed with diabetes, I don't fast as much as I used to. But I have discovered there is something powerful about a fast.

I think Matthew Kelly is right when he equates its power with the understanding that we all hunger for something. Allowing ourselves to experience physical hunger helps move me to understand when I am spiritually hungry. It is in the Eucharist that I find the nourishment to combat that spiritual hunger.

When I go on vacation, I often try to find a way to go to church 3 or 4 times a week not because I have to, but because I know I need to. I need Holy Communion; I need Jesus! He is my food for the journey. 

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 21

Day 21

I begin today with two favorite scriptures.

"Without a vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18

The Lord answered and said to me, "Write down the vision; make it plain upon the tablets..." Habakkuk 2:2

As some of you are aware JPII is in the process of developing our next 4 year strategic plan. We hope to publish it this summer. Why do we do this? Look again at those two quotes. We want to know where we are going. We do not want to perish.

Some may say, well, we haven't always had a strategic plan and that is probably true. But I take god at his word. Without a vision, the people perish. And our plan will be written down as well. We will make it plain so that you can read it and hopefully say, "Yes! I want to be a part of this kind of parish!"

And what about your own life. Do you have a vision for you life? Do you have a plan? Is it written down? When I was a newly ordained priest I wrote a list of 20 things I wanted to do before I died. Some would call it a bucket list. I did it again after I had been ordained over 25 years. It amazed me how much my list had changed. It amazed me how much more spiritual my second list was compared to my first. I'll probably do a third list when I retire. I'm sure it will be even more Christ-centered as I continue to grow in my discipleship walk. 

Take some time this week to write out you own vision, and then let God help you find the way to bring it to completeion.

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 20

Day 20

(First of all, I apologize if some of my posts are early or late. I look at a calendar and count the days and then I tell my blog to post at 2:00 a.m. on a particular day. Sometimes it does; sometimes it doesn't. I will have a post for all 33 days. As I said, some may be early and some may be late.)

I really like this chapter and I like at it is placed here on Day 20, a little more than halfway through our 33 Days. The reason I like it so much is that I know it is true. I have seen it played out in my life time and time again. 

The other reason I like it is that I think this is a reason why some people (myself included at times) don't strive to grow in holiness. They don't want to seem weird. They don't want to put off their old friends. They are sometimes afraid of what others might think. 

I have heard from some of our parishioners about how this book is changing their lives. I want to encourage you to not be afraid of that change. God is with you in the change. So if this consecration has caused you to want to go to Mass more, I encourage you to go to Mass more. And if someone asks you why, share with them this book. If this consecration is calling you to spend more time in Eucharistic Adoration, spend the time. 

God is doing great things with JPII. I hope you are willing to be a part of it by consecrating yourself to Jesus in His most Holy Eucharist!

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 19

 Day 19

I had been ordained several years when I heard Fr. Clem Davis give a homily at the First Mass of Fr. Joe Moriarty. He said something in that homily that struck me as true. He said that it didn't matter what had occurred before the Mass (someone stopping to ask a question: him thinking about all the things he had to after Mass; thinking about last minute additions to his homily, whatever the distraction of the day was), or what was going to occur after the Mass, during the Mass their is always a moment that draws us back to God and what we are doing as we preside at the Eucharist.

I have found that to be so true. Like most people, I too can be distracted at Mass. Thoughts flood my mind about this or that. But something always draws me back to what I am doing. It draws me into the mystery. On a good day that is enough to sustain me through the rest of the Mass.

I think that is what the quote from St. Teresa of Avila's house: to celebrate every Mass as if it were my last. Hopefully, I do that. Hopefully, you can do that too.

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 18

Day 18

One of the things I like best about Matthew Kelly's writing is that he is able to hit the nail on the head every time. The quote he offers from St. Paul has been a favorite of mine since I was in High School. "I find myself doing not the good that I want to do but the evil that I don't want to do." I've been able to identify with this quote for a long time. Kelly helps me put it into context and offers a solution that I don't think about often enough.

The context was actually offered by Jesus but Kelly helped me see the connection. "The spirit is willing but the flesh is week." That's the context. The Eucharist is the solution. I've never really thought about the Eucharist as the solution to that dilemma. The next time I want to do the bad thing (watch more tv; not go to the gym; not pray; not eat the right thing), instead I should go to adoration; instead I should go to Mass. 

It's a simple solution. I just wish my flesh wasn't so darn weak!

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 17

 Day 17

A couple of thoughts on today’s reading. The first comes from the words on page 83: “…every truly loving relationship in our lives is stitched together by an endless stream of sacrifices.” Wow! That is such a profound truth. I think about my own parents and what they sacrificed for each other and what they sacrificed for the ten of us kids. 10 Kids raised in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house. Later we added a shower to make it a 2 bathroom house. We not only shared bathrooms, we often shared bathwater! The tub was only emptied after two or three of us bathed. I must admit, I loved the days when I got to be the first bather! 

It seems to me that back then sacrifice was so much a way of life that nobody knew we were sacrificing. In hindsight, we know. 

The second thought from today’s reading comes from a homily I gave on the Eucharist some years ago. When the Jewish people celebrate Passover, they don’t do it simply as a commemoration of some events that happened long ago. They do it as if they were being saved from death at that very moment. It was made real for them again.

That’s what we talk about when we say each Mass is the sacrifice of Jesus made real for us again. It is not that Jesus is being crucified over and over again. His sacrifice was once for all. It is that we participate in that same sacrifice every time we celebrate Mass.

In that homily, I talked about the fact that we can’t divorce Holy Thursday from Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It is one continual action of Jesus giving us His body and blood on Holy Thursday and the pouring out himself on Good Friday so that He can rise on Easter Sunday.

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 16

Day 16

One of my favorite Gospel stories comes out of Mark’s gospel chapter 8 versus 22-26. In this short story Jesus attempts to heal a blind man at Bethsaida. He puts spittle on his eyes and laid hands on him. He asks the man, can you see? The man says he sees people walking around but they look like trees. Jesus repeats the “cure” and the second time the man sees clearly. 

I always joke about Jesus having a bad day because it took him two tries to get it right. The truth of the matter is that we all need to go back to Jesus time and time again for healing. None of us are healed once for all. We all need to return to Jesus over and over again and ask for healing again.

I had a friend who had cancer. He went through treatments and went into remission. Eight years later the cancer came back. I asked him if he was using the same doctor. He said he was using the same two doctors: Dr. John Doe and Dr. Jesus. The latter one he said, always works. Let us never forget that our God is a God of healing. And we all need healing.

 

33 Days to Eucharist Glory Day 15

 Day 15

I love the St. Irenaeus quote: “The glory of God is man fully alive.” on page 74 and the two questions that follow it. What would your life look like if you were “fully alive?” What would need to be true for you to be “fully alive?”

Those two questions really challenged me as I reflected on them. The answer to the second one is that for that statement to be true I would need to trust Good more and let go of the fear that keeps me from being fully alive. For me, fear is not debilitating; instead it is a little voice that tells me I don’t really want to be all that God created me to be. All of that is worthy of deeper reflection for me. 

Monday is my Sabbath since I work on most Sundays. I know I need to do a better job not just scaring work but also resting with God. 

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Day 14

Day 14

We end this week with the saints by looking to the Blessed Mother. Saying yes to all that God asked her stands as the quintessential model of discipleship for all of us.

I remember hearing a homily some years ago from a deacon up in Indianapolis. He said something to the effect of: Holiness sometimes means giving up things that in and of themselves are not bad but simply don’t lead us toward God. That has stayed with me for over 30 years.

Recently one of our parishioners gave me a sticker that says: “Don’t do what makes you happy; Do what makes you holy.” Saying Yes to God is the one thing that always makes you holy and then, surprisingly enough, it also makes you happy.