We Pray the Rosary

My 8th graders were inspired by a short video on You Tube that promotes praying the Rosary. We designed our own shirts in Religion class yesterday and wore them to school today. Mary Ann Wyand, a senior reporter for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis' Catholic Newspaper, the Criterion, interviewed my class today on their experience of praying the Rosary. The article was printed in the Catholic School's Week edition of the Criterion. Please enjoy a few pictures of my students proudly wearing their shirts!

Prayer for Vocations

Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to three classes of freshmen at Thomas Scecina Memorial High School. Fr. Aaron Jenkins, a priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and the Chaplain at Scecina...as well as a Theology teacher at Scecina, and the assistant vocation director for the Archdiocese...invited me to his classroom to talk about my vocation to religious life. (Today, Fr. Jenkins will come to my classroom and speak to my students about his vocation story.) I wanted to share with you the prayer Fr. Jenkins and his students prayed before each class:

O Loving and gracious God, Father of all, You bless your people in every time and season and provide for their needs through your providential care. Your Church is continually in need of priests and deacons, sisters and brothers, and couples committed to love in Holy marriage. Open the hearts of your sons and daughters to listen to your call in their lives. Give them the gift of understanding to discern your invitation to serve you and your Church. Give them the gift of courage to follow your call. May they have the spirit of young Samuel who found fulfillment in his life when he said to you, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening." We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Fr. Jenkins adapted this prayer which he found on the US Bishops' website: http://www.nccbuscc.org/. Please join us in praying daily for vocations. God calls everyone to know, love and serve. So that in all things...God may be glorified!

Vocation Awareness Week

When is the last time you invited someone to think about serving God as a priest, brother or sister? When is the last time you personally discerned your own call to know, love and serve God as a priest, religious brother or sister? In today's Gospel reading, (Mark 1:14-20), Jesus proclaims, "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel." Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John to drop their fishing nets and follow Him. Remarkably, they did just that...and their lives were never the same.

We celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week this week. If you are single, listen to the voice of Jesus calling you to know, love and serve Him. If you are married with children or grandchildren, gently invite them to pray to Jesus to see if He is calling them to serve as a priest, religious brother or sister. God hasn't stopped calling his children to serve in these vocations. We all need to take an active part in helping one another hear that beautiful voice that calls us into a deeper relationship with God. Don't be afraid to ask people to discern religious life or the priesthood. Take courage! If God leads you to it...God will get you through it! I've walked this journey of religious life for nearly 24 years. Saying, "YES" to God's invitation has opened many doors in loving and serving my sweet Jesus and His children. Listen today. What is God saying to you? What are you saying to God?

Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily for the Baptism of Jesus

Baptism of the Lord

Readings: Is 42:1-7; Acts 10:34-38; Lk 3:15-16, 21-22

This feast of the Baptism of the Lord signals the beginning of a transition time in the Liturgical Year. The mood shifts from one of a clear presentation of religious ideals to the murkier realm of having to put them into practice in the midst of a messy world. For the last two weeks the emphasis of the Liturgy has been on the great acts of God: the sending of a Savior or Messiah who is God’s own Son; and that this child is the manifestation of God’s majesty and glory. These are among the great religious ideals of the Christian Faith. The task now, as the Liturgy begins to remind us, is to put them into practice in our lives. That’s easier said than done.

I’m hoping that you will commend me for my restraint. All through this Advent-Christmas-Epiphany season I haven’t said one word about W. H. Auden’s Christmas Oratorio, "For the Time Being." But I’m going to break down today. At the very end of his lengthy Oratorio Auden puts a reflection into the mouth of the narrator that succinctly pinpoints the challenges of putting these ideals into practice. I can’t refrain from reading some of those lines:

"Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes—Some have got broken—and carrying them up to the attic.

The holly and mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school. There are enough Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week—

Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot, Stayed up so late, attempted—quite unsuccessfully—To love all of our relatives, and in general Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again As in previous years we have seen the actual vision and failed To do more than entertain it as an agreeable possibility, once again we have sent Him away,

Begging though to remain His disobedient servant, The promising child who cannot keep His word for long. The Christmas feast is already a fading memory."

We have seen the vision in these past weeks and failed to fully absorb it and realize it. Mostly because we have overestimated our abilities—in other words, we have not faced our weaknesses. That’s the theme of this whole transition period of the Liturgical Year: balancing the ideal religious vision with our own human limitations and failures. It’s so easy to look at one or the other by itself; but it’s so hard to keep them together in the same picture. Because, doing so, you always feel (just a little) like a hypocrite.

You know. Maybe we would do better by just admitting from the very beginning that we are hypocrites. So many of us are...really. The parents who warn their children against drinking, but who on occasion hit the bottle too hard themselves. The priest or minister who preaches a higher Christian morality to his/her congregation than he/she personally observes. The religious superior who continually admonishes all of his/her community members to a diligent regular prayer practice, knowing full well that’s the first thing that goes in his/her life when administrative duties pile up. If we admitted to ourselves regularly that we are hypocrites, it would be a lot harder to criticize anyone else...about anything. Look on the bright side. The next time someone calls you a hypocrite, you can say: "Of course, I am. We all are. But hopefully we are hypocrites trying to do better. That’s what the Christian life is all about."

8th Graders Serve at the Soup Kitchen

The Cathedral Kitchen experience was one I won't forget anytime soon. It was a reality check to see the hungry of our city. It makes me understand and acknowledge that there are difficult things in this world. At first it was a little nerveracking. I didn't know what to expect. In the beginning it was a rush to get drinks out, but after a while, it began to slow down. I came to appreciate what the people that serve everyday, do. I recommend that everyone spends some time at the soup kitchen. It helps you to appreciate everything that God has given you. The experience truly will touch your heart, and by your acts of love and service you will touch their hearts. By your good deeds and actions, you can bring people closer to God. (Emily P.)

Recently, I had my second opportunity to serve at the soup kitchen. Even though I had already been once before, it still touched my heart. This time instead of one of the volunteers leading the prayer one of the men sang to us. He had an amazing voice. This made me truly understand that everyone has a God given talent or gift that we have been blessed with. I really enjoy going to the soup kitchen and I'm looking forward to going back in the future! (Samantha A.)

I went to the Cathedral Soup Kitchen where I learned two things. 1. You can't judge a book by its cover; and 2. Not everyone has the best of life. I was wearing my UNC hat and many of the neighbors we were serving came up to me and starting talking to me about UNC. It made me realize that being homeless doesn't make you totally different. I learned that not everyone has the best of life. Many of the neighbors looked like they haven't eaten all day. (Jake F.)

Fr. Matthias Neuman's Homily on the Feast of the Epiphany

Feast of Epiphany Sunday - Jan. 3, 2010
Readings: Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-6; Mt 2:1-12

The main theme of the feast of Epiphany seems rather evident: it is the manifestation, the "shining through" (epi-phania) of the majesty and glory of God. This God in Jesus Christ has been made known to the nations—that is symbolized so powerfully by the three magi (or kings) who come to pay homage to the new-born child (and king). That’s the basic message of Epiphany.

Or so it seems. But is there something more? There are few other feasts so liable to subtle distortion as this one of Epiphany. The mistake that Christians often make is to assume that the evidence for God is plain and irrefutable, and all that’s needed is a simple acknowledgment of the fact that God’s glory is plainly clear. That would be a mistake. In a recent article the religious writer, Karen Armstrong,
deals with the subject, "How Not to Talk about God." (U.S.Catholic, Vol. 75, No.1, pp. 24-28). She makes the point that most people in Western culture treat God as a fact that is easily proven, that God is a distinct personality like you and me, that
God is a "creator" in the same way that you and I create something. She then goes on to say that the best of the Catholic theological tradition (e.g. St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Augustine or St. Gregory of Nyssa) never see God in those self-evident terms. They would never say that God is a fact or a distinct personality like any of us. They would always remember the inadequacy of
any human speech about God, and that true language about God can only end in silence and transcendence. In other words, the coming of Jesus Christ is only a hint and a direction towards who God is. Jesus Christ is never the clear and scientifically proven answer about God. Jesus Christ rather leads us toward Mystery.

Actually the liturgy tells us the very same thing. If we have listened carefully to the words of the Christmas Prefaces we would have caught that. The first Christmas Preface says, "In Christ we see our God made visible and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see." Jesus does not ultimately lead us to clear knowledge, but rather to be "caught up in love" before Mystery. The second Christmas Preface has a similar thought: "No eye can see His Glory as our God, yet now He is seen as One like us." Again Jesus leads us to an unseen Mystery. It is that which we
celebrate this feast of Epiphany.

Karen Armstrong provides another clue that takes us a step further. She says, we must remember that religion is ultimately a practical form of knowledge. It makes no sense unless you put it into action. (p. 26) Let’s go back to that First Preface of Christmas: "In Christ we are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see." The adoration of Jesus as the Incarnate Word leads us to an act of love, which means that the true Mystery of God in the Christian sense can only ultimately be known in an act of love. The knowledge of God that Jesus brings is not a knowledge of the mind, but of the heart. It’s like this: the gift of Jesus brings us to the point of knowing the boundless love God has for each of us. But in that very act of intellectual knowing, all intellectual knowledge fades away and our only further response is an act of love to the God who loves us beyond all bounds. In that moment we are "caught up in the love of the God we cannot see." Epiphany is indeed a very powerful Christian feast.

Jesus' January Message

Each month, Anne, a lay apostle, receives a message from Jesus. This is the message for January. To read more about the locutions Anne receives from Jesus and His Blessed Mother click on this link: Direction For Our Times.

There are many different ways to communicate love. One of the ways that I communicate love to My apostles is through My constant presence. I am in each moment, in each day, offering you My heavenly companionship. I offer you a constant stream of love which heals and reassures, which steadies and directs. When allowed, I can help an apostle to adjust his viewpoint to My viewpoint, which is very different from the viewpoint of one who has either forgotten about My presence or rejected My companionship. With this viewpoint comes calm purpose. The days flow past, one by one, and My will flows through each one of you who has accepted My presence. You do not see big changes at your hands. Perhaps you wonder if your cooperation is helpful at all. I assure you today that if you were to reject Me tomorrow, My kingdom would suffer. Without you, I would have one less home for My great love on earth. Each time I use you to love another, I feel gratitude. My gratitude is a force for change in the lives of those around you. You are gaining graces that only heaven can understand. Only heaven can see how an action of grace is stored in waiting. This grace surrounds each person you intercede for and at a moment when it is possible, meaning that heaven sees the opening, that grace is utilised to protect and advance the soul. Dear apostle, serving heaven so steadily, leave all of your difficulties to Me. Abandon yourself to My providence completely. Serve with discipline in this moment and I will care for your loved ones. I am using you for the purpose of love and I want to use you even more fully. When you become discouraged, please sit with Me and I will help you to grasp the limited nature of your vision. Concentrate on My will for your day. Concentrate on remaining in the present, connected to your service in each moment. Avoid being trapped by the past and avoid being drawn into a future on earth which may not include you. You do not know when I will come for you. But I am with you now, as you read these words, and I have work for you today. Look, together with Me, at what I am asking of you and together we will be a successful force for love. I crave love from you. When you trust Me and reject fear, I am delighted. Calm, steady service is what I require from My beloved apostles who seek to serve Me. Be at peace. I am with you.