For any mothers who have experienced the loss of a child because of miscarriage I would like to have a special Mass.  The miscarriage may have been due to natural causes, accident, or even abortion.  No matter what the circumstances, with you I want to lift your children up in the Holy Eucharist on Thursday, May 31st, at 5:30 p.m.  That is the Feast of the Visitation Mary with Elizabeth who were both with child, celebrating the beauty and glory of LIFE in their wombs.

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Jesus is the “Good Shepherd!” He loves and cares for us like a shepherd cares for His sheep.  He takes care of our every need and leads us along the right path. In fact, so much does He care for us that Jesus says, “I would lay down my life for my sheep.”

Of course we know that Christ did in fact lay down His life for us. During Holy Week we celebrated the paschal mystery of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  He literally died for our sake. As we continue to celebrate the Easter Season and rejoice in His glorious resurrection, we recognize that Christ’s loving care for us extends to today. He is actively involved in the life of the Church providing for all of our needs and guiding us along our way.

In response to Christ’s life-giving love it is our responsibility as His disciples to give ourselves in return to Him. We offer Him our whole lives in thanksgiving for all He has done for us. We express this offering of our lives by giving our time, talent, and treasure as an extension of His mission.  As His disciples it is our calling and our responsibility to use our lives for His greater glory. Everything we do — at home, at school, at work, and elsewhere — should glorify the Good Shepherd and call others to believe in His loving care.

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This coming week I will be going on pilgrimage in Wisconsin.  The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is in Lacrosse.  And the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help is in Champion, near Green Bay.  Champion is the only place in the United States that is officially approved by the Catholic Church to be an actual site of Mary’s apparition.  I will be praying for all of you.

In our Father’s hands,

In the first reading from the book of Acts, St. Luke paints a picture of what life was like in the early Church. “The community of believers was of one heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions were his own. They had everything in common. … There was no needy person among them.”

Luke’s description tells us that the early Christians lived charitably towards one another. They loved the Lord, and out of their love for Him, they loved one another. Their lives as Christians were rooted in their faith in Christ. That faith led them to love — love God and love neighbor. And so they lived in love of one another recognizing that nothing they had was ultimately theirs; it belonged to God. It became their lived experience to use all they had been given by God in service of one another.  In a word, as disciples of Jesus they were merciful stewards of all God gave them.

As Christian stewards today we too believe in the risen Christ and we proclaim Him to the world. But it is not just by what we say, we also proclaim Christ by what we do. St. John tells us, They will know we are Christians by our love.”  Hear again the words of St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary, use words.”

The life of a Christian disciple ought to be lived in love of others. Through your loving actions people will experience the living gospel in you. After all, that’s what Christ did; He lived for love of others — even to the point of death.

Like those early Christians who were eye witnesses to the death and resurrection of our Lord, we recognize that nothing we have is ours. It all comes to us by way of gift from our heavenly Father. Now it is our responsibility to cultivate and care for it. Our time, our talent, and our treasure are the ways we love our God and our neighbor. In so doing, we proclaim the Gospel of Love and Mercy that Jesus Christ himself preached in word and in letting water and blood flow from His side to redeem the whole world.

So, by sacrificing Himself the way He did (for the sake of others), Jesus gave glory to the Father. What does that mean for us today?

As His disciples, we follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We follow His example. This does not mean that we are all called to die a cruel torturous death. But we are all called to live lives of sacrifice – offering ourselves – our time, our talents, and our treasure – to love and serve the Lord by loving and serving others. What’s more, we do not do so in such a way that we give of our excess. Quite the opposite, in fact. Jesus’ Passion and Death shows us that this gift of self ought to be sacrificial. It ought to come from the first fruits of ourselves. In fact, we ought to give our whole lives – everything we say and do should be done for the glory of God and the service of others.

It is not an easy calling, but it is a noble one. The goal of it all, to give glory to the Lord our God.

In our Father’s hands,

“Repent and believe in the gospel.”

These words are a familiar beginning to the Lenten Season. Year after year we hear them in the readings that initiate this season. They offer a gentle reminder of our sinful nature and our need for God’s saving grace. They are appropriate to focus on as we enter the season of Lent and prepare to celebrate the greatest mystery of all time, the mystery through which our salvation was made possible — the passion, death, and ultimately the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Lent is a time when we focus in a particular way on our sinfulness. We recognize that it is because of the sins of humanity that Jesus had to suffer and die. We fast and pray to join our Lord’s efforts in making reparations for our sins. But we don’t celebrate this season filled with hopelessness and despair. Rather, we are quite hopeful. We know that Christ died for our sins and then rose from the dead, offering us life everlasting. That’s the gospel message. That’s what we believe. It is full of hope for us.

It is no secret that our world is wrought with sin. All one has to do is turn on the television or open the newspaper to see evidence of that. And, yet, we have good news for all. Let us take the opportunity this Lent to proclaim the good news, not only with our words, but by the way we live our lives. Ours should be lives lived in hope of salvation. Ours should be lives lived in service for others. Ours should be lives through which others see Jesus at work in the world.

A life lived as such is not easy. It is full of responsibility, but it is also full of tremendous grace and other invaluable rewards, not the least of which is bringing others to Christ. Let’s follow Christ’s example as disciples are supposed to do — living in this world but not of it, proclaiming the gospel to all we meet and encouraging one another to “repent and believe”.

In our Father’s Hands,

Fr. Greg

“Greg, stop!  Look at me.  Look at me in the Holy Eucharist.  I am here.  I am here in the form of bread.

I am here in reality.  I am here sacramentally.  I am here.  I fulfill my promise to be with you all the days of your earthly life by coming to you in the Eucharist.  Of all the other ways I speak to my people, this is the center, this is my heart, this is where my soul connects with your soul.  This is where I nourish you most.

I feed your intellect, your body, and your soul here in the Eucharist.

Today and tomorrow people around the world will pay tribute to my birthday thousands of years ago.  Every day, I make my very presence available to them in the Eucharist, and so few come to adore me.  Am I only a memory to my people?  People treat me like they treated my mom, Joseph and I in Bethlehem.  There was no room in the inn for us.  I was happy to be born in a manger, but I was sad for the ones who could not, would not find room for us in their homes and in their hearts.

The world treats me the same today.  There is no room in their hearts for me. They push me out of      the schools like the kids, my children, who were suspended for “Tebowing”.  (There is a quarterback for the  Denver Broncos named Tebow, who goes down to one knee to pray.)  They push me out of government by removing my Ten Commandments from the courtrooms.  They push me off the street corners and replace me with empty words, “Happy Holidays”.  I am so ignored by retailers, they don’t even   use my name or image    to draw customers into their stores anymore.

And, I am most heartbroken by all the people who divorce sexuality from the very gift of life I want

to give them.  Whenever someone participates in an abortion they are saying, “There is no room in my life      for the gift of life God wants to give me.”  Whenever they use contraception they are saying, “I am not open    to Christ’s abundant love for me”.  Whenever they sleep with someone they are not married to they are saying, “I don’t care what Jesus says, I’m going to live my way.”  Whatever happened to the prayer, “Not my will,    but Thy will be done?” The world has made it a joke.

Yet, there is hope (referring to a little brother of one of our First Confession children a couple weeks ago).  Remember the little boy who responded to your question, “Where do you come from?”  He said, rightly  in his three-year old conviction, “Jesus threw me down from heaven into my mommy’s belly.”  Even now,  there are signs of understanding from the smallest and simplest of my people.

I am the source of life, every life.   I am the source of all creation, with my Father in heaven and my Holy Spirit.  The world will not succeed in shutting us out.  There may not be room in the inn, room in the hearts of many, but there will always be those who come and worship me.

So, don’t lose heart.  Just like at my birth, I will find a place in this world to be born again.  Like the shepherds, people will come in search of me.  Dignitaries will come and bow down to me.  And the angels    will sing with all the heavenly hosts, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.”

Greg, invite my people to reform their lives.

Invite them to remember my birth and my cross.

Invite them to adore me in the Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist.

Tell them I love them from the depths of My Sacred Heart.

Christmas Eve (Saturday, Dec. 24th) – 4:00pm & 6:30pm

Christmas Day (Sunday, Dec. 25th) – 9:30am

• Pray with her – thank God for your wife and ask Him to bless her every day.
• Protect her – from harm, sin, illness, lust, danger, embarrassment, and all evil.
• Provide for her – affection, a break from kids, words of praise, materially, etc.
• be Present to her – communicate and spend time with her doing some things she likes.
• Point her in the right direction – show her how to live for Jesus Christ.

The more we as men take serious these ways of loving the women in our lives, the more we will live in loving and happy marriages.  I am grateful for all of you who live in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.  May the Lord bless you until death do you part.