Blowing on sparks....

"Fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God's gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control." 

2 Timothy 1:6-7

 This is the scriptural passage I chose to put on my ordination prayer card.  I think it's a marvelous image for spiritual reflection... I know as an Eagle Scout and pyro it certainly speaks to my heart! There's a visceral sense of contentment and achievement and even joy when you blow gently and steadily on a smoldering little almost-fire and feel and hear and smell it grow into a merrily burning blaze, or even a bonified bonfire.

I'm coming up on celebrating one year of priesthood in a week, and what a year it's been!  Very full, very challenging, very joyful.  I like that quote even more now than when I chose it.  There are SO many challenges that the Church faces in our increasingly broken and hostile world.  There are SO many challenges each one of us faces as we try to hear and respond to the Lord's beguiling whisper in our hearts.  And, at the same time, there are far more sparks of the Holy Spirit in hearts and minds, just waiting to be gently blown into a blaze. 

What could be more fascinating than the care of souls?  To be entrusted with shepherding and encouraging and challenging and cajoling God's adopted sons and daughters, one's own brothers and sisters in Christ!  It is a fearful and joyful and awesome thing.  I've just been given the tiniest taste of it in this first year, perhaps even a hearty helping, as I prefer.

And, at the same time, one's own soul is to be shepherded.  To go within and encounter the Lord of Heaven and Earth... to be docile and listening and open in the midst of many duties and responsibilities, each one of them sacred, and at the same time, potentially, an obstacle to hearing the Lord's voice. 

And what an arsenal!  What tools, what means of grace!  The big guns: Confession, the Eucharist, Prayer!  So many saints and angels, such a cloud of witnesses and examples!

God, Father of Heaven and Earth, I thank you and praise you and glorify your name for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and for your call to me, and to all your sons and daughters.  Set us ablaze with love for You and for one another.  Help us to see the sparks of life and love in the midst of storms, and darkness, and confusion. Amen!

3 New Deacons for our Diocese!

It was a great joy and privilege to concelebrate the Ordination Mass yesterday afternoon at St. Peter's Cathedral where Ryan Ford, Nick Thompson, and Terry Saunders were ordained deacons!  Transitional deacons Ford and Thompson are now entering their last year of formation for the priesthood, while Deacon Saunders is a permanent deacon.  There is a nice article about all three of them in the most recent issue of the U.P. Catholic.  Thank God for such good and faithful men willing to lay down their lives in service to the Lord and His Church!

It was a particularly proud day for St. Anne's Parish in Escanaba, where both Deacon Ryan and Deacon Terry are parishioners.  Deacon Nick is from Resurrection Parish in Menominee, MI.

Fr. Larry and I are VERY excited to have Deacon Ryan with us this summer at St. Michael's.  He spent last summer at the Cathedral, so this will be a further chapter of pastoral experience and growth for him.

The three deacons had a nice reception here at St. Michael's in the Zyrd Parish Center for their immediate family.  Towards the end, Deacon Ryan got up and had some kind words of thanksgiving to share.

Bishop Sample and his mother Joyce both came as well.  After the reception, some of the Boy Scouts who are working on the Ad Altare Dei Religious Award (the name means "towards the altar of God") helped out with the clean-up.  They had also been at the reception.  Bishop Sample graciously agreed to take a picture with us:

We finished the day with a dip in Lake Superior!  I don't have any pictures, I'm sorry to say!  Fr. Tim Ekaitis had to make up for wimping out on Thursday when I jumped in off some rocks in the midst of a kayak trip and he didn't!  So, Fr. Larry, Fr. Tim, Deacon Ryan and I went out to the beach in the moonlight and made three bold plunges into the lake.  VERY refreshing!  The swimming season has begun!  One of Fr. Larry's and my pastoral goals for Deacon Ryan is that he fill out a little bit - it takes a little extra insulation to be able to "bear" swimming in Lake Superior!

How do Christians live in the world? Wisdom from the Early Church...

Every year, the following reading is one of my favorites. It is a strange thing to be strangers and sojourners in a world that is good, broken, and passing. We are pilgrims, this is not our final home. At the same time, we hope for the restoration of all things in Christ. Read, enjoy, ponder, share your thoughts!  - Fr. Ben

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from Universalis

The 2nd Reading from the Office of Readings for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Easter.

From a letter to Diognetus

The Christian in the world

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labour under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.

Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonour, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.

To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body’s hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.

Responsory

I am the light of the world. He who follows me can never walk in darkness; he will possess the light which is life, alleluia.

In me is all grace of way and of truth, in me all hope of life and of strength. He who follows me can never walk in darkness; he will possess the light which is life, alleluia.

Closing Prayer

O God, you love innocence and restore it.
Turn the hearts of your servants towards you:
let us be firm in faith and effective in good works.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,God for ever and ever.
Amen.

Jesus Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

It's been a busy month since St. Patrick's Day! I've not been fulfilling my bloggerly duties! Since there's been no outcry, I can only imagine you have been holding in your loss! ;)

It is Eastertime, 50 days to focus on the resurrection!

Here's an excerpt from the Second Reading of today's Office of Readings, cut and paste from .

It was the Lord’s will that his gifts should remain with us, and that we who have been redeemed by his precious blood should constantly be sanctified according to the pattern of his own passion. And so he commanded those faithful disciples of his whom he made the first priests of his Church to enact these mysteries of eternal life continuously. All priests throughout the churches of the world must celebrate these mysteries until Christ comes again from heaven. Therefore let us all, priests and people alike, be faithful to this everlasting memorial of our redemption. Daily it is before our eyes as a representation of the passion of Christ. We hold it in our hands, we receive it in our mouths, and we accept it in our hearts.

It is appropriate that we should receive the body of Christ in the form of bread, because, as there are many grains of wheat in the flour from which bread is made by mixing it with water and baking it with fire, so also we know that many members make up the one body of Christ which is brought to maturity by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, and since it was fitting that he should fulfil all justice, he entered into the waters of baptism to sanctify them. When he left the Jordan he was filled with the Holy Spirit who had descended upon him in the form of a dove. As the evangelist tells us: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan.

Similarly, the wine of Christ’s blood, drawn from the many grapes of the vineyard that he had planted, is extracted in the wine-press of the cross. When men receive it with believing hearts, like capacious wineskins, it ferments within them by its own power.

- From a sermon by Saint Gaudentius of Brescia, bishop

May we be united into one body by Christ! May the Eucharist we receive lead us into Christ, to become Christ, and to bring Him to the whole world!

God Bless,
Fr. Ben

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's already over in Ireland, but here's a good St. Patrick's Prayer for every day.

The Breastplate of St. Patrick

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through a belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of creation.I arise today

Through the strength of Christ’s birth and His baptism,

Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,

Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,

Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom. I arise today

Through the strength of the love of cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In service of archangels,

In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In the prayers of patriarchs,

In preachings of the apostles,

In faiths of confessors,

In innocence of virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven;

Light of the sun,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of the wind,

Depth of the sea,

Stability of the earth,

Firmness of the rock.

I arise today

Through God’s strength to pilot me;

God’s might to uphold me,

God’s wisdom to guide me,

God’s eye to look before me,

God’s ear to hear me,

God’s word to speak for me,

God’s hand to guard me,

God’s way to lie before me,

God’s shield to protect me,

God’s hosts to save me

From snares of the devil,

From temptations of vices,

From every one who desires me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone or in a mulitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,

Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom,

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that reward may come to me in abundance.Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,

Christ in the eye that sees me,

Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through a belief in the Threeness,

Through a confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of creation

St. Patrick (ca. 377)

Monks @ St. Michael's

It was a great joy to host the 5 monks of Holy Transfiguration Skete here at St. Michael's last night.  They gave a great Lenten program, weaving together their distinctive Ukrainian Byzantine prayer with scripture, a homily, and a conference, introducing us to "Eastern Catholics," their monastic life and discipline, and applying it to our daily lives. Most of all, the encouraged to keep the Lenten Fast, in all it's many aspects, and so to prepare for the joy of Easter.

I cooked dinner, which was a little nerve wracking, since the monks support themselves by their culinary wonders at the JamPot!  It turned out pretty good, even though about 45 minutes late - I still don't have that timing thing down. We had some amazing fresh lake trout from Thills, potatoes, broccoli, and red cabbage.  Lots of good leftovers for lunch today, and several lunches to come!

Pictures are up on Facebook, here's an external link you can use to get to them: Monks @ St. Michael's.

Tomorrow is the Marquette Frassati Society's first Theology on Tap... 8:00 pm at the Landmark.  Fr. Sean will be speaking on "Our Spiritual Journey: Climbing the Mountain of God."

See you there!

God Bless,
Fr. Ben

Climbing the Spiritual Mountain: Theology on Tap this Thursday

Friends, countrymen, all those over 21...

The Marquette Frassati Society will be hosting Marquette's first-ever Theology on Tap this Thursday, March 18th, at 8:00 pm at the Landmark Inn.  There's a private room right across from the pub, that is where we'll be!

Fr. Sean Kopczynski, C.P.M. (Fathers of Mercy) is the chaplain at the Disclaced Carmelite Monastery of the Holy Cross in Iron Mountain, MI.  He is a gifted preacher and catechist, and a faithful priest.

So, come enjoy a yeasty beverage (with appropriately Lenten moderation) and join the conversation on spiritual growth and renewal.


It's going to be HUGE!

God Bless, 
Fr. Ben