I’m very competitive.  I may or may not “talk smack” if you try to take me on in card games or sports…especially when I’m good at them—that includes bowling, by the way, so watch out OLM bowling league.  As I reflect, I can see that this competitive spirit began in grade school, carried into high school, and has even continued into college and priestly ministry!

Competition is a good thing (and I’m not just saying that because I’m biased).  It is something that reminds us of the need to put in the necessary effort and discipline if we want to succeed.  St. Paul writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize!” (1 Cor 9:24)  St. Paul desires that people put the same effort they put into sports into growing their faith.

Still, there is one area of our lives where competition should have no place: our relationship with God.  This is because God is not in competition with us.  What we learn as children and adults—namely, “if somebody else wins, I lose”—doesn’t translate in our relationship with God.  When God wins, we win.  He’s on our side, and He’s one heck of a teammate!

When my nephew was a tiny infant, it was a joy just to be able to hold him. I didn’t challenge him to a competition, or question who was winning out the most in our relationship.  I just wanted to be with him—to hold him and to rejoice in him. The Lord desires the same kind of relationship with us.  He wants to be with us! He wants to be held close to our hearts, just as He holds us close to His own heart.

This shows us one of the reasons why God chose to become an infant.  He wants to break through our imagined competition with Him, and show us that fighting against Him is just about as unreasonable as fighting against a helpless infant. When God wins, we win. Let’s be thankful this Christmas for our God who is so powerful and majestic that He’s not afraid to become a helpless tiny infant, showing us just how much He wants to be with us, and just how far He is willing to go for us!

Father Michael

Have you ever had a dream for yourself or family and saw it realized; whether it be personal, spiritual, or vocational?  It’s usually an unforgettable moment filled with great joy.  I have been blessed to be able experience this in my own life on various occasions: from running a marathon with my sister two years after my last chemo, to desiring to hear the Lord’s voice in prayer, to responding to the Lord’s calling in my ordination to the priesthood.  All were unforgettable and joyful moments where dreams were fulfilled!

St. Matthew’s Gospel is known as the fulfillment Gospel.  Throughout his Gospel, St. Matthew writes, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet…”  St. Matthew is preparing his readers to receive the dream given to all of humanity—the dream to be once again reunited with our God and creator.

For St. Joseph, this dream was literally his own. An angel of the Lord explained to St. Joseph in his dreams what was soon to come and the role that he was invited to play.  Although it took great courage, St. Joseph answered the call to participate in this dream. He knew that the very same God who freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, who fed His people in the desert, and who promised to once again deliver His people from bondage, was reaching out him in this dream.

That dream can be ours as well—and not only a dream, but the fulfillment of that dream! It takes great courage to follow God’s lead, even if His promises seem hard to believe, but for those who follow it, they will know the greatest dream of all to come true in their own lives. Let us unite ourselves with St. Joseph this week as prepare for Christmas. For on Christmas day, we receive Emmanuel anew—God with us—the greatest dream to ever come true!

Father Michael

“What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?” One has to wonder why everyone who met Jesus didn’t immediately fall down at His feet and exclaim, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Matt 27:54) Rather, He was hidden in ordinary human flesh. John the Baptist himself, who according to Jesus is greater than all those born of women, has to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Our expectations can severely limit our capacity to see, and Jesus’ response to John is thus to refix his expectations.

It should therefore be no wonder that everyone who encounters the Eucharist doesn’t immediately fall down at His feet and exclaim, “Truly this is the Son of God!” We can really only see the Eucharist for what it is, if we see Jesus for who He is, and adjust our expectations accordingly.

So, what would we expect? What has Jesus shown us about Himself? Jesus is humble. He’s not afraid to be a helpless little baby. He is generous—He does not withhold His Body and Blood from being poured out for the world on the cross. He wants to be with us—so much so that He left the glory of heaven to visit His people. And He is radically in love with us—He is “the bridegroom”, we are the bride, and He therefore wants to become “one flesh” with us.

Knowing this—knowing Jesus for who He truly is—it is no wonder that God gives Himself to us in the Eucharist: His Presence, His Sacrifice, and His Communion. Just as He was hidden in human flesh to give us this threefold gift, so too now He is doubly hidden, both His divinity and humanity, so as to give all of humanity these gifts until the end of time.

Jesus provides us with something irrefutably stable in his words, deeds, and person to show us who God is—in a word, He teaches us to see God. Although this doesn’t come immediately to those who meet Our Lord, remember that “the blind regain their sight” because of Him. Thus, just as Jesus revealed how much God loves us on the cross, may we allow Him to heal our blindness and show us just how much God loves us in the Eucharist.

Father James

When I was growing up, my family would often host the various holiday gatherings. Inevitably, when Thanksgiving or Christmas rolled around and we were on to host, the family would go into an all-out cleanup mode. Suddenly, everyone had extra chores, and I still remember that my job was to Windex the tabletops and vacuum the carpets. The family went full court press on cleanup and our hope was to prepare a home worthy of receiving our extended family and honored guests.

We can make the same connection with the season of Advent. This Liturgical season is meant to prepare our hearts to receive Jesus Christ on Christmas day. St. John the Baptist proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” His mission was much the same: to prepare people to receive Jesus through the gift of repentance. Hence, if we’re wondering how to prepare for Christmas, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is always a beautiful way to prepare to receive Jesus.

It is important to note that, although St. John the Baptist’s message was proclaimed in the desert of all places, people still traveled great distances to receive his message of repentance. I truly believe that these travels themselves were even part of the preparation of repentance—showing they were willing to go out of their way to ask God for forgiveness. Likewise, any good confession needs preparation and effort. I would suggest taking the time to read through a good examination, whether it’s the ones in the narthex, on our MyParish app, online by searching for the “Knights of Columbus examination of conscience” or on our website under Sacraments and select Reconciliation (where you can find an Examination of Conscience for Children, Teens, Singles, Married and one in Spanish).

Now in all honesty, I have to acknowledge that when we had to prepare the house for our visitors, I didn’t always respond in the most enthusiastic way. I sometimes would only begrudgingly finish my tasks. However, the one thing that never changed was the joy that we all had in celebrating the holidays with family and friends. This can happen with the Sacrament of Reconciliation too! It might not be an enjoyable experience to have to acknowledge our brokenness and sins, but it will allow us all the more to celebrate the welcoming of Jesus into our hearts this Christmas!

In this spirit, Fr. James and I will be offering six straight days of confession this year. Starting Monday December 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, through Friday the 16th, 7-8:30 PM, followed by our normal Saturday confession times. Our hope is to give an ample amount of time for people to prepare their hearts to receive Jesus.

Father Michael

Our need for the humility of Jesus—found firstly in the manger—is a great place to begin our Advent. Allow me to share with you a little excerpt from one of my favorite novelists, Michael O’Brien, in his book Plague Journal:

“There are ways of dealing with trouble in an affluent age. If you have enough money or influence, health and power, you can stave off trouble for a long time. You can pad and buffer and distract yourself until the illusion of mastery is complete. The only weakness in this seemingly perfect method is that your life must then be preoccupied with padding, buffering, and distracting. Most of us do it to some degree. We can’t help it really. Pain just isn’t fun; helplessness is scary. But suffering finds us all sooner or later. There is no hiding place, and, when raising a family, you are especially exposed to the dangers of human existence.

     I didn’t know it then, but the cost of a happy family is the death of selfishness. The father must die if he is to give life to his spouse and children. Not a pleasant thought but a true one. An entire lifetime can be spent avoiding it. It’s simply not enough to provide and protect. In themselves, of course, providing and protecting are good and necessary things. That is our responsibility.

     But a father can provide a mountain of material goods for his family and defend it against all kinds of inconveniences, thinking he can rest easy, having done his part, and still have missed the essential point: he is called to be an image of love and truth. The house he provides, be it a cabin, a mansion, or a barge painted Christmas colors, must have at its core a heart that is willing to look at its poverty. As long as we’re convinced of our own strengths, our cleverness, and our cagey ability to endure, we still think we’re in charge. We construct a life-style of eliminating difficulties at any cost. It takes a lot of padding if you’re to avoid the unexplainable, unjust blows of suffering. There will come a time, however, when this elaborate defense system crumbles.”

If we don’t see our need for Jesus, our own poverties, then Advent isn’t very exciting. If, on the other hand, we know that we are nothing without Jesus, and if Jesus becomes the deepest desire of our hearts, then we won’t be able to help but echo the ancient, eager cry of Advent, “Maranatha!” Come Lord Jesus! …into my heart, into my life, into my family, into my sufferings, into my joys, and into my poverty! You alone give perfect peace. You alone give  perfect joy.

Father James