News from P.I.T. (Pastor in Training)
March 31, 2019 | Fourth Sunday of Lent
Congratulations Deacon Senovio Sarabia, Jr.! Our seminarian intern who has been with us since the fall of 2017 was ordained a transitional deacon yesterday. We are thrilled to have been a part of his preparation for ministry and this special day. His first Mass to serve as a deacon is today at 9:00AM here at Our Lady of Mercy. He will continue to be with us on weekends until school is out for the summer. This summer he will be living with Fr. Mark and myself. He will have some responsibilities here at the parish and at various diocesan events for youth during the summer. When he returns to school this fall, he will continue to be with us on most weekends and will deacon a weekend Mass and occasionally preach. Assuming Deacon Senovio passes his final courses and is recommended by the seminary, he should be ordained a priest in May 2020. We pledge our prayerful support as Deacon Senovio embraces this final period of preparation for the priesthood. And we look forward to his diaconal ministry with us!
Because we have adults to be baptized at the Easter Vigil, we use the ACycle scripture readings for Mass today even though we are in the C-Cycle readings this year. The Scrutiny’s are celebrated on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent with those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil and the prayers are based on the A-Cycle readings. Today we celebrate the 2nd Scrutiny at the 9:00AM Mass. The 3rd and final Scrutiny will be celebrated at the 10:45AM Mass next Sunday.
The C-Cycle gospel you won’t hear today is the story of the prodigal son. So, I would like to share a few thoughts about this familiar gospel. This being the 4th Sunday of Lent or “Laetare” “Rejoice” Sunday, there is much to rejoice about! Jesus addressed this story to the scribes and Pharisees because of their efforts to undermine his message. The story is of two sons who had a falling out with their father. Neither son had a grasp of his true relationship with the father. Each operated out of his own desires and suppositions. And neither was filled with joy. The younger son didn’t see what he had. He imagined that he could find a better life away from his father and family. That son broke away after demanding his inheritance. The older son also did not see what he had. However, this son stayed at home and did what was expected of him. But his heart was not in it. Inside, he may have been jealous of his brother, who had the nerve to ask for his inheritance and then skipped out to squander it on loose living. Both sons needed to return to the father – and so do we. Jesus addressed this parable to the scribes and Pharisees – and to us. We are all sinners. We are in need of God’s loving kindness, God’s ever-available mercy. Like the father in this parable, the God of love and mercy is always waiting for our return! And THAT is worth REJOICING about!
Have a Blessed Lent!
Fr Don
March 24, 2019 | Third Sunday of Lent
We welcome Deacon Keith Strohm to Our Lady of Mercy Parish! Deacon Keith is a Deacon in the Archdiocese of Chicago and Executive Director of M3 Ministries. He will be leading our parish Lenten Mission March 25th through 27th. I attended a workshop given by him last summer sponsored by our Diocesan Religious Education Office. I was very much enriched by his presentation on the five paradigm shifts parish leadership must undertake to transform parishes into a culture of discipleship and mission. This transition has begun at Our Lady of Mercy.
I invite and encourage you to attend our Lenten Mission. Invite neighbors and family who don’t belong to OLM to join you. The Good News is for EVERYONE! I am sure you will enjoy and be enriched by Deacon Keith’s presentations: Monday’s presentation is “The Father’s Delight”, Tuesday’s presentation is “Breaking the Power of Sin” and Wednesday’s presentation is “Unleashing the Spirit”. I urge you not to miss this opportunity!!
Even though we are in the “C cycle” scripture readings for Mass, we will be using the “A cycle” readings this weekend and the next two weekend at all the Masses. This is because we have adults to be baptized at the Easter Vigil this year and on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent, a liturgical rite called “Scrutiny” is celebrated with the Elect – those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. The scrutinies are based on three specific gospel stories that are found in the “A cycle” readings. The scrutinies solemnly celebrated on Sundays, are rites for self-searching and repentance and have, above all, a spiritual purpose. The scrutinies are meant to uncover, and then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong, and good. The scrutinies are celebrated in order to deliver the elect from the power of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them strength in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Because they are asking for the three sacraments of initiation, the Elect must have the intention of achieving an intimate knowledge of Christ and his Church, and they are expected particularly to progress in genuine self-knowledge through serious examination of their lives and true repentance. In order to inspire in the Elect a desire for purification and redemption by Christ, three scrutinies are celebrated. By this means, first of all, the Elect are instructed gradually about the mystery of sin, from which the whole world and every person longs to be delivered and thus saved from its present and future consequences. Second, their spirit is filled with Christ the Redeemer, who is the living water (gospel of the Samaritan woman in the First Scrutiny), the light of the world (gospel of the man born blind in the Second Scrutiny), the resurrection and the life (gospel of Lazarus in the Third Scrutiny). From the first to the final Scrutiny the elect should progress in their perception of sin and their desire for salvation.
While the Scrutinies will be celebrated at a different Mass each weekend, we ALL join with the elect in praying to be delivered from the power of sin and to be renewed in our baptismal promises at Easter. Thus, the “A cycle” readings will be used for all Masses the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent.
Have a Blessed Lent!
Fr Don
March 17, 2019 | Second Sunday of Lent
We’ve all learned some useful things sitting in a classroom. How to read and write, add and subtract, name the 50 states, and random facts about the history of our country and the world. If we went to a Catholic school, we also memorized prayers, lists of sacraments, and definitions of heavy mysteries like the Trinity and the Virgin Birth. You can learn a lot in a classroom. But there are some things we’ll never learn from a book, teacher, or memorized fact. Some things have to hit us right between the eyes, or bull’s-eye straight into our hearts. We have to experience these things to know them – like falling in love, being forgiven, or receiving grace in a perilous hour. People can tell us what those things are like. Poets describe the delirious feeling of seeing a loved one’s face. In confession you are told by the priest that you are ritually forgiven by God. The definition of grace in the Catechism states: “the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies.” But we still don’t know what any of those words mean until we have the personal, visceral, soul-shaking experience of love, forgiveness, and grace.
It’s the same with knowing Jesus. Everybody knows Jesus right? We know He’s the Son of God, and Mary’s boy, and that He was born in Bethlehem and died in Jerusalem and rose in glory and ascended to heaven. But what does all that tell us? Maybe not as much as we think it does. Actually nowhere near enough!! There’s a difference between the classroom lesson about Jesus and the actual encounter of Him. Even the disciples, who hung around with Jesus all the time, didn’t really know Him.
That’s why the Transfiguration (today’s gospel) comes as such a surprise, a shock really. The three friends who knew Jesus best – Peter, James, John – literally “wake up” to the knowledge of who Jesus really is. He’s the fulfillment of every story from the law of Moses to the prophecies of Israel! He’s God’s every promise come to earth and in the flesh! He’s the one they’ve been waiting for! He is the light of the world, shinning dazzling white be- fore their own eyes!!
One minute they see Jesus this way. The next minute they don’t. Is it be- cause they fall back asleep? Is that why they remain the ignorant disciples who run from Jesus and deny Him in his hour of greatest need? If so, we can’t blame them. Most of us only see Jesus in little flashes of light, tiny glimmers of understanding that come and go.
Lent is an opportune time to stay awake and open ourselves to those trans- figuration moments. Some will have that moment in or after an ALPHA session. Some will experience that moment during Eucharistic Adoration. Some, during or after a pilgrimage to a religious site. Some in a stunning display of nature. So, the most important thing is to realize that all we “learned” about Jesus isn’t enough. Pray for a “transfiguration moment” this Lent and be open to however that may come!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from your Irish pastor
Fr Don
March 10, 2019 | First Sunday of Lent
The Lenten Season has begun! And just as the Advent Season has two characters, so too the Lenten Season. In Advent we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus at Christmas. But we also prepare to celebrate his second coming at the end of time. The Lenten season also has a double character, namely to prepare both catechumens (those who have not been baptized) and the faithful who have been baptized, to celebrate the paschal mystery. The catechumens, both with the rite of election and scrutinies, and by catechesis, are pre- pared for the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist) at the Easter Vigil. Those of us already baptized, during the Lenten season are to be ever more attentive to the word of God and by prayer and penance prepare for the renewal of our baptismal promises on Easter.
Have you ever given much thought to the significance of your baptismal promises? You’re going to be asked to renew them during whatever Mass you go to on Easter Sunday (or the Easter Vigil). Most of us were baptized as infants. We had no cognitive abilities yet. So at our baptism our parents and godparents made promises for us. As we grew up we learned about God, Jesus, and the church, but we never really had the significance of our baptism drilled into us. So let’s use the 40 days of this Lent as a retreat to rediscover the significance of our baptism.
First, baptism is one of three sacraments of initiation (the other two are confirmation and Eucharist). The key word here is initiation. Initiation is the action of beginning something. So, in baptism we began a lifelong journey of being and growing as a disciple of Jesus. This journey even continues after our death! So, if we figure that all we need to know about our faith we got in grammar school, or when we were confirmed, we are not living our baptismal promises. If we have not discovered a personal relationship with Jesus, we have not understood that baptism marks us permanently as belong- ing to Christ, whose image we bear. By baptism we are freed from Original Sin, however there remains, as an effect of Original Sin, the inclination to sin. We promised in our baptism to “reject the glamor of evil and refuse to be mastered by sin”. We do this through the sacrament of penance, receiving the Eucharist, prayer, and a deepening spirituality. In baptism we became adopted children of God. We became sharers of divine life and temples of the Holy Spirit. Think about that!! YOU are a temple of the Holy Spirit!! WOW!
In baptism we became members of the Church, the Body of Christ. We share in the priesthood of Christ as well as his prophetic and royal MISSION. Baptism is a commissioning to discipleship.
In that, we are to carry on the mission of Jesus in our world today, bonded with all Christians. In the waters of baptism, we die to self and rise with Jesus.
So, at Easter your baptismal vows will once again be asked of you. This year, may you have a deeper appreciation and understanding of your “I do” response to these promises which were once made for you a long time ago!
Have a Blessed Lent!
Fr Don
March 3, 2019 | Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
This is pledge weekend for this year’s Diocesan Catholic Ministries Annual Ap-peal. Please join me and Fr. Mark in mak- ing a gift to this year’s appeal and become “Signs of Hope”. Your gift to the appeal brings hope to so many throughout the Diocese who are in need. A gift to the CMAA is very important because it provides most, if not all, of the funding for the 30 ministries that serve our parishes, touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The diocese provides priests to staff our parishes. Currently there are 38 seminarians being educated for priestly service in our diocese. We are very blessed to have this many, but, imagine for a moment the total cost of each year of college and graduate school education for these 38 young men. The CMAA through your contributions, helps to pay these costs. Our parish goal for this year is $133,400. You can make a one-time gift or make a pledge and pay it over 10 months. Like last year, 70% of funds received over our parish goal are rebated back to the parish for use in our ministries here at OLM. I thank you in advance for your generous sup- port!
In the Gospel today, Jesus addresses something that we all rail against, and at the same time are sometimes guilty of – hypocrisy! The story is told of Mark Twain at a dinner party whose guests included a businessman notorious for having made his money by sharp dealing and by unscrupulously and aggressively squeezing money out of his beleaguered tenants and clients. At one point in the evening, the fellow cornered Twain and piously gushed: “Before I die, Mr. Twain, I intend to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I want to climb to the top of Mount Sinai and read the Ten Commandments aloud.” “I have a better idea,” suggested Twain acidly. “Why don’t you stay right here in Boston and keep them?” Hypocrisy is also an occupational hazard of the religious professional. Ralph Waldo Emerson once noted, “People are very inclined to set moral standards for others.” The implication is that we may not use the same criteria to regulate our own lives. Jesus chided the religious leaders of his day….I think he would do the same today. Clergy of all faiths are in a precarious position, for it is expected that they will publicly preach morality, but we have seen many not practice it themselves. There is a Latin phrase that scarcely requires translation to show why abuse perpetrated by any clergy is particularly scandalous: “Corruptio optimi pessima est” which means “The corruption of the best is worst of all.”
Today’s gospel may just set the right tone for Lent which begins this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday. Instead of giving up soda, cigarettes, candy, swearing, etc. etc. Let’s give up being hypocritical in our relationship with others and get the plank out of our own eye before worrying about others. “Judge not, and you will not be judged!”
Have a blessed week!
Fr Don