​Fr. Bryan Howard
28thSunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – 14 October 2018
 
            If you’ve ever had a conversation with an evangelical Christian about religion, they probably asked you if you’re sure that you’re going to heaven. You see, many groups of protestants believe in “faith alone.” They believe that faith alone is necessary for salvation. They’ll try to convince you that because you’re a Catholic and can’t say that you 100% certain of going to heaven, that your faith is deficient. They’ll tell you that all you have to do is make a public profession of faith in Jesus, and that’s it. “Once saved, always saved.”
            After all, in today’s Gospel when the rich young man comes to Jesus and asks Him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”Jesus replies, “Just profess your faith in me, then you can do whatever you want.” Wait, no, that’s not what He says at all. He tells the rich young man not to sin, saying, “You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother." Then He tells the young man to sell what he has and give to the poor and to come and follow Him. In other words, it’s not enough to profess your faith in Jesus, you have to show your faith in Jesus by following Him and living as one of His followers.
            Today’s Gospel gives us a sort of cheat sheet in how to grow as a follower of Jesus. He starts off with the Commandments. Learning to follow the Commandments is one of the basics of being a disciple of Jesus. The first three are about our relationship with God: love the Lord Your God, do not take the Lord’s name in vain, and keep holy the Sabbath. The first commandment tells us not to have any idols and not to put anything else ahead of God in our lives. The second doesn’t just mean to not use foul language. It means that when you do speak the Lord’s name, in prayer and in Church, that it shouldn’t be meaningless, but that you should really mean it. The third commandment points back to the creation of the world, when God rested on the seventh day, and it reminds us that everything we have comes from God. We should set aside one day each week, preferably Sunday, to express that gratitude to God. 
            The last seven commandments are about our relationships with other people and how we should treat them. These are the ones Jesus quotes: honor your father and mother, don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, don’t covet your neighbors spouse or property. The commandment to honor your parents is the only positive one our of all of these, and it’s the only one that comes with a promise, “that you may have a long life in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you.”The commandments not to kill (murder), commit adultery, steal, and lie can be summarized as telling us not to treat other people wrongly, and the last, to not covet, concerns our thoughts. Covetousness is related to greed or jealousy, and means to desire something that someone else has. This doesn’t mean that your neighbor gets a new car and you want one like it, but that you want that specific car and start thinking about ways that you can get it from him.
            If we can do all of that, then we’ve made a very good start, but that’s not all that Jesus has to say. The young man says that he’s done all of that since his youth, so Jesus tells him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”What Jesus tells us to do on top of the Commandments is to follow Him. Follow Him how? We are to follow Him by imitating His sacrificial love which He showed us by descending from heaven to become a poor human being and then dying on the Cross for us. Some people are called to live this out in a radical way as an example for us. Think about people like St. Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Most of us are called to live it out in more ordinary ways, by being dedicated to your vocation as husband or wife, mother or father, by giving to the most needy in our community, and by trying to treat everyone with kindness.
            One of the great things about the apostles is that they react to these sayings of Jesus in the same way that we would. This time it says that they’re “amazed at His words,”and ask, “Then who can be saved?”Jesus tells them, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”In other words, we have to learn to rely on the grace of God. This is really what the spiritual life is all about. We try not to sin, but we inevitably fail and fall back into sin. DO we fall into despair and give up? No, we rely on the grace of God to forgive our sins and strengthen us to do better next time. We find it hard to treat some people with kindness, humility, and compassion. Do we give up and stop trying? No, we pray for them, and for ourselves, and try to do a little bit better every day.
            Is there a certain sin that you struggle with more than others or a virtue that you think you need to grow in? Then pray for it by name. As our first reading says, “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her.”And in Psalm 90, our responsorial, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Return, O Lord,! How long? Have pity on your servants!”And finally in our second reading from the book of Hebrews, “Indeed the Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.”
            We don’t believe in once saved, always saved, but we have a better promise, a promise that God will not leave us in our sins and afflictions if we place our trust in His grace and allow Him to teach us to walk in His paths and draw us every close to His Most Sacred Heart.

​Misuse of Language
 
            The language that we use is very important, because it effects the way that we think. My Paw Paw often says, “If you say something about yourself often enough you’ll begin to believe it.” The way that we talk about something effects the way that we think of it just as much as the way that we think about something affects the way we talk. 
            Stores and retailers use this all the time to make sales. I know someone who used to work for a popular electronics retailer, that’s no out of business. He told me that they would have a “sale” around Christmas time every year, but that it wasn’t really a sale. They would raise all of the prices by 10 or 15% and then put everything on sale for the same amount. Just that sign saying “10% OFF!” was enough to get people to buy it, even though it wasn’t really 10% off. Another way stores sell products is to put special labels on them, like “Gluten Free,” “Diet,” and “Organic.” Sometimes these labels can be helpful, like if you’re allergic to gluten, but a sometimes they’re just silly, like when cereal is labeled as “Fat Free;” of course it’s fat free, it’s cereal. 
            Language can also be used to affect how we think about far more serious things, like abortion or euthanasia. Those who are against abortion call ourselves “pro-life,” because saying that you’re “anti-abortion” is a negative and feels bad, but being pro-life is something that just about everyone can agree with. On the other hand, those who are “pro-abortion” don’t like to use that term, because it doesn’t sound nice, but everyone wants to say that they’re “pro-choice,” because freedom and liberty are things that every American values.
            Euthanasia is the same way. Euthanasia is the act of ending the life of someone suffering from a chronic or terminal disease, or helping them to end their own life. Those who are against it call it “euthanasia” or “physician assisted suicide,” but people who are in favor of legalized euthanasia call it “death with dignity” or “physician assisted dying.” Do you see how that changes how you think of it?
            What we need to do is look past the language that we use to the reality behind it. Words have meanings, and ideas have consequences, and we need to take those meanings and consequences seriously, because they affect real lives. Don’t let someone else do your thinking for you, but dig down deeper than the surface, seek the truth, and govern your life by it. 

Fr. Bryan Howard
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – 7 October 2018

    I may have told you this story before, but it’s worth telling again. In 1947 the Fort Lauderdale Hurricane, also called the Hurricane of 1947, struck the coast of Florida as a category 4, killing 17 people. It passed over Florida into the Gulf and made a bee line for New Orleans. It passed right over the Business District downtown as a strong category 2, killing 34 people along the Gulf Coast. As the eye passed over the city, a young man named Bob Peyton left his house and walked, through the flood waters, to the other side of the city to check on a girl he liked, Jeannette Hudson. When her father answered the door he took one look at Bob and turned back, calling, “Jeannette, that Peyton boy is here, he’s either insane or he’s in love.” They would get married about 3 years later and eventually have 5 children, including my mom.

    People sometimes ask me how I knew I was called to be a priest. If they’re married it’s easy to answer; I just ask them how they knew their spouse was the one for them. It’s something that’s hard to explain, isn’t it? But you know, just the same. Both the priesthood and marriage are vocations. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin word vocare which literally means “to call,” as in to call someone from the other room or call someone on the phone. They’re called the sacraments of service. You see, all the other sacraments give you grace so you can grow in holiness: baptism makes you a Christian, confirmation stirs up the grace of the Holy Spirit in your soul, confession forgives your sins, Communion unites you to the Body of Christ, and anointing of the sick brings healing to your soul. The Sacraments of Holy Orders and Holy Matrimony give you a grace to help you serve someone else. In Holy Orders, deacons, priests, and bishops are called to serve God and His Church, and in Holy Matrimony, and man and woman are called to serve one another.

    Christ won the grace of the sacraments for us on the Cross by pouring out His life for us. Married people are called, in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, to live out the love that Christ gave us through His Cross and Resurrection: a love that is complete and unconditional, that is freely given as a gift, and that is fruitful, bringing about new life. When Jesus talks about marriage in the Bible, He points us back to the book of Genesis, to the creation of Eve and the marriage of Adam and Eve. That passage recounts how Eve was created when God cast Adam into a deep sleep, took a rib from his side, and formed the rib into Eve. This says something about the type of relationship that Adam and Eve are supposed to have. What does the rib cage do? It protects the heart and lungs. The ancient Hebrews thought of the heart not as the center of passion, like we do, but as the source of life, so Eve’s job is to guard Adam’s life, and Adam’s job is to give of his own flesh and blood, his own life, for his wife Eve. 

    That is God’s original plan for marriage. Unfortunately, sin enters the story to tear apart the relationships between Adam and Eve and God, but Jesus points us back there to understand what the purpose of marriage is. In a natural sense, the purpose of marriage is to have and raise children. We’re not like ants who can start working as soon as we’re born; we need love and care to grow in maturity, and the best way for children to get that is with the father and mother. But Jesus raised marriage from natural to supernatural when he made it a sacrament. Spiritually, the reason for marriage is for husband and wife to reflect the love of God in the world by the love they share with one another, and thus help one another to get to heaven. To put it simply, your job, as a husband or wife, is to get your spouse to heaven. This is why praying together as a family and coming to Mass together as a family are so important and so powerful. It shows your family, and especially your children, that spending time with God each Sunday is important and is worth making sacrifices for.

    If the love of God is unconditional, then husbands and wives shouldn’t put conditions on their love for one another. I know that’s not realistic in our fallen world, but that why the second and third most important phrases a husband and wife can learn, after “I love you,” are “I’m sorry,” and “I forgive you.” 

    If the love of God is faithful and never abandons us, then husbands and wives are called to fidelity. They promise to be faithful to one another in their vows when the promise to be true to one another “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.”

    If the love of God is fruitful, then husbands and wives are called to be fruitful, not only in having children, but in raising them in the faith and in being a witness in the world to the love of God. The one thing that gives me the most joy and encouragement in my priesthood is seeing families who are really trying to live out the love of God. Being generous with your spouse and children is the best way to show the generosity and fruitfulness of God.
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    Today is Respect Life Sunday, where we focus on the dignity of all human life. I’m convinced that the best way to increase the respect for life in our countries is through strong, healthy, holy families. So, as you pray for an increase in respect for life this month, also pray for holy families.

        In addition to the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973, we set aside the month of October and specifically the first Sunday of October to reflect on the great gift of life and the dignity of all human life. From the first chapter of the Bible, where we read about God creating man and woman in His own image and likeness. 
            The source of human dignity is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. Like God, we have a rational intellect and a free will. With our intellect we can seek the truth, try to understand the world around us, and even come to a better understanding of ourselves and human nature. With our free will we can decide to act either for good or for evil. One of the main ways that humans have rationalized the bad they choose to do is by dehumanizing the people they’re hurting. How did people justify slavery, the owning and using of other human beings? They said that they were less than human. How did some of the explorers and colonists in the New World justify the crimes they committed against the Native Americans? Again, they claimed that they were less than human. 
            There have always been those who have seen through these excuses and fought for the truth. They were people like the Underground Railroad, the Franciscan missionaries to the Americas who tried to protect the Native Americans from abuse, and Pope Eugenius IV who condemned slavery in 1435. 
            Abortion and Euthanasia are two of these issues that we’re facing right now. They are complex issues with many causes, and many people try to justify them. That doesn’t change the fact that abortion is still the killing of an innocent human being; a human being with the same human dignity, the same DNA, the same rights as the rest of us. 45 years after abortion was legalized it may seem like we’ll never win this battle, but we can’t give up now. We have an obligation to fight for the truth. Euthanasia, likewise, is now legal in 5 US states and people are fighting to make it legal in more. Instead of Euthanasia, they call it “Dying with Dignity” or “Provider Assisted Dying,” but it’s still killing a sick human being who needs love and care.
            We don’t condemn anyone, and we shouldn’t attack anyone either. We should, however, live and speak the truth. The people who make these choices are often in terrible situations and feel like they don’t have any other options. So please, keep praying and fasting for an end to abortion and euthanasia and that the rights and dignity of all people may be respected.

Fr. Bryan Howard
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – 30 September 2018

    Today is the memorial of Saints Victor and Urban. Victor and Urban were Roman legionaries. A Roman Legion was a Roman army consisting of 6,600 soldiers. This particular legion was recruited from Egypt, every member was Christian, ad every member is today considered a saint, even though we only know the names of 17 of them. They are called the Theban Legion. Around the year 287 AD, Emperor Maximian lead an army, including the Theban Legion, to suppress a rebellion in modern day France. Part of the preparation for battle was to offer sacrifices to the gods asking for victory, but the Theban Legion refused. The Emperor ordered all of them to be executed. These 6,600 legionaries, including Saints Victor and Urban, gave an example of faith, hope, and love that is still speaking to us today.

    Giving an example is important because it is the highest form of teaching. You can try to teach someone the highest and most revered principles and values but if you don’t strive to live them, then your words don’t mean anything, because your very live is speaking a different message. Of course, we all consider martyrdom to be the highest example you can give, because it means that you consider this thing to be more valuable than even your own life. For a Catholic, a martyr is someone who shows that they are ready to accept death out of love for God and who is killed out of hatred for the faith. This is what the members of the Theban Legion did. 

    We also talk about White Martyrdom. If dying for the faith is the definition of red martyrdom, then white martyrdom means to live the faith in a heroic way in love of God and neighbor. Think of saints like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Padre Pio, and St. Louis IX, King of France. They didn’t die for the faith, but they certainly lived it heroically.

    If giving an example is so important, then we should pay close attention to Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I way to you, will surely not lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little one who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to go into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’”

    I’ve quotes this section at length to emphasize the words of Jesus. When we use the words scandal we’re usually talking about some celebrity who did something outrageous and ended up on the cover of some tabloid. When the Church talks about scandal, we mean doing something that gives a negative example, and therefore leading someone else into sin. Jesus doesn’t mean that you should literally cut off your hands and feet and pluck out your eyes. In fact, the Church considers self-mutilation to be a serious sin. No, Jesus means that you should cut out of your life anything that leads you away from love. Love of God and neighbor is the highest law, therefore, sin is anything that’s against love. The highest act of love is to give your life, as Jesus Himself said, “Greater love than this has no man, to lay down your life for your friend.” That’s just what Jesus Himself did on the Cross. He didn’t have to die; He’s God. He chose to allow Himself to be killed to give us an example, a witness of the love of God, and to show us that God loves us so much that He came down to be with us and even to give His life for us. 

   Sts. Victor and Urban and their companions gave an example of love in willingly giving their lives for God. Soldiers, first responders, and many other people give us an example of love by putting themselves in harm’s way for other people. They don’t do it because they want to die, but because they love. You may never get the opportunity to lay down your life for love of God or neighbor, but you have an opportunity every day every day to show God’s love in the way you treat the people around you.

     When you come up to receive the Eucharist remember that the Eucharist is the memorial of the Cross. In it are all of the graces that Christ won for us on the Cross, and those are the graces that God greatly desires to pour out into your soul. Ask God for the strength to give a good and holy example, not for your own glory or so your name is remembered hundreds of years from now, but for the greater glory of God and out of love for Him and for all of His children, both those here on earth and those already in heaven.

St. Victor, pray for us.
St. Urban, pray for us.
All you holy men and women, pray for us.

            The Our Lady of Lourdes Oyster Festival began over 30 years ago as a sort of parish picnic. It was held in the strip of land across the street from the old Church on St. Bernard Highway, and some of the people who helped put on the Oyster Festival then are still working on it now. Over the years, it’s grown into a very nice festival, with seafood and Cajun food, raw and grilled oysters, good music, and rides and games. However, it’s also grown as an important part of Our Lady of Lourdes Church and St. Bernard Parish. 

            It’s always been an important community function and fund raiser for our Church, but it’s as important today as ever. First of all, because many of our parishioners, as you well know, were scattered to the four winds by hurricane Katrina and her aftermath. Many of those people have returned, but many have put down roots in their new homes. We should be glad to see so many of those old friends return to join us in our festival, but we should also remember that we also have many new faces. Many people, especially young families, drawn by the relatively cheap land prices and growing job market, and by the atmosphere of St. Bernard Parish, have joined our community, and the Oyster Festival is a way to welcome them, get to know them, and integrate them into our Church family.

            The other reason why the Oyster Festival is so important to us is that it’s helping us to pay for our new Parish Community Center and reception hall. The new building has been a great benefit to the Our Lady of Lourdes. It helps the office to function more efficiently, allows us to improve the programs we offer, like the Parish School of Religion, and offer new programs, like the Bible Study, and allows us to have parish socials, like the Luau Dance. We were able to pay for half of the  cost of the building with money saved during Fr. Luke’s time here and we borrowed the rest from the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Most of our annual payment on that debt comes from the Oyster Festival.
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            A great way to help the parish and to grow closer to the community is to help the Oyster Festival. First, you can help by telling people about it, especially family and friends who’ve moved out of the Parish, and invite them to attend. Many of you already help by donating supplies monthly, which saves us a lot of money and time. You can also help by volunteering. We currently need volunteers to help with set up and clean up, selling food tickets, working in the various food and game booths, and many other things. If you’re interested in helping, please contact the parish office. Finally, you can help by coming to the fair and having a good time. The food really is excellent, and the people are even better.

Fr. Bryan Howard
25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – 23 September 2018

    Probably one of the most common prayers that people have is for peace on earth. All right thinking people desire peace, right? We don’t want to fight and argue and kill; we just want to get on with our lives. You see this even when you study military history. One of the great secrets of war is that most people can’t bring themselves to intentionally try to kill another person. In 1947, following World War II, the US military did a study and interviewed thousands of soldiers. They found that only about ¼ of front line soldiers even fired at the enemy and only about 2% aimed to intentionally kill. The rest, the other ¾ would fire over the enemy, or into the ground, or off to the side. Most soldiers just wanted the enemy to go away, a firing a gun in someone’s general direction is a very good way to encourage someone to go away. Similarly, 1% of fighter pilots account for about 50% of fighter kills, and the other 99% account for the other 50%. There are many firsthand accounts from throughout history of soldiers, perhaps on patrol, coming across a group of enemies, and the two groups shout insults at each other and maybe put down their weapons and throw sticks and rocks at each other until one group or the other goes away. The instinct for peace is a very strong human instinct. So, why is there so much war and violence in the world?

    St. James explains, in his epistle, that wars come from our misplaced passions. He writes, “Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?” It takes a very strong force to overcome our desire for peace, a force like anger, jealousy, greed, lust for power, or some other very strong passion. St. James tells us that these passions, when they are misplaced or disordered, can lead to conflict and war. He continues, “You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war.” 

    Entire wars are fought over these reasons. Most wars start over competition for resources, land, and power. Again, World War II is a good example. Part of the reason for the war was Hitler’s lust for power, but that wasn’t all of it. He had to convince most of Germany to go to war. He did that by stoking their anger from the aftermath of World War I, their jealousy, especially at the Jews, and their desire for more land and resources for Germany. He called it lebensraum, or growing space.

    The same forces that are behind most of the wars in human history are inside each one of us. Most of the conflicts, the arguments and fights, in our lives are caused by disordered passions. Think about some of the arguments and fights that you’ve been in, with your spouse or other family members or friends or ever strangers. How many of those can be traced back to anger, jealousy, or greed. One person wants something and they perceive the other person to be an obstacle to getting it. It can be as simple as a man coming home from work after a long day and all he wants is to sit down and relax and decompress, but maybe his wife’s been home alone all day and she really feels like she needs to talk. He gets annoyed that she’s won’t leave him alone, she gets annoyed that he isn’t listening, and pretty soon they’re fighting. 

    Here’s another scenario else that’s all too common. Someone in the family dies and it comes time to divide their stuff. How many times have arguments over inheritances divided families for years, and sometimes they never reconcile. Most of the time, if you talk with the two sides latter neither will think it was worth it, but they let the emotions of the moment get away from them.
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    We know that complete and lasting peace will only come when we’re in heaven. Our job now is to seek peace and strive to minimize conflict and violence in the world, starting with ourselves and in our own hearts and souls. Pray for peace, but also work for peace. In today’s Gospel we hear that the apostles were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus tells them, “’If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all and the servant of all.’ Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, received not me but the One who sent me.’” Jesus calls us to give and not to take, to serve and not to desire to be served, to strive for innocence, not influence and power. No matter what you do, whether you’re a CEO of a company, a manager, an office worker, a factory worker, a farmer, a fisherman, a housewife, or a member of the clergy, Jesus is calling you to use that position and any authority you have to serve, and to serve especially those who are most in need. That is how we promote peace in the world, and that is how we live in the peace of Christ.

            Every year the Church in the United States sets aside a day to celebrate the family, and this year is falls on today, September 23. It may seem a little strange to celebrate the family, which is something that we usually take for granted. The first thing is to remember that not everyone has a family, and that not everyone who does appreciates them. There are many people in the world who not only struggle with feelings of loneliness, but who truly have no one to rely on. Today we thank God for the families that He’s given us. We thank God for our biological families or the families that we grew up in, whether that was a step-family, foster-family, or an orphanage. 
            It’s in the family that our faith is shared, strengthened, and past down from one generation to the next. Sometimes people expect the Church, or the Catholic school system, to pass on the faith to their children, and these institutions do have a role in that. However, the influence of Church and schools pales in comparison to the influence of a child’s parents and family. If the faith is not being practiced at home, then it probably won’t be passed on. This is why we call the family the domestic Church, meaning the Church in the home. We have to worship God at home, in how we pray together as a family, in the love we share with one another, and in sharing our blessings with those who are most in need.
         We call the Church a family. We call God our Father, and the Church our mother, and the faithful our brothers and sisters in Christ. God is our Father because He gives us life when we are conceived and new life when we are baptized. The Church is our mother because she nourishes and raises us spiritually. We call all of the Christian faithful brother and sister because we are united to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, through the Holy Spirit. The grace of God through the Church can make us better, more loving members of our families, and the love of our families can make us better followers of Christ.
 
Next Week: Oyster Festival

    Friday, September 14 was the Feast Day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Saturday, September 15, the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. For most of the first 300 years of its existence, the Church was persecuted by the Roman Empire, among others, but that all ended in the year 313 AD with the Edict of Milan. The newly named Roman Emperor attributed his victory over his competitor to the help of Jesus Christ and legalized the practice of Christianity. 

     Historians disagree about the genuineness of Emperor Constantine’s faith, but few doubt the faith of his mother, St. Helena. St. Helena was the one who journeyed to the Holy Land to build Churches over the holy sites, such as the place where Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the site of the crucifixion. She recovered the relics of the true Cross from where it had been hidden and it was venerated in Jerusalem for over 300 years. In the 600s AD, when the Cross was taken from its place by the Persians, Emperor Heraclius recovered the Cross and had it brought to Rome. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross was established to commemorate that event. 

     The Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows follows the next day because Our Blessed Mother was united to Christ in His life on earth, in His sufferings on the Cross, and is now with Him in heaven. These two feast days teach us the lesson of the Cross. This is a lesson of faith, hope, and charity. We must have faith because everyone suffers in this life. There is no way to completely avoid suffering. We must try to imitate the faith of Mary and unite our suffering to the suffering of Christ. In that way we are lifted up with Him, so that, as St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us” (Rm 8:18). Faith leads to hope, because we know that Christ overcame the sufferings of the Cross in His Resurrection on the third day, and, “if we be dead with Him, we shall also rise with Him” (2 Tim 2:11).
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     Faith and Hope lead to charity, because we know that Christ died for us, and, as He said to His apostles after He washed their feet, “For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also” (Jn 13:15). As Christ had compassion on us and came to free us from sin and death, so let us have compassion on one another and try to relieve their suffering.

Next Week: Family Day

    The Second Vatican Council, held in Rome from 1962 to 1965, the Church called for all Catholics, not just priests and religious, to active participation at mass. This wasn’t a new thing, but the result of a liturgical movement stretching back about 100 years before Vatican II. It was this movement that encouraged people to be more engaged with the Mass. They encouraged music in the Mass that people could sing, which resulted in a renewal of Gregorian Chant, which is easy enough that most people can sing along with it, beautiful enough to lift our hearts and souls to God, and has a long history in the Church. Often, in the old form of the Mass, many people would pray their rosary or other prayers while the Mass was going on, the Liturgical Movement encouraged people to follow along with the prayers of the Mass by buying Daily Missals, which have all the prayers and readings of the Mass. That’s why most church’s today have missalettes in the pews. 

    When Vatican II called for active participation in the Mass, this is the history they were thinking of. The bishops at the Council had all been brought up in this movement. They saw that many people were taking the Mass for granted and thought the solution was to be more actively engaged in the Mass. So, while it’s very good, and a big help, for people to be involved in the Mass by doing the readings, being an altar server, usher, or member of the choir, or helping distribute Communion, even people who aren’t doing that can actively participate by engaging their mind, heart, and soul.
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    So, I want to encourage everyone to pay attention to the readings, listen to the homily, and pray along with the prayers of the Mass. Just like the priest offers the Mass for a specific intention, every time you go to Mass you can offer that Mass for a specific intention. After Mass, spend a moment in prayer thanking God for the Mass and thinking about one think that God wants you to take home with you. Don’t be upset or surprised if you get distracted in Mass, it happens to everyone. Just gently turn your attention back to the Lord. Every time you do you’re telling Jesus that you’d rather spend time with Him than think about whatever was distracting you. The problem isn’t when you’re distracted 100 times during Mass, it’s when you’re distracted once and it lasts the entire time.

Next Week: Exaltation of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows