In 2014, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter to All Consecrated People on the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life.  In that letter, he invited them to do three things during that year:

1. Look to the past with gratitude
2. Live the present with passion
3. Embrace the future with hope

The Holy Father seems to have been inspired by something one of his predecessors, Pope St. John Paul II, had said during his Pontificate at the conclusion of the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, when he wrote:

Duc in altum! These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever”

(Heb 13:8).  (Novo millennio ineunte, 1)

I find that threefold approach to the Christian life a beautiful and simple summary of how each of us should live each day.  As we begin a new liturgical year together, I would like to look at these three points over the next three bulletin articles.  Not only do they apply well to our lives in general as Christians, but I think they also help us to live this season of Advent in a more fruitful way.

We therefore begin by looking to the past with gratitude.  In particular, we look at this past year in our lives and in our parish.  Our human tendency is to think first of the negative things that have happened.  Some of us has lost loved ones.  Some of us have experienced suffering in some fashion.  Perhaps some of us have lost our jobs, or maybe a relationship with somebody close to us has been damaged.  Ok, that may be the case, but let us start with gratitude.  Where has the Lord blessed you this past year?  Some of you may have welcomed new members to your family with the birth of a child or a grandchild.  Perhaps you have welcomed a new member to your family through marriage.  Some of you may have started new jobs.  Perhaps you accomplished something of which you are very proud.  With regards to our faith, consider how many times you have been fed with the Bread of Life in the Eucharist, or how you experienced the freedom that comes from receiving Christ’s mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  If we take the time to intentionally look back over the last year, I am certain each of us can find something for which to be grateful.  Even if you struggle to identify your blessings, our faith reminds us of something beautiful: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)  We can therefore thank God for everything He has allowed to happen to us, even those hard things, for God can and does use all of them for our good, despite our understanding how He is doing so.

As we have just celebrated Thanksgiving this past Thursday, may that spirit of gratitude carry us into this new year of grace, trusting that the Lord who has been so good and generous to us over the past year will continue to bless us in the year ahead.

Father Alford     

This Sunday is the first Sunday of advent. Advent is the first of the five liturgical seasons in the Church’s calendar. The four others are Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. These five liturgical seasons have various unique elements that make each of them especially important in the spiritual life and growth of individual members of the Church. One of the distinctive elements of the season of advent is the first readings that come from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is the prophet who, despite his unworthiness for the call of God, answered, “Here I am, send me” when God was looking for someone to send to minister to his people. (Is 6:8).

Isaiah, one of the most prominent prophets in the Old Testament bible, was called by God to minister to the people at a critical time in the history of Israel. It was a time of confusion, faithlessness, and sociopolitical unrest. There were many misunderstandings, wars, and desecration of holy places across the northern kingdoms and beyond.

In the midst of all that, God needed to send a loyal and courageous prophet for a unique prophetic ministry among his people. This ministry would involve declaring the impending doom that awaits sinners who persist in their sinfulness and the proclamation of the sovereignty of God among the people. In proclaiming God’s power, the chosen prophet shall also announce the coming of the Son of God – the Emmanuel. This Son of God shall save sinners if they repent from their sinfulness and accept God as their Lord and Savior. The task was enormous and would require someone of high intelligence, holiness, and integrity. Although highly unqualified in every way, God chose and sent Isaiah for this prophetic ministry.

Isaiah was the least qualified. In Isaiah 6:5, he cried out: “Woe is me. I am doomed. For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips….” Isaiah was humble enough to acknowledge his absolute unworthiness for the ministry that God called him. But as God wills, “He calls the unqualified and qualifies them. He chooses the weak to strengthen them.” (Is 40:29; 1Cor 1:27).

Almost every day from this weekend until Christmas, our first readings shall come from the book of Isaiah. The Church intentionally arranged these liturgical readings this way to help us prepare in humility and joyful anticipation, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. While this humility defines the circumstances surrounding the birth of our Savior, we also see it in the Prophet Isaiah. He humbly acknowledged his unworthiness for the call of God. After this act of humility, the Prophet also had the courage to say, “Here I am, send me,” when God was searching for whom to send.

As we begin this season of hope, let us ask God to grant us the grace of the virtues of humility and courage. HUMILITY to acknowledge God’s blessings, love, and mercy in our lives. And COURAGE to accept and welcome God’s will and plan for our lives.

Feast Day: November 30^th 

Besides knowing that was chosen by Jesus to be an apostle, and the traditions that the Church has passed down carefully every since his martyrdom on an X-shaped cross (a “crux decussata” as the Romans would have known it) in Patras (within the area thought to have been evangelized by Andrew around what is now Turkey and Greece), we have three scenes given us in the Gospels to get to know this older brother of Simon Peter.  In the first, we find that Andrew is a fisherman (he is now the patron saint of all who have followed him in that occupation), and one of the disciples of John the Baptist.  

One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

[John 1:40-42]

The focus quickly shifts to Peter, and yet we find here that Andrew was actually one of Jesus’ first disciples, and had the courage and clarity to see right away that Jesus, yes, of Nazareth, was the Messiah.  I love how he describes this encounter and realization as “finding” the Messiah.  It is true for us as well that we must seek Christ in order to find Him.  He does not hide from us!  But, the happenings of our lives can overshadow His presence to us, and we must continuously strive to find Him anew, to discover Him more fully, to know Him more fully, to love Him more completely.  Yes, we much find Jesus every day!  Fast forward a few chapters, and we find ourselves with Andrew at one of Jesus’ most famous miracles: 

Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?”

[John 6:5-9]

Still overshadowed by his brother, Andrew’s words flesh out the boldness that we already saw in Capernaum: he has the gumption to bring a laughable solution to an immense problem, but to leave the situation in Jesus’ hands all the same.  Now Andrew goes beyond following and finding, he must bring also his futility to the Lord.  Can we follow Andrew this far, or do we hesitate to be inadequate before Jesus?  Christ does not just want our fidelity; He also wants our frailty!  Do I tell Him about my inadequacy?  Do I trust Him enough to open to Him my own lack of trust? And lastly:

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Beth-saida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him.

[John 12:20-26]

To struggle to find Jesus is one thing.  To risk our frailty before the Lord is another.  But now Andrew goes further and allows Jesus to work through his friendships.  Philip, it seems, wasn’t willing on his own to bring the Greek group to Jesus, but Andrew, as always, had the nerve to risk it.  He had done this first with Peter, then with the little boy and his fish, and now these foreigners.  Each would never have met Jesus if Andrew hadn’t intervened.  Do you and I have that courage?  Do we act on it?  Do we invite our own friends into friendship with Jesus?  We will never be “ready” to do so, knowing everything about the Lord!  Andrew sure didn’t, but he still was man-enough to just bring people to Jesus.

– Fr. Rankin seriously wondered how this fourth saint would successfully tie together an unpredictable month trying to understand human conscience and freedom through the lives of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. Albert the Great, and St. Clement I.  And here he does!  Do we consider the Gospel an imposition that we can’t propose anew to a relative, friend, or acquaintance?  Do we think it a burden that limits our freedom?  We must not!  Our freedom is fulfilled in Jesus!  We are never more free than when we are His disciples, and abide in obedience to, and like, Him.  That is our Christian belief, let us live in that faith every day!

When he was installed as our bishop in 2010, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki chose the date of his installation for June 22, the liturgical feast of Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More.  These two saints serve as special patrons for our bishop who is both a bishop (like St. John Fisher) and a lawyer (like St. Thomas More, patron saint of lawyers).  Bishop Paprocki has shared on several occasions that his favorite movie is A Man for All Seasons, a story about the life of St. Thomas More who suffered martyrdom for his obedience to Christ and His Church in the face of pressure from the King.  There is a line from the movie that always strikes me where St. Thomas More says the following before his execution: “I die his Majesty’s good servant, but God’s first.”  

These words serve as a great motto for us to live by in our lives as Catholics.  We should strive to be good citizens of the country in which we live, not intentionally trying to rebel against our leaders.  At the same time, we have an even greater obligation to be faithful servants to the one who exercises the greatest authority over us, Christ our King.  Ideally, the laws of our nation and world should be in accord with God’s divine law, but we know that this is often not the case, thus our need to advocate for changing laws and practices that lead society away from God’s law so that our world can experience the truth and freedom that His law brings.

As the Church celebrates this last Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Christ the King, it is fitting that our Family of Faith topic for this month is freedom.  As mentioned above, when we submit ourselves to God’s will and His law, we are set on a path to true freedom.  In a culture that often confuses freedom with doing what one wants, the Church proposes to us a definition of freedom as doing what one ought.  Staying obedient to the laws of Christ and His Church guarantees protection from the enemies that try to assail us in various ways.  Christ our King reigns victorious and He desires for us to share in that victory.  In a world that questions and doubts those in authority, we should have no fear in trusting in the authority and rule of Christ our King, for His is a kingship of service and love toward His beloved children.  By following His will for us, we become more fully who He intends us to be and will experience a peace and joy that this world cannot give, perhaps not in this life, but certainly in the life to come.

During this week, as we look to Christ our King and consider His rule over us, it might be good for us to spend some time praying with Psalm 119.  Every verse in this long psalm refers to the law in some fashion.  The psalmist extols the goodness of the commandments of God, rejoicing as he strives to obey His word.  May our hearts have a similar longing to follow the path of the Lord, that we might be able to say at the end of our lives like St. Thomas More: “I die my country’s faithful citizen, but God’s first!”

Father Alford     

As Thanksgiving draws near, many people ask me if we celebrate Thanksgiving in Nigeria and how? It is a natural curiosity for people to ask questions like this to those they know come from cultures and places other than the United States. Sometimes, I am inclined to say no, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Nigeria. But that answer will either be incomplete or wrong. While Thanksgiving is an American thing, for the most part, many other cultures and nations have celebrations at various times of the year that are very similar to the American fiesta of Thanksgiving.

In the Igbo nation of Nigeria, the former Republic of Biafra, the “New Yam Festival” known as the “Iri Ji or Iwa Ji” in the Igbo language is very similar to the American Thanksgiving. The Iri Ji is a thanksgiving festival to God for a good harvest at the beginning of the harvesting period. It takes place for about three days in different towns and kingdoms across the Igbo nation anytime between July and September. Since July through September is a long vacation (summer vacation) in Nigeria, schools are not in session. But because the Iri Ji is a town and kingdom-based celebration, it is not a work-free day for workers except, in some cases, for farmers.

The American Thanksgiving and the Igbo Iri Ji are very similar both in cultural origins and essence. American Thanksgiving is farmers-based in origin. It lasted for three days in the early stages of the holiday. In the same way, the Igbo Iri Ji was farmers-based and somehow still is. And it typically lasts for three days. Both fiestas focused primarily on thanking God for his blessings upon humanity. In his words, President Abraham Lincoln explained in the document that made the American Thanksgiving a national holiday that Thanksgiving is a time to render “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” 

So, yes. We celebrate thanksgiving in Nigeria – in the Igbo nation of Nigeria where I grew up. It is not as popular as American thanksgiving because it is not a national holiday like American Thanksgiving. Also, the Iri Ji is not celebrated at the same time across Igboland as the American Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the same day across the United States. Therefore, various cultures and nations around the world may have other names for their thanksgiving. But they indeed have celebrations like the American thanksgiving where the people give thanks to God for all the blessings of life.

It will be good to remind ourselves that this thanksgiving, we should be giving thanks to God for the many blessings he has given us in this life. The life we live, the friends and family we have, our Catholic faith, education, jobs, and businesses, and the many things we have and enjoy in our world today. All these are reasons to be grateful to our family and friends and especially to God. To express our gratitude, let us choose to stay away from our sinful and bad habits, forgive people who have wronged us, ask for forgiveness from people we wronged. Let us pursue peace and justice in our thoughts and actions. And finally, let us reach out to people and extend some goodwill, kindness, love, and compassion. May you and yours have a memorable thanksgiving this week. Amen.

Feast Day: November 23^rd

“Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damien…”  This week, on the 23^rd we celebrate the Clement of this list, and the following day, on November 24^th, we get to honor Chrysogonus.  These early saints have been listed in our Roman Canon (Eucharist Prayer I) for most of the Church’s history, probably some 1500 or 1600 years!  Not to leave Chrysogonus, the 4^th century Roman martyr out – perhaps we’ll come back to his story another time – but this week we turn the clock even further back to make the friendship of Clement.  He is the earliestof the Apostolic Fathers – the bishop-teachers who were the first after the apostles to annunciate and explain the faith.  He, the Bishop of Rome, from 88 to 99 AD, knew St. Peter personally and was the fourth bishop of the eternal city (after the aforementioned Linus and Cletus), (according to another Apostolic Father, St. Irenaeus, who we met already back in June, and who several decades after Clement, emphasized the importance of those earliest, and preeminent bishops and martyrs.)

As with so many early saints, we don’t have much more than an outline of his personal story, yet we have the entirety of a letter that Clement wrote to the church at Corinth, correcting and teaching and encouraging, as does our Holy Father down to our own day in what we now call encyclicals.  So, we have here a beautiful example of the Pope’s munera (purpose/office/charism) already cherished in the first days of the Church!  Throughout this long letter we have references to Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, as well as Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Titus, 1 Timothy, and Hebrews and Acts, besides references to Christ known in the Gospels.  We have most of the New Testament here referenced before the turn of the first Christian century!

But I turn to Clement today not so much for his theology, or ecclesiology, or where he fits into Christian history, but to continue our discussion of anthropology.  What has the vocation sought, and found, by St. Frances Xavier Cabrini have to do with the musings of St. Albert the Great on our soul and body, and what do either of them have to do with this 4^th pope and his words to the Church of Corinth?  All of them fit together around this great question: “what is man that You [God] are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor…” [Psalm 8:4-5]  God calls us, God cares for us, God created us … with glory, and beauty, and intelligence, and creativity, and freedom.  This is the mystery we discover in ourselves.  It is this reality that we see as we walk through the twists and turns of life as God’s turns us into saints.  And it is this glorious creation and care that is visible in nature, and imprinted upon our nature.  

And, this month as we wrestle with these questions of freedom and dignity and conscience and call, that whole question is already summed up two-thirds of the way through Clement’s words to the Corinthians: “Let every one of you, brethren, give thanks to God in his own order, living in all good conscience, with becoming gravity, and not going beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him.” [Pope Clement I, Letter to Corinthians, #41]  He gives the example of the Jewish sacrifices, how they are offered only in Jerusalem, and the different sacrifices are offered by the various ranks of priests.  Of course, this fits well with the rest of the letter where, amongst other things, he speaks at length on the structure of the Church, and who has the authority/responsibility at each level to pass on the Gospel (including his own authority, over the entire Church, including Corinth), but he also speaks specifically to each of us as well. If you were puzzled by the meanderings of Frances’ discernment or the cerebral musings of Albert, let this line from Clement clarify things: 

1. God created us with freedom – the ability to choose (a gift that we should use to choose what is truly good).  When you feel the weight of that gift, consider how happy God is when you use it well!
2. Each of us, the Lord entrusts, with a realm of responsibility – above all else, this is the souls we are meant to direct towards heaven (our own firstly, then those within our vocation, then our friends and coworkers).  Don’t be overly concerned with all the problems out there; stick with those God has given you!  
3. And, He has placed within our heart a conscience – formed by the Revelation found in Scripture and proclaimed by the Church (which should direct our actions).  Focus on forming it properly, and following it faithfully, and God will lead you on the path He desires!

– Fr. Rankin would struggle to name his favorite Church in Rome, or the most beautiful, or the most important … but the Church of San Clemente (where this venerable Pope is now buried, and which bears his name) does fit one superlative: most psychotic.  The “modern” basilica, built in the 1100s, sits on top of a 4^th century basilica, which sits on top of a temple to Mithra, which sits on top of a prior Christian house-church, which was built over the top of a Roman mint, which was itself built on top of some other building which burned down in the fire of 60 AD…  If you visit it, you can see all those different personalities for yourself, just go down the stairs.

As you may be aware, the Cathedral hosted some of the relics of St. Padre Pio this past weekend.  It was a blessing to see so many people come from near and far to venerate the relics of this relatively new saint in the life of the Church (less than 20 years canonized is pretty recent for the Church!).  I spoke with one man this past weekend who was excited that we were hosting the relics, as he told me that he had the opportunity to attend a Mass celebrated by the saint in 1965.  What an amazing experience that must have been!

Whenever the relics of a saint are made available for veneration, people come with various prayer requests for themselves and for others.  One often wonders if any miracles came from such times of veneration.  As of this writing, I have not been made aware of any miracles that took place this weekend, though there was something pretty remarkable that I myself recognized.  We seemed to have a larger than normal number of people coming to confession, something I believe was aided by the intercession of our guest for the weekend, St. Padre Pio.  It makes good sense to draw this conclusion as this was very dedicated to this great sacrament of mercy.  He would often spend long hours in the confessional with penitents coming to him from all parts of the world.  One estimate that I read suggested that he may have heard as many as five million confessions in his many years as a priest!  That is simply amazing!  As I head from the sacristy to the confessional, I often invoke his intercession to assist me in being a faithful instrument of God’s mercy.

What strikes me over and over again as I hear confessions is the freedom that this sacrament brings to penitents.  People sometimes see going to confession as a place of admitting defeat, which is true to some extent, but even more, it is a place where Christ claims His victory in our souls again by granting us that gift of freedom from sin so that we can truly be who He desires us to be.   Sin makes us become less than we are created to be, and being freed from those sins restores us to the place of our baptism when we were made His adopted sons and daughters.

During this month of November, let us also be reminded of the role that we play in helping others to attain complete freedom from the effects of sin through our prayers for the dead.  Those who die in friendship with God, but who still carry the effects of sin on their souls go to Purgatory to have those effects purified before being admitted to Heaven.  They are in need of our prayers to assist them in receiving this gift of ultimate freedom, so let us be generous in our prayers for the dead, especially by making  visits to cemeteries and praying for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed.  Doing so is a good investment for our future, for the aid which we offer to these souls now will not be forgotten when they arrive in Heaven.  They will most gladly pray on our behalf to help us in our struggle to claim the reward of the freedom of the children of God that awaits us in Heaven.

Father Alford