On June 26, the Church celebrated the memorial for St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei.  The main thrust of his ministry as a priest was promoting holiness in ordinary daily life, especially among the laity.  His work in the early part of the last century laid a good foundation for the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the universal call to holiness in the Church.  One of the practices that he encouraged, and one that I have practiced for many years, is known as “The Heroic Minute.”  He describes it this way:

Conquer yourself each day from the very first moment, getting up on the dot, at a fixed time, without yielding a single minute to laziness. If, with God’s help, you conquer yourself, you will be well ahead for the rest of the day. (The Way, 191) … The heroic minute. It is the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a supernatural reflection and… up! The heroic minute: here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body.

(The Way, 206)

In addition to getting right out of bed, it is helpful to turn immediately to prayer, not to your cell phone to check messages or other distractions.  A time-honored prayer encouraged by the Church is known as the Morning Offering.  The Morning Offering comes from a movement began in France in 1844 known as the Apostleship of Prayer.  The basic goal of this movement (which still exists) is to pray for the pope and the monthly intentions that he designates.  Here is the traditional version of the prayer as it is found on the English-language site for the Apostleship of Prayer:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. I offer them for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart: the salvation of souls, reparation for sin, and the reunion of all Christians. I offer them for the intentions of our bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer, and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month. 

I share this with you this week as we reach the conclusion of this month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Praying the Morning Offering as soon as you wake up each morning is a way of staying close to the Sacred Heart each day throughout the year and it serves as a helpful reminder to us of the role we have to pray for the needs of the Church throughout the world.

This week will be a week of transition for us here at the Cathedral.  We will be saying farewell to Deacon Scott Keen as he transfers to a new assignment at Christ the King Parish.  I personally want to thank him for his service to our parish, and we send him with our prayers for continued fruitful ministry.  We also welcome Deacon Rob Sgambelluri as he joins us in his first assignment as a newly-ordained deacon.  We look forward to the gifts that he will share in service to our parish through his ministry here at the Cathedral.  

Father Alford     

Recently at a Mass, I talked about the need to continually ask ourselves who our models in our Catholic faith are and why these people are our models. Having a model in our various vocations, professions, religious beliefs, and social and moral values is necessary if we must work on a goal in life. In other words, when we have a model in any aspect of our life, it helps to keep reminding us of the need to live like that person or to be better than the person. This makes for a life of purpose – a meaningful life. But when there is no model to look up to, the tendency to become mediocre, less productive, and living below our potentials is stronger.

I attended a high school retreat earlier this week. After one of the presentations, a retreat director asked the teenagers who are the most significant influence in their faith lives as Catholics. Some of them responded that their grandparents are the greatest influence in their faith lives as Catholics. Others indicated either their priests, teachers, or other people in their lives. Only very few of them said their parents are the primary influence in their faith lives as Catholics.

The explanations of those students whose parents or grandparents have influenced their faith the most vary. But I found something common in those explanations. The level of commitment of a parent or grandparent to the faith is directly proportional to the level of commitment their children will have in their faith.

Many of us will agree with me that in most cases, nothing can be more beautiful than the presence of grandparents in our lives growing up. These people are like guardian angels for the most part. They are incredibly soft on us, very protective, and are less likely to make us do what we do not want to do. Of course, that is why they are beautiful people. On the other hand, our parents are more likely to push us when we need to be pushed. But when a parent declares himself or herself Catholic but does not practice the faith, the parent is less likely to impact their child’s faith life positively. Only practicing Catholic parents can have noticeable positive impacts on the faith life of their children. Only such parents can be models in the Catholic faith for their children.

Finally, I wondered about those children who are growing up in Catholic homes where there is nothing to show about the Catholicism of the home? No family altar. No crucifix. No sacred images of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or any of the canonized Saints. What will become of the Catholic faith of those children whose parents are Catholics but never or rarely go to Confessions? Attend Masses only when it is most convenient for them? Attend no church events and contributes nothing to both the spiritual and the material growths of the Church? What will such children say about their parents when their peers from Catholic homes talk about how their parents and grandparents have significantly influenced their faith lives? Do we not all need our parents and grandparents to be our first models in our Catholic faiths? What greater legacy can parents leave for their children than the faith of our fathers – that holy faith?

Feast Day: June 28th

If we select the top several early fathers of the Church (Justin Martyr, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Eusebius, etc.), and peruse their writings we would find ourselves with all but 11 verses of the New Testament.  These men knew the writings of the Apostles, and they quoted them with abandon as they preached and taught.  St. Irenaeus is our guide and model this week, but any of them offer us a profound, childlike, refreshing approach to the Bible, so I entrust to all of you the invitation to pair your reading of the bible with a glance as well at what the Fathers said about those lines.  (Look up Thomas Aquinas Catena Aurea, which is available for free online, and offers their commentary on all four Gospels).  

Irenaeus asks us to take a step back with him to our understanding of scripture in general.  How do we approach the readings we hear at every Mass.  Why, actually, do we read the Bible at every Mass?  Have we ever asked ourselves that question?

“True knowledge is that which consists in the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and preserved, without any forging of Scripture, by a very complete system of doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor suffering curtailment in the truths which she believes; and it consists in reading the word of God without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the Scriptures both without danger and without blasphemy; and above all it consists in the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the other gifts of God.

– St. Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus Haereses, 4.33.8

A few questions for our consideration with these lines in mind:

Truth and Knowledge.  Where do we look for it?  Friends?  Wikipedia?  Facebook?  Us priests always joke with each other saying, “I read it online … so it must be true…”, but in an age where the words, images, and videos that appear before us online are all determined by algorithms beyond our control, showing us precisely what that website thinks will best appeal to our current feelings, should we flippantly go looking there first when we need direction or insight?  Irenaeus points us to the doctrine of the apostles, the ancient constitution of the Church throughout the world, and the succession of the bishops.  The Church now tends to call these three pillars of truth: scripture, tradition, and magisterium, but Irenaeus was explaining the same three to his flock in AD 180!  If they needed it, just a generation or two after the Apostles, do we think we can turn elsewhere?

A second takeaway: the Pre-Eminent gift of Love.  The great, staunch, soon-martyred bishop, spoke of love above even the gift of scripture!  Scripture, the gift of God’s self-revelation, entrusted to the bishops of the Church, and to all the members of Christ’s body, to be cherished, protected, passed-on, and contemplated.  That gift pales in comparison to the pre-eminent, more fundamental, more amazing gift of love?!  I suppose this makes sense, but scripture is easier to carry around, and share with someone, and study, right??… or maybe God’s love is a better gift than we imagine.  Cannot we carry God’s love in our heart, and know that it carries us?  And cannot we share with a friend how God’s love has been shown in our lives?  And, in studying the faith at all, aren’t we studying God’s love? 

– Fr. Dominic Rankin is currently working on reading the Bible again in its entirety this year, but is happy to have been given a number of different reminders recently to read it as a story of God’s love.  It is easy to peruse its pages and compare stories or meditate on familiar scenes, but what if I looked at the entire thing with fresh, childlike, awe-struck eyes?  Might I catch a glimpse of a grand gift of Love?

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I was introduced to the devotion to the Sacred Heart by one of my pastors who would have the congregation join in praying the Litany of the Sacred Heart every First Friday.  Over the years, I have found praying this litany and meditating on the various invocations of the litany to be one of the best means of deepening my love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  This past Monday, I received a copy of an out-of-print book that has a collection of Angelus Meditations offered by Pope St. John Paul II on the Litany of the Sacred Heart.

In his introductory meditation from June 27, 1982, the Holy Father said the following about the litany in general:

It in a marvelous prayer, totally concentrated on the interior mystery of Christ, the God-Man.  The Litany to the Heart of Jesus draws abundantly from biblical sources, and at the same time reflects the deepest experiences of human hearts…This prayer, recited and meditated, becomes a true school of the interior life, the school of the Christian.

In the Litany, there are 33 invocations that start with the words: “Heart of Jesus”, followed by some aspect related to His Sacred Heart, to which those praying respond: “Have mercy on us.”  Some of my favorite invocations are: “burning furnace of charity, king and center of all hearts, in whom the Father was well pleased, and source of all consolation.”  And as beautiful as each of these invocations are, I find that I am most drawn to the final petition after the 33 invocations, which goes as follows: “Jesus, meek and humble of heart.  Make our hearts like unto thine.”  I pray this petition almost daily, asking for the grace to have my heart be a little more like His heart, which overflows with love and mercy for those around Him.

I would invite all of you who are reading this to consider looking up and praying this beautiful litany, or to take a few of the titles to your time of personal prayer.  As Pope St. John Paul says, doing so becomes a school for our interior life, where we learn the consoling lesson of His personal, intimate love for each and every one of us, and how He desires for us to be channels of His love and mercy in our daily lives.

On a different note, we are pleased to welcome to our parish for the summer Mr. Jayke White, one of the seminarians studying for our diocese.  Jayke has graciously provided a brief biography for you to get to know him a little better.  Please feel free to introduce yourself to him when you see him around the parish.  Please keep Jayke in your prayers this summer that his time with us will be fruitful for him and for the parish.  

Father Alford     

This weekend, my seven classmates in the diocese and I will celebrate our first anniversary as Catholic priests. Dave Beagles, Michael Berndt, Peter Kosk, Paul Luczak, Michael Meinhart, Michael Trummer, Dominic Vahling, and I – Peter Chineke, were ordained to the sacred priesthood of Christ last June 19, 2020, by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki. That day was the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. After the ordination, we all began our ministries in various parishes and schools across the diocese officially on July 1, 2020. Father Dominic Vahling and I have been working here at the Cathedral parish with Father Brian Alford as our pastor. We also work full-time as co-Chaplains at the Sacred Heart-Griffin High School here in town.

Looking back to my first year as a priest in our diocese, working as a parochial vicar here at the Cathedral and as a Chaplain at the SHG, I have had many amazing experiences. I have also encountered people whose lives and faith inspire, encourage, and strengthens me. Some of these people include our Cathedral parishioners and the staff and students at the Sacred Heart-Griffin High School. While space will not permit me to mention some of these beautiful people, I will briefly summarize some of the highlights of my ministry this past year. 

Here at the Cathedral, we live as a community with the four of us (Fathers Alford, Rankin, Vahling, and I) and the Bishop. Although we live on a separate floor from the Bishop, we do many things in common. These include community prayers, Masses, meals, movies, and some outdoor exercises. This community life as a priest with these holy men of God is a rare privilege. In most cases, diocesan priests live alone in their parish rectories and sometimes in pairs for those who have parochial vicars. Our community life here in the Cathedral rectory has helped me to know these three of my brother-priests and our Bishop better than I could have known them. Living with them since after my ordination has also made my transition from seminary life to priesthood smoother and more enjoyable.

As a parochial vicar in our Cathedral parish, I have enjoyed the opportunities to celebrate the sacraments and do many other ministries. Celebrating the Eucharist, preaching at Masses, visiting the nursing homes, baptizing new babies, hearing Confessions, attending dinner/lunch invitations, visiting the sick, and our home-bound parishioners are among my favorite ministries this past year. I hardly let go of any opportunity to do these ministries because I find so much joy and life in them.

Another experience that has made my first year of priesthood awesome is my chaplaincy ministry at the Sacred Heart-Griffin High School here in town. It has been an incredible experience getting to know some of these students and their teachers as a Chaplain. I have had many fantastic opportunities to hear Confessions, celebrate Masses, and preach homilies for these young students. Getting to know them and accompanying them in their faith journey have been among the highlights of my ministry this first year in the priesthood of Christ.

Feast Day: June 24^th (6 months until Christmas!)

We have so many options for saints to study the bible with this week, but I have chosen our upcoming feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist’s because it directs our attention directly to a scriptural text: 

Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ And her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. ⁵⁹  And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, ⁶⁰ but his mother said, “Not so; he shall be called John.” ⁶¹ And they said to her, “None of your kindred is called by this name.” ⁶² And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. ⁶³  And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all marveled. ⁶⁴ And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. ⁶⁵ And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea; ⁶⁶ and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. 

Luke 1:⁵⁷

Luke’s theme of God’s mercy, especially for the lowly (remember Mary’s Magnificat, which came just verses prior to the scene we have here), comes to the forefront right off the bat.  “The Lord had shown great mercy to her…”  Why are we always surprised by God’s mercy?  He always shows great mercy.  He offers it before we ask, and when we don’t deserve it.  But just as the entire people of Israel had to struggle to believe in God’s mercy, so must Elizabeth and Zechariah, and their neighbors and kinsfolk, and so much we.  How much easier it is to see God as angry or unhappy: Who stomps off in a huff when we turn our backs on Him?  That would be much more like ourselves, but it is not the way that God offers His love again, and again, to His people.  

How, here, does God show mercy?  It is by the birth of a son for Elizabeth and Zechariah.  There is no greater gift that God can give.  Here His mercy is bundled up in the little baby John, but God seems to delight in giving His greatest gifts along, and within, the gift of a new human life.  He sent salvation in the Christ-child; freedom in the birth of Moses; joy in the gift of Isaac; a nation in the double-gift of Esau and Jacob; and even Eve was drawn out of Adam, as He was created from the dust.  It seems that God loves to bring life into barrenness.  All His love is summed up in the gift of a child.

But let us return to the rejoicing throng around the home up in the hill country of Judah, for we learn another lesson about God as we watch this scene unfold.  We see Elizabeth and Zechariah discerning the name for their son and are prompted away from the traditional names by the Holy Spirit, Who gives them the name “John”.   Y’hohanan or Yohanan in Hebrew name meaning “Graced by God” (you can see within it the root Y’, which is an abbreviation of the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton, followed by hanan, meaning “he favored” or “he graced”).  The theme of mercy reappears!  And praise God, that this name which trumpets His love, remains popular!  There are approximately 12 million American men named John with about 100,000 new John’s born to our country every year.  (And there are plenty of women named Joan, Johna, Jeanne, Gianna, Joanne, Janet, or Hannah, to name a few female names from the same root.) 

One final point.  Upon this wondrous naming, after the miraculous birth, we are told that the people feared, marveled, were struck by awe.  Do you or I ever let wonder take ahold of us?  To wonder at something means you do not understand it, control it, or made it happen.  Do we recognize those moments?  Do we exult when God’s grace breaks in, or do we miss those moments, or not want to call much attention to it?  Is it easier to ignore God’s mercy?  Is it simpler to just let those gifts of Love slide by without making much of a fuss?

– Fr. Dominic Rankin is very happy with his first name (and second name, and confirmation name, and last name now that I think about it), but this week he was struck by the power behind the name “John”.  Jesus chose John the Baptist as His precursor and forerunner, and John the Apostle as His beloved disciple.  Both were entrusted to proclaim His love in a profound way.  Both were graced to do it!  (But, to clarify, you don’t have to be named John to do that.)

Last week, we reflected on the important and inseparable connection between the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist.  Today, I would like to invite us to see how that connection extends in a special way to the priests of the Church.  On the night of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist as a sign of His enduing love for His people, He also instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders.  It was His intention to make the gift of the Eucharist dependent on the ministry of His Apostles and their successors, the bishops, and those who share in their sacramental ministry, the priests.  Priests are therefore united to the Heart of Jesus in a special way, as described simply but beautifully by St. John Vianney, the Patron of Priests: “The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.”

Last year, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart fell on June 19.  Providentially, that was the day to which we transferred our priesthood ordination for the year due to pandemic restrictions in place.  It was so fitting to celebrate this gift of priestly ordinations on that day on which the Church remembers the great love Christ has for us.  In his ordination homily, Bishop Paprocki made the following point about the essence of the priesthood, pointing to the example of one of the greatest priests of our diocese, Venerable Father Augustine Tolton:

If you look to the heroic virtue of Father Tolton, this holy priest of Jesus Christ will teach you how, again and again, no matter the joys and sufferings you will experience through your ministry, to allow your hearts to be pierced out of love for God and neighbor; he will teach you how to lead others into the Sacred Heart so that they might know how much God loves them. This, after all, is the principal mission of the Diaconate and of the Priesthood.

Two of the men ordained to the priesthood on that day were our very own Father Peter Chineke and Father Dominic Vahling.  It has been a real joy to witness their first year of priestly ministry.  In their own way, each of them has done as the Bishop has encouraged them, to lead people to know how much God loves them.  Also ordained to the diaconate on that day was Deacon Chris Trummer, who was just ordained to the priesthood this past  Saturday (June 12).  We pray that his ministry will follow this same direction, that those who will encounter his ministry will grow in their understanding of God’s love for them.

In conclusion, I invite all of us to join in prayer for all of those who are in Holy Orders in our parish and in our diocese.  There are a lot of different things that we do in service to our parishes and our diocese, but we must never forget that everything should be directed toward leading all of you to that deeper encounter with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose love for us has the power to transform our lives here, and prepare us to be with Him forever in Heaven.

Father Alford     

One of the major concerns we have today as Catholics are the fleeing of our Catholic brethren from the faith. While some of our brothers and sisters leave the faith for other religions or churches, most of those who walk away avoid religious identification or affiliation. A good number of them, directly or indirectly, prefer to be identified as “non-practicing Catholics.” In addition, I recently found out that some people leave the Catholic faith because of their doubts over some of our Catholic Christian teachings and practices.

I recently met a young adult who stopped attending Masses and other Church activities when she discovered that Saturday is the Sabbath according to the Bible. Still, Christians ignore it and observe their Sabbath on Sundays. I gently inquired from her what efforts she made to find out why this “wrong practice.” She explained that she came across that in her study of the Bible and never bothered to make a further inquiry from anyone since the Bible is the highest source of truth for Christians. I appreciated her efforts to read her Bible – a practice that is, unfortunately, rare among many Catholics today. But I also encouraged her not to limit her search for the truth in her Bible studies. Sometimes, asking questions for clarifications from Catholic friends and families or sharing ideas with them can be helpful.

Although old and very established text, the Bible is a living text with deep spiritual, theological, and historical elements. These things make the Bible, sometimes, more challenging to understand than it may appear. For this reason, reading and studying it and sharing the fruits of our studies with others increases our chances of a deeper understanding of the Bible texts.

It is easy to agree with me for encouraging the young lady not to limit her search for the truth in her studies of the scriptures and share with others and ask questions. But unfortunately, we live in a time and culture where radical individualism and subjectivism have become moral virtues instead of the social vices they are. Regrettably, individualism and subjectivism as social ills have continued to negatively impact how we live our lives, not only as Catholic Christians but as human beings in general.

While I took time to explain why most Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sundays instead of Saturdays, I will summarize my explanations here.

The realization of Saturday as the Sabbath and not Sunday is most probably a product of a plain reading of the Old Testament bible. This O.T is a story of the revelations that God made in and with his people – the Ancient Jews. While these revelations are still true and valid for us Christians, Jesus Christ – the Son of God and second person of the Trinity, is the fullness of God’s revelations. Therefore, while everything in the O.T is still true and valid, Christ, who is the fullness of God’s revelations and his teachings in the New Testament, completes the O.T.

Jesus Christ resurrected on a Sunday – the Easter Sunday. His resurrection is most critical for the salvation of humanity and very central in our entire Christian life and practice. Therefore, instead of celebrating the Sabbath on a Saturday as the people did during the Old Testament times, Christians choose to celebrate this wonderful day of rest and worship on Sundays to honor Christ and mark the glorious day Christ signed our salvation.

Feast Day: June 19^th 

We are plunging along in our summer “bible study” with the saints.  This week we find ourselves around the year 1000, in the Benedictine monastery of St. Apollinare (near Ravenna, so, a bit North of halfway between Venice and Rome in Italy).  The Abbot, Romuald, is putting the finishing touches on his rule.  Unlike that of Augustine (used by the Dominicans), or Benedict (Benedictines), or Albert (Carmelites), his rule is found in its entirety below:

Sit in your cell as in paradise.
Put the whole world behind you and forget it.
Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish,
The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.

If you have just come to the monastery,
and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want,
take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart
and to understand them with your mind.

And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up;
hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.

Realize above all that you are in God’s presence,
and stand there with the attitude of one who stands
before the emperor.

Empty yourself completely and sit waiting,
content with the grace of God,
like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing
but what his mother brings him.

And that is the whole thing!  Might I invite you to pray to the Holy Spirit and read through that again?  This is scriptural prayer at its best, and most basic, and if it is enough for Camaldolese Monks, it is probably enough for much of your or my spiritual life too!

Recognize that wherever you are right now, God is close.  Paradise is near.  Let His quiet fill your heart.

Take up a Psalm, or another line from scripture.  Let it sit in your mind.  Consider it.  Plunge its depths.  Return to it.  Repeat it slowly.  Let the Lord speak to you through it.

Now return to God.  He is with you.  He loves you.  He gazes upon you.  Look up at Him.  Love Him.  Wait on Him.  Just be with Him.  

 Fr. Dominic Rankin usually goes long on these little articles.  This week he is taking a card from St. Romuald and keeping it simple.  Let Scripture do the work.  Let God to the talking.  Let your love be carried aloft by Him.  God’s “liturgical providence” provides us these words today:

Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain; ²³  on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. ²⁴ And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.”

^{Ez 17:22}

It is good to give thanks to the Lord 
to sing praises to your name, O Most High; 
² to declare your merciful love in the morning, 
and your faithfulness by night, …
¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree, 
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
¹³ They are planted in the house of the Lord, 
they flourish in the courts of our God. 
¹⁴ They still bring forth fruit in old age, 
they are ever full of sap and green, 

^{Psalm 92:1}

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” ³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴  he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

^{Mark 4:30}

Last month, I offered a three-part Adult Faith Formation series on St. Joseph, a fitting topic given our Holy Father declaring this to be a Year of St. Joseph.  In my third and final session, I addressed various devotions to St. Joseph.  One of the general points that I made in that presentation was how the Church connects her devotional life to the rhythm of the days of the week and the months of the year.  For example, Sunday is a day on which we as Catholics are called to have a greater devotion to the Resurrection, for it was on Sunday that Jesus rose from the dead.  The month which we just concluded, May, was given as a time to give special devotion to our Blessed Mother.

As we begin this new month of June, the Church invites us to fix our attention on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart almost always falls during this month (June 11^th, this Friday, this year), so it is a fitting time for us to focus on the Heart of Jesus, which burns with love for us.  This devotion has been one that I have loved for many years, first having been introduced to it when the pastor of my home parish would have the congregation join in praying the Litany of the Sacred Heart on the First Friday of every month.  Throughout this month, I will be reflecting on this beautiful devotion in my bulletin articles.

As the Church celebrates today the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus (also known for it’s Latin title of Corpus Christi), there is an important connection between the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Sacrament, for the Eucharist is the most profound expression of the love of the Sacred Heart.  St. Julian Eymard makes this point in a succinct but profound way: “Let us learn to honor the Sacred Heart in the Eucharist.  Let us never separate them.”

One part of the devotion to the Sacred Heart is the notion of reparation for how often humanity has rejected the love of Christ, especially in the Most Holy Eucharist.  In His revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the Apostle to the Sacred Heart, Jesus had these unsettling words to say:

Behold this Heart which has so loved men that It spared nothing, even going so far as to exhaust and consume Itself, to prove to them Its love. And in return I receive from the greater part of men nothing but ingratitude, by the contempt, irreverence, sacrileges and coldness with which they treat Me in this Sacrament of Love.

I have never forgotten these words, and it prompted me to confess any times that I had treated the Lord in this way, especially if I had received the Eucharist unworthily.  On this Corpus Christi Sunday, I invite all of us to take these words to heart, and to ask the Lord to help us to be aware of the times when we have received Him with irreverence or coldness of heart.  In particular, let us be aware of any times we may have received Him unworthily, meaning having committed a mortal sin, then going to Holy Communion without first going to confession.  To do so is to commit the sin of sacrilege, and this is one of the greatest offenses to the love of the Heart of Jesus.  If we are aware of this, then please go to Confession, and be sure to ask the Lord for forgiveness for receiving Him unworthily.  Then, let us promise never to receive the Lord unworthily again, even if it means we refrain from receiving Holy Communion until we make it to confession again.

Father Alford