Labor Day

    This weekend we celebrate the third and final summertime holiday--labor day.  On Memorial Day we remembered our deceased veterans.  On July 4 we celebrated our freedom, and on Labor Day we honor workers.  But what are we as Catholics to make of this day when the unemployment rate is so high and our political leaders seem unable or unwilling to address the problem in an effective way.

  The teaching of our Church basically says that we are all workers.  To be human is in some way to be a worker. From Pope Leo XIII in the 1890's right  up to Pope John Paul II this teaching has been reiterated in various ways.   Also through work we humans share in the ongoing process of creation by producing goods and services that enhance the quality of life on earth  and which provide a means of living to all.

   The problem, of course, is that greed and self-interest, get in the way.  Some goods and services do not enhance, but rather hinder, the quality of human life, and sometimes workers labor under unjust conditions.  This writer thinks that the previous two sentences sum up the heart of today's problem, the blame for which can be cast at the feet of members of both of  our political parties.  I do not wish to promote or decry any one political leader in this blog, but I do believe that Christian  concern for what is right, and not mere politics calls for me to point out some of the problems, as I see them, on this Labor Day. 
   
   It was the greed of many banks and Wall St. firms, as well as the policies of our government and the high cost of the wars we have been waging that led to the economic downturn,  and foreclosure crisis which is behind the high unemployment rate The last administration began it and this one has not been able to lead a return to prosperity, though we often forget the forces other than government are also responsible.

   The unwillingness of both political parties to bend, compromise and try to work together is also deplorable and adds to the problem.

   I have been working in Wisconsin this summer and decry strongly what Governor Scott Walker did when he took away collective bargaining rights from state workers.  Now I will grant that some of the unions had demands that were unreasonable, but that's why negotiations get held.  Our Church clearly teaches that workers have a right to organize and that employers are bound to negotiate in good faith.   What folks on all sides forget is the Catholic principle of keeping the common good in mind.  If we did this we wouldn't have the 'my way or the highway" mentality that permeates so much of our political debate.

   So, as we celebrate Labor Day and grill our burgers, brats and hot dogs, I believe that Catholic and Christian concern calls all of us to work together so that all are employed at honorable work, and that all receive just compensation for their labor.

   

  

Sing to the Lord--A Wonderful Ecumenical Experience

 POPS River Revival--Ecumenical Concert (click on this link to see excerpts from the concert)

    I have been coming to Eagle River to assist at St. Peter the Fisherman Parish in the summerti
me since 1995.  After a few summers I became aware of an ecumenical concert put on by Prince of Peace Lutheran Church here in Eagle River. I joined the choir in 2005 and have sung each summer since then (except in 2006 when I had to stay in Florida to take care of health issues). People from many different churches and denominations come together to praise the Lord in song with music from the Great Awakening and Revival periods.  This year there were 105 of us plus the directors.  You can see some excerpts from the concert by clicking on the link above.

   Ever since the Second Vatican council promoted ecumenism I have been a strong supporter of any effort in that direction.  Honest ecumenism doesn't whitewash our differences with other Christians but seeks to celebrate our common ground which is belief in God and in God's Son, Jesus Christ, with the hope that such common sharing will lead to greater unity and the overcoming of our differences.  Right now I think that we are stuck in a time where great steps forward have been taken but we don't know just how to proceed from there.  We certainly need to pray to the Holy Spirit to guide us and to open doors that we don;t seem to be able pass through right now.

   Right from the start i have not only enjoyed singing with POPS, but have been impressed by the deep Christian faith of its members.  This was especially so in 2006 when I could not come to Eagle River.  Not only did I receive prayerful support from the Catholics in Eagle River, Phelps and  Land O'Lakes, but also from the members of the choir from many different churches.  I will never forget that.

   As for the singing part of it I have always loved singing ever since Sr. Mary Magdalene "volunteered" me to join the boys choir at my boyhood parish of St.William's in the Savin Hill neighborhood of Boston.  I was a member of the seminary choir and am told that I do well singing the Mass parts.  Because I'm the presider though I don;t get to sing in the choir.

   POPS gives me a chance to do that.  We practice every Wednesday evening for 6 weeks and have a dress rehearsal on the Sunday night prior to the concert.  The concert runs for three nights (Tuesday through Thursday) and a free will offering is taken each night with proceeds going to local charities.  This year we raised over $5000.00. I hope to keep coming back to POPS and hope that you my readers will seize whatever opportunity presents itself to join with other Christians in prayer, song or promoting works of charity and justice.

Relay For Life

  I have copied in to this entry the column I wrote for the St. Peter the Fisherman parish bulletin on July 31.  Tonight (August 5) I will walk with the St. Peter's team in the Northwoods Relay for life.  I have done this every year since my own diagnosis of prostate cancer 5 years ago.  Every year I also try to do something to raise consciousness about the need for getting the appropriate checkups and screenings.   This blog entry is part of my efforts in that regard

 In the St. Peter's bulletin I wrote:

He (she) has cancer.  This sentence is so often whispered in hushed tones. Cancer takes lives and we don’t like to speak about it, yet millions of people have had that statement made about themselves. Five years ago I left Florida in June and was on my way to Eagle River for the summer.  I had been biopsied for the third time for prostate cancer, but since the first two times were negative I was confident that this time would be as well.  That was not to be.  I was in Atlanta visiting friends as I journeyed north when I got the call from my doctor’s office telling me that I indeed did have cancer.  Instead of continuing north I had to turn south again and return to Florida.  I called Fr. Bob with the news that I would not be able to come to Eagle River that summer.

   Fortunately  I had been going for regular checkups and cancer screenings and my prognosis for recovery and cure was excellent.  After consulting with doctors about possible treatments I chose a radiation approach and things have been just fine so far, though I do get nervous every six months when I go for follow-up exams.

  The good news today is that cancer does not in many cases have to be a death sentence.  There are millions of us in this country  who are survivors and who will be participating in one of the many American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life programs. The Relay celebrates our survival but also works to find both better treatment and even a cure for cancer.

   St. Peter’s has a  team in the Northwoods Relay for Life called Walkers with Soul. I will be joining several parishioners who will participate as cancer survivors The Relay though is not just for survivors.  It is for anyone who wants not only to support them and also for anyone who wants to support the struggle for a cure.  Please consider coming out to Northland Pines High School field on Friday evening, Aug 6 for the opening ceremony and for the beautiful luminaria  ceremony at dusk where candles are lit in remembrance of those who have died of this disease and honoring the survivors as well.  Anyone can join the team even if you are not a cancer survivor.

   Finally I urge everyone to get the cancer screenings that are recommended for your age and gender. Granted that there is squeamishness and humor regarding several of these tests, but remember THEY SAVE LIVES. This is so because most cancers can be treated with early detection. That was certainly so in my case.  I might also add that care of our bodies and doing the things that prevent not only cancer, but other illnesses as well, is a Christian responsibility.  God Bless and hope to see you at the Relay for Life.

   For more on the Relay just click below.

Northwoods Relay for Life 

Let Us Pray

  One of the prefaces for weekday Masses says, "You have no need of our praise, yet the very desire to praise you is itself your gift."  These words provide food for thought regarding the meaning of prayer and why we pray. While I pray every day (and hope you do as well) over the past few months several requests for prayer have captured more than the usual amount of attention for me. From the viewpoint of "outcome" the results have been very different.

   A few months ago a good friend contacted me and asked me to pray for a baby named Evangeline who was born prematurely and had several medical complications. There was a good chance that she would not make it.  Not only did I set about praying for this child and her parents, I asked my Franciscan community to pray for her, and several communities of sisters as well. In addition to that many other friends have been praying for her While Evangeline is not entirely out of the woods she has made great promise and looks to be on her way.   In her case it appears that our prayers have been answered. Certainly the whole story is eloquent testimony to the power of prayer.

   At just about the same time that I heard about Evangeline I was asked to pray for a 2 year old who fell into a swimming pool.  I engaged the same people in prayer and the child's family and circle of friends  spread the request for prayer. Unfortunately the child died.  What are we to make of this?  Both parents are good, practicing Catholics, people of strong faith.  Was one prayer answered and the other not?  This question, of course, as been on the minds of Catholics and others over the centuries.  How do we explain this.

    I wouldn't begin to try to explain the mind of God, but I will say that our prayers are always answered.  I'm sure that the family of the child who drowned in the pool continued to pray and found strength in their grief as a result of this.  In fact I know this to be true.  Deeper than this fact however is the need to understand why we pray and what is means to ask God for something.  When we understand this it puts things into perspective.

   Why do we pray?  The ultimate purpose of prayer is not to get God to do things for us, but rather to seek union with God, to grow in relationship with God. While I don't believe that God sits in heaven and thinks "Hmmm, I think that those folks on earth need a little sickness, death, tragedy and disaster," these things are part of life.  They remind us that life is fragile and that we are finite.  Because of this they open us to the need for God.  Our illusion of total self-sufficiency is shattered by these things.  They open us to God then and our first instinct, which is a good one, is to ask God to take away our pain and suffering, or that of someone we love.  It is easy to believe that our prayer is heard when we get the desired outcome.  When we do not we need to understand that if the ultimate goal of prayer is union with God, then God will indeed be with us when we open our hearts with our desires.  What happens then is that God gives us strength and comfort when we don't get the results we want.  God will always be there.  God's promise to us is not that if we have faith all of our problems will be taken away, but rather that we will never be abandoned. I found this to be true back in 1992 when our family got word from the doctors that my mother would die of cancer.  She had battled for 5 years and during that time we constantly prayed that she would live.  When we found out otherwise we were sad of course, but we found that God gave us all great strength, and my mother went to her death peacefully knowing that she was loved by her husband and three children.  The whole experience brought us closer to God.

   As that line from the Mass preface that I quoted at the beginning says God does not need our praise, our prayer, but we need God.  Hopefully we go to God everyday to open our hearts in prayer and to present whatever is there--a request, a plea for forgiveness, a prayer of praise  and adoration, or one of gratitude. If we do that we will draw ever closer to God and be ever more mindful of God's presence with and among us.

St. Bonaventure

   I celebrated Mass this morning at St. Peter the Fisherman  in Eagle River, WI.  Today is the feast of a great Franciscan saint, St. Bonaventure.  I asked the 20 or so people who were there if they knew anything about Bonaventure.  Only three raised a hand.  That experience reminded me that this great man and doctor of the Church is so well known in Franciscan circles, but not outside of it, so I thought that I would present a little about him on this blog.

   St. Bonaventure hails from a small town in Italy called Bagnoreggio in 1221. he died in 1274.  After entering the Franciscans around 1240 he was eventually ordained, became a professor of theology at the University of Paris and was a contemporary of Thomas Aquinas.  He became Minister General of the Franciscans and eventually was ordained a bishop and became a cardinal.

   It is a difficult challenge to sum up his great theological work in a few paragraphs, but I will try.  The life of Francis of Assisi was the source of his theological reflection.   Basically he looked at Francis and developed a systematic theology based on his understanding of the great saints' life.  He developed what is called a Christocentric view of the universe.  This term means much more though than Christ-centered in the sense that any Christian theology or spirituality must be that.  On a deeper level he gives emphasis to what is pointed out in the prologue of John's Gospel (Jn 1, 1-5)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

 The same thought is expressed in the letter to the Collosians (See Col, 1, 15-16).

Basically what this tells us is that in the mind of God Christ is the first creation in the mind of God and that Christ was ordained to become human right from the beginning, even if humans had not sinned.  How different this is from the thought the Jesus was a type of divine intervention made necessary by sin.  Bonaventure and later Franciscan theologians like Scotus don't deny sin and the need for redemption.  They stress that the coming of Christ is the center and high point of human history, the punctuation mark on it that God planned from the beginning. These thoughts are rooted in Scripture and also in several theologian of the early Church such is Iranaeus of Lyon.  In this theology Jesus was not sent to get crucified. he was sent to proclaim the reign of God and to love us unconditionally.  When that love met sin the cross resulted.  Bonaventure sees the Cross as central and as the ultimate expression of God's unconditional love. Creation itself reflects Christ in whom all is created and the cross in which all discord and opposition are overcome. 

 

   Another aspect of Bonaventure's thought is being looked at today in light of our ever growing understanding of the universe.  He stresses not only that all is created in Christ, but that all will return to Christ, very much in line with our sense of the expanding and contracting universe.

   This theological vision is what animates all of us Franciscans.  Francis lived it.  Bonaventure reflected on it and today I am grateful to God for both of them.  I rejoice with my brother friars at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, NY and with Franciscan theologians all over the world.  I pray that any readers who are not Franciscan will have been enriched by this reflection,

  

The Good 'Ol Summertime

Proclaiming the Gospel at St. Peter the Fisherman, Eagle River, WI, on the feast of Corpus Christi

 After a whirlwind of travel in the  past few months I've settled into my summer ministry at Eagle River, Phelps and Land "O'Lakes here in Wisconsin. My celebration of my fortieth anniversary of ordination has become a kind of moveable feast with the three parishes here all graciously celebrating this with me. As many of you know my summer times here are special to me for several reasons--wonderful people, a chance to experience parish life, a chance to sing in a choir and to offer some adult faith formation are at the top of the list.

   It is a blessing that I have been able to be in touch during my travels via this blog and Facebook especially.   As I've done that I've heard several comments about internet use--friendly kidding about being the "techie friar", accolades from people who urge me on with this, and while no one has said anything negative to me about my internet use I have run into folks who express concern or fear about our modern high tech world or who say things like "that stuff's not for me."   I would like to address these concerns.

   The internet and the social networking tools that have arisen with it are media, forms of expression and communication.  As such they are morally neutral tool.  You can find everything from the evil to the trivial right on up to the amazing and edifying.  I strive to fit into the latter category.  Over the past two months I have brought followers into things such as my experience in Assisi, my fortieth Anniversary of priesthood and offered several reflections.  On Facebook I share interesting places and experiences that I have had. What has been really amazing to me though is the opportunity to connect in prayer.  Now I don't like these requests that come out of nowhere and try to make you feel guilty if you don't pass on an e-mail about some situation.  That having been said I have had the opportunity to pray for several situations passed on to me from good friends  that I might never have learned about had it not been for the social networking that goes one.  Just this morning I said Mass for a woman in Arizona who is facing very grave illness.  There have been similar request during this time whether I was in Assisi, Florida, Michigan or now Wisconsin.  This past Sunday we celebrated Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.his was a feast  the Eucharist to be sure, but also a feast of the Church which is the Body of Christ.  To me the social networks, with all their capacity for triviality or even evil, are also a means of allowing the members of the Body of Christ to stay in touch, to pray, to teach and to affirm and support one another in living our faith.  I say a big Amen to that.

Beginning of Mass, June 26, 2011

Pentecost:Too Good to be True?

  This Sunday the Church celebrates the feast of Pentecost.  Pentecost is also a Jewish feast.  The word simply means "50 days" in Greek, 50 days after Passover, and fifty days after Easter.  We celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and with that the birth of the Church, though it can be said that the Church was born on the Cross or even at the Annunciation.  I won't enter into debate over that issue. There is truth in all 3 approaches. Suffice it to say that it is one of the three major feasts of the Church along with Holy Week/Easter,  and Christmas.
  
   For the former two feasts the Churches are full, drawing even those who do not come to Church regularly.  Why is this?  While there are probably many answers for this I think that deep down even those of us who believe find it too good to be true. We can believe that God took human flesh in Jesus, or that Jesus rose from the dead,but Pentecost calls us to believe that the Holy Spirit not only descended on the apostles, but that the Holy Spirit dwells in you and me, and brings the mysteries of Christmas and Easter to life in us over and over again.

   I think that somewhere deep inside of us we like to keep God at a distance-in past history, in an ark, in a temple, in a Church, in the tabernacle.  Now don't get me wrong, it would be heresy to deny the presence of god, of Christ, in the above mentioned places.  The point is that we can more readily believe in those things than we can believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, dwells in me, in you, in the Church as the Body of Christ. When this happens we get caught up in externals, in what direction the altar should face, what language music and what to use.  Now I don't deny that  Eucharist and the other sacraments should be celebrated properly and with the right combination of reverence and joy, of common unity blended with local cultural expression, but when we put so much energy and even anger into this discussion we are not a calling on the presence of the Spirit among us.  When we put too much emphasis on the business affairs of the Church while the world around us is torn by war, violence and injustice, we are not attending then to the Spirit dwelling amongst us.We argue that we are not worthy.   Of course we're not.  The Spirit  comes as gift in spite of our unworthiness.  The challenge for us is what do we do with the gift.

   The answer is that we allow the Spirit to work in us, each according to his or her gifts, to make a difference in the world, through prayer, action and witness, and at the same time to build a vibrant Church, not one according to our own likes and tastes, but the Church that the Spirit is striving to build through us. Let us make our own on this  wonderful feast the ancient prayer of the Church--"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. En-kindle in them the fire of your love.  Send forth  your Spirit among us and renew the face of the earth."

   I invite you to click on the link below for a rendition of the traditional hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus, sung in Latin with English translation.  It beautifully expresses what this Feast is about.

Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit)

  By the way in many parishes people are invited to wear red to Church this week.  That is the liturgical color for the feast, the color of the tongues of fire which descended upon the apostles.  I think that this is a great custom