Mary's Home for the weekend
yes. Thursday began with breakfast at Oscars with my priest friend. After some wonderful parishioners of St. Peter in Jefferson City picked up our bill (and they were wonderful people before they picked up our bill) we headed to St. Thomas for some target practice. Milk jugs and aluminum cans. After several hundred rounds, it was time to get away from that. We took a tour of the river bank and then came home. I got cleaned up and went to a nice family's house for dinner. Stuffed chicken breasts and all the fixins. Good conversation, too. Their youngest son was teaching me his new favorite prayer. He is so ready for praise and worship. While jumping up and down say, "fruit of your womb, Jesus." You have his prayer and motions to go with it!
I left their house and went to a Cursillo meeting. Every organization including all the movements in our church has a governing board. This was a governing board meeting for Cursillo. I am the diocesan spiritual director for it, so I get to be there. we discussed why both the men's and women's' weekends needed to be canceled. while rumors may be flying; it really wasn't any big reason. This was kind of a hiccough, not a way to predict the state of affairs of the movement. To find out why they were canceled, just call someone on the governing board, the secretariat. We moved beyond that topic and started talking about pre-cursillo, post cursillo and the 3 day weekend. It was a productive meeting and everyone left feeling pretty good.
After the meeting, I got to talk about one of my passions that I am not currently involved with and that is prison ministry. A man who is on secretariat also does prison ministry. He was catching me up to speed about the issues. We discussed, for a long time, how to help Catholic inmates stand their ground when their religion is being attacked, including in prayer circles of addiction recovery programs and the volunteer is letting it happen!! Interesting... After that conversation, I visited with the husband and wife team who are spearheading the diocesan planning of NCYC. They had just returned from yet another trip to Kansas City, visiting the hotels we will be staying in.
Friday morning was an appointment with a person then back to website, phone calls, and e-mails. I think Julie, Pat and I worked on version number 4 or 5 of the pro-life letters. you would think after 10 years of planning this, the letters would be simply changing the dates and days of the week, but no, that is not the case!! Friday evening, went to a friends house to watch a little tv with him.
Saturday was a sleep-in day. I love those. I get a lot of them on Saturdays. One of the perks of this assignment is there are not a lot of weddings that gets you into the church early on a Saturday morning. So, after working on more of the events for the webpage, I went to Mary's Home. I was so happy to see the projector and screen already set up in church. I brought my laptop and projector, but saw theirs was already set up. Before mass, we watched the VIP video explaining what we do to promote vocations in our diocese. That takes 13 minutes so I couldn't preach long on the very rich readings that were given to us this weekend.
So, here, just a few questions to reflect upon:
1) Just because you say you want to be with Joshua and follow his God, do we really put that into practice in our action? Do we get to Mass to receive the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of the second person of the Triune God, Jesus the Christ (we can't receive him on the sports field or in the woods or at the Mall... we can only accept his invitation to take and eat and take and drink by being at his altar.) Coming to receive him in the Eucharist is only part of it; will we put him first once in a while and join our church group in doing some activity, or will the church activities always get last priority? Will sports and work always take priority? By our action, who are we worshipping? Who is our real God?
2) Does the second reading bother you? As a dedicated husband and father and employee of our church says when talking to a group of teenagers: wives should submit to allowing their husbands to take out the trash; to change the oil in the car; to go out and mow the lawn; to shovel the snow in the driveway. These are ways in which he is serving his wife as Christ serves his Church. Never did Christ come and say, "make me a sandwich, woman." Rather, he served; he washed the feet of his disciples. That is what this reading is about.
3) Notice many of the disciples thought this teaching was too hard and so they left him. Did Jesus go chase after them? No, he asked his apostles; his best friends if they were going to leave him. Peter, the ever-ready-to-speak says, You have the words of ever lasting life. To whom else shall we go? That's the question isn't it? Sure, I can tell you a hundred things human leaders (men and women, not just men) have done to negatively affect the reputation of the church in the eyes of the world, but in the end, I know we are in the right place and Jesus says, yes, some things that happen will be hard to face (The crucifixion was one of them too...) will you leave too? My answer is Peter's answer: Lord, to where else shall we go? I can't go to another denomination and receive the body and blood of our Lord. They have their issues, too. As long as I am here, I know I am where you are. I choose to stay. As far as me and my house, we will serve the Lord right here in the Catholic Curch, the one Jesus began and where he still gives us his body and blood to eat and drink. Thank you Jesus.
After Mass, it was a nice visit with the youth leaders of Mary's Home. These people are on fire! Lots of good things happening in their ministry. I pray for them and their youth. I hope to see them at a Life-teen Mass, at adoration some Wednesday, and look forward to seeing them at the Youth Rally and NCYC.
Sunday between Masses I went to the NCYC meeting where traders were being made and t-shirts were being handed out. There was a video about stick ministry being showed. Easily, the leader got her 8 volunteers to begin stick-ministry. Amazing. After mass, headed to Subway for a little lunch. Came home and was invited to a lady's house who was hosting a party for the Helias Missioners, but I just couldn't go to another grouping, so I stayed down for a little down time. I have been looking at websites trying to hear the stories of priests who were ministering during the events that make the news: I found information on what priests were doing and experiencing during 9/11, Katrina, and the Virginia TECH shootings. I hope to have these kinds of stories on our vocation website. It lets you know the human side of priests in the midst of the cross that faces humanity. It also lets you know priests can do these things only by the grace of God who calls them to act in these unprecedented moments in history.
Currently, I am reading a new book by John Eldridge called "Walking with God." It is basically his life lessons he wrote about in his journal for one year and how he is able to listen to God speak to him. Of course, he is writing it so he can explain how we can also listen to God in our lives. So far, it is impressive. I already recommend it and I am not through with it yet.
Tomorrow, Monday begins another week! Among other things, I will be in Monroe City visiting with youth leaders in that deanery.
I left their house and went to a Cursillo meeting. Every organization including all the movements in our church has a governing board. This was a governing board meeting for Cursillo. I am the diocesan spiritual director for it, so I get to be there. we discussed why both the men's and women's' weekends needed to be canceled. while rumors may be flying; it really wasn't any big reason. This was kind of a hiccough, not a way to predict the state of affairs of the movement. To find out why they were canceled, just call someone on the governing board, the secretariat. We moved beyond that topic and started talking about pre-cursillo, post cursillo and the 3 day weekend. It was a productive meeting and everyone left feeling pretty good.
After the meeting, I got to talk about one of my passions that I am not currently involved with and that is prison ministry. A man who is on secretariat also does prison ministry. He was catching me up to speed about the issues. We discussed, for a long time, how to help Catholic inmates stand their ground when their religion is being attacked, including in prayer circles of addiction recovery programs and the volunteer is letting it happen!! Interesting... After that conversation, I visited with the husband and wife team who are spearheading the diocesan planning of NCYC. They had just returned from yet another trip to Kansas City, visiting the hotels we will be staying in.
Friday morning was an appointment with a person then back to website, phone calls, and e-mails. I think Julie, Pat and I worked on version number 4 or 5 of the pro-life letters. you would think after 10 years of planning this, the letters would be simply changing the dates and days of the week, but no, that is not the case!! Friday evening, went to a friends house to watch a little tv with him.
Saturday was a sleep-in day. I love those. I get a lot of them on Saturdays. One of the perks of this assignment is there are not a lot of weddings that gets you into the church early on a Saturday morning. So, after working on more of the events for the webpage, I went to Mary's Home. I was so happy to see the projector and screen already set up in church. I brought my laptop and projector, but saw theirs was already set up. Before mass, we watched the VIP video explaining what we do to promote vocations in our diocese. That takes 13 minutes so I couldn't preach long on the very rich readings that were given to us this weekend.
So, here, just a few questions to reflect upon:
1) Just because you say you want to be with Joshua and follow his God, do we really put that into practice in our action? Do we get to Mass to receive the Body Blood Soul and Divinity of the second person of the Triune God, Jesus the Christ (we can't receive him on the sports field or in the woods or at the Mall... we can only accept his invitation to take and eat and take and drink by being at his altar.) Coming to receive him in the Eucharist is only part of it; will we put him first once in a while and join our church group in doing some activity, or will the church activities always get last priority? Will sports and work always take priority? By our action, who are we worshipping? Who is our real God?
2) Does the second reading bother you? As a dedicated husband and father and employee of our church says when talking to a group of teenagers: wives should submit to allowing their husbands to take out the trash; to change the oil in the car; to go out and mow the lawn; to shovel the snow in the driveway. These are ways in which he is serving his wife as Christ serves his Church. Never did Christ come and say, "make me a sandwich, woman." Rather, he served; he washed the feet of his disciples. That is what this reading is about.
3) Notice many of the disciples thought this teaching was too hard and so they left him. Did Jesus go chase after them? No, he asked his apostles; his best friends if they were going to leave him. Peter, the ever-ready-to-speak says, You have the words of ever lasting life. To whom else shall we go? That's the question isn't it? Sure, I can tell you a hundred things human leaders (men and women, not just men) have done to negatively affect the reputation of the church in the eyes of the world, but in the end, I know we are in the right place and Jesus says, yes, some things that happen will be hard to face (The crucifixion was one of them too...) will you leave too? My answer is Peter's answer: Lord, to where else shall we go? I can't go to another denomination and receive the body and blood of our Lord. They have their issues, too. As long as I am here, I know I am where you are. I choose to stay. As far as me and my house, we will serve the Lord right here in the Catholic Curch, the one Jesus began and where he still gives us his body and blood to eat and drink. Thank you Jesus.
After Mass, it was a nice visit with the youth leaders of Mary's Home. These people are on fire! Lots of good things happening in their ministry. I pray for them and their youth. I hope to see them at a Life-teen Mass, at adoration some Wednesday, and look forward to seeing them at the Youth Rally and NCYC.
Sunday between Masses I went to the NCYC meeting where traders were being made and t-shirts were being handed out. There was a video about stick ministry being showed. Easily, the leader got her 8 volunteers to begin stick-ministry. Amazing. After mass, headed to Subway for a little lunch. Came home and was invited to a lady's house who was hosting a party for the Helias Missioners, but I just couldn't go to another grouping, so I stayed down for a little down time. I have been looking at websites trying to hear the stories of priests who were ministering during the events that make the news: I found information on what priests were doing and experiencing during 9/11, Katrina, and the Virginia TECH shootings. I hope to have these kinds of stories on our vocation website. It lets you know the human side of priests in the midst of the cross that faces humanity. It also lets you know priests can do these things only by the grace of God who calls them to act in these unprecedented moments in history.
Currently, I am reading a new book by John Eldridge called "Walking with God." It is basically his life lessons he wrote about in his journal for one year and how he is able to listen to God speak to him. Of course, he is writing it so he can explain how we can also listen to God in our lives. So far, it is impressive. I already recommend it and I am not through with it yet.
Tomorrow, Monday begins another week! Among other things, I will be in Monroe City visiting with youth leaders in that deanery.
posted by Fr. Joe Corel at
8:43 PM
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