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June 14th Holy Spirit Novena
Scripture selection is Day 3 Period I.The Novena Rosary Mysteries
for June 14th are Glorious.
June is the month of the Sacred Heart.
From the Mass in China, Indiana Today During the Retreat.
On a regular basis, my dear friends in Christ, I give God thanks for the
gift of you. Seriously.
There are times in priestly ministry when - why, I once even said to a
community of faith, it is more likely for a priest to hear what he has done
wrong or how he has fallen short of the expectations someone might have,
than to hear a word of encouragement or to hear a word of thanks.
That's just part of what it is to be a public person and to be in public
ministry. So, I mean, one needs to have - well as some priests say - a
thicker skin, in order to weather being a priest within our community of
faith within our Church.
But sometimes, sometimes, when one is trying as hard as they can to do
as much as they are able, sometimes every once in a while, one too many
discouraging words, either from news on the television or radio, or just a
matter of people asking for one more thing that is really beyond one's
capabilities or whatever, that it begins to lay low, those who are priests
within our Church, and yes, myself included.
But at moments like that, you all come to my mind, that you gather here
faithfully, unwaveringly, continuously, to pray for priests and priestly
vocations. And in that, I find courage and strength to continue on.
So one of the things, well, the thing that the Lord laid on my heart to
speak to you today in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, from these readings,
is that word of encouragement for your ministry. Your ministry is bearing
fruit. I, myself, can attest to that. I hope that's not a word of a
discouragement to you!
But I think that, you know, it's not just those who know the ministry
that you do who are encouraged and upheld in their priestly ministry, but
even those who don't know about you all. Your ministry is still bearing
fruit in them and for them, and ultimately for the Church, and for the glory
of God. And that's really why we do it all, isn't it?
I think about the studies that have been done regarding prayer. Have you
ever heard these studies? They took a group of people who were seriously ill
and some of them were prayed for, unknown and known to them, and some of
them were not prayed for, as far as they know. What was interesting is that,
first of all, the group who was being prayed for, healed much more rapidly
than those who were not being prayed for. And of the group who were being
prayed for, whether they knew it or not, they both progressed at that more
rapid rate.
And so there's some scientific proof for you that the ministry that you
do, whether somebody knows about it and then therefore can say thank you,
because your ministry is bearing fruit, or whether they don't know about it
so they can't say thank you, they are still being supported by your ministry
and being upheld.
The ministry of praying for priests. How is that connected then to our
readings this day? St. Paul is writing to Timothy. St. Paul, of course, is
an apostle called by Christ - yes, post-Resurrection. St. Paul is a bishop
within the Church and he has been establishing churches and calling others
to priestly ministry - Timothy is one of those. And so St. Paul, bishop and
apostle, apostle and bishop, is writing to Timothy to give him a little
instruction, to encourage him, to pre-warn him and to strengthen him to
continue on.
Does that sound familiar to you? Because I think it ought. Because isn't
that part of what's in your mind and in your spirit, in the ministry that
you do in praying for priests: to encourage, to uphold, and also if you
will, living, by reading the times, those warnings that are out there to try
to protect - because that's ultimately why Paul writes to Timothy, is to
protect him so that he might not fall into the pit of destruction.
Paul writes to Timothy, "Proclaim the word. Be persistent whether it is
convenient or inconvenient." I think that could be a part of the way that
you pray for priests.
See, you know what? Priests are human beings, I don't know if you have
ever noticed that or not, but they are. And so like any other human being,
you know what? We want to be liked and loved. Do you have that need in your
life? I think you all are human beings. And so just like you have that need
in your life, so do priests. And so sometimes when you are in this space,
you know you're up here, you're thinking, "Oh, I really should say this
because there needs to be a challenge issue to the community of faith. But I
don't want to be not liked." So sometimes a priest can shrink from that
duty. And so they need to be strengthened so that indeed they can proclaim
the Word and be persistent in it whether it's convenient or inconvenient.
Something for your prayers.
Sometimes a matter of, that convenience and inconvenience is a matter of
pressures of ministry. You know, it's not rare for a need for me to not just
bi-locate but sometimes tri-locate or deca-locate or whatever. You know,
trying to be in two, three, four, ten places at a time, because the need is
great.
And so sometimes I want to shrink from saying something - and I think
this is true for other priests - because it's not convenient, because you
know what? Someone else is knocking at the door and opportunities are missed
because we are pressed by the next thing. So another thing for your prayers
as you pray for priests, that they might be able to deliver the word both
when it is convenient or inconvenient.
The thing is, is we also need to remember that the Word is not just a
printed page in text that we find anywhere, whether it's an arrangement of
the Scriptures so that it's arranged to proclaim at the Holy Liturgy, or
whether it's all put together in the form of the Bible. The Word is not
that. The Word is not a what, it is a Who. And the Word, Who is Jesus
Christ, comes to us - yes, in the Scriptures that are proclaimed in one
another, but also preeminently in the sacraments, and this sacrament of the
Eucharist most especially.
So in this proclamation of the Word, it's not just preaching, it's not
just reading or proclaiming the Scriptures, but it's also being with the
community of faith and celebrating the Sacraments, most especially the
Eucharist for them.
I'm reminded - ____ (a young man) who is from St. ____ and is going to
be, God willing, entering the seminary, not this Fall but next. He's got to
finish high school first. And ____ who I think you also know, who is in
seminary now. They once heard me say as I was walking across the parking lot
for the Spanish Mass on a Sunday, after having two other Masses and five
baptisms, and then two in English - the five were in Spanish, saying, "But I
don't want to go to church again!" I said it half to be silly, but also I
was tired.
And so sometimes the convenience and the inconvenience is a matter of
weariness, and so it's a matter of praying for priests that they have just
the physical strength.
Because my dear friends in Christ, it's different on this side of the
altar than on that side of the altar. See, when one presides at liturgy, one
needs to be watchful and mindful of all that's happening, most especially
the way that the Spirit is moving in this presence or gathering of the
Church.
My dear friends in Christ, in order to have that openness, it is an
absolutely exhausting attentiveness. That's the reason why the Church says
that a priest is to have only two Masses on a Sunday, one on a weekday. And
by special permission he can have three on Sunday and two on a weekday. It's
not because, oh well, it's too much. But in order to be attentive to the
Spirit at the level that one ought to be, that becomes too much to do over
and over again in a good, holy and complete way. So another reason to pray
for priests.
Please don't hear me up here as whining. I was once an engineer. And
never as an engineer, the five years that I worked as an engineer, did I
ever say these words that I'm now going to say. God, I love my life. But
once I entered priestly ministry, it has crossed my lips more times than I
can tell you. And sometimes even after leaving a place where my heart was
broken for the people of God with whom I was with, because of a death in the
family, an announcement of some other type of hardship that was pressing in
upon a family or person - but being able to be present to them, striving to
be Christ for them, when I leave those places, more often than not what
crosses my lips is a prayer of thanks, and a prayer of thanks for the gift
of my priestly life.
And so, what I am sharing with you is a matter of fodder, if you will,
for your priestly ministry of prayer life of praying for priests and the
places where they need to be prayed for.
It says here, Paul to Timothy, says he should proclaim the Word to
convince, to reprimand, to encourage through all patience and teaching. All
of that needs to be done, but here is the trick to pasturing. You know, it's
not enough to know what to say. I'm sure we all have had this experience -
we tell somebody what they need to know, right, but it's to no avail. Have
you had that experience?
See, so the trick in pasturing is not just to know what to say, whether
that word is to convince, to reprimand, to encourage - but to know how to
say it as well, such that it can be received. That's, that's the art, that's
the gift, that's the Spirit working in a priest's life. One, to know what to
say. Two, and probably in many ways more importantly, how to say it so it
might be received. So another thing for your ministry of praying for
priests, what to pray for, that priests might truly be pastors, after the
Shepherd's Heart, the Good Shepherd's Heart, so that he might indeed be able
to not just know what to say, but know how to say it.
And then Paul tells Timothy, this is what's going to happen, there's
going to come a time when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but
following their own desires and insatiable curiosity will accumulate
teachers, will stop listening to the truth, and will be diverted to the
myths. Can I give you an example? How about the DaVinci Code? If you've
never seen it, if you've never read it, you just can't believe how
transparently it is fiction, and yet people are carried off by this myth,
thinking that it's fact. And it carries them off in thoughts that are
contrary to the truth, and yet then priests need to deal with that.
And you know what, the thing is, is sometimes when you deal with things,
it just exasperates it. Sometime it's better to, sshh, be quiet about it,
and let it die a death that it deserves. And so it's the art of knowing how
to handle that.
And so here, Paul is telling Timothy this is the things that happen, and
you need to be pre-warned about them so you don't lose heart, but you also
need to know that you need to deal with those things. And once again, here
are things, then, for which you might pray, as you pray for priests. "But
you, " he says, Paul to Timothy, "Be self-possessed in all circumstances.
Put up with hardships, perform the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry." And that's the other thing that you might pray for priests.
You know, sometimes priests - because people, there are those who take
very good care of us, as our expanding waistlines sometime attest. But
sometimes because of that, they want to be in a place of cushiness, if you
will, and they forget like many in the world, because it's not just priests
who do this, but they don't want to put up with hardship. But life is hard,
my friends, and sometimes we just need to weather hardships, in order that
we might come through the death to the resurrection. Because it happens not
just at the ends of our days, and at the end of time, but it happens
throughout our lives.
And so pray that priests might be able to do that, to be self-possessed,
to put up with hardship, to do the work of an evangelist and to fulfill
their ministry, because it's easy to shrink away from it for all kinds of
reasons. So other things for which you could pray, as you pray for priests,
that they might have the spirit to fulfill their ministry, our ministry.
Lastly from Paul, he talks to Timothy about how he is being poured out
like a libation, and I think sometimes that is also something that happens
to priests, in the sense that they forget that that's what it's about.
I hate telling stories of myself, but I think this is an example. The
first time that my bishop, Bishop ____ came to visit St. _____ where I was
pastor in _____, he asked me, "Well, how many Masses do you have, and you
know, how many in what language and what's going on," and I was sharing that
with him.
As Fr. ______, _____ (the priest who followed him) who is there now,
fondly says, "You know, on a given weekend, on Sunday, one has four Masses
in two different places for three different communities and two different
languages." And that kind of gives you the spin of what that parish is like.
And Bishop ____ looked at me and he said, "____, don't kill yourself." And I
said to him, I suppose somewhat in a flippant way, so I asked the Lord's
forgiveness for that, but I said to him, "Bishop, we're supposed to spend
our lives for the Lord."
It's true, and so Paul says he's being poured out like a libation,
because he recognizes that his life is not about himself and he is supposed
to spend it on the Lord. And you know, bishops speak the word of God to
their priests. And so it's true, priests are supposed to spend their lives
on the Lord and in their ministry to the Body of Christ, the Church. And so
we need to pray that priests have the courage and the strength to do that,
to allow themselves to be poured out like a libation. The Bishop ____ turned
to me and said, "Spend, yes, but not close the account."
So sometimes priests don't take care of themselves, because there are
those priests out there who spend themselves all too much, and they don't
become revitalized by times of retreat and rest. And sometimes that's
because they think they themselves are not important, believe it or not. And
so pray for priests that they might spend their lives, but not close out the
account, and that they do it all to the glory of God.
And lastly on this Saturday, as we celebrate this liturgy in praise and
thanksgiving for the wondrous work that God has accomplished through Jesus
Christ, Who was born of the Virgin Mary. As we pray the Common of the
Blessed Virgin Mary on this Saturday, let us not forget, then most of all,
also, along this long list of things to do for priests, is to commend them
to the loving hands of our Mother Mary, that she might guide them and
protect them and draw them ever closer to her Son, and through her Son to
the Father, in the Holy Spirit.
And so my dear friends, on behalf of the priests of the world, I thank
you for your ministry, and I exhort you to continue to pray for priests,
because we need your prayers, that we might be upheld. And please also,
continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood, because the people of God,
the Body of Christ need priests, that we might be nourished by the Word of
God, both proclaimed and in sacrament.
It's always easier to pray for such when we have faces and names to put
on those. So, I commend to you those who are striving towards priesthood,
people like ____, people like _____ who you have also met. And also people
like ____ who is from _____, who you will probably be meeting in the coming
week. Those who are striving towards priesthood, that the Holy Spirit might
continue to draw them, that they might be open to that tether pulling them,
that they might say yes to their calling, and to persevere in it.
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