+ Hail Mary…

I was reminded recently of something a priest mentor of mine used to say. He died a few years ago - God rest him. He was an architect before becoming a priest, and he liked to quote another accomplished architect from Chicago. He would say, “Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

It was a kick in the pants for me when I was reminded of that, and I hope it will serve as a reminder to you that the Lord has no small plans for you. He has no small plans for your life, no small plans for your family, no small plans for this parish, no small plans for this city. 

He has great plans! And how neglectful of us and sad when we dream too small, when we set our sights too low, when we lack vision or lack courage, when we make small plans and so place limits on what we allow God to do with us. The Lord has great plans for us! 

But, of course, in order for those plans to come to fruition, we need to cooperate with the work the Lord is doing in us and the work he wants to do through us. This then becomes a great examination for us of how authentically we are living the Christian life, both as individuals and as a parish community. How is God drawing me closer to himself, and how is God putting me to work? 

God is always calling man to himself, and God is always sending man out. This has been his modus operandi, his M.O. since the beginning of time. Study the lives of the prophets, study the lives of the saints, and you will see the Lord doing this over and over again. The Lord calls us close to him and he sends us out. 
And so it is a great examination for us to do regularly:
How is God calling me to grow closer to him… and how am I responding?
How is God sending me out, calling me to serve, setting me on mission… and how am I responding?

The particularities of those things will, of course, differ somewhat for each of us as individuals, and so we need to discern that, which requires prayer, attention, listening, even imagination and dreaming. And again, don’t think too small, don’t hamper the work of the Holy Spirit by setting your sights too low. God is God, and he can do big things in the hearts and lives of those who give themselves to him; he means to do big things in you and through you. 

We, likewise, can and should make this same examination and do this same discernment as a parish. What does the Lord want to do within us? And what does the Lord want to do through us?

In regards to God’s calling us toward himself as a parish, the Lord wants nothing less than that we all become saints, rendered perfect in Christ, made holy as he is holy, living and loving here on earth as the angels and saints do in heaven. And so we need to gear our parish efforts and activities towards that. Producing saints must be a programmatic goal for our parish. 

In regards to the Lord working through the parish, our mission is, no doubt, the salvation of each and every soul in Coffee and Geneva counties, which comprise our parish. Fostering new disciples of Christ and demonstrating the love and goodness of God to all must be a programmatic goal for our parish. 

We must be attentive to both of these things. If we focus exclusively on the work of the Lord within us, we can easily become a church caught up with itself that forgets that the Church is essentially missionary in nature. If we focus solely on the work of the Lord through us, we can easily fall into a sort of lived liberation theology focusing almost entirely on social justice initiatives and the concerns of this world to the neglect of the spiritual and eternal. We must be discerning and give attention to both of these ways in which the Lord wants to work and do big things. 

And we’ve got plenty of work to do on both fronts.
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re not all saints yet. Not all yet rendered perfect in Jesus Christ. 
In case you haven’t noticed, not everyone in Enterprise/Geneva belongs to God yet, not every soldier at Ft. Novosel is a disciple of Christ, not every student at Enterprise/Geneva High School has given their heart and life to him. Not every person and family knows the peace that God alone gives, the mercy he desires to bestow, the strength and power and fullness of life we can have in him who has risen from the dead. 

Making these things happen is first and foremost the work of God, but, again, one in which we must cooperate, clergy and laity alike. God can speak, but if we don’t listen, we won’t hear him. The Lord can offer his grace in abundance, but if we don’t receive it then we will not be transformed and renewed by it. 
I can sit in the confessional for hours, but if you don’t come, you will not receive the pardon and peace offered there. We can have Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every day, but you must decide to come and place yourself in his presence, and so be purified and sanctified and made strong by his grace. 
Similarly, I may not ever have a chance to talk to your friend who you sits next to in home room or the soldier you work out with or your coworker in the next office over.

If we focus on these things both individually and as a parish, though, which is to say: if we allow God to move in us and to move us, if we listen to him and then speak, if we receive from him and then give to others, if we draw close to God and then strive to lead others to him, the reign of God will grow and be made manifest in our hearts and in the world in which we live. His plans for us and for all, his great plans, will take root and bear their fruit for our salvation and sanctification, and for the salvation and sanctification of all the world. 

The Catholic Church made Christianity the largest religion in the world; it is and historically has been the largest charitable organization in the world. The Church gave the foundation and framework for the modern university system and the modern hospital system; the Church made countless important scientific discoveries and produced the scientific method itself. The Catholic Church built western civilization as we know it, not by thinking small but by discerning the will of God and responding to his plans. The Gospel was not carried to the ends of the earth by cowards and small thinkers but by men and women willing to have their heads cut off for Christ’s sake, willing to give their lives to the Lord and follow him with courage. The Lord has worked in and through the Church powerfully and desires to continue to work in and through the Church powerfully. 

As a parish, we are here to strengthen each other, and support each other, and, as iron sharpens iron, to help each other to become and live as the men and women God has made us and called us to be: a community of believers, a band of brothers, a fraternity and sorority of disciples, drawn together to unity, to oneness in Christ as his church, and sent out as a team of evangelists to evangelize the world.

Now, with these goals, these great plans of God, laid out before us, we still need to discern how best to accomplish these goals. I’ve spoken several times before about my Pastoral Plan for the parish. That has been the fruit of my prayer and discernment as pastor about the particular ways God wants to work in us and through us in order to bring about these good things, these supremely good things, he desires for us. 

It is clear to me that we’ve made a lot of really good progress on the aspects of that plan that I’ve laid out before: 
strengthening our foundations such that we know our faith and are able to share it effectively, 
building a Catholic culture that helps to sustain us in faithful discipleship, 
celebrating in a worthy manner the sacred mysteries of true worship, 
allowing the sacramental life of the Church to have it’s proper place in our lives, 
placing the Eucharistic at the center of all that we do so that it may truly be the source and summit of our Christian life and activity,
focusing on things that matter and knowing why we do what we do,
becoming a people of communion, communion with God and with one another,
and learning how to lead others to that share in that same communion. 

I’ve seen a beautiful and amazing transformation and renewal taking place in our parish. I hope you have seen it too - a great revitalization, authentic growth, a more fully lived Christian life, a response to God’s call to communion, and greater focus on fostering and nourishing discipleship of Jesus Christ. 

Now it’s time to really lean in to what God is doing here. We can’t grow slack or slide back or fall into the trap of being comfortable with mediocrity. We want to continue working toward our vision of being a parish that programmatically forms us into saints and calls others to join in our Christian life and mission. 

So, to that end, over the next several months, we will be relaunching our discipleship groups - and, again, I encourage everyone to join one, we’ll be advertising the many different opportunities for prayer and faith formation and growing in our relationship with the Lord that we have here as well as the many different ministries and service and outreach opportunities we have. 

In addition to the opportunities for adoration we already have, we’ll begin having a daily holy hour of adoration before each of the masses, like we did this past Advent, except we will do so year round. I spoke about the importance of a daily holy hour in my homily last week. Again, the Eucharist is and must be the source and summit of our Christian life. There we find strength and inspiration for all the good that we do, there we are all drawn to find in our Eucharistic Lord the fulfillment of our hearts’ desire. 

We will also continue to introduce and establish the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the official prayer of the Church, as a practice of common prayer for us as a parish. We introduced that also this past Advent but will likewise make that something we do year round. 

There will be a number of other initiatives and projects that we’ll start or "beef up" to likewise help us keep our momentum in allowing the Lord to move and work powerfully here. I’ll speak more about these things in the coming months, as we continue to strive as a parish to order our parish activity so to form us into saints and win new disciples for Christ. That we may become a beacon of light that offers hope to the lost, a resounding bell that summons the wandering in the Wiregrass to come and find refuge in the Lord, a communion that calls to communion, a pilgrim people that beckons others to travel with us and so arrive safely at the blessed destination of eternal life with God.

Again, I encourage us all to discern how the Lord wants to work in us and how he wants to work through us. He has great plans for us! So let us, too, make no small plans.

Glory be… +

​+ Hail Mary…
 
Having now been here at St. John’s/St. Mary’s for 2 years, I once again want to address the parish, as I did last summer. At that last Pastor’s Conference I spoke about my first impressions of St. John’s, gave a bit of a spiritual assessment of the parish, and ultimately laid out a vision for the parish. I spoke particularly about strengthening foundations and building certain cultures, cultures which collectively will amount to what can rightly be called a Catholic culture. 
 
Today, in the interest of continuing that work, I want to address a few issues that I’ve seen and also introduce a few things that are on the horizon for us as a parish.
 
First, there are 3 particular issues that I want to address today. 
The first is very important, especially in that it regards the 3rd commandment and an essential obligation that we have as Catholics. I’m speaking, of course, about the Lord’s Day. To get straight to the point: Quite frankly, we have far too many people who give far too little devotion and attention to the Lord’s Day. 
 
Pope John Paul II, just over 21 years ago, promulgated his apostolic letter titled Dies Domini, the Lord’s Day. In it he writes about the 3 essential purposes of the Lord’s Day and therefore the obligations that come with it, in order to keep it Holy. 
 
First is, of course, our grave obligation to attend Mass on the Lord’s Day. Every Sunday is a Holy Day of Obligation where we must attend Mass either on Saturday evening or, better still, on Sunday itself. We come to Mass, first and foremost, as a duty. Not to be entertained or to feel good or simply because we feel like it that day. We come together as the Church, as God’s family, to worship God as is His due, as the One who created us and sustains us in life. We also come to thank him for all His blessings, we come to ask for and receive what we need. We come to be nourished in word and in sacrament. God knows we need that; God knows we need Him, which is precisely why He commands it of us. If we’re not coming to Mass every Sunday, not only are we not fulfilling God’s command but we are so much worse off for it.
 
Secondly, the Lord’s Day is also to be a day of rest. Just as the Lord rested at the completion of creation, so also are we to do. We shouldn’t fill up our Sundays with all the work we didn’t get done during the week or with unnecessary frivolous activity. It should be a day of rest and recreation and a day spent with the family.
 
Thirdly, the Lord’s Day is a day for works of charity. Call or visit those who are sick or alone. Help those who could use your help.
Again, the Lord’s Day has these 3 essential purposes:
It is a day on which we must worship the Lord by attending Mass, it is a day for rest, and it is a day for charitable works. Recapturing the Lord’s Day as the heart of our week and as a day set aside, a day unlike other days, is key to revitalizing both parish & family life.
 
The second issue that I want to briefly address is Preparation for and departing from Mass. As I’ve said before and as I’ll say again, our participation in Holy Mass is the most solemn and sacred thing that we do in our lives.
Silence and a renewed sense of the sacred are things that we need in order to prepare for and conserve the graces we receive at Mass.
 
Sometimes we simply have far too much noise in here before and immediately following Mass. I’m not speaking about greeting someone, or parents directing their kids, or babies crying or anything like that. Having a lively environment is good. I’m speaking about useless chatter, lots of idle conversation, especially here in the nave of the church, right here in the pews.
 
Again, preparing for and departing from Mass is like going up to the peak of a mountain and coming down the mountain. Those moments right before and right at the end of Mass are precious moments.
Before mass is a time to prepare our souls for what we’re about to do. What a beautiful practice, almost universal, to come into the church and kneel for a few minutes of prayer before mass. Wonderful.
 
Let me recommend something to the whole parish today, do that right at the end of mass too. As soon as the recessional hymn is finished, kneel down for 30 seconds and thank God for what you’ve just received. I would love for that to develop as a custom at our parish. We don’t have to race out of the church. Don’t immediately start talking to your neighbor. Wait until you get to the vestibule to start talking about what you’re going to have for dinner/lunch. Take a few seconds, conserve those beautiful graces, and let this sacred space be a place of silence and reverence.
 
The third issue that I want to address today is in regards to knowing the Catholic faith. It is so very important, especially in modern times, to know our faith and know it well, such that we can defend it when challenged and teach it, that is hand it on to others. There are lots of people here today who either do not know their faith or who do not know their faith well enough to defend it convincingly and share it effectively. And, of course we can all stand to grow in our knowledge of the faith.
 
Praise God you are here, praise God for your faithfulness and commitment over the years, praise God for all the ways he has worked in your life and in your heart, and praise God for the ways you have responded to that. Now we need to take things to the next level.
 
And that brings me to the first and main thing on the horizon for us that I want to introduce today. This Fall, for at least the next year, I will be taking over our Adult Education Classes which follow the 9am (precede the 11:30am) Mass on Sunday. I will be offering a course on the Catechism, I’ll be teaching the classes myself, and we’ll go through the Catechism - front to back. Once again, with the purpose of learning our faith well so that we can defend it and share it effectively. I want for as many as possible to attend these classes. It will be offered during a convenient time, but of course will still require commitment on our part. However, I am convinced that this is something very important for this parish to thrive. In these times, we simply cannot afford to be complacent or ignorant of our faith. Growing deeper in our faith is essential for every Catholic, no matter how young or old, no matter how long or short a time we’ve been Catholic, and it’s one of the primary ways in which the Lord continues to inspire us to enter more deeply in our relationship with him and enables us to be evangelists, witnesses to the Gospel here and now. I will mention more about this class in the coming weeks, and encourage everyone to prepare to give that extra time and effort to something so very important.
 
Another thing on the horizon for us is that we will soon finally be getting underway with our exterior renovation of the church building. I first announced a little over a year ago that due to the deterioration of the bricks on the exterior of the church and faulty workmanship when the church was built, we will have to strip the bricks off the outside of the church and re-brick the entire exterior wall. We have the majority of the funds necessary for the project saved and set aside, but we’ll likely be taking out a short-term loan to cover the rest of the cost. We’ll have a number second collections next year in 2020, asking for contributions to assist with that. Those will be instead of the monthly building fund collections which are now only quarterly. The building will be re-bricked to match St. John Hall and will look very nice, so even though it is unfortunate that we’re having to do this on a building only a few decades old, it will be exciting to have a renovated church.
 
There are two other initiatives that will be kicking off in the near future here that I won’t be introducing today, but that, again, I think are important for our parish’s future and that will have a very positive impact on parish and family life.
 
 
Although all of the things that I’ve mentioned today:

• keeping holy the Lord’s Day - by attending Sunday Mass, making it also a day of rest and charitable works
• preserving an atmosphere of silence and reverence and prayer before and after mass
• growing in our knowledge of our faith, especially by attending the Catechism course I’ll be offering
• our project re-bricking the exterior of the church
• the other two initiatives coming soon

Although all of these things will require something from us, commitment, generosity, I am convinced that these are truly for the good of our parish, collectively and individually.
 
And so I ask that we make these commitments as we continue, with God’s help, to strengthen our foundations and build a truly Catholic culture.
 
Glory be… +
 

​First Impressions and Laying Foundations 
 
+ Hail Mary…
 
In seminary, about 2 or 3 times a year, all of the seminarians would gather in the auditorium or chapel for what was known as a rector’s conference. The rector, the priest in charge of the seminary, would come in, open with a prayer, and proceed to talk about… well… whatever he felt like talking about. There was always a nervous excitement when the head honcho gathered us all to speak directly to us and to speak his mind. 
 
Sometimes, it was to make a special announcement, sometimes to educate us on something he considered very important, sometimes it was a sharp rebuke, a real challenge, a kick-in-the-teeth, if you will. 
 
Today for this... Pastor’s Conference… I would just like to offer a sort of "State of the Parish" address. You’re getting off easy this time. 
 
As I complete my first year as Pastor here at St. John’s, I have reflected quite a bit on the past year, and want to offer an examination of the life of our parish. 
 
Let me begin by saying that overall as a parish we’re in good shape, we have lots of room to grow, but we’re in good shape. 
 
I attribute a lot of that to the generosity of so many parishioners here, those who have been here a long time as well as those who are only here a short time, and to the focus on the family. I have really been impressed by the generosity of our parish and by the emphasis on having strong families. 
 
I also attribute a lot to the leadership of Fr. Gregory. My sincere thanks to Fr. Gregory. I believe he brought a real stability to this parish, a stability that was desperately needed. In many ways, he righted the ship, he steadied the course, he held the fort. And I sense that was very much needed.
 
With that said, I think that often when there has been a pastor who keeps things going calm and steady, it can be the job of his successor to shake things up a bit and keep things from becoming stagnant. 
 
It is good for a parish to be at peace, to have stability, it is very important. But a parish can’t be allowed to become complacent. We don’t want stagnation, which is the malaise of so many Catholic parishes throughout the world. When water is stagnant all sorts of subtle dangers creep in. The same is true of a parish; it can become susceptible to spiritual disease, to spiritual infection, it can become a home for all sorts of weird, subtle but dangerous things. We want to keep that from happening. 
Also, it is good once stability has been established to really start looking to the future, to real, authentic growth and development. This is true in all sorts of aspects of life. It is true in the spiritual life as well.
 
And that requires vision, a vision for what our mission is and for what the final goal is. 
The mission of St. John’s must be the mission of the universal Church, which is the mission of Jesus Christ: to foster and nourish faithful discipleship of Christ for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls. It can be nothing else. 
 
This is accomplished in a variety of ways: through Prayer, Celebration of the Sacraments, Religious Education, Evangelization, Service, Community Involvement, Social Events. But, most of all, it is accomplished by building up a truly Catholic culture that keeps this overall mission in mind and works toward the goal of establishing and maintaining a vibrant, authentically Catholic parish, that is active and has a lively spirit. Parish life must be liturgically focused and centered on the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of Christian life.
We may never reach that goal, but as long as I’m here, we will pursue it day in and day out. That is my vision, my mission, my goal, and I hope it will become our parish’s vision, mission, and goal.
 
Before we can really get going with all of this, though, first we need to strengthen our foundations. 
And what I mean by strengthening the foundations is: emphasizing the basics of the faith, interiorizing the basic goodness and positive message of the Gospel, establishing a deeper personal relationship with God, and building up those cultures that I spoke about in my very first homily here: a culture of life, a Eucharistic culture, a culture of encounter, a culture of vocations, a culture of hospitality, a culture of stewardship, a culture of family, a truly Catholic culture. 
 
These foundations need to be strengthened, because before a parish can be a holy parish it first needs to be a healthy parish. And you know, priests gain a lot of insight into the health of a parish in a lot of different ways: by what we hear in confession, by how people receive communion, by how people enter and leave the church, by how hard it is to find volunteers, by how comfortable/respectful people are around priests, by the quality and appropriateness of conversations, and through a lot of other ways.
 
As I said, St. John’s is in pretty good health, but we’re not in the best of health; we are in good shape, but we have lots of room to improve. This is the work of years that I have laid out, and over the next two years or so, we are really going to focus on these things. I will make these comments available within the next week or so, so we can be focused and work on these things together. After that, we can really start to hit our stride. 
 
May all that we do be for our good, for the good of all, and for the glory of God. 
 
Glory be… +