I pray

I pray for the Christians who are being murdered in the Middle East. Help us to rejoice with these new saints in heaven. May their spilled blood water the seeds of conversion. May their witness be as the witness of the first century saints whose deaths gave birth to the early Church.

I pray for those who mourn for the loss of these Christians. May they not despair but rejoice as their loved ones enter the kingdom of heaven. May Our Lady, who mourned the loss of her Son, comfort all in need.

I pray for those Christians who are being forced to convert by the sword. May they stand their ground and speak your truth. May those who do convert never forget their faith and may God forgive their sin. 

I pray for those who persecute, those who speak hate, those who stand by passively, and those who execute these martyrs. Lord have mercy on them! Christ have mercy on them! May their hearts soften. May they accept his mercy. And may they not only be saved but become a second St. Paul!

Lord may the world see your greatness in these dark days.

May the world learn that true freedom is only found in you and that sin makes us all slaves.

You have shown us the way to life. 

Prepare us to leave all and follow after you.

Amen.

Fall in Love

When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go then!” They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district. Matthew 8:28-34

They begged him to leave their district. Two men are freed from demons. So why do the townsfolk beg Jesus to leave? I think it is because the cost (a few pigs) was too high, they would rather have the pigs than two of their brothers saved. God offers freedom and we reject it because it does not fit our world.

How many times in our life has Jesus come to us and we turn him down because the cost is just too much? Maybe God is calling us to work less and spend more time with our family but the potential loss of funds and life style costs are too scary. Or maybe Jesus wants to give us peace by having us spend more time in prayer but we are too busy watching morally questionable television shows. Or we spend our morning commute listening to radio announcers gossip about celebs, screaming about politics, or some other questionable content when we could be finding joy in praising the savoir of our life in Christian music.

Take a close look at your life. What do you spend your time on? Jesus needs to be the center. He asking you to give up some pigs to free you from demons. Please do not beg him to leave because the cost is too high.

I believe this poem attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. sums up the rest of my thoughts.

Nothing is more practical than

finding God, than

falling in Love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read,

whom you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in Love,

stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry!

When I was in high school I took a trip to Italy to visit my Nona, grandmother, before she died. Before leaving for the trip, I was given a book about Padre Pio to borrow from UF. He said something about us both being Italian and I was happy to read anything UF would give me. My father left for Italy a week before me and I was going to be flying international all alone. With a long flight and lots of alone time, I read most of the book on my journey. It was the first time I heard about Padre Pio and I found his life to be amazing. From the miracles, to fighting with the devil, to reading peoples' souls in confession, to praying the rosary and fasting almost unceasingly; what is a teenage boy not to like about such an extreme life style. He lived a challenging and obedient life. He lived a manly life. A life that was attractive to me.

On my way in an airport in Philadelphia praying the rosary (because it is what Padre Pio would have done) a man with a thick Italian accent, possibly drunk, came up to me and asked me if I was scared. I was a little taken back, mostly because I didn't expect anyone to talk to me. But I quickly said, "No, I am praying for my grandma." He went on and said something about saying, "Our Marys and Hail Fathers." What hit me at the time was that this man and many other people only pray when they are scared. When they are so desperate there is nothing left for them to do. Padre Pio was not a man who prayed out of fear. Was I scared?

When I got to Italy I felt as if I entered into Padre Pio land. There were statues and pictures of this guy everywhere. They truly loved him. I even received a really nice Padre Pio medal from my Godparents. Padre Pio really wanted me to know he was with me. His life comforted me as a spent time with my dying grandmother. He told me prayer was important and the suffering had meaning.

A few months ago my father was struck by a car well walking in a parking lot. His neck and arm are still in pretty bad shape and it will be along time before he can get back to work. On Father's day I found out my father, who rarely goes to church, read a large book filled with stories about those who encountered Padre Pio (a Christmas present I gave my mother). My dad told me that he wants to go visit his shrine next time he goes to Italy.

Padre Pio still works miracles.

Saints: St. Anthony of the Desert

St. Anthony of the Desert is my confirmation saint. I am a bit ashamed to say that I picked him because my grandfather (who died before I was born) and my uncle were both named Anthony and I liked being named after people. I don't think I did any real research on his life when I picked him and only really knew that he lived alone in the desert and I thought that was kind of cool. I didn't understand fasting and the temptations he had and his battles with demons and the devil!

I had to write a report on his life and I think I got a C on it, mostly because I didn't include his feast day. I am pretty sure that was the worst grade I ever got in religion.

If I were going to do it again, I don't think I would have picked him. Besides the really cool bread and not cutting his nails (he also refused to bathe) we don't have that much in common.

However a few years ago I read his biography by St. Athanasius and St. Anthony started to share his wisdom with me.

He taught me that I need to be able to give up my positions. St. Anthony gave up everything after reading Matthew 19:21 "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

St. Anthony gave me an example to rid worry from my life. After reading Matthew 6:34, "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today" he put total trust in God give up the rest of what he had and lived in the desert. He even sold his sister to the convent!

Lastly his life has shown me the importance to withdrawal from the world and spend time alone with God. I love to be with others but I often forget I need to have time to be alone with God. I need to be quite so that he can speak and I can hear his voice .

St. Anthony is the patron God wanted me to have because he challenges me to find balance in my life. It is good for us to have saints that we love because they are like us, but we must also have saints who push us out of our comfort zones. If we are not being challenged we are not growing.

I encourage you to find a saint who challenges you. Maybe find your own desert and pray to God for guidance in choosing one. Feel free to share a saint who challenges you below.

Also if you don't know much about your confirmation saint I encourage you to read everything you can about them. Become an expert in your saint or at least remember his or her feast day.

Festivals

Note to reader: Just to make it clear this post is in no way a knock on parish festivals. I love parish festivals, and pour my time and money into them. And I really hope I win the $10,000 major raffle.  

This weekend was my parishes festival and for the past few weeks we heard urgent cries about the need for volunteers. In fact this tends to happen every year. However, I feel like in the past few years we have become more and more desperate for help.

The desperateness of their plea and clear need for aid hit me hard. It caused me to ask myself if I was willing to make a desperate plea to save souls. We put so much time and effort into making the festival a success because it keeps the parish and school running but are we willing to put that same time and effort into bringing others to Christ.

The Archdioceses of Detroit has called for a year of Evangelization, what are we doing about it? If we could really see the need to save the souls of others from hell and immerse them in God's mercy, I doubt we would be able to take time for rest. The Body of Christ needs to be mended and built up. The time to act is now. We must share with our brothers and sisters that God became man to set us free from sin, shower us with mercy and forgiveness, and give us a new life in Jesus Christ. I firmly believe if the amount of people it takes to put on a festival put their hands to the plow and showed others the desperate need to share the gospel we could really make a change in the world.

Our festivals would not be seen as something we need to do to keep us in the black but a way to celebrate together. Our goal should be to make heaven reign on earth. We have the power to do awesome things. Jesus tells us in today's gospel, "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these." We are called to do greater works than Christ himself! As St. Catherine of Siena said, "If you are what you should be, you will set the world on fire." What are we doing?

My prayer tonight is that we will set the world on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit. That I will commit myself more deeply to proclaiming the name of Christ, our salvation, to everyone I encounter. And that all those who read this might join me in this commitment.

Check out St. Paul Street Evangelization for more information on Evangelization. 

Saints: St. John Paul II

I am going to try something a little out of the box and start a blog series on Saints! I might think of a better tag for these: like BSF (Best Saints Forever), or G's Saints or maybe you might have a better title (< this is me asking you to comment).  Anyway what I plan to write about is a few saints but this is going to be a different from your typical saint bio. I am going to share with you who these saints are to me. How they have changed my life, and how I have developed a relationship with these champions of faith. And I can not think of a better way to start than with a man I met (if meeting means I came within 15 feet of Him while he was driving past): St. John Paul II.

Pope John Paul II and I have a lot in common, we are both Polish and Catholic. I am half Italian and he lived in Rome with Italians for a large chunk of his life. There is a giant statue of him in front of the church where I received my Baptism, First Eucharist, and Conformation, and I hear they are considering putting a smaller statue or bust of me next to it one day.

I met Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day, Toronto, during the end of the Freshmen year of high school with my youth group, BRICK. I traveled with many of my best friends, whom I was just getting to know. Two of them being my future wife and my future best man. It was a key moment in my life, my chance to meet the Pope!

I remember losing my friends in a crowd of thousands just to capture the picture above. His presence filled those around me with excitement and zeal! The night before the pope celebrated mass, we marched miles and slept in a field with over 850,000 people. And it rained and was very windy... When the Pope started Mass he said jokingly "This is a Baptism in a natural manner!"   By the time the homily began the sun was shining and we were dry. 

St. John Paul II was the only Pope I had for most of my life, and I believe His life has directly effected my life. Maybe his greatest work, The Theology of the Body, influenced and inspired many Catholic's to speak and write on this subject. These men and women took this deep and profound work and made it digestible for a teenager. He gave me one of the best gifts I have ever received; a desire to live a life of chastity and the drive to save sex for my marriage. I know his intercession, as well as many of the saints, the prayers of loved ones, and my wife gave me the courage and strength to save sex for marriage. John Paul II has truly blessed my marriage and his writings continue to bless my family.

His example of frequent confession, love of Eucharistic adoration and devotion to Our Lady, have shown my the path to Christ. John Paul II lived an astounding life and has blessed the Church in countless ways, but I believe his greatest acts are just about to start.

I left for Toronto just to meet the pope. John Paul II gave me something much more amazing than a photo; a life with Christ

  St. John Paul II pray for us.  

When Life Gives You Eggs

If you have spent any time in the stores this past week you might have been shocked to see Easter candy. I mean come on! Two weeks before Lent even begins! I know many people who are even offended or feel like they have been done wrong by this. "Stores should be selling sack clothes and ashes!" "This is an attack on the faith, we can not have Easter without Lent." "Without the cross there is no resurrection. We need to be focusing on the sufferings of Christ and doing penance."  

I want to take a different look at it. By putting out the Easter candy two weeks before Lent it gives us an opportunity to buy the things for our Easter baskets before Lent! We don't have to worry about the getting the sweets and making baskets during Lent. We can do that right now! We should all run out to the stores this weekend and buy all our Easter candy and make our baskets, leaving Lent open to focus on what is really important; ordering 20lbs of kielbasa, raisin bread, and the spiciest horseradish in Metro Detroit! 

Jokes aside, let us focus on Christ who gave his life for us. Focus on our relationship with him. What distractions can I remove from my life that will draw me closer to him? What can I add to my day that will make him more present to me. If you are not sure where to start, start where all lasting relationships start. Spending time together. Give Him your time and He will give you true life.  

 

Catholic Service Announcement: Fasting!

Happy First Friday of the New Year!

With all these New Year's resolutions going around I thought it might be as good of a time as ever to encourage my fellow Catholic's to fast on Fridays.

The U.S. Catholic Conferance of Bishops state that:

Every person 14 years of age or older must abstain from meat (and items made with meat) on all other Fridays of the year, unless he or she substitutes some other form of penance for abstinence.

In fact the bishops have started a Pledge to Fast! The will even send you reminder texts and emails if you like!

They suggest that our intentions should be for the protection of Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty.


I don't really see a reason not to do it!