New Brothers Join the Franciscans of LIfe At a Historic Time in the History of the Church


This is a very special morning.  We have just received two new brothers into our community at a very special moment in the history of the Church.  Never before in the history of the Church have we seen two pontiffs canonized in one ritual.  In addition to that, their entrance into postulancy comes during the Easter Season, when the Church celebrates the glorified Christ who conquered death and restored us to life.  Let’s not forget that this week we celebrate Mercy Sunday, which was decreed by St. John Paul II.  

As I said in my homily during the Liturgy of the Hours, St. John Paul did not pull Evangelium Vitae (Gospel of Life) out of his sleeve.  On the contrary, throughout the Gospels we see Christ healing the sick, protecting the innocent, crying for Lazarus and restoring him to life.  We hear Christ offering himself up as “life giving water” and “bread of life”.  Christ offers himself up as the Gospel of Life, as Evangelium Vitae.  He promised that all who believed him would have life in this world and the next. 

Our Holy Father St. Francis heard these words and took them to heart.  He embraced the Trinity with every fiber of his being and he became the great brother of all that is alive.  Brother was not just an ecclesial title for Brother Francis of Assisi.  Brother described what he was in relation to all created things, be they water, animals or people.  Francis realized that we are sons of the one Father.  We flow from the same source of life; therefore, we share one inherent dignity, the dignity of the sons of God, of whom Christ is the firstborn.

These new brothers have been called to discern the voice of God, to listen to his will for their lives.  God does not call us to do anything in particular.  He calls us to be what he created us to be, brothers to all men, from the richest to the poorest, the healthiest to the terminally ill, the neighbor to the foreigner, the preborn child to the elderly.  God calls us to hear his voice, to learn how to follow suit, in line with men like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II and women like St. Giana Molla, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta and St. Edith Stine.  This is quite a crowd.  Each of these men and women spent his and her life in service to the voiceless.  In his or her own way, each laid down his or her life as a testimony to the sanctity of human life.  These new Franciscans of Life have been called to walk along with these men and women, to be brothers to all men and to do whatever is needed to make known to the world that life is a sacred gift to be protected and to be venerated.  When we venerate life, we render unto God an act of worship and thanksgiving.  To celebrate the Easter Season while ignoring the sanctity of life is meaningless.  What is Easter if it’s not about life?

These new brothers have requested that we admit them to our fraternity druing Easter, the day after Mercy Sunday in which Christ promises eternal life to anyone who begs for his mercy, one day after the Church has solemnly and infallibly defined and declared that John Paul II, who was the pope of the family and the pope of life is a saint.  We have welcomed them one day after the canonization of St. John XXIII, a bishop who was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust and who rescued a ship with 500 Jewish children whom no one wanted.    These men are walking in the footsteps of greatness.  It is an indicator that God has great plans for them, for all of us. 

Now begins the work of formation.  During the next few months, they will engage in a deeper study of our Holy Father St. Francis.  The study of Evangelium Vitae will become paramount.  We will try to lead them through a prayerful examination of our Catholic faith.  Prior to moving on to novitiate, we must make certain that their faith is grounded in the solemn truths of the Church, free of distortion.  It is important that they become familiar with Francis of Assisi, our teacher.

More importantly, now begins the period of silence.  This must be a period during which they make time to listen to God.  Not a day should go by when they do not invite the Lord to speak for his servant is listening, because he who is the Lord of Life has the words of eternal life.  But we must ask the God of Life to open our ears that we may hear.

During this time of postulancy the new brother does not take his eyes off the voiceless of this world.  Christ spoke to Francis through a leper.  He will speak to each of us through the voiceless as well.  When we run into a person who is voiceless, we do not pass without stopping.  God is trying to speak to us.  We listen with patience and love.  We must never pass by a voiceless person without smiling.  A smile is an invitation to the other person.  It invites the other person to engage with us.  To be true brothers of life, we must invite all men to engage with life.  This is not something that we do with simple words, but with the power of a smile and an act of reverence for human dignity.

I invite the new brothers and all of our friends to look to those men and women that I mentioned above.  Learn from them how to bring the Gospel of Life to all people.  Become their students and their friends.  

We welcome these new brothers to our fraternity.  May the God of Mercy fill them with peace and with joy.   

 

Published in: on May 2, 2014 at 1:33 AM  Leave a Comment  

God never ceases to amaze


OK . . . so April 30th was my last CCD class.  I teach Old Testament Christology to grade five.  I put up a web with all of the names that we have covered in the OT:  Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David, also the covenants, the books of the Torah and the Decalogue.  In the center, I placed the name of Jesus.  Flowing out of the name of Jesus we have the word, LOGOS.  Then an arrow away from “essential” and toward “personal”.

Now I ask the kids to explain what we learned this year.  Each student contributes a piece.  The OT foreshadows Jesus.  Every event and person in the OT points to the LOGOS.  But the LOGOS or WORD is personal, because he is a real person.  Jesus is not a word.  The WORD is not essential.  Jesus is the second person in the Godhead.  Then they proceed to explain what each of the main characters, events, books and the law of the Decalogue tells us who Jesus is.  They conclude that all was created through the LOGOS, for the LOGOS and that the LOGOS existed before dinosaurs and other creatures.  You have to remember that these are 11-year old kids.  Dinosaurs are important to them.

So I ask them, “If you had to say, in one sentence, what the OT is about, what would you say?”  The kids all jump in and each adds a piece.  “The OT tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of every covenant that God made with Israel.”

Then I ask the kids, “How do the OT writers tell us this?”  They put their heads together again.  “The OT writers show us how everything foreshadows the new covenant.”

“And was the old covenant ever revoked?”  The kids respond, “No. God never goes back on his promises.  He fulfills them.  The Old Covenant was never canceled.  To cancel and to fulfill is not the same thing.”

By this point the Director of Religious Education is practically standing on her chair cheering the kids.  They did this entire course using just the bible and my notes from the seminary.  I don’t like the book.  It may as well have been written by Disney.  It has all of the fantastic stories of the OT with none of the Christology.  She tells them that they are ready to move on to the next level which is a course on the Gospels.  I don’t teach that course.  The kids are all excited.

Here is the grabber.  We’re cleaning up.  I’m sitting down, because I just came out of the hospital after suffering a TIA.  I wanted to get out to teach this last class.  It’s important, because it wraps up the entire course.  I’m not really paying much attention to what’s happening behind me.  Suddenly, someone comes up behind me, hugs me and whispers in my ear, “Brother, I love you, because now I understand.”

I turned to look.  It was a little boy, age 11.  He has been the quietest kid in the class.  I never would have expected any sign of affection from him, not because he’s a bad kid, but because I thought him to be reserved.  When I realized who it was I asked him, “What did you say?”  He repeated himself.  I, like an old lady, started to cry.  If I died tonight, I would feel that I have done at least one worthwhile thing in this life.  God is truly a God of mercy and awe.

Published in: on May 2, 2014 at 1:21 AM  Leave a Comment  

What’s a brother? Do we really need them?


Very often I’m asked, “What is a brother?”  Most Catholics don’t have a clue, because most Catholics have not been well educated on the religious life.   Most of our parishes and schools are staffed by diocesan priests (secular priests) and religious sisters.  Neither received a good formation on the religious life.  Both were trained to think in a rather narrow paradigm.  Men become priests and women become nuns, who are not really nuns, but sisters.  A nun is a cloistered woman religious.  Even there, most priests and sisters were not well formed on the different vocations.  How could they pass this knowledge on to the lay faithful?

I have a several good friends who are diocesan priests.  I cringe when they try to explain what a brother is.  They often explain us in terms of what we’re not.  They’ll say something like, “Brothers don’t say mass or hear confessions.”  Imagine a creature from another planet that does not speak our language and asks, “What’s a father?”  You answer, “Fathers don’t bear young?”  That bit of information was as useful as a GPA that doesn’t speak your language.

Then there are those who try to explain what a brother is by describing what brothers do.  That’s not quite helpful either.  You’ll often hear people say, “Brothers teach, nurse, do social work, cook, and open doors, run schools, serve priests, are monks, are friars, run soup kitchens, and so forth.” All of those enterprises can be done by anyone.  One need not be a consecrated religious to do these good works.  The difference is how the brother does these things, not that he does them.  A brother comes to every task with the same worldview as Christ and the Church.  His vision and mission are defined by the charism of his religious community.  A Franciscan brother and a De La Salle brother can both teach and do so very differently.  While they see their students as Christ sees them, there ends the similarity.  The Franciscan brother approaches his students guided by the vision of St. Francis and the De La Salle brother is guided by the vision of St. John Baptist de La Salle.  The same applies to every ministry.  A lay secretary and a brother secretary do the same work, but bring very different approaches to the task and do the same task for different reasons.

Vatican II and Canon Law define brothers in a decisive way.  A brother is one called to the state of religious life . . .  a state for the profession and perfection of the evangelical counsels (obedience, poverty and chastity), which is complete in itself (Decree Perfectae Caritatis, n. 10).  Commitment to the priestly ministry is not required by the consecration which is proper to the religious state, and therefore even without priestly ordination a religious may live his consecration to the FULL.

In other words, it is a different call that Christ’s makes to a man to live only for him by consecrating his life to him through the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.  He lives out this consecration through a life of prayer, penance, fraternity, work, silence, solitude, in imitation of Our Lady who always pointed all men to Jesus. Everything he does points to Christ who is the firstborn among many brothers. A brother is like John the Baptist who proclaims, “Behold him . . .

In looking at the historical development of consecrated life in the Church, a significant fact is clear: the members of the first religious communities were called “brothers” without distinction.  The most famous of them is St. Benedict.  The great majority of them did not receive priestly ordination. A priest could join these communities but could not claim privileges because of Holy Orders. When priests were needed, one of the “brothers” was ordained in order to meet the community’s sacramental needs.

The ideal of a consecrated life without the priesthood lives on in St. Francis of Assisi, who did not feel personally called to the priestly ministry. Francis can be considered an example of the holiness of religious life. His witness demonstrates the perfection that can be reached by this way of life.

This fall the Church will begin the Year of Consecrated Life.  She has asked that religious, bishops and the different dicastries in the Vatican put together information on the consecrated life, especially on brothers.   The Church acknowledges the decreased number of vocations to the brotherhood.   St. John Paul II said “a new effort must be made to foster these important and noble vocations so they may thrive anew: a fresh effort to promote vocations, with a new commitment to prayer. The possibility of a consecrated life (without ordination) must also be presented as a way of true religious perfection in both the old and new male institutes.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan once said, “The brotherhood is the forgotten vocation.  Brothers are those men whom most of us have disregarded as unimportant, because we do not understand that the consecrated life is essential to the Church’s Catholic identity.”

Published in: on May 2, 2014 at 1:17 AM  Leave a Comment  
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God Continues to Call — Despite Our Deafness


On January 21, 2013, the Brother William Vito received the habit of penance as he begins the second half of his novitiate, which is the final stretch before making first profession to live in absolute obedience to the Gospel in the manner that St. Francis lived it, always remaining in God’s love and in the service of the voiceless.  We also received a new postulant, Raciel Borrego.

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Br. William Vito, Br. Jay and Postulant Raciel Borrego

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On a sadder note . . .

God gives us rights from the moment of conception

God gives us rights from the moment of conception

A Day of Shame for America

January 22, 2013 is the 40th anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States.

A nation that cannot provide for a woman’s welfare without denying the right to live to her unborn child has abdicated its most sacred duty: the protection of the voiceless.

Published in: on January 22, 2013 at 10:16 AM  Leave a Comment  
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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BROTHERS


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Superior General

My dearest brothers and sons:

I write this letter to you via our blog in an effort to communicate with you and to share with the world something about our life as Franciscans.  As we sat through the readings of this past Sunday, we heard Isaiah proclaim that there would be a voice in the desert preparing the way of the Lord.

St. Luke tells us that this is John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth and that he was born to barren parents.  His conception is humanly impossible.  It is only possible through divine intervention.  Therefore, John belongs totally to God.

ImageWhat about us?  Are we not called to this way of life by divine intervention just as John was called?  Do we not belong totally to God?  Do we live, work, pray, play and think as one who belongs totally to God or as one who still belongs to the world?

I was very sad today when I spoke about providing housing for a homeless family, even if we have to place them under the same roof with us or our loved ones and one of you immediately brought up the typical human concerns.  “What if . . . ?  We don’t know much about them.”

homeless mother

There it was, right before my eyes, the same hesitation that we see in Zechariah when the angel announces the birth of John.  I was hoping to see the confidence and courage of John the Baptist who never questioned what he had to do.  In the end, it cost him his life; but he was born as one who belongs to God and died the same way.  Jesus called him the greatest man who ever lived.

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St. Thomas More

I’m reminded of one of our great Secular Franciscans, St. Thomas More, who did not hesitate to belong to God and to live, speak and act as one who belongs to God.  There is  a wonderful quote in the biography of St. Thomas More in which he says that even his wife and his beloved children cannot come before God and His commandment to love Him above all things and our neighbor as ourselves.  Thomas puts his money where his mouth is.  When his wife and children visit the Tower of London to beg him to reconsider his position and to give in to Henry VIII’s wishes, Thomas won’t budge.  His wife reminds Thomas that if he does not sign the oath, not only will he be executed, but she and their children will be left homeless and penniless.  The crown will confiscate all of Thomas’ properties and assets.  However, Thomas would not turn his back on God’s command to love Him above all things and neighbor as himself.  As we know, Thomas was executed and his family was left homeless and penniless as a result of Thomas heroic Christian virtue.  We have two lives here, John the Baptist and Thomas More, two men in different times and different circumstances with the courage to follow God and become martyrs rather than be practical as the world is practical.

At the baptism in the Jordan, John points to Christ.  But he does not refer to him by name.  Interestingly enough, he uses the language of sacrifice.  “Behold the Lamb of God,” (Jn 1:29).  In the same event, the heavens open up and the Father reveals to Israel that the Covenant has been fulfilled and that a new covenant is about to begin.  “This is my beloved Son” (Mt 3:17).  The same message is repeated at the Transfiguration.  “This is my beloved Son . . . listen to Him,” (Mt. 17:5).  We are told that Jesus of Nazareth, who up to now had appeared to be the son of an anonymous carpenter from an anonymous town, for Nazareth is only mentioned once in the Old Testament, is actually the Son of God who is to be sacrificed like a lamb being led to its slaughter.Image

So I put to you this simple question, Brothers.  Are you willing to be more courageous in order to belong totally to God?  I do not mean foolish. I mean foolish as our Holy Father Francis spoke of himself, as a fool for Christ.  You were created to belong to God.  This was not your choice.  It was God’s choice.  However, the only way that we can belong to God is to follow the lamb that will be slaughtered.  John the Baptist knew this.  Thomas More knew this.  Francis of Assisi knew this.  All of them were willing to live and die for God before anything and anyone else.

You may be thinking that perhaps that Franciscan vocation is not for you, because it is a demanding one.  In truth, the Franciscan vocation is probably the easiest way of life in Catholic tradition.  The Franciscan vocation is to be a good Catholic.  How does the rule begin?  “The rule of the brothers of penance is to live the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ?”  Isn’t that the vocation of every baptized person?  Isn’t that what we heard in the Gospel on the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus?  The divine vocation is to be a son of the Father.  The first-born Son of the Father gave his life, even though it meant leaving his widowed mother alone and in poverty in this world.  A Catholic must be willing to be a sacrificial lamb, if God asks it of us.

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Let our walking be our preaching.

I was equally concerned when I heard a postulant ask a novice what kind of reaction he received from people who saw the novice in the habit.  This kind of question concerns me, because the habit is not just a uniform.  It’s a flag that announces to all that Christ is present.  The brother in the habit does the exact same thing that John did at the Jordan.  John called attention to himself in order to divert it to Christ.

Our concern should not be what others think or how they react to the habit.  Our concern should be whether our actions and our words divert people’s attention from us to God.  When you walk into a store in a habit, do you behave and speak in a manner that says, “I belong to God and so do you?”  Or do you try to make yourself as anonymous as possible?  A Christian who does not call attention to Christ is a poor Christian.  This rule is not just for Franciscans.  Christianity is not meant to be lived in the shadows.  At the same time, the Christian should not absorb the attention.  He must divert it to Christ at every possible opportunity by how he deals with others and by the way that he lives trusting that he belongs to God, as did John the Baptist and the rest of the martyrs.

My brothers, never forget that God has called you to this life so that you may give witness to the world that we belong to God.  Witness often needs martyrs.

Be joyful, courageous, and never forget that God does not keep a record of our achievements, only of our fidelity.  Be faithful and take baby steps.couples for christ

Br. Jay, FFV

Superior General

Published in: on January 14, 2013 at 3:04 AM  Leave a Comment  
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Our Holy Father’s Message of Peace


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January 01, 2013
Vatican City

We may ask ourselves: what is the basis, the origin, the root of peace? How can we experience that peace within ourselves, in spite of problems, darkness and anxieties? The reply is given to us by the readings of today’s liturgy. The biblical texts, especially the one just read from the Gospel of Luke, ask us to contemplate the interior peace of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. During the days in which ‘she gave birth to her first-born son’, many unexpected things occurred: not only the birth of the Son but, even before, the tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, not finding room at the inn, the search for a chance place to stay for the night; then the song of the angels and the unexpected visit of the shepherds. In all this, however, Mary remains even tempered, she does not get agitated, she is not overcome by events greater than herself; in silence she considers what happens, keeping it in her mind and heart, and pondering it calmly and serenely. This is the interior peace which we ought to have amid the sometimes tumultuous and confusing events of history, events whose meaning we often do not grasp and which disconcert us.

… Here, dear brothers and sisters, is the foundation of our peace: the certainty of contemplating in Jesus Christ the splendour of the face of God the Father, of being sons and daughters in the Son, and thus of having, on life’s journey, the same security that a child feels in the arms of a loving and all-powerful Father. The splendour of the face of God, shining upon us and granting us peace, is the manifestation of his fatherhood: the Lord turns his face to us, he reveals himself as our Father and grants us peace. Here is the principle of that profound peace – ‘peace with God’ – which is firmly linked to faith and grace, as Saint Paul tells the Christians of Rome. Nothing can take this peace from believers, not even the difficulties and sufferings of life. Indeed, sufferings, trials and darkness do not undermine but build up our hope, a hope which does not deceive because ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us’.

May the Virgin Mary, whom today we venerate with the title of Mother of God, help us to contemplate the face of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. May she sustain us and accompany us in this New Year: and may she obtain for us and for the whole world the gift of peace. Amen!”

Published in: on January 2, 2013 at 1:56 PM  Leave a Comment  
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Our mother and our friend . . . thoughts for the new year


ImageWhere does one begin to talk about Mary, Mother of God?  In my mind, there is nothing and no one that can compare to her.  She’s all that I have ever wanted and more.  She’s my mother, my friend and my hope.  I understand that Jesus is our hope.  However, how do we get to Jesus?  How did Jesus come to us?  Who will intercede for us before the throne of God at our final judgment?  Whose prayers will ring the loudest across the heavens begging God’s mercy for us?  Who will ask her Son not to look upon our sins, but to have compassion on our ignorance?  Who will gather the saints of heaven around the throne of Christ to pray for our souls?

At the wedding in Cana, Mary goes before Jesus and says, “They have no more wine.”  Jesus responded, “What does this have to do with me?  My time has not yet come.”  In modern language one would say, “Their poor planning does not mean an emergency for me?

If we believe in the saying, “Silence is consent,” then we can assume that Mary agreed, because she does not debate the point with Jesus.  However, despite the fact that there may have been poor planning on the part of the hosts, Mary knows that her concerns are her son’s concerns and that once she expresses compassion for an unfortunate person Jesus will not let it go without acting on it.  Inspired with this knowledge, she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  So they did.  They brought the jugs of water, just as Jesus asked them to do.

I can’t help thinking about this.  All these servants did was to bring some jugs of water to Jesus, no great accomplishment.  Yet, Jesus turns the water into wine and saves the host the embarrassment of not having more wine.  It is this combination of doing what Jesus tells them and Mary’s intervention that saves the day, obedience and prayer.

ImageWithout her intervention there would have been no wine.  Without the wine, there would have been a scandal.  It was scandalous for a host not to have more food and drink than his guest could consume.

No one knows what God has in mind until it happens.  One thing is certain.  From all eternity, God knew that this moment would come.  The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity knew that it would be his mother who would set his public life into motion.  Did God plan it this way?  I doubt it.  God does not manipulate human freedom.  The poor planning was just that, poor planning.  Mary’s intervention was of her own initiative, not a divine manipulation.  Jesus’ assent to his mother’s concern was also freely given.

When everything else failed, the Mother of God was their last hope.  It was not Jesus’ time.  He had no plans to begin his public ministry at this wedding; even though he knew that this was how it was going to begin.  And so it has been for me throughout my entire life.  My poor planning, my self-indulgence, my ignorance, arrogance and at times laziness has often led me into situations similar to that of the wedding hosts, apparent dead ends and anxiety.  Yet, when I remember the scriptures there are several verses that always come to mind, one of them is, “Do whatever he tells you.”

I struggle with temptation and sin.  I’m not going to say how much more or how much less than others, because I don’t know and it’s not that important.  The fact is that for me the struggle often seems insurmountable.  When I’m about to give up and just stop trying to climb up the mountain, I remember her words, her face and her heart.

Hers must be the most beautiful face in the universe.  I have musings of this tender mother, whose face shines so gloriously that it’s blinding to the naked eye.  Yet, she makes it possible for us to gaze on her with the confidence of nursing children looking at their mother’s breast, knowing that she will feed them.  I often imagine her glorious beauty coming through the light with a pleasant look of concern and compassion.

In the same image, I can see her heart; an immaculate heart filled with love . . . a heart where there is no room for resentment and rejection.  Stop and think about this for a moment.  Where is a mother’s heart?  It’s directly over her womb.  It’s the one sound that every child hears and recognizes as his mother’s.  ImageDuring those 40 weeks in the womb, it is the beating of the mother’s heart that puts the child to sleep, that sets the rhythm of the days and nights for the child, and after the child’s birth, it is through the beating heart that the child first identifies his mother.  Remember, he has never seen her face, but he knows her heart.

The Incarnate Son of God, through whom we were created and for whom we were created also knows his mother’s heart.   Her prayers, her desire for our salvation, her love for us and her maternal assistance are well known to him.  For this New Year, I pray that we may all make greater effort to live as closely as possible to the Mother of God, whose heart will guide our steps to do what her son asks of us. At the end of our life, her heart will open itself to her Son as it did at Cana.  Just like at Cana, he will again be unable to resist the love that he sees in his mother’s heart and he will have compassion on us who have appealed to her for assistance.

 A New Chapter . . . 2013

You know, in the world of Kindle, Nook, iPads and Internet, the typical book is becoming an artifact.  It’s a pity, because a book is a very powerful icon of human life.  I was thinking about this during mass.  OK, you got me.  I was wool gathering during mass.  Actually, the sermon triggered it.  It was one of the best sermons I’ve heard all year.  My compliments to Father Nestor of the Archdiocese of Miami for an inspirational homily on the meaning of New Year’s Day.

As Father was speaking about the need to take inventory of how we have lived our faith and the opportunity to plan for a better year, I suddenly thought of a book.  I could see this small, traditional red hard cover book in my mind.  It reminded me of life, yours and mine.  Our lives are like a book.  That’s why I regret that in the not too distant future, the traditional book will become an artifact, because it’s a wonderful icon, as I have already said above.

ImageA book has a visible beginning and end.  It has perceptible chapters.  One ends and the other begins.  So too do our earthly lives.  They begin at conception and end at death.  Each year is a chapter.  One ends and one begins.

The attempt of a good writer is to keep the story moving, to inspire the reader to go on to the next chapter.  To do so, the writer works hard to keep our attention focused.  He has a thread that runs through the book, often referred to as a plot.  There is always a protagonist and an antagonist, not necessarily human, but there are conflicting forces.  It’s tension that keeps the reader’s interest.  It’s funny, because we live in a society where we’re all dying of heart conditions, but we thrive on tension . . . go figure.

New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day is not just another year out and a new one in.  It’s a point of transition in our history.  It’s also an opportunity to tighten up the plot to give pleasure to the reader.  To do so, we have to look back at the chapter that is closing and carefully lay out the next chapter.  Like any good piece of literature, there are adjustments made along the way for the unexpected.  But like a good writer, we should never begin a new year without a plan.  Such an action is reckless.  It’s a sin against the God who created time for our benefit, not his.  God does not live in time and space.  Our lives must be a book that is pleasing to God.  Each chapter or year should represent an attempt to outshine the previous one.  Otherwise, we’re wasting the gift of time.

Here are some questions to help us examine our previous chapter and plan the next one.  I’m sure that there are more.  If you want to share them, please post them.  I’ll make sure that they are seen.

  1. Did I make proper use of the sacraments this past year?
  2. How much time did I give to prayer?
  3. Did I forgive and ask for forgiveness?
  4. What about the things that I own and the money that I make?  Did I use it wisely?
  5. Did I make proper distinctions between what my family and I need and what my family and I want?
  6. Were my business dealings honest and were my business decisions just and fair to those who are weaker than I am?Image
  7. Did I cave to pressure rather than stand up for the voiceless?
  8. What about the Church, am I faithful to her teachings or is being Catholic just a family tradition?
  9. If I’m a parent, did I take seriously my responsibility for my children’s souls or did I give them passes on mass and religious education?
  10. Let’s go back to material things.  How much of an effort did I make to teach my children that all created things are not for them and that everything that God gives us is for the benefit of others as well as our own or did I fulfill their every desire reinforcing their sense of entitlement?
  11. Do I manage my relationships out of love or out of guilt?
  12. Are my relationships based on charity and concern for the other and the satisfaction of the other person’s company or are they purely utilitarian?
  13. Do I knowingly let others use me and my gifts for their selfish purpose?
  14. Have I stood up to challenge immorality in our society, in my family, in my workplace or did I cave because, “I have a family to think about?”  Since when does family take precedence over truth?
  15. Am I aware of the four last things:  death, judgment, heaven and hell?  What would God say about my book, if I died tonight?

If this last chapter has not been as good as we would like it to be, God is still giving us time to begin a better chapter.  Let us make good use of the precious gift of time.

Information night on the Franciscans of Life and

Project Joseph — January 7, 2013 — 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

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Proud dad and daughter
(Published with permission)

St. Maximilian Kolbe Education Center

701 N. Hiatus Road, Room 206

Pembroke Pines, FL 33026

For driving directions call

954 – 432 – 0206

DO NOT call Br. Jay.  He gets lost going to the kitchen.

However, for more information contact us .

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The Franciscan Brothers of Life wish you and your family a happy and grace-filled New Year — Br. Jay, FFV

Published in: on December 31, 2012 at 11:01 PM  Comments (1)  
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Venite Adoremus


“In the City of David, a child is born.”  These are the words enshrined in Luke’s Gospel forever.  But as we sit and reflect on them, we realize that there is more to this message than a proclamation of Christ’s birth.  The second of many prophecies about the Messiah has been fulfilled.  The first of course was, “A virgin shall conceive . . . “

When we ask ourselves, “Why does Luke want us to know that a child is born in the City of David, other than to prove that the prophecies are being fulfilled one at a time,” we realize that Luke is telling the world that Jesus is real.  Unlike the gods of the pagans whose origins are mythical, Jesus’ human origins take place within human history, in a human city and at a very specific cave in the outskirts of Bethlehem.  The God who created history has broken into human history.  People may question Jesus’ divine origins, if they wish; however, there is no question about the reality of his existence.   Luke pinpoints it not only giving us an address, but also giving us a time.  He gives us a list of the prominent people of the time.  In doing so, he places Jesus into a social, political, cultural and religious context.  The birth of Christ is not an abstract.  It is a verifiable historical reality.Image

There are other important messages in Luke’s testament.  Caesar Augustus was the emperor.  It is an often forgotten fact that during the reign of Caesar Augustus there was a period of peace throughout the known world and that the emperor’s name referred to him as the savior or the August One in our language.  What we see here is how Roman history, helped set the stage for the birth of Christ.  God, in his divine and eternal wisdom, prepared the world to receive his son at a time of peace, which the pagans thought was designated for the emperor of Rome.  In reality, it was predesigned by the Father for the eternal King of the Universe.

I’d like to draw the attention to one more detail.  Christian iconography has adopted the ox and the ass as part of the manger scene.  The truth is that Luke does not mention any animals in his narrative.  However, the prophets had predicted that the ox and the ass would know their place, but the House of Israel would not recognize the savior.

The ox and the ass become the icon for the Gentiles and the Jews.  Christ had entered into the world for both; but one, being more stubborn than the other, would struggle to accept the Eternal Son of God as the promised Messiah.

Now, we must fast forward in time and ask ourselves, “What does this have to do with us in the 21st century and what is the message for us?”

Let’s take this in two parts. Let’s answer the first question.  God the Father knew us and loved us long before we were formed in our mother’s womb.  And so he sent His only begotten son into the world as one of us.  But he did not come just for the ox or the ass.  He came for Gentile and Jew alike.  He came to call all men and women, of every race and tongue, of every family and nation, back to the love of his Father.  He came to rescue all of us from sin.

Therefore, he was born with a price tag on his head.  This was the infant who was sentenced to death, at the time of his birth.  The scriptures foreshadow that Jesus must die.  Herod orders the slaughter of the innocent children.  Jesus is the innocent Son who 33 years after this night would be executed to break open the doors that barricaded man out of heaven, because of our sins.

The second part is equally important to us.  Jesus is not a figment of someone’s wild imagination, nor is he a legend.  He is a real child born in a real city at a very specific point in history to a very real mother.  As far as the eye of man was concerned, to a real father named Joseph.  For his divine sonship would only be discerned by those who believed.  It was there for everyone to see, but only those who desire to see shall see.  The blind shall remain blind, not through any fault of nature, but through their own choice or because those who have seen have failed to invite their neighbors to the stable to come and see.

The angels of whom Luke writes foreshadow the community of believers whom Christ would send into the world to proclaim the Good News that “Today in the City of David a son is born . . . venite adoremus”

Published in: on December 25, 2012 at 8:25 PM  Leave a Comment  

Did Pope Paul VI Miss the Mark on Birth Control?


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Faith enlightens human knowledge

Let’s look at this as the Church looks at it. Faith enlightens facts, not the other way around. The question is whether our faith is placed in the right place.

The answer is simple. If we place our faith in Jesus, then it’s in the right place. Jesus revealed himself as the Second Person of the Trinity. Therefore, he is truly God.

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Blessed John Paul II

God, made man, promised that the Church would never teach error. God does not lie, nor does God revoke his promises. Therefore, we can safely believe that the Church cannot teach error in matters of morality or dogma.

Jesus also said that he was building his Church on the faith of Peter. Peter was a simple fisherman, not a god. Yet, it is on his faith that the Church is built. Is it possible for God to build his Church on quicksand? No, absolutely not. God’s desire is that we be saved, not that we be swallowed up. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that although Peter is a sinful man, very simple in his knowledge, and a novice in matters of leadership, Jesus must provide him with the help that he needs to support the Church.

Jesus tells Peter, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against you.” There it is, the promise of the grace to help Peter do what Jesus is about to tell him.

Jesus follows this by telling Peter, “Feed my sheep and strengthen your brothers.” If Peter is to feed Christ’s sheep and strengthen his brothers, he must have what he needs to do so. Christ would not set him up for an impossible task, nor set up the rest of the Church with a pope who would be unable to teach Truth.

The future of the Church is guaranteed. Peter now has the grace of the Jesus promises that he will send the Holy Spirit and he fulfills that promise on Pentecost.

The future of the Church is guaranteed. Peter now has the grace of the Holy Spirit to strengthen and feed his brothers with the Truth and only the Truth.

Finally, Jesus leaves us with a message in a roundabout kind of way. He says to Peter, “I give you the keys to the Kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.” He gives Peter the complete authority to bind us or to release us and promises Peter and those who are paying attention that he will back up whatever Peter says. Jesus does not place any contingencies here except one. Peter must be speaking about what God has revealed, which is dogma and moral law.

Christ’s gift to the pope does not stop with Peter. This would make no sense. Christ knew that the Church would survive until the end of time. To give St. Peter all of this divine assistance and authority to teach and to bind, but make it impossible to pass it on to his successor would be nihilistic. In other words, once Peter was dead, the Church would have been without God’s protection and without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, because it expired when Peter died. That makes no sense.

The early Christians elected Peter’s successor with full confidence that what was given to Peter would transfer to his successor. To make this more credible, here is a very important fact. John the Apostle and St. Luke were alive at the time of the election of the second pope. They were alive after Peter’s death. Had the early Christians been wrong in their belief that everything that Christ had given to Peter and said to Peter could be handed down to the second generation, they would have said so. They did not. In fact, we have it from St. Polycarp, who studied under St. John the Apostle, that John was perfectly comfortable with the succession and the transmission of power and authority.

This is very important, because it was John who was present when Christ said these things to St. Peter. It is John who wrote them down. John knew exactly what Christ said and exactly what Christ meant. He knew that the power to bind and unbind, the gift of infallibility in faith and morals, and the ability to teach truth without any error was not a gift for Peter alone, but for anyone who occupied Peter’s chair. He understood the nuance in Christ’s words.

Yes, when we say that this is Truth, it is a fact. The fact comes to us from the apostles evangelists who were alive to see Peter’s succession. Therefore, when Pope Paul VI, finally invokes the authority of Peter to say that artificial birth control is intrinsically evil, this is the absolute Truth and the only Truth. His authority to say this without making a mistake is based on all of the above facts.

Faith is not just a matter of what one person believes and another person believes. That’s relativism. Faith is about believing the Truth. There can only be one Truth. If two people have incompatible beliefs, then one or both are wrong. Truth does not contradict itself. ABC cannot be intrinsically evil for person A and acceptable for person B.
If Peter’s authority and his gift to speak only the truth on these matters has been transmitted through 2,000 years, the what Pope Paul VI said is Truth, because it is protected by the promises and commands that Christ gave to St. Peter. Again, it would make no sense for Christ to promise Peter infallibility and complete authority over the Christian faithful, but not intend for it to be handed on to Peter’s successor, since Peter was executed 34 years after Christ’s ascension. Jesus knew this was going to happen. Jesus would not have given the Church such protection for 34 years and then leave us to figure it out on our own from that point forward.

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Pope Paul VI

Published in: on December 16, 2012 at 2:12 PM  Comments (2)  

Children Deserve a Christ-Centered World


As I read here and there about this week’s tragedy I can’t help wonder what’s happening to us.  Schools were places where Jesus and childchildren were bored, not afraid for their lives.  I’m also thinking about the right to life and thinking that it really is more encompassing than we think.

We often think of the right to life when we think of the unborn, the terminally ill and elderly who are threatened with euthanasia or assisted suicide, and those on death roll.  There is more to it than that.  Every human being who has been created has a right to be born and a right to live free of fear.  Life has six dimensions, all created by God.

First:  there is biology.  We’re animals and like every animal we’re conceived and throughout the course of our lives we evolve biologically from zygotes to senior citizens.  ImageDuring that process, our bodies change and adapt to new situations.

Second: there is the soul.  Unlike other animals that have a material soul that is finite, we have an immortal soul.  Once God calls it into existence it will never die.  It will remain with our bodies while we travel through life in this world and eventually be liberated from the body at the moment of biological death.  It will spend eternity in heaven or hell, depending on the choices that we make during our lives.

Third: we have a mind.  We are self-aware.  This is important.  Because the justification that many people use for abortion is the fetus is not self-aware.  However, the real question is this.  Is there any human being on this planet who knows himself?  Aren’t we all in the process of knowing more about ourselves with each experience?  What really is self-awareness?  Is it something that you achieve and move on or is it a dynamic process that lasts an entire life?  I would hate to think that God made us so boring and so limited that we can become fully self-aware by age 25.  Now, if I follow the norm, I have to live with myself until age 80.  OK, that’s only 55 years away.  For the next 55 years, I will become no more aware of myself, who I am, my purpose in life, my place in the universe and my destiny, because I have reached self-awareness.  That doesn’t sound right.  It’s a recipe for suicide; because we run the risk of becoming so bored with ourselves that the only way to get away from ourselves is suicide.  I don’t think God had this in mind.  Therefore, self-awareness begins in tiny steps in the womb and continues in steps to the tomb.

Fourth:  believe it or not, we have all some degree of intelligence.  OK, some of us have a hard time proving that we’re intelligent, but we are.  Human intelligence is not divorced from God.  I remember being in college studying for an exam in math history, yes there is such a thing as the history of math.  Since I was a math major, I had to take it.  But I digress, I was preparing for an exam.  It dawned on me that there is nothing in math that man created.  The Chinese, Arabs, Romans, Greeks, Mayans, Aztecs, Egyptians and every great civilization has made some contribution to mathematics, but no one has created mathematics.  Every mathematician has discovered a law that works.  We call them formulae, theorems, postulates, and functions.  Well, let’s look at this.  If there is a law that consistently works, did it come into existence randomly?  How is it that something that randomly appears on the horizon of human intelligence functions so predictably?  Does it change from being random to predictable?  In other words, are those things that are consistent such as a2 + b2 = c2 random expressions of order?  It seems that order is predictable.  Predictability has intent behind it.  If there is intent, there must be an intelligence behind these laws, an intelligence that is the Law-Giver itself.  In reality, human intelligence has two qualities.  First, it is capable of discovering, understanding and using the laws given to us by the Law-Giver.  Second, it is the living proof that there is a Law-Giver, since we have not created a single law of math or science.  Yet, we can understand them, use them, but we can’t control them.  They are static.  2 + 2 will always equal 4.

Fifth: are relationships.  We’re social animals.  Ethologists would say pack animals.  This is true.  Even a hermit needs human contact.  The Carthusians are a community of hermits.  Each brother lives in a cottage with a walled garden.  They work, pray, study, eat and sleep in their little cottages.  However, it’s interesting to note that the Carthusians all wear the Imagesame habit, follow the same schedule, and say the same prayers at the same time.  Even though they eat alone, they eat the same foods.  While they may be physically alone, they are socially connected to a pack.  Relationships take many forms, some healthy and some very dysfunctional.  God has revealed himself as a communion of relationship:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  He models for us how to live in relationship with others as one.  It is we who do not use our intelligence and our mind to pay attention and learn.  Then we wonder why we have conflict, terrorism and violence as we have seen this week.

Sixth and last:  we seek to transcend.  Even the most primitive cultures, no matter how disconnected they may be from monotheism believes that there is more to life than what is here and now.  We live in a beautiful world of expectation.  It’s a good expectation.  We expect to be called to the net life at any moment.  The question is, if it happens as suddenly and as violently as was the case this past week at the school, are we ready?

We want to see God.  We want to move beyond the complications of this world and find peace.  We want to love and be loved without contingencies.  All of this is possible, if we order our lives appropriately.  God does not choose for us how we order our lives, we choose this for ourselves.  Instead of ordering our lives toward that which lies ahead, we have disordered our lives.  Instead of seeking the transcendent God, we get stuck in pain, anger, resentment, fear and selfishness of the present moment.  These feelings release Imagethe destructive power of sin.  Sin seeks the opposite of transcendence.  Sin seeks to separate us from that which is ongoing and noble and it locks us in a present, which can be very threatening, dysfunctional, hateful and eventually violent.  It is a present without God.

I look at what happened this past week and I believe that the further we get away from God, the deeper that we go into this present without him and as a consequence, we’re going to see greater acts of violence.  The solution is simple.  We have to place God back in the center of our personal lives, families, communities and our nation.

As we prepare to commemorate God’s entrance into human history in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, let us not forget that the child in the manger was a victim child.  He was born with a price on his head.  It’s a price that we put there when we choose to leave God out of our lives or even part of our lives.  Let us look at the child in the manger, pick him up and make him the center of our journey through life.  Our children deserve to live in a world where God is present.  Let us allow Christ to come to our children.

Published in: on December 16, 2012 at 1:36 AM  Leave a Comment  
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