Vocation - finding real joy and meaning.

Hard to believe that I've been a priest for over four months! It's been a complete transformation of my life! 

Let's say a prayer for vocations - the world is hungering and thirsting for Christ. Have a question or trying to figure out your vocation - www.whynotpriest.org. 

The Real March Madness - get off the sidelines!

Lent's almost over. Today is Holy Thursday, and Easter is just days away. But it's not too late!

This video might strike us as kind of fake or cheesy. But it's the TRUTH. Do I realize what is going to happen in the next three days? I've got a major part to play whether I realize it or not! This drama will unfold. Christ will die on the cross for me. I've nailed him to the cross. Do we know how much he loves me?!

Habemus Papam! Pope Francis "I" and a lot of other firsts!

Just back from St. Peter's Square where the atmosphere was electric - sorry, I know that's usually for a rock concert, but there's really no other word! It must have been the Holy Spirit. Shortly after 7pm, I was sitting in my office here in Rome glued to the papal smoke stack watching live as... more black, no wait, gray, no... actually WHITE smoke started to pour out.

What is Benedict XVI doing? His last two days as pope.

Sitting in St Peters and praying my rosary today, I couldn't help but think back eight years. I wasn't in Rome at the time for the election of Joseph Ratzinger as Benedict XVI in 2005. Still it seems like yesterday I was at our seminary in Ireland staring at a little chimney which suddenly started to spew white smoke - a historic moment! Today was one more in that series of spiritually earth-shaking moments in the Church and the world.

The Church is alive! And the Church is young!

I just received the new English anthem for World Youth Day 2013 in Brazil. There's certainly a lot going on in the Church especially with the resignation of the pope in Rome, but let's not forget what Benedict XVI said in his inaugural homily almost eight years ago. So what did he say?

What time is it really? Understanding our lives as a pilgrimage.

This is the concluding reflection from my ordination pilgrimage, and it sums up what I feel after a couple months of priesthood - I've barely scratched the surface. Each day is an adventure that builds on his grace.

 
Wow! Time has really flown by, and you’re already on your way back to America. All of us are probably saying, “I wish it could be a couple of more days.” Couldn’t we just go back in time and even just repeat some of it. God has a time for everything. “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven…” (Ecc 3:1ff).

Mom!

Last reflections on my vocation and the ordination from December.

Okay, you’re probably sick of me by this time. After who knows how many reflections, homilies, spontaneous words, tours. Just bear with me, we’re almost there. You’re on your last day in Rome. I can’t close without talking about Mom, the mother of all of us.

Last and not least is an understatement. Many Legionaries have the habit of mentioning her last, and one of the seminarians the other day compared her to a “landing strip”. 

Benedict Resigns, a New Pope, and the Inside Story.

It was November 30, 1406, and all the Cardinals were gathered to elect a new pope. Angelo Corrario was among them. There was tension in the air. Before anyone had even voted, let alone been elected, he had sworn to resign from office. In fact every cardinal had sworn to resign from office should he be elected.

This was the Western Schism and not only was Corrario elected as Gregory XII, but there were two other “popes” or claimants to the papacy at the time – Benedict XIII and Alexander V. Elections at that time were difficult with many political and economic pressures. At times substitute elections were organized to elect the “true pope”, leaving the Church oft in confusion and uncertainty.

As it turned out, Gregory didn’t resign for almost another ten years, during the Council of Constance in 1415. And he died two years later before seeing the end of the schism with the election of Martin V.

That was 1415, and no other Pope has resigned until 2013, 600 years later! What happened? Why is Benedict stepping down?

Finding a Home in Rome: citizens of the Church and of the world

Being in Rome, we experience the universal Church and the pope in a real and almost palpable way unlike any on earth. St. Peter’s Basilica is a microcosm of the tremendous reality of the universal Catholic Church. I love to share the image of St. Peter’s truly being the parish Church of the world that all Christians can call home!

It’s kind of funny because I think I have met more people in Rome from the United States than when I was on the other side of the ocean. 

True Love: nice quotes vs. real action

Love for souls sounds theoretical, vague, and ambiguous. But we’re talking about authentic Christian love, charity. We don’t just love on a human level, but we love others as spiritual and eternal persons, images of God himself. “God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him” (Gn 1:27). 

The example that the Holy Father gives at the beginning of the Year of Faith is that of the Samaritan woman at the well. She asks Christ for water, but he goes far beyond her physical needs and loves her more deeply. “If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me something to drink,’ you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water” (Jn 4:10). He recognizes her real thirst and tries to quench it.

The Eucharist: a Gourmet Recipe for the Soul.

Whenever I try to explain to Catholics the radicalness of the Eucharist, I present two options. We’re either right, and the Eucharist is God himself: the greatest gift to mankind, or we are the biggest bunch of lunatics ever to walk the earth. Every day, thousands of people kneel down and worship in the most personal, real way or they are deceived and make fools of themselves in front of a little wafer. Well which is it?

Money, fame, and the priesthood - the true story.

Funny. Until the other day, I wasn’t thinking of starting this way. Coming back to the seminary, I stopped by a hotel, and there was a businessman getting out of a Mercedes sedan. He walked into the hotel, and the driver waited on him. Okay, I have to admit I did think, “Wow, wouldn’t that be nice. Having someone to wait on me hand and foot and take me everywhere.” I at least naturally tend to like these status symbols and the idea that others respect and admire me.

But then my mind wandered back to something else. “I’m going to be a priest forever.” Okay, I won’t have a Mercedes with a driver, but then again when I celebrate the Mass, Jesus Christ, God waits, on my word to come down to the world again in the Eucharist. When I sit in the confessional, he hangs on my lips waiting to bestow his forgiveness on a soul in need. Who is more important, the guy who has a driver or the priest, for whom God waits?

Why Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience For Life - the Joy of the Priesthood!

So how and why did I decide to become a Legionary priest? I’m not going to tell you my story here, but the whole story is here in case you suffer from insomnia.

What did God do almost fifteen years ago that brought me to the altar for ordination and brought you to Rome to share in this plan of God?

Life, love, death, God, joy - making sense of it all!

How did we meet Christ? We ask this walking through the narrow passageways of the catacombs. Martyrs found their final rest here. Hundreds and thousands of Christians secretly celebrated Mass for fear of being discovered. Why do such things? Christ died hundreds of years before. It’s just a bit of bread and a sip of wine.

No, there’s something more. For the Christians, martyrs, and saints of the first century, Jesus Christ was Someone. He meant going beyond the pomp and circumstance of their daily Roman lives. He could offer them more than the cosmopolitan, capital of the world ever could, despite her delicacies, luxuries, and opportunity to satisfy every sensual pleasure. Christ offered his body and blood for food, the comfort of Christian charity, and the promise of the satisfaction of all desire in eternal life.

But have I experienced this? 

Planning a journey: through Rome and through life.

This is the first of eight reflections that I wrote for those accompanying at my ordination in Rome. I couldn't have done it alone. Comment and post replies on FaceBook.

We’re all on a pilgrimage, and not just to Rome. I started out 31 years ago when God created me and placed me on this earth for a specific purpose. We all are created for something special, something more. God calls us to himself, and our life is a pilgrimage through time. It includes sorrow, tears, and difficulties but great joys as well, which is meant to culminate with him in heaven.

This year means something special for our lives whether we realize it or not. Pope Benedict XVI declared a Year of Faith. One of his recommendations is pilgrimage. Pope Benedict points out that we are all at a specific point on our earthly pilgrimage. Maybe we’re going through one of those ruts, or we’ve been going uphill. Maybe we’ve reached a peak and are enjoying the view behind us or looking forward to paths to travel and mountains to conquer. In my life at least, it’s a mixture.

How can I be happy, humble, and trusting? What John, the priesthood, and our vocation have in common.

I stood nervously at the bottom of the steps, going over all the possibilities in my mind. Maybe I would get one of those great men that brought Christ to thousands like St. Patrick or St. Francis Xavier. Or it could be one of the saints that had a really specific virtue like St. John of the Cross and his prayer or Blessed John Paul II and his devotion to Mary.

What am I talking about?