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. 

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”. 

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. 

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?

Giving and receiving new life: What is baptism all about?

Should I tell them that it was my first time or not? When to do it? It would be a great opener, and everything seems more special. But they might get nervous. I could tell them at the end, but by that time it wouldn’t mean much. 

Here I was about to perform my first baptism, both nervous and excited. We, men, like to achieve things, to do things for others. We like to be able to accomplish things that support and sustain others – earn a living, raise children, be the best.

Living the (Extra)ordinary: LC Deaconate Ordination 2012

It's hard to write again after so long. I've been a deacon for just over a month. My life hasn't changed a lot, then again, it's been completely transformed.

I'm still studying, working, eating, sleeping, praying, and playing. Just that, I'm a deacon and will be forever. But what does that mean?

This seems to be the story of our lives. I shared this in one of my first homilies because we all experience it. Often the most meaningful moments of our lives come and go with the most normalcy. We spend hours, weeks, and even years preparing for something that happens in the blink of an eye. Then it's over, and nothing seems different though we know that everything has changed. Marriage, birth, death, and so on.

Perhaps it hit me hardest in the actual ceremony of the ordination to the diaconate.

What's my vocation? Dear 17 year old me...

Yesterday was World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Late again, but hopefully you said a prayer for me anyway! What is vocation? It comes from the Latin to call. It's not just the vocation to the priesthood - we all have a one!

Last night, I got to tell my story for the umpteenth time. It's funny, I don't get tired of repeating. Not just because I get to talk about myself - finding happiness and fulfillment is what's most important to everyone.

Two fellow seminarians and I went to dinner with a wonderful couple from Idaho. Before the appetizers reached the table, Br. James was well along in recounting his vocation story, and Br. Andrew didn't stop until we had finished our pasta. His was already cold.

Then it was my turn! Just that morning, I was thinking about what a vocation really is. But wait a second, let's back up a bit...

Annie Asmussen: adventure, love, joy, and peace - where to find it.

Life's been busy, and blogging hasn't. I figure that there are priorities and life, and living them is more important than writing about them. Exams have been very interesting, and I have one more on Baptism. Preparation for ordination continues to be intense, and life always brings surprises.

One of these surprises has been the story of Annie Asmussen. A young woman giving her life full-time  to God and others. I got the chance to ask her a couple of questions, and here are the answers. You can find out more on her blog: Way of Love.

"So I am a missionary to love the empty, unhappy, and falsely happy. I've seen the most hardened hearts find peace, freedom and joy in Jesus."

Phil Mulryne: What to do with our lives? Vocation and discernment are for everyone.

Phil had it made. He was 18 and playing for Manchester United, one of the most respected football (soccer, for us Americans) teams in Europe. He had already played on their youth team for a couple of years. What more could a guy want?

But vying for midfield with David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and losing out on playing time wasn't exactly a glorious career. He moved to a much smaller club in hope of a little time on the field. But things didn't get better. Injury struck, more than once. As he moved from team to team, he wasn't getting playing time or recognition. What was he to do with his life?

Life's a Battle: the strength and joy we need to win (not just to get by).

Sometimes an idea just seems to hit us from all sides - like when we used to play bumper cars at kids. Well, these past few days have been that. 

So often, we're tired, down, and life's tough! It seems like we just keep giving, and every time we're emptier. We start calculating, measuring, compromising. If we cut a little here, stop doing that, and maybe just take it easy. No, it's lost before we even set foot on the battlefield. So where does real strength and joy come from? It's possible - we've seen it!

Another Andy

Yesterday, it was Andrew Luck. Today it's another Andy!

Frustrated he flung out the nets with a vengeance. The catch hadn't been good, and his fellow fisherman hadn't helped! How could he just sit there for hours doing the same thing? They hadn't caught hardly anything. What a life - this couldn't be for him!

A Blog

It seems like I have been meaning to write this forever. God had a plan, and the idea occurred to me on a trip to England last December. But how to make it happen?

How to explain the Campion transformation?! What made a sickly old man into a pillar of strength and hope - like John Paul II? How can we explain the radical change in the life of St. Edmund, John Paul II, or any other?

An Idea

Me in front of Westminster

I walked into the huge stone vaulted ceiling, and it seemed like I was stepping back in time. Hard to believe what this hall had seen in the previous centuries, but my mind went back to November 14, 1581. Edmund Campion stood his ground as he was convicted for treason. But in his own words, “The plain reason of our standing here is religion and not treason.”

Edmund Campion was an incredible Catholic, Christian, but above all, he was an incredible man. We need figures like this today. So often we look to musicians, athletes, or movie stars that aren’t even worth our admiration.

But I can hear the words of another man also spoken in England echoing in my ears:

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. 

Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places.

The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. 

God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. (17 September 2011)

Benedict XVI said this to the youth on September 17, 2010. What the world needs today are men and saints! What we need are men and saints! This might sound crazy, but this is what we need to think about, talk about and live out if we are going to be happy.

A Call

I sat at the table in a kind of stunned silence.  It is one of those moments when the world seems to freeze.  My mind raced.  What did she say?  “I just know that you are going to become a priest.” She was my friend’s mom, what did she know?

“She must be kidding,” I thought to myself.  I had never even considered it.  As I tried to shake myself free of this random idea, it wouldn’t come loose.  Not knowing why, deep down inside I had the feeling that she was right.

This problem was, I was starving. I had different things that I tried stuffing my heart with, but nothing seemed to work. Studies weren’t that difficult.  Grades weren’t a problem.  Sports went pretty well.  I had friends.  Even a girlfriend didn’t do much to relieve the situation.  I wanted something more, yet I knew that only something totally different would satisfy me.

I was tired of playing the game of life, I wanted to live.  Studies were to get good grades.  Sports to have extra-curricular achievements. Social activities to have lots of friends.  All of this to be admitted into a good university.  A college diploma to be hired for a good job, etc, etc.  Was my life going to be dedicated to great achievements culminating in retirement?  Is this what I wanted – to be sixty years old with a lot of money and “free” to do what I wanted or rather was still able to do with the leftovers of my life? No.

I wanted something more – no, rather God wanted something more. God had a special plan for my life as he does for all of us.

And I was not the only one.  Through the Regnum Christi movement, I met up with other young men who wanted the same. By prayer and conversation with a priest who helped to guide me, I little by little made the decision to take the step and join the seminary of the Legionaries of Christ. 

I served the Mass for Benedict XVI
and received communion.

That was 1999, and I have since studied in Germany, the United States, and now Rome. I am currently in my last year of theology, and in December 2012, with the grace of God, I will be ordained a priest.