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?