Your Pastoral Coach

Family Ties

I just came back after a week in Florida with my parents. I know that there are some people that have horrible memories of the parents due to abuse or that may really not get along. However, at least for me, there's such a comfort in spending time with family... I see my parents and my sister who lives in Florida once a year. I see my sister in NJ twice a year. Yet, when we see each other it feels as if we pick up where we last left off. there's no time of adjustment, there's no time of awkwardness. we are family. It feels so comfy, so cozy. i love that. I have seen my parents a total of six months in the last 20 years due to living in different and far states. You could not tell. we are best friends with each other. we both confide on each other, support each other, and challenge each other. I could say the same about my sisters. The bonds of family are so different and so tight. I'm blessed to have a family I love so much and I one I can count on...

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Overflowing abundance in my life

Hello dear friends! I have been absent from the blogosphere over the last weeks due to a hectic schedule, while also been blessed with overflowing abundance.  My thesis report for my Masters degree was due last week.  Every awaken computer hour was spent writing and re-writing.  God blessed me with the knowledge I needed to finish it and send it off to my prof. on time.  Ahhhh.... I now need to complete two more papers in a week.  I just submitted one of those papers.  Last week I also had the second week of Six Sigma certification training, which I enjoyed.  I had to study in order to pass a cumulative test and did well. 

Then over the weekend I attended a retreat at my parish with 27 other men.  It was a Christ Renews His Parish retreat.  I loved it.  It is so healthy to see so many men praying, opening their hearts to God, offering witness, sharing in community, and been willing to live the good news of the Gospel of Christ.  We had confession up until midnight and then our own mass.  We also had Eucharistic adoration and another private mass on Sunday.  My soul was replenished. 

No sooner had I finished the retreat, we got in the car and drove to Florida for a week’s vacation with my parents and my sister.  I have limited computer time here, but at least was able to sneak in time for this post.  It’s always so good to spend time with my family.  Today we spent the day at the beach and it was glorious.

I pray that God blesses all of my blog friends, who I miss so much!

Gospel Reflection for Sunday, March 12, 2006

Scriptural reflection for Sunday, March 12, 2006, second Sunday of Lent. The Gospel for this Sunday recounts the event of the Transfiguration. Jesus took his trusted apostles Peter, James, and John up to the mountain and transfigured into a brilliant light, "his clothes became dazzling white." God loved us so much that in the presence of Jesus he became human. In his humanity he faced pain, rejection, friendship, and finally death on the cross. During this brief instance he showed His apostles His true divine and glorious nature. All the trials and suffering that were about to come did not amount to anything compared to the glorious joy that awaited all of them in heaven.

How would you describe God? As love, peace, or joy? My number one image of God is as divine and radiant white light. In praying the mysteries of light during the rosary I always love to meditate on the mystery of the transfiguration. The Bible is full of passages that mention light. In John Jesus reveals Himself as the light of the world. Here are some other examples:

• Matt. 5:14 - "You are the light of the world."
• Rom. 13:12b - "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light."
• 2Corinthians 4 : 6 - "For God, who said 'Let light shine out of darkness.' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
• 1John: 1-5 - "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness. He who says that he is in the Light, and hates his brother, is in the darkne s still."
• Matt. 5:16 - "Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven."

  There are many, many other passages that reference God, Jesus, and even our hearts as light. When I meditate I often imagine God's love enveloping me and filling my entire being, and I picture it as light. I then imagine radiating His light from me as far as I can and as I do that extending God's love to all people and all creation. White light is actually not a color per se, but the combination of all frequencies of color. What a beautiful metaphor. In God all people of all colors, races, and ethnic backgrounds become one.

  So as St Paul said in the letter to the Ephisians (5: 8-14), "...now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them."

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Praying with Jesus During Eucharistic Adoration

In the post below Lorna politely said "That said I have to say I'm not sure I get the adoration of the Eucharist. I realise that it's because of our diffent theologies concerning this. But I'm glad it worked for you." There are many links through Google about the history and practice of Eucharistic Adoration. Here is one website called The Real Presence Adoration that has many interesting links and articles. Instead of re-stateing what others can say better, let me share my experiences. In addition to participating in mass and praying the rosary, Eucharistic adoration is one of the most impacting devotions I practice. There is a church (not my parish) in my town that has a perpetual adoration chapel. This is a chapel where the consecrated host is exposed and there are people that pray in shifts for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I began this practice 5 years ago. My shift is Fridays at 3:00 AM. Imagine the impact this devotion has on people that the church is able to staff prayer shifts round the clock for many years. I believe this church has practiced this devotion for at least 10 years. There are 3-5 other churches in my town with perpetual adoration chapels.

I love going to the chapel in the quiet of the night and spending an hour with Jesus. As soon as I enter I can feel His presence very strongly. The place feels so holy and His presence so palpable. It is like sitting with your most beloved friend. Sometimes I tell him my problems, others I share my joys. I surrender my worries and also my plans for the future. Many times I pray to Jesus for people, but when I'm in this chapel I feel as if I'm praying WITH jesus for the world and for the needs of others. Sometimes I read a spiritual book, pray the rosary, or read the Bible. Most times I just sit, and allow Him to reach and touch my heart. I never allow anything, sickness, snow storms, thunderstorms, etc. to interfere with this precious moment. I'm sure all of this may sound strange and confusing to non Catholics, but it has really made a difference in my spiritual life. Then, I crawl back in bed at 4:45AM and my wife always says, "How was your time with Jesus?"

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A Different Type of Eucharistic Adoration

I had a different type of Eucharistic Adoration tonight. Our Archbishop is sponsoring a week-long around the clock Eucharistic adoration at the cathedral praying for just and compassionate immigration laws. This was prompted by a bill that passed the US House of Representatives, and many that are pending at the state level that are enforcement-only bills and don't address any systemic problems or provide a way for immigrants that are now in the country to regularize their status. The Eucharistic Adoration I'm used to is mostly silent or with solemn prayers. When I got to the church I walked into a setting that had guitar players, people pouring their hearts out to Jesus in very expressive and passionate ways, people on their knees on the hard floor, and lots of kids playing in the back. It was what you would think of in terms of a gathering of Hispanics at church.

However, what struck me was the unified sense of pain and hope for God's mercy. There was a solidarity, a sense of unity in pain, that I had not felt before. We all prayed many psalms together and many prayers of mercy and help that had an added feeling of reality. The people gathered in church had actually spent time walking through the desert with not enough to eat and drink and with their rosaries in their hands. They had actually been hungry, naked, and in trouble. They had actually faced life threatening dangers. They had wondered into the desert leaving family and everything familiar to them behind so that they could eat and support their families back at home.

Many of the psalms were written expressing the agony and hope of a people on the move, a people on exile, a people suffering. Here I was in a room full of people on the move and threatened. The psalms became real, not just simply metaphors. For once, I got a sense of what it must have been like for the Jews to be in Egypt or Babylon. My heart was tender and yet, grateful to have experienced this moment of compassion and solidarity. Their cries to Jesus were real and impacting.

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Praying for Paula

Praying for my friend Paula, that the Lord will guide her and comfort her through this difficult time in her life...

Gospel Reflection for Sunday, February 5, 2006

Scripture reflection for Sunday, February 5, 2006, first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a time of purification, of cleansing, and of re-focusing. a time to reflect and repent, to sacrifice and to be grateful for mercy, a time of preparation to celebrate the paschal mystery in our lives. As Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, we too spend 40 days living with less, welcoming the quiet, and re-aligning our internal compass so that we can be aligned with our true north, our beloved God. Did you notice that Jesus did not sort of think to go to the desert? He did not hesitantly take 40 days to live with the beasts? He did not schedule it when it was convenient? No, he was DRIVEN by the Spirit.

How many times do you feel DRIVEN by the Holy Spirit to make a significant decision, to take a course of action that could lead you into an unknown territory? In the first reading we read about Noah and the first in a series of covenants between God and His people. Noah didn't sort of decid to build an ark. He was DRIVEN to do it. "Make yourself an ark of gopherwood, put various compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with pitch." What he heard was not a suggestion, yet Noah had a choice and he said yes, "This Noah did; he carried out all the commands that God gave him." Jesus said yes, St. Francis said yes, Mother Teresa said yes, St. Joseph said yes, and many others...

We must go through the Lent in our lives so that we can hear the will of God for us more clearly and so that we may have the courage to say yes. The more we live in a state of consciousness, ever aware of God's will and in a state of obedience, the holier we become. The holier we become, the stronger the temptations and the spiritual attacks, but Jesus showed us that with our faith and God's grace, we can overcome the temptations. Then we will more clearly hear the will of God and we will more confidently say yes.

It's a challenging and yet, lovingly beautiful cycle. Our experience of Lent helps us have a clear conscience, better tuned so to speak, to the will of God. As Peter said in the second reading, "It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him." Let's prepare for and allow ourselves to be DRIVEN by the SPIRIT! God bless you!

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Reflecting on Hispanics in the USA and Church

As some of you know I have been quite busy lately on many, many fronts, one having to do with final projects and papers for my Masters in Pastoral Theology. I have three papers left and a 30 page report on a project. I should graduate this May. My project was a workshop that I held with the Church leaders on immigration, social justice, and the response of the Catholic Church and our parish to the growing population of Hispanics in the US. We ended the session with a healthy brainstorm on actions we could take to better serve the Hispanics in our parish and to unite the Hispanic and Anglo communities. The session went very well. To complete my project I have had to facilitate a series of theological reflections with the participants. I'm happy to say that I facilitated the last session tonight. Now it's time to write!

One of the added benefits of this process has been to meet some very nice and interesting people. Interestingly enough, what shocked and challenged the people I talked to was not what I presented, but the prejudicial and protectionist statements of some participants. How could Catholic members of our parish say such things about other members of our church? These Anglo members came face to face with what some minority groups face daily and it really challenged them to deal with intolerance. Because of a beautiful video I showed entitled "Dying to Live" the members were able to put a face to the issue of immigration. What a blessing to sit with others and reflect on how the Gospel challenges us to think and act differently. Well, I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the school work tunnel!

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