Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

This week we find ourselves in the heart of the Novena to the Holy Spirit, as we sharpen our senses and listen more intently for his instruction. I truly believe that the world is desperately in need of a new Pentecost when the truth will be heard clearly and people will respond in love.

I thought I would include in the column today a quick catechesis of the Holy Spirit that Pope Francis gave while in the Holy Land this past weekend.

“Today’s Gospel and this place to which, by God’s grace, I have come as a pilgrim, invite us to meditate on the Holy Spirit and on all that he has brought about in Christ and in us. In a word, we can say that the Holy Spirit carries out three actions – he prepares, he anoints and he sends.”

He explained, “At the baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus to prepare him for his mission of salvation. … Yet the Holy Spirit, present from the beginning of salvation history, had already been at work in Jesus from the moment of his conception in the virginal womb of Mary of Nazareth … and acted in Simeon and Anna on the day of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. … They gave prophetic expression to the joy of encountering the Redeemer and, in a certain sense, served as a preparation for the encounter between the Messiah and the people. These various works of the Holy Spirit are part of a harmonious action, a sole divine plan of love. The mission of the Holy Spirit, in fact, is to beget harmony – he is himself harmony – and to create peace in different situations and between different people. Diversity of ideas and persons should not trigger rejection or prove an obstacle, for variety always enriches. So today, with fervent hearts, we invoke the Holy Spirit and ask him to prepare the path to peace and unity.”

Secondly, “the Holy Spirit also anoints. He anointed Jesus inwardly and he anoints his disciples, so that they can have the mind of Christ and thus be disposed to live lives of peace and communion. Through the anointing of the Spirit, our human nature is sealed with the holiness of Jesus Christ and we are enabled to love our brothers and sisters with the same love which God has for us. We ought, therefore, to show concrete signs of humility, fraternity, forgiveness and reconciliation. These signs are the prerequisite of a true, stable and lasting peace. Let us ask the Father to anoint us so that we may fully become his children, ever more conformed to Christ, and may learn to see one another as brothers and sisters. Thus, by putting aside our grievances and divisions, we can show fraternal love for one another.”

Finally, the Holy Spirit sends. “Jesus is the one who is sent forth, filled with the Spirit of the Father. Anointed by the same Spirit, we also are sent as messengers and witnesses of peace. The world has much need of us as messengers of peace, witnesses of peace! The world needs this. The world asks us to bring peace and to be a sign of peace! Peace is not something which can be bought or sold; it is a gift to be sought patiently and to be ‘crafted’ through the actions, great and small, of our everyday lives. The way of peace is strengthened if we realize that we all of the same stock and members of the one human family; if we never forget that we have the same heavenly Father and are all his children, made in his image and likeness.”

“It is in this spirit that I embrace all of you.”

Pope Francis’ comments go right to the heart of our understanding of right relationship with God and with one another. To be made in his image and likeness in every way, we acknowledge that, as persons, we have a role in finding our own fulfillment in the context of the community that forms out of the love of the Holy Spirit – the Church. We must, therefore, always turn to him for our help, the words to say, the inspiration to act. Most of all, we discover that he is love, and we seek him everywhere we go.

May God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

I was speaking with a group of young people (not in Fredericksburg) about the holiday that was coming up and I asked them if they knew why this weekend was called “Memorial Day” weekend.

One told me that it was in remembrance of September 11, 2001. Another, that it was the day that people remembered that school was out and that summer was beginning. That was why everyone goes out of town on Memorial Day. Another said she thought that it had something to do with American Independence but wasn’t sure how exactly. But it was something patriotic, that is why it was a federal holiday.

I sometimes find it hard to believe how old I seem to have become. So I began to explain the “ancient” history about this holiday. Memorial Day (as, I’m sure, every Fredericksburg citizen knows), was established as a federal holiday to mourn the death of all the soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in the Civil War, north and south. Hundreds of thousands. Over the years it has grown to include all those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in various wars and conflicts so we can enjoy the freedom to live as we please. Freedom even to forget them, I suppose. Although my family may have had several people who were involved in war, we never had anyone (that I’m aware of) who actually died in battle. But we would go every year to the cemetery and place flowers on family graves, and say a prayer for those who had died. I remember my mom’s generation called it “Decoration Day.”

Memorial Day services still happen in the Civil War cemeteries here in town — sadly, we are still divided in this with one service in the Union cemetery and another in the Confederate cemetery. Enmity lives long beyond death. But we focus on those who have gone before us and, in their memory, ask God to gather all of them to himself, and help us all to gather together again in his kingdom on the last day. On that day, perhaps the north/south conflict will finally be resolved.

We include in all of our Masses this weekend, in a special way, all those who have died in battle, all those who have returned with scars, visible and invisible, all who have supported and enforced the justice and peace that is necessary for the dignity of mankind and the human person. May God bless all of them and bring them home.

Truly, Memorial Day does mark a kind of beginning to the summer. We are surrounded by events which speak of transition: graduations on all sides, weddings, vacations.

I would like to acknowledge all those who are graduating this year. Simple math would indicate that we would have about 400 eighth graders and seniors in high school graduating from three school districts and dozens of schools within the boundaries of our parish. Congratulations to all of you. I wish we could offer our congratulations personally; please know that we are keeping all of you in our prayers. I know of two classes of kindergartners and a bunch of preschool kids who are looking forward to moving up the ladder of life. First big steps. Congratulations.

As the flock begins to disperse stay in touch over the summer. Keep going to Mass, keep up on what is happening in our parish family. If you SUBSCRIBE at our website (www.stmaryfred.org) you will always know the latest of what is going on. You will find the “subscribe” button on the first page of the website. Once you have set up your login, you will receive an email whenever we post the bulletin or weekly express announcements of what is going on at St. Mary. Who knows? You might even receive an occasional meditation from your pastor.

May God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

This weekend all of our children receiving First Holy Communion will be with us for the first time in the sacrament of the Eucharist. Congratulations to all our children, and thanks to our catechists, teachers, Sisters, and all parents who have taken the responsibility to make sure that the Eucharist is a part of your children’s lives. It is a most precious gift; the greatest gift that they will ever receive.

For the rest of us it is a time of reflection, as maybe we can recall the day when we received Communion for the first time. I can remember the day. I can remember how important it was for me and my family. It is our prayer that this grace-filled time for our parish might serve as a reminder and a renewal for all of us to consider the impact and effect that this sacrament is capable of having on our lives, if we are paying attention and really making ourselves available for God in Holy Communion. We place so much importance on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist — and well we should. But the sacrament requires a two-way offering of self, and we must also be really present to him, with our whole selves, giving ourselves to him as much as he is giving himself to us. Thank you, Jesus, for this great gift, and for renewing us.

Recently there has been some discussion about proper order at Mass, and what to do about those who arrive late and need to be seated. Our policy of kindly asking people to wait until in the vestibule from the start of the First Reading through the Gospel has been misunderstood as an inhospitality, and so I wanted to give a clarification.

Ushers are asked to kindly ask people to wait during the Liturgy of the Word and not enter the church to look for seats. If this has not seemed kindly to you, I am sorry. But what we have found is that many people arrive late, and in the middle of the readings, look for seats (which unfortunately are usually in the middle of rows) and by the time all are seated, the readings have passed by and people don’t know what they were. At the time of the Liturgy of the Word, there is only one activity that is appropriate: people are listening. In the pews, in the vestibule if that is where you are at that time. We put in a new, really good speaker there so that no one will miss anything. Attentive to the Word, it is the practice of our ushers to immediately invite everyone to enter the church and find seats once the Gospel has ended and the homily begins.

Please do not consider this a lack of hospitality or a process of policing the congregation. It is a courtesy to all, so that the Liturgy of the Word might have its integrity. We realize it is sometimes outside of peoples’ control to arrive on time with all the traffic and scheduling issues we all have, but for many, this Liturgy of the Word is the only Word of God that they will hear proclaimed all week long. There is something holy about this process — the Word of God is alive and speaks to our hearts in ways that sanctify and transform us. Truly the Presence of God in his Word, and his Word-made-Flesh in the Gospel. The readings aren’t terribly long, usually, and the vestibule is also a good place to listen for those who arrive late.

I have noticed sometimes that people wait from the very start of Mass in the vestibule, and this is not required — please, until that First Reading begins (greeting, penitential rite, Gloria, opening prayer) — please, come in and find a seat. Hopefully an usher can assist you.

And — to all those who remain in the vestibule for the whole Mass — from our vantage point at the altar, there are almost always many seats available in the pews, usually up front. Please do not be self-conscious, we would like you to come inside and join all of us at the Mass. Please don’t stay apart.

Attendance is so important in the celebration of the Mass — otherwise, we could just watch it on TV. Please, know your place is here with us and you are welcome.

May God bless you.

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

A little over a year ago, I attended a lecture at Georgetown by one of our leading church theologians which has stayed with me. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of Unitatis redintegratio, Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism.
Her thesis basically spoke about a major shift which took place in the culture of the Church, something that had been a long time in coming but had finally become obvious: the life of the Church in the modern world demanded that the Church be involved in a dialogue. She said, quite simply, that the Church which had always operated (at least, for centuries) as a monologue—the Church speaking and everyone else just expected to listen—had come to terms with the fact that there were other voices that needed to be heard and a conversation was not only necessary, but holy.

The new principle of dialogue was named repeatedly for the first time in official documents of the Church as the way of growth in knowledge and wisdom, even the means by which we are edified by others and spread the Gospel.

There are lay people that need to be heard. There are non-Catholics that need to be heard. There are even non-Christian peoples who deserve to be heard. There are things to be learned and valued from all people who are made by God in his own image, even if their practice of faith or religion isn’t necessarily according to the authentic revelation that we hold as the central treasures of our faith.

For me one of the most stunning statements was made by Cardinal Walter Kasper in his reflections on Unitatis redintegratio, when he said that it isn’t possible to be truly “catholic” (the word means “universal”) if we follow a principle of operation in which find ourselves alone. “Universal” means that we must include all who are “other,” and find that fullness of God’s love not only in me, but also in you. That love of God is most perfectly known when it is found in us.

Made in the image of God and conformed to the person of Christ through the sacraments, we live a life that is trinitarian and perfectly united to the divine life of God. It is a love and life that is extended to all people, and we cannot experience it unless we are also in community, as God is in community.

Look at the way in which we celebrate the Mysteries of Christ in the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word is a conversation, the Liturgy of the Eucharist is a shared, mutual offering and receiving of us to God and God to us. The entire structure demands a We and a Thou: there can be no relationship in a monologue, but in a dialogue there is sharing and fulfillment.

I think this is the fault which lies at the heart of the thinking of so many today who claim to be “spiritual” but not “religious,” “believers” but not “belongers.” It is far too easy to isolate in individualism and selfishness; it is a far more difficult and demanding activity to make that commitment to a community of faith, in the context of others.

Even modern psychology shows the danger and resulting damage due to behavior that denies the most basic of human needs, to belong.

We can no longer pretend to own the same autonomy or personal infallibility when we must acknowledge the authority or preeminence of a tradition that has bound together a faithful community for centuries. Truth, once again, is something not be invented, but to be confronted with, something we receive, not something we make. It is given to shape us and we can’t create it any more than we can determine the reality of another person in our life. But openness to truth, like openness to others, is an often-unexpected and surprising opportunity to learn and grow. But the openness is vital.

Let us open ourselves to God, and one another, to discover the beauty and richness that is there.

May God bless you.