Let’s take another look at what worship and adoration is about. It’s important to understand what we’re doing and why.

The Catholic Catechism explains . . . “To adore God is to acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful Love. . . to adore God is to acknowledge in absolute submission the ‘nothingness of the creature’ who would not exist but for God.”

In short, God is our all, our everything. But how do we love and serve a God we can not see or touch? God has to help us. He has to give us something to hold onto as belonging to Him or at least pointing to Him. And He has.

“What can be known about God is plain to see, for God Himself made it plain. Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made.” Romans1:20

So worship begins by acknowledging that all we see, all that is, comes from God. This is called “Natural Religion”, and it is as old as the human race. And so humans have made offerings to the “gods” of the mountains, the sun, the moon, the fields, the oceans . . .

But God wished to elevate his beloved creature, man and woman, to a new level of knowledge and love of God. And so God did the unimaginable. He became a human being. Jesus, “the image of the invisible God”. (Col. 1:15.)

1 John 1:2 tells us, “the Word of Life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it, and proclaim to you what was with the Father was made visible to us.”

And so our worship of God becomes personal now. It focuses on the person of God who is Jesus, God become human flesh.

Yes, we worship God when we worship Christ because . . . “through him (Jesus), God created everything in heaven and earth, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” (Col. 1:17).

Jesus sort of summarized all this when in answer to the Apostle Philips request to show him “the Father” Jesus said “Philip when you see me you see the Father.” (Jn. 14:8)

But HOW do we worship God. What do we do? In ancient times we would collect the finest fruit of the harvest and burn it, turning it to smoke which rises to God. Or we would slay a bull or ox or goat and place it on the altar of sacrifice. Basically, we would give God the best of what we have.

And here is where God absolutely astonishes us with his love. God puts in our hands the very offering he wishes us to give him . . . his only Son, Jesus.

You see, Jesus is God’s gift to us and our gift back to God. His life was lived in total dedication to the will of the Father. Jesus was the Lamb that was slain. His death on the cross, freely accepted as the way his Father was to reconcile the human race to his burning love, forever be-comes our offering of worship to God the Father.

Where does this happen? The Mass. God gives us his Son. We give him back to the Father. And Jesus wants this to happen until he comes in Glory. “Do this, in memory of me.”

Wow.

Fr. Tim

HOPE Ministry’s Annual Garage Sale

September 17 and 18

HOPE Ministry’s annual garage sale will be held in Murphy Hall, Wednesday, September 16, 6-8 pm.
$5 admission fee for presale Wednesday night.

Thursday, September 17 10-4 pm.
Friday, September 18 10-4 pm.
Saturday, September 19, 10- noon.
Everything is half price on Saturday.

More Information

There’s a great scene in Fiddler on the Roof where Tevye turns to his sharp tongued wife, Golde, and asks her, “Do you love me?” She pauses over her tub of laundry for a moment, and wiping her sweaty face, she repeats his question, “Do I love you?” “What a silly thing to ask. I cook for you, I wash for you, I keep house for you, I have children with you.” Her song ends with, “If that’s not love . . . what is?” In other words, she’s living her love, not thinking about it.

How about you and Jesus? Do you love him? Think for a minute before you answer. Too many things want to jump in and give a superficial answer. We say, “Well I go to mass. I believe He’s God’s Son who died on the cross for me. I know he’s raised from the dead and has unlocked the gates of heaven for us. I say prayers before meals. I try to live a good life.”

“But do you LOVE me?” Jesus asks Peter three times (John 21:17). How do we know if we really love Jesus? Sitting in my chair in the rectory with my books and Brahms playing in the background, I find it easy to whisper, “Jesus I love you”. But do I really?

What if ISIS suddenly knocks on my door and asks if there are any Christians inside? What if the phone rings at 3 am. and the person just wants someone to talk to? What if my friend, for all his promises, is drunk and crying again? What if the young cashier makes mistake after mistake and keeps us all waiting? What if they accidentally skip over your name at the graduation ceremony? What if the doctor says, ‘there’s nothing more we can do”? What if my job is sent overseas and now I’m on the night shift at Seven/11?

Sometimes I wonder if my life were challenged as it is for thousands of people (with poverty, sickness or tragedy), would I be so quick to say “Jesus I love you”? Would I keep the faith in the face of danger, ridicule, or discrimination? Remember the Last Supper when Jesus told the apostles, “someone at this table will betray me tonight.” Each apostle would in turn nervously ask, “Certainly it is not I Lord . . . is it?” I think they each feared the “traitor” that lie within him. Not just Judas, in fact each of them betrayed him. Our love in the end is usually pretty weak.

But are there any signs that one’s love of the Lord is true and from God? I think there are. Signs my love of God is true and real:

• I keep doing the things of faith time after time, year after year. (Going to Sunday mass, receiving the Eucharist often, confession too). And in your own way, “wanting what God wants.”
• There is a felt desire at times to do something “Just to please the Lord.” (eg. To give alms, visiting the sick or lonely, etc.)
• Also a felt desire to refrain from something simply because it offends against God (Fear of the Lord).
• I ask God to help me see his will and to DO it, even when it’s hard.
• I make a conscious effort to give my day over to God asking his help to face the new day. (Morning Offering Prayer)
• You find a growth in charity moving you to care about someone or something that never concerned you before.
• You willingly suffer misunderstanding, contempt, sickness and failure in union with Christ who loved us first.
• Notice the motivation for doing these things is the love of God; not just being a “nice guy”.

But in the end how much I love God is really not the important thing. The main issue is to realize “not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us first.” “God proved his love for us for while we were still sinners and enemies of God Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7-8.

Why do we love God? Because he has first loved us; creating us, letting us be called his children, giving us his Son to be our Savior, showing us the way to eternal life. Dear God you know how small my heart is. Please make it bigger for you and for my neighbor.

I don’t care what they say . . . it’s still summer!!

Fr. Tim

One of the attitudes that marks our Western culture is the notion that we are in control of our lives and our future. The powerful tools of science and technology enable us to live lives expecting results that will please and comfort us.

Let’s see . . . today I’ll take my car to the mall where I’ll buy an Ipod which has an app that, with two touches, books a room in a snazzy hotel and tells me the water temperature in the hotel pool. My doctor will fix my bad hip. The micro will heat my pasta. And tonight, I’ll watch the Yankees play Boston in high def. I’m pretty set. Life is good.

So pervasive is our confidence that these machines will (pardon me Webster) make my “life worth living” that we begin to expect life to be what we command it to be. We forget that we are mere creatures made by God.

But who needs God when life can be controlled and self-directed all by ourselves?

But, you and I know it’s not that simple. Life is bigger than that. “Things happen”. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out the way we planned. The comfort and convenience we get from our machines just doesn’t satisfy the hunger we have in our hearts.

You see, we were made for something greater than high def TV, and Ipods, and even the Yankees.

In short we were made for God. We were made in the likeness of God. Scripture says we, unlike any other creature in this universe, are God’s Children! How can this be? Because God became one of us when He was born a human being. And this human being, Jesus, God’s Son, has asked that we allow him to enter our lives and “live in us”.

How? By the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a Divine Person who we cannot see and, unlike our Ipod, we cannot control. On Pentecost Sunday we heard again about the strong driving wind which first blew over the waters of creation now blowing over the apostles making them “born again” in the life of Christ.

The fondest longing of the human heart is realized today. We belong to God and one day “we will become like Him”.

Again this is not because of anything we have done to cause it. We can’t make ourselves children of anybody . . . it has to be given to us. Today we are God’s Children by adoption. The Holy Spirit places in us the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and with that spirit a new life is begun. A life of Faith, Hope and Love.

Like a baby!! While we sleep. The Holy Spirit is working in us to bring us to the Kingdom of God where we, in union with Christ, will be with God forever.

How wonderful is that?!

Dear God, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit.

Peace. All will be well.

Fr. Tim

We learn some things more quickly than others. Walking, talking, the alphabet, times tables, and riding a bike come to us in the first years of life. Other things take longer – things of “character” (honesty, courage, patience, generosity).

So too, in matters of Faith, some things come to us quickly. “I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ his only Son . . . born of the Virgin Mary.” (Apostles Creed). The Christmas Story, Heaven, Holy Communion, sin and sorrow for sin and God’s forgiveness all come relatively early.

But something, for me at least, has taken a long time to realize – Mary, the mother of our Lord. Please don’t be shocked. We each have a unique path in finding our way to the Kingdom. What comes quickly for some takes longer for others.

So what about Mary? We know several things about her from the Scriptures. She was married to Joseph, yet bore her miraculous son as a virgin. She followed her son throughout his ministry and was present at the foot of the cross when all but John had abandoned the Lord. She was present in the upper room when the Holy Spirit descended on her and the apostles. And this weekend we celebrated her Assumption into heaven.

The glorious titles given to Mary by the Church: Mother of God in Christ, Mother of the Church, and Mother of all the Faithful, (along with the hundreds of holy cards showing Mary floating on a cloud) have somehow hidden her from me . . . “OUR MOTHER in the order of grace.” Universal Catechism 966.

I have always known these things “about” Mary. I believe them. But I watch and hear others who seemed to know and love Mary personally. I’ve been almost jealous of those I see place such trust in her, turning to her as they would their own mother.

So here’s what God is doing in me regarding Mary, my adoptive mother. (It’s a new thing that’s not done yet.)

• I’m letting Mary be a real person. A woman, a wife and mother, with all the joys and sorrows that go with that.
• I’m reflecting on Mary’s greatest moments: her “Fiat” (“let it be done” to Gabriel’s message, her standing at the foot of the cross watching her son’s crucifixion and saying, as did her son, “Thy will be done”. It doesn’t get any harder than that). These were human acts of faith that make this tough little woman . . . approachable..
• I can go to her now, knowing that she looked into the abyss of her son’s murder and kept the faith.
• I can watch her admire her son as a loving mother. “Tim, isn’t he beautiful! I wish you could know him like I know him.”
• Her voice is different than her son’s. (Jesus is sometimes demanding and matter of fact; setting his Father’s Kingdom in stark relief he says, “Repent”, “take up your cross”, “enter through the narrow way, etc.)

  She has a woman’s voice, deferring to the power of Her son who is the “Truth”, she has that tender concern for us, saying softly, “How are you doing with this? Are you okay? Are you getting what my son is saying?”

• I used to resist thinking of myself as “her child”, fearing being “childish”. It feels more like my mother trying to get me to understand my older brother – – – Jesus. “Tim, my son is your brother. Listen to him.”
• Mary knows her son like no one else. She knows what is in his heart for each of her adopted children. “He loves you, Tim, she says. Trust me, I’m his mother!”
• Sometimes you just can’t talk to a man, however wonderful they might be. Their judgements we can’t bear. We need someone to whom we can pour out our hearts. Our fears (as men), our weaknesses and failures, our moments of shame . . . all find a place of confidence in her loving embrace. My mother.
• But she’s no pushover either. All her kindness is directed toward getting us moving toward her son. “To Jesus through Mary”. I’m just starting to get it.

Summer blessings.

Fr. Tim

Have you heard someone say that to you? It seems to be a common phrase these days. Many feel it best expresses their view of life. Let’s take a minute to see what they mean by that. Let’s try to see the good thing they are pointing to because they feel it’s a thoughtful, virtuous way to live life. And it is.

“I’m spiritual”. It means a person is aware that there is “something” in this world beyond what we can see and touch. There is something that can’t be spotted by our microscopes or telescopes or chemical analysis. It’s a spirit that has a meaning and beauty that makes human life worth living. It seems very active in those “peak” moments of life . . . falling in love, the birth of a child. One gets the sense of being connected to something bigger than themselves, something kind and beautiful.

The phrase, “I’m spiritual”, is a non-technical term trying to describe a feeling or an intuition. When I am aware of it, I experience myself fitting into a universal, spiritual plan. The plan is good and benevolent, and I feel happy that I could connect with it.

That’s not bad, eh? Really. It sensitizes people to the beauty around us. It’s like a melody playing in the back-ground. When we feel this “good spirit” we say, “I don’t go to church. My church is a walk in the woods.” I think we’ve all found the beauty of nature touching us and leading us to the Creator. We’re all “spiritual” in this sense.

So what’s the problem with this? It doesn’t hurt anybody. There have been no wars fought over being “spiritual”.

My only thought at this point is there’s no one to thank. It’s a painting without a painter; a symphony without a composer. We’re still ALONE. Ultimately what good is that?

What happens when life turns ugly? What happens when I don’t feel my spiritual side; when sorrow or sickness or tragedy strikes? When my walk in the woods is scary and lonely? When life and its demands feel overwhelming? Being “spiritual” somehow doesn’t get to the depth of the human experience.

OK, so what about “religion” and how is it different from that “spiritual” feeling? What follows are words from someone who “believes in God”.

The Christian religion says that God has actually revealed himself to us in the history of the human race. There was a 5000 year old process of recording God’s actions in human history called the Bible (the creation of the heavens and earth, calling a people to a special relationship with him (the Jews), and finally coming to live among us in human form (Jesus Christ)).

In this process we are given a pretty specific description of who God is and how God acts. Time and again Jesus would say, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like . . .” and there would follow a picture of some aspect of God, right down to his name – – “Father”. One of his stories describes heaven to a king who has a banquet and we humans are invited guests.

So, Christians can’t walk away from this Revealed Word. We are tied to this belief about God and human existence. The word “religion” itself has the notion of being “tied to” something (religare – Latin meaning “to bind together”).

“Being tied to” what has been revealed is really important because it gives us the knowledge to know who God is. The people who hold this knowledge and act according to its instructions have what we call “religion”.

But, aren’t there many religions? Yes, there are many religions. So, then it doesn’t matter which one I practice, right? It does if you want to know the truth. They all might have something of the truth, but they can’t all be right. (The Resurrection of the Dead for Christians is to-tally different than the Re-incarnation for Bhuddists).

It’s here I think we go back to two things. True religion, unlike “being spiritual” has to deal with, 1. the staggering beauty of human life in both its joys and sorrows – – – what best explains who we are? What is love? How can there be suffering and yet still a God we can honestly worship? 2. How does one come to the knowledge and love of such a Being?

Answers to these questions are beyond our ability to fathom. God has to help us. He has to give us something that will touch the deepest recesses of the human heart and open us to His Mystery. It’s called the gift of Faith, and it was delivered to us in actual words by another human being, Jesus Christ .

“This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.” Luke 9:35.

Blessings to you. Fr. Tim

Sometimes it happens, try as we might to hear God, we just don’t feel that God is speaking to us. We can pray all we want, but it just seems to go on a big pile of unanswered prayers. God is silent.

Mother Teresa’s memoirs tell us of God’s silence in her life for over twenty years. Unfortunately, many give up on praying. We don’t stop believing in God and trying to do the right thing. We just stop turning to God in prayer.

Jesus said, “Pray to your Father in secret and your Father who sees you in secret will repay you . . . he knows what you need even before you ask him.” Mt. 6: 6-8. And “Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find.

Knock and it will be opened to you.” Mt. 7:7 Jesus could have just as well said,”you’ll hear back I promise”.

So, why does it seem at times we don’t hear back from God? Maybe the problem is with us. Somehow we”re not “dialed in” to God’s frequency. He’s speaking, but we don’t have the receptors to hear him. Or, perhaps some-thing is blocking our hearing.

Below is a list of things that people do or experience that make hearing God’s whisper unlikely. It’s hard to hear you Lord because…

• There is no silence in my life. I fill my every moment with gadgets that make noise, give useless information, or provide distraction. God speaks in the quiet of our heart. “Be still and know that I am God.”
• My image of God is one that keeps me from wanting to meet him. (It can be an unhappy image of “father” because my own father was absent or angry or stern). Jesus the Good Shepherd is our image of God.
• Sin. I’m living a life in which I consciously turn to sinful actions. I cling to an evil behavior that gives me comfort. Gradually it keeps me from feeling God’s “quickening” impulses in my heart.
• Resentment. Perhaps I’ve been holding a grudge or a prejudice or a hatred because of some wrong done to me. Get rid of it. Ask God for the grace to let go of it. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Resentment in the heart is too loud for us to hear God.
• Shame. There’s something in my life that makes me ashamed of myself. I feel there’s something in me that God hates me for, and I can’t bear to have that touched or exposed. That’s why I keep the TV on all the time. Stop hiding from God like Adam and Eve in the Garden. Let him see you. Warts and all. Confession is a healing balm for shame.
• Sometimes God can appear to be silent because He’s weaning us from our feelings. You see early on in our relationship with God there can be moments, wonderful moments of insight, or emotional consolation. God gives us these to encourage us on the path to a relationship with him. Not only do we “know about” God, but now we are “in Love” with him.

God can withdraw these consolations leaving us feeling alone, like he has forgotten us. Not so! It’s important to recognize this “silence of God” as a way of purifying our prayer. We can become attached to the warm feelings about God and our love for him . . . so much so that our hunger is for these feelings . . . not for God. This silence must be seen as a great step forward – an invitation to draw closer to him with purified hearts. The psalm captures this when it says, “like a weaned child on its mother’s breast, so my soul rests in you oh Lord.”

Whatever may be happening to make you feel as if God is not speaking to you, there is one sure way to proceed. Be patient, keep praying. God knows your need even before you ask – – trust this. THEN you will hear, in time, God’s word to you.

Summer blessings.

Fr. Tim

Just what does it mean to “worship”? To “adore”, to “glorify”?

We immediately think we know. It’s what we do in church. We offer our prayers to God. We are “down here” and God is “up there”, so we “send up” our prayers, songs and praises hoping that He hears us and somehow this makes Him happy.

That’s got part of what worship is about, but unless we go deeper we miss the amazing gift worship becomes for us. You see we were made to worship and adore. It is our highest activity as a creature. Our purpose as human beings is to praise and worship God. It’s as if the bird turns to the human and says “Look, you’re the creature God made to know him and love him. He only made us to fly. Would you mind telling God for all us birds how much we love flying?” We speak for all creation.

There can be some disconnect at this point. We can too soon associate this worship with the feeling that God, like a beauty queen, somehow needs our praise to feel better about Himself or to love us more because of our sweet words to Him. That’s NOT what’s happening when we worship.

First of all, worship is a matter of acknowledging what is true. The liturgy has us pray, “It is right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you glory.” In other words God is . . . God. The supreme and infinite and uncreated source of all that is. It is only right that we acknowledge that.

But, what comes next is almost as wonderful. Being in the act of worship we recognize our deepest potential as His creature. Again the Preface at mass says, “You have no need of our praise, but it is itself your gift to us. And makes us grow in holiness.”

Our reverent submission to the infinite knowledge of God opens the mystery of the created world. The countless galaxies, the sub-atomic universe, the human genome, the planet earth in the vacuum of space, reveal God’s effort-less brilliance and our privilege to share in a small part of that knowledge.

Our surrender to God’s moral law awakens within us our deepest beauty as participants in a life of love that is God’s very nature. Because of our union with Christ we become lovers as God Himself loves, and thereby we are united to the Divine.

Worship and adoration open us to the intentional beauty God has placed all around us: the vision of beauty that is the human being, the overwhelming power of a child’s smile, the glimpse of eternity that music can bring all have ultimate meaning because of God who is the source of all that is. Worship gives us the words “to give Him thanks”.

It was St. Ireneus who said, the “The Glory of God is Man fully alive.” In other words, when humans are living in a way that God has made us for (loving, surrendering to God’s way). We are giving Glory to God. This too is worship.

But, the Ireneus saying has a second part, “and Man fully alive is to see God.” This tells us of our final goal as human beings . . . to look on the face of God, to be filled with the Joy that is in the heart of Christ, and to see that joy in the faces of all who have loved in the course of their lives on earth.

In the end nothing satisfies the human heart but the Love of God. Till then we are restless until we rest in that unspeakable beauty.

Let’s go straight ahead.

Fr. Tim

I can’t imagine that Martha was anything but heartbroken and angry with Jesus when he showed up four days late to save her brother, Lazarus. She and her sister, Mary, had sent an urgent message for him to come; “Lord, your dear friend is sick.”

The two sisters were particularly close to Jesus (remember the dinner? Martha fumed away in the kitchen while Mary sat talking with Jesus.) They were themselves . . . no pious holy card figures. “Why weren’t you here, Jesus?! Our brother would never have died!”

And, what was the reason Jesus gave for his delay? “For your (the disciples) sake, I am glad I was not with him so that you will believe” (That Christ has power over sin and death). Jn, 11:15. What follows, of course, totally amazed everybody; Lazarus comes back to life.

So, what’s the point for you and me? Well, unless you are like Jesus and can raise dead people back to life, you’d better be there. What’s the line from the movie, Annie Hall? 80% of life is just showing up. Not being there to win everyone’s attention, not to do anything special, JUST BE THERE.

We don’t believe that about ourselves, do we? That we make a difference. Many times we think, “who am I that people would want me to be there? What will I say? What should I do?” They won’t care if I’m not there.

But, it’s not that way for people who love you. Your presence is a comfort to them. I remember my father’s face buried amongst hundreds of people in the stands as we faced our arch-rivals in basketball. It was such a comfort to know he was there . . . as we lost the game.

You see, you don’t need to say anything. You don’t need to be witty or profound or anything. Just be you and show up. Love will do the rest.

Show up for:

• Dinner with the family
• Dance recitals/games/birthdays
• Bed time/prayer time for the children
• Parish picnics/movie nights/walks with a friend
• Work/work/work/
• Mass/mass/mass!

Why show up? Because we’re less when you aren’t there. And you don’t know how many people are missing you.

See you in church. I hope.

Blessings to you.
Fr. Tim

There are many answers to this question. A couple simple ones come to mind:

–It’s a place that has a church building and a parking lot.
–It’s where I go to mass on Sunday.
–It’s where you belong, so when the time comes, you can get married or buried.

Canon Law (rules for church governance) says a parish is a geographical area in which baptized Catholics reside and are offered spiritual aid (religious education and the sacraments).

But, this description is rather dry and formal. What is your description? . . . not just any parish, but your parish . . . what describes the parish you want to belong to? Here’s mine.

I want my parish to be:

• Where I am reminded that god is with me.
• A place where I can find peace in times of trouble.
• A people who try to do what Christ did.
• A place where I am welcomed just as I am.
• A place where I can learn and grow in my faith.
• A people who are humble and quick to know where we need to do better.
• A people who welcome and learn from the “newcomer”.
• Where I experience God in the liturgy.
• Where I see and hear about opportunities to help others.
• Where I can learn from others how to help people in need.
• Where I can get help in raising my children in the faith.
• Where our children learn about Christ in a formative and compelling way.
• Where my faith finds practical and creative ways to aid the complex problems of the world.
• Where I can grow in my faith and knowledge of God.
• Where my marriage is made stronger.
• Where I can learn how to pray.
• Where I meet fun, happy, kind and gentle people.
• Where hope is renewed.
• Where I am continually invited and connected to effective social ministry.
• Where I learn how to bring Christ to others . . .

I could list about 50 more, but it would only bore you. Anyway these are my hopes for this parish . . . Holy Trinity. We are not perfect by any means . . . but we’re trying.

I hope you find something of interest in the weekly bulletin/web site. Won’t you join us in trying to make a difference in this world for Jesus Christ?

If you are new to the parish and feel as if none of the things I’ve listed above have happened to you – – – call me. Or write to me . . fhoran@dor.org. Tell me how you’ve found things so far at Holy Trinity. I, or someone on the staff, will be in touch with you (if you wish) to further the conversation.

In the meantime . . . God bless your week.

Fr. Tim