Diary of a Parish Priest

So What Did Sebelius Say?

After all the furor over the ill-advised invitation by Georgetown University to Kathleen Sebelius to speak at the "non commencement event," and the predictable deaf ear turned toward it by the University administration, what did she say?

Well, pretty much work hard, work for the common good, keep your idealism, Carpe diem. She was pretty heavy on the Georgetown sports metaphors (the transcript of the speech I read doesn't transcribe whether there was any hooting or hollering when the teams were mentioned). Which ideals she meant for the graduates to hold onto wasn't clear, but strongly implied that elders don't have them anymore.

She used the word "Catholic" once in referring to John Kennedy's presidential campaign but did not identify herself as one. And she repeated the poorly understood phrase "separation of church and state" which has often been used in an attempt to silence public discussion about moral issues.  (Some critics have noted there was little to fear Catholicism would influence anything Kennedy did, public or private.)  

Some of then-Senator Kennedy’s opponents attacked him for his religion, suggesting that electing the first Catholic president would undermine the separation of church and state, a fundamental principle of our democracy. The furor grew so loud that Kennedy chose to deliver a speech about his beliefs just seven weeks before the election.

In that talk to Protestant ministers, Kennedy talked about his vision of religion and the public square, and said he believed in an America, and I quote, “where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials – and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against us all.”

Kennedy was elected president on November 8, 1960. And more than 50 years later, that conversation, about the intersection of our nation’s long tradition of religious freedom with policy decisions that affect the general public, continues.

 

Indeed it does. Except under Sebelius' watch, it's the federal regulations that are being imposed on Catholics. 

In support of the US Catholic bishops call for faithful Catholics to be heard, Holy Cross will have petitions available for parishioners to sign which call for the protection of religious liberty in the United States.

Father Manning's Homily For Respect Life on Jan 21, 2012

Tomorrow is the National Prayer Vigil for Life And the Annual March for Life in Washington And boy do we need them.

Last week, President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius determined that money from the school tuition you pay to Holy Cross And some of the collection monies on Sunday which subsidize our school, be used to provide health care coverage for our employees which includes medications, procedures and counseling that flaunts 2000 years of church tradition.

The Washington double‐speak‐filled‐directive which should anger every person who holds a single religious conviction, conceded that the ruling which forces Church employers to fund the immoral procedures, drugs and counsel would respect our religious sensitivities by giving us one year to comply with the ruling. Only one day before the unprecedented and anti‐Catholic ruling by Obama/Sebelius, listen to the truth proclaimed boldly by Pope Benedict to a group of US Bishops meeting with the pope in the Vatican:

"Many of you have pointed out that concerted efforts have been made to deny the right of conscientious objection on the part of Catholic individuals and institutions with regard to cooperation in intrinsically evil practices. …it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life."

Swear allegiance to the Roman emperor Or we will cut off your head! Well, at least, close your hospitals, schools and adoption agencies and force you to violate your religious convictions! 

I don’t usually like slogans, but if they make you think…here’s one: The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

Just a slight dip into murky waters of secular media should focus our attention and energize us:

Again and again, we see free speech and open debate stifled whenever the subject of modern marriage comes up in civic discourse. Deviations from the current politically correct definitions are hate speech. (Wisconsin student essay on traditional marriage)

Piers Morgan in an interview with Rick Santorum Responded to Santorum’s traditional Catholic views on marriage and sexuality with the retort: But your views border on bigotry, don’t you think?

The Santorum’s reverent treatment of their deceased newborn’s body many years ago was aubject of mockery by liberal pundits on the Internet and in print.

Google, Coca‐Cola, Apple, The Simpsons - have been around longer than these new secular dogmas on marriage and adoption we are expected to embrace lockstep.

American bigotry toward Catholicism isn’t new or gone. I'm reading Gotham: On The History of New York City From Its Very Beginnings. From the earliest days there were European settlers in North America, Catholics were denied the rights accorded others. On Pope Day, effigies of the Pope and Satan were burned and thrown into the river. Local modern history even until very recently shows the anti-Catholic bias: several local golf and beach clubs were founded primarily for Catholics, who could not easily gain entry into establishment groups. The Knights of Columbus offered Catholic family men life insurance which they could otherwise not obtain. Where was the largest KKK march in the US in 1924? ?  Long Branch. Recall that the KKK not only hates blacks, but Jews and Catholics as well.

The news isn’t all bad though: Last week the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the right of religious groups to set their own qualifications for ministry. A Lutheran church had dismissed one of its religion teachers and the Justice Department brought suit for her reinstatement under the ADA act, alleging discrimination because of disability. The supreme court reaffirmed the right of the church to hire its ministers as it sees fit. 

Archbishop Dolan, president of the USCCB, has criticized the Administration's insurance mandate and will be studying the church’s options.  Pray for Archbishop Dolan. We need bishops with fire in the belly on this issue. 

Let us stay informed: you contribute the donations and pay the tuition and I endorse the checks which would pay for this immoral insurance. Pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and read, read, read: American History, Church history, regional history, the church teachings on life issues and the moral reasoning behind these teachings, discuss the issues.

Write Congress, Sibelius, Obama. Write the reporters, editors, media outlets when their anti-Catholic bias shows. Then we should vote as if our faith depended on it!

Micro Homilies

The results of the other poll topic, a few micro-homilies I've given lately, are interesting as well.

When I took homiletics in seminary, 6-8 minutes was the time suggested for the Sunday homily and it still seems to be a typically recommended time for which to strive. That doesn't exclude longer or shorter homilies on occasion. It also doesn't mean that anyone who says to preach for 6-8 minutes takes their own advice!

One homily I heard 18 years ago stands out in my mind, here it is: 

  "What can one expect from a God who would crucify his own Son?"

That was it...all of it. It is surely a homily more apt for seminary than for the congregation at a typical parish, not because it is too short, but because I think it presupposes more than a little theological sophistication and risks leaving too many people without guidance for more reflection.

So keeping that in mind, here were two of mine:

On Divine Mercy Sunday        For those who seek God's mercy, there's good news: it's infinite.

                                           For those who think they need none, there may be none.

 

On the Road to Emmaus       Each time we put up the guest room,

                                          Each time we think we’ve got Jesus

                                          All figured out

                                          He disappears again.

                                          Always keep looking.  

Funny thing about these micro homilies: they're quicker to type out, but far more difficult to pray.

Warm Response to Bishop's Annual Appeal Video

 
Bishop O'Connell and Catholic Elementary School Students

 

Thank you for your warm response to the Bishop O'Connell's appeal to us through the video shown at all the masses today. In case you missed the message you can click here, or watch on the Bishop's Annual Appeal website.

Bishop's Annual Appeal 2011 from Trenton Diocese on Vimeo.

 

The Lottery and the Archbishop

 

 
Spoiler alert: If you haven't read Shirley Johnson's short story The Lottery, you might want to do so before reading what Archbishop Chaput has to say about its modern interpretation.

It's both fascinating and alarming that Johnson's story fails to predictably raise much contemporary moral indignation. Whereas in previous decades, the creepy juxtaposition of an ancient rite of human sacrifice with Americana New England in the 1940's brought swift condemnation of the practice, its almost too hard to believe that in university settings these days the story meets with a yawn and a "who are we to condemn the villagers of this story?"

Archbishop Chaput of Denver, insists that this change has not come about because the younger generation is cowardly, but because they have lost their moral vocabulary. "Our culture is doing catechesis every day. It works like water dripping on a stone, eroding people’s moral and religious sensibilities, and leaving a hole where their convictions used to be.”

And then this gem:   

“Instead of changing the culture around us, we Christians have allowed ourselves to be changed by the culture. We’ve compromised too cheaply. We’ve hungered after assimilating and fitting in. And in the process, we’ve been bleached out and absorbed by the culture we were sent to make holy.”

“We need to confess that, and we need to fix it,” he asserted. “For too many of us, Christianity is not a filial relationship with the living God, but a habit and an inheritance. We’ve become tepid in our beliefs and naive about the world. We’ve lost our evangelical zeal. And we’ve failed in passing on our faith to the next generation."

 

We've been determined to change that at Holy Cross, emhasizing weekly mass attendance and developing strong catechetical programs not only in our school, but in our Religious Education Program. Each year more and more of our teachers become trained, not only to manage their classroom effectively, but updated on the central truths of our faith.

 

You Can't Take It With You...

A commentary on this week's Scripture passages remarked that "an old wag once remarked that he had never seen a hearse pulling a U-haul." I can't remember ever hearing that phrase and so I set out, both to create a visual for it and to discover the identity of the "old wag."

I never discovered its origin, but I did discover that there are songs, You tube videos and a book which all somehow refer to the idea. Anyway, my cartoon delivers the message too.

A notice that the Catholic Bishop's Conference in Australia has had to ban secular songs at funerals crossed my desk a few weeks ago. As I mentioned to some of you, "My Way" is an oft requested song for some inexplicable reason at Christian funerals. Who would have guessed there is a storage pod company by the same name, which also inspired a visual:

 

While we all might admit that we can't take our earthly possessions with us, we don't always live that way. Too often an avaricious grasp on our wealth and an all consuming drive to possess more pervades our daily routine and can even interfere with our enjoyment of what we have.

Let us cultivate a healthy detachment for earthly wealth, while at the same time enjoying it and sharing it freely, especially with those outside our gates.

 

 

Dress Down Stones and Boat Tickets: A Case of the Enterprising Steward?

Two allegedly true stories which form a bookend to today's parable of the dishonest steward:

Last year some enterprising 8th graders noticed that the "dress down stones" used as legal tender in our school to enable its bearer to dress casually for school that day instead of in uniform, could be bought at local vendors. Typically the stones would be earned by a donation by the parents to the school or for some meritorious act. But when student partygoers needed dress down stones to dress casually for an after school party, "counterfeit" stones were pressed into service and supplied with the party invitations.

Four men were arrested in early September for selling fake boarding tickets for the SeaStreak commuter ferry. The company which printed the ferry's legitimate tickets allegedly marketed extra tickets through third parties who sold them to commuters who bought them (wittingly or unwittingly) at reduced prices. Estimates placed the corporate loss at $ 600,000.

Would Jesus consider either of these groups to be enterprising stewards? We'd be hard pressed to suggest that Jesus condones or encourages their dishonesty, but he would surely point out their ingenuity and encourage his own followers to be equally creative in doing good.

So many times we are paralyzed by feelings that nothing can be done, what's the use, the usual ways aren't working. We should whine less and creatively try more fruitful ideas for helping to build God's Kingdom.

St. Charles Lwanga and Companions - Martyrs

St Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

 Take time to read about Charles Lwanga and companions martyred by King Mwanga of what is now Uganda. Lwanga and 21 other catechumens, catechists and converts to Catholicism were caught in a socio-political crossfire of colonial powers and African tribal rivalries in the late 1800's. The first martyr was an Anglican bishop, but Lwanga and other young mens' martyrdom soon followed, both for their refusal to abandon their Christian faith and according to many sources, the young king's sexual advances.

That's Hypostatic Not Hybrid

Today's Lectionary Readings

 Throughout history it's been a challenge to hold a correct view of Jesus Christ, God and man and we don't always get the balance right. Two opposing heresies attract follower down through the ages: on the one hand to believe that Jesus was truly God, but only seemed truly human - a kind of invulnerable super-hero; its opposite, that Jesus was truly human but somehow not equal to God, perhaps a kind of super-saint or human being who got a divine promotion. Jesus was truly God and truly man, not an admixture of the two, not one nature overshadowing the other.

Today's gospel from Mark shows Jesus hungry, apparently annoyed at the fig tree and angry at the money changers in the temple - all very human traits which challenge any view that these human characteristics were alien to Jesus. Of course it can be said that Jesus only seemed to be hungry, etc. and that enables those who cling to this view to dismiss any human portrayal of Jesus in the gospels as stagecraft.

Having just heard the Gospel of John throughout the Pentecost season in which Jesus' divine nature is emphasized, Mark's unabashed insight into Jesus' human nature feels jarring.

Jesus, my brother, Jesus my God.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury

 Several years ago in preparing my morning's homily, I confused St. Augustine of Canterbuy with St. Augustine of Hippo and was all set to preach about the famous "our hearts are restless until they rest in thee" Augustine. I feel only slightly better to learn that early church historians made the same mistake!

St. Augustine of Canterbury, however, is a good saint to know about. A friend of Pope St. Gregory the Great, he was sent to convert an Anglo-Saxon king (who had married a Christian, thus giving some hope of success.) Tales of the ferocity of the Celts and Saxons reached Augustine and he thought better about going to Britain without better preparation. Gregory the Great eventually persuaded him to continue his journey and he did succeed in converting the king along with many of his subjects. His mission to Britain was a mixture of successes and failures, however.

How many times we set a goal and retreat from it because we find it too difficult, or refrain from setting one in the first place. How often we are tempted to consider results rather than faithfulness the measure of our service.

May we all have St. Augustine's perseverance and persuasive friends like Gregory the Great.

St. Philip Neri, Apostle of Rome

St. Philip Neri founded a society of diocesan priests who lived together, prayed together and took at least some meals together, but  whose work consisted of apostolic works in and around Rome. They took no vows of poverty, in fact, had to chip in for their room and board; the leadership model for the oratory sounds much like the servant/leader model written about today. Unlike the monasteries, which were enclosed, an oratory served as a nucleus or a kind of home base from which to go out and change the world.

There are many stories about Philip, including an early biography which describe his affable personality, love of humor, apostolic zeal and diplomacy. One day, a visitor brought along his dog and the dog refused to leave Philip's side, becoming his life-long companion. Philip used to take his dog for walks back in the day when leading a dog on a leash was considered a humiliating experience - recall the unflattering images of dogs in Scripture. Philip apparently asked the high and mighty to help him walk his dog as both a physical and spiritual exercise. I'll never look at my pooper-scooper in quite the same way again!

The Invisible Gorilla and the Holy Spirit

Perhaps you've seen the YouTube video of the experiment: two groups of college students, about three per team assemble in a hallway. One team in white shirts, the other in black. During a one minute video, they pass the basketball back and forth within a few feet of each other. Observers are asked to count how many times the players in white shirts pass the ball and ignore other passes. About 30 seconds into the video, another student dressed in a full-body gorilla costume, strides into frame, faces the camera, pounds her chest and leaves - about a 9 second walk-on cameo. The observers are asked to report the number of passes they counted and then asked, "What did you think about the gorilla?" Fifty percent of all observers reply, "What gorilla?" A newly published book by the researchers who conducted this experiment, "the invisible gorilla" looks interesting, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

The power of the Holy Spirit was dramatically manifested on Pentecost and described as a driving wind, tongues of fire, miraculous speaking in tongues and transformation of the apostles into bold evangelists. We may surely experience such powerful manifestations of the Spirit in our lives, but the urgings of the Holy Spirit are just as often described as whispers, breezes, intuitions, subtle signs. If we keep distracted and busy every waking moment, how in the world will we be able to discern the Holy Spirit in our lives when we all have a good chance of missing a full grown gorilla?

Prayer, contemplation and silence sensitize us to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, even small amounts of it each day. 

A wonderful one-act play of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters has returned to off Broadway at the Westside Theatre. A senior devil is tutoring a junior devil on how to tempt a human "patient" to whom he has been assigned. In one of the monologues, the devil discloses how dangerous music and silence are to their diabolical cause and that neither are permitted in hell. Noise, noise, noise!! Screwtape Letters Off-Broadway

Max McClean and Karen Eleanor Wight in C.S. Lewis'  "Screwtape Letters" 

Without prayer, contemplation and silence we're as likely to miss the Holy Spirit as we are to overlook a chest-thumping gorilla.

Aren't Funerals About Eternal Life Anymore?

 Last year Dr. Thomas Long, Professor of Preaching at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, published an interesting book Accompany Them With Singing - The Christian Funeral. In this modern study of Christian funeral rites, he laments the loss of the other worldly and transcendent at funerals and the all too common emphasis on the earthly life of the deceased instead. 

It's said that baby-boomers are not using traditional funeral rites to bury their parents and even sometimes ignoring their parents' wishes for a church funeral. The convenience and perhaps lesser expense of a service at the funeral home seems to make more sense to many of the survivors, especially since many of them no longer attend church regularly. Besides, since funeral directors will do just about anything you pay them to do, there are not likely to be many restrictions on the family's funeral requests.

The majority of those seeking a Catholic funeral are sincere and devout. Some others, however, stand out. There is the group that seems agnostic about whether heaven exists. The funeral is primarily a celebration of the deceased's earthly accomplishments. Even well meaning families have fallen into the trap; you've seen the Worship Aids - "A Celebration of the Life of ..." You'll hear that the deceased lives on through the descendants s/he left behind and in their memories and the stories they will tell. No one should be sad, because the deceased doesn't want us to be. There is usually no mention of faith, religion, God or the Catholic church in the often obligatory eulogy at these funerals. In fact, the admission that "Joe wasn't a church-goer, but a good person" is a pretty common refrain. Coming together as a group is an opportunity to pay tribute to the deceased, not necessarily to share the Eucharist. Nature scenes and secular poetry are often featured on the memorial cards. The animistic poem "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" is a favorite. It ends not with death and the promise of resurrection but the odd assertion that "I did not die." Catholic clergy have read this poem and/or allowed it at funerals!  (One of the prayers in the Catholic committal service reminds us that even Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, his friend and asks Jesus to comfort us in our grief.)

Another group is pretty sure heaven exists, and certain that the deceased is already there. They're sometimes engaged in their favorite earthly pastime, often cooking, gardening or golfing, or helping God organize heaven. Sometimes God appears to have called the deceased home to heaven because God needed them. Anyone who ever mentions "purgatory" is under suspicion, but it is especially incorrect to even whisper it at funerals. The longstanding practice of having masses said for the soul's release from purgatory appears to have morphed into an opportunity to have their name published in the bulletin, announced at mass or keep their memory alive on earth.

In many cases, the least churched generation in history is demanding (and sometimes being given) the most control ever of the Church's funeral rites, sometimes by the very generation of church leaders who failed so miserably to catechize them in the 70's and 80's.  Everyone wants a funeral like the Kennedy's or Sonny Bono's or Princess Diana's. That usually means at least several speakers, lots of patriotic and secular music and plenty of flowers. Worship aids, originally designed to help the mourners follow the liturgy, now are packed with photos, and farewells to the deceased. Personalization in each and every detail of the funeral is the order of the day. Sociologists tell us this is a particular characteristic of the boomer generation.

A Catholic funeral properly celebrated and with appropriate family participation is infinitely more consoling than any number of speeches or songs could be. Even those not expecting grace often receive it. A funeral liturgy is a priceless opportunity to evangelize family and their friends and reintroduce them to the dignity and consoling beauty of a Catholic funeral. Nearly everyone listens intently during funeral homilies, especially for the kind of hope the world cannot give. Nearly all priests and ministers would truly miss praying at funerals. It's only when funerals are morphed by over-personalization into something only resembling a Catholic liturgy that they become a strain. The more secular they become, the less hope they can offer. The words of the liturgy are true: Almighty God, all our hope is in you.

Why exactly shouldn't a Catholic funeral mass have "Danny Boy," "When the Saints go Marching In," or a doleful broadway tune for a communion reflection? Good question, especially when we all know that wherever they're used, they're never challenged. What's the difference between a eulogy and Words of Remembrance? Another good question. We'll take up the Catholic Church's liturgical norms for funerals in subsequent posts.

Saint Paul: Truth or Tact?

Today's Lectionary Readings

 

It's impossible not to smile while reading today's Scripture as Paul successfully captilizes on the divided beliefs of his accusers and pits the Pharisees against the Saducees. He professed his belief in the existence of spirits, resurrection of the dead and an afterlife - the precise points on which these two groups disagreed. It caused division allright, an uproar so serious Paul had to be rescued by the military.

His testimony didn't gain Paul his freedom, but it wasn't a bad try. Of course, Paul would preach the truth whatever the consequences and that's one way he differs from many orators, preachers and politicians today. Being tactful doesn't necessarily exclude telling the truth, but today's political correctness and political double-speak seems specifically designed to either prevent the truth from coming to light or causing offense.

Let us pray for the courage to discern the truth and the courage and prudence to act on it. It would be a perfect prayer to offer on Pentecost.

 

Farewell But Not Forever

Today's Lectionary Readings

 

Two farewells are related in today's readings: Paul's departure from the Ephesians and Jesus' High Priestly Prayer anticipating his passion, death and resurrection. Both are poignant and sad. But it's reassuring to know that no Christian farewell, the little daily ones or the final one at our death, lasts forever.

The very best of Christian leave-taking allows room for the grief and sadness even while supported by faith in eternal life. The manner in which our funeral rites are celebrated seems to have struck a balance between the stark solemnity and judgement-fearing funerals of pre-Vatican II days and the celebratory, dutifully joyful funerals immediately following the Council. Now there is room for grief and mourning in a context of hope and faith. Tears and sadness are a true expression of the human condition and not necessarily a betrayal of our faith in eternal life; they are not out of place, they are perfectly in context.

As one of the Eucharist prayers for funerals affirms, "life is changed, not ended." Farewell, but not forever.

 

Magisterium in the Making

Today's Lectionary Readings

Today's first reading gives us an example of the working of the Church's teaching authority right from the beginning. Not sure whether Jewish dietary restrictions and circumcision ought to be required of new Christians, Peter and the apostles took counsel, prayed and issued a decision, sending it in writing to the Church at Antioch. The decision took into consideration the sensibilities of the people, but was guided ultimately by the Holy Spirit and not a plebiscite.

Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to continue guiding and inspiring the teaching office of the Church, so that the Church's teachings derive authentically from Christ himself.

 

 

Each Has A Journey But We Are All On A Mission

Today's Lectionary Readings

Today's readings continue the heroic efforts of the early disciples to spread the good news. While it is not a good idea to make too much of disagreements in the early church, it's no better to gloss them over, so let's look at the simple verse, "But John left them and returned to Jerusalem." Seems like a simple matter, but when he decides to rejoin Paul some time later, Paul is not pleased.  Paul took John's departure as AWOL and won't take him back, leading to a disagreement with Barnabas, who does take John Mark and leaves Paul.

 

Controversy swirled around them, but did not keep them from their mission. Personality differences became secondary to spreading the good news and establishing the early church.

 

Stop, sit, eat My Body, drink My Blood. Be at peace, at least for a moment.

 

 

Acts of the Apostles, Missionary Zeal and Modern Times

Today's Lectionary Readings

 It's exciting to read about the missionary activity of the early Church and the zeal of the disciples fired up with the Holy Spirit. 

Paul VI wrote an encyclical on the need for modern evangelization and in recent years we've heard much about the "New Evangelization" especially by John Paul II. 

Interestingly, Pope Benedict plans to form a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization to reinvigorate and in some places to reintroduce Catholicism in Europe and developed Western nations. Recall how the Catholic faith was first introduced to Ireland by missionaries where it thrived and then became the source of rekindling the faith in Europe. From where will the fire come this time?

Same place as before - The Holy Spirit.

Early Dissent in the Church and Peter's Intervention

Today's Lectionary Readings

 

Today we hear in Acts about the early disciples confronting Peter for not observing Jewish dietary practices and associating with Gentiles. Already a controversy arises about the very requirements for Christian discipleship. Jesus left no detailed instructions, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the early church, with the leadership of St. Peter was able to discern the path the church should take.

In any controversy which confronts us can be handled with prayer, penance and the guidance of the Holy Spirit: then and now.

 

 

Celebrate the Eucharist and Live

Today's Lectionary Readings

 Unless you eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood, you have no life within you, says Jesus. We have been hearing about Saul's persecution of the early Christian community in Acts of the Apostles and this morning's reading recounts his conversion experience from persecutor to proselytizer. The early Christians were being hunted down precisely because they recognized the importance of Jesus' life-giving invitation to gather and be nourished by his body and blood.  

Unless we gather to be nourished by His Body and Blood, we have no life, no real life, regardless of how accomplished or successful we are by the world's standards. Many of our young people are excited to be receiving their First Eucharist in several weeks. Wouldn't it be great if we never lost the excitement and enthusiasm we felt when we first responded to Jesus' invitation? We can pray for such a spiritual renewal as we experience the sacrament through a first communicant's eyes.

May the scales on our eyes that blind us from seeing our need and obligation for weekly worship fall away!