Do you want a cookie? How about the Eucharist?

A couple of days ago I went to the Edge group at my parish. Since I am away at school, this was the first time I was able to attend an Edge Night. This night they just just had a small Christmas Party. We watched a movie and then they were allowed to play games. The thing that I chuckled about was how they reacted when they were told that they can decorate Christmas cookies. They reacted the way I expected. 

Many of them rushed over to the table and picked out their two cookies that they could decorate. They preceded to open up the icing and dumped tons of icing on their cookies as if they thought that there could never be enough sugar.  Once they were satisfied with the amount of icing on their cookies, they took sugar sprinkles and did everything but sprinkle them on their cookies - it was actually more like pouring them on top of their already overloaded cookies. I loved seeing the excitement and passion in their eyes as they decorated their cookies just as they wanted. They made it their own. When they ate them they no longer were generic sugar cookies that were all alike, but ones that were individual. 

I began reflecting on how they were so excited to decorate their own cookies and how they flocked to the table to do it. My question became, why don’t we as Christians become so excited and impassioned with love when we have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist? Why are we not flocking to Mass every Sunday, or heaven forbid on weekdays as well? 

Joseph's Dream

This upcoming Sunday's Gospel reading is from Matt 1:18-24 - Joseph's Dream. It can be found here. Please read the Gospel reading before reading the rest of this post.

It has been Advent for the last 2 weeks. I am not sure about you, but it hasn't completely felt like Advent for me, and that is not because their isn't any snow on the ground. It is because I haven't put forth the effort to really bring Christ into my life this season. This is a sad reality as we all are supposed to be preparing our hearts to receive the Christ-child very soon. What an awesome gift that has been given to us, but rarely do we take the time to realize the immensity of this gift.

While I was thinking about what I should write for this post, I read this upcoming Sunday's Gospel. The Gospel reading is about the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream. I am sure many of us get distracted by everything else that goes on during the "Christmas Season," but I know with myself, whenever I think of Advent I usually think of Mary and Jesus. Does Joseph even come to our minds, when the words Advent and Christmas are mentioned? Many times St. Joseph is forgotten about. I suppose that is due to the high emphasis of a devotion to Mary in the Church today. We must not forget about St. Joseph and what he has done.

"The Our Father" - Just another Catholic Prayer?

This Sunday is the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the Gospel reading is Luke 11:1-13, which is when Jesus teaches his disciples "The Our Father." 

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed by your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do no subject us to the final test." 

Obviously the prayer that we pray today has slightly different wording and is longer, but the skeleton is still the same. There are seven petitions in the prayer and it is the same seven that we pray today. My point of this post is to help you see that "The Our Father" isn't just another prayer. All prayer is so important, but this prayer takes preeminence. There are many reasons why we hold "The Our Father" in such high esteem and if you would like to read about it and how to pray it please visit the Catechism starting on paragraph 2759.

"The Lord's Prayer 'is truly the summary of the whole gospel'" (CCC 2761). Wow, that is quite the statement and if we actually think about it, it does make sense. St. Augustine says that all the prayers in the rest of Scripture are summed up in the Lord's Prayer. It is Christ who gave us this prayer and in Christ all is fulfilled. Why then do we become so blah when we say it, whether it is at Mass or in other prayers? We stop praying and start reciting. Why?

Welcome In Your Advocate

"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth... I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:15-18). This is awesome! Many times we think of Scripture as just being repetitive and boring; it can never be repetitive or boring - it is alive! We have heard many times that God sent his Sprit after Christ ascended into Heaven, but do we just accept it and move on with our lives or do we give pause and realize the profound effect that it has on our own life?

Am I Living a Worthy Life?

A week ago I heard Bob Lesnefsky give a talk about living a worthy life. He has been faced with the question of living his life for Christ, but he also asked us to look at ourselves and decide if we are living a worthy life. Looking at my life right now, can I say that I am living a Christian life? Is my life worthy of being called Christian? For me this is not an easy question to answer. Heck, I would love to say "yes," but truly looking at the nitty gritty parts of my life, can I say that I am being a true disciple of Christ?

How bold can you go?

I am not posting this video as a props to the person in the video, but am giving props to Christ. It is only through Christ that we are this bold with our faith. If Christ dwells within you and the power of the Holy Spirit is in control of your life and your love for Chris is on fire, there is no way to contain who we believe in.

I know not all of us will go out singing at the top of our lungs on the street, but we need to be more bold for Christ. He is the only Way, the Truth and the Life. What is holding us back from proclaiming Christ or even living out our faith in public? Our faith is not our own, we cannot be so selfish to just keep it for ourselves and think that others will eventually find their way to our Lord and Saviour. You might be the only person that day that has the possibility to show Christ to a stranger or a friend. Why should you let that opportunity pass you by? Christ wants every person on this earth to know and have an intimate relationship with him. Who are we to stand in his way? We are his hands and his feet. We are "Christ" to those we meet and talk to on a daily basis.

Let us reflect on how bold we are and how bold Christ is calling us. May our prayer be to make us more bold or if that is too strong of a prayer, then pray that the Spirit may give you a willingness to even consider being bold in your faith. Christ is calling you to greatness, are you willing to accept this humbling greatness in Christ.

Sacrifice - Give everything, the reward is great

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in morethan all the other contributors to the treasury.For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth,but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had,her whole livelihood.” Mark 12:42-44

Who are we to hold anything back from our Lord. Jesus held nothing back on the cross, when he died for our sins. If we love the Lord then we will strive to give our whole lives to Christ. To sacrifice everything for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us contemplate today how much we actually give to Christ and if adjustments need to be made let us not fear, for the strength of Christ is with us.

Wait! Which team am I playing for again?

I remember when I used to play basketball, back in middle school, which now feels like a long time ago. I hate to admit it, but i actually stunk really bad at basketball. I was always put into the game because every player got a chance to play. I remember one game, and I ended up rebounding the ball, which never happened, and because of my excitement I ended up forgetting that I had to run down the court in order to shoot the ball and get a point, so instead I shot it towards the other teams basket. As soon as I shot it I realized what I had done. Thankfully, I had a terrible shot so the ball didn't make it into the basket. Although no harm was done, I felt so embarrassed. The story is funny to me now, but back then it was devastating, but I did learn something very important that night: stay focused and think about what I am doing instead of acting on impulse.

I find that I can do the very same thing in my faith life that I did that night at the basketball game. When it comes to a life of faith, there is much more that comes with winning or losing compared to basketball where the only thing gained or lost is a trophy. We are dealing with good and evil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, and God and the evil one.

Reconciliation - The Sacrament of Forgiveness and Grace

I know that I haven't written a new post in quite a few months and I wish I could have kept up better with the posts but college has kept me quite busy. This current post is actually a paper I had to write about the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I am not posting this to show off my work, but feel that this Catechesis paper can be useful as many people don't have a solid idea Reconciliation. This paper is a 6 pages long, but is divided into sections, so if you don't want to read the whole thing, but a section jumps out, please read it (Note: it is meant to flow as a paper, so I do suggest that it be read from beginning to end). I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions or thoughts please comment or send an email.

"Catechesis on the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation"

“Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, ‘The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ and exercises this divine power: ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name” (Mk 2:5, 10; Lk 7:48; CCC 1441). Through God’s mercy, the sacrament of Penance allows all the faithful who have been baptized to be forgiven and healed of their sins. It also reconciles each person with the Church, who has been wounded by each sin (CCC 1422).  The sacrament is a great blessing to the Church, as it is only by the sacrament that one can become washed clean of his offenses, and continue the path of conversion and life in Christ.