Month: December 2018

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05 Friends of Los Ninos

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Hello! I’d like to thank you for listening to this new podcast. Today I’d like to share with you a special request.

As many of you know, Katrina and I have been volunteering in Honduras for almost 15 years Over the years, many of our family and friends have traveled with us on mission trips. We couldn’t do this work without the love, prayers and financial support of many people. This Holiday season, I’d like to ask you to consider making a special one-time gift to support our ministry in Honduras and to help us make up a $4,500 shortfall.

Why do we help?

I want to share a story with you – a story that’s haunted me since the first time I heard Sr. Teresita Gonzalez tell this story. Sr. Teresita is a School Sister of Notre Dame. She founded an organization called COPPROME and a very special orphanage. Their philosophy is to try to break the cycle of poverty through education.
One day the police came upon a shot up car on the backroads. As they investigated, they found the dead bodies of a man and a woman. Clearly it was a drug deal gone bad, but they also found a young boy who was still alive. He’d apparently spent the night with the bodies of his dead parents.

The police brought the child to the orphanage at COPPROME. Sr. Teresita asked him if he’d like to go to the boys’ dormitory to pick out a bed and he said, “No! Today is my birthday and my dad is coming for me and with a big cake.” Later in the day, it was clear the little boy was getting tired, so Sr. Teresita asked him if he wanted to take a nap in one of the beds in the boys’ dormitory. He said, “No! Today is my birthday and my dad is coming for me with a big cake.”

After dinner his eyes got really big and as he stared out in the distance, he told Sr. Teresita, “My dad isn’t coming for me, is he?”

Sometimes there are just no words! Can we save everyone? No. But we can help to provide these children with a safe place to live, food to eat, a staff to love them, and an education. We never want any of our children to hear, “There’s no room at the inn.”
Unfortunately, our donations will fall about $4,500 short this year. Won’t you help us by making a special one-time gift. Head over to www.friendsoflosninos.org, the link will be in the notes for this podcast. Once you’re there, click on “Help A Child” and then scroll down to “Make A One-Time Donation” and you’ll be able make safe online donation using PayPal.

I’d like to thank you for your prayers and your support! Here’s how to make a donation:

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04 Second Sunday of Advent

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Mass Readings

Second Sunday of Advent 
Reading 1 – Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm – Psalm 126: 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Reading 2 – Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Gospel – Luke 3:1-6

In today’s Gospel, Luke 3:1-6, we hear about John the Baptist. The reading tells us that he is the voice crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord…”

Why does God send John the Baptist ahead of Jesus?

Well, I think it ties well to what we discussed in last week’s episode, where sometimes Jesus is knocking on our door, but for whatever reason we don’t respond. So Jesus will try to come to us through other people. That helps me understand why John the Baptist was necessary then and why he so important to us today.

Who was John preaching to? Well, he wasn’t just talking to the establishment Jews who tolerated the Roman authorities and were tolerated by the Roman authorities. He was also speaking to the everyday person, people who were perhaps caught up in their own lives, going about their everyday routine. But he also preached to people who were caught up in their pious devotions. You know, sometimes it’s easy to get lost in pious devotion that we forget why we are praying. So John the Baptist was trying to get through to people by saying it’s God we’re supposed to be worshipping and it’s the Messiah we’re waiting for.

That’s a similar trap that I think many Christians fall into. I have experienced people so immersed in a particular devotion, but who clearly aren’t convicted as disciples of Jesus. Maybe you know the type. Perhaps that person is a real grouch or just plain mean or totally focused on themselves. In other words, there is no real transformation in their lives. Pious devotion isn’t about loading up your holy roller disco card. No, it’s about deepening your relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s about making a connection; having an encounter with Jesus, and that encounter should change the way we live our lives. If I’m not changing or growing in discipleship through pious devotions, then perhaps my acts of piety are a distraction. Maybe the voice calling out in the desert is trying to remind us that my piety should be oriented to Jesus – that it is Jesus who saves.

For others, perhaps it’s not piety that distracts us, but the busyness of our lives. What do I mean? Well, certainly, we can get caught up in our everyday lives and in the world around us. We wake up in the morning, and it’s all go, go, go, go! Then at the end of the day, we sit down and think, “Where did the day go?” Perhaps the voice crying out in the desert is trying to say slow down and appreciate the gifts God has given us. You can find Him in nature all around us; in the people we see every day; and in our friends and family. Maybe the voice calling out in the desert is trying to remind us that the rat race can’t save us. Only Jesus saves.

Perhaps others get too caught up in the world they build for themselves. Society tells us that we are kings of our own castles. Being a king means I should ask, “what’s in it for me?”

This is a great challenge especially for Christians living in the United States. For example, someone might say, as people have said to me, “Well, the tax law has changed, so I’m not getting the same tax benefit for my donation. I will not be able to give money to support your ministry helping orphans in Honduras through Friends of Los Niños.” Or they try to justify themselves and say, “I’m really upset about the scandal rocking the Church today so I’m not going to give to my parish and I’m not going to give to the diocesan capital campaign.” But our Christian faith tells us we are not supposed to be kings dripping with wealth, but stewards. We’re supposed to take care of our gifts and wealth for the building up of God’s kingdom, not to own wealth for our exclusive benefit.

Perhaps the voice crying out in the desert is saying don’t get so caught up in the world, don’t stubbornly try to control the world around you. My 401k, my bank account, my stock portfolio can’t save. Only Jesus saves.

Homework: Nourished by the Eucharist and by the Word of God proclaimed, ask yourself:

  1. How attached am I to my possessions? Am I too quick to make excuses why I can’t make a donation to charitable causes this year?
  2. Is my faith the best kept secret, a private devotion, or am I willing to share my faith with others?

I think by doing our homework this Advent season, we might be better able to hear the voice crying out in the wilderness and recognize the opportunity to have an encounter with Jesus Christ, an encounter that leads to transformation, transformation that leads to salvation.

Ok, does everyone understand the homework? So, are you going to do your homework? Well, good! For a copy of today’s reflection, head over to our website, https://www.deaconrudysnotes.org/. May each of us this Advent season come to know the grace and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen

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03 Immaculate Conception of Mary

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Mass Readings
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Reading 1 – Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Psalm – Psalm 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4
Reading 2 – Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12  
Gospel – Luke 1:26-38

Mary remains one of the most controversial figures in the Christian world today. Sadly, she is a source of division within the greater Christian community. So before we get rolling, let’s clear up a few of things. First, today we celebrate Mary’s conception, not Jesus’. This confuses people often as we celebrate the Immaculate Conception so close to Christmas. Second, we venerate, we honor, but we never worship Mary. Honoring Mary is part of the Christian tradition. Mary was honored from the earliest accounts. Perhaps as early as within 200 years of Jesus dying do we find writings referring to Mary as Theotokos or Mother of God. Now if people are writing about Mary this way in the first two years, that means people were probably referring to her as “Mother of God” well before that. The Orthodox tradition in its liturgy honors Mary. Even Martin Luther acknowledged Mary as a Mother of God, and so too then does the Lutheran World Federation. Without using too broad a brush, this practice of honoring Mary is not specifically Catholic.

Alright, now that we cleared that up, let’s jump in to today’s Gospel, Luke 1:26-38. The angel Gabriel was sent to Mary and he says to her, “Hail, full of grace!” What does that mean?

One way to look at grace according the theologian Fr. Michael Himes of Boston College is that it’s God’s love outside the Trinity. Now this is a very helpful definition in reflecting on today’s Gospel. You see, Original Sin disrupts our relationship with God in a fundamental way. So, the tradition holds, that God needed to prepare Mary for her mission if she was willing to accept God’s plan for her life. So at the point of her conception, God freed her from the stain of Original Sin. This meant that rather than be disoriented away from God, she was able to fully receive God’s grace or God’s love. Being filled with God’s love meant that she was able to receive Jesus and bring him into the world. Jesus then is the love of God that fills Mary.
Now this did not make Mary supernatural or superhuman. Rather, Mary is able to love in the most human way possible – without any perceived ideas and without any conditions. Her love without the stain of Original Sin is fully human.

Gabriel goes on to tell her, “Do not be afraid, Mary…” Ok, let’s stop here for a minute.
So, who is Mary? Well, given the culture at the time, she was probably a teenager, perhaps an older teen, and she was betrothed to an older man named Joseph. So this angel appears to her. Scripture doesn’t give us a lot of detail here. Perhaps the angel came in all the splendor and glory of the kingdom of God, glowing and shining and radiant. Or maybe the angel came in the form of a human dressed in ordinary clothes. We just don’t know, but either way I have to wonder what my reaction would have been as a teenager if an angel had appeared to me and said God needs you for a mission. To be honest, I think I would have freaked out!

But Mary didn’t freak out. Instead she says in today’s Gospel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Ok, timeout. If Mary had been caught pregnant out of wedlock, if Joseph had handed her over, she probably would have been stoned to death, not to mention the shame and scandal that she would have brought on her family. Her life was on the line, but she says very bravely, “ok”, “according to His will, not mine”. Wow!

We honor Mary today because of her yes. She was the first disciple – the first person to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Did she keep quiet about it? No! She had to tell Joseph. She goes on to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. She can’t keep the Good News to herself. So the model, the image of Mary is not someone shrouded and bowed and quiet, but someone who courageously says, “YES”, and who goes out and faces a hostile world even under threat of death. Now that’s discipleship!

Homework: Nourished by the Eucharist and by the Word of God proclaimed, ask yourself:

  1. Am I willing to say yes to God, your will and not mine?
  2. Is my faith my best kept secret, or am I willing to share my faith with others?

I think by doing our homework this Advent season, we might be better able to re-energize our discipleship and go out into a world that desperately needs to hear a message of hope.

Ok, does everyone understand the homework? So, are you going to do your homework? Well, good! For a copy of today’s reflection, head over to the website, www.deaconrudysnotes.org. May each of us this Advent season come to know the grace and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen