Reflection for the Solemnity of the Christian Family 2018

Lift up
family.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”

At the Third Holy Synod of the Polish National Catholic Church, held in Chicago in December 1914 the Synod delegates resolved that the Second Sunday of October be dedicated as the Solemnity of the Christian Family. This Solemnity was meant as an opportunity for the Church to pray for the consolidation and strengthening of families. On this day we pray for all families; that they be strengthened and blessed.

It is great to have an idea, but as is said, we have to get the rubber to hit the road. So, how do we get there; how do we get families strengthened, blessed, and consolidated.

If you looked at our parish sign on the way in, you’d have noticed it now says “Rise Up With Jesus & Lift Others Here.”

This is how we get the rubber to hit the road.

We start by not ignoring our motivation. God’s entire creative effort was spurred by a desire to expand and build relationship. Since God had and has this desire for relationship within Himself, and since He made us in His relational image (Let us…), so we too desire relationship. We are motivated by relationship.

Relationship, of course, cannot be realized in motivation alone. That’s just frustrating and unproductive. So we take steps. We build friendships; we enter into relationships at many levels. Some are very close, some are more casual, but none are unimportant.

So we are motivated and so we try. But, being human as we are, we occasionally loose sight of what we must do to take relationship to the next level.

To get to the next level we must stay on message, we must build deeper and more meaningful relationships.

Of course the best proving ground for living our motivation, staying true to God’s relational life, is in our families. That is where we most intently and proactively rise with Jesus and lift each other up. In the microcosm of family relationship we motivate, comfort, provide love that is beyond reason, discipline, and sacrifice.

Now, from that microcosm, we are to expand the best of what we learn and do, rising with Jesus, raising up others, right here: consolidating, strengthening, blessing.

Catholic and Questioning? Yes You Can

I am looking for a Catholic parish home.
I have serious questions and concerns.
I am a single parent.
I am divorced.
I have addictions.
I am not a typical catholic.

Can I attend Holy Mass in this parish?
YES YOU CAN!

Can I receive Holy Communion in this parish?
YES YOU CAN!

Can I be Catholic without being Roman Catholic?
YES YOU CAN!

Can our priests and bishops marry?
YES THEY CAN!

Can I receive valid sacraments?
YES YOU CAN!

Can I remarry in this parish?
YES YOU CAN!

Can I or my children be baptized in this parish?
YES YOU AND THEY CAN!

Can I be confirmed in this parish?
YES YOU CAN!

Can I ask questions and will I receive direct and honest answers?
YES YOU CAN!

Can I join you for Sunday Mass?
YES YOU CAN and YOU SHOULD!

Holy Name of Jesus professes the faith of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

We hold worship every Sunday at 9:30am and 11:30am.

When people think Catholic they may picture an old church, a city across the sea, rules and regulations, and formal worship… The Catholic Church is over 2,000 years old and is far more than that. It is faith that is universal and everlasting. It is faith expressed in many ways.

Many Churches refer to themselves as Catholic including the Orthodox, Oriental, Roman, and our National Catholic Church. Like all of these, the National Catholic Church is a Catholic Church. You will find that it helps you grow in your relationship with God, your community, and the wider world. We worship regularly and place special emphasis on proclaiming and teaching God’s Word as found in the Holy Bible. We are democratic in our organization. Every member has a voice and a vote in how the parish and the wider Church is run. We are fully accountable to our members.

We are here to be a home for you and yours.

Welcome!

Bible Study for the 27th Week in Ordinary Time 2018

This week’s memory verse: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. — Genesis 1:27

  • 10/7 – Galatians 3:28
  • 10/8 – Jeremiah 1:5
  • 10/9 – Genesis 1:31
  • 10/10 – Acts 10:34
  • 10/11 – John 1:14
  • 10/12 – 1 Corinthians 15:22
  • 10/13 – Acts 2:21

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may honor each person as bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

Reflection for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2018

Would you destroy
yourself?

So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”

God’s wisdom and His work are ineffable. Ineffable, per Webster and others means too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words. God’s wisdom reaches out to us throughout history and speaks to us again and again of His design, His meaning, and His warnings.

As we heard in the Gospels throughout the summer, those who were following Jesus were doing so for miracles and bread. They weren’t really FOLLOWING Jesus – living like Jesus, taking His words to heart and changing their hearts. In the end, most turned away and were not walking with Him anymore.

Over the past several weeks we read of distracted disciples unfocused on FOLLOWING Jesus – living like Jesus, taking His words to heart and changing their hearts. In the end, all but one went on to sacrifice their lives to spread the Gospel. They all lived Peter’s words: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

Certainly, Jesus followers stumble and fall. Certainly, Jesus followers struggle to live like Jesus, to integrate all He taught into their hearts and to express it in their lives in remarkably beautiful and sacrificial ways. Yet, they persist, get up, and try again.

Today, God is reminding us of a particular way we must live. It is a call to the kind of respect we are to have for each other. As the people of Jesus, as His FOLLOWERS, we need to view each and every person as bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

The recent drama around our nation’s latest Supreme Court nominee illustrates a failure of people to act in accord with God’s way. It is about how we treat each other. God’s creation speaks of a shared life – a commonality and dignity that belongs to each and every person. We are all bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

As we encounter people, we must remember that negative thoughts or actions toward them are nothing more than self-destruction. It is a break down of what God has built up. It is self-rejection.

Bible Study for the 26th Week in Ordinary Time 2018

This week’s memory verse: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. — 1 Corinthians 9:24

  • 9/30 – 2 Timothy 4:7
  • 10/1 – Jeremiah 29:11
  • 10/2 – Romans 15:4
  • 10/3 – Philippians 3:12-14
  • 10/4 – Luke 9:62
  • 10/5 – Galatians 6:9
  • 10/6 – Proverbs 16:3

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may learn from You in all seriousness and grow in determination to follow Your Gospel.

Reflection for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2018

Was He
serious?

Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us… Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

Throughout the Gospels we find Jesus struggling to turn His disciples’ thoughts from human worries to God’s way. The disciples weren’t getting it.

Peter thinks in personal and human ways about Jesus’ prediction of His suffering and death. He wants to stop it. The disciples, as explained last week, did not hear a word of Jesus’ teaching, but rather fought about who was the greatest. Today, John addresses Jesus as “teacher” and immediately demonstrates that he has not heard or integrated a word of Jesus’ teaching. John is exhibiting serious jealousy and a lack of welcome to those who would follow Jesus.

Jesus now cranks up the extreme. He’s trying to get His disciples to have, as some call it today, a ‘Come to Jesus moment.’ He’s being really blunt, trying to break through the disciples closed ears and obstinate ways. If you want to follow me – open your hearts, welcome the poor and the small, protect them, and be prepared to lay everything on the line. Don’t let My word go in one ear and out the next – let them sink in and make it real. Live my Gospel.

Living Jesus’ Gospel is not easy. It is challenging even in the best of circumstances. The people of the Church are supposed to be on the same page – inviting, welcoming, working together – but we know frustrations grow and we go astray. We get perturbed when patient love is most needed. We try to layer our justifications for the why of our personal shortcomings over the truth of the Gospel message.

Jesus calls us to hard and serious discipleship and evangelization. It shall not be one church over the next, but one Church. Work together in my name! Protect and cherish the young – the very young, teens, and young adults – because they need guidance and faithful examples. You harm them – you’re as good as dead. You’re thinking about evil, sin, harm – destroy yourself before you take the first step down that path. Yes, Jesus is serious, and He is driving home His warning in very vivid ways. This, now, is a come to Jesus moment. Seriously!

Bible Study for the 25th Week in Ordinary Time 2018

This week’s memory verse: For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. — Romans 6:14

  • 9/23 – Ephesians 2:8-9
  • 9/24 – Romans 10:9
  • 9/25 – Ephesians 2:8
  • 9/26 – Acts 16:30-33
  • 9/27 – Psalm 37:39
  • 9/28 – Titus 3:5
  • 9/29 – Mark 16:16

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, You have freed me, by faith, from the fire of sin and death. Help me, each day, to receive You anew in complete freedom.

Reflection for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2018

Getting out of
the fire.

Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

As I was listening to the radio the other day, the song: ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ by Billy Joel came on. Throughout the song he provides a retrospective on the past seventy-eight years. That story is retold in the hearing of names and events that range from Nazis to modern terrorism. He explains that the bad (mostly) has been with us since the world began. The song sets a somewhat hopeless perspective on the state of the world. We didn’t start the fire, but it was always like this. It will still be like this after we are gone. We tried to fight against it, but lost because nothing will change. The flood of people and events leaves the singer crying out – I can’t take it anymore.

As we walk through our readings we get the same sort of narrative. Wisdom foretells the way the Son of God would be treated in the fire of evil. Let’s attack Him, He is obnoxious, He shows the world our horrible truth, our hypocrisy. Let’s deliver Him to His enemies. Let them mock and torture Him. Mockingly they say – Let’s see what He will do. Let’s see if God defends Him. The writer of Wisdom was not making this up out of whole cloth. He knew what people, particularly powerful people, were like – the hypocrisy, arrogance – the fire of evil they burned with.

Similarly James was pointing out how the people of earliest Church – his was probably the first letter written – were already at each other’s throats. They had the evil fires of jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder, foul practice, wars, conflicts, and covetousness. They had already lost sight of Jesus.

Jesus is explaining what will happen to Him in the fire of worldly evil as He and His disciples walk along. They paid no attention; they were fighting over which one of them was the best, the greatest, the most important. They were in the midst of the fire of evil ambition.

Jesus puts out the fire of evil this way. He places a child, a symbol of innocence in their midst. He wraps the child in His arms – the perfect absence of evil. He says that we have the answer, the antidote to the fire of evil. Receive and live in Jesus – free and out of the fire.

Bible Study for the 24th Week in Ordinary Time 2018

This week’s memory verse: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. — John 8:36

  • 9/16 – 2 Corinthians 3:17
  • 9/17 – John 8:32
  • 9/18 – Galatians 5:1
  • 9/19 – Romans 8:1-2
  • 9/20 – Galatians 5:13-14
  • 9/21 – Romans 8:21
  • 9/22 – 1 Peter 2:16

Pray the week: Lord Jesus, thank you for freeing me. Help me to work with You in freeing others from loneliness and despair.

Reflection for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time/Back to Church Sunday 2018

Welcome to true
freedom.

I love the LORD because he has heard my voice in supplication, because he has inclined his ear to me the day I called. For he has freed my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 116 – words that cut so true today. They cut through the gloom and pain of isolation and loneliness. They cut away pain and hurt. They cut the entirety of negativity away so we can clearly see what God has in store for us. Yes, each of us!

So often we feel unworthy. How can God love me? Where is He in my life? I feel so alone and abandoned.

These are not just feelings, brief thoughts that pass through our minds and cast a shadow over our hearts. They can be a reality whether we live alone or with 2, 4, 6, or even 10 other people. They exist whether we work or are retired. Young or old, loneliness, despair, and disconnection are on the rise. Seventy-five percent of Americans admit to feeling a deep sense of loneliness. That isn’t a once-in-a-while thing. That is deep despairing loneliness. The number of Americans with no close friends has tripled since 1985.

That is what today, and frankly every Sunday, is about. It is about God’s house, His dwelling place, His family, His body. St. Paul often used the body as an analogy. If one part of the body needs help, we, the church, are to work together to save it.

Sunday is not just a momentary beginning – a few hour head start on the rest of the week. Sunday is the start of continuous action – to plug-in, to connect, to form and live friendships, to end loneliness and separateness.

In our Psalm, David finds God’s rescue. He sings thanksgiving in response to Divine rescue from mortal danger and from near despair. David knows God heard his cry. God freed him and David’s heart was filled with love – he saw and got it. God’s goodness made sense to him – finally. But David does more than sing.

In response to God’s love, David pledged and confessed faith. That is always the start. If you have never done that, pray along with me: Lord, I believe in You. I accept Your salvation and deliverance. I confess that I have sinned and done wrong before You. Cleanse me. I ask You into my life and acknowledge You as my Lord and Savior. You have been truly freed. Jesus will never leave you, nor will His Church, His people. Welcome to church!