Wednesday, October 19, 2011

When Are You Alone?

It's the closest thing to being in monastery that I can think of - it's my hole-in-the-wall coffee shop.  Music drizzles over the walls and blends magnificently alongside the coffee-machine-purr.  The window opens onto a vista of the street - the bustle of downtown Fredericton on a clear Wednesday night...before the rain starts to pound down.  I'll fall asleep to the drone of my 'white-noise' oscillating fan that my grandmother K bought for me 10 years ago when I was off to Mexico for two weeks - helps me each night to unwind and rest.  It was a trip to Mexico - off to experience working in the Third world.  At the time I was smitten with a gal from Nova Scotia.  When I got back from the trip I asked her on our first date.  She is married with children now - met her husband in a chemistry lab at university.  "I'm such a nerd!" she would later remark with a poke-fun-at-me laugh.  


Back to my hole-in-the-wall coffee shop...my monastery.  There are distractions.  I gawk at the interesting people that unfold before me - their stories.  I'm particularly drawn by the love stories and friendships I see.  I think of the friends and family I am missing.  I purpose to feel this without dulling the pain...it is difficult.  


I rush to the next 'fix' - scramble to the next conversation, checkup on my Twitter and Facebook - see if anyone is reacting to my presence on the digital biosphere.  I see the 'in-love' couple a few tables over.  Touch.  They hold hands in an un-selfconscious way.  Relaxed.  


I glance over to the other couple - they are stumbling toward a strand of conversation that will get them through the next half hour...


And the guy from my hometown who just pulled up a seat on the cold concrete outside.  


The music pulses on, the coffee machines whirr, the people smile, they walk, they sit, they touch, they sing...


And an agony writhes in the city, in the heart of us all...we long for togetherness and harmony.  And we taste the pain of missing it.  


I guess every good thing comes to an end.  My monastery time is over.  I can't bear to go back to the ordinary - but I must.  Laundry must be done.  It is melodramatic perhaps, but I need to speak with gusto - laundry makes the world go round.  


For rare is it to find one who prefers wearing soiled clothes to clean ones. 


Monday, August 29, 2011

13 Ways of a Shepherd


1.  Do the best you can at your job each day.  Do not put things off.
2.  Be competent.  Strive to learn what you do not know.
3.  Bring a zealous drive to your work
4.  Be conscientious and take due care of the brothers.
5.  Learn from mistakes and apologize when necessary.
6.  Effect change by being able to identify, study and confront problems.
7.  Do not deny problems.
8.  Be Catholic without compromise.
9.  Beware elitism and cliques. 
10.  Do not be afraid of offending someone.  Refer to #5.
11.  Be polite: return phone calls, emails, letters.
12.  Actively work toward identifying and accomplishing your goals.
13.  Forward ho!  Once your gait is set, do not look back.  That is, do not rehash decisions unnecessarily 
       especially when they involve others!

blessings,
AK

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Repentance Reloaded


The powers of hell continue to rail against the Church.  She is attacked from outside but increasingly from within.  The Churches greatest treacheries are often carried out from her own members. Increasingly, we see dissent within our own Church with Peter (the Pope and the institutional Church).  The false notion is that we can continue to be ‘good Catholics’ without believing everything the Church teaches officially in faith and morals.  Nowhere is this rejection of Church teaching more obvious than in the abandonment of the sacrament of reconciliation.  Seeing no sin and having little from their pastors by way of holy example and encouragement, they drift.  The Church hemorrhages for lack of humility and grace.  Jesus’ first words of his ministry were an echo of John the Baptist, “Repent, and believe the Good News.”  As people responded to this call, Jesus healed and moved in a great way among them.  However, today there has been a rejection of the sacrament of reconciliation.  This is the most damaging scourge of the Church.  It lies at the root of disunity and is the cause of some of the rut we find ourselves in.  If only someone would find a way to speak Truth to unbelieving, cold hearts!  I am afraid the Gospel has never been preached!  “Repent, and believe the Good News.”  NOTE: the word ‘repent’ comes first.  Repent! and believe the good news - the fact is that repentance precedes believing!  In other words, ‘repent’ so that you can believe the Good News!  ‘Repent’ or else you shall be deaf and blind to the News which is Goodness itself because it is Jesus himself!”

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Gotta Keep Moving

Sometimes you blog because you love writing.  Sorry, sometimes I blog because I enjoy writing.  Other times, however, you just do it to keep momentum up.  It's been a hot few days in July - I've been sticking close to the cave - the cave with air conditioning.  As the days begin to grow shorter lets remember to take advantage of the gift of summer!   God bless you all.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Fireball


“Then there seemed to be a fire in my heart...” - Jeremiah 21:9
The prophet Jeremiah here is a figure for Christ.  Jesus is the ‘man afire with love’.  His Sacred Heart is depicted afire.  Aflame. 

This is the eve of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Every year it is celebrated the second Friday after Pentecost.  This year it happens to fall on Friday, July 1st . Its feast is very special to me.  First, it acts as a reminder of our Bishop (Most Rev. Robert Harris) - as he was installed on this feast as the Bishop of Saint John on June 15, 2007.  Secondly, it is a reminder of my own ordination - since it was May 30th, 2008 on the Feast of the Sacred Heart that I became 'a priest forever.'

Fire.  It is the symbol that Catholic art depicts engulfing the heart of Christ.  The heart of Christ is not only alive...it is aflame.  And, like flame, whatever gets close to it is changed.  May His heart be given permission by you to draw close to yours. 




Wednesday, June 29, 2011

60th Anniversary

As the world turns, today is Father Joseph Ratzinger's 60th anniversary of priesthood.

He says the following, on this special day:


Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos”  - “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (cf. Jn 15:15).
Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice.  According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture.  I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way.  In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family.  But what was taking place now was something greater still.  He calls me his friend.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Fellowship of the Light-Hearted

I forget who said it, but, the world needs more court jestors.

Followers of The Way need to remember this: With issues like abortion, euthanasia, declining numbers of priests, scandals, and personal failures - the present-day Christian, alive in faith, can become a downcast, morose person who sees the world through very unhopeful goggles.  In such a toxic atmosphere, laughter can be good medicine. And good medicine, like any medicine, helps make us more healthy.

Comedic giant Stephen Colbert shared the following observation recently with university grads:
AFTER  I GRADUATED I MOVED DOWN TO CHICAGO AND DID IMPROV. NOW THERE ARE VERY FEW RULES TO IMPROVISATION, BUT ONE OF THE THINGS I WAS TAUGHT EARLY ON IS THAT YOU ARE NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE SCENE. EVERYBODY ELSE IS. AND IF THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN THE SCENE, YOU WILL NATURALLY PAY ATTENTION TO THEM AND SERVE THEM. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU'RE IN THE SCENE TOO. SO HOPEFULLY TO THEM YOU'RE THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON, AND THEY WILL SERVE YOU. NO ONE IS LEADING, YOU'RE ALL FOLLOWING THE FOLLOWER, SERVING THE SERVANT. 

YOU CANNOT WIN IMPROV.
---------------

The impulse to win.  An incredible impulse.  And in the fellowship of the Light-Hearted, with such serious issues closing in and such ground being lost - what are we to do?  The impulse is to win.  Win at everything.  Annihilate every iota of personal selfishness, laziness, and sin.  Yet we sometimes forget that we are not the authors of this victory.

I have learned this the hard way: Choking pressure is not a method used by God - it is NOT one of His techniques to help us!

Jesus IS the light-hearted Savior.  He knows our human weakness.  And while we are not to be oblivious to the evil - far from it! - nor are we to become dysfunctional Christians who sow anger instead of joy!
Our Savior is the Divine Fool, who is inebriated with the Fire of Love - so says a doctor of the Church - a woman ~ Catherine of Siena.  Ignatius of Loyola - founder of the Jesuit order, prayed thus "blood of Christ -inebriate me".  Exactly.   
Christ wants to inebriate us.  The Church is the bride of Christ, her lip is tinged with the freeing power of His blood.  
Let us not be like those of old, of whom it was said,
"We played the flute for you...but you would not dance."

Cheers,
Father A




Sunday, June 26, 2011

O.Burn's Ordination

A young man's life is today changed forever.  It all happened in Blackville, NB.  Yeah, that's right, the village of Blackville.  Hundreds of people packed like sardines into Sunday Mass. Owen Burns of Blackville was ordained today.

Blanche would be proud.  She was assigned to pray for him after a daily Mass late last October.  Mrs. Underhill, also a Miramichier from the Blackville area, died in her 90th year earlier this April.  She was, as most Miramichiers are, a breath of fresh air.  Blanche was always able to crack me up with an off the cuff remark from a mind that clearly did not show all the signs of aging one would expect from someone boasting of nine decades of wear and tear.  She was asked to pray for Owen.  She often asked how he was doing.  She never forgot him.  I'm sure she was able to share in the joy of today - since she, by her prayers, helped to keep him clear of some trouble or other I am sure.  After the ordination, I told a group of volunteers staffing the food kitchen area - that he needed prayers all the more now that he is ordained. I hope some of them took me seriously.

The diocese of Saint John has a new deacon.   A diocese is a territory in church-speak.  The diocese of Saint John encompasses three deaneries - that is, smaller territories - of Saint John, Fredericton and the Miramichi.  I live and will forever live as a priest in the diocese of Saint John.  I am wedded, in a sense, to the diocese now.  Hence, we are named 'diocesan priests'.  I have a new brother deacon today.  Owen is ordained to the transitional deaconate as, in a year's time, he will transition into the order of priests.  He will be ordained to sacred orders in due time God willing.  

Owen said that he experienced the call of Christ in his life.  I know that following that call has not been an easy road.  It's not an easy road for anyone that is sane.  There are challenges, made greater by the Enemy who always discourages the heart.  However, in this case, the success belongs to the pull of the Holy Spirit and Christ's Holy Mother Church.  God be praised.  In a world often bereft of 'good news' - this occasion - and the hundreds of people from little parishes like our in New Brunswick - was indeed a deep blessing.  

The atmosphere was electric.  

Today, a young man pledges chastity publicly (read: young man pledges his powerful love for God) publicly - a perpetual promise.  I can almost hear the darkness cringe.  

Good. 

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Lord, Won't You Buy Me A Color T.V.?


Parents are funny creatures.  One of my dad’s quirks is to sing out a random song lyric.  He hasn’t done this in a long time – but he’s been known to sing Arlo Guthrie’s “I don’t want a pickle, I just wanna ride my motorcycle.”  Also, he’ll lean over with mom and disarm a potentially stressful situation taking off Joe Cocker, “You Are So Beautiful to Me.”  Finally, Janis Joplin rounds out his oddity repertoire with “O Lord, won’t you buy me a color tv?” 

“O Lord, won’t you buy me a color tv. 
I wait for delivery each day until 3. 
So Lord won’t you buy me a color tv?”

We pray for the strangest things, don’t we?  Parents.  Spouses.  Kids. 
What are you praying for?  Who are you praying for?
Are you like Moses, up in the mountains with God...praying for deliverance from evil that is besetting your brothers and sisters here below? 
Or are you more like Janis, whose next line goes?
O Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town
I’m counting on you Lord, please don’t let me down
Prove that you love me and buy the next round
O Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town.

What have you been praying for lately? 
How closely does it line up with the demands of the Gospel?
How much does it relate to your eternal salvation or the salvation of your loved ones? 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Happy to Have a Church Fam

 My Church family is a great blessing.  True, family strains are very difficult...but family ties can be a huge blessing too.  So it is with the Church.  Today I give thanks for my family away from my family...my Church.  

I have a friend who often talks about her church and how tight everyone is and how wonderful and deep their relationship.  I used to feel jealous.  But today I realize that there are many different ways of being family...and sometimes simply being at Mass together is a great blessing.  It can be simple things, like families shuffling with kids and trying to take in the homily...when you can tell they are making the effort.  Its when I realize just how wonderful they are.  I imagine its like a parent when they stop by their child's bedroom and just gaze in for a moment and marvel at the beauty of it all.  Its at these blessed moments that we priests realize how blessed indeed we are.  We might not brag about it from the pulpit, but we feed on it in our heart.

Happy Sunday, and may you all be blessed. - Father Aaron

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wanted: The Conforming Church

A Catholic friend I met at St. Thomas University caught up with me in an email.  I met this wonderful woman from the Rock of Newfoundland in my second year.  I was always impressed by her zest for life and encouraged by what I perceived to be a latent Catholicism that kept her from giving herself away like so many other girls on campus.  She had even been to World Youth Day in Rome!  That said, she always seemed to have a strained relationship with her faith.  It seems the strain has gotten the better of her.  She reported the following about her relationship with the Church: "when I find a Church that meets my standards I shall enter it."  


1) the death knell of any religious truth is when it must conform to our standards!  I would even say that the seeds of all that is dangerous about humanity springs from such a principle.  True religion keeps us from the dictatorship of ourselves!


2) the 'standards' here are the contemporary and tired outrage about women's equality, gay rights and married priests, access to contraception and abortion.  Admittedly, the Catholic Church is certainly non-conformist when it comes to such 'issues'.   However, the Catholic church refuses the false call to become 'the Contemporary Church of the Peoples' - she will not bend to the whim of the masses.  There are many 'churches' or associations out there that do precisely that.  Catholicism, however, is decidedly NOT that. 


3) I am hopeful that my friend, with her amazing talents, virtue and compassion will realize the confounded path she is set upon.  More to the point, I hope she can see that she is not seeking so much a church that 'conforms to her vision' as she is seeking the liberation that Truth can bring.  As a sociologist she may believe that truth exists only in the masses - or that it is formulated and imposed by society.  Nawww...c'mon now. More to the point, I pray she find the thirst she has lost or perhaps never experienced.  The thirst that convinces us that God is real.  Alas, the true place to find Him is in relation to His Church.


4) the Church is not something to be ashamed of or liberated from - she is our mother and teacher.  More than this, she is the bride of Christ.  Christ loves the Church and gave His very lifeblood for her.  The Church is the heart of Christ in the world.  Faith is not some intellectual exercise - it is flesh and blood with ramifications for politics, the environment, social policies and aid for the poor, the oppressed, the lonely.  Those who bash the Church - even those within the Church - are playing with fire and risking the greatest loss of all: our faith.    


Fr. Aaron


The Church always has and always will stand in the way of such blatant disregard for human rights.  Warning:  The pictures are graphic. They reflect choices based on personal beliefs disconnected from the protective and warm cover of Catholic faith. http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/

Monday, February 7, 2011

Of U2 and the Green Bay Packers

...Speaking of Spiderman...I would love to be able to glide about stopping crime.  However, in this city it would pretty much restrict me to downtown Fredericton.  Ever imagine what Spidey would do if he moved to Three Hills Alberta?  ha.  What a slow crime-fighter he would be!  We'd get tired watching him amble around to fight crime.  He'd be exhausted - or like, totally in shape!  You can imagine him leaned over a garbage can wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his overheated costume going, "I gotta get back to New York!  This place is killing me.  MaryJane, I did this for you...but I just can't go on!"  Motto of this story: Beware of falling in love with a girl from Three Hills!

Life is fragile, handle with prayer.
Fr. Aaron

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Feed on the Creed

What a great feast is set before us in the Creed(s) of the Roman Catholic church! The Creed is a necessary, vital, building block for constructive discussion and constructive Christianity. Vibrant Catholic communities will flow from vibrant Catholics who become reacquainted with the rich gift we have in our faith.

More to the point: I am excited that Rev. Dr. Michael McGowan will be offering a weekly course on the Creed here at Our Lady of Fatima church beginning mid-February.  Fr. McGowan is a professor at St. Thomas University and director of the Atlantic Human Rights Center.  He is involved in Church law and interpretation of Canon Law as well.

Bottom line:  The future of the Diocese of Saint John is founded on our ability as a Catholic community to find a rallying point to converge upon.  With a diocesan pastoral plan on the horizon there still exists many differing interpretations on the very essentials!  A sustained effort at examining the Creed - and the inner logic that flows from it - strikes me as a great place to start!  Fr. McGowan's  experience as teacher will engage us - his background as pastor will help us digest the application for us today.  If you can clear the decks on Tuesday nights you'll be in for a treat.  Beginning mid-February and following throughout Lent.  Open to non-Catholics.  If interested in more information or pre-registering, call the parish (506) 444-6029.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Poem 34


fire fire
burning bright
in the embers of this night

a night when angels sang to men
about the child in Bethlehem

never again earth heard that sound
of heavenly host praising all-round

that glorious chorus bathed in light of moon
I’d love to download on my Itunes

to fill my breast with sweet-sounding praise
and bask in the glory of their rays

to displace the gloom and dark
with a ferocious longing on the mark

that signals Christ’s coming victory
over Satan’s tyranny

fire fire
burning bright
in the embers of this night

He who made the lamb appeared
the hand that cask the lion a-feared

His little hands became a child’s
to lead them on his mountain mild

where ox and ass and adder be
unstrained throughout eternity

to live amidst eternal wedded bliss
to witness peace and justice kiss

to witness the promises come true
to Abraham and the prophets too

who prophesied Emmanuel
would come within our world to dwell

and for a time to condescend
to sew the tear man could not mend