Friday, August 31, 2018

A LIFE OF FACING DOWN FEARS AND STANDING UP TO LAZINESS


MY NEWEST BOOK COMING IN OCTOBER
- part autobiography
-  part spiritual journal
- part invitation to personal and spiritual growth
- part wisdom sharing 




DETAILS ABOUT BOOK PURCHASE COMING IN OCTOBER




DEDICATED TO MY  CLASSMATE PATRICK MURPHY

"I was talking to him (on this fire escape) when I woke up!" 

































COURAGE vs COWARDICE
CAN vs CAN'T
WILL vs WON'T
POWERFUL vs PITIFUL
DARING vs GUTLESS
HEROISM vs TIMIDITY
BRAVERY vs SPINELESSNESS







































Thursday, August 30, 2018

ANOTHER PRIEST HERO

Peru: Jesuit Priest Fr. Carlos Riudavets Montes Killed

Worked Among Indigenous People of Amazonia

A Spanish Jesuit missionary priest working among the indigenous people in Peru’s Amazonia regions was found dead the morning of August 10, 2018, reported Vatican News. The body of Father Carlos Riudavets Montes was found with his hands tied and several stab wounds lying in the kitchen of the Valentín Salegui school he ran in Yamakai-entsa district in the Amazonian jungle province of Bagua.
The priest’s body was discovered by the school’s cook, Gumercinda Diure, the director of education of the Amazonia region told RPP radio. Diure said it did not appear to be burglary because nothing was stolen.
The Jesuit province of Peru has confirmed the death of Fr. Riudavets.  “We express dismay and sorrow at the death of Father Carlos Riudavets, the Jesuit province of Peru said in a statement.
Fr. Victor Hugo Miranda, the spokesperson for the Peruvian Jesuit province told Vatican News that the Jesuits of Peru have expressed their concern and worry at what has happened and are awaiting information from authorities regarding the murder of Fr. Riudavets.
While rejecting all forms of violence, Fr. Miranda said,  the Jesuits of Peru are proud of the work in the mission of Fr. Riudavets. Fr. Riudavets, 73, whose school provides education to the children of the Yamakai-Entsa indigenous group, served in the north-central part of the Peruvian Amazon for 38 years.
A native of Sanlúcar de Guadiana (Huelva), in Spain, Fr. Riudavets came to Peru as a young scholastic in the pre-priesthood preparation stage.  He studied theology in Lima and had experience in teaching in Piura in the north.  After his priestly ordination, he was sent in 1980 to the Jesuit mission in the Vicariate San Francisco Javier del Alto Maranon, an area that includes part of Jaén (in the region of Cajamarca) that is the land of the Awajun-Wampis people.
Fr. Miranda said Fr. Riudavets worked for almost 40 years among the indigenous people as a teacher and then principal and was very close to the people.
Diure said Fr. Riudavets had been threatened by a student who was expelled from the school.  Police said they are investigating the killing.
The Peruvian bishops conference has urged the authorities to clarify facts and arrest those responsible.
The Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM) noted that Fr. Riudavest was much loved by the people of the area, especially by the Awajún-Wampis.   Fr. Riudavest leaves behind a legacy of commitment, responsibility, and love for the indigenous people, REPAM said.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

RETIREMENT OPTIONS - CHOOSE A DOOR



DOOR NUMBER ONE







Image result for working too hard in retirement images


DOOR NUMBER TWO


The Pope Benedict XVI Option


The Free-McDonald's-Coffee-and Gossip-All Morning-With-the-Guys Option


DOOR NUMBER THREE


Nice to Imagine, But I'm Sure This Would Get Old Pretty Quickly





Personally, I would still choose  door number one but...... 
Related image

Sunday, August 26, 2018

I'M OUTTA HERE!


WHAT ABOUT YOU? WILL YOU LEAVE TOO?



Many of his disciples no longer accompanied him, so Jesus
asked, "Do you want to leave too?" Simon Peter answered
him, saying, "Master, to whom would we go?"


Some people have told me that I'm nuts for being a Catholic priest. After last week's news from Pennsylvania, they may be right! I hadn't been ordained but a day when the first person came out of nowhere to challenge me on this. I have told this story before, but it immediately came to mind when I read this gospel. It happened at one of the receptions, following my first Mass.

I was standing there in my new black suit and Roman collar - a little proud of myself – when, all of a sudden, a stranger approached me and stuck a pin in my balloon. "I can't imagine anyone as intelligent as you appear to be would still be a Catholic, must less become a priest! I got out of all that craziness a long time ago!"

I stood there, shocked, like I had been shot at close range as she went down her well-rehearsed list of things wrong with the Church.  When she finished, she disappeared into the crowd, never to be heard from again - at least that is what I thought.

Like me, St. Peter must have been challenged many times about his decision to stay that day when so many others walked away because of Jesus teaching on the "bread of life." He writes many years later, in the first of his two letters, "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope but do it with gentleness and reverence." (I Peter 3:15,16) When I am challenged, I try to follow his advice.

That first happened when I was 26. I am now 74.  At 74, I agree wholeheartedly with Peter's response to Jesus when he asked him if he would leave too. "To whom would I go? Who has a better offer?" I have been offered a lot of so-called alternatives, I recognize more problems in our Church than most of you, but I can say this much in all honesty. I haven't seen anything yet that I would trade all this for!  In the language of gospel music, "I wouldn't take nothin' for my journey now. I've got to make it to heaven somehow, though the devil tempts me and tries to turn me around. He's offered everything's that got a name, all the wealth I want and worldly fame; if I could, still I wouldn't take nothin' for my journey now!"     

Friends! One of the most important questions facing all of you these days is "Why do you stay in the Church?" Why do you choose to remain Catholic, when so many others are walking away? I am sure many of you have been challenged seriously, maybe even in an angry way. Maybe you have thought about it. Maybe you have even tried it for a while. Maybe you stay because you are scared not to. Maybe you do it to please your parents.  

Well, let me tell you something. I was not "assigned" here by the bishop. I don't have to do this. I have plenty of other jobs - too many jobs, in fact. But I want to be here and I choose to do this because I want to help you be able to give yourselves, and those who question you, reasons to stay in the Church so that you do not "walk away,” or worse, just "drift away." 

Yes, you heard me - help give you reasons "to stay in the Church." There are many people today who claim they want to be "spiritual, but not religious." Archbishop Dolan of New York described them this way, "They want to believe without belonging. They want to be sheep without a shepherd. They want to be part of a family, but they want to be an only child."  The fact of the matter is that Jesus founded a church on Peter, one of those who did not walk away, and Jesus promised that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" and that he would "be with it always, until the end of time."  The truth of the matter is, we are not individually children of God, we are God's family with many children and, as a family we are called to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.

At Bellarmine University, where I worked for 17 years, I wanted to help young adults move from an inherited faith, to a personal faith. I found them deeply spiritual, sometimes ravenously so, and I wanted to help them in their process of knowing God, loving God and serving God. I also wanted them to feel valued and appreciated by the Church - so that they would hang in there with the rest of us who are on a serious spiritual journey. Each week, as I preached, I tried to help them find answers when "someone asked them for a reason for their hope."  And, yes, I did it "with gentleness and reverence." That is what I have always tried to do here as well - both when I was your pastor from 1983-1997 and now as a fill-in for Father Wimsatt. 

Friends! Let me put my cards on the table in the bluntest way possible! I don't know about you, but I am not about to let a minority bunch of sick priests and cowardly bishops take my church away from me! Over my dead body, will they cause me to lose hope or drive me out of this church! I'm not perfect and neither or they, but I am here to stay because Jesus himself told us that even "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!" 

By the way, the woman who challenged me forty-eight years ago showed up at one of my Masses a couple of years back. She apologized and told me that she had returned to the Church and was absolutely loving it for the first time in her life. As the great "theologian," Yogi Berra put it, "It ain't over till it's over."