4th Sunday of Advent

The promise that God originally uttered in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve, “You will strike at his heel, while he strikes at your head,” is ready to begin, to take flesh, and be accomplished. This was accomplished in its essence by God alone, but he asked others to partake in Jesus’ journey, and one such person who partook more than rest was Mary, his mother.

In the first reading from Isaiah and then again in St. Matthew, “they shall name him Emmanuel . . .God is with us” is to be understood not symbolically or figuratively, but literally. Jesus is God! And he will come to us in the flesh, his flesh is from Mary, therefore he is also fully human. He comes to do what we cannot because of our weakness. He will come to repair what we damaged.

The beautiful part of Jesus’ mission is that he does not go it alone. Rather he surrounds himself with community, i.e. 12 apostles, and many other disciples. Jesus is mission on earth, to bring Good News and grace is a mission he allows others to share in.

And there is one person in particular that he allows to share in it more than the rest and that is our Blessed Mother, as I have already mentioned. There would be no Emmanuel without the Virgin’s consent. Just as there was a man and a woman in the Garden that said yes to sin under the tree, so too would there be a man and a woman consenting to grace under the tree when it came to restoring what was broken. Jesus is the one mediator and everything flows from his sacrifice, but nevertheless he allows us to all share in it, and we can see that the Blessed Mother does so in a very profound way.

She is there to say “yes” to Gabriel when asked if she would take on this responsibility to raise the Son of God, she was there in Bethlehem (BREAD) by the manger (ALTAR) when she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, she was there when he was presented in the temple (and a sword began to pierce her heart), she was there at the Wedding Feast of Cana (interceding for us), and finally she was under the tree watching her son give his life for all.

We cannot praise this woman enough for her sacrifices, her faith, and even her love of us. Let us not forget the role the Immaculate Virgin plays during our Advent journey and most of all Christmas day. We journey ourselves to Bethlehem so that we will see Christ lying in the manger, it was Mary who made that journey first so that we too could make it now. In this last week of preparing for the Lord of our own going up to Bethlehem we need to make that journey along with our Blessed Mother, to leave her out of the preparation is to leave out a necessary part that God himself choose for us, and that is Mary’s motherhood of all the faithful. She is there with us, the way we recognize her is to ponder her own life in our hearts. People will do so by praying the rosary, novenas, or some other type of devotion. It should not be considered outdated or something pre-Vatican II, to pray rosaries, novenas, or other types of devotions to our Blessed Lady, since Vatican II itself called Mary, “Mediatrix, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Advocate.” (C.f. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, nn61-62).

We cannot be a community without her, it’s impossible; she is part of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15 which comes to fulfillment once she says “yes” to the angel Gabriel. And from there she is part of every major community movement in the Church, especially during the end of Jesus’ life and the beginning of the Church. We are not isolated from those who have gone before us, they are with us through grace and Mary continues to help us during our journey, she helped her own son, why would she not help us? And finally, Christ never stops giving us gifts, and besides salvation itself he gave us the most precious thing in his life, his own mother from the foot of his cross. “Son, behold your mother, Woman, behold your son.” By Fr. John Picinic

Liturgy of the Hours

Liturgy of the Hours

VESPERS Evening Prayer

St. Joseph's Church

Friday, December 17th @ 7:00pm

Please come out and join us in keeping the day holy. A most excellent prayer especially for reflection as we continue our journey through Advent to Christmas.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

3rd Sunday of Advent

In today’s Gospel it is not just John the Baptist who asks, “Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?” It is all of us who have asked that question of Jesus, “Are you really the One?” We ask that question because we want assurance that what we believe in is true and good, but we also ask because of weakness. Jesus, however, is very patience with us in our hardness of heart, in our weakness, and even in our sinfulness. He responds to us the same way he responded to John the Baptist, “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, etc.” If you notice the response is not an argument on theology, philosophy, or culture, but rather it is based on the greatest of theological virtues, it is based on love.

As we journey through Advent we are invited to live like John the Baptist, to be heralds of the Good News, and to be like Jesus in our bringing the free gifts of healing to others.

Many times people will come to me and express concern that their children or some other close relation no longer attends Church and they want to know what they need to do bring them back. The people who have “left” the Church or have put Church practice on the back burner usually do so because they too have asked the question, “Are you the one who is to come or do we wait for another.” The problem was, is that the question was not sufficiently answered. One may be thinking at this point, “I am not responsible for someone else’s decision to stop practicing that is on them alone.” Someone else asked that question a long time ago as well, he said, “Lord, am I my brother’s keeper?” You bet we are.

The most important part to a person’s ontological question is their inner search and longing for the Christ. The question is answered by our actions first. Words are important, but not as much as actions. The old saying, “Actions speak louder than words” is still true and most effective.

The people who brought me the Gospel, parents, friends, confreres, helped me to see it and live it by what I saw in them, their untiring and joyous disposition of faith and charity practiced on a daily basis.

Even a person like St. Augustine who craved intellectual proofs was in the end persuaded by the actions and life of his mother, St. Monica and by St. Ambrose who so eloquently and courageously defended the faith against those who were trying to destroy it.

Before any discussion on theology can take place there has to be in us a courageous and lively faith, one that can be clearly seen and understood, in order that our lives will be the seed, the water, and the sun for the conversion of others, as St. Paul puts so beautifully wrote way back when in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, and God will provide the growth.

What is also required is patience, for many times conversion or a return to the Church takes time, God forces no one and the process is a journey. The second reading from James instructs us to be patient in all things especially with one another.

In this third week of advent we continue our wait for the Lord, we also continue to wait on others to return home and join us. Some will return on Christmas many who have not been to Church in a while; we need to show them that they belong. It will not happen by a theological treatise we give on the Eucharist, the Blessed Mother, sin, etc., but rather it will happen by what they see. If they see the lame get up and walk, the blind given their sight, the dead raised to new life, then they will return. Bring Christ to everyone in your very persons.

Fr. John

2nd Sunday of Advent

Today we begin the 2^nd week of Advent. We hear in the Gospel of Matthew that John the Baptist preaches, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” This second week is also dedicated to, “preparing ourselves to meet Jesus.”

We wait for Jesus to be born on Christmas, the day he enters into human history. We also await his glorious second coming which will usher in that new kingdom, one where there is no more pain or sorrow, but perfect happiness in God and in one another.

Yet, we still journey here and our preparation continues. The question that often comes up is, “How do I prepare?”

Well, we know how we prepare for the holidays. We save money so that we can go out and buy gifts for the one’s we love. This takes a lot of work, literally, by actually making an income and saving it prudently, and also by going out and shopping for gifts. That can drive a person mad. Then there is the preparation to prepare, for instance, “when will I go shopping, where will I go, and how long do I want to invest in that, etc.”

The Christian life should be no different. We need to put in time; we need to “save,” so that we will find the best gifts, the best discounts, etc. The principles are the same, what you put in is what you will get out. “Some seed produced 30, 60, or 100 fold.”

But getting back to the question of how we should prepare, the first and most important thing in any Christian life is “Truth.” Truth about self. Part of being in relationship with God, part of preparing to receive Him is that we look into ourselves first and be honest with ourselves.

This is very hard, because sometimes the Truth hurts. No one likes to look inside and see darkness of sin, weakness, foibles, addictions, and the whole gamut of vice.

John the Baptist yells out loud if not screams at us to, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” Before we can produce good fruit we need to repent and repentance means looking deep within and dealing with what’s there. The problem is that with sin it sometimes becomes so engrained in us we think we are doing nothing wrong. But deep down inside we know there is a problem, but we build walls around it and we come up with all kinds of reasons to justify behavior even destructive behavior. All sin is addictive, or at least has the potential to become so.

Sinful behavior is not easy to deal with, for it demands honesty and then demands something even further, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.”

Am I preaching to the choir? We already come to Church, we haven’t done anything that bad, please father don’t talk about sins, cheer us up. I will, but before that we need to acknowledge something, and that something is that yes we are the choir, because we are all sinners. We are not all in the same place, but we all are looking for healing.

Advent you see is not simply the nice trees, and believe-you me, I love the decorations, the caroling, the food, the presents, but it is also more than that, it is a time of coming clean. Why wouldn’t we want to be made clean by the Lord? Again, I know it’s very hard, but the Lord desires it for us. We will only be as sick as our secrets.

Part of the preparation for Catholics is the sacrament of reconciliation. It is a place to be made clean. Once a person decides not to go to confession, that is already an admission of guilt, one in which the person deceives themselves in thinking they are not a sinner.

John the Baptist was accepted by some and rejected by others. Those who rejected him refused to look inside and deal with the darkness, and there they remained. There were others who accepted what he said and made it a reality in their lives, they decided to be washed that day but too also continue washing themselves in God’s love, and that takes hard work, first and foremost it requires Truth, and it requires it always, anything else is a lie and from the father of lies.

John the Baptist is speaking, yelling out to us, he is coming out from the desert and hollering, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand . . . Prepare the way of the Lord . . . (and) produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.” John is standing waiting for us by the water. Let us go to meet him, for we are children of Truth, we are Christians.

Fr. John

VESPERS - Liturgy of the Hours

Vespers - Evening Prayer

Liturgy of the Hours

Please come and join us for the next three Friday's of Advent for Evening Prayer taken from the Liturgy of the Hours.

Schedule:

Friday Dec. 3rd at 7:30pm in the Little Church at Mullica Hill

Friday Dec. 10th at 7:30pm in the Little Church at Woodstown

Friday Dec. 17th at 7:30pm in the Little Church in Woodstown

The Liturgy of the Hours is the 2nd highest and public form of prayer next to the Mass. It is a prayer that dates back (at least in it's fundamental form) back to Christ and the Apostles, and even before them as the day was held holy by our Jewish brothers and sisters in their visiting the temple to pray at various times throughout the day.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Photo taken by me in Aug. of 2005 of "St. Paul's Outside the Walls"

1st Sunday of Advent: Be Prepared!

Today begins the New Year in the Church. Today we begin our eager and joyful waiting on the birth of the Lord. It is a time of watchful waiting. It is also and more importantly a time of preparation to receive the Lord. Jesus instructs us in today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew, “To be prepared.”

In life we prepare for many things. Think of the student who prepares for his or her lessons. All of us were students once, at different levels, some present here today are currently students. Being a student is not always easy, but the formula for success is not hard. One word sums up being a student, “Study!” I understand that there are an exceptional few for whom school comes quite easily and not much effort is expended, but for most- the average person, we need to work hard at doing well. So, if I study for 30 minutes before I enter a final exam, the outcome will probably not be good. If, however, I do my assignments, take good notes, and study well the odds of a good and or excellent outcome increase.

Another such example of someone preparing well is the athlete. Again, a very select few are given tremendous gifts and will be successful with very little preparation, but for the most part the typical athlete must put in many hours of practice, watching game film, working on fundamentals, off season conditioning, and all the rest to stay at the top of their game and be successful, if not they will soon begin to drop off.

And it’s not just the student or athlete but this applies to a worker, regardless if you are an employee or if you own the company. The worker who is well prepared is usually also a worker who is diligent, efficient, loves his or her job, and it shows really quick. For the most part they are the ones who advance, while the one’s who complain are usually not well prepared, have not been efficient, and who come to work not for the success of the company but for their own success. There is no magic or difficult formula for success; rather it is simple, “be prepared.” That phrase will usually encompass the rest of what it takes to do well and be found ready to perform and to advance.

If we do all of these things for our earthly welfare, how much more so for our heavenly welfare. If we put so much time and effort in being the “a” student, or the “blue chip” athlete, or even the “exceptional employee,” what are we doing to become a “Saint?”

Our employer is God and His reward to us in being found prepared makes all the earthly rewards combined look like nothing more than dried up leaves flying across the street. God gives us work, school, and any other activity for our enjoyment, and He desires that we do all things well, but to never forget perspective. And the proper perspective here is that God is #1.

Today is our New Year and a great time to make that new resolution to make God #1 in our lives and in waiting for Him to be born not just on Dec. 25^th but every day. When we begin to skip days we miss another opportunity to study, to practice, or to complete our work assignments. When those days begin to pile up, it is then we get that “D” or “F” on the exam, or fumble the football on a crucial play or forget the play that was called, or even find ourselves looking for new employment. This kind of thing sneaks up on us. Yet, the Lord understands our weakness and that is why He gives us opportunity after opportunity to start again, “to become better prepared.” Our opportunity is now, this first day of our New Year. Together let us take it, so that when the Lord arrives He will say to us, “Enter into the eternal banquet, my good and faithful servant!” It is then that we will truly receive the greatest grade, perform the best play ever, and receive the greatest promotion!

Fr. John

Christ the King

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King. It is an important feast for many reasons two of the most important is that it reaffirms the person of Christ as a Divine person and that the season of waiting will soon be upon us - Advent.

The Gospel text that is used is Luke 23:35-43. This is the passage which contains the famous "INRI" that was in-scripted over the head of Jesus by the Romans. Did we ever wonder what that inscription meant? We basically know it as "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews." One must remember the Romans had no ulterior motive about Jesus, they put Him to death because of political unrest, the sentence being treason. The Romans could care less whether Jesus called Himself God's Son or made Himself out to be God. However, the inscription INRI means much much more than what is presented in the Roman initials. The Jewish people would have cringed to see it, especially those who plotted Jesus' death.

In Hebrew Jesus the Nazarene (or of Nazareth) King of the Jews would have been Jeshua Hanozri Wumelech Haiehudim. The abbreviated or initialed form would have been JHWH. It could not be clearer, that even while dying Jesus was still revealing Himself to the world as "YHWH," God incarnate. That is why the Jews asked that the sign be taken down, but the Romans refused because they didn't see the Hebrew meaning.

First off, what are the odds that Jesus' name, place of birth, place and time of death, and by the Romans would lead to that inscription being placed at the head of the Cross and that it would read the sacred name of God, "JHWH?" They would be astronomical.

Jesus is truly King of kings. That title may have been used by others, but their message was one of power and control while Jesus' message was about love, forgiveness, and to become more like God.

When we look at the Cross what do we see? Do we see our savior God? Do we see ourselves up on that Cross with Him? When we were baptized that inscription was engraved into us, for we share Jesus' life so intimately we become images of Him. We are not God, but we are like Him, for the very reason that Jesus lives in us through the sacraments. Everything that was His is given to us. If so, let us truly live that inscription so just like the good thief, Jesus will also promise us that kingdom and say to us, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Fr. John Picinic