The Scandals in the Church

So much has already been said about the scandals in the Catholic Church with the advent of the accusations against former Cardinal now Archbishop Theodore McCarrick. As a priest, I am saddened and heart broken over what has transpired these last few months, let alone since the scandals originally broke in 2001. I cannot imagine how many lives have been destroyed because of the behavior of some priests and now of even some bishops. The betrayal of their calling as shepherds has brought shame upon all priests and bishops. The children, the teens, and the seminarians and young adults who are the victims of these men (and in some cases even the nuns) deserve better. Pope Benedict talked about the filth in the church in a homily before he entered the conclave that elected him as pope. This filth is sadly still in the church and needs to be exposed and eradicated once and for all.

To Hear Feed My Lambs Shows Previously Broadcast

If you would like to hear any of the previously broadcast Feed My Lambs shows with Father John Granato and Paula K, just scroll down to the bottom of this page and you will see the links.  Click on the link of any show and it will begin to play in your browser.

Holy Name of Mary

Yesterday the Church celebrated the feast of the Holy Name of Mary. It's very comforting that the feast of her holy name falls immediately after the commemoration of the events of 9/11.   Mary can help bring about peace if we but ask her, for she is the mother of Peace.   Instead of anger which only feeds terrorism, we can pray for those who claim killing innocent people is what God wants.  Mary, our Queen and our hope, we pray that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East will come to know your Son as their Lord and Savior.

Glimpse of Heaven Part II

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If you were to attend Mass, you would hear from the Book of Revelation the wonderful passage about the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under feet and upon her head twelve stars. Because she is the Mother of our Lord, it is only fitting that she receive certain privileges, i.e. the Immaculate Conception, the gift of perpetual virginity, and her role as mediatrix of all graces. But it is though the love her Son has for her that she was given the privilege of entering Heaven, body and soul. Scott Hahn, the Catholic biblical scholar, makes the point that Jesus fulfills the law perfectly, so if this is true, then Jesus fulfills the fourth commandment perfectly, where he would honor is father and mother. It is an honor that he bestows upon her by glorifying her with the glory that we are all destined to receive.

We have a mother in Heaven who though her role as mediatrix of all graces, prays for us and leads us to her Son in the Holy Eucharist. On this Solemnity of the Assumption, let us pray for Mary's intercession that we will glorify our bodies through purity and modesty and temperance. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Live as in daylight and put away the deeds of darkness. Our Lady of the Assumption, pray for us.

A Glimpse of Heaven

In the midst of bad economic news, it's always good to remember that Heaven is a present reality. Heaven is not just some idea, or the place where Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, but it can also be a reality in our lives when we receive our Lord at Holy Communion. The celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. As we receive our Lord's body, blood, soul and divinity, we are transformed.

Heaven is within our grasp when we attend Mass, when we receive our Lord, when we become more Christlike in our attitudes and our outlook. The Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart when you show mercy, love and forgiveness to those who have hurt you. When you see with the eyes of faith, you will see Jesus in his glory and like St Peter, you can say, "Lord it is good for us to be here." and with St Thomas, "My Lord and my God."

Sowing the Seeds of Love

Those words might remind you of the song from Tears for Fears, but it really comes from today's Scripture parable.   Jesus talks about the seed falling on rocky ground, and in the thorns and on fertile soil.  But, similar to the song the parable is also about sowing the seeds of love, for it is the seed of God's grace that Jesus speaks about, and the seed is God's word.  

Is your soil is rocky, filled with thorns or is fertile with his love? Do you find yourself full of zeal when things are going well, but once a struggle occurs feeling that love fade.  Just as a gardener has to till the soil, water the plants, and pull the weeds; so do we in our own spiritual garden.  Allow the sacrament of confession to pull the weeds out by the roots, and plant roses or sow seeds of love with the prayers of the rosary.  We also sow the seeds of love when we live the fruits of the Holy Spirit, mercy, gentleness, love, patience, kindness, chastity, modesty, generosity, forgiveness, joy and peace.

Love

"You have heard it said love your friends and hate your enemies, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Then why is it so easy to hate someone else?  Why do we find it easier to be offended by other's failures, then to forgive as we have been forgiven?  As Christians it seems more common for us to fall into anger or bitterness rather than loving and forgetting the offenses of those who have hurt us. Yet, we are called by Jesus Christ to overcome our emotions and to allow his grace to transform us so that we can actually love those who hate us.  Is there someone in your life you are angry with?  Is there someone who has hurt you that you have not yet forgiven?  When you argue with your spouse do you bring up everything they have done to hurt you, remembering their offenses in detail?

Only Christ can help you let go of the hurt that others have caused you.  The healing takes place when you truly forgive them.  Remember, forgiving someone contains a promise that you will no longer fling their offense in their face the next time you are angry at them, or they hurt you again.  Hanging onto unforgiveness because you feel the other person still has to 'make it up to you' only sets the relationship up for difficulty where someone can never meet your expectations.  Jesus is the just judge, and your forgiveness opens the door to his greater forgiveness and grace in your life - it doesn't allow another person to "get away with it."  A lack of forgiveness toward another who has hurt you does not ensure they will be 'punished for what they did', instead it only poisons your own heart.

True forgiveness can only come through prayer, humility, and the reception of the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. But it can only come when you realize Forgiveness of another is the greatest gift you can give to yourself.

Visions

Visions, dreams, locutions, you can call them many different things. St John Bosco had such a vision which has been interpreted as a need for you to stay close to the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother. As our world continues to become increasingly violent, it is important for us turn to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and ask him to bring peace to a torubled world. To be instruments of peace ourselves, we will help to bring peace to our families and friends. How do you bring peace into your relationships? St Matthew's gospel presents the Beatitudes. In Jesus' teaching, Jesus turns the values of the world upside down and says that you are blessed when you are poor in spirit, meek, persecuted, when you mourn and are a peacemaker and seek righteousness. To live the Beatitudes will help bring peace to the world, by opening your heart to Jesus Christ. Receive the Holy Eucharist at Mass and pray to the Blessed Mother of God to intercede and ask for God's grace in your life. The Kingdom of Heaven starts in your heart and is fulfilled in the presence of God for all eternity in Heaven.

Article on Celibacy

Fr Dwight Longenecker, a convert and married man who became a Catholic priest, has an article on his blog about married priests. It is worth reading his article. You can find it at www.gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/2011/01/married-priests-magic-bullet.html

Bishops

Today, we celebrate the feast of Sts Timothy and Titus, co-workers of St Paul and leaders of the early church. St Paul wrote letters to each of these, which are recognized as canonical letters in the New Testament. It is a good reminder on this feast day that we need to keep praying for our bishops. A bishop's vocation is demanding and often leads to frustration, especially in today's climate. And bishops can and do make mistakes, as all of us are wont to do. St Paul was confronted with many issues and immorality, not only among the peple in the cities that he visited, but also even among those who were purported to be leaders in the Christian communities. And if you have ever been in a position of leadership, you undoubtedly would have experienced as well all different types of personalities and much criticism from those under you. One good book on leadership is from Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, called Lead Like Jesus. It's all about servant leadership and gives you the tools to really empower others as a leader so that all of us may thrive together in our work and in our relationships.

2011

It's a new year and new beginnings. Maybe you have decided to attend Mass more often this year. Maybe you promised to pray the rosary every day. Maybe you decided to speak words of love to your beloved and eradicate the negative speech from your conversations. Or maybe you decided that you have had enough of politics because you have come to realize that only Jesus can bring transformation to our country.

Until we accept his teachings and follow his laws and return to a Christian morality, our country will never rebound. Christ is the answer. King Herod knew that, and he was afraid of the answer, which is why he tried to kill the Christ child. So many of our own politicians are also afraid of Jesus Christ. They try to kill him through legislation that is anti-Christian. More importantly, they try to kill him by placing men and women in positions of power that claim to be Christian, or better yet, a "practicing Catholic," and these men and women refuse to allow their Catholic faith to form their conscience. They keep abortion legal, they support embryonic stem cell research (which kills babies already conceived) and support gay marriage. Let us turn to our Blessed Mother, Mary, the Mother of God and ask her intercession that our Catholic politicians will come to the defense of life. As long as we keep killing babies in the womb, our country will always be morally bankrupt.

Holy Family

Merry Christmas!. As we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we also remember the Blessed Mother and St Joseph, the Holy Family. Many Catholics used to place JMJ on their assignments when in school, which stands for Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It was with great joy that we honor the Mother of our Lord and the foster father, St Joseph. They lived fully the tenets of what a family is supposed to be. St Joseph was asked by God to be a guardian for His Son, and St Joseph raised Jesus, teaching Him about the Law and the prophets, taking Him to the Temple and loving His Mother. St Joseph lived his fatherhood as a chaste man, someone who sacrificed in order to honor and cherish the Mother of God. And Mary, as weknow from her Magnificat in the Gospel of Luke, lived her motherhood with the joy and the sorrow of knowing that her Son is destined to be the downfall of many nations, as St Simeon prophesied to her.

We ask for their intercession that our families today would understand the essence of sacrifice, as well as the essence of chastity. And this chastity does not begin only at the exchange of vows. Let us ask the Holy Family that our young people would understand the essence of chastity before marriage. It is no coincidence that with an increase in promiscuity and cohabitation, that divorce is on the increase, sexually transmitted diseases are on the increase, abortion is on the increase, and adultery is on the increase. And it is not only the husband who is guilty of adultery. There is an increase in adultery by the wives as well. Our families are being torn apart because men and women have no idea how to be chaste and how to sacrifice for the happiness of the other. There must be mutual love and respect, gentleness and kindness, and a love for purity and chastity, which, far too often, does not exist in the hearts of our husbands and wives.

St Joseph, you are the model of purity for men. We pray through your intercession that our men would be good husbands and providers. Mary, ever Virgin, you are the model of purity for women. We pray through your intercession that our women would be examples of purity and holiness.

Joseph's Lullaby

Mercy Me has a beautiful Christmas song, called Joseph's Lullaby, which takes the viewpoint of St Joseph as he holds his newborn Son in his arms. St Joseph seems to be the forgotten man during the season, as even our postage stamps have picture sof the Blessed Mother with Jesus, but Joseph was given a great privilege to be the foster father of God's Son, Jesus Christ. You can imagine what must have been going throough his mind as he held Jesus in his arms, and as he watched with love in his eyes how Mary held her Son in her arms as well. Mercy Me captures this in their Christmas song, and it is worth downloading to listen and contemplate on the words put in the mouth of St Joseph. If only our fathers today would be more like St Joseph, a pure, chaste spouse of the Blessed Mother.

reputation

It seems that people have no problem destroying the reputation of others, including those who used to be friends. Why is it that we feel free to air dirty laundry and frustration about friends with others, in effect destroying their reputation? If you have a problem with another person, then why don't you go to that person and talk with him or her rather than join in the sin of detraction or defamation with others. It all comes down to how we handle conflict, and frankly, many people, including those who call themselves committed Catholics, fail in handling conflict. It is very disappointing to find that some people have no problem throwing away friendships because of misunderstanding, a misunderstanding that could probably be cleared up with some honest talk. But even if you have no desire to reconcile, there can be NO EXCUSE for sharing in the sin of destroying another's reputation. During this Christmas season, let us search our hearts and find if we have failed in this area and seek out confession.

Advent

We have just celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and now we are really moving quickly to the Christmas season. Advcent is this time of preparing for the birth of our Savior. There are many ways to prepare, of course. But the most important way is to approach the sacrament of Confession. Afterall, Christmas is about Christ, and the baby Jesus, laying in a manger, points the way to the day when he will be food for your souls. To truly receive the graces and blessings of our Lord in Holy Communion, a soul purified and cleansed through confession will allow you to experience a closeness with God as you receive communion. Ask the Blessed Mother to pray for you that you may find a good confessor and that you may unburden yourself of any attachment to sin and to free you from any mortal and venial sins you may have committed. Mary always points the way to her Son.

Jesus Christ: The Answer?

The Prophet Isaiah mentions that when peace comes to Mount Zion, then the lion will lay down with the lamb and the wolf with the kid. It is the peace of Jesus Christ that brings to fulfillment this vision of all the countries living in peace. Yet, today we see so many countries at war with each other. We see even Christians fighting with other Christians. What happened? Why do we fight and spread hate when we claim to have a relationship with Jesus Christ? And with four billion people on this earth rejecting Jesus Christ outright and following other religions or no religion at all, it begs the question whether there is any relevence to be being a Christian. Of course, I believe that answer to be a yes. There is no other name in heaven or on earth that will save us. Jesus is the way to the Father. And for countries to live in peace, for Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Lybia, Syria, Israel, and all the countries of Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, then this peace will come only when we all turn to the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, and live by his teachings, and seek the will of the Father in our lives.

Saint Andrew

St Andrew, the brother of St Peter, our first Pope, was the one who in the Gospel of John brought his brother to Jesus. Any time we have a memorial or a feast of an apostle, it is a good opportunity to remember to pray for vocations to the priesthood. The Spirit is calling men to the priesthood, but many are not listening. For many, it is because of celibacy. It is true that celibacy is demanding, and for many it is a struggle. It would not be a sacrifice of it were not demandning and a cross. To be honest, it is a big cross for me and for other priestst that I know. There are many days that I desire to live the life of a married man with children. And every day, I wake up and once again commit myself to celibacy for the sake of the kingdom. There is much sorrow in celibacy and much sorrow in the priesthood, but there is also much joy in celibacy and much joy in the priesthood. St Andrew, pray for us.

The Pope's condom remark

There are so many articles coming out on other blogs, including Fr Z's and Amy Welborn's, as well as comments by Janet Smith, Philip Lawler, and Fr Fessio, that I would not even attempt to add my own two cents here. Suffice to say that the mainstream liberal media, as well as the more conservative Fox News, are purposely misrepresenting the Pope's comments. No surprise. The media in the US and Great Britian as well are hostile towards the Church. But even the more liberal Catholic newspapers and periodicals, as well as liberal Catholic groups, are perpetuating a myth of what the Pope actually said. It's basic common sense. The Pope would never say that it is a moral act to engage in any sexual activity outside of marriage, so for the liberal media to claim that the pope said that everyone could use condoms to avoid infection from sexual diseases is a lie. The example used by the Pope is of a male prostitute. Pope Benedict is basically saying that the prostitute's use of a condom would signal to his conscience that actions have consequences and that he might, just might, be having a moment whereby he would see that a need for transforming his life from a life of disordered sexuality to one of chastity is possible. As was pointed out by Fr Fessio, this is not even a lesser of two evils argument. It's a subtle distinction that is being lost on the large majority of people who live by the soundbyte and by their own need to justify their own behavior. If you follow the teachings of the Catholic Church in regards to sexuality, then the use of condoms would play no role in any activity, whether for contraception or for the protection of various sexually transmitted diseases.

not much to say

It seems that the days have gone pretty quickly since the last posting. In that time, I have been checking out Fr Z's blog, www.wdtprs.com. He has some interesting pieces of information there. One post recently was a eprson writing in to him that he had attended a confirmation and was disturbed that many of the young teens in the pews were playing games on the phones during Mass and even when approaching the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. What sadness!! It just confirms to me, though, that we do not have a shortage of priests. If the future of our church is to be made up of people who would rather play games at Mass than pray at Mass, then in a few more years, our churches will be even emptier than they are now. Pray not only for priests, but please also pray for an increase in devotion especially among our young people.

Hereafter

It's All Saints Day, the true meaning of Halloween (all Hallow's Eve), in which we honor the men and women who have come before us in our faith and are recognized as saints because of their holiness of life. It is a reminder to all of us what our true destiny is, and that is to be in heaven with all the angels and saints worshiping our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is a new movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, called Hereafter, which deals with life after death as well as near death experiences. It is a very powerful movie with some intense scenes. Clint Eastwood avoids mentioning any religious creed in the movie (except for a very short scene at a funeral with what looks like an Anglican priest), but he hits the spirituality of the question of what happens after death. Of course, in the movie are the skeptics, those who believe that after we die we basically become food for worms. Reading comments about the movie ons ome websites, you will also find that the skeptics are all around us, usually saying that Christians who believe in a heaven are delusional and believe in fairy tales. I have a difficult time believing that the Apostles would risk their lives for a fairy tale. Why would those eleven men, plus St Paul, spread the news about Jesus Christ's rising from the dead if arrest, torture and death were the result of their preaching? In any event, everyone will eventually find out for himself whetehr there is life after death. In the meantime, let us pray for the intercession of the saints that more people would come to recognize Jesus Christ as our Savior, the Messiah, sent by God to free us from a life of sin.