Light the Candle of Faith

Pope Francis has declared the upcoming year as A Year of Mercy.  We will begin to celebrate this jubilee year on December 8, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception. 

Throughout the coming year, we are asked to celebrate the mercy that God has freely bestowed upon us.  We can get off to a good start during this season of Advent ~ the season in which we should prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  For me, Jesus is the ultimate sign of God’s mercy.  He came to earth to reveal God’s mercy.

The traditional themes for the weeks of advent are hope, peace, joy and love.  This year, we are asked to focus on the virtues of faith, mercy, hope and love.  So, let us light the candle of faith this first week of advent.  Faith is certainly a hard concept to describe to someone, isn’t it?  Faith to me is more of a feeling of complete belief in something or someone.  I want to share with you how my faith in God and in our Church has grown throughout my life.

For me, faith seems to be part of my DNA – perhaps that is the same for many people.  My faith in God has never wavered, even through the most difficult times of my life.  In fact, during my darkest times, my faith in God seemed to just grow stronger.  I have often wondered how I came upon such a strong faith.  I want to share with you the three strong pillars which have helped me in my faith formation:

Family:  those chosen by God specifically for me; most notably my Mother, Grandmother and Godmother.  Oh what strong pillars of faith these women represent in my life!  Filled with faith and love enough to move mountains!  Their faith in God and Christ was so full that it spilled over to everyone they touched.  My prayer to God is to always fill my cup so that I may be a witness of faith to others.

Faith Community:  those in our Parish, our Catholic School and in the wider church.  God has placed so many wonderful people on my journey of faith who have inspired me and have shared their faith with me.  I find that faith can be a very contagious virtue!

Life Experience:  those times in my life that I know with certainty that God’s hand had touched me.  These moments are plentiful.  During NCYC I had one such “God moment.”  It happened during Adoration, in the silence of 24,000 members of the young church worshipping our Jesus Christ. 

            I am kneeling in adoration on cold cement floor.  The Bishop begins the chant “Jesus”, “Jesus”, “Jesus.”  The room grows quiet as I gaze upon the altar on which sits the golden monstrance which contains the body of our Lord.  I begin to feel a chill – it starts circling round me, then stops behind me and oh so very slowly embraces me.  My heart races and my breathing becomes fast as I try to maintain control and allow my senses to surrender to this incredible feeling.  Close your eyes and try to picture this moment . . .I pray that God comes to you and touches you in this           way! KNOW that it is God.

I have come to understand that faith is a seed planted in the core of who I am and by the witness of family, friends and life experience, the seed grows into a mighty tree built to withstand the roughest of storms.  I pray that you nurture the seed that God has planted within you for you never know how you may be that witness of faith to others!

                                                                 

Shalom,

Tina

Serving our Young Church

I love working with the young people of our parish and teens from other parishes and Kennedy.  It is incredibly life giving to watch young people develop the gifts that God gave to them.

It was such a privilege on Saturday to work alongside our teens to serve dinner for our seniors.  Throughout the four hour work window, over fifty teens in grades 7-12 gave up their Saturday afternoon to be of service to others.  Whether they cut dessert, served the meal or washed dishes, they carried out their duty with such joy.  It was amazing to watch them interact with our guests ~ which was the hope that we had in mind when we planned the dinner way back in July.  I am so proud of their good work and their joyous spirit. 

Thursday morning, I will be leaving with two of our teens to head to the National Catholic Youth Conference.  I am so looking forward to seeing 25,000 teenagers come together to give worship and praise to our God.  I know that the air will be a-buzz with their enthusiasm and energy.  I so look forward to being revitalized by their spirit.  Throughout the four days, I will be posting messages on Facebook, so be sure to stay tuned in as I try to put into words all that we experience while in Indy.

 

I ask that you keep us in your prayers, and assure you that you will remain in our prayers.  The theme for NCYC is Here, I Am Lord.  I can’t wait to see how our young church answers this call from God when he beckons, whom shall I send.  For now, I personally answer, “Here I am Lord, send me.”

Shalom,

Tina

All Saints and All Souls

I want to take a break talking about the Papal Visit to chat with you about the feasts of All Saints and All Soul’s.  These are two days set apart by the Church to honor those who have gone before us.

When I think about All Saint’s Day, I can’t help but reflect on all of the people who are every day Saints in my life, especially after listening to Father’s homily today.  My life has been so richly blessed with people who are faithful to God and spread the Gospel message by the way they live and care for others.

St. Francis of Assisi is quoted as saying “Teach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.”  Some of the Saints in my life are gifted with “word” and some are gifted in “deed” and God also put along my journey friends who are gifted in both word and deed.  Through all of these Saints, I have learned to know, love and serve God.  Through their example I have come to learn that the best way to see God here on earth is to see him in others.  I feel like this is the very reason that the church decided to begin to canonize holy men and women, so that we could have shining examples to look toward in our quest to fulfill the purpose for which we were made; to know, love and serve God.  In our human weakness, we often fall short of this goal, however, when we look to the lives of the Saints, we learn that despite their human weakness, they gave all of their heart and soul to following the will of God. Perhaps this is the call to sainthood, to live every day remembering that we should love God before all else.

I love when we hear the names of the parishioners who have passed from this earthly existence spoken during Mass.  I cherish this ritual, and as each candle is lit, I picture their face and remember them.  When I was young, I would get confused about the day of All Soul’s.  I used to think that it was a day we prayed for all people.  If Sister Thomas Marie were reading this, I am sure that she would shake her finger at me again and say, now Christine, you know we have learned about this already!  The feast is actually called “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.”  I suppose if I remembered that instead of the more commonly used name “All Soul’s Day” it would have been easier for me to remember that this was a day set apart to pray for our dead.  As I prepare my heart to attend a prayer service this evening to hear the name of my mother spoken, I got to thinking about all those souls who have no one to pray for them.  I thought of the homeless and children who die of hunger.  I thought of the disappeared and the prisoners of war.  Who will read their names this day to commemorate their life?  Who will speak for those souls who were never given the opportunity to be named?  Thinking of these souls make the prayer for the dead even more important to me.  “May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, rest in peace” takes on a deeper meaning for me when I think of “all the souls.”

I pray that each one of us remembers that every decision we make; every act of anger and every little act of kindness effects the life of another.  This afternoon we watched the movie “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.”  At the end of the movie, the narrator reminds us that “Each affects the other, and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.” (Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven)  May we share what makes our stories one ~ the love that God has for us!  May we strive to be saints!

Shalom,

Tina