Port St. Lucie, FL

March 29, 2010

Peace and Good,

Last week saw me preaching in one of the friars' parishes in Port St. Lucie, Florida. It was great to see how loved the friars are there. We have a good, warm team of men who have done great things with the people there.

I drove down (two day ride). I love driving, both because the time in the van gives me a bit of time to myself, and I can listen to books on tape of the way there and back.

I was very impressed by the confessions on Saturday afternoon (three friars, or in this case four of us, from 2:30 until Mass time at 4:00). To me, that is a sign of a good parish, people regularly going to confession. They also piled in when I offered it every afternoon of the mission as well as Thursday when we had two penance services with multiple confessors.

One other thing that truly impressed me is that all Masses, services, talks, etc. are streaming onto the internet site for the parish. This was set up a few years ago, and it makes services available to the sick, funerals and weddings available to distant relatives, talks available to all. The initial set up is a bit expensive, but the monthly fee is about $150, which is really not all that bad. What a service to the parish and the larger Church.

I finished two books. One was a free book that I read for fun. You might notice that most of the books that I read are history or some other deeper topic. Once in a while I just read something to relax. This was one of those free books on my Kindle (e book). It is Already Dead by Charlie Huston. It has everything: vampires, zombies, New York gangs, etc. It was quite well written.

The other book was a CD set: The Messenger by Daniel Silva. Once again, it had everything: terrorist plots, the Mossad, the Vatican, art lovers, etc. It was once of those books that you listen to while you drive, and you find yourself sorry to have arrived at your destination.

I would like to ask a prayer for one of our friars who passed away recently: Fr. Bernard Prczywozny (sp?). He was one of my professors, and he was a gifted teacher. Yet, these last few years were not kind to him, and he suffered from dementia of some form. It was so sad to see him incoherent when he was so brilliant.

The following is my schedule for the next few months:

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

Historic Southern Maryland

March 23, 2010

Peace and Good,

This past week I preached a mission at St. Joseph Parish in Pomfret, Maryland. This parish is preparing for its 250th anniversary in a couple of years. (Remember, it was just a few weeks ago when I preached at a parish in Leonardtown which was celebrating its 300th anniversary).

The mission went from Sunday night to Tuesday night. Sunday the theme was the Book of Revelation and the end of the world. Monday the theme was how to live out faith in our families. Tuesday the theme was our traditions and how they help us to live our faith.

This is a small parish, but there was a great turn out. Many good confessions as well.

I finished a book called The Sisters of Henry VIII: Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France by Maria Perry. What information it had about the sisters was very good, but Henry VIII was such a powerful personality that much of the book was about him with a bit thrown it about his sisters when it was appropriate. The difficulty of a book like this is that they throw out names assuming that you can keep a hundred or so of them straight, which is not always all that easy.

I finished two good CD series. The first was the Lazarus Vendetta by John Ludlum. It is about nanotechnology (creating machines that are the size of a couple of atoms). It was based on the idea of an ecological group that had terrorist tendencies (and a subsidiary plot by the CIA and the FBI). Ludlum always knows how to write a book that is exciting and interesting.

The second one was You've Been Warned by James Patterson. Patterson writes a good murder mystery, but this one had spiritual dimensions. What are the consequences of one's bad actions? What would Hell really be like? etc. It was a good spin.

Here is my schedule for the next months.

03/29/10 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. p.o.c. Kathleen Noel (Talk)

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

God bless and

Shalom,

fr. Jude

Back to the Snow

March 15, 2010

Peace and Good,

After getting back from San Diego, I drove up to Erie, PA. All of the Baltimore snow had melted in the week while I was out in San Diego, but there was still a lot of snow on the ground when I arrived in Erie.

This was my second time at Our Lady of Mercy Parish which is on the east side of Erie in Harborcreek, PA. This time the theme was the Holy Spirit. Sunday I spoke of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, Monday the Holy Spirit in the Gospels, Tuesday the Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul, and Wednesday the Holy Spirit building up the Church (for this was the tenth anniversary of the new parish church building).

The community is very warm and there is a family atmosphere that impressed me. The music is very well done and really adds to the liturgy. The snow even melted as it was time to leave and drive back to Baltimore.

One of the evenings one of the parishioners challenged me a little. I had given a couple of examples about teenagers, using my usual sense of humor. He asked whether it might be a bit of age-ism. At first I thought that it wasn't because I make jibes at every age, trying to get us to laugh at ourselves. But then I prayed more upon it and, as always, there might have been a little truth in what that person said. It is so easy to speak about others by objectifying them, making them an object of humor instead of respect. I apologize to whomever I might have done that in the past.

One of the things on TV really upset me this week. Glen Beck spoke about checking out whether one's church preaches social justice and, if it did, leaving that church. Social justice has been our Catholic teaching for the past 130 years. It is what Jesus spoke about when he told the stories of the poor Lazarus, the sheep and the goats, etc. This is one instance where we have to challenge ourselves in our political position and ask whether politics or our faith is more important. (Obviously, this is just as true for the opposite end of the political spectrum which rejects the values of life and proposes moral teachings that are unacceptable.) Somehow, we have to ratchet back a bit the polemics in our political dialog and find common ground, otherwise we will tear each other apart.

I finished listening to two CD sets and reading one book this week. The first CD set was a course of 12 lessons from the Teaching Company on the Late Middle Ages by Philip Daileador. I love history, so it was a great presentation for me. This was a period of great changes in the world and the Church. Listening to presentations like this always give me more raw material to make part of the picture.

The second series of CD's was Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. Kiedis is the lead singer for the Red Hot Chilly Peppers, a rock group. Their music is very original, and I like them as a group. This was Kiedis' autobiography. Talk about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He was on drugs from his earliest days, led there by the example of the dissolute life style of his father (a wantabe actor). The way he treats women and the way he talks about sex is really sad. He is a user of people. But when he speaks about drugs and how he all but destroyed his life is a true life lesson. HE spoke of how one cannot force another to give up the drugs. The best way to draw others to sobriety is by living one's own conversion. As I listened to his presentation, I realized that this is true of religion also. One cannot force conversion, one can only invite others, and the best invitation is a life of authentic holiness.

The book I finished was the first volume of the Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. It is similar to the memoirs of Grant that I read a few months ago, but it does have its own spin. The only problem with the presentation is that Sherman fills it out with letters and reports and telegrams that he had in his archives, thus sometimes treating the same incident several times. I believe there are three volumes to this memoir. The first one went from his birth to just before he enters Georgia in the Spring of 1864 (remember, this is when he made his famous march to the Sea, burning everything from Atlanta to Savanna).

Hope Lent is going well.

Shalom

fr. Jude

Here is my coming schedule:

03/19/10 - 03/25/10 - St. Lucie, Port St. Lucie, FL 34983 p.o.c. Fr. Mark Szanyi (Parish Mission)

03/29/10 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. p.o.c. Kathleen Noel (Talk)

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

07/19/10 - 07/23/10 - St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Br. Paschal (Novice Retreat)

07/24/10 - 07/31/10 - Catholic Community of Chataqua, Chataqua, NY 14722 p.o.c. Ellie Lesser (Priest-in-Residence)

08/05/10 - 08/15/10 - Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Kerry, OH p.o.c. Br. Jeffrey Hines (Novena)

Last week on the West Coast

March 9, 2010

Peace and Good,

I passed the past week giving a parish mission in St. Thomas More Parish in Oceanside, CA. This is a medium side parish which is preparing to build a Church. They are now using a room that is a gym/auditorium but they have decorated it quite well. It makes a great worship space.

The theme of the mission was Gospel life. The four evening talks were on the Gospels, with the last evening a presentation on Luke as part of the parish penitential service. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning I spoke about the heroes of the faith: St. Paul, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Peter. There was a great turnout for all of the talks.

They have a great practice there. I like to notice the different things that they do in various parishes to share the ideas with others. I noticed that in the prayer of the faithful they remembered the thirty day and one year reminders of the death of parishioners. It was such a nice thing to do - to remind the community that the deceased are still one with us.

I finished one short book, a novella, this week. It was a free offering from my kindle, sort of an advertisement for the author's works. His free book was The Hunters by Jason Pinter. It was a good read, a detective/journalist book. His writing is good enough to make we want to read other works written by him.

Here is my calendar for the next several months:

03/13/10 - 03/17/10 - St. Joseph, Pomfret, MD 20675 p.o.c. Fr. Mark Smith/Ron Weaver (Parish Mission)

03/19/10 - 03/25/10 - St. Lucie, Port St. Lucie, FL 34983 p.o.c. Fr. Mark Szanyi (Parish Mission)

03/29/10 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. p.o.c. Kathleen Noel (Talk)

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

07/04/10 - 07/10/10 - St. Francis Convent, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Sr. M. Dorothy

07/11/10 - 07/18/10 - Quellen Spiritual Center, Mendham, NJ 07945 p.o.c. Sr. Teresa Marie (Sisters' Retreat)

07/19/10 - 07/23/10 - St. Francis of Assisi Friary, Mishawaka, IN 46546 p.o.c. Br. Paschal (Novice Retreat)

07/24/10 - 07/31/10 - Catholic Community of Chataqua, Chataqua, NY 14722 p.o.c. Ellie Lesser (Priest-in-Residence)

08/05/10 - 08/15/10 - Our Lady of Consolation Shrine, Kerry, OH p.o.c. Br. Jeffrey Hines (Novena)

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude

Back to California

March 1, 2010

Peace and Good,

Well, it's back to California for the last time this season. The rest of my Spring will be on the east coast and then in England and Ghana.

I was in a parish in Southern Maryland this past week: St. Aloysius. They are celebrating their 300th anniversary as a parish. Isn't that incredible. They date back all the way back to colonial times. Many of the parishes in that part of Maryland were founded and staffed by the Jesuits for many, many years. Their work there is truly appreciated.

Southern Maryland is so different from the area around the friary in Ellicott City. There it is more northern, transplants from various eastern states who moved there for work. Southern Maryland there is more tradition, an older feel. The accent is noticeably southern.

The theme of the mission was the Eucharist as a way of looking at the 300th anniversary to celebrate the past, take stock of the present, and prepare for the future. There was a good turn out, and the weather cooperated this past week (which is good considering the winter they have been getting there this winter). I enjoyed my stay there, and the people and staff were most welcoming. The parish is in Leonardtown, and given that it is so far out of the city, there is quite a bit there to see and visit. Some great restaurants, and a great used book shop, etc.

Friday morning I was supposed to fly back to the west coast, but my flight was cancelled the night before because of an impending storm (Southwest gave be great warning so I could rebook my ticket from home and not show up at the airport and find out in the morning). I ended up taking the late afternoon flight, so I got in later on Friday and have been fighting jet lag ever since (with as much as I travel, I am still subject to terrible jet lag).

I have finished three books this week. The first was a biography of Catherine the Great of Russia by Henri Troyat. You might remember that I read a biography of Tolstoy by the same author. I very much like his style. Catherine was an interesting character. A reformer in so many ways, but also an autocrat and at times a tyrant. She wasn't even Russian, for she had married into the royal family. She was a German princess, but she worked to become truly Russian.

A second book was a biography of Pope John XXIII by Thomas Cahill, the author of How the Irish saved Civilization. I love John XXIII, but the biography was a bit painful. Cahill has such an ax to grind against the Church that he spends the first third of the book just outlining what he considers to be mostly bad popes. You want to say to him give it a break, just tell the story of this extraordinary character. What he does tell of him only make one want to know more about him.

The third book was one I read on my kindle: The Sea Wolf by Jack London. I had never read any of his works. This is a story of a dandy in San Francisco who, by accident, ends up on a ship that hunts seals. The captain is an interesting figure. In some ways, he is a great thinker, but in other ways he is a brutal animal. It asks the age old question of how one opposes bullies and evil people. There is a bit of a love story at the end, after the man finds himself and learns how to survive the ravages of nature and the danger of the captain. It was a good read.

You might have noticed that the web site has been remodeled. Congrats to Joe Hamilton, the head of our development office. He did a great job. My calendar will be on the web calendar in the future.

Here are my next sites:

03/06/10 - 03/10/10 - Our Lady of Mercy, Harborcreek, PA 16421 p.o.c. Rev. Gerald Ritchie/Donna Clark (Parish Mission)

03/13/10 - 03/17/10 - St. Joseph, Pomfret, MD 20675 p.o.c. Fr. Mark Smith/Ron Weaver (Parish Mission)

03/19/10 - 03/25/10 - St. Lucie, Port St. Lucie, FL 34983 p.o.c. Fr. Mark Szanyi (Parish Mission)

03/29/10 - Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. p.o.c. Kathleen Noel (Talk)

03/30/10 - St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD p.o.c. Mike Leumas (Knights of Columbus Talk)

04/01/10 - 04/04/10 - Bon Secours Retreat Center, Marriottsville, MD p.o.c. Lynn Lieberman (Triduum Retreat)

04/05/10 - 04/10/10 - Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, Hamburg, NY 14075 p.o.c. Sr. Joyce Kubiniec (Retreat)

04/11/10 - 04/16/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

04/17/10 - 06/12/10 - International House of Franciscan Studies, Canterbury, England, U.K.

06/13/10 - 06/18/10 - Hyatt Regency Hotel, Hamburg, NY (Provincial Retreat)

06/19/10 - 07/01/10 - St. Victor's Major Seminary, Tamale, Ghana, West Africa p.o.c. Fr. David Azambawu(Seminarian Retreat)

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude