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

Back to the Cold Weather

February 15, 2010

Peace and Good,

I am writing this in Southern Maryland where there is still snow on the ground (although it is melting fast).

Last week I was in El Cajon, California. The area has a remarkable number of appartments and trailor parks, so there is quite a high population density. The parish's name is Holy Trinity. It has a mix of Anglo, Hispanic, and Chaldean (Eastern Rite Catholics from Iraq).

I had worked with Chaldeans while I was in Rome. There were 2,000 of them there and they had fled persecution under Saddam Hussein. The United Nations High Commisioner for refugees in Rome was an Iraqi Muslim, so they were not categorized as refugees. They could not work, and at that particular moment, the United States had made it difficult for them to enter (because we were backing Iraq in their war against Iran). I worked with the Caritas International and the World Council of Churches to get them assistance and resettled. They were people who had suffered for the faith over centuries. There is a large population of them in California now, and more a coming in as they fear what will happen when the Americans pull out of Iraq.

Something comical happened to me on Ash Wednesday evening. I was doing my daily walk in the parking lot around 9 P.M. A car pulls up and a lady asks for ashes. I told her that everything was locked up. She signaled to me to give her some of the ashes on my forehead. I bent down, and she took some and put them on her own forehead. First time that has ever happened to me. I am sure that there is a homily in it somewhere (e.g. sharing what you have, doing penance along with others?).

My mission went until Thursday and then I flew back to Baltimore. Talk about a quick turnover. I arrived in my room around 9 P.M. and was getting in the car to drive 2 hours to the next site by 6:30 A.M.

I finished one book: Mornings in Florence by John Ruskin. He is a 19th century art critic. He has very strong opinions, but some incredibly beautiful insights. I really appreciate people who can look at a piece of a sculpture or a frescoe and speak of this and that so that they allow you to go beyond what is in front of your eyes. Florence is such a beautiful city, and this relatively short book presents itself as a walking tour of some of the sites for a six day period.

I forgot to tell you a story from the parish I visited the week before last. There is a Vietnamese priest there named Fr. Joe and he spoke to me of how he fled Vietnam when the Communists were taking over. He was walking a beach near his home with another priest (not dressed as a priest). The communists were only a short distance away. He did not have the money to seek a passage on one of the fishing boats that were going to take refugees out to the American boats. He starting speaking with the owner of a boat, and the owner just happened to say that when his father had fled from the Communists in North Vietnam in 54, he had a priest on board and everything had gone well. (He, himself, was not a Catholic.) He said he wished he had a priest to take on his boat now. Fr. Joe identified himself as a priest, showing him the official card identifying him as such. The man then asked Fr. Joe if he knew another priest because his brother was also taking out a boat. Fr. Joe said that the man he was walking with was another priest. Remember, there is no such thing as coincidence. Coincidence is God's way of acting anonymously.

Here is my coming schedule:

02/27/10 - 03/04/10 - St. Thomas More, Oceanside, CA 92056 p.o.c. Kathleen Bell (Parish Mission)

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

Better here than there

February 15, 2010

Peace and Good,

I'm still in San Diego, on the third week of a three week stint. This past week I have been listening to the weather channel almost non-stop and calling the friars to see how they were doing in Ellicott City. Their snow reminds me of the snows that I experienced growing up in Buffalo. In fact, the weather channel was using the comparison that there was more snow in Baltimore than in Buffalo. Incredible.

This past week I was at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Lakeside. This is on the east side of San Diego County, and it is a rural area with a lot of horse farms. Something about the area and the lake reminded me of Reno. (I often have these feeling as I am travelling from place to place.)

The theme of the mission was basic conversion, making Christ the center of our lives. Monday was spent talking about our addictions (attitudes, activities, possessions) that get us into trouble because they become too important for us. Tuesday was on the dignity to which Christ calls us, for we are given the responsibility to help transform the world in his image through our prayer and also we are called to serve the broken to show his love to them. Wednesday (which was the healing service), I talked about suffering. Thursday the theme was the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. There was a good crowd both in the morning and the evening.

I finished a series of CD's from the teaching company called the Classics of Russian Literature by Irwin Weil. This was 36 half-hour lectures. I have been listening to them as I take my daily walk (c. 45 minutes). The series was very good, and it introduced me to a whole different world of thought. I am in to Russian literature and history lately, and this gave me a great overview.

I also finished a book entitles The Activist: John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, and the Myth of Juridical Review by Lawrence Goldstone. We all know that the Supreme Court can declare a law unconstitutional. Yet, that power can not be found in the actual constitution. It comes from a decision made by the Supreme Court in its early years. The author explains how the decision came about in a difficult period of politics in America (the Federalists had been defeated and the Jeffersonians had taken power, the first transfer of power to another political party in America). We speak of activist judges, etc., yet even one of the most literal interpreters of the constitution, Judge Scalia, recognizes that the Supreme Court needed this power. It is a good study, although occasionally it gets a bit heavy with legal terms.

Here is my coming schedule:

02/20/10 - 02/25/10 - St. Aloysius, Leonardtown, MD 20650 p.o.c. Fr. John T. Drakes (Parish Mission)

02/27/10 - 03/04/10 - St. Thomas More, Oceanside, CA 92056 p.o.c. Kathleen Bell (Parish Mission)

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 Chapter)

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

God bless and
Shalom
fr. Jude

St. Gregory the Great: Award Winning Church

February 8, 2010

Peace and Good,

I am now in California. The first parish on this three week series in San Diego was St. Gregory the Great. It is an incredibly beautiful Church. It was awards for the magnificence of its church architecture. From the outside, it has a copper dome that reminds one of an Orthodox Church. The inside is filled with columns and lines that almost overwhelm one.

The missions was on the Gospel of Luke. I covered many of the major themes in the Gospel including compassion, prayer, discernment, forgiveness of sins, the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc.

On Saturday morning I had a session with the ministers in the parish. There was a tremendous turn out and I spoke on the psalms as forms of prayer for people involved in the ministry.

Once again, confessions were great. We had a healing service on Wednesday night that was well attended. I perform a semi-charismatic anointing. The people are seated, which means that no one is slain in the Spirit. I do this because I always found it distracting when people would fall down (both for me and for the people being anointed). People would begin to measure the value of the service by how many people fell, and if someone didn't fall, that person often felt cheated. This way it is quiet and peaceful.

I finished three books this week. The first was the House of the Seven Gables by Nathanael Hawthorne. Year ago, when I was a seminarian, we visited Salem and we saw a house that would have been similar to that which Hawthonre writes about. (It wasn't the exact house, for he, himself, writes that his idea was more of an amalgam than an actual house). I always wanted to read the story, but never got to it. I found Hawthonre's descriptions incredible. He can go on for pages speaking about the simplest thing. The book is about a family curse that carries down generations, and is only healed with love. I would recommend the book.

The second book was Nixon and Mao: The Week that Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan. It was about the break in the cold war front between China and the United States. The book was well written and gave all the necessary information to see all sides of the picture. The only difficulty is that it occasionally did not speak enough of the fact that Mao did evil, evil things. If you haven't done it yet and you have the stomach for it, it is worth reading an objective biography of him. Yet, the book gives great insights to both Nixon and Kissinger.

The third book was the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 by Jacob Gould Schurman. This is an obscure period, but these two war actually set up much of the difficulty that led to the First World War. The book was not especially well written, but it was informative.

This is my schedule for the next couple of months:

02/13/10 - 02/18/10 - Holy Trinity, El Cajon, CA 92019 p.o.c. Reverend Brian Hayes/Connie (Parish Mission)

02/20/10 - 02/25/10 - St. Aloysius, Leonardtown, MD 20650 p.o.c. Fr. John T. Drakes (Parish Mission)

02/27/10 - 03/04/10 - St. Thomas More, Oceanside, CA 92056 p.o.c. Kathleen Bell (Parish Mission)

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.

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude

Out to the West Coast

February 2, 2010

Feast of the Presentation: Candlemass Day

Peace and Good,

My mission in Plantation, Florida, went well. This was a large parish just to the north of Fort Lauderdale. The church is currently undergoing a massive renovation. The previous church had burned down, and they had built a replacement in a hurry a number of years ago. The present pastor decided that this was the time to renovate it so that it might better serve the needs of this large, diverse community.

These weeks, the confessions have been great. There have been a number of the "big fish," those who had not been to confession for a long, long time. It is such a blessing to be available for that.

The theme was "making Christ the center of our lives." I spoke of how our brokenness and sinfulness get in the way of following Christ. I also spoke of the incredible dignity to which God has called us, especially as we see in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

This week I am in San Diego, specifically Scripts Ranch.

I have not finished any books this week. Next week I should have a few completed. (I'm always reading several at a time, reading at least 10 pages in each every day.)

Lately, I have been reflecting about why some news programs are so difficult for me to watch. One of the things that I have noticed is that some of the reporters love to yell at the listener, as if that will make what they say more credible. It bothers me both because I do not appreciate being "talked down to," and also the aspects of demagoguery that seem to be involved. This complaint hits both sides of the political spectrum. I have to keep praying on it so that I can find more peace in this turbulent environment.

Here is my schedule for the next weeks.

02/06/10 - 02/11/10: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Lakeside, CA - Parish Mission

02/13/10 - 02/18/10: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, El Cajon, CA - Parish Mission

02/20/10 - 02/25/10: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown, MD - Parish Mission

02/27/10 - 03/04/10: St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Oceanside, CA - Parish Mission

03/06/10 - 03/10/10: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, Harborcreek, PA - Parish Mission

03/13/10 - 03/17/10: St. Joseph Catholic Church, Pomfret, MD - Parish Mission

03/20/10 - 03/25/10: St. Lucie Catholic Church, Port St. Lucie, FL - Parish Mission

03/29/10: Walter Reed Army Medical Center - Noon Mass & Talk

03/30/10: St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD - Knights of Columbus Talk "The Passion Narratives"

God bless and

Shalom

fr. Jude

West Florida to the East Coast

January 25, 2010

The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Peace and Good,

I had a mission this past week in St. Joan of Arc Parish in Spring Hill, Florida (about 45 miles north of Tampa). It is a medium sized parish and most of the parishioners are retired. The mission centered on the Gospel of Luke. We had an excellent turn out all week, and the confessions were especially moving.

Most of my extra work these past couple of weeks has been catching up on the daily reflections. I have finished up to the end of February, so I can go back to a couple of my writing projects.

I finished two books in this period. One was a biography of Leo Tolstoy by Henri Troyat. The biography was very, very long (as fits Tolstoy whose novels go on forever). They say that he was almost like God, because he created and peopled an entire world in each of the books that he had written. Troyat is a French scholar, and the book was extremely well done. The only problem is that it does not especially make you like Tolstoy. He had wonderful ideas of pacifism and non-exploitation of the poor, but he was also incredibly judgmental. He and his wife had a very stormy relationship. He died, in fact, when he was running away from home. In his younger years, he made all sorts of resolutions and didn't keep a one of them. They say that in his books his characters show the various dimensions of ideas and show the positive and negative throughout their lives. His characters are very similar to what he is.

The second book that I finished was a biography of Alexander II of Russia by Edvard Radzinsky. Right now I'm on a bit of a Russian kick. This was the czar who liberated the serfs (who were often treated as little better than slaves). He was assassinated by anarchists who prefigured the characters of the Russian revolution. Again, the book was very, very well written, presenting and insight both into Alexander and into the minds of the revolutionaries.

Here is a copy of my calendar for the next couple of months:

01/30/10 - 02/04/10: St. Gregory, the Great Catholic Church, San Diego, CA - Parish Mission

02/06/10 - 02/11/10: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Lakeside, CA - Parish Mission

02/13/10 - 02/18/10: Holy Trinity Catholic Church, El Cajon, CA - Parish Mission

02/20/10 - 02/25/10: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, Leonardtown, MD - Parish Mission

02/27/10 - 03/04/10: St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Oceanside, CA - Parish Mission

03/06/10 - 03/10/10: Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church, Harborcreek, PA - Parish Mission

03/13/10 - 03/17/10: St. Joseph Catholic Church, Pomfret, MD - Parish Mission

03/20/10 - 03/25/10: St. Lucie Catholic Church, Port St. Lucie, FL - Parish Mission

03/29/10: Walter Reed Army Medical Center - Noon Mass & Talk

03/30/10: St. Louis Catholic Church, Clarksville, MD - Knights of Columbus Talk "The Passion Narratives"

God bless and
Shalom

fr. Jude