August 31, 2006
Dear Friend,
Do you know what the world's safest place is? It isn’t riding in automobiles because they are responsible since 20% of all fatal accidents. It isn’t at home because 17% of all accidents occur in the home. It isn’t walking on the road or sidewalks because 14% of all accidents occur to pedestrians. No it’s not traveling by air, rail, or water; 16% of all accidents involve these forms of transportation. Of the remaining 33%, 32% of all deaths occur in hospitals. So, above all places, avoid hospitals.
However, you will be pleased to learn that only .001% of all deaths occur in worship services in church, and these are usually related to previous physical disorders!
Therefore, logic tells us that the safest place for you to be at any given point in time is at church! And reading and studying the Bible is safe too. The percentage of deaths during Bible study is even less.
So for safety’s, attend church and read your Bible. It could save your life!
By way of information, I will be away on Summer Break This Weekend. On the weekend of September 10th a video to introduce “Why Catholic?” – a program in Adult Religious Education will be shown after the Gospel followed by with in-pew sign-ups. The homily will return on September 17, 2006.
Your next letter and message will be emailed to you personally or posted to the homepage (www.olgrace.com) or my personal blog (frnickamato@blogspot.com) on Thursday, September 14, 2006.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Weekly THIS AND THAT for September 3, 2006: A Blogging Church -- Ways to Reach New and Younger Audiences
This and That:
A Blogging Church – Ways to Reach New and Younger Audiences
It all began years ago with Ed Mullin, our parish Webmaster, suggesting that since I produce a bulletin note of some length and write out my homilies that I put them up on the parish homepage each week for others to see. It was a great idea and that was four years ago. The effort has paid dividends. I now have about 300 families receiving the weekly message, “This and That” bulletin column, and homily. Earlier this summer, I realized that it was time to move to another level of cyberspace pastoring – the blog!
Many have commented that each of the three items on the homepage – and which are emailed automatically to 300 others each week – differ both in content and appeal. The Weekly Message is generally something that’s going on at Our Lady of Grace or within the Church at large. The “This and That” is more of a reflection on current events, humor (one out of four to keep folks reading), homespun philosophy, or stories that make a salient point. So why not get this weekly material onto my own blog and disseminate it even more?
Blogs are very personal and interactive sites where anyone can say anything (almost anything, they are self-supervised for offensive material). I am looking forward to this new ministry where I can share our faith with a much wider community. Who knows where it will go? I say that realizing that one of our parishioners down loads the audio homily files from our parish homepage and plays them in his car on the way to work! And while I’m flattered, I’m also amazed at the communication potential for spreading the Word of God via the Internet.
It seems that as a pastor I need to be looking at connecting people using the same formats that they use so readily. Blogging seems to be a way of relating and sharing information that our youth find very appealing. Given the low Mass attendance we see in our parishes, it only makes sense to employ the new technology of the young – blogging. What a great way to get folks to begin thinking about their faith and perhaps taking it more seriously.
I recently read of pastor in Washington, D.C. who spends up to 20 percent of his day updating his blog. He used to think that blogging supplemented his weekly message to his congregation. By the very fact that his blog draws some 25,000 visitors a month, it really may be the other way around. Think of the potential for getting the message of Jesus out to folks! One wonders why a parish like Our Lady of Grace, with so many younger members, children at college, and young adults, would not get into blogging?
Did you know that every single day 75,000 new blogs are created by folks from all walks of life? What is different is that as a “blogging pastor,” who is willing to share a great deal of his daily life and ministry with the world, so to speak, does reflect a shift in the relationship people expect to have with their priest. At the moment, I’m waiting for a book to be published called “The Blogging Church” by Brian Bailey. It is about how churches can use the medium to reach out to their members. When you think about it, blogs provide a unique opportunity for people to feel more invested in their Church, even if the pastor does not have time for a face-to-face meeting. Blogging affords people the opportunity of interacting in a public forum around a homily or bulletin note that struck them in some way and to hear what others thought about it, as well as to have the preacher who wrote about it participate in the discussion in a very direct way. It can also keep folks up-to-date on a day-to-day basic with photos of a project of concern that may be of interest to those visiting the site.
In a nutshell, as I see it, pastoral blogging is about having an interactive forum for issues of faith and religion and to get people thinking about both on a daily basis and sometimes in untraditional ways. There is no question that there is still something in our secular culture that recognizes the role of a spiritual leader and blogging may be the technology to make that happen. My hope is that my blog will not only be a professional, but also a personal way, for me to interact with others. There no doubt that it can also serve as a portal connecting inquirers or participants to formal Church structures such as a parish and the ministries, programs, and services that are available at the parish website.
Unlike preaching from the sanctuary, virtual preaching allows pastor-bloggers to reach people from all over the world. How times have changed from the early years of Catholicism in Southern Maryland when preachers, especially Jesuit missionaries, road up and down that part of Maryland at 10-mile mission outposts preaching the Word and then moving on to the next mission.
I would invite you to visit my new blog at http://frnickamato.blogspot.com. At the end of the page there is a place to leave comments regarding anything you have read or anything you might like to say.
A Blogging Church – Ways to Reach New and Younger Audiences
It all began years ago with Ed Mullin, our parish Webmaster, suggesting that since I produce a bulletin note of some length and write out my homilies that I put them up on the parish homepage each week for others to see. It was a great idea and that was four years ago. The effort has paid dividends. I now have about 300 families receiving the weekly message, “This and That” bulletin column, and homily. Earlier this summer, I realized that it was time to move to another level of cyberspace pastoring – the blog!
Many have commented that each of the three items on the homepage – and which are emailed automatically to 300 others each week – differ both in content and appeal. The Weekly Message is generally something that’s going on at Our Lady of Grace or within the Church at large. The “This and That” is more of a reflection on current events, humor (one out of four to keep folks reading), homespun philosophy, or stories that make a salient point. So why not get this weekly material onto my own blog and disseminate it even more?
Blogs are very personal and interactive sites where anyone can say anything (almost anything, they are self-supervised for offensive material). I am looking forward to this new ministry where I can share our faith with a much wider community. Who knows where it will go? I say that realizing that one of our parishioners down loads the audio homily files from our parish homepage and plays them in his car on the way to work! And while I’m flattered, I’m also amazed at the communication potential for spreading the Word of God via the Internet.
It seems that as a pastor I need to be looking at connecting people using the same formats that they use so readily. Blogging seems to be a way of relating and sharing information that our youth find very appealing. Given the low Mass attendance we see in our parishes, it only makes sense to employ the new technology of the young – blogging. What a great way to get folks to begin thinking about their faith and perhaps taking it more seriously.
I recently read of pastor in Washington, D.C. who spends up to 20 percent of his day updating his blog. He used to think that blogging supplemented his weekly message to his congregation. By the very fact that his blog draws some 25,000 visitors a month, it really may be the other way around. Think of the potential for getting the message of Jesus out to folks! One wonders why a parish like Our Lady of Grace, with so many younger members, children at college, and young adults, would not get into blogging?
Did you know that every single day 75,000 new blogs are created by folks from all walks of life? What is different is that as a “blogging pastor,” who is willing to share a great deal of his daily life and ministry with the world, so to speak, does reflect a shift in the relationship people expect to have with their priest. At the moment, I’m waiting for a book to be published called “The Blogging Church” by Brian Bailey. It is about how churches can use the medium to reach out to their members. When you think about it, blogs provide a unique opportunity for people to feel more invested in their Church, even if the pastor does not have time for a face-to-face meeting. Blogging affords people the opportunity of interacting in a public forum around a homily or bulletin note that struck them in some way and to hear what others thought about it, as well as to have the preacher who wrote about it participate in the discussion in a very direct way. It can also keep folks up-to-date on a day-to-day basic with photos of a project of concern that may be of interest to those visiting the site.
In a nutshell, as I see it, pastoral blogging is about having an interactive forum for issues of faith and religion and to get people thinking about both on a daily basis and sometimes in untraditional ways. There is no question that there is still something in our secular culture that recognizes the role of a spiritual leader and blogging may be the technology to make that happen. My hope is that my blog will not only be a professional, but also a personal way, for me to interact with others. There no doubt that it can also serve as a portal connecting inquirers or participants to formal Church structures such as a parish and the ministries, programs, and services that are available at the parish website.
Unlike preaching from the sanctuary, virtual preaching allows pastor-bloggers to reach people from all over the world. How times have changed from the early years of Catholicism in Southern Maryland when preachers, especially Jesuit missionaries, road up and down that part of Maryland at 10-mile mission outposts preaching the Word and then moving on to the next mission.
I would invite you to visit my new blog at http://frnickamato.blogspot.com. At the end of the page there is a place to leave comments regarding anything you have read or anything you might like to say.
Weekly HOMILY for September 3, 2006: Away on Summer Break
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
September 3, 2006
Father Nick is Away on Summer Break This Weekend.
On the Weekend of September 10th a Video to Introduce “Why Catholic?” Will Be Shown with In-Pew Sign-Ups.
The Homily Will Return on September 17, 2006
Our Lady of Grace
September 3, 2006
Father Nick is Away on Summer Break This Weekend.
On the Weekend of September 10th a Video to Introduce “Why Catholic?” Will Be Shown with In-Pew Sign-Ups.
The Homily Will Return on September 17, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Weekly MESSAGE for August 27, 2006: What Makes a Place Holy?
August 24, 2006
Dear Friend,
What makes a place holy? Better yet, where is the holiest place you’ve ever been?
I began to scan my memory bank for the churches, cathedrals, and chapels that I have visited or worshipped in over the recent past and began thinking of St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the chapel of the Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, New Mexico where I made my retreat this past summer.
Then a very startling surprise came to me. I thought of my centering prayer and reading of the Divine Office this every morning on the side deck. Sitting cross-legged facing the rising sun, with the sounds of katydids, grasshoppers, and crickets waxing and waning as a wildlife chorus. (When I looked up the spelling of “katydid” I learned that the three are related and are called the “Singing Insects of North America.”)
The surprise is that it was none of the places of worship where I felt closest to God, but an experience of early morning prayer with myself before the Divine Presence and communicating through silence and psalm. What I remember, now that the moment has passed, is melting into the morning sun and sounds, being embraced by God and feeling a sense of awe and peace.
What a holy place indeed! And the joy of it all is that it’s there for the taking, anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Dear Friend,
What makes a place holy? Better yet, where is the holiest place you’ve ever been?
I began to scan my memory bank for the churches, cathedrals, and chapels that I have visited or worshipped in over the recent past and began thinking of St. Peters Basilica in Rome, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the chapel of the Benedictine Monastery in Pecos, New Mexico where I made my retreat this past summer.
Then a very startling surprise came to me. I thought of my centering prayer and reading of the Divine Office this every morning on the side deck. Sitting cross-legged facing the rising sun, with the sounds of katydids, grasshoppers, and crickets waxing and waning as a wildlife chorus. (When I looked up the spelling of “katydid” I learned that the three are related and are called the “Singing Insects of North America.”)
The surprise is that it was none of the places of worship where I felt closest to God, but an experience of early morning prayer with myself before the Divine Presence and communicating through silence and psalm. What I remember, now that the moment has passed, is melting into the morning sun and sounds, being embraced by God and feeling a sense of awe and peace.
What a holy place indeed! And the joy of it all is that it’s there for the taking, anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Weekly THIS & THAT for August 27, 2006:Bob Hope -- A Comedian Who Made a Difference
This and That:
Bob Hope: A Comedian Who Made a Difference
Last month we celebrated the third anniversary of Bob Hope’s death. He was truly one of a kind, for all kinds. I ran across the following little tribute of him.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Bob Hope
May 29, 1903 - July 27, 2003
ON TURNING 70
“You still chase women, but only downhill.”
ON TURNING 80
“That’s the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing.”
ON TURNING 90
“You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”
ON TURNING 100
“I don’t feel old. In fact I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.”
ON GIVING UP HIS EARLY CAREER, BOXING
“I ruined my hands in the ring ...
the referee kept stepping on them.”
ON SAILORS
“They spend the first six days of each week sowing their wild oats, then they go to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure”
ON NEVER WINNING AN OSCAR
“Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as it’s called at my home, ‘Passover’.”
ON GOLF
“Golf is my profession. Show business is just to pay the green fees.”
ON PRESIDENTS
“I have performed for 12 presidents and entertained only six.”
ON WHY HE CHOSE SHOWBIZ FOR HIS CAREER
“When I was born, the doctor said to my mother, ‘Congratulations. You have an eight-pound ham.’“
ON RECEIVING THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL
“I feel very humble, but I think I have the strength of character to fight it.”
ON HIS FAMILY’S EARLY POVERTY
“Four of us slept in the one bed. When it got cold, mother threw on another brother.”
ON HIS SIX BROTHERS
“That’s how I learned to dance. Waiting for the bathroom.”
ON HIS EARLY FAILURES “ I would not have had anything to eat if it wasn’t for the stuff the audience threw at me.”
ON GOING TO HEAVEN
“I’ve done benefits for ALL religions. I’d hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.
Bob Hope: A Comedian Who Made a Difference
Last month we celebrated the third anniversary of Bob Hope’s death. He was truly one of a kind, for all kinds. I ran across the following little tribute of him.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Bob Hope
May 29, 1903 - July 27, 2003
ON TURNING 70
“You still chase women, but only downhill.”
ON TURNING 80
“That’s the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing.”
ON TURNING 90
“You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”
ON TURNING 100
“I don’t feel old. In fact I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.”
ON GIVING UP HIS EARLY CAREER, BOXING
“I ruined my hands in the ring ...
the referee kept stepping on them.”
ON SAILORS
“They spend the first six days of each week sowing their wild oats, then they go to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure”
ON NEVER WINNING AN OSCAR
“Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as it’s called at my home, ‘Passover’.”
ON GOLF
“Golf is my profession. Show business is just to pay the green fees.”
ON PRESIDENTS
“I have performed for 12 presidents and entertained only six.”
ON WHY HE CHOSE SHOWBIZ FOR HIS CAREER
“When I was born, the doctor said to my mother, ‘Congratulations. You have an eight-pound ham.’“
ON RECEIVING THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL
“I feel very humble, but I think I have the strength of character to fight it.”
ON HIS FAMILY’S EARLY POVERTY
“Four of us slept in the one bed. When it got cold, mother threw on another brother.”
ON HIS SIX BROTHERS
“That’s how I learned to dance. Waiting for the bathroom.”
ON HIS EARLY FAILURES “ I would not have had anything to eat if it wasn’t for the stuff the audience threw at me.”
ON GOING TO HEAVEN
“I’ve done benefits for ALL religions. I’d hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Weekly HOMILY for August 27, 2006: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
August 27, 2006
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Choices
Most of us have heard of the folk singer Joan Baez. Her songs were most popular in the 1960s and ‘70s, but she remains active and a well-known personality today.
Joan Baez once said this. “You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Right now.”
In a similar fashion, a Spanish philosopher named Jose Ortega y Gasset said this: “Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”
And then, I came across a statement in a Catholic publication by a young man named Graham who is suffering with HIV-AIDS. He says, “AIDS presents me with a choice, either to be a hopeless victim or to make my life right now what it always ought to have been.”
The Choice in Scripture
These three folks – Joan Baez, Jose Ortega and Graham – all understand the need and importance of choice.
They know we need to make a choice about our lives and we need to make choices every day. They know that these choices are important.
The Word of God today presents us with the very same reality.
In the first reading, Joshua challenges the people of Israel to make a choice.
Apparently, they have grown too self-reliant and are wavering in their service of God. And so Joshua asks them flat out: “Will you continue to serve the Lord God or not?”
In the Gospel, Jesus’ followers are finding some of his teachings difficult to accept. And so, he too asks them to make a choice: “Do you want to stay with me or leave me?”
So, choice – the need and importance of making choices each day about our lives – this is the issue facing us today.
Reflecting on this through the past week, I came to see that there are three levels or types of choices that we are constantly needing to make.
Three Choices
First, we need to make what I call a fundamental choice. Do I choose to believe that there is a God?
Do I choose to believe that Jesus is God’s Son? Do I choose to believe that Jesus reveals to me who God is and also who I am to become as a person and how I am to live?
This choice is fundamental because it is the base, the platform on which I stand and on which the rest of life depends and for this reason it is the most important of choices.
It determines whether I see myself as alone in this world or as coming from God and someday returning to God.
This fundamental choice also determines, as Joan Baez says, “How we are going to live now.” Needless to say, this most fundamental choice is crucial.
Second, there are what I call the everyday choices. These are choices that should follow from our fundamental choice about God and Jesus.
These are everyday choices about right or wrong, good or bad.
So, a child needs to choose whether to tell the truth or to lie when his parents ask if he hit his little sister.
Teenagers need to choose whether to hang out with peers who are into drugs or to look for another group of friends.
We adults need to choose whether to spend our money on things we do not really need or to give a bit more to those in need.
As the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gassett says, “Life is a constant process of these choices.” They too are crucial in shaping who we will be in the long run of life.
And third, there are what I call crisis choices.
Maybe we have lost our job, or a child or grandchild has died before her time, or we disagree with some part of our faith or religion.
These moments can be a real crisis in life. And the choice is: “Do we still believe in and follow the Lord or not?
Will we give up and finally abandon faith? Or do we make our own the words of Peter in today’s Gospel: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Will we still entrust ourselves to the mystery of God? Will we still cast out lot with Jesus even though we do not and cannot fully understand?
Conclusion
So, choice – the need and importance of choosing everyday – that is the issue placed before us.
We can make a fundamental choice, an everyday choice, and a crisis choice for God or not for God.
The decision is ours.
Our Lady of Grace
August 27, 2006
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Choices
Most of us have heard of the folk singer Joan Baez. Her songs were most popular in the 1960s and ‘70s, but she remains active and a well-known personality today.
Joan Baez once said this. “You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Right now.”
In a similar fashion, a Spanish philosopher named Jose Ortega y Gasset said this: “Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do.”
And then, I came across a statement in a Catholic publication by a young man named Graham who is suffering with HIV-AIDS. He says, “AIDS presents me with a choice, either to be a hopeless victim or to make my life right now what it always ought to have been.”
The Choice in Scripture
These three folks – Joan Baez, Jose Ortega and Graham – all understand the need and importance of choice.
They know we need to make a choice about our lives and we need to make choices every day. They know that these choices are important.
The Word of God today presents us with the very same reality.
In the first reading, Joshua challenges the people of Israel to make a choice.
Apparently, they have grown too self-reliant and are wavering in their service of God. And so Joshua asks them flat out: “Will you continue to serve the Lord God or not?”
In the Gospel, Jesus’ followers are finding some of his teachings difficult to accept. And so, he too asks them to make a choice: “Do you want to stay with me or leave me?”
So, choice – the need and importance of making choices each day about our lives – this is the issue facing us today.
Reflecting on this through the past week, I came to see that there are three levels or types of choices that we are constantly needing to make.
Three Choices
First, we need to make what I call a fundamental choice. Do I choose to believe that there is a God?
Do I choose to believe that Jesus is God’s Son? Do I choose to believe that Jesus reveals to me who God is and also who I am to become as a person and how I am to live?
This choice is fundamental because it is the base, the platform on which I stand and on which the rest of life depends and for this reason it is the most important of choices.
It determines whether I see myself as alone in this world or as coming from God and someday returning to God.
This fundamental choice also determines, as Joan Baez says, “How we are going to live now.” Needless to say, this most fundamental choice is crucial.
Second, there are what I call the everyday choices. These are choices that should follow from our fundamental choice about God and Jesus.
These are everyday choices about right or wrong, good or bad.
So, a child needs to choose whether to tell the truth or to lie when his parents ask if he hit his little sister.
Teenagers need to choose whether to hang out with peers who are into drugs or to look for another group of friends.
We adults need to choose whether to spend our money on things we do not really need or to give a bit more to those in need.
As the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gassett says, “Life is a constant process of these choices.” They too are crucial in shaping who we will be in the long run of life.
And third, there are what I call crisis choices.
Maybe we have lost our job, or a child or grandchild has died before her time, or we disagree with some part of our faith or religion.
These moments can be a real crisis in life. And the choice is: “Do we still believe in and follow the Lord or not?
Will we give up and finally abandon faith? Or do we make our own the words of Peter in today’s Gospel: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Will we still entrust ourselves to the mystery of God? Will we still cast out lot with Jesus even though we do not and cannot fully understand?
Conclusion
So, choice – the need and importance of choosing everyday – that is the issue placed before us.
We can make a fundamental choice, an everyday choice, and a crisis choice for God or not for God.
The decision is ours.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Weekly MESSAGE for September 20, 2006: The Catholic Church and Navel Gazing
August 20, 2006
Dear Friend,
The Catholic Church at times seems to do its fair share of navel gazing. In the not too distant past items which got the attention of all of us have been just that and included: changes in the rubrics of the liturgy to supposedly increase respect for the Eucharist, women priests, married clergy, etc.
What seems to be changing, and has been the topic in many Op Ed columns recently, is discussion about the explosion in the number of Catholics in the world’s southern tier of developing countries and that has begun to move the focus of conversation from the topics I have mentioned above to issues of globalization and economic justice, AIDS, culture wars, genocide, violence, discrimination against women, and the many forms of assaults on human life.
While the navel gazing may well continue, there is no doubt that the Church, as “leaven in the loaf,” will gain more prominence. Kudos to the many times we hear of prayers for Social Justice in the General Intercessions and active Justice and Peace efforts in our parishes.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Dear Friend,
The Catholic Church at times seems to do its fair share of navel gazing. In the not too distant past items which got the attention of all of us have been just that and included: changes in the rubrics of the liturgy to supposedly increase respect for the Eucharist, women priests, married clergy, etc.
What seems to be changing, and has been the topic in many Op Ed columns recently, is discussion about the explosion in the number of Catholics in the world’s southern tier of developing countries and that has begun to move the focus of conversation from the topics I have mentioned above to issues of globalization and economic justice, AIDS, culture wars, genocide, violence, discrimination against women, and the many forms of assaults on human life.
While the navel gazing may well continue, there is no doubt that the Church, as “leaven in the loaf,” will gain more prominence. Kudos to the many times we hear of prayers for Social Justice in the General Intercessions and active Justice and Peace efforts in our parishes.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Weekly THIS AND THAT for September 20, 2006: US Catechism for Adults Is Due Out
This and That:
US Catechism for Adults is Due Out
The first official catechism produced by the U.S. Catholic bishops since the Baltimore Catechism will be available to the public as of July 31.
Unlike the Baltimore Catechism, which was composed of 421 questions and answers and aimed at children, the new United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is designed for grown-ups and does not require rote memorization.
Instead, it promotes a command of Catholic faith, prayer life and morals through a more accessible writing style and numerous features.
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is an adaptation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992.
At that time the Pope urged that local catechisms be developed to better address specific situations in different countries. The adult catechism is meant to present Catholic teaching comprehensively and authoritatively but with a view to American culture and experience.
The intended audience includes those who are preparing for the sacraments of initiation through the RCIA process, young adult Catholics, Catholics who may have drifted away from the practice of the faith, and all who may seek to know more about Catholic belief and practice.
Six years in the making, the Catechism for Adults was authorized by the American bishops in June 2000, as a project of the Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism.
Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, at that time bishop of Pittsburgh and himself the author of an adult catechism, was chairman of the five-bishop editorial oversight board that handled the writing.
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults follows the universal catechism’s arrangement of content: “The Creed: The Faith Professed”; “The Sacraments: The Faith Celebrated”; “Christian Morality: The Faith Lived”; and “Prayer: The Faith Prayed.”
The preface and each of the 36 chapters opens with a story about a saint, a biblical figure or other exemplary Catholic, most of them American, both to invite reflection and to demonstrate the contribution of American Catholics to U.S. society.
These brief biographies include Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States; St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the parochial school system; Sister Thea Bowman, a convert, singer, and educator, who proclaimed in song and speech the black spiritual culture of the rural South; and Archbishop Fulton Sheen, philosopher, author, television preacher, and head of the Propagation of the Faith.
This coming fall we will be offering a program whereby our people can learn more about their Catholic Faith. It will be based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and will be held for 6-weeks in small groups gathering in our neighborhoods. Everyone will have an opportunity to sign up during September to be part of a group and the groups will begin meeting during the first week of October. If anyone would be interesting in convening a group or learn more about the offering, please call Sr. Mary Therese at the Parish Office or email her at MWhite@ourladygrace.org.
US Catechism for Adults is Due Out
The first official catechism produced by the U.S. Catholic bishops since the Baltimore Catechism will be available to the public as of July 31.
Unlike the Baltimore Catechism, which was composed of 421 questions and answers and aimed at children, the new United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is designed for grown-ups and does not require rote memorization.
Instead, it promotes a command of Catholic faith, prayer life and morals through a more accessible writing style and numerous features.
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults is an adaptation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992.
At that time the Pope urged that local catechisms be developed to better address specific situations in different countries. The adult catechism is meant to present Catholic teaching comprehensively and authoritatively but with a view to American culture and experience.
The intended audience includes those who are preparing for the sacraments of initiation through the RCIA process, young adult Catholics, Catholics who may have drifted away from the practice of the faith, and all who may seek to know more about Catholic belief and practice.
Six years in the making, the Catechism for Adults was authorized by the American bishops in June 2000, as a project of the Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism.
Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, at that time bishop of Pittsburgh and himself the author of an adult catechism, was chairman of the five-bishop editorial oversight board that handled the writing.
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults follows the universal catechism’s arrangement of content: “The Creed: The Faith Professed”; “The Sacraments: The Faith Celebrated”; “Christian Morality: The Faith Lived”; and “Prayer: The Faith Prayed.”
The preface and each of the 36 chapters opens with a story about a saint, a biblical figure or other exemplary Catholic, most of them American, both to invite reflection and to demonstrate the contribution of American Catholics to U.S. society.
These brief biographies include Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States; St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the parochial school system; Sister Thea Bowman, a convert, singer, and educator, who proclaimed in song and speech the black spiritual culture of the rural South; and Archbishop Fulton Sheen, philosopher, author, television preacher, and head of the Propagation of the Faith.
This coming fall we will be offering a program whereby our people can learn more about their Catholic Faith. It will be based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and will be held for 6-weeks in small groups gathering in our neighborhoods. Everyone will have an opportunity to sign up during September to be part of a group and the groups will begin meeting during the first week of October. If anyone would be interesting in convening a group or learn more about the offering, please call Sr. Mary Therese at the Parish Office or email her at MWhite@ourladygrace.org.
Weekly HOMILY for September 20, 2006: Food for Our Bodies; Food for Our Souls
20th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
August 20, 2006
Food for Our Bodies; Food for Our Souls
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Food for the Body
If you go into Barnes and Noble, Brentanos, Borders, or any other bookstore, you will find shelf after shelf of cookbooks.
There are cookbooks for different cultures, like Mexican, Caribbean and French. There are cookbooks for different regions, like Tuscany in Italy or Louisiana in our country.
And there are cookbooks for different food types, like desserts or breads or salads. And then, there are also books that help us to deal with the results of all these great cookbooks. They’re called diet books.
There is the South Beach, the Atkins, the low carb, the low fat, the no meat, the no grain – a thousand and one kinds of possible diets.
There’s no doubt about it; our bookstores reveal that we have a lot of interest in food and nutrition.
Food for the Soul
Now, while we have all this liking and concern for food for our body, today’s Scripture readings call us to be concerned about food for our soul.
The readings hold up two types of spiritual food. And both types of food are important for our spiritual satisfaction and health.
The Food of the Word
First, there is the food of God’s Word.
Today’s first reading describes wisdom or the Word of God as a sumptuous banquet, almost like a buffet with our favorite meats, fish, poultry, vegetables, and desserts.
The passage calls us feast on God’s Word with much the same gusto because this feasting will give us both wisdom and life.
Our failure to feast on the Word leads to foolishness and death. The important insight to get here is that the spiritual food of God’s Word is sacramental and not just informational.
Perhaps we have not thought about God’s Word in this way before, but it truly is sacramental, and not just informational. Here is what I mean.
Most of what we read everyday is informational. For example, the pamphlet in the doctor’s office informs us about the importance of exercise.
Or the sports page informs us that the Orioles have got to acquire a front-line pitcher in the off-season. We read to gain information.
However, the food of God’s Word is different; it’s not informational; it’s sacramental. It speaks to our deepest hungers, engages us, and out of that engagement can come transformation as persons.
Yes, the Word of God, as sacramental, can have an effect on who we are, on our very being. Because the Word of God is precisely sacramental, it creates what it expresses. Imagine that! It creates what it expresses!
Thus, it can add joy to our sadness, comfort to our grief, presence to our isolation. It can do this because God is physically present in these sacred, inspired texts. They are God’s very words.
So we need to read and to listen to the Word of God differently from the way we read and listen to other things we read, just for the sake of information. We need to approach the reading of this Word as sacramental, as bringing us the presence of God and being able to transform who we are as persons.
The Food of the Eucharist
The second type of spiritual food is the Eucharist.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about the bread and wine that he gives us – his Body and Blood. As with the Word, this food also will lead us to a fuller life and eventually life eternal.
We all know that the Eucharist is, of course, sacramental. It effects, it makes happen, what it signifies.
The idea here is that God wants to be so close to us that there is literally nothing between us. To accomplish that, Jesus gives us himself as food-to-be-eaten.
He enters inside us and dwells within us as food. Through this presence, we have a closeness and an intimacy with God that is almost unimaginable!
And this relationship or union with God happens in a way that is opposite from how ordinary food works.
When we eat ordinary food, like a bowl of Raisin Bran or a hamburger, we transform that food into ourselves. It becomes part of our body and part of us.
But the food of the Eucharist works differently. It transforms us into Jesus. It takes us up, draws us into, God’s very life.
This is why the word “comm-union” so beautifully expresses what happens here. This spiritual food produces and effects a comm.-union of being and life with God and us.
As St. Paul says, “It is now no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.” So, we need to approach this food of the Eucharist with an openness to the sacramental power that it has.
Conclusion
So, yes, we are naturally concerned about food for our bodies, about the satisfaction and health that can come from such food.
But today’s readings raise our sights to food for our souls, to the spiritual satisfaction and health that it brings.
The Word of God and the Eucharist are this food for us.
Our Lady of Grace
August 20, 2006
Food for Our Bodies; Food for Our Souls
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Food for the Body
If you go into Barnes and Noble, Brentanos, Borders, or any other bookstore, you will find shelf after shelf of cookbooks.
There are cookbooks for different cultures, like Mexican, Caribbean and French. There are cookbooks for different regions, like Tuscany in Italy or Louisiana in our country.
And there are cookbooks for different food types, like desserts or breads or salads. And then, there are also books that help us to deal with the results of all these great cookbooks. They’re called diet books.
There is the South Beach, the Atkins, the low carb, the low fat, the no meat, the no grain – a thousand and one kinds of possible diets.
There’s no doubt about it; our bookstores reveal that we have a lot of interest in food and nutrition.
Food for the Soul
Now, while we have all this liking and concern for food for our body, today’s Scripture readings call us to be concerned about food for our soul.
The readings hold up two types of spiritual food. And both types of food are important for our spiritual satisfaction and health.
The Food of the Word
First, there is the food of God’s Word.
Today’s first reading describes wisdom or the Word of God as a sumptuous banquet, almost like a buffet with our favorite meats, fish, poultry, vegetables, and desserts.
The passage calls us feast on God’s Word with much the same gusto because this feasting will give us both wisdom and life.
Our failure to feast on the Word leads to foolishness and death. The important insight to get here is that the spiritual food of God’s Word is sacramental and not just informational.
Perhaps we have not thought about God’s Word in this way before, but it truly is sacramental, and not just informational. Here is what I mean.
Most of what we read everyday is informational. For example, the pamphlet in the doctor’s office informs us about the importance of exercise.
Or the sports page informs us that the Orioles have got to acquire a front-line pitcher in the off-season. We read to gain information.
However, the food of God’s Word is different; it’s not informational; it’s sacramental. It speaks to our deepest hungers, engages us, and out of that engagement can come transformation as persons.
Yes, the Word of God, as sacramental, can have an effect on who we are, on our very being. Because the Word of God is precisely sacramental, it creates what it expresses. Imagine that! It creates what it expresses!
Thus, it can add joy to our sadness, comfort to our grief, presence to our isolation. It can do this because God is physically present in these sacred, inspired texts. They are God’s very words.
So we need to read and to listen to the Word of God differently from the way we read and listen to other things we read, just for the sake of information. We need to approach the reading of this Word as sacramental, as bringing us the presence of God and being able to transform who we are as persons.
The Food of the Eucharist
The second type of spiritual food is the Eucharist.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about the bread and wine that he gives us – his Body and Blood. As with the Word, this food also will lead us to a fuller life and eventually life eternal.
We all know that the Eucharist is, of course, sacramental. It effects, it makes happen, what it signifies.
The idea here is that God wants to be so close to us that there is literally nothing between us. To accomplish that, Jesus gives us himself as food-to-be-eaten.
He enters inside us and dwells within us as food. Through this presence, we have a closeness and an intimacy with God that is almost unimaginable!
And this relationship or union with God happens in a way that is opposite from how ordinary food works.
When we eat ordinary food, like a bowl of Raisin Bran or a hamburger, we transform that food into ourselves. It becomes part of our body and part of us.
But the food of the Eucharist works differently. It transforms us into Jesus. It takes us up, draws us into, God’s very life.
This is why the word “comm-union” so beautifully expresses what happens here. This spiritual food produces and effects a comm.-union of being and life with God and us.
As St. Paul says, “It is now no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.” So, we need to approach this food of the Eucharist with an openness to the sacramental power that it has.
Conclusion
So, yes, we are naturally concerned about food for our bodies, about the satisfaction and health that can come from such food.
But today’s readings raise our sights to food for our souls, to the spiritual satisfaction and health that it brings.
The Word of God and the Eucharist are this food for us.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Weekly MESSAGE for 8/13/06: Dancing with God
August 13, 2006
Dear Family,
The following is a reflection I received from a friend earlier this week. When I meditated on the word GUIDANCE, I was drawn to the word “dance” at the end of the word. I reflected upon how doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn’t flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes this and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music.
One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word GUIDANCE. When I saw the letter “G” and I thought of God, followed by “U” and “I.” Hm-m-m-m, “God, “U” and “I” DANCE”! God, you, and I dance.
This statement is what GUIDANCE means to me. As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life. Once again, I became willing to let God lead.
Dance together with God, trusting Him to lead and to guide you through each season of your life beginning today.
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Dear Family,
The following is a reflection I received from a friend earlier this week. When I meditated on the word GUIDANCE, I was drawn to the word “dance” at the end of the word. I reflected upon how doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn’t flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes this and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music.
One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word GUIDANCE. When I saw the letter “G” and I thought of God, followed by “U” and “I.” Hm-m-m-m, “God, “U” and “I” DANCE”! God, you, and I dance.
This statement is what GUIDANCE means to me. As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life. Once again, I became willing to let God lead.
Dance together with God, trusting Him to lead and to guide you through each season of your life beginning today.
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Weekly THIS & THAT for 8/13/06: How to Live a Vacation
This and That:
How to Live a Vacation
Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Preacher of Pontifical Household and thus preaches and offers retreats to all those who work directly for the Holy Father and the Holy Father himself. Reflecting on a recent Sunday Gospel (Mark 6:30-34), where Jesus calls his followers, “To come away to rest a while,” he had the following to say about how to live a vacation. With several weeks of summer left and with many still going to take some time off, his thoughts are worth noting.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
In the Gospel passage Jesus invites his disciples to separate themselves from the crowd and their work and to go away with him to a “lonely place.”
He taught them to do what he did: to balance action and contemplation, to go from contact with people to secret and regenerating dialogue with oneself and with God.
The theme is of great importance and timeliness. The rhythm of life has acquired a speed that surpasses our capacity to adapt.
The scene in “Modern Times” of Charlie Chaplain absorbed in the assembly line is the exact image of this situation. In this way one loses the capacity for critical separation which allows one to exercise dominion over the flow, often chaotic and disordered, of circumstances and daily experiences.
Jesus, in the Gospel, never gives the impression of being agitated by hurry. Sometimes he even wastes time: All look for him and he does not let himself be found, absorbed as he is in prayer. Sometimes, as in our Gospel passage, he even invites his disciples to lose time with him: “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.” He often recommends that one not be harassed. Our bodies benefit so much from such “respites.”
Among these “pauses” are precisely the summer vacations which we are living. For the majority of people, they are the only occasion to rest a while, to converse in a relaxed manner with their own spouse, to play with the children, to read a good book or to contemplate nature in silence; in short, to relax. To make of holidays a more frenetic time than in the rest of the year would be to ruin them.
To the commandment: “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy,” one should add: “Remember to keep vacations holy.” “Stop (literally: vacate, take a vacation!) Know that I am God,” says God in the Psalms.
A simple thing to do might be to enter a mountain church or chapel at a time when it is empty, and to spend some time there “apart,” alone with ourselves, before God.
This need for times of solitude and listening is posed in a special way to those who proclaim the Gospel and to animators of the Christian community, who must stay constantly in contact with the source of the Word that they must transmit to their brothers and sisters. The laity should rejoice, not feel neglected, every time that their priest leaves for a time for intellectual and spiritual recharging.
It must be said that Jesus’ vacation with the apostles was of brief duration, because the people, seeing him going away, went ahead of him on foot to the place of disembarkation. But Jesus does not get irritated with the people who give him no peace, but is “moved,” seeing them abandoned to themselves, as sheep without a shepherd,” and he begins to “teach them many things.”
This shows us that one must be ready to interrupt even one’s deserved rest in face of a situation of grave need of one’s neighbor.
One cannot, for example, abandon to his fate, or leave in a hospital, an elderly person one is in charge of, to enjoy one’s vacation without disturbances. We cannot forget the many persons whose loneliness they have not chosen, but suffer, and not for a week or a month, but for years, perhaps throughout their lives.
Also here there is room for a small practical suggestion: To look around and see if there is some one to help feel less alone in life, with a visit, a call, an invitation to see them one day in the place of vacation – whatever the heart and circumstances suggest.
How to Live a Vacation
Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Preacher of Pontifical Household and thus preaches and offers retreats to all those who work directly for the Holy Father and the Holy Father himself. Reflecting on a recent Sunday Gospel (Mark 6:30-34), where Jesus calls his followers, “To come away to rest a while,” he had the following to say about how to live a vacation. With several weeks of summer left and with many still going to take some time off, his thoughts are worth noting.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
In the Gospel passage Jesus invites his disciples to separate themselves from the crowd and their work and to go away with him to a “lonely place.”
He taught them to do what he did: to balance action and contemplation, to go from contact with people to secret and regenerating dialogue with oneself and with God.
The theme is of great importance and timeliness. The rhythm of life has acquired a speed that surpasses our capacity to adapt.
The scene in “Modern Times” of Charlie Chaplain absorbed in the assembly line is the exact image of this situation. In this way one loses the capacity for critical separation which allows one to exercise dominion over the flow, often chaotic and disordered, of circumstances and daily experiences.
Jesus, in the Gospel, never gives the impression of being agitated by hurry. Sometimes he even wastes time: All look for him and he does not let himself be found, absorbed as he is in prayer. Sometimes, as in our Gospel passage, he even invites his disciples to lose time with him: “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.” He often recommends that one not be harassed. Our bodies benefit so much from such “respites.”
Among these “pauses” are precisely the summer vacations which we are living. For the majority of people, they are the only occasion to rest a while, to converse in a relaxed manner with their own spouse, to play with the children, to read a good book or to contemplate nature in silence; in short, to relax. To make of holidays a more frenetic time than in the rest of the year would be to ruin them.
To the commandment: “Remember to keep the Sabbath holy,” one should add: “Remember to keep vacations holy.” “Stop (literally: vacate, take a vacation!) Know that I am God,” says God in the Psalms.
A simple thing to do might be to enter a mountain church or chapel at a time when it is empty, and to spend some time there “apart,” alone with ourselves, before God.
This need for times of solitude and listening is posed in a special way to those who proclaim the Gospel and to animators of the Christian community, who must stay constantly in contact with the source of the Word that they must transmit to their brothers and sisters. The laity should rejoice, not feel neglected, every time that their priest leaves for a time for intellectual and spiritual recharging.
It must be said that Jesus’ vacation with the apostles was of brief duration, because the people, seeing him going away, went ahead of him on foot to the place of disembarkation. But Jesus does not get irritated with the people who give him no peace, but is “moved,” seeing them abandoned to themselves, as sheep without a shepherd,” and he begins to “teach them many things.”
This shows us that one must be ready to interrupt even one’s deserved rest in face of a situation of grave need of one’s neighbor.
One cannot, for example, abandon to his fate, or leave in a hospital, an elderly person one is in charge of, to enjoy one’s vacation without disturbances. We cannot forget the many persons whose loneliness they have not chosen, but suffer, and not for a week or a month, but for years, perhaps throughout their lives.
Also here there is room for a small practical suggestion: To look around and see if there is some one to help feel less alone in life, with a visit, a call, an invitation to see them one day in the place of vacation – whatever the heart and circumstances suggest.
Weekly HOMILY for 8/13/06: Food for Our Journey
19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
August 13, 2006
Our Lady of Grace
Food for Our Journey
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Roadside Eating
This morning, for just a minute, imagine that you are driving north on I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike, heading for New York.
It is easy to pull off at the Chesapeake House or the Walt Whitman rest-stop or wherever for something to eat. There we can choose a Sbarro Pizza, a Nathan’s hot dog, a Chick-fila and on it goes.
Or even marketing a Wegman’s, you can get a full-course meal to eat in the upstairs eating area and watch the shoppers from the “gallery.”
The point is that when we are traveling, for long or short distances, or even running errands, we can easily find enough food. There is plenty of food to take care of us on our journeys and whatever we are doing.
The Journey of Life
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about another kind of journey and another kind of food.
The journey he is talking about is our passage through this life. It is the journey of human life itself.
On this journey, each of us will experience joys and sorrows, ups and downs, moments of struggle and moments of ease. We will probably experience times of good health and times of sickness.
But Jesus desperately wants us to know that there is one absolutely steady reality throughout all of life. With all the many variables in the journey of life, he, God, the Bread of Life is steady and constant and always there for us.
Food for the Journey
God is the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of all our journeying.
Let’s just allow that to sink in. God is the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of all our journeying.
If we accept this truth, then our journey through life will find its proper direction and achieve its proper goal. Then we will experience both strength and real spiritual growth on our journey.
In the early 1900’s, a French philosopher named Simone Weil put it this way. She said that spiritual growth begins only when we stop seeing ourselves as the center of the universe.
So, if we stop seeing our ideas and our comfort and our plans as the be-all and end-all of everything, then we can more easily direct our journey to God.
Then our appetite will really be whetted by the food that God provides for our journey, for the Bread of Life that Jesus offers us today.
Today’s Scripture: Journey and Food
We see a great example of this turning from self to God in today’s first reading.
The prophet Elijah is relying too much on himself. He is holding himself too much as the center of the universe.
The result is that he gives up and asks to die. Then the Lord intervenes and offers Elijah food for the journey. He tells him to “Get up and eat the bread that I give you, or else the journey will be too long for you.”
Elijah does this and he gets the strength to carry on. He has abandoned himself as the center of everything.
He allows God to be the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of his journey. He has directed his journey more clearly to God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers all of us a similar opportunity. He makes it clear that he is “the bread of life, the bread that has come down from heaven, for us to eat and live forever.”
Jesus feeds us, first, with the bread of his teaching, with the inspired Word of God. And then he shows us how much he is food or bread for our journey by literally giving us himself as bread, as the Eucharist.
Conclusion
So, Jesus, as the bread of life, moves us to abandon ourselves as the center of everything and to follow him as the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of our journey.
This is how we can experience both strength and real spiritual growth as we continue the journey of human life.
August 13, 2006
Our Lady of Grace
Food for Our Journey
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Roadside Eating
This morning, for just a minute, imagine that you are driving north on I-95 and the New Jersey Turnpike, heading for New York.
It is easy to pull off at the Chesapeake House or the Walt Whitman rest-stop or wherever for something to eat. There we can choose a Sbarro Pizza, a Nathan’s hot dog, a Chick-fila and on it goes.
Or even marketing a Wegman’s, you can get a full-course meal to eat in the upstairs eating area and watch the shoppers from the “gallery.”
The point is that when we are traveling, for long or short distances, or even running errands, we can easily find enough food. There is plenty of food to take care of us on our journeys and whatever we are doing.
The Journey of Life
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about another kind of journey and another kind of food.
The journey he is talking about is our passage through this life. It is the journey of human life itself.
On this journey, each of us will experience joys and sorrows, ups and downs, moments of struggle and moments of ease. We will probably experience times of good health and times of sickness.
But Jesus desperately wants us to know that there is one absolutely steady reality throughout all of life. With all the many variables in the journey of life, he, God, the Bread of Life is steady and constant and always there for us.
Food for the Journey
God is the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of all our journeying.
Let’s just allow that to sink in. God is the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of all our journeying.
If we accept this truth, then our journey through life will find its proper direction and achieve its proper goal. Then we will experience both strength and real spiritual growth on our journey.
In the early 1900’s, a French philosopher named Simone Weil put it this way. She said that spiritual growth begins only when we stop seeing ourselves as the center of the universe.
So, if we stop seeing our ideas and our comfort and our plans as the be-all and end-all of everything, then we can more easily direct our journey to God.
Then our appetite will really be whetted by the food that God provides for our journey, for the Bread of Life that Jesus offers us today.
Today’s Scripture: Journey and Food
We see a great example of this turning from self to God in today’s first reading.
The prophet Elijah is relying too much on himself. He is holding himself too much as the center of the universe.
The result is that he gives up and asks to die. Then the Lord intervenes and offers Elijah food for the journey. He tells him to “Get up and eat the bread that I give you, or else the journey will be too long for you.”
Elijah does this and he gets the strength to carry on. He has abandoned himself as the center of everything.
He allows God to be the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of his journey. He has directed his journey more clearly to God.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers all of us a similar opportunity. He makes it clear that he is “the bread of life, the bread that has come down from heaven, for us to eat and live forever.”
Jesus feeds us, first, with the bread of his teaching, with the inspired Word of God. And then he shows us how much he is food or bread for our journey by literally giving us himself as bread, as the Eucharist.
Conclusion
So, Jesus, as the bread of life, moves us to abandon ourselves as the center of everything and to follow him as the guide, the companion, the food and the goal of our journey.
This is how we can experience both strength and real spiritual growth as we continue the journey of human life.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Weekly MESSAGE for 8/06/06 What Makes Mass a Celebration of Christ's Presence?
August 3, 2006
Dear Family,
Last Sunday’s Masses seemed to be filled with life in a way that I haven’t experienced over the other four weekends of July. Perhaps it was the fact that many of our people were home for the weekend. Or perhaps it was that the Ensemble from the Sunday evening Mass (suspended for the summer) was playing at the 10:30am Mass. Or that the preacher (yours truly) had put together a homily that seemed to resonate with many of the folks.
Whatever it was – and music, preaching and people assembling are all important parts of experiencing the Lord present in the Eucharist – it all came together to make it a powerful weekend.
Speaking of life at Sunday Mass, I am very pleased to announce that we have a new Youth Music Minister for the Sunday Evening 5:00pm Mass. Her name is Jessie Lim and she is also the Pastoral Musician at St. Francis Xavier, in Hunt Valley. She comes with a wonderful background of church music, plays the piano and organ, and has worked with youth. She is also the music teacher in our parish Catholic School. Her goal is to incorporate all the great things that are already happening with Sunday evening music and bring them to the next level. Welcome Jessie.
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Dear Family,
Last Sunday’s Masses seemed to be filled with life in a way that I haven’t experienced over the other four weekends of July. Perhaps it was the fact that many of our people were home for the weekend. Or perhaps it was that the Ensemble from the Sunday evening Mass (suspended for the summer) was playing at the 10:30am Mass. Or that the preacher (yours truly) had put together a homily that seemed to resonate with many of the folks.
Whatever it was – and music, preaching and people assembling are all important parts of experiencing the Lord present in the Eucharist – it all came together to make it a powerful weekend.
Speaking of life at Sunday Mass, I am very pleased to announce that we have a new Youth Music Minister for the Sunday Evening 5:00pm Mass. Her name is Jessie Lim and she is also the Pastoral Musician at St. Francis Xavier, in Hunt Valley. She comes with a wonderful background of church music, plays the piano and organ, and has worked with youth. She is also the music teacher in our parish Catholic School. Her goal is to incorporate all the great things that are already happening with Sunday evening music and bring them to the next level. Welcome Jessie.
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Weekly THIS & THAT for 8/06/06: The Power of Similes! (That's Similes NOT Smiles.)
This and That:
The Power of Similes! (That’s Similes NOT Smiles.)
A very interesting comparison of carrots, eggs and coffee was sent to me by a friend last week. I thought you might like it as “food” for thought.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
To all my “coffee” friends. This is just too great not to pass on: Carrot, Egg and Coffee ... You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.” Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?” Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, The very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, It releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
May we all be Coffee!
The Power of Similes! (That’s Similes NOT Smiles.)
A very interesting comparison of carrots, eggs and coffee was sent to me by a friend last week. I thought you might like it as “food” for thought.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
To all my “coffee” friends. This is just too great not to pass on: Carrot, Egg and Coffee ... You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.” Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?” Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, The very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, It releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
May we all be Coffee!
Weekly HOMILY for 8/06/06: Transfiguration Versus Transformation
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Cycle B
August 6, 2006
Our Lady of Grace
Transfiguration Versus Transformation
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Dulcinea
Many of us are familiar with the popular musical The Man of La Mancha.
This musical is about an elderly Spanish gentleman named Don Quixote. Quixote is caught up in romance novels and flights of fantasy.
And so, he sets out as a knight to forge a life of romance and chivalry for himself. He meets a woman named Aldonza.
Aldonza is a woman of the street, an object of scorn – I think you can get the picture. But Don Quixote loves and cares for her and the result is that Aldonza is transformed.
Quixote re-names her Dulcinea, which means “The Sweet One.” What happens is that the lowly Aldonza responds and lives up to her new name.
She is faithful and remains with Quixote until his death. In the final scene of the play, as Quixote is dying, Dulcinea sings that song that has become so famous, “The Impossible Dream.”
Don Quixote has made the impossible possible for her. He has enabled what was only a dream to become a reality in the respect and love that Aldonza-turned-Dulcinea now feels.
And, as she concludes her song, someone calls to her “Aldonza!” And magnificently, with dignity and pride, she responds, “My name is Dulcinea!”
Transfiguration
This story of Aldonza becoming Dulcinea helps us to appreciate what Jesus’ transfiguration can mean for us today.
The gospel tells us that Jesus is “transfigured” before these three apostles. This word – transfigured – is not one that we often use.
The root of it is the word “figure” or “appearance.” So, Jesus takes on a new appearance or appears differently to them.
Of course tt is the same Jesus. He himself is not changed or different, but his appearance is different – transfigured.
What happens is that these three apostles now see Jesus differently. They now see him clearly for who he really is.
They now see him as God’s “beloved Son,” as the voice from the heavens says. They see him as the Divine One right in their midst.
They see him as the decisive person in history, as the one who is absolutely unique in all of humanity.
So, the Transfiguration of Jesus is about his change of figure or appearance so that the apostles can see him for who he really is.
Transformation
Now I suggest that Jesus’ trans-figur-ation calls us to trans-form-ation. These are very different words with very different meanings.
Trans-form-ation means a change in our being, in who we are, and this is much more than a change in appearance.
Jesus did not need to be transformed. He always was God’s beloved Son and he only needed to be transfigured for the sake of the Apostles.
We, on the other hand, do not need to be transfigured or be concerned about our appearance. Instead, we need to be transformed or changed in our very being, in who we are, something like Aldonza being transformed into Dulcinea in the musical.
The question then is: How can this happen? What can we do to allow this to happen?
“Listen to Him”
Well, today’s Gospel tells us.
The voice from the heavens that the Apostles and we hear says, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” The point being made is that Jesus is now our guide, the guide to salvation.
Pure and simply, we need to “listen to him.”
(1) For example, listening means trying to hear what God is saying to me when I pray and not just praying by my speaking to God. Remember two ears one mouth; listen twice as much as you speak.
(2) Listening means no longer sifting through the gospels, taking what comforts and avoiding what discomforts, like Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness and not seeking revenge, but turning the other cheek. It means working to accept the entire message.
(3) Listening means being attentive to the voice of Jesus in the poor and powerless. It means doing this even though it may put us at odds with popular opinion or with the powers that be.
Conclusion
The point is that this listening will transform us. It will change not just how we appear, but more profoundly who we are.
It will change us in much the same way that Don Quixote’s love changed Aldonza into Dulcinea.
Jesus’ transfiguration calls us to this transformation.
August 6, 2006
Our Lady of Grace
Transfiguration Versus Transformation
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Dulcinea
Many of us are familiar with the popular musical The Man of La Mancha.
This musical is about an elderly Spanish gentleman named Don Quixote. Quixote is caught up in romance novels and flights of fantasy.
And so, he sets out as a knight to forge a life of romance and chivalry for himself. He meets a woman named Aldonza.
Aldonza is a woman of the street, an object of scorn – I think you can get the picture. But Don Quixote loves and cares for her and the result is that Aldonza is transformed.
Quixote re-names her Dulcinea, which means “The Sweet One.” What happens is that the lowly Aldonza responds and lives up to her new name.
She is faithful and remains with Quixote until his death. In the final scene of the play, as Quixote is dying, Dulcinea sings that song that has become so famous, “The Impossible Dream.”
Don Quixote has made the impossible possible for her. He has enabled what was only a dream to become a reality in the respect and love that Aldonza-turned-Dulcinea now feels.
And, as she concludes her song, someone calls to her “Aldonza!” And magnificently, with dignity and pride, she responds, “My name is Dulcinea!”
Transfiguration
This story of Aldonza becoming Dulcinea helps us to appreciate what Jesus’ transfiguration can mean for us today.
The gospel tells us that Jesus is “transfigured” before these three apostles. This word – transfigured – is not one that we often use.
The root of it is the word “figure” or “appearance.” So, Jesus takes on a new appearance or appears differently to them.
Of course tt is the same Jesus. He himself is not changed or different, but his appearance is different – transfigured.
What happens is that these three apostles now see Jesus differently. They now see him clearly for who he really is.
They now see him as God’s “beloved Son,” as the voice from the heavens says. They see him as the Divine One right in their midst.
They see him as the decisive person in history, as the one who is absolutely unique in all of humanity.
So, the Transfiguration of Jesus is about his change of figure or appearance so that the apostles can see him for who he really is.
Transformation
Now I suggest that Jesus’ trans-figur-ation calls us to trans-form-ation. These are very different words with very different meanings.
Trans-form-ation means a change in our being, in who we are, and this is much more than a change in appearance.
Jesus did not need to be transformed. He always was God’s beloved Son and he only needed to be transfigured for the sake of the Apostles.
We, on the other hand, do not need to be transfigured or be concerned about our appearance. Instead, we need to be transformed or changed in our very being, in who we are, something like Aldonza being transformed into Dulcinea in the musical.
The question then is: How can this happen? What can we do to allow this to happen?
“Listen to Him”
Well, today’s Gospel tells us.
The voice from the heavens that the Apostles and we hear says, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” The point being made is that Jesus is now our guide, the guide to salvation.
Pure and simply, we need to “listen to him.”
(1) For example, listening means trying to hear what God is saying to me when I pray and not just praying by my speaking to God. Remember two ears one mouth; listen twice as much as you speak.
(2) Listening means no longer sifting through the gospels, taking what comforts and avoiding what discomforts, like Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness and not seeking revenge, but turning the other cheek. It means working to accept the entire message.
(3) Listening means being attentive to the voice of Jesus in the poor and powerless. It means doing this even though it may put us at odds with popular opinion or with the powers that be.
Conclusion
The point is that this listening will transform us. It will change not just how we appear, but more profoundly who we are.
It will change us in much the same way that Don Quixote’s love changed Aldonza into Dulcinea.
Jesus’ transfiguration calls us to this transformation.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Weekly Homily for 7/30/06: Food and Fellowship
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
July 30, 2006
Food and Fellowship
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Commensality
Anthropologist, Gail Ramshaw has pointed out that the term “commensality” refers to the cultural norms that determine what one can eat and with whom one can eat. “Mensa” is the Latin word for table, so “com-mensa” means “to table with,” “to eat with.”
For example, the ancient Egyptians refused to eat with the Israelites. During the American civil rights protests, the laws that restricted who might eat together and where illustrated that people can be passionately concerned about who might share their table.
Gail Ramshaw says that this ancient fear of “contamination” by strangers or those of other races probably accounts for the current hesitance of some Christians to share the common Eucharistic Cup.
These original patterns or models of who eats what or who eats with whom stand up poorly when compared to the eating habits of Jesus.
Recall that in the world of Jesus, meals were not shared together casually or without profound significance.
Those who ate together were, by the very fact of being together, bound to one another and because in their sharing of food, a covenant of mutual friendship, caring, and obligation was established.
Feeding and More
Do you suppose that there were sinners in the crowd that day by the Sea of Galilee?
Weren’t some of those present ritually, if not morally, or even physically, unclean?
Note that women were present, as well as children. The healthy stood alongside the sick. The just with the unjust. The weak with the strong.
Yet, all, without a single exception, were fed.
However, Jesus in today’s feeding of the 5,000 is doing something very different. He is not simply fixing “food for the road” or “takeout rations for the many.”
Jesus is gathering with the hungry in the context of a shared meal, not only to feed and to be fed, but also to enter into covenant, that is, a formal, solemn, and binding agreement with all those present.
This eating together of Jesus, his disciples, and the crowds is really an announcement that, by their very sharing of bread, a new relationship is being established between him, the disciples, and all the hungry whom they are feeding.
And he is also setting the example for those who will follow him as disciples – that’s us.
So our task, as those followers of Jesus, is not simply to dole out bread, but more importantly to take, to gave thanks, to break, and to share our food together with anyone in need of any kind and as Jesus did, to thereby seal our relationship with them.
Yes, we are to offer others commitment as well as nourishment; we are to offer others fellowship as well as food.
And What of Our Meal?
This Eucharist today is a continuation of that feeding at the Sea of Galilee that serves as a model.
At one level the priest in the person of Jesus performs Christ’s four classic symbolic actions. With Jesus, the priest also takes, also give thanks, also breaks, and also gives bread, as did Jesus.
And as we participate in those sacred actions, we get to do the same as Jesus did in virtue of our becoming whom we have eaten.
We become bread for others …
As I take myself to my neighbor here at Mass and introduce myself to the person next to me in the pew;
As I give thanks myself by caring for my family and healing the hurts my actions may have caused;
As I break myself in asking forgiveness from a fellow worker or friends I no longer talk to;
And as I give of my talent and treasure to those in need by baking casseroles, bringing canned goods for our food pantries, or dropping a few dollars into the poor box each week.
Remember, the feeding of the 5,000, and every Eucharist since then are about food and fellowship, are about sustenance and relationships, are about nourishment and renewing the ways we interact with others.
Conclusion
If this Eucharist each Sunday is to have the impact of that feeding at the Sea of Galilee had we would leave Mass today more responsible for one another’s well being.
We would leave covenanted as friends and more than friends. We would have become brothers and sisters in the faith.
Let us not take what we eat or with whom we eat lightly.
Our Lady of Grace
July 30, 2006
Food and Fellowship
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Commensality
Anthropologist, Gail Ramshaw has pointed out that the term “commensality” refers to the cultural norms that determine what one can eat and with whom one can eat. “Mensa” is the Latin word for table, so “com-mensa” means “to table with,” “to eat with.”
For example, the ancient Egyptians refused to eat with the Israelites. During the American civil rights protests, the laws that restricted who might eat together and where illustrated that people can be passionately concerned about who might share their table.
Gail Ramshaw says that this ancient fear of “contamination” by strangers or those of other races probably accounts for the current hesitance of some Christians to share the common Eucharistic Cup.
These original patterns or models of who eats what or who eats with whom stand up poorly when compared to the eating habits of Jesus.
Recall that in the world of Jesus, meals were not shared together casually or without profound significance.
Those who ate together were, by the very fact of being together, bound to one another and because in their sharing of food, a covenant of mutual friendship, caring, and obligation was established.
Feeding and More
Do you suppose that there were sinners in the crowd that day by the Sea of Galilee?
Weren’t some of those present ritually, if not morally, or even physically, unclean?
Note that women were present, as well as children. The healthy stood alongside the sick. The just with the unjust. The weak with the strong.
Yet, all, without a single exception, were fed.
However, Jesus in today’s feeding of the 5,000 is doing something very different. He is not simply fixing “food for the road” or “takeout rations for the many.”
Jesus is gathering with the hungry in the context of a shared meal, not only to feed and to be fed, but also to enter into covenant, that is, a formal, solemn, and binding agreement with all those present.
This eating together of Jesus, his disciples, and the crowds is really an announcement that, by their very sharing of bread, a new relationship is being established between him, the disciples, and all the hungry whom they are feeding.
And he is also setting the example for those who will follow him as disciples – that’s us.
So our task, as those followers of Jesus, is not simply to dole out bread, but more importantly to take, to gave thanks, to break, and to share our food together with anyone in need of any kind and as Jesus did, to thereby seal our relationship with them.
Yes, we are to offer others commitment as well as nourishment; we are to offer others fellowship as well as food.
And What of Our Meal?
This Eucharist today is a continuation of that feeding at the Sea of Galilee that serves as a model.
At one level the priest in the person of Jesus performs Christ’s four classic symbolic actions. With Jesus, the priest also takes, also give thanks, also breaks, and also gives bread, as did Jesus.
And as we participate in those sacred actions, we get to do the same as Jesus did in virtue of our becoming whom we have eaten.
We become bread for others …
As I take myself to my neighbor here at Mass and introduce myself to the person next to me in the pew;
As I give thanks myself by caring for my family and healing the hurts my actions may have caused;
As I break myself in asking forgiveness from a fellow worker or friends I no longer talk to;
And as I give of my talent and treasure to those in need by baking casseroles, bringing canned goods for our food pantries, or dropping a few dollars into the poor box each week.
Remember, the feeding of the 5,000, and every Eucharist since then are about food and fellowship, are about sustenance and relationships, are about nourishment and renewing the ways we interact with others.
Conclusion
If this Eucharist each Sunday is to have the impact of that feeding at the Sea of Galilee had we would leave Mass today more responsible for one another’s well being.
We would leave covenanted as friends and more than friends. We would have become brothers and sisters in the faith.
Let us not take what we eat or with whom we eat lightly.
Weekly THIS & THAT for 7/30/06: Christian One-Liners
This and That:
Christian One-Liners
Someday we may have a sign that we could advertise upcoming events, welcome newcomers, tell the title of the coming homily, or show one-liners as follows.
➢ Don’t let your worries get the best of you; remember, Moses started out as a basket case.
➢ Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews.
➢ Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors.
➢ It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.
➢ The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.
➢ When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.
➢ People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.
➢ Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.
➢ Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn’t belong.
➢ If the church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.
➢ God Himself does not propose to judge a man or a woman until they are dead. So why should you?
➢ Some minds are like concrete thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.
➢ Peace starts with a smile.
➢ I don’t know why some people change churches; what difference does it make which one you stay home from!
➢ A lot of church members who are singing “Standing on the Promises” are just sitting on the premises.
➢ We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.
➢ Be you fishers of men and women. You catch them; the Lord will clean them.
➢ Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
➢ Don’t put a question mark where God put a period.
➢ Don’t wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.
➢ Forbidden fruits create many jams.
➢ God doesn’t call the qualified; God qualifies the called.
➢ God grades on the cross, not the curve.
➢ God loves everyone, but probably prefers “fruits of the spirit” over “religious nuts!”
➢ God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
➢ He who angers you, controls you!
➢ If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats!
➢ Prayer: Don’t give God instructions -- just report for duty!
➢ The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.
➢ The will of God never takes you to where the grace of God will not protect you.
➢ We don’t change the message; the message changes us.
➢ You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him or her.
➢ The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails= 4 given.
Christian One-Liners
Someday we may have a sign that we could advertise upcoming events, welcome newcomers, tell the title of the coming homily, or show one-liners as follows.
➢ Don’t let your worries get the best of you; remember, Moses started out as a basket case.
➢ Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews.
➢ Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisors.
➢ It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.
➢ The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.
➢ When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.
➢ People are funny; they want the front of the bus, the middle of the road, and the back of the church.
➢ Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on your front door forever.
➢ Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn’t belong.
➢ If the church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.
➢ God Himself does not propose to judge a man or a woman until they are dead. So why should you?
➢ Some minds are like concrete thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.
➢ Peace starts with a smile.
➢ I don’t know why some people change churches; what difference does it make which one you stay home from!
➢ A lot of church members who are singing “Standing on the Promises” are just sitting on the premises.
➢ We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.
➢ Be you fishers of men and women. You catch them; the Lord will clean them.
➢ Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.
➢ Don’t put a question mark where God put a period.
➢ Don’t wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.
➢ Forbidden fruits create many jams.
➢ God doesn’t call the qualified; God qualifies the called.
➢ God grades on the cross, not the curve.
➢ God loves everyone, but probably prefers “fruits of the spirit” over “religious nuts!”
➢ God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
➢ He who angers you, controls you!
➢ If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats!
➢ Prayer: Don’t give God instructions -- just report for duty!
➢ The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.
➢ The will of God never takes you to where the grace of God will not protect you.
➢ We don’t change the message; the message changes us.
➢ You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him or her.
➢ The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails= 4 given.
Weekly Message for 7/30/06: God As the Silversmith
July 27, 2006
Dear Family,
Some women in a Bible study group were puzzled by the following statement from the Old Testament Book of Malachi (3:3): “He will sit refining and purifying (silver), and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.” They wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.” She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy – when I see my image in it.”
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until he sees his image in you. Is there someone in your life that needs to know that God is watching over him or her? Whatever they’re going through, if they persevered in faith they’ll be a better person in the end.
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Dear Family,
Some women in a Bible study group were puzzled by the following statement from the Old Testament Book of Malachi (3:3): “He will sit refining and purifying (silver), and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.” They wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.” She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy – when I see my image in it.”
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until he sees his image in you. Is there someone in your life that needs to know that God is watching over him or her? Whatever they’re going through, if they persevered in faith they’ll be a better person in the end.
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Weekly HOMILY for 7/23/06: Knitting for the Soul
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
July 23, 2006
Routines for Rest
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
“Knitting for the Soul”
An author named Susan Lydon offers us some very good advice in an article entitled “Knitting for the Soul.”
It happened that she had fallen off the deck of her home, breaking her arm and tearing her rotator cuff. As part of her rehab, the orthopedist recommended that she take up some activity to keep the muscles in her hands from atrophying.
And so, Susan took up knitting. She quickly came to enjoy the soothing motion of the needles and the satisfaction of seeing a scarf, or whatever it was, come into being through her hands.
Susan also found that she did some of her best thinking while she was knitting. In the time the lapsed, she came to feel calm and serene; untouched by the boredom she usually felt when she tried to be still.
What was most interesting is the Susan Lydon continued knitting long after her arm and shoulder healed. She came to see it as “soulwork.”
Our newly committed knitter found that the slow rhythm of the needles helped her make space for silence and solitude. The flow of the needles put her in touch with the rhythms of the earth and with the rhythms of her inner self.
“Come to a Deserted Place and Rest”
Now I am not recommending that we all take up knitting.
For most of us guys and probably for a lot of women too, this is not our thing. But, Susan Lydon’s experience is definitely a way of responding to that one suggestion Jesus offers his busy disciples in today’s gospel.
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” The truth is that we all need some space where we can be alone by ourselves.
We all need some holy, out-of-the-way place where we can escape noise and our to-do lists, if only for a few moments. We all need a routine of achieving stillness so we can be in touch with our inner selves and with the God and the voice of God we can find there.
For us, this sacred routine may be looking out our bedroom or family room window with a cup of coffee in hand at the dawning of each new day.
It may be regularly walking around our own neighborhood or on the NCR Trail and noticing the trees and birds and air we are breathing.
It may be tending our garden each day and noting the flowers or vegetables that are growing.
Everyone needs a a sacred routine that gets us to a “deserted place,” as Jesus says, to rest, to reach, to resonate with the God within us.
Summer
And this is the perfect theme for these summer months.
Summer is the time of the year when we are all able to get away a bit – if only for a few days – and see the importance of finding rest.
It’s almost as if this season of summer beckons us to do the same thing Jesus invites us to do today.
Given that, I would like to offer you what I would call “Four Summer Suggestions” that may help us respond more fully to Jesus’ invitation to us today and develop routines for rest.
Four Summer Suggestions
Number 1. Let’s remember that we are not indispensable. The business or the community organization or even the parish will survive for a bit without me whether it’s a week of vacation or 15 minutes walking the neighborhood.
Number 2. Let’s remember to leave our worries behind. If we put the computerization project at work or even the needs of an aging parent at home on the back burner for a while, whether it’s a day away or ten minutes in the garden, we will return refreshed and much better able to deal with the challenges that will continue to be there.
Number 3. Let’s remember that we all need to come away and rest for a while. Our bodies and minds need this rest; and this sensitivity to our own humanity will help us to be more sensitive to others.
Just note what a daily 5 minutes reading a bible passage and 10 minutes of reflection will do for you.
And Number 4. Let’s remember to slow down and in some way be alone every day of every season of the year.
When we take these moments to be in touch with our inner selves and with God who is within us, we will be more at peace and more of a source of peace for one another.
Conclusion
So, they are my Four Summer Suggestions.
They will help us, I believe, to respond to Jesus’ caring invitation today. “`Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’”
Our Lady of Grace
July 23, 2006
Routines for Rest
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
“Knitting for the Soul”
An author named Susan Lydon offers us some very good advice in an article entitled “Knitting for the Soul.”
It happened that she had fallen off the deck of her home, breaking her arm and tearing her rotator cuff. As part of her rehab, the orthopedist recommended that she take up some activity to keep the muscles in her hands from atrophying.
And so, Susan took up knitting. She quickly came to enjoy the soothing motion of the needles and the satisfaction of seeing a scarf, or whatever it was, come into being through her hands.
Susan also found that she did some of her best thinking while she was knitting. In the time the lapsed, she came to feel calm and serene; untouched by the boredom she usually felt when she tried to be still.
What was most interesting is the Susan Lydon continued knitting long after her arm and shoulder healed. She came to see it as “soulwork.”
Our newly committed knitter found that the slow rhythm of the needles helped her make space for silence and solitude. The flow of the needles put her in touch with the rhythms of the earth and with the rhythms of her inner self.
“Come to a Deserted Place and Rest”
Now I am not recommending that we all take up knitting.
For most of us guys and probably for a lot of women too, this is not our thing. But, Susan Lydon’s experience is definitely a way of responding to that one suggestion Jesus offers his busy disciples in today’s gospel.
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” The truth is that we all need some space where we can be alone by ourselves.
We all need some holy, out-of-the-way place where we can escape noise and our to-do lists, if only for a few moments. We all need a routine of achieving stillness so we can be in touch with our inner selves and with the God and the voice of God we can find there.
For us, this sacred routine may be looking out our bedroom or family room window with a cup of coffee in hand at the dawning of each new day.
It may be regularly walking around our own neighborhood or on the NCR Trail and noticing the trees and birds and air we are breathing.
It may be tending our garden each day and noting the flowers or vegetables that are growing.
Everyone needs a a sacred routine that gets us to a “deserted place,” as Jesus says, to rest, to reach, to resonate with the God within us.
Summer
And this is the perfect theme for these summer months.
Summer is the time of the year when we are all able to get away a bit – if only for a few days – and see the importance of finding rest.
It’s almost as if this season of summer beckons us to do the same thing Jesus invites us to do today.
Given that, I would like to offer you what I would call “Four Summer Suggestions” that may help us respond more fully to Jesus’ invitation to us today and develop routines for rest.
Four Summer Suggestions
Number 1. Let’s remember that we are not indispensable. The business or the community organization or even the parish will survive for a bit without me whether it’s a week of vacation or 15 minutes walking the neighborhood.
Number 2. Let’s remember to leave our worries behind. If we put the computerization project at work or even the needs of an aging parent at home on the back burner for a while, whether it’s a day away or ten minutes in the garden, we will return refreshed and much better able to deal with the challenges that will continue to be there.
Number 3. Let’s remember that we all need to come away and rest for a while. Our bodies and minds need this rest; and this sensitivity to our own humanity will help us to be more sensitive to others.
Just note what a daily 5 minutes reading a bible passage and 10 minutes of reflection will do for you.
And Number 4. Let’s remember to slow down and in some way be alone every day of every season of the year.
When we take these moments to be in touch with our inner selves and with God who is within us, we will be more at peace and more of a source of peace for one another.
Conclusion
So, they are my Four Summer Suggestions.
They will help us, I believe, to respond to Jesus’ caring invitation today. “`Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’”
Weekly THIS & THAT for 7/23/06: The Face of Poverty
Earlier this week I was reading some material from Our Daily Bread and its patrons and to my astonishment saw the photograph of one of our parishioners on the front page. Here was a woman who had attended Mass regularly here at Our Lady of Grace and at the age of 45 became homeless when she was evicted this past March. She had been a legal secretary in Baltimore for some 20 years!
In reading further what I learned is that there has been a noticeable trend at Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in downtown Baltimore regarding the gender of its guests. While most in the past have been men, there is a decided shift to women guests. In a recent survey of people coming to eat, 20 percent of 623 served that day were women. The majority of the women were middle aged. In individual interviews, a few were asked why they came to the facility and the reasons ranged from being homeless or out of food stamps, to helping feed the children or not having a refrigerator where the person lives.
Our Lady of Grace has done and continues to do its part in assisting those in need of food throughout the year by baking casseroles and providing canned fruits and vegetables, as well as cereals, sugar, and condiments. However it is important to realize that the needs for food for ODB do not diminish in the warm months of summer. In fact, their donations drop as benefactors go away on vacation. Our continued support is crucial.
The following facts regarding the amazing work that ODB does in caring for the hungry of our area are shared as a way of getting individuals interested in contributing by way of casseroles, non-perishable food items, or the valuable gift of time spent serving occasionally at the facility. Serving is an extraordinary way for teens and adults to come face-to-face with hungry people and serve them. It creates a wonderful connection between our love of God and serving our neighbor. With youth home for the summer, it is a great way to do something that can change your perception of those in need and relate directly with them.
Please call Elaine Hagner at the Parish Office if you can donate some time to serve at the facility. Please bake casseroles whenever pans are distributed after Masses; we are assigned months with a 5th Sunday. Please bring in canned goods, paper products at any time and leave them in the shopping cart in the foyer of the church.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Facts About Our Daily Bread
What Is It? Our Daily Bread is a program operated by Catholic Charities, which serves a free hot lunch daily to the poor and homeless in Baltimore City. The program also serves as a public information resource, with staff and volunteers available to speak on poverty issues to schools and community groups. ODB has been an integral part of the Baltimore Community for almost 25 years, feeding over 5,000,000 people. The doors have never been closed. Even on the day that Hurricane Isabel arrived several years ago, ODB was the only soup kitchen that was open, providing 693 guests with lunch.
Where Is It Located? Our Daily Bread is located at 411 Cathedral Street. The Basilica of the Assumption and the Enoch Pratt Library are its neighbors. It is soon to be located in newly constructed quarters at the intersection of Madison and the Fallsway, downtown.
How is Our Lady of Grace Involved? ODB relies on casseroles and food donations from churches and community groups. Our parish participates whenever there is a 5th Sunday in the month, preparing Zippy Beef Casseroles. The next such Sunday is July 30th.
How Can I Get Involved? ODB operates with a limited paid staff and many hundreds of volunteers to serve our those in need a hot lunch, dessert, and a drink from 9:00am to 1:00pm every day of the year. If you wish to serve on one of Our Lady of Grace’s designated Sundays, youth 13 to 16 years old, please call Deborah Webber; adults please call Elaine Hagner. Both can be reached at the Parish Office. If you cannot serve, but are available to drive the casseroles and food down to ODB, we leave the church parking lot by 9:00am. For assistance in delivering food, please call Marie Crook at 410-343-1723. You would be back to the parish by 10:30am. If you prefer not to bake and freeze a casserole or to volunteer as a server or driver, you can still bring in greatly needed canned goods, especially sugar, tea bags, and paper products. Baked goods are also most welcome.
What’s in It for Me? It is amazing what people say they got out of helping those in need. Why not surprise yourself?
In reading further what I learned is that there has been a noticeable trend at Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen in downtown Baltimore regarding the gender of its guests. While most in the past have been men, there is a decided shift to women guests. In a recent survey of people coming to eat, 20 percent of 623 served that day were women. The majority of the women were middle aged. In individual interviews, a few were asked why they came to the facility and the reasons ranged from being homeless or out of food stamps, to helping feed the children or not having a refrigerator where the person lives.
Our Lady of Grace has done and continues to do its part in assisting those in need of food throughout the year by baking casseroles and providing canned fruits and vegetables, as well as cereals, sugar, and condiments. However it is important to realize that the needs for food for ODB do not diminish in the warm months of summer. In fact, their donations drop as benefactors go away on vacation. Our continued support is crucial.
The following facts regarding the amazing work that ODB does in caring for the hungry of our area are shared as a way of getting individuals interested in contributing by way of casseroles, non-perishable food items, or the valuable gift of time spent serving occasionally at the facility. Serving is an extraordinary way for teens and adults to come face-to-face with hungry people and serve them. It creates a wonderful connection between our love of God and serving our neighbor. With youth home for the summer, it is a great way to do something that can change your perception of those in need and relate directly with them.
Please call Elaine Hagner at the Parish Office if you can donate some time to serve at the facility. Please bake casseroles whenever pans are distributed after Masses; we are assigned months with a 5th Sunday. Please bring in canned goods, paper products at any time and leave them in the shopping cart in the foyer of the church.
Fondly,
Father Nick Amato
Facts About Our Daily Bread
What Is It? Our Daily Bread is a program operated by Catholic Charities, which serves a free hot lunch daily to the poor and homeless in Baltimore City. The program also serves as a public information resource, with staff and volunteers available to speak on poverty issues to schools and community groups. ODB has been an integral part of the Baltimore Community for almost 25 years, feeding over 5,000,000 people. The doors have never been closed. Even on the day that Hurricane Isabel arrived several years ago, ODB was the only soup kitchen that was open, providing 693 guests with lunch.
Where Is It Located? Our Daily Bread is located at 411 Cathedral Street. The Basilica of the Assumption and the Enoch Pratt Library are its neighbors. It is soon to be located in newly constructed quarters at the intersection of Madison and the Fallsway, downtown.
How is Our Lady of Grace Involved? ODB relies on casseroles and food donations from churches and community groups. Our parish participates whenever there is a 5th Sunday in the month, preparing Zippy Beef Casseroles. The next such Sunday is July 30th.
How Can I Get Involved? ODB operates with a limited paid staff and many hundreds of volunteers to serve our those in need a hot lunch, dessert, and a drink from 9:00am to 1:00pm every day of the year. If you wish to serve on one of Our Lady of Grace’s designated Sundays, youth 13 to 16 years old, please call Deborah Webber; adults please call Elaine Hagner. Both can be reached at the Parish Office. If you cannot serve, but are available to drive the casseroles and food down to ODB, we leave the church parking lot by 9:00am. For assistance in delivering food, please call Marie Crook at 410-343-1723. You would be back to the parish by 10:30am. If you prefer not to bake and freeze a casserole or to volunteer as a server or driver, you can still bring in greatly needed canned goods, especially sugar, tea bags, and paper products. Baked goods are also most welcome.
What’s in It for Me? It is amazing what people say they got out of helping those in need. Why not surprise yourself?
Weekly Message for 7/23/06: Summer Project -- Setting Up a Blog
July 21, 2006
Dear Family,
One of my summer projects is to learn how to set up and manage a blog. And by Jove, I’m well on my way!
As many of you know a blog is a personal way of getting information into cyberspace and being in a more interactive way with others over the material you put there.
At the present time there are 275 of you folks who get this weekly mailing; 25 of you make copies of different parts and share them with others. Another 25 individuals who are homebound get the hard-copy edition. All in all that makes some 325 folks.
Each week six to twelve folks respond to something in the weekly email, usually it is something about the homily, less often in the “This and That.” The weekly message also seems to keep readers in touch with something that may be going on in my parish or personal life.
A blog would give me the opportunity of expanding the circle of readers and responders beyond our present numbers. It would open the material to folks who are just out there blogging. And who knows who’s out there!
I would continue to have the automatic weekly email delivery to each of you, but be able to use the material I create each week in exciting new ways with the use of the blog.
Blogging would also give folks who visit the site a way of posting a comment or question for all others bloggers to see, or listening to the homily if a more dynamic format may help.
While I realize that the new blog could create more “work,” I also think it could be a good effort in evangelization. I’m sure there are already many “pastors of Cyberspace”; I would just be another one offering a Catholic perspective on our faith.
I’ve still got some learning to get under my belt, but I hope to have the blog up and running by September 1st.
Isn’t technology – as long as it’s serving us and we not it – wonderful!
Love,
Father Nick Amato
Dear Family,
One of my summer projects is to learn how to set up and manage a blog. And by Jove, I’m well on my way!
As many of you know a blog is a personal way of getting information into cyberspace and being in a more interactive way with others over the material you put there.
At the present time there are 275 of you folks who get this weekly mailing; 25 of you make copies of different parts and share them with others. Another 25 individuals who are homebound get the hard-copy edition. All in all that makes some 325 folks.
Each week six to twelve folks respond to something in the weekly email, usually it is something about the homily, less often in the “This and That.” The weekly message also seems to keep readers in touch with something that may be going on in my parish or personal life.
A blog would give me the opportunity of expanding the circle of readers and responders beyond our present numbers. It would open the material to folks who are just out there blogging. And who knows who’s out there!
I would continue to have the automatic weekly email delivery to each of you, but be able to use the material I create each week in exciting new ways with the use of the blog.
Blogging would also give folks who visit the site a way of posting a comment or question for all others bloggers to see, or listening to the homily if a more dynamic format may help.
While I realize that the new blog could create more “work,” I also think it could be a good effort in evangelization. I’m sure there are already many “pastors of Cyberspace”; I would just be another one offering a Catholic perspective on our faith.
I’ve still got some learning to get under my belt, but I hope to have the blog up and running by September 1st.
Isn’t technology – as long as it’s serving us and we not it – wonderful!
Love,
Father Nick Amato
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