180 The Movie

The Messy Vineyard

OH, another week with so much in the reading that jumps out from the page to my heart…don’t you just love it when it does that? (To tell the truth I begin to feel a bit overwhelmed to get all my thoughts out there) so today I will try to spread it out over a few days. As always I praise God who is alive in my life and in the world!

This weeks upcoming readings: Is 5:1-7, Phil 4:6-9 and Mt 21:33-43

First reading -- I love how it begins, kind of like the beginning of the Beverly Hill Billies, go ahead and read the first lines, with the tune in the back of your mind! Did you see the comparison? Lol  But enough musings ...

Here is a picture of vineyard, who when so guarded, all that grew were “wild grapes”! And so, the owner of the vineyard is going to let whatever happen, happen to the vineyard, in hopes of getting something different. Now I am no theologian or scripture scholar, I really only go by what I hear in my head and heart about the readings at hand. But boy did this strike me. When I grew up, so many things about the church were “guarded”, parishioners it seemed, knew their place and pretty much remained there. The “jobs” of the church were taken care of by “special” people, and somehow things got done, Church was there on Sunday and you didn’t really have to worry about it. But, even with so much given us, and I am referring to those now in their 30s and 40s, it seems that we have grown “wild” that we do not have a deep appreciation for this Catholic faith and are, for the most part, doing a horrible job in passing that faith to the next generation. So many young adults (and not so young adults) don’t know much about the teachings of the faith (and I am talking about the REAL teachings, not what you learn on the “streets”) and so are luke warm about not only the Catholic faith, but are luke warm about God in general. Take a look at families, schools, governments, etc., and we can see how the watering down of commitments to God has affected our whole world.  And so the result is a Church in great need of love and caretaking, falling and being left for dead. But ohhhh, the opportunity God is giving us!!! Yes, this, in a way is a GOOD thing! In the past few weeks we have heard about a man’s son who says he will work in the vineyard but doesn’t go and a son who says no but then changes his mind, of people who work in the vineyard for different amounts of time, but all get the same pay, don’t we see, for so many of us, who said (and say) that we are bringing Christ into the world, but didn’t when given an opportunity, or we say that we know our faith, but don’t when it is time to teach the lessons to our children, we have an opportunity to change our minds AND to get the same pay – heaven.  It is when the walls of the Church have fallen, when She needs our attention and care, that we are invited, with all of our gifts into this messy vineyard, that we can have a change of mind and heart, and to roll up our sleeves and get to work living and proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ. We have a second chance, and we can be the small, vulnerable sprouts of the good grapes because through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have been made new again. The time is now, and not to settle for less than what Jesus death on the cross provides for us.  It is not a time to blame and to find excuses, we ALL got here together, and together we will rise!

Metanoia Retreat Coming November 18th

I have been thinking a lot about what young adult Catholics may need from the church and the experiences of the past few days have been rather enlightening. First of all, I attended the Christopher West presentation in Massena. All I can say is WOW -- for so many reasons.  Christopher West is really a prophet of our day. The way he explains and puts the teachings of the Catholic Church would make anyone want to be Catholic or at least think about it. For me, the best line was, “we have always had the right words, but they were put to the wrong music”.  How many of us have grown up with the teachings of the Catholic Church, but they never pulled at our heart strings. We have to care about something deeply in order to change or adopt ways that may not always be the easiest to do. This has proven, I think to be a Big, BIG problem with the younger generation of the Church. As a DRE of my parish, I see that the kids are sitting in class, but do the words we teach pull their heart strings, do we teach our faith with the right music; the kind of music that touches the inner core of who they are? How should we know how to do that when we didn’t have the experience? We all have to take a second (or third, fourth, etc) and look at to what music we put our faith to, so that it can touch our inner heart, the place that has the capacity to really fall in love with Jesus. Once we are in love with Jesus, there would be no stopping us in what we would sacrifice for Him, I know that. But the difficult part is getting out of the head, throwing out our Catholic checklist of actions that would make me a good person, and simply love. Love, Love, Love.  Sounds so simple.  As we all gathered there on Saturday, we found ourselves all in the same boat, and I think, like me, people were awakened to the real hunger that we have for the truth of God’s teaching and I think as we walked out at the end of the day, there was nothing better than to be Catholic.  I think so many of us felt fed, but so wanting more.  I know I wanted to kidnap Christopher West, bring him to my parish so that everyone could hear this message. I don’t think I was the only one. It was easy to see God working through Chris and us wanting to be somehow connected to that.

So what happens to us when Christopher West goes back home to his family and we go back to ours and to our parishes? How on earth do we get experiences like that to keep us moving and thriving to be our best? How do we continue with that sense that I want to really fall in love with Jesus? How do you “fall in love” with someone you can’t see? How do I experience that burning desire to be one with God? Does anyone have these desires? I think it is about getting real with ourselves and presenting ourselves before God (and really ourselves) naked and humble and scared and vulnerable and we need a place to do that. I want to invite you to that place.

A few months ago, I wish that I could say I was meditating, but really I was sleeping. I had been in that sleep state in which you can kind of think about a problem; though in all respects you would classify yourself as sleeping. My problem was that I didn’t know how to meet the needs of the Young Adult Catholics that were placed in my care. I didn’t even know really how to meet all those around the Diocese who fit into the age category. To say the least I was a bit overwhelmed. And so I went to prayer with the issue and gave it to Jesus, knowing that somehow, He would help me figure it out.  That early morning, I heard a voice in my head, telling me to work on a retreat, not a retreat where people would get lost in the crowd, but invite 12 people for 24 hours every 12 weeks to do some serious praying, asking them to be the working force of rebuilding this church. 12 Disciples – 12 young adults, 12 nations that needed to rise again, every 12 weeks. I woke up with a sense that these 12 had to be personally asked to come on this journey, a journey that was just a beginning of something bigger. I woke up with this renewed excitement, and for days following ideas came from everything I touched and saw. I knew that while it was my own voice I heard (no I am not crazy) this came from God. As I began to work on the details, I also came to realize that this was not just another event, it was the culmination of my life, and that it was going to be personal. I think that this is what is scary but necessary. Invitation, invitation.  I was also instructed to contact Fr. Al Hauser, my spiritual director when I was at Wadhams Hall. When I explained this experience to Fr. Hauser, he said yes, without hesitation. I knew I was on the right track. And so the Metanoia Retreat was born, and while it is still an infant the first will be held the weekend of November 18^th, 2011.

Metanoia, the Greek word for Conversion, is an attempt to put all those words to the right music; to give people an opportunity to hear the music that God is putting into our hearts and support to make a commitment to falling in love with Jesus and with the faith. But in order to do that, we have to strip ourselves down to what God made us, taking away all the “stuff” that we hide behind. The Metanoia Retreat takes 12 people, personally invited, into a place with God that converts their heart, so that their mind can be ready to evangelize to the whole world.  We are the lost sheep, and God wants to bring us back to Him, he wants to rejoice in our conversion of heart, in which we come back to his loving arms. We come back because the music and the words come together in such a way that we can’t help but know the joy of being close to God and we can’t hold it back from others.

The retreat will begin on Friday evening at 8pm and go until Saturday evening at 8pm. We want to make sure that those who are working have time to travel to the retreat site, which will be Wadhams Hall in Ogdensburg. Participants have an option to stay a second night if you have traveled far and would rather travel back home on Sunday.  The retreat will have prayer, reflection, Adoration, faith sharing, quiet reflection time, among other things. It will be time to get out of the world, get back to your center and hear what God is saying to you.

A person will only be able to make 1 Metanoia retreat, because once your Metanoia has occurred you will move to another group called Manthano, (Greek word meaning “to learn” but is also used as “to learn through experience or discipleship”) the Manthano Group will gather again every 12 weeks for Catholic teaching, fellowship, prayer and worship. The idea of the retreat experience, with both the Metanoia and the Manthano is that Young Adults will have the tools and support to return to their home parish and become a committed leader and full participant of the Church. Quite ambitious for a 24 hour simple retreat, but with God ALL things are possible.

If you stumbled across this, and are interested in being the first of the 12 to be invited, please contact me at 315-323-4989. I would love to give you more information regarding this event.

God is Near...Every Moment

Image via Wikipedia

It seems that I have missed a step or two the last couple of weeks. Fall has seemed to put more deadlines into my life, and it has come apparent that I need to learn, and learn again, a sense of balance in my life. This week we hear in the first reading, (Is 55 6-9) “Seek the Lord where He may be found, call Him while He is near.” So much of our life is filled with appointments and deadlines, things that we want to do because people are depending on us, and so hours go quickly by, then days and then weeks. We begin to realize that perhaps those things that are MOST important are the things that go onto the back burner. It is in these times that the Devil finds his opportunity to sneak into our lives and create his destruction. The destruction of our relationship with our Father makes the Devil very happy.

God is with us, He is right here next to me, right next to you, calling us to a relationship with Him. Not a relationship that is superficial, but one that is filled with love, truth and hope. How many times do we fail to recognize that call? How many times do we take a moment to slow things down and realize our true reason for being and ponder on our true calling? I would dare say, not enough.

As we enter into the Fall season, as the parish DRE I am very busy putting together a program that will teach the members of our parish the faith. In my mind the Spirit is close, keeping me creative and excited despite the obstacles. As we look for volunteers and parent participation, it becomes clear where God falls on the priority list of many families. It is amazing that even in this world, where we should be scared to death to send our kids outside the door in the morning because of the unbelievable strength of the world’s negative influence, parents are not “seeking the Lord where He may be found”!  Why does it feel that for so many in the world God seems hidden and for others the love of God seems as close and real as the computer that I am typing on? It makes me realize that a relationship with God is such a gift and for those of us who have a sense of that relationship, no matter how new the relationship may be, or that we don’t get it right 100% of the time, it is a gift; it is hard to articulate where it comes from, what keeps it strong and why God reaches out to us every moment of the day. It is a gift that, I know, I wish that everyone had.

“…call Him when He is near” … reminds me that in the moments in which we feel God’s presence, no matter how small and quiet, we have to hang on and believe, calling to Him like a trusting child, not being able to explain it but trusting that He is hearing us and caring about us. Does God weep for the moments in which people do not want to touch Him when he is near? There is nothing closer in which we experience Christ than in the Eucharist, and how many people in today’s world truly believe that Jesus is present in this Sacrament? I can’t answer that question because I am not in the hearts of those around me, but one can see through body language what is being said about God. Folded arms, slouching, young people who do not join in the recitation of prayers, half hearted signs of the cross … are we bringing our best to God when we have opportunity to be close to Him? In the second reading, Paul writes to his people in the Letter to the Philippians, while he is in prison, “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether in life or in death.” He tells Jesus’ followers, that he would like to depart from this life, to spend his time with Jesus in heaven, but he also knows that he has work to do and a purpose in this life. Even Paul doesn’t know which he would choose if given a choice.  We are here on earth, and are we using our bodies, our language when we do not speak, as something that magnifies God. Do we present ourselves, not only at church, but in the world as someone who is a Christian, do we attend Mass as someone who is a Catholic? For we Catholics are the few who believe in transubstantiation, the real presence in the Eucharist. Do we posture ourselves with reverence and dignity toward the Divine?  Or do we go to church like any other social function, checking some obligation off of our checklist? It is not always easy to know that as good Christian Catholics, we must be the vehicle in which God travels through the world, do people recognize our love, and our respect for God? Do we exude the Spirit into the world?

This week, we respond, “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him”, He is here, He is next to you as you read this, He wants to share His love with you, he wants to quench that thirst that you have that nothing in this world will satisfy. Reach out, listen to the quiet voice, He is there, and allow that God who dwells within you transform you so that you will have the courage and strength, as Paul did, to transform the world.

Related articles

• Pope Presents Eucharist As Solution to Social Woes (onecatholicnews.wordpress.com)
• WYD 2011: Cardinal Varela's Homily 'You are the Generation of Benedict XVI' (onecatholicnews.wordpress.com)
• Welcoming the new Mass translation (deaconjohnspace.wordpress.com)
• The Sinner's Prayer (catholicunveiled.wordpress.com)