Upcoming Boulder Area Schedule

Masses:

SATURDAY, Dec. 5 - 5:30 pm - Lyons (Meets in the Methodist Church, 4th & Main)

FRIDAY, Dec. 11 - 7:00 am - SHJ

SATURDAY, Dec. 12 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SATURDAY, Dec. 19 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

THURSDAY, Dec. 24 - 5:00 pm - VIGIL OF CHRISTMAS - Lyons

FRIDAY, Dec. 25 - 7:00 am
and
8:30 am - CHRISTMAS - Spirit of Christ, 7400 W. 80th Ave., Arvada

SATURDAY, Dec. 26 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SUNDAY, Dec. 27 - 7:30 am - St. Thomas Aquinas, 14th & Aurora, Boulder

Monday, Dec. 28 - 5:10 pm - St. Tom's

THURSDAY, Dec. 31 - 5:10 pm - VIGIL MARY MOTHER OF GOD - St. Tom's
FRIDAY, Jan. 1, 2010 - 10:00 am - SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD - St. Tom's

SATURDAY, Jan. 2 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SUNDAY, Jan. 3 - 7:30 am and 9:00 am - St. Tom's

Monday, Jan. 4 - 5:10 pm - St. Tom's

Tuesday, Jan. 5 - 5:10 pm - St. Tom's

Wednesday, Jan. 6 - 5:10 pm - St. Tom's

SATURDAY, Jan. 9 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SATURDAY, Jan. 16 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

January 20 - February 9 - Fr. Terry will be in San Francisco

SATURDAY, Feb. 13 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SATURDAY, March 6 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SATURDAY, March 27 - 5:30 pm - Lyons

SATURDAY, April 3 - 5:30 pm - Lyons (EASTER)

SUNDAY, April 4 (EASTER) - 7:00 am AND 8:30 am - St. John the Baptist, Longmont - in the gym

WORKSHOPS:

Saturday, Dec. 5
- 9-noon - Sacred Heart of Jesus (Jubilee Hall). Topic: "Bonaventure" Bonaventure was a 13th century Franciscan and the chief architect of Franciscan Spirituality. His Franciscan emphasis on the humanity of Jesus can help us in our ADVENT reflections on the Incarnation of Christ. Suggested donation: $10. Coffee & treats begin at 9:00 am.

Thursday, Dec. 10
- Morning for Moms & Dads - "Morning of Prayer" 9-noon - Sacred Heart of Jesus (Jubilee Hall). The school Parents in Prayer group will provide refreshments and coffee. Suggested donation: $10.

Saturday, January 9, 2010 - Workshop to learn Centering Prayer as an 11th Step meditative practice open to anyone involved in any 12-step program who has ever started - or wanted to start - a practice of Centering Prayer. Registration will begin at 9:00 am . Coffee & treats offered. $10 donation is suggested and appreciated to cover costs. For more information, or to make a reservation, contact Pat Fanning at 303-530-1315 or email her at pat.fanning@yahoo.com

Please RSVP by December 31, 2009

Saturday, January 16, 2010 - St. Thomas Aquinas Church Hall (enter from Aurora St. door) 9-noon Workshop titled, "Humility, Part I". We will explore the importance of humility in practicing the spiritual life and how to achieve it through letting go of thoughts of our former way of life, thoughts of God, and thoughts of self. The presentation will be based on the book, Humility Matters, by Mary Margaret Funk. The morning will include Centering Prayer, but no experience is necessary. Everyone is welcome - suggested donation $10. Coffee & treats begin 9am; talk begins 9:30. For more information: Barb Hayden 303-494-2845 or Rosalie Gansecki 303-494-1742.

Saturday, February 13, 2010 - St. John the Baptist church (323 Collyer, Longmont) 9am -12:30pm.
Topic and further details: TBA

Saturday, March 6, 2010 - Sacred Heart of Jesus, 9:00 (goodies) 9:30-noon (talk) Topic: TBA

THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

Photograph of Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King.

(c) FreeFoto.com

JOHN 18: 33b-37 NOVEMBER 22, 2009

Let's say your heritage or ancestral lineage is Italian, or French, or Latino, or in my case, Irish. What if you were to say one day, "I think I will be Greek." You drop all your ancestral ways, change your name, eat Greek food, and practice Greek customs. Now you might think this is very strange. Yet we do this every day with reference to our spiritual heritage. We are Catholic Christians, member of the Kingdom of God. We are children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus from our baptism. If you are like me, you forget all this most of the time and focus your life on other things.

Do I wake up and say to myself, "I am a child of God, loved by God and a freed member of the Kingdom of God?" No, I wake up and wonder if my computer is going to work the way I want, or if it will be too cold to run comfortably, or if there are bananas for my cereal in the kitchen. I forget my true identity and decide to live in some other kingdom, enslaved by worries and anxieties.

Jesus began this kingdom but in the Gospel he never directly says that he is a King even though Pilate pushes him on this. Jesus is not yet a King because he has yet no subjects. They are still hostages of the devil. Satan had a battle with Adam and Eve who were living in the Paradise Kingdom. Adam and Eve did battle with the cunning devil. They lost and became his hostages. When an army lost a battle in ancient times, hostages were taken by the winners. To get freed someone had to pay a ransom. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures the devil had the people, the lineage of Adam and Eve, enslaved to his kingdom. There was the Tower of Babel, Noah's Ark, the rebellion of God's chosen people in the desert, defeat by Greek and Roman pagans, all because the people forgot their heritage and decided to focus on things other than God.

God wants us back. So God tells Satan, "I will become a human being and you can have me executed in a shameful and painful fashion, if you will let me people go. Satan agrees. So now we are at the scene of today's Gospel. Jesus has to die to ransom us from captivity. Then he will be a King. He dies. The devil did not know about Resurrection. Jesus goes down into hell and gets all the people who are there. It is in our Apostles' Creed. We are all freed to live in the kingdom. In baptism we become Kings. It says it right there in the ritual. We become sisters and brothers of Jesus, and children of God. But like an Italian who decides to be Greek, we decide to give up this identity and be like Pilate, slaves to passing things.

Jesus' hands are bound but he is really free in the Gospel. Pilate's hands are not tied but he is bound by his focus on esteem, power and control. These are the things Pilate wakes up to think about. What about us? In the celebration of the Eucharist, we spiritual royalty come together to celebrate the Kingdom in which we live and eat of the food of God prepared by and for a royal people.

Say “yes”

I notice that when I run with my running club group, I am always last. There are two reasons for that which I cannot change.

1. Age. I am getting older

2. Talent. I have been given just so much and no more.

Acceptance is the response to these two things. But there are some things that can grow or be added that will not be affected by age and talent.

1. Patience. This virtue includes the faith that I will improve if I keep showing up each day to train.

2. Training. I have only been training since late summer. If I train regularly through the winter, the cumulative effect is that I will run faster in the spring when racing season comes around. Fortitude is required if I am going to train on a regular basis.

Patience and fortitude are virtues. Virtue is an act of the will. It is a decision, not a feeling. I might not want to train each day, or feel confident that I will get better. I try and ignore these feelings. The will might lean toward laziness especially on rainy days, but regular decisions of "Yes, I will," strengthen the will. Age and DNA do not weaken the will. A daily "Yes" to virtue is great spiritual training.

I went to a function today in Chinatown, San Francisco. I said hello to the Archbishop who was also there. I could tell that he did not remember me. I thought, "Well, he won't be inviting me to do any of my teaching." Then the whole crowd in attendance at the event went to a luncheon. I got to sit next to his secretary. God is watching over me. When one door does not seem to open, another one surprisingly does. We got to know one another.

If you do not know the doorkeeper, then the door will never open for you.

Bartimaeus

MARK 10: 46-52 OCTOBER 25, 2009

This is a wonderful homily for a baby baptism mass. When the baby cries, the parents have to put everything else aside and attend to the baby. Babies cannot talk and tell you what they want or need. What if a parent said, "Don't bother me, I'm busy." You would think the parent rather callous and self-centered. If I were to ask someone for assistance and they were to ignore me, or say, "Don't bother me," I would be upset and hurt.

Yet, the disciples of Jesus are just that, hard and callous. They have a plan and a schedule. They are on their way somewhere. Maybe they see themselves protecting Jesus from annoyances. But what if Jesus came to save "annoyances." I bother God every day with my annoyances, my requests for attention and agenda. If God is not going to pay attention to annoying people like me, then I am indeed in dire straits.

I wonder if the blind man, Bartimaeus, thought that the disciples were annoyances? They were trying to shut him up, to snuff out his response to faith in Jesus. These disciples were to be the first bishops, the first evangelizers. They started out doing a pretty poor job of it. That annoys me.

But wait! Jesus might be asking us to be open and non-judgmental of people that seem to be annoying. Jesus accepts Bartimaeus as is. Jesus accepts the disciples as they are, for now. Jesus gives Bartimaeus sight so that Batimaeus can chose which is the "way" for him. We are called to be helpful to the helpless. If someone asks for help or cries for help, ours is not to judge. Ours is to respond. If they can speak, ask them, "What do you want?" There may be times or situations in which we cannot be of help, but we can be kind. We won't know unless we ask, "What do you want?"

Spiritually Working Out

MARK 10: 35-45; OCTOBER 18, 2009

Running is a good metaphor for the spiritual life. Right now, I run at the back of the pack, way back. But sometimes I say to my coach that I want to run right next to him, at the head of the pack. He looks at me and says, "Are you insane?" He knows that I cannot suddenly begin to run with all the others, much less be in front. So he might gently say to me, "If you are willing to do the workouts that I do and suffer the pain that I suffer, then you will improve and become all that you can be as a runner." I cannot get better without putting in the workouts over a long period of time. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but as my coach says, "It is a long journey." As to running next to him some day, that is not for him to say. Each of us has a talent level. I can become all that my body will allow, but that does not mean I will run at the head of the pack or next to the coach.

Now turn to the Gospel. The two disciples, James and John, want to bask in Jesus' glory, and be right beside him. They want it now. They don't want to put in the work necessary to reach their goal. Jesus does not say they are insane. He says, "You don't know what you are asking." Then he challenges them to drink the cup from which he drinks, that is do what he does and go through the pain he goes through. It is like my coach saying that I need to drink the cup of workouts he does each day, and suffer the pain of some of these efforts, and then I will reach my "glory."

The disciples make a pact with Jesus to do as he says. Jesus cannot guarantee that they will end up beside him because each of us has our own level of holiness. I will never be as holy as Teresa of Avila or Therese of Lisieux. They seem to have a lot more spiritual DNA than I do. But the disciples will become all that God made them to be if they put in the daily spiritual practices. The Church has given us plenty of spiritual workouts: mass, bible lectio, meditation and such.

The disciples are attracted to Jesus. This is as far as their effort goes. If I read a book on marathon running, I might be attracted to running a marathon, but it is just an attraction. I will not run the marathon just by reading a book. I need to put in the daily effort over a long period of time to be able to run the marathon to my particular talent level. If I read a book of prayer, I might be attracted to praying and drawing closer to God in interior union, but it is only an attraction. I must have a daily practice if I am going to move toward my goal. Yes, God is at work, but I must show up each day and make some effort to discipline myself and make choices to pray rather than do something else.

EBay, garage sales and second hand stores are filled with stuff originally bought but never used by people who were attracted to something because they read a book, saw a movie, or heard a talk. In the Bible Book of Isaiah 53:10 it says that God "was pleased to crush him in infirmity." Isn't God supposed to be loving, kind and compassionate? Yes, but do you want to grow from attraction to become all who God made you to be? To know and believe that God loves me is the beginning of the relationship. That is the attraction part. I know that my coach cares for me, but at times he will give me a workout that seems to crush me! He seems to know when I need to make a greater effort to extend my muscles and discipline myself at some deeper level, so that I will improve. It is the same with God. The daily practice of spiritual effort is not always easy. Sometimes we get sick, or infirm. Sometimes we lose interest or focus or just get lazy. Sometimes there are a lot of distractions. When times are tough like this, God may be trying to toughen us up so that we can bear some cross that is still down the road of a long journey to spiritual transformation. God is a light even in the tunnel of darkness.

I have to go now and do my workout!

Habits

Habits defy adjustments. I have the habit of running early in the morning, usually during the coldest temperature of the day. But some mornings my schedule allows me to adjust and run later in the morning after the Boulder sun has warmed up the day. Would this not be more fun? I resist. I have my habits. Am I addicted?

Let's move on to the issue of prayer. Do you have a habit of praying? Like exercise, this seems like a good thing. But is your habit of prayer set in a certain formula? What if God wanted you to put down your meditation book and sit in silence, or pick up your bible and do lectio instead of sit in silence? Would you be able to hear the still small voice inviting you to change your formula of prayer? Are you hungry for God? Or are you addicted to your method? Methods are not God's will. They are simply methods. It is midmorning. The sun has warmed the day. I will go for a run now!