Prayer is an important part of a person’s religious and faith life. Prayer takes many forms, and we each utilize it in different ways. I have to admit that my favorite and most-used form is that of petition. I am frequently bringing various problems and difficulties to God’s attention, and indicating with great clarity what it is exactly that He should bring about—and on my time schedule, of course.

Seriously, though, prayer is an important word in the lives of most people who profess to have faith, but it is a word with a wide variety of meanings. In general, it is the way we manifest in our own personal lives how we do or want to relate to the God that we worship. Catholics have the reputation, not completely deserved, as praying constantly from formulas of prayer, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the Rosary, the Apostle’s Creed, and various types of novenas. This does not mean that Catholics do not also pray in a completely ad-libbed manner; it’s just that when they come together, there is a rich tradition of common prayer. Whether it’s 200 or 200,000 Catholics simultaneously uniting their voices in prayer, in my opinion that’s a beautiful manifestation of shared faith.

There are four basic forms of prayer: adoration, petition, thanksgiving and contrition. What must never be forgotten and always stressed is that prayer is conversation with God. Conversation! That conversation must be natural from the point of view of the person that is doing the praying. This opens up the need for personal, non-memorized prayer. I believe the only advantage of memorized prayer is making it easy to pray aloud together. We tend to get into a format that we’re comfortable with, and use it repeatedly. Instead, I think we should struggle to avoid that, and get back to the concept of an ongoing, personal conversation with our Lord.

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Most Americans tend to idolize life in small towns. Sure there are plenty of people who would like to live in midtown Manhattan but most of us idealize the quiet world of a smaller community with neighborhood schools, no traffic, faithful neighborhoods and, overall, a life of peace and quiet. That is not always the case.

A terrible tragedy struck the little town of West, Texas on April 17th. This little town called West has always confused people. West, Texas, is surprisingly not in western Texas, but in Central Texas, and this town is served by the northern most parish in the Diocese of Austin, St. Mary, the Church of the Assumption. West is a heavily Catholic town with most of its citizens being Czech and Catholic. On Thursday of last week, there was a tremendous explosion in the West Fertilizer Co. which manufactured fertilizer. Many of us forget it but from time to time we see terrible explosions related to fertilizer. That is what exploded in Texas City in 1947 and it was used in the terrible Oklahoma City bombing 20 years ago. It is very dangerous. The explosion was so severe that dozens of houses and buildings were either damaged or destroyed. At least twelve people lost their lives. Rightfully the parish made its facilities available to the rescue program and in their sorrow and loss they are joined by the rest of Texas and all across the country.

West is a small town but it is huge in terms of courage and community commitment. The agony and the sense of loss will purdure for a long time but the strong faith of the people will enable them to get through this agonizing catastrophe.

Our wonderful Pope Francis has already reached out to Bishop Joe Vasquez and the community of West. Let’s all pray for the citizens of West, and thoughtfully consider what else we might be able to do to help.

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The media is still captivated by him. While sometimes the stories are now appearing in the second section instead of the front page, they are still coming out frequently. He is not on tv every night, but he continues to appear there as well. About whom am I speaking? About Pope Francis, of course! It seems as though the whole world is fascinated by this man in the white robes and funny little white cap.
There are many problems ahead for Pope Francis, but he will have tremendous support as Catholics and others pray for his success as the 266th successor of St. Peter. The unifying common denominator in most people’s reactions is the man’s extraordinary simplicity. Whether it be the way he pushed aside that extra vestment when he appeared on the balcony, or that he hopped on the bus with his brother bishops to take a ride to the other side of the Piazza. Naturally, the stories from Buenos Aires quickly appeared, telling us that the former archbishop vacated the episcopal palace, did his own cooking, and went to work on the bus. Wow!
Who knows what the future will bring, but I do believe in the not too distant future, we will see a toning down of clerical attire in the sanctuary. Why do Catholic bishops have to dress in the luxurious attire of 16th century Italian princes? I will be willing to bet that I have seen possibly a thousand pictures depicting (in the artists’ minds) what Jesus looked like. I never saw anything other than a long white robe.
So, let’s keep the white robe, and perhaps the stole as well (the colored garment thrown over the shoulders of the priest, symbolizing his authority) but the rest can fall into the dustbins of history.

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They say it has been more than 600 years since a Pope retired, and only three have done it in 2000 years, so it certainly is a noteworthy event!

Serious Catholics are almost all vitally interested in the upcoming election. They hope and pray that a Cardinal will be elected who has the faith, vision, courage and strength to lead our Church during this very difficult time.
You know the list: sexual scandals, inadequate clergy, doctrinal conflict, persecution in the Islamic countries, etc. etc. The new Pope will have his work cut out for him.

But Catholics are not the only ones who are interested in this election. Millions of others, of widely varying faiths, will be watching the evening news with fascination. Why? It’s because this news will,in many ways, take them back six or seven hundred years. Most leaders in today’s world do not sit on thrones. Our White House and Capitol are not nearly as inspiring as St. Peter’s and its Piazza. The method of communicating the election of a new Pope is certainly strange, but delightful! If they fail to elect a new Pope, they burn wet straw on a tiny stove in the corner of the Sistine Chapel, thereby emitting black smoke from above the Papal palace. If a new Pope is elected, the smoke is white. Both messages, of course, depend heavily on the wind of the day. My guess is that there is about a billion dollars worth of communications equipment down in the Piazza and in the surrounding balconies, all looking for that precious white smoke.
Back to the serious side, a Roman Catholic Pope can be a tremendous source for good in the world, so everyone- whether they be of the Catholic faith or not- should be hoping for an outstanding new leader. Have the straw ready!

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Feast of the Epiphany, January 6th
Today is one of the great feast days of the Catholic Church. It is the wonderful feast of the Epiphany. Symbolically, Jesus is presented and unveiled to the entire world. That world is symbolized by these mysterious characters coming from the East. In tradition, they have been called “kings”, “magi”, “soothsayers,” and a half dozen other titles. What is important for us is that strangers from afar were mysteriously directed by God to Bethlehem where Mary and Joseph were taking care of a newborn infant. That infant was no one other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.I think you can be sure that the kings (let’s call them kings for our purposes) were tired. Not only had they come a long way but they were slowed down a little bit by King Herod who was somewhat nonplussed by the idea that they were looking for a newborn king. Herod always considered that one king, himself, was quite enough.
The important symbol of the story is the adoration that these mysterious men present to the newborn child and the fact that they brought the best that they could of their own possessions to present to him, reflecting adoration and homage. For our secular culture, Christmas is long gone. After all, that was last year, wasn’t it? All of us are trying hard to remember the new resolutions that we made, of our commitment to improve this or that aspect of our temperament and personality, but don’t let me forget the kings. Remember, they are presenting two things – adoration and gifts coming from themselves.
The number of kings viewing this blog is rather limited but anybody reading this today is called to adoration and homage. What do we give our Savior that we honored so completely just two weeks ago? The answer is simple. It is the same things that were given at the first Epiphany. We need to recognize the divinity of the second person of the Blessed Trinity, present and working through the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth. We need to worship him, to remind ourselves that he is Lord of all creation and then to give him something that we value ourselves.
What should that be? A little more patience with the difficult people working with us on the job? An extra large check to the retired sisters funds? (National Religious Retirement Office/CW, 3211 Fourth Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194) To make a weekly trip to see a friend who is locked up in long-term illness? Whatever the gift you choose it will be appreciated by the Lord. It will be accepted with divine gratitude.

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“Tony, Tony, Look around- something’s lost, and must be found!”

Today is Halloween, which makes tomorrow the great feast of All Saints Day. Let’s remember our special saint- St. Anthony- as we prepare for the feast…

Several times I have referred to the fact that religious life inside the enormous Roman Catholic family of faith is warm and cozy. We feel close to our parents and other relatives who have gone before us. We talk to them while we are driving the car. We call their attention to our problems as though we didn’t think they were aware of them, but of course, they are! If that is true of our relatives, it’s even more true about heroically holy men and women who the Church has given the title “Saints.”

When we head out to Dallas on I35, we ask St. Christopher to stay close to us. When a new pet is brought in to the house, we know he is a special friend of St. Francis of Assisi. On that great saint’s feast day, we frequently have a communal blessing of animals, because he saw every living being as a brother or a sister. In other words, he is a good friend of the pets!

The one that I turn to most frequently is St. Anthony of Padua, the patron of lost items. Do you ever misplace your car keys? Have you wondered around your house for 15 minutes looking for your eye glasses only to have your daughter tell you they are on your head? Well, those are light hearted items, but we really do believe that St. Anthony has a special interest in people who are in serious trouble because of something important having been lost. We don’t ask him to perform miracles, but we do ask him to help us use our brains, our memories and our eye sight more effectively. I have had this devotion my entire adult life, and I can tell you something- it WORKS! Maybe I should say, he works.

PS. A more serious prayer is:
St. Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find (name your lost item) which has been lost. At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor, I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God. Amen.

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Pope Benedict XVI recently stated, “Our present crises, whether economic, food related, environmental or social, are ultimately also moral crises. All of them are interrelated. They require us to rethink the path that we are traveling together. Specifically, they call for a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity with new rules and forms of engagement, one which focuses confidently and courageously on strategies that actually work, while decisively rejecting those that have failed.” [Emphasis added]

True – true – true! Now let’s look at the Church. In terms of inner joy, self confidence, optimism and numerical growth, the Church is floundering almost everywhere except Africa south of the Sahara. I think that the above statement needs to be taken very seriously. I pray that it will be.

With all these problems, maybe we should ask ourselves as to whether or not our beloved Church needs to examine its governing strategy. More on that tomorrow.

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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Gospels are nothing less than the Word of God. Given that reality, one should not be surprised that much of it makes extraordinary reading, and today’s gospel is an excellent example. It places before us a dramatic scene- one from the point of view of the Christian story that is simply amazing. Let’s take a look: Jesus has begun His missionary activity, is moving from village to village, drawing great crowds who are filled with awe at his power. Then, when things quiet down, He turns to the apostles and asks them a profound question.This question was important to the apostles, and it is important to you and me. Jesus asks these twelve men, “Who do the people say I am?” They begin to chatter among themselves, coming up with this name and that name, and then looking at the twelve face to face, He asks an even more important question- “Whom do YOU say that I am?” And then Peter, always forceful and fast, blurts out from his heart, “You are the MESSIAH”. This is the first proclamation of that reality. Jesus is the Savior for which God’s people have been waiting for centuries.

Peter had the right answer! The question is do we? I believe with all my heart that the voice of Jesus of Nazareth rings down through the centuries and each and every one of His followers is asked that question. Who do YOU say that Jesus of Nazareth is? A great deal hangs on your answer. Give the correct one.

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Two weeks ago, men and women who really knew and loved the Church from all over the world suffered the loss of one of the greatest bishops of the last 100 years. It was Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the retired Archbishop of Milan. Even though he has been gone from the diocese for ten years, 200,000 faithful attended his funeral ceremonies.

Why did 200,000 people turn out for one man’s funeral? There are many reasons but the underlying reason was that he was so loved and was such a beautiful, pastoral bishop. Prior to becoming a bishop, Cardinal Martini was rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. The Biblical Institute is the greatest school of Scripture studies that the Church has and under his leadership, it flourished tremendously. The man did his work based on God’s word and an awesome gentleness in exercising the office of bishop.

He made a tremendous impact on young people. While Archbishop of Milan, Martini preached every Sunday night in the Cathedral at a Mass celebrated for the youth of the city. The average attendance was approximately 5,000.

I knew about this man and knew what a wonderful shepherd he was, and twice when the papacy was vacated by death, I prayed fervently that he would be elected pope. That was not to be and I wonder what would have been different if this man had led the Church for the last third of a century. We will never know. What we do know is that love, gentleness and scholarship have a tremendous impact. Martini had these gifts and used them extraordinarily well. Legalism for some reason does not produce the same results inside the life of the Church. I know of no one who has joined the Church because of their admiration for canon law.

May God bless and reward this saintly bishop.

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All of my adult life I have been impressed with the practicality of God’s word in the bible. Coming from a priest, that may not be a very surprising statement because after all it is GOD’S WORD. However, I mean something else. I have always found that the sacred texts have an unbelievably easy applicability in concrete situations around us. A good example of this will be seen in the next few weeks where we will see St. James speaking words that the whole world needs to hear. However, the citizens of the United States need to hear James’ words in a very special way as our nation struggles to choose a president for the next four years.

Yesterday’s text dramatically points out that we are all God’s children, everybody is important, but the poor are especially important because they have been especially loved by God. James blasts the hypocritical tendency of his age to consider wealthy people to be more important than the poor. Such discrimination flies in the face of the Church’s 2,000-year-old tradition.

The Church has made many mistakes through the centuries. All of us are sinful and some of our leaders have at times seemed to be at total variance with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, one thing the Church has never lost sight of and that is its concern for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable. They are a very special people. They do not need to be treated merely equally but to be treated evermore sensitively than those who have the resources to provide for themselves.

In the near future, our country will be struggling with a new national budget and there are two very different approaches on how to use the nation’s resources. I would suggest that we go back to St. James. The second chapter provides a marvelous guide of how our country is to allocate its resources. St. James tells us that 1% and 99% is not the proper formula.

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