Lent Approaching: Be Reconciled to the Lord

Friends in Christ,



I hope this message finds you well. I apologize to those of you who haven’t heard from me in a while. Please know that you are in my prayers and thoughts regularly. Things have been going well here in Rome, but I am struggling to motivate myself to complete my thesis paper. My research is coming very well, and I have been hugely interested and inspired by it. For those of you who don’t know my title is from the Apocalypse of John: Dixit qui sedebat in throno: ecce nova facio omnia, which of course means “The one who sits on the throne says: behold I make all things new”. The paper is on the idea of Liturgical image in the writings of Maximus of Constantinople (also known as the Confessor), and how in his writings this idea is uniquely Christological. If any of you suffer from insomnia when, please God, it gets done I will send it to you. I ask for your prayers that it does indeed get done in a timely manner. Sadly (really not so sadly) there are many things that can and do distract a priest from writing: saying Mass, leading pilgrimages, going on pilgrimages, talking about holy things, praying about the holy things you are reading, etc., and of course there are also those more worldly less fortunate distractions.



Life has been good the first year of my priesthood; I spent the first months as a priest promoting vocations across my diocese and around the world (Sydney World Youth Day). I finally made it to Medjugorje on pilgrimage, said my first Masses of Thanksgiving for my family in Poland, celebrated Midnight Mass for Christmas in the most beautiful Church in all of new England, and just last week I returned from a pilgrimage to the Monastery of Montserrat, where I visited the shrine of our lady of Montserrat, and the city of Barcelona where we visited the tombs of Ss. Eulalia and Raymond of Penyfort, saw the Cross planted on the flagship of the Christian fleets at the Battle of Lepanto, and visited a number of sites tied to the Servant of God Antoni Gaudi—including the famous Church of the Sagrada Familia. My classes have also been extremely interesting and motivating. Now if only I could make short work of this paper.



Anyway the reason I am writing is that I was just sent this link to a video you must see. It was put together by priest friends from my diocese as part of a push to renew the sacrament of Confession. Let me personally testify that although the Eucharist is King when it comes to the sacraments Confession takes a close second place. Of all the sacraments I have celebrated (from both sides of the screen) none has the immediate transformative power to truly set people free from horrible things. As we prepare for lent next week I wanted share this with you and ensure you of my prayers. This and more videos like it can be found on the website:

www.christianfilmbrotherhood.org.

Enjoy! Fr. Ron

Battleship Church!

The World is a Battleground, I know which I choose!

Saul didn't deserve to become Paul

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul
Celebrated at the Altar of St. Benedict
in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls
on Jan 25, 2009 during the year of St. Paul
and on the occasion of a pilgrimage to the Basilica and the Monastary of Tre Fontagne

Today we celebrate a great mystery The mystery of vocation.

Jesus reminds us today: that we did not choose Him but rather He us. And He did not choose us because of our righteousness but rather, inspite of,in fact, because of our sinfulness He chose to save those in need of saving! As He says: the healthy have no need of a doctor we need our divine physician because all of us struggle in one way or another wnder the weight of sin.

Why did Jesus choose and call Saul of Tarus? Our prideful intellect wants us to say it was because…
Because He had great plans for Him—God did.

Or because of the great sign of hope that the conversion of one of their chief persecuters would be to the early Church—it was.

Others might even argue that that Paul’s was not a true conversion, because for Paul Jesus was simply the fulfillment of his Judaism. They argue that unlike the other pharasees, Paul was truly zealous for the Lord, for truth, persecuting the church out of ignorance, not pride—he was

In truth Saul of Tarsu was many things, like all of us, he had his virtues and vices, and while his conversion was a blessing for the early Church and clearly a central part of God’s providential plan for salvation The reason God called Saul, is the reason God calls and saves each of us. Nothing Paul did or said, or would do or say, merited Pauls call and conversion. Rather God calls us and saves us, primarily because HE LOVES US.

Sure He has a plan for the world, after all He made it, and the world continues in existence only because He remains interested in it. He has a plan for each of us, too, but our cooperation in His plan is at the same time essential and trivial. Essential because God made the world for this reason so that Man would be His image and likeness in the world. And Trivial because man’s contribution alone could never bring about the consumation of the world.

Brothers on this feast of St. Paul’s conversion we must contemplate this mystery and come to understand this reality. God who is all powerful, and all-knowing never acts, except out of freely given Love. I think we understand this conceptually but too often our way of acting betrays that our hearts have still not grasped it.

Like St. Paul we have been called by God not because of what we might do for Him or the Church but because He loves us; and while, please God, our vocation, like that of Paul, may be the occasion for the salvation of many souls, primarily, we have received our vocation from God for the good of of our own

I think that this is esp. hard for men to accept. To understand this—to understand our own uselessness is to begin to understand the economy of what God did for us, the gratitude that we owe to God for doing it,and the type of love that we should try to mimic in our relationship with our neighbors. This love is possible, for us, as for Paul because of the light of Jesus Christ which in the mystery of the altar we are about to receive.

Ecce Agnus Dei: Ecce qui tolit peccata mundi

Homily for the Sisters at the Domus Guadalupe
On Jan 22, 2009

This mass was offered for all the young people from the Diocese of Fall River and their adult leaders who were attending the March for Life in Washington, DC, and for the souls of all those hurt by the sin of abortion.

God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son...

Such is the love of our high priest, who takes away the sins of the world that for Him no sin is unfogiveable!

As we remember today the innocents, whose lives were taken in the name of expediency and comfort, in the name of power and control or in the name of reason and science— taken by the culture of death; we are tempted in our hearts to curse those who procure abortions and those who preform them. To judge those who support abortion
and ridicule those whose personal opposition does not result in public commitment.

But today as we remember our brothers and sisters friends and neighbors who were never born, in honor of their memory and of the innocent lamb of God its important to remember the sinners—who suffer too—and our Christian responsibility, in love, to them.

Like all sinners, those involved with the crime of abortion have tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and having done so they have lost confidence
in the providential plan of God. And so, having rejected the way all that they do leads them further astray from the path.

Alone in the darkness they seek the happiness that they have rejected, and not finding it, they groan in sorrow, and if per chance they consider for a moment
that maybe they were wrong, they can’t imagine the possibility of forgiveness—so foreign is love to their heart!

Sisters, as Christians, as sinners who have discovered the truth about of the prodigal son, or rather the truth about the Father of the prodigal son.

Who have discovered that a good and loving Father never forgets his children, no matter how they offend Him. We must share this gospel: reminding people of their sinfulness because it is only faced with this reality that they can begin to imagine
the love that God has for them.

Woe to the man who says good is bad and bad is good Because in such a state, adrift on the sea of life—without a compass—he doesn’t really that he’s going in circles.

Calling attention to sins and sinfulness, rather than being judgemental or a form of hypocracy is an act of kindness because made aware that we are lost we can begin to look for the way home and made aware of injury we can seek out a physician.

But reminding men of their sinfulness we must also show them God’s mercy—lest realizing they loose hope and give up on life, and on God. Too often this second step gets forgotten!

Such is the love of our high priest, that for Him no sin is unfogiveable, other than that sin against the spirit, by which we choose to cut ourselves off from the mercy of God.

The sin of Despair: despair over wanting to be what we are not or over not wanting to be what we are, is a sickness unto death that leaves us bitter and angry with God,
afraid that we are unlovable, and eventually, if left untreated, it is a sickness which separates us forever from God.

Because we love the sinner we must show at every moment that there is hope, that despite their actions they are loveable!

By the joy of our lives and by our own willness to forgive we must become icons of God’s mercy—a glimps of God’s healing love. Because there is nothing more damaging to the Christian message than a moralism without mercy.

Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, every demon we carry with us, accusing us of past sins falls down before the healing mercy of Christ confessing: Jesus, You are the Son of God, as they are driven out of us.

In the end it is trust in God’s mercy and love for us that will win over our adversaries more than any slogan, argument, or shame.

So as you remember and pray for the unborn today work to make your life an icon of Christ’s mercy and remember all those who suffer from the sin of Abortion.

Starting Fires

A Homily given to the Priests, Deacons, and Seminarians at the Pontifical North American College on Friday during the second week of time throughout the year.

Being a priest is a lot like being a fireman
Trained to carry even the most helpless people to safety

Firemen are experts at saving lives and putting out fires,
And yet, while they have many skills,
meant to save lives and keep them safe

too often, because they work so close to danger,
while attempting to save lives, they loose their own.

The scriptures reminds us of this danger today:

Jesus came home, to Peter’s house,
and hearing of His return, the people flocked to Him,
and He taught them. And in the midst of the crowds,
the scribes were sitting there

The scribes were experts in the law
who had an important role to play in Jewish society:
safegaurding and administering not just civic life
but the Jewish faith and the souls tied to it.

And there they were, sitting in the presence of the Word—
the very law that they had spent their lives learning about

The Word—who like a refiners fire, was slowly purifying
the hearts of all those who heard Him
and pondered Him in their hearts.

All their training should have prepared them for this moment
and made them docile to this Word,

They were the ones carrying the people to Jesus
but instead they became obstacles blocking the way.
Crash! Through Peter’s roof came believers
Carrying their friend to safety,
into the midst of the house on fire
buring with the living Word of God.

These were simple men without
And yet they saw in the burning fire of Christ’s words
the love of God, and the possibility of healing for their friend

And so they brought him to Jesus:
All they wanted was a physical cure
But as always Jesus purifies our intentions
and gives us what we all really need.
Saying: Child, your sins are forgiven.

reminding them, and us,
that while the life of the flesh is a relative good
there is another life that must be our primary concern!
Pausa brevis
My brothers it is dangerous to approach Jesus,
To approach, with Moses, the burning fire of God’s Word.

Because approaching Him we are confronted by a choice
A choice between life and death—
When we come into His presence,
all the training in the world
Can not replace trust in Jesus
As we choose between our life and the true life He offers.

We priests and deacons, acolytes, and even new lectors
Who are meant to be experts in the faith.
Must be ever vigilant watching and waiting
Not just for danger but also for the source of life.

So that when we see Him at the distance
we can run to Him not letting anything stand in our way
lest we ourselves block the way for others.

WE MUST Be on guard! For as St. Paul warns
we have received the Gospel just as our ancestors did.
But the word that they heard did not profit them,
for they were not united in faith with those who listened.

we like the scribes may have a vocation
in the administration of God’s chosen people
but God can and will work through us, even without us.
And having received the word,
we too can loose the very promise that we administer.

During your time here in seminary
Don’t let yourself become the type of expert or professional who, like the scribes, sits in the presence of the Word
without being united in faith with those who listen.

Instead, each and every day,
Let what you learn about Christ
become an opportunity to come into His presence
so that you can learn from Him.

Our training is important,
but faith, hope, and love are even more important!

Because while being a priest is like being a fireman
The life we risk if we live our vocation poorly
is unimaginably more important

So if there is one thing you learn during your time here
Learn from the Romans  to be shameless
breaking down any barriers,
pushing aside any obstacles,
and ignoring all cultural niceties
in order to come into the healing presence of Jesus Christ.

May Jesus Christ be Praised…

The Jewish Jesus

Today on the tenth day of Christmas
the readings for the extraordinary form of the Mass
Are taken from the Octave of Christmas
the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord.

As we hear in the Gospel of Luke:
On the eight day after His Birth our Lord and Savior
Was taken to be circumcised as was prescribed by the Law

It seems like a odd thing to think about, and to celebrate
The circumcision of the Christ,
But it is important for two reasons

First Jesus’ circumcision marks his entry
into a particular cultural reality.

Salvation is from the Jews because the Son of God
Became a Jew, not just the son of Mary
But a son of Adam, and of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob
A son and descendent of David, who was destined to rule on the throne of His father David forever.

The Feast of Jesus’ circumcision
is the celebration of Jesus’ jewishness

A fact that we Catholics can not afford to forget.

Because it demonstrates the fact
that contrary to the heretic Marcion—
the Jewish Old Testament
and all the promises made to the Children of Israel
refer to Jesus and to us, his Church.
It also demonstrates our fraternity with the Jewish people
Who in Christ, are our brothers,
and even though they did not recognize Him when He came
they too wait for and expect the final coming
of the same Messiah, who we know is Jesus Christ.

Thus while we ought to pray for them,
as we should for all people, including ourselves!
that they come to a great realization
of the truth of Jesus Christ.

We must always remember that we share a bond of friendship and fraternity with them,
And therefore that anti-semiticism has no place
in the mystical body of the Jewish Christ—the Chruch

But most importantly,
we must remember and celebrate the Jewishness of Jesus
because it is only in this context that we fully realize
who Jesus of Nazareth is and what He is doing in the world

As Pope Benedict points out in his recent book on Jesus
It is precisely in dialogue with the old testament
and our Jewish brothers,
that we can come to a clearer understanding,
of who Jesus was and what He taught.

And its only in the context of the Israelite and Jewish
Forms of worship and prayer
That we can understand Jesus’ prayer and worship
Jesus’ Liturgy, which here at the Altar of God
We participate in each day.
Incense, Altars, vessels, and the sacrificial lamb
Not to mention all the rich liturgical psalms and canticals
That are so intergral to the traditional Mass
All come from the Jewish millieu and culture
Into which Jesus was born.

In order for us to understand and engage,
To fully and actually participate in the Liturgy
Not just saying the Mass, but at Pope Pius the tenth insisted,
Praying the Mass—we must be aware of the fact that
Jesus was a Jew, and that we too
are part of that same chosen people.

The second reason why it is important to celebrate
Jesus’ Circumcision is because it prefigures our own.

Jesus was circumcised according to the Law
Because for the Jew, circumcision was the only way
For a male to enter into the chosen people
With all its duties and priveledges.

Our Lord was circumcised, for it
"became him to fulfil all righteousness,"
as of the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh.

It was to use the words of Trent
and outward sign of an inward reality
of membership in God’s chosen people

By His circumcison the God who became man
And who was born as the son of Mary
Became in law and in truth a Jew
And a legal heir to the promises made
to the Patriarchs and Prophets,
which Jesus Himself was destined to fulfill.

However more important than the physical reality
of circumcision—was the spiritual reality!

As we hear in the book of Deuteronomy
the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

Although physical circumcision was still practiced
and in fact required of Jews in Jesus’ day
many had forgotten the inward reality that it symbolized.

Jesus acused the pharasees of scrupulosity over outward signs
Not because he begrudged them these signs,
But because they had forgotten their reality.

And the practice of circumcision,
was not required of the gentiles,
because this sign began to get in the way of the reality.

However, Jesus the Jew, gave us a new symbol
of the reality of a circumcised heart,
when he entered the waters of the Jordan,
united his perfectly circumcised heart
with the hearts of so many sinners who had entered the waters
of the baptism of repentence
only to be transformed by the baptism of the spirit.

Jesus’ circumcision into the House of Juda
and the Children of Israel today
prefigures the reality of our baptism into Christ
and thus into His chosen people the Church.

The Jewishness of Jesus, which we celebrate today
Links us intimately by means of the waters of baptism
To the entire history of Salvation,
and makes us heirs of the promises
God made to his friends and servants Abarham, Issac, and Jacob

Like Jesus we too have been circumcised into this same family
And called by a name known by God before our birth
to an awesome vocation in it.

Let us pray that our faith might grow through our understanding of the Jewish Jesus
who has made known and accessible to the nations
the saving power of God.

Midnight Mass 2008

These are pretty dark days, both literally and figuratively.
Hunger, poverty, war, and violence
seem to pervade our world—
and the reality of the struggling economy
daily seems to cast a darker shadow over our lives.

Into this darkness, tonight, God shines Light.

You see, things are not much different today
than they were two thousand years ago
on that first cold dark Christmas night, in Palestine,
in the year that Christ was born.

Back then people fought over grain and salt rather than oil,
But generally speaking few modern issues are really new problems.

And the more things change the more they stay the same—
in every age man has responded
to the uncertainty of his existence
and the evil that exists in the world with violence.

Attempting control his world and to solve his problems
with brute force.

Violence, in the form of war, selfishness and greed
But also in subtler forms, like the ideologies of the 20th century,
which promised peace and prosperity
but in reality simply disguised the age old idea idea
that might makes right;
treating people like problems, pieces of a puzzle to be rearranged by force of will on the playing board of life.


Indeed even today, as weary as we are of this type of violence, new ideologies are quickly gaining popularity,
even as the old ideologies loose power.

Today in a world weary of ideologies;
strangely ideas like the ideology of tolerance have become
the fashionable human solution to the darkness of this world.

In the end though, these new ideologies
like all the rest are just another type of violence,
which can not give the world light
because they come from a world in darkenss.

Tonight, into this dark world of ours,
which yearns for peace and fulfillment,

our loving Father reaches out his hand—
giving those who walk in darkness a great light.

On Christmas we celebrate the alternative to the violence
that throughout history has promised to solve our problems,
but delivered only death, destruction, misery, and shame.

The alternative to violence is true love.
Unto us a Child is born, unto us a child is given
and they shall call him…the prince of peace.

On Christmas we don’t celebrate the birthday
of a leader, guru or moral teacher
who will teach us how to live in peace.

We celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ, who,
though fully a man, was also fully God!
We celebrate a cosmic event,
which for us Christians is the defining event of history.

God, who created all things and is almighty,
all-knowing, eternal, and unknowable,
who cannot be measured, circumscribed, or contained
tonight is born of the Virgin Mary.

God is Love, St. John tells us and tonight
Love is born into the World, takes flesh and becomes man
to offer us an alternative to all the systems
that promise peace by changing the world.

The solution to all of the world’s problems isn’t violence,
it’s a person, named Jesus.

We have been told that change is coming.
Tonight God offers us the possibility to change the world,
not by changing laws or governments,
not by changing others, but changing ourselves.

God became man, so that man could become God.
God promises peace by giving us the power to be truly human.

In Jesus, the Father demonstrates the fact
that perfection and divinity are not incompatible with humanity.
We can become like God. We can become love.

Violence and ideologies miss the point
because they try to change external realities
without first changing human hearts.
Even when well intentioned they treat people like things,
like problems to be organized or moved.
We see this in the idea of Tolerance,
which claims that all violence and strife will end
if there is no truth—
failing to realize that you can’t make war on truth,
only on the people who believe in it.
And that without truth, there is no reason not to make war!

In the end tolerance is like separating two fighting children.
In the short term this solution is sure to work,
but it doesn’t solve the problem it just defers it
because unless love, and with it a mutual search for truth,
fills the void of hate, distrust, and misunderstanding
the next time they come together nothing will have changed.

Tolerance is not a Christian idea,
because tolerance is the opposite of love: it’s enforced apathy.

Christians are not called to ignore or tolerate evil;
we are called to hate it, because we love God.

Moreover, we are not called to tolerate our brothers who do evil, but to love them.

As GK Chesterton once said, the Catholic:
uniquely hates the world enough to see that it needs changing,
and loves the world enough to see that it’s worth fixing.

Fixing, not by changing laws or governments,
but by changing hearts.

We can do this and live this way because on Christmas
Love is born into the world and into our hearts.

Love changes the world not by treating our brothers and sisters like chess pieces to be played,
but by treating them like God’s children to be loved.

Tomorrow during the Christmas day Mass
the Church will proclaim the prologue of the Gospel of John.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God…
and the Word became man and dwelt among us!

God does not tolerate the evil and darknes of the World
Rather He loves even those who do evil.

He does not let man freely walk down
the paths to distruction, we have chosen for ourselves.
Rather, he sends His Son, the Word of God.

This is God’s response to all those people who cry out to God
Asking Him to do something about the evil in the world.

God doesn’t use violence to solve the worlds problems as we may wish
Rather, He sends His Son, His Word, to heal the world’s heart.

In the Christian tradition this concept
of the Word was of unimaginable importance.

The Word is just not a word,
but the first and the last Word,
the totality of God explanation of himself.
And the reason for the existence of the existence itself.


Tonight God sends the Plan, the master plan for existence.
Not to teach us right from wrong,
but to recreate and restore us, and with us all of creation
to God’s orginal plan—to restore man to Paradise.
A paradise that begins with us in our hearts!

For man this means Jesus restored us
to the image and likeness of God, in which we were created!
The image and likeness of God, who is LOVE.

Jesus was born, to restore man to man.
To bring us who were in darkness
Not just a light, but the source of all light.

Tonight:The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

And being born He doesn’t just give us a candel
But he offered us a nuclear reaction,
brighter than the lights of this Church,
a perpetual source of light within us,
so that we can help ourselves.

This is the mystery at the center of our Catholic Christian faith
We have come here on this cold winter night
to remember and celebrate it!

God, became Man, taking on
our body, our soul, our nature, our mind, our will
taking on everything that is truly human.

So that we could see that man could become God,
So that the unthinkable could become a possibility.
which at Easter and here on this altar, could become a reality.
The Divinity that God unites with humanity today
Is the Divinity united with humanity in the person of Jesus
that He offers up for us on the Cross—
which we receive from this altar today
and which we know will lead to the resurrection tomorrow.

Today we are challenged by God to become who we truly are
To become what we eat and receive.

It is in this transformation of ourselves, into Love
Into God’s image and likeness
that God proposes the solution to the worlds problems.
Sadly it has never been tried on a large scale!
And yet tonight God offers it again.

God will not use violence to solve the worlds problems
Not because he can’t but because
Violence breeds slaves
While love makes us sons and daughters by adoption.

Into the darkness of the World, Tonight God becomes one of us
Not strong and terrible, but meek and mild.
And yet the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace

Don’t look for hope or comfort elsewhere
because there is none to be found!

Therefore, on this dark Christmas night,
let us thank God with the angels and saints
for the true gift of Christmas: Jesus, the source of all Light.

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!



My Brothers and sisters, tonight Light is born into the world,
the Light that shines in the darkness
and which cannot be overcome by it.
And so we gather in this Church,
whose beautiful lights are a poor symbol
of the True Light born today, Jesus Christ.

We welcome all those who are visiting with us from afar
And those who have been away from the Church.
Tonight the Lord offers each of us
The opportunity to give the Holy Family shelter
from the Cold and Dark of the night
and by doing so to allow Christ to be born into our hearts

If we let Him, God will transformed us tonight
into the people that God made us to be,
and that deep down we want to be.

And so in order that we might worthily celebrate
these sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins
confident that God so loved the world
that He sent His only begotten son,
so that we might not perish,
but have eternal life.