Yes, a new post.
I know that it has been nearly two weeks since I last wrote anything on this blog. I don’t really know what to say. I have taken my father’s death in December very hard. It has lead to a very bad case of writer’s block. Everytime I sit to write anything nothing comes. Trying to write a homily is very laborious. Of course I keep trying.
I will comment some on what I have been up to, of late. One ministry (besides the Mass and other Sacraments), which I truly love is Adult Faith Formation. For Lent I have been leading a series called, “God’s Love in Jesus.” It is actually the third of three series based on the mini-series, “Jesus of Nazareth.” I told the group not to fret because we are doing the three sets is reverse order. In a way we are doing them in the order of how the original preaching (kerygma) of the Gospel; first focusing on the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus; then in the Fall I plan to do the middle set (”You are My Disciples”) which focuses more on the preaching and miracles of Jesus; and finally for Advent, “God in the Flesh.” I have done two sessions each Thursday during Lent, one during the afternoon at St. Anthony’s, and one in the evening at Our Lady of Sorrows. I have no comparison as to whether the size of the group attending has been good or bad, but I do not really fret about that. Each session we have started, after the prayer, with watching about 20 minutes of the film, and then afterwards there has been discussion. I have thought that the discussion has gone well. We finished the series last night, which is very appropriate since we watched basically the last week of Jesus’ life, starting with His entrance into Jerusalem. Of course we start that week on Sunday. Astonishing isn’t it, that in a week the people went from shouting in joy as Jesus entered Jerusalem and a week later they were shouting for His death. It has made me reflect on how fickle is my relationship with Jesus at times.
I am excited about our next project: On May 18, from 7-9 pm in the Lower Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, we will have a discussion about the movie, The DaVinci Code, which will open the next day in theaters. The exact format of the discussion night has not been finalized. We have ordered 100 copies of the book, The DaVinci Deception, published by Ascension Press, which we will make available. We will also have a DVD of a talk by Dr. Sri, on the inaccuracies of the theory with Mr. Brown’s novel proposes. I am not sure if we will use the DVD to set the stage of the discussion, since I have not seen it. However I have secured a very good leader for the discussion (no, not me). Fr. Martin Miller, a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei who is assigned to the Mercer House in Princeton, has agreed to come. He will be a wonderful counterpoint to the poor fiction of “Opus Dei monks” (they are not a monastic group) portrayed in the novel.
The other major spiritual thing that I have been involved in is learning more about Communion and Liberation, an ecclesial movement started by an Italian priest, Msgr. Luigi Giussani. He started the movement in the high school at which he taught. I did not like the fact that at student assemblies it was always the Communists and Fascists who got up to talk, often against the Church. He wanted to help form a group of students who would be willing and able to speak up for the Church, well, really for Christ. While he wrote a lot, his main works are a trilogy: “The Religious Sense,” “The Origin of the Christian Claim,” and “Why the Church?” Basically it encourages people to gather weekly for prayer and study. Within the group sections of one of his books (or other spiritual/theological works) is read aloud, and then people discuss it. This year the movement is focusing on the third book, “Why the Church?” and I started in the middle. That is why I have not put reflections on it here on my blog. It is an exciting presentation of the Faith.
OK, I need to work on my homily for this weekend, Easter, and for preaching the opening and closing of 40 Hours at Divine Mercy Parish the weekend of the Second Sunday in the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. I will try to write more.
