Fr. JC Maximilian

OK, it does not look as if there has been anyone but me visiting this blog in a while, so this might not be the most effective “plug” for something, but I am going to make a plug for ProLifeSearch

I am sure that all of you have heard about the mega Internet search engine called Google; you want to find the website for something, you just “google it.” Well, a few months ago I found out about ProLifeSearch from “Priests for Life.” It is a search engine, powered by Google, that was created by two Catholic, married men. You use it just like the regular Google to search for whatever you are looking for. So why use it? Well there are two very big reasons:

1. They give at least 50% of their profit to Pro Life groups to continue their fight against the Culture of Death. That, in and of itself, is a great reason. How they make their profit, well, I only have a vague idea. I do know that it does not cost me anything to use it, not even when you register. I guess advertisers look at how many “hits” they get and use that informaton. But it is effortless money for the Pro Life movement. If you use the Net, you undoubtably search for stuff on the Net, so you might as well use ProLifeSearch to help you search.

2. It is a “safer” search engine for those of us who try to live our Catholic/Christian faith. Have you ever searched for something on the Internet, and in addition to getting the listing for what you are looking for, you also get so-called “adult” sites? Well, ProLifeSearch has a built in filter so when you search for something, it will block out anything that would be immoral (OK, it probably does not block the “adult” sites, they can be wilely, but it does its best to block them all).

I use Firefox for my web browser, and I quickly figured out how to change the default for my search window (which is to the right of the address line) from regular Google to ProLifeSearch. I could not figure out how to make the change in Safari, but I only tried for less than 5 minutes because I do not use Safari much. I cannot help you if you use Internet Explorer or Netscape or whatever they use on Windows machines because I am very happy to be a Mac user. Please take a look at ProLifeSearch.

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I really do not know why I am being so sporadic in blogging. My previous assignment was a bigger parish and kept me very busy. However, I think between the two worship sites, settling into a new assignment, and, frankly, dealing with the grief after my father’s death, it seems as if my days are just as busy here.

I do want to dig out my digital camera and take some pictures of the two church buildings in this parish, just so folks who are not familiar with them can see them. Architecturally, they are very different. St. Anthony’s (which, I admit, I have a personal bias for, since it is where I was baptized) is a huge, Romanesque church that seats about a 1000 on the floor, and 200 more in the choir loft. The walls are a pinkish marble, about six feet up the walls. It has mosaics for the Stations, and a beautiful sanctuary. St. Anthony’s is basically a city parish (OK, technical the city of Trenton is across the street, and the church is in the township), and it was built at a time when most people in the neighborhood were Catholic and would walk to church. In other words, it has a small parking lot. If we knocked down the school building we could have more parking, but we value the rental income from the school building (the Diocese of Trenton, due to falling enrollment, closed all the parish schools in the city of Trenton, and opened a regional school, run by the diocese, called Trenton Catholic Academy; the regional HS is also part of the academy).

Our Lady of Sorrows church started as basically a mission for the farmers in the Mercerville area of Hamilton Township. I am not an architect, but I would call its style English/Tudor gothic; with very noble wooden arches (I think they would be called trusses). The stain-glass windows are of an English style, representing the sorrows of Our Lady. I am not sure when, but I think in the 60s, the population of Mercerville grew rapidly, with many of the farmers selling their property for housing developments. The Catholic population grew, and the church became to small, so wings were added to the building; creating roughly a Tau-cross in design. I am told that a simple definition of architecture is “form and function.” For whatever reason (IMHO) the wings emphasized function over form. The ceilings of the wings are very low compared to the nave of the church, and they are to the side of the altar. In saying Mass a good percentage of the congregation is not in my sight, unless I turn to the right and left, and even then it feels as if I am looking down a tunnel. Even many long time parishioners of OLS have commented that they wished that there was something to do to “fix” the architecture of the wings. My boss, is looking into this, and we have gotten preliminary drawings from an architect, and they are resplendant. The architect impressed me because he respected, what he called the “good bones,” of the church and wants to work with those “good bones.” IMHO, too often people just want to tear down and build something new (and not just with churches), instead of respecting the heritage of what was.

In other ramblings; I made a trip to St. Louis with my mother to celebrate my niece’s First Holy Communion. Brigit (my niece and goddaughter) was so excited about receiving Jesus for the first time in the Eucharist. She has what she calls her “holy collection” — made up of prayer cards and statues. The drive out and back was something of a retreat for my mother and I for we listened to a WONDERFUL series of conferences by Fr. Philip Bochanski, a priest of the Oratory in Philadelphia, entitled “Deadly Sins, Living Virtue.” I encourage all to download and listen to these wonderful talks.

OK, I need to prepare a homily, and a discussion on what’s wrong with the Da Vinci Code. More later.

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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.

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Have I mentioned that I love my Mac? About a year and a half ago, after yet another crash of Windows XP, I decided to make the switch to Mac, and I have been so happy ever since.

Recently I upgraded my iLife software, and included in the new version is a program called iWeb. It makes it so simple for even a cyber-novice like myself to make one’s own webpage. Of course I am still just playing with it, figuring out what I want to do with it, what I want to put on it, but here is the link for my new website. You will find an introduction, a little about me, some pictures, and just added tonight, a blog page.

Now don’t worry. I am not going to abandon this blog. While I did post my “Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent” on that blogsite as well, I do not think I will be using that blog as much as this one on Blogger. There are two main reasons for that. First, I only have a limited amount of disk space on my .Mac account, so I can’t afford to use it all up. Second, I have not found a way on the iWeb site to had the ability for people to leave comments, and one of the things I like most about blogging is starting a coversation with people from all over the place. If I ever do on this blog what I have always intended, namely blog about the spiritual reading I am doing so that we can “discuss” good spiritual books, I will be very happy.

The next thing that I want to add to my new website, but I have to figure out a) how to do it, and b) what to say, is podcasting. It is suppose to be rather easy with GarageBand, but I just haven’t had the time to figure it out. Maybe in the near future you will even be able to hear me preach.

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Yesterday was my day off, so my mother and I decided to go to the Bronx. A couple of years ago I read in the travel section of a newspaper how the Bronx is becoming a vacation center here in the Northeast. Yes, I am talking about Bronx, NY. Hey, if some people like to do dangerous activities like rock climbing, scuba diving, or safari hunting on their vacations, and call it exotic, why not take a walk through the Bronx for a vacation?

Vacationing was not what Mom and I were doing in the Bronx. We went to St. Adalbert’s Parish, and the attached St. Crispin’s Friary. During one of my years as a deacon, I was assigned to the Sacred Heart House of Priestly Formation. There was another deacon assigned there with me, and three seminarians. One of those seminarians was attending Seton Hall University to finish his BA, and his name was Ian. When I was ordained a priest I was assigned to St. James Church in Red Bank, NJ, and around the corner from the church Ian’s parents has a store, so I got to know his family as well as see Ian frequently. After completing his undergraduate degree, Ian discerned that God was calling him to check out the Community of Franciscan Friars of Renewal (CFRs), the community started by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, et al.

Ian spent about 6 months in postulancy at one of the CFRs parishes in NY, and then a year ago formally entered into novitiate with the CFRs in Newark, NJ. Ian was given the name Br. Luke Joseph of Red Bank (the CFRs continue the practice of giving new names to their members, and adding where they are from). I have kept in touch with Br. Luke Joseph during his time of novitiate. He shared with me that it was a time of joys, and some struggles, but definitely a time of drawing closer to the Lord.

Yesterday Br. Luke Joseph, and six other brothers, made their first professions; promising for a year to live the evangelical counsels while ministering in the CFRs. Br. Luke Joseph will continue his ministry at St. Felix’s in Yonkers. The Profession Mass was very nice. Of course the priests of the Order concelebrated, as did myself and a number of other priests who are friends of the Order. Frs. Groeschel and Apostoli were there. Also present were the Community of Franciscan Sisters of Renewal, the Sisters of Life, and the Missionary Sisters of Charity. The seven brothers were so very happy. One amusing moment was when the seven of them, quite quickly, removed their caperones; what looks like small, grey scapulars wore by the non-professed members of the community. Observing the number of caperones still present, it looks as if the CFRs will have a good number making first professions next year as well. The Church is blessed.

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Shortly after waking up this morning, before I could even jump into the shower, the phone was ringing. It was the gentleman who plows the parking lot at the one church that is part of this parish (we have two churches, a.k.a. “worship sites,” and this was the one that we priest do not live at). He said to me that we should just cancel the Masses for this morning because of the snowstorm we were still in. I guess that at that time 5 inches of snow had fallen, but the real issue was the 30-40 mph winds which were creating “white-out” conditions.

While certainly sharing in his concern for the safety of our parishioners, there are several practical problems with canceling Masses. Setting aside the fact that we have taken stipends for the Masses, so we have to offer the Mass for the intentions, at least sometime (I believe Canon law say within 1 year of taking the stipend), just how do we let people know that we were going to cancel the Masses? This is a parish of over 3000 families, and there are many others who are not registered in the parish who still come here each week for Mass. We do not have a phone-tree for calling them. Of course there are always some people, who no matter how bad the weather, will come to church on Sunday. If they come and the priest is not there, they can get very upset, saying, “well, we made it to church Father, why couldn’t you make it?”

So, this morning I bundled myself up, and the deacon who was assigned to assist me came and picked me up at 7:30 a.m. to head over to St. Anthony’s (the deacon has a 4×4, besides why should there be two knuckleheads on the roads?). The roads were bad, and visibility was maybe 20 feet, but we arrived safely. The plows were making a valiant effort, but not making much progress. The sexton, who lives next door to the church, was there. We had 7 people (excluding the sexton, deacon, and myself) at the 8 a.m. Mass. The people seemed surprised that I preached (see homily below) but they were there, and you really are suppose to give a homily on Sundays. After Mass I had over an hour to kill before the next Mass, so I talked to one of the gentlemen who made it in for Mass. Both the deacon and I thought that the 10 a.m. Mass would be better attended, we both thought 20-25. We were wrong; again only 7 people came.

Now, God bless those souls who came to Mass in such bad weather. It truly is a testament to their Faith and commitment to the Church. I have on more than one occasion spoken about the importance of Sunday Mass, of making God our top priority, and scheduling things around Mass, and not just fitting Mass in when it is convenient for us (around cheerleading, soccer, football, shopping). However, we need to keep in mind the need to be reasonable. Of course the sequel will be next week during Confessions when a large number of people will confess about missing Mass. Again, this is a testament of their Faith, and the value they place on the Mass. I will compliment them on this faith, but remind them that if they could not make it to Mass, for a serious reason (and a blizzard qualifies as one), then it is not sinful to miss Mass. However, they can and should still keep holy the Sabbath, by spending time with Scripture and praying.

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As I write this there is banging going on over my head. They are installing the carpeting in my suite. My move here to the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony has been like a whirlwind, so much so that I still do not always feel like I am really here. As you know, I moved here about a month ago. I had requested from bishop a transfer from St. James, not because I did not like that assignment, but so I could be closer to my family as my father was being treated for terminal cancer. I had met with Bishop Smith on Dec. 1, got the call informing me of my transfer the next day, and had to report to OLS-St. Anthony by 6pm on Dec. 9. The night before my move my father took a turn for the worse, and was hospitalized. He would never return home, at least in this world, for God called him home to heaven on Dec. 20.

I have been tremendously blessed as a priest. At both of my assignments the other priests have been gems, and the parishioners have been wonderful. I mean, 6 months after being ordained and going to St. James I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The pastor of St. James, Msgr. Lowery, worried about me nearly as much as my mother. One of the most touching scenes, which I will treasure in my heart always, was waking up very early (about 6:30am) the morning after my second surgery and finding Msgr. Lowery quietly praying in the chair near my bed. Fr. Alex and Fr. Joe covered so many extra Masses as I recovered, and they put up with my irritability as my hormones were way out of wack. Later, when Fr. Mike replaced Fr. Joe, he too could be counted on to help in anyway, and his friendship, especially after my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer is another treasure. How can I ever say enough about the parishioners at St. James who offered countless prayers, and many cough drops (as I recovered my voice), for my health. They responded again with prayers and Masses after my Dad died; a good number even traveled across the State to attend Dad’s funeral. Thank you seems so inadequate — all of you will always be in my heart and prayers.

Then I arrived at OLS-St. Anthony. The welcome has been wonderful. Of course there are many people who either know me or my family from having grown up in this area. When my predecessor, the other Fr. Garrett (his first name), left Msgr. Gervasio was told that he probably would not be getting a replacement so he decided to make a major renovation of the suite so it would be a guest room. Just as they tore out the bathroom he found out that I was coming. Living in one room (old office, future guestroom) as they finish my suite might be a little inconvenient at times, but it is a little thing. Msgr. Gervasio and Fr. Oscar have been true brothers in the priesthood, supporting me during my father’s death (again taking some extra Masses), and have quickly become friends. The people at this new assignment have also been amazing — my family have gotten so many Mass cards. In fact, just yesterday (Friday, January 13), the Mass I celebrated at St. Anthony’s was for my Dad, requested by the sacristan there.

As they put the carpet in today, the toilet and sink on Monday, and the furniture arrives Tuesday, I will settle more into this new assignment. One thing to get used to is not having to prepare a homily for every Sunday. Here at OLS-St. Anthony we have 8 permanent deacons, and they preach on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. This month, another one of my preaching weekends will be taken by the Bishop’s Appeal video. Hopefully, once I unpack my books and settle into my suite and office, I will start to write more reflections on this blog, and not just wait for my preaching weekends. I still want to finish my Liturgical Footnotes, and maybe start a discussion on a spiritual/theology book.

To quote St. Peter at the Transfiguration, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.”

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I have only been a priest for about 19 months, so while I cannot say I have done hundreds of funerals, I am not a rookie either. Today I officiated at the saddest funeral I have done so far in my priesthood. It was the first child funeral I have done.

Little Jaime Lynn was only two years old. I did not know the family. That is one of the more difficult things about being a priest in this day and age in the Northeast. Our parishes are often so very large, that it can be a challenge to get to know most of one’s parishioners. Of course I have only been at OLS-St. Anthony’s for a week, so it would not be likely that I would know the family. I met Jaime Lynn’s parents for the first time just a few minutes before the funeral. From the many pictures they had at the funeral parlor, Jaime Lynn certainly seemed like a beautiful, happy child — very much loved by her parents and older sisters. From what I am told she got sick in the Spring, and then passed away this week. The turn out for the funeral was very large. Even grown men were moved to tears. The father’s cousin, a deacon from Philadelphia, assisted me.

Since this was my first funeral for a child, I had never read the prayers that the funeral liturgy has for children. They are very beautiful and comforting. The image of the Good Shepherd carrying His lamb in His arms is very promenient. One of the Gospel readings you can choose is the passage where Jesus tells the apostles to let the children come to Him, and how He then embraced them and blessed them. It is the Gospel selection I use for baptisms.

Please pray for Jaime Lynn, although since she was baptized and really below the age where she could commit mortal sin I think we can be fairly certain that she is with Christ Jesus in paradise. Pray also for her parents, sisters, and the extended family.

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I know that I have not been posting to the blog as much as I had hoped; not even as much as I had before I left for Rome. It has been nearly a month since I posted the last Liturgical Footnote. I apologize to the readers of this blog (not that I think there are many of you, but numbers is not all that important). October has been a challenging month.

I have not mentioned this on this blog (although I talked about it when I was writing for Catholic Ragemonkey), but last November, six months after being ordained a priest, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Thank God, thyroid cancer is very treatable, and after two surgeries and very easy radiation treatment, I was placed on Synthroid to make up for the fact that I no longer have a thyroid to produce the necessary hormone. It has taken months to get my hormones back on track. When they were out of whack I was very tired all the time.

A few days after returning from Rome I was my endocrinologist, and she told me that my “numbers” were finally in the range she wants them to be. That means no initial sign that the cancer has spread, and I am not so fatigued all the time. Wonderful news, and all due to the many prayers of family and friends. Now my doctor just wants me to be stable on the meds for 6 months and then I will have a body scan to confirm that they got it all.

At the same time I started to breath some relief about my cancer, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer. This week we got the shocking news that Dad’s PET scan shows that his cancer is also in the liver, spine, thigh, and lymph nodes — classifying him as Stage IV, the worst stage. Dad has as positive an attitude as I think you can expect, he plans to fight the cancer the best he can, but he and my Mom knows that it is going to be a difficult road. I ask you to please keep Dad (and my family) in your prayers.

All this, on top of the regular stresses of being a priest in a big parish, has given me a new fatigue. It has also lead to a writer’s block when it comes to my homilies. The last few weeks I have really struggled to write something, not finishing until Saturday afternoon.

This week it was even worse. While I knew the points I wanted to reflect on this weekend, Priesthood Sunday, the words were not coming. In prayer I felt that maybe I was putting too much pressure on myself, too much emphasis on MY writing something “good,” that I might not be allowing the Holy Spirit the room He needs to say what He things needs to be said. So for this weekend I am just going to let the Spirit do His thing. I have read and prayed over the Scripture for this weekend, and have looked at commentaries and “homily-helps” to help me reflect on the Scriptures. Tomorrow I will ask the Holy Spirit to speak through me. As one Jeremy Camp song (”Empty Me”) puts it, “…more of You and less of me….” Maybe I will be able to give a recap of what the Spirit prompts me to say.

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St. Peter’s from a distance
Originally uploaded by frjcmaximilian.

OK, it has been a while since I posted a picture, so this is just to see if I remembered. I took this picture on my recent trip to Rome. I walked my feet off this day. The next I learnt how to ride the bus.

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