May 2017

Resting in the Lord

Should a vacation or a summer activity ever pull us away from Sunday Mass or daily prayer, we then would find ourselves worshipping the idol-gods of our own making.

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start to the summer, and the rhythm of life tends to change for us all. The days are longer, the weather warmer, and we find ourselves outside a whole lot more. We are enjoying picnics, reunions, vacations, games, gardening, and a whole host of summertime activities. Not only might we find ourselves enjoying God’s marvelous creation more, but also we add to it by expressing our own gifts and talents within it.

The summer is a great time to reflect upon the inherent dignity of work and the necessity of leisure in the divine plan. Created in the image and likeness of God, we have been given the ability to sub-create or co-create with God. While you and I cannot create something out of nothing as can God, we can work with God’s initial creation and further develop it in a way that expresses God’s likeness within us. By cultivating the ground and helping it to bear fruit; by honing our skills and sharpening our reflexes for a competitive sport; or by painting, writing, or sculpting a work of art into existence we give further meaning to the world around us and we participate in God’s own work. Because of the effects of sin, we live in a broken world; therefore, not all work is pleasing. Sometimes it takes sheer toil and willpower to persevere through it. Nevertheless, by laboring through these difficulties in love, united with God and by His grace, we overcome the effects of sin and help to bring about God’s kingdom.

The Book of Genesis reminds us that God Himself “rested” after completing the work of Creation, not because He can be exhausted but to teach us the necessity of taking time away from our work to “recharge” and to enjoy what we have done. Days off and vacations are necessary for us who are not infinite in our energies and abilities. Simply taking a day off, going on vacation, or enjoying a leisure activity is not enough, however. While those things may refresh our bodies and minds, our souls require time spent with God, especially in the Eucharist. Should a vacation or a summer activity ever pull us away from Sunday Mass or daily prayer, we then would find ourselves worshipping the idol-gods of our own making. (Recall the Israelites’ golden calf…) So, as the summer may bring rest and leisure into our lives, so may it also bring a renewed sense of what it means to rest in the Lord, not only on Sunday but on every day.

The Reverend Jeffery S. Loseke is a Priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and is currently the pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Gretna, Nebraska. Ordained in 2000, Fr. Loseke holds a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome and is working to complete his doctoral degree (Ed.D.) in interdisciplinary leadership through Creighton University in Omaha. In addition to parish ministry, Fr. Loseke has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, taught high school theology and college-level philosophy, and has been a presenter for various missions, retreats, and diocesan formation days across the country.

Art: The Picnic by George Goodwin Kilburne, circa 1900 (Wikimedia Commons)

Why Stand Looking Up At The Sky?

It never gets easier to see faces of love ones recede into the distance.

by Paula Zwenger

The wonder continues. Confounding to some, comforting to others, Catholics are still celebrating Easter! The past six weeks we daily listened to readings from the Acts of the Apostles. We heard of the growth and witness of the early Church.

Now, we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord’s Ascension. As he left the apostles, He promised to be with them always. He promised to send an advocate to strengthen them. Imagine how they felt as they watched Him vanish. What depth of sadness touched their souls once He was out of sight? Still, they believed and rejoiced.

Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.

Acts 2:11

We can imagine on some small scale a bit of their sadness. We never grow used to saying goodbye. It never gets easier to see faces of love ones recede into the distance. Often subtle tears, added to sighs of resignation, make appearance unbidden. Yet we too, believe and rejoice.

Beyond Goodbye

Forty days since Easter morn, when the temple veil was torn
Jesus risen from the tomb, conquering all deathly gloom
As they watched, still some confused, He ascended in their view
on to Heaven’s watchful throne, King of Kings, our Lord alone.

Would you stare, if it was you, up and off into the blue
skies where He, who saved your soul, rose triumphant, body whole?
Still His promise fills the heart, telling why He must depart
sending One for all our days, Advocate to guide our ways.

Down to earth their gaze return, even while their hearts would burn
long with passion for His face. Soon the Spirit’s strong embrace
filled their hearts to fortify – bold inviting all nearby
“Do repent! Be baptized free. Claim as Savior – Risen HE!

Ours the graces. Ours the hope. Ours the thanks for help to cope
with our fallen nature when shriven, we arise again.
Sure our step, in world seemed lost, paying joyful any cost;
following apostles bold, bringing all to heaven’s hold.

The truth is no one knows the hour or day when he or she will be called to heaven. A relative diagnosed with cancer may well outlive a partner going to work the next day. An elderly grandparent may be scooting around long after the newest grandchild enters and exits the stage of life. What we have is this moment to live well. We also have an Advocate in the Holy Spirit. As a loving member of the Triune God, He consoles, challenges, and instructs.

Perhaps now, when smaller departures are at hand, we can simply say, “May God Bless and keep you. See you soon.” Then believe and rejoice until we are together again.

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Paula Zwenger is a wife, mother, and grandmother who, upon finding herself an empty nester, tried on the hat of rhyme loving writer. It fit very well. Her joy manifests completely while taking the ups and downs of life and wrangling them into poetry. She also has a passion for creating rhymed treasure hunts with a Catholic flare to celebrate the faith and learn a thing or two along the way. You can find her musings at RhymeLovingWriter.com.

The Original Novena: Ascension to Pentecost

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

Devotionally speaking, Pentecost marks the fulfillment of the original “novena” prayed by the early Church in anticipation of the promised Gift of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus’
Jesus_ascending_to_heaven Resurrection, He spoke repeatedly to His Apostles about how He would send the Holy Spirit to remain with them after He ascended into heavenly glory. The Acts of the Apostles recounts how Mary, the Apostles, and other disciples returned to the upper room and remained there in prayer and supplication. The total number of days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday is nine. This is the reason the Church’s devotional novenas follow a similar nine-day model.

The purpose of a novena prayer is to teach us patience and perseverance in prayer. Too often we can be tempted to believe that God is not answering our prayers if we do not see “results” as expediently as we would like. Our prayers can easily turn from being supplications, whereby we attempt to conform our wills to God’s will, to demands, whereby we attempt to conform God’s will to our own. The discipline of the novena is more for us than it is for God: God hears and answers all our prayers, whether we pray for just one day or for 99 days. We, however, are always in need of learning how to pray as we ought. In a traditional novena, like the Apostles and Mary, we agree to wait for the working of the Spirit and to submit our desires to the will of God.

Unfortunately, the beautiful traditions of the Church are not free from human manipulation and error. The Evil One wants us to forget that the purpose of the novena prayer is to wait patiently for God to work in His own time, and so he tempts us to approach novenas in superstition, believing that the prayer will be magically answered according to our will at the conclusion of the nine days. Sadly, there are any number of unofficial prayers in print that are the result of such diabolical deception. Perhaps you’ve seen them: “This prayer has never been known to fail,” or “Make nine copies of this prayer and leave them in church for nine consecutive days and your prayers will be answered.” We can never forget that our repetition of prayers for any amount of time cannot force God’s hand. Likewise, the failure to carry out a novena perfectly cannot invalidate the prayers and petitions of a humble and contrite heart. When formulas become more important than our relationship with God and our trust in His mercy, then we find that we have turned from authentic devotion to empty superstition. The upcoming “original novena” between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost teaches us once again that Jesus always keeps His promises and that God’s will is always done. Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!

Hidden Jesus and the Dancing Sun

by Paula Zwenger

One hundred years ago today a miracle occurred
amid the hills of Portugal – I wonder, have you heard
of three young children tending sheep on hillsides near their town
who witnessed our dear Lady when from heaven she came down?
An angel came before her to prepare the children’s hearts.
She then appeared five times to them – a message to impart.

She came to see the children, sweetest Mother of Our Lord.
She came to see the children for she knew that they adored
and loved their Savior very much; but sinners as we are,
we needed her to help us see we’d wandered very far
away from Him, who loves us so with love to last all days.
She came with love and remedy to help us mend our ways.

She brought Jacinta, Francesco and Lucia a sign.
A daily rosary she asked, and sacrifices fine
to mend the sorrows of her heart, Immaculate and thorned;
without a heed to what she said, dire consequence was warned.
Our Savior’s hand of justice would be tempered if we gave
attention to her message – sent for all the world to save.

The youngest two, when all began, were too young to receive
Our Eucharistic Lord, yet still they followed and believed.
They loved the Hidden Jesus while His Mother they’d attend,
enduring even glimpse of hell where sadly, some souls end.
They sacrificed their whole day long to make amends for sins;
so none would turn from loving God and all invite Him in.

The final time she came to them upon the hilltop fair
a crowd of thousands also came to witness Mary there.
The mud was thick upon the ground for rain had fallen too.
Then sun came out and dried their clothes, and danced in thousands’ view.
A miracle she said they’d see so all could know in truth
the message of Our Lady she had given to the youth.

These children loved Our Lady, they were persecuted long
but never lost their courage though their trials were dark and strong.
The youngest two would perish young. Lucia took the veil,
away to cloistered life she chose, submissive without fail.
She told the stories, as was asked by popes, about her friends,
but fame was never once her goal or means to reach an end.

“Oh my Jesus” so she taught and, “forgive us our sins”
“Save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls” again
“to heaven, especially those,” sweet Jesus, “most in need
of thy mercy” was the prayer she gave to intercede.
Now we say these special words at every decade done,
praying for salvation by the mercy of God’s Son.

Our rosary beads we deftly finger each and every day
to honor our dear Mother as she leads us on our way.
The sun will dance with certainty in our hearts, who believe;
for light of God is meant for truth and never to deceive.
Sweet Fatima, your message clear, we celebrate this day;
may faithfulness and sacrifice abide with us to stay.

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Mother Mary, Mother Church and the Vocation of Motherhood

Just as it is the ordained Priest’s vocation to give a physical face to Jesus Christ in the world today, so also it belongs in a special way to mothers to give a physical face to the Church.

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

This month of May is dedicated in a special way to Mary, the Mother of God. We recall how, on the Cross, Jesus entrusted Mary and the Beloved Disciple into each other’s care. In so doing, He gave all of His disciples into His Mother’s care and gave us Mary to be our Mother as well. As the one chosen by the Father to give birth to His Only-Begotten Son, Mary serves as a resplendent example of motherhood to all who are her children as well as to all who share the noble vocation of motherhood. Mary’s motherhood extends to us primarily because Jesus joined His disciples to Himself and made us members of His Body in the Church. Mary, as the Mother of Jesus, is the mother also of His very Body, the Church.

Mary’s vocation as mother is also iconic of the motherhood of the Church. As the most perfect disciple of Jesus, Mary reveals in her very person what the whole Church, comprised of many members, looks like. The Church, being the Bride of Christ, gives birth to His offspring from the watery womb of the Baptismal Font. Like Mary, the Church’s vocation in the world is maternal: Mary gave birth to Jesus in history; the Church gives birth to the Body of Christ in the present. This is why the Church is referred to with a feminine pronoun (e.g., “she”, “her”, etc.) and oftentimes is called “Mother Church”. Like all mothers, the Church gives birth to her children and nourishes them at her breast. She teaches them and shares her wisdom with them. She nurtures them and heals them with a gentle laying on of hands when they are hurt. Sometimes she even needs to discipline them for their own good. In every way, the Church is our spiritual mother.

Each and every mother for her part also shares in this iconic vocation. Just as it is the ordained Priest’s vocation to give a physical face to Jesus Christ in the world today, so also it belongs in a special way to mothers to give a physical face to the Church. Their motherhood stems from and points to the God who created them and who established His Church to communicate the new life of grace to all believers. No longer is Eve the model of motherhood—the life she gave ended in death. The Church, represented in the person of Mary, is the New Eve who gives a life that never dies. May God bless all our mothers and grandmothers who reveal to us what it means to be alive in Christ Jesus our Lord!

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Fatima: A Call to Participate in Salvation

As we approach the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions in Fatima, then, we recommit ourselves to personal prayer and to doing penance so that all souls, especially those most in need of God’s mercy, will be saved.

by Fr. Jeff Loseke

On May 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to three young children at Fatima, Portugal and identified herself as “the Lady of the Rosary.” She continued to appear to the children each month through October 13^th and revealed to them a plan for peace in the world through personal prayers and penances. At her final appearance to them on October 13^th, about 70,000 people had gathered to witness the children as they spoke to the Virgin. Everyone present that day testified to having seen the “miracle of the sun” as it “danced” in the sky, thus confirming the apparition for the onlookers.

On May 13, 1981, Pope St. John Paul II was shot in St. Peter’s Square at point-blank range. Of this assassination attempt, the Pope later wrote: “Could I forget that the event… took place on the day and at the hour when the first appearance of the Mother of Christ to the poor little peasants has been remembered for over sixty years at Fatima, Portugal? …I felt that extraordinary motherly protection and care, which turned out to be stronger than the deadly bullet.” One year after he was shot, St. John Paul placed a crown on the statue of Mary in Fatima in which was suspended the very bullet that came so close to claiming his life. Why? The Pope absolutely believed that it was a miracle of Our Lady of Fatima that had preserved his life that day.

On May 13, 2017, we will mark one hundred years since Our Lady first appeared to the three young children in Fatima. Her message to them then—and to us now—is a message of urgency. Mary has exhorted us to prayer and penance for the conversion of sinners and for lasting peace in our world. In the last century, the human race has suffered the effects of so much evil: human life has been destroyed in countless numbers, the divide between the East and West has grown, marriage and the family are under attack, faithless secularism is on the rise, and sin and its consequent effects continue to abound in every corner of the globe. Nevertheless, we know that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Rom 5:20). The Virgin Mary is a shining example of this testament. She, as Mediatrix of All Graces, demonstrates to us the magnanimous will of the Father that His children through adoption, raised up by the grace of the Cross and Resurrection of His Son and flooded by the Gift of the Holy Spirit ought to participate in the salvation of the whole world by our union with Him and His salvific will. Like St. John Paul II in 1981, and the 70,000 in 1917, we too ought to be ready to witnesses the miracles God desires to work in our lives through the intercession of His Son’s Mother. As we approach the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions in Fatima, then, we recommit ourselves to personal prayer and to doing penance so that all souls, especially those most in need of God’s mercy, will be saved.

Art: Fatima Grotto (Sorrowful Mother Shrine) – Statue of the Children, 2016 (Wikimedia Commons)

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Beyond Goodbye

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