St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish - Tucson

Lots of Ordinary Heroes Here

My Dear Wife and I arrived in Tucson two weeks ago tomorrow, and had a number of things we had to get done, and some things we wanted to do as well.  One of the things on our list was to see Father Clement Agamba, who was at Our Lady of Fatima Parish here, when we arrived, and who was an inspiration to us.  He now is Parochial Vicar over at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in the north section of Tucson.   Well, due to some family issues at home, MDW had to return to Ontario last Wednesday, cutting her part of our trip short.  We agreed that I would stay on to complete some matters that we had started, and since she knows how much I love to be here.

Last night she called late, as some of the things she had to attend to were not working out as she hoped, and after we spoke I stayed up for some time praying for her success, and missing her too.

Then this morning I awoke about 8 am, and had on my heart to go over to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for morning mass at 9 am.  I hoped that Father Clement might be the celebrant, and I would get to at least greet him after mass.  So, I threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, and got out the door and into the car in short order.  There Garmin gave me directions to make my way to church.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is about a 25 minute drive from Rincon where we stay.  As I got near Church, the road was blocked off for repairs, and I had to circle back and find another route.  Garmin cooperated and gave me new directions, except that the new directions sent me to a dead end.  I circled back again, and then found another way to get there, with Garmin's help.  It seemed a metaphor for life.  We sometimes have to alter our directions, but not our objective.

I arrived in plenty of time, and found a seat.  St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is obviously a well to do parish.  It is a magnificent structure, and for my Evangelical friends has padded pews too.  My Evangelical and Pentecostal friends would also have been impressed with the Worship band.  They have excellent leadership, beautiful voices, a piano player whose fingers flew all through the Mass, and a nice mix of bass, guitar, and sax to complement.

One of the charismatic gifts I received over the years, the first one actually is the gift of tears, not what you would normally think of as a gift, and certainly small in comparison to the gift of salvation and faith that Jesus gave me.  Whenever I am in God's presence, I tear up, not balling my eyes out tears, but moist eyes and a catch in my throat that prevents me from singing or joining in a prayer at the moment.

I cannot count how often that happened today between the beginning of Mass and its conclusion.  The mass was beautiful, and the participation of the congregation was inspiring.  The tears came to me a few times during songs that were sung at the various parts of the mass, and at two other occasions during the celebration. 

After the Gospel, Father Joseph Lombardo, the Pastor called the small children to join him at the altar, as he wanted to speak to them.  He bravely asked them questions, as did the Deacon who did the formal homily after Father concluded his time with them.  I say bravely, because you never know what children will say.  His interaction with them brought a tear to my eye.

As the Gospel was about the healing of 10 lepers, only one of whom, a Samaritan came back to thank Jesus, Father asked the little ones about the blessings in their life.  It was obvious that he loves the children, and that calling him Father is very appropriate, for he is their spiritual father, a vocation that he takes very seriously.

The Deacon then addressed the kids and had them help him out with a part of his homily before dismissing them to their lessons.  His focus was on what would be good reasons for missing mass, and of course, concluded that "crying baby", "headache", and several others were not good enough.  The kids had some good ideas why they were not sufficient excuses.  The last excuse was "dying", and that was not a good excuse either for missing mass.  Who needs the mass, or particularly the Eucharist more than those who are dying?

He like Father displayed his love for Jesus and for the congregation as he spoke.

At SEAS, they reserve a section of the first pew for returning military personnel, complete with a yellow ribbon.  Two fine young members of the USAF were present having returned from Korea, with one scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan soon.  They were in camos, and he invited them and two parents to come up to the altar for a blessing from him and the congregation.  Yep.  Tears again.  The love the congregation poured out to these two fine young men and their families was palpable, and continued after the Mass was completed, as they left the Church.

The Mass continued with a beautiful celebration of Eucharist, more tears, as Father consecrated the elements into the Body and Blood of Our Dear Beloved Saviour, and then shared them with us.

I didn't get to see Father Clement, though I did get blessed by going there, and I will look forward to catching up with him soon, I hope.

I love being a Christian, and I love being able to receive Jesus Body and Blood at the Eucharistic celebration.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for all the people of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish, and particularly for those members of the parish who are serving in the military, and may be in harm's way.

Asking for Directions

From Friend (?) Bob Starks

Below is a video of a spoof involving a Canada Post driver asking for directions of a passerby on the street.  The driver has kinda gone to the dogs, but you goota watch.

Our friend Bob Starks here at Rincon Country West old folks home (RV resort for over 55's) said when he sent it that it "may offer a clue as to why "your people" need a special section at Rincon." 

Should I be offended, or rest in the knowledge that the people who were pranked by the video were probably all American tourists to Canada?

Why Have They Left the Catholic Church?

Why Do Good Men Leave?

In the past while, I have read two books by believing Christian families where the husband was born and raised in the Catholic Church, but have fallen away, though deepened their belief in Our Lord and Saviour.  They are excellent testimonies to the action of Christ in the lives of these man and their families.

I read "first things first" about Kurt and Brenda Warner, he late of the Arizona Cardinals, my sorta home NFL team here in Tucson AZ.  He wrote to a minor extent about being raised Catholic, and about how his meeting of his wife to be Brenda made him question the weak faith that he had, and brought him to a belief in Christ as His own saviour.  It is an excellent book, and I recommend it.

Next, I read the story of Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, the family of the story Blind Side, a high grossing movie of how they adopted Michael Oher, who lived on the streets of Memphis, and the success that has come of that.  Though Michael Oher has made it into the NFL himself, it was in no small part due to the love given to him by the Tuohy's, but which he returned as well.    Sean Tuohy was raised in a Catholic home, but it was Leigh Anne's faith that inspired him to commit himself to Christ.  Again, I recommend this book.

Here are two Catholic Christian men, who have been inspired by the love of faith filled women to commit to Christ, and to make their lives about giving of themselves to them, to their children, and to others.  The charity work and focus of both of them and their wives is very commendable.  I am an admirer of both of these families for their commitment to their faith, and to living it out daily.

But, I want to know why these men felt it necessary to leave the Catholic Church.  The obvious answer is that the Catholic Church did not appear to be feeding that deep desire inside them to enter into relationship with Our Saviour.  This is not a criticism of them, but a criticism of the Catholic Church.  Why did we, the foundational Church of Jesus Christ not feed them in their need to draw close to Him?  We have the food.  We call it Eucharist.  It is the real presence of Jesus Christ for us to feed upon.  

If you know in your heart that the Eucharist is real food, that it is in fact the Body of Our Lord and Saviour, where can you go except to the Catholic Church?

These are the words that they were taught as children, but faith is caught not taught, and though they were taught the words, it was not allowed to enter into their hearts.  We, the Catholic Church lost these two fine men to a faith that is not a broad and full, but which animates them daily.

For Catholics, the sacraments are life giving, and enriching, and yet we hide them under a bushel basket.

Praise God, they have faith that is alive and have love for their families and for mankind.

Imagine, if you can, what would happen, if these fine people of faith, the Warner's and Tuohy's had access to the sacraments of Eucharist and Confession, and availed themselves of them.  Those inside the Catholic Church, who receive the sacraments faithfully, and live them out in their daily lives become spiritual giants.  

However, many abuse the sacraments, and approach the Eucharist chewing gum, waving to their friends, talking their way through Mass.  And confession.  Who goes to Confession any more?  Though we all need it, and should approach this sacrament with regularity, most of us do not.  

If these men and their families were members of the Catholic Church, their families would treat the sacraments with the kind of respect that they treat each other and their faith communities, and they would inspire more of us to live our faith more openly and fully.

I am saddened that we do not have them in full communion with us, though I am encouraged to see them living lives of faith in these troubles times.

The sacraments, we believe, are outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification.  We have 7 official sacraments, and we need them.  But there is an 8th sacrament IMHO, and that is the outward sign of faith filled Christians living out their faith in this world we inhabit, unabashedly, and humbly.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for the Warner and Tuohy families.

What is the Fruit of Disobedience?

More Disobedience, and Self Justification

Over at Father Tim Moyle's blog, Where the Rubber Hits the Road, Father Tim and I have been engaged in our usual dialogue (from our perspective) with a fallen away Catholic - born again Christian named Wayne (Small Town Guy) about salvation.  I say dialogue from our perspective, because as a dialogue it is pretty one sided.  We have STG hammering at us about what he and many others view as the perfidy of the Roman Catholic Church, trying to tell us what scripture says that proves the Holy Mother Church's errors.  We, in turn, though I tend to get my dander up periodically, respond to him as though he were asking questions, rather than leveling accusations.

Our friend is a bible believing Christian - sola scriptura, and sola fide are his watchwords.  So, tradition - out, though everything he throws at us is old news, and therefor is tradition among fundamentalist Christians.  I guess that tradition is in, if you don't call it tradition, but out if you use the "T" word.

At one time, I urged him to treat Father Tim with respect and call him by his name in the Church, ie. Father Tim.  He, of course came back with the old line "Call no man father," which he chooses to take very literally.  I wonder if he learned any things at the knee of the man who contributed the sperm to his mother's (I think we can call his mother - mother) egg, thereby making him a man, though probably not the "father" to the children he sired.  Maybe he lets them call him Dad.

Frankly, the commentary back and forth is tiring and circuitous.  If it were truly a dialogue, there would be give and take, back and forth, respect for one another's thoughts, beliefs and even positions on matters.  Father Tim has displayed great patience, me not so much.

But, recently, I had a breakthrough in my own thinking which resulted in the following comment to some of our friend's attempts to prove his case:

The Catholic Church did not invent dogmas on faith. The dogmas that exist are the continuation of the Church that Christ created in the beginning. It is an irrelevant point that that Church came to be known as the Roman Catholic Church. It is the same Church from the beginning until today, and tomorrow as well.

It cannot be REFORMED. It can be and should be admonished for the sins of leaders who were on the wrong path, but you cannot REFORM the Church that Christ created, by His own words.

The sacraments were created by Christ, not by man, and are part of the whole deposit of faith that He gave to the Church. The apostles taught and lived the sacraments. Though the form might vary somewhat from the beginning, the substance has never changed, and never can or will. We mere mortals cannot change one jot or tittle of what Jesus did for us, or instructed us to do. It is not our Church, but His Church.

Surprisingly, he did not address this directly, but carried on hammering away.

I have pondered this statement, as I have many made by Father Tim.  The statements from our friend Wayne have caused me to dig deeper into my own faith, always a useful exercise.

But, let us step back to the fundamental area of disagreement.  Over 500 years ago, Father Martin Luther, a Catholic priest set his sails up against the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and in his own wisdom, declared that the Church was in error.  In point of fact, there were errors going on, and there were many leaders of the Church that were engaged in political power struggles, rather than in the business of winning souls for Christ.

The main difference between Jesus Christ and Martin Luther is that Jesus was obedient to the Father even unto death.  He taught us to pray for our leaders, to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to obey those in authority over us.  Sure, it was easy for Him.  He was God, and He was obeying God.  Easy, I guess, if you consider that His obedience led to a most excruciating death on the Cross.  He could have easily said to the Father; "No.  I think we can do it another way."  He did not.

Human leaders in all cases, Pope, boss, senior co-worker, business owner, school board trustee, are sinners all.  All fall short of what God has in store for them and us.  The Popes of Martin Luther's day were sinners, maybe worse sinners than some, though all sin is offensive to God.

Martin Luther disobeyed authority that was given by God to the leaders of His Church.  He gave birth to the reformation movement by his disobedience, and yet many hail him as a hero.  Does that seem odd to anyone out there?  It sure does to me.

So, the reformation movement was basically founded on a lie, and it grew.  Pretty soon, man's pride overtook the sin of disobedience, and the evolution of the reformation movement has resulted in 30,000, yes thirty thousand different denominations.  When folks disagree with the principles and practices of a particular denomination, they start another one, about 60 a year or so, when you do the math.

I am not one to cast stones when it comes to disobedience.  I have been very disobedient in my life time, nothing I can think of in the last 30 seconds or so, but the day's still young. 

When I am disobedient to authority, OK call it what it is.  When I sin, people notice, and are hurt by it.

We are called to "Be holy for I am holy."  That's God speaking to us, telling us what He expects us to BE.  We are made in His image and likeness, so what else would He ask of us.

In the non-Catholic Christian world are millions of faith filled believing souls, seeking to do the right thing day in and day out. 

But, how many on either side of the Christian equation are seeking to be holy because our God is holy.  No, it is far easier to point a finger at our brother and say, he does not get it.  He is not saved.  He is going to hell.  That is far easier than to pray, fast, love.

Yesterday, I was at Costco, and I saw one of the new 3D TVs there.  The picture is awesome, and very much more real than our 2D TVs.  God is very much 3D.  We are at best 2D in our comprehension of him, and then our picture is very, very tiny.  When we try to limit God's revelation to the bible, we are trying to make Him 2D.  When we try to limit him to our feeble understanding of scripture, and teaching, we again try to make him 2D.

We are all His body here on earth, none of us more loved than another, and yet we try to brow beat each other into doing it OUR WAY, proclaiming that it is His Way.

You are free to share your beliefs with me, and I will attempt to treat them respectfully.  You are free to ask me about my beliefs or listen to me share them with you.

But, do you (whoever you are) really think that you have such a unique line on God that you know all there is to know about His plan for my life?

That Sunny Morning Became a Rainy Afternoon Here in Tucson

It's Raining in Southern Arizona

Recently, I posted this song from Jose Feliciano, "Listen to the Falling Rain", on a rainy day in Southern Ontario.  But,I was reminded of it again today as we sat in our motorhome in Tucson Arizona, and heard the rain beating off the roof of our home away from home.

It was nice.



Here are the lyrics:

Listen to the pouring rain

Listen to it pour,

And with every drop of rain

You know I love you more
Let it rain all night long,

Let my love for you grow strong,

As long as we're together

Who cares about the weather?

Listen to the falling rain,

Listen to it fall,

And with every drop of rain,

I can hear you call,

Call my name right out loud,

I can hear above the clouds

And I'm here among the puddles,

You and I together huddle.

Listen to the falling rain,

Listen to it fall.

It's raining,

It's pouring,

The old man is snoring,

Went to bed

And he bumped his head,
Couldn't get up in the morning,

Listen to the falling rain,

listen to the rain

Father Mark Gruber - The Plot Thickens (or sickens)

At Least Somebody Is Doing Some Investigation

Father Mark Gruber is one of the "wrongly accused" priests whose case I have been following lately, the other being Father Gordon MacRae.  As a Catholic Christian, I have a deep love of our priests, who are for us "alter christus".  Some of them have sinned seriously.  All have sinned.  But, they need out love and support, and those who have been wrongly accused must be supported even more.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an article this morning by Ann Rodgers about Father Mark's case here.  In essence there is strong evidence to support that Father Mark was protecting the seal of confession in the somewhat specious answers he gave from time to time to direct questions of him.  That his abbot is blind to this is strange.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

The dramatic case of the monk who filed a defamation suit against St. Vincent College for removing him from ministry after pornography was discovered on his computer has an even more dramatic subplot.


A former student of the Rev. Mark Gruber has told both state police and canonical investigators that he downloaded pornography on the priest's computer. He says that Father Gruber knew that, but couldn't say so because he had sacramentally confessed that sin to the priest before the pornography was discovered. Priests are forbidden to reveal the contents of a confession under any circumstance.

The seal of confession is very important to our faithful priests.  Without it, so many would not come to that wonderful sacrament.  Theresa McKernan, a commenter to the facebook page for Friends of Father Mark had this to say about his witness:

I was teaching my catechism students about the sacrament of confession this Sunday. They understand the seal of the confessional, but many shared they secretly believe that if the confession was "bad enough", the priest would find some way... to tell someone. I think this fear is one of the reasons many teens fall away from the sacrament, never sure if their sins might be "bad enough" for a priest to find a way to tell their parents or teacher.



There are many stories of martyrs and saints, but being able to tell them that I actually met a priest, a friend of my sister, who has been removed from his teaching job, suspended from his priestly duties, was accused and publicly lambasted for the most horrible of accusations, and had to have a serious fear of prosecution for a crime he didn't commit, rather than reveal something confessed to him, made quite an impact on them.


There is no great tragedy without some small good, and at least here in Michigan, Father Mark's tragedy may have the small good of inspiring a small classroom of teens to make their confession with a little more confidence and a little more faith.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining, and this may be it for our beleaguered priests.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, we trust in Your Love for Father Mark.

Ordinary Heroes - Kurt and Brenda Warner

That Kurt Warner

Many years ago, Although I was raised in Canada and played Canadian football, and British rules Rugby competitively, I became a fan of the National Football League, not rabid, but interested in outcomes, and in particular in the play and life stories of some of the athletes who competed in the best professional football league in the world.

Not as many years ago, a quarterback surfaced, who had been playing in the Arena League and NFL Europe, named Kurt Warner.  His background in a small college, and trying to find work as a quarterback might be the subject of a later posting.  When I knew that he was a Christian, I followed his career, and became an Arizona Cardinals fan when he surfaced in Phoenix.  I was never a die hard St. Louis Rams fan, and dropped any passing allegiance when Kurt was dumped for the next guy.  I confess that I was not a Giants fan when he was there, though I was still a Warner fan.  Sadly for football fans, he retired at the end of last year, but happily for those who admire him as a person, he only retired from football, not life.

Kurt was raised in a Catholic split family, and his faith was not a big deal to him, like so many Catholic Christians.  But, he met Brenda, a committed Christian, and much of the rest is history.  He made a personal commitment about 14 years ago, to make Christ the center of his life, and has made Brenda the one on earth who he sacrifices daily for, along with their 7 children.  They are both committed to living out Christ's values on a day by day basis.

My Dear Wife and I are in our winter home of Tucson AZ for a few weeks, and the other day, we walked into a Borders store on the east side of town while out for a jaunt.  There I came across a book that Kurt and Brenda Warner wrote last year, called "first things first", which also happens to be the name of their foundation.

"First things first" tells some of their story of raising children, and loving each other, and most importantly loving God, and serving Him through others - seeing Christ in people they encounter daily.

The book is a little about the family rules, all worthwhile efforts to bring them closer to God and to each other, and to mankind, but also tells the story of how one family is making a difference.

It is available through Amazon here, among other places, and I recommend it, as I recommend reading the web site linked above.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in your love for Kurt and Brenda Warner and their family and all those they reach out to and touch.

God Bless the Warner clan.

With a Little Help From My Friends

Ringo Starr Sings a Classic from the Beatles

Do you need anybody?

Here,There and Everywhere

One of Sir Paul's greatest hits

I heard an instrumental version of this in a store in Tucson today.  Had to find it and post it.

Enjoy

Still On The Road Again

Getting Close to Our Winter Home Site

We are settled into Peoria, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix for the night, having spent a day that included Mass at the Parish of el Cristo Rey at Grand Canyon, which was a delightful experience.

We followed that up by moving on to Sedona, which is an interesting tourist focused town, surrounded by much natural beauty. It is also the home of a special chapel called Holy Cross Chapel, which was built into the landscape of the area.


We have pictures galore of our stops at Antelope Canyon in Page AZ, the Grand Canyon, and the surrounding area near Sedona, AZ.  This is some of the most beautiful country in North America, and because we think of Tucson AZ, as our winter home, we take some teensy weensy bit of pride in seeing some more of our adopted (partly) state.

El Cristo Rey Parish has only 37 families who live in the area of the Grand Canyon.  The Chapel is in a converted house in a residential area of the town of Grand Canyon near the Visitor's Center.  The pastor is Father Steve Sedlock, a well spoken man who treats the Eucharist with reverence.  As well, he touched us as he spoke about the readings of the day, particularly rhe Gospel reading about the rich man and Lazarus.  He reminded us that it is our duty to not overlook the poor, and this provided My Dear Wife and I with food for thought as we journeyed today.

Tomorrow, we hope to get to Tucson, and get our motorhome out of storage and situated at Rincon where we stay.