Here are a few of the thoughts which struck me as I was preparing the homily for yesterday’s [Saturday] ECHO graduation at Notre Dame. I have edited slightly and deleted a large section which probably could not be understood outside of the context in which it was given but perhaps as you returned from Mass this week-end, still wondering about the Gospel, this may or may not help. I hope it will.

When I was studying theology in Boston in the mid-seventies, seminarians then as now were required to do apostolic work of some kind. My assignment was to Boston College where I and about six of my colleagues who on one week with about three hundred undergraduates in a huge lecture hall would listen to the presentation of a Master Teacher on the subject of the Four Gospels. Then the following week, we would break the large group down into small groups and discuss the previous week’s presentation on the Gospel. At the end of each semester, the Master Teacher, who by the way today teaches on this campus, would ask the undergrads this question: Which of the four Gospel writers would you most like to have as your pastor and why?

The result was overwhelmingly in favor of Luke and the reasons were markedly consistent and broken down into three primary reasons for the choice: Luke’s Jesus is more human and focused on doing his father’s will; Luke’s Jesus interacts with women more frequently, sensitively, and occasionally at some cultural and religious risk; and, finally, Luke’s Jesus shows the greatest concern for the poor. Three rather good insights into the Gospel, I thought then and now.

This afternoon we heard Luke at the top of his game. The farmer in the Gospel is not necessarily a bad man. He is rich but there is no sin in that. But in Luke’s Gospel riches can be a barrier to following Jesus (remember the parable of the rich young man?). There are two primary problems, however, with the farmer in the Gospel: admittedly he has all that he or his family will ever need but he suffers from an insatiable appetite for more and second, his rugged individualism has placed him outside of any community and he has little concern for others. To be without a community in the time of Jesus was to be without an identity. You were recognized by which community you were from, Galilee, Samaria, etc.) Consulting no one and with no obvious concern for those who have less, all the rich farmer wants to do is build more barns – not for his family, not for his community but seemingly for his own peace of mind. It might appear to many that this man  has it made.

Jesus on the other hand understands the religious tradition from which he comes. He may or may not have been aware of the teaching from Ecclesiastes in the first reading. Certainly his response indicates as does Qoheleth that the ephemeral is precisely that – it is passing, fleeting, of no eternal value. I once had a married woman tell me of her husband, “Father, my husband brought home without asking a new BMW and he showed it proudly to all our neighbors. He was so happy, until four weeks later BMW introduced an even finer and more expensive version of the same model and then he became depressed.” Ecclesiastes draws our attention from this moment’s accomplishments and directs us towards those things which will last and enrich not only ourselves but our families, our Church, our nation – things that will make for a better world.

St. Paul to the Corinthians begs us to set our sights on higher things. Keeping things in proper perspective is what today’s Liturgy of the Word is all about. It can be a call not only to us as individuals to examine our priorities and values but it can also be a call to communities, local, regional and national, to churches (parishes, diocesan and universal) to see if our sights are clearly set on those things which are not vanity but are from and of God and that hoarding has no place among us, sharing does.

I shall look back tonight and throughout this week on these three readings, reflect on them, apply them.

+RNL

I am back from fishing and after a long day in the office found myself on a plane to South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. I had been invited to celebrate the graduation Mass, give out the certificates which precede the diplomas and preach for the seventeen members of the ECHO group who are graduating and those returning this week-end for their second year in their dioceses and those who will be beginning their two year service in the dioceses of the country starting, well tomorrow for some. We have had the privilege of three ECHO students in our diocese for the past two years who are graduating today: Anthony Paz who served at St. Jude Cathedral, Katie Muller who served at St. Paul parish and Holy Family parish, and Ellen Voegele who served at Blessed Trinity parish. Anthony is from Eureka, California and graduated with his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, Katie is a graduate of Marquette University and is from the Chicago area and Ellen is from Batavia, Ohio and graduated from Marian College in Indianapolis. The two young women are returning to continue to serve at Blessed Trinity as Director of Faith Formation and St. Paul’s as High School Youth Minister and Middle School Religion teacher and Anthony is joining the staff of St. Luke’s parish in McLean as Coordinator of Adult Faith Formation. Congratulations and gratitude and appreciation is extended to these three wonderful young people for their educational and pastoral accomplishments during the last to years of ECHO. When they are in the diocese of St. Petersburg, Brian Lemoi, the Director of Religious Formation is their mentor and thanks are also due to him. Father Joseph Waters attended the ceremonies in South Bend for Anthony who served one year with the new pastor of the Cathedral.

Happily, their places will be taken by three new ECHO representatives serving at Holy Family parish in St. Petersburg, at St. Jerome parish in Indian Rocks Beach and at Espiritu Santo parish in Safety Harbor. ECHO at Notre Dame is an activity of the Center for Catechetical Initiatives which itself is a part of the Department of Theology. During their two years in the program, its participants called “apprentice catechetical leaders” experience four important dimensions of growth: academic formation leading to a Master’s degree, professional ministerial formation, communal formation, and spiritual formation.

Our liturgy was lovely and what great readings for the Mass this week-end. One can count on the fingers of both hands the number of times in a three year cycle when all three readings can be tied together thematically and this is one of them. It was a great Saturday for me and for the ECHO program. Tomorrow I fly to Orlando for a meeting with my brother bishops of Florida. Who says summer is a time of rest and relaxation. In fourteen years I think I can prove that summer only sees a slight decrease in activities in our Church.

ET ALIA

Some readers have asked me to comment when I return on how successful I was at “fishing” the last few weeks. I caught nothing as my friends would expect but it was relaxing.

I was out-of-town when George Steinbrenner died and I regret that I could not be present to his family at the time of their great loss. I knew him as a very generous and great man whose love for his children and grandchildren was exceptional. He was generous to a number of Catholic institutions (the Academy of the Holy Names and St. Cecilia school to name two) and very generous in this community. I loved being with him as he constantly teased me about the high school which I graduated from in Columbus, Ohio (St. Charles) while he was coaching at our arch-rival, Aquinas High School. More than the Yankees should be mourning his loss. His heart was larger than his reputation was occasionally controversial. Rest in peace, good friend of the Bay area and great head of a family.

Finally, you should be reading new entries several times a week in the coming month. I missed the discipline which this exercise requires. It is nice to be back.

+RNL

Update 8/5/10: Anthony went to Amherst College, not the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

22,000 Catholic youth gathered in Kansas City this week-end for the bi-annual nationwide convention. The gathering of our most committed and devoted young people places them in contact with wonderful presenters who are able to connect with them, gives them time to experience good liturgy, and spend time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament  which an amazing number of the participants utilize. On Saturday all 22,000 processed through the streets of Kansas City in an Eucharistic procession which gave the locals of whatever and no religious persuasion something to think about. Our own Father Len Plazewski was there along with a good representation from the diocesan youth. One might have though that tough economic times would have cut into the number of participants this year, but no – this was one of the largest.

Youth ministry is a challenge for our beloved Church. There are so many things competing for young people’s time and attention today from sports involving far more youth than in my day to a whole menu of after school options. Parishes still try hard to have good programs for the young people but getting them to come is a real challenge. Everyone points to the success of Protestant outreach to young people and I must admit that it is one of the few comparison points for which I am often jealous. One of the bright lights these past two years has been the three ECHO program members from the University of Notre Dame’s post-graduate program in religious education and youth ministry working in four of our parishes. Their presence and good work has injected some life into our times moribund-like youth ministry programs.

I believe that today’s young Catholic can have a thirst for the faith and it is incumbent upon myself and our pastoral leadership to meet these needs. At the same time, I do  not think it a wise strategy to offer programs where adult leadership assumes the mantle of acting like we were still young but rather we need to help our young prepare for an adult faith which awaits them. We have some extraordinarily generous young people who edify and sometimes humble me by their commitment to the Church, its teaching and values, and the responsibility of the baptized to share the faith with others boldly and fearlessly. I also see in the new interest in vocations to the priesthood and religious life the seeds of a renewal we badly need. It is our job as adult Catholics to provide the fertile soil in which these seeds can settle, germinate and blossom. The Church is looking for good gardeners in the soil of the faith of our young. Do you think you might be able to help?

+RNL

I am writing this from the campus of Notre Dame University. Before you rush to judgment, I will be long gone before this week-end and the arrival of POTUS and Air Force One. I am participating in a seminar dealing with financing Catholic elementary and secondary schools which was scheduled long in advance of the current flap and is a part of the University’s educational  programs in which our diocese so enthusiastically participates.

I love being on this campus. There is something truly peaceful and Catholic about it. There are fifty-two lovely chapels throughout the campus like branches attached to Sacred Heart Basilica, the liturgical vine. Ask any student or graduate and they will likely tell you that Mass in the residence halls has kept them connected to their Catholic faith and now they dread trying to find a place like here at home. (75% of the Catholic students resident on campus attend Mass every Sunday when here.) There was a short time when the campus ministry program here gave all their graduates a “‘Frommer’s Guide’ to Good Liturgy and Preaching throughout the U.S.” so that what the students experienced here could be continued, at least somewhat, back home or wherever after graduation. I was the principal celebrant and homilist at noon in the Log Cabin Chapel which is a rebuild of an early mission chapel for Native-Americans which antedated the arrival of Father Sorin and the first college and which burned to the ground in the early 20th century. Today is my 31st anniversary of priestly ordination and it was special to celebrate it here today.

Critics and hierarchs who would deny this university the name “Catholic” mostly have not been here to experience just how Catholic Notre Dame is. Over the years of my life, that has changed little. My family lived about three years eighty miles south of South Bend in Peru, Indiana so I first came to know this place as a child. The football teams are not as good as they were in the days of my youth, but the dedication to God, Church, and country continue undimished. I love the graduates of ND who come home to help me feed the poor like they did when they were students in South Bend, care for the medically indigent or the illegal like they did at St. Joseph’s Hospital in South Bend when they were students, embrace missionary experience in Malawi for three years for less than $200 per month (leaving the bishop’s office in St. Petersburg and Christian Formation in Safety Harbor) like they did in the ECHO and ACE program sponsored by the University. I could go on and on. This place breathes a healthy faith life and it is Catholic to the core of its institutional being.

No other Catholic college or university is more at the service of the Church in this country, sponsoring colloquia such as the one I am participating in on vital subjects of Church life. This is a special place, run by a special community of religious, reinforced by dedicated, professional lay women and men who teach the students well. Blessed are those who are fortunate enough to be admitted and can afford it. And blessed is the Church in the United States to have such a place to hand over to us our future lay leadership.

Celebrating Mass in the "Log Chapel." Picture compliments of Amy Seamon

+RNL

Most people who preach are always looking for signs of hope in the world around us which indicate that the Spirit is still alive and well and in our midst. Today I have in mind twelve young people who live Gospel witness in our diocese. I know there are many more but it is easier for me to tell these stories at this moment.

There is a wonderful program begun a number of years ago by Notre Dame University called the Alliance for Catholic Education (or “ACE” for short). Using the Americorps model, this inspired program is open to eighty applicants a year who are willing to return to Notre Dame’s campus a week or so after graduation and begin a two year program which will find them placed in Catholic elementary and secondary schools around the country as teachers. Studying intensively and hard for two summers on campus, they then report to their schools where they complete two full academic years. At the end of the two years they have earned a M. Ed. degree from Notre Dame for which they paid only with their blood, sweat and tears. We currently have five ACE teachers completing their two year work in this diocese, two at St. Petersburg Catholic High School, one at Sacred Heart School in Pinellas Park and two at St. Joseph’s School in West Tampa. Over 800 soon-to-graduate applicants from around the country apply annually to ACE for the eighty positions. This diocese has been lucky to have ACE present here for the last twelve years. Some remain on as teachers after their ACE apprenticeship is over which is also a special joy to myself and to those who have come to know and admire them.

A second program from Notre Dame and of relatively newer vintage is the ECHO program. Here the graduates return for the first of two summers of master’s degree work before being sent to parishes throughout the country where they engage in youth ministry, religious education work and a variety of other parish based ministries. At its conclusion, its participants leave with a Masters in Theology degree and lots of memories. We currently have three ECHO students working at the Cathedral of St. Jude, Blessed Trinity parish in South St. Petersburg, and St. Paul parish in St. Petersburg. This is our first ECHO group of young people and based on their presence and service to date, it too looks like a great gift to our diocese.

CATHOLIC VOLUNTEERS IN FLORIDA is a third Americorp program and this one is headquartered in Orlando and serves throughout the state. There are currently nine recent college graduates in this program working in parishes and institutions in Florida and we have three here in this diocese. One is working in the social work department of St. Joseph’s hospital in Tampa. another is teaching Spanish at St. Petersburg Catholic and I have just had a “senior moment” and am unable to remember the assignment of the third. They too are a blessing.

These young people all share roughly these common elements for their two years in our diocese:

1. They live in community, cooking and cleaning for themselves, with a community prayer life when time allows it.

2. They may only accept a small stipend of approximately $1000 per month for their work out of which they must reimburse the diocese for furnished housing and but their own food and other necessities for living.

My fourth and final example of a sign of hope for me this week is a young man who is a Junior at Loyola of Baltimore and a graduate of Jesuit High School in Tampa. He approached me about spending a summer during his college years in service to others somewhere in the world. I connected him with Catholic Relief Services and he has been given a two-month assignment in a small diocese in India, working under and for CRS and for no compensation. In fact, he has to cover all his expenses himself. He e-mailed me today of his excitement as he learns more and more about his assignment, what he will be doing and where he will be living, and other insundry and less pleasant things like innoculations and disease protection, etc.

So these are my twelve apostles, doing the Lord’s work in the vineyard of our diocese and rural India. I hope the knowledge that young people still volunteer for the benefit of others warms your heart as much as my own.

+RNL

Anthony, Ellen and Katie - ECHO

One of the wonderful blessings of my ministry here in the diocese has come from the presence of two fine programs which originate at Notre Dame University in South Bend. The oldest in the diocese which arrived in my third year here is called “ACE” which stands for Alliance for Catholic Education. Begun about twenty years ago by Holy Cross Father Timothy Scully, graduates from ND and many other colleges and universities compete for eighty positions in a two year program leading to a Masters degree in Education. After a full summer of courses and practica in teaching, the eighty students are sent forth, missioned if you will, to Catholic schools throughout the country. There they teach for two years, mostly in inner city schools. They live in community (ours live in a former convent in Pinellas Park), praying together, cooking for one another, recreating and continuing their course work over the internet with the “mother ship” in South Bend.

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