Have you ever been at a Mass where all in attendance are asked to give applause for a person or group of people to show appreciation, recognition, or for a birthday?  Whether it’s clapping for a class of religious education students who showed up and participated in the mass or to thank a group of parishioners for all the ministries they are involved in and all that they do for the church, it just doesn’t seem like a good time for applause.

One summer when I was in college, I was attending a youth conference and one of the priests from the diocese that was on the trip made a comment that applause doesn’t belong in the Mass.  It was a brief and simple statement, and something I didn’t question.  And since then, any time I’ve been at a Mass where we are asked to clap to recognize a person or multiple people, it has just felt uncomfortable.  Sometime afterwards, I came across this quote from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he was Pope Benedict XVI, in which he said, “wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.”  The Mass is not about what we have done, but about what God has done and continues to do.

When we take time to recognize someone’s achievements or show our appreciation during Mass, it takes our focus away from God and directs it to ourselves or to others in the parish.  People do a lot of amazing and great things and serve others and the parish so generously.  And they absolutely should be appreciated and thanked.  But, I think that the recognition and thanks should take place outside of Mass.  Whether it is at a social after mass, a card and gift, an announcement put in the bulletin or posted on the parish website, or just by talking to someone after mass, there are many different ways to go about recognizing and thanking parish members that don’t involve clapping for them before the mass has ended.

The mass is the highest form of worship.  There is a reason that it is called the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  It is a time that demands reverence and respect.  And when we wrap up the Mass with a focus on the things we’ve done by giving our applause, then our focus is taken away from God.
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Maybe I’m overthinking this, but it is something I’ve been really convicted of for awhile, especially when I’m at mass and see this happen.  What are your thoughts?

In the Gospel from this weekend, we hear about how it is in the breaking of the bread that Jesus is made known to the disciples.  Before they recognize Jesus, they say to Him, “stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”  Jesus is always walking with us, whether we recognize Him or not.  And He has given us the gift of the Eucharist so that we too can ask Him to stay with us.

When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we receive His body, blood, soul and divinity.  And it is when we receive Him that we are the closest to Him we can be.  Sometimes at mass, it can be easy to go through the motions and take that hour of time for granted.  Maybe there are times when we are blind to the miracle and grace at the altar.  But Just as Jesus opened the eyes of His disciples, He can open our eyes too so that we see everything with eyes of faith.
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Whenever we encounter Christ, whether it is in receiving the Eucharist or in our encounters with Him outside of Mass, our hearts will be set on fire, inspiring us to share Him and His love with the world around us.  We must ask ourselves if “our hearts are burning within us”, just as the disciples experienced (Luke 24:32).

If the flame has died down, we can ask Jesus to increase our faith and love for Him, and to give us a heart that is burning, and not cold or lukewarm.  When we feel far from Jesus or when we don’t recognize His presence at different times in our lives, we should ask Him to stay with us as we continue on our journeys.  Sometimes, all it takes is asking in faith.  The more time we spend with Jesus and the more we desire to be close to Him, the more we will be able to recognize Him and realize that He truly is with us in every moment of our days.

Dear Jesus, sometimes we are blind to You and fail to recognize You walking with us.  Give us eyes of faith so that we can see You.  Give us hearts that are on fire, burning with love of You.  Stay with us, and help us as we continue on the journey.  We need you so that we can share the Good news with the world.  Amen.

Sunday night I was at my college campus for an alumni Mass.  My brother was also there.  A few people made the comment that my brother and I look a lot alike and they could tell we were siblings.  This made me reflect on how we live our lives each day.  Do we look a lot like Jesus?  Can people tell we are Christians?

We should look a lot like Jesus, not physically of course, but rather in our character and the way we live.  We should look like Jesus in the way we love others and in the way we forgive.  We should also look like Him because of the joy we have, the peace we experience, and the humility we serve with.

We are all called to imitate Christ.  When we live as disciples, we are a reflection of Him to the world around us.  When we fail, we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us and to rid us of the traits that do not reflect Jesus.  When we choose sin instead of Jesus, we can go to confession to be forgiven and made new, giving us a new opportunity to be like Christ again the moment we walk out the door.

The way we respond to the events around us, the way we speak to others, and the general disposition we have on a regular basis should be different from the world and from those who are not Christians.  This is not always easy, but with a lot of grace and trust in God, it is possible, as long as we allow Him to transform our hearts and minds.

We all have different desires, some are good, others can become a distraction or be problematic depending on the priority we give to them.  Maybe we want to be successful, do well at our jobs, have a lot of friends, or just become better people.  Nothing is wrong with these desires, but they should not be the focus or priority.

We should all want to look like Jesus.  If people can look at us and see Christ, then we are on the right track.  People should be able to tell that we are Christians.

Dear God, we know we are made in your image and likeness and we thank you for the gift of our lives.  Help us to become like your son Jesus and give us the grace to be a reflection of Him in all we say and do.  We mess up and fail, but You have the power to transform us so that we can keep trying.  May we use our lives to show the world who Jesus is.  Amen.

“Our God is not dead, He’s alive, He’s alive!”  If this doesn’t make you excited I don’t know what will?  This is the basis for our faith.  If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then our faith means nothing and life is pretty meaningless.  Oftentimes, it seems like the resurrection of Christ is downplayed.  For some people, it is treated as just an event that happened a long time ago and that has a minor significance to our lives today.  But Jesus’ resurrection is a really big deal.  Our lives should reflect this not just one day of the year, but every day.

It’s easy to go to church on Easter Sunday and bask in the joy of the resurrection during that time, and afterwards, put any thoughts of Jesus’ resurrection on the back burner until the next year.  Maybe we too have at some point glossed over what it means for our lives.  But the resurrection is ultimately the reason for our faith.  It should impact the way we live each and every day of our lives.

If something as brutal and excruciating as Jesus’ crucifixion can turn into the greatest event in history and the biggest source of joy just a few days later, then everything we experience in our lives can also be an opportunity for joy.  If we allow Jesus to resurrect our hearts and let the truth of His resurrection change our lives, our suffering and burdens can be transformed into joy too.  The world sees suffering as meaningless, but as Christians, we know that our suffering can be offered up and that it can unite us to His Passion, even when it is hard to accept or when we don’t understand it.  We know that Jesus can transform us through the trials and challenges.

Jesus’ resurrection also gives us a reason for hope.  Because he defeated sin and death, he has opened up the path to eternal life with Him.  This reality should impact the way we live.  Who doesn’t want to get to heaven and live with God for eternity?  It is the resurrection that gives us reason to believe that we will be able to have life after death.
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Christ is risen from the dead!  And this is no small event.  We must realize the significance this has to our lives and allow it to impact the way we live.  Today and everyday, may you live in a way that allows others to believe in the power and beauty of the resurrection!

At Mass on Sunday morning, the entrance hymn was “Precious Lord, Take my Hand.”  It’s usually impossible for me to hear the whole song without crying.  The song always makes me think of funerals, and now brings me right back to my dad’s funeral, as it is one of the songs that the choir sang.  So, unsurprisingly, as Mass began, not long into the song, tears filled my eyes and started streaming down my face.  One of my first thoughts was, “Hopefully no one in the pews around me notices.”  Then, when we got to the Gospel, it happened to be the passage that contains the shortest, yet one of the most powerful lines in scripture, “And Jesus wept” (John 11:35).

This short, very profound sentence speaks volumes about who Jesus is.  Fully human and fully divine, He experienced all of the emotions that we experience.  Whatever we feel, He has felt too.  And this means that we are never alone.  Hearing the Gospel at mass after my experience during the opening song  was a sort of consolation that when tears come, it’s okay to embrace the emotion, because that’s what Jesus did.

God is not some far off and distant being who is indifferent to our lives.  But rather, God is a compassionate  and loving Father who wants to be close to each one of us.  Our God is a God who is here with us right now in this very moment and always.  And that is the amazing and beautiful reality of who He is.

Maybe you are going through something difficult right now or you have a family member or friend who is facing something challenging and it’s hard to see them suffer.  Maybe you just feel alone or discouraged.  In these times, it can be easy to ask where God is and think he is far away.  The world is filled with pain, sorrow, grief, and suffering.  Turn on the news for five minutes and you will see heart-wrenching stories of the day’s events.  We live in an imperfect world, filled with broken people, including each one of us.  But no matter what, we can still find joy because it is in the brokenness of our humanity that we are led to Jesus, the one who alone heals us and gives us peace.
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Jesus cares for each one of us so deeply.  Our burdens are His burdens that He helps us to carry.  May you always remember just how close He is.  Know that tears are okay, even when you’re at Mass on a Sunday morning, because even Jesus wept.

If you’ve ever been hiking, you know that hiking trails have roots, rocks, uneven surfaces, branches and other obstacles that can get in the way. As I was hiking a few days ago, I continually looked ahead and focused on the ground so that I didn’t stumble or fall. Our lives as Christians are the same way.

There are distractions, temptations, and rocky areas. In the world around us, there are so many things that can be obstacles in our journeys, making it challenging to live lives of faithfulness and discipleship. It is important to stay focused on Jesus as we walk along the path, because if we don’t it will be much easier for us to trip and fall and to follow the ways of the world. When we turn our gaze away from Christ, He is looking upon us with love, ready to help us get back up and continue on the path towards Him.

Oftentimes when hiking, you get to a point where there are arrows pointing towards the different trails. You have to decide which direction to go and which trail to take to get to the right place. In our lives, there are many times where we find ourselves standing at a crossroads. Students going off to college have to decide if they are going to continue to practice their faith and choose Christ. They have to decide what kind of friends to hang out with and what kinds of activities to do on the weekend. Young adults finding a job have to decide what they are being called to do and how they will serve God, in whatever positions they find themselves working in. After that, we are continually faced with decisions, big and small, about which way to go in order to live out our faith as best as we can. Will we take the path toward the world or toward Christ?

Life is rocky and filled with obstacles and uneven surfaces. There are many different paths we can take. May we all keep our eyes focused on Jesus each day and choose the path that takes us closer to Him.

As I sat in adoration over the weekend, in a temporary chapel that was very cozy and very peaceful, I felt as if I could’ve stayed there for hours.  Something that was put on my heart over and over in that time was, “it is in this place where you will never experience rejection, persecution, ridicule, or misunderstanding.  But, you cannot stay in these spaces forever.  You must go out into the world, taking the graces from these times as strength and encouragement for the daily journey and to those who do not have faith.”

There was a question that kept coming back to me as I sat before Jesus.  “How can I be your disciple without experiencing rejection?”  Jesus was rejected by the world because of the way He lived.  And if we are trying to live like Him, we too will be rejected by the world.  These experiences are necessary for us to unite ourselves to Christ more fully.  

How will we ever be able to experience the glory of the resurrection without the knowledge of suffering?  To be a disciple is to share in the cross and to walk where He walked, experiencing rejection and ridicule at times.  If we are truly living out our faith, the world will hate us.  We all want to stay in those places hidden from the world, that are safe and secure, the places that we are loved well and understood.  We want to remain in those environments, moments, and experiences where our faith is not questioned or mocked.  But the reality is that we must go and keep walking through the world, ready to share the love of Christ with all we meet, including those who are hostile to our faith.

If we are really living out our faith, we will experience resistance from the world around us, because our lives will not look like everyone else’s.  We will not blend in.  The life of a Christian is marked by joy, humility, generosity, patience, and more.  These fruits and virtues are what will help us when we are being challenged or questioned.  The more we fill ourselves up with prayer, time in adoration, the sacraments, retreats, and other community experiences, the easier it will be to take those experiences to our daily lives and live out our faith. 
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Sitting in adoration, I experienced the security and comfort of being in the presence of the One who knows us and understands us better than anyone else.  Spending time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the one place where we are loved perfectly.  May we all step out of the chapel to bring our faith to the world around us, knowing that Jesus is with us always.  And may we be delivered from the desire of being approved. 

One of the best qualities about my sister Abbey is her ability to tell it like it is.  She is usually straightforward and bold. When she was in confirmation class, she told her own classmates that they should be going to mass weekly and that there were no reasons or excuses for them not to be attending, especially seeing as they were preparing to receive the sacrament of confirmation.  Since then, she has gone to speak to a few of the confirmation classes the last few years and has told them the same thing.  She wasn’t scared about how the students would react or worried about offending them.  I admire her ability to be bold in sharing the truth about faith and I think this approach needs to be used more often.

Our society has become really soft, especially when it comes to the important stuff.  The overall message of our culture is to not say or do certain things because someone might be offended or their feelings might be hurt.  And it seems as if this mindset has seeped into some people in the church as well.  But the real harm is in the truth being left unsaid.

Jesus spoke the truth calmly and with conviction.  This offended some.  But He didn’t back down or soften His teachings.  So why should we?  Anytime Jesus spoke, especially on difficult topics, it was with love.  We are called to do the same thing.  We need to share the truth always, and do it with compassion, love, and humility.  If we really love the people around us, we will not cover up or soften the truths of our faith.

We don’t need a faith that is soft and nice.  We need a faith that is bold and forthright.  Are we willing to say the hard things?  Watering down our faith doesn’t help bring anyone closer to Jesus.  In fact, it probably pushes them in the other direction, or leads them to a false idea of Christianity and a progressive mindset.  It leads to people thinking certain aspects of our faith are open to interpretation or that they are a matter of opinion.
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Everyone is at a different point in their faith journeys.  And that is perfectly acceptable.  We all have a lot more to learn and a lot of room for growth.  But we cannot sit back and pretend that all is well as long as people are “nice” and “good.”  As people of faith, we know we are called to more.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross because he was a “nice and good person.”  He went against the grain and spoke the truth in love.  He asks us to do the same.  May we all be straightforward and bold in sharing the truth of our faith with the people around us.

Over the weekend as I was sitting in adoration, one question that kept coming to mind during prayer was, “Jesus, how can I enter into the desert with you this Lent?”  With the arrival of the season of Lent, maybe you too are praying about and reflecting on this question.  This year more than ever, I want to be more intentional about how I live these 40 days.  I want to listen to how Jesus is calling me to be more disciplined and faithful.

Thinking about the desert, the first images that come to mind are of a barren, dry, desolate landscape where there are not many living things.  The desert is so different from the environment we live in.  And maybe that is one of the reasons why it is so important for us to follow Jesus into this space.  To enter into the desert is to enter into a different way of living.  It is to strip our lives of the worldly pleasures that are distracting us and to detach ourselves from the comforts that keep us from growing closer to Christ.  It is to change our routines and habits in order to experience a real conversion of heart.  This penitential season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving asks us to make small sacrifices and practice self-discipline. 

What things in our lives are preventing us from growing in our relationship with Jesus?  What areas of our lives are dead because of sin and need to be brought back to life?  What parts of our faith are dry and need to be watered and replenished?  It is the dryness and emptiness of this spiritual desert where we rediscover our thirst for God and recognize that He alone can satisfy us in the hunger we have.

So how do we actually enter into the desert in a way that will bear fruit in our spiritual lives and help us to properly prepare to celebrate the resurrection at Easter?  How do we pray and reflect in a way that will allow us to experience conversion and be transformed?  It will likely look a little different for each of us. 
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No matter what your Lenten plans are or how you hope to grow spiritually, remember that everything Jesus experienced throughout the 40 days in the desert was out of a deep love for you.  How will you respond to that love this season?  Will you enter into the desert to walk with Jesus?  May you have a blessed and fruitful Lent that helps you to become more like Him.

A few days ago, February 10th, was the feast day of St. José Sánchez del Río.  Reading his story, I’m always struck by what this saint experienced for his love of Jesus.  There were many efforts by others to make him renounce his faith and in each opportunity to do so, he stood strong.  He endured immense torture and suffered greatly, as he refused to deny his faith in Christ.  The one part that stands out the most is the fact that he was just 14 years old when he was martyred.  The depth of faith he had at such a young age is something that should inspire us all in our own faith.  As this saint, and many others demonstrate, age should never be an obstacle to having great faith.
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A lot of times, I hear members of the church and parents say things like, “they will come back to the church later” or “they will start practicing their faith once they are older and have a family.”  While these kinds of thoughts and sentiments are likely well-meaning and come from a place of hope, they do not encourage the importance of faith in young people.  These thoughts and statements make the claim that having faith doesn’t really matter until one is older and at a different point in life.  This could not be further from the truth.

People sometimes say things like faith can be prioritized once sports are over, once extracurricular activities are done, once school is finished, once there is more time,once someone figures out who they are, or once they are established as an adult in the real world.  But having faith and taking opportunities to grow in it in the midst of all these events is vital.  Faith must be the foundation for whatever point someone is going through, and not an afterthought for a later time.

The idea that the church doesn’t need young people and that young people don’t need faith and the church is a lie.  No matter what age we are, each and every one of us are called to follow Jesus and live a life of faith and discipleship.  That will look different throughout various stages and parts of life, but we all have the ability to be part of a faith community to support and pray for each other, inspire each other and learn from each other, and grow closer to Jesus.  We are all called to be saints, regardless of how young or old we are.

Someone’s age should not be an obstacle to being a powerful witness of faith.  St. José Sánchez del Río, along with countless other young saints, have inspiring stories that are an example of great courage, deep faith, and a strong love for Christ.  May their lives inspire in us a deeper faith and greater love for Jesus.