I have been thinking about Dorothy's beginning of the journey to Oz these past few days as I have been reflecting upon the beginning of Lent as well as the role ol' Mother Nature has been playing in our country and around the world. Instead of chanting "Lions, and Tigers, and Bears", we can say Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Snow!
   There appear to be a lot of reasons to fear right now.
   After the devastating earthquake in Haiti and the killing blizzards around our country, we heard, yesterday, about an earthquake striking Chile that was many times more powerful than the one that hit Haiti. People are very concerned. Rightly so.
   Yet, in the concern, comes paranoia.
   Some people, again, are taking up the chant the God is behind all of this, that God is angry at His people, that God is trying to get our attention.
   Why does all the bad stuff around the world get attributed to God and God's wrath?
   Even more, if we are going to attribute this to God, than we have to attribute everything to God.
   Could you imagine those headlines?
   Every plane that took off today landed safely. They were in God's hands.
   Bridge collapses but no one was injured. God saved them!
   Sun rose and set without incinerating our planet. Go God...
   Bad things happen. They have happened in the past. They happen today. They will happen in the future. And they happen because we live in a world flawed and tainted by sin. Bad things happen in our lives. They happen because we, too, are flawed and tainted by sin.
   And that is not God's fault. It is ours.
   God, however, is ever-present to us, leading us and guiding us if we but accept His direction.
   As we pray for all of those who are victims of nature, let us remember that our time on this planet is fleeting in relation to eternity. God is going to call us to Himself one day. In order to be ready for that call, we must live in readiness. The question that we must ask is not, Will you be ready tomorrow? but, rather, Are you ready right now?

   I'm hearing the old Queen song, Another One Bites The Dust, as I think about the fact that it is so close to the end of the month of February already.
   With the end of the month comes the end of a week and half of Lent. We are that much closer to celebrating Easter.
   The seasons are really beginning to shift as well. Even though we still have the potential for a fair amount of snow, the days are getting longer and warmer and the sun is coming out earlier and remaining longer.
   Everything seems to be moving toward the earth shedding its cloak of winter and assuming the mantle of spring. I saw some of our flowers beginning to come out of the ground yesterday and it looks as if some of our trees and bushes are beginning to show signs of budding.
   Everything is changing, getting ready to show new life.
   That is what Lent and Easter are all about as well.
   Throughout the Lenten season, we should be shedding the death that we often wrap ourselves in and showing more new life. Easter is the pinnacle of the celebration of New Life and we will not be ready to celebrate it if we do not go through some personal metamorphosis.
   So this little post this morning begs the question: How IS your Lenten journey going anyway? Are you finding it easier to turn your back on sin? Are you finding it easier to turn toward the Lord and His light? Or do you still find yourself bogged down in sinful ways?
   If you do, console yourself with the fact that there are quite a few weeks left to the season yet. But do not get too carried away with that thought because the time is flying and Easter will be here before we know it.
   Tomorrow is the last day of February. Monday is the first day of March.
   Only one month later, the first day of April, begins the Triduum with the celebration of Holy Thursday.
   If your Lenten journey is off to a slow and rocky start, use this opportunity to regain some momentum. If your Lent is going well to day, make the most of it and continue.
   All the best to you today!

   Remember, the Fridays of Lent are days of Abstinence. "Abstinence" is the practice of refraining from meat and meat products. Abstinence is to be practiced by all who are 14 years of age and older.
   Today, a Friday of Lent, is also a great opportunity at most any parish to walk the Stations of the Cross, a wonderful Lenten reflection. You might want to adopt this practice if you do not do so already.
   Have a holy Friday!

   For the past several weeks, there have been relatively few funerals at our parish. They seem to come in spurts -- sometimes very few, sometimes many in a row.
   This is one of those weeks where there have been a few. Two funerals already and another one lined up for this Saturday.
   They have given me occasion to reflect upon the end of our days and the beginning of new days with God in eternity.
   And they fit so well into the season of Lent.
   After all, throughout this season we are called to examine our lives and see what areas in our lives need correcting. We are called to turn from sin and turn to God. We are called to be better each day by ridding ourselves of the things that distract us from seeing God all around us.
   We do not do all of that just because it is "the thing" to do.
   No.
   We do all of that so that we can prepare ourselves, ultimately, for the day when God calls us to Himself. On that day there will be a final reckoning and we are going to need to be ready.
   How have you used this season thus far? Has your Lenten journey made any difference in your life or are you just the same as when we began?
   If you need encouragement to use the season better, think about the three funerals I have had this week. For those three people, their chances to prepare on this earth are over. No more opportunity to make things right, to make things better, to turn from sin. For them it is now judgment and, hopefully, eternal glory with God.
   You still have the opportunity to change. You still have the opportunity to grow. You still have the opportunity to turn from sin and turn to God.
   But that opportunity may not last long.
   After all, any day, any hour, any moment may be our last.
   I do not write this to frighten you.
   I merely remind you of the seriousness of our time here on earth. Please -- use it well!

   Yesterday, in my blog, I wrote about what a wonderful thing it is in Catholic education to be able to celebrate our faith. This is something that we would not be able to do in a public school setting.
   Well, throughout his homily, our bishop kept concentrating on that point.
   All I could think to myself was, "Hah. Beat you to it. I wrote about that four hours ago!"
   Made my day!

   This morning at our 8:30 a.m. all school Mass, Bishop Melczek will be the main celebrant. He was invited to come to our parish to celebrate Mass for the school during this year as we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of St. Thomas More School.
   Sixty years is quite an accomplishment for a parish in terms of having a school.
   Schools are, after all, a huge financial responsibility and many priests nowadays tend to shy away from parishes with schools.
   It gives me great pride, though, to be able to talk about the accomplishments of our students. Catholic education gives our children a huge leg up on their peers in the public school sector.
   Now, I am not saying that public schools are bad.
   However, public schools cannot, by law, focus on faith-based issues as they educate the youth of today and the adult leaders of tomorrow.
   For all of those who have been involved in Catholic education as administrator, teacher, aide, or room parent, a most sincere Thank You!
   To those of you who have scrimped and saved and sacrificed to send your child to a Catholic school, I truly hope that you believe that you got your money's worth.
   To those of you presently in Catholic schools, I hope some day you realize what an opportunity you have at this special time in your lives.
   God bless our schools!

   Good Lord . . . now I've heard everything . . . they have feasts for furniture! After all, is that not what the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter is all about? We are honoring the chair he sat upon?
   Absolutely not.
   Today IS the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. But it is not about a piece of furniture as much as it is about the person who sat in the chair: Peter, the Apostle.
   And this is a wonderful time to have the feast, at the beginning of the Lenten season.
   After all, Peter was a weak individual. He had his doubts. He had his moments. He had his failures. Yet, in the midst of it all, he continued his hardest to follow the will of Christ.
   If was difficult for him, but he did so nonetheless.
   Today we remember the person who sits in the chair of Peter, Pope Benedict XVI. He, too, is called to follow the Lord day by day. Being human, he too certainly must have his days.
   We, too, are human and we certainly have our days!
   And yet, in the midst of it all, Jesus not only calls us to faithfulness, but He gives us all the graces that we need to follow faithfully in His steps.
   The Lenten season invites us to look deep within to see the areas of our lives that need to be changed. And, as those areas are pointed out to us by our loving God, we ask Him to give us the courage to do the changing that we must in order to be more like the people that he calls us to be.
   This is a day by day thing and takes the expanse of our lives.
   We will never be finished . . . at least, not until we are called to our Lord at the end of our days.
   So, hang in there. Know that God calls you. And know, as well, that He will give you all the help that you need and desire if you but ask.
   We continue this Lenten journey toward the celebration of resurrection and new life.

   Okay.
   You missed Ash Wednesday.
   You have not really begun Lent yet.
   No problem, no problem, it is only the First Sunday of Lent. There are several weeks to go, yet, to the celebration of Easter.
   Today we are reminded of the seriousness of the journey.
   After all, the Gospel recounts the fasting of Jesus and His temptations in the desert.
   If the Son of God is going to be tempted by the devil, what makes us think that we might be immune?
   The thing to remember, however, is that Jesus Christ rejected the temptations confronting Him. He rejected the temptation to misuse His power. He rejected the temptation to establish Himself as a king who would be waited on by all. He rejected, outright, the temptation to turn His back on His Father.
   And if He can, with His help, so can we!
   It is not that we are equal to Jesus or better than He is. It is that we have His help.
   Count on it!

   Just a little over four and a half hours.
   That's all the longer I will have to wait.
   At that time, 9:30 a.m., in our church, I will get to do something that I just absolutely love doing, something that I was ordained to do: hear first confessions!
   I truly believe that first confessions are a very important event in our young peoples' lives. If the experience is a good, solid, holy, and joy-filled one, those children will come back to the sacraments throughout their years.
   If the experience is filled with dread and fear, they will not be back. And who would blame them?!
   So today I get to mediate God's love and forgiveness, I get to make that love and forgiveness concrete, and I get to show the children that one can be excited and filled with joy experiencing the sacrament!
   How about for you? When was the last time that you went to the sacrament of reconciliation? Does fear, anxiety, or dread keep you away?
   PLEASE give God's love another chance!
   If a past experience of confession has soured you to the idea, consider coming back to the sacrament and experiencing the relief that is waiting for you when you hear those magic words: "...I absolve you from your sins..."
   Nothing can ever take away the good feelings that I get when I hear those words when I go to confession. It is always as if a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
   God loves us. God's mercy is eternal. God wants us to be whole.
   Go to Him today!

   Remember, the Fridays of Lent are days of Abstinence. "Abstinence" is the practice of refraining from meat and meat products. Abstinence is to be practiced by all who are 14 years of age and older.
   Today, a Friday of Lent, is also a great opportunity at most any parish to walk the Stations of the Cross, a wonderful Lenten reflection. You might want to adopt this practice if you do not do so already.
   Have a holy Friday!

   I remember the first time my dad taught me to back float.
   We were in Florida at Daytona Beach. Dad said, "Come on, Mike. The water is salty, it will hold you up. I'll help you."
   So I went in the ocean with my dad.
   He told me to lay on my back and he promised to support me.
   He was holding me up in the water, encouraging me to put my head back, keep my legs and arms straight, et cetera. Then, dramatically, he said, "Okay. FLOAT."
   And as he shouted "float", he dropped his hand and left me unsupported in the water to float on my own.
   And I floated, all right.
   Just like a rock, I "floated". Right to the bottom of the swimming area.
   Not exactly a stellar moment in our relationship.
   However, I was stubborn enough to apply what he told me -- without trusting him to support me anymore -- and I ended up learning how to float that day nonetheless!
   Yesterday, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, told the faithful that they need to "swim against the current." By doing so, by rejecting the ways of this world and being counter-cultural, we have a chance to become witnesses for Christ in a world that so desperately needs the example.
   Living "against the current" may mean that we take on some water from time to time but it IS possible to do.
   And with the help of the Lord we will not sink. He will hold us up and not let go.
   Count on that today!

Remember that you are dust



and to dust you shall return!

   Our home was a bit empty for the past several days.
   Last week, the associate pastor, Fr. Rick Holy, left on a vacation to Mexico. He sponsors a teen in an orphanage in Mexico and he made arrangements with the organization to fly down and visit the orphanage as he has done a couple of times before.
   Meanwhile, back home in Munster, the two of us have been missing him.
   When you get used to someone in the house, it does not feel the same when a person is gone from the house for an extended period. Everything is quieter, a bit more lonely. Which makes returns something to celebrate.
   Not that we will have much of a chance to celebrate since the day after he returns, we enter the season of Lent. We have four Masses on Ash Wednesday so we will be quite busy. Even if we were not that busy, we could not celebrate as Ash Wednesday is a day of fast and abstinence.
   Which brings me to my reminder: LENT IS HERE
   Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 17th, begins the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation, though many choose to attend that day. It is, however, a day of Fast and Abstinence.
Fast: Allows for only one full meal to be taken during the day. Two smaller meals are permitted, if necessary, to maintain strength according to one's needs. Eating solid foods between meals is not permitted. Fasting is to be observed by all Catholics who are 18 years of age through to those who have not yet celebrated their 59th birthday.
Abstinence: The practice of refraining from meat and meat products. Abstinence is to be practiced by all who are 14 years of age and older. Remember, Fridays are days of Abstinence.
   Please, use the upcoming days of Lent wisely, pray often, sacrifice, do positive good, and you will be ready to celebrate the glories of Easter when it arrives.

   I take a look at the following which I received several years ago as it was making its rounds on the internet. As far as I know, it is one of those "author unknown" articles. I sure wish I knew who the author was, however, because I would like to thank him or her for making me laugh every time that I read it.
   And now, so that you can laugh today, I share this with you:

   I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult. I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8 year-old again.
   I want to go to McDonald's and think that it's a four star restaurant.
   I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make a sidewalk with rocks.
   I want to think M&Ms are better than money because you can eat them.
   I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.
   I want to return to a time when life was simple, when all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes, but that didn't bother you, because you didn't know what you didn't know and you didn't care. All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.
   I want to think the world is fair.
   That everyone is honest and good.
   I want to believe that anything is possible.
   I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things again.
   I want to live simple again.
   I don't want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip, illness, and loss of loved ones.
   I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.
   So . . . here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood.
   And if you want to discuss this further, you'll have to catch me first…

   There is a lot of talk about St. Valentine.
   There are many myths and legends about who St. Valentine may have been.
   And that appears to be all that we have about the saint: myths and legends.
   Because of that, many years ago, as the Church restructured its liturgical calendar, they took the memorial of St. Valentine out of the liturgical calendar of saints and on this day, instead, we now celebrate the memorial of Ss. Cyril and Methodius.
   The "downgrading" of St. Valentine was simply because the Church did not have a lot of understanding about the saint past the fact that many people, throughout the years, have remember the martyr, Valentine.
   One of the many popular stories was that he was a priest who refused to accept the pagan ways of the emperor. Instead, it was said, he attempt to convert the emperor to the ways of the faith and for that reason was quickly put to death.
   Because the cult of the martyrs are from the very early church, we do not know about many of them. All we really know is that there was someone with that name, we may know that they were a bishop or priest or missionary, and we know that they were remembered for being put to death for the faith, though we may not always know the exact manner of execution.
   But we know that they died for the sake of the name of Jesus.
   When all is said and done and years have gone by, what are they going to remember about you and me?
   Will they remember every detail of our lives? I highly doubt it.
   Will they remember that there was a person with our name who was known for being a firm believer of Christ and who lived his or her life with faithfulness. I hope so!
   On Valentine Day, let us make a promise to ourselves and to our world that we are going to be a shining example of Christianity.
   Happy Day!