Findng the Right Words to Speak

It is easy in the world of campus ministry to get caught up in our own agendas, hopes, and dreams for a student’s life. I have caught myself many times trying to find the right words to say in a one-on-one with a student, a small group meeting, or speaking to a large group. I believe that our Lord wants to use us to speak into the lives of our students and He has given us His very own words to help us in doing so.

Severely years ago I was able to read the Second Vatican Council Document Dei Verbum which is the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. I was struck by a sentence in section 21 of the document that says, “The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord's Body.” I thought about the reverence that I offered our Lord in the Eucharist through genuflecting and adoration and found myself in great need to increase my devotion to the Scriptures. I wrestled through my bag and finally came upon my Bible, opened it up and fell upon my knees to reverence the Presence of our Lord in the Divine Pages. I started to dedicate time to pray with, study, and listen to the Scriptures.

Then I started to realize that by bathing in the Scriptures that the words I use and the conversation I would have were filled with Scriptural reference. It wasn’t that I was quoting the Bible left and right to people and using Chapter and verse notations to those I spoke with but that the words that are inspired by God started to become my own words. Also, I found the words of Scripture applying to every aspect of my life, my relationships, my work, and my recreation. I thought if the Scriptures could do this for me that they would be able to pierce the hearts of many others, as well.

Through my study of Scripture, I came across several verses in the Scriptures that spoke of the powerful affect of the Word of God. When we approach the Scriptures and open our hearts to them, the Lord will enter our hearts in a radical way that opens us up to our deepest desires. . Hebrews 4:12 says, “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” This is what we desire to do with the students we work with on campus. We want to bring the words of God to them so they will find real answers and encouragement in the challenges they face daily. There are many ways we can bring these words into our work with college students. I would like to propose three simple ways that anyone could use on any campus.

One of the main ways we can have students enter into the Scriptures is through weekly Bible studies. These small groups give students a chance to dive deep into the Word of God and see how the inspired Word of God is still living and applicable in their daily living. I remember that as a college student there was nothing I look forward to more than the weekly Bible study that I was in and the one that I lead because during these hours I found myself in a front row seat to seeing God work miracles in people’s lives. I remember working with a student at UW-Madison that after being in Bible study for one semester decided to make the heroic decision to stop abusing alcohol. After he made this decision, he found the strength to continue by his daily prayer with the Scriptures, which lead him to participate more deeply in the Sacraments. Less than a year after meeting this student, he was not only drinking deeply from the Word of God, but he was sharing it with his roommates and fellow classmates. The Scriptures can truly have a powerful effect on people!

As students progress in their knowledge on the Scriptures, they find themselves called to dive deeper into them through prayer. One of the ancient ways of praying with the Scriptures is called lectio divina, which is Latin for “sacred reading.” This is when we take a paragraph from the Scriptures and enter deeply into the text. The Lord will give us a word or a phrase to pray over and speak to us in our hearts about what this word or phrase means in our lives. Pope Benedict XVI is known for promoting this way of praying. He said during an address on September 26, 2005, “If lectio divina is promoted with efficacy, I am convinced that it will produce a new springtime in the Church.” This is because the art of praying with the Scriptures enters us into a heart to heart conversation with our Lord Jesus and when we begin to speak to Jesus from our heart, our hearts our transformed and when our hearts our transformed, we become saints. And saints transform the world! For more reading on the subject of Lectio Divina, I would recommend Tim Gray’s book, Praying Scripture for a Change: An Introduction to Lectio Divina.

Finally, I would suggest that we work with our students in the art of Scripture Memory. The ancient world was known for their knack of memorization, but in our own advanced time we hear the complaint that people don’t have very good memories. I think we are wrong in saying that we don’t have very good memories. Most people that tell me they don’t have good memories have hundreds of songs memorized that they hear on the radio and just as many movie and television quotations. This is not bad in itself, but it does point to the fact that we do have good memories; we are just memorizing different things than Scripture. Once I was speaking to a group about the need to minister to our college students and I was able to speak from the heart about many Scripture that I have memorized from my own personal study of the Word of God. Afterwards, the group commented on my ability to memorize the Scriptures and how it seemed I really believed what I spoke. Then one woman commented, “We are what we speak!” This is why we should memorize the Scriptures. The Word of God will become part of who we are and our entire beings will be transformed by the inspired words of Scripture. I have found Rich Cleveland’s Catholic Topical Memory System to be an extremely helpful tool in the memorization of the Scriptures. It can be done in both a one-on-one setting and a Bible study format.

The Word of God can transform our lives. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” This is the goal of the Christian walk and what we are attempting, by the grace of God, to do on college campuses. I sense a hunger on the college campus, a hunger that cannot be satisfied by power, greed, sex, or money. It is a hunger that can only be fed by the everlasting Word of God. Let us turn to the Scriptures and find the words inspired by God Himself, so when we work with students we will not use our own words but the words of He who has sent us.

Marriage: The Art of Giving Oneself Away

"I take you into my arms and I love you. I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you. "

- St John Chrysostom

St. John Chrysostom name literally meant John "The Golden Tongue." He has proven to live up to his name sake once again with these words on marriage from his ancient Homily on the Letter to the Ephesians. These words were placed on the back of the program from the wedding that I attended this past weekend. I remember when the groom first heard these words as they were preached from the pulpit one Sunday morning. I remember him and I going to the computer to look up where they had come from and finding the esteemed homily from one the Church Fathers. Yes, the Church has always placed marriage in high esteem! It is no some second-rate vocation for those who can't cut the celibate life but one for those called to bring the light of Jesus Christ into the domestic and ordinary world.

Matrimony is the only sacrament that is based on a natural foundation. Marriage has existed since the beginning. Man and Woman were made for each other to become for each other a total gift that would be given to the other. It is in marriage that we as humans are able to imitate God, because marriage is a community of Love which is mirror of who God is. It is probably better to say that God is family and that we are "like family" It is in God that we understand the meanings of family and community.

God is a Trinity of Persons, meaning that his one divine nature has three person perfectly existing and acting with it. God is different than us (which makes sense because if he was just like us he would seize to be God) His nature is infinite, meaning He has always be here...there is not beginning or end with God, He just is! With us we know that there is a beginning,, that is what we call creation or birth (or conception if you want to get real technical). So God is different than us. And in this infinite inner life of the Trinity there exist a perfect gift of persons. The Father gives Himself completely to the Son and the Son in return gives himself completely to the Father (Remember the Crucified Son on Calvary) and the love that forms between these two infinite persons we give the name Holy Spirit.

Now no analogy is perfect, nor is comprehending fully the mystery of the Trinity even possible for mere mortals like us, but when we turn to the family we start to see this life giving love of the Trinity. Yes, the husband gives himself totally to his wife and the wife in return gives herself totally to her husband and often their love is so powerful and life-giving that nine months later we have to give that love a name!

Now back to where we began. Marriage is about falling head over heels in love with another that you are able to give your entire life to without reserves. There is a great trust needed for marriage, a trust in God....it is in this trust that love cast out fear (1 John 4:18). It is in this trust that man and woman rise above their weaknesses and their selfish and learn to lay down their lives for each other. In the Community of Love, self does not exist. The hard times do not seem so hard and the joys of life are so sweet. It is the duty, no the desire of the lover to see his or her spouse in the eternal vision with our God face to face. This is what the labor of love on this earth is working towards.

I love the words of the Golden Tongue, "For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us." It is here that we find great food for though in our own lives. Do we live life in such a way that we desire to love people in this life so that we might be with them in the next? In the next life (or better state the fullness of life or the continued life, for we are not reincarnated like some might think) we will be face to face with our Creator who loves us with a love that will overwhelm us like a mighty river! And this is why we must put the people we love, particularly those we are called to married "above all things" in this life.

Our lives are not our own. Remember the words of Jesus, "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, will preserve it." (Luke 17:33) This doesn't mean our lives will be filled with dull images of dry and colorless drama, but remember that in the Community of love, self does not exist....This is precisely Jesus point. We lose our "self" by giving our "self" to another. It is in this pure and noble gift, which many of us will call marriage that we find our "self" and not to mention become saints!

And so it begins...

In reality, all moments have extreme signifiance. In fact, if we considered the ramifications of each given moment then we might start to think more before we acted. But this is not the point I would I like to talk about. There millions and millions people in the U.S. that consider this time of year as the beginning of their year. Yes, school is starting in many places all over the country. Some schools start tomorrow and they will be the first of many that will commence during the next several weeks.

It is a great time of year! I love watching the high school football practices and seeing them get ready for the Friday Night lights. Seeing the cross country team run mile after mile in prep for the first big meet. And who can forget all the back to school prices at the stores around town...you gotta love the sells! But the moment that I would like to pause and ponder over is the moment of that many young Catholic missionaries are going to campuses all throughout the country.

They are spending time praying and strategizing with their teams asking the Lord Jesus to send his angels to the campus and prepare it for their coming. They are calling upon the Holy Spirit and asking that He move the hearts of many college students this year, especially in the next weeks. Most college students find their friends, join their clubs, and get in a routine within the first 6 weeks of campus. And FOCUS missionaries will be a part of many college students lives this year.

In our day, we have forgotten our story. We are part of the greatest story ever told. It is a glorious, tragic, and uplifting. There are heroes and villians and life and death! We will laugh at certain points in this story and cry at other points. This story is the story of our race and our relationship with our Creator, God. People say, "yeah, but don't a lot of college student not bel'eve in God." That may be true, but it does not stop Him from existing. And not only existing but truly living!

There was a great conversation I had with a young man at UW-Madison last year. I was on the campus mall in front of the Union. We were passing out holy cards of the image of Divine Mercy. It was then that a young man came up to me and said, "I see what you are doing!" I thought to myself, "He sees that I am passing out holy cards and that I desire him to know God's love and mercy and embrace it whole-heartly." But he did not see what I was doing. He begun to raise he voice at me and repeat over and over, "Your book is 2000 years old! your book is 2000 years old." I asked him what he meant and if he wanted to talk about it. But the more I approached him and tried to have a conversation, the faster he walked. I let him go. But the Holy Spirit brought him back to me. I saw him 20 minutes later on the street and I approached him and we started to talk about what he studied and what he thought we were doing out front of the union passing out holy cards. Finally, he asked me if I ever doubted. I said yes! but I continued, "Yes, I doubt, but I don't think one who believes can escape doubt and at the same time, I am not sure if a doubter can escape belief." If you are a one who doubts then one day you will wake up and start to doubt your doubts. The real adventure is belief. He accepted this critique well and we exchanged info and went along our ways. We never did see each other again, but I pray that a seed was planted in this young man's heart.

There are going to be thousands of these stories this year all over of the country because of the radical availability of missionaries on university campuses. It is a wonderful time of year and I am proud to serve these great men and women who serve on the frontlines of the New Evangelization. Tomorrow I begin my travels for the year with a trip to the Minnesota. Who knows the conversations to come in the next year or the people I will meet. I entrust the future to our Lord Jesus and pray to live firmly in the present giving Him all I have.

An Ode to My Old Man

This past weekend marked a significant event in the course of history. My dad turned the big five-O (50 in layman's terms). We had a big ole party with over 60 people in attendance for this extraordinary event. There was lots of food and fun! (Of course, I am not sure if my mom and dad were able to eat anything until people left because of all the hosting they were doing).

My dad is the youngest of 8 and during each siblings 50th B-day celebration there is a book full of stories and pictures put together. It was fun to watch dad read the stories while we all each others company as the night drew to an end.

There are so many stories to tell about my dad. There is so much that I appreciated and love about him. He is my hero and my model is many ways of my life. He is the reason I learned to play guitar and write music. I remember that he would sing to me as a child because I could never sleep at night, but if Dad came in and sang his own rendition of "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor, I slept like a rock! I wrote a song for him several years ago for Christmas. What a beautiful moment that was to perform that song for him on Christmas Day.

I remember jumping in his arms after winning a soccer game as a kid and him scold me for being too competitive when we would lose a baseball game. I remember going to REO Speedwago and STYX with him and the way he smiled during his favorite songs (which became some of my favorite songs as well) It is tough to forget the time we climbed that waterfall in Jamica and the all the Spades games we played up in Canada that summer that we went fishing with Papa and Parker. The time he helped me move to New Mexico and what a trip we had a year later to Hastings, NE. Who could forget the times we thought the Chiefs would win it all and the good times we have had going to Royals games even though we knew they never had a chance.

The movies we have seen, the times we have went to Mass together, the sports we have played and watched, the laughs we have had, the times tears filled our eyes, the people we have met and the ones we only wish we could meet. I can't thank God enough for the great dad that he has given me to be my model and my guide. As Papa and you always says, "Keep Smiling." I love you, Dad and I know you love me!

St. Paul's thoughts on Fundraising

This summer I took a class on the Letters of St Paul through the Augustine Institute. One of the assignments that I have been working on for the class was to a write a paper on one of the themes that St Paul goes after in his letters. So after some prayer and thought, I decided to write a paper of St Paul's thoughts on raising financial support.

As I started to research this subject, I found myself immersed in the life of a man that traveled throughout the entire known world and loved to write letters to the communities that he had established along the way. St Paul is one of the most committed men that has ever lived. What is amazing that he appealed for financial support to most of these communities in his letters.

Since this is not the paper that I am writing (if you want it I can send it to you in September when I am done), I will only highlight a few key areas that St Paul found important.

1) St Paul believed in partnership of the Gospel, which led people to give to being a part his missionary endeavors. The word for partnership is "koinonia" in the Greek. This has many meanings such as community, fellowship, participation, partner and even is the word that describes the highest of living in the Christian life - that is participating in the Mass.

We see St Paul's understanding of Partnership most played out in his letters to the Philippians and his letter to Philemon. In Philippians, it is their partnership with Paul in the Gospel that leads them to give to him. We see in Phil 4:15-20 a type of receipt that is given to them saying that their payment is now paid in full! In Philemon, we see Paul talk about his partnership with Philemon to ask for one of the most expensive request that one of Philemon's slaves be released. This all leads us to see that Paul's understanding of fundraising is personal and mission based

2) All the communities that Paul served gave him money to "send him on his way" This was part of of the understanding the early Christian communities had. It wasn't a "service charge" for we know that Paul gave the "gospel free of charge" It was a sending to a new mission ground, a way to support the missions. It is a lower form of the participation that we already talked about but a way to see the Gospel spread, none the less.


3) Paul did not ask money from people that he was still evangelizing. Why does Paul work in Corinth and Thessalonica? This is because the communities there were still not converted and hadn't entered into a partnership with him. It could be argued that Paul was receiving money from other communities during this time as well as working as a tent maker.

4) Paul saw giving as a need for all believers because it helped them grow in their faith life. This is very explicit in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. He is calling upon people to give freely and cheerfully because he knows that this will help them grow in their own relationship with Christ. We even see him speak of this relationship in Acts 20:35, where he quotes the words of Jesus, "It is better to a give than receive."

There is a brief introduction to where giving to mission causes and the Church come in the Bible.

If you want to join my mission support team, please click here. I would love to have many of join me as the early Christians joined St Paul.

August 4th - A Day to Honor Our Priest

There has been a lot of good news in the Church about the priesthood as of recent. Vocations in many dioceses are on the way up and many young men are making the sacrifices to become these heroic role models that the world needs. FOCUS has seen, as one of our great fruits, many of its students go off to study for the priesthood. We have seen 162 men from our Bible studies in the past 11 years join the seminary and start their studies for the priesthood. I personally have worked with 8 men that are now studying to be priest.

August 4th marks the Great Feast day of St John Vianney, the first parish priest to be canonized a saint. This year happens to be the year of the priest because the Church is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the death of the great saint. Now, when I say celebrating death, it really means life, because death to a saint is really a birth into eternal life with Jesus Christ.

The Vatican has announced tomorrow to be a day where we can receive a plenary indulgence for praying for priest to the High Priest Jesus Christ. A plenary indulgence is grace granted by God for those who have total contrition for their sins, go to Mass, and to Confession and finally pray for the Holy Father's intentions, where all that person's temporal punishment due to sin would be forgotten. Click here for more information on indulgences.

Even for us that are not ordained priest should rejoice in this day and during this year. It is the priest that brings us Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, that Jesus uses as His ambassador to forgive our sins and save our souls in Confession. It is the priest that can give a person anointing and Viaticum on their death beds and send a soul to God. Yes, the priesthood is part of God's plan for salvation from the beginning. We see this in the Garden of Eden when Adam is asks to "shamar" the garden. You might have read this as "keep" in Genesis 2:15, but the word shamar is the same word used for the duties of the Levites in the book of Leviticus. Yes, the Old Man Adam was a priest, and so was Jesus Christ, the New Adam.

But there was a three-fold priesthood in the Old-Testament that was fulfilled in Christ. The Levites had three levels of the priesthood. The Levitical people being the broadest level, then the ministerial priesthood, which were the ones that offered the sacrifices in the Temple, and then the High Priest, who was the only one allowed to go into what they called the Holy of Holies. This has been fulfilled in the Three-fold priesthood of the New Testament: The priesthood of every person, what we theologians (I use that term lightly in accounts to me) call the baptismal priesthood - This is the priesthood of every believer in Jesus Christ, because we are all called to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord (Romans 12:1). Then there is the ministerial priesthood today. These are the ordained priest, like John Vianney, who offer the sacrifice of the Holy Mass, and finally there is the High Priest, Jesus Christ!

Please pray for Priest this day and wish your local priest a Happy Feast Day!

My One and Only Constant

This summer has proven to be a summer of great trial with need of perseverance from all the travel and transition that I have been going through. I have been living out of my suitcase for over two months now as I have traveled from Madison to Champaign to Minnesota then back to Champaign then back to Madison to Kansas City to Denver and now back in Kansas City. Due to the mobility of that we are privileged to have in our modern world, I have found myself traveling thousands of miles with ease, but this kind of travel starts to take a lot out of one.

But I have found a constant in the midst of the hustle and bustle of travel and the quasi-frustration of being frazzled by not having my own space or a place to put up my books and place my clothes. It is the Blessed Sacrament that I find to be my one and only constant. It is here that I become face to face with Jesus Christ who gives me strength and is my refuge. The Eucharist (another name for the Blessed Sacrament that comes from the Greek word eucharistia, which means thanksgiving)is not simply some symbolic image of bread that speaks to God's nourishment in our lives, but really is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

I don't plan on doing an entire apologetic (apologetic is a fancy word for argument)in this post, but I will say this that if the Eucharist is not Jesus Christ than we are worshiping a piece of bread. As Flannery O'Connor, the great American writer, once commented when confronted with a conversation about the Eucharist being a symbol, "If it's just a symbol, then to hell with it." This is simple but orthodox thinking.

Like O'Connor and many others, I believe that Jesus is bodily present in the Eucharist. Everywhere I go I make sure to visit a chapel and see my Best Friend. I try to go to the Holy Mass every day, where I am lifted to the heavenly banquet and brought face to face with the Resurrected Lord Jesus. It is during the Mass, especially when the priest is lifting the consecrated host and chalice that I am able to poor out all my troubles, joys, hopes, and anxieties to the Lord Jesus. It is as if my heart starts to beat with the Heart of the Lord's during these quiet moments of devotion. I share with the Lord my weaknesses and my total need for Him. Without Him I can do nothing. He looks upon me with Love and I enter the greatest adventure that a human heart is about to embark on, that of the interior life.

I will hope to write more on this later, but I close this post with a simple quote by J.R.R. Tolkien the author of The Lord of the Rings.

I put before the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament...There you will find romance, glory, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: death by divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands surrender to all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seem in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, that every man's heart desires."