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Love is a Relationship History

7/18/2019

Love demands relationship. You can memorize a stack of facts and know a whole lot about someone; you could even develop a fairly accurate profile describing and explaining their personality and predict their future behavior—and yet still not develop a real and loving relationship with that person. Making the choice to love someone forces you to see beyond your private world, beyond your words, beyond yourself altogether. Love feeds on a shared history of affection, secrets, surprises, mysteries, generosity, moments and spontaneity. In a manner of speaking, you make history together.

Today in the Gospel we hear Jesus tell us the Luke version of the “Love Law”: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Have you thought about your own love affair with God, your own love history with Him?

Love is longing for the presence of your loved one—you think about that person throughout the day. Much more than words, this relationship is a new way to live life. Jesus' disciples learned it through experience. Toward the end of his life, St. John wrote this: “...let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”

Loving God means we feel His presence, we respond to His nudging, we see Him in others, we hear Him when He speaks, and we tell of His mighty wonders when He is silent. All the while He never leaves us, He understands us when we don't have the words to explain, He listens to us when no one else will, and He is constantly searching for ways to bring out the best in us. Sound familiar? Our human relationships should be all of this—and this should be the model for our relationship with God. God loves us. How do you know if you love him?

There is a song from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” that has a message about loving in truth and action, with or without the actual words of love. The song is a conversation between Tevye (the long-suffering father) and Golde (the Mom). The two discuss the love of their daughter for a man, and in the midst of that discussion Tevye asks her if she loves him. Golde reminds him that for twenty-five years she has washed his clothes, cooked his meals, cleaned his house, given him children, and milked the cow. For twenty-five years she has lived with him, fought with him, starved with him, slept with him. In other words: love is action.

So, we can imagine God asking, “do you love me?” Maybe you answer: “Yes, God, remember when we...? Yes, God, we have shared history. Yes, I do love you!” Maybe prayer for this week could be to reflect on, and then to tell at least one story of God's relationship with you in your life. Maybe contemplate how your love for God may translate into loving actions for those around you. Reflect on your love, tell about your love, then act on that love.

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

A Life of Mission

7/8/2019

Christ relies on the witness of His disciples in the world—that’s us! We are called to carry on the sacred tradition of all the old prophets in preparing people for the next coming of Christ. By our baptism we have been commissioned like the Seventy-two in today’s Gospel who were sent out by Jesus. We are sent to manifest the presence of Christ by our mercy and love in all things, and we are transformed by this work and mission: changed because we do not live for ourselves now, but for God, who writes our name in heaven—this is mission! So… Have you filled out your yellow volunteer cards and turned them in? Have you joined any Ministry?

St. Paul reminds us today that we must be a new creation, “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule…” Jesus in the Gospel gives us instruction for our mission and work in the kingdom: we are told what we are sent to do, how we are going to do it, and what we need to keep in mind in order to deal with what we will meet. But if you don’t believe you have a mission, then these instructions are academic—moot—and don’t relate to what is real and present and active in our lives right now.

You are “sent” to all the people you meet in the various places of your life: home, work, school, at play. You are sent to prepare others to receive His inspiration, comfort, mercy and love through you and your actions—and you are warned how difficult this can be—that sometimes you are sent like “a lamb among wolves.” You are not (never) to force anything; but to make peace, to respect what the other person is and has, to take them where you find them, to seek common ground as fellow beings, and to gratefully share the light and love of Christ—by being your authentic, Christian self.

Do you have a sense of God’s mission in your life? It’s not about accomplishing a head count, but about being glad you know Jesus and being glad if you can help someone else know Him a little too by witnessing the power of grace, love, peace and mercy. The Psalm for today is: “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.” If your life and choices show those around you that this is what you believe—that you indeed live in God’s joy and live for why you were sent—then you will live the mission with which you have been entrusted.

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Imitating Peter in Following Jesus - the Highest Perfection

6/23/2019

El Greco. Saint Peter and Saint Paul. 1587.

No one can deny Jesus more than Peter did in the courtyard, and no one can follow Jesus more than Peter did, who was crucified on His account. On this Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29), we are reminded of the Catholic anthropological principle that even though we human beings are weak and sinful, Jesus calls us to pursue the highest perfection and follow Him. We also see that in the Church there is a clear distinction between office and person. Jesus chose Peter as His representative, which means that we can encounter Jesus even in unworthy human beings. Every man called to serve as pope, bishop, or priest is equally fit and unfit for the office.

At the Last Supper, Peter proudly boasted, ”Though all may have their faith in you shaken, mine will never be.” Even after Jesus warns Peter he would indeed weaken, Peter still insists, ”Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” Then the high priest’s courtyard and his triple denial of Jesus and a rooster crowing and bitter tears being shed…

When the Risen Jesus appeared to His disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He asked Peter three times,”Do you love me?” With an aching heart, in sadness and sincerity Peter protested, ”Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus then entrusted Peter with shepherding His flock but warned him of his death: ”When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.

The Lord’s only direction for Peter’s future was, ”Follow me.”

As the story goes, years later (67 A.D.) in Rome during the persecution of Nero, Peter decided to flee the city. On the Via Appia – the Appian Way, he met Jesus heading in the opposite direction. “Domine, quo vadis?” Lord, where are you going?” Peter asked. “To be crucified again”, Jesus said. Then Peter understood he was fleeing his destiny, returned to Rome, was arrested and crucified in Nero’s stadium on Vatican Hill – now famous for the great basilica that marks his grave.

From Peter (and his successor, the pope) we learn how to pursue the highest perfection. We can even learn something from their shortcomings. In Peter’s case we have a man who - while a natural leader - was headstrong, proud and overconfident; a man who, when the going got tough, became cowardly and denied even knowing Jesus. When later in life matters were again challenging, Peter knew he would not deny His Lord again; that experience in the courtyard taught him an important lesson. May we also learn from our “courtyard experiences”!

Like Peter, we too are called to follow Jesus - the highest perfection - despite our inadequacies. And so, “Quo vadis?” We can’t deny Jesus more than Peter did, nor follow Jesus more than he did. Peter’s story ended in glory; ours can as well.

David J. Conrad

Sharing God

6/23/2019

In all cultures, sharing food is a complex interaction that symbolizes social relationships and defines social boundaries almost more than any other daily event we experience as the human family. Whom you eat with may define whom you don’t eat with. Certain groups of people eat certain kinds of food; and through our choices and behavior at table, we may name and identify ourselves: our ethnicity, ethics, morality, even our political and social beliefs!

Today a vegetarian (or a vegan) diet has become a conscious choice for many because they’ve studied the politics of food: who eats meat and who can’t eat meat (whether by choice or circumstance); what eating meat is doing not only to our health but even to the planet. Researchers surmise that the production of our meat-heavy Western diet contributes to one-fifth of global carbon emissions on our planet. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh writes: “As a spiritual family and a human family, we can all help avert climate change with the practice of mindful eating.” He believes that “Going vegetarian may be the most effective way to stop climate change.” Whether you believe or not, there is also a growing awareness about the ethics of cruelty to animals for many—the meat industry is notorious for how animals are handled in the production of this product.

Personally, I don’t see myself giving up meat entirely—I know that I am most definitely a carnivore and one of those people who need red meat iron—but I do try to eat way less of it (portions and meatless meals). I also look carefully at the sources of our food. Is it grown locally, supporting local persons? Or does it come from Peru? What we eat matters, and what we eat together, matters.

For Catholics, the meal we share as the Eucharist is an invitation to socially experience the shared presence of God, and to be present in an embodied way. (Mindful eating!) Remember, within our Trinitarian worldview, everything comes down to relationship.

In Jesus’ time, the dominant institution was the kinship system: the family, the private home. That’s why early Christians gathered in ‘house churches’, very much different from the typical parish today. In Scripture, Jesus is always going in and out of houses on the way to or from a meal. What happened around the tables in those houses shaped and named the social order. Table friendship ends up defining how we see friendship and our shared lives together in general. For Him, it was all about the meal—with whom, where, and what He ate—and contrary to the time—all were welcome. No one was more, or less, than someone else, when it came to sharing food, sharing lives, sharing God with each other. In the Gospel today, Jesus shares the loaves and fishes with who were present. He has shown us in practice and in ritual that the spiritual, social, political, and economic move together as one—combining the sacred and secular. This is Eucharist: thanksgiving for the sharing of God at a meal when we gather. Food for thought.

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Flaming Fire

6/14/2019

O Trinity, O Trinity,
     the uncreated One;
O Unity, O Unity
of Father, Spirit, Son:
You are without beginning,
Your life is never ending;
     and though our tongues are
   earthbound clay,
light them with flaming fire today.

(From the Lenten Triodion of the Orthodox Church.)

The image is a detail of Andrei Rublev’s icon, The Trinity. 1411 or 1425-27.

David J. Conrad

Bibles for Our Confirmation Candidates

6/14/2019

When I present to our teens, I dislike asking them to open the Bibles we provide. They are the $6.95 Bibles where the paper is so dry it can suck the moisture out of your skin up to your elbows. It actually makes reading the Bible painful. Now when presenting, I prefer to pull the passage up from the Internet on the interactive touchscreen.

Year’s ago, I was introduced to the “Catholic Youth Bible” produced by St. Mary’s Press. Or course, I used it for youth ministry, but it has also become “My Bible.” You will find me praying with it. The Catholic Youth Bible, is updated every couple of years. Each book has an introduction so you know why it was written and what was going on in relevant History. Most importantly, in almost every chapter, it relates a chosen story to current teen issues. This helps even me to keep the story in my mind when making decisions or looking for guid- ance.
At our Confirmation Retreat, about half of our teens raised their hands to answer that they had a Bible. Some of those were family Bibles, few could say they had their own Bible. We are sending our Candidates and Sponsors with tools to prepare for Confirmation this Summer. Included this year will be a hardcover Catholic Youth Bible for them to keep, a gift from this community. We are inviting you to make it even more personal by making the gift from individuals, encouraging teens to remember to pray for the donor inscribed in the cover. With shipping, the Bibles will cost about $45. Please make the check payable to St. Aidan and include in the envelope what you would like inscribed on the single line to be placed inside the cover.

Paul Pyrkosz
Coordinator of Youth Ministry

Fellowship

6/10/2019

One of the opening declarations of Scripture about us as human beings is that we were not made to be alone. We were all made for fellowship with God—walking with him in the cool of the day is the image we are given before sin broke that fellowship and led to God's children hiding from him. This break in fellowship with God also led to the breakdown of fellowship between God's children. Even the worship of God became the occasion for fellowship to be further destroyed—because of sin. So much of the rest of the biblical story is a story of fragile fellowship ending in broken relationships as sin continues to further and further isolate people from one another.

We shouldn't be surprised that fellowship renewed and restored, was one of the great results of the church being born on that first Pentecost after Jesus' Resurrection and Ascension. As thousands believed and were baptized, the Lord brought them into a new community of genuine fellowship. This fellowship involved meeting as a big group and experiencing God's grace and power together—notice that in the early chapters of the book of Acts the Christians had boisterous and exciting meetings together in the Temple courtyard in Jerusalem! It also involved meetings in homes as they shared more intimate times with other believers around the “breaking of bread.” No wonder the people were amazed at them and viewed them favorably in those early days. What seemed so lost for so long was now being restored by the Spirit!

Luke described this fellowship with these words: “All the believers were together and had all things in common.” This definition remains still as the ideal for Christian fellowship today. Those early days of the Church's life provide us the powerful reminder of what we not only need in our church life today, but also what we must pursue as a Church. More than people meeting in their isolated silences on Sunday, church must be a place of warmth, inclusion, shared lives, and genuine fellowship. I think we generally do this well at St. Aidan—because we know that without this fellowship, we may remain isolated and alone. I say, though, that there is room for improvement—never ending improvements—as we pursue the fellowship in God that we have together.

God made us for this loving fellowship—real, genuine, share-our-lives-with-others fellowship. While this fellowship may involve our participation in a big worship experience, it most definitely must involve our participation in smaller gatherings where people know us, love us, and we share our lives as well as our meals together.

God made us with a need for fellowship (remember: no person is an island!) and He has called us into His forever family to have that need met here at St. Aidan. Don't settle for merely going to church and gathering with a bunch of strangers, but search until you find a place in this Community, a group, a gathering, a commission, or a ministry—and find people where life is shared and fellowship is restored—this is the message of Pentecost!

Keep singing!

Just a Note: The Pentecost Sequence
The Sequence for the Feast of Pentecost takes place after the second reading today, before the Gospel Acclamation (the Alleluia). Sequences are medieval hymns originally sung to accompany long Gospel processions. These hymns offer rich, interpretive poetry relevant to the day’s feast. They flourished as a poetical and musical outlet for creativity in the liturgy, and by the fifteenth century, hundreds of fine examples existed in various local churches. The Council of Trent, setting out to simplify and unify the Roman liturgy, reduced the number of sequences to five: Victimae Paschali Laudes (Easter), Veni Sancte Spiritus (Pentecost), Lauda Sion Salvatorem (Corpus Christi), Staba Mater (Our Lady of Sorrows) and Dies Irae (Requiem/funeral Mass). The reforms of the Second Vatican Council eliminated the Dies Irae (although it is now used in the Liturgy of the Hours), and it made the sequences for Corpus Christi and Our Lady of Sorrows optional. (J. Balistieri)

The Sequences for Easter and Pentecost are required by the rubrics (rules) for those liturgies. The great Feast of Pentecost signals the end of the Easter Season and the start of the long stretch of Ordinary (Counted) Time in which we will hear of Jesus’ Mission. We start with celebrating the Trinity and the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi). You will experience several changes in our Sunday celebrations: the Easter Candle is moved back to the Baptismal Fount; a change in the Eucharistic Acclamations; no Post-Gospel Alleluia; no sung response to the Prayers of the Faithful. We have celebrated Easter for fifty days and now we settle down to consider our own role in Jesus’ Mission; to rest and recreate, to discern our own Discipleship and mission—this is the gift of Ordinary Time.

Many thanks to all of our Music Ministry Ensembles and members (The Adult Choir, the Youth Choir, the Contemporary Group, instrumentalists and cantors) for a wonderful and fulfilling 2018-2019 season! We are resting—but some members will occasionally return to lead our song in praise of God (Sometimes Summer Singers)—as we don’t just disappear from our commitment to St. Aidan. If you think you might be interested in joining our Music Ministry—vocalists or instrumentalists—come and see me after any weekend Mass. Music for the glory of God is wonderful, fulfilling and hard work—but so worth it!

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Glorify God in Your Body

5/31/2019

In a time when substance abuse and various addictions enslave so many in our community, we do well to recall the words of St. Paul: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We must treat our bodies with respect, a sign that we accept and love the gift of our life that God has given us and saved through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. Establishing such a theological backdrop enables us to then explore practical ways of preventing, or dealing with, substance abuse issues as they arise.

Jesus came to save us, body and soul. That is a point worth repeating, because we tend to over spiritualize our faith. Jesus came to save us, body and soul. Jesus says in the Gospel of John: I came that they may have life, and have it to the full (10:10). We human beings are a body-spirit unity. What affects the body affects the soul; what affects the soul affects the body. God, in the Person of Jesus, meets us where we are and lifts us up to Himself. Our bodies are good; they are the conduits of God’s grace. To put it in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, “grace builds on nature.”

Here at St. Aidan’s, we seek to share the faith with you AND offer tools for putting it into practice. Being a Christian is a way of life, not an optional extra we discard at will. Our faith is supposed to inform all of our choices in life because it is in this life and through this body that each of us is called and gifted by God to turn to Him and find salvation.

It was with this theological backdrop that we welcomed Karen Bonanno of the Livonia Save Our Youth Coalition to speak on Sunday, May 19th with the parents enrolled in our family formation program. Our 7th & 8th graders were also present. The Coalition educates and empowers us regarding the health and safety of our young people. Karen eloquently did this by talking about the vital role of a parent’s love, experience and responsibilities in the formation of their children. Karen also helped the middle schoolers present to see that they can trust their parents, and have a responsibility for their own safety and wellbeing. Also discussed was vaping, gateway drugs, addiction, and the opioid epidemic. For resources and help, visit: livoniasaveouryouth.org.

Glorify God in your body!

David J. Conrad

Actual Evidence of Progress

5/31/2019

At our last Family Faith Formation Session, I had the pleasure of meeting with the 6th graders alone, while the 7th and 8th graders were with “Livonia Save Our Youth Coalition” for an age appropriate presentation on dangers of drugs and addiction. I presented a chapter that we started the junior high off with only two years ago when we launched the new family formation approach. The chapter introduces the purpose of the series with a session titled “Why am I here?” Two years ago, when we asked the question, “What are five goals you want from your life?” we got very typical junior high answers. - Fast cars, fame, fortune, and maybe a smattering of family, faith and, only one or two considered eternal life in heaven. The question sort of set them up to write the wrong answer so that I could say, “but wait, will any of that get you into heaven?"

Well, in only two years, I am here to tell you things have changed with our junior high students. These 6th graders, soon to be 7th graders, were not to be tricked. Almost all had “to get into heaven” on their list when asked to fill out the same worksheet. There was a “find a renewable energy” and an “improve myself so I can be a saint” among the answers. At one point in the small group discussion, I found myself saying, “Well it seems this lesson is a waste of this table’s time, and we should move on to the next.” They already got it.

For all of you with younger children, for all of you who wonder if our unorthodox approach is worth the extra effort and all of you who are crushed at the 9:30 Mass every month as our families invade, it is obvious to me that we are doing the right thing. The, Holy Spirit, Archbishop and Synod ’16 have led us to this approach and whether or not you trust in all of that, I, for the first time in over 20 years of working with teens, have verified evidence of progress in our approach.

Paul Pyrkosz
Coordinator of Youth Ministry

Our Promise & Fulfillment

5/31/2019

Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. Jesus leaves the Disciples with the promise that He will send them help while they await His return. They do not know when this help will arrive. They do not really understand that the Spirit is on its way to empower, sustain, comfort and solace those left behind to do His work.

Can you imagine what the original Disciples of Jesus must have felt? We have the attainment of His promise of the Spirit; they were still waiting for its arrival. We know the work of the Spirit; they had yet to experience that fulfillment of Jesus’ promise.

The mystery is that while He ascends to the Father, He still remains with them [and us]. He is here: at once the promise and the fulfillment of that promise. He is present in the Word, the Eucharist and in us: the body of Christ. We receive the support of our loving God in order to do His work in the world. In turn, we are His hands, His feet, His voice, His hugs, His helpmates. We are called to be temples of the Spirit and actual Tabernacles of God. In the Ascension readings today Jesus charges his disciples to go to the ends of the earth—to make belief in Him universal—which is the actual meaning of the word catholic.

In the Second Reading from St. Paul to the Ephesians we hear St. Paul bless them (and us) with some of the gifts of the Spirit: “…(May God) give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him…may the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know the hope that belongs to His call…” All of us are charged, according to our gifts, for the building up of the body of Christ. The hope is that we will all attain a unity of faith and knowledge and understanding of the Son of God, in order to mature spiritually to the extent of the full stature of Christ─striving for holiness always and in all ways.

We are all people of promise and fulfillment (thank you Sacraments!). We have the Holy Spirit in us: we have the solace and comfort, the empowerment and sustenance we need for His work: we are the fulfillment of His promise, co-creators of a heavenly kingdom here on earth. His presence is made clear in the world by our ‘Acts’ as His disciples. The fulfillment of this promise is in the use we make of all of our gifts for the Kingdom of God. We celebrate the risen Lord among us every day by all we say and do: this is promise and fulfillment!

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

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Authors

David J. Conrad, M.A. Theology. Our Director of Faith Formation.

Paul Pyrkosz. Our Youth Minister & Bookkeeper.

Elizabeth Dyc. Our Director of Music Ministry.

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