As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day with family and friends this week, let us express our gratitude to God for the great gift of freedom He has given us.  It is a gift that calls forth from us “responsibility and commitment to the truth that all [people] have a fundamental dignity before” God.  The best means by which we can express our gratitude to God, then, is “to have concern for every man, woman, and child, so that we may share [His] gifts in loving service.”  May our fellowship and feasting lead to the flowering of charity to all who come into our orbit of influence.

From the Mass offered on Thanksgiving Day, the Church prays after the reception of Holy Communion: “In this celebration, O Lord our God, you have shown us the depths of your love for all your children; help us, we pray, to reach out in love to all your people, so that we may share with them the good things of time and eternity.  Through Christ our Lord.”  May I suggest we incorporate this prayer into our expressions of thanks as we sit down to eat this Thursday.  It will remind us how to properly employ God’s great gift of freedom.

David J. Conrad

How will you be remembered? A better question: how will you want to be remembered? Today we think of end times as celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King—the end of our liturgical cycle “C” and the beginning of cycle “A” for our Scripture readings. We end this long run of Ordinary Time and will enter the new and next season of Advent. During this past month of November we have remembered all of our Saints and all of the Souls who have passed away in the last year—and we have remembered those long gone from us, too. In the Gospel today we hear the “good” thief ask Jesus to remember him when He comes into His Kingdom. It got me to wondering if Jesus would remember me—and say to me when the time comes: “Amen…today you will be with me in paradise.” 

I am convinced that probably most of us would like to do some great thing with our lives. But we labor under the illusion that the doing of authentically great things is reserved for a chosen few: heroes, Olympians, martyrs, Saints--not really for you and me. Yet what if the greatest thing to do is just to honor God with a life that seeks to do His will in all the little things—like spending our lives in love and care? (maybe not such a small thing…) We may not climb the highest mountain, but we work to stay on the uneven path that life has marked out for us. We may not die for our faith, but we could strive to stay true to it in all we say and do during a lifetime. Here are few guidelines and reconciling questions to consider:

​Did I make anyone's burdens lighter?
Did I share with those less fortunate?
Was I a good example for my children, my co-workers, my fellow parishioners, and my neighbors?
Did I invite anyone to church?
Was I kind and considerate of others—going out of my way to comfort those who need comfort?
Was I strong for my spouse when there was a need to lean on me?
Did I remember to say every day how much I love and appreciate them to my spouse and family?
Did I praise my Savior and give thanks for blessings too numerous to count?

Here’s another idea: try to imagine that the 24-hour blocks of your life are bank-fresh bundles of a hundred $1 bills. Your challenge each day is to spend your life in order to be remembered for your caring and sharing.  You can't bank the money, and you can't save up for another day. You get a new handful of life currency each morning and any unspent balance evaporates before tomorrow comes.

You spend life assets when mentoring a new employee who is struggling, or listening to a friend who is upset, or volunteering to help someone catch up. You lay down your life when you are generous with your hard-earned money to help someone who has lost their job, or for supporting a family that is being drained by long-term illness, or for the many ministries of our church.

You plunk down a huge chunk of your life currency in bearing and parenting children, praying through your tears for a struggling child, and investing all the time, energy, and passion that go into molding a life for what lies ahead in this challenging world. Spend it wisely now or lose it completely!

You spend your life capital by putting your love for a fiancée or mate or child above career advancement that moves you from spiritual stability, or calls for you to spend far too much time away from people who need you more than money—or maybe calls for you to compromise some central value you have embraced. We must spend the small increments of our lives in unselfish, other-directed events that honor God by serving the people He has placed on our paths. Spend your love capital wisely, and you will be remembered by those around you. And, more importantly, remembered by Jesus—so that one day you will be in paradise.

Keep “spending wisely”—and keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Like last weekend, our Scripture readings this weekend (the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time) lead us to reflect on end times as we near the end of this liturgical year. We hear the Prophet Malachi and our Lord Jesus paint a picture with terrible images of what will come at the end of time. It is scary writing—but may it stop us in our tracks to consider our lives and choices! Both of these readings give us good advice, though. Malachi says that for those who always keep God present, there “will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” Jesus tells us in the Gospel: “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” How do we persevere in keeping God present? 

A few weeks ago, in my “Sing Praise” article I wrote about persistence (in prayer and all things)—and I think that perseverance is a close sister to this idea. I have been thinking a lot about these two ideas and how they relate to consistency—another verbal ‘cousin’ to these concepts. As a musician, I know that perseverance, persistence and consistency must be made habit in terms of accomplishing musically what needs to be learned, practice and then shared. I also know that although I have these elements as part of my life as a musician—they are not always present in other areas of my life in my choices and the habits of my daily living. 

Currently I am on a journey to better physical and spiritual health—trying daily to better respect the “Tabernacle” for the Holy Spirit in which I reside. I am working hard to replace any unhealthy habits with healthy ones; an on-going and every-day pursuit for perseverance, persistence and consistency. We were all made to be creatures of habit: God (and our faith) has given us the ability to fortify the good and excavate the bad (or unhealthy, evil, sinful) from our hearts and minds and bodies and spirits. 

I have been reading a book lent to me by one of my youth choir moms (thanks Emilia!) about habits: (The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I am trying to better understand how habits happen (my own habits in particular) and how they are born of cues, routines and rewards (euphoric recall)—I just love brain stuff! I am already cognizant about creating habits through practice and repetition—that’s an integral part of the life of a musician—it is the other personal part of my life that is at issue. What I am starting to understand is that you cannot (generally) just stop a bad habit—it needs to be replaced with something else or other that is a good habit, or leads to a good habit.

Craving (for any something) is what makes cues and rewards work: that craving (the euphoric recall), is what powers our habits. So: what do you crave? Bad habits are set by the rewards we receive—the stuff that feels good, tastes good, etc. (even when it’s destructive to ourselves and others, like an addiction). But if what you yearn for is to be the best version of yourself that God created you to be—if you crave a life in Christ in all things and with all that it brings—you must have a “cue and reward” that creates habits that will lead you heavenward. This is no small thing—to create any habit of perseverance—or a habit of faith and prayer.

So, what does this have to do with today’s Gospel? First, remember that nothing easily won is highly valuable—if something was easy, everyone could/would do it. Also, that everything we do has a cost to us of time, energy, and an investment of who and what we are. Plutarch said that “perseverance is more prevailing than violence; many things which cannot be overcome when they are together yield themselves up when taken little by little.”  So, in any moment of challenge (whatever it may be), stop, take a breath, and pray. Persevere in this habit of stopping for a moment—in the face of the cue of whatever you may be confronting—and the reward is a habit of God’s grace and guidance, and “the rising of the sun of justice with its’ healing rays.” Healing! Thank you, Jesus! This habit of perseverance (stopping for a breath) is described very well by this old Celtic Blessing:

        God to enfold me, God to surround me,  
        God in my speaking, God in my thinking.
        God in my sleeping, God in my waking, 
        God in my watching, God in my hoping.

Keep persevering, persisting and striving for consistency in all things, and all Godly things—every new day is an opportunity to create a good habit for all the parts of your life.

Keep singing!

​Elizabeth Dyc

​As we near the end of our liturgical year, we begin to hear readings about end times—death, and life after death, and the second coming of Christ. Today we celebrate the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time─just two weeks until we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King (the ending of this liturgical year and the beginning of the next). We are three weeks to the First Sunday of Advent, five weeks to our Advent Pageant (Save the Date!), and then seven weeks until Christmas (less than 2 months away—yikes!). I don’t mean to rush things, as we all understand that time is a process, but it’s just that it feels like we are rolling down hill as we end one season and prepare for the start of another. We end this liturgical year and are “shot out of a cannon” into Advent and Christmas.

Today, though, we stop to think specifically about “endings” from the readings: our end, the “end” of Jesus, the end of our liturgical year. Personally, though, I do think, that it is important at the same time for us to keep beginnings in mind as we contemplate the endings—in order to live in hope for whatever the future may bring when something ends. While being reminded today of endings, we are all in the midst of, and busy preparing for the beginning of the new seasons. 

Our St. Aidan Music Ministry is preparing diligently for Advent and Christmas while singing about all the ends we are encountering right now in Scripture. This mixture of endings and beginnings reflects our very spiritual beliefs in that we live preparing for our endings here on earth by living truly Christ-like lives, always knowing our life choices should reflect the beginnings of our new life in heaven. The “end times” we experience on earth are not really the ending for those who believe. We believe in resurrection living and in the surety and hope of eternal life—because we will remain faithful in our relationship with the living God. 

The Gospel story we hear today isn’t really about marriage in heaven, but it is about the resurrection and the new life heaven will bring. The debate about heaven and marriage that took place between Jesus and some Sadducees is a silly one—it was simply a trick to trap Jesus. Jesus knew that—for to be in heaven is to leave behind our misinformed, malformed egos and become fully the creatures that God destined us to be. Only in heaven do we find our true identity, and our destiny—but it doesn’t mean we can’t have Kingdom living right here and now. 

The righteous will live forever with the risen Christ (and All the other Saints!); and all of us will eventually stand before Christ as his Bride (the Church). In heaven all (souls)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 are espoused to Christ, who never stops caring and loving His Bride─us─as His own Body. This is an everlasting covenant—it began, but will not end. We, the faithful need not really worry about end times as we only need to be ready and to be busy about God’s business for the Kingdom. We need to keep the promise of new life in our sight, while preparing for the ending of this one.

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Vocations Week is a contemplative time when we are reminded that we are all called. We are all called.  Even before the phone was invented God has a place in our hearts where he wants us to share His love.  We may share that love in the commitment of Sacramental Marriage and raising children as a result of self-giving love.  We may share that love as single person serving the good of the human family as the “Greatest Uncle Ever.”  And for some, God is calling them to a life as a consecrated sister or brother, who surrender themselves to building up the Kingdom by their prayer and their work.

Wait, I missed one.  Jesus sent some men out into the world.  When you are at St. Aidan for Mass, look up and see how the architecture of the sanctuary has 12 beams spreading in different directions outside this space as a reminder of those twelve men, sent out to spread the good news.  We still exercise that entrusted mission of the apostles to men ordained through the sacrament of holy orders.   Our priests have a ministry of bringing Jesus to people, and the people to Jesus.  Just like those beams bring us inside a sacred space, one we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we are sent out by the priest to continue the mission. 

Spend some time this week thinking about what God is calling you to?  Has it changed since the last time you listened? Is the line still disconnected? 

Paul Pyrkosz