Dear Parishioners,
“March Madness” has begun, and basketball fans all around the country will spend countless hours at the games or watching them on television. I watched many of those games in the past and was always impressed with the teams of UCLA’s John Wooden. His teams won an amazing ten championships in a twelve year span, a record that will never be tied or broken. But more important than his victories were the life lessons and advice he imparted to his players. As we begin our Lenten journey, I would like to share some of his lessons and give them a Catholic perspective.
“Failure is not fatal. Failure to change might be.” Lent is a time for us to acknowledge our failure to love God and neighbor. We acknowledge our sins and try to make up for them by disciplining our minds and bodies through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. This will certainly help us succeed in our relationships with God and neighbor, and prevent us from failing to inherit heaven.
“I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live.” During Lent, we meet God’s saving plan and are reminded of our final destiny. While few of us have the talent to consider basketball our destiny, still other things such as materialism, consumerism, work, power, and even leisure can obscure the ultimate – God and the kingdom of heaven. Lent helps us refocus.
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are while your reputation is what people think you are.” Lent is that special time during which we reflect on our character and see the flaws which need correction. The sacrament of Penance is the best beginning to eliminate those faults. This season is a stark reminder that God is not impressed by our reputation and will judge us by our character.
Finally, “Adversity is the state in which man easily becomes acquainted with himself being especially free of admirers then.” Nobody can avoid adversity in life – not even Jesus or Mary. Therefore, we need to prepare for it as best we can. Lent gives us the time to build up our spiritual energy to withstand whatever difficulties come our way. Hopefully we will face them as courageously as did our Lord, our Blessed Mother, and all the saints.
Our Lenten penances may not help us to win a national basketball championship, but they can help us win the kingdom of God.
- Fr. Carl
Rev. Stephen Hook is Pastor of the Pastorate of the Visitation which includes the Catholic Churches of Pasadena, Maryland: St. Jane Frances de Chantal (Riviera Beach) and Our Lady of the Chesapeake (Lakeshore). He is assisted by Associate Pastor Rev. John Belinki, Deacon Howard Klohr, and Deacon Rick Clemens. To learn more about our pastorate, please visit www.catholicpasadena.org.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
A Message from our Deacon
Dear Parishioners,
New Year’s Eve with many well intentioned resolutions is long gone and mostly forgotten. But Lent provides us with another opportunity to look at where we are in life and make some necessary changes. A simple way is to make time to pray. Find that private space, that quiet time, where you can be alone with your thoughts and alone with God. It can be when you go for a walk, when you are working on a hobby or perhaps when you turn the television and the lights off just before going to bed. Make the time for yourself, it isn’t being selfish, it’s simply about making room in your life to nurture your relationship with God.
- Deacon Robert
New Year’s Eve with many well intentioned resolutions is long gone and mostly forgotten. But Lent provides us with another opportunity to look at where we are in life and make some necessary changes. A simple way is to make time to pray. Find that private space, that quiet time, where you can be alone with your thoughts and alone with God. It can be when you go for a walk, when you are working on a hobby or perhaps when you turn the television and the lights off just before going to bed. Make the time for yourself, it isn’t being selfish, it’s simply about making room in your life to nurture your relationship with God.
- Deacon Robert
"We must take great care never to do
anything before having said our
Morning Prayers… The Devil once
declared… that if he could have the
first moment of the day, he was sure
of all the rest."
- The Saint Cure D’Ars
Friday, March 4, 2011
Marriage
Dear Parishioners,
In view of all the discussion on marriage, I thought it opportune to reprint what our American bishops recently wrote:
US Bishops Decry Rejection of Marriage Defense
WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 24, 2011 – The U.S. bishops are denouncing President Barak Obama’s instruction to the nation’s justice department to cease its defense of marriage.
On Wednesday the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement from its Office of General Counsel noting, “Today, the president has instructed the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act.”
“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman,” the statement affirmed.
It noted that the act, “a federal law reiterating that definition of marriage,” was “passed by a Republican congress and signed by a Democratic president just fifteen years ago.”
“The principal basis for today’s decision is that the president considers the law a form of impermissible sexual orientation discrimination,” the general counsel noted.
It asserted, “This decision represents as abdication of the responsibility of the executive branch to carry out its constitutional obligation to ensure that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”
The statement asserted, “It is also a grave affront to the millions of Americans who both reject unjust discrimination and affirm the unique and inestimable value of marriage as between one man and one woman.”
“Support for actual marriage is not bigotry, but instead an eminently reasonable, common judgment affirming the foundational institution of civil society,” it added.
The statement concluded, “Any suggestion by the government that such a judgment represents ‘discrimination’ is a serious threat to the religious liberty of marriage supporters nationwide.”
- Fr. Carl
In view of all the discussion on marriage, I thought it opportune to reprint what our American bishops recently wrote:
US Bishops Decry Rejection of Marriage Defense
WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 24, 2011 – The U.S. bishops are denouncing President Barak Obama’s instruction to the nation’s justice department to cease its defense of marriage.
On Wednesday the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement from its Office of General Counsel noting, “Today, the president has instructed the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act.”
“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman,” the statement affirmed.
It noted that the act, “a federal law reiterating that definition of marriage,” was “passed by a Republican congress and signed by a Democratic president just fifteen years ago.”
“The principal basis for today’s decision is that the president considers the law a form of impermissible sexual orientation discrimination,” the general counsel noted.
It asserted, “This decision represents as abdication of the responsibility of the executive branch to carry out its constitutional obligation to ensure that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”
The statement asserted, “It is also a grave affront to the millions of Americans who both reject unjust discrimination and affirm the unique and inestimable value of marriage as between one man and one woman.”
“Support for actual marriage is not bigotry, but instead an eminently reasonable, common judgment affirming the foundational institution of civil society,” it added.
The statement concluded, “Any suggestion by the government that such a judgment represents ‘discrimination’ is a serious threat to the religious liberty of marriage supporters nationwide.”
- Fr. Carl
Friday, February 25, 2011
Don't sweat the small stuff
Dear Parishioners,
When I was a young Navy Chaplain serving with the Marines at Camp Lejeune, a gruff, older priest who served a number of tours with the Marines, gave me some good advice. He said, “Just remember two things. First, don’t sweat the small stuff… Second, it’s all small stuff.” How often do we worry and worry about some problem or difficulty looming on the horizon only to discover afterwards that it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve had thousands of worries in my life, but just a few real problems.” In the gospel (Matthew 6:24-34), Jesus tells us not to worry so much. He’s with us, wants what is best for us, and will look out for our welfare. As long as we are with Him, everything will turn out just fine in the end, because heaven is the end. All the problems and difficulties, no matter how serious or worrisome, are just “small stuff” in comparison to the end.
- Fr. Carl
When I was a young Navy Chaplain serving with the Marines at Camp Lejeune, a gruff, older priest who served a number of tours with the Marines, gave me some good advice. He said, “Just remember two things. First, don’t sweat the small stuff… Second, it’s all small stuff.” How often do we worry and worry about some problem or difficulty looming on the horizon only to discover afterwards that it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought. Mark Twain once said, “I’ve had thousands of worries in my life, but just a few real problems.” In the gospel (Matthew 6:24-34), Jesus tells us not to worry so much. He’s with us, wants what is best for us, and will look out for our welfare. As long as we are with Him, everything will turn out just fine in the end, because heaven is the end. All the problems and difficulties, no matter how serious or worrisome, are just “small stuff” in comparison to the end.
- Fr. Carl
Friday, February 18, 2011
Are you a second miler?
Dear Parishioners,
Those people who go that second mile have within them a drive, a tenacity, a devotion to not only doing what is right, but what they believe is required. Second mile employees show up earlier in the morning and often work late. Second mile students put in those extra hours of study, not to curry the favor of a professor, but because learning is so rewarding. Second mile neighbors show up first to pick up tree limbs blown into the street from the storm or are quick to bring a meal when tragedy comes to a family down the street. Second mile church members have a deep and refreshing desire to serve the Lord and others. Who doesn’t admire the second milers among us?
- Deacon Robert
Those people who go that second mile have within them a drive, a tenacity, a devotion to not only doing what is right, but what they believe is required. Second mile employees show up earlier in the morning and often work late. Second mile students put in those extra hours of study, not to curry the favor of a professor, but because learning is so rewarding. Second mile neighbors show up first to pick up tree limbs blown into the street from the storm or are quick to bring a meal when tragedy comes to a family down the street. Second mile church members have a deep and refreshing desire to serve the Lord and others. Who doesn’t admire the second milers among us?
- Deacon Robert
One is often carried away over the
sins and shortcomings of others. It
would be far better to talk less about
them and pray more.
- The Saint Cure D’Ars
Friday, February 11, 2011
Loving both God and neighbor
Dear Parishioners,
Jesus tells us not only to do good, but to think good. In short, he is telling us that to be good and to become perfect, which is our job description, we must not only avoid evil deeds, we must also reach down to the depths of our hearts and root out the evil thoughts of lust and hatred. Only by eliminating evil thoughts and desires, is it possible to love both God and neighbor.
- Fr. Carl
Jesus tells us not only to do good, but to think good. In short, he is telling us that to be good and to become perfect, which is our job description, we must not only avoid evil deeds, we must also reach down to the depths of our hearts and root out the evil thoughts of lust and hatred. Only by eliminating evil thoughts and desires, is it possible to love both God and neighbor.
- Fr. Carl
The sermons of saints are
their examples.
- The Saint Cure D’Ars
Friday, February 4, 2011
Lift up the values of our Lord
Dear Parishioners,
The lack of leadership in our common, social life may be the most pressing need we face as members of the human community. It seems that everywhere we turn, we find those in positions of leadership mistaking their responsibility for authority.
Jesus calls us to a higher standard, but his summons is not that we charge into the public arena, waving the “Christian” banner as if we were self-appointed messiahs. To the contrary, he calls us to be a presence in society that lifts up the values he taught.
Here is a call to action, a summons to be persons of integrity, humility and grace. What He is teaching is not easy, but it is the hope that we will take up the challenge. For those who deeply believe that our Lord’s way of love is the way of life, there is no other option. More than ever before, we of faith must stand with Jesus in being the people of grace and truth that he calls us to be.
- Deacon Robert
The lack of leadership in our common, social life may be the most pressing need we face as members of the human community. It seems that everywhere we turn, we find those in positions of leadership mistaking their responsibility for authority.
Jesus calls us to a higher standard, but his summons is not that we charge into the public arena, waving the “Christian” banner as if we were self-appointed messiahs. To the contrary, he calls us to be a presence in society that lifts up the values he taught.
Here is a call to action, a summons to be persons of integrity, humility and grace. What He is teaching is not easy, but it is the hope that we will take up the challenge. For those who deeply believe that our Lord’s way of love is the way of life, there is no other option. More than ever before, we of faith must stand with Jesus in being the people of grace and truth that he calls us to be.
- Deacon Robert
In Heaven, God will place us as an architect
places the stones in a building – each in the
place fitted for it.
- The Saint Cure D’Ars
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