Overcoming Obstacles to Holiness Week 1: What is the Purpose of Life?

right and then the Holy Spirit Lord we bless and thank you for everything that we have for our life for the gift of faith for the gift of your spirit who lives within us for the desire that you have for each of us by name for the call of your son to enter into an ever more profound friendship with him father we do again offer you these next number of weeks we pray that your spirit would be powerfully at work within us individually and as a parish family continue to help us to grow to look more like Jesus to think more like him to love more like him but we pray for the gift of your spirit upon us tonight for ears to be attentive to your voice however it is that you might wish to speak to us to show us concretely and practically the things that we can do right now to cooperate with you so as to be the men and women that you made us to be and that we want to be here help us as a parish to make a difference in the community in which we live all this we ask in Jesus name I think the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit so I mentioned that one of the things we want to do at the kind of like the the last third so we'll think of the nights and thirds and so the first third is eating gonna be fun the second third is me talking not as much fun further part is us small group discussion and then large group discussion at the end and at the at the start of each of the talks what I'll do is I'm gonna throw out to you to have in mind to come up with two questions at the table so that when we get back together as a large group we can talk about those deeper into whatever it is that we're gonna do tonight it's kind of an overview of what we're gonna try to do in the weeks ahead and then something really practical to think about for the week ahead but I want to throw this out as a question for you just to ponder individually in that at your tables and then I'm gonna ask you to give us myself for the Clements here if I'm a Steves down on retreat so keep them in prairies and Chile Jackson villas down to 50 so pray for frost but it would be really helpful for us as a pastoral team not just the the priests and deacons as well but us as a whole pastoral team day to hear back from you something with regards to this question what can we as a parish give to you to better help you achieve the goal that we're going to talk about today so what can we offer you what do you expect of us what you need from us and hopefully as we we go through the next little bit that'll become a little bit clearer what I'm asking but that's what I want you to stay under this word we're talking so I had an awful lot of conversations with folks over the last couple of weeks since the constructions been going on in the upstairs of the church the area behind the sanctuary where the there's now a wall and then the music room is behind that we've kind of made it possible for the 24-hour chapel to move over here to be in the in the day chapel but the question that keeps coming up to me is there anything gonna be put on that wall between the two lights that's directly across from the chapel that you walk out at so you're walking down the long hallway and there's now what used to be an open area while the couches were now there's a wall question is what were you gonna do anything with that the answer is yes and this is what we're gonna put a little a fraternity attention to the screen just seen these are gonna go on that wall more than this but this is the start that you will the the idea for us is as we walk out in the chapel or as we walk down the hallway to be confronted with these people so on the far left is Elizabeth Ann Seton next to her is Fulton sheen next to him is Kateri Tekakwitha next to her is Solano's Casey in addition of em we'll have peer to Sun not fritz too son by the way if it doesn't even follow Michigan football cuz they're running back who is a great guy I'm sure if it doesn't deserve to be on the wall [Music] mother Cabrini and then in the middle of them will be the image of Mary that was on our Christmas card this year that we sent out to everybody in the parish so any idea is for us to to walk out of the chapel or walk down the hall and to see them why then I want people to see them I want I want to see them because if there's one thing that they all have in common what is it and they're American they're American Saints they're modern they remind us that sainthood and saintliness is not something for people centuries ago in Europe or the Middle Eastern Africa it's for us now and hopefully though the diversity of who they are Qatari is a young woman Solano says priests who never even gets faculties to celebrate Mass he's just a porter we don't even have that office anymore in the church but his task was simply to open up the door for people that worked out rather well for him and for the people who met him and and we're working with some artists down in Florida who are doing these and the question that keeps coming back to us as they paint these we've given them some images but they keep working on them and tweaking them and they keep asking us what would you like in their hands and how would you like us to depict them that's the kind of common question that they're asking and I would suggest that's a great way for us to begin this alpha 201 so as I I think I mentioned this in Massa maybe a couple of weeks ago or so but the way I thought about these eight weeks that begin tonight is something like okay we just went through alpha what's the Omega alphas the first letter of the Greek alphabet 24 letters in the Greek alphabet will make us the last letter huh Jesus says in the beginning in the end of the Alpha and the Omega so alpha was just a beginning what's the end what's the goal what's the point if you will the answer that questions found in those paintings the goal of all of this is to become a seen the Omega is to become a seen one of the most common questions that that would get us priests one climber can testify to this is no father I'm just trying to figure out what God's will is for my life how many people have ever asked that question I can tell you the answer I tried to rehearse my best speaking impersonation will you please open up your Bibles to first Thessalonians chapter four verse three it just doesn't work so but open up your Bibles to first Thessalonians chapter four verse 3 and this is what it says for this is the will of God your sanctification your holiness for you to be a saint for me to be a saint that's the will that's the plan that's the Omega so what I want to try to do tonight is just do three things one is just to lay out in front of you something like the lens through which father Clement Papa Steve myself folks on our pastoral team are trying to look at everything right now that we do as a parish this is a really exciting thing quite frankly because Pope Francis and all that he's doing and especially in the letters and just wrote the joy of the gospel which is very worth reading is more or less encouraging us challenging us to come up with a new paradigm of being a parish it's very exciting quite frankly it lends itself to lots of creativity and lots of Prayer thus our desire to hear from you how we can better help you achieve the goal for which we were made any way to become a saint so I wanted to just kind of lay out for you that lens and kind of get you used to the vocabulary that we're using so that it would be the vocabulary that all of us as a parish begin to really use as we think about what's going on in our lives as a parish family second I want to just give you a kind of quick preview of what we're gonna do in the weeks to come such of an idea of what's coming and why and then lastly is is to suggest something very I hope very practical very concrete to help us to reach the goal see so that's what we're trying to be tonight good first the Newlands a priest friend of mine who's a member of the Companions of the Cross which is the order that father Pierre and father Simon who often helped us out belongs to when he's talking about parish life and what he's specifically talking about the work of evangelization he uses an expression which which really has become the mantra for us in our office as to how to think about what a parish should be doing good and this is what he says we need to be doing three things we need to be making disciples we need to be molding disciples and we need to be mission eight disciples that's the that's the triad that he uses that Liberty has you know we've made a point of saying you know Alpha wasn't just a program that we were gonna do and now hey it wasn't that great if those people go through it now let's go back to normal there is no bone back to normal for us it has totally changed the paradigm of what we're trying to do and and really lent itself to us relying on the Holy Spirit to show us what is it that you want us to do in this community at this time right now so as to better accomplish the goal that you have for us as a parish as individuals so alpha 101 if you will is all about making disciples now don't misunderstand me but that I know that there's a number of us in this room who for years or decades have been walking in a deep friendship with the Lord you've been living the life of discipleship but it's amazing the responses that we got from people on the guest evaluation forms that you all filled out as alpha was concluding it's amazing the percentage of people who would say that alpha has made in either significant or life-changing impact on them so 52% of us who went through alpha said that as a result of that we now have a deeper faith or we've grown in faith 52% out of roughly a thousand people by the grown in faith other faith has become deeper 10% a hundred folks in our parish would say that as a result of alpha they have had a significant life-changing experience with Jesus that's phenomenal that means we have somewhere along the lines of five to six hundred people in our parish who as a result of what happened over the last number of months if either grown in faith or their life is totally different because they've met the Lord in fact that is precisely the goal of Alpha right is to lead people into a deeper relationship with Jesus in in the letter which is called the joy of the gospel in English Pope Francis it's it this way this isn't paragraph if you want to note this to yourself 164 and 165 he says the first prophet proclamation mustering out over and over Jesus Christ loves you it gave His life to save you and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten strengthen and for you this first Proclamation is called first not because it exists at the beginning it can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things its first in a qualitative sense because it is the principle Proclamation the one which we must hear again and again in different ways it's the message capable of responding to the desire of the in which abides in every human heart the centrality of the kerygma which we keep saying that self is all about the proclamation of the curricula the charisma is the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus calls for stressing those elements which are most needed today it has to express God's saving love which precedes any moral and religious obligation on our part that's what's causing all the furor with Francis people mistakenly think Francis is going hey he's just like tossed out all the moral teachings no he hasn't this is what he's saying he says the proclamation of the love of God has to precede everything else then everything else follows but this has to be first it should not impose the truth but appeal to freedom it should be marked by joy encouragement liveliness and a harmonious balance which will not reduce preaching to a few doctrines which are at times more philosophical than evangelical all this demands on the part of the evangelizers certain attitudes which foster openness to the message approachability readiness for dialogue patience a warmth and welcome which is non-judgmental wasn't that alpha that was the beauty right we sat at a table and we could say anything I mean anything there was no judgment the message over and over again was just leading us into an encounter with the God who is love why did he die for me and then it's only after coming to know that then do we begin to ask ourselves so know what am I supposed to do with that and that raises a question so so what now huh what do we do after alpha so again Pope Francis in this letter he puts it this way in paragraph one is sixty he says the first proclamation also calls for ongoing formation and maturation evangelization aims at a process of growth which entails taking seriously each person and God's plan for his or her life all of us need to grow in Christ as a great expression we need to grow in Christ evangelization should stimulate a desire for this growth so that each of us can say wholeheartedly it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me it was not to say a little bit later that one of the ways that we do that is to for a parish or a community to consider offer what he calls an ongoing formation involving the entire community in a renewed appreciation of the liturgical science of Christian initiation one of the ways we're going to do that we're going to start this weekend much like we preached on the theme at Alpha at all the masses on Sundays so starting this weekend at every mass we're just going to spend the next seven weeks preaching in the sacraments most especially helping us to understand so we're all talked about the encounter with God in the encounter that happens with Jesus and all these different ways meanwhile here we are as Catholics going and then we do all these rituals and whatnot I mean what happens in the sacraments does anything happen in the sacraments and what we want to do is help people understand objectively the most amazing way we encounter God is in the sacraments but most of us don't know that I mean really like I know some things happening when they come in ask but what's happening something's happening when I go to confession but what's happening so we decided to do this a couple of weeks ago and then just today I find out that Pope Francis has started a new series of catechesis on Wednesdays on the sacraments okay I think I'm hearing you alert so I'm very encouraged by him so the goal of Alpha 201 is to help us to grow in Christ to let the Lord mold us one of the ways Bishop burns he's one of the auxiliary bishops in Hitchin the archdiocese just a fantastic guy he put it this way at a gathering with some folks of the earth diocese he said we need serious application of the scripture to our lives right now so that we can begin to live the life of heaven now not just get to heaven that's a great distinction serious application of Scripture to our lives so that we can begin now to live the life of heaven so that we can become Saints become used to goal so that's exactly what we're gonna do over the next seven weeks we're gonna we're gonna look seriously at Scripture on seven different topics which show up for all of us in one way or another throughout our lives we want to learn what the Lord's says to us about the topics so that we can grow in Christ and let him mold and form us so we're gonna look at next week we're going to start with forgiveness because forgiveness is the hinge if I don't forgive if I don't learn to show mercy then I almost immediately block the Lord from acting in my life so we talk about that first then we move on to fear we've got about suffering talk about greed talk about loss talk about the importance of community we got one wild card over there too he has a little spirit so that's what we're gonna do with the times to come tonight back to those paintings can you throw those up real quick maybe you can nevermind heavy drink your wine so think of the paintings because that's not sing on the screen right now so imagine the paintings on the screen so imagine looking at the painting and the question I consider is this do you have right now in a plan and are you working at it so that one day we'll make a painting of you are you right now am i right now concretely working at a plan so that paintings will be made of us don't misunderstand ma'am I don't mean that in some sort of arrogant pompous way that's there's no room for that the body of Christ it's not like hey look at me that's that's not what this is about it's about surrendering to the Lord in such a way so that one day people are calling whoever it is that have given Church saying we want to put an image of Sarah on our wall how should we depict her and it's you we want a married couple we want you and Joan on the wall what should we put in their hands because if we're not doing that that we're really misunderstanding what the whole point of life is just yesterday I meet with a gentleman a young man who just got diagnosed with cancer coming abandoned my office made the point of saying to me you know father I live by goals he's very successful miss work he says I'm very successful with my work because I always have in front of me goals goals drive me he realized this right now I need new goals I need a goal to get to chemo I need a goal to get through all the treatment that I'm going to go through I need some low-hanging fruit that me and my wife can have hanging in front of us going okay when we're done with this we're gonna do that we're gonna plan a vacation we're gonna trip a separate anniversary whatever it is I need goals and he's right there's nothing quite like cancer to wake somebody up to the fact that as important as all those are the real goal the only ultimate goal that I've got to be focused on is the Omega which is sainthood one of the French writers of the 19th century used to put it this way it's a quote that we repeat often around here I know but the only tragedy in life is not to become a saint to selected but three four guys to the Baseball Hall of Fame today just got announced God has a Hall of Fame it's the sames it's within your reach in mind the grace is it given all it takes is our work our cooperation with it so Xin Casey kateri Elizabeth Ann Seton all these people in their own day they saw a need and they responded to it if Elizabeth Ann Seton doesn't respond to the need that she sees maybe we don't have Catholic schools in our country seriously if Solana's casey doesn't respond to the call of God in his life tens of thousands of people in our own local community their lives would not have been changed in the way that they have been changed that never would have encountered the incredibly healing power of God is love anybody here ever meets honest few of us did extraordinary man but a great example someone to just an our day and age took the time to say Lord I'll surrender how about it and some of us know we can raise their hands and say I met that man and he said this to me about me or about someone that I asked him to pray for and it's changed our lives forever centuries ago there was a Spaniard named an eagle and eagle was a one of thirteen kids from a rather rough family they were Catholic but they weren't exactly practicing this guy had no desires whatsoever for God and certainly no desire for holiness but he had his neat Bellona part in a battle and so he was convalescing before this time he was someone who was obsessed if you will with attaining personal memory he was a womanizer an expert dancer very fancy dresser when he's convalescing after his leg was broken because they wore you know a tight-fitting clothes at the time so he he noticed that the bone in his knee was still sticking out so we told the doctor he says I need you to read that so that the bone doesn't stick out because women are never gonna be attracted to me so they three broken bobbies convalescing he asked for some books to be brought to him to pass the time so we asked for books on you know nice romantic chivalry and that kind of thing instead somebody brought him a life of Christ and so they brought him that book on the legends of the Saints since he couldn't go anywhere and he had nothing else to read he read them and God broke in and changed everything and showed him what real glory looked like what real nobility looked like what real manhood looked like what real courage looked like he ended up changing his name to one of the heroes of the early church many Ignatius of Antioch founded the Society of Jesus the Jesuits in the last five hundred plus years literally hundreds of millions of people have come to encounter Jesus because of him but he's gone now he's not living anymore Solanas isn't live in anymore machines not living anymore aqui kateri is not living anymore Elizabeth Ann Seton is not living anymore they've handed the baton to you and to me and now it's Archerd it's our turn to fight the fight it's our turn to run the race it's our turn to keep the faith how do we do that this is the really practical government one of the things that that were wrestling with quite frankly Pastorius so what do we do with with us who just went through alpha who are energized one more and I wish I could say something other than what I'm about to say but there are no shortcuts for the next step and what I mean by that is now it's on me and it's on you personally to take serious responsibility for what I'm going to do and what you're going to do to respond I have to and you have to we have to all individually come up with a plan if you will so as to accomplish the bullet so let me give you an image when when cobbles come in for marriage prep one of the things that that I'll have them do maybe the second or so time that we get together is I'll say to them something like this this is just common sense right businesses tend to fail because they don't have a plan the Lions lose because they don't know marriages don't thrive because they don't have a plan oftentimes they just kind of thing I love you you love me I already give this be right you know we'll just left so if you asked my mom and dad married 63 years in August how could you do this they wouldn't go we just really lucked out right you know that 50 years right so it's the same with sainthood so I encourage a couple I say do this why don't you what to me for lack of a better term make a pie chart and think of what are all the different dimensions in our life together as a married couple that go into our life together so everything finances retirement two different things prayer intimacy sex in-laws children dating fighting communicating everything so what are all the different areas of your life and then say okay for each of those areas what would we say greatness looks like and then ask yourself do we have that and if we don't have that what we need to do to get it and then it become something like a budget you know slave to it but it's a business plan for a married couple to thrive and you keep going back to it you pull it out every set months you look at how are we doing with that so dis with sainthood we need a business plan for sainthood now that may sound strange and might sound like how do you plan sainthood well John Paul says you can so in the letter that he wrote after the beginning of the new millennium which in Latin is called novo millennia in un Tay which now you loose ly translated to what do we do now and that's a very loose translation by the way he says this he says can holiness ever be planned what like the word holiness mean in the context of a pastoral plan to ask people who are coming into the church do you wish to receive baptism or those of you who are parents what do you ask of God's church and you say baptism what you're really saying is do you wish to become holy do you wish your children to become holy do you wish your children to become Saints remember that Jamie do you wish to enter into the church I do does that mean I wish to become holy it means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect this ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involves some kind of extraordinary existence possible only for a few uncommon heroes of holiness the ways of holiness are many according to the vocation of each individual the time has come he says to repurpose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian record living the whole life for the Christian community and if Christian families must lead in this direction I have to plan to become a saint so what's that look like well this isn't an exhaustive list this is just a way to get us started I don't think you can cheat on this meaning I don't think you can do this without grinding this is the hard part like you and I have to write a plan what's my plan to become a saint and here's a series of things to think about it's not exhaustive by any means but it gets the conversation going prayer what do I get save your greatness to look like in prayer what do I do what do I think I need to do every day in terms of prayer to become don't ask a question do I pray enough the answer to that is no nobody prays enough it's impossible but am i praying as much as I should be praying Scripture there's no way I'm gonna let God form me if I don't read his word I have to let him for me and he forms meaning of Scripture service do I reach out of myself do I look to volunteered whether it's in the parish community and the local community with the poor whoever it might be sacramental life do I have a goal like my goal was to get to confession every two months I'll tell you this right now if that's not in your list if you don't get to confession every two months I'd start there maybe I'd start here if you haven't been to confession here's just come back but I got to get to confession often I go every two weeks now I could go every day we hear enough but you know confession not always Sunday Mass obviously but maybe do I think it's possible to really achieve greatness on something like a starvation diet where I'm not when I'm only feeding in the Eucharist once a week once we really come to understand objectively speaking this is the greatest source of strength that I can ever encounter in my life why wouldn't I come more often some of us can I know cuz it work I mean we shoot to get there once a once during the week in addition to Sunday or twice many people who start doing this this are coming every day and then they just can't stop you'll gradually come to realize like I just can't thrive whatever you every day I can't I can't live I'm not strong enough used to think I was but not come to realize otherwise sin what's that what's the one or the two really significant obstacles in my life right now which are keeping me from reaching the goal I like it overcome those am I just gonna go well shoo that's just the way I am that's why I gotta try to get over it look that word changed me fasting do I ever fast Jesus doesn't say if you fast it says with you fast do I have a plan in my life for fasting some of us can't fast from food because of health reasons but we could fast from something else I can't fast from the news media whatever arms the arms long stoic evil arms annoyed look at the resources that I have as it means by which I can share with reported if if you know if you don't get convicted when you read Pope Francis you're never even go Francis because he's constantly throwing the poor in front of us reminding us of our obligation to do what we can to help to lift them up not to just care for them so that you know they just simply receive our mercy but to lift them up and to set them on their feet in their way that's what he's encouraging us to do there's lots of other things in the list that we could add by all means at the table what's trying to do this because some of these questions obviously these are not for small group discussion these are for us to reflect on in the on the week ahead so my encouragement for us and the week ahead is just first of all to ask you know do I have a business plan to become a saint if I dental what is it gonna look like and start working on let's do the work I think you'll be amazed how - is does it'll make it concrete but at the table I think we can do this might be worth just just saying amongst each other do you have a plan without getting into details do you have one are you working on one have you ever thought this way does this make sense and then like I do out to us at the very beginning what I'd really like to hear back from you and father Clement and father Steve as well in a particular way tonight is okay so we dump all this on us tonight okay we got to get serious about this how do we help Pope Francis says something really interesting it is dogged mystery shopping to me quite frankly so at the end of paragraph 63 we just writes this in many places is Tom a parish life an administrative approach prevails over a pastoral approach as does here's the key line a concentration on administering the sacraments apart from other forms of evangelization that's an incredible thing to say as a priest in other words he's saying have we become have we have we've looked at parish life is something like just a dispenser of sacraments and get me wrong on the sacrament the most amazing encounters that give grace we're gonna talk about that for a long time in the weeks ahead now on Sundays but have we somehow mistakenly thought that's all we need to do is just offer more last time so for more sacraments offer more opportunities for confession can we forget all the other ways that we can help and we're just throwing a wide net out to you saying help us know how to help you that's the appeal tonight so that one day just say Mary in the wall there's not the mother of God it's you or st. Ryan the wall that it's you and you're someone that other young adults in their generation are looking to God I want to be like him okay all right so what we take I'm gonna take like 20 minutes at a table okay it's just about eight let's take to about eight twenty right now just to kind of go at this try to think about one do you have a plan we're just I'd be curious to to get a sense from each table how many people have a plan to do this or if it fought this way and then take some time just amongst yourselves to go what is it that we can do what is it that we need to do as a parish to really help you to achieve the go okay

Channel: OLGCPlymouth

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Keywords: plymouth mi, Alpha for Catholics, fr steve mateja, fr john riccardo, OLGC, catholic church, Plymouth Michigan, fr clement suhy, Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, church plymouth, Catholic Church, jesus, jesus christ, our lady of good counsel catholic church, god

Id: 5O4D7pmZlwc

Length: 39min 57sec (2397 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 10 2014