Moving Fences

At Mass this morning, Fr. Dave shared this wonderful story:



"Many years ago, there was a woman who lived in a small village in France. Trained as a nurse, she devoted her life to caring for the sick and needy. After many years of kind and selfless service to the village's families, the woman died.

She had no family of her own, so the townsfolk planned a beautiful funeral for her, a fitting tribute to the woman to whom so many owed their lives.

The parish priest, however, pointed out that, because she was a Protestant, she could not be buried in the town's Catholic cemetery. The villagers protested, but the priest held firm. It was not easy for the priest either, because he too had been cared for by the woman during a serious illness. But the law of the Church was very clear; she would have to be buried outside the fence of the cemetery. The day of the funeral arrived, and the whole village accompanied the woman's casket to the cemetery, where she was buried outside the fence. But that night, a group of villagers, armed with shovels, sneaked into the cemetery. They quietly set to work moving the fence." (source unknown)

"When Mass is over," he said, "we will leave this holy place, but then, like those villagers, it will be our job to spend the day moving fences, drawing every event of our day into the realm of God, seeing Him in all things. In this way, our entire day will become a prayer. In the words of St. Francis de Sales, 'For the best prayer is that which keeps us so occupied with God that we don't think about ourselves or what we are doing.'"

O Lord, sometimes it is so hard to move those fences, to see You in others and to see You in hardships and to build my fence around You so that You are never left out in the cold, away from my heart. I get so busy that I forget to turn to You, to think of You. Lord, at those moments when I am occupied with something other than You and Your presence in this amazing world that You created, send your angel to guide me in moving the fence so that you will always remain within the boundaries of my heart and every moment of my day will become a prayer. Amen.

Grounded

can I travel into tomorrow
or return to yesterday?

can I move the hands of time
change the position in which they lay?

I can only be here now
grounded is where I'll stay

for I'm grounded in the Lord
my only Truth and Way

the present is full of His presence
He is always here, now and today

I can feel Him in my soul
as I close my eyes and pray.

Born Again for Life

On February 28th, I posted The Truth Hurts about the pro-life banner that was taken down in New York City because some people found it to be offensive. I ended that post with a prayer and am amazed at how quickly God has worked to answer that prayer...

Lord, give me a heart of compassion, a heart of love for all. Wake me up from the dread fear and sorrow that grips my heart in the presence of painful truths. Give me strength to cope and courage to turn the hearts of others so that everyone will value life, will give life, your greatest gift to us all. And please, God, don't ever let me grow comfortable upon hearing those words "My most recent pregnancy ended in abortion." Let me always feel the discomfort and pain that the loss of innocent life rightly deserves. Amen.

And then I promptly forgot that I had written that prayer and went on with my busy life.

This past Monday morning just a little over a week since I wrote that prayer, I received an email from Fr. Don Hying with only a few words-"Just wanted to share this with you." I was so deeply and immediately moved by what I read in his attachment that with his permission, I sent it to everyone I knew and then posted it here on this blog and sent the link to Deacon Greg Kandra at the Deacon's Bench. It wasn't long before the good Deacon posted Fr. Don's story as well.

But that wasn't enough. For I now knew that I had to do more. Sharing Fr. Don's story was one thing, and really it was quite easy for me to do, but now I felt that God was calling me to do more than just get the word out...God was calling me to act.

With those few words-"Just wanted to share this with you"- I heard the voice of God telling me to get ready to change my life, to be born again, because He was about to answer my prayer...

Way back when in 1976, I was a fifth grade student at Sacred Heart Catholic Grade school in the small city of Manitowoc, WI. My teacher encouraged me to enter a forensics contest with the theme "Together We Will..." My mother decided for me that I would speak about abortion. Truthfully, I think she really wrote the speech, "Together We Will Fight Abortion," for me. I took first place in the city's Optimist Club Oratorical Contest that year and went on to compete against several high school students in a zone competition with the same speech and won third place.

Following that I presented that same speech for several Catholic women's groups and then my nerves finally got the best of me and I asked my mom to say no the next time someone asked me to present it. The words that my mother wrote and the way in which I presented them were strong enough to win a contest and touch hearts way back then, but they weren't strong enough for me to live them. In the thirty-five years following fifth grade I never really did anything in my life to support the pro-life cause or to fight abortion.

Sure, I donated to Wisconsin Right to Life whenever they would call. Yes, my family and I stood along a busy highway holding pro-life signs each October for the annual Life Chain in our community. Of course, I have always voted pro-life. But those things are easy compared to actively praying outside of an abortion clinic, standing face to face with women who are about to kill the child within their wombs.

So, I called my friend Dave who organizes the Life Chain group for my parish. I asked him if he could help me get a group of people together to join in prayer with the 40 Days for Life campaign at the abortion clinic. Dave was eager to help and we arranged a date, this March 19th, when he and I and hopefully many others will join together in prayer with the purpose of saving lives. And it is my hope that March 19th will be the first of many days when I prayerfully witness for life at the abortuary.

And so, this Lent, my prayer, my fasting, my almsgiving-will all be offered to save the lives of those innocent, sweet, precious little babies. God is reborn in me each and every day. With every day that I wake to the morning light, rub my eyes and flutter my lashes, I am born again to God's love for me, God's gifts to me, God's life in me; but, those babies torn from their mother's wombs never get the light of day, the flutter of lashes, the chance to be born even once. For those innocent babies, for those mothers who swallow lies and carry shame and heartache instead of life, for those doctors and deathscorts and office workers who close their hearts to the truth-I will give my all this Lent.

Marked

I receive the ashes that label me as His child, His own.

Dust flakes down into my eyes, flirting with my lashes and
blurring my vision of worldly things, reminding me that the
spiritual realm can often contain that which is dirty, dusty and dark.

I let the ash that marks me settle deep within my soul,
allowing it to mingle with the sorrow and joy that God's love
has carefully placed within me.

Those fierce emotions dwelling in my soul churn the dark ashes,
the reminder of sin and suffering,
to create something new and pure from them,
preparing me for what will hopefully be
my eventual presentation to the Lord in Heaven.

I am marked as His own and will carry that mark
from my forehead to my soul
beyond this season of Lent and into forever.

(a revised re-post from the archives)

A Story From the Abortion Mill by Fr. Don Hying

~A Guest Post~

Late last Saturday morning, a group of us went to pray at the abortuary on Farwell Avenue. Usually, I go earlier in the day when pregnant women are entering the building and the pro-abortion escorts are stationed in front to keep the clients from talking to us. At 11 AM, the escorts were gone because all of the women were already inside. One by one, the women came out, walking slowly, looking dazed, holding a brown bag, gingerly entering their boyfriend’s car and driving away. It was heartbreaking, like watching a steady stream of casualties returning from some gruesome and hidden front, where the invisible violence could only be read on the bodies of the survivors.

After praying a rosary and a Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we were thinking about leaving when suddenly a woman who has worked at the abortion mill for years in some form of management came driving up in her Jaguar, dashed inside and emerged moments later. As she passed me, I spoke in a quiet and calm voice, “Stop killing people here!” She turned on me in a visceral and hysterical rage, shouting about priests abusing little boys, calling me “pathetic”, enraged by my promise to pray for her and finally giving me the finger as she drove away.

What impressed me about such a brief and disturbing incident was the startling fact that the woman never denied that she was indeed helping to kill people or that what I said was in any way false. Unable to articulate any cogent or logical response to my quiet demand, she responded with hysteria, obscenity and ad hominem assaults. The immediate reaction of rage and hate, shorn of any logic or sense, led me to see how weakened the abortionist position has become. With the women’s care center across the street, growing numbers of people who identify themselves as pro-life and new legislative momentum the folks at Affiliated see the power of their pro-death stance weakening.


With the 40 Days For Life starting this Ash Wednesday, now is the time for us to give public witness to our belief in the sanctity of nascent life. The abortionists want their deeds to go unseen, unnoticed and unchallenged. By our public prayer and presence, we shine the light of God on a very dark place.

North Star-A Guest Post by Fr. Don Hying

"Through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light. O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may not withdraw from your radiance." Elizabeth of the Trinity














I am fortunate to have the friendship of good and holy priests; bright lights who flicker and shine and glisten with the spark of divine wisdom, and who lead me to the only Light who can sustain me.

What follows is a reflection from my very dear friend, Fr. Don Hying, the Rector of St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee, who is a holy beacon of brilliance for many up and coming future priests. Because of the efforts of Fr. Don and the Seminary staff, the lives of these priests-to-be will shine brightly like so many glimmering stars, leading many souls to holiness; to heaven. Fr. Don's reflection is based on the Gospel of Matthew 7:21-27 for Sunday, March 6th and is followed by my own response of prayer to his meaningful words.

To say that we live in anxious times would be an understatement. Whether we look at the global, national or local situation, the institutions, structures or certainties that people have relied on for security seem to be crumbling. Politics, religion, economics, education, technology and society are in the midst of a difficult ferment. Something new is emerging, but we cannot say yet what that might be. So much uncertainty creates stress and fear.

In the middle of this existential crisis comes this Sunday's Gospel, the conclusion to Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the parable of the house built on rock versus the one built on sand. So after proclaiming the highest ideals concerning fasting, almsgiving, forgiveness, prayer, dependence on God, refraining from judgment, Jesus sums it all up by calling his listeners to put into practice everything they have heard.

I love to study church history, especially the times of persecution, trial and upheaval. The early era of martyrdom, the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Reformation, the French Revolution, the rise of Nazism and communism were all moments when the church faced profound crises that seemed to threaten its very existence. Yet, in the midst of violence, betrayal, institutional breakdown, loss of faith, and even death itself, saints emerged, courageous people who had built their houses on the rock of Christ and his church, and thus served as pillars of strength, hope, renewal and reform in times of great darkness and confusion.

Perpetua and Felicity suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Septimus Severus at Carthage in 203. They embraced an unspeakable series of tortures, culminating in a terrible death by being thrown to wild beasts. These remarkable women not only endured such horror, but actively rejoiced in it.

John Fisher was the only English bishop who would not submit to Henry VIII when the king rejected the pope as the head of the church. He paid for his integrity with a long prison stay in the Tower, followed by a beheading. After the Reformation, a dynamic group of leaders emerged in different places, working for renewal within the church. Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Charles Borromeo, Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal come to mind.

During the French Revolution, a convent of cloistered nuns at Compiegne went to the guillotine singing, rejecting the rabid secularity of the new government. Interned at Auschwitz, Maximilian Kolbe was a bright light of faith, hope and love for countless prisoners in one of the most hellish places in history.

This Gospel and these saints remind us that Christ is literally the only security we have in this world. Wealth, success, health, a long life, a happy marriage, employment-none of these things are guaranteed or promised to us, and therefore, we cannot put our ultimate trust in them. Jesus' love for us, his promise of salvation, the consolation of the Eucharist, the enduring power of the Word of God, the truths of our Catholic faith-these mysterious gifts constitute our North Star, that one, sacred, fixed point which will guide us securely to the Kingdom of Heaven. (emphasis mine)

How do we build our house on the rock of Christ? Regular, active participation in the Eucharist, a steady recognition of our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation, daily prayer, service to the poor and sick, spiritual reading, the faithful practice of virtue, living our faith in the world as we find it-all of these activities set the house of our fragile human existence on the unshakable foundation of Jesus Christ. When the storms come, we will not collapse, because we are grounded and centered in the Lord of life.

When everything we have clung to for security crumples up and blows away, and we are left bereft and broken, we can only cling to Jesus and his promise that he will be with us always until the end of time. That assurance is the only thing that will get us through everything and let us even find some joy along the way!

*********************************************

O love of Jesus, warm my path in the cold dark night, draw me into your embrace.
O promise of Salvation, brighten my days,assure me of the hope of heaven.
O consolation of the Eucharist, comfort me with your luminous balm.
O enduring power of the Word of God, linger in my heart; strengthen my fortitude.
O truths of my Catholic faith, enlighten my mind to the depths of your wisdom.
O mysterious gifts of the North Star, illuminate my entire being, make me shine for You.
Amen.

"Look to Him that you may be radiant with joy and your face may not blush with shame." Psalm 34:5

(Fr. Don's reflection originally appeared in the March 3rd edition of the Milwaukee Catholic Herald)

Enough

When you tapped my soul, Lord
and said "Now is the time"
a great broom swept through
my being emptying it of all the useless
clutter that resided there
and it left a void, a space that
couldn't endure being without.

So I busy myself with the
never-ending work of filling
my soul with You-
but how useless it is!

For years I devour
everything that comes in my path;
I read and think and pray and talk and listen;
I question and answer and wonder and reflect.

It's never enough,
never enough.

I want more of You, Lord
I want all of You!

Will I ever be satisfied?
Will I ever say "Now I can rest"?
How can I be satiated with the infinity
of the Eternal?

For me, it's impossible
but not for You, Lord.

Fill me, water me with Your Word,
feed me with Your Love.
Quench my thirst for You.
Please, just give me enough.