Retro This Week

I leave at 4:30am to get to the airport. Flying off to Salt Lake City for a Retrouvaille weekend. David and Maria Elena Byron, regular readers here, will be the stage three couple. I am delighted to spend my anniversary with some real friends.

Retrouvaille is a ministry to troubled marriages. I could not think of a better way to celebrate my anniversary of ordination than by working in a ministry of reconciliation.

Please, Please, Please. Some of these difficulties can only be healed by prayer. The more we all pray, the more can be done. St. Gaspar would tell us that all can be accomplished by prayer. Could you do me a favor and put some promise of prayer in the conversation/comment. I will print them out for Sunday morning for the couples.

Retrouvaille is being held this weekend in the following places:

Alberta, Edmonton
Oakland, CA (in Spanish)
Jacksonville, FL
Orlando, FL
Wichita. KS
Salt Lake City, UT
Memphis, TN
Detroit, MI

Pray for all these couples.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 10:28 PM link

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Inappropriate Music

Have you ever had the opportunity to try to pray with music that you suddenly had theological disputes with? I was faced with that recently at the Retrouvaille International Convention when I was presiding at the closing Mass. The song in question was Jerusalem, My Destiny, by Rory Cooney, published by GIA.

Much of it was ok. But there were a few lines that I could not sing, simply because they were not true.

Here are the lyrics:

I have fixed my eyes on the hills
Jerusalem, my destiny!
Though I cannot see the end for me,
I cannot turn away.
We have set our hearts for the way;
This journey is our destiny.
Let no one walk alone.
This journey makes us one.

I am sorry, the journey is NOT our destiny, and it is Jesus who makes us one on the journey, not the journey itself.

Just because the song is in a Catholic hymnal and published by a Catholic publisher does not make the song Catholic. I did not think the music good enough for liturgy, but we are not talking about music here, just the text. The text is heresy. It takes the focus off of the Lord and places it upon us.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 1:50 PM link

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Greetings from Chicago. I am home. I just discovered that my Friday flight leaves at 6:35am. That is going to be an early morning. With a conference to give on Thursday night it will be a full week.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 11:49 PM link

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Priesthood

The feast of St. Gaspar each year calls me to reflect upon the gift of the priesthood. I enjoy very much the memory of having read John Paul II's Gift and Mystery and those words do much to help me reflect on this gift. My 12th anniversary of ordination is this Sunday, October 26. Some of the books I have loaded into my carry-on for this trip are designed to facilitate a reflection on the priesthood.

The books are:

Presbyterorum Ordinis, Decree on the Ministry and Life of Preists, Vatican II
The Priestly Office, Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ
The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community, Congregation for the Clergy

The following are elements of a priestly life that I hold as values and for which I strive:

--Conformity to Christ
--Conformity to and stewardship of the Eucharist (1 Cor 4:1)
--A ministry of Reconciliation
--Proclamation of the New Covenant
--Intimacy with the Father
--Intercessory prayer for the sake of others
--Teaching

In theology the idea of representation is not juridical but organic. The priest is configured to Christ in order that Christ may act in him as an instrument. Dulles, pg. 14

The priest as witness [who] finds himself possessed by the Word of which he is the bearer. Dulles, pg 18

Religious priests who belong to missionary institutes have a special responsibility to look outward. Dulles, pg. 26

Priests who perform their duties sincerely and indefatigably in the Spirit of Christ arrive at holiness by this very fact. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 13

For me priesthood is not something I do. It is who I am and am becoming. I am priest even when I am doing nothing. The spirit of contemplation to which St. Gaspar continually calls me often calls me to do nothing, to stop, and to pay attention. Then, and only then am I called to share the fruits of this contemplation with the world.

One of the discomfiting things about the Priesthood Sunday celebration that is planned for this week is that much of what I see on their website is based on what a priest does, not what he is. I noticed recently that one of the sponsors of Priesthood Sunday is an organization called Future Church. Theirs is a very different understanding of what a priest is.

This week's celebration is an invitation to celebrate the gift and mystery of priesthood. Think of this not in terms of function but of presence. Celebrate the gift and the mystery of Christ who loved us so much as to make sure that his real presence be known among us in the heart of the church. It is God's work. It is not something we do so much as a tremendous gift we have been given and have been impelled to share.

We were gentle among you as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us. I Thess. 2:7-8

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 12:57 PM link

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Happy Feast

Greetings from San Leandro, California. This is posted from the Province Center. Restful feast. Woke up at a leisurely pace. Worked on Provincial Council minutes and the printing of official copies. Filled the car up with gas and got it washed. Did some grocery shopping and then some laundry. Worked on my Advent reflections for the PBLC, and now I am ready for the Council meeting and the party tonight. Happy Feast everyone!

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 1:28 PM link

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Thanks for the compliment, Mike.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 1:26 PM link

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More Travel

Time to pack up the computer. Leaving for California this afternoon. Provincial Council Meeting tomorrow and the celebration of the feast of St. Gaspar del Bufalo.

Happy Feast to all!!

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 12:59 PM link

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Crosses

In honor of the feast of St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, here is a little stroke from the pen of St. Gaspar:

Let us joyfully carry the cross that God gives us: I am overflowing with joy all the more because of all our affliction. (2 Cor. 7:4) Do not think about the past; be at peace, very much at peace and even more so with regard to the present which promises further and more ample blessings. If suffering is a grace, which it truly is, this is a sign of those more mature merits for which God is disposing us.

Our lives, more or less, are like winter. In the springtime one sees the work that the winter has produced in the depths of the earth. Be courageous. These are the fruits that arise from the plant of the cross. Let us apply this image of winter to our souls.

Never lose hold of a sweet confidence in God: never lose serenity of mind in God. To pray, for example, for more suffering is not, in my judgment, something called for at the present time. Let us willingly suffer whatever God wishes. Let us repeat often: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10) We are to do the will of God as it is done in heaven. So, make distant those feelings of anguish, I repeat, those fears, those perplexities. Why are you downcast, my soul (Psalm 42:6) Let us enjoy the peace which God grants to us and in his divine Heart let us find that feeling of calmness even in all the storms that surround us.

Letter of St. Gaspar del Bufalo to Mother Maria Nazzarena De Castris, January 1, 1834, Letter 2648

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 12:56 PM link

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Moments of fun and grace

The image of baseball is for me a reminder of youth and days of fun. When I was located in the Bay Area I would often take my Day off at Candlestick Park and watch a Giants game. The experience would often feel like putting "years" between situations and difficulties at the parish. It would be true recreation, a real day off. Occasional days off I would have taken books or papers to read and reflect on, but you could not do that at the ball park. There are some games that are truly memorable, like the time my sister took me to the ball park for my birthday and ended up getting the whole section to sing happy birthday. I remember when Robby Thomson hit for the cycle. The Giants did not win that day but it was still exciting.

Well the Giants did not win this year. None of my teams won this year as I found myself rooting for Oakland, Boston and the Cubs at various points. But it was still a good year and there were good times. I did not make it to a game this year which is the first time that has happened in a long time. I had wanted to see the Giants play the White Sox here in Chicago only 18 blocks from here, but that became out of the question when I ended up spending the summer in Europe.

This was all brought to mind in opening mail today. (There is still a huge pile) A good friend and Precious Blood Companion has sent me an article from the local paper about one of the Giants players. The exeperience of exuberance and grace in the article brought back a flood of these fun memories.

Here is the entire article

Galarraga had taken a lead off of first base, but the pitcher barely acknowledged the threat. Galarraga hadn't stolen a base all year. He had stolen just four in the last four seasons. Old and big, he can be timed from base to base, as the scouts like to say, with a calendar.

But just as the pitcher released his pitch, and to the gasps of the sold-out crowd at Pac Bell, Galarraga broke for second. The opposing catcher was so flabbergasted, he stood with the ball in his hand and watched Galarraga reach second safely. We leaped to our feet and cheered. Galarraga's face lit up like a kid in his first sandlot game. His teammates in the Giants dugout howled.


St. Gaspar and our spirituality would often call us to celebrate the little victories. I would count this as one such moment of grace.

posted by Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S. on 11:43 AM link

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