Blood Moon 2015 -- Next Blood Moon in 2033

Here's a picture of the kids and the so-called "Blood Moon" tonight:

Super Moon is between JP & EJ.



Here's another shot.

'Can't really see it, but it's the best angle we got.



The kids will be a lot older when this happens again in 2033.

 

My Wife's Tears During Our Son's Altar Server Commissioning

My wife cried at my son's commissioning as an altar boy. 

I saw the tears in her eyes as the priest said, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," at the beginning of Mass today.

* * *

 

Here were some moments from the day:

Before Mass, as my son, John Paul, stood in line with the other servers to be commissioned, my wife told me to remove some lint on JP's pants.  So I did.



L to R: EJ, Tove Ann pregnant w/Therese Maria Hope, and Faith Marie



Then, the procession began to the hymn of "Here I Am, Lord."  Here's a 3-second clip.



Then we found a spot in the corner.  A friend of ours, Jane, told us of a place for us to sit, but I told her we were fine.  That was quite thoughtful of her.

Jane was in this clip:





We later gave up our seat for another family and ended up sitting on the floor.  Actually, I had offered the spot to the wife (and her daughter) only, motioned them to sit, and said to her husband, "The guys will stand." 

But he must not have heard me because he ended up sitting down himself.  :/ 

I told my wife that she was pregnant and I didn't want her to sit on the floor.  She told me that as a deacon family (with a son that is about to be commissioned an altar server) she wanted to offer our spot to another family. 

It was a way for us to honor the day: To be a family that serves another family.

It wasn't just me serving, or my son serving, or he and I serving, but rather it was our family serving together.

For my wife, it was a little act of love.



I took some pictures and recorded some of the moments.  John Paul was seated with the other servers across the way.  This was our view.  JP is seated on the corner in the front pew.

So.....I think the best part of the day was seeing my wife cry with tears in her eyes over our son.  This reminded me of my own mom who cried when I was off to school at kindergarten.  I remembered how, back then, I looked at my mom from behind a fence and how I didn't know why she was crying.  My mom cried tears of joy.

My wife, too, cried out of tears of joy.  I don't think I, as a man, will fully understand this.  Ain't that right, mamas out there?


Here's a video of the commissioning:

Part One (presented to community)

 

Part Two (prayer over new altar servers)

Here are some other pictures.

 

 

Fr. Gerome gives altar servers a holy card.

 

One of my proudest moments JP and the group was how Fr. Glen, the pastor, instructed the kids to bow before the altar before returning to their pews.  They did it together--- the way servers synchronize their bows together.

 

I said under my breath watching them, "That's how you do it!"  The young kids showed their first public act of reverence as altar servers.

 

I'm sure the other kids present at Mass saw the reverence.  And hopefully they too will learn from it and imitate it.

Recession.  This was the end of Mass.  JP is pictured between the 2 kid servers in his pew.

Ite, missa est.*

*Go forth, the Mass is ended.


After Mass, I took the kids bike-riding at the park while their mom had some time to herself.  Taking the kids to the park encouraged me to get a new bike for my daughter Mariana.

 

As I think of my wife's tearful eyes, it moves me as I write this.  In fact, as I write this, I have 4 of 5 kids in the room with me, so I have to go soon and get them ready for bed.

For now, her tears of joy are forever etched in my mind.

Group Photo (JP in front right)



 





EPILOGUE

Note for John Paul:

Some of these photos and videos are ordinary.  But when you are older as a man, hopefully you will appreciate these moments.  And you will know how much your mom and I love you!



 

"On Loan" & "A-Lone" @ St. Joseph's Vacaville

I volunteered to accept an invitation from Fr. Resti, the pastor of St. Joseph's in Vacaville, to assist him and his parish.  I will be on temporary "on loan" duty. 

My home parish will remain St. Catherine's in Vallejo.  My family and I plan to attend Mass on weekends and evenings that I'm not on deacon duty in Vacaville.

My joke is that while I am "on loan" I am actually "a-lone" because St. Joseph's, after 25 years of existence, has not had a permanent deacon to assist.  It will be a transition for the parish...

... and for me.  I'm used to having deacons around, esp. deacons around to back me up (and me backing them up) when one could not cover an event.  But at St. Joseph's, I will be the only deacon in a parish of about 2,000.  I think St. Catherine's falls in the 3000-3500 range. 

Click HERE for parish website.

 



My official date to assist is Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015, but I came by the parish to help with Benediction on Friday, Sept. 25, 2015.

There, I met Carlos who helped me with Benediction.  Pat and her team of ladies helped me in the sacristy with some orientation.  Pat said, "I read your bio, and I expected someone older."  :) She's such a helpful lady.  A former parishioner from St. Catherine's who is now at St. Joseph's -- named EJ -- also helped me with the Chaplet. 

In my mind, these St. Joseph's parishioners were my welcome committee.  Thank you for your warm welcome, St. Joseph's!!

Fr. Brian, the parochial vicar, showed me the ropes, too.

This occasion also reminds me of another joke:

There was a parishioner that attended the Sat. 5pm Mass every week.  Another parishioner attended the 12pm Mass every week.  One day, they ran into each other at a parish festival.  The first parishioner said to the other, "Oh, do you go to Mass at St. Catherine's?"  The other parishioner replied, "Uh, yeah, I still go to Mass at St. Catherine's.  Do you still go to St. Catherine's?"

I'm sure I'll get this question even with all the announcements from the ambo and bulletin about my being on loan.  But that's okay.

One thing has become clear to me.  I hope to encourage, inspire and recruit new deacons for this parish.  In time, I suppose.

For now, I'll just be all on loan -- I mean, all alone -- as a visiting deacon until the back up shows up.

St. Joseph, pray for us.




 

Women's Cursillo Talk Followed By My Father-Daughter Dance

 



Thank you note from Women's Cursillo rectora, Sis. Helen



If you are a woman who has been away from God, then this invitation back to Him was meant for you:

 

The tone is deliberately slower, meditative, non-judgmental, gentle, non-preachy, and focuses on the mercy of the Father specifically for women.

The three themes were: (1) the misery of sin, (2) radical conversion, (3) the mercy of the Father.

 

 



* * *

I gave the meditation around 9pm or so.  Then, I went home. 

My 1.5 year old daughter, Faith Marie, wasn't feeling good.  It took about 2-3 hours to put her to sleep.  I re-heated some soup that my wife made.  I put lemon in it.  She liked it.

Then, she fell asleep on my shoulder.  She fell asleep to this song by Luther Vandross called Dance With My Father.



I thought of the mercy of the Father that I had spoken of a few hours ago.  I thought of the Father.  I thought of how I shared in His Fatherhood.

I know I blogged about this before with my other children.  This one is for Faith Marie.

Perhaps she will read this when she is older.



It is fitting that the Women's Cursillo talk was on the mercy of the Father and that I spent time with my daughter.



Loving the Fight

I had a karate instructor once talk about a guy who took a hit on his face, then looked at the guy that hit him, and smiled.

Having been at the service of the Church for 25 was, I have endured much for the Faith.  In God's eyes and compared with the merits of the Cross, they are minuscule, but humanly speaking it can demoralize to see the Church devastated, patrticilrly by those that have infiltrated her....the wolves in sheep's clothing.

Today, I felt a surge of apostolic zeal that I felt when I first fell in love with the Faith.  As Lt. Dak Raltar said to Luke Skywalker, "Right now, I feel like I can take on the whole Empire myself."

As a holy bishop once said, "You have to love the fight."

"Beautiful Wife Drawing" (9/13/15)

I drew this on a napkin at Rubio's in Vallejo.  We were waiting for soft tacos for the adults and cheese quesadillas for the kids.  I later got Cold Stone Ice Cream for the family.

For some reason, this picture that I drew -- while impatiently waiting for our food -- seems to evoke a certain emotion in me about my wife.  Yes, I stared at her, kind of like how a guy would in the movies.

A song was playing in the background.  I don't remember it.

So here she herself drew.  I drew.  The kids drew something.

Perhaps, had our food arrived earlier, I would not have drawn this.  It was a blessing disguise.

I call it "Beautiful Wife Drawing".

The title is also a play on words.  "Drawing" can be either a noun or a verb.  At first, it was meant to be a verb.  But it can also be a noun.

She looked down at her own drawing.

But I looked at her.

I drew this.

 

Now that I posted this picture, I wish I had taken a photo, too.

 

But that's okay.  This drawing captures what I need.  Her eyes could have looked down a little more here.

 

This is what she was drawing while I drew her.  Hers is on the left.

 

 

 





She was drawing daddy and mommy and our 5 kids.

Day One of JP's Altar Server Training

Protestants call them PKs for "Pastor's Kids".  I don't think there's a catchy equivalent term for Catholics (since Latin rite pastors have been celibate for centuries).

But if there was something close to kids of married Catholic permanent deacons they'd be called "Deacon's Kids" I guess or DKs.

Faith Marie the DK taking notes at her Kuya's altar server training.



I hear that PKs experience some pressure of being a PK.  I'm not familiar with an equivalent one for the DKs, although I guess one can say that I occasionally feel some of the same issues as Protestant clergy and the expectations made of their families. 

Since the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the West (Latin rite) about 50 years ago, Latin rite Catholic clergy culture (in the Novus Ordo/Ordinary Form) has included talk about families.  Priests at meetings will ask about deacon's kids and grandkids at meetings.  They are friendly to my kids. 

When the minimum age of permanent deacons was set to 35, I'm sure that it was envisioned that those with young kids would be ordained.  Eastern Catholic deacons and married Eastern rite priests with kids probably have more in common with Protestant clergy and their PKs since they've pretty much had a married clergy for centuries.

But I digress.

* * *

 

John Paul is a DK.  He briefly served last Christmas with minimal training from the new parochial vicar (assistant pastor).  Back then, he said to me, "We will serve together as father and son."  I blogged about that HERE.

I came in late for a few minutes to the training b/c I was asked to do Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament inside the church, while my family started Day One of JP the DK's altar server training.

JP the DK.

I have to say that I AM proud of him for wanting to do this on his own.  During dinner, I asked my  JP the DK what was the best part of the training today during a late dinner.  He said, "With great power comes great responsibility." 

This line is from Spider-Man.  It was something that Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said as he lay dying in the arms of Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man).

And responsibility is right.

Even kids are given great responsibility at Mass as servers.  They are servers at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.




Here's a photo I took from outside the door.  I had to step out with little Faith Marie cuz she fussed a bit during the training. 

My two sons are in the middle.  My wife is on the left.

My wife took this one of my three DK's.

 Fr. Gerome is in the background.


At the end of the evening, my wife remarked along the lines of the following, "Are you affirmed that what he [JP] did is a validation of your life's choices?"

I replied, "I haven't looked at it like that.  But, yeah, it is."

It is.



So here's to DKs everywhere!

 

DK says, "Bye, everyone!"



Healing, Anointing of the Sick, Deliverance, Forgiveness (Homily #36)

 10am

  

 12pm

 

5pm

 

 

In the medical profession, it’s recommend to go in for an annual check at least once a year.  Dentists say visit them every 6 months.  In sports medicine, it seems that every little injury is analyzed and affects the entire outcome of a game.  For example, when Manny Pacquaio injured his shoulder, the importance of healing injuries and healing bodily hurts became a focus by sports commentators.

 

 

In the spiritual life, we too must heal any injuries and hurts we have experienced.  If we place such a high importance on our physical health, then we should all the more pay attention to our spiritual health.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus healed the deaf man with a speech impediment.  Jesus touched his ears and tongue, said “Ephphatha!” which means “Be opened,” and the man was healed.  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let me ask: What is there in our lives at this moment that needs to be healed?  ß Repeat  (And, how can you help others be healed?)

Just as Jesus used words and actions to heal people, so too Jesus’ Church -- we, His Bride – uses words and actions to heal people, too.  In all of the sacraments, Christ “touches” us.  In Seven Sacraments of the Church, there are two Sacraments of Healing.  One of these is the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance, also called Confession.  And the other is the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.  I’m only going to focus on the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

In Anointing of the Sick, there are many biblical passages as to why we have this Sacrament, this visible sign of Christ’s grace and love.  Today’s Gospel from Mark Chapter 7 is one example of healing.  Another example in the Gospels is from Mark Chapter 6 when Jesus sent out the Apostles who anointed with oil and laid hands on the sick.  And of course in the Letter of James, St. James writes, “Is any among you sick?  Let them call the presbyters or the priests of the Church, and the priests will pray over them and anoint them with oil.”  Here, not only is there spiritual healing and forgiveness of sins, but the Church also begs the Lord that the sick person may recover physical health if it will be conducive to their salvation and God’s glory.

And we don’t want to wait until the very last minute to call a priest.  Here’s a true story: A friend of mine once said to me, “My grandpa went to the hospital.”  I immediately said, “Did you call a priest yet?”  My friend replied, somewhat well-intentioned but misguided way, “Oh, we don’t do that….that might scare him.”  I thought to myself, “Scare him?”  This is the wrong reason why not to call a priest.  The opposite is actually true.  I have heard times when a great peace and courage comes upon the person receiving this sacrament, and it helps overcome discouragements and temptations that the evil one sends during an illness.  And just as in today’s Gospel, people brought the ill man to Jesus, we too can lead the sick to encounter Jesus by asking them if they want the comforting ritual of the Sacrament of the Sick.

Another note: The sacrament is not only for those who are close to death.  It is fitting that anyone who is sick or with old age or has surgery or mental illness just wants to ask God for healing receive this sacrament.  Only a priest anoints.  He anoints the forehead and hands with blessed oil and says, “Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.  May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up.” Through this illness, those that are anointed are more closely united to Christ’s Passion where suffering has new meaning and participates in the saving work of Jesus.  Finally, when the 3 sacraments of Anointing of the Sick, Confession, and Eucharist are received together, this is called Viaticum.  The word Viaticum means a journey on the road to eternal glory and happiness.

So we’ve looked at the 2 Sacraments of Healing with a focus on Anointing of the Sick, based on today’s Gospel on healing.  There are additional healing practices, too.  Here are some practical examples:

1.)  First, offering Mass for the healing of body and soul.  Having names mentioned during the Universal Prayers of the Faithful is a good practice.

2.)  Second, there are certain individuals – both priests and lay people – that have a charism given by God to actually physically heal.  We say that these people have the gift of healing.  These gifts, of course, have to be discerned with a spiritual director.  Ask people to pray for your healing.  Or perhaps you yourself may feel a call to ask God to give you the charism of healing.

3.)  Third, at St. Catherine’s, we have a Healing Mass sponsored by Cancer Support Ministry (CSM) & Other Serious Illnesses every 4^th Sunday @ 2pm.  Here, you can also receive Anointing of the Sick, and people pray over you.

4.)  Fourth, another form of healing ministry is called “Deliverance Ministry”.  This is different from the Ministry of Exorcism.  Whereas in the Ministry of Exorcism a priest must be delegated by the bishop to do what is called a major exorcism or the Solemn Rite of Exorcism, Deliverance Ministry on the other hand involves an authorized priest with his team of people that have the charism of deliverance.  (Lay people and even priests without authority from the bishop should not engage the demon.)  In Deliverance Ministry, a person is freed and delivered from demonic activity and healed.  In the book Resisting the Devil: A Catholic Perspective on Deliverance, there are five main steps for deliverance.  I won’t mention all five now, but two of those steps are forgiving hurts and then renouncing certain sins.  Sometimes, a demon can latch on to an unforgiven hurt you or I may have.  But by forgiving and renouncing, this closes off doors that were initially open to the demonic.  Let Jesus heal this.

5.)  Fifth, there a set of prayers called “Prayers for Healing and Protection.”  Here’s a sample: “Heal, O Lord, all those wounds that have been the cause of all the evil that is rooted in my life.  I want to forgive all those who have offended me.  Look to those inner sores that make me unable to forgive.  You who came to forgive the afflicted of heart, Lord, heal my own heart.”

These prayers help heal hurt and protect our family tree, especially if there is a wound from a parent, can help heal our property, our finances, if someone has a hard time holding a job, school or having a relationship with others.

6.)  Sixth, as I mentioned, Deliverance Ministry is different from Exorcism. Of the 6 dioceses in Northern California, I have interacted with 4 exorcists officially appointed by their bishop from 4 separate dioceses.  Earlier this year, I witnessed a demonic possession case.  I won’t go into the details here other than to say that 3 things were powerful:  The first was the Name of Jesus to command the evil entity, then the rosary, and the St. Michael Prayer.  Eventually, the possessed person later met with one of the exorcists.

The point of this example isn’t to scare.  Rather, as we heard from the Word of God in the First Reading, it is written in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not!  Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you.” And as Bishop Myron Cotta said, there is a “great need for deliverance ministry among God’s people and discovering the gift of ‘freedom’ found in Jesus Christ.”

In summary, we looked at 2 Sacraments of healing with a focus on the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.  Second, we looked at some examples of healing and deliverance.  Like the man that was healed today, I invite you at the Offertory, as our gifts of bread and wine are bought up, bring whatever it is that is in need of healing so that Jesus the Divine Physician can touch it and heal it in his name.  Let our hearts be open to Jesus’ healing as he says to us, “Ephphata,” be opened.  Amen.