Thank You Letter to Parishioner

Thank You Letter to Deacon Couple Mentors

Baptism Prep Class Recording

I was only able to record 1 hr. of a 1.5 hr. class.  I gotta get me one of those recorders one day.

St. Joseph, Vacaville (Feb. 23, 2016)
1 of 2

St. Joseph, Vacaville (Feb. 23, 2016)
2of 2

Impression of Traditional Latin Mass

I attended Confession and what is called a Low Mass at St. Stephen the First Martyr Parish in Sacramento this past week.

For a Novus Ordo permanent deacon 9n like me, here were my first impressions:

Deliverance Ministry

I attended an Unbound Deliverance Ministry Conference this weekend.

Here's what I learned:

My Time w/the Bishop

Under construction

The Servant Song

Commentary on Fr. Leatherby Ash Wed. Homily

My commentary on Fr. L. is what caused my wife to tell me, "This was touching.  I love you!!!  Now, that is what makes you most attractive!"  

 

On Ash Wed., my wife emailed me a link to Fr. Leatherby's homily called "Being One With Him": http://traffic.libsyn.com/frleatherby/2016Feb10.mp3

 



 

Fr. L. preached about how, when one loves another, one is willing to suffer with that person.  I think that, from a human level, this can be desired and lived out, as when a man suffers for a woman he loves. 

 

What touched me about Father's words was how he applied this to Our Lord.  Let me explain. 

 

For me, I have had many moments when I sensed that God sometimes takes certain sufferings away from me b/c I can find some of them overwhelming.  I would "put it back on Jesus" in the Garden of Gethsemane b/c He is, after all, the Savior of the world who can handle my suffering.  (By suffering, I don't necessarily mean my own personal physical suffering, but I can be overwhelmed when I hear of the sufferings of others.)

 

But Fr. L. reminded me that if one truly loves Jesus, one should be willing to share whatever Passion of His that He wants to share.  Of course, this is easier said than done, but it is a prayer that must be prayed. 

 

That is what moved me: To want to suffer with Jesus and not just accept union with Christ's passion.  That is what His Mother did.  "Son, let me die with you," as we see from "The Passion of the Christ." 

It was a break-through moment for me: To accept the suffering from Him and not place it back on Him like I sometimes do.  When one loves another, one is willing to take that suffering unto himself for the sake of the beloved.

 

I replied to my wife's email of Father L.'s homily that she sent me, "I love you, Lord, and want to share in your passion.  It is a difficult prayer but one that must be prayed.  Compatible....  To suffer with.   Let's talk and reflect on that some time."

 

She said to me, "This was touching.  I love you!!!  Now, that is what makes you most attractive!" 

Marriage Prep Talk to Engaged Couples

 

 

Pre-Cana Marriage Prep Talk to Engaged Couples

Only 30 of 60 mins recorded -- battery died during talk.

On God's plan for marriage, sex and family

 

Monday, Feb. 8, 2016
St. Joseph's, Vacaville, CA

"Happy Almost Valentine's Day"

My wife wrote me a note at the Cha-am Thai restaurant last night.

My Journey To The Diaconate (Homily #55) - "Follow Me, Dennis"

Michael Oher w/adoptive parents

 

Homily #55a (Sat., Feb. 6, 2016, 5pm Mass)

 



 Homily #55d (Sun., Feb. 7, 2016, 12pm Mass)

 

Homily #55c (Sun., Feb. 7, 2016, 10am Mass)

 

Homily #55b (Sun., Feb. 7, 2016, 830am Mass)

 



 

HOMILY #55

My Journey to the Diaconate

"Follow Me, Dennis"

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Joseph's, Vacaville, CA
Feb. 6-7, 2016 (preached @ 4 Masses)

 

I.

One football player to watch in Super Bowl 50 this year is Michael Oher, #73 offensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers.  In his youth, he had no parents to take care of him.  Eventually, a kind family raises him up and gives him an education.  Later, as an adult, he is drafted and recruited into the NFL.  His adopted mom called this an “amazing journey” to the Super Bowl.

Whether in athletics, or business, the military or education, the recruitment phase is an important stage in one’s life.  That’s the first main point.  [SKIP IF NO TIME: In spy movies, one recruits just the right kind of special agent.  In science fiction movies like Star Trek, a big deal is made over the beginnings of how the main characters joined the crew of the Star Ship Enterprise.  The President of the United States will want the right appointments on his cabinet.  And when applying for a job, a company recruiter acts as a gatekeeper.  There are recruiters that are paid high six-figure incomes to recruit just that one right person.]  You want the right people on your team. 

But whether it’s the beginnings of a Super Bowl athlete, or the beginnings of a new job, or recruiting for the military or a new teacher, people ask of these individuals, “What’s your story?  How did you start off?”

II.

 

We see the importance of a recruitment story in today’s Gospel.  Here, we see the humble beginnings of the great Simon the Fisherman first following of Jesus.  Jesus called Simon Peter and the other disciples to follow him and said that they will catch souls for God.  Simon eventually became Peter the first Pope of the Church.  Jesus called Peter Simon and made him fish for God’s Kingdom.  This was Simon Peter’s vocation.  The word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare which means “to call”.

The second point is this: Just as Jesus recruited Simon Peter, so Jesus recruits you and me.  Each of us has a recruitment story of how Jesus called us to follow Him. 

This homily is where I become a little more personal with my own vocation story as a deacon.  I have preached over 50 homilies since my ordination as a married permanent deacon.  My hope is to increase awareness of what permanent deacon is here at St. Joseph’s and to show you how one can become a married deacon.  Perhaps Jesus is calling you to this.  Or you might know someone who might be a good deacon one day.  Or we might support someone as a parish.

I was in high school when I met my first permanent deacon at St. John’s in Milpitas.  I had just started practicing my Catholic faith more after my grandfather (Benedicto) passed.  (At the time, I was an altar server, just received the Sacrament of Confirmation, and eventually became a catechist teacher.)  The new parish deacon’s name was Eugene O’Sullivan, a nuclear engineer, an Irishman in his 60s from Kansas.  His wife’s name was Lois.  When they first came to my boyhood parish, I remember clearly like it was yesterday the day Deacon O’Sullivan gave a homily on what permanent deacons are and what they do.  I will take a minute or so to do exactly what he did 25 years ago.  It’s like what St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians that we heard in the Second Reading, “For I handed on to you…what I also received”.

Perhaps Deacon O’Sullivan did not know that he was fishing that day when he preached.  He said, “A deacon is a member of the clergy.  He is a servant of the people.  He assists the priest during Mass and outside of Mass.  Deacons used to only be a stepping stone to become a priest for many centuries, but Vatican II allowed/restored married men to serve as permanent deacons who do not intend to become priests.  That’s why they are called “permanent” and not transitional deacons.  He said a deacon can baptize, preach homilies at Mass on occasion, officiate weddings and funerals, do blessings and Benedictions, and can have a wife and family.  The deacon speaks for the voiceless and the poor through acts of charity.  Deacons typically are not called “Father” and are rather (in the Latin rite) simply called “Deacon”.  Permanent deacons do not receive a salary.  Our joke among the deacons is that we have a great raise which is zero every year and we receive a great retirement package when we die!

His wife Lois would sit in front during Mass.  She would have her eyes closed as the Word of God was proclaimed.  Deacon O’Sullivan and his wife, Lois, were fishers of souls 25 years ago.    

Later, at a reception celebrating an anniversary for a priestly ordination – it was December 23, 1990 – someone from the parish, from the Legion of Mary, approached me and asked if I felt called to be a priest.  The parishioner, too, was fishing.  I replied that I sensed a call to be married and to serve Him as a married man, and I brought up the possibility of being like Deacon O’Sullivan.  And he said, “Yeah.”  His affirmation was part of my recruitment story.

I knew that I would have wait 20 years until after age 35 before ordination since that is the minimum age to become a permanent deacon.  After a career in Catholic education and some years of marriage, I applied thinking that I would need to wait for the next class of students to be ordained deacons.  During the paper work application process, I remember at one point looking at all the requirements and being a little discouraged.  I would also need to talk to my pastor who didn’t know me as much since my wife knew my pastor more than me.  And all applicants also need to be evaluated by a psychologist.  And typically, a younger candidate with kids is an unlikely candidate.  That night, as I had the paper work in front of me, I then remember plopping face-down on my bed thinking it was not possible.  And then, there was a peaceful silent voice in my heart.  It said, “Follow me, Dennis.”  It wasn’t just “Follow me,” it was “Follow me, Dennis.”  The peaceful voice called me by name.  So I applied.

After admission, there were a few times I didn’t think I was going to make it.  My wife and I found out that we were pregnant during candidacy, and I thought, “Oh, this is it.  I may need to drop out of the program.  But when I told the Diocese, one of my teachers [Deacon Mark Holdt] said to me, “Wow!  What a gift!  The gift of life!”  This would happen three times during formation.

Since the Diocese knew I was educated by Jesuit priests, I remember being asked to meet with a spiritual director every week which I did, and we did the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola.  The priest told me, “Okay, I want you to spend an hour to pray, like before the Blessed Sacrament, and journal your experience with Jesus in the Gospels.”  I said, “Okay, cool, I’ve been meaning to pray every week.”  He said, “I want you to do this EVERY DAY during your time with me!”  I took a big gulp and said, “Uhh, yes.”  And so, during formation, I encountered Jesus in the Gospel I would one day proclaim.  I fell in love with God’s people, his Church.  And five years later, before the bishop laid his hands on my head as I lay prostrate on the floor of the cathedral, I asked for the virtues of the Blessed Mother.  Again, the second point is that: Just as Jesus recruited Simon Peter, so Jesus recruits you and me in different ways.  It’s like different flowers in a garden.  All please God in various ways.

 III.

Third and finally, having heard these vocation stories, I offer you a few points of meditation about Jesus recruiting you and me from the Gospels.   The first is that Jesus Himself initiates the vocation.  There’s a popular saying: God does not call the qualified; God qualifies the called.  God doesn’t always pick the best people or most likely people.  But when He does, it is God who qualifies you.

Another point of meditation is that when Jesus does call you, sometimes you might doubt things will work out, just like Simon Peter did when Jesus told Him to go fish again or me in my vocation story when I doubted a few times.  We seem to be stuck on what we think we know, but when we eventually do what He says, Jesus will work miracles in our lives the way a miraculous boatload of fish came to Peter Simon’s boat. 

And then we want to say, like Peter Simon, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  We see God’s miracles in our lives for the times we do follow Him, but then our eyes focus on our weaknesses and failures and our sins, and this may cause us to say that I am not worthy to serve God and His Church.  But even when Simon Peter acknowledges his sins and weaknesses, Jesus wants him all the more!  He wants you all the more to follow Him.  He still chooses you!  As we sometimes pray in the liturgy, “You choose the weak and make them strong, in bearing witness to you.”  Jesus speaks to you and me through Simon Peter, “Do not be afraid, for you will be catching human souls for God’s Kingdom. 

They left everything and followed Him.  For you and me that have to live in the world, how do you think this can be applied to you and me that aren’t priests and nuns.  Leaving everything then here has a spiritual meaning.  It means leaving our old baggage, our weaknesses, our pride, and whatever there is that gets in the way in following Him.  Remember, Simon Peter was at work.  He may call you at work or at home, but the point is that you are still following Him in whatever circumstances you find yourself in, and to follow Him every day of our lives.

 

IV.

 

So dear brothers and sisters, what is your story in 5 mins or less?  How has God called and recruited you?  How have you responded?  Perhaps this Lenten season, beginning this Ash Wednesday, Feb. 10, you can prayerfully discern how you can follow Him ever more faithfully.

In closing, in the movie The Passion of the Christ, when Mary meets Jesus while He is on the way to be crucified, Mary says, “I’m here.”  Let Mary’s response be our response, too, the same words from the First Reading, as it is written in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?”  Let your response, every day of our lives, always be, like Mary, “Here I am”  “Here I am….send me!”