Making Connections

            Graduates of 2012, I congratulate all of you for your High School academic and extracurricular achievements that have brought you to commencement.  The pain is over and you can breathe—at least for now: no more rushing to class, taking exams, writing papers and  working in the lab.  You have run the race, achieved your goal and earned your diploma.  This is your day and our culture is pointing you toward the good life ahead.  But before you pursue the good life, how did you get where you are today?  Who paved the way for you?  The         celebrities of our day would have us believe that they have or they themselves are the answer.  To give credit, there have been good examples and even some heroes.  Consider how Steve Jobs has touched our lives in the 21^st century.  What an impact his innovations have made to change our present world and will, no doubt, continue doing so despite his passing as well as our passing from this world?  I can already imagine the day when neither I nor my computer will ever save any hard copies of anything I own.  It will all be out there somewhere in the “cloud.”  We will be retrieving all of our data from the network of the virtual world.  People like Steve Jobs had passion and changed our world.  He had the creativity to connect things and now we are all, at least, digitally connected. 

But before we all get lost in the virtual world of the cloud, we have all made other connections with the ordinary people who have become extraordinary heroes in our lives?  In the years of learning since your birth and your formal education, I submit to you that it is our    parents, our teachers and friends who have kept us well connected.  Parents certainly have endured burdens to offer you the shelter of their maturity, their wisdom and their labor.  Teachers who refused to give up on you, but tried one thing after another in a warm and caring way to unlock your desire for learning.  Friends have formed your social network and emotional bonds that provided you with a balance between work and fun.  And, I am sure there have been many others whose influence have urged you to go beyond yourself and to imagine yourselves as better, more compassionate and more thoughtful.  All these resulting accomplishments are yours, but the work to get there is by no means yours alone.  It is now the time for you to connect whatever you have learned from the work of these heroes to your own unique works.  And, in this way the next generation will come to know your particular gifts that were born from the common legacy of your life.

You, and we, and all who came before us, are   indebted to the ordinary heroes who helped us to carve out the milestones of our lives.  Through their work joined to our own we can each discover the passion in our own lives.  Do what you love to do and you can change the world for the better.  Dedicate yourselves to the things that are worthwhile—achievements that require sacrifice and pain and heartache and risk and, yes, sometimes, failure.  For your work to endure, desire what is good, be inspired by what is true and beautiful, and expand your spiritual strength.  Listen to the heroes who have truly cared for you.  Get enough sleep at the appropriate times, eat healthy, be honest with yourself, evaluate whether your goals are achievable and what effort is required.  Balance work, sports activities and social events.  Making connections from our past learning to our future hopes bring us into a community of companions who share our journey.  Making connections with new pilgrims along the way can enrich our lives and foster creativity.  As we reach out beyond ourselves in an ever expanding   community of work, study and service to others, we will also discover our own personal limitations.  Mutual relationships in community offer us what we need to be more than we can become by ourselves alone.  In making these connections with others we are formed and informed into a greater human being. 

But it does not end there.  Making connections stretches us beyond our reach in this world of space and time.  No matter how spiritual we as human beings can become by making connections on this earth, we must never lose sight of the bigger vision.  Wherever your lives take you, none of us is ever complete without making connections to another universe outside of our space and time world.  Community can both hurt and heal us.  We humans cannot fix everything.  Ultimately, there are questions that do not have answers and problems that  cannot be solved.  Our search in making connections must also take us beyond the limits of our human community into a universe of mystery. 

We all need to be connected with the absolute mystery of God.  There is yet another cloud much earlier than the internet cloud of the 21^st century.  The Hebrew Scriptures speak of it as a “column of cloud.”   By means of this cloud the presence of the divine preceded and showed a pilgrim people the way to their destination.  It reminds us even today that the God of every age is guiding us.   Faith in God is our connection beyond the limitations of humanistic spiritualism.  In your search for the good life, remain connected to God who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Graduates of 2012, my sincere congratulations to all of you and I wish you the blessings of a bright future as you continue “Making Connections!”

Mary Lead Me

When I think about a person who I'd like to try and model my life after, of course the obvious would be Jesus Christ, but my go to gal would have to be Mary, His mother.  Several years ago, she and the Holy Spirit teamed up to get my attention.  It was the year 2000, the Great Jubilee.  Having been a Catholic my whole life but distracted most of the time with the "things of life", I began to search for a deeper balance within myself of body, mind and soul.  I ramped up my exercise to 3 or 4 days a week, took the UD biblical study course that met weekly and decided to get to daily mass at least twice a week. That's when it first happened, the tug at my soul to receive Holy Communion more often and to pray the rosary daily.  I had always enjoyed the quiet “simpleness” of daily mass but had gotten away from it after college and as for the rosary, well, I knew very little about it.  So why now?  Why was I being drawn into this form of prayer that seemed so repetitive and quite frankly, boring.  After all, wasn't the rosary a prayer that little old ladies said or that you said when someone died?  Over the next year, I found myself studying up on the history, mystery and power of the rosary.  I quickly learned that it began with the desire of mankind to connect with our Lord Jesus Christ during their busy work days and that not only were there four simple prayers of the rosary but events or mysteries that are attached to those prayers.  Those repetitive Hail Mary's and Our Fathers did not stand alone but were supposed to pull me out of my busy life and put me in the scene from scripture with Jesus and Mary!  In 15 short minutes of my day, I could immerse myself in the rhythm of the rosary and spend time meditating on Jesus.

 Mary led me there.  That's what she does.  She constantly sets our hearts and feet on the path to eternal life.  She doesn't want one soul lost to this world but every soul united in the next with her Son, Jesus Christ. Perhaps we will never fully understand the connection that Jesus and Mary have to one another, but one thing is for certain, that Mary loves each of us as her own and that it is her deepest desire to help us chart the course for our lives in this world to the next.

Dear Blessed Mother, continue to see to our eternal souls! 

~Cathy N.

Life Force changing lives!

As a member of the Scholarship Committee for the Women's Group, I have been reading the 22 applications that we received this year. As an "older" member of our Catholic Community, I have not been involved, nor even thought about too much, our youth activities for our kids. However, after reading and digesting these essays, I am struck by what Good Shepherd Youth Programs are doing for the kids. Wednesday Night Live has obviously made a huge impression on our youth. It is not just a "get together" with friends and peers weekly to these teens...it is a life force which has changed all of them. The Confirmation Retreat seems to have brought unknown rewards to the students, both in their faith, their goals, and in their relationship with God...and others.

In our secular world, when the news is full of sad stories, it is so great to know that "my church" and "my priest" saw the value of youth activities in the parish. I wish my daughters had had the guidance of  Mark, and the response of Father Richard, when they were teens, facing their Catholic Faith head on.

~Cathy L

Arms outstretched in blessings....

Admit it. Sometimes when Father Richard asks us to raise our hands in blessing over the Eucharistic minister at the closing of mass, we inwardly groan a little. It’s hard work to hold your arms up like that and you’re ready to head out to brunch or lunch or the duties of the day. I had felt like that in the past until the day it dawned on me what an awesome symbol of community and outreach this simple gesture represented. One particular Sunday when bringing the Eucharist to a nursing home after receiving the blessing of Father and the entire parish, I described the blessing to the residents and had them close their eyes and imagine all of those hundreds of arms outstretched toward them in blessing. They were overwhelmed.

So often the elderly and infirm feel loneliness and disconnect from their faith community. They miss being able to attend mass and the many activities related to parish life. Knowing they have an entire community of the faithful sending a blessing their way each and every Sunday is a beautiful reminder of our truly being one body in Christ.

Natural Beauty of God's Creations

From the moment we stepped on the bus to the moment we got back to Good Shepherd, God had become evermore apparent in my life as he worked through the actions and words of those I’d been blessed with as companions for this experience. This faith journey started just a few hours after we had left the church with the praying of the Rosary. Two amazing adults on this trip gave each student an opportunity to pray the Rosary every night while on retreat as part of their Lenten journey. By doing this I truly realized the strength of prayer and even more so, witnessing prayer fortified by a group of young adults yearning for their relationships with Christ to swell with the wonderful Fruits of the Holy Spirit. After 16 long hours on the road we arrived in Durango. Driving between the Rocky Mountains gives you a taste of the majestic beauty and grace God has designed the greatest parts of our world with. Everyday from 9am-4pm we had the opportunity to take part first hand in these gifts as we enjoyed the wonderful spring skiing of Purgatory. Spending each day with other young Catholics who knew the obstacles of growing up in this day and age a created a new sense of camaraderie between each and everyone of us. After days of skiing hard and falling harder not much could come close in comparison to the experiences we had on the mountain. But each night, Mark Knox, Father Richard and the rest of the adults succeeded in doing this with flying colors. Coming home to our fantastic lodges each night, to the delectable food of “Momma T”, made leaving the lifts behind each day a little less difficult. As “Doctor” Chris Wright says, “Having the opportunity to experience this before I graduate has made a lasting impression in my Catholic faith”. And you should trust him, he’s a doctor! Each night we took part in mass accompanied by confession and on the last night, adoration. These hours of worship were something I had never encountered. A group of 50 young adults pouring themselves wholesomely into the liturgy and walking side by side through an entire night of praise. This preceded supper and night activities. Each night a different leader planned group events to compete in. From the first night of Fear Factor, to karaoke, and into the last night of hilarious infomercials and skits from start to finish this retreat was thoroughly entertaining. Just like everything they did this group of ten adults we had been blessed with, made this forever a memorable experience. As we departed from Durango there was the usual sadness of having to leave something so amazing behind, but as a group we decided to think of it differently. Friendships had been made, laughs had been had, and an innumerable amount of great memories were to be remembered. On our trek home, six hours from Dallas, I had a God sighting that I pray will never forget. We stopped our buses at a park that contained the 14 Stations of the Cross and an enormous cross that dwarfed even the west Texas plains. As we walked and read the stations, huge Texas storm clouds rolled across the pink setting Sun. Just being able to witness the awesome and natural beauty of God's creations one more time made this trip something I will surely never forget. 

~Soren

To give you His grace, and send you His Love...

Holy Thursday. What is Holy Thursday? It's the day marking the leading up to of the Easter Vigil. It is a day where Catholics celebrate not only the Eucharist, but Christ's priesthood, His last supper with His disciples, along with celebration of the Passover. The Last Supper was also Christ's farewell to His assembled disciples, some of whom would betray, desert or deny Him before the sun rose again.  

John 13:14-17 14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.  

The Catholic faith still practices this on Holy Thursday. The Priest has 12 individuals in which he washes their feet, just as Jesus told us to do. After, we are all invited to do the same and do for others as Jesus does for us. At this 'Chrism Mass' the Priest also blesses the oil of the Chrism used for Baptism and Confirmation. 

"The action of the Church on this night also witnesses to the Church's esteem for Christ's Body present in the consecrated Host in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carried in solemn procession to the flower-bedecked Altar of Repose, where it will remain 'entombed' until the communion service on Good Friday. No Mass will be celebrated again in the Church until the Easter Vigil proclaims the Resurrection. 

And finally, there is the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by the people during the night, just as the disciples stayed with the Lord during His agony on the Mount of Olives before the betrayal by Judas."

The above information is so profound to me. As our Priest wrapped up the body of Christ, and processed out of the church tonight, holding it almost like a casket, I wept. The procession followed, the church sang a solemn song, flowers were carried out following the procession. So many emotions overcame me.  I left church overwhelmed with emotion for many reasons. What a holy night and what a start to this Easter weekend.

What is so good about Good Friday? This is the day that is celebrated amongst Christian faiths worldwide, remembering the death and suffering our Jesus Christ. The good in all this suffering, is to remember that Jesus did this for our sins. And because of that act, we are able to celebrate with Him eternally. That is not just good, it's wonderful.

When I think about the cross we bear as humans, I've come to see that there are many people which carry such a heavy burden. I've come to see that we are not the only family that has been faced with tragedy and loss. I've come to see that there are so many families, individuals, that carry their own burdens and that have so many hardships. Some more than ours.

"My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?"

Even He in His human nature cries out why. God has not promised us a calm passage, but a safe landing. If we believe in Him.

Whatever your cross, whatever your pain,

There will always be sunshine, after the rain....
Perhaps you may stumble, perhaps even fall;
But God's always ready, to answer your call....
He knows every heartache, sees every tear,
A word from His lips, can calm every fear...
Your sorrows may linger, throughout the night,
But suddenly vanish, dawn's early light...
The Savior is waiting, somewhere above,
To give you His grace, and send you His love...

Channan

Easter Triduum

Click for four good reasons why Good Shepherd Catholic Community invites you to celebrate the three highest holy days of the Pascal Triduum with Catholics throughout the world on Holy Thursday (April 5 at 7:00 PM), Good Friday (April 6 at 7:00 PM) and the Easter Vigil on Saturday night (April 7 at 8:30 PM).