sitting at o’hare waiting to board for the flight to San Salvador for a mission trip. Twelve of us comprise the “group,” an appropriate number by biblical standards. We will to visiting various sites that Catholic ReliefServices has a presence in. Our goal is to return to Chicago to build awareness for the mission and purpose of Catholic Relief Services. 

What a beautiful touch of irony that we arrive in San Salvador during the festivities associated with the Beatification of Oscar Romero, who was assassinated while saying Mass on March 24, 1980. He was a passionate prophet for the poor and those suffering from injustice. Romero started his ministry as a rather timid leader who played it safe, staying within the bounds of established ways of being a bishop and excersizing authority. It was the brutal death of a number of his priests, particularly Fr. Rutilio Grande, and the continued disappearance of countless people, that totally transformed this quiet, conservative leader into a man of fire with the Spirit. He was in his late 50’s, yet another reminder that we are never too old. 

I believe our group is in store for quite an experience, one that will awaken dormant ideals and trouble consciences that are much too comfortable. Seeing with one’s own eyes the harsh realities of decades,and even centuries,  of injustice is a fairly certain vehicle of inner transformation. People can be reduced to the impersonal status of statistics that several about in newspapers and on news programs. Even the visuals associated with television and the Internet are inadequate,  for we are far removed from the reality these statistics and stories describe in the comfort of our living room or  local coffee houses surfing the web. 

Pray for us on this mission in which the demands of the gospel will most assuredly enlighten, awaken and disturb. 

Oscar Romero…Pray for Us

Peace. Fr. Frank

Once again , the Lord in His Resurrected Body wasn’t recognized by the two disciples on that road to Emmaus. Yes, they were traveling AWAY from Jerusalem, back into their lives as they were before their encounter with jesus. But there is no going back…

Jesus approaches them and he rains a stranger to them. He questions them about why they seem sad and defeated and they explain to jesus what happened to HIM!!! Obviously, they did not recognize Jesus until…

He explains the scriptures to them, about the messiah and what had been prophesied about his fate of suffering and death. Jesus was unearthing the soil of their hearts, preparing them for an experience that would completely turn their lives around. They asked him to come into their homes and stay with them to eat supper. At the table , Jesus blessed they bread , breaks it and…they FINALLY recognize Jesus in the “breaking of the bread.” It is then, once they recognize Him, that He vanishes from their sight, leaving them to wonder why their hearts weren’t on fire as they walked with Jesus. 

And they return back to Jerusalem to spread the Good News. Jesus reoriented their lives to embrace the power of the Resuurection, not run away from it. There is no turning back. We must keep moving forward in life and not attempt to run away from challenges. The disciples couldn’t just return back to their home village as if nothing had changed. Everything had changed !!! Their worlds were changed forever by their encounter with Christ as he walked with them on the road… As he entered their homes.,. as he explained the story of the Scriptures… As he broke bread… 

They “turn around” and go BACK  to the city where it all started to announce the “good news” about what happened to them. But without their encounter with Jesus, they would have no reason to go back , since they would have nothing to share. 

How do you encounter Jesus in your life? Do you have a relationship with the Risen Lord that gives your life meaning ? 

Peace. Fr. Frank

Mary goes to the tomb in the early hours to anoint jesus buy his body isn’t in the tomb. She encounters a couple of angels and a man she thinks is a gardener…but He is Jesus, RISEN. It really and truly IS Jesus but somehow His Body has been transformed and she can’t quite place Him. Mary only recognizes Jesus when He calls her by name, “Mary!”

Mary us overwhelmed with Joy!! And so are we. Jesus IS Risen in each other and in the Church. He calls each one of us by name, to leave our suffocating tombs of fear and isolation and into a garden of delight! How fitting Mary mistakes Jesus for a gardener, for it all started in a garden named Eden. Jesus shed tears of blood  in a garden called Gethsemene, where He accepted the will  of the Father to embrace the Cross. 

We are all called to be gardeners, planting seeds of God’s love and presence. May our “garden” sprout plants of new life and flowers of virtue. Easter is a never-ending transformation and restoration of the world into a garden of Joy. May YOU be mistaken for a gardener, even if you don’t have a green thumb !!!

Easter Peace. Fr. Frank

One  of the greatest musicals ever to come out of Broadway is Les Miserables: a word that means:  the lowly ones… the poor…the outcast. A moving take of love and sacrifice and redemption. God’s “Miserables” are at the heart of Jesus and the gospel; they are also at the heart of the prophet Isaiah’s call to sacrifice and fast NOT by giving up something, but by DOING something for God’s Miserables, and Isaiah specifically mentions two of the most vulnerable: the orphan and widow. 

Lent is a time and a season of sacrifice and giving up. What sacrifice most pleases our God? The answer is no different today than in Isaiah’s, over 2,500 years ago: do something to help the most vulnerable in our society: the poor, the undocumented, the abused children, those who are “trafficked”, the unborn, the lonely. 

What can our church, our parish, do, right now,  at this Lent? We can have the courage to do what is in our power and ability to take our place among the “Miserables”, by walking in their shoes and washing their feet. “Foot Washing” is a sacrifice most  pleading to Christ. At the heart of gospel living is to see ourselves as one of God’s Miserables…and find salvation. 

Peace. Fr. Frank 

The photos were taken at the three morning masses at St. Teresa of Avila in Chicago. 



what makes a person holy? Is it a title, a religious habit, ordination, or living in a monastery or convent? None if the above. The word “holiness” means being integrated and “whole.” Someone is holy who humbly  follows the path God has chosen for them. And accepts one’s strengths and limitations. Holy people have no other desire than to live freely the life God has willed for them, refusing to compare their life with any other. 

Holy people come in all shapes, sizes and walks of life. Like the prophet Jonah, we frequently encounter holiness in surprising, even shocking places. Jonah’s worldview was shattered when he witnessed the repentence and conversion of the ninevites, people he considered to be the enemy. He tried to run away from God who wanted him to preach to these people Jonah felt superior to. 

Be careful about running away from God…you may end up in the belly of a big fish, perhaps a whale!! Jonah learned the hard way that God is to be encountered in the least likely of places. God can even be encountered when we make mistakes, ending up being swallowed up by a monster fish! Yes, God was there with Jonah in the belly of the whale. After the whale spit him out, perhaps through indigestion, Jonah ended up in the beach and God led him to the city of Nineveh where he preached a message of conversion. Jonah, himself, had the biggest change of heart when the God he so  loved broke through the box Jonah had contained Him in. 

You are a person created in God’s image and you are called to become holy. May people encounter God in YOU…and in the encounter, holiness is exchanged and the world is transformed, encounter by encounter. 

Peace. Fr. Frank

Everyone wants to be a person of prayer. The question is one posed by the disciples of Jesus, and continued to be asked today: how do I pray? Prayer is at the heart of our relationship with God, creating an encounter that is deeply personal. God is calling you specifically, now, by your name. Our God is not some distant Supreme Being who is unapproachable, but a personal God who entered our history concretely through Jesus, the Christ. And He continued to enter YOUR history. 

Jesus teachers us how to pray by calling God “Father,” a shocking metaphor for those who are more comfortable keeping God at a distant. In teaching the “Our Father,” jesus made prayer a deeply personal encounter with the Living God. 

Prayer us simplyvbeing in the presence of this Living God: praising, thanking, listening, loving. When we expect some feeling or concrete message in prayer we become disappointed and frustrated. Prayer is simply showing up everyday without fail and trusting when God seems so distant and even absent. This spiritual desert is the very beginning of prayer. When God “seems” absent, He is more present than we can realize at the time. It takes time and a complete reorientation of our awareness as prayer deepens. 

Trust that God is present, for God is luring you into the desert to speak to your heart, as the prophet Hosea beautifully teaches. In the desert we are stripped of consolations and emotions, so that we don’t rely on them or identify them with God. 

Just keep showing up and don’t worry about the words you use or the length of time. Prayer does need time and consistently if it is going to deepen. But we must be flexible and persistent. Spend one minute being aware of your breathing as you let go of thoughts; ask the Spirit to fill you; be silent for 







 two or three minutes, letting go of thoughts; thank God for these few minutes; offer a prayer for a particular person or intention; pray the Our Father. Ten or fifteen minutes everyday is all God needs. Is it worth the effort? 

Peace. Fr. Frank 

Very few people are attracted to a religion or church of judgement. Religious leaders who come across as judgmental are seen as condescending and hypocritical. And yet we all make judgments everyday of our lives.

We judge attitudes , political and religious; we judge appearances and speech; we judge people who live differently and love differently. Making judgments is important and necessary…we can’t get around it. But there is a great difference between making judgments and becoming judgmental.

Being judgmental conveys an attitude of superiority, taking an, “I’m right and you’re wrong,” approach to life. Judgmental people love to draw the line between who’s in and who’s out…of the church, in social groups , and political affiliations. “Us versus them,” becomes the tired anthem.

God’s beautiful sun shines on us ALL: the good and the not so good. And we ALL fall into both camps, if we are truly honest with ourselves. God is the sole Judge of our hearts and souls. And God’s judgment ultimately is grounded in how we treat each other, in other words, by our actions.
Today’s gospel, Matthew 25, is the “magna carta” of the gospel: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink….that what you do to my least one’s, you do to ME.” This judgement scene has the king separating the goats from the sheep: the goats on the left and the sheep on the right ( a designation having nothing to do with politics!!) the sheep are those who feed the poor; the goats are those who neglect the poor. In neglecting the poor and the thirsty and the sick and the lonely…. we neglect God. The goats end up in hell, not a good end.
Yes, God will judge our characters by how we reach out to the “least ones.” Actually, we end up judging our own selves, our very souls, when we fail to help the needy. And when we live under a bubble of self absorption, we create our own hell. God doesn’t have to put us in this place of torment; we do it ourselves. Words can only have power if they are followed by concrete actions of charity and Justice. Physically encountering the poor will change lives and hearts. Sharing dinner with the poor at any soup kitchen can completely turn one’s life upside down, the position of the saint.
Writing checks just isn’t enough because it’s the easiest out, the road most traveled.

But God wants us for himself…God wants our salvation…God will haunt us every second of our lives…but God will always give us the freedom to elude His grasp…the grasp of Mercy. I have no doubt, though, that when we breath our last , God will breath his spirit into our hardened heart, breaking it open, allowing divine mercy to seep into the crevices of years of brittle judgment.
God will have the Last Word. Forgiveness. Mercy. Resurrection. Eternal Easter.
Peace. Fr. Frank

The Spirit drive jesus into the desert of temptation. And he faced this battle hungry and vulnerable. The humanity of jesus was in clear focus in the gospel that begins our journey into Lent.

We must face the temptation that faces each one of us and this temptation can be summed up in the following: live life on your own terms not God’s, a journey that leads nowhere. The tempter, Satan, wanted Christ NOT to accept the mission of the Father, to give his life in absolute unconditional Love for us…for all of humanity. Christ chose FREELY the road less traveled, a road of selfless Love leading to the Cross of suffering and salvation.

Freely choose to follow the path God wants for you, a path that respects the character, talents, temperament and limitations given you by God, Himself.
The Tempter will always try and “trip” you up, saying in so manny words, “take the easy way; think of yourself first and find happiness in the things that glitter.”

Now is the time to say NO to these temptations. Choose the way of unconditional love, a way that always involves the Cross… A way that always leads to Resurrection and Joy. The Angels who ministered to Jesus in the desert of temptation will hover over you on the path chosen for you by God. The Angels, the Saints, Christ will be your constant companions on the road less traveled.

Peace. Fr. Frank

The calling of matthew , the tax collector, in today’s gospel , was portrayed by the great Italian painter Caravaggio. He portrays Jesus as walking past matthew, pointing at him with his index finger. The “calling” is quick, with Jesus walking past him, and the feeling one gets while gazing at this masterpiece : NOW is the moment, matthew. If Matthew remained at his custom’s post with the others in the portrait, jesus just would have kept walking on.

Each person is “called” no less than Matthew, and this “call” is to reorient one’s life to the Gospel. It demands a change , and for Matthew , it meant giving up his corrupt livelihood. Jesus is walking by you, ceaselessly, without fail , and if you are like most of us reading this, you miss the moment. But Jesus won’t give up: he keeps walking by, pointing his finger, asking us to change something about our lives. NOW us the moment….Carpe Diem!!

What the portrait doesn’t show is Matthew getting up , leaving his post and following Jesus. But that is exactly what he did. Later, Matthew invited jesus to his home for a dinner party, causing many to wag their finger in disapproval. Jesus used his finger to call a person to have life and have it in abundance; Jesus’ detractors,those scandalized by his eating and befriending terrible sinners, caused them to use their finger to judge and condemn.

Lent us the time…NOW us the moment to encounter jesus in your heart of prayer…he is looking at you…gazing on the beauty of your very being…loving you in your brokenness and pointing you to follow him. He won’t tell you where he is leading you, but most certainly, a feast awaits.
Lent always leads to Easter.

Peace and Joy. Fr. Frank
Note : I included a photo of the portrait by Caravaggio. It’s the best I could do. Google the portrait for a better shot.

The word “fasting” brings to mind not eating or giving up food for a particular purpose. Last week, I fasted from food and drink for 12 hours before my annual physical. This fast was done solely for medical reasons. Many fast when dieting, the primary motivation good health or a better looking physique. What about religious or spiritual fasting? All the world’s major religions engage in some sort of fasting, total or partial. In the Catholic tradition our fasting is quite easy: two small meals and one larger one with no eating in between. And once you hit 59 years or older , the fasting laws no longer applies. I think the church needs to look at why the cut off date is so young….this year I turn 59 so I guess I no longer have to fast after this lent.
The first reading from Isaiah gives us a whole new understanding of fasting, at least it’s new for many of us not familiar with the Book of Isaiah written well over two thousand years ago. This prophet, so familiar to Jesus who frequently referred to it in the gospels, speaks of fasting in this manner, “This, then, is the fasting I wish: releasing those bound unjustly; sharing your bread with the hungry; sheltering the oppressed and homeless; clothing the naked when you see them.”

What are we fasting from in these real, human life experiences? In these situations, we “fast” from attachment to clothing and food, only so that our clothes and food can help another human being…we fast from injustice when we work to protect the rights of people who suffer from discrimination because of what they believe or how they live …we fast from our comforting environments by allowing the lonely to have a place. In essence, we fast from self absorption and indifference, making justice and compassion what feeds and nourishes us.

Lenten fasting is meant to release US from what we are attached to…what binds us …what makes us hunger and thirst…what alienates us from community. We become free when we are the ones who give food, drink, clothes, shelter, friendship and Justice.
We fast so that we can become more generous and compassionate.

Peace. Fr. Frank