Understanding our Catholic faith and beliefs are important.  In a world where there are countless beliefs, many that are contrary to our faith, it is important to study and learn our own faith. However, with the globalization of many cultures, some people will try to avoid conflict and take a universal approach by accepting all beliefs as “equal but different.”  Or, in order to avoid conflict all together without rejecting their own beliefs, they will say, “I agree to disagree.”  

I, however, would like challenge us with a simple fact: belief leads to action. This means that right beliefs leads to right action, and wrong belief leads to wrong action.  Therefore, it is important to practice right beliefs. For example, if I don’t believe there is anything wrong with my weight or health when I’m overweight and out of shape, I won’t change my habits to correct it. 

That’s why I’m grateful for not only these last few years of our Eucharistic revival in the Catholic Church in the U.S., but these last few weeks at Mass as we proclaimed the 6^th chapter of the Gospel of John, also known as “The Bread of Life Discourse.”  The Lord confirms what we truly believe as he states, “I am the living bread that came down from Heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Even as the Jews seem to quarrel, Jesus doubles down “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

This belief should draw us to right action! It should stir up in us the desire to receive our Lord, to be with our Lord, and to encounter the depth of his love in the Eucharist. Recently, I was approached and asked the following question, “I am away from the Lord, but how can I grow in my relationship with Jesus?”  My response was to seek out the Sacraments. We truly believe that God acts in them and that through them He encounters us. Seek out the Sacrament of Confession, the Anointing of the Sick, and never, I repeat never, separate yourself from the Eucharist!  Do these simple things and you will never be far from the Lord.  Even Jesus makes it clear, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” May we always be grateful to have received the great gift of the Catholic Faith, and these incredible truths that Jesus himself shares with us.

Father Michael

When I was in FOCUS, I had the opportunity to work with many amazing and faithful lay men and women. I always enjoyed coming together for our summer training where we could reconnect and share the amazing ways that the Lord had worked in our lives.  We would share everything from our daily struggles to the many graces we encountered in serving the Lord. One of the stories that remains with me to this day came from a missionary who was hesitant that she could even do this type of amazing work when she first arrived.  Her dad was a deacon in the Church, and she came across FOCUS not through her own experience, but through outside recruitment.  She was hired, but felt overwhelmed as she compared herself to the other missionaries.  She felt like she didn’t have the ability to reach others for the Lord. However, she eventually overcame that fear and it literally changed her life.  

In her first couple of years, she gained confidence and grew to trust in the Lord.  Her “yes” to missionary work would eventually lead her to find her vocation and her spouse. She encountered a man who was not practicing any faith. She doubted that her invitation to him to encounter the Lord would bear any fruit, but something happened. Grace entered him, his heart was opened to the Lord, and he had a conversion of faith – which led to a deepening of their friendship.  Before she knew it they were dating, which led to a proposal, marriage, and now a beautiful family. 

What struck me the most was how she came back and shared her hesitancy of how she doubted that the Lord could work in her simple invitation.  Clearly, the Lord had amazing and beautiful plans.  Her story always strikes me because it highlights a common theme among all of us: How often do we put limitations on how God can work in our lives and in the lives of others? 

This isn’t anything new, and we see it in the Gospel as Jesus proclaims that he is the” Bread of Life” and the “Bread sent down from Heaven.” The people begin to question Jesus’ origin saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?” Their doubt was that God could not work through someone they knew. They doubted that God could do something so personal in their own lives.  Yes, they believed in the great stories of Moses and how the Israelites were provided Manna every day in the desert.  However, when it came to something personal, they felt that God was far away!

The Gospel, the good news, is that God is not far away.  He comes to us every weekend in a deep and personal way in the Eucharist.  Every time we receive the Lord in the Eucharist, we receive a profound gift of Love. Let us cast our doubts aside and realize the beautiful gift we receive in the Eucharist: the Body and Blood of Christ!   

Father Michael

I love Colorado!  I would always joke that those words would just come out of my mouth as I tried to grasp the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I had a chance to live in Colorado for 4 years, 1 year in Colorado Springs and 3 years in Boulder. In that time, I had a chance to hike some beautiful mountains, or 14er’s, which the locals called mountains that were 14,000 feet above sea level.

One thing is clear; to climb a mountain takes a lot of work and preparation – and sometimes even training! It’s interesting to see that the Scriptures and early church writers both saw the spiritual journey as similar to climbing a mountain. Some of it has to do with the idea of climbing to the heights of heaven. But, it also reveals the simple truth of our faith; we can’t be passive and we can’t just stand still. We must always seek God’s grace to grow ever closer to him; otherwise, we would just slide down the mountain due to our tendency to sin, known as concupiscence.

 In the story of the Exodus, God revealed his ultimate power over creation through the 10 plagues. Then the Israelites were protected from Pharaoh and his army through the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. And yet, after all that we see the Israelites slide into sin and desire to go back to Egypt, longing to return to slavery and worship of pagan idols. What happened?  They stopped surrendering and trusting in the Lord in the midst of the desert, even though they had seen his power.

How many of us in our Christian journey have had a powerful encounter with God, only to doubt his love for us when we enter the desert of life or encounter a cross we did not want. The Israelites reaction was, “I want to go back to when life didn’t involve the cross.” 

In the first reading, God reveals to the people that he will provide the food they need to make it through the desert. In the Gospel today, the Lord leads us into the Bread of Life Discourse, revealing that which will give us the strength to endure through the desert and crosses of life.  He is going to give us his very self in the Eucharist at every Mass. As we come to our last year of the Eucharistic Revival, may the desire remain that we cling close to the Lord and that we stay close to the Eucharist. Let us pray that despite whatever we may be going through in our lives, we may always seek the grace of God in the Eucharist- that which will nourish and strengthen us on our journey to God!  

Father Michael

Every year for the feast of St. Lucy, my family makes arancini, which are balls of rice mixed with cheese and egg that we fill with a meat sauce, cover with breadcrumbs and egg, and fry. One year, it turned out that I was making the arancini too big and we wouldn’t have enough for everybody. I quickly pivoted and started taking rice from the bigger arancini I had already made and made smaller ones. My uncle was amazed, and he kept telling people about how I seemed to make more arancini appear out of nowhere.

Clearly, what I did wasn’t a miracle. And unfortunately, some people interpret Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand in a similar way. They say that all the people in the crowd had brought some food with them and shared it, so that it was really a “miracle of sharing.” But why would we want to turn what is clearly a miracle into something mundane?

On the spiritual level, it’s because, as Michelle Benzinger says, we believe the lie that our God is a god of scarcity. But He is a God of abundance! The miracle of today’s Gospel shows it. Yet often we still live in the lie of scarcity.

To some extent, it makes sense. The Gospel begins with five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men. That clearly is not enough. But Jesus does not want us to remain in that place. So He takes the bread, gives thanks, and gives it to the five thousand, and there are twelve wicker baskets full of leftover fragments!

Maybe we wonder why Jesus doesn’t feed everyone this way. In a way, what we’re really saying is, “Why doesn’t God do this for me?” But it’s not about the food. It’s about the fact that Jesus will provide us with more than enough.

We see this above all in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, Jesus continues to feed us, not just with bodily food, but with His own Body and Blood. And even as we go to Mass every week, we might be tempted to give into the lie of scarcity. But God is giving us Himself; there is nothing more that He can give us.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus performs the miracle to test His disciples. They could have refused to follow Jesus’ command, but they obey, and through their faith, a miracle takes place. At every Mass, a greater miracle than the feeding of the five thousand takes place. It’s up to us to receive it.

When I was making the arancini, all I did was redistribute the rice that was already there, but God works true miracles of abundance in our lives. He will not abandon us because a situation is too difficult, though the way He come through might be in a way we might not expect, whether through five barley loaves and two fish or a little bit of bread and wine.

Father Frank

Have you ever come back from a vacation and felt like you needed another vacation from your vacation?  As we work, we come to know our limitations and the need to take a break. However, I would argue that not many of us know how to refuel properly. For example, I’ll go for a run (once in a blue moon) only to come back and eat that candy bar, because I think I deserve it!  As much as the candy bar tastes good, it is not exactly what my body needs after a run.

Many of us exert ourselves, but then try to refuel with things that never satisfy. In these summer months, many of us find time to go on a vacation. However, I would encourage you to reflect on how replenishing your vacations actually are, or how you can make your vacations a real time of rest and growth in the spiritual life! 

When I was a missionary, we would encourage our students that when they go home for breaks, to not to take a vacation away from God. In a similar vein, how many of us travel and take a break from going to Sunday Mass?  It is more than just fulfilling our Sunday obligation, but we should invite the Lord into our break, so that we can actually be fed and nourished.  It is beautiful that in our Gospel, after the Apostles were sent on mission, Jesus personally took them to a deserted place so that they could rest.  He wanted to reveal the importance of getting away from the world and spending time with him. 

Taking time for silence is important. Reading spiritual books, or listening to podcasts that lift the soul to God can be extremely fruitful. How many of us say that we don’t have time to pray as much as we should, but then on vacation we don’t make time to seek the Lord- even though we don’t have a million things to get done!

As a priest, I am required by Canonical (Church) law to take a 5-day retreat every year! Luckily, I’m a rule follower and I took my retreat at the beginning of June. It was life giving. I slept, prayed, worked out, and read. I had the opportunity to pray the rosary and divine mercy chaplet every day with a group of holy cloistered nuns. I offered Mass every day for our parish. 

It also allowed me to examine my year as a priest. Just as our first reading calls out the bad shepherds of Israel, I prayed for forgiveness for the ways I may have failed as a shepherd, and I gave thanks to the Lord for the graces I have received as a shepherd (which are many at OLM).

I hope you have seen the fruit of that retreat in my own life and priesthood since I have returned, and I encourage you to find the time to do the same. May the next vacation you take be an opportunity to rest in the Lord and be replenished by him!

Father Michael