Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Why does the Church say no to contraception? In Msgr. Charles Pope's article entitled: "The "Fruits" of Contraception," we are reminded that Pope Paul VI predicted in Humanae Vitae many of the problems that our culture is facing as a result of using birth control.

Pope Paul VI predicted that the divorce rate would increase as the contraception mentality becomes more acceptable. Divorce rates have continued to rise and are currently around the 40 percent range. Pope Paul VI understood that marriage would suffer because of contraception. He wrote: "Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards."(HV 17).

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In Trent Horn’s book entitled "Why We’re Catholic," he presents a creative view of the contraceptive thinking:

Imagine you are trying to select a wedding date and it’s right around the time your wife’s high school age cousins have a big football game. If you really want them to attend the wedding, you’ll pick the week before their game. But let’s say your budget is tight and you have no more room on your guest list. You might choose to schedule the wedding during their big game and send an invitation anyways as a sign that you still value the relationship. If they show up, it might be a bit stressful, but you’ll still be glad they came.

Now, let’s imagine you don’t want to wait a week and you absolutely don’t want the cousins to come to the wedding. In order to make sure they don’t arrive, you send them a “dis-invitation” that says, “Please don’t come to our wedding, you’re not wanted here!”

So how does the wedding story relate to NFP?

Picking the date that works best for the cousins is like being intimate on a fertile day; you’ve created optimal conditions for children to arrive. Postponing the wedding by a week is like waiting to be intimate on an infertile day. The children probably can’t arrive, but if they do that’s still great!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Is the Church wrong on contraception?

For many people, sexual pleasure is placed very high on the list of their priorities.  Since our culture has basically endorsed this sort of thinking, the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception can seem old-fashioned or unnatural.  Many well-intentioned people argue that the Church’s teaching on being open to life not part of God’s original plan for the marital embrace (conjugal love).  It can be difficult for even faithful married Catholics to live as God intends them to live their vocation as husband and wife.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the encyclical affirming the traditional Christian teaching on birth control. As we get closer to the anniversary (July 25th), I thought it might be good to revisit some of the challenges expressed in making this teaching of the Church a lived reality.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI issued his life-centered encyclical letter Humanae Vitae (Latin, "Human Life"), which reemphasized the Church’s constant teaching that it is always intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human beings from coming into existence. 

What is Contraception?

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are blessed with a beautiful parish campus with many distinct areas.  The first that is of concern to you are the pews (where you pray) —a sacred space where we journey to God to receive the Eucharist.  We need to treat it that way.  Keep it clean for others—throw your nasty Kleenex’s and other trash away!  Put the books back and the kneelers up for the next Mass.  Also, the main body of the church where we celebrate Mass is not a children’s obstacle course or a train station where we visit with friends to catch up on the latest.   This is a place for prayer where silence is golden. Thankfully, we are blessed with a spacious Narthex and plaza for fellowship with members of the Body of Christ. Use this space for talking and building friendships.  I actually encourage it. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

American Saint Frances Cabrini once said, “I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him or have forgotten Him.”  This seemed to be the conviction of all our American saints who founded hospitals, grade schools, churches, universities, leper colonies, orphanages, missionary outposts, soup kitchens and more.  In order to remind others of the goodness of God and Christ’s redeeming, so many saints, canonized or not, functioned as building blocks of our country.  Catholics, in other words, have played a huge part in American history. 

We celebrate our freedom on the Fourth of July this week!  As Catholics, we especially pray for religious liberty on this day.  Religious freedom, after all, is one of the primary reasons that people came to America, many fleeing from persecution.

The Church’s focus on religious liberty in recent years is on a general anti-religious cultural movement, rooted in secularism and relativism, which seeks to limit the role of religion in public life.  Many politicians today have defined religious freedom only in terms of the “freedom to worship’ within the walls of a church building.  But once we leave the building, we are told to hide our faith under a bushel basket.

This was certainly not the intent of our founding fathers.  They recognized the essential role of religion and the virtues that faith inspires.  Those virtues provide the foundation for the success of a peaceful society. The erosion of our faith and our moral compass is directly related to the erosion of our religious practice. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I want to commend the many people who make being on time for Holy Mass a priority. To be clear: our Mass times are at Saturday 4:30pm English. There is the 8:30am, 10:30am English, and 12:30pm Spanish on Sunday. Our Mass times not 4:35pm, 8:35am, 10:35am, and 12:35pm. It is not fashionable to be late to Holy Mass—it’s disrespectful. There are occasions when something happens and therefore being on time is impossible. Once or twice is understandable – every week is wrong. It is most especially rude and disrespectful to leave Holy Mass early. Please avoid leaving early if at all possible. As the Holy Mass is the re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, can you imagine Mary or the beloved disciple leaving early from the crucifixion to beat the crowd or to get a better lunch table or to make it to the game on time? It is shameful that with all our blessings that we cannot give God time.

Concerning the children, some without kids would love it if I called out parents for loud and unruly children, but it’s not going to happen. Children are made in God’s image and likeness; we are a pro-life parish; and we baptize children, initiating them as members of the Body of Christ--they have a right to be here.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Most post pubescent males can father a child. Fathering a child is vastly different from being a good father.  So what does it take to be a good father?  One this Fathers Day, I would like to address the vital role my father holds in my life and the important role of the father in the life of his family. 

Of the many lessons I received from my father, his willingness to be present to our family keeps our family rooted and focused on what is essential.  Running his own business could have easily consumed him and kept him away from our family. I cannot remember my dad ever missing dinner with the family. His presence wasn’t just at dinnertime. I also recall that our family was usually together on the weekends. Whether we were doing chores around the house, mowing the lawn or heading to the lake for some fun, it was dad, with mom at his side, leading the charge by being present. 

Dad brought order and from that came peace.  God, family, and everything else was the way dad prioritized things for our family. Dad made sure we never missed Mass. Every Sunday, Mom and Dad would corral the five children into the family station wagon and off we would go. It wasn’t even a discussion. It was just what we did…and still do. I have no doubt that my dad’s presence made all the difference in creating a solid way of life for his family.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is hard to believe that it’s been eight years since our parish took a hard look at the General Instruction of the Roman Missal or how we celebrate Holy Mass.  In general, perpetual adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, the homilies and weekly bulletin articles have led many to a more reverent celebration of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our lives as Catholics, where we have the privilege of receiving Jesus’ Body and Blood to nourish us for our Christian journey. 

When we seek to grow in holiness, one great question to ask ourselves is: “How can we celebrate Holy Mass better?” That is, if we are going to be inspired by the depth of Catholic liturgy, then we need to remind ourselves over and over what an incredible gift we have been given in the Eucharist.  Secondly, how do we receive this wondrous gift of Our Lord in the Eucharist at Holy Mass?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Church is blessed to celebrate this special Feast of Corpus Christi today.  So what are we celebrating? Today we celebrate the fact that Jesus is the Bread of Life. The Gospel reminds us that Christ feeds multitudes with bread.  In the Mass, our Lord feeds us with His own Body and Blood! Christ Himself gave us the Eucharist on the night of the Last Supper.  The Church has offered Holy Mass from then until now and the Church will offer Holy Mass until the very end of time. Why? She will do this simply because Jesus commanded us to “do this in remembrance of me”! 

What is “this” we do when our Lord says do “this?”  We attend Mass and we receive our Lord in Holy Communion.  That is what we are doing in remembrance of our Lord’s request.  In this Sacrament of Holy Communion, we receive our Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity!  Mass is the time for every Catholic to “remember” our Eucharistic King in a miraculous way. When we receive our Lord in Holy Communion, we literally become more like Christ and move closer to the Kingdom.

In every generation, Jesus has called upon men and women to literally be his hands and feet, to act on his behalf as his messenger and speak for him directly, either to his Church, to a specific culture or to the world at large. Those men and women who said “yes” to Christ and did what He asked them to do, accomplished the Will of God with his help in amazing ways. Many of them have been recognized officially by the Church for their heroic witness to Christ. We call them Saints.

Of all the Saints, few have captured the hearts and imaginations of people as the patroness of our parish, St. Joan of Arc. Most people know her story. She was born into a peasant farming family in northeastern France on January 6, 1412. At the time, the French were at war with England, and the English invaders controlled more than half of France. The French king could not even be crowned because the Cathedral where coronations took place was in the hands of their enemies. At the age of 13, Joan began to receive heavenly messages from St. Michael the Archangel, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we celebrate the birthday of the Church. The promised Holy Spirit that we’ve heard about these last couple of weeks comes down upon the Apostles, and their lives would never be the same! The world would never be the same! The Catholic Church, as founded by Christ, now celebrates the fact that the Holy Spirit remains with us to this very day. It is the Holy Spirit that enables all of us to hear Our Lord’s call to follow Him every day.  It the same Holy Spirit that enables us to build the Kingdom of God here and now. It is the same Holy Spirit that enables us to do God’s work, while we await His return! 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are blessed with so many families at St. Joan of Arc. I am always amazed at the incredible sacrifices I see parents make at each and every Mass to be a good parent. As I see moms and dads bring their little ones to religious education classes, I am so grateful for their dedication and desire to share God's love with their children. The wonderful catechists at St. Joan of Arc are here to help you, but your role as your children's primary teacher is your gift to your children. You have the awesome privilege and blessing to form the future of the world IN GOD'S IMAGE!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I enjoy a good movie. Every once in a while, I will take a night off, grab some popcorn and a soda, and escape. A good movie can lift your spirit and inspire a person to be better and aim higher. I have found that it really pays off to do a bit of research about the movie before seeing it so you won’t be disappointed or worse. Perhaps checking the Catholic reviews to make sure the movie is not morally objectionable would be a good place to start.