Fr. Bob’s Greeting – March 2024 Enews

February 29, 2024
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Yes, I know Spring is just around the corner, but we are still in Lent. And I would like to talk to you about one of the holiest days in this sacred season: Good Friday. I shall not dwell on the distressing details of our Lord’s Passion; you know them all too well. The bloody sweat in Gethsemane. The bloodless kiss of Judas. Caiaphas blasting Jesus for blasphemy. Pilate washing his hands of Him. A murderer released in His stead, and a crowd clamoring for crucifixion. The whips lashing His back, and the thorns piercing His brow. The cross on His shoulder and His shoulder on the cross. The darkness that covered the Earth and the darkness in Jesus’s soul. The last cry of Jesus: “It is finished.” I shall not dwell on any of these because, believe it or not, there is something more important to consider: a vexing three letter word. Why? Why? St. Paul tells us why. He says the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. Every human being that ever lived can repeat these words. You and I, we can all claim that He died for me. But still the question, why me? St. Paul saw the problem. He tells us in the letter to the Romans, at the appointed time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for us, Godless people. It is rare that anyone should lay down his life for a just person. Though it is barely possible that for a good person someone may have the courage to die. It is precisely in this that God proves His love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. And St. John echoes St. Paul when he tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” But what is so lovable about us sinful folk that the Son of God should leave the glory of heaven, become human like us, be born in a stable, walk our dust for three decades, sweat our sweat and die our death? Why should God love sinners, love man and woman who reject God with a curse, or pass God down the street in their neighbor, is ultimately hidden in the mystery that is God. And we cannot explain why the Son of God drew our love by crucifixion. He could have saved us in so many simpler, bloodless ways. A single breath of Bethlehem’s breeze. The hidden years in backwater Nazareth. His baptism by John. His compassion. Your sins are forgiven. Then why Calvary? Frankly, we do not know, and we do not know because we cannot fathom or begin to comprehend the three slender syllables of why? In the first letter of John, God is love. God not only loves, God is love. That alone begins to make sense of Calvary. Out of a God-man pinned to a cross for sinners, for you and me. If God offers you crucified love, offers God’s son on a cross for you, the least you can do is accept it. Welcome the mystery, and move on from there. The problem for us is the very word, love. It is so misused that it has lost meaning. Television and radio fill our ears with the word love. We have forgotten what Christ-like sacrificial love really is. The kind of love that was God’s when He gave His own divine son to die on a criminal’s cross to save me. Some time ago, I gave a retreat for prisoners. Not the ordinary prison population, but people living with HIV/AIDS. On the altar there was a banner: “Love is all we have for now. What we don’t have is time.” When it’s a question of what it means to be human, to be Christian, what makes the difference is love. St. Paul put it another way to the Corinthians. He said, “In the end only faith, hope and love are left. But the greatest of these is love.” Christ-like love is the one gift that can make our world more human, more livable. We must live Christ’s command: love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. If we fail in this, we are living almost as if Christ had not made a difference. And when the final judgment is passed on to me it will rest on one four letter word: Did you really love? With that question goes the second line of the banner: What we don’t have is time. That’s true for all of us. Live this day as if it were your first day, not your last day. Each new day is a chance to be more Christ-like and to share the greatest gift He gave to us – Love.  

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – February 2024 Enews

January 26, 2024
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In spite of the bitter cold weather, February is one of my favorite months, not because it is the month of my birthday, but it is the beginning of the holy season of Lent, which moves us towards the glory of Easter. Lent has always been one of my favorite holy seasons.  It offers us a time of repentance, a time of renewal, and a time of peace.  In this joyful season, which begins on Ash Wednesday, we hear “the Kingdom of God is at hand – repent and believe in the gospel.”  It is the time of year for us to ponder our relationship with God.  Often people look to feel closer to God during this time.  After all, unlike Advent, when we often get caught up with holiday preparations, Lent has no such distractions, allowing us more time to grow closer to God. No one ever saw God more clearly or more often than Jesus.  He saw the saving work of God in a shepherd searching for lost sheep.  He saw the grace of God in a father embracing a prodigal son.  He saw the love and mercy of God in the good Samaritan.  For Jesus, ordinary events and ordinary people were windows to Heaven:  He could look through and see God. You and I can do the same.  Our failure to see God does not mean that He is absent.  God is with us all the time.  We know this because why else would He take simple bread and wine and say, “This is My Body, this is My Blood, given for you.  Do this in memory of Me.” Don’t let the gloominess of winter hide the light of God that is always with us.  Let this most holy season bring the gifts of hope and peace.  Because of our baptism, we are called to bless, and Lent is a time to recall both how we are blessed and how we bless others. Let this glorious season of Lent keep us strong in our faith and help us feel closer to God.
Fr. Bob Prays the Rosary

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – January 2024 Enews

January 8, 2024
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As we enter the New Year, we could become disheartened as we read the newspapers or watch the news on television. Things never seem to change. Wars and violence, not only in distant places, but right here on the streets of our cities. Sometimes it is difficult to remember the words of Jesus: “Do not let your heart be troubled. Have faith in God, have faith in Me.” Yes, we live in dangerous and difficult times, but as the Friars and Sisters of the Atonement celebrate 125 years of our foundation, we still have hope. Our founders, Servant of God Father Paul Wattson, and Mother Lurana White founded our community 125 years ago at Graymoor, and they chose its name, Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement, which they interpreted as At-One-Ment: unity for all people. So, we continue to have faith in God and pray and work for the unity and wellbeing of all people. And so, as we enter the New Year, we will continue reaching out to people of all faiths because we believe that many things on Earth are precious, some are holy, but humanity is Holy of Holies. I invite you to join us this year as we continue our prayers for unity and understanding throughout the world in hopes that it may truly be a “new” year.

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – December 2023 Enews

November 28, 2023
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All of Us Belong at the Stable An author, Ian MacLaren, tells a true story in his book, “Beside the Briar Bush.” It is about a woman raised in a Catholic home by strict parents. In Ireland, she wanted to find freedom—freedom from all the rules of the house. Freedom from religion. She was fed up with being told what to do and how to do it. She goes away and finds the kind of life she thinks is free. She gets all she ever desired, but it is never enough. And what she possesses begins to possess her. Now, she does not even know what it means to be free. One day she, like a prodigal daughter, goes home. When she gets to the cottage of her birth, she wants to turn around and run away. But as she turns to go the dog starts to bark. Her father opens the door. He cannot see her, but he calls out her name, even though he doesn’t have a reason to expect her. She runs toward him, and he takes her in his arms and sobs out blessings on her head. After she returns to the city and to her job, she says to a friend, “It is a pity that you do not speak Gaelic. That is the best of all languages for loving. There are fifty words for ‘darling,’ and my father called me every one of them the night I came home.” Jesus has fifty-plus words for all of us. That is what the stable scene is all about—what Christmas is all about. It would seem that God’s method of judging must be different from that of the world. Just recall the message of the angels: “I bring you good news for all people.” “All people.” That means that Christmas is for everyone no matter who you are. If you are not treated like royalty by the world. If your job makes your life feel menial. If your life is full of burdens. You have a special spotlight in God’s stage, and He has a special place in his heart for you. He found a church for the outcast, not a church that casts people out. What is Christ’s Christmas message? Simply this. Be you saint or sinner, you belong at the stable. Be you rich or poor. You belong at the stable. Christ did not come to earth to exclude anyone. His arms reach out to all who turn to Him, whoever we are, whatever we have done in the past. All of us belong at the stable.

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – November 2023 Enews

October 13, 2023
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I always think of November as the twilight of the year. The nights are getting darker, the trees are bare and it’s getting colder. But in the middle of that month, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving stems from a discovery of God’s greatness and glory, and we know that, in spite of all the problems we face today, we can still turn to a loving God in prayer. But also, for us Catholics, November is special. In the Catholic tradition we set aside the month of November as a special time to remember those who have gone before us. Starting on Nov. 2, the Feast of All Souls, we remember our dearly departed loved ones. St. Paul tells us that after death comes judgment and, perhaps, our imaginations conjure up a court trial with God as judge and ourselves as defendants with a lengthy list of offenses. But I tend to think that God is so much bigger that a list of good and bad. I like to think that God sees every fall from grace as simply a lack of love in some form or another, and that at the moment of death, God shows us His perfect love for us and our lackluster response. When I think of Purgatory I reflect on the homecoming of the prodigal son. Yes, he is dirty, disheveled and unworthy like many of us at some point in life. Yet the father comes looking for him and does not listen to his self-accusation. He just takes him in his arms, and at that moment the son sees and feels the enormous love that the father has for him. He also sees how little his response has been to that love and that searing moment is Purgatory. As the book of Maccabees tells us, it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead. I doubt any of us want to die. Not because our faith is weak, but because there is so much to life. We live for life. And inevitably in death, we must never forget the words of the funeral Mass—life is not ended, just changed.

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – August 2023 Enews

I receive many letters over the course of a month. I have to admit most of them are sad. Good people tell me their problems—loss of a job, serious illness, divorce. The list goes on. Inevitably, there’s always a reference to carrying one’s cross. It seems part of the human condition that at some time in life we will all carry a cross just as Jesus did. But I ask you to remember that even Jesus had someone helping Him carry His cross, and He will help us carry ours. I do not know what kind of cross you carry now. I do know, that whether it be pain of body or spirit, disappointments, the death of a loved one, the insecurities of youth and the trembling of old age, the cross touches all of us. The cross hangs over all of our lives and with all my years of Theology, I still do not know why. We all shudder a little when Christ warns us that life can get tough, and that we have to face up to it. None of us likes cross carrying. Yet, there is no human pain that cannot be touched to the cross of Christ. The only thing that can help us carry the crosses that are so much a part of life is our relationship with God. And through this relationship you will love Him because you have touched Him and He has touched you. The questions of why suffering, why pain, why do bad things happen to good people, those questions will not wear away. Still, we don’t have to be like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Remember them? They were walking away from Jerusalem after Christ’s death, away from the suffering, away from the cross, when the resurrected Christ joined them on the road. They did not recognize Him. They tell Him of all their disappointment and frustration of seeing their Savior crucified. And when He told them they were foolish for leaving, they did not recognize Him—because they had missed the Resurrection. We need not run away from our problems, pain and suffering. Just as your Gethsemane is His garden, and your Calvary is also His cross, when you carry your cross, He is there, you are touching Him and His love. And through His love you will be sharing in His Resurrection.

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – July 2023 Enews

In honor of Independence Day, I thought I would share a story that was shared with me several years ago of a soldier who passed away during the Vietnam War and the unconditional love of a father and son that reminds us of the sacrifice Christ made for our eternal life. I hope you enjoy this beautiful story and have a safe and healthy summer. A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art. When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son. About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock on the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly…He often talked about you, and your love for art.” The young man held out this package. “I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.” The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. “Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.” The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected. The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. “We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?” There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, “We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.” But the auctioneer persisted, “Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?” Another voice angrily. “We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!” But still the auctioneer continued. “The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?” Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. “I’ll give you $10 for the painting…” Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. “We have $10, who will bid $20?” “Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.” The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. “Going once, twice, sold for $10!” A man sitting on the second row shouted, “Now let’s get on with the collection!” The auctioneer laid down his gavel. “I’m sorry, the auction is over.” “What about the paintings?” “I’m sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!” God gave His son over 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: “The Son, the Son, who’ll take the Son?” Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything. FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE…THAT’S LOVE.

Fr. Bob’s Greeting – June 2023 Enews

It is June here at Graymoor and we are preparing for the Feast of St. Anthony, a saint that is venerated by so many people. Over the years that I have been at Graymoor, I have witnessed thousands of people who have come to give thanks or ask for favors through the intercession of St. Anthony. Some people come carrying photographs of sick relatives, some bring flowers and others just pray for their family’s needs. I see many of the same people year after year because of the faith they have in St. Anthony’s intercession. St. Anthony has long been recognized as the finder of lost articles.  He is called the “Miracle Worker” and that is because he seems to hear so many requests. He is also the patron saint of Haiti and thousands of Haitians flock to Graymoor to celebrate his feast each year. You may have called upon St. Anthony yourself when you were at your wits end. And I am more than sure he probably came through. St. Anthony is not only the patron saint of finding lost articles. He is also a Doctor of the Church and recognized as a great preacher. He reached out and worked with the poor and those who did not yet believe in the Lord Jesus. As such, he serves as a model to the Friars of the type of men we strive to be. St. Anthony has a special place in the hearts of the Friars. We have always referred to him as our “Big Brother.” This inspirational Franciscan Friar who lived eight centuries ago continues to be the spiritual comfort to millions and the guiding light to all who seek his prayerful intercession. In the words of St. Bonaventure— “Saint Anthony possessed the science of the angels, the faith of the patriarchs, the foreknowledge of the prophets, the zeal of the apostles, and the heroism of martyrs.”