Archbishop Coakely Receives His Pallium

Today, on the Solemnity of St.'s Peter and Paul, my archbishop, the Most Reverend Paul S. Coakely, has received the emblem of his office from the Holy Father.

The pallium is a circular band about two inches in width, worn about the neck, breast, and shoulders, and having two pendants, one hanging down in front and one behind. It is adorned with 6 black crosses.

In the Latin Church, only the pope and archbishops wear the pallium. For the pope, it represents his universal authority over the Church; for archbishops, it is a sign of sharing in the pope's authority within their on respective dioceses. It can only be worn by an archbishop within his diocese.

My diocesan brothers, Chris Brashears, Brian Buettner, and Rev. Mr. Cory Stanley, had the honor and privilege of serving during the Pallium Mass, and witnessed firsthand the bestowal of the pallium to our archbishop by the pope.

The picture above is that moment, and the deacon seen behind the Holy Father and Archbishop Coakely is none other than Oklahoma's very own Rev. Mr. Cory Stanley who, in just over a week, will be ordained to the priesthood.

God is good!

Thousand Foot Krutch - Already Home (Slideshow With Lyrics)

This song has been a recent consolation for me. I hope you enjoy it.

Our Lady's Healing Embrace

Today I began my Apostolic Ministry for IPF. I had the opportunity to visit St. Joseph's Villa, a nursing home in central Omaha. My group was initially given an orientation and tour of the facilities. After this, we were assigned to specific people or sections of the nursing home. I was assigned to "the unit," the Alzheimer's corridor kept locked for the protection of the inhabitants.

As I entered, I kept in mind what we had been instructed by our coordinator for Apostolics:

"See Christ in those you meet today."

As I went from room to room, then sat in the commons areas and visited with these people, I was overwhelmed with love for them. Some were bed-ridden; others were barely coherent. Still others were surprisingly young, maybe no older than 65, who were frightened and confused. The disease that they suffered from had taken any form of independence, and they didn't even realize this.

One particular lady, who I will call Juanita, was on the verge of tears as I sat next to her. She kept saying, "I only live a little ways from here. Why can't I go home? I don't understand." She then did cry softly. It was all that I could do to keep back tears of my own. I held her hand and told her that it was going to be alright and to ask for Our Lady's help.

I then realized I was carrying a holy card that might help her. On it was a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe embracing St. Juan Diego. Underneath the picture were the word Our Lady spoke to him nearly 500 years ago:

"Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else you need?"

With this, Juanita thanked me. I knew that, for at least a few moments, she was consoled. I told her to keep the card. And although I know that she forgot moments later I had given it to her, I still saw her look at it from time to time when she realized again she was holding something, and looks of gratitude for Our Lady's embrace could be seen amidst the storms of confusion and fear.

Thank you for letting me see you today, Jesus, in the beautiful people that I met today. Thank you for allowing them to witness to me in their suffering and in their helplessness. Thank you for giving me to opportunity to love them.

Examen on Spiritual Fatherhood

ENLIGHTENMENT

In my reflections over the identities of the priest, I was struck particularly by the identity of spiritual father. One of the initial reasons has been the recent baptism of my godson. To witness the love of God the Father for his children in this sacrament allowed me to reflect on my own fatherhood for my godson, as well as the fatherhood I will have as a priest.

Through spiritual direction, I have worked to see God as a loving Father, as well as my king and redeemer. It has been at times a difficult journey, yet I can feel the loving embrace of the Trinity as It envelops me with love and healing. As the filthy garments of my previous life are slowly and gently removed (Zech. 3), I am becoming more and more eager to put on the rich apparel that God has for me in His loving embrace. With the help of the holy Spirit, my desire is to yearn for this consolation more and to see the work of God in me more clearly, that I may relinquish what I still cling to so stubbornly.

REFLECTIVE THANKSGIVING

As I said earlier, being present for my godson’s recent baptism allowed me to see in a clear way spiritual fatherhood and the joy and love it expresses to everyone, including the priest. As I sat next to my godson's father during the Mass, the realization that I will share in his spiritual life as well as his son's filled me with a sense of such gratitude. As a celibate, I will not have the opportunity to have biological children of my own, but I will still share in the generative love of fatherhood. I will still be able to teach, to protect, and to love my spiritual family. I will share in God's paternal love in such a beautiful and unique way. This self-gift is very attractive to me, because it assures me that I will find consolation when I begin to lose sight of my call to chaste celibacy in the loving embrace of the Father. In His gift of Christ for our salvation, God the Father gave us as men called to priesthood such a rich example to follow. He gave His Son, His closest and Dearest, in order to free us from our chains of sin and damnation. The fatherhood of self-gift is what I am being called to, and I am so very thankful for this.

PRACTICAL SURVEY OF ACTIONS AND ATTITUDES

A part of me suffers, however, because I will not be able to call a child my own in the physical sense, just as I will not be able to share my life and love with woman in a physically intimate way. I will not have the physical consolation of companionship or relationship, be it in a wife, son, or daughter. I cannot deny the hurt I feel because of this, yet there is, nonetheless, an underlying joy – joy in the consolation of my spiritual paternity. It is already evident in my life as a godfather, and increases in me as I get closer to priesthood. If, God willing, I become a priest, I will become an instrument used by God to share His paternal love to each of His children here on earth. I will bring spiritual infants into the world through baptism; I will put food on the table for my spiritual family in the gift of the Eucharist; I will bless the marriages of my children; I will kiss and mend the scrapes and bruises of sin in Reconciliation; I will lovingly sing to my sons and daughters and tuck them in to sleep through the Last Rites. I will be a father in sharing in the Fatherhood of God, and I cannot lose sight of this.

SORROW AND CONTRITION

This reflection brings to mind the barriers I have placed before my vocation. I can feel the battle for my own salvation in this, and all too often I choose the wrong side. Why do I seek out what I know will lead to death? Why can I not realize the loving embrace of the Father in my life? Wishing to hide who I am called to be has led to a numbness of spirit. Yet through the graces of my baptism and the Sacraments, I am always being given opportunity to restore my relationship to the Father. Just as the Prodigal Son knew, if imperfectly, the compassion and love he would be shown by his father in his return, so to must I come to the same realization. My sinfulness stands before me, naked and vulnerable. It is in the form of the Crucified Lord, the Beloved Son given by the Almighty Father, that my sin presents itself, and because of this I am overwhelmed with sorrow and repentance.

HOPEFUL RESOLUTION FOR THE FUTURE

This repentance urges on my desire to be closer with the Trinity in my vocation to the priesthood. God has opened up the way to discernment in an intimate way. He has shown me His paternal Love and kindness, not only in order to heal me of my wounds or to change my filthy garment, but to teach me to become the spiritual father found in the priest. With this knowledge, I can be used more effectively by God the Father to be the spiritual father of so many. I will become the instrument by which God’s healing can manifest itself in the world. I will baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; I will bind and loose sin; I will proclaim the Gospel of my Lord and my God. And I will be happy, because I share in Christ in all of this. How wonderful! How beautiful is this realization, this consolation, that embraces me. The Trinity envelops me in the rich apparel of its paternal love for me.

Thanks be to God.

When Jesus Came to Birmingham

In my “Spirituality of the Priesthood” class today, we discussed the benchmark identity of the Catholic priest as head and shepherd. While in the course of discussion, the idea of apathy among Catholics, both religious and lay, was brought up.

The following poem, shared by our wonderful professor, Fr. James Shea (who happens also to be the current president of the University of Mary in Bismarck ND), encapsulates poignantly the state of affairs that we will face as ordained ministers in the world:

When Jesus Came to Birmingham

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do, '
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.

G. A. Studdert-Kennedy

Corpus Christi

Today is the traditional feast of Corpus Christi, a beautiful feast honoring the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ found in the Holy Eucharist. For many Catholics, this feast has been transferred to this coming Sunday, a decision made by the ordinary of a diocese.

I had the opportunity to visit the local Extraordinary Form (Latin Mass) community here in Omaha, who today had a beautiful procession that made its way around an entire city block.

As I sat in the pew during the Mass prior to the procession, I was struck by a sense of beauty and reverence that many of us more familiar with the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo) rarely witness. With awe and joy, I listened to the Introit and other Mass parts chanted and sung, and I watched with eagerness for the incensing of the altar and the various cues to stand, sit, or kneel. It brought back joy-filled memories of my time as a young Catholic, of being an altar boy earnestly memorizing the Confiteor or getting the thurible ready for Exposition. I learned so much during my time among my friends and family in the Extraordinary Form. And the most important thing I learned about was the awesome mystery of the Real Presence of Our Lord found in the Blessed Sacrament.

At the same time, I was also struck by a sense of an isolatory pious air among the congregants, and particularly among some of my fellow seminarians who had come to join the procession. This overly-zealous piety was not found in the mantillas worn by the women or the cassocks and surplii by the seminarians; it was not in how missals were being followed, or how many times one crossed himself. It was found in their countenances -- a sense of entitlement and pompousness; a look of condescension and snobbery that, for the life of me, I could not shake.

I am a great lover of the Extraordinary Form. It has been a part of my spiritual formation as a Catholic since nearly the beginning. It is full of exalted beauty and Truth, yet it is not because it is better than the Ordinary Form. Rather it is because of what transpires and what is received by the Faithful - it is the very meaning of this feast celebrated by many today, in both Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. It is the gift of God to us in His Son that makes it beautiful.

Sure, we may have our preferences aesthetically, and much can be said of the aesthetic beauty of the Extraordinary Form, both in how it is perceived and in what parts of it symbolize. Yet, I dare say, that both Forms of the Latin Rite could learn from each other, and I don't think I'm the only one with this sentiment.

Let us not undermine our faithfulness to Christ in our zealous attempts to "do the best." What we do is as naught in comparison to the gifts God lavishes on those who follow his Word. In whatever we do, or at whatever Form or Rite of Mass or Liturgy we find ourselves, let us not choose our actions because we feel that they are the most successful at pleasing God.

As Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: "We are not called to be successful; we are called to be faithful." Amen.

Limbo: A Poem for Easter

In class today, I had the opportunity to listen to a very profound poem on fatherhood. The following poem, written by Sr. Mary Ada, (who, unfortunately, I could find very little about) tells of the expectation of those waiting in the "Bosom of Abraham" for the Messiah to open the gates of heaven for them. In the end, there is only one person waiting for Jesus that responds in the way in which Christ wishes us all to respond, with familiarity and love. Enjoy.

Limbo
by Sister Mary Ada

The ancient greyness shifted
Suddenly and thinned
Like mist upon the moors
Before a wind.
An old, old prophet lifted
A shining face and said:
“He will be coming soon.
The Son of God is dead;
He died this afternoon.”

A murmurous excitement stirred
All souls.
They wondered if they dreamed –
Save one old man who seemed
Not even to have heard.

And Moses, standing,
Hushed them all to ask
If any had a welcome song prepared.
If not, would David take the task?
And if they cared
Could not the three young children sing
The Benedicite, the canticle of praise
They made when God kept them from perishing
In the fiery blaze?

A breath of spring surprised them,
Stilling Moses’ words.
No one could speak, remembering
The first fresh flowers,
The little singing birds.
Still others thought of fields new ploughed
Or apple trees
All blossom-boughed.
Or some, the way a dried bed fills
With water
Laughing down green hills.
The fisherfolk dreamed of the foam
On bright blue seas.
The one old man who had not stirred
Remembered home.

And there He was
Splendid as the morning sun and fair
As only God is fair.
And they, confused with joy,
Knelt to adore
Seeing that He wore
Five crimson stars
He never had before.

No canticle at all was sung
None toned a psalm, or raised a greeting song,
A silent man alone
Of all that throng
Found tongue –
Not any other.
Close to His heart
When the embrace was done,
Old Joseph said,
“How is Your Mother,
How is Your Mother, Son?”

Baptism: A Blessing for All Involved

Today I had the great honor and privilege to be present at the baptism of my godson's baptism. This occasion made me realize the beauty of spiritual fatherhood in a very profound way.

While at Omaha for the Institute for Priestly Formation, I have been learning more and more about how priests must embrace the various ideas of proper relationships. The priest is specifically to live out his life as a spiritual father, to lead others to Christ by his example and teaching.

During Mass today, I sat next to my godson's father. The realization that I will share in his spiritual life as well as his son's made me feel so grateful. As a celibate, I will not have the opportunity to have biological children of my own, but I will still share in the generative love of fatherhood. I will still be able to teach, to protect, and to love my spiritual family. I will share in God's paternal love in such a beautiful and unique way. Thank you, God.

Message from Bishop Finn to The Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph

Let us pray for unity and love as the Church again faces a tragic moment within the clergy.

The following message from Bishop Robert Finn will be read at Masses in the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph this weekend:

These past few weeks all of us have endured the consequences of our human failure. The destructive sins of a few and the serious lapses in communication have caused us shame, anger, and confusion.

There are victims that are hurting, and others who have been left vulnerable by our processes. As you know, in the past two weeks one priest was arrested and we removed another from ministry. They are the first sitting pastors to be removed in our Diocese in more than 20 years.

These are sobering realities, particularly for those who knew and trusted them. We are assessing what went wrong and applying our analysis as we move forward. This past week, I met with our Independent Review Board chairman and discussed the objectivity of our decision processes. I have also met with parishioners, our priests and Chancery staff, as well as the media. These meetings and discussions will continue.

As bishop, I take full responsibility for these failures and sincerely apologize to you for them. Clearly, we have to do more. Please know that we have --- and will continue to cooperate with all local authorities regarding these matters.

While we must deal with these difficult and trying issues we also must give thanks for the daily accomplishments of our lay faithful, priests and others for the many good works that continue on behalf of neighbors, sick or poor, young or old.

You generously responded to the need of people devastated by recent storms. Our food pantries and advocacy for the disadvantaged are second to none in our community.

These difficult days have also been marked with celebrations of our faith: First Communions and Confirmations, school graduations, weddings, anniversaries and Ordinations and other ceremonies. These blessings are noticed and counted, not lost.

On Pentecost Sunday, June 12, I will offer the 9:00 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Please join me. At the same time I ask our pastors to offer the Pentecost Mass in your parishes – for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon this local Church, that God may give us whatever gifts and graces we need to carry forward His commission.


Sincerely,
+Bishop Robert Finn

My 8 - Day Silent Retreat @ I.P.F.

I am at the Institute for Priestly Formation (I.P.F) on the campus of Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska this summer. As a beginning to our time here, my fellow seminarians and I took part in an Ignatian 8 day silent retreat. Today was the last day of my very first, but by no means last, retreat such as this. To all of those who thought I couldn't keep quiet for that long... well, you were nearly right, but by the grace of God, I persevered.

In all honesty, though, this experience gave me a plenitude of graces and an awareness of the closeness of Christ throughout my life. Through this experience, I faced my demons, but not alone. I was consoled through the valleys of tears and exulted in the paths of righteousness by Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.

I feel that I must give you one example of the powerful prayer that I experienced while on retreat. As participants, we were required to make four individual Holy Hours each day, in which we would meditate on a passage of Holy Scripture. One evening, toward the end of the retreat, I was meditating on a passage from Zachariah, Chapter 3, verses 1-5. It is the fourth vision given to this Old Testament prophet. Let me simply relate it to you here:

"Then he [the word of the Lord] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, o Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed in filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel... So they... clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord was standing by."

In my meditation, I utilized the Rosary as a means to contemplate each facet of this passage, and the vantages from each principal character.

I began, then, the first two decades as seeing and living the passage from the vantage of Joshua. As I stood there, I remember feeling tired and afraid. Satan was there to my right accusing me of my entire life of failings and sin. I remember then the angel of the Lord cutting off the accusing hand of Satan that was pointed toward me. The I remember my filthy garment being gently removed -- it had adhered to wounds underneath, and so it was with pain that it came off. Then, I remember a robe of white light envelope me, and I ascended into the heavens.

The second vantage I took, in the third decade, was that of Satan. I could feel his jealousy and rage. Joshua was his, and he could prove it. But as he, or rather I, began the litany of sin against Joshua, God's angel cut my hand off. From then on, I kept silent, always watching a waiting for another chance to take my prize to hell.

The third vantage was from the angel of the Lord. I remember seeing Joshua and Satan below me. I could see the suffering in Joshua's eyes and the hatred in Satan's. I grew in righteous anger against Satan's accusing hand, and with my sword of Truth, I struck it, and it melted away. I then turned to Joshua and told him that his garment must be removed. Then a person, followed by two others came to Joshua, and slowly, gently removed the robe from Joshua's tired frame. When this was completed, the three persons seemed to meld together into the most beautiful garment of light. It closed around Joshua and lifted him to Heaven.

The final vantage I took to this time of meditation was from the vantage of God the Father. I remember watching the hole scene unfold, but I was not watching from afar. I was standing between Joshua and Satan. I turned to Satan, with tears of sadness in my eyes, and I embraced him. Satan immediately turned to dust. Then I remember turning to Joshua, again with the deepest love. It is no simple servant that was sent to change Joshua's garment. I was sent. I went to Joshua, with my Word and my Love, and we gently tended to Joshua's wounds. Finally, we embraced him, and brought our Beloved Son to heaven.

This reflection and meditation was only one of many life-changing experiences that took place within the past week. I am so thankful to the Blessed Virgin's constant love and intercession to her Son. I am so grateful to my God for His unfailing Love and Presence.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen and Amen.

ALLELUIA!