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Fr. Dennis

5/29/2018

Dear friends in Christ,

Happy Feast of the Most Blessed Trinity!

You might recall that at the beginning of the Lenten season I shared with you that I felt that the Lord wanted this past Lent to be a time of healing. And in many ways we saw this happen. I personally saw this through my pastoral ministry in counseling, praying and meeting with people, as well as sitting for many hours in the confessional. People experienced a lot of healing. In a special way we also saw a lot of healing during our Lenten Healing Service.

But not only has the Lord healed many people, but during this Easter there have been a number of signs that God wants to continue His powerful work of healing in us. Just recently during our day with the “Treasures of the Church” ministry of Fr. Carlos, one of our parishioners was healed of serious back problems. And then after the Mass of the Ascension, a woman from another parish came up to me and said she was healed from serious heart problems when she came to the veneration of the relics Monday evening. It’s interesting too, that she shared with me that she had no intention of coming, but her husband insisted that they go as a family. She came expecting nothing, but came away with a powerful gift.

Isn’t that the way that God often works in our lives? We have other plans but God asks us to move out of our comfort zones and trust Him. It’s much like I spoke of at the Feast of the Ascension. God is asking us to surrender our lives over and over.

The origins of the celebration of Trinity Sunday go all the way back to the 4th century. During the 3rd and 4th centuries there was a terrible heresy that divided the church called Arianism. Arius, a Catholic priest, preached that Jesus Christ was a created being rather than God. In denying the divinity of Christ, Arius denied that there are three Persons in God. Arius' chief opponent, St. Athanasius, upheld the orthodox doctrine that there are three Persons in one God, and the orthodox view prevailed at the Council of Nicaea, from which we get the Nicene Creed, which we recite every Sunday.

There is one kind of funny incident that comes down to us from the events of the Council. The debates and discussions got so heated that the bishop Nicholas of Myra (whom we know today as St. Nicholas, the origin of our Santa Claus) marched across the council floor and slapped Arius across the face.

I wouldn’t recommend this approach, but it shows you how these early church fathers were so passionate about the faith – we often forget Nicholas was imprisoned by the Romans for his Christian faith. He had paid a great price for his faith in Christ. No wonder he was so impassioned by the heretic Arius.

I mention this story because it shows us how deeply passionate these early fathers and believers were about the faith. So often today we see so called Catholic politicians outright denying the faith, blaze Catholics who have no more passion than an occasional visit to church on Christmas or Easter; signs all around us that the faith is under attack and under pressure. It’s time for us to recapture this passion. It’s time for each of us to be counted and to rededicate ourselves to Christ’s mission.

“O Father who sought me
O Son who bought me
O Holy Spirit who taught me”

The first reading from the Liturgy of the Holy Trinity is from the Old Testament book of Proverbs. It describes God as Wisdom. Can you see in your own life that our wise God and Father has sought you, Jesus the Son bought you through the cross and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit who has taught you? Can you see events in your own life that show the Father seeking you? Our Wise and Merciful God is continually seeking us out.

The Holy Trinity is not a concept or a theological proposition, the Holy Trinity is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the I AM who revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush, the God who revealed Himself to the prophets. He is the Eternal One who in the days of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, came in the flesh and revealed the love of God to us. And now the Holy Spirit, the life-giver and source of love desires to fill us and empower us to live the Gospel. The Holy Trinity is 3 Divine Persons who have revealed Themselves to you and are seeking a deeper relationship with you now.

Speaking of empowering, I am grateful for all the parishioners of Most Holy Trinity who have chosen to surrender their lives to Christ and seek that deeper relationship with our God, those who have expressed this choice through the service of their neighbor and our Church. I am grateful for all those who live their faith out daily and faithfully. Maybe we think that nobody knows, but God knows. That’s all that matters. All Praise the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Amen.

God bless,
Fr Dennis

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Paul Fahey

5/21/2018

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Back in February of this year Pope Francis gave the Church a new feast day. Every year the day
after Pentecost is now the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. Cardinal
Robert Sarah, the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, has urged
priests to make celebrating this memorial a priority and he said that the readings the Church
chose for this feast “illuminate the mystery of spiritual motherhood.” So I thought it would be
worthwhile to reflect on these readings and discover what it means for Mary to be our mother
and the Mother of the Church.

The Church gives us two options for the first reading, one of them is from the Acts of the
Apostles (I’ll get back to that one) and the other is from Genesis (Gen 3:9-15, 20). This second
option is the story of when God confronts Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit.
During that conversation with our first parents, God turned his attention to the serpent and made
this remarkable statement:
"Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild
creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your
head, while you strike at his heel."

This is the first prediction of Mary and Jesus in scripture. Adam and Eve sinned only minutes
before and God already has a plan for how he’s going to fix things. The serpent (representing the
devil, sin, and death) will be delivered a fatal blow to the head by a descendent of Eve.
There were only two women in all of human history who did not have original sin, Eve and
Mary. Both women were given the choice of either obeying God or turning away from Him.
Eve’s choice brought sin into the world whereas Mary’s choice brought Jesus (the destroyer of
sin and death) into the world. Eve, whose names means “mother of all the living,” gave birth to
sin and death. Whereas Mary gave birth to the Messiah and, in turn, the Church. For, as St. Leo
the Great says, the birth of the Head is also the birth of the body.

This brings us directly to the gospel reading for the day. It is St. John’s account of the crucifixion
(John 19:25-34) where Jesus is hanging on the cross and sees his mother. The gospel says:
“Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman,
behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’ And from that hour the
disciple took her into his home.”

The beloved disciple is likely John himself, but he remains unnamed and thereby represents all
of the disciples who Jesus loves, in other words, the whole Church. While hanging on the cross

Jesus gives his Church one last gift, a mother - his mother. And Mary doesn’t hesitate in taking
on her motherly role.

This brings us back to the other option that the Church gives us for the first reading taken from
the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:12-14). This reading takes place immediately after Jesus
ascended into heaven. Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit was coming but he didn’t tell them
when. So the apostles went back to the upper room in Jerusalem and waited. The reading says:
“When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying…[and]
devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother
of Jesus, and his brothers.”

Mary was here encouraging and praying with this small band of people who would go on to
become the first bishops and pope. Mary was already full of grace and the Holy Spirit from the
annunciation all those years earlier, so she sat with the apostles and, according to Archbishop
Roche (Secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship) “she who knew more about the
Holy Spirit was helping them to persevere, and to pray, and to make a space for the coming of
the Holy Spirit in their own minds and hearts.”

So what does all this mean for us? This feast is another reminder for us to turn to Mary and ask
for her motherly help. At times when we feel distant or angry at God we can cry out to Mary and
ask her to intercede for us and pray for our hearts to soften. And when we’re desperate for the
Holy Spirit we know we can ask Mary, who is full of grace, to pray for a greater outpouring of
the Spirit on our lives. This feast is one more opportunity to turn to Our Mother and say, as the
Responsorial Psalm says, "My home is within you."

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Corey Luna

5/14/2018

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This year’s spring break trip was a total surprise to me in planning it and in how amazing it was! Last year, I offered the option to go on the spring break trip St. Mary’s was organizing, but I didn’t have much student interest at all. So when a student this year, Carter Pline, wanted to meet up to talk about a spring break trip, I was a little bit hesitant about it. Carter absolutely loved the Mission: Flint that we participated in last summer. The Mission: Flint centers a lot around Christ and the mission that we have to serve the poor and others that are around us. Carter had a powerful experience and really wanted to have another chance to serve like that. I told him that I would absolutely love to do something like that and that I’d put together some ideas, but he’d have to gather a group of interested people for this trip. A couple of weeks after that we met again, and he automatically had a list of ten or so students that were interested! I was pretty impressed and since he held his part of our agreement, I had to come up with a trip then!
Fast forward about four months from that, and Jordan Spitzley from St. Mary’s in Westphalia and myself were leading a caravan of 25 students down to North Carolina to serve the New Bern, North Carolina Habitat for Humanity. I was very excited, but kind of nervous since I personally and professionally haven’t done a trip like this. So we stepped out in faith and let the Lord lead what we had taken a lot of time and effort to plan!
In reflection of the whole week, I observed a lot of things the Lord was putting in place for our program. I was in total gratitude of the group of kids that I had come this year. They were a test group for this trip and stepped out in a lot of faith to go and serve in this way. Not only did they step out in faith, but this group of kids absolutely dove into everything that we did. The work that we did the whole week was work that we didn’t have a lot of skills in! We worked on three different sites the whole week, and the work that we did included; putting together external walls for a house, putting up those external walls, building a shed, shingling, installing appliances, landscaping, painting, etc etc. We had to learn how to do all these things from trained volunteers, hone those skills, and then do all of that physical labor! So we worked for six hours a day for four days straight and accomplished so much! The trained volunteers complimented us by saying that we were more efficient than any of the college groups that they had come to work there, and they said that they were very impressed on how much we improved throughout the week! I couldn’t help but to be proud of our total group and see how much they had invested in the total four days!
Not only did we work hard but we prayed hard as well! We were able to work with the Catholic Church that we were staying in to have a couple of nights where we had access to the church, and where the local priest and deacon provided adoration and confession for us! It was amazing to be welcomed into this community through Habitat for Humanity and through this Catholic Church as well! The Lord was really present, and in our times of prayer, in this welcoming atmosphere, I could feel that the Lord was taking us deeper. He was making Himself present for the kids to encounter him, but also pointing them outward and saying that the love and grace that we receive from God is supposed to overflow into the world. That the way God transforms us, should also help transform the things around us too. The kids on this trip ate up this message too! I could feel that so many of them desired the mission Jesus calls us to and they all have so much eagerness to say yes to the Lord taking them to change the world! I see this as where the Lord is taking our Youth Ministry Program in MHT. That not only through our retreats can we bring God into the lives of our young people, but that we as a parish can facilitate their growth in those encounters and have them transformed and on mission.
I want to take this chance especially to thank all of you for being so supportive. Parents and parishioners alike have done so much in praying, giving monetary support, and just sharing in the excitement of these times to serve. It was really fun to post daily updates on Facebook and see the instant reactions of joy and excitement! Without that foundational encouragement and the generosity we receive, our youth ministry program and trips like this wouldn't be possible!

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Fr. Dennis

5/7/2018

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Dear friends in Christ,

With our young people making their First Holy Communion this weekend, I thought it would be a good opportunity to speak about what we believe about the Eucharist.

We call the Sacrament of the Eucharist Holy Communion, coming from the Latin, com-unio meaning “to be one with.” It is a sacrament, coming from the Latin “sacrarae,” meaning to consecrate, which is very close to the word “sacrifice,” which is a compilation of the words sacrum and facio, meaning literally “to make sacred.”

Words are important to us. They reveal a deeper meaning to what is happening to us. Also, they are living signs, meaning they signify something deeper, that God’s grace is available to us through them. Grace is what is given to us by God so that we might attain eternal life; it is impossible for us to attain eternal life apart from God’s grace, and it is solely due to God’s grace that we can be saved and enter into Heaven. There are two kinds of grace that a given person can receive.

One is called “actual grace.” Actual grace is given to us when God acts in a particular moment in time; it is not continuous and does not stay with us. An example of this would be a particular form of enlightenment you may receive about an issue during a moment of prayer to God. It is an instantaneous experience that pushes you to act.

The other kind of grace is called “sanctifying grace”. Sanctifying grace develops inside of us. Unlike actual grace which is a momentary act, sanctifying grace is a state of being that our soul becomes infused with by the Holy Spirit on account of Christ’s sacrifice for the remission of our sins. It is sanctifying grace that is the basis for our salvation and is infused in us upon our Baptism. Now can we receive sanctifying grace in the Eucharist? Yes, if we are in a state of grace when we receive.

The Church refers to the Eucharist as the “sacrum convivium,” meaning sacred meal. It is a sacred meal celebrated by those who share a common identity. So the Eucharist is not a “come one, come all” meal. It is a Holy Banquet for those who wear the wedding garment. The garment is righteousness and those who refuse to wear it are cast out (cf: Matt 22:11-12 & Rev 19:8). It is a meal shared by those who are seeking to live in holiness.

The Eucharist is nothing less that the Risen Lord Jesus, given to us under the mysterious signs of bread and wine, that have become the Body and Blood of Jesus. For us as Catholics, to share the Eucharistic banquet means that we believe what the Lord Jesus has revealed to us: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” (John 6:41) Not only this, but Jesus tells us:

“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.. Whoever eats
my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day. 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. Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father, so also
the one who feeds on me will have life
because of me.” (John 6:54-57)
And if Jesus is the “Bread of Life,” then wouldn’t we want to live in His grace which gives us eternal life? Wouldn’t we want to do everything possible to receive that grace that saves us and raises us up on the last day?

That is why, from earliest times, the Eucharist has been preceded by a discernment. What does this mean? St. Paul warns the Corinthians in his first letter to them to discern carefully before receiving the Eucharist, because if we receive holy communion in a state of mortal sin, “we receive unto condemnation.” (I Corinthians 11:27 ff).

Not only this, but one of the earliest documents of the Church outside the New Testament, called “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” (the Didache) written at the beginning of the 2ndcentury, takes up this apostolic tradition and has the priest, just before distributing the sacrament saying: “Whoever is holy, let him approach, whoever is not, let him do penance” (Didache 10).

“Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to
answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
A person should examine himself, and
so eat the bread and drink the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without
discerning the body, eats and drinks
judgment on himself.” (1 Cor. 11: 27-29)

So what’s the point? Well, what the Scriptures and Church are reminding us is that to be a Eucharistic believer is a great gift, and a great responsibility. It means that parents who are not bringing their children to Mass on Sunday are not only in grave sin themselves, but also causing scandal to their children – who learn that Mass is arbitrary and only necessary on our terms, and not a responsibility and a gift.

It means that all of us who come forward on Sunday to receive Our Lord in holy communion are challenged to discern carefully their lives, their choices and if necessary to repent and turn away from those things that are harmful for the soul.

This is also a reminder to all of us to ask the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and minds, so that we can appreciate in a new way what a gift and grace Mass is. It is also a reminder to all of us to prepare worthily to receive the Lord, by fasting one hour before holy communion, by praying – preferablly as well, to pray with the readings of Sunday’s Mass, and to do everything within our power to be in the Lord’s grace.

Jesus spoke to us in last Sunday’s Gospel, “in this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (John 15:8) May the Lord help all of us to recommit ourselves to seek God’s grace and to be transformed by His love in the Eucharist – His gift to us until He comes again.

God bless, Fr. Dennis

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Corey Luna

5/1/2018

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I would like to start with a huge thank you to everyone who gave to our fundraising campaign for Steubenville. Initially, when I looked at the numbers for this trip earlier this year, it was really difficult to see that it would be necessary to raise the price for the trip. We have been able to keep it the same for quite awhile, so that consistency is something that people count on. Without that consistency though, the cost can become an obstacle for kids not to attend. For any retreat, I almost always have someone that is worried about the cost in some sort of way. So with this in mind, increasing the price seemed like the wrong kind of move, so I started to pray and turn to the people of the parish for back up in this situation. I definitely was not disappointed! We raised almost $2000 for this trip alone and also received some individual donations for kids. This generosity and support for our own youth program parallels a lot with some of this week’s gospel reading.

“Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”

This part of the gospel this weekend has some beautiful meanings that we can take to prayer for the week. Mainly, that for us individually to bear fruit in our faith, we need God. Without Him we would have nothing and wouldn’t be able to see fruit coming from our own lives or in the ways that we minister in this world.

But looking at this on a bigger scale, for us at Most Holy Trinity, we are a branch that has been remaining on the vine. In many different ways, our parish has been doing more and more to build ourselves up and grow. Whether it's in our youth ministry program, Witness to Hope Campaign, our Adult Retreats, our Healing service, etc. With all of these things happening, I think that we can see that because of the ways we are staying connected to the Lord and allowing Him to work in our parish and build us up, we are seeing a lot of fruits and will continue to see the blessing of these fruits.

In my own area of youth ministry, I think we have seen a lot of fruits in our program. Not only have I seen a lot of fruits from individual kids growing in their personal relationship with the Lord through one on one meetings, but I have seen it on a larger scale as well. We had quite a few more kids come on our high school retreat, we tripled our attendance to the Mission: Wixom this year, and our 8th grade Retreat this year was probably one of the most powerful retreats that I have had the pleasure of being a part of in the last couple of years. I can see the fruits of our program and of our parish in the joy and excitement that students have been showing in what we are doing and in the way they have experienced God. These fruits would not be here if our staff wasn’t responding to God, and if our parish as a whole wasn’t responding to God.

Some of the responses to God in our youth ministry have come in the form of people in the parish being supportive of what we are doing in prayer, through volunteering, and also monetarily. All of these things have been instrumental in the trips that we have taken. Especially for Steubenville, our biggest trip that affects the largest number of youth in our parish. We have received so much support and I just ask that the parish continues to support us and allow us to keep experiencing those fruits and the growth that God has in store for us.

We have about 2 months until our Steubenville trip and it’s crazy to think that it’s already this close. For the next couple of months please keep praying for us and encouraging any of the students that you know to go on this trip. Also, please consider responding to the call to give in our investment fundraiser (more information in the bulletin insert). This is a fantastic way to be a part of Steubenville and to also keep building up another piece of our parish.

God Bless, Corey

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