​For a reason we don't know, God is three persons who have an eternal relationship with each other.  Jesus shows us the Father by praying to Him and, and the Holy Spirit by sending Him at Pentecost.  
 
God the Father creates, God the Son redeems, God the Holy Spirit sanctifies.  This is God's mission: redeem His creation when we sinned and to make us holy.
 
We continue the work of God by loving as God does as disciples.  
 
To do this, God brings us into His family.  The sharing of his love begins with our baptism.  We are baptized "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  .
 
In our life. we come to know the love of the God through the love of our parents first.  Our fathers teach us God the Father's love.  Our mother's love teaches us our Blessed Mother's love, the Queen of Heaven and Mother to all of us.  The home we have here, prepares for the dwelling of God forever.
 
Parents help their children know the love of God by how they love their children.  Said another way, children learn the love of God by the love they receive from their parents.  
 
This means that the family becomes the image of God love.  Father, Mother, and children reflect the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God has chosen the sacrament of marriage and the family to be the reflection of his love in the world.  
 
The Love of God is at the very center of our life.  St. Paul reminds us these qualities of love in the letter to the Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, is not pompous,
it is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
 
Love never fails.   

This week, parents teach your children to love as God loves.  You know His love already. The love with which you love your children is the same love that God loves us.  God has given you a gift to know His love.  Show them God's love.
 
In Christ,
Fr. Brian 

​This weekend is Pentecost.  The day that the Holy Spirit was sent down to the Apostles.  They were in the upper room afraid,  If you remember, just a week previous the disciples returned to Jerusalem full joy praising God in the temple continually.  Now they are locked in the upper room in fear.  

When the Holy Spirit comes, they are filled with fire, or God's life.  They rush out and preach to the poeple.  Acts 2:42 said that 3000 converted that day to Jesus through the preaching of Peter.

How is God sending you out today to preach the good news of Jesus?  

We think we are inadequate to preach about Jesus.  It is because, just saying the words "preaching about Jesus" has the connotation that you have a Masters in Divinity degree and studied.  

It really means: how well do you know and love Jesus?  The greatest saints didn't have near the education that we have today, yet they knew Jesus personally, and they loved him.  Jesus in the Gospel says "Whoever loves me will keep me word."  It is part of the same gospel as a few weeks ago that also says God will make his dwelling with us.

In our Baptism and our Confirmation we are given the Holy Spirit and the gifts to live our faith.  It begins by knowing Jesus personally.  If you are trying to figure out how to do that, here is a few things you can do"

1. Pick a Gospel (not John first) and pray over all the words of Jesus as if he was talking to you.
2. Take 2 munutes in the morning and sit quietly and pray "Jesus thank you for this day, help me to know you today."

This will begin a relationship that will open your life to greater possilbilites than you had ever thought. We limit ourselves, God brings us to new ways.

Remember you are already clothed with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  God has sent you to love others.  The Holy Spirit will constantly remind us what Jesus did for us.  Take some time to know him greater and realize that you have been sent by God with Jesus by your side.  This will help you speak about him to others because of your love for him.

Have a blessed week.

In Christ,
Fr. Brian 

Jesus shows us that he sacrifices himself for the ones he loves: us, human beings.  For sacrifice literally means "to make holy."  By Jesus' action on the cross, we are restored as children of God.  Our sacrifices are there to make others holy just as Jesus makes us holy by his sacrifice.  

He shows us that our actions of sacrifice are for who we love, and the fruit of these actions are the flourishing of others. 

When we see those we love being successful, healthy, growing in confidence, strengthening their faith and trust in God, growing in prayer, the love of the Eucharist, falling in love with someone else.  These are the fruits of our sacrifices, so others may flourish.  

When we sacrifice, it is so that the ones we love can flourish and be given greater opportunities to sacrifice for the ones they love. 

Think about what sacrifices you would make for your spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, friends, people you don't even know.   All of this begins because God sent his Son to love us, and tho show how to love as he loves.   Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you should love one another.  

What is one sacrifice you can make this week for someone that you love?

I have to ask myself, have I truly sacrificed for God and for those I love?  Am I willing to sacrifice my life for the people that God has given me to serve like St. John Neumann, or St. John Vianney?  That is a very humbling question.  On my own I cannot do it.  I fail, and do so very often.

Only with Jesus will I be able to do this because it begins with love, His love.

But that is why Jesus says "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should love one another"  Love is the very center of it all.  Love impels us to love another as Jesus did.  Disciples sacrifice because they love.

This past weekend I had shared a short list of ideas for a Lenten sacrifice that didn't involve food during my homily.  I only gave a short list, and many asked if I could share a more complete list. 

This list comes from our Evangelical Catholic "Reach More" training booklet.  Our family of parishes just recently partnered with them. Right now our first group of parishioners are going through the "Reach More" missionary discipleship training. Please take some time to pray over this list and talk about this with your families.  I hope it may help you have a blessed Lent.

IDEAS FOR SACRIFICES THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOD
Get creative about incorporating small, unseen sacrifices into your routine to pray for others.  Call the person you're praying for to mind whenever you make your sacrifice.

At Work 

• Stick to a schedule.
• Start on time and end on time.
• Do unpleasant or difficult tasks first.
• Whenever anyone asks for your help, give them your immediate attention (if your position allows)
• Or the opposite: schedule focused time, shut your door, close your email when not using it, silence unnecessary notifications, etc.
• Stay off of social media during work hours.
• Compliment people; go out of your way to be friendly; smile even when you don't feel like it.
• Finish your tasks as well and quickly as you can, and then offer to help someone else with their tasks.
• Close your computer if you don't need it for your current task.

At Home

• Go to 6:30 morning Mass Tuesday and Thursday mornings at our Incarnation Campus
• Let others choose music, movies, tv shows, etc.  Accept their choice with a cheerful spirit.
• Lessen a spouse's or roommate's burden: do an undesirable home task or one of their least-favorite chores before they get to it.
• do a certain number of loads of laundry per day or week.
• Fold and put away laundry immediately after it finishes drying.
• Don't leave clothes on the floor.
• Set the table, wash the dishes, or offer to make a meal if these are not part of your regular responsibility.
• Drop whatever you're doing whenever someone asks your assistance.
• Exercise regularly; or if you tend to be indulgent with exercise, end your exercises on time.
• Cut out certain amount of social media time and instead play a board game with friends/family/roommates.
• Put your phone in another room when you get home; treat it like a landline.  Only get it if it rings.
• Make your bed first thing in the morning.
• No phones or screens at the dining table or while doing activities with someone else.
• For married couples: give your spouse a five-minute massage every night.
• For parents of small children:
  • Be the one to brush the little kid's teeth.
  • Do the bedtime routine, and make it fun!
  • Offer to change the diaper or assist the toddler in the bathroom

​Miscellaneous

• don't listen to music or podcasts in the car, but drive in silence.
• Get up early and go to Mass.
• Don't hit snooze in the morning.
• Get to bed on time.
• Cut out screen time one hour before bed.
• Decrease your news or podcast consumption by one source.
• Don't give your opinion if you're not asked for it.
• Avoid positions or postures that hinder concentration or that convey negative nonverbals (legs crossed, slouching, folding arms, etc.
• Modify your curiosity/imagination: fast from browsing the internet except for work or to help someone with a specific request.
• Avoid talking about certain topics: i.e. yourself, topics that draw out negativity, things you obsess about, complaining, topics that are indulgent, etc.
• Instead of grumbling, say a prayer at red lights, when someone cuts you off, or when stuck in traffic, etc.

 
Let us pray for each other as we enter into Lent and continue to walk this path together as Our Lady of Light.
 
In Christ,
Fr. Brian 

We are less than a week away from Christmas.  Advent always seems to go fast.  Granted it is only 4 weeks long, yet it seems way too fast to prepare for the day we celebrate God entering the world as a human being, a baby born of the Virgin Mother. 
 
When we recount the story of birth of our Savior, we see the struggle of a young family who is trying to just make it to Bethlehem so that they can be counted by the Romans.  As they arrived, we remember there was no place for them to stay.  So they stayed in a stable and Jesus was laid in a manger or a food trough for animals.
 
This seems like the most illogical beginning of a story for someone who is the Messiah.  Yet, that is the point.  God enters into the world to take on and transform the human experience of original sin into the redeemed children of God.  The lowliness and poverty that Jesus takes on tells the story of the human experience.  We are all lowly and poor due to our fallenness and sinfulness.  God in his goodness and mercy takes that on so the we may be raised up out of that state and be restored to the people God created us to be...in His image and likeness.  We were not created to be lost, broken, and disillusioned.  We were created to live in the peace and love of God's life.
 
Yet, that is the story we all walk... the hospitality of the manger.  God invites us into a new relationship.  We walk knowing that our sinfulness can weigh us down, the Incarnation of God becoming human in Jesus Christ heals, restores, and makes us new again.  God rescues us from ourselves and reforms us in his likeness.  

Over this Christmas how can our hearts be the manger for Jesus.  A place where he is welcomed to stay and be kept warm, so that he can make our hearts ready to welcome all those around us.  God shows us the axiom belonging leads to believing.  We belong to God first, and He guides us to greater belief and faith in Him. 
 
This Christmas, let us make sure we are saying hello to people around us.  If they are new to you, please ask them if they need anything.  Be ready to welcome someone you may not know into the pew next to you.  We will be welcoming many people this Christmas, how can we help others and see Christ when they arrive this year.  Belonging leads to believing.
 
This January into spring we have an opportunity for all those who have not yet gone through the Rescue Project. Come and check it out. Ask those who have gone through it already of their experience.  The Rescue Project helps us to renew our relationship with God and those around us.  Please take some time to check it out.  
 
Let's make our hearts like the manger, so that Jesus may always be welcomed into our heart.  
 
Have a blessed Christmas!
 
In Christ,
Fr. Brian

When I was first ordained, I was approached by our priest personnel committee to see if I would take on being the chaplain for the Legion of Mary in Dayton.  I told them that I was happy to do so.  My grandmother was in the Legion of Mary, and I thought it was a good way to remember her.

As I began learning more about the Legion, I learned about Servant of God Frank Duff.  Frank Duff started the Legion of Mary in his small parish in Ireland in 1921.   By the 1940's, the Legion spread to other continents including Africa and Asia.  In 1965, he was invited to the 2nd Vatican Council as a lay observer, and when he was introduced to the assembly he received a standing ovation.  

The Legion's purpose is in devotion to Jesus through Mary and also multiplying the work of the priests by visiting the sick, communion to the home bound, and serving the poor.  His cause for sainthood is now up, so servant of God Frank Duff... pray for us!

The Gospel on Tuesday morning was about how the mustard seed exponentially grows beyond itself.  The same way, God grows us beyond we ever thought we could.  Every Saint starts by being baptized, and then grew in faith with God's grace through works of mercy, prayer, and growing in community with each other.

We begin the same way as all the Saints...in baptism.  

On All Saints Day, we celebrate all the Saints, the canonized and those only known to God.  On this day, we get a chance to remember all those in heaven, which could include all our family members.  

We all start out as saints when we are baptized.  God then grows us as the mustard seed to grow beyond our shell and become the flourishing disciple of Christ that He calls us to be.

Have a blessed rest of your week and see you at Mass.

In Christ,
Fr. Brian 

Every year we train new servers and every year we talk about why the church has statues, sanctuary lamp, candles, etc.  They all have a significant meaning for us.  One day a very astute kid asked..."I get white is for heaven, gold is for celebration, purple is for penance but why green?"  I had to laugh a second but the kid was very serious when asking this question.  

On that day, I said that Ordinary Time is the time where we listen to what Jesus said and did, to help us grow to be more like him.   My answer didn't seem to satisfy him and he just said okay.

This is what I wish I said that day:  Green represents hope, life, and anticipation of growth just as new flowers and trees blooming do.  It is a sign of life, and of nature that reflects our hope and growth in our spiritual lives as children of God.  We listen to what Jesus said and did, so that we may emulate him in our life and be more like him every day.  This is because we are made in his image and likeness.  We are renewed every day like a new rose growing.

Ordinary Time is the longest liturgical season at 34 weeks yet we think of it as just a filler for Advent, Lent, Christmas and Easter.  Those are the high holy times of the year where we celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas and await his second coming at the end of time.  We celebrate our Lord's life, passion, death, and resurrection and the ascension into heaven.  

Ordinary Time is the hinge between those seasons and not a filler of time. During this season we sit at the Lord's feet to listen to him and see what he did.  It is more than just "What Would Jesus Do." It is What did Jesus do, say, and how does he want me to follow God as a child of God.  This is the time we hone our skills of prayer and missionary zeal of being a follower of Christ.  

We have 8 weeks left of Ordinary Time until advent.  How can we take these 8 weeks to be more intentional of prayer and more generous of our time, talent, and treasure to our community, our family of parishes. Let us realize that God has given us all that we need to preach the Gospel, and our faith is not meant to be dull.  

It is meant to be an adventure that only God can send us on.  There is nothing ordinary about Ordinary Time...it means ordering our life to be like Christ.  

We have 8 weeks....how can we live that missionary faith of time, talent, and treasure and live as Christ calls us to live?

I hope you have a blessed week and a blessed time of growth over these next 8 weeks.

In Christ,
​Fr. Brian

Blessed Carlo Acutis was beatified on October 10,2020.  He is known as the Apostle to the Internet, since as a teenager he cataloged all the reported  Eucharistic Miracles in the history of our Church.  He made a website so that all can see those miracles.  During our Corpus Christi celebration, we had numerous Eucharistic Miracle panels displayed in the gathering space of the St. Francis campus. With his mother, Carlo would walk the streets and help the homeless when he was about 14 years old.  He will be canonized a saint in the near future.  
 
We have many saints in our Church that give us an example of holiness.  Last month I wrote about Michelle Duppong, who hopefully will be the next American Saint.  What these two have in common, is they realized that God was calling them to have a relationship with Him. 
 
As we are trying to define what our vision and mission of Our Lady of Light Family of Parishes.  Our staff and had a team building morning. I spoke with our Family Pastoral Council, and other groups and asked them what does it mean to be a parishioner of Our Lady of Light Family of Parishes.  I also asked them what habits does a missionary disciple have?
 
It was interesting because many people didn’t really know how to define a missionary disciple (and I must admit that I have learned over the past few years as well).  It is a term that we use today to describe someone who is seeking a greater relationship with Jesus in their life and a greater relationship being in communion with those around them.  A disciple seeks prayer, time with scripture, connecting to a small prayer group or connection group, normal reception of the sacraments, acts of service to name a few.  
 
These are all traits that we want to see in our people.  Yet, at the same time we have to realize that we are not the ones who are initiating the relationships.  It is God first who is initiating and inspiring us to have a greater relationship with Him in Jesus, and a greater relationship with those around them.  
 
That is why we realized that we have to help people understand and realize that God wants a relationship with every single person.  He never stops reaching out to us and share His life and love with us.
 
God makes His life present to us in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and especially in Jesus’ true presence in the Eucharist.  We make heaven present to others with things like acts of service, showing forgiveness, and great worship of God.
 
We are called to help others come to know God personally, because we already know him personally.  He wants a relationship with all His children and wants to walk with us in our every day life.
 
Our Lady of Light Family of parishes has a new vision and mission statement:
Vision: We are called to make heaven present here and now.
 
What this means is that when we go to Mass, heaven is made present to us in the Eucharist. When Jesus said “Do this in memory of me,” God brings the action of Jesus’ Passover with apostles 2,000 years ago present to us today. We are sitting in the upper room with them, and all of the heavenly court of angels and saints.
 
God’s life is communicated to us in the Eucharist. We are called to take this reception of God’s greatest gift to humanity, the true presence of the resurrected Christ, and make that present for others.  What we receive fuels our zeal to serve others around us, walk with each other in the journey of faith, serve the poor, be volunteers to help with youth programming, and live our faith wherever we are: at work, at home, and show Christ to all we meet.
 
Our Mission then is to help people walk with God in their every day life.  This could mean something different to every person or family since we all have different situations.  
 
As we move toward our parish picnic, we will be highlighting saints that were not priests, nuns, or other types of religious.  We will be highlighting saints that lived as “lay people”, or people that lived the vocations of marriage or single life.  These are two great vocations that bring love and fruitfulness to the Church.  St. Gianna Molla, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, Sts. Zelie and Louis Martin, St. Thomas More, Blessed (soon to be Saint) Carlo Acutis, Blessed Chiara Bodano.  These are all saints who were parents, sons or daughters, doctors, merchants, in politics.  They all lived lives of families and sought to live the life of heaven here and now.  
 
In Christ,
Fr. Brian