Well, we’re finally here! The last letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch! I’m posting this a bit earlier than usual because the next couple of weeks are going to be rather busy.
Each of the Ignatius’ letters are special for different reasons, but his letter to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, holds a special place in my heart.
In some ways it reminds me of the book of Proverbs, since Ignatius often offers Polycarp advice in the form of short exhortations.
This is the only personal letter Ignatius wrote to a fellow bishop and should, in my not so humble opinion, be required reading for all pastors and all those who minister in the Church.
When I have friends who enter the seminary, they usually receive a card from me with a quotation which comes from somewhere in this letter. Whenever I become discouraged in the ministries in which I serve, this is the document I usually dig out.
I said this was Ignatius’ last letter, but that is not strictly true, for there was one final letter he wrote, to both his “God Jesus Christ” and to the “Catholic Church”. However, this was a letter of a different kind… Rather than being written in private, this letter was written in an amphitheatre before thousands of jeering Romans. Rather than using parchment, he used his own flesh and, in place of ink, his own blood.
Last night I gave my acceptance speech for the Fiat Award at the San Diego Young Adult Christmas Gala. Here’s the text…
Greeting
Good evening everyone. I’m humbled and really privileged to receive this award, thank you.
I’m keen to get on with the rest of the evening, as I’m sure you are, and to bust out some sweet moves on that dancefloor…but Patrick said that I could speak to you for a few minutes and there is something, in particular, which I would like to share tonight. You see, even some of my close friends may not know everything about my Faith journey…
My Journey
I grew up in a good Catholic home, but it was the work of an Irish missionary (and the Holy Spirit) which brought my faith fully alive at University. There at University, I was surrounded by a vibrant community of Catholics, many of a similar age, who cared deeply about growing in the Faith and about about sharing the Gospel.
But it was after university that things started to go awry… I graduated and was hired by a company in an unfamiliar town. I naturally went to Sunday Mass assuming that I would find new friends there…but I was to leave disappointed. Nobody greeted me. There was no Young Adult community. As far as I could see, there were no ministries whatsoever. The place just seemed… dead.
To add insult to injury, the company which had brought me to that town went bankrupt in my first week there (It wasn’t anything I did, I swear!). But this left me in an unfamiliar town, without a job, with friends, without a community….
As a result of all this, on my way back from Mass, I wandered into a non-Catholic congregation. It was here, in that Protestant congregation that I found the community for which I was longing. I was given such a warm welcome (well, at least as warm a welcome as is possible for the English!). During my time there…
…I learned so much about the Christian life
…I found a group my own age
…I was invited to help out with their youth group
…I made friends…I had found a home
It would be many years before I would rediscover the truth of Catholicism and return whole-heartedly to the Church.
The state of our Communion
Now why am I sharing this story? I’m sharing it because I don’t think it’s unique. I don’t think it’s even rare. I think my story is common for many many, many Catholics…and many former Catholics. The total number of Catholics in the United States has dropped by 3 million since 2007, that’s about 20%, one-fifth of the total Catholic population in the United States.
Why do they leave? There are several important reasons, but I would suggest that a major reason is that people are looking for spiritual nourishment, seeking connection, a community,…and when they don’t find it in the Catholic Church….they look elsewhere.
This Award
I’m really grateful and feel very honoured to receive this award tonight, but I have done nothing that special.
My life, my very existence, comes from God…
…and my supernatural life comes through Christ and His sacrifice for me.
If I have any talents they are not my own, they come from Him.
I owe God everything. So given all that, what else could I do but put myself at His service and the service of His Church?
I would suggest that, if anything can be learned from my receiving this award tonight, it’s not that I have done anything that extraordinary….
… The lesson is rather that, ministry is not simply the domain of ordained clergy or salaried parish employees, ministry is the role and calling of every…baptized…Catholic.
Rachel
At the beginning of this year, I nominated my friend, Rachel, to receive this very award. You see, when Rachel became Catholic, she immediately set about galvanizing the Immaculata Young Adults and approached her pastor asking to start a Bible Study.
It was for this reason that I nominated her for the award. She didn’t wait for someone else in the parish to do it. She saw a need and stepped up, putting her time and her talents at the service of her parish.
Dream a little dream with me
My friends, our Diocese is often praised in other parts of the country for its Young Adult Ministry (and rightly so)… but imagine with me for a moment if you will, what this Diocese would look like if every Catholic in this Diocese imitated my friend Rachel. I promise you, our Diocese would be un-recog-nizable…
There would be activities every night of the week, every weekend. There would be opportunities to socialize, to grow in the Faith, to serve the wider community. And most importantly, the people who came to the Church seeking nourishment and community… they’d find it…and in so doing, encounter Jesus.
Objections
But there’s a problem. As soon as I spoke about each one of us finding a place to serve, a voice at the back of your head probably started coming up with a long list of objections:
“What, me? Doing ministry?! I don’t know how to do that…”
“I can’t organize big events!” “I’m not a theologian. I’m sure someoneelse better qualified will do something!”
Am I right?
Small things with great love
In case you misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that each of you should head-up some grand catechesis programme in your parish, and devote all your time, every evening and weekend to that work. No, I’m simply inviting you to think about your passions and skills and consider where there is a need in the Church, because, as Frederick Buechner said:
“The place God calls you to [your vocation] is the place where your deep gladness [all those things you really love and care about] and the world’s deep hunger [and the unmet needs in the Church] meet [where they meet]”
My ministries
As for myself…
I like going to the theatre and the symphony. I therefore inaugurated “The Finer Things Club” and invited others to join me on my cultural adventures.
My housemate and I agreed that we wanted to have better accountability, so we formed a Men’s Huddle, inviting a few other guys to meet together a couple of times a month to share a beer and talk about our lives.
My friend Teresa wanted to sing Taize songs, so we picked a date and invited people over to the house for an evening of candle-lit Taize prayer and song. We now do this once a month if you’d like to join us.
I’ve always loved the writings of C.S. Lewis, so I arranged to meet up with my friend Matt at a coffee shop, to talk about one of his books. I let other people know about it on Facebook, and a meeting of two C.S. Lewis nerds grew into a regular group and we’ve now read six of Lewis’ books.
Because of interest in this group from outside of San Diego, Matt and I then launched a podcast, where we discuss the works of C.S. Lewis chapter-by-chapter each week.
This then grew into a website, PintsWithJack.com, to host a video series which was launched this week.
My point here is that all these things began simply by doing what I love…and then inviting others to join me.
Have a little help from my friends
And I know I’m not the only one. I don’t have to look hard to find other examples from among my friends…
Joseph, having discovered Our Lady, committed to praying the rosary at the beach each week, and invited others to join him.
Kareen was troubled by the homelessness in Downtown San Diego, so with a few friends she set about making food and handing it out. Others joined her.
My friend Joe really likes scotch, so he decided to get together some friends and introduce them to the finer points of whiskey-tasting.
All of these activities build community, help deepen spirituality and make a positive change in the world (especially the scotch!).
The invitation
So what about you? What are the things you enjoy? Where do you see an unmet need in the Church? Where do you feel the tug of the Holy Spirit?
Again, it doesn’t have to be complicated…Maybe you like volleyball. You could assemble some friends to have a casual game one weekend, or purchase host a monthly movie night at your house, inviting some new parishioners you met at Mass.
Never Alone
But even with these simple suggestions, it may all seem too intimidating. But the good news is that you don’t have to do this alone.
Reach out to your pastor – he’s there to help!
Reach out to Patrick and Pam – the purpose of their office is to support you…to help you… as you help build the Kingdom.
My time is now just about up, so I would like to thank you all for your indulgence for the past ten minutes. But I’d like to end with a prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman:
“God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission… I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work.”
This morning I went to Mass. Until very recently, we would have celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, but in recent years the Feast has been moved from this Thursday to the nearest Sunday. I’m not such a fan of this change since it obscures the origin of the “novena”, the Catholic practice of nine days of prayer for a particular intention.
Novenas are associated with the period of time between the Ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost:
[Jesus said] “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samar′ia and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight…
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet…and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying…All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren…
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
– Acts 1:8-9,12-14;2:1-4
If you’re looking for a novena to pray between now and Pentecost, my new favourite is the novena to one of my favourites, Pier Giorgio Frassati. What’s you’re favourite Novena?
Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself. – Philippians 3:17-21
Today I’m in Oregon for Oktoberfest and it reminded me that I never wrote about my trip here last month. After a week on retreat at Mount Angel, I spent the weekend in Portland:
I got to visit the famous Powells, a three-story bookstore covering an entire city block. I was so proud of myself, I managed to leave without buying anything – quite an achievement!
I spent most of Saturday morning visiting the extensive Saturday market down by the waterfront.
I also took an “Underground” walking tour of the city where I heard about some of the rather quirky history of Oregon’s most well-known city.
During our tour we went past one Portland’s iconic locations, Voodoo Donuts. The lines outside were crazy, with people waiting over an hour just to get a donut! During the tour we heard the story of how the business began. It turns out that a club owner created donuts which he said were hang-over cures. He could say this because the sugar frosting was replaced with crushed-up aspirins and the jam filling with pepto-bismol! The government discovered what he was doing and freaked out because he was putting drugs in the food he was selling. Rather than letting it sink his business, he then used the media storm as free advertising. He switched to making the kind of delicious sugar-filled treats they sell today and people flocked to buy them!
Finally, while in Portland I went to Mass at the Grotto on the outskirts to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. I returned the following day to spend some quiet time in the grotto grounds:
I’m going to finish this today, I promise! This is the final part of a series responding to a comment which was left on a post I wrote about the Mother of God. This was the comment:
“‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’ If Mary were sinless, why did she need a Savior? Wouldn’t she be lying?
Did she realize Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? When she compared herself to the law of a holy God, had she realized she had formerly, lied, coveted, dishonored her parents by not always obeying them, etc. and like every single person needs a Savior? There are none good, no not one (Romans 3), except Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Also see Romans 11:6. Thank you Jesus, my Savior.”
Today I’m going to conclude my exploration of Kelley’s comments and offer some closing thoughts…
Well, we’re finally here! The last letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch! I’m posting this a bit earlier than usual because the next couple of weeks are going to be rather busy.
Today we finish Chapter 3:
