New York Catholic Youth Day 2015

As Salesians, we often say that faith and fun can happen as one to many of the young people that we work with and pray with daily. That was certainly the case this past weekend when 1,600 young people gathered together for prayer, music, fun, games, breakout sessions, a holy hour, and reconciliation service at the New York Catholic Youth Day hosted by the Dunwoody Seminary in Yonkers, NY.  Deacon Mike Eguino and I worked the vocation booth which was flanked by the Salesian Office of Youth Ministry Office booth and the Salesian Sisters Vocation Office. This created a welcoming presence to all of the participants to stop by and get to know the Salesian Family and what we do. Needless to say, there was a steady flow of participants that checked out the Salesian booths all day. It was reenergizing to see young people on fire for Christ and willing to spend their Saturday in learning and growing in their faith. Deacon Mike served as a great Salesian that day, speaking to everyone who stopped by and teaching them about Don Bosco with enthusiasm.

The Keynote speaker, Mr. Doug Took from the Diocese of Helena, spoke about how everyone was broken in some way and that God desires that we deal with that brokenness so that we can give more of ourselves to the saving plan of God. 

Presiding at the closing Easter liturgy for Divine Mercy Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan addressed the recent heroic martyrdom of 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded in Egypt because they would not renounce their Christian faith.  Each prayed with the same words “God save me” before they were slain by the jihadists.  In the aftermath, the jihadists snickered among themselves “Where was God to save them”.   Cardinal Dolan pointed out that God saved them through the blood of the Lamb in Jesus Christ.  In closing, everyone was encouraged to heed the psalmist’s words, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, his mercy endures forever” (Ps 118: 1).  As the day came to a close, it was a great reminder that the work that we do as Salesians is done in the name of our founding father, but also through Christ who gives us strength!

15,037 Worldwide, We are Salesians!

The latest statistics have recently been published that paint the picture of who the Salesians are all around the world.  As of the end of 2014, there are 15,037  Salesians serving in 131 countries on six continents around the world. The Salesians still remain the 3^rd largest religious missionary organization in the world, dedicated to continuing the work of St. John Bosco to bring the love of Christ to the young and the poor. 

The number of the Salesians included 426 novices, 2,620 seminarians,  1,742 coadjutor brothers, 18 permanent deacons, 10,231 priests,  and 122 bishops. The greatest concentration of Salesians can currently be found in the Mediterranean Region, while the smallest region is made up of the areas of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay . In our own North American provinces, the numbers helped to highlight the work that we do around the US and Canada. The two American provinces counted 166 men in U.S. East and Canada and 95 men as a part of U.S. West.

We join together to continue to pray that God and Mary Help of Christians will continue to guide the works of Salesians around the world. We also pray for a continued increase in vocations; that those who are discerning a vocation with the Salesians will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and understand God’s call in their lives to be like St. John Bosco.  Mary Help of Christians, pray for us!

Holy Week: Being Agents of Authority for God’s Kingdom

What comes to mind when you think of the word authority? Police? A supervisor? Elected leaders? All of those answers are correct in their own right in that they serve to name a figure that has the power to determine a multitude of facets that affect others. Authority can also been seen as an agency that promotes the saving activity of God. We see this in Matthew’s gospel (8: 5-13) when the centurion approached Jesus about helping his ailing servant.  The centurion understood the role of authority since he was a military commander having soldiers that carried out his orders.  Since the centurion understood the role and place of God’s authority in Jesus, Jesus subsequently healed the commander’s servant. Thus the idea of authority also takes on a definition rooted in deep faith- an understanding of God’s power and love in our lives.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he took full control and authority of entering into his Passion and death.  By submitting himself to be the suffering servant of God, he would later have full authority over heaven and earth. He did this not only knowing that he was fulfilling the will of the Father, but also out of the immense love that he had for us all to save us from our sins. In his Passion he conquered death and brought eternal salvation for us all, talk about having authority!

Don Bosco was an agent of God’s authority in all that he did in the Oratory.  Every time he engaged with people in relationship, he exercised a shepherd’s authority so that others would embrace the kingdom of God at hand. Don Bosco’s faith and trust in God’s plan for him were at the core of all that he did in life, and this faith drove his work so that in every preaching, every story, or every goodnight that he gave those to whom he ministered [had authority over] in the Oratory came to know God and respond to the call to become saints.

Holy Week is the opportunity for us to listen and participate well in Jesus’ Passion, death and resurrection in the most intimate of ways. As we head into the holiest of days in our Church, we are called understand how God’s call for us to be agents of authority to promote God’s kingdom for the here and hereafter is at the core of who we are as Easter people.   It is as the gospel of John says in chapter 3 verse 16, “for God so loved the world that he gave us His only son so that those who believe in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.” If God’s authority over the world is so great that He loved us to the point of death on the cross, how can we not rise to be agents of that love and share it the world!
Have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

Come To The House Of The Lord

    March 13^th and 14th marked the fourth annual Eucharistic Congress in the Diocese of St. Augustine held at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in Jacksonville, Florida.  This event generated nearly 7000 participants who were all there to learn, grow, praise, and celebrate the Catholic faith and our love of Christ.  With the central theme of “Come To The House of the Lord”, the full house was influenced by the presence of Dr. Scott Hahn and also Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Cardinal Dolan, who was the keynote speaker and homilist on Saturday, left the crowd with many fruits of wisdom and faith to think about, as well as reminded us of the importance to always want to be near God. 

 
Br. Jhoni Chamorro and I ran a vocation booth that offered plenty of information about who we are as Salesians as well as a chance to play a few games which drew in the crowds, especially families and young people.  Novice Josh Sciullo’s parents, Mark and Jodi, and siblings Steven and Celine provided all the comforts of home to us while we were in Jacksonville, and for that we were extremely grateful. Still the greatest reward of our time with the Sciullos was to watch how engaged they were in helping us to promote vocational culture as they shared in the day and their experiences with others who stopped by the booth. They were able to share their witness of having a loved one who is discerning his vocation in our community to the many young men who came in contact with our Salesian contingent at the Congress.

          In the keynote address on Saturday morning, Cardinal Dolan spoke about the Mass as a meal, a family meal that we should really crave.  He shared a poignant story of a priest visited an ailing Alfred Hitchcock, the English film maker who was Catholic, as he approached his final days.  Cardinal Dolan shared how toward the end of the visit as they had finished sharing in their conversation, Mr. Hitchcock asked the priest, “Well did you bring me Holy Communion”? The crowd chuckled as Cardinal Dolan shared this story.  He would go on to illustrate that the craving that Mr. Hitchcock had is one that we should all have for the Mass and the Holy Eucharist. We should always remain hungry for Christ in our lives.   Cardinal Dolan also made the reference to Luke’s passage of the Emmaus disciples, who having recognized Jesus when breaking of bread, craved his presence so much that they ventured back to Jerusalem in order to inform the community of Jesus’ presence as their “bread and life”.  
As we meet Jesus by emptying ourselves of false cravings in the Lenten dance of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, may we crave to meet Jesus in the Eucharist, who in this life-giving sacrament will bring us to partake in the meal-made-mystery that brings us life in the here and hereafter.  

          All in all, it was another successful and God-filled experience on the road. Being at the Eucharistic Congress was a great affirmation to the truth of the passage from Matthew’s gospel that says “wherever two or more are gathered in My name,  I am there among them.”

Lent—Finding Our Way Back to God’s Mercy

It is often thought that some things are best left unsaid. We can think of many times in our daily lives, media, books, etc., where this notion might apply well. Even in the Good Book, we may often find some passages that leave us wondering if they should have been noted.  In Psalm 137: 9 for instance, the psalmist makes reference to “The one who seizes your children and smashes their heads on rocks”. The Church removed this verse from the readings due to the offensive graphic violation on human life and the deep sense of sadness that it leaves. Many have wondered about its origin and meaning and why such a sorrowful, graphic image could be in the Bible- much less be about children. But it speaks to the ways that the people of God lament, and the lessons we are meant to learn from such an act.

What is lamenting? Do people even do such a thing anymore? We often associate lamenting with loss and mourning of those we love. It can be heartbreaking to see, and all we wish to do is to surround the person who is lamenting with comfort. Nevertheless to lament, as sad as it may be, carries a deep sense of prayer and yearning for mercy. In fact, only on Holy Thursday and Good Friday do we as Church lament and mourn.  Difficult as this form of prayer may be, it has its place in Lent, because the depth of such prayer taps the whole heart so that we as Church can render collectively an account of our sins.

In high school, I pulled a prank on a teacher and only later realized the impact of the incident.  The teacher pulled me aside the next day and explained the depth of her disappointment and regret about my actions.  I saw the hurt in her eyes and quickly felt bad for what I had done. Only when I lamented and mourned my wrongful behavior, could the wedge be removed to move the relationship toward reconciliation.

The book of Joel urges us to mourn and lament our wrongdoing against God in a collective way (2: 12-17).  By entering into this prayer form, the whole heart is laid open so that our attitude longs for the mercy of God.  The author stresses that it takes everybody to do this: children, infants, bride and bridegroom (2: 16).  Lent presents a way for us to return to God because we are collectively dependent on God’s mercy to be children of God.  So while these next 40 days may seem like a mournful journey, we hold steadfast to the mercy and glory that await us throughout and after our Lenten Way.