The Mystery of the Trinity

In his homily this past Sunday for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, Father Andrzej brought up the Arian Heresy, which denied the Hypostatic Union.

If you are anything like I was when I first heard that term, you're probably saying, "The Hypo-what now?"

My bachelor's degree is in English.  I've always loved words - spelling them, learning about their etymology, picking apart their roots to get at their deeper meaning.  So, Hypostatic Union.  Let's take that apart.

In terms of doctrine, Hypostatic Union refers to the mystery that Jesus Christ was fully human and fully divine.  The term comes from the Greek hypostasis, meaning substance.  So, literally, the Hypostatic Union means a bringing together of substances - the Divine and the Human - into the one person, Jesus Christ, "the eternally begotten Son of the Father who became man and revealed in a human form, in a human language, the mystery of God," as Father said in his homily this week.

In response to the Arian heresy, the Church convened the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, out of which came the Nicene Creed, which we profess at Mass on Sundays.  In the most recent English translation, this creed states that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial with the Father", consubstantialem Patri in Latin.  Again, we can take the word consubstantial apart to get at its deeper meaning.  The prefix con- means together or with, and substantial means relating to substance.  Consubstantial, as it is used in the creed, means “of the same substance as the Father,” further emphasizing the divinity of Jesus.

Still, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one God in three divine persons, is just that, a mystery, which is hard for us humans to wrap our minds around.  Saint Patrick is said to have tried to explain the Trinity using a shamrock, three leaves but one plant.  I really like how Father Andrzej explained it later in his homily:  From all of eternity God’s perfect knowledge of God begets the image of God, which is the Son, eternally begotten Son, the perfect image of the Father.  Their mutual intimacy and love begets from all of eternity the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Divine Being, which contains from eternity the immensity of love between the Eternal Father and the Eternally Begotten Son.  The eternity Father Andrzej is referring to here means nothing created yet.  God would not be love if there would be nothing to love.

One of the benefits of being a cantor is I often hear a Sunday homily more than once, or I hear different homilies at different Masses on the same Sunday.  At the 5:00 PM Mass on Sunday, Father Patrick Elliot pointed out that the Church baptizes in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, not in the names of the three persons.  The one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

"Our baptism in the name of the Trinity ... means that we are to participate, that is to say, we are called to participate in the life of God, into an intimate relationship with God, to join in the circle of love which is God.  This is how Christians experience God:  the Father who creates and sustains us, the Son who is our Savior, who gives Himself completely for us, and then the Spirit who lives within us.  Why?  To animate us, to guide us, and to direct us in our daily lives."

Father Andrzej stated at the beginning of his homily that sometimes we do not give as much thought to the Sign of the Cross as we should.  If we strive truly to live our lives in the mystery of the Trinity, we need to begin by being mindful of the mystery we profess when we say, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen."

New Beginnings

In the coming weeks we will be looking at revitalizing this blog.  As with any new beginning, there will be stops and starts, things that work, and things that don't.  The first order of business is an introduction.

My name is Sarah Maland.  I am lifelong member of St. Ambrose Parish.  I have been involved in the parish from a young age, serving as an altar server for three years, assisting my mother as a classroom aide in religious education for three years, singing in the choir since 2003 and serving as a cantor since 2008.  I recently took on a position with the parish in Homebound and Bereavement as well as management of our parish online communications.  I will be posting to the blog as St. Ambrose.  I am excited to get started!

I attended the Madeleine Choir School from 1997-2001, and I had the privilege of studying religion with Mr. Gregory Glenn.  I went on to attend Judge Memorial for high school, Westminster College in Salt Lake City for my bachelor's and master's degrees, and Silver Lake College of the Holy Family in Wisconsin for further music studies after receiving my master's.  My professional background is in special education.  I worked as a classroom aide in a Kindergarten-first grade classroom for students with autism, learning disabilities, and/or physical disabilities for two and a half years, and as a classroom teacher for students with autism and learning disabilities.  Most recently, I was an aide at Blessed Sacrament's Blessed Beginnings Daycare, which opened in September 2017.

My vision for the blog is a space to share faith resources and inspirational stories, as well as personal observations.  Interaction is encouraged.  You are welcome to leave comments on posts and converse with others who do so. 

Please keep in mind, this is a Catholic space.  Please be respectful of others in your interactions.

Final Destiny

When my cousin was young, she spent a lot of time in the closet.  Not because she liked it there, especially.  Mostly it was to give my aunt Stephanie a few minutes of respite from her antics.

 It really wasn’t so bad in the closet, which was actually a tiny room with a comfortable chair, a window that opened, and books and blankets and pillows.  And a door.  The door was always closed unless the closet was occupied, since, unlike a bedroom door, which opens in to the room, this one opened out to the hallway, blocking traffic. 

My cousin was a bright, inquisitive, and determined preschooler who was very creative, and very fast.  And thus, long before the term “time out” was coined, she spent many an afternoon “in the closet.”

One summer afternoon, so the story goes, my cousin was outside playing.  I can picture her, with her dark curly hair and rosy cheeks, a chubby bundle of energy happily immersed in some shenanigan or another. 

Aunt Stephanie had learned long before to keep one ear tuned to the tell tale sounds of mischief in the making.  It had been awhile, and Aunt Stephanie had heard neither whisper nor word from my cousin.  Just as she was beginning to wonder what trouble the silence was signaling, she heard the screen door slam, followed by the sound of little feet running across the hard wood floor.  Before Aunt Stephanie could reach the living room, she heard my cousin call out exuberantly, “Open up the door, Steph, I’m coming in!”

I love that story, which for  years  has been told over and over at family reunions and

get-togethers.  I love that my cousin was absolutely certain about the end result of her

behavior.  She knew beyond the shadow of a doubt where she would end up, and she accepted the outcome with her typical enthusiasm.

That’s how I want it to be when I die.  I want to know, without a doubt, where I’m going and why.  I want the assurance that I will be spending eternity in the most wonderful place in all of creation.  And when my time comes, I want to call out with joyful confidence, “Open up the gates, Lord, I’m coming in!”

Yet, I have doubts.  I have a little voice in my head that tells me I’m not good enough, not holy enough, not prayerful enough.  I yell at my kids, I swear when I get cut off in traffic, and once when I was five years old, I stole my cousin’s eraser. 

But here’s the thing.  God, in His infinite mercy, has made provisions for slackers like me.  The bible tells us, “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him” (Daniel 9:9)  ;

See?     

John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

So, when I hear those little voices, when I mess up on a day-to-day basis, I know it is important to silence those voices.   I must not let myself be defeated.  Instead, I need to confess my sins, thank God for His loving mercy, and rest assured that when my time comes, I’ll call out ahead, “Open up the gates, Lord, I’m on my way!”

Do you feel defeated by sin and bad habits?  What helps you to stay positive and  to keep trying?  What helps you to remember that you are a child of the Lord who is waiting to welcome you with open arms?

Crippled Birds

A few days ago my husband and I saw a robin in our yard.  One of its feet was broken and his body was swollen.  He could fly a little, but not well.  We watched the bird for a while, debating whether there was anything we could do.  We realized we couldn’t.  It was going to die and soon.  We didn’t know if the cold weather or a predator would get it first.  We couldn’t even bring it in to the warmth of the house to make it comfortable until it died.  It flew just well enough to keep away from us.

Lately I have been feeling like that crippled bird.  Hobbling around trying to do my best while just barely staying out of reach of my enemies.  Cats waiting to pounce, larger birds looking for an easy meal, or just the cold weather wearing on me.

I feel like I’m watched, and I would like someone to come to my rescue to help and protect me.  But instead they’re just watching and placing bets on how long I’ll last.  It doesn’t feel like it will be very long.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has felt like this.  Life is not easy.  When we are feeling down, crippled, hurt and broken, we just want someone to come and make everything easy.  To rescue us.

That’s when prayer is the most important tool we have.  We do have someone who is always there.  The battle might not go away and we might still feel broken, but Jesus will always be at our side, enduring everything with us.  We are not alone in the cold.

So for the One who keeps His eye on the sparrow, please keep Your eye on me.  Give me the strength to continue.  Be with this “crippled bird” until we join You in our eternal home.

Do you ever feel completely vulnerable or alone?  What do you do in those times?

Come Lord Jesus

Come Lord Jesus

Fr Andrzej Skrzypiec homily, 1st Sunday of Advent, 8:30AM Mass

A NEW YEAR in the Church’s calendar begins today. Happy new year to all!

This period is appropriately called “Advent”.  It comes from the Latin word adventus which simply means ‘coming’.  But what or whose coming are we talking about? 

Actually, at this time we can speak of three comings of God. 

·       The first, is when Jesus, the Son of God came to be born in the stable at Bethlehem. 

·       But today’s Mass also speaks of the final coming of Jesus at the end of the world. 

·       And there is still a third kind of coming we need to be aware of, namely, when God enters our lives every day. 

Every single experience can be an opportunity to make contact with God.  And we are reminded of that ongoing contact with God especially in the celebration of the sacraments, including this Eucharist.

The Church is pleading with us be vigilant to the many ways in which Jesus, through his Spirit, is coming into our lives now, filling our hearts with grace and inviting us to a closer union with God and to a more loving relationship with others.

Isaiah reminds us that our God is faithful to us always and knows about the situation we are in.  Our God is always moving to bring us together. 

-What is the coming together? 

Isaiah says, “that God may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” 

Our only real hope of coming together is to come together in greater fidelity to our God.  The closer we come to our God, the closer we will come toward each other.  It will no longer be about a winning and losing – about victory over the other..  When this hope-filled unity comes, Isaiah says,

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks;

one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”

Each of us can find a desire in our hearts that sings, “Let us go rejoicing” to this kind of communion and peace. 

St. Paul says, it is a time for us to “wake from sleep.”  This is a season to “throw off” many things that are all about darkness and to “put on the armor of light,” to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I guess there are dark areas in all of our lives.  Things we do, things we say, things we think, the indulging of our lower and self-centered appetites; things which we would not like other people to know about because they are quite wrong.  They do no good to me or to others.

But there is also goodness in all of us that God with his grace can release and intensify.

Advent is about recognizing that God is already with us and in us.  All we have to do is to be awake to God’s presence in our hearts.

How do we do that?

We do it through our personal prayer, prayer with the community at the Eucharistic table, through acts of charity and love by which we will the good of the other.

This wonderful season is about recognizing our own weakness yet feeling how deeply God cares for us, even in our deepest failings. Our renewed preparation to follow Christ might start with a sense of obligation or fear. But as we grow closer to him we begin to follow him out of love. Our fear is purified by love. We are faithful to the gospel out of a real desire to be closer to him.

Could this Advent season be one in which I give myself to more opportunities for togetherness, for bridge building?  We can indeed get involved in building bridges in our divided nation or even in the world with all its problems.

Sometimes genuine healing and reconciliation needs to begin  in our families by letting light into places of darkness.

Concretely, can this Advent be about continuing gestures of love for a spouse who often bugs me? 

Can this be a time to reach out to the adult child who has disappointed me – whom I might have hurt by my judgments? 

What nice, caring, generous things can I do that build a bridge, without recalling a hurt or continuing my finger pointing?

Then I can move a little further:

 Is there a friend or neighbor or church community member I have recently fought with about our differing opinions about something?  Could a coffee or tea together be a time to let Advent come alive by spending time saying that our relationship is more important than our differing ideas?

As we find these ways of preparing, we can pray, with growing desire, “Come, Lord Jesus.  We await your coming.  Come O Lord. If we are closer to you we will be closer to one another”

Marana Tha - Come Lord Jesus.

Do you love me?

As I stand before the cross with a hammer in one hand and a nail in the other, Jesus asks me “Do you love me?”  Love, what is love?  I ready the nail for his hand.  You want too much.  You ask me to acknowledge my sin, give it up even.  It’s part of who I am.  How dare you ask me to give it up?  I drive the nail into his hand.  Can you not accept me for who I am?  Can’t you love me as I am?

I look into his face and see his kind loving eyes, even as I ready the nail for the next hand.  His eyes were full of love.  But I can’t accept that kind of love.  I like my sin.  How dare he call it sin?  I drive the nail into the second hand.  I go to pick up the nail for his feet.  As I reach for it, I feel his eyes on me.  I look again.

“You are so much more than your sin.  Let me set you free of its chains.”  His eyes say it all.  I drop the hammer next to the nail and kneel at the cross.  I’m ready to let go of my sin and let Christ be my Lord.

“I’m sorry, Lord.  I’m sorry for thinking I know better than you.”  I am more than my sin.  I can be forgiven and overcome it.  He will help me.  I bask in His glory, knowing how much He has given for me.  The author of life.  He has given me everything, and knows me better than I know myself.  Only he can know my full worth.  And He loves me from the cross I put Him on with my sin.

He draws me still deeper.  He doesn’t just want to forgive my sin.  He wants me to join Him.  For us to be one.  I’m to be part of the Body of Christ.  What joy!  What must I do Lord?

“Join me on the cross.”  What now?  You want me to suffer?  Maybe I’m happy right here at the foot of the cross looking on.  “The way to Me is through your suffering.  Don’t worry.  You will never be alone.”

I look again at those kind eyes.  He is my all, my everything.  How could I deny Him anything?  He doesn’t want to be on the cross alone.  Not knowing the cost to myself, I get up from my knees and climb on the cross.  Nails are driven into my hands.  The pain is intense.  But it is made sweet by His presence.  This suffering is so much better than when I was suffering from my sins.  This I can endure and I’m with my Lord. 

“Yes, Lord.  I love you.”

Plgrimage: October 1st

Communion and Liberation invites everybody to join in a public pilgrimage on October 1st, in the desire to follow the Pope's invitation to rediscover the beauty of faith during this Year of Mercy. The procession will start from St Catherine of Siena at 1 pm, praying the rosary as we go, and head to the Cathedral via University Street and South Temple. We will pass through the Holy Door at the Cathedral and conclude with confessions and the Vigil Mass at 5pm. For more info contact Thomas Dunbar (thomasgwyndunbar@gmail.com).