When Dad Wessa was here, it was awesome to see how just one father can influence beyond his own kin. That got me thinking, what a blessing that Kevin’s Dad supports him. Kevin is an all around cool guy and a staff brother that shares a very Franciscan spirituality. The support of Kevin’s father could very well be the difference of having Kevin as a staff brother or Kevin using his many gifts and talents some other place. While corporate life may be more financially lucrative, the challenges and character Kevin is forging in one of the most challenging jobs in the universe will leave him all the better man. So thanks Dad Wessa for having the courage to speak, share and challenge us staff and missionaries.

You extended a challenge to me, Dad Wessa , now let me extend one back to you (and everyone else too). Over the past 15 years I have been involved in youth ministry in varying capacities. The missionaries (our name for our youth ministers), including your son, are a witness of hope not only to the brothers, but also to me and also the older generations. The fruit of their labor has been abundant and you have every reason to be so proud of our missionaries. I also encourage you to be attentive to your son, the life of a missionary is very challenging. Numerous times , I wanted to run just because the Devil throws doubts and garbage my way. Your son, as long as he is fighting for souls will have similar battles, and after a while can seem lonely and isolating. To fight this, pray. Intercede. Might I even say fast for the missionaries. Offer up to God as a sacrifice daily Mass. Offer up the little sacrifices on behalf of the souls of the young men we are striving to reach. Let Kevin (and all the missionaries) know they are not alone. Thank them for their courage to love both Christ and the brothers.

Finally, Dad Wessa, one last question, Do you want to be on the support team of each one of our missionaries at $10 a month or would you prefer a monthly $25 support for them all?

Thanks for the challenge.

In His Most Sacred Heart

Moose

One word kept coming to me as I prayed.  I sat in the cathedral basilica in downtown St. Augustine, and the ancient church provided an ideal place to pray.  The longest continually running parish in the United States, you’re not going to find an older church this side of Hispanola.  Sure, Pensacola predates this place by six years, but a hurricane wiped out our panhandle forefathers before they could build a permanent church.

The ceiling is adorned by frescoes, a sight in church that’s altogether unfamiliar to most people accustomed to a church that looks more like a warehouse than a house of worship.

As I sat, smelling years of incense baked into the walls, with waxing and waning attentiveness to the rosary beads passing through my fingers, the word would not leave my mind.

Here, in this beautiful place, I was excited.

Excited because I sat praying in the company of eleven others, one of whom I had not seen in several years.  These people, as of today, were my coworkers.

Accustomed to fighting my battles alone in Pensacola, my weak faith gives me only limited comfort in knowing that these others are fighting the same battle along with me because there are so few of us, and my allies are usually miles away.  Today, however, it’s a different story.  There are now twelve of us, more than ever, and in a few months there will be even more reinforcements rushing into the breach.  Fighting alone, I am an easy target, but it’s a different story when I’m shoulder to shoulder with those fighting beside me.

Today, we come together to train.  To sharpen iron with iron.  For three weeks, we will practice our tactics together before returning once again, energized, to our various outposts.  We will laugh together, train together, and remind each other that even when the battle is most difficult, we are all fighting the same good fight.

All of this despite the fact that our general has a tendency to get a little emotional in front of us, his colonel suffers from a debilitating spelling problem, and many of the lieutenants donned their armor for the first time today.

We are a rag tag bunch, but we are talented.  Very talented.  But that’s the rub.  For as talented as we are together, the battle is more than any of us can handle, even when fighting together.  We are incapable of winning this fight if we trust in our own strength.

We place our swords instead at the feet of the Lord of Armies, who trains our hands for war, and our fingers for battle.  This is how we will train over these next weeks.  And when we all return to the front lines to engage, we know that it is not our fight — that the battle belongs to the Lord, and therefore, we cannot lose.

Rush

“Woe to the shepherds…” begins this sunday’s reading from the prophet Jeremiah, “…who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture.” The word “shepherd” appears 7 times in the readings for this sunday, sometimes God speaks to me in subtle ways, sometimes God spells it out. It’s spelled S-H-E-P-H-E-R-D this week, and it’s everywhere in the readings.

There are many shepherds in this world. Leaders of nations, states, cities, fast food chains. I go to Good Shepherd church and there is one Good Shepherd. The FRATERNUS missionaries are shepherds. The Gospel this sunday cautions us as shepherds, reiterating that the FRATERNUS missionaries are called to a very, very high standard. It’s no accident that the missionaries find themselves constantly in prayer, prayerfully discerning where to go and what to do next. Consider the role of Chris Rush. His previous few years have been a case-in-point example of prayerful discernment! Our role as missionaries is to lead by example and lead well. Don’t let this inspire fear in you, but rather let it inspire courageous action.

“When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.” (An excerpt from the Gospel). When you see Jesus moved with pity you can either sympathize with him that the sheep have no shepherds, our we can take courage that we ARE the shepherds. Back to the first reading “I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing.” Hopefully this answers the question for all us “Why me? Why here? Why now?” He called us because he wants us.

This is a formal welcome of biblical proportions to Brad Castlevery (it’s phonetic) and Andrew Tearknee (also phonetic). I suppose another thank you here applies to Mike Willyams for all of his help.

God Bless

KWess

I’ve had this post on my mind and I think Kevin sparked this a little.  I’ll let you decide if this is related to what he said below.

Why is the world so antagonistic towards men seeking after God?  Around every corner lurks a distraction from the narrow road to heaven.

Because light hurts when all you’ve seen is dimness and contact with abundant good hurts.  Holiness glows in the dark and things that glow in the dark can be annoying if you’re too comfortable in the dark.  The absence of good also cuts us deeply.  Why?  Because when we see real suffering - the absence of good hurts.  It’s not so much the pain of the suffering but the absence of justice and goodness.  I think the enemy keeps us on a fine balance of not seeing too much good and then avoiding seeing the consequence of good’s absence.

Someone who is completely wrapped up in worldly affairs and materialism does not like commercials that show children starving.  Because they realize, as Kevin noted on the pervious post, that they are frighteningly capable of bringing more good to the world.  They realize that the suffering they see may not originate with them, but they are quite capable of more.  It proves the existence of a longing for objective good in the world and if there’s objective good there must be an Ultimate Sourse of goodness - God.  When we see goodness missing we know that we have stopped the Ultimate Good from reaching the world because they’ve stopped Him from reaching us.  Thats why Pope St Gregory rightfully points out that the reversal of James’ statement of "faith without works is dead" when he said "works without faith are dead".  Love for God leads to authentic love for man.  Devoid of God, we can only seek general "ethics", but not real justice.  Justice starts at home.  Virtue is necessary to value life.

That’s why suffering is annoying and holy people are annoying. They both remind us of our inadequacy and are potential adequacy.  Thats what we’re after.  The FRATERNUS missionaries and Captains seek after holiness in their own lives which brings a light to the darkness.  They may be annoying to many at first, but that light eventually looks exeedingly more enjoyable than darkness and in fact the darkness becomes exposed for what it really is and is not.  Then the unbearable sight of holiness and suffereing leads us out of darkness to God.  It’s the same effect a crucifix has.  It’s holiness and suffering nailed up for all to see.  It hurts to look at - much different than a fat guy sitting under a tree - but it draws us into a deep examination which leads us to the reality of a God who wants nothing but good for the world and it leads us to cooperate with Him.  It causes holiness.

Did that rant make any sense?

Jason Craig

I never wanted to be a role model growing up. I never wanted people to look to me and imitate anything I did. I never wanted to be seen but rather preferred to quietly stay in the background. More importantly, I never knew why.

The problem was I wasn’t consistent. I was a weekend warrior Catholic frequenting confession on Saturday followed by Mass on Sunday. I said I was Catholic, and I was, but there was a disconnect between what I said I wanted to do with my life and what I actually did. There was a fear, but of what? “All men die, but few live.” (I know I’m not supposed to ‘quote’ something unless I have a source, oh well) I was afraid to live.

Marianne Williamson states, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

And there it was. I was afraid. I was not afraid that I would fail. I was afraid that if I lived what I believed, that I would be powerful beyond measure, that I would be able to move mountains.The problem was I was so often told to dream big but I never knew where to start. John Paul II was speaking to me when he said “Be Not Afraid.”

The readings from this upcoming Sunday are very appropriate for everyone, but hits home to FRATERNUS missionaries past, present, and future. “Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing of the journey but a walking stick - no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.’ So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”

I am ordinary. The fishermen whom Jesus called were ordinary. What makes us special is that we have been called out of our boats to be “fishers of men” (that quote issue again) and to live extraordinary lives.

Take courage Brothers and Be NOT Afraid.

KWess

…of FRATERNUS that is.

I just wanted to let our faithful blog readers know that we have the dates of first FRAT Night for the following Chapters (if the calendars aren’t available yet - stay tuned):

Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine (first year) - September 14th

St Paul’s in Pensacola - September 13th

Good Shepherd Tallahassee - September 14th

As you can guess.  We have a lot of work ahead of us.  Pray!

For my Monday post, I have decided to share a sobering survey of the state of religion with our friends across the pond, as they say.  I share it to stir our spirits, because as I said in my last post - we know who wins in the end.

Living in a De-Christianized Society

Britain’s Leaders Warn of the Loss of Common Values

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, JULY 5, 2009 (Zenit.org ).- The decline of Christianity and moral values in general is reaching new lows in Britain. While the number of faithful has been decreasing for some time now, warnings about the situation are starting to come from all quarters.

Britain is no longer a Christian nation, affirmed Anglican bishop, Paul Richardson, in an article published Jun. 27 in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

The Anglican prelate was also critical of his fellow bishops for not understanding just how serious the change is in contemporary culture, and for their lack of action in dealing with this serious crisis of faith.

Only around 1% of Anglicans attend Sunday services on average, according to Richardson. "At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility," he warned.

He also noted that out of every 1,000 live births in England and Wales in the period 2006-07 only 128 were baptized as Anglicans. This compares to 609 per thousand in 1900.

Just the day before, in the Times newspaper, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, deplored the lack of a shared moral code in Britain.

Reflecting on the current financial crisis and the recent revelations of scandals over Parliamentarians’ expenses, he commented that these and other problems have resulted in a loss of trust in society.

There is an underlying problem, however, that is much more serious, he said: the loss of the traditional sense of morality.

We are very moral in some things, such as world poverty and global warming, the rabbi contended, but these are remote and global. Sacks declared that when it comes to matters closer to our own lives we have lost our sense of right and wrong regarding our personal behavior.

"Instead, there are choices. The market facilitates those choices. The state handles the consequences, picking up the pieces when they go wrong," the Jewish leader observed.

It’s no use just treating the symptoms with more laws and surveillance systems. "Without a shared moral code there can be no free society," Sacks argued.

Who’s that?

While opinion polls have limitations, a couple recent surveys provided confirmation of the warnings by religious leaders. A study carried out by Penguin books, albeit in conjunction with a promotion of a recent book on the topic, said that nearly two-thirds of teenagers do not believe in God.

According to the Jun. 22 report in the Telegraph newspaper the study of 1,000 teens showed that 59% thought religion has a negative influence on the world.

The survey also revealed that half of those questioned have never prayed and 16% have never been to church.

A week later the Independent newspaper published the results of a survey about Bible knowledge. The Jun. 29 article reported that many are ignorant of the stories and the people who are fundamental to the history of Christianity.

According to preliminary results of the National Biblical Literacy Survey, carried out by St. John’s College Durham, as few as 10% of people understood the main characters in the Bible and their relevance.

About 60% were unaware of the story of the Good Samaritan and figures such as Abraham and Joseph were also foreign to many.

According to the Independent’s article, Anglican priest David Wilkinson from St John’s, said the consequences of such ignorance go well beyond just being unaware of the Bible. Knowledge of these stories and persons in the Bible is essential in order to understand our history and culture, and not least art, music and literature, so much of which is bound up with religious themes, he observed.

This is an ignorance that the well-known proponent of atheism, Richard Dawkins, is trying to promote. A Jun. 28 article published in the Guardian newspaper reported that he is organizing an atheist summer camp this year in England.

Camp Quest UK, will be "free of religious dogma," the article added. Apparently the five-day camp, subsidized by a grant from the Richard Dawkins Foundation, is fully booked

Drifting

The recent warnings from religious leaders followed on the heels of similar expressions of concern. On April 5, Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali published an article in the Telegraph newspaper on the occasion of his resignation as bishop of Rochester.

In his nearly 15 years there he said: "I have watched the nation drift further and further away from its Christian moorings."

This has led, he continued, to a loosening of the ties of law, customs and values, and also to a loss of identity and cohesiveness. Similar to Rabbi Sacks, he commented that society needs a "social capital of common values and the recognition of certain virtues which contribute to personal and social flourishing."

"Our ideas about the sacredness of the human person at every stage of life, of equality and natural rights and, therefore, of freedom, have demonstrably arisen from the tradition rooted in the Bible," he added.

Bishop Nazir-Ali observed that the Anglican church is growing rapidly in places such as Africa. Perhaps they have a lot to teach the Western churches, he concluded.

Selling its soul

The new Catholic leader of England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols addressed the same topic shortly before becoming the archbishop of Westminster.

In an article published by the Telegraph newspaper on Mar. 29 he affirmed that Britain has sold its soul by pursuing a purely secular reason over religion.

As a result, faith is now confined to a purely private pursuit and values are drawn from secular and material sources.

Not only do Britain’s politicians live in a purely secular and material world, but they also do not allow for a mature consideration of the key role of religious belief in society, he contended.

The affirmations by Archbishop Nichols were published in a recent book of essays titled "The Nation That Forgot God."

In common with the other religious leaders Archbishop Nichols also pointed out the lack of social cohesion that results when there are no shared moral principles and values. The secular, liberal view of the human person is mistaken and simply won’t work, he argued.

Unfriendly

His predecessor, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, was of similar views. In a report last Dec. 6 by the Telegraph newspaper he commented that Britain has become an "unfriendly" place for religious people to live in.

His comments also came from a contribution to a book of essays, "Faith in the Nation."

The rise of secularism has resulted in a society hostile to Christianity, and in general, religious belief is looked upon as "a private eccentricity."

Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor also noted that atheism is now more aggressive and that there is now a vocal minority who argue that religion has no place in modern society.

Statistical evidence backs up his concerns. The number of marriages being celebrated in Catholic churches in England and Wales has fallen by a quarter over the last decade, the Telegraph reported, Jan. 8.

In the year 2000 there were 13,029 Catholic marriages, compared to 9,950 last year. Only one in three marriages in England and Wales are now in the form of a religious ceremony, according to the Telegraph.

Evidence abounds of the severe decline in religion in Britain, and the repeated declarations by church leaders point to a growing awareness of the urgency of the situation. What is more elusive is identifying how to turn the trend around.

It seems I have the worst luck flying. I recently flew from Tallahassee to Milwaukee for my cousins’ wedding. My cousin Jessica was the first of my cousins to get married so it was of course imperative I make it there. My family is spread out all over the US (Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Texas, and New Hampshire) so all arrangements were to be made to make sure EVERYONE was there. I didn’t want to be the only one that didn’t make it, but all signs were pointing to me hoping they taped the wedding.

My first flight was cancelled due to maitenance and NWA pawned me of to AA. American Airlines was going to send me to Dallas then to Milwaukee, putting me into Milwaukee 7 hours later than originally scheduled. Ok, I’m late but I’ll be there. AA then chooses to pull the plug on my flight due to maitenance and redirects me back to NWA. The lady at the counter started telling me my options. You can fly to Chicago. No, I’d prefer to fly to Milwaukee. I can get you on a flight to Detroit. Why would I want to go anywhere but my final destination? No, please get me to Milwaukee.

All the travel arrangements are made, I get a first class bump for my flight to Milwaukee and it seems like all in all, this day is turning out ok after all. After a very fun experience in first class, my bag doesn’t seem to be showing up in Milwaukee. They’ve lost my bag! “It’ll be ok,” I tell myself, “They said I would have my bag in three hours.” Long story short, I never get my bag which has my suit, my glasses, and my contacts. The day of the wedding I’m wearing my cousins jeans and a pair of glasses that were extras. I can only see with clarity two feet in front of my face.

“God knows you have a missionary spirit Kevin. Remember when Francis followed the words of Christ literally and journeyed without an extra cloak, sandals, or a money bag? And you want to follow Francis!” I guess the answer I had been waiting for was that God had been picking on me but this made more sense.

Do you trust me that I’m in control? It seemed that God was trying to show me something in all of this. Throughout the weekend I saw that despite my best laid plans, God had a plan infinitely better in mind. If I want to be pessimistic I could say that everything, including my vision was taken away from me. If I want to be optimistic (which I do), I could see that I still had the opportunity to laugh and have fun with my family. I got clothes from my cousin David. We’re already tight but we got to hang out even more because he was my eyes out there. It made me appreciate what I did have when I could see again.

God got me where I needed to be in the time that he wanted me to be there. How could I ask for anything more?

KWess

My last blog post was filled with fluff about the NFL and how busy the FRATERNUS off season is, and I ended it before actually describing some of the stuff that we’re doing.

Well here’s the sequel.

One of the things that’s still in full swing this summer is H.A.W.C.  (That’s honest, available, willing, and chaste for you FRATERNUS newbies), our discipleship small group made up of select senior high brothers.  Actually, H.A.W.C. (boy is it hard to type it like that over and over) is in more than full swing now that school’s out.  During the school year, the brothers have to balance a variety of different commitments, so we have our weekly meeting as well as our Friday morning holy hour.  Now that summer is here, we expanded our meetings a bit:

We arrive at the home of one of the brothers usually at 3 pm.  From there, the afternoon is our enchilada.  Usually we take a heavy dose of water sports.  Jestskis?  Check.  Tubing?  Check.  Kneeboards?  Check.  Wakeboards?  Check.  Lately though, we’ve refined ourselves a bit and spent the afternoons at the local disc golf course trying not to decapitate each other, lose any frisbees, or get in the way of one of the many preening semi pro disc golfers present (you wouldn’t believe how seriously some people take it…well, maybe you would).

Regardless, we try to get back to the house by 7pm (the time our meetings during the school year start), where a delicious supper is waiting.  It takes the seven high school brothers approximately ten minutes to eat any and all food which happens to be visible.  After dinner, we walk out the back porch onto the Tuna Tower, a home made gazebo that juts out over Escambia bay, a perfect setting for our talks.

Each week, we start with a simple question:  What’s your battle this week?

This is where the real beauty of H.A.W.C. comes out, with brothers being vulnerable with each other and sharing the things that wouldn’t get talked about anywhere else (hey, don’t take my word for how good it is…ask a H.A.W.C. brother).  It’s awesome to behold, and I speak on an as-needed basis.

After what seems like ten minutes, it’s already nine o’clock, so we wrap it up with a prayer.  Anybody who needs to leave after that is welcome to do so, but generally everyone sticks around for a few rounds of Rock Band.  I’m looking forward to tonight, since the guys just got Guitar Hero:  World Tour.

So there you have it, the best night of the week in a nutshell.  Hanging out, eating, and awesome, encouraging, challenging conversation.  What more could a guy want?

Rush