Dear Parishioners of San Francisco de Asis,

I hope you and your family are all doing well during this difficult time. Last Sunday was a very strange experience. I very much missed seeing you! I am grateful for those of you who reached out to us and let us know how you are doing. We hope to be able to connect with every parish family in the coming weeks. Even though we haven't seen many of you these past two weeks, we are grateful that you are a part of our parish.

Although there are still many unanswerable questions at this time, I write this letter to you to keep you informed about recent developments with the Church and how we are responding to this crisis.

1. It seems like our current social distancing initiatives will go on for a longer period of time than hoped for. In addition to cancelling the April Confirmation Masses, Bishop Olmsted has now officially cancelled the public celebration of Holy Week, which includes Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. Thus, the priests of Flagstaff will be celebrating the Triduum Liturgy in private at Nativity Chapel. Of course, we will live-stream them so that you can join in remotely. As we get closer, we will let you know about the times for these events. We do not know yet when we will be able to give the Sacraments to those who were supposed to receive them at the Easter Vigil. We will provide that information as soon as we know.
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Lord Jesus, when you were on earth, they brought the sick to you and you healed them all. Today I ask you to bless all those in sickness, in weakness and in pain.

For those who are blind and who cannot see the light of the sun; the beauty of the world, or the faces of their friends:
Bless your people, O Lord.

For those who are deaf and cannot hear the voices which speak to them:
Bless your people, O Lord.

Dear SFDA Parishioners,

At the end of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says to His disciples, "Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." These are important words for us to hear at this time of great concern for our world and its health in light of the spread of the Covid-19 virus. We must never forget that Jesus is with us, even in moments of turmoil and in times where many of the Sacraments are not made readily available to us. As your pastor and spiritual father, I know that many of you are experiencing great pains and confusion and that you have many questions and concerns. This is not what we had hoped for or expected. I think we are all feeling lots of disappointments and frustrations. It is okay to feel unhappy about this and to tell God all about it.

While I do not have all the answers you are looking for, I send this letter to you to answer as many questions and address as many concerns as I possibly can.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

One of my favorite saints is St. Ignatius of Loyola, a 16th century Spanish soldier whose leg was badly damaged by a cannonball during battle. While in recovery, Ignatius read two books that changed his life: a book on the life of Jesus and a book on the lives of the saints. After reading these two books he noticed competing desires in his heart. One desire longed for worldly glory through knighthood. The other longed for heavenly glory by seeking to give up everything and following Jesus. As he examined these desires, he noticed that his desire for heavenly glory, while never overwhelming him, remained strong and consistent, while his desire for worldly glory, although it came on strong in the present moment (much stronger than his desire for heavenly gory) faded rather quickly. As a result of his prayerful analysis, he decided to abandon knighthood and follow Jesus. I mention St. Ignatius today because I believe his prayerful experience of the competing desires in his heart relates to our Gospel.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As many of you know, I was born and raised in the state of Arizona, and I am the product of Catholic education. One of the blessings of living in the state of Arizona is how much our state values the many contributions made by Catholic Schools. As a result, twenty years ago the state of Arizona gave us an unprecedented opportunity to redirect our state tax liability directly to our Catholic School instead of it going into the state’s general fund. This is a HUGE benefit for Arizona residents, especially families living in Flagstaff. As you all know, the cost of living here is higher than other places, and it can be difficult to make Catholic education affordable for our children.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had disobeyed the Lord, they found themselves in immense shame. In their shame, they tried to hide from God. They did not want to be seen for who they had become, so they covered themselves up and fortified themselves behind the trees to avoid being seen. When the Lord came to them to call them out of hiding, he asked them a question. Not a question of accusation like, “What have you done?” or a question of confusion like, “What is going on here?” Rather, he asked them a deep and personal reflective question: “Where are you?” Salvation history, the process by which God saves us from sin and death and draws us into new life and love, begins with a question inviting us to locate ourselves. The season of Lent, in a sense, is inviting each of us to ask the deeply personal and reflective question, “Where am I?”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

When I was a young child, at an early age, I struggled with hand-eye coordination, and my parents took me to see a child development specialist to discern how to help me develop these skills. You can imagine how excited I was when my child development specialist recommended that my parents purchase a Nintendo video game system to help me develop these skills. However, as I grew in my hand-eye coordination skills playing video games, my inner perfectionism also grew. Often times, if I made a mistake in a game, I would simply restart the game to correct my mistake so that I could play each level with perfection. Over time, like many other people with perfectionist tendencies, I had to learn to let go of my perfectionism, accepting human errors and embracing the important lesson of continuing on with a task even though it isn’t perfect.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The context behind the Mosaic Law was relationship. God desired an intimate relationship with His people and He prohibited certain activities that would cause damage to this relationship. However, as we all know, an intimate relationship must be built on so much more than merely avoiding certain activities. An intimate relationship also involves entrusting one’s heart to another. This is how Jesus fulfills the Law. A central aspect of Jesus’ mission is to transform human hearts, which goes beyond mere physical activity and the capacity of the Law.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Salt, as we all know, is one of the most common food seasonings and an essential ingredient for food preservation. When food tastes bland, we add salt to it so as to give it more “taste.” In a sense, you could say that salt helps bring out the flavor of something; makes it fully itself and in keeping with its proper nature. Salt enhances the quality of other things and keeps them from becoming “insipid,” or “tasteless.” In Biblical Greek, the word for this is, moraino, which means “foolish.” Salt, in this usage, draws a thing out of foolishness and into beauty, truth and wisdom.

Dear SFdA Parishioners,

This week, San Francisco de Asis Catholic School will have their accreditation visit. Catholic schools throughout Arizona go through an accreditation process where the quality of Catholic education is measured. This accrediting process assures the primacy of faith formation and educational excellence. A team of six members will spend three full days at our school. During this time they will observe classrooms, interview teachers, parents, and students, and use their findings to determine our accreditation results.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In today’s Gospel, Peter and Andrew were in the midst of their daily work when the Lord invited them to come and follow Him. As we likely know, Peter and Andrew were fishermen, and their method of fishing is much different than what we are familiar with. They were not kicking back on a boat with a rod and a reel. Rather, they used large, heavy, and weighted nets that would sink to the bottom of the sea. Once the nets had been in the water for a long period of time, the men would then use their physical strength to pull them up along with any fish that were trapped inside. As you can imagine, this was a very laborious act that involved great physical strength, but not a lot of intellectual acuity. Peter and Andrew were likely not the most educated men.

Today’s Sunday is commonly referred to as, “Gaudete Sunday.” It acquired this nickname from the first words of the Latin Introit (or the Entrance Antiphon): Gaudete in Domino semper - Rejoice in the Lord always! For the past two Sundays we have heard a beautiful dialogue between God and His people through the antiphons. On the first Sunday of Advent, the antiphon expressed humanity crying out to God begging Him for a Savior. On the second Sunday of Advent, the antiphon reflected God’s response to humanity’s cry, promising that a Savior is on the way. Today, the third Sunday of Advent, we are given the command to rejoice in response to God’s promise that a Savior is coming. For this reason, the deacon and priest both wear the color rose. Rose symbolizes the joyful anticipation of the new life that will come with our Messiah. It is a part of our faithfulness to the command to rejoice at the news of the coming of Jesus.

In 1972, after a very interesting decade in the 20th century, a young German priest, theologian, and University professor by the name of Fr. Joseph Ratzinger was asked to write an essay answering the question, “Why I am Still in the Church.” In his essay he used the image of the moon to explain his response to the question.

The moon, as the young Fr. Ratzinger explained, represents the world of men, the earthly world, the world that receives its identity and fruitfulness from somewhere else: from the sun. The light of the moon is borrowed light. It’s light is not its own, but rather the light of another.

When I was in college, a few months before I entered the seminary, I made a retreat with the Carmelite sisters in Los Angeles. During my visit, I had an opportunity to have a beautiful spiritual conversation with Sr. Angus Marie, a solemnly professed religious sister of over 50 years. In that conversation, Sr. Angus Marie and I discussed the importance of the virtue of humility in the Christian life. I'll never forget her words of wisdom. She said, "Humility... that's a tricky one. Just when you think you've got it, you just lost it!"