Tag: Pray

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Sermon Notes – June 27: Never – Ever – Give Up

“Never – Ever – Give Up”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

 June 26 – 27, 2021

Gospel:  Mark 5:21-43

What is the greatest gift our Lord has given us? The gift of Himself.  He offers us the perfect gift of love.  Why?  Because He loves us and wants to draw us closer to Him.  He really wants to give us that gift, sometimes more than we really want it.  But, since you are all here, I imagine you all want His gift.  Unfortunately, we have people in our lives who don’t seem to want it.  They go off the reservation. They turn their backs on everything their parents did for them and sacrificed for them.  It breaks your heart.  But, you pray and sacrifice for them anyway, don’t you? 

We are supposed to pray constantly.  Saint Peter said that the devil is always prowling about seeking the ruin of souls.  What do we pray for?  A lot of times when we pray, we pray too small.  We pray for those who do not like us.  We do not pray that they will have a heart attack or suffer any other kind of injury.  Instead, you pray that their souls may be converted or that you may have the strength to not choke the living you-know-what out of them when they are around.  We pray for a lot of good things. The ultimate good thing is eternal salvation.  This is the eternal good we should pray for…both for ourselves and others.

What’s the definition of insanity?  Doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.  We are human and not angels, so it is frustrating when we don’t see the results of our prayers right away.  We like things immediately.  Even the coffee maker isn’t fast enough for us.  Remember the televisions that we had to wait on to warm up?  Can you imagine that now?  When we do not see the results of our prayers right away, we think they are not working.  We give God a hard time, because we want what we pray for today.  However, God’s ways are not our ways.  He tells us to never be discouraged by prayer.  Maybe God said “No.”  If so, it is probably good that He did, because instead of giving us what we ask for, He gives us a greater good. 

Always say a prayer for yourself and your own salvation and another prayer for the salvation of others, especially your family.  It may take years and years to see any results from your prayers, and you may get more grey hair and worry lines.  You may get fed up and write them off, and that may be necessary if they have other problems.  But still pray for their salvation.  God never gives up.  You never know what He has in store, so do not get discouraged when praying for family and friends.  One of the side effects of prayer is that it changes us.  We develop a deeper trust and resignation to the will of God.  In today’s Gospel, people said “the child is dead” so do not bother. They gave up.   But, Jesus said, “If I gave you these small things which are not the best, why would I not give you the big things if you ask for it?” 

You never know what God will do, and I’ll give you several examples.  One is Saint Monica and her son, Saint Augustine.  Saint Monica never gave up on Saint Augustine, and he did a lot of crazy things.  He couldn’t write about it very well, and his confessions were boring as heck.  He’d put you right to sleep.  Still, he did a lot.  Then, you have my own family. My oldest brother and evil twin brother moved away from the faith, but they both received last rites and entrance into Heaven. Who knew?  Through prayer…my mother’s prayers, my father’s prayers, and my prayers, I was able to do their funeral Mass.  Another example is one that I remember quite clearly.   I was at Presbyterian Hospital in the Oncology Unit, and I had three patients on my list to see…two on the left and one on the right.  I thought, I’ll go see the patient on the right first.  So, I went into the room and introduced myself as the Catholic chaplain for the hospital.  The patient’s husband said, “Father, my wife is dying.  Will you give her the Last Rites?”  So, I gave her the Last Rites.  I anointed her and right where the ritual states “at or near the moment of death,” the woman took her last breath and died.  I looked at the nurse who shrugged her shoulders.  So, I said, “Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God, the almighty Father, who created you.”  When I came out of the elevator that day, something had told me to take a right turn instead of a left.  I had not seen these people before that day or after.  Another time when I was at Atrium, I was walking up the stairs, more steps for my heart, and a nurse asked me if I was a priest.  I said “Yeah.”  Go figure, huh?  Actually, I’m the pastor at a Baptist church, and I’m just trying to confuse everybody.  Anyway, the nurse said she was going to call me about a patient in ICU who was dying of cancer.  I never saw the patient before and I never saw her after.  Saint John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, had the gift of reading souls.  One day while he was taking a walk, he saw a woman who approached him.  She said, “Curate, you have the gift of seeing souls.”  Sometimes.  “Remember my husband?  He is dead.”  Saint John said, ”Yes.  I’ll offer him a prayer.” The woman said, “He fell off a bridge and drowned. He was an evil man. He’s in hell isn’t he?”  Saint John said, “I don’t know.”  The woman was irate and said, “You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know!  He hit me, he spent money, and he drank!”  Finally, after she had finished unloading all her vile on him, Saint John said, “There was a lot of time from when he left the bridge and until he hit the water.” 

Imperfect contrition is the fear of God’s punishment and is sufficient to get you into purgatory and eventually into Heaven.  Even saying “I’m sorry” is enough.  So, we do not know what will happen.   We will find that out only if we get to heaven. Remember, we have control over that.  Everyone in hell is a self-made man or woman.  I’m not sexist.  So, keep up your prayers for all of those who need His love. That’s the way to love. 

Now, I am not much.  I’m not that bright, but I can read a calendar, so I know my sell-by date is rapidly approaching. I pray for a happy death and that God will allow me in heaven with all my sins and faults.  I pray that I will see the rest of my family.  So, never, ever, ever stop praying.  We never know how it will end.  Remember, God wants your family, friends, and enemies in Heaven more than even you do.

How will you apply this message to your life?  No matter what, keep praying for yourself and your salvation and the salvation of your family, friends, and enemies.

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.”  From a cell phone, click on “Blog” then “Menu” and then “Categories” (located at the end of page).  There is also a search box if you are looking for a specific topic.

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Morning Offering – We Must Pray Without Ceasing

“We must pray literally without ceasing— without ceasing—in every occurrence and employment of our lives . . . that prayer of the heart which is independent of place or situation, or which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.”
— St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

//Catholic Company//

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Minute Meditation – The Power of Enough

We know there is power in the word enough. We carry this capacity to honor the present into every encounter and relationship, meaning that we honor the dignity that is reflected by God’s goodness and grace. Every encounter, every relationship, is a place to include, invite mercy, encourage, receive, heal, reconcile, repair, say thank you, pray, celebrate, refuel, and restore.

— from the book This Is the Life: Mindfulness, Finding Grace, and the Power of the Present Moment by Terry Hershey

//Franciscan Media//

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Minute Meditation – Is Your Work a Vocation?

It doesn’t take much looking in our economy to see that in fact there is a great deal of work that doesn’t pray, work that disconnects us from our sources of life rather than moves us toward wholeness. For work to pray, it must have a sense of vocation attached to it—we must feel some calling toward that work and the wholeness of which it is a part, that there is something holy in good work. Vocation is a calling and prayer is a call and response, deep calling to deep. For work to pray, to be vocation, it must be brought into a larger conversation. “The idea of vocation attaches to work a cluster of other ideas, including devotion, skill, pride, pleasure, the good stewardship of means and materials,” Wendell Berry writes. It is these “intangibles of economic value” that keep us from viewing work as “something good only to escape: ‘Thank God it’s Friday.’”

— from the book Wendell Berry and the Given Life 
by Ragan Sutterfield

//Franciscan Media//

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Morning Offering – When The World Hates You

“O man, when the world hates you and is faithless toward you, think of your God, how he was struck and spat upon. You should not accuse your neighbor of guilt, but pray to God that he be merciful to you both.”— St. Nicholas of Flue

//The Catholic Company//

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Sermon Notes – When You Wrestle With Pigs in The Mud, You’re Gonna Get Dirty

“When You Wrestle With Pigs in the Mud, You’re Gonna Get Dirty“

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

March 20-21, 2021

Gospel:  John 11: 1-45

I’ve hear a lot these days that we live in a “cancel culture.”  Do you know what that is?  It’s when people say mean things about you and try to erase your very existence.  However, I disagree that we are living in a cancel culture.  I was in a cancel culture.  I was in the U.S. Army for 24 years and served in three wars.  They tried to put an expiration date on my birth certificate, and they were pretty darn good at it too.  That’s cancel culture.  We are not living in a cancel culture.  What we have here is an evil culture. People are trying to do evil under the appearance of good.  They are claiming what was evil is now good.  These sins are included in the four sins in scripture that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.  Members of the cancel culture scream at you just as they screamed at our Lord and crucified Him.  There’s nothing new under the sun as scripture says.  And there’s not. The good news for us is that we don’t have to be that way.  But, if you wrestle with pigs in the mud, the pigs doesn’t mind, but you’re going to get dirty.

Let me ask you a question.  Do you know what the secret to happiness is?  Want me to tell you?  Our Lord has told us to be holy. He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.”  This is a peace that the world cannot take away.  So, if we seek and strive for holiness and to be one with our good Lord each day, we will have a happiness that no one can take away.  That doesn’t mean you won’t have your share of sorrows and troubles.  We all have our illnesses, and we all have our struggles.  Our loved ones have been taken from this world to Heaven.  That happens to us all.  It doesn’t mean Christ stopped loving us.  It means we are sharing in some of His Passion for the sake of the Body of His church, for our own redemption, and for the souls of others.  We know deep down that as long as we do not turn away from our Lord through mortal sin or unrepented venial sin, He will always be there.  Even though we cannot feel it, He is always present with us.  Our peace and joy will come later after our trial on Earth is done.  Our suffering is redemptive. 

Saint John Paul II was suffering from end-stage Parkinson’s.  He loved classical music, so they brought in a world famous orchestra and conductor to play for him.  I don’t know his name…it’s not ZZ Top, so it’s beyond me.  Because of the steroids he was on for the Parkinson’s, he was bloated, shaking and drooling. He could barely move.  The last piece the orchestra played was his favorite, and the orchestra played it so beautifully, it would have made angels weep.  When the orchestra finished playing, the conductor turned around and looked nervously at the Pope.  The conductor was a little scared, because they were playing for the pope.  The Holy Father could barely move, but he looked at the conductor and gave him a thumbs up.  Even in his suffering, you knew he was a man of God.  He had a happiness about him no matter what happened.  He had the weight of the whole Church on his shoulders.  He had a fatal illness that is terribly debilitating. But, he still had peace.  And, that’s what we can have, because we have Christ.  However, because we have Christ, we have an obligation to help others. 

So, how do we fight this so-called cancel culture?  We must try to be even more holy and to pray for people.  Some of them are like those in I see in the gated community, a state sponsored residence with its own security system.  Those incarcerated never had a chance.  They were abused in childhood, so the chances were less than average that they would have a good life.  They had a lot of things working against them.  Granted, they chose to do evil, but they had a lot more crosses than we do. That’s not an excuse, but it’s a mitigating factor.  How do we help those people who are evil and who try to say what we believe is evil and must change?  Even the Catholic Church says sometimes what we believe must change.  That’s not true.  They are lying.  They aren’t wrong…they are lying.  Educated people who know better are lying.  How do we change that?  Have a little chat with them?  Even though I’m almost 68, I’m still a soldier, and part of me would love to say, “Let’s go outside and discuss this.”  No.  Our Lord said to love them, sacrifice for them, and pray for them.  They were taught from a young age that sin was good.  We see the outcomes of sin and evil.   We don’t have to be like them.  But, instead of fighting with them, we need to love them. 

Those who advocate evil are just like little children who don’t get their way, and they throw a tantrum.  That’s me some days.  Ever had a child…or a husband…throw a temper tantrum?  What happens?  Like our guardian angels, and like any good parent, we slowly take them in our arms, close to our heart. They are all worn out from their temper tantrum and break down in tears.  So, we hold them close to our heart, giving them comfort and love.  That’s what we are to do with this cancel culture.  We can hold out our arms to them, no matter what they say to us, and no matter what they try to do to us.  We can pray for them, sacrifice for them, and slowly bring them in to our heart. 

This culture is not cancel…I know what cancel is. Cancel is evil.  We are living in an evil age.  Actually, every age is evil.  But, we don’t have to be like that.  Remember, when you grow close to Jesus, you have both a gift and a command to go out and bring others in and to change the culture.  What’s very sad about people who are caught up in the cancel culture is that they don’t see how blind they are. They are like someone who has had too much to drink.  The cops stop them, and they say, “I only had two beers!”  Really?  That math is wrong.  They can’t stand up, never mind drive.  “I’m okay!”  They don’t see it…they are blind.  It’s just like alcohol blinds the alcoholic and dope blinds the dope addict.  And, the only cure for that is divine love.

During my time working in hospitals, I’ve learned that the only proper way to treat a disease is to find out what the disease is.  So, we shouldn’t say it’s a cancel culture when it’s an evil one.  People who are not eradicating evil are promoting it.  There’s a big difference.  Saint Mother Teresa tried to eradicate evil, and look at the love she spread.  So this is what we do.  We don’t have to be like them; instead, we need to love them, to pray for them, and to sacrifice for them.

How will you apply this message to your life?  Will you, like Saint Mother Teresa, try to eradicate evil by spreading God’s love?

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.  From a cell phone, click on “Blog” then “Menu” and then “Categories” (located at the end of page).  There is also a search box if looking for a specific topic.