 Saints Peter and Paul are the co-patrons of our Cathedral in Indianapolis. At times, I’m curious about how two of the most significant apostles feel about sharing a feast day instead of having their own day. We get a glimpse of how these two strong personalities clashed in Galatians 2 as they wholeheartedly strove to work for the Kingdom in the best way they each knew how. Four years ago, I wrote a book from the perspective of a single marriage counselor called Single Truth: You Are More Than Your Relationship Status. In the book, I quoted St. Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians: “I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided.” Paul goes on to explain that singleness allows you to adhere to the Lord without distraction. In the Gospel of Mark (1:29-31), we hear of Jesus entering into Peter’s house and “raising” his mother-in-law from a grave illness: “On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.” Since Peter had a mother-in-law, it is safe to assume he was married. Since this is the only place in Scripture where his marriage is mentioned, it has been a treat to see how The Chosen TV Series has used creative license to imagine what it was like for Peter to juggle full-time ministry with his home life. Honoring Peter and Paul side-by-side reminds us that we are not defined by our relationship status. Whether we are single, married, or consecrated religious, we have a purpose in the Kingdom. Peter could not have fulfilled Paul’s role and Paul could not have fulfilled Peter’s. In each of our own stories, we can think that God will condemn us by our past actions and relationships. The testimonies of Peter and Paul reveal how God chooses us because of our stories – weaknesses and strengths included – not despite them. I have a special fondness for 2 Timothy 4:7 because my college fellowship group was named “Four:7” after this verse: “I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” I love that this verse was chosen on this feast of Sts. Peter and Paul because in my book I talk about how marriage is an assist and not the goal; our relationship status helps us to pour ourselves out as a gift. The National Catholic Singles Conference highlights Gaudium et Spes 24 because whatever season of life we are in, we “cannot fully find [ourselves] except through a sincere gift of [ourselves].” Whether or not we have a helpmate in holy matrimony, we are not created to be alone and need others to help us fight the good the fight, to finish the race, and to keep the faith. My fellow singles, you are made for community. Please don’t isolate yourself. My dear friends who are couples, you are made for community. Please don’t isolate yourself or think that your marriage is the ultimate goal in life. The Chosen television series depicts a Christ-centered marriage so beautifully in a scene with Simon and his wife Eden. Simon comes home to Eden to tell her that he just met their long-awaited Messiah and was asked to follow Him. She begins to cry and he responds with concern about making her upset. She says, “No, how can I be upset? Come here. This is the man I married… of course He chose you. Someone finally sees in you what I have always seen in you. You’re more than a fisherman. How can I feel abandoned? I feel saved.” Marriage should point us to Jesus, because Jesus is the ultimate goal! So, Peter and Paul, though their earthly vocations were different, they were both called to go on mission for the Lord. You can find a clip from The Chosen television series below. Reflection: In the Gospel today, Jesus asks the question, “who do you say that I am?” I want to turn that question back on you as well. “Who do you say that you are?” Do you define yourself by your relationship status or by Jesus’ love for you?
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 Summertime in the United States brings about a lot of great traditions. It brings longer days, shorts, flip-flops, trips to the beach, barbecues, and processions. Processions are large public demonstrations of faith and piety that have been handed down from generation to generation. In Italian American communities, processions are filled with music, color, and, of course, great food—lots and lots of great food. We celebrate in this way because our fathers did before us, and their fathers did before them. This summer I've already been able to attend to two processions and I look forward to a few more. I attended the 107th annual Festa Dei Ceri in Jessup, Pennsylvania, and the 112th feast of St. Anthony Italian Festival in Little Italy Baltimore, Maryland. Each has a long tradition and there are as many differences as there are similarities. At the core, each is a faith that is embedded within its community that is rich and deep. Festa Dei Ceri, or simply St. Ubaldo’s Day, is a tradition that was brought from Gubbio, Italy by immigrants to Jessup, PA in 1909. Tradition states that in the early 1100s, Ubaldo Baldassini, the Bishop of Gubbio, met with Frederick Barbarossa , the Holy Roman Emperor who was on a military campaign in Italy, and convinced him not to invade and to spare the town from destruction. When the bishop returned with the good news, he was raced through the streets on a platform to reassure the town’s safety. The residence commemorated this event by racing a statue of him, along with statues of St. George and St. Anthony, through the narrow streets of the medieval town. Immigrants brought this tradition with them when they emigrated to Jessup in large numbers in the early 1900s. The Running of the Saints occurred from 1914 to 1952, then from 1976 to 1990, and has consistently been held since 2000 after being revived by local high school students. The day begins with the high school marching band waking the town up and calling them to Mass. After Mass, the statues which are about 30 inches tall are placed in 15 foot wooden structures that are designed to carry the saints and weigh about 400 pounds each. The saint statues are then blessed with holy water, first by the parish pastor or the Bishop of Scranton, then by the team captains and carried through the town by three different teams of men. A relic of St. Ubaldo is also processed and venerated with a significantly larger statue of him throughout the town. In the late afternoon, the three statues are then raced through the town at breakneck speed and over steep terrain. St. Ubaldo always wins, followed by St. George and St. Anthony. After the statues are removed and the platforms are disassembled, they are brought back to the church. The whole weekend is an expression of faith, family, and tradition. A few weeks after that, I was able to attend the St. Anthony Festival in Little Italy in Baltimore, Maryland, which dates back to the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. While massive fire raged in parts of the city, parishioners gathered at Saint Leo the Great Church in the Little Italy neighborhood of Baltimore. The parishioners prayed to St. Anthony for the protection of their neighborhood. Luckily, the neighborhood was spared. Many attributed this to the intercession of St. Anthony. The parishioners celebrated his feast day with a Mass, procession, and street fair which has continued ever since. Just five years after the beginning of celebration of the feast, the parish became a ministry of the Pallottine Fathers and Brothers. This year, I attended the events along with two Pallottine students in formation. The three of us served Mass and partook in the procession through the streets. Many people came out of their houses and cars to watch us. It was great fanfare with a full band, 4th Degree Knights of Columbus color guard, and a highly decorated statue of St. Anthony. Many people pinned money to strips of cloth tied around the statue as a small offering and prayer to St. Anthony. There was food, music, and an intense bocce ball tournament. Each of the celebrations has a few core elements that all processions have. Processions are about faith and community. Processions help increase our faith by publically displaying various statues and images. It is a form of evangelization in the streets. At the same time, they help build community by calling all those together for a common cause. They reinforce not only our proud heritage and traditions, but also our faith. They promote our faith being celebrated together. Processions are also about the individuals' participation. Attending a procession invites us to feel that we are a part of the community and reinforces our own faith. When I go to procession, for example, I not only enjoy the fanfare, but am also reminded that my faith is connected to those around me. I encourage you to seek out processions and bring your friends and family. Pray, eat, and enjoy each other's company. Processions can be beneficial for every group that continues the practice, not just the Italian American community. Ours just happen to have a bit more tomato sauce and wine than most! As the summer goes on, I look forward to many more processions and I invite you to go out and either attend or partake in a procession. **This post was originally published on 6/28/2016**
 The National Eucharistic Revival in the United States moved into its second, or parish, year on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. In July 2024, the Church in the United States will hold a National Eucharistic Congress. We at Catholic Apostolate Center continue to work with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Eucharistic Congress organization to assist all in moving out on mission from our encounter with Christ in the Eucharist. On Monday, June 19, Pope Francis met with the organizers of the Congress and offered these and other important insights. His words are quoted here at length and should be reflected on often. “It is my hope, then, that the Eucharistic Congress will inspire Catholics throughout the country to discover anew the sense of wonder and awe at the Lord’s great gift of himself and to spend time with him in the celebration of the Holy Mass and in personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament…. I likewise trust that the Congress will be an occasion for the faithful to commit themselves with ever greater zeal to being missionary disciples of the Lord Jesus in the world… This is the sense of a missionary spirit. You go to the celebration of Mass, receive communion, adore the Lord and then what do you do after? You go out and evangelize. Jesus asks this of us. The Eucharist, then, impels us to a strong and committed love of neighbor. For we cannot truly understand or live the meaning of the Eucharist if our hearts are closed to our brothers and sisters, especially those who are poor, suffering, weary or who may have gone astray in life” (Pope Francis, Greeting to the Organizing Committee of the National Eucharistic Congress in the United States of America). May the Charity of Christ urge us on! In God, the Infinite Love, Fr. Frank
The first time I went to a spiritual retreat was during my freshman year in high school. We all crowded into the basement of the church near our school and held forced conversation with classmates we barely knew. What I thought was going to be a dreadful day ended up being a wonderful experience and helped me to grow not only in my social life, thanks to my newfound forced friends, but also helped me to grow in my spirituality. Since then, I have attended numerous retreats throughout my life, but some of my most memorable ones are those which were in a new space.
Later in my high school career, I joined a Life Teen group which went on off-site retreats twice a year, around Thanksgiving and Easter. These retreats held about sixty high school students from our group, and we would gather at local retreat houses for a weekend retreat. It was here that I really began to learn the importance of these off-site retreats and enjoy these new moments in new places. There was something so special about praying together, eating meals together, and spending quality time with the same group of people that really made me appreciate these experiences. I remember dreading the bus ride back to the church, because that meant that our time together was coming to a close. Personally, I found that I was much more keen to speak up and converse in deep conversation, and feel vulnerable in these retreat settings. In a way, it felt as if being in a new space felt like a new start. Similarly, my first weekend of college, I went on Freshman Retreat. I remember all the retreat leaders coming to the dorms and my parents encouraging me to sign up. I was terrified! I had no friends going on the trip, I was away from my roommate for the first time, and I had no idea what to expect. The weekend ended up being fantastic! We went kayaking, I made new friends, shared a cabin with classmates I’d never met before, and we ended the weekend with a beautiful eucharistic adoration and Mass. What I thought was going to be the most awkward and unfamiliar experience, ended up being filled with joy, laughter, and only falling into a lake once (that was the real miracle of the retreat!). Here at the Pallottine Seminary at Green Hill, we offer a full events facility for day events and can accommodate groups (smaller than thirty-five adults) for retreats, board meetings, or other similar group meeting needs. Additionally, there is a chapel for Mass, prayer, and adoration, a dining room for group meals, and several outdoor locations for break out groups or just to walk around our manicured fourteen acre landscaping. Just walking around Green Hill is such a relaxing experience; it is so quiet and serene, and such an enjoyable place to visit. Green Hill is even fully equipped with an audio / visual studio! Here, guests can record podcasts, film videos, and even host webinars from our studio space, which includes a teleprompter, lighting, microphones, and other items you may need. Our dedicated meeting space, the Queen of Apostles Room, was recently renovated to include a brand-new camera, microphone, and speaker system allowing for ease of use for events with virtual participants. Truly, most any amenity you may need for your group, you can find here. It is our hope that Green Hill can help to facilitate all your needs and enhance any retreat or group meeting experience. Retreats have the ability to be an experience that can be both connective and solitary. Through retreats, I found my spiritual life growing not just through my own words and thoughts, but through those of whom I was journeying with. We hope that Green Hill can be the backdrop for your next group meeting space and facilitate all the meaningful conversations to come for you and your ministry. To learn more about Green Hill, click here: https://www.catholicapostolatecenter.org/green-hill.html
 This year, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus will be celebrated on June 16 and is one of my favorite days in the Church calendar. As I have become more and more involved in the new evangelization, I have come to realize that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a crucial part of evangelization and relationship with Him. Trying to effectively convey the love that God has for His children is impossible without bringing them first to the Sacred Heart, where the depth and breadth of His love is felt and seen. The Sacred Heart is an image or phrase that many of us may be familiar with, but what does it actually mean? The image of the Sacred Heart was given to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the late 16th century during a vision of Jesus that she experienced. Jesus desired not for Alacoque to keep this image to herself, but to share it with all people so that they could understand how deep His love was for them, and so that they had a way to return this love. When we look at the image of Jesus’ Sacred Heart, we see the entirety of His love for us. Through the flames we can see how He burns out of love for us. The thorns show us the depths of eternal suffering He is willing to endure for us, and His blood spilling out perpetually reminding us that the freely given gift of His love never can and never will be taken away. We cannot bring others to encounter Jesus Christ without His Sacred Heart. We need to carry it within ourselves so that when we meet others they meet Him first, encountering His radical love as it flows into us and overflows into those around us. We also need to carry His heart for the people we encounter, asking Him to show us the way He loves the people around us so that we can love them in that same way. When we encounter the people around us with the love of the Sacred Heart, we help them to realize that there is a person who infinitely sees, knows, and loves them, and desires more than anything else to be in relationship with them, and His name is Jesus Christ. Contained with the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the love He has for each of us, and the love we have for Him. When looking at His heart, Jesus invites each of us to find home within His heart and allow His heart to be at home within ours. The Sacred Heart is the image of Christ’s love for us, and the way we are called to respond to it. Looking at the radical, never ending love He has for us, the only response we have is radical, complete love given back to Him. We are called to receive the flame of love He gives us through the Holy Spirit and burn out of love for Him. We tend to His wounds in our love and unification of our sacrifice and suffering to His. We open ourselves up to Him and allow the Divine Mercy flowing from His pierced heart to wash over us. The Sacred Heart is not merely a symbol of love and salvation, but a call to relationship with Him.
 As a therapist, I see many people who want to “forgive and forget.” Healing is not about forgetting, it’s about remembering. When we forgive someone, we are choosing to remember with a healed mind rather than a traumatized mind. Two people can remember the same situation differently. The Sacraments are instituted by God for us, the human beings He created in His image. As a Christ-centered therapist, I am passionate about integrating psychology with theology. Jesus is fully human, so He models what a healthy psychology looks like. In perfect union with the Triune God, He remembers the Father’s love for Him in every moment. He remembers the prophets that came before Him. He remembers the faith His parents taught Him. He remembers. While just an anecdote, the Disney movie The Lion King has similar themes to the psychology of Jesus. In the movie, Mufasa, Simba’s father, dies while rescuing Simba from a stampede, and Simba had assumed the blame. If he had not gone down into the valley that day, his father wouldn’t have had to save him. The story he told himself was that if he did not need saving, his dad would still be alive. This narrative led him away from home to not only escape these harrowing beliefs but numb the experience all together. Later in the movie, Simba encounters the spirit of his late father, Mufasa, at a critical point in his journey, Mufasa says, “You have forgotten who you are, so you have forgotten me. You are more than who you have become. Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king.” Mufasa dying for Simba was not about it being Simba’s fault but about Mufasa’s fatherly love. It was this remembrance of the truth of who he was that gave him the courage to move forward, and to return to Pride Rock. Sometimes, it is easy for us to feel like Simba in our everyday lives. We can feel disconnected from God, and take on the blame for things that are not our fault. We each have our own burdens, but we are called, as Christians, to bring these burdens to Jesus and to share them with Him. We are loved beyond our wildest imagination by the God who created us. When we forget that truth, we can feel stuck, lost, or even traumatized. In a similar way, there is a psychological concept that has gained popularity: The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Bonnie Mikelson, Director of EMDR and Beyond, sums up Van der Kolk’s book like this: "Most human suffering relates to love and loss so the therapist's job is to help people acknowledge, experience, and bear the reality of life, with all its pleasures and heartbreak." (p. 26). He goes on to say that we can't get better until we 'know what we know and feel what we feel," recognizing the tremendous courage and strength it takes to remember. When the brain shuts off this awareness to survive terrifying and overwhelming emotions, the person's capacity to feel fully alive is also deadened. A key to trauma treatment is helping clients to 'reactivate' a sense of self, 'the core of which is our physical body.' (p. 89)” While traumatic memories are disorganized and fragmented, positive memories have a beginning, middle, and end. This points to the One who was, who is, and who is to come. The One who lived, died, and rose. The One who “came that we may have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) In the first reading on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, we read in Deuteronomy: “Remember how for forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all of your journeying in the desert… do not forget the Lord, your God.” Throughout Jesus’ ministry he quoted Scripture and taught in parables. It was through telling stories, that he activated the memories of those listening. In some of his last words to his disciples at the Last Supper, he said, “Do this in remembrance of Me!” Van der Kolk teaches on how important action is in the healing process. When we’re traumatized, we feel powerless, trapped, or frozen. When we do something in remembrance, we remember. We bring the experience to life again. This is often felt at funerals when telling stories about the deceased loved one makes us feel as though they’re in the room with us. When we get stuck in a sequence of choices that didn’t work, we can pause and recall the most recent time it did work and adapt accordingly. When we lose something, we may ask, “where was the last place I saw it?” Jesus wants us to find Him in our past, our present, and our future. Sunday Mass is not an obligation because the Church likes to be bossy, it’s an obligation because Jesus wants to be a formative part of our daily lives. Venerable Fulton Sheen says, “The greatest love story of all time can be found in a small white Host.” We go to Mass regularly to have a rhythm of remembering:
As we receive the Body and Blood of Christ this weekend, let us pray for a deepened awareness, active engagement, and renewed faith. May we find our story in the Christian Story and the Christian Story in our story. Jesus shared everything with us. Let’s share everything with Him. You are truly a beloved son or daughter of the King! Remember who you are!
 On May 31st, our Church celebrated the Feast of the Visitation—that hallowed moment when Elizabeth was greeted by her cousin Mary and when Scripture tells us that the infant leaped in her womb. We hear that the very first thing that Mary did after she was visited by the angel Gabriel was go and visit her cousin Elizabeth. The line that always sticks out to me from this Gospel account of the Visitation is: “During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste.” Mary did not just travel to visit her cousin - to celebrate the faithfulness of God and what He had done for her – but she traveled immediately, quickly, and with haste. Not only did Mary know that the good news of the Incarnation - of God dwelling in her very womb - was too good to keep to herself, but she also knew of the importance of showing up for those whom she loved most. One of the things I believe most firmly about our lives as Christian disciples is that when we encounter the faithfulness of God (either in our lives or in the lives of those around us) we are called to share it with others. It can be all too easy to think that the stories of Mary and Elizabeth - one conceiving by the power of the Holy Spirit and the other receiving the gift of a child after being called barren - is some far off story that happened 2,000 years ago and not something applicable to us. We must ask ourselves: Where have I experienced the faithfulness of God in my life? Where have I seen it around me? Where am I being called to share it? Am I making haste to get there? I was lucky enough to attend a school called Visitation High School; as you drove up the main drive to our school building, there was a beautiful statue of Mary and Elizabeth embracing. Every day I was reminded of the great joy that they shared with each other and ultimately the peace that came by believing that what was promised to them would be fulfilled. (Luke 1:45). In our hurting, broken, and messy world, we could use more moments of making haste. Making haste to show up for a friend that we know is suffering. Making haste to share the good news of Jesus with a family member or friend. Making haste to celebrate our loved ones even while we experience sorrow or hardship. It is the great privilege of the Christian to make haste like Our Lady, to show up and to share the good news that,“The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.” (Luke 1:49). **This post was originally published on 6/13/2019**
 On Trinity Sunday, one cannot help but think of a common greeting heard at Mass, “Let us begin as we wish to begin all things. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” How many times have we made the Sign of the Cross? Why do we begin Mass (indeed, every prayer) with the Trinity? Perhaps Trinity Sunday is the perfect day to ask, what does it all mean? During a General Audience, Pope Francis remarked, “The Mass begins with the Sign of the Cross. The whole prayer moves, so to speak, within the space of the Most Holy Trinity…” Perhaps we should look at the actions of the Trinity to see what God has done for us and thus see the true power of those words. A favorite hymn sung on Trinity Sunday begins, “O God Almighty Father, Creator of all things, The Heavens stand in wonder, While earth Thy glory sings.” Everything, from the smallest pebble to the tallest mountain and every living creature in between, is the result of God’s generative power. As the Catechism points out, “the totality of what exists depends on the One who gives it being” (CCC 290). And so, when we begin “In the name of the Father,” we remind ourselves of the awesome power God has to create everything from nothing. The second verse of the hymn goes, “O Jesus, Word Incarnate, Redeemer most adored, All Glory, praise and honor, Be Thine, our Sovereign Lord.” St. Paul reminds us, “In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, in accord with the riches of his grace” (Eph 1:7). By his death and resurrection, Christ opened the doors of heaven for the faithful. The third verse says, “O God, the Holy Spirit, Who lives within our souls, Send forth thy light and lead us to our eternal goal.” The Catechism states, “By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally…” (CCC 683). It is by the Holy Spirit that the knowledge of our faith is revealed to us. And it is through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we are able to live out our faith in the hope of reaching heaven. One thing that should be noted when talking about the Persons of the Trinity, is that while the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit may be three distinct Persons, they are still of one nature. This is what we mean in the Nicene Creed when we say that Christ is “consubstantial with the Father”—they are distinct but are of the same substance. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each wholly and entirely God. Many times, when we talk about the Trinity, we appropriate certain actions to each Person, i.e. God the Creator and Christ the Redeemer. This is fine, so long as we remember that the Father alone did not create, nor did the Son himself redeem. All actions are done in concert as one Triune God. On this Trinity Sunday, when we make the Sign of the Cross, let us do so remembering what that action reveals – that God created all things, that through Him the gates of heaven are opened to us, and that with Him our faith is revealed. And let us always sing the chorus of that hymn we used above: “O most Holy Trinity, Undivided Unity; Holy God, Mighty God, God Immortal, be adored.” Questions for Reflection: Is there a Person of the Trinity that you go to most frequently in prayer? How can you continue to build your relationship with each Person of the Trinity? **This post was originally published on 5/24/2018** Victor David is a collaborator with the Catholic Apostolate Center and a staff member at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. |
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