I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Day with family and friends, and you didn’t eat too much food. I love Thanksgiving because I always get together with family sharing a meal, good conversation and yes even watching football. It is so good to be surrounded by love and share a glass of wine chatting about life with loved ones.
I have always had Thanksgiving with family in their homes, usually with my brother Paul in his house. Last year I hosted it at the rectory as Paul was so sick with pancreatic cancer that it was not possible to host it at his house. We knew it would be his last Thanksgiving, but we didn’t realize it would be only days later he would die. In fact, he left our rectory and went straight to the hospital and never made it home. Literally his last family meal was Thanksgiving at our rectory.
Certainly, it makes for a more challenging Thanksgiving this year, but I know there are lots of people in our parish who have lost loved ones this year and in previous years with their sorrow still raw in their hearts. It is true also of Christmas and other holidays. The loss of loved ones is tough all year. We need to find a way through the pain and strive to be grateful to God for all that we still have now. We rely on our faith to get us through these challenges and remind ourselves that our loved ones are with God in a real way now.
The fact that they are among us in the spiritual form is not a lessening of their presence but a shift in their presence. Often, I feel my brother, Paul’s presence and the presence of my spiritual director, Fr. Dave in an even more powerful way than before. I confess I miss hearing their voices over the phone and being with them in person, face-to-face. They were both larger than life for me and this year as I celebrate Thanksgiving with my brother in Utah, I am grateful for the gift of their love for so many years and their continued spiritual presence in my life. I am a much better person because of their friendship and love. I will honor them by passing on that love to others and remaining grateful to God for all of my life. I hope all of those who have lost loved ones over the years can do the same.
We never know which Thanksgiving will be our last. So, treat every opportunity to be with family as a gift to be treasured and don’t get lost in petty arguments or old grudges. Live in the present moment and celebrate life for all its gifts now. Make amends and live a life of gratitude.
Tomorrow, we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent and that marks the beginning of a new liturgical year. As you know Advent (comes from adventus, meaning arrival) is our time of preparation for Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Christ and his arrival into humanity. It is a time for us to focus on the journey of life as a disciple of Christ, always “being on the way” like a pilgrim. To help with this “being on the way,” I am leading an Advent Retreat Prayer series called “Atomic Habits of Prayer” to help people develop the habit of listening prayer. I will share the science behind the formation of habits and how to lose old bad habits and make new ones. Then I will apply this science to the tradition in our Church of mystical prayer including meditation and other forms of contemplation.
Most people in the Catholic Church will tell me that they were never taught “how to pray.” They were taught how to “say their prayers” but they say they were never taught how to pray as in how to listen to God. I know that is true for me and I went to a school of theology! It is possible to learn how to pray in many different forms and some of these methods will work for you and some won’t. Finding the ones that work for you can only be discovered by praying them. And that requires the forming of new habits which can be hard for incredibly busy people with full calendars. Yet we can always find time for the things we desire.
The question is then do we desire a life of prayer? Most people will say to me, “yeah!” but in a completely unconvincing way in the same way we say, “I want to lose weight.” We are interested in losing weight but are not committed to the path that is required to do so because we know it is hard to change. That is where understanding habits comes in. We will first start with desire as that is where all good habits start.
We desire to be a person of prayer because a person of deep listening prayer is a person who is able to listen to others, to be peaceful and centered in their own hearts, to be calm in the face of chaos, to be kind and gentle especially those least deserving of it, to be loving at all times and to be present to others in their difficulties. I am sure there are other ways to become that person but as a Catholic priest I know that deep listening prayer, mystical prayer, contemplative prayer or whatever other name you want to give it, is the way of the Church. It is tried and true and it has worked for the saints. I want to share those insights with you and invite you to come in person for the four weeks of Advent 7pm-8pm (Tuesdays, November 29, December 6, 13 and Wednesday, December 21). It will be available on livestream but I encourage you to come in person if possible.
Finally, we recieved the news that Fr. Phillip Sheerin, MM (Maryknoll), passed away November 23, 2022 in New York. Fr. Sheerin served here at Saint Simon from September 1989 to June 1996 as Parochial Vicar. Please pray for Fr. Sheerin and may his soul rest in peace in the loving arms of our Lord. There is a Memorial Mass at 8am, Monday, November 28, 2022 at Maryknoll, 23000 Cristo Rey, Los Altos, 94024. Ph: 650 386 4342.
God bless,
Fr. Brendan