Monthly Archives: June 2019

Strengthened with Power – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Anxiety and Worry, Blessed Virgin Mary, Church, Community, Evangelism, Healing, Holy Spirit, Life in the Spirit, Prayer, Scripture, Service, Spirituality

Strengthened with Power – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

We are a child of God and He calls us to live out that call, to be his son or daughter.  We should be different from those who don’t know or follow God.  We should be empowered by our relationship with God.  So often we are not.  We, as mere humans, seem to want to settle for less than God has given us.  We are often anxious and afraid and weak and seem to lack direction in our lives.  We claim to be “saved” but more often than not, we are lost.  While writing these words I can’t help but to think about the Apostles right after Jesus ascended to heaven, leaving them on their own for the first time in three years.  They too were lost and afraid and weak and lacked direction.  But, they did what Jesus told them.  They went up in to the Upper Room and prayed.  Perhaps their going in to the Upper Room was a way of hiding from the authorities that they were afraid of.  But it was in the Upper Room that they came together as a community, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and prayed.  They prayed for nine days (our first novena) and something very powerful, something very life-changing happened.  The Holy Spirit fell upon them.  They received what Jesus had promised them.  It changed them permanently.  It empowered them.  It gave them strength and power and direction.

That same Holy Spirit has been given to us to so that we might be empowered and strengthened and given direction.  It is what can help us to live fully as a son or daughter of God.  That same Holy Spirit gives us so many gifts and fruits to make our lives empowered by God so that we can be the person that God has called us to be.  We just need to be open to that Spirit and ASK it to empower us and to work within us.  The Spirit has been given to us in Baptism and Confirmation but so often it just lies dormant within us waiting for us to learn about its power and ask to be open to and to be filled with its power.  One of the best ways to learn about the Spirit and to really desire the Spirit to be at work in our lives is by going to a Life in the Spirit Seminar.  These are offered in many parishes around the world.  Another great way is to experience the video series, The Wild Goose by Father Dave Pavonka.  This is available for purchase as DVD or Blueray.  You can also watch it on Youtube.   Both of these are great tools to opening ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit.   The scriptures and our Catechism also tell us a great deal about the Holy Spirit.  I would like to share a few scriptures with you to hopefully make you desire a better openness to the Holy Spirit.

In John 14: 16 Jesus tells us, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth.”.  In verse 26 Jesus says, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you.”

St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians (1:17-20) says, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…”

St. Paul also adds in Ephesians 3: 16-20,  “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Besides POWER, the Spirit gives us many fruits.  Catholic tradition follows the Vulgate version of Galatians in listing 12 fruits: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity (kindness), goodness, longanimity (generosity), mildness (gentleness), faith, modesty, continency (self-control), and chastity.

The Spirit also gives us many gifts.  We traditionally talk about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  In the Book of Isaiah 11:2-3, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are described. In the passage the gifts are considered ones that the Messiah would have possessed. Through Jesus, we also receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Wisdom helps us recognize the importance of others and the importance of keeping God central in our lives.

Understanding is the ability to comprehend the meaning of God’s message.

Knowledge is the ability to think about and explore God’s revelation, and also to recognize there are mysteries of faith beyond us.

Counsel is the ability to see the best way to follow God’s plan when we have choices that relate to him.

Fortitude is the courage to do what one knows is right.

Piety helps us pray to God in true devotion.

Fear of the Lord is the feeling of amazement before God, who is all-present, and whose friendship we do not want to lose.

The Spirit also gives us other gifts, sometimes known as Charisms which St. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, tells us are given for the building up of the whole Church.  These include, the word gifts of wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, preaching and teaching.  There also are Gifts of powerincluding healing, miracles and exorcism.  There are also service gifts such as pastoral care, alms giving, leadership and administration.   Further gifts included the prayer gifts like intercessory prayer, singing in tongues, being filled and guided by the Spirit, and to contemplate and worship God.

These lists of gifts and fruits and charisms are only some of the things that the Holy Spirit can do for us and through us.  His power is amazing.  Looking at what the Spirit can do for us helps us to see how the Spirit can and will empower us to be God’s children.  Be open to God’s Holy Spirit.  Learn about the Spirit.  Invoke the Holy Spirit in all that you do.  Become alive in the Holy Spirit.  It is God’s precious gift to us.  It empowers us to be His children.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Universal Renewal

Holy Spirit,
fulfill in us the work begun by Jesus.
Let our prayer on behalf of the whole world
be fruitful and unwavering.
Hasten the time when each of us
will attain a genuine spiritual life.
Enliven our work that it may reach all human beings,
all who have been redeemed
by the Blood of Christ and all His inheritance.

Take away our natural presumption
and uplift us with a holy humility,
with reverence for God and selfless courage.
Let no vain attachment impede the work of our state in life,
nor personal interest divert us from the demands of justice.
May no scheming on our part reduce love
to our own petty dimensions.

May all be noble in us; the quest and the respect for truth,
and the willingness to sacrifice even to the cross and death.
And may all be accomplished
in accord with the final prayer
of the Son to His heavenly Father
and in accord with the grace
that Father and Son give
through You, the Spirit of love,
to the Church and to her institutions,
to every soul and to all peoples.
Amen.

D-Day 75th Anniversary – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Death and Dying, Godly Patriotism, Peace and Justice, Scripture, Service, Soldiers

D-Day 75th Anniversary – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

On this 75th anniversary of D-Day I felt I should write about it.  I have shared some of this before, but I think that it is needed now.  War is a terrible thing.  It brings out the worst in humanity.  It also brings out the best.  World War II was a terrible and destructive war but it also showed that humanity can, and will, stand up against tyranny and evil.  Jesus told us that “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  This was lived out every day of World War II and one of the greatest examples of this is the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France beginning on June 6, 1944.  The Allied forces lost almost 10,000 soldiers during that invasion.  It was the beginning of the end of the Nazi terrorism and the pure evil that they had spread.  If any war could be considered necessary, this one certainly could.  Freedom fought back against tyranny and goodness fought back against evil.  The darkness of the Nazi regime was overcome by the light of the Allied forces.  Proudly, the United States stood tall in bringing forth the light.

D- Day has affected us all in many ways.  I realized how much it affected me when my wife and I traveled to France and visited the beaches of Normandy where D-Day happened.  My birth father was one of the many soldiers who landed at the beaches of Normandy and lived through that to continue to fight the Nazis in Europe.  I certainly am proud of him for that.  While standing on the beach there and hearing our guide tell us of the large loss of so many soldiers there, my wife turned to me and said, “Just think about this; if your father had been killed here that day, you would never had been born”.  It was a most sobering experience.  I thought about those almost ten thousand men who lost their lives on those beaches and mourned for them and then mourned for all those children that they were never able to bring forth.  My father had two brothers in that war.  One of them, Carl was killed while trying to free Italy from the Nazis.  He was only eighteen years old.  He is still buried in Italy.  His other brother, Milo, lost his leg while fighting the Nazis.  My father suffered from “Shell shock” which is what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).   War is terrible and does terrible things to people, yet our soldiers go out in to the midst of this hell, willing to give all for the sake of freedom.

Europe is free today because of the fighting of the Allied Forces.  When we were in Normandy we saw the honor and respect and gratitude the French people have for Americans.  There are so many memorials there showing this.  We also saw it in Rome where there are a number of plaques and monuments honoring American forces for setting them free.  We, as Americans, should be very proud of what our soldiers did in WWII.  We should continue to be proud of them for all of the many wars and conflicts that have occurred since then and before then.  I pray that someday war may cease, but until then a strong military is needed.  We need to support our soldiers.  I am a Vietnam War Era veteran.  It was a hard time to be an Army soldier then.  The Vietnam War was very unpopular and unfortunately people took it out on the soldiers.  Fortunately, this no longer seems to be the case.

As I said, we need to support our soldiers.  We can do this in so many ways.  We can always thank them for their service when we see them.  We can pick up their food or bar tab.  I have done this so many times and find it so uplifting, some of the best money I ever spent.  We can work with and support soldier and veteran’s groups.  I work with and support a local group, Boots on the Ground of Long Island.  It is definitely one of the best around.  Since I am a Roman Catholic deacon, I also offer spiritual counseling to some veterans who are suffering from PTSD.  They have seen and done things in the war that no one should ever see or do.  They carry this home with them and it affects them tremendously.  Sometimes all they need (besides professional counseling) is a friend to share lunch or a beer with and to lend an ear and caring mind.  Our soldiers do so much for us; we need to do for them.

Lastly, as strange as it might sound, we need to celebrate our soldiers.  Going to Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day and Fourth of July parades is one way of doing this.  Recognizing their accomplishments is also so important.  Take time to visit a soldier’s museum or monument.  Say a prayer for them.  Just today I saw a video from CBS News showing a 97 year old veteran of D-Day, who parachutes out of plane to the field where he landed on D-Day.  Check it out here (short commercial before) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-rice-d-day-anniversary-97-year-old-paratrooper-jump-2019-06-05/ .  This is quite a way to celebrate.  Remember, we are called to thank and celebrate the men and women who did so much for us.  God bless America.