Hi Holy Family! It’s Fr. Michael Denk. You may or may not remember me, but I am actually a son of the parish! I’m currently assigned to St. Joseph in Amherst where I am this weekend. I haven’t learned to bilocate yet, so we figured this was the next best thing.
I am so excited to be coming back to my home parish. I was baptized here, received my first confession, first communion, confirmation and even celebrated my first Mass as a new priest here at Holy Family on May 12, 2007.
It has been 15 years since I entered the seminary, and I’ve been a priest for almost nine years now! They truly have been the best years of my life.
When I was young and felt the call to be a priest, I have to admit that I didn’t really want to listen -at first. I thought all priests ever did was pray. And I kind of thought back then, that prayer was boring. Well as I learned from our wise Spiritual Director at the Seminary, prayer should never be boring. If prayer is boring… You’re doing it wrong!
Do you find prayer boring? Do you find the mass boring? If you do, you’re doing it wrong!
I have come to discover over these last 15 years some wonderful ways of praying. I have also discovered how much God loves us and wants so much to share in our lives with us, and delights in us.
Prayer is ultimately about being in the presence of God.
The First Sunday of Lent we heard about how Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan… nothing boring about that!
Last Sunday there was the Transfiguration:
Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray.
While he was praying his face changed in appearance
and his clothing became dazzling white.
And behold, two men were conversing with him, Moses and Elijah,
who appeared in glory… they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus,
“Master, it is good that we are here;
let us make three tents,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But he did not know what he was saying.
While he was still speaking,
a cloud came and cast a shadow over them,
and they became frightened when they entered the cloud.
Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
“This is my chosen Son; listen to him.”
What an amazing experience that must have been – Peter just wanted to stay there forever!
We heard in the first reading: Moses was tending the flock…leading them across the desert to the mountain of God. All of a sudden an angel appears to Moses in fire flaming out of a bush.
This is anything but boring! Moses was so surprised, and like any of us would he wanted to get closer. The Lord called out to him “Moses, Moses.” Here I am, he responded. God’s voice boomed “Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand, is holy ground. Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
This is an experience of God… this is prayer… and it surely isn’t boring.
What if I told you that you could have an experience like this with God?
What if God called you every day like He did Moses, would you actually speak to him?
What would it be like to actually get to share your day with God, tell him what you are grateful for, ask for his help in any given situation, allow him to give you direction, ask for His forgiveness and mercy for anything you may have done wrong and find your life changed every day because you experienced him in prayer?
How different would your life be if you had the opportunity to connect with God like this every day? What if you could ALWAYS be connected with Him in ALL ways?
What if I told you that’s not only possible but can be done in as little as 15 minutes a day?
If you come to our Parish Mission this Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I promise you, you will not be disappointed.
What if I told you that if you wanted God would actually call your phone twice a day just to see how you were doing, and you could actually share your day with him?
Well, there’s an app for that. I created it, and it’s called “Examen”! Saint Ignatius said that out of all prayer, this is the single most important one that we should be doing daily. This prayer enables us to converse with God. If we were ever to skip any prayer either because of tiredness or business, this is the last one to cut from our day.
During this mission, you will not only be entertained by stories and songs, I’ll be bringing my Ukulele and Guitar, and David Ushold will be tickling the keys as well as your new priest Fr. Greg O on the Bass! You will also be inspired as you discover how you too can experience God just as Moses did, as Peter did, and as Jesus himself did… when he said: “You are my beloved son!”
I promise you that if you learn this prayer – your life will be change drastically for the good!
The BEST thing is that this prayer can be done by EVERYONE – no matter what your age, or how strong your prayer life!
If you have a smartphone or tablet, please bring it, but if you don’t, don’t worry this mission is for everyone. We are giving away free examen key chains for the first 1000 people to come, so that everyone can learn this new way of praying – and connecting with God.
Every Lent we are called to Pray, Fast and [almsgiving] give alms. I find that a lot of people give something up, but are you growing in your prayer life? It’s never too late to start. This Lent during our parish mission if you give God the time your life will never be the same!
I am so looking forward to seeing all of you for three nights of entertainment, inspiration, joy, laughter and one of the greatest adventures of all – Prayer!
The mission begins Sunday 2/28 and continues Monday 2/29 and Tuesday 3/1 from 7-8pm right here at Holy Family in the Church.
Fantastic mission…Father Denk does it God’s way!