The Other

I met my friends Tony, Matt and Bri for noon Mass at Our Lady of the Rosary and lunch in Little Italy today.  It was a nice break from work and planning and thinking way too hard about ministry.

The priest who celebrated Mass today, Fr. Louie, brought up something that has been on my heart since I returned from the Dominican.  That is the concept of the "other".

Our Church today celebrates the feast of a holy priest, St. Peter Claver.  He dedicated his life to ministering to people who were considered the "other": Africans sold into slavery and brought to what is now South America.  He gave them food and drink.  Cared for the sick and dying. Taught the Africans about God.  And converted thousands of souls to the Church.

But what made the people of the 17th century see these Africans as the "other"?  Was it the color of their skin?  Was it their socio-economic status?  Were they "less" human?  What made St. Peter want to serve them?

And what about today?  We have lots of "others" in our midst here in the United States.  Why are some of the "others" in our country treated with dignity and some not?

Over the weekend, my dad and I were talking about all of the political issues that have come up in this election year.  And he posed the question: Why are we Americans so insistent on strict immigration laws and practices?  And what would happen if the strict immigration laws that some voters desire caused the immigrants who perform the many tasks of our many service industries to not be in this country?

When I first started working in the Haitian villages, I definitely did see those people as the "other"...at first.  But as we grew in relationship, their need for love and friendship and God was no different than mine.

As I have met and related with Christians from non-Catholic churches over the past few months, I definitely felt the awkwardness of the denominational boundaries...at first.  But when we prayed, we prayed to the same triune God with the same desire to worship our Creator.

Maybe, just maybe, the "other" is not as different as we think they are.  And maybe, the sooner we recognize the "other" in our midst, the sooner we can ask for God's grace to see them for who they are: a son or daughter of God, just like us.

Path of Humility

As I was writing music and lyrics the other day for a new song, I found this definition of humility on Wikipedia that opened my eyes and my heart:

submission to God and legitimate authority;


recognition of the virtues and talents that others possess, particularly those which surpass one's own, and giving due honor and, when required, obeisance;


recognition of the limits of one's talents, ability, or authority; and, not reaching for that which is beyond one's grasp.

Humility...recognizing how small you are and how big God is.

St. Augustine of Hippo is one of my favorite saints, as well as one of the most quotable.  I discovered this one on his feast day a few weeks ago that I can't stop thinking about:

"To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him; the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement."

Humility...the act of authentic praise of God by our love of Him, by our search for Him, by our encounter with Him.

I saw this article on CNN.com on several visits to the site.  I was attracted to it, but afraid to click on it.  So, I finally did that this morning.  It's a story about a new book that details the common traits of people who survived disasters of all kinds.  As I was reading, I realized why I was so hesitant.  I desire a larger helping of humility in my own life.  My deepening need for humility has given me awareness that my lack of it has caused some of the challenges I face.  And then, the author of the book was quoted as saying this:

"Humility can keep you out of trouble."

Humility...it can save your life whether you're trapped in the wilderness, floating helplessly in the ocean for days, or trying to find a way out of your life's "disasters" caused by lonliness, greed or pride.

Taught by the poor

As I was putting the video of my working among the Haitian refugees in the Dominican Republic together a few weeks agao, I was struck by this quote from Mother Teresa:

Only in heaven will we see how much we owe the poor for helping us love God better because of them.

The people of Haiti have undergone much suffering over the past few weeks as four hurricanes have battered their island and caused much death and destruction.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has called upon the world family to help.

These people did not asked to be in the destructive path of the hurricanes.  Nor did they ask to be born into the poverty of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.  But they are certainly teaching us something in their suffering.  The question is, how will we respond?

Family Weekend

My Grandmother is visiting from the Philippines for a few weeks.  And this weekend, we had family day.  And Villa family day usually consists of two things: eating, shopping and more eating.  Oh, and picture taking.  It's definitely not a gathering without picture taking.

So, here's a picture of my beloved Grandmother and I (taken, of course, after our family day of shopping and in between eating).

As we were hanging out, it hit me...we (as in you and I) need to take time for family.  Whether it's flying 16 hours or driving for two, the travel is a worthwhile investment in love.

P.S.  Google Earth rocks!

P.S.S.  What a football weekend: St. Augustine High vs. Carlsbad on Friday, SDSU vs. Notre Dame on Saturday and Panthers vs. Chargers today.  Oh yes, ready or not, it's football season again!

Let's play a game

I really enjoy listening to speakers who teach me, who give me words that not only touch my heart but move my mind to deeper understand.  My dad is one of these people.  Mark Hart is another.  And so is Bishop Robert Brom, the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Diego.

I had the blessing of spending the morning with Bishop Brom yesterday as he held his annual meeting with church ministers from all over the Diocese.

He talked about two very powerful topics.

One was how God has written LOVE into our very genetic make-up. Love finds fulfillment only when self donation exceeds self satisfaction.

The other was HOPE.  We experience hope when we give and receive the divine love that is written in our hearts (see above).  All hopes are good and meaningful (i.e. the Chargers win their season opening game versus the Panthers this Sunday).  But there is only one hope that fuels our desire to live: the resurrection of the body and live everlasting.

I am always in awe of how Bishop Brom makes these very high theological teachings accessible to me as a lay person.  He shared so many terms and concepts that I found myself not just soaking the information in, but also applying it to my own life.  Hence, a word association game broke out in my head.  Here's how the game went:

COMMUNION: the summit of our existence on earth (the Eucharist), the source of how we are to live our lives (discipleship and holiness).

COMMUNITY: necessary for all humans, but is incomplete without communion.

INTEGRITY: trust and confidence in who God made us to be, boldness in proclaiming that publicly and privately.

HUMILITY: a life of ministry cannot succeed without it.

SERVANTHOOD: there is no "I" in team and no "I" in servant either.

SACRAMENT: Jesus Christ hanging on the cross.

SUFFERING: Bishop Brom is a model of handling suffering with and through grace.

Thanks, Bishop Brom, for inspiring me to be a better son of Christ and his Church.

Music = unity?

Coming from a family of musicians, I have been around music all of my life.  Music has touched my soul, made me laugh, made me cry, annoyed the heck out of me.  And it's brought me closer to God.

Now, being a musician and a music minister for the Catholic Church, it is quite interesting to see how those emotions that I and countless others have experienced are present in the celebration of our Eucharistic liturgy.

It's interesting.  And it's sad.

Sad to see how brothers and sisters - bishops, priests, lay people alike - in our Church are so divided because of the on-going argument of what constitutes "liturgically appropriate" music.

Sad to see how brothers and sisters rest their experience of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass based on how good the music sounds or if a genre of music fits their musical preferences.

Now, these discussions about the liturgical appropriateness of certain musical forms are good and necessary.  And those of us involved in music ministry need to be well versed and well practiced in our talent as we share it with Christ and His Church.  God doesn't deserve mediocre.

But we need to see that God's true and real presence comes before us at every Mass, and we can miss Him because we're distracted because of our mis-understanding of the real purpose of music.

Check out this article from the National Catholic Reporter.  It focuses on the use of contemporary forms of music in liturgy, but it really is about getting our Church back to real, authentic worship of our Father.

The stretch run of the baseball season...

The very long baseball season now enters its final month.  And while our hometown San Diego Padres are in the midst of the end-of-the-year minor league call-ups, I'm still hoping that the team finishes this disappointing season really strong.  And I really hope that Buddy Black continues to have the chance to develop this team into a winner.

But, while watching tonight's game between the Pads and the Dodgers (who I was a fan of when I was younger), it reminded me about the importance in having passion for life and your vocation.  The minor leaguers who are brought up to the major league team have everything to prove and everything to gain.  

So all these "meaningless" games to us fans whose team won't be playing in October, are really a chance to root, root root for young men playing their hearts out because they're fulfilling their dreams even if it's one-two-three strikes you're out at the end of September.

P.S.  If you haven't seen the Champions of Faith films, you should.