 Alright, shall we? Why don't we begin then? In the name of the Father, don't worry about it. Don't worry about a stand. Name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Just stop and quiet ourselves for a moment and ask that God's Holy Spirit would be with us. Lord, that you would allow our minds and our hearts to be opened. That we would encounter you as you encounter us. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. Amen. So, welcome everybody. So, this is the first stage of our workshop. So, we have two series. So, this workshop, a little bit of break, another workshop. Workshops are supposed to be somewhat interactive. So, I'm supposed to ask questions and you guys are supposed to answer them. Amen. Amen. So, the interactive part is I'm just going to put the microphone here. And I'm going to sit down and then somebody else will come up here and fill it up. Not that interactive. So, yeah. So, they've invited us to just try to be able to communicate a little bit of information but then also have a dialogue in being able to talk about the particular topic that we're going to be talking about. So, it's my blessing to be with you. So, we're clear that we prayed at the beginning that your heart and your mind could be open. So, that not necessarily you're only touched by what's necessarily said but also by what's heard. And by that I mean sometimes God can say something to you. God can show you something. It might not be what I actually said but God works in that. Amen. So, you have to do your work as well. I've done what I needed to do hopefully about praying about what to say and what we're supposed to do this afternoon. So, I've done my part. Now, your part is to be able to open your mind and your heart so as to be able to hear what God has to say. Amen. The other thing that's nice about that is it takes off all the pressure on me. So, I can give a horrible talk and if you get something out of it that's because God's working. Amen. So, just let me get a sense real quick who's here. Okay, so all the priests, go ahead and raise your hand. Think of the workshop people. Think of the workshop. Come on people. That's all right. That's all right. We'll work through this, okay. Now, my suspicion is the next and we're going to do a little bit better. All the prophets raise their hand. Ah, yes. Yes. And all the kings raise their hand. This is a quick group. This is a quick group. This is going better than I thought, okay. So, that's basically all I wanted to say. So, everybody have a great night. So, now if I were to ask you, my suspicion if I were to ask you the greatest event of your life. We have all kinds of answers and you're probably given the topic. You know where I'm going to go. But I want to suggest that the greatest event of our life is baptism. Is baptism. And what takes place in baptism for us is really the, at the heart of what we're going to talk about the rest of the afternoon. Is what it is and for us to be able to actually step into that, the grace of baptism. Now again, if I was to ask you and you had no idea what the greatest event of your life, some of you would, I'm sure you would say your wedding day, right? That's what you told me to say, right, Mike? That's what I thought. Your wedding day, right? Oh, you're a rock star. Seriously. That's all. Now watch me not use it the whole time. That's great. That's great. Thank you. Right. So, the greatest moment, the birth of your child could be graduation. I don't know what it is, right? This morning I had just a wonderful opportunity to, I wasn't able to be here this morning. To celebrate the 25th Vows anniversary of two Franciscan sisters that in many ways I grew up with. And to be able to celebrate that with them was a wonderful, wonderful celebration. A great day. But it all in comparison to baptism. What takes place in baptism? Now, I'm going to guess real quick. Who is actually, who here remembers their baptism? That's really, really cool. How old are you? Eight. Eight. All right. That's cool. Anyone? Yeah. You're 29. 30. 30. Do I have 35? 35. Move me five. Yeah. 32. You're five. Cool. Yeah. See, what a great blessing, right? To be able to remember our baptism. I was two weeks. I was born February 1st, baptized on Feast of St. Valentine. Yeah. So, unfortunately, I think that there's no doubt that we have the grace, right? The grace that we experience in the baptism. But to actually be able to remember that and to be able to kind of participate that. I had an occasion a number of years ago. I've done some work in China in working predominantly with the Underground Church. And this one particular occasion, it's kind of a long story, but I'm going to make it a lot briefer. This one gal who was helping me touring me around was my translator. And I was talking of this conversation with a nun that I was with. And I just asked a really, really kind of general question. And I said, you know, in China with the Underground Church, what do you do if you want to be baptized? And this lady gets up. She runs across the room and she says, I want to be baptized. And I said, I'm sorry. She goes, I want to be baptized. And the nun looks at me and says, it's up to you, Father. I'm thinking, I don't know. Like, no, seriously, nowhere in seminary did they say, OK, if you're working with the Underground in China, and somebody comes, this is what you're supposed to do. I didn't talk about it once, right? So I said, well, I think I need to have a conversation with this lady. So we had this beautiful conversation. And she shared how, and I'm not going to ask you this, but she said, Father, I've read most of the catechism. And I'm not going to ask you here who's read most of the catechism, because I'm sure you've all read most of the catechism. You all know what the catechism is. Exactly, exactly. Things are going great, OK? So she just began to share. And she kept on saying, I get to become new, right? Like, I would be new if I was baptized. I would be new. I said, yes. She asked me if she could go to confession. And I shared with her actually that you get one free one, right? So you don't have to. Then she said beautifully, could I talk about it? And there were some things that she needed to talk about. There were some things that she needed to be reconciled in her own mind and own heart. And as we were talking, as she was getting more excited, I found myself that there was no way, right? There was no way that I'm going to tell this woman that she can't be baptized. So we opened up the door. And there was a bunch of other women who were outside. And they were just kind of leaning in like, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? And I said, I think we're going to have a baptism. And they're all excited. So the next morning, we didn't have a church that we're using. So their baptismal font was this little blue bowl that they bathe babies in, right? Because this was a place where a little orphanage. I remember a brown bear that was on the bottom of the baptismal font, which was one of the most beautiful baptismal fonts that I've ever seen to this day. But I'll never forget her leaning over to be baptized and her tears rolling down her cheek into the water, right? And when she was finished saying, this is a dream come true, right? This father, this is a dream come true. She would later share with me that the first time she had ever heard the name of Jesus, she was a little girl in a village and there was a preacher coming through. And the preacher spoke of Jesus and she had never heard Jesus' name before but what the preacher spoke about was, it was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you. And she said, she heard that and she said to herself, I wish I would have been chosen. I wish somebody would have chosen me. And she again begins to weep and says, this is a dream come true. She understood the beauty and the grace and the dignity that there is in baptism. But I suspect all too often, we don't give it enough reflection. We don't take some time just to be able to pray. So if you hear nothing else, I would invite you in the next couple of days to just to be able to stop and to be able to pray and to be able to think about what takes place when we are baptized. We are fundamentally changed, right? So the person who is five minutes before the baptism is different than the person five minutes after the baptism, right? The person becomes conformed to Christ, that we become transformed. We are ontologically changed in baptism, right? So that when God looks upon us, he sees his son. I think there's a danger that in one way, we think that when we're baptized, a little bit of Jesus is placed in us, right? So no, no, no, no, we are placed in him, that we are grafted to him, right? So that when God looks upon us, he sees the nature of his son because we are baptized into the person of Jesus. We have discussions as so and so are they Christian? If they've been baptized, they're Christian, amen? Whether or not we're faithful to that is a whole other question. But if we've been baptized, we are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus and we are changed. So we enter into that water, literally we are dead and we come out of that water alive. Now, most of us have not experienced that because we experienced it as babies and we don't remember it. And yet when you listen to the story of somebody who's experienced that as an adult, there's something that's really profound about that and I would suggest, I'll talk about that this evening, that that, in fact, can be what the baptism of the Holy Spirit does for us, right? It allows us that experience of this encounter that I was dead and now I'm alive, amen? So when we're baptized, we become, in all two Christus, we become another Christ, right? So if you are not comfortable with that, it's something you need to be able to pray with. You are another Christ. What does Christ mean? Anointed, right? Right? So are you comfortable with saying that you are another Christ? Really? Didn't sound like it. It's like, yes, because you know that's the right answer, but you're not so sure, right? The word itself means Christ, the word itself means the anointed one, right? So in the scriptures in the beginning of Matthew, they look and Jesus walking and said, behold the Christ, right? He is the Christ. He is the anointed one. And if I am in Christ and in baptism, I become literally anointed, then we are another Christ. He is the Christ. He is the primordial anointed one, but we participate in that and that we are now in Christ, amen? Amen. So in the scriptures in the Old Testament, when they speak of the anointed, there were three groups, the classes of people that are anointed. I'll bet you you can guess who they are. Seriously, you guys are good, all right? And all the priests in here raised their hands. Okay? All the prophets, kings. I just kind of wonder which one we like most, but we'll deal with that later, right? So Jesus is the anointed one. So when each one of us was baptized, we have heard and the right says, just as Jesus was anointed, priest, prophet and king, you live always as a member of the body of Christ, sharing and everlasting life. So when each one of us was baptized, those words or something like those words were said over us. And I don't get to do a lot of baptisms, just in the nature of my ministry, doesn't have me able to do a lot of baptisms, but the ones that I do, one of the things that they said to me in seminary that I actually listened to, that I paid attention to was, use the symbols, let the symbols speak, right? Be able to take the oil and anoint that child. It's not just, don't just dip your thumb into it. It's like just imagine the scene, right? And pour the oil anointing over that child, right? They become anointed and you take the chrysm which you're going to be able to smell for a couple of days, right? And you just all, you want a little greased little kid, right there. It's hard to hold on to. Okay, it's fantastic, right? But to be able to see that and take a look at the Old Testament and you see the anointing, when David is anointed they pour oil over his head and it goes down his beard, right? This is the image that we participate in that. We become the anointed ones. But my concern is that we don't actually step into that. That we don't step into the reality that we are priest, prophet, and king. And we don't understand that this is part of the inheritance given to us by the fact, brothers and sisters that we are baptized. We participate in the priestly class. In the prophetic class. And we're able to participate in the ruling class of kings, amen? As a priest, as an ordained priest, a sacramental priest, I participate in priest, prophet, and king in a very particular way. I participate within the life of the church, right? That I offer sacrifice. And we're talking about this. I offer sacrifice in the life of the church. And I govern as king in the life of the church. And I have a prophetic voice in the life of the church. Your job is to do that outside of the church, right? That you participate in these class and priest, prophet, and king in the temporal order. As a minister and a priest and ordained that I participate largely with those who are already Catholic, those who are already baptized, those who are already Christian. Your job is to participate and to bring sanctification and bring governing and to bring a prophetic voice into a world that in many ways has no idea what this is about. And in fact, and I'll say near the end is that your challenge and your invitation is the possibility of you impacting so many more people than me, right? Because generally when I speak, when I do it, it's because people are coming and they have some idea of what I'm going to say, right? Not necessarily exactly what I'm going to say, but I have some idea because I'm a priest. I suggest when they hear it from you it's profoundly different. When they hear a prophetic voice from somebody that's working in their office or somebody that's in the soccer field with them or somebody you're playing golf with that when you act as a priest and a prophet and a king to that community, it has a profound impact. I'm hoping my desire for you is for you to be able to step into that and to be able to claim that and own it. Amen? So as a catechism reference catechism 1267 to 1268 speaks of us being priest, prophet and king. And what does it look like for us to be priest? First off we all share by baptism in the priestly call that it is a call, it is in the nature of baptism. One of the words for priest is the word is pontificax, this bridge it means a bridge, that the priest acts is the bridge between man and God. I act in that role within the church you act in that world with the lay brothers and sisters that you spend time with you, fellowship and then the people that you work with. So just imagine that for a moment that you are a bridge of the priesthood, the nature of the priesthood is a bridge, it bridges the gap between God and man and the Lord wants you to be able to do that that your job is to lead again the temporal order, the world the people that you come in contact with from the world that they live in to the divine. And you do that by the way that you live that they see in you something that's different that there's something different about you there's something different about the way you speak the way you behave, the way you recreate. I remember when I was in high school I was raised in south-west Colorado and there was a gal there and a large Mormon community in my community and there were a bunch of high school guys I was not participating in this because it wouldn't have been appropriate but there were a bunch of guys talking about how cute this gal was and maybe I was there because I was realizing how would I have known this so maybe I was there and one of the guys said but she won't, they said she won't do anything because she's Mormon and we all knew exactly what they meant was that we knew because she was Mormon there were some things that she wouldn't do and some things that she would do and it seems to me that has to be the nature of we who are priests right that we represent to a society this bridge that reveals something about God that this gap this bridge, this gap that exists between the world and God we need to bridge that and as priests we bridge that by reconciling this world that is distant from God now to a world that doesn't even know that they have a need for God I was just talking to one of the people on the team and he was sharing how we're living in such an immoral society and I want to suggest that not only is it an immoral society that there used to be these norms that could be violated but we live in a world that there are no norms anymore do whatever the heck you want right and who are we to judge or who are we to place our opinion on anybody else well that's the world that you get to minister your priesthood right that's good luck alright but it's important that we understand that that you are going to be the ones who are going to bridge this gap that we you are the bridge to take a world that doesn't know about God and lead them literally they can walk across to you to that place that is divine that place that is sacred one of the ways that we do these and these are different elements or characteristics of priest is by offering by this offering of a sacrifice or an offering of whatever so I grew up in my family my mom has multiple sclerosis and this sense of offering up was very real for the priest and we will talk about this at the Eucharist at the Liturgy but I as priest offer a sacrifice I enter into this eternal sacrifice sacramentally you do that within your life and we have to ask ourselves how is it that we offer up this sacrifice now I watched my mom for 47 years offer this sacrifice and her offering that sacrifice was sanctifying to me right that I watched my mother behave as a priest in offering sacrifice for her kids right so the days that one of the advantages me and all my brothers and my sister we all know how to cook because the days that my mom wanted to cook but she wasn't able to so we all pitched in and we learned how to cook I wish the friars knew how to cook but that's another story for another day hmm that's my sacrifice right a buddy of mine has been struggling with some illness lately and he was really interested he had a really beautiful insight he said I haven't dealt with this well he said that I don't think that I have been the witness to my wife and to my kids that I could have been he was understanding he was sharing how he had been complaining a lot moaning whining frustrated and patient he realized that as priest he could have offered this sacrifice differently this is the invitation that you have as as a priest is to offer the sacrifice and the reality guys is we have these sacrifices there are opportunities time and time and time again to quote unquote offer things up every moment this world is either graced or it's not right moments are either graced or they're not it's a great opportunity how are we going to approach this how are we going to be able to offer this up to the Lord amen part of the process of priest of us is for the sanctification of the people that we encounter the people that we meet again mine is the sanctification of the church yours is for the sanctification of the world and you have a particular task as priest in the world to be a sanctifying body to that world you are the leaven if you will you are the light and by the way that you live your life has this impact on people right is the nature of the priest is the process of sanctification I'm going to take bread and wine I'm going to pray in the Holy Spirit that that bread and wine is sanctified it's changed it's transformed you are supposed to be able to do the same thing particularly within those of you who are married is that the reality is at least I've heard that there are times that being married is difficult no that's right your wife told me never mind not everybody gets to be married to Laura alright so I had an experience a number of years ago that I was working I actually was working here at the university and a faculty member came in and they looked really tired I went to them I said you look tired and they said well let me tell you about my evening great so we went to bed everything was great went to bed and one of the kids got sick and they were throwing up so we had to get up and we had to clean up the kid and shower them and change their sheets and all that kind of thing it's like oh that must be tough and they said well yeah and then wasn't feeling very well and he was kind of frustrated so we brought him into bed with us again that was a big mistake now I don't know that just was a big mistake it seems to me leave him in the room alright so what ended up happening is as you expected the kid got sick again and threw up all over them threw up on the husband and the wife so now they all had to again I saw this coming they all had to get out they had to all shower themselves clean themselves change the sheets and all this kind of thing and he's sharing this with me that has never happened to me amen ever I was in charge of the seminarians for a number of years and I never had one of them come to my door knocked down the door crying never happened never had any of them throw up on me I was sharing with my brother I said I was telling him this story he's got four kids he goes Dave this was a while ago I do not remember the last night I slept without being interrupted by one of the kids you gotta be kidding me so that is sanctifying that is sanctifying that I am convinced that Christian marriage is impossible without grace it is impossible and it's one of the things I think with all that's going on in the world and the nature of marriage and what is marriage and this and the other I think it provides us actually a great opportunity to talk about Christian marriage because Christian marriage is profoundly different than what our world is saying is marriage amen it is sanctifying the way that the mom and dad dealt with their little boy that day that evening was sanctifying right it caused them and invited them to be transformed and this is the nature of priesthood it is sanctifying to those people that we encounter it is sanctifying to the people that we are in a relationship with the way you treat your spouse the way you treat your siblings the way you treat your parents the way you treat your children should be sanctifying why? because you are a priest and that's how what priests do and this is on the side note the profound scandal that there is when priests don't do that right and we are seeing this on every television and newspaper right but the reality is is the entire priesthood is guilty priest, prophet and king so we ask ourselves that like I think it's a beautiful custom of parents blessing their kids of literally as priest blessing their kids before they go to bed I don't know before they go off to school or whatever it is there is something about people are coming to me all the time asking for my blessing as a priest you ought to be able to give your blessing those of you who have children to your children because you are the priest of that family recently I was invited to dinner I was trying to remember where it was and I can't remember they asked me to say grace and I said to one of the parents I said this is your home you are the priest of this home I'm welcome to say my grace if I have to but I would suggest that one of you say grace right this is we believe that it is the domestic church the family is the domestic church and of which the parents the mother and father are the priest of this we need to step in that the kids come to the parents that's cool she said in her family in the morning they would ask the blessing of their parents and then kiss the parents hands at night too that's great this is actually what I'm going to invite you to what are ways in your own family in your own situations that you can be priest we place this thrust on me about what as an ordained priest there are some expectations that you have of me that is eminently reasonable I push that back to you to stand as priest and what does that look like what does it look like for you as far as the offering of sacrifice what does it look like for you standing in the gap what does it look like for you to be the bridge between God and man each one of you is called to be able to do that my invitation for you is to take some time and reflect about what that's going to look like for you amen now the other is that I obviously have a particular relationship as priest as an ordained sacramental priest to the Eucharist Jesus obviously invites the priest to be able to do this in memory of me right but we all when we gather it doesn't mean that you're not a priest at the Eucharistic celebration right so it's not you are not just the sight seeing you don't come to Mass just to sit back and watch but we as priests I as an ordained sacramental priest lead the community lead the congregation but we're all priests and we're all making offerings and sacrifice amen one of the cool things that happened one time some of you know this story but I was in Africa and they do really cool thing at the office in Africa so they bring up the bread and the wine as we do it every offering mass in the states but they didn't just bring up the bread and wine they brought up all kinds of things they brought up a blanket that this lady made they brought up fruits apples and grains and all of these offerings they brought up a live chicken they bring me this live chicken it's like what do I do with this this is never right they bring up a baby they offer me a baby which is great because I always wanted one so they offer me this baby and I'm like but what this is is they are offering everything at the altar and this is the reality is that you as priests and celebrating a priest it's not only the bread and the wine that it's been offering but you are offering on the altar and you are offering things that need to be changed your hurts your fears your anxiety your bondage whatever it is your question your fear whatever it is all of that is but you are a priest amen and as priest you offer you are not sitting on the sidelines watching what father does but you are participating in the offering of yourself right the early church the altar was huge right and it wasn't just the bread and wine it was a massive thing that everything was placed on there and we've kind of narrowed it down but what is it that you are bringing every time you celebrate Eucharist yeah yeah how would that go over if we just had everybody just kind of come up into the offering probably larger collections because we would guilt you into it which is what we are looking for amen alright just do me a favor quiet yourself for a second Lord we ask that you be present with your spirit just in your own mind to pray about the reality that you have been baptized a priest and as such to be able to claim that to be able to offer sacrifice for those that you love your children your siblings brothers and sisters people you work with that you are a bridge who are those people in your life that you want to bring across that you want to bridge the gap between God and them that you are a light you are a leaven that God uses you for sanctification of others now just pray for a second what would be ways in which you can be priest for those you in relationship with family friends people you work with I think what the church invites us to is to a deeper broader understanding to a commitment to be this for a world that desperately needs it amen thoughts about that priest the idea no no no sure sure sure she said that it's not always received well at times and that's fair we'll talk a little bit about it at the end when we pray for courage because for priest prophet Anking it takes courage yep that's great that's great she blesses her grandkids every morning before mass before school that's fantastic yep Ignatian I'm not familiar with them yeah absolutely beautiful standing in the gap beautiful absolutely beautiful great so the couple does that to one another great sure absolutely sure so being as sensitivity and being authentic with them and then just being able to listen right humility goes into it right that as priests we're a priest not of just priest of me of Dave Pavanko we're a priest of Christ so we are grafted in him and that's what we try to reflect that we we have no priesthood apart from Christ so we celebrate and we participate in the priesthood of Jesus so all of the interactions is to try to allow the individual to encounter Christ who is the high priest amen okay we're gonna keep on going just a little bit more we'll have some more time at the end so all the priests raise their hand excellent excellent alright all the prophets raise your hand great characteristics of a prophet there are messengers and there are witnesses we pay attention to the Old Testament a couple of characteristics that we see is the prophet is set apart the prophet is set apart from a world that needs to know a world that needs to hear a world that needs to see and that's one of the things is the prophet is the prophet through many ways one of them is by the way they live their life is that our life as prophets should look different the prophet was set apart to live a life of holiness amen one of the things the Vatican council did obviously it restored our understanding of priest prophet and king it also restored this understanding that you we are created to be holy right it's not just the priest or the religious that you as baptized are to be holy amen I was doing a priest excuse me a men's retreat in Columbus Ohio one time and I was just talking about the nature of holiness that all of us are called to be holy but I asked the question of the community I said who here is holy I said I invite you who here is holy if you're holy stand up and I asked again anybody if you're holy stand up and like this elderly gentleman's kind of looks around and very sheepishly stands up which is horrible because it ruins my whole talk because what I'm going to ultimately say is we're called to be holy but nobody stands up and he stands up so so afterwards he comes up to me and he says father what did you say I said what do you mean he goes well what did you say I said well I said whoever is holy stand up and he goes oh I thought you said whoever is elderly to stand up that's figures right it's just figures alright we need to be able to wrestle with this as a prophet we are called to be holy which means we are set apart that our life is supposed to look different I want to suggest that when people begin to come up to us and ask us why we do or why we don't do something the role of being a priest and a prophet is profoundly different because they're recognizing in us that there's something different and that difference at the heart of a prophet is that he or she is called to be holy right holiness isn't always about doing it perfectly holiness is a relationship with God there's a way that sometimes we mirror we always look at holiness is do you do it right or do it wrong do you make mistakes you do not make mistakes I mean when we take a look at the scriptures many of the prophets made all kinds of mistakes but they would get up start again they would repent and they would work it being transformed holiness isn't about merely being perfect holiness is about having an intimate relationship with Jesus right it's at the heart of it holiness has a lot more to do with somebody else and that other person is Jesus than it does me holiness is that we get lost in this that I am engrafted and people no longer see I as Paul said is no longer I who live Christ who lives in me holiness is that recognition that there is Christ alive in the individual and that we begin to get lost in that amen now one of things that's important for us is that we have I think a danger when we think about holiness and it's almost like this like this French butler okay or a carmelite right holiness is you're just it's just not me right right whatever holiness is it's just not it's like holiness holy people are a lot more serious than I am let me just put it that way right holy people they bow a lot more than I do right holy holy holy people have incense it's just kind of always around them right it's just incense there's just this this wafting about them right yeah yeah I remember when I was a postulant somebody said to me this guy was in vows alright so if you're a postulant there is nobody lower than a postulant right the postulant is the very low this guy was in vows I don't know what I was doing I was fooling around doing something and he looked at me and he said Dave I used to think you're holy now I realize you're an extrovert she was like what but as a postulant that scared me because what I thought was to be holy I should probably be a lot quieter and I probably should not have short sheeted the novices beds a danger here's a danger is that when we think of holy people we think of that person rather than ourselves and this is the invitation for us as the prophet is that God is called us to be holy not necessarily perfect and unfortunately we equate those and they are not the same there is one perfect one amen and that's not us alright so what does it look like for you to be holy and we see the saints and we see in the saints we see models and examples but I love what I think it was I can't remember what saint it was so I'm not going to say but the line was to be honored but not imitated alright this saint is to be honored but the Lord doesn't call us all to do the same thing we already have one saint Francis okay we don't need another one right the Lord is inviting you to be holy with your unique gifts talents foibles fears all that alright so the prophet is holy the prophet is able to be able to step back from the world and to look at the world and read the signs of the times to read what's going on and then to be able to shed light into that the prophet speaks truth the prophet brings light in the situations that before they entered in were murky were cloudy were confusing the prophet has got to be able to speak light into that and to speak truth into that the prophet is able to look at social issues and say that not everything is right not everything is true not everything is good and the prophet needs to be able to speak into that a danger and it's one of the things I love about Francis Francis stands in Saint Francis looks at the over the Umbrian Valley to be my cloister the prophet must engage the world and again this is your job because you as lay people are in the midst of the world I as a religious and a priest there's this difference and so the Francis can does that as well but you are the one who's going to engage this world that profoundly needs a voice of reason to it right I took some courses at the University of Pittsburgh a number of years ago and we're having this discussion amongst very educated and smart people about how we have I think at then there was eight genders that they were talking about so I was sharing just talking with my brother really casually about this and my younger nephew was in the back seat and we were talking about how this conversation about how we now have eight genders my nephew says Uncle Dave that's just stupid out of the mouth of babes right but we can't speak like that but we need to be light and voice and truth in charity and we're going to talk a lot at the end about charity all of this must be done with humility and with charity and with a great sense of reverence for the person who's in front of us but it doesn't mean that we have to believe everything that they say is true if we are not illuminating light the light of Christ into this world who's going to do it right I remember as a high school kid a bunch of my buddies who's in the mid fifties now good you are not about half way into that I said oh my gosh if she is I'm in big trouble so fast times at Ridgemont High some of you remember the movie that's right Sean Penn's there was nothing good or redeeming about that movie at all and I remember my father saying to me me and a bunch of my friends were going to go to it my dad said to me is it a good idea for you to go to this movie and I remember it's like I wish you wouldn't have said that because now it's like in my mind I have to think about this and he said to me he goes you know there are times and opportunities where you can say no and it really have an impact on your friends he didn't say what I could do or what he said it's up to you so I went to the movie but what it said to me particularly as a teenager my dad was speaking that was a prophetic voice that was a prophetic voice and had the opportunity at that time a prophetic presence that I didn't do very well right this is the nature of this one of the funniest shows I think on TV right now is Modern Family and it's well written it's funny it's all these kinds of things but it is beginning that the attitudes of the world are beginning to dominate and if we as Christians don't speak again in charity and I will say and billion times in charity truth and light in a world that desperately needs it one of the things that Pope John Paul now Saint John Paul said when he was in St. Louis he was speaking about truth and freedom we live in a culture in a world today that says truth is to believe whatever you believe is true everybody's all truth is equal all truth is the same all truth is relative so whatever you believe is true is true we live in a world that says freedom is the ability to do whatever you want right because we're free we can do whatever we want Holy Father says when truth and freedom are separated the very moral fabric of society begins to unravel which is exactly what's happening we're seeing these two things separated in the very moral fabric of our society is beginning to unravel we are called to a prophetic voice in the midst of that to bring some sense of order to bring some sense of truth goodness holiness presence and I suggest that particularly in our world very difficult I mean to see teenage kids to stand up and to speak a word of truth and about abortion when the vast majority of young people just don't believe it's true that takes great courage I was actually proud I don't know the University of Alabama just gave back 21 million dollars that they've been donated to them to this one person who just came out and said he was really critical of the state of Alabama because of their abortions and he said it's ridiculous their backwards what's wrong with these people in Alabama the University of Alabama gave back 21 million dollars that this donor had given them and said we don't want your money anymore that's courageous that's a state school that's a state school that's the crimson tide it's not easy for me to anyway we right we are you are a prophetic voice and we need to be one of the lines I love is of Martin Luther King Martin Luther King said the Christian is not supposed to be a thermometer of culture measuring the temperature of a culture rather the Christian is supposed to be the thermostat we set the nature we set the temperature unfortunately we've just been kind of doing this measuring brothers and sisters we need to begin to set that to we we as Christian brothers and sisters have got to stop hiding to stop running away to stop being silenced and to speak a word of truth in a world that is just profoundly chaotic particularly to our young people right and the reality is like I work a lot with our youth conferences one of the things that we've done for the last several years is going head on with a major social issue of their day the reason being is everywhere around their world media their music their television their movies are all telling them this is fine and by the church being silent about this they implicitly say the church doesn't have anything to say about this by their moms and dads being silent about this too many moms and dads advocating that says the church needs to do this and they do as well they're saying mom and dad don't have anything to say about this either right so we need to be a prophetic voice for a group of young people that profoundly need us to do that amen? the other thing that the prophet does they by the way they live their life give a prophetic voice and I think we have something particularly within Christian marriage Lumen Gentium article 35 Vatican Council says that the married couple is a prophetic witness to the life of the church to a world that needs to see this right the way the husband and wife love one another faithful to one another lay there down their life if ever there was a need for prophetic message it's in Christian marriage today amen finally oh boy literally finally on that the other thing that the prophet does is to speak to a world that God is not merely God was and God will be right God is not God was and God will be the prophetic voice brings God to the present to a world today the God has something prophetically to say the world today unfortunately what I think we do is we look to say well what did God say 25 years ago that's one of things I like working with young people because they don't know what God said 25 years ago and they're willing to listen to what God wants to say today right so we need to be as a prophetic voice to be able to make God present to us today amen okay quiet yourself for a moment pray for a prophetic voice pray that God at this moment at this moment would show you the arena that he is inviting you into to be a prophetic presence by the way you live your life that you look and sound different that the Lord would give you the grace to know when to speak and what to say and give you the grace encouraged to say it amen Francis never said I preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words never said it and the reason I say that is it's important for us to use words right that we give proclamation to why we are different alright somebody can look at us and they say oh they're different we need to give a proclamation to what makes us different what makes us different is that we are priests prophet and king amen okay king that you share in the governance right and you share in the governance of the world of the temple order I as a priest share in the governance of the church you participate in that by participating in ministries within the church reading Eucharistic ministers parish councils you share in that governance but you also share in the governance of the world in the temple order in the governance of your family your parental authority that you set order right you create order that's why the families that have no order that have no rules have no it's chaos right so you help by your governance by you sharing as a king you bring order to that you need to pray as pre as king for wisdom how do again how do you rule right we rule with wisdom that's why I love Solomon Solomon what he asked for he asked for wisdom I think particularly as a parent in the world today or as a grandparent to figure out how to navigate these waters good luck better you than me alright you need you really need wisdom we're going to pray this evening about the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to us in Isaiah and wisdom is one of that right you need wisdom about how to proceed and how to move forward you need patience you need courage my older brother both of my older brothers when they turned 18 they moved out of the house because they didn't like my parents rules those same parents have put rules in their home that they understood now that there is wisdom and there is beauty one of that I think one of the things that some quote-unquote charismatic groups is it's kind of like anything goes God is a God of order he's a God of order he works in order and to the degree that we can bring order in our families and order in the areas that we work that's part of the way we can govern amen with that being said I think a father has a particular role in their family I've done quite a few weddings and one of the things that I see happening in particularly newly married couples is oftentimes it's the young woman who is more formed more prayerful more thoughtful and what this creates is her desire that her husband be the leader in the family and there's beginning this tension that exists between this desire that she has on him and an inability of him to be able to follow through with that we in the church men in the church men in the families need to stop abdicating all the spiritual to the wife it must be shared to be able to see I tell a story about my father my father being a physician several of my dad's nurses went through the RSA program and became Catholic by the witness that my dad was to them I remember as a kid walking in a little chapel one afternoon and my dad was in the front he had some few minutes between patients and he was kneeling down in the front of the church this had an impact on me right he's seeing his dad kneeling down praying right fathers need to be able to take that role more seriously is to allow their kids and their spouse to see that amen they must stop abdicating the responsibility of the spiritual life spiritual well-being of the family and they need to become the fathers the priests the prophets and their own family amen we need to bring order to the world that we live in you know again the educational committees across the country are just their craziness that's going on some of the things that are being passed are craziness if Catholic Christians aren't going to be a part of the educational boards if they're not going to be a part of the social movements if they're not going to be a part of whatever is going on in your community then we need to quit whining about it and complaining about how bad things are right part of the role as king is to be a part of the governing of our society and unfortunately for lots of reasons we're not being involved in that so we need to quit complaining about everything being wrong if we're not willing to engage it amen so you need to be a part of that and again you as a lay person has a particular responsibility for that to be on the education boards to be part of the PTAs to be part of row degrees and I don't know all these organizations that you should be a part of but be a part of them amen if we don't bring that we don't bring the community alright we need to stop oh stop okay so so we planned these this workshop we planned maybe a year and a half ago about what I was going to talk about here what motivated it for me was the mess that we are we have in the church right now is what we have is men and women, priests included that are not being who we're supposed to be right and I take that on myself and on behalf of priests I repent for that and I've spent much of the many last years trying to bring order and peace to that but the reality is that's all of our story right that we are all priests, prophets and kings and we need to step into that and we need to begin to behave as that we need to begin to live like that just be who we are amen be who we are and who we've created to be in baptism that we are changed and we need to own that we need to literally step into that with confidence stop cowering stop hiding step up to the plate with courage, with grace, with charity with the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit anointing us and be who God has created us to be amen so to that end we are going to renew our baptismal vows that's the method to my madness right so I invite you to stand up could we do like a verse of Come Holy Ghost we could probably get through that couldn't we I'm not so confident about this but let's give it a shot alright the name of the Father the Son the Holy Spirit Come Holy Ghost Creator Creator blessed and in our hearts take come with Thy grace Thou hast made to fill Thou hast made the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit the Lord be with you we come before the Lord this afternoon as baptized priests prophets and king and are being given the opportunity to renew ourselves once again in this baptism this grace that was given to us the call that was placed on our life that we are not merely flesh but we are flesh and spirit and as baptized we are Christ's we are other Christ's we are anointed and as such we stand we stand in that grace that it is not I who lives rather it's Christ who lives in me and we pray for the grace to be Christ to a world that so desperately needs to believe that is looking and longing for someone to worship and that we might be able to be witness in an example of this Christ who has come to bring life to the world so I ask you very simple questions and the answer is I do do you reject Satan I do and all of his works and all of his empty promises I do do you believe in God the almighty the creator of heaven and earth I do do you believe in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who is born of the virgin Mary crucified died and was buried rose again and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father do you believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting Jesus I pray your blessing upon my brothers and sisters God all powerful Father of our Lord Jesus Christ you have given us a new birth by water and by the Holy Spirit and you have forgiven our sins may almighty God pour out his grace upon this community that they would know the faith of Jesus Christ and be continually transformed by him so let's sing that first verse of come holy ghost again and I'm going to bless you with holy water that came from lords on my trip this summer amen so sing the verse again fire of love and sweet anointing from abutting from God bless you the Father the Son the Holy Spirit be who you have been anointed to be amen God bless you guys you have 30 25 minutes to get to your next workshop God bless you guys