The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake. Psalm 23:1-3

The peace of Christ is centered on understanding God who is at the center and in the middle and in the exterior of all of life, from the moment of conception until the last natural breath we take on earth. The peace of Christ is the discovering the fullness of life within the Body of Christ where we find true peace and joy in our call to vocation.

I am not in control—my ego desires control. Obedience is the fruit of loving and knowing another. My control comes out strongest when I place myself as king over others. My obedience flourishes when I spend time being with and listening to the other in my life. When I know that God is the source of all and “I lack nothing” it is here I find peace.

I have a mission—growing up I wanted to play second base for the Dodgers. I wanted to be a United States Marine. I wanted to bicycle across Europe. I wanted to do a lot of things. From the big dreams and fantastical desires to the mundane choices in daily life, none of these things bring peace separated from the “mission” God calls us to live. We all desire the “quiet waters” of life. I found the storms of life lessening the more I stood in relationship with God. Saying yes to the invitation is never easy but only this, God’s mission for each of us, brings peace. What is that mission?…to be a saint.

I have a destination—In the musical, “The Man of La Mancha” Don Quixote sings: “To be willing to march into hell, for a heavenly cause…” Peace is finding the cause knowing the Spirit of God “leads me” in the great quest of life. I have a destination that is not a static place but an ever moving gift, growing and drawing us forward even in the most difficult, the hellish, moments in life. As he sings: “and I know if I’ll only be true to this glorious quest, that my heart will lie peaceful in rest.”

I have a family/Church—We all have biological family. We too, as we many times we say and hear the phrase “Brothers and Sisters in Christ” have a family of Church where being baptized into God’s holy family. In both the biological and Church family we understand in different ways how family is complicated. In these joyous and painful relationships it is easy to forget the connected-ness that runs deep in our unity with one another. God’s call to family is to find rest and peace, “He makes me lie down in green pastures”. And this can and is always hard. Because the “green pastures” are not without weeds and thistles of sin. They aren’t absent the pebbles, stones, discord and suffering. But these pastures are also filled with love and hope. Finding our families within the Church is also a mysterious journey meant to feed our mission within the Church. For instance, I have served in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement for over 15 years…they are my family. I have been celebrating Mass with the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Most Holy Trinity (MESST) for almost my entire priesthood, they are my family. I discovered the gift of healing in visiting the sick and homebound and how life giving it is for my priesthood. If you had asked me the day after my ordination if these three ministry would have been important to me…I would have said “no”. Yet these missions with my larger mission of priesthood, reminds me: it is discovering and rediscovering our place in the family of God that gives us life.

I am called —by name—is the greatest mystery of life. God calls us by name. All priests can do what I do, but only I can be who I am. The uniqueness of mission invites me to be “for his name’s sake”, obedient to the will of the Father, to the mission of the Church and in my small, yet significant place in this missionary journey, to focus on God’s plan…the salvation of the world.
“The Lord is my shepherd” for God calls us, watches over us, and names us in love.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Below is one of my favorite verses from the Bible. St. Paul, confronting doubt and dissension within the Church reminds us this very beautiful mission we are called to be as members of Christ’s body:
“For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God [that is] with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”(1 Corinthians 15:9-11)

I am blessed to be called by God as a priest. I am blessed to work with so many good and holy people. I am blessed to be sustained by the prayers of so many people and the saints and angels in heaven. I am blessed because of the abundant and ever flowing grace God showers down upon me and all the world. I am blessed in knowing it is the work of God that surrounds me and his work is perfect. I am blessed in recognizing the gifts and talents of others who I am invited and called to work with. I am blessed.
I do not always know the time, place or those who will be the blessings God shares, but in the humbleness of knowing the heart of God, I am called to encounter in love, accept the companionship and walk the pilgrim journey. It may be in a 2:00 a.m. sick call or the lunch shared with a beloved of Christ. In being aware that I am blessed allows my eyes to be open and accept the gift given in joy.
I am blessed in the quiet of the Church in praying an early morning Holy Hour, in the encounter with those who care for the church building in cleaning and praying through their gift of ministry or in the recitation of the Most Holy Rosary in front of the blessed sacrament.
I am blessed in the noise of the Church in the praise and worship of a prayer service, in the change of environment as families come together or in the children of our parish school and summer camps playing with joyful noise of our God.
I am blessed in the familial celebrations both joyous and difficult. In baptism we hear the voice of God in the children…the one to be baptized in either the giggles of life or the crying and crankiness of nap time being interrupted or the number of people surrounding the child. It is parish BBQ’s and school sport activities. It is the funeral in which sadness is palatable like smoke in the air but faith is even stronger because the smoke changes into the gentle fragrance of incense. The stories shared of life lived in its fullness the heroic struggle of faithfulness in a world too often faithless and the family brought together to give thanks, to heal and to bless.

I am blessed in the companionship of ministry and in the cross. As St. Paul reminds us, it all begins and ends with the Cross of salvation and love.
Venerable Pablo María Guzmán Figueroa MSpS, the founder of the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Most Holy Trinity (MESST) shares with these words of companionship in Jesus’ sacramental love in his prayer Prayer of Fire (Oración de Fuego), “Que sean almas víctimas, almas hostias pero formando una sola hostia con Jesús, así comodeben participar del miso sacerdocio.” His language is poetic and difficult to translate….I have been praying with this pray for years now…but loosely translated (forgive me my faults) “Like Jesus we must take up our cross to become sacrificial victims for/with others. Where our soul is united with Jesus in the Eucharistic sacrifice (our souls imitate the host shared at the altar) but not as many sacrifices. One sacrifice united in Jesus Christ (the one host). The one priesthood of Jesus Christ.”
When I pray and celebrate…with you, with the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: I am blessed.

God Bless
Fr. Mark