Lenten Reflection 1: Time to pick IT up!

It has been several months since I have posted anything here. An awful lot has happened. One,  I got engaged and now am only 110 days from being married!!  Two, I had the honor and privilege of going on a pilgrimage to Rome with 100 friends and co-workers – I still sit back and think about what incredible places we visited and people we had the privilege of listening to. Three, there is the never ending, always exciting, constantly learning happening in my role as FOCUS Team Director at Seton Hall. This position has allowed me to learn so much about myself and how to serve others well. Four, about a million more things in between!! During this Lenten season, among a few other things I am committing to do (or not do) I will be posting at least weekly during this Lenten season about my journey through Lent as a missionary, fiancé and disciple and lover of Jesus Christ.

Our Church is beautiful, I am constantly reminded about the goodness of God through one of the greatest things he’s given us; the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church. Those words alone: “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic” should amaze us and always leave us stunned at the incredible gift we have been given. There is no better time to remind ourselves of this gift than during a few very important periods in the Liturgical year, the season of Advent, the Christmas season, the season of Lent, and the Easter season.  Each season stands out to us in different ways; not only by which color the church may be decorated in or which color our priests wear, but during each of these seasons we are asked to change our attitude – to prepare ourselves with expectant anticipation or penance to call something to mind that we normally may not. We are invited to in a greater way consider the acts of Christ Jesus.

Which act of Christ is more important? His birth? Or his death and resurrection? I was asked this about a year ago; I was caught off guard by the question and was unsure how to respond to be honest. Since I’ve been asked I have considered this several times throughout the year. One reason I think the answer is simple because you can simply look at the lengths of time of the Liturgical seasons. Advent is only 4 weeks, Christmas a little over a week, Lent is well over 40 days and the Easter season can be as many as 50 days! Based on that alone isn’t it clear which act might be seen as more important? Anyways, yes, Jesus Christ was born not just to live and perform miracles but to die…to die for us. Jesus Christ was born to die on the Cross to save us from our sin…so that everyone in the world might have a chance at salvation. And of course He died so that He could rise. What a reason to celebrate!!

This year, like always, Lent began on Ash Wednesday and the Gospel reading from that day has been stuck in my mind all week long. Part of the Gospel reading on Wednesday was from Matthew chapter 6 and addresses fasting. Here is Matthew 6:16-18:

“And when you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Each Lent I have to remind myself often why I have chosen to fast from something or to do some additional act of prayer or service… it is not and cannot be to draw attention to myself or to somehow benefit my own physical good – no, but rather it is to more completely align my will with the will of God the Father’s and to unite what little suffering I endure to the suffering of Jesus Christ on the Cross. I need to remind myself that every small act of self-denial should only be directing my thoughts, energy, and actions to the Cross and the Man on it. So this Lenten season there are a few things I want to do, but one of the things I want to do especially well is summed up in Mark 8:34-36.

“And He called to Him the multitude with His disciples, and said to them ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?’”

Let’s follow Him well during this season of Lent. God bless you.

When in Rome

From October 21-28 I will have the blessing and opportunity to be in Rome, Italy during the Synod for the New Evangelization. Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinals, Bishops, and lay people from around the world have been meeting discussing the New Evangelization and the Catholic Church for almost 2 weeks. Next week, the last week the Synod is meeting I will be in Rome! I cannot express my excitement enough through blog! I'll be arriving in Rome 1 day after the canonization of 7 individuals, 2 of them American. I will arrive in Rome on the feast of Blessed Pope John Paul II- October 22nd and one of the sites we will visit that day is Blessed John Paul II's tomb!

I have this great opportunity to attend because the president and founder of FOCUS, the organization I work for was asked to serve as part of the Synod as a lay person. Less than 20 lay persons from around the world were invited and Curtis Martin, our president was one of them. When Curtis shared this with FOCUS staff earlier this year, he thanked us! It was very humbling to see a man selected for such an honor, to discuss the future path of our Church thank us campus missionaries and students for the work that we do day in and day out on a college campus.

The next 7 days will be a great opportunity for prayer, joy, fasting, and fellowship as nearly 100 FOCUS staff and family members will meet up in Rome for a time of pilgrimage and education. Each day we have trips or tours planned to several locations in Vatican City and Rome and conferences with Bishops and other members participating in the Synod to keep us up to date on what has been discussed during the Synod thus far. On Friday a Franciscan Friar is leading a number of us to Assisi to visit the grounds once walked by St. Francis and St. Clare. Fr. Conrad, the friar, will also be saying Mass for us while we're in Assisi.

I am very excited and equally excited to come back and share my experience. In the mean time please comment with any specific prayer requests you have or feel free to email them to me at aj.garcia@focus.org so that I may take them to the sites I visit while in Rome.

Ciao!

To Live on Purpose

It's been quite awhile since I've posted, but a lot has happened, I'm excited to start posting regularly again! This week I had a very incredible, grace filled, and mercy filled moment during a Bible study, here is my best attempt to share it.....

Thursday night was the first Bible study of the new school year I had with the baseball team. The guys have eagerly been asking when we would start for over a week so I was happy to finally get things rolling. It’s always exciting and nerve wracking thinking about who will show up, I was hopeful that the usual crowd of guys would come and even more hopeful that there would be some new faces. I was happy to see most of the regulars and happy to welcome 1 new face and a few guys who were occasional attendees last year. Just before we were about to begin one of the guys answered a phone call, I figured it was someone checking on where we were meeting as just before he hung up he told him where we were and what time we would finish. He hung up the phone and said that Walter will call him and ask him to hang out and most of the time he’s happy to do so and willing to do so, but this evening after a long day of class, practice, more class, and Bible study, it was going to be a little too much.


Walter is a guy that is fairly well known… or at least he stands out and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Walter is vision impaired and uses a guide cane to assist him and he’s also not shy. More than once I’ve seen him approach strangers and ask for something or introduce himself. Walter is also a manager/coach for the baseball team at Seton Hall, so everyone in our Bible study knows Walter at some level.

We began the night considering a few questions; what does it mean to live on purpose? And at the end of the school year how will you know if you lived life on purpose. We discussed questions that caused the guys to reflect and look ahead to life after college. We talked about goals, dreams, success and how it is defined, is there a plan for your life or do you create your own…..very thought provoking questions. We talked about happiness and if that’s what defines success, it was pointed out that 11 years ago, there were men that thought they were successful when they flew planes into towers. The question was then posed is there more to life than happiness?

As we were getting ready to end the night in prayer someone knocked at the door, Walter walked in. I was surprised and so were the guys as many of them started to laugh quietly. Walter is a guy some may think comes off as rude, he isn’t afraid to speak his mind or tell it like it is, for some people that’s hard to take. I enjoy being around Walter, he’s always quick to remind me, a Packer fan, how last football season ended since he is a Giant fan. I asked Walter, “We were just talking about what the purpose of life is, what do you think man?” “The purpose of life….” He began. “The purpose of life is to be happy…..win a lot of baseball games…..and live for the Lord.” I think we were all surprised by his last remark. Since we had nearly been there for an hour and we were about to close in prayer I asked Walter if he would join us and some of the other guys encouraged him to sit down with them, which he did. We prayed and as some of us got up to leave ( I was in sort of a rush since the Packer game started about an hour ago) Walter asked me if I would read something to the guys. He said it was an article in the Daily News about him. I couldn’t say no to him, so I sat back down and began to read the story. Walter explained “this is why I haven’t been around the last few days.” I only read the headline of the story in my head…”Greif goes on, but so does spirit” and saw Walter’s picture in the lower right hand corner. The article by Denis Hamill begins…. “It was the best of New York, inside and out. At the 9/11 commemoration, which was exclusively for families of the fallen this year, FDNY Lt. Gerard Chipura spoke about his brother John, whose life he thinks should be an inspirational and action-packed book”. The article had some touching stories, but none more real than 3rd featured in this article. “Inside Walter Matuza, tapped his guide cane through the crowd of mournful family members and spoke of the day 11 years ago when he still had eyesight but learned he’d lost his father. “I was 10 and living in Staten Island and I knew the attacks had happened here at the towers,” he says. “But it was my father’s day off. He wasn’t supposed to work. But there was an awards ceremony at school and he needed a projector that was at work here on the 92nd floor of the North Tower. So he went in just to get the projector. He didn’t make it out. I don’t remember the exact words they said to me that day, but I remember that my mother and my grandmother took me into my parents’ bedroom and I sat on the bed and they told me that my father was never coming home. I was a star baseball player. My dad came to all my games. My favorite time with him was fishing. We’d never do that again. Five months later, I also lost my eyesight.” And 11 years later, he is a baseball coach at Seton Hall University; where he is also studying business. And so the next time I hear people telling me how hard they have it, I’ll tell him to go touch the name of Walter Matuza Sr., engraved for history in the wall around the pool in the footprint of the North Tower. I’ll tell them to think about the blind, 10 year old son he left behind who lifted himself from the darkest of imaginable despair, just like his city, and made himself a promising new life. Like the tower rising beside the memorial.”

Silence. What do you say? Finally I thanked Walter for sharing that story, so did some of the others. Walter said that he just wanted to share more about himself with everyone. No one had any idea that Walter had lost his father or how he had lost him, nor anything about his vision impairment. We were shocked and speechless, but it certainly put things into perspective. I felt guilty that I wanted to rush home to watch a game that essentially does not matter. I went to an event on campus where they were showing “October Baby”, the film is about a young woman who learns that her mother tried to abort her, but it was a failed attempt. I know the story is based on actual events, but don’t know what or how much is true. I had seen the movie in theatre earlier this year, I walked in at a very emotional part where the young woman had tracked down the nurse who assisted at the abortion. The nurse was apologizing for believing what she had been told, that the operation was on “just tissue”. The nurse told the woman that when her mother returned after the failed attempt the nurse took her to the hospital because she was in labor. 1st the young woman’s twin brother was born, who had taken the brunt of the “operation”, the nurse went on to say how beautiful the woman was as she was born and how the girl was adopted and how great those parents were. I thought how this brother gave his life for this woman, his twin sister yes it’s a story, but is it really a stretch to believe something like this could happen? Her brother did not choose to but he did give his life for his sister. I then thought about Jesus Christ who did indeed CHOOSE to die for each one of us. Yet so many people choose not to acknowledge or believe that. What will it take? For people to see the truth!?!? That abortion is murder, brutal murder! And that Jesus Christ is Lord and He loves us all for exactly who we are, just as we are?!!?!? All this and part of me still wanted to get home to watch a game.

Reflecting even more, the experience was very emotional, it was sad, it was surreal. I'm glad Walter chose to come by, I hope he joins us again. Being from Wisconsin I've never known anyone so closely connected with 9/11, but now every 9/11 I'll think of Walter and his father and I'll check myself with the question, am I living on purpose?

There is a lot more to life than we often realize. To live on purpose is hard, but who doesn’t want to? In order to live in such a way I think it’s actually pretty simple: be willing to recognize the need to and actively choose to live for someOne other than ourselves, I believe that only then can one truly live on purpose.

FOCUS is Legit




New and Veteran FOCUS Staff for 2012-2013



Since May 21^st I have been in Champaign, IL at FOCUS New Staff Training. I have been amazed and encouraged at the growth of FOCUS and the energy from all of the new and veteran staff in the past three weeks. It has been so interesting to learn about new missionaries and to hear about the path they have taken to becoming a missionary.

 I am very excited to be returning for my 3^rd as a FOCUS missionary and excited for the opportunity to serve Seton Hall University as the Team Director. During my first two New Staff Trainings the new staff here was, I guess you could say, “traditional”. Meaning that most of the new staff being hired were less than a month removed from their college graduation and were single at the time they joined staff.  But this year there are more new missionaries than just the “traditional” missionaries, although there are plenty of those as well.

Seton Hall FOCUS team for 2012-2013, new team members are in their brand new SHU shirts! Welcome Caitlyn, Tim, Megan, and Terry!!

I’m sure there are more stories than 3 I will mention but these are 3 that I think are pretty interesting. 1 man has decided to become a FOCUS missionary along with his wife and 2 children after spending a few years working in Colorado. He and his wife were involved with FOCUS as students at Colorado State. I asked him why he didn’t join staff out of college and he just said “we were scared” to fundraise their salary. Obviously that fear has faded as he will now be serving as a missionary this fall.

The 2^nd story I want to share is another married man who has 2 children and 1 on the way. This guy previously served on FOCUS staff 4 years ago. After spending a few years at “real” job, he decided that he wanted to return to ministry and that he wanted to return to FOCUS. He, his wife, and children will be on a college campus this fall where he will be a missionary.

Finally, a neat story about a man who went to college with someone who has served as a missionary for the past several years and has financially supported his friend’s missionary work. I asked him about why he joined FOCUS staff and he said “the newsletters got me”. At least 4 times a year FOCUS missionaries send out a newsletter highlighting some stories with pictures from their work on campus to share with our mission partners (those financially or prayerfully supporting us). This guy went on to say that he went to a FOCUS Conference as a donor and the Lord was continually asking him to give more, so he did. He said finally that the Lord made it clear to him that He was asking for even more. This man too, who is leaving a teaching job, will be serving next fall on campus as a FOCUS missionary.

A powerful and neat moment I experienced this last Thursday night, it was just such an odd scene as far as the secular world is concerned. The St. John’s Newman Center at the University of Illinois hosts all summer. We live in a dorm and use different rooms and spaces around campus for our training. Last Thursday was the first day that the new missionaries made phone calls asking to meet with people in a few weeks. They’re calling to ask to meet with them to share the mission and vision of FOCUS and to invite them to become a mission partner, a financial supporter of our work on campus. Last Thursday everywhere I went I saw several missionaries all making phone calls, some sitting, some pacing, some praying, some laughing, but it was beautiful to see. I thought, how bad do these people want to serve our Lord and be missionaries! Again and again I have been encouraged in the work FOCUS is doing for the Church in the name of our Lord and I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in this way. God bless you.

Check out #focusislegit on Twitter for daily updates on the FOCUS world at New Staff Training.

The Gift of Self is Worth the Wait

This semester I had the privilege of taking a Theology of the Body course at Seton Hall University. I had a great instructor that was very passionate about the material and made the content easy to understand. We read from Blessed John Paull II's work Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Since late January the book and the course have absolutely rocked my world. I wrote a paper at the end of the semester, I chose to write about pre-marital sex. Here it is....enjoy!

In a country that continues to grow further and further from the roots in which it was established, one of the most common questions amongst teenagers and young adults is, “Why should I wait until I get married to have sex?” Our culture strives to make things bigger, better, and faster and our culture loves giving gifts that we will be remembered for. What are the gifts that we fail to recognize, give, and receive? Our sexuality is a gift meant to be given and received after marriage.

Why were we created? Weren’t we created to be in relationship? We arrive in this world after we have developed a relationship with our mother while in the womb. Then we are raised by our parents, and we have siblings or go to school and make friends. Our entire life consists of relationships. We continue in life and begin our own family. The first step in that process is to meet someone of the opposite sex, get married, and begin a whole new set of relationships. Am I forgetting a relationship? What about the first relationship known to man? When man was first created he was created in the image and likeness of God Himself. What did the first relationship on earth look like? Man, Adam, was created to be in a relationship. There was a problem; Adam had no one with whom he could be in relationship. God gave Adam the duty of naming all the animals. Can you imagine the torture Adam must have gone through in naming the animals and looking for someone with whom he could be in relationship? Yet there was no one. Finally God realized Adam’s need to be in relationship, so God gave Adam Eve. God created both of them in His image and to be in relationship with Him! Today, being human, like Adam and Eve, we too are created for relationship with Someone beyond this earth. We were created for relationships beyond those that we have physically; we were created for relationship with our Father, the Creator and His Son – our Savior. Without a relationship with Them, who embody Love itself, how could we possibly love anyone on earth? Unless we truly experience the Love we were created for we cannot love another being on this earth. This is one gift we too often choose not to receive.

When we love someone, whether it’s a parent, sibling, relative or friend, we try to express that love by doing nice things for them and we serve them; we give of our very selves. We give and become a gift. Is there a greater meaning to giving of ourselves within marriage? Yes. God does nothing without purpose, he meant for sex to be used for much more than pleasure. Just like no person was created by God without purpose - anything or any action given to us by God is meant to be used for a specific purpose. Before Adam had Eve he realized that he was more than just a body, he knew that he also had a soul, he knew that he could not simply exist to serve himself physically, he longed to give himself to another in every way that he could and unite himself with her bodily and spiritually.

If a man is to give himself completely to a woman what does it mean, how does a couple give themselves to each other completely? There are several things that a couple can do to serve one another by giving of themselves. One could do chores for the other, buy something, compliment them, give up something so the other can have it, cook a meal, etc. Those are all wonderful things and most good spouses would jump at the opportunity to do one of them to please the other. But what if there was an experience spouses could share that would unite them body and soul, allowing them to experience a deep communion in which they freely give of themselves. That’s what marriage is about right? Uniting with another in a way that bonds and unites the couple in a deep and meaningful way?

The act of sex is that way that spouses can give of themselves completely!  Instead of viewing sex as merely a way of experiencing pleasure we need to think about the meaning of the act beyond the way that our culture portrays it. The act of sex is meant to be enjoyable, but it is also to be used as a means of giving ourselves completely to our spouse and to unite us to that person in a way that we are not united with anyone else! As explained in Theology of the Body by the late Great Blessed John Paul II; “The conjugal act, the marital act, “means” not only to love, but also potential fruitfulness, and thus it cannot be deprived of its full and adequate meaning by means of artificial interventions. In the conjugal act, it is not licit to separate artificially the unitive meaning from the procreative meaning, because the one as well as the other belong to the innermost truth of the conjugal act. The artificial separation of these two meanings of the conjugal act, a real bodily union is brought about, but it does not correspond to the inner truth and dignity of personal communion.”[1] The only way to become the person we were created to be – fully and truly, is through a sincere and complete gift of self. Many people think that using a form of contraception is heroic because they’re avoiding pregnancy. There is actually nothing less heroic than contracepting. It’s cowardly, immature, and irresponsible. The contracepted act, before or during marriage, is only about what one person can get from the other, “love” is basically eliminated, the contracepted act is one of mutual use. The consummating act on the night of marriage is a memoralizing or remembering of the covenant of marriage. In every marital act a couple is renewing this covenant. This reflects how we memorialize the consummating act of Jesus in the Church. By Christ giving Himself for the Church in the Eucharist at every Mass, we are remembering how Jesus freely and fully gave of Himself to us; we remember that consummation in every Eucharist.

Sex is worth the wait. As humans it takes a lot for us to exercise self-control. At times, we are good at it. Someone on a diet will exercise and change their diet. Someone shopping sees something they like but does not buy it. But sexually we choose not to exercise self-control, we lower the bar, we choose to use contraceptives, we choose to be a victim of our intuition, instead of using our intellect. Jesus Christ raised the bar for over 30 years while He was man on earth, He expects more of us. The only way we can avoid falling into sexual sin is by relying on His grace. If you want your wedding night to be memorable get on your knees and ask for the grace to be pure and chaste!

Earlier I talked about people today wanting to give the best gift imaginable to another. The greatest gift you can give someone is yourself. The greatest gift you can give on your wedding night and entire marriage is yourself. What gift do you want to bring to your wedding night? An un-opened, never been gifted, incredible gift? Or a re-gifted, used, and tired gift?

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[1] Man and Woman He Created Them, p. 632

Blessed John Paul the Great, PRAY FOR US!!!!

Sunday Snippets

Happy Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday!!

Here is a post from my own blog and then two blogs I wrote for Varsity Catholic's national website, enjoy!!

From my blog:
Holy Week Bible Study Story

From the Varsity Catholic blog:

Big East Swimmer now CFR

Embrace the Easter Season

Holy Week Bible Study Story

12 men from the Seton Hall baseball team and soccer team were at our weekly Bible study and to celebrate Holy Week we watched The Passion. An incredible movie that captures the emotion and suffering of Jesus so well. After the movie there were 2-3 minutes of complete silence. The silence was broken with a few questions and thoughts from the guys. One of the guys who recently started attending Bible study shared a great thought with us. He spoke about when the guards are nailing Jesus to the Cross. He said, "I felt it, I just thought, He did that for me, He did that for us."

I ended the Bible study encouraging the men, I told them that if Jesus really did all of what we just saw then we can't live the same way. I challenged them to pray and ask God to make that change they need in their lives. I invited them to the Chapel to pray. 7-8 of the guys walked over to the Chapel, it was a little after 10 and the Chapel was locked. I invited them to another Chapel across campus and I said, or...we could pray here on the steps. I started talking to one of the guys, when another guy said, "All right, I'm gonna pray here, you guys gonna join me?" So there we were, 7-8 Seton Hall athletes kneeling on the cement steps praying in front of the Chapel- it was a very powerful 5 minutes united in prayer begging the Lord to change our lives.

Please don't go through the motions this week, enter the Passion, experience it as if you are at the foot of the Cross. Blessed Triduum. God bless you.