The Pax Press

Issue 3

Volume 3

This Issue Articles

Leap of faith
By Rev. Deacon Sergio Ibarra

Thru a friend of mine  from a Christian church in San Antonio I got connected with the Reformed Catholic Church (R.C.C.), we were exchanging thoughts about our callings from Jesus and because of me having finished Theology and Philosophy in the seminaries of Guadalajara and Monterrey he recommended the R.C.C., without knowing then the Spirit was already moving me, I started investigating about this so called R.C.C., read everything about their website and suddenly I was already calling Msgr. Mike Baremore, then speaking about my vocation to the Bishop in charge Barry Ferguson, with his verbal acceptance I contacted the Presiding Archbishop Phillip Zimmerman Inside my head I was thinking: what am I doing? After 15 years of leaving the Seminary now all of a sudden going back ?  probably they will asking  a minimum of another year in the Seminary to get to know me….Oh my God, another scrutiny of my conduct? I remember those past scrutiny’s of priests judging my thoughts, feelings, personality, priests who don’t even interact with me and priests who have never asked how do I feel? or what my thoughts were, this is my experience in the Seminary of Guadalajara & Monterrey, do I want to go thru this again?
 

But what ever comes out of this it has to be God Driven, Arch. Phillip answered and I expressed the burning inside me, it has not stopped, the voice inside me, I put it away and I did not want to hear it because I was told I could not be a priest because I was Gay. And the answer I go was : None of that anymore,  you were guided to us, and we are a true catholic church with apostolic succession, we are shepherds and not Judges the world has enough of that, I heard those words and my hart started pounding like crazy, I replied:  but I am Gay and believe in the right to love and be loved back, and after I left the Seminary I have done a lot of stupid things hurting my body and soul looking for an escape to my sorrow and hurt inside. It don’t matter now you are home and you have a right to love any man of woman, welcome home Sergio; Go thru the questions listed on our website  page and email them to me then will talk again, Archbishop Phillip Zimmerman said.
 

I was so excited I filled out the on line application, scanned all my studies from college, Seminary  and Wamm! , There it goes I hit the send button, and let it be the will of God.
4 days after, a call from Archbishop Phillip Zimmerman and Archbishop David Frazee telling me I was accepted for Holly Orders, and already giving me a date to be ordained a Deacon on April the 23rd. I could not help it I started weeping like a child over the phone thanking God and thanking them.  The inside voice  that once told me I was going to be ordained, which I thought lied to me, was suddenly knocking at the door of my hart again.
 

It had been four weeks since I had started a new job and all of a sudden I got fired because I had an outstanding ticket since my finances had gone down the drain with George Bush’s  economy and the banking industry crashing, all of a sudden I was struggling for a plain ticket $490.00  to Atlanta the lowest, I cold not afford it, the Bus Ticket  with a 24 hour drive  $290.00. again the lowest, scratch that, I had exhausted my unemployment before this job I had,  April the 21st already; no job, no unemployment money, and only $400 in my pocket, I put it to prayer, spoke to Msgr. Mike Baremore and he said it was very important for me to go not only because of the orders but because of me knowing what the church stands for and know his members, well in a desperate attempt I asked my family members and friends for loans and nothing everybody is broke.
Well I am going anyway I said, I am going to trust in you God and you got me here do what ever you want. This is going to be a leap of faith, here I go.
 

I drove to Atlanta 16 Hours and the Synod started I met Archbishop Phillip Zimmerman, Archbishop David Frazee, Bishop Barry, Bishop Patrick, Msgr. Marcis, Br. Bryan, Br. Paul, Fr. Warren the lady who cooked for us and the rest of the people, everybody started talking about a church with no boundaries, forgiving 70 times seven, All are Welcome ,  the hart of God open to the divorced, the gay, Lesbian, Transsexual, with a dignified acceptance, not with a respectful silence, or like other churches giving us the “Look of you are different”: from us  well = NO= ,  this is a church with a total loving acceptance a Jesus would do, setting the kingdom of God now,  living our heaven now. A church looking at the poor needy, homeless and caring for the rejected, harassed, persecuted, violated in their rights, belittled, displaced, divorced, gay and humiliated publicly all this I felt in me and with all this they accepted me.  Truly a church I believe Jesus had always wanted from the beginning.   I AM HOME, I found my family.
 

Right before the ordination mass I had to go to confession and after hearing those words: “ I by the power invested in me  God forgives and absolves all of your sins and the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holly Spirit”, my chest started convulsions crying loudly happy to hear those words again. The ordination for Deacon came , it was time, mass commenced and my hands were not shaking but I had already been to the restroom 3 times in one hour  before mass, I was holding 15 years after the seminary and 8 years of Seminary Interim ship inside me along with tortuous nightmares  when I was denied the opportunity to serve my calling, why had God said no then? In my nightmares I did 20 years of theology instead of four, imagine my grief and pain I was holding.
 

Oh my God I was called by Arch. David Frazee for the Diaconate order, the homily was incredibly beautiful about commitment and service, then I was asked to prostrate face down on the floor and the litany started all of them saints praying for me I could not stop crying and I felt  my body trembling, my entire face was wet, pain and sorrow gone, healed with the love of God in me, calling me and putting his signature on the promises he made me , he is not a liar, I am so sorry God  I have been so ignorant of your ways, and so immature to understand your will. They asked me to kneel and the imposition of the hands took place, the Holly Spirit wanted to give me more love, it was too much already and everybody prayed all I felt was love of God I could  hear them crying too. And their personal prayers. The Spirit surrounded us with fire burning us to Gold.  I stood up and I was asked to express my self, all I could say was: Now I understand why God put me thru all this hell in my past life, not only to understand the working for a living, the suffering the meaning of love as a couple, the beauty of sex, the responsibility of putting bread on the table, waiting on tables 14 hours consecutive, the pain of a brake up, knocking on doors selling or asking to mow the grass, and having those last 5 Dollars for gasoline understanding the needs of the people to love them better and bring God to them but most of all he wanted me to serve with a church with the right principals and the full acceptance of God’s creatures.
 

This is my experience on the Spring Synod, don’t miss the next one.

PS> on my way back to San Antonio I asked to God to multiply my Gasoline I only had in my credit card 8 Dollars and I had to travel back 900 Miles well he did, I kept using my credit card : first 35  Dollars went thru, the second 37  Dollars went thru, I stopped at a public phone to make a long distance phone call  and only had 4 quarters well the phone instructions said it was 1 Dollars. To initiate the call so I didn’t, there was a homeless on the other public phone and he noticed I was going away and shouted, what happened? So I told him and he said ”How much do you need?” I smiled and turned back told him it was ok I can wait until I have a signal, gave him the quarters put them in his hand kissed them and he took off. And 33 more  Dollars of gas miracle after miracle, God is Magnificent.

Franciscans vs. Benedictines vs. Dominicans

The Dilemma: Bless me, Father, but I can’t tell you guys apart.

People You Can Impress: Gregorian chant fans
The Quick Trick: Franciscans’ robes are gray or brown, Dominicans’ are white with black cloaks, Benedictines’ are usually black but sometimes white.

The Explanation:
Benedictines, oldest of all Catholic monastic orders, follow the order of St. Benedict of Nursia. Writing their Rule in the sixth century, Benedict’s precepts had three guidelines: community stability, conversion of manner, and obedience. Further, the abbot of the monastery was considered the father (that’s what “abbot” means) and the monks his family. The truth is, any stability to be found in Europe during the Dark Ages came from the Benedictines. But corruption within the order led to a wide-ranging reform in the tenth century centered at the Abbey of Cluny, which brought new organization and vigor. On a slightly different note, the Trappists, who in Belgium make Chimay beer and in Kentucky make cheese, are actually another Benedictine off shoot.

As for the Franciscans, they’re a mendicant (“begging”) order founded, as you might expect, by St. Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), the patron saint of animals. Francis took Christ’s call to go forth without shoes or staff or money as a literal command, and founded his Ordo Fratrum Minorum (Order of the Friars Minor, or, more literally, “Order of the Little Brothers”) in 1209. Best known for their plain robes (they’re still called the Greyfriars in some places), they traveled the countryside singing and preaching. Overall, the Rule of St. Francis was simple, based on a vow of poverty. But it wasn’t all happy begging and singing. The friars felt the best way to get closer to God was hard work. To this day, some Franciscan friars still wear the traditional hooded woolen robes, rope belts, and sandals. Notable Franciscans include St. Bonaventure, William of Occam (namesake of “Occam’s Razor”), and the fictional Friar Tuck. As for Francis himself, he was believed to have miraculously borne the stigmata (the nail and spear wounds of Christ) late in his life.

St. Dominic de Guzmán founded his order around the same time as St. Francis, and he had one main purpose in mind: preaching (their official name is Ordo Praedicatorum, the Order of Preachers). The Dominicans arose at a time when heresies were rife in parts of Europe, and Dominic wanted to return heretics to the fold. Like the Franciscans, the Dominicans were mendicant friars, and they had their own set of precepts: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Despite their godly mission, or perhaps because of it, the Dominicans were the driving force behind the Inquisition. In fact, St. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican, as was the terrifying Grand Iquisitor, Torquemada.  

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam

The Official Blog of the Reformed Catholic Church

Remember to visit Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam, The Official Blog of the Reformed Catholic Church. Posted on this site will be issues and news relevant to the RCC, Old Catholicism and Catholicism in general. Also you will find reflections on the Daily Mass readings and Saints of the day. I hope you find your visits here edifying and thought provoking.

May the divine assistance remain with you always. And with your loved ones everywhere.

Fall 2008 Synod

in Columbus

CUM VOCE UNAM 
--
With One Voice!

Columbus, Ohio:  The Reformed Catholic Church will hold its Fall Synod in Columbus, Ohio during

October 1-5, 2008. 

The theme of the Fall Synod is CUM VOCE UNAM  -- With One Voice!

Visit the Events section of this edition of the PaxPress Newspaper for more information

Scattered and Sown: the parable of the sower

By Msgr. Michel Holland

I like to think of myself as something of a gardener although my ancestors would laugh at the fact that I spend so much time on my daylily collection and don’t raise any vegetables.  I learned a lot about gardening from my grandfather, Jack, and I remember him telling me that our people had worked the land for generations.  He himself had learned from his father, who had learned from his father before him, and so on.  They tilled the soil and planted the best seed they could find.  And they waited.  Gardening is about patience and waiting and wondering at the magic of it all: how putting seeds into the earth can render spectacular growth and beauty.

The garden, I’ve found, is a microcosm of life, and there’s more Gospel truth in planting and harvesting that there is in some seminaries and churches.  There is miraculous wisdom in every seed as it gives itself up, surrendering its existence under the influences of sun, rain and soil.  Seeds reveal a deeper dimension of life than is generally apparent, and I think that  Jesus, too, knew something about gardening and subsistence farming and the miracles that surround us.

Jesus tells us today about seeds and soils. A farmer goes out to his field, with the intent of planting something that will bear fruit.  Every gardener, every farmer knows, that there are two ways to sow seed. When I purchase little packets of seed, they cost me anywhere from seventy-five cents to perhaps two dollars per packet, so I very carefully make drills - little holes in the soil - and carefully place the seed at precisely the right depth and distance so that I can get the most out of the packets. That is one way to plant, when the seed is expensive or scarce. If the seed is in abundant supply, it’s sufficient to scatter them around in the general direction where the gardener would like to see them grow, and the breeze, rain and soil do the rest.  This is called “broadcast sowing”.

God is a broadcast sower. That’s what the parable says. The Reign of God is so wonderful, so full of life, so full of possibilities, that its seeds are sown everywhere and it springs up and manifests the reality of God’s love.  Sometime it springs up in a welcoming hug from a friend, the tender touch of a lover, the caress of the sunshine on the skin, in sacramental signs and symbols, in songs and hymns.  Sometimes it’s a word of comfort that appears on our lips, or an insight that suddenly blooms in our hearts.  The seeds of the Reign of God, elsewhere referred to as mustard seeds, are everywhere we turn our eye.  The Gospels record that the mustard seed is the tiniest of seeds but grows into large trees.  This is actually false and shows that whoever wrote that Gospel analogy did not know his gardening!  The truth is that mustard shrubs are considered weeds, they are invasive, won’t grow in straight, orderly rows, and can’t be contained.  Think about dandelions or thistles when you hear the parable of the mustard seed, because these are examples we are familiar with in this area.  There is a message there for institutional religions who think they can control the Reign of God or contain it in some way.  It just won’t happen!

Good soil is hard to come by, and I know this because I’ve lived many different places and tried to grow stuff in every location.  Sometimes the soil is too sandy and needs loam and organic material to amend it; other times the soil is hard clay and needs more sand and sphagnum moss to undo its compact hardness. Some folks think that all it takes to garden is to make a hole in the ground and put in a plant. If that isn’t enough, they douse it with some chemicals: fertilizers to make it grow, herbicides to kill the weeds, and bug spray to kill the insects. They live in a consciousness that believes in better living through chemistry, and in trying to force nature to do as we will.  We are just beginning to discover the folly of our ways: how bug sprays and herbicides make their way into the food chain and end up poisoning us; how fertilizers get into streams and lakes and kill the fish; how chemicals deplete the soil, destroy its structure and disrupt its delicate ecosystem. We are just beginning to rediscover the wisdom of patience and knowledge - that it takes a long time to build good soil, and a short time to destroy it. You have to treat the soil with respect, and be willing to learn, and have a lot of patience to be a good gardener.

The message Jesus delivers about the soils is clear: good soil produces good fruit, and bad soils just don’t produce. But there is another lesson here that may not be apparent at first:  God is the good gardener, patient and infinitely wise.  God can work even the rockiest soil into a fine tilth.   There is always hope for bad, rocky, weedy, sour, hardpan soils.

What kind of soil are we? Soil by the wayside? Do we see ourselves as outside the limits of God’s grace, not looking or expecting anything of God’s promised gifts? Then know that the seeds of God’s Reign falls everywhere, even in seemingly impossible places.  Expect the miracle and receive it when it arrives.

Are we perhaps stony soil? Do the hard places, the hard questions of life choke out the joy of our faith? Do we find it easy to become bitter or resentful because of what life has brought our way?  Do we blame God for “doing things” to us?  The truth is that seeds of love are falling all around us at every moment, and if we have known tragedy and heartbreak, know that God mourns with us and beckons us to a renewed life that transcends even death.

Or are you thorny soil, with so many other concerns that the simple joy of being God’s child seems beside the point? Consider this:  We were made to receive all the gifts of God and to bring God’s love to fruition in our lives. If we miss that, we have missed the point of life - to grow and develop in the likeness of God.  St. Paul said that he considered every other concern in life nothing more than clutter that got in the way, like a closet where we can’t find what we need.

We are not only the soil in this parable, we are also the sower and the seed.  God has called us to spread the Reign of God in this time and place, regardless of the soil in which we find ourselves.  We are also the sower of the seed, with projects in mind, ministries we envision in our hearts and minds.  But, as always, it is the miraculous action of God that determines what will grow and when.  It’s beyond our control.  We are all gardeners, trying to plant the Reign of God, trying to make it come to full flower in our lifetimes.  We are sometimes impatient, sometimes disheartened, always hopeful for the harvest we know is just around the corner.  This trust is something we learned from our ancestors in the faith, who learned it from their ancestors before them.  We till the soil.  We plant the best seed we have.  And we wait…we wait.

Msgr. Michel Holland

For more writings of Msgr. Michel Holland visit his webblog:

Fr. Michel’s Weblog

A Fresh Look at Independent Catholicism

http://frmichelrcc.wordpress.com/

Five Minutes on Prayer

Psalm 133

How good and pleasant it is
when brothers live together in unity!

It is like precious oil poured on the head,
running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron's beard,
down upon the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing,
even life forevermore.

I love short passages of Scripture like this one. So short and pithy and yet it packs a real punch. In three verses, the Psalmist (David in this case) sums up just how wonderful life is when everyone is in harmony with each other.

I'm sure we've all known times and days when our homes were filled with this kind of unity. It happens often on holidays like Christmas or Easter when family members set aside their differences and come together to share the joy of celebration.

On the other hand, I am sure that most of us can think of times when things were not so harmonious, and the kinds of stress and strain they caused.

In the Liturgical calendar followed by many churches, we're currently in the week of prayer for Christian Unity. It is a time when we can think about the ways we can promote unity and peace amongst our immediate family, our church family and the wider family of the world. We focus on prayers for peace and unity, and seek God's assistance to bring us together as one body in Christ.

I'd like to encourage all who pass through here, to focus your heart and mind for just a few moments on the verses of the psalm I quoted above. Let us make this our prayer that God would gather us into one body, one heart and one mind in unity this week and always.

Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one; Grant that your church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.       Love and Light,

Sr. Meg ROSB

For more writings and reflections visit

Sr. Meg's Blog and Rainbow Faith Podcast

St Flora RCC Mission Blog Site

Project Mary's Open Arms

Columbus, Ohio

In the July of 2005, Project Mary's Open Arms started out making sandwiches in the dining room of Pater Noster House and then taking the sandwiches and water out to feed the homeless and the poor.  They were only making a couple of hundred sandwiches per week, but St. Jude, St. Sebastian and Pater Noster House was reaching out to the community to “Feed the Sheep”.

Project Mary's Open Arms outreach program serve weekly:

1. The Family Shelter which holds 220 people at full capacity.

2. Friends of the homeless up to 140 people.

3. Faith Mission up to 160 people

4. YMCA number not known

5. Food Bank, we give any bread we have each Monday to help them.

6. We offer communion regardless of Denomination to all who want to receive.

______________________________________

Dear Family in Christ,

My thanks to all who have made this possible with donations of time, clothing and money.  As I talk with those who volunteer to go out with us to feed on Sunday they all say it changes their lives.  When a child or adult looks at you and says “thank you for caring” it will change you forever.

 +David Frazee RSJ