Father’s Notebook - August 13, 2019

Greetings brothers and sisters,

At this time of the year, everyone seems to be squeezing in their last moments of summer vacation before the start of the academic year. As we get ready for the new school year, there is also my installation Mass that will take place next Saturday, August 24th at the 5pm Mass.  I’m looking forward to this as it will mark the official beginning of my ministry here at Most Holy Trinity (even though I’ve been here about a month and a half already). In restaurant language, that was the “soft-opening” and next Saturday will be the “grand-opening.”

In light of this, starting next Monday, August 19th, I will be taking a few days on retreat to pray and listen to God. Every year, I try to find time to go to the Benedictine Monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico. There, away from noise and the hustle of daily life, God’s voice seems so loud and clear. There’s always a part of me that feels a bit guilty leaving the parish for a retreat. The thought is, “There’s so much work to do, and things to attend to. I can get so much done if I just stuck around.” But this is a lie of the enemy, of course.

We have to remember that Jesus, the Son of God, often went away to pray. He only spent three years in ministry healing and preaching... one would think that every moment he had he would have tried to “do as much as he could” and be “productive.” But this was not the case.

”But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” - Luke 5:15-16

What we forget often is the efficiency and effectiveness of the power of God. How much more effective and efficient is God’s work than our own? In one of my favorite works of all time, The Soul of the Apostolate by Dom Jean-Baptist’s Chautard, he makes this precise point. 

“‘Without Me you can do nothing.’ This is the principle. The Blood that redeemed us was shed on Calvary. How was God going to insure its fruitfulness at the very start? By a miracle of the diffusion of interior life. There was nothing more paltry than the ideals and the zeal of the apostles before Pentecost. But once the Holy Spirit had transformed them into men of prayer, their preaching began at once to work wonders.” - The Soul of the Apostolate

May all that we do always flow from a interior encounter of God first.

Be assured of my prayers for each and every person at Most Holy Trinity and I will offer a Mass for you.

Pax Christi,
Fr. Khoi