Questions.

Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows poverty, suffering and injustice when He could do something about it.  But I'm afraid he would ask me the same question. 

ADVENT

Its getting ready to get ready time.  Getting ready to welcome the baby Jesus.
Lets start out by saying that the Christmas Holyday (holiday) that we celebrate does not begin the day after Thanksgiving and end Christmas Eve.  Rather our Holyday begins Christmas Eve and we celebrate until January 6, Little Christmas.   The Seasons Greeting Holiday celebrates the ringing of cash registers and the singing of, after the first day of Christmas, as they count the money, "what a friend we have in Jesus"..... we don't believe in him but boy does he help us get richer.  

So getting ready for his followers involves looking into our hearts, cleaning up  up our acts and giving of ourselves to him on Christmas morning.  This is the exchange of gifts that matters and carries no price tag.  

Consider during the Christmas Holyday Season..December 25 to January 6, to go into your immediate neighborhood, find those who are needy and give them cash not material things, cash so that they can use it to help themselves.  Many people are without work, losing their homes and there is a lot of stress in their lives.   I know a lady whose business takes her in daily contact with a lot of homes in my neighborhood, she is aware of the tough times people go through.  Out of her own pocket, when she receives gifts, she quietly passes it on to those who she finds needy.  It goes right into their hands no middle man.  This is what we are going to do this year, hand it to her and she can be the angel.  She is an angel already and she goes about her work quietly.

If you dont want to be seen giving money, put it in an envelope and slip it under their door when they are not around. 

We are getting ready to get ready.......We are getting the best gift of all.  Jesus and his love.        
  

Veterans Day

Seems Like Halloween was yesterday and All Saints and All Souls days were just last week.  Here we are approaching Veterans Day, November 11.  For the past three years I have been giving the invocation at the annual Veterans Day Ceremony here in Wilton Manors, Florida.  Being a veteran of the Korean War, Army and Father Larry also a veteran of the same War, he being Navy, I can remeber when this Holiday was called Armistice Day.  Armistice Day , was the anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty of Word War 1, 1918.. My father was a prisoner of war in Germany during that war .w
I also remember the ending of World War 11 and as a young , not yet teenager, glad the War was over.  Lo and behold I was called to go into the Army, at Age 19, because we were in another war to save us from Communism in a far away land called Korea.  Most of us young men from the working class neighborhoods were drafted while those who had the money went off to college and never saw battle.  The day after I set foot onto the soil of Japan, destined to go to Korea, the war ended and Korea was left a divided country.
Peace did not last too long because America was now off to Vietnam to fight another war against Communism and the working class men from my neighborhood were sent there and died there.  Father Larry's brother Donald got into a legal scrape and the judge said either prison or go into the Marines.  He chose the Marines and died in Vietnam. Here we are now fighting two other wars, the country is angry about the high cost of taxes and we do not see Peace anyway soon  Jesus forgive us.
.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars in my old neighborhood sponsor the St. Patrick's Day Parade and legally ban Gay people from marching.  Imagine Veterans who gave their life for others have their sisters and brothers banne dfrom marching by other Veterans..  Its OK to put yourelf in harms way  and also give up your life but not OK to march in a St. Patricks Day parade and that by your fellow Veterans.

The St. Patricks Day Parade is the reason I left South Boston.  The one time a small group of Gay people marched,, surrounded by a heavy presence of Police, I saw mobs throwing bottles at them, ready to come out as a group off the sidewalks and attack them let alone the hateful name calling. The Police put the small group of marchers into a truck with closed doors for their safety and never again did Gay people, to this day, ever march to honor theirSaint too, St. Patrick   This had become Selma - South Boston and I  could no longer ever remain in a sea of Hate  I will talk again about life here in Wilton Manors.  .         

SPIRITUAL COVER LETTER

I ran across an article in today's print newspaper written by Deb Dib, author of the Twitter Job Search Guide and she proposed that modern cover letters should be brief and attention getting.  Hmm I thought how could her concept be applied to our reaching out to those catholics who feel fed up, hurt and betrayed.  So, here goes. Oh by the way, she says, each sentence should be less than 140 characters.

1.  I am very aware of the many Roman Catholics who have left or on their way out the door
 .
2.  I found the solution of holding fast to those wonderful spiritual gifts we had received without giving it all up
     cause "they" said so

3.  I have been there, struggling with what I was hearing from the Pope and what I was not feeling in my heart.

4.  I faced there was no place left for me in the Roman Catholic Church but knew I could  not stay any longer.

5.  I had to face that I didn't abandoned the Catholic Church that it had abandoned me and it hurt
.
6.  It was when God  led  me to the Divine Mercy Chapel of the New Catholic Communities that healing began.

7..  Deep in my core I now  felt safe, whole and believed that I truly was loved by God and I was OK

8.   I continued going to the Chapel, talking to other ex Roman Catholic orphans like myself and that we
supported each other
.
9.  Another thing that really worked well for me was to remind myself  to always "Let Go and Let God", that
He would never really  abandon me.

10.  I am still catholic (not roman), I value myself and who God made me , and I now can help others heal too.

Thank you Deb for your help

A God Moment

As I am preparing for the 10:30 Mass this morning, the thought came to me that I never apologized to Gerry M. who 37 years ago worked with me in Boston.  It seems, in the final stages  of my alcoholism, I spent too many Fridays and Mondays calling in sick and when there I wasnt able to give my 10% to the job.  Gerry stepped in and literally ran the job till I was admitted to a hospital for my alcoholism. 

As part of my recovery program I was taught to make amends when able and I lost toch with Gerry.  But the voice was strong this morning urging me to try to find out where she might be.  Getting on the computer I typed in her name and up came a funeral notice covering her mother's death and included was her name, now she was married and she was living in Florida.  The  next step I searched out her name, address and phone number on the computer and lo and behold found that she was living about an hour away from me, she in Miami and me in Wilton Manors.   With 20 minutes to go before Mass I picked up the phone, got an answering machine, left my name and phone number and told here the nature of my call, that I was sorry for not being able to be there on the job  37 years go and the reason for it 

Shortly after the phone rang and on caller ID  I saw her name.  She wondered how I was able to find her after all these years and I explained it was what I called "God Moments" when God steps in and does what we are not able to for ourself.   Right away at the begininng of the conversation she told me that she was one of us and I said "you became a priest"  No she says I have been sober for 8 years.  and it was then I said "Wow"   So thats what all this pushing to find her was all about this morning:   for her to share the great things that ultimately happened to her as it had for me years before.   She had married, had two sons, a loving husband and is doing good. I left it, that we one day would have to have a cup of tea together, the old irish ways  from the old neighborhood.

I went into Mass very grateful for what  I had experienced and what I experienced in Mass was another God Moment .  This will be the text of my next blog.  In the meantime.   God Bless You all till we meet again. 

IMPORTANT DATE CHANGE

Due to unforseen circumstances, over which we find we have no control,  we will have to push forward the re dedication  of our Chapel from Sunday, October 10 to Sunday, October 17 at 10:30 AM.  You certainly are still welcomed to attend Mass  with us this coming  Sunday, October 11 ,10:30 AM. 

Divine Mercy Chapel, New Catholic Communities, 2749 NE 10 Ave., Wilton Manors, Fl.  954-567-1930

A View of our Chapel Blessed Objects

Crucifix behind our Altar

This is the 300 year old crucifix from a Monastery in France which was donated by Metropolitan Nicholas Poulas. This Crucifix is featured behind the altar, on the wall in the Chapel. This is the construction work and the design of George Molina of Fort Lauderdale.

This picture illustrates the Monstrance which is a sacred vessel for the Blessed Sacrament.  It is used during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament Wednesday at 7PM.

Chapel Rededication

We are happy to finally be able to have you visit our liturgically redesigned chapel. The re dedication ceremony will take place Sunday. October 10 at 10:30 AM. Our address is 2749 NE 10th Avenue, Wilton Manors, FL 33305 and the chapel is attached to the Residence of the Fathers of Divine Mercy.

You can read more information about our mission at www.newdivinemercy.org

You may view the renovated chapel during our celebration of Mass at that time. We would welcome the opportunity to have you stay afterwords for light refreshments.

After a lengthy redesign, we have finally pulled the wraps off of the new chapel featuring new lighting, new color scheme, and new ceilings with bright golden beams. The space behind the altar has been completely redone centering on the 300 year old crucifix from the monastery in France donated by Metropolitan Nicholas Poulas, R.I.P.

We hope that you will consider making our chapel the center of your spiritual life.

Grand New Look

The NEW in the new divine mercy means just that. We are almost ready to show you the new look in our renovated chapel. We will be putting up a photo very soon. What can I say, its gorgeous and very fitting for a place of worship dedicated to Divine Mercy, the love given to us all.

And then Bill Woeppel is hot on the trail in redesigning our website to bring it into the 22nd century. Oof course along with this it will be changing with new pictures, ideas and news . And, I have to be more active in adding to the blog every week (he is pushing for every day). We do what God directs and he puts people into our lives to help us along the way. Life is grand, you are grand and until the next time You are loved. Father John Joseph

Matt Talbot -Qualified to be a Saint.

Last Saturday night I received a phone call from a friend who is in a 12 step recovery program. He asked if I would meet with a Priest who also was in recovery. I suggested this Priest, Father Richard , join me and Father Larry for Mass at the Chapel the folowing day, Sunday at 10:30 am. On Sunday, after Mass we spent sometime talking with Father Richard and a friend who came with him. It seems that Father Richard has long time sobriety, he is near 80 years old and lived and worked for many years at a half way house. He longer is associated with this half way house here in the Fort Lauderdale Area.

The four of us, Father Larry, Father Richard, myself and the friend who came along with him spent time talking obout our experiences in the various recovery programs. Our group spiritual thinking fell along similar lines. I shared with the group that I had been thinking of initiating a Matt Tablot style Mass on Monday evenings; a Mass reaching out to those in recovery programs. I invited Father Richard and others to join with me in pulling together the workings for this Mass. We sincerely hope that he will. But now onto Matt Talbot. Who is he and why did we choose him.

Matt Talbot was born May, 1856 in Dublin, Ireland of 12 children. Six of them grew to adulthood. Matt Talbot grew up in an alcoholic home, his father abused alcoholic and the rest of the family suffered from poverty as the result of this. Schooling was out of the question for him, he only had 2 years of formal education and thus was not able to read or write.

At 12 Matt had to go out and work and he found a job at a beer bottling company ; he started his drinking there. By sixteen he had graduated from beer to whiskey and would be seen coming home staggering. When he reached twenty all his time was spent in a Tavern where he spent all his wages . The neighbors now saw Matt as a habitual drunk or as today we might have called him a chronic alcoholic. He resorted to pawning what little he had and also stealing . At one time he stole a violin from a blind man. After having stayed out of work for a whole week, he ended up penniless and was in debt to all the local pubs. Not able to go into the pubs anymore to drink, he stood outside watiing for his friends to buy him a drink...he had spent a lot of his paycheck buying them drinks. But, they didnt even want to know him.

So he stood outside, a shamed man, He went home and thought about his life and what alcohol had done to him. He had tried years ago to hold to the Pledge of Sobriety in a local catholic church but was only able to stay sober for 3 months. And now here he is trying to stay sober, having halluciations,nausea and depression as he was self detoxing. He sought solace by attending an early morning mass and was able to go back to work. He took another 3 months pledge, then a 6 month one and final a pledge for life.

His sister Susan reported that when he wasnt at work or at church, he would spend numerous hours on his knees praying. His fellow workers reported that he was a hard worker, strong yet had a very gentle side to him. And the wages he received would be shared with his poor neighbors or charities. He only kept 300 pence ofr his own small needs.

When he reached age 67, in 1920 he was taken to the hopsital with a heart condition. He was able to continue working but on a lighter scale. He dropped dead on a Dublin street June 7, 1925 and was taken to the hospital where they found that Matt had a heavy chain wrapped around his waist, another on his arm and another on his leg. This he kept hidden as a remainder that he was a slave to Jesus and Mary. Upon seeing this some people became very intereted in this man.

They found his room looked almost like a monastic cell, a iron bed, a wood mattress, a pillow and a light blanket. There was also one chair and table upon which was a crucifix. The family reported his meals consisted of dry bread and cold tea and some times cold fish. He lived a model life of faith, hope and charity in addition to self denial, the spiritual principles of emotional sobriety. He saw God's way of life, not the self-indulgent way.

May we all learn to let go and let God and trust in his goodness. And may all of us who have hit bottom be there to reach out and help those or have not yet hit it.

Peace. And till the next time, may God bless us all. Father John Joseph

Lights, Camera, Action

Friday, August 21, 2010 we received a visit from the producers of One Square Mile, a documentary which has been covering various cities and small town through out the United States and Hawaii. The producers were interested in our mission of being inclusive to the residents of Wilton Manors, which now it seems is openly split between same gender and opposite gender residents.

During the interview and filming , Father Larry and myself both shared that we had gone to Boston to get married after having been together almost 39 years. You see we believe in married priests. Both of us can share our experience, hope and strength in a committed loving relationship and all that couples have to work through to keep that love on the front burner.

For a long time we kinda kept our marriage quiet although other married priests used the experience to help struggling couples deal with their relationships. Of course now, we will be openly sharing ,that is maybe, if they choose to use our interview, as a part of the fabric that makes up Wilton Manors. And then again I dont know who reads this blog, but its now out there .

So the next time someone says what do you priests know about marriage and its ups and downs,
we will indeed have the makings of a a good discussion. I will keep you informed when the documentary is up and running,

God loves you and so do I. Father John Joseph Reid

newdivinemercy.org.

Our Website. newdivinemercy.org

When we first had the thought of putting together a website devoted to Divine Mercy, we never expected how far reaching it would become. People from not only all over the United States and Canada but all over Europe and Asia visit this site and leave their prayer requests. In addition they can read a daily prayer, listen to a daily bible reading, pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. and of course the popular Light a Candle.

We would like to encourage you to tell your friends about this website and encourage them to use its many features. They can also email us if they have any particular questions . So this blessed Chapel of Divine Mercy in Wilton Manors is reaching out all over the world. Another miracle in Wilton Manors.

Small and Large

Our chapel here in Wilton Manors can be considered, in many eyes, small. But I would like to tell you of some of the miracles that have been happening to those who come to our Chapel. Four weeks ago Michael C. came to Mass for the first time (after having moved from California) and upon leaving said that he would no longer be smoking. He had tried before to stop but he had a feeling that this time it would work. The following Sunday he returned to the chapel and announced that he had not had a cigarette since his last visit to the chapel. And as of now he has been nicotine free. Miracle? Some People might call it one, especially those who have been trying to get off cigarettes for a long time.

And today, in this some times bleak looking economic world , Michael C. told us that he had landed a subsantial business account with a large national candy company. You see Michael came here too, never expecting to start a new business but rather to work for one that is still struggling to get off the ground. We all prayed yesterday at Mass for Michael C. and within the next few weeks Father Larry and myself will be offer a blessing at the official opening of the business.

Our chapel might be small but our outreach is indeed large. Our websitge is viewed all over the world and people come to the site and place their prayers in the "light a candle" section. I never hear back the results of their petitions but I am going to put a reminder in the website asking them to let us know the outcome of their prayers. My gut tells me there are little miracles happening as a result of the website.

Till the next time. May God watch over you and keep you and yours well.

Father John Joseph

Get Going Father

This evening I received an Email from a Pete who lives in Pensacola, Florida. He reminded me that there hasnt been an entry into the blog column since last April, that he comes to the site to get up to date information and that the Website has had the same old stuff on it for a while. Thank you Pete. I am gong to get together with my web advisor and bring the web site into the here and now and also will be doing more blogging about life here with the New Divine Mercy Community. Pete, next time you get down this way lets have dinner (on me)

SERENITY

Its 10:00 am on a Thursday morning in a local Gay and Lesbian Center as 60 Gay Men and Women hold hands, at the closing of an anonymous 12 step meeting, and together recite the Serenity Prayer: God grant me tne serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Earlier during the meeting my mind wandered, as I looked around the room and thought of the many miracles that I saw in front of me . Those who, through the grace of a loving God, were living sober a day at a time and reaching out to help otheers. Yet, these very same men and women were also being condemned by another God...a God claimed by those who read their interpreation of a bible which condemened the Gay Men and Women as abominations. I said I want the God in AA, a loving kind God who accepted all as his children and gave them his grace and strength. I see God's love in action.

On my own I can not change the rantings of some evangelicals, but ask for the courage to speak up as needed and pray for the wisdom the know the difference. I am grateful today.

God Sends Them

This morning I was favoring a back problem and taking it easy around the house. The dogs start barking and I go to the door and find an older woman standing there, asking if I was a priest ( dressed in my irish rugby shirt, shorts and no shoes..why couldnt you tell?) but saying to her yes, I was. She asked if she could pray in our small chapel. I said certainly, got the key and she and her daughter came in and prayed before the Blessed Sacrament which we keep exposed in front of the painting of Divine Mercy.

She shared with me that she and her daughter were keeping a promise they made to Divine Mercy for prayers being answered and they were making a novena by visiting 21 churches. The Mother then asked if I would bless her other family and four others got put of the car and came into the Chapel, we now have six, two other adults and two young girls.
They all made a general confession and I gave them Holy Communion and we prayed together.

I found out that they were from Canada, of Fillipino descent and very spiritual. Their appearance at 10:30 this morning brought to mind that I am a priest and God sends people from all over to our chapel and they bring blessings to us by their presence. I do not expect to see them ever again, I gave holy cards and my business card as they continued on their way.

Sometimes I wonder what I am doing and who am I really touching. Today was an example that God wants me to be there for whomever he sends. Those who live under the bridges, those who are struggling with mental problems and those pilgrims, like today, who come into our lives along their journey.

Tonight during Mass devoted to Divine Mercy and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, I will pray for all of us in need and thank God for this experience today.

Father John Joseph

Home Sweet Home

There is something comforting in "Coming Back Home". We hear this many times when people join us for our liturgies, after having been away from "church" for a long time. We have seen tears after those who have received communion.

And so too, we feel right about coming back to our Shrine Chapel, looking around at the altar, the stained glass windows, the Large Painting of Divine Mercy and other Sacred Pictures. And coming back does not mean being stuck in the past, but regrouping and strenghtening; being open again to the voice of the Holy Spirit to guide us further along our spiritual journey. As we pray in the Shrine Chapel, whether at Mass, during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament or the Divine Mercy Novena, we are sending out to the world healing spiritual energy.

The motto of our Church is "Jesus I trust in You". It is now the right time to really practice what we preach. No longer will we be advertising through fliers, ads in newspapers, etc. Rather we will reach out personally through attraction rather promotion. Jesus will be in charge, we will depend solely on Him for his guidance as to where we, as a community are to serve him.

I can tell you that since we have returned back to the Shrine Chapel, Jesus has been sending mostly those who are unemployed, one living under a bridge and one who recently found a room, with the financial help of the Missionaries. Right now, we do not push the river, we go with the flow.....Jesus is guiding us.

Letting Go and Letting God.....Lesson to constantly learn.

Peace and Love to you all. Father John Joseph and Father Larry and our other brothers and sisters send their love.