smmartinez18

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#parttwo #futurepriests #menofmontana #prayforus (at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Classical School)

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#partone #seminarians #menofhelena #prayforus (at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Classical School)

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#seminary #SY #halfmarathon #Denver #brothers (at REI)

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#Napa #truth #newfavoritetshirt #praiseGodforwine (at Napa Wine Valley)

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#seminary #Easter #archbishop egg #SY (at Delta Terminal - Salt Lake City International Airport)

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#seminary #newcamera #canitakeyourpicture (at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary)

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#themotalife #christmastree #babyjesuslikesit (at Napa Wine Valley)

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#SY #seminarians #denver #CO (at Denver City Colorado)

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#newlybaptized #godson #onehappygodfather #wesleyshanehartman (at Ontario Intl Airport)

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St. John Chrysostom!!!

Today is the memorial for St. John Chrysostom…and he is a saint to know! In today’s Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours ( the daily prayer of the Church, also known as the breviary) there was a sermon that Chrysostom gave way back when that still rings incredibly true today. His reading is like the speech one would give before going into battle or something! Gets you fired up! I have posted the reading below, please read and take it to prayer. St. John Chrysostom is said to have memorized the entire Old Testament and the below selection is littered with lines from scripture. God Bless!

St. John Chrysostom Pray For Us

Second Reading

A sermon by St John Chrysostom

"For me, life means Christ, and death is gain"

The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus. What are we to fear? Death? Life to me means Christ, and death is gain. Exile? ‘The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord. The confiscation of goods? We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it. I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its blessings laughable. I have no fear of poverty, no desire for wealth. I am not afraid of death nor do I long to live, except for your good. I concentrate therefore on the present situation, and I urge you, my friends, to have confidence. Do you not hear the Lord saying: Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst? Will he be absent, then, when so many people united in love are gathered together? I have his promise; I am surely not going to rely on my own strength! I have what he has written; that is my staff, my security, my peaceful harbour. Let the world be in upheaval. I hold to his promise and read his message; that is my protecting wall and garrison. What message? Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world! If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider’s web. Indeed, unless you, my brothers, had detained me, I would have left this very day. For I always say “Lord, your will be done”; not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do. That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way. If God wants something, let it be done! If he wants me to stay here, I am grateful. But wherever he wants me to be, I am no less grateful. Yet where I am, there you are too, and where you are, I am. For we are a single body, and the body cannot be separated from the head nor the head from the body. Distance separates us, but love unites us, and death itself cannot divide us. For though my body die, my soul will live and be mindful of my people. You are my fellow citizens, my fathers, my brothers, my sons, my limbs, my body. You are my light, sweeter to me than the visible light. For what can the rays of the sun bestow on me that is comparable to your love? The sun’s light is useful in my earthly life, but your love is fashioning a crown for me in the life to come.

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"Hail Mary, Full of grace..."

Prayer is a central part of the Spirituality Year (SY), in which I am currently partaking in at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. One of the blessings is to have the time to engage in many different forms of prayer. One of which is the Rosary. The Rosary is an expression of prayer that is unique because it expresses the devotion that we are invited to have for Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The proper role of Mary in the Church is often misunderstood by non-Catholics, and some Catholics themselves. Sometimes, it is suggested that Catholics worship Mary. Other misunderstandings suggest that Mary acts as a demi-god of sorts. I myself was unsure of who Mary was until I did more research and myself engaged in Marian forms of prayer. The important thing to know and to understand when talking about the Blessed Mother is to know that all that she encompasses and is: points to her Son, Jesus Christ. She does not have power over the Trinity, she is perfectly united with the will of God. A great analogy is to think of Mary as the moon. The moon can be the brighest object in the sky on a clear night. The moon does not give off its own light though. It merely reflects the light form the Sun. Same with the Blessed Mother. She merely reflects and points towards the Way, Jesus. Still, with this understanding, why should one say their Hail Marys or a daily Rosary? Does one need a spiritual relationship with Mary to grow closer to God? Need is a strong word. What I will say is that Mary is the one who can most directly bring us to the foot of her Son because she knows how to come to know him and to love him best. Mary was one of the few persons to remian with him throughout his entire earthly life, even remianing at the foot of his the Cross. Mary, being the Mother of God, became the mother of us all. In this way, she desires all of us to know her Son, often times more then we desire to know him ourselves because she has literally seen the 'face of God'. She invites us to show us the Way (Her Son) if we ask for her intercession. Mary intercedes for us in the best way possible because she literally and spiritually carried the Word of God in her very being. I have been reflecting on this because I have been able to pray a daily Rosary which in its very nature points to Christ. The Rosary is a prayer in which one prays the Hail Mary again and again. While one is saying the Hail Mary though, one reflects on a different mystery of Christ's life on Earth. For example, the Sorrowful Mysteries go through the Passion of Christ and His Crucifixion. The five scenes in which consist of the Sorrowful Mysteries are: The Agnoy in the Garden, The Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning of Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus. Through the Rosary, and the intercession of Mary, one is able to enter into each of these mysteries in a much deeper way. One can imagine Mary during each of these scences; what she saw and what she was experiencing. The Rosary is a very powerful form of prayer that brings one closer to Mary, and in a real way closer to Christ. I have been reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church(one of the perks of the SY) and fell upon the section that breaks down the Hail Mary line by line. I have copied it from the online version and posted it below for your reading pleasure. In it are some great lines that explain the Hail Mary, and at the same time the role Mary plays in our salvation. I have grown in my devotion for the Blessed Mother because through her I can better know Christ. In seeing Mary as a model of faithfulness and prayer, I can better allow myself to be configured to Christ. Mary is the epitome of faithfulness. She is a gift of a model that we are all given to learn from and to model our own faith after. She alone experienced the consolation of being a very real instrument of the Lord by bringing him into the world and she experienced the darkest of days when he was sacrificed for our sins on the Cross. The challenege we are all faced in times of spirtual desolation and consolation is striving to be faithful at all times, who better to learn it from then the 'mother of all believers'? Who better then from the one who said 'Yes' and never stopped saying 'yes' to the will of God? Who better to help pick us up when we have fallen then the one who picked up Jesus when he would stumble and fall when he was but a child and learning how to walk? Her better then the very one who taught Christ his first prayers? May we let her show us how to pray as we ought and to keep praying. God Bless! Peace Our Lady of Guadalupe Pray For Us 2674 Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son “who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties.”28 Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she “shows the way” (hodigitria), and is herself “the Sign” of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West. (494) 2675 Beginning with Mary’s unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries. In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first “magnifies” the Lord for the “great things” he did for his lowly servant and through her for all human beings;29 the second entrusts the supplications and praises of the children of God to the Mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused. (970, 512, 2619) 2676 This twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a privileged expression in the Ave Maria: (722, 490, 435, 146) Hail Mary [or Rejoice, Mary]: the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as intermediary, greets Mary. Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had for the lowliness of his humble servant and to exult in the joy he finds in her.30 Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel’s greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. “Rejoice... O Daughter of Jerusalem... the Lord your God is in your midst.”31 Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is “the dwelling of God... with men.”32 Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. After the angel’s greeting, we make Elizabeth’s greeting our own. “Filled with the Holy Spirit,” Elizabeth is the first in the long succession of generations who have called Mary “blessed.”33 “Blessed is she who believed....”34 Mary is “blessed among women” because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord’s word. Abraham, because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth.35 Mary, because of her faith, became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God’s own blessing: Jesus, the “fruit of thy womb.” 2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”36 Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it be to me according to your word.”37 By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: “Thy will be done.” (495, 1020) Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All–Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender “the hour of our death” wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing38 to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.

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First day of full cleric garb for the Helena Diocese SY men! (Mike, Me, Tyler)

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Beginning of Seminary...

Hey! I have offically begun my year at St. John Vianney (SJV) Theological Seminary! I have started the Spirituality Year (SY), which is a year of intensive prayer and discernment for the priesthood that is unique to the SJV program. Part of the program is that I am asked to undertake a media fast for the entire year. This entails that I am not to use any form of personal electronic device Monday through Friday. I am free to use them on Saturday and limited usage on Sundays. I do plan to blog once a week and share with all of you how my walk with the Lord progresses. We just got back from a three day camping trip with the entire seminary so am ready for bed! right now I am just going to post a reflection that a good friend of mine asked me to write up for a small group that he was leading about two weeks back. If you have any questions of SY please feel free to ask and I will answer when I can. I ask for your prayers and if there is anything I can lift up in prayer for you please let me know. Peace! Please feel free to contact me to ask me questions about anything that I might have said: samuel.motamartinez@gmail.com Samuel Mota-Martinez St. John Vianney Theological Seminary-Spirituality Year 1300 S. Steele St Denver, CO 80210 Introduction: Hello. I am Samuel Mota-Martinez and I will be a seminarian for the Helena Diocese in Montana beginning this upcoming August 17th. I was born in California, raised in the Pacific Northwest and recently graduated from Carroll College in Helena, Montana. I have been on summer break for the past couple of months. In those months I have been traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest, in Israel visiting the Holy Land, and on a boat to Alaska. During this time of travel, I have missed the simplicity of setting up and sitting around a blazing summer campfire. I wish to share with all of you who are sitting around this fire tonight some of my own reflections on what a campfire means to me and my faith life. Body: How I do wish I could be with you all gathered together around this source of warmth and fellowship. As I am absent, I hope the following thoughts might give you encouragement and ideas to think about during this time and season of transition. We must recognize this time and place as a point of transition because (in my case) I will be off to start my SY(Spirituality Year) in Denver, some of you are off to start another year of high school, of college, or maybe a new job placement. We will all be beginning new ventures and new chapters in our individual narratives. In the course of my own story, I have enjoyed many a blessed campfire during the beginning of a semester or at the end of one. The campfire has always be a symbol of transition during my college years. Such times of transition can be difficult because our comfortable schedules and routines are thrown off. These in-between times (summer, winter-breaks, spring breaks) can either refresh us for the next chapter or leave us tired and weary for the next step. A campfire has always been a beacon of thanksgiving and hope, a tangible visual representation of what I am called to be as a son of the Father in all aspects of my life. During many a campfire, I find myself staring into the flames that burn and radiate heat. I stare and I wonder at it. I know the science and the empirical aspects of a fire, but it is still a mysterious and awe-inspiring site. The fire allows me to be in that moment on that particular night with those friends who are sitting around the fire with me. I am reminded of a saying my chaplain at Carroll would say about transitions, “We remember the past with thanksgiving and look towards the future with hope. With these two gifts from the Holy Spirit, we can remain fully present in the ‘no’ moment.” He would say this when referring to times of transition. Thanksgiving and Hope. These two gifts ought to be received and cultivated, and the image of a campfire acts as a visual representation and a reminder for what these two gifts mean. The campfire is a light and a source of warmth in this very moment and can act as a reminder when we lose our way or forget ourselves in the midst of the world. A fire is a source of warmth and heat that allows one to drive out the cold from one’s bones or a means to cook a meal. I know that I am always filled with much thanks to have a fire when I am out under the night sky. A fire reminds me to be thankful for the small things that I take for granted due to modern civilization. It reminds me of how good it is to remain in one place with one’s friends; how I must remember to thank God for them and to thank them for their friendship. The flames that warm me remind me of my friends. My friends who allow me to remain in the embrace of the Lord through remaining with them in their friendship. Ultimately, what my friends, the blessings in my life, and all that I have point to the love that the Lord has for all of us. His all consuming love is represented in the campfire before you. God offered up His own Son to be consumed and to be a beacon to all of us, so too are we called to offer up our entire selves to be consumed and to be transformed into beacons of light to the world. To be beacons of Hope. Our hope is meant to rest not in this world, but in the world to come. Our hope lies in the His kingdom that we are all called to be a part of and to partake of in the here and now. The campfire is a beacon of warmth on a cold night and is a great analogy to understand the kingdom of Hope that we are all invited into. When thinking about how our hope lies in the world to come, we have to work to make that real for us and to discern what that means to each of us individually. A great place to start off with is to pray with Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” In denying ourselves and joyfully taking up the challenges that the Lord gives us is the means by which we are transformed and become beacons of Hope to our family, friends, and to the world. Conclusion of Sorts: My prayer for all of you gathered here today is that you will take time in the silence to be before this campfire and for you to let this moment to embrace you. I pray that you will think of this fire as a beacon of thanksgiving and of hope. May your faith be as real and tangible to yourself and others, to be as real and concrete as the warmth of this fire. May you radiate joy to wherever the Lord takes you this year. When challenges come, return to this point in time and remember that the Lord gives us brothers and sisters to walk with. We are called to be with Christ with his people, and not in isolation of them. Let the flames of this fire represent the thanksgiving that we are asked to offer to the Lord and to act as a reminder to us to be grateful for what we have and to share out thanks with our families and friends. May the wood that is yet to be burn and the coals that are forming in this fire remind you of the kingdom that is yet to come and that is coming right now in every moment of everyday. The warmest part of the fire is yet to come. God Bless.

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#yachats #mypeople #goingonadventure #themotalife (at Yachats, OR)

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#bishopthomas #seminarianretreat #goodtime #Godisgood (at Montana)

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#yachats#themotalife (at Yachats, OR)

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#official#seminarian#SY#thanks4theprayers#themotalife (at Napa Valley)