Enderle, Frank
43 Articles at Lifeissues.net

Francis X. Enderle is a Roman Catholic Permanent Deacon. He is a retired U.S. Naval Officer who was ordained in the Archdiocese of Washington in 1991 just prior to his retirement. During his 14 years as a Permanent Deacon he has been involved in Hispanic Ministry in the United States in the Washington, DC, area and in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He also spent several years assigned to a parish in Spain. Frank has been the Executive Director for the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Washington and Assistant Director for Liturgy at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC. He has written and published 6 bilingual, Spanish/English, books containing reflections on Sunday and Holyday readings. He has been married to his wife, Susan, for the past 35 years. Susan and Frank publish and maintain www.homilias.net, a bilingual, Spanish/English, website of homily reflections.

Areas of Specialty: Pastoral Theology, Hispanic Spirituality and Ministry, Homiletics and Homily Preparation, Spanish/English translation.

Education: Master of Arts degree in Pastoral Theology and a Catechetical Diploma.

Contact: frank@enderlebooks.com

Website:http://www.homilias.net/

Articles

That I May See

If we want to be true followers of Jesus, our faith must be like Bartimaeus'. When we ask the Lord for guidance and help, we must be prepared to accept whatever the answer will be even if it is not the answer we expected,


Date posted: 2006-10-26

Rights and Responsibilities

The Gospel message is a challenge to take part in an especially difficult vocation. Christianity possesses a social dimension that is oftentimes ignored when we limit ourselves simply to pious acts, when we believe that simply by going to Mass on Sunday and praying a little every day we are doing all that we can do to be a good Christian.

Date posted: 2006-10-13

Rights and Responsibilities

Christianity will flourish when people come to realize that we are a welcoming, kind and accepting community. There will only be peace in our communities when we can act humbly without trying to impose our own will on others, in a word, when we stop trying to dominate everyone and everything.


Date posted: 2006-09-29

The Servant of All

The bond that we have with God, our Father, the experience of faith and love that ultimately leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven, is what we Christians call religion. That is why we cannot understand people who use violence to further their religion.

Date posted: 2006-09-21

Rich In Faith And Heirs Of The Kingdom

The liturgy, our Holy Mass, is a dialogue between God and His people. We cannot gather together to praise God if we show our contempt and our disdain for the people who want to be part of our community simply because they are poor.


Date posted: 2006-09-07

The Word of God

When some people get ready to go to Mass on Sunday, they are very worried about the pretty clothes they wear and presenting a worthy exterior appearance. But I ask you: What about your soul? Do you try to maintain it clean? Purity of soul is what Jesus asks of His followers.

Date posted: 2006-09-01

Do You Also Want to Leave?

There continue to be people in the world today who find that the teachings of Christ are hard. Many even them refuse even to believe in Jesus. It could be that, sometimes, we also have moments of doubt and of crisis in our faith. If we have moments of incertitude, we should ask ourselves, as Saint Peter did, “To whom can we go?”

Date posted: 2006-08-24

Taste the Goodness of the Lord

The Eucharist is the center of all liturgical worship, the center of the sacramental life of the Church.


Date posted: 2006-08-17

Like sheep without a shepherd

Each one of us has a vocation. Christ asks us to live out that vocation placing ourselves at the service of God and of humanity. The Church needs good Christians who can transmit the Good News of Christ to all those who seek God, to all those who wander about like sheep without a shepherd.

Date posted: 2006-07-17

I say to you, arise!

The Bible tells us that true Christians are easily recognized. They are the generous ones, the ones who support their neighbor, no matter what the nationality of their neighbor may be. And Jesus tells us that we have to decide: are we or are we not true Christians?

Date posted: 2006-07-05

I Say To You, Arise!

The Bible tells us that true Christians are easily recognized. They are the generous ones, the ones who support their neighbor, no matter what the nationality of their neighbor may be. And Jesus tells us that we have to decide: are we or are we not true Christians?

Date posted: 2006-06-27

Have Faith

We should always remember that if Jesus sees that we are defending our faith, He will give us the confidence and the courage to freely preach His Word. And with his help we will overcome adversity.

Date posted: 2006-06-21

The Bread of Life

In each Holy Mass that is celebrated, when Holy Communion is received, we Christians eat the Body and drink the Blood of Christ. Our Lord makes Himself present in a real way in the bread and wine consecrated by the priest. The food that the Eucharist gives us is the only food that can strengthen our souls. If we do not eat it, we will become spiritually weaker, just as the physical body weakens when it does not take in food.

Date posted: 2006-06-14

Receive the Holy Spirit

Our Catholic faith is based on a Trinitarian God who is One. When we were baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we were called to participate in the life of the Most Holy Trinity here on earth.

Date posted: 2006-06-06

Receive the Holy Spirit

With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the apostles were filled with courage, knowledge, and strength. Peter and the other apostles, impelled by the Holy Spirit, began to preach the word with strength and determination. But Pentecost Sunday was not the only time that the Spirit gave His gifts to Jesus' followers. The Spirit continues to choose and bless holy women and men so that they may become the new and reinvigorating lifeblood of the Church. In this way, our Church is ever ancient and ever new.

Date posted: 2006-05-30

That they may be one just as we are one.

We Catholics are the spiritual descendents of the first disciples that Christ chose, prepared and strengthened. With this in mind, we should meditate on the importance that prayer had for them and how much we need it. Today especially, we should pray for the unity of the Christian community.


Date posted: 2006-05-24

Love one another as I have loved you.

In our society the word 'love' is heard everywhere. It is repeated ad nauseum. And, above all, we hear a lot about love of neighbor. "Our neighbors have to be helped" is said repeatedly. Many times I ask myself, "If there is so much love and so much yearning to help others in this world, why do we feel so little love and understanding in the people that we come across every day, in those who are nearest to us and with whom we live?"

Date posted: 2006-05-16

Let Us Show, Through Our Actions, That We Are True Christians

If we follow Christ faithfully, we will not only say so in words we will also show with our actions that we are His sisters and brothers, daughters and sons of God the Father. When we were baptized, we Christians acquired the right and the power to be part of the vine that is the Lord. Through faith, prayer in community, the liturgy, and the word, we encounter a new life that will help us to become more united to Christ and His Church.

Date posted: 2006-05-08

Good Shepherds

To be a good priest one must be well prepared, ready to defend the sheep. He will also have to protect himself from the many dangers that life will throw at him. And, most importantly, he will have to forget himself, looking out for the good of others.


Date posted: 2006-05-01

Peace be unto you.

We know the sadness, the defeat, the powerlessness and the disappointment that the Apostles felt on the day that the Lord died on the Cross. On Easter Sunday, the presence of the Risen Christ among them calmed their fears and their faith was strengthened once again.

Date posted: 2006-04-17

He is risen! Alleluia!

Christ overcame that barrier of death. In doing so, He gave humanity the possibility of returning to the Paradise lost by Adam and Eve. Jesus promises us that when the time comes for us to cross that barrier; we will see Him face to face. He also tells us that when we leave this earthly existence, our destiny will depend on how we prepared ourselves for our life in eternity.


Date posted: 2006-04-09

Growing in the Love of God and Following Him Faithfully

hile it is true that during Lent we should constantly meditate on the Passion and Death of Our Lord, it is also true that we should also think often about His glorious Resurrection. The events we commemorate during the Holy Triduum, from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday, should show us why we need to grow in the love of God and to follow Him faithfully.

Date posted: 2006-04-04

Whoever Loses His Life...

Our Christian faith shows us that if we want to dedicate ourselves totally to Christ, we have to make a firm commitment to follow Him no matter what the consequences. By dying to ourselves and our own petty selfishness and pride, we allow the grain of wheat that is our spiritual life to grow and give fruit.

Date posted: 2006-03-29

The Light of the World

A good Christian should show to the world the light received in the Holy Mass. The light should shine in him or her so brightly that they should be the image of Christ for others.

Date posted: 2006-03-23

The Cross of Christ

The death of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, on the Cross shows us clearly the great love that He has for each one of us. For more than twenty centuries, we Christians have proclaimed, and we continue to proclaim with integrity and joy, that by the Cross we are redeemed and saved.

Date posted: 2006-03-16

The True Message of Lent

Sometimes we have problems understanding the whys and wherefores of daily life. We don’t know how we are going to resolve the trials and tribulations that confront us on what seems to be a continuous basis. At times like this, the Lord asks us to have faith in him.

Date posted: 2006-03-07

Conversion

We should remember that conversion is not the strong reaction that we may feel when we hear a preacher who attracts and dazzles with his or her emotional and ardent words. Christian conversion is conversion to the person of Jesus.

Date posted: 2006-02-27

Remember You Are Dust

Today we gather here to celebrate the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday. As we all know, in this Mass the most important and significant element is the traditional rite during which ashes are imposed on our foreheads as a sign of the sorrow we feel for having sinned.

Date posted: 2006-02-27

Beginning Anew

The newness of Christ in our lives can never be reduced to a patch up, a partial change, in our way of acting. We must completely break with the old life that we have lived and begin anew.

Date posted: 2006-02-21

Forgive Us

Just as we are have felt the healing mercy of God when we receive his forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance, we are obliged to be merciful with others, to forgive those who have caused us harm. What’s more, we have an obligation to ask for forgiveness from those people that we have harmed.


Date posted: 2006-02-14

Be Made Clean!

When we know that we have sinned, that are spiritually sick, we go to Jesus, as the leper did, and in the Sacrament of Penance we confess our sins. We take our spiritual medicine and we move on to healthier choices in our lives.

Date posted: 2006-02-09

Woe to me!

Even though society is not in agreement with what we teach, even if people stop coming to our Church because we preach things that they do not want to hear, we have to continue valiantly teaching what Christ himself handed down to us. Woe to us if we do not.


Date posted: 2006-01-30

The Holy One of God

The readings from last week's Mass showed us that all of us, without exception, are called by the Lord but what are we called to do? We all have a vocation and that it should be lived with integrity and courage. We Christians have been chosen, we have a vocation, to struggle against the evil that exists in this world and to recognize Jesus Christ, "the Holy One of God," as our Lord and Savior.

Date posted: 2006-01-23

Come with Me

All of us, without exception, are called by the Lord. He says to us each and every one of us the same words he said to his Apostles: "Come with me." In order for us to hear the call of Jesus and be able to follow Him, as the apostles did, we need to disengage from the inordinate desire for material things that plagues the society in which we live. If we do not do that, we may find that there is too much clutter in our lives, too many things to worry about, and we will not be able to follow the Lord freely.


Date posted: 2006-01-17

Speak, Lord

Each time that Jesus chose one of the apostles, He asked them to leave everthing behind and follow. And that same thing is what He asks of us. Each of us receives a call from God, a vocation. Even though it seems that each one of us is called to do different things in life, in reality, God asks of all of us one thing: to follow Him with courage and integrity.

Date posted: 2006-01-09

Why wait?

If during this year that has just begun, we concentrate on the fact that God thought enough of us The prophetic mission that Christ brought to the world did not end with His death on the Cross. When a Christian is baptized, He or she shares in that mission to be a prophet, to evangelize, to proclaim the Good News that Our Lord came to bring us.

Date posted: 2006-01-04

Who loves you?

If during this year that has just begun, we concentrate on the fact that God thought enough of us to take on a human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that God thought so much of each and every one of us that He wanted to become one of us in order to redeem us, then maybe we will see the enormity of the love He has for us. And that fact should brighten even the darkest moments of our lives.

Date posted: 2005-12-28

Mary, Mother of God

As we do every year, we begin this New Year under the protection of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our Mother. "Behold your Mother," Jesus says to each and every one of us. We could not ask for a better gift, for to be protected by her is a great blessing.

Date posted: 2005-12-27

The Reason for the Season

The Christmas season is definitely a time of happiness, a season to be enjoyed and celebrated. Yet we should always keep in mind that before Christmas was celebrated as a holiday it was celebrated as a holyday. Let us not forget who should be at the center of this celebration. Without Christ there is no Christmas. Jesus is the reason for the season.

Date posted: 2005-12-19

"I Need You."

Sometimes our road to redemption seems to be a rocky one. We imagine ourselves as playing a minor role in salvation history. We buy into the idea of a distant God who set the world into motion and then walked off and forgot about it—and us! An all-powerful God calling out to us to say “I need you” is beyond our imagination. Yet that is what God is saying to each and every one of us. In Mary we find the perfect example of the ideal disciple who hears the word, says “yes” in total openness, and acts upon it.

Date posted: 2005-12-12

Who Am I?

Courage, honesty, integrity, humility. How often have we heard these words lately? We talk a lot about these very real human virtues but when it comes to living them out we may hedge a little, take the middle road, sit down rather than stand up for what we know to be right. John the Baptist calls on all of us to define ourselves, to prepare the way for the Lord in our own lives, to repent and return to the path of virtue.

Date posted: 2005-12-05

“Raise Your Voice… Raise It And Do Not Fear.”

The prophets of the Old Testament announced the coming of the Messiah, even though they did not know exactly when or how this would come about. John the Baptist declared that the Messiah would free humanity from the oppression and sin through faith in God’s mercy and individual repentance. The preaching of John the Baptist was like a dividing line between the prophecies of the end of the Old Testament and the reality of the beginning of the New Testament.

Date posted: 2005-11-28

Where Do We Go from Here?

Jesus asks us not only to be prepared but also to be vigilant. We know that we want to be good Christians, faithful followers of Christ. We also know that temptations sometimes seem to surround us. So the first question we ask ourselves is simple. How do we go about avoiding or overcoming all of the situations in life that could bring us to sin? Where do we go from here?

Date posted: 2005-11-22