Monday of the First Week of Lent
Amen I say to you what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me. - Matthew 25:45
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Like some people, I am a little anxious when it is time to head to the physician. Whether there is a specific medical issue or a routine check-up, there is this underlying fear that I am not as healthy as I think I am or should be. In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds the scribes and Pharisees that he has come to bring healing to the sinners. How many of us are fearful to admit our sins to Jesus, similar to the fear we have when addressing our medical needs with our physicians? Today’s scripture readings remind us that we are all sinful, but our God is all merciful and desires to bring us healing and wholeness. Jesus is the Great Physician who offers His prescriptions and directives for good spiritual health, but we can only receive His grace through our humble admission that we need His care.
Friday after Ash Wednesday
As I happen to be writing this reflection for Friday on Ash Wednesday, the issue of fasting is front and center on my mind (and stomach). A hungry stomach keeps alerting my mind to its state, which I find makes it harder to focus and easier to become irritable with my husband. Apparently I’m not very advanced with this discipline. Fasting is front and center in both of today’s readings as well. But perhaps not as you’d expect.
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
As human beings, we don’t like suffering. For the most part our inclination is to avoid suffering. And yet it’s also part of our human experience and cannot be avoided. Sometimes we go to great lengths in attempting to avoid suffering. We try to avoid illness and harm to ourselves and loved ones and we try to prolong death and extend our lives as much as possible. Most of us, if given the choice each day, would choose life. Today’s readings talk about choosing life or death in a spiritual sense.
Ash Wednesday
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our Lenten journey toward the Cross and through the Cross into the glory of Christ’s Resurrection. The Church, through our readings, invites us to humble ourselves, turn away from our sin, repent, seek reconciliation with God, and devote ourselves to prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. I feel led to focus my reflection on the second reading, in which St Paul implores us to be reconciled to God. In gratitude to the One who became sin for our sake, may we today seek reconciliation with God so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
What are we to make of the fact that so often in the Old Testament we are admonished to fear the Lord yet in the New Testament Jesus instructs us repeatedly not to fear? Is this some kind of contradiction between the Old Testament and the New? Is there any way to reconcile these two apparently incommensurate teachings?
Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner wrote, “In the midst of our lives and our struggles we have to make a radical, absolute decision. And we never know when lightning will strike out of the blue. It may be when we least expect to be asked whether we have the faith and trust to say ‘yes.’”
Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
“Come back to reality!” Has anyone ever had to tell you this? Today’s gospel reading of the transfiguration brought me to this phrase due to the stark difference of scenes we are presented. At first, the three disciples are witnesses to the glory of Jesus’s dazzling light along with some famous holy figures. But, then, they come down from the mountain and are reminded of the tough road they are still to face ahead. Back to reality! But wasn’t all that they saw true and real?
Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Our readings today point to humanity’s misguided grasp for power and control; our incessant desire to be the center of attention, to “make a name for ourselves” (Gn 11:4). We want the world to revolve around us. We enter into what Bishop Robert Barron often refers to as the ego-drama. Ego-drama refers to the corner of the universe that we create where we dominate the story. We get stuck in the boring and narrow pages of our own tale; we are the director and the star character in the story that we want to write to serve our own wants and desires. Contrast that with the theo-drama, originally presented by Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar; it refers to our role in God’s great story. Our lives, our actions, our decisions, and our freedom are all understood in relation to others and to God.
Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
The folks that Bill and I write about (Answers in Genesis or AiG) spent over $100,000,000 to build a ginormous (510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet tall) ark made of timber. The enormous structure is very impressive, to be sure, and it serves as the centerpiece of Ark Encounter, a biblical theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky.
Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
“May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call” (Ephesians 1:17-18). That verse forms our Alleluia today. What an awesome prayer! Let’s enter into it together, asking God to heal any blindness that keeps us from being hopeful, and trusting in God’s covenant promises that inspire our hope.
Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
I hear a parental God in today’s readings. A very frustrated, parental God. In fact, in the first reading from Genesis, God is so frustrated with the state of the world, the “wickedness” of human kind, that God even regrets that he made human kind. And God’s “heart was grieved.” That’s pretty strong emotion. Similarly, in the gospel reading from Mark, we hear of Jesus’ frustrations with his disciples. Almost like a frustrated parent, we hear Jesus
exclaiming, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? …Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember…? Do you still not understand?”!!
Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
To sigh: emit a long, deep audible breath expressing sadness, relief, fatigue, or similar.
Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
A recent meal with 10 strangers around a common table in the home of an Argentinean couple came to mind when I read today’s gospel reading. Jesus recognizes the significance of food, and He also understands sharing food can be a means to bring unity and blessings. Through the sharing of food and all of our gifts, the reading today reminds us that God calls us to share our gifts with all people, so God’s love will be made known to the world.
Memorial of Saint Scholastica, virgin
With today being the Memorial of St. Scholastica, I have the pleasure of sharing one of my favorite saints’ stories. Robert Ellsberg, in his book All Saints (c.1997), tells it well based on the writings of Gregory the Great about St. Benedict, the founder of Western Monasticism. Did you know that St. Scholastica was the twin sister of St. Benedict?! The following story is said to have occurred just a few days before Scholastica’s death.
Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
With today’s first reading selection from Genesis, we continue to hear the familiar stories from the very beginning of the Bible. This day, the man created by God comes to an important realization, namely, none of God’s creatures are suitable for him as a partner. God, of course, knows that none of the animals will satisfy the man’s need for companionship, but nevertheless God presents the man with these animals in order to help him understand the value of her who God will create for him. And indeed, the man seems to appreciate the utter uniqueness of the woman. He recognizes in her a similarity, that they are the two variations of the one humanity. The passage for today ends with what the author sees as the implication or message of this story, namely, that this is why a man clings to his wife. In other words, the appreciation of the opposite sex in a unique person is the reason for marriage. The very last line of the excerpt notes that the man and woman felt no shame at their nakedness. This Genesis passage is a foundational text for Christianity. We see the original peace and harmony in humanity as created by God. The man’s words represent an utter joy at the other who is at once the same as him and different from him. How then, we might wonder, do we get from this passage in Genesis to the gospel selection from Mark?
Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Our first reading from Genesis prompted me to think about the gift of life and how incredible it is to be alive! God created us and breathed life into us, not that we might merely exist, but that we might live a life of beatitude in God. God fills us with abundant life in Christ. What does that mean for you and for me as we go about our daily lives?
Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
I sometimes find myself getting caught up in what I need to do. With tasks constantly multiplying on ‘to do’ lists, long days, and seemingly never-ending agendas it is often difficult to perceive that God loves me unconditionally. The first reading for today reminds me that the reason for this lies in the fact that God created me and that what he created he called ‘good’.
Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs
In biblical times, Jewish men wore tassels on the corners of their garments, adorned with a cord of blue as a reminder that they were a people set apart (Numbers 15:37-41). In the Ancient Near East, the corner of a man’s garment represented his essence; a symbol of who he was and what he stood for.
Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
In today's gospel reading from Mark, Jesus sends his disciples out to get some rest while crowds continue to seek out teachings and healings. It causes me to reflect over how present Jesus was, not only to the concerns of those needing care, but to the caregivers as well. But it can be quite the struggle to find that rest away from the world.