Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Our families afford us wonderful opportunities to practice Christian discipleship! Our family members constantly observe the extent to which we model God’s love and seek to follow Christ’s example. The home becomes a learning laboratory for relationships, indeed might I say that how we relate to people in general is forged in the fire of the nuclear family. Our relationships with family members both near and extended are truly foundational to all our relationships. Honestly, often our relationships with family members can be the most difficult. We struggle to understand each other, we rub each other the wrong way, differing opinions or worldviews lead to conflict, we push each other’s buttons, we take out our pain, frustration, or disappointment on each other, we have high expectations that others will meet our needs, we can be critical and demanding or experience others that way, sometimes we just take each other for granted. Today is a great day to focus on our familial relationships and to seek the grace we need to love our family members a bit more perfectly.
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
It’s hard to imagine that someone in our society would experience too much love. Perhaps those introverts, like myself, might easily become overwhelmed by too much attention – but even admitting that fact it seems obvious that our society cold use more love in general. Today’s first reading calls on those in married relationships to use their love in a way that models it for all of society – married or not.
Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
She was crippled and bent, robbed of her dignity and her rightful place in community. Unable to stand up straight, all she could see was the ground. After eighteen years, this daughter of Israel could hardly remember any other way of encountering the world.
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
As a pediatrician, I spent a great deal of my training and professional career studying the human body and its development. From infancy until adulthood, there are many changes that occur. In order for this transformation to occur, there are many parts of the body that need to work together to bring about this growth. St. Paul uses the example of the human body to illustrate how the body of Christ (the church) grows into its maturity. Just like the human body, there are many parts that are necessary to build the Body of Christ, and it is God’s grace that provides the necessary energy to fuel this creation.
Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
One of my favorites, today’s Responsorial Psalm, “Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face” is a prayer that has resonated with me for years. But today as I reflect on the readings, I find myself challenged with the question, Do I really long to see God’s face? My first reply is “yes, I do!” But with deeper reflection I find myself wondering how often I (or we) have seen God’s face and not even realized it? Or worse yet, seen God’s face and turned away?
Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s readings make an interesting pair. Whereas the passage from Ephesians seems uplifting, the gospel reading from Luke might be one we’d rather forget. And yet both of these texts are a part of our tradition, and they are not contradictory but rather complementary.
Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs
Whenever I read today’s Gospel, Luke 12: 39 – 48 one word comes to mind – integrity. What is integrity? Some say it’s “doing the right thing when no one is looking”, “adhering to a strong moral and ethical code” or “always behaving according to the moral principles you believe in.” But what does all of that really mean? I like to think of integrity as “doing what is right over what is convenient.”
Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist
We learn in today’s first reading that St. Paul had one companion on the trip that would end his earthly life – Luke (2 Tm 4:11). Others have deserted him on his way to Rome because they are “enamored of the present world.” Yet, Luke accompanies him.
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Challenging attitudes toward “stuff” is an important theme in Luke/Acts and is front and center in today’s parable.
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Let's be honest: when someone doesn’t pay attention to you, it can drive one mad. That feeling of being invisible, insignificant, unworthy of someone’s time. Even in the smallest of circumstances, I know it causes me to question the person who cannot be present with me. What do they have better to do or think about? Are they my true friend in this moment? Do they value me or care about me at all?
Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
A quick read of the gospel today could easily cause some confusion. Jesus sounds mighty contradictory: “Do not be afraid (4)…be afraid (5)…be afraid (5 again)…do not be afraid (7)”. What?!? The dictionary definition of fear is something akin to an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Christ is drawing a contrast between two different kinds of fear. The first is a misguided fear; the second is a healthy fear.
Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
There is a lot of enthusiasm these days, within and beyond the Catholic Church, for a Calvinist understanding of salvation. According to that view, God determined before the beginning of time who is saved and who is damned. The thinking behind this theology of salvation is that we humans can do absolutely nothing to gain God’s grace. Who is saved and who is damned is absolutely up to God. We play no role in our own salvation.
Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I invite you to sit for a minute and ponder this question - what controls you - your body or your spirit? When you honestly sit down and look at the decisions you made today, when you think about your thoughts, words, and actions, do you find you were driven by the spirit or by a desire to meet the needs of your temporal body?
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Before I met Joel and married him, I remember my mom worrying that I was trying too hard to make people like me. "Love has to just flow," she'd tell me. And in trying too hard, I'd try to be someone I wasn't - and the potential suitor would be pushed away by my inauthenticity. It happened a couple times before I realized I really did have to "be myself". (Harder to do than it is to say!)
Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
The word “sign” is preeminent in Luke’s Gospel today. Life is full of signs: signs advertising products, traffic signs. The sacraments are signs. People reveal likes or dislikes through the signs of body language. It is essential to pay attention to both material and spiritual signs and even dangerous sometimes not to do so.
Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
It has been a standing joke in our family that when someone asks what I want for my birthday, I respond by saying, ”I just want everyone to get along and be happy.” Everyone usually just laughs at my response, since this seems like an implausible goal. I think that this desire for peace and unity comes from deep within. God has created all and draws all to be one in Christ as St. Paul mentions in his letter to the Galatians. The readings today offer some insights on the ways we might begin to move towards this remarkable experience of harmony and peace.
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
I might not have thought so as a teen, but I am thankful my parents chose for me the middle name of Mary. Mary, as in “Our Lady” the Mother of God. I now see it as an honor, one that perhaps forged a special connection that never completely went away (although it lay dormant for a period of time before having children of my own.) Mary, who is liturgically remembered on this date as “Our Lady of the Rosary.” I confess I do not regularly pray the rosary, but I appreciate what Pope John Paul II wrote about it in his apostolic letter on the Rosary, twenty years ago this month.
Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
While strolling through the student neighborhood near the University of Dayton (UD) campus, I noticed the father (presumably) of a student placing groceries on his son or daughter’s front porch. I could tell he had already made a few trips back and forth from his car. On the steps sat large packages of chicken, bags of charcoal, several two-liter bottles of beverages, chips, salsa, and bottles of BBQ sauce. I surmised that not only was this dad preparing to cook for his son or daughter in celebration of Parent’s Weekend, but he planned to include several of their friends, too.
Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture Readings
In today’s Gospel Jesus’ disciples are earnestly trying to follow him correctly. They want to be taught how to pray. Jesus responds with “When you pray, say:
Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
I’ve often found that during those times when I am the busiest I have a tendency to falter in my relationship with God. I find myself spending less time in prayer and putting less effort into considering what God would have me do, think, and will. Nevertheless, having nothing to do is also not very conducive to my spiritual life. Being not busy enough can result in boredom and lack of purpose. What is best seems to be a balance between being too busy and not busy enough.