Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
“There is no place like home.” There is a lot of truth to this famous phrase from Dorothy as she escapes from OZ. For many of us, there really is no place like home. Home is relaxing and rejuvenating. We are secure and welcome at home. That is what home is supposed to be. This is why sins against the home are so damaging and terrible. When a home becomes a place of fear, isolation, and exhaustion it violates everything it is supposed to be. It was the mentioning of the home that drew my attention in today’s Gospel. After the debate among the Pharisees, it says, “Then each went to his own house.” Why does John give us this detail? Was it a good or bad thing?
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today’s celebration of the Feast of St. Joseph is even more significant this year since Pope Francis declared it the Year of St. Joseph. In his apostolic letter on Dec 8, 2020, Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart), Pope Francis describes several characteristics and values of St. Joseph that we can all take to heart as a model for our own lives. In particular, he identifies the rather countercultural qualities of tenderness, obedience, acceptance, creative courageousness, and selflessness (or as he states, “in the shadows”). I don’t know about you, but I often witness a world placing too much value on assertiveness, ambition, dominance, toughness, guts, glory, determination, and strength, especially when it comes to the qualities of men. There is so much beautiful content and insight shared by Pope Francis. I would just like to highlight a few pieces and encourage you to read the letter in full.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
An evangelical couple who were touring Amish Country one summer day learned about the many apparently peculiar and contradictory practices of the Amish. They learned, for instance, that the Amish can’t own cars but they can ride in them. They can’t plug into the electrical grid, but they can power a lamp in their living room with a generator. And while they can’t have a landline phone in their house, they can have a cell phone in their pocket. The more the couple learned about these seeming contradictions in Amish life, the more puzzled they became. As their day of touring came to a close at an Old Order Amish home (where they enjoyed an Amish-style dinner cooked for them for a fee), the couple asked their hosts the question that had been nagging at them all day: “You have all these rules that govern your Amish life. And, honestly, they don’t make much sense to us. So, as born-again Christians we just want to know—are you saved?” To that, the Amish couple replied, “we don’t know. You’ll have to ask our neighbors.”
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
One of the toughest tasks I was ever given in my life began with, “It’s thirty six hours you will not die of hunger or thirst.” Then they marched us to a place on the side of a mountain gave us a space to occupy a quart of water, a notebook and pen a short rope and a tarp. They left telling us they would be back the next day to get us. The staff at this camp had done this exercise before. We had everything we needed all we really needed to do was to trust what counselors had said. Instead I saw this ten foot square area as a prison. And it became a prison of my own making in that I failed to believe what I had been promised.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
I find myself sometimes being slow to realize when God is offering grace in my life, slow to pick up on clues pointing me in one direction or another and to recognize God’s voice speaking to me through the events of my life. The readings for today suggest that I need to pay more attention to the ways that grace is offered to me on a daily basis.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth…" How often have we recited this during Mass and for how many years? Even reciting something as consequential as this can become rote. Sadly, many of us say these words and go on…unmoved by the significance of what we have just proclaimed. The point is I am saying that 'I believe'!
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
God’s abundant mercy is a gift that is available for all people. As disciples of Jesus we are called to be merciful to others as God is merciful to us. In order to receive and to offer mercy, we must come from a position of humility. Today’s scripture remind us that being humble allows us to recognize both our need for forgiveness and our call to forgive. God desires our mercy, since forgiveness and love is necessary to build the Kingdom of God.
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
This may sound strange, but sometimes I forget that God is God and I don’t have to carry the burden of the world (or even of my clients or family members) alone. I don’t want to believe that I think I am God (or a god or goddess), but I’m aware that I am at times guilty of acting or thinking/worrying as if it’s all up to me. It’s actually a relief to me when I have those moments of realization, as arrogant as it sounds, that I am not God! One of my favorite prayers is a rather simple and honest one of Pope Saint John XXIII who apparently would say before sleep at the end of the day, “It’s your Church, Lord. I’m going to bed!”
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
In today's first reading I am drawn to the statement, "This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people." The Lord tells us to listen to his voice. While this sounds easy, it is often challenging to hear God's voice, in order to listen. Amid all of the noise of our lives, we must discern the Lord's voice. We can not expect to naturally and organically just hear his voice. We need to carve out time and space in which we are intentionally listening for the Lord's voice. We can hear his voice when we engage in daily prayer, when we spend time with the scriptures and when we create daily, intentional times of silence.
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Imagine the impact the Church would have in the world if all Christ-followers authentically lived out the Gospel! One of the valid criticisms voiced by non-believers is that Christians don’t “walk the talk.” Our witness becomes one of hypocrisy rather than authenticity when we hear God’s Word but don’t put it into practice. Today’s readings invite us to consider the extent to which we “hear and observe” God’s word. As we more genuinely follow Christ’s teachings, not only will we experience the blessings of abundant life, but we become influential witnesses to Christ’s truth and love, drawing others into the presence of God. Our lives become contagious with the Gospel as we hear and transmit life and love.
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
We hear in the first reading Azariah imploring God to protect him in his personal situation, as well as the people of Israel in their national situation. These people are cut off from the way they connected with God for generations: temple sacrifice. By worshiping God in the Temple, ancient Israel meet the Lord and were assured of his presence and covenant. We too sometimes feel cut off from God. The Sacraments can be a little more difficult to access these days. Worship looks and feels different than it once did. It is a long, desert time.
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Children of Men came out when I was in college. If you are unfamiliar with it, it is a movie based on a book and is set in the near future after a near-apocalyptic tragedy. Human beings stopped being able to conceive children. The movie is set nearly two decades after the strange event and this gritty, violent, and intense movie shows the imaginings of how much harsher the world would be if we were not tempered by our love for children. This may spoil part of the movie for you, but this theme is driven home when an entire warzone comes to a halt as soldiers hear the cries of a newborn child being carried through the violence. The darkness and grittiness of Children of Men came to mind as I read today's first reading.
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
All of today’s scripture focuses on the great mercy of God. This is the Good News! We find great joy and hope in the belief that God will always be ready to forgive and welcome us back. The challenge for us is that we sometimes believe that God’s mercy should be limited to those we believe deserve His forgiveness. Jesus reminds us that God’s mercy is beyond measure and is available to all who ask and believe.
Friday of the Second Week of Lent
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes”
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
It is really to his credit that the rich man in Luke’s gospel wants so desperately for a message to be given to his five brothers to change their ways so that they will avoid the destiny he has met. Because of his desire to spare his brothers, we know that he is not simply a bad person. As he suffers, he thinks of his brothers. Abraham responds saying that it will be up to his brothers to work out their salvation. The rich man can’t do it for them.
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Today’s Gospel starkly confronts us with our call to emulate Christ. It gets our attention, bringing us face-to-face, front and center with our Lord himself, the Suffering Servant. As I look him in the face, the One who was so purely humble, selfless, and willing to suffer, even to undergo death for me – do I see myself mirrored there? Do I become more aware of my self-serving tendencies and inherent selfishness? Today’s Gospel brings us to a place where humility and pride collide. As we read and pray, let’s allow the text to read us, to read our lives, and to humble us toward a more authentic life of servanthood.
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
Prince of Gomorra! What a name! Why is Isaiah calling his readers this? There must be some bad people that the sacred author is addressing, right? But rather than punishment or vengeance, God is calling for repentance. ‘Set things right. Make justice your aim.’
Monday of the Second Week in Lent
The Word made flesh. This is who we believe Jesus is. He, though intangible, entered into tangible reality. The mind that thought up toes could now wiggle and even stub his own! In doing so, Jesus exhibits an extraordinary ability to teach in tangible ways. He can break things down for us and give truly practical analogies. He teaches us both with his words and the way he uses them.
Saturday of the First Week of Lent
In today’s gospel, Jesus invites us to be “perfect” like the Father. As human beings, we are made in the image of God, yet our humanity is filled with imperfections and sin. Jesus recognizes our weaknesses, and calls us to look to Him to know the way to love in the most perfect way.
Friday of the First Week of Lent
“Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked?” (Ezekiel 18:23a) Although the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel tells us this was God’s rhetorical-like question, I found myself asking myself that question as I read today’s first reading. If I’m completely honest, I have (like most people, I suspect), enjoyed an occasional Good vs Evil movie or novel in which the wicked character dies, especially if their death involves what we perceive to be much deserved suffering. And I’m sure I have been tempted to rejoice at the actual death of a seemingly evil or wicked person. Whether or not we derive any pleasure from the death of a wicked person, thankfully our God does not.