Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to visit Murano Island in Italy where I watched the famous glass blowers create beautiful works of art. Glass blowers are very calm and collective as they undertake a process that takes time and patience. I was amazed by the artists’ perseverance, reworking their pieces by remelting the glass until they achieved a better result. Similarly, artists who work with clay know that it is a flexible and forgiving medium. If a mistake is made, the clay is simply wadded up and reworked.
Memorial of Saint Martha
Today is the Memorial of St Martha. She and her sister Mary and brother Lazarus were devoted and beloved friends of Jesus; this family enjoyed intimate fellowship with our Lord, indeed scripture indicates that they were like family to him. As we focus our attention on St Martha today, we find an invitation to enter into our own grief, fears, doubts, frustrations, and anxieties and in that space to encounter resurrection and life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you had your breaking moment with God yet? The author of today’s first reading is in the middle of his. The troubles of his world are multiplying, and it’s hard for him to see God in the destruction. His civilization was stuck in cycles of violence: war, invasion, occupation, exile. Our challenges today are different, but our reaction may be similar. The prophet Jeremiah responds with remarkable honesty and candor in his prayer to God. Often, we are afraid to ‘get real’ with God. It’s possible to believe that faith requires us to never admit that God’s actions (or lack of action) in our world don’t make sense to us. But is “why God?” an unfaithful prayer? The prophet shows us that it is not. When our actions don’t add up to the life we expect, there’s nothing wrong with telling God about our disappointment. We know we’re not perfect, but we expected better than this virus-infested, racist, hateful world. In humility, we recall that sin, both our sin and the sin of those around us, personal and social; these sins are the cause of quite a bit of the evil we experience. Just as someone else’s lack of mask might make me sick, I might end up suffering the effect of someone else’s sin.
Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's gospel impressed two themes upon me that I think are poignantly opposed to our expectations and experience today. We expect things that be as close to instant as possible and we expect to see it. However, Jesus parables seem to communicate that the Kingdom involves patience and invisibility.
Feast of Saint James, Apostle
A distinguishing feature of Gnosticism – a set of ancient religious ideas originating in first and second century Judaism and Christianity – is that matter is evil. This includes the human body. As a result, redemption requires an escape from our material selves.
Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In the Gospel today, we hear the parable of the sower. "A sower went out to sow. Some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil . . . and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold." Over the last several years, we have done more and more gardening in the various places we’ve lived. We have a new garden that we started this spring; I would not consider myself an expert by any means, but I do follow some logical steps when it comes to placement, cultivation, planting, and thinning throughout the process. We were intentional about planting the seeds in good, rich soil to give them the best chance at producing vegetables to harvest throughout the summer and fall. Why does the sower in Jesus’ parable appear to be so reckless and foolish in his planting practice? Why would he spread the seed in such a carefree manner?
Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
By the time I was six, my family had stopped going to church. I remember that my sister wanted to go, at least on major holidays. I think my brother was already an atheist by then. My mother had been raised Catholic; my father was raised Methodist. And then they stopped going.
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
Today is the Feast of St Mary Magdalene, a beautiful day to focus on our belovedness as daughters and sons of God. Early in his ministry, Jesus delivered Mary from seven demons (Luke 8:2), setting her free from a life of torment, liberating her to truly live as God’s beloved. Mary devoted herself to Christ as one of his disciples, awakened to the extravagance of God’s love for her and no doubt motivated by an inexplicable gratitude for Christ’s mercy and compassion. As we look to her example today, let us ask her intercession that we, like she, might awaken to recognize more and more the extravagant love of God. May we walk through this day recognizing our belovedness and allowing the overwhelming love of God to consume us more fully in our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies.
Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
“God will cast our sins into the depths of the sea.” It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Yet today, many of us are often unaware of our sins. We may feel inadequate or be aware of our weakness, but we are quick to forget our sins. If we don’t know our sinfulness, it will continue to weigh us down in secret. Our Lord offers something better. The Spirit can cast light upon our sins, so that Jesus can free us from them. A good examination of conscience isn’t one that makes us feel small or pathetic; it is one that opens us to God’s uplifting, cleansing Love.
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I like benches. I know some people like phone booths, or toll booths, or fractional train platforms, but I really like benches. I also really like trail cairns, but that is for a different reflection. Anyway, let's get back to benches. I like their intimacy. I like that they force those who share them to share the same perspective. I like they are often placed in beautiful or serene places.
Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In the midst of today’s many issues, sometimes I feel like there is nothing that I can do to help create justice and healing. Today’s gospel reading tells us that Jesus quietly was bringing hope to people in ways that were not always seen or heard. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be like Him bringing peace, love and justice to all people. Jesus shows us that there are small, quiet and yet powerful ways that we can make a difference in the world around us.
Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I have been formed in faith, raised in a family, taught by, and work among, educators that hold high the values of love, compassion, respect, integrity, and community (along with many other things). One of the greatest developments of my faith has been the recognition of the centralizing and centering power of Jesus--in name, in word, in sacrament. We hear in today’s Gospel, “for the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.” The Pharisees are following Jesus and his disciples around, finding yet another technicality to complain about. The disciples are picking the heads of grain to eat...on the Sabbath! Shame on them! That is against the law!
Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today Jesus invites us to rest. Paradoxically this rest comes by submitting to carrying a yoke. But rather than heavy and burdensome, Jesus’ yoke feels easy and the accompanying “burden” is light. Our Lord presents us with an opportunity today to take off whatever heavy yoke we may be carrying and to trust in his promise to lead us into rest by the way of meekness and humility.
Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Jesus winks at us in today’s Gospel reading, giving us a hint that the ones who understand God’s Kingdom best are the childlike. What a playful paradox! We are accustomed to the adults being the ones who have the answers and the solutions; we laud the experts as being the wise ones. But according to Jesus, it’s the kids who have it all figured out! Today, let us tap into our inner child and discover a fresh take on what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin
Isaiah the prophet had a great message for trembling King Ahaz. I wonder, what do we have in common with him? He was set to be attacked by two other armies at once; that’s a good reason to worry! In these days we also have plenty of very legitimate reasons to worry. The world is not alright. What does the Word offer us in these uncertain times?
Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
St. Paul promises us that, "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Nowhere in those words does he promise that all Scripture will be easy to hear. Today's readings definitely fall into the category of being difficult to hear. The challenge they bring is a healthy and holy disruption to our illusion of self-reliance. Ironically, it is only by first disrupting our placid status quo that the Lord leads us to true peace. So let's contend with these readings.
Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot
For the past few months, each night at bedtime, I tuck my 6 year old son in and almost immediately he tells me, “Mommy, I’m scared.” When I ask him what he’s scared of he often can’t put into words what he is fearing. Sometimes it’s a fear of bad dreams, sometimes it’s a fear that something bad will happen to him or to someone in his family. Oftentimes he can’t name the source of the fear, he just knows he’s scared. This is developmentally appropriate for this age, especially in light of the heightened anxiety our whole world seems to be existing within right now. Each night, as I try to alleviate his worries, we say a prayer. In the darkness of his room, we pray for God to protect him and watch over him, we ask God to watch over his family and we pray that God will fill his head with good dreams, and then we say thank you for the many blessings that have unfolded in his day.
Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture Readings
A common theme among today’s readings and psalms reminded me of Episode 1, “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit” from Fr. Satish’s recent YouTube series “A Disciple’s Pilgrimage: The Sermon on the Mount.” Maybe because I’ve never really understood the Beatitude “blessed are the poor in spirit,” I was struck by the way Fr. Satish explained that one who is poor is “one who has no other help but God alone.” Today’s readings are beautiful and genuine expressions of this desperation and need for God alone.
Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Every now and then in my generally comfortable life, I hear these words from Jesus afresh: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” I am hearing them especially fresh today as I reflect on Friday morning.
Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
My friend and I are cultivating a garden. This is my first time to tend such a large and diverse garden, and I’m delighted by the opportunity to watch the various seeds sprout, grow, and bear fruit. It’s great fun to pick fresh produce and bring it immediately into the kitchen to prepare it for dinner. We just harvested the garlic on Saturday, reaping what we sowed back on All Saints Day. The theme of “sowing and reaping” is a recurrent one in scripture. I’m grateful for the times that God gives us easy metaphors to understand our lives as children of God and followers of Christ. It’s obvious that if I plant brussels sprouts seeds that I will harvest brussels sprouts from the resulting plant. I wouldn’t look for brussels sprouts under the leaves of my zucchini plants! The same is true in my life. While the “sowing and reaping” imagery makes sense and is obvious, it’s not always easy to recognize within ourselves the type of seeds we are sowing. Sometimes we look at the harvest – the behavioral patterns of our lives, the health of our relationships, our spirituality – and we puzzle over these situations, unsure of how things got to be as they are, oblivious to the seeds we planted along the way. In today’s first reading, the prophet Hosea gives us a clear directive regarding the type of seed we must sow and what we can expect from the resulting harvest.