Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Today’s gospel reading continues the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew that we have been hearing over the past couple of days.
Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
As I was preparing to attend mass in-person for the first time since the pandemic began, I had a conversation with our 5-year-old about why I was looking forward to going to church. I explained that it was because I would get to see Jesus--I was actually looking forward to receiving Jesus in the Eucharist but decided that using the language of wanting to see Jesus was a little more on his level. Vincent’s response was on par with his interests, “I wish Jesus would come to our house so that I can see his powers…”; most things in his world revolve around superheroes and powers. I reminded him of our prior conversations about how Jesus’ greatest power is that of his immense love for us--he died on the cross out of great love.
Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle
Jesus knows better than any of us that reconciliation is really hard. Jesus reconciled us to God by enduring torture and the worst kind of death that the Roman Empire could muster against its perceived enemies. It wasn’t just painful; it was meant to be humiliating and to serve as a warning to others who might dare to defy the order and the rules of the empire.
Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
When I read today’s psalm, Psalm 16, a powerful memory leapt to mind. My son, Jacob, now 26 years old, endured a period of nightly nightmares when he was 3 1/2 years old. So intense and consistent were these daily torments that I concluded it was, at least in part, a spiritual attack. In addition to his dreams, poor Jacob even described seeing shadowy figures near the windows to his bedroom while he was awake! After a night or two, for my sweet son bedtime became a fearsome thing to be dreaded. I took this opportunity to teach my son how to pray the scriptures. Even though he was only a toddler, I taught him simple verses that he could memorize and declare out loud when he felt scared at night. Psalm 16:1 was the first verse I taught him – “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.” For him at that age, we kept it to “Keep me safe, God.” I also paraphrased 1 John 5:18 for him, “I am a child of God; the evil one cannot hurt me.” Jacob loved putting on the spiritual armor that St Paul describes in Ephesians 6 as well; that practice became part of our bedtime routine. Perhaps you find yourself facing fear today, either from events in our world and our nation and/or from happenings in your personal life or with your family and friends. My Jacob experienced victory and liberation from his nightmares pretty immediately once he started declaring God’s word for himself. Perhaps we can take our cue from the experience of my little son and pray God’s word boldly for ourselves today. Let’s continue with Psalm 16.
Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
It’s a grim scene in today’s first reading. Israel is in the middle of a long drought. Thirst and famine are gripping the land. Elijah meets a widow and asks her for water and food. Her first response is filled with hopelessness: She and her son are about to enjoy their last meal together before starving to death, so she can’t give any food to Elijah. Rather than shining with the joy of the lord, she is a dark and dismal presence. Are you ever afraid to give to those in need because you feel you don’t have enough to spare?
Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
"I lift my eyes up to the hill, where does my help come from, my help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth!" I was able to write those words from memory because every morning my kids can be heard singing those words. While the translation differs from what we find at our link above, the source is the same, Psalm 121. My kids have Psalm 121 memorized at this point, and I think that's awesome. So let's meander around memory and joy.
Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
We live in a time like no other. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, and our country is experiencing nationwide protests and violence stemming from our society which has allowed and promoted racial inequality. As people of faith, how are we called to respond to these challenging situations? St. Paul tells us “proclaim the word!” I believe God is calling each of us to change our hearts and our lives, and then go boldly forth proclaiming God’s word of love, unity and peace.
Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
“The great crowds heard this with delight.” From today’s rather short gospel passage (Mark 12:35-37) this is what stood out to me. Who of us wouldn’t want to “delight” the crowds, “wow” the audience, or impress our social media followers? This gospel passage is a continuation of Jesus teaching and being questioned. And at this point, the crowds are impressed with Jesus, even delighted. But I don’t believe that was his goal. Jesus did not come to win the affection or admiration of people, although at times that did happen. He did not sacrifice the truth and his calling for the sake of his ego.
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s first reading, Paul writes to his mentee, Timothy, from his jail cell. Paul says, “The word of God is not chained…if we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.” Paul, in his last moments, shares with one of his successors the path of Christian freedom. Jesuit Avery Cardinal Dulles once wrote, “In the deepest sense, freedom is a gift of God because we cannot liberate ourselves from our illusions and selfish desires without divine grace.” When we spend time with scripture, how do we allow its words to draw us closer to God so we can be truly free? Sometimes our lives can be turned inward because of the many distractions we participate in for our own pleasure and happiness. However, if these distractions cause us to ignore our relationship with God, our family, and the church, we cannot experience the freedom God wished for us.
Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs
I was delighted when I opened the scriptures for today and found our first reading! I’ve been praying it for the past couple weeks leading up to Pentecost, asking God to fan into flame the gifts of the Holy Spirit in myself and in others. Just as Paul laid hands on Timothy and prayed for a particular anointing, so we received the gifts of the Spirit through the laying on of hands and anointing with the holy chrism at our Confirmation. Those fiery gifts remain within us; sometimes the flames grow dim and we need to fan the embers so that the gifts will reignite. Today is a great day for each of us to reflect upon our spiritual life and look for any embers that need to be stirred so that we can walk more confidently as followers of Christ.
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel reading is a familiar one. The Pharisees and Herodians are trying to trap Jesus by asking him a difficult question: is it right or wrong to pay taxes? In our minds, paying taxes doesn’t seem like such a controversial thing at its core. But for Jesus’ time, paying taxes actually meant giving money to the Roman state, who understood their leader to be divine. The trap, then, is to get Jesus to either encourage sedition (don’t pay taxes) or get him to sanction idolatry (pay taxes).
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
When taken as a whole there is a tension between Mary and Eve in today's readings. This is nothing new. Since the earliest centuries of the church, writers have discussed the connection, but it is still fruitful to reflect upon.
Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter Mass in the Morning
In today’s Gospel reading I find an excellent guide for how we are to live our lives. John tells the reader how he had been asking about “the one who would betray you.” Jesus’ response: “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me.” I don’t know if others struggle with this, but I am often guilty of judging others - for not acting, thinking, living or behaving how I think is appropriate. I judge them for betraying Jesus in some way - betraying his Gospel of love and goodness. Yet, I betray Jesus in many ways all of the time.
Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
“Do you love me?”
“Do I what?”
“Do you love me?”
“... For twenty-five years, I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow. After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?”
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
As I write this, it is Tuesday, the day after the Memorial Day holiday. And I am simply dumbfounded by the disregard for public health that so many people across this nation displayed yesterday. Many beaches, lakes, pools, and bars were jammed with people elbow to elbow with at most perhaps a few people bothering to wear a mask to protect their loved one, friend, acquaintance, or stranger. And while all those people were partying it up, another (at least) 2,000 Americans died from the disease.
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
A former pastor once made a great statement that has stuck with me ever since. He said, “you can’t go wrong by praying scripture.” This comment was in reference to a question about prayer. A person had lamented that sometimes he just doesn’t know how to pray. I have that experience sometimes when I simply feel at a loss for words as I come before the Lord in prayer. This pastor suggested taking a passage of scripture or even a single verse and praying it back to God. In prayer, you can alter the wording in order to make the verses more personal or specific to a situation. Today’s Gospel is part of a longer prayer that Jesus prays for his disciples (us included). I feel led to take Jesus’ prayer to God and adopt it as my prayer to God today. Perhaps you’ll join me.
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, priest
Have you even needed to leave a project behind before it felt ‘finished?’ One of the realities of being mortal and finite human beings is that we do not always control when we have to leave a job or a volunteer position, or even our life here on Earth. Perhaps it seems too soon when your child is headed off to her first day of school, or away to college. Maybe you need to move before you finished all the projects you had in mind for your house. Sometimes, we just have to go.
Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
When I read today’s Gospel passage I was reminded of a little book I read number of years ago entitled Sleeping With Bread (written by Denis, Sheila, and Matthew Linn). It talks about the spiritual power of gratitude and the benefits of the daily practice of reviewing one’s day in light of God’s grace. I initially picked up the book as I was intrigued by the title. It seems during WWII many young children were displaced from their homes or orphaned and were placed in refugee camps. These children had been deeply traumatized—abandoned, fearing for their lives and not knowing where their next meal would come from. Many of them experienced such fear at night they could not fall asleep. Someone came up with the idea of giving each child a piece of bread to hold on to as they went to sleep. In this way the child would go to sleep remembering they had had enough food to eat that day, at the same time knowing they would have food the next day as well. This simple act had a wondrous effect for those little children.
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
In today’s scripture, Jesus tells his disciples that “whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” As I read this, I realize that Jesus is telling His disciples that He is the connection to the Father, and He shows us how to ask. When our prayers of intercession flow from a deep faith in Jesus, then when we ask the Father our petitions it is as if they are coming from the mouth of Jesus. The Father hears our words and responds in love.
Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Grief is a part of life, isn’t it? No one chooses to grieve. We can be open to it or try to block it, but either way it’s part of the human experience. It’s not a choice, it’s simply a reality. Jesus in John’s gospel today seems to know that. As we remain in the Easter season, we are again taken back to Jesus preparing his disciples for his death and resurrection. And we hear that he does not try to sugarcoat what they are about to experience: “You will weep and mourn.” Jesus understood what it means to be human, to feel the pains of grief and loss. He does NOT tell them that there is no need to weep and mourn “because I’m going to rise again and it’s all going to be OK.” He acknowledges that it will hurt for a while. They will be in anguish. Do we expect to be excused from that very human experience?