Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter
As summer begins, I know that I, for one, am thinking about travelling. The past few years, my summers have been filled with many trips, whether abroad or more locally. I really love travelling; growing up in an Air Force family meant that I got to see many different places as a child and I continue to crave new places to visit. But as much as I love travelling, I must admit that it is exhausting. It is mentally and physically demanding to be on the move. I wouldn’t miss my friends’ weddings, my academic conferences, or my new cultural experiences for anything, but it sure is nice to be home sometimes.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Recently I was able to attend a conference discussing children and their spirituality. The presenters offered many stories and experiences describing the great depth and awareness that children have regarding God. In many of my experiences both at work and in the parish, I have witnessed the openness that many children have to God and His Spirit within them.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Perhaps most of you know that Pope Francis has been on a twenty-four hour visit to Fatima. He was there to canonize two of the three children who witnessed the apparition of Mary. Apart from all the celebrations, he also tweeted, “Whenever we look at Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness.” On mother’s day, there is nothing more beautiful Pope Francis could have said about Mary. Mothers are the face of love and tenderness of God and Mary. In my life these days, much focus has been on my father because of his ill-health. I love my father to death. However, it is my mother who is the hero. This woman who gave birth to me, nurtured me, and loved me - this woman is my hero. Gentle yet strong, loving yet straight-forward, tender yet firm, holy yet humble — she is my hero. She is small but she has the biggest heart. My mother is my hero. As I often say, “My mother is the best mother in the whole wide world.” I am sure most of you will say that same thing about your mother.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
I don’t like sin. I think that is a good thing. However, what I really don’t like is owning up to my own sinfulness. It is a piece of cake to hate sin in another person’s life, but difficult to hate my own sins.
Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Recently, I read a book called Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner. Winner describes a mid-faith crisis as the realization that the newness, excitement and joy of faith has worn off and that the end goal of spiritual life (that is, life in God) seems quite far off. How do you make it through the middle of faith, when God seems far off, and nothing ever seems to change? Winner describes the slow, sometimes painful process of going through a mid-faith crisis - from her vantage point, it involves a lot of prayer (even when sometimes you're not sure that God is there), a lot of discussions with trusted spiritual friends, and a lot of simply being in the loneliness that a mid-faith crisis sometimes involves.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
We hear in today’s first reading Paul recounting the story of how God saved Israel and made them into the chosen people. There’s something about humanity that thrives on the stories of how we became who we are today. Who brought you to the Lord? Take time this morning to remember them and the story of how you became a faithful follower of Christ. What conversations and teachings stick with you? What actions and movements of the heart proved God’s loving way is The Way? Was it your parents, or ministers of the Church? Was it a priest or sister or brother? Was it other family members or friends? How did you come to believe, and continue believing?
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
So much of our life is driven by growth. As children we grow physically as our bodies mature. Our minds expand as we learn both academically and from experience. As adults we seek growth temporally through careers and employment, and personally through our interpersonal relationships. Most of this growth is something we can see and measure.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In the recent daily scripture readings, we have been working through the book of Acts. This book has always intrigued me. It is full of lively accounts of the activities of the first Christians and their attempts to live out the gospel. It also recounts the astonishing ways that the Christian faith spread through the action of the Holy Spirit. Although I find this book fascinating, I also sometimes wonder what this book can have to say to us in our times, since our world is very different than the world which Jesus’ apostles and early disciples inhabited. It seems to me that the scripture readings for today provide an answer to this question.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
While reflecting on this day's readings, I thought it may be interesting to investigate the origin of the word 'shepherd'. Turns out, it's one of those google searches that lead one into a 'black hole' of sorts. Yes, the meaning is fairly consistent, but I was looking for something really provocative. I wanted to use the origin of this word to say something profound. No such luck. So, I just know the word 'shepherd' stirs me and I know it refers to every person who identifies themselves as Christian.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
High profile geo-political events have monopolized our attention for more than a year now. Brexit, the American election, the North Korean conundrum, and now the French and British elections. Locally, the issue has been between fake news and alternative truth. In the midst of all the brouhaha, news about critical humanitarian crises have not made the headlines. Twenty-three million people in East Africa risk hunger, starvation, and death due to a persistent drought. The problem is compounded by ethnic conflict. As you know, the most affected people in times like this are women and children. For the past couple of weeks, I have been unable to detach myself from the suffering of the people in East Africa.
Saturday of the Third Week of Easter
I love storytelling. Not that I’m a particularly accomplished storyteller. I’ve met people who can turn ordinary, daily activities into riveting tales of anguish, joy, hope, and victory. They can take a two-minute story and captivate their audience for fifteen minutes. That gift of storytelling intrigues me. I’m attracted to stories and how they are told. Thus, I take them in however I find them. Whether they are stories told with friends over a meal, on pages of a book, from episode to episode on a TV show, through the playing of a game, or watching a movie (and yes even some musicals and plays), I love the side of our humanity that tells stories. In many ways, I think it models God, who I fervently believe is a master storyteller, but today’s readings remind me that the Lord is so much more than that.
Friday of the Third Week of Easter
In this year of peaceful discipleship, it's important to think about how to respond to our enemies - or at least to people with whom we find ourselves utterly at odds. Today's scriptures help us to rethink how we respond to our enemies, or even just those with whom we have serious disagreements.
Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
Today's readings speak to the importance of strong, honest, faith-filled catechesis. Just as Philip asks the Eunich - "do you understand what you are reading?" we are to similarly ask this of ourselves and of those in our care, whom we minister to. The Eunich's answer is one of great wisdom. "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" We cannot simply read the Bible and expect all pieces of it to make sense. We must turn to the church for wisdom and guidance - for instruction.
Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
It is amazing, that quite often in the ministry we do that we are ministered too. Amazing difference can be made through sharing ourselves and our gifts with others. In the ministries we all do, listening can be a powerful gift to those who are lonely or suffering or simply in need of encouragement. We are called to be the encounter with Christ and encounter Christ in others. Our presence can make a profound difference in a situation, and often we receive what we have shared ten-fold.
Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Today we hear the story of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. We also hear Jesus calling himself the “bread of life,” as he references the life-sustaining bread given by God to the Israelites in the desert. The writer of the Acts of the Apostles is commonly thought to be the writer of the Gospel of Luke. Acts is like “Chapter 2” of the two-part series. The writer does something remarkable with the story of Stephen. As Stephen is being stoned, the writer quotes him saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He also quotes Stephen saying, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Anyone who has read or heard the Passion narratives knows what the writer is doing: he is comparing what Stephen is undergoing to what Christ underwent. Furthermore, when Christ calls out to God the Father, Stephen cries out to God himself.
Monday of the Third Week of Easter
There were large crowds that followed Jesus throughout His ministry. Some followed Him to learn more about His teachings. Some were intrigued by the wonders and signs. Still others were hoping that He would bring their nation glory and success over the Roman Rule. So, why do we follow Him? Is it fear, curiosity, greed, conformity- or a deep desire to know God and His love and to bring that same love to others?
Third Sunday of Easter
On the 25th of April, the feast of St. Mark, I completed 23 years of priesthood. Neither was it a milestone nor did I spend too much time celebrating it. Through the busyness of the day, though, I often found myself consumed by thoughts of my many years as a priest. I am 51 years old and I have spent a little less than half of it as a priest. I spent 11 years in the seminary before that. So thirty-four of the fifty-one years have been in religious life. As I looked back at my life, I realized how these thirty-four years have been like today’s gospel story. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is symbolic of my own life. Just like them my life too has been an attempt at discipleship. It has been a marvelous journey. Yet, just like the two disciples, my journey is also punctuated by doubts, fears, anxieties, sins, and failures. In spite of my failures and occasional lack of confidence in God, I have always found God by my side. Sometimes as a stranger, sometimes as a friend, sometimes as a person who challenges me, in prayer, in the scripture, in the Eucharist, and most of all when life is rough, I have found that Christ is always there.
Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Whenever the Church calls us to reflect on the passage from Acts that is our first reading, I’m always grateful for its encouragement. Sure, it doesn’t say much about the promises of heaven, not does it eloquently restate the Christian mystery. However, there are three concrete areas where I sense the Lord’s peace as I read the passage.
Friday of the Second Week of Easter
It is so, so easy these days to feel a lot of anxiety about the world we live in: will we lose all our drinkable water by 2020? Will there be a nuclear attack from North Korea? Will the Catholic Church keep hemorrhaging members (currently 30% of the American population considers itself ex-Catholic)? Am I doing enough to fight poverty? Am I doing enough to maintain my health? And so on. The anxiety-producing questions are both global and local in scope, both focused on the needs of others, as well as the needs each one of us has individually.
Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
In the first Reading, Peter and the Apostles are “obeying God rather than men,” teaching and talking about Jesus. They witnessed everything that Jesus did, along with the Holy Spirit. Here in the Easter Season, we are celebrating Jesus’s resurrection, but also his victory over oppression, violence, worldly power, and evil. The poor always suffer the most from the sinful nature of people in positions of power. But in Christ, we have a way to rise above that worldly power. We have in the Holy Spirit an unstoppable heavenly power, freeing us from all coercion and hardship by enabling us to rise above our suffering, to use it for our sanctification. In this holy season, what do you ask God to help you rise above? What hardships do you need the Lord to transform?