Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
I recently read the book Taste and See: Experiencing the Goodness of God with Our Five Senses by Ginny Kubitz Moyer. In the book, the author explores the idea of using our everyday experiences to seek and find God in our lives. Today’s gospel reading reminded me of the importance of using our senses to hear and see God, so we can follow Him as a disciple. By deepening our awareness of the world around us through our senses, we can become aware of God’s presence in the smallest details of our lives. Through these experiences we can come to know His love and compassion, and we are then empowered- by His grace- to go forth and share this love with others.
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week, the title for my homily was the “The Art of Dying Well.” The theme revolved around one thought - that the art of dying well is really about the art of living well. So this week I decided to focus in the “art of living well.” The focus of last week’s readings was death and dying. This week’s focus is on the end times and when that actually happens how might be we be found living well. The irony is that we have no insight into when these cataclysmic events might occur. The only thing we can do is to make sure that when these things do happen, we are found living well. Really! That is all we can do!
Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
While reading the passage from 3 John I wondered what that could mean for us today. How do we, the church of modern America, love so faithfully that it is testified to others? Who are our strangers that have set out for the sake of the name? Who, today, are the pagans from whom they accept nothing? I think there are many answers to these questions. Some of these answers could vary depending on the mission of a particular parish and the demographics it serves. Some answers could change based on the religious climate in a particular region. I want to look at these questions from the perspective of serving those in the midst of conversion.
Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
Intuitively, we believe that it is important for the church, and especially for our witness to Christ, that we make use of contemporary culture for witnessing to Christ. We know that different people like different kinds of music, for example, and so our parish has masses that make use of a variety of musical styles in order to help people worship. Other, more controversial topics relate to this too: use of medical technology at the end of life, birth control, gay marriage.
Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
Today is the Feast of Pope St. Leo the Great. After this contentious election, he is a great saint for us to remember. In his time, the Church had been divided for centuries over whether Jesus was truly God and truly Human, or just one of the two. Leo found a way of explaining how Jesus is one person with both a divine and human nature; this teaching unified the divided Church at the counsel of Chalcedon. We need a unifying spirit right now in our society. Saint Leo, Pray for Us!
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
We know Jesus got angry because of what we hear in today’s gospel as he formed a whip and drove of the money changers. More often than not when I hear this story the focus seems drawn to the anger. Especially in that people use it to justify their own anger. Certainly Jesus’ actions reflect an anger that we should name as righteous. Or as the scripture points out the action of driving out the money changers came out of a zeal that consumed Jesus. Jesus’ desire was that disruption of the marketplace be removed from the temple. Jesus still desires that everything within each of us, that leads us away from deeply practicing our faith, must be driven out.
Tuesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus provides the apostles with an instruction that I often need to be reminded of – serve God and never allow yourself to feel as if God owes you something in return. As someone whose profession is ministry I often find myself pleading with God, “I have given so much” or “I am on my last thread” can I not get just some time to rest and recharge?
Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Like all of us, I have had my share of opportunities to forgive others in my life. I have also given the people in my life plenty of opportunities to forgive me! But I always find today’s Gospel reading particularly challenging. How often and when am I expected to forgive? Jesus essentially tells me I must always forgive. Jesus tells me to choose the way of inner peace and freedom.
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
There is a new Catholic website. It is launched by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and it is called artofdyingwell.org - Yes, “the art of dying well.” As my own father approaches the later years of his life, I found it very helpful to visit this website. The website explains its purpose this way: “In the Catholic faith it is believed that life is a precious gift from God and death simply opens the way to new life. Planning ahead can help to overcome fear and anxiety. Perhaps it is possible to take the sting out of death and encourage acceptance of it as a part of life itself.” Then the website gives the readers various resources for life and death.
Saturday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
There are certain moments in the gospels that Jesus lays down the law. They might not be frequent or at the forefront of our minds but they are there. For some you can imagine people telling their friends that Jesus let those Pharisees have it. Maybe something like, “Get this, he told the Pharisees, ‘You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.’ Can you believe he said that to them! It’s about time somebody called it like it is.” These passages are like BB guns. You know, they are all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Well these passages are great until they convict me of my own sins and shortcomings.
Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop
What is the difference between Christians and non-Christians? It is not that Christians are any less sinful, any less capable of committing crimes, any more likely to get to heaven. Today’s scriptures make that quite clear.
The gospel (Luke 16:1-8) features Jesus’ parable of the dishonest steward (familiar because we last heard it at Sunday Mass in September). This parable has often perplexed me, because I find myself wondering why the master commends the steward for reducing his (the master’s) tenants’ debts. After all, it is the master’s money and now the master will get less in repayment while the steward has protected himself. The steward’s hope is that the people whose debts he’s forgiven will likewise find themselves generous when the steward no longer has a job.
Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Today's gospel is one many of us know well. We have heard this teaching often - that there is more rejoicing for a sinner who has repented and enters heaven than for a righteous man who enters heaven. And yet we are also taught that we are all sinners. Some sins are more public than others - but we are ALL sinners. When the two truths are factored together it changes the way we understand this gospel.
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)
Justice is a word used a lot around this time of year as we are in the midst of election season. Today, the word and especially the concept of justice appears throughout the readings. “The souls of the just are in the hands of God.” For some of us, the word “just” might seem out of place. When I stand with families who have lost someone close, many the words they speak is that the death was unfair. Indeed in our grieving, especially when a death has been recent, the loss can feel very unjust. One might question, why did God take my friend, my spouse, my parent, my sibling, or my child? There are, of course, no easy answers to these questions. Also, the answers that some people feel called to give are often of little consolation. One can understand intellectually that their loved one is in a better place, but in their hearts they long for their continued presence here and now.
Solemnity of All Saints
Today is a solemnity, the highest ranking feast in the Church. All Saints’ Day is also usually a holy day of obligation, when we are required to go Mass to celebrate this great feast, which commemorates all the saints, both those known and those unknown. In other words, this solemnity celebrates those who have achieved the beatific vision of God in heaven. This is in contrast with the feast we celebrate tomorrow – All Souls’ Day – of all those who have died but have not yet reached heaven.
Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
I recently had the opportunity to attend “The Longest Table” here in Dayton. The premise of this event was to invite people of all races, religions and from all parts of our city to come together and share a meal. Over 500 people registered, and I enjoyed a wonderful meal with people who were from many different races, ages, and religions. There was open conversation about the struggles that each individual had, and there was also a shared vision of making our city a better to place to live for all people.
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
This is my first year as a citizen… and I am soooooo looking forward to vote!!! Electioneering this time around has been brutal. This has been the mother-of-all negative campaigning. The candidates have tried their best to bring out the worst in the opponent. The goal is to make the other person look bad, so that the candidate looks better is comparison to the worst. I think a campaign should try to bring out the best in the other so that voters can decide who is the best. As a first-time voter in the US, instead of choosing the best among the best, I am having to chose the lesser of the worst.
Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Are you familiar with some of the following questions? Are we there yet? Is it finally over? When can we leave? Can I just have a break? Maybe we have heard a child asking those questions. Maybe we have asked those questions or similar ones. Let’s sit with these questions for a little bit as well as St. Paul’s words to the Philippians.
Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
In our Christian faith, the twelve apostles hold a special place of distinction. They were Jesus’ closest associates, and the ones he entrusted with mission. Today we celebrate the feast of two of these apostles, St. Simon (known as the Zealot) and St. Jude. Very little is known about either of these apostles, though there are various traditions associated with them. St. Jude, for example, is known as the cousin of the Lord and is regarded as the patron of hopeless causes.
Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Paul’s words in our first reading today replicate a warrior preparing for battle. He says, "Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."
Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
A chance encounter at the hospital recently stirred up an old fire in my heart. This person and I were sharing the lessons of our faith journey and we landed square in the middle of a discussion about salvation. The conversation seemed to be growing in a tone I feel completely uncomfortable with. As a chaplain for all faiths I work very hard to be interdenominational in my ministry. As I am a Catholic chaplain at a Catholic hospital, it is impossible to completely set aside who I am. So when someone even implicitly challenges me that Catholics are not saved, one hits a nerve in me. This is especially true if the person was raised a Catholic. Instead of taking it as a challenge, I pivoted and moved to see the next patient.