Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week I spoke to you about God speaking to me through the scriptures about returning to the love with which I first loved God. There were two realizations that came to me: first that I needed to return to God with all the love in my heart and allow God to lead me; and second, that God concretely and really spoke to me. God did not discard me or abandon me, but rather, God actually cared enough to be present to me and draw me back. In recent times, this has been the most real experience of God’s presence in my life. I truly know that God still loves me.
Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Much ink has been spilled over what exactly Jesus means in today’s gospel reading. What is it precisely that Jesus is highlighting about the children that gives us insight into the Kingdom, which he says belongs to those “such as these”? (Mt 19:14). I think that there are several insights that can help us live as better disciples in today’s world.
Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
When I teach my undergraduate Christian Marriage course, I always have students asking why the Catholic Church prohibits divorce - and what's up with annulment anyway? Isn't it just a Catholic form of divorce? Today's scriptures point toward some of the whys and the complexities of Catholic teaching about marriage and divorce.
Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father…”), which is at least each Sunday at mass, perhaps more often if we pray it on our own or with our children during the week, we are asking God to “forgive us our trespasses (or debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us (our debtors).” (taken from Matthew 6:12) Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 18: 21-19:1) is about just that. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant is a somewhat jarring parable intended to bring home Jesus’ important message of forgiveness.
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is one of the most important and perhaps most misunderstood of all of the saints. For many, Mary is a holy vessel, who we honor as the Mother of God who birthed Jesus the Messiah into our world. For others, Mary represents the reason as to why they think Catholics are not Christians. In other words some people think Catholics worship Mary.
Memorial of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
The gospel today brings up the idea that there is something childlike about Christian faith. This raises the question of the main differences between children and adults. It occurs to me that being an adult comes with certain privileges but it also includes many responsibilities that children do not have. Adults have more autonomy and they can make more decisions for themselves, but they are also responsible for their decisions in ways that young children are not. Adults may have other people – family and friends – who depend on them for material and emotional support in ways that children do not experience. And adults perhaps have more to worry about – making ends meet, providing for their families, and planning for the future.
Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Being raised Catholic, Scripture has been a familiar part of my life since I was born. It has only been in recent years that I have begun to realize how powerful Scripture is. I have come to understand that every encounter with Scripture, whether hearing or reading or praying, is an invitation to a personal encounter God. Certainly there are common moral lessons and teachings meant for all of us, but when I am open to the possibility, God can penetrate my heart the unique way that can transform me. One thing that is certain, no matter how it happens, an encounter with God will change everything.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
My trip home last month became an opportunity for an a-ha moment. First of all, I took the unfamiliar route to the airport, lost my way and then panicked. I got on the plane just on time. I was not looking forward to my six-hour layover at the Washington DC airport but it helped me catch my breath. The best analogy I can use to explain how I felt is that of a tired and worn out puppy. It was as if I was sitting in the airport huffing and puffing. It was not just the way to the airport. It was the last six months. It is when I sat down that I realized how tired I was. Later after dinner that evening, I decided to read the scriptures and connect with my Creator. My Bible opened to the book of Revelation chapter two. The passage read: ““I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked…. Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first”(Rev 2; 2-5). I sat there in stunning self-realization.
Memorial of Saint Clare, virgin
In today’s first reading we have a passage from the prophet Habakkuk. This is one of the shortest books in the entire Bible, composed of only three chapters. Habakkuk wrote during a tumultuous time for Judah—Babylon was breathing down its neck, winning decisive victories all around its borders. It wouldn’t be long before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity in 597 BC.
Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr
In the 3-6 year old atrium that meets on Sunday mornings, I have a lesson I give during Lent for the older children about the grain of wheat that is the focus of today's gospel (John 12:24-26). I use it to help them think about how Jesus dies but rises again, and gives us new life. We grow wheat seeds over a period of about six weeks, and we dig them up each week to see what is happening. At the end of the six weeks, I also show them a fully grown wheat stalk, full of seeds, but also dry and yellowed, not at all like the green shoots we've been examining. We compare the seeds and we see that the seeds are like the ones we've been growing.
Thursday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
To know something “by heart” is to know it so well that you don’t have to see it written down in order to remember it. I recall memorizing piano pieces when I was a young girl and being able to play them without the music. It wasn’t just that I had memorized the notes printed on the page, but that I knew it so well that I could play it and feel it without having to think very hard about it, as if it were part of me. In fact, sometimes “thinking” about it too much would mess me up; it was better if I just played it “by heart” and let my fingers go where they knew to go.
Memorial of Saint Dominic, priest
Hope is a word we use quite often, yet I was confounded as I tried to think of how to define it. Still it was the word that kept coming to me as I prayed with the readings today. Ironically, it is not a word that appears in the scriptures the Church has chosen for today’s Memorial of St. Dominic.
Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
As Christians we often pay lip service to the idea that every believer can approach and grow closer to God, but how does someone approach God? I wonder whether when we say this we are really paying attention to what is involved in approaching God. The very idea of coming into God’s presence can sometimes seems so nervy and presumptuous that we hold ourselves back from growing closer to God. The readings for today respond to these worries. They speak to the awesomeness of God’s presence, but they also invite us wholeheartedly to strive to turn to meet God and to live our lives in God.
Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Today we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Not only do we see Jesus’ glory revealed in the readings today, but we hear about the His relationship with the Father, and how it is from the Father that He receives His glory and blessings. The readings today also invite us to be transformed by listening to Jesus and following Him. As we become more like Him, we too can be a reflection of God’s glory.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
For the next three weeks our gospel reading will be taken from chapter six of John’s gospel. Most of this chapter is the bread of life discourse. It began last week with the miracle of the multiplication of loaves and will end with many disciples ceasing to follow Jesus because his teachings were too hard to follow. In between these two events is sandwiched Jesus’s teaching of him as the “bread of that came down from heaven” and him being the “bread of life.” Since we have three weeks to understand every aspect of this teaching, I would like to explore every possible meaning of Jesus teaching. I would like to keep the more strictly Eucharistic themes for the coming weeks. Today, I want to reflect on the more unconventional interpretations Jesus teaching on the bread of life.
Memorial of Saint John Mary Vianney, priest
Today’s readings encourage us to reflect upon our ability to listen, especially to words that we don’t want to hear, and to discern the voice of God.
Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Sometimes, I think, it’s easy to forget how awesome, almighty and mysterious God is. At least I know that I don’t reflect on that on a day-to-day basis as I’m living my life taking care of the kids, keeping the household running, following up on doctors’ appointments and other responsibilities, trying to fit in exercise and maintaining contact with friends and extended family. I try to pray on a daily basis beyond our daily dinner and bedtime prayers with the kids; I certainly take my worries and troubles to God. And I think of my relationship with Jesus as a pretty good one that has, thankfully, been formed in a church and family that emphasized the forgiveness of God, the gentleness, the loving kindness. And I do believe that is a good thing.
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, bishop and doctor of the Church
Have you ever felt truly alone? There are a variety of ways through which we could arrive at such a feeling. More often than not, it comes about because we feel like we have been abandoned. This abandonment may come about through broken friendships or shattered relationships. It can happen to any of us at almost any age. Abandonment can seem so severe that we feel as if God has forgotten us. These grave moments demand that we exercise care to keep our faith.
Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Once again today we have frank, and even mournful words from the prophet Jeremiah. Yesterday we heard the people of Israel compared to a rotted loincloth. While today’s words are not quite so imaginative in portraying the worthlessness of the people of Israel, Jeremiah nonetheless illustrates the destruction of the people of Israel. They are suffering, they are hungry, they cannot overcome their situation. In desperation Jeremiah calls out to God to come to the people’s aid.