Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
We are now about halfway through our season of Lent; yesterday began our fourth week dedicated to repentance. But in the midst of this repentance, we are also reminded that Lent is not simply about our repentance. Although we take on various Lenten sacrifices, we are ultimately called beyond these to the beauty of our salvation. In this season of Lent, we are called to praise God, for He has rescued us, as the psalm response for today proclaims (Ps 30:2a).
Fourth Sunday of Lent
I visited the Montgomery County Jail last week to hear a confession. When somebody makes a life-changing confession, I often remind them that the person who came into the confession is not the person who was going out. In other words, a person comes into the confessional a sinner but leaves a saint. But I could not say that to this man, because he was not going out anywhere. In spite of his confession he would still be in jail. In fact, I would be the one who would be going out. As I left the doors of the jail, I had that weird sense that even though this man was incarcerated, that at this moment he was more liberated than I was. Talk about irony, talk about light and darkness, talk about sin an holiness, talk about blindness and being able to see… it was truly weird. My puppy, Tutu helped me to overcome my weird sense.
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
The great Catholic fiction writer, Flannery O’Connor wrote a short story entitled “Revelation” in which the main character, Mrs. Turpin is a Southern white farmer, who is social, keeps up a nice appearance, and is well-respected. However, a glimpse into Mrs. Turpin’s head shows a different picture:“If it’s one thing I am… it’s grateful. When I think of all I could’ve been besides myself and what all I got, a little of everything, and a good disposition besides, I just feel like shouting, ‘Thank you, Jesus, for making everything the way that it is! It could’ve been different’”
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Usually by this time, the end of the third week of Lent, I’ve started to waver a bit in my resolve to abstain from certain foods, to pray for certain things, to give money generously. Particularly I have difficulty with my decision to abstain from certain foods. As with New Years’ Resolutions, I start thinking that eating just a nibble of something or other won’t really hurt, and before you know it, I’m way off the track. Or, even if I have by some chance made it this far without succumbing to temptation, I find myself tired and annoyed with Lent, saying, “Okay, I get the point now. Can we get to Easter already?” But it turns out instead that there are another three long weeks ahead.- Jana M. Bennett
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Today’s responsorial psalm refrain “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” could be a slogan for Lent (Ps 95:8). This is a time of the liturgical year when we work on hearing God’s voice and responding with love. If we think that this should be an easy task, we need only look at our two readings for today in order to see that it is not.
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Many years ago in a community in which I used to live, there was a wise old brother. He had a very gentle spirit and a faith that seemed to root him deeply in the Lord. His words were sometimes beyond my understanding yet, what I comprehended challenged me to my core. The man’s life, as a Brother of Mary, had taught him many lessons both joyful and difficult. Still, his passion for his faith and his desire to share it remained undimmed by years. Even to this day, his inspiration challenges me not to forget what I have been taught and to make sure that I share it with those whom I teach.
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
I sometimes wish that I had a more dramatic conversion narrative. Having grown up in a Christian home and accepting Christianity from an earlier age, I have sometimes envied those who have more of a personal story to tell about their faith. It has often seemed that it would mean more to me or be more ‘real’ if I did have such a story to tell. I sometimes find it hard to relate to the man in the story, who is described as a great debtor, because I often don’t think of myself in those terms. And yet I know the story is meant for me just as much as for anyone else. I think Jesus is cautioning Peter (and us) here about not taking our salvation for granted. No matter what we think we have been saved from, we still need to work on forgiving others.
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
As we begin this third week of Lent, we have a story from the Second Book of Kings. It is the story of Naaman, a man who is a well-respected army commander. But Naaman is also a leper. Such a disease in that time led someone to be an outcast from society. Naaman’s leprosy threatened his family, his career, indeed his entire future. Perhaps out of sheer desperation, Naaman took the advice of a little Hebrew servant girl and went to Israel seeking a cure. When the prophet Elisha told Naaman to wash in the Jordan, however, he became indignant and almost left the country without his cure. Eventually Naaman did wash in the Jordan and was cured of his leprosy. More importantly, Naaman also came to faith in the God of Israel. There is a theme of acceptance here: Naaman himself had not been accepted, on account of his leprosy. After his healing, however, Naaman comes to accept the God of Israel.
Third Sunday of Lent
I need your help. Is there anyone here who has given up something you like for Lent and you are really hurting? And when you crave or desire what you have given up, what do you do? Do you just say, “Let me hang in there for just another three weeks? Or do you try to find a spiritual value to your Lenten practice? Is your Lenten observance making you a better person?
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Today’s gospel might initially wash over us as the story we’ve heard many, many times of the “Prodigal Son” who lavishly spends his inheritance on pleasures and is left tending the swine and desiring their food. He then returns to his father to beg for mercy.
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
King Ahaz, mentioned in today's first reading (Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10), was considered to be a wicked king. He reigned a couple hundred years after King David, and in that time, the Jewish people had become split into two: there was a southern kingdom called Judah under King Ahaz, and a northern kingdom called Israel. According to scripture, King Ahaz introduced many idolatrous things into the temple, consulted mediums to ask the dead (rather than God) for advice on what to do, and even sacrificed his son because of his spiritual sensibilities. During his reign, the northern kingdom of Israel was crushed by the Assyrians (an enemy of both kingdoms) and so the Jewish people were torn apart even further than they had been before.
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Most of us have our moments of envy for the very wealthy. We think it would be nice to have a new luxury car or to have a spacious house or to go on vacations around the world. It is hard for us to be satisfied with what we have, even though by the world’s standards, most of us in the U.S. are pretty wealthy. God’s message, however, has always subverted the human view of wealth. For in God’s eyes, the material possessions of human beings are worthless, and what matters is our relationship with God and our willingness to do his will.
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Although it was a hit ten years ago, Toby Keith wrote a song called “I Wanna Talk about Me”. The song is about a person who has a friend who always wants to talk about them self. It is funny how the brain makes connections as today’s readings brought this song to mind. The readings illustrate how Jeremiah and the disciples seem to be singing a self-centered song.
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
I have been confronted lately with the many things that are going on in the world. The economy continues to improve, but too many people are still unemployed. Wars continue to rage, and non-combatants get caught in the crossfire. All we have to do is turn on the news to hear another story of how horrible people can be to each other, or of a problem that seems insurmountable. In such times, I am tempted to despair. Sometimes, too, when I am confronted with my own faults and sinfulness I am tempted to despair that they can be overcome. Joel Schickel
Monday of the Second Week of Lent
As we begin this second full week of Lent, we are reminded of our human sinfulness. In God, we have a wonderful, loving Father, and yet so often we choose to do other than God’s will for us. Our sinful actions hurt ourselves and others and they even rupture our relationship with God. Hence we are “shamefaced”! This is the sentiment of our first reading from the book of Daniel.
Second Sunday of Lent
If you were here for mass last week, you know how uncomfortable I was with the rather hurried up mass. We had to do this because of the Rite of Election but I remember a few years back a man met me at the parish festival. He introduced himself to me and told me that at one time, he used to be a parishioner at this parish. So I asked him what I could go for him. He said, “Give me a shorter mass!” I asked him to continue to go worship wherever he wanted to, because he was not going to get what he wanted at Immaculate Conception. What makes somebody ask something like that? It also makes me ask myself, “Why do I do what I continue to do?” I was telling one of my friends the other day, “If somehow God did not grip my life the way God did, it would so easy to not put my heart and soul into the things I do.” But I can look back to when I was about nineteen years old and that first experience of God’s all- consuming love. Life has not been the same. I am not saying that I have been immune from bad decisions, failures, mistakes, and sins; but that one single God-experience has defined the rest of my life.
Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today we pause in our Lenten preparation to celebrate a solemnity—the highest order of celebration in the Church—in honor of Joseph, husband of Mary.
In today’s first reading from Samuel we have one example of the Jewish expectation that the Messiah, God’s anointed, would come from the house of David. David was the greatest king of Israel and God promises to raise up an heir, a servant of God, from the house of David.
Friday of the First Week of Lent
I know that we live by first impressions. My dad (in charge of hiring employees at his company) always instilled in me how important a first impression was for the job interview. When we're meeting a person for the first time, we do judge a book by its cover because clothing, body language and the things a person says are the only indicators we have at that point of sizing up what it will mean to relate to the other person. We change our responses to fit what we see, and that's important many times. I think of when I was working in the chaplain's office at a hospital: all too often, I'd only have a few minutes with a patient and first impressions were what I had to go on to figure out what the patient might need. Was she sad? Did he seem angry? Did that patient's bruises mean possible abuse at home? All of those clues led me to respond in different ways to each of the different needs I saw.
Thursday of the First Week of Lent
In the dramatic first reading for today, Esther along with her handmaids pray, even plead, to the LORD. Her situation, and all of Israel’s in exile is desperate. They are living under a foreign king, and one of the members of the king’s royal court has asked for their deaths. Esther and her companions hence do that which is in keeping with their formation as Jews: they fast, they don sackcloth and ashes (signs of repentance), and they beseech the LORD to rescue them. Esther’s actions here are a beautiful testimony to her loyal faith in the God of Israel. Certainly, what Esther asks of God is a big request; she asks to be saved, to have her mourning turned into gladness, her sorrow into wholeness.
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Have you ever felt so right about something that you made sure that everyone knew you were right? You knew that it was impossible to be wrong; until of course, someone gently made it clear to you that your perceptions or beliefs were way off base. This has probably happened to all of us. One time, I sacrificed a good friendship in exchange for being proven the one in the right. Later of course, I realized that my now ruined friendship left me with more sadness than joy in proving my point of view. It is now years later and my friend has forgiven me, still friendship is slow to come. Thanks to my friend letting go of his anger, he was able to give me a second chance.