Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
We are blessed today with lots of rejoicing in Tobit and the psalm. After so much loss, Tobit finally gets to rejoice; “The Lord God had granted [Tobiah] a successful journey; he had brought back the money; and that he had married Raguel's daughter Sarah” (Tb 11:15), not to mention that Tobiah restored his sight! Tobit then expresses a beautiful hymn of praise, “Blessed be God and praise be his great name, and blessed be all his holy angels!” (14) The joyful noise continues into our psalm for today (one of my favorites), “Praise the Lord, my Soul!” (Ps 146:1b)
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
The other day, as Bill and I were returning from a lovely but also exhausting week-long trip, we passed through Xenia. We were, to say the least, wiped out and ready to be home.
Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
So often throughout the Gospels, Jesus’ opponents seek to trap him in his teaching. The religious leaders try to ensnare him by his own words in order to silence and even to overthrow him. Confronted with Truth himself, fear and insecurity prevent them from surrendering to him. These religious ones demonstrate not only their ignorance but also their lack of faith and trust in the God whom they profess to follow. In today’s Gospel, the Sadducees present a scenario about marriage as the basis for their trap. Ironically, they fail to recognize the Bridegroom who stands in front of them. Today, may our hearts burn within us with desire for our Bridegroom and may we set our sights on the Marriage Feast that awaits us in glory.
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
I am sure at one time or another you have heard about the terms "false piety." There are many ways to explain what it means but one way to understand it is to say that false piety is when one's religious practices and life to not blend. It is when faith and life do not form a harmonious whole. Another words for "false piety" is hypocrisy. False piety or hypocrisy can be counter-productive. It can put off people around us. It can even drive people away from God and faith.
Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
In the culture of ancient Israel, a father was obligated to circumcise, teach Torah to, acquire a wife for, and pass on a craft to his sons. This was even a greater priority when it came to an only son.
Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Do you ever think about Jesus being hungry? I tend to think of Jesus tending to others’ needs, like the feeding of the five thousand, or allowing his disciples to eat the grain in the fields when they were hungry on the Sabbath. Today’s gospel from Mark includes the very familiar passage referred to as The Cleansing of the Temple that speaks of Jesus’ anger, but there’s also this somewhat strange story about Jesus being hungry that stood out to me today.
Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr
We are so used to seeing the many things and people around us, that we often take them for granted. After all, how many of us wake up and greet the world with amazement, as though we are surprised by what we see? Perhaps, hopefully, there are some. But many of us no doubt groggily roll over only to slump out of bed to our familiar surroundings, so that we may begin our regular routine of coffee, breakfast, showering, teeth-brushing, dressing, etc.
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today is the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and join our voices with Mary’s Magnificat. I invite us to approach this day in profound humility and deep faith, asking our Mother to lead us to her Son that we might become more like Him. May we have the audacious faith today to believe that our Mother desires to draw close to us, to visit us, even us.
Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
In the text from Mark before us today, we receive a bold challenge. Peter announces that the disciples have given up everything to follow Jesus. Jesus talks about giving up the kinds of possessions that people value most. He names houses and land, which were surely among the most prized possessions for people of his time.
Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
Mother of the Church, fairest daughter of Israel, and sacred vessel chosen by God. Eve approaches you like mother to daughter, Old Eve to New Eve—two mothers of souls both on earth and in heaven. - Robert Cardinal Sara
In 2018 Pope Francis established Mater Ecclesiae as a feast to be kept on the Monday after Pentecost.
In the Fourth Gospel, Mary the Mother of Jesus and the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved keep watch on Golgotha. They are symbolic of the entire Church gathered at the foot of the cross. In fact, in that Gospel, the Holy Spirit is gifted to them when Jesus is pierced with the lance, symbolized by the blood and water flowing from the wounded side of Christ. This flowing blood and water gives birth to the sacraments of the Church and, in John, the Church itself.
Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter
We have come to the last day of the Easter Season, and with it to the end of both the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of John, both of which we have been following throughout the Easter Season. Both of these endings gesture toward the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome. In today’s first reading Paul has arrived in Rome under house arrest. Even under supervision, he continues to teach and spread the Word. With Paul’s arrival in Rome the exhortation of Jesus to His disciples at beginning of Acts (1:8) has been fulfilled, the Gospel has been preached “to all the ends of the earth.” Yet, Paul still stands to be a “witness” (the literal meaning of the word “martyr”) to Jesus in his forthcoming death in Rome.
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest
I have had facial hair of some kind for over 15 years. For the first time last fall, I chose to grow a full beard. In the work that I do, I meet a lot of new people on a regular basis so for many folks this year, they have only known me with a beard. Several times in the last few weeks, those same people have been in for a surprise as they’ve encountered me since I shaved the beard on Good Friday. One new student to CJ even asked me recently if I would grow the beard back because she can’t get used to the “new” look. My favorite thing to do though, is to share a picture of what I looked like on Holy Saturday (much to LeeAnn’s dismay). For one day, I shaved all of my beard and left only the mustache. The picture is quite alarming and the strangeness of the look was both humorous and ridiculous. With our feast today, I like to think that I was just channeling my inner St. Philip Neri.
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
In Luke’s Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. Thank you, disciples! I pray a lot. And I’m confident that most of the time I really don’t know what I’m doing. That’s a big reason why I admire the practice among the Amish of not praying out loud, even in church. By praying silently, they acknowledge the limits of human prayer and the temptation we humans have to call on God in public prayer for our own reasons, as if God ought to want what we want.
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Our Gospel reading today is part of Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” that spans all of chapter seventeen in John’s Gospel. In this prayer, Jesus prays for himself, his disciples, and all believers. The passage today is part of our Lord’s prayer for his disciples. As we know, we are his disciples, too, if we love him and seek to follow him. So, Jesus’ prayer is for you and for me. We can be 100% certain that Jesus prayed according to his Father’s will, and so let us join him in his prayer today, confidently inviting God to consecrate us in the truth.
Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
This week the Church Universal looks towards Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, concluding Easter. The Holy Spirit hovered over the waters of Genesis, spoke through the prophets, and was poured out at Pentecost. The long desired Paraclete comes as our comforter, our sustainer, and our counselor. Veni Sancte Spiritus!
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
My husband and I enjoy hiking, and besides the beauty of nature, one of my favorite parts of our time together is the deep conversations that we share. Just recently, the subject of why we pray for others was a topic that we addressed as we trekked through the woods. Jesus brings up the idea of coming to God in prayer, and he assures us that God listens when we ask because of God’s great love for us.
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?
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter
As the cliché says, our lives are quickly changing. In the first reading, we see Paul failing to convince his own people that Jesus was the Messiah, and so he moves on to Plan B, the Gentiles. And in our Gospel, Jesus is once again speaking in cryptic language about his death and resurrection that will happen ‘in a little while.’
Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Whenever I read Acts chapter 17, I’m always drawn to the phrase “in him we live and move and have our being.” It’s so remarkable that our lives, the things that make us human, and our very existence find their place in God. God is not something or someone we seek from afar; God is someone we find within us and close around us. I invite us to meditate on and contemplate this phrase today, in him we live and move and have our being.
Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
It can sometimes seem as though Jesus is far removed from our 21st-Century lives in Dayton, Ohio. His life and ministry on earth is certainly removed from us by many centuries. He lived in a time when the world was very different, and he lived and worked in a much different cultural context. I find that my own sense of being far removed from the historical figure of Jesus sometimes has the danger of allowing me to make excuses for myself: in particular it allows me to pick and choose the ways that I am willing to follow him. I find myself sometimes asking how Jesus expects me to follow him when he is so far away from my life. This in turn can make me less passionate about my faith and less certain of my role as a Christian in the world around me. The scriptures for today speak to these concerns and show that this way of thinking is mistaken. They remind us that Jesus remains very close to us, in many different ways but in particular through the operation of the Holy Spirit.