Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs
When I was a Novice, a person who is in a prayer-and-study-focused stage of formation in a religious congregation, with the Marianist Sisters, I learned that one way to reflect on the Gospel readings is to fill in the blank: “Jesus is telling me (us) ____.” I will follow suit and say that Jesus is telling us to bear good fruit and to build a solid foundation.
Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
Each day at Chaminade Julienne, we pray the Marianist version of the Three O’clock Prayer together as a whole school. The prayer is a reflection on the goodness of God, our call discipleship, and our relationship with Mary, the first disciple. It is a perfect prayer to align with today’s feast and our gospel. In the gospel, we stand with Mary at the foot of the cross. Who better to understand our own sufferings and pain than our blessed Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows. Mary is a great companion in our mourning, our frustrations, our loss, our sadness, our grief.
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Today we celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Jesus’ death on the cross plays a significant role in our faith, but how exactly are we saved by the cross?
Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
I’ve retained last week’s title, “Our Life in Christ” for this reflection, as well. Both the first reading and the Gospel today paint a vivid picture of who we are in Christ. Today is the Memorial of St John Chrysostom, one of the most influential pastors and bishops of the early Church. His evangelical fervor, example of charity, and deep concern for the poor model for us this life in Christ. I’ll begin by asking you, where are you? St Paul provides the answer in our first reading. It may surprise you!
Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Eckhart Tolle once said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” Taking this statement literally would be an over-simplification of prayer, but the sentiment and spirit of the importance of gratitude is spot-on. Paul opens with it in today’s first reading: “As you received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk in him…abounding in thanksgiving.” When we worship God in prayer, we are only recalling the truth of God’s glory. When we pray our petitions and offer our longings to God, we are again only saying what God already knows we need. But a prayer of Thanksgiving tells God something new about ourselves: we are grateful. What do you want to thank Jesus for today?
Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Luke’s story of the healing of the man with the withered hand on the sabbath recalls another withered hand in Psalm 137: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither" (vs. 5).
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today’s Mary’s birthday. Or at least it’s the traditional date that the Church has chosen to celebrate the feast of Mary’s birth, her “nativity” – nine months after December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Today’s feast of Mary’s nativity is also just a week away from September 15, Our Lady of Sorrows. As a mother, it causes me to wonder: could Mary’s parents, Saints Anne and Joachim, have known what significance the fruit of (Saint) Anne’s womb would have on the salvation of the world? That through Mary’s “yes” to God, the fruit of their daughter’s womb would be the Son of God, the Messiah?
Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
I have been listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz. Recently, the topic covered was the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. I was reminded of this topic when reading today’s scripture, since a number of the gifts of the Spirit are mentioned in the first reading. The gospel reading helps me discover that when I listen to the words of Jesus and seek Him in prayer and sacrament, I open myself up to receive the Gifts of the Spirit, so I can share God’s goodness with the world around me.
Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
I’ve entitled this reflection “Our Life in Christ” because in today’s Gospel we receive three short accounts, three vignettes, each of which invite us to reflect on particular aspects of our life in Christ. I offer my ponderings; the Holy Spirit may lead you to entirely different revelations as you pray St Luke’s text. May each of us today, through the Word and by God’s grace, be drawn deeper into the love of God and be conformed more and more into the image of Christ.
Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Back in the ‘80s, as I began my 33 years at Saint Xavier High, I recall certain parents dropping off their sons on North Bend Road and then, before pulling out of the lot, glancing back to see if the boy was still there. They wanted to make sure that he wasn’t “raptured.”
Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
When I was a kid, we played hide and seek all the time. Growing up out in the country with 5 siblings, this was extra fun to play outside at night. It added another layer of challenge because of the darkness (especially in rural northern Ohio); sometimes a hider was able to sneak all the way to the base if they were quiet enough because the seeker could not see them coming. Fast forward 25 years and now my own children are playing hide and seek together. They are still young enough that they haven’t graduated to take the game outside at night but just the other day, our 8 year old was playing it in the house with our 2 year old. My favorite part about being the seeker is getting to say, “ready or not, here I come!” It gets the blood flowing and elevates the excitement as the anticipation grows for both the hiders and the seeker. This is probably a significant stretch, but in some sense, we are kind of in the longest, most drawn out game of hide and seek with God.
Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
In today’s gospel, Jesus urges his followers to stay awake and be prepared for their master’s return. This is an especially challenging command for us today. We get prepared for something we believe will happen; if it doesn’t, we lament that our preparation was a waste. We see waiting as passive, but we see preparation as active. Being ready and then not doing anything seems silly. Wouldn’t it be better to move on to the next task on our list? Or better yet, be ‘done’ for the day and enjoy a cold drink?
Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Alleluia, alleluia. Whoever keeps the word of Christ, the love of God is truly perfected in him. Alleluia, alleluia. So sings our Gospel acclamation today. The Word is alive and powerful! Our heavenly Father wants to transform us by Christ’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit, who is perfect Love itself. Today I hope to encourage you that the living Word is alive in you and its power to transform is available to you.
Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist
It’s interesting how the far the account of John the Baptist’s death in today’s gospel reading parallels the Jesus’ passion narrative. Both Herod, in this passage, and Pilate in the passion narrative hold the power of life or death over persons they acknowledge to be holy and both operate out of fear. Herodias and the crowds stand in the place of the accusers: they hold such hatred for these men because of John’s and Jesus’ teaching, which challenged the way that they lived their lives. Both John and Jesus were given a proper burial by respected people who requested their bodies from the authorities. This similarity is notable because today we celebrate the memorial of the “martyrdom” of St. John the Baptist. “Martyr” in an interesting word. In Greek it means “witness” and in the early Church it came to mean those who died for the sake of Christ. Often their deaths had, or were narrated as having, parallels to Jesus death. This is especially clear in the account of St. Stephen, often called the first martyr, in the Acts of the Apostles (See Acts 7).
Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Today we hear the oldest verse (49 CE) in the entire New Testament, from I Thessalonians 1:1: “Paul, Sylvanus, & Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians…” The three missionaries named were leaders of the early Church. But there are many early leaders whose names never landed in the scriptures.
Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
We still have on our wall the cross-stitched gift a friend made for us as a wedding gift thirty-four years ago with the verse found in today’s reading, “For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live I will live, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16b) It was (and maybe still is) a popular verse for wedding liturgies and gifts, and understandably so. But the context of the verse, as you might already know, is not a married couple or romantic relationship; it’s the loving bond between a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.
Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
In our daily lives, we meet people who we do not know. Whether we are at the grocery, school, work, or even church, we interact with others who are strangers. Unfortunately in our polarized world, we may find ourselves judging and choosing to exclude these “others” because they look different, speak a different language, or even have a different mindset. Jesus calls us to open our hearts, minds and arms to others, so we can recognize that Christ dwells in every person, and every encounter with another is an opportunity to find God.
Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel is my favorite of all our Lord’s parables. I’m moved every time I read it by God’s generosity, extravagant mercy and grace, and the startling paradox revealed. Typically, I would read it as one of the laborers hired first, pitying those hired last and praying for greater humility to celebrate God’s grace to them. God forgive me! Today, I receive this Gospel from an entirely different perspective; today I am the worker hired at 5:00pm. Where do you find yourself in Jesus’ story today?
Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
If I ever meet someone who claims to be an angel of the Lord coming to give me an impossible-sounding mission, my first thought will probably be, “either I’m crazy, or this guy is…” So, we can hardly blame Gideon for wondering if the person standing before him was really an angel. After all, Gideon was from the biggest loser in a family of losers: “My family is the lowliest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father’s house.” How could such a wimp take care of the biggest problem in the whole Kingdom of Israel at the time, the Midianites?
Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
Today’s reading from Judges reveals that during times of great difficulty God raised up judges to guide Israel. This was before permission was given to God’s people for a king, because YHWH alone was Israel’s king.