Fourth Sunday of Advent
The Beacons of Light initiative of the Archdiocese has been a needed but complex and challenging process. Personally, having been right in the midst of the process as a parish priest, its impact on what lies ahead is frightening. Considering the humongous task ahead, honestly, I feel very, very small. I wonder if you have felt similarly – where an experience or a life situation makes you feel small.
Third Sunday of Advent
The third Sunday of Advent is always celebrated as “Gaudete Sunday!” Translated as “Rejoice Sunday,” the name comes directly from the scripture readings chosen for the day. “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” (Zep 3:14). In today’s second reading from Philippians, Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil 4:4). The joy that today’s reading is referring to is the joy of God’s presence – God’s healing, restoring, reconciling, comforting, redeeming presence!
In three points, let us try to understand the joy of Gaudete Sunday.
Second Sunday of Advent
Here is a real-life conversation between a pampering grandmother and a pampered grandchild:
Gigi: “Have you written your letter to Santa?”
Bugaboo: “Why?”
Gigi: “Don’t you want Santa to know what you want as a gift for Christmas?
Bugaboo: “My parents tell me that Santa is watching me all the time. Santa knows what I want!”
Gigi: “I give up!”
First Sunday of Advent
Do you find it strange that as we begin Advent and a new liturgical year, the scripture readings are about the end times? The Church’s wisdom in prescribing these readings is primarily theological. However, let me begin with a very practical human experience. Isn’t it true, that if we are driving to a new destination, the first thing we figure out is where we are going? If we do not have the destination and the directions, how do we begin the journey? We are lost if we begin a journey without the destination. In other words, our common experience is that we always begin a new journey with the end in sight.
The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
The concept of kingship is alien to us. We have never been subjects in a monarchy. We have only heard stories – stories both of benevolent and monstrous monarchs. We may understand the concept of a king or a queen, but we have never experienced monarchy in real life. Hence, the title for today’s celebration, “Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe,” comes with its share of ambiguity.
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
I have just returned from a 18,000 miles back-and-forth travel from the other side of the globe. Travel used to be fun. Now, there is more to be cautious about than the simple joy of travel. I had to get a negative COVID test report. I then had to upload it on an immigration portal along with a copy of my passport and my vaccination card. Despite all the caution and clear directions, it is hard to believe how many people show up at the airport without having fulfilled the requirements. It is painful to see people being denied boarding on to the flight. People do not follow directions. People do not take the warning and caution seriously. I am the opposite. I am over cautious. I go overboard. On the other hand nobody denied me entry. My travel was smooth. It works.
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Consider this statement - “No involvement , No Commitment.” It was made by Stephen Covey, an educator in organizational leadership in the 1990s. As a newly ordained priest in the late 1990s, I was looking for ways to live out my priesthood effectively. Someone put Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People in my hands. I found him very effective. He said, “Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment.”
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.” Does this sound like church jargon to you? It might, but it is not. Pope Francis has convoked a Synod. The theme of the Synod is, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.” This Synod is a two-year process. It was solemnly inaugurated by Pope Francis on the 9th – 10th of October 2021 in Rome and this weekend, each local Church is invited to be integral to the preparation for the Synod. The final stage of the Synod will be the celebration of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, in October 2023, which will be followed by the implementation phase in every local Church.
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The story of the rich man coming to Jesus and asking, “What must I do to inherit eternal life,” is one of the most compelling stories in gospel of Mark. In the upcoming verses, Mark will contrast this story with the story of the blind beggar who left everything a followed Jesus. But today, it’s all about the rich man.
Let me offer three points for reflection:
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
A few days back, I was in conversation with a very distraught mother whose husband had just sought a divorce. Besides the trauma of a failed marriage and every other complexity that comes along with it, she was very concerned about not being able to receive Holy Communion. She said, “I have been a Catholic all my life. I am sad that I cannot receive Communion.” This happens to be a common misconception about marriage and divorce among Catholics – that divorced Catholics cannot receive communion. I gently explained to her that she was not barred from the Sacraments. A divorce does not bar anybody from the Sacraments. It is contracting another marriage without an annulment that creates problems. Moreover, I said to the mother, “This is when you need God the most. Please, do not keep yourself away from the Church or the Sacraments.” Her road ahead is still filled with difficulty but she was relieved that she would not be alienated from the church and the Sacraments.
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Do you consider yourself to be a be a generous person? And why? Is it because you easily give money to those who need it, or because you easily forgive others, or because you volunteer considerable amount of your time to social organizations, or because you use your natural talents to help others?
Generosity is a big word. It includes a huge range of attitudes. Moreover, one may be generous in one area and be very tight-fisted in another. For example, one may donate wealth easily but be very stingy with compliments or encouraging others. One may donate time but be very jealous of other people’s accomplishments. Let me return to my original question. Do you consider yourself to be a generous person?
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
“Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?” (James 4:1) We have little knowledge about the actual happenings in James’s community, but whatever was going on, it compelled James to pose this rhetorical question to his readers. With all the conflicts raging in the world, in our nation, and in the church, it is a truly pertinent question for us too. Really, where do the wars and where do the conflicts among us come from?
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A J Jacobs is a New York journalist. He is also a Jewish agnostic. He decided to do a radical experiment – a year of living biblically. He attempted to follow every rule of the Bible literally for an entire year. The way he ate, talked, dressed, thought, and touched his wife – he did everything biblically. He did it because he wanted to see if he was missing anything. He said later in an interview later that the hardest thing to do was avoiding the sins we commit every day: lying, gossiping, and coveting. But the greatest lesson he learnt was the power of behavior over thinking. Following Descartes’ famous line, “I think therefore I am,” we normally believe that thought influences behavior. But Jacobs says that the opposite is even more powerful. He said that most of us do underestimate the power that behavior has to shape thought. “It’s astounding. I watched it happen to myself. For instance, I forced myself to stop gossiping, and eventually I started to have fewer petty thoughts to gossip about. I forced myself to help the needy, and found myself becoming less self-absorbed. I even watched it happen with prayer. After a year of praying, I started to believe there’s something to the idea of sacredness. It was remarkable. Thus, if you want to become someone different, just start acting like the person you want to be.” Jacobs now calls himself a “reverent agnostic.”
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Over the last few months, much data has been revealed about the state of Catholicism in the archdiocese of Cincinnati. The data offers little comfort. Catholicism is on the decline. We can assume that the data applies to the rest of the United States. When the data was first revealed at the priests gathering, my initial reaction was pure shock. I was prepared to hear news that Mass attendance was declining, but it was the extent of the decline that made it shocking. Those of you who attended the Beacons of Light Town Hall meeting, either online or in person, perhaps, had the same reaction. To be honest, I am not only shocked, but sad and afraid. The implications of the data are unnerving.
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
It is no more a question of speculation whether organized religion is losing its influence and power in the West. The data that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has shared in preparation for the implementation of the Beacons of Light initiative is stunning. Moreover, we say can with great certainty that the data about the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is true also of the rest of the country. Data reveals that in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, between 2010-20, Mass attendance declined 22.5%. At the same time, total number of parishioners also declined. People accessing sacraments declined 19.4%. There was a 19% decline in Baptisms, 23.8% decline in First Communions, 21.5% decline in Confirmations, 27.9% decline in weddings, and 4.5% decline in funerals. Enrollment in Catholic schools also declined 13.7%. The data is shocking but not surprising. We have known all along that organized religion was on the decline.
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
I want to share gut-wrenching stories from my ministry last week. Both these stories are end of life stories, so let me caution you that they are going to pull at your heart strings too.
The first story is the story of a middle-aged woman, who, thirty years ago was involved in a car crash. After thirty years of pain management and dealing with debilitating disability, she had reached a point of no return. Her system was shutting down and the medications could not help her manage the grueling pain. She finally made a decision to tell her family that she couldn’t continue anymore. Her mother and five sisters were present when I reached the hospital to administer the sacrament for the last time. Tears rolling down her cheeks she looked right into my eyes and said, “Father, I just want this pain to be gone!” She knew that this means allowing life to take its course. It hit me hard at that very moment. What does it mean when someone knows that the decision they are making is going lead to death?
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The feast of the Assumption of Mary is a very interesting feast. First of all, compared to the other great feast of the Church, this is a feast of modern times. This doctrine was defined by Pope Pius XII only as late as November 1950. Second, this is a non-biblical feast in the sense that there is no biblical data to support the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven. The first reading from Revelation used for this feast, for example, was not originally written in reference to Mary. The woman rescued from the dragon is the Church. This passage is about the liberation and redemption of a persecuted church. Only in retrospect does the church apply this scripture passage to Mary. Third, except for the virginal birth of Jesus, all Marian feasts are historical developments. Whether it is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, or the feast of the Assumption, at some point, the church discerned that Mary’s life, her faith, and what God accomplished in, through, and for her, need to be integral to the life of the church. Thus, here we are celebrating the feast of the Assumption.
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Scripture Readings
These are very busy months, weeks, and days. For me, the last few years have been this way. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. But I am not the only one. Everyone is busy. I don’t know how you parents balance home, work, children, family, school, and so much more. The pandemic has added even more stress on families. Really, how do you do it?
My focus, though, is just a little different. Besides all you and I ‘do,’ what is at the core? When all is said and done, what remains at the center of our being and existence?
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I am Fr. Satish Joseph. I am originally from India. I was ordained in India on the 25th of April 1994. After travelling the length and breadth of the country for five years preaching parish missions and facilitating many retreats, I arrived in the US on June 6, 2000. My goal was to pursue my master’s in communication at the University of Dayton. Immaculate Conception Church opened its doors to me and I have live there since.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Abundant generosity. When I say, ‘abundant generosity,’ can you recall an instance or personal experience of abundant generosity? I think of Fr. Don Giuseppe Berardelli. During the early days of the pandemic, when Italy was ravaged by the Coronavirus pandemic, the country was short of ventilators. The 72-year-old Fr. Berardelli gave up his ventilator so a younger patient could survive. That’s abundant generosity. It’s the kind of generosity that blows us away. Can you recall an experience when someone was so generous toward you that you were blown away?