Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

If Jesus is truly the Son of God (and He truly is), we must live our lives differently. We must be willing to follow Him everyday in taking up our cross. We proclaim Him savior and Lord, and so we take up the Cross of our vocations, finding there life and holiness.

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

A sinful woman finds forgiveness because she has demonstrated her love and contrition to the Lord. When we respond to the Lord's ail for our lives, we, too, come to His feet and honor him with our love and commitment.

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus raises the widow's son and gives him back to his mother. Perhaps it was because He knew the grief that His own mother would feel as she would stand beneath His cross, and wanted to give her a sense of hope. He looked with compassion on the widow, no matter the reason. The young man must have lived his life differently because of Jesus' compassion. We, too, have been snatched from death by Jesus - do we live differently?

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ reminds us of the absolute centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. Jesus Christ gives us this gift to make us the Church, and gives the priesthood to continue to offer the memorial sacrifice He initiated on the cross.

The sequence that the Church gives provides much reflection:

Sion, lift thy voice and sing;
Praise thy Savior and thy King;
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Dare thy most to praise Him well;
For He doth all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.
Special theme of praise is thine,
That true living Bread divine,
That life-giving flesh adored,
Which the brethren twelve received,
As most faithfully believed,
At the Supper of the Lord.

Let the chant be loud and high;
Sweet and tranquil be the joy
Felt to-day in every breast;
On this festival divine
Which recounts the origin
Of the glorious Eucharist.

At this table of the King,
Our new Paschal offering
Brings to end the olden rite;
Here, for empty shadows fled,
Is reality instead;
Here, instead of darkness, light.

His own act, at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
In His memory divine;
Wherefore now, with adoration,
We the Host of our salvation
Consecrate from bread and wine.

Hear what holy Church maintaineth,
That the bread its substance changeth
Into Flesh, the wine to Blood.
Doth it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of sight transcending,
Leaps to things not understood.

Here in outward signs are hidden
Priceless things, to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things, are all we see:-
Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine;
Yet is Christ, in either sign,
All entire confessed to be.

They too who of Him partake
Sever not, nor rend, nor break,
But entire their Lord receive.
Whether one or thousands eat,
All receive the selfsame meat,
Nor the less for others leave.

Both the wicked and the good
Eat of this celestial Food;
But with ends how opposite!
Here 'tis life; and there 'tis death;
The same, yet issuing to each
In a difference infinite.

Nor a single doubt retain,
When they break the Host in twain,
But that in each part remains
What was in the whole before;
Since the simple sign alone
Suffers change in state or form,
The Signified remaining One
And the Same forevermore

Lo! upon the Altar lies,
Hidden deep from human eyes,
Angels' Bread from Paradise
Made the food of mortal man:
Children's meat to dogs denied;
In old types foresignified;
In the manna from the skies,
In Isaac, and the Paschal Lamb.

Jesu! Shepherd of the sheep!
Thy true flock in safety keep.
Living Bread! Thy life supply;
Strengthen us, or else we die;
Fill us with celestial grace:
Thou, who feedest us below!
Source of all we have or know!
Grant that with Thy Saints above,
Sitting at the Feast of Love,
We may see Thee face to face. Amen

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity Gives us an opportunity to reflect on who God is in Himself, not just what He does for us. When we say God, we are speaking of a mystery - three persons united in one existence. Our minds cannot grasp it, but the goal of our lives are to experience the vision of God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - for the rest of eternity in heaven

The Ascension of the Lord

As we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, we remember that the Lord does not leave us to our own devices, but goes to a place of privilege to watch over and guide us. From there, he sends the Holy Spirit (of which we celebrate the descent next weekend) to be our advocate and guide. So we continue to follow the Lord here on earth, and follow Him in to eternity.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Christ gives us peace that this world cannot give, or even begin to understand! He gives it without conditions and expiration dates, and it is not something we possess. Unlike the world's promises of peace and happiness, this peace is not reliant on external things, but rather on the presence of Christ in our lives. Christ's peace does not fail, but we can fail to accept it.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Christ makes all things new! He gives us a new commandment to love one another, but in reality, it is a fulfillment of all the commandments - when we love one another, we are loving God as our creator and Father. As Christ makes us new, pouring His grace in us, let us in turn renew our love for one another!

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and like a shepherd, He speaks to His sheep. We are members of His flock, and He still speaks to us, but His voice is so easy to ignore. We must learn to listen to the Lord's Voice, and once we are able to hear it, to obey it. If we do, we have nothing to fear.

Third Sunday of Easter

Lord, you know that I love You! St. Peter answers the Lords question with some frustration, and regret, recognizing that Jesus is asking three times to undo the three-fold denial the night before the Crucifixion. Jesus is gentle, of course, leading St. Peter into a deeper conversion of love. The Lord stands before us, too, and asks if we love Him. How we answer must then be lived out!

Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy)

My Lord and my God. St. Thomas cries out to the Lord and all disbelief melts into faith in the Resurrected Lord. He had expressed doubt, having absents himself from the evening gathering that first Easter, but the Lord in His mercy allows him to have what he needs to believe.
The Lord knows that we are in need of a deeper faith, but He also meets that need, when we express it. Doubt is not all bad in the spiritual life, but may be the very vehicle into faith that allows us to proclaim Christ to the ends of the earth when that doubt is cleared.

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Jesus enters his Own City of Jerusalem to shouts of acclamation. The scribes and Pharisees demand that He silence them, but Jesus responds that the stones will cry out if His disciples do not. Will our hearts cry out to Him, asking Him to save us? Or will they cry out like the crowds did so long ago, rejecting Him as our king, rejecting His salvation, asking for His execution out of our lives and hearts?

Fifth Sunday of Lent

No matter what we have done, the Lord is willing to forgive, but we must make a commitment to sin no more. We are all sinners, and we remind ourselves that it is not the sin we have done, but the love of the Lord that most defines us!

Fourth Sunday of Lent

The prodigal father is an extravagant lover of both his sons. But both sons have a fatal flaw in their thinking. The first son, the youngest, asks for his inheritance which is akin to wishing the father dead. He takes the wealth, and squanders it. When it is gone, he realizes his flaw: he forgot his dignity, and though he knows he does not deserve it, he prepares to ask forgiveness and returns home. The Father restores that dignity after running to him. The older son, however, comes in from work. He refuses to recognize his brother. The Father goes to him, begs him. The son complains that he was never giving anything, even after following ever command. He does not know his dignity as son.
The question to us as the listener is not which son we are, but are we able to receive with joy the dignity that the Lord longs to give us, to know that He comes to us to redeem us!

Third Sunday of Lent

When faced with evil, we might be tempted to blame God, or say that evil happened because the person sinned. Jesus, however, states that this is a cause for conversion, that we will all perish as they did. We need to live our lives prepared. We sometimes play the spiritual game that I only have to be better than 'the other person', but what we really need is to be better, period. We need to respond to the call of God.

Second Sunday of Lent

It is good that we are here! St. Peter recognizes he is the presence of the Holy one of God, and desires to stay. As soon as he says this, though, it passes, as so often the case with spiritual experiences. But the experience stays with him, and allows him to move through the eventual scandal of the Cross to the resurrection.
When we truly experience Christ, we ought to hold on and recall it frequently. When we do, we are more able to respond to our vocations.

First Sunday of Lent

The Season of Lent is a season of self-denial and penance, when we, like Jesus Christ enter the desert of fasting and prayer. What will we find there? Perhaps a new temptation against which Christ is strengthening us; perhaps a new awareness of His love for us; it might be growth in a virtue. It might be a deeper commitment to our vocation. Whatever it is that Christ has prepared for us, let us walk boldly through this desert of Lent!

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We might have the temptation, when things do not go well, to sulk, close in on ourselves, and pull away from others. When St. Peter, after a hard night of fishing catches nothing, he is not given the chance, rather, he finds his boat has become the stage of Jesus as he preaches. Jesus rewards his patience by inviting him to go to the deep and cast his nights. There is little protest - Peter is already expressing faith - and they make a mighty catch. Peter, in humility, begs forgiveness.
When we are feeling empty, we need to find Jesus preaching to us, and listen to His invitation to head to the deep water, and to be prepared for a mighty catch!

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians about the nature of Love, which is much more than an emotional response, but rather is a theological gift that enables one to chose the good of another. It was for love that Jesus Christ took flesh and offered Himself on the Cross. He chooses to love, despite the fury that rose against Him. As we love Him, we offer Him our lives.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Lord declares the time of fulfillment is at hand. He calls people back to God, a new law and way of living! He continues to be the fulfillment of all our desires, so, as St. Paul writes, we should use our gifts for the good of others and become the Body of Christ, the Church.