Fifth Sunday of Lent

A simple request - We want to see Jesus - but it requires a radical commitment. We must die to yourselves, uniting our life to the life and death of Jesus Christ, who frees us from sin and death for an eternity with His Heavenly Father. It means killing every inclination that leads us elsewhere, of putting to death all selfish desires and empty, false causes of happiness. It means nourishing that which leads us to deeper faith, hope, and love, of embracing the Lord.

Fourth Sunday of Lent

God loves us… This is the simple truth of the Gospel, a truth captured in today's Gospel. Sometimes, we can forget this love, take it for granted, or reduce it to meaninglessness. But God so loved us that He sent his Son to redeem us. No other god, no other religion makes such a claim! God, the Only God, sent His Son to die for us. Salvation is in Him alone! He desires us to come to faith in Him.

Third Sunday of Lent

Jesus cleanses the Temple, to restore it to its proper use for the worship of God. Over time, perhaps because of the renovation process that Herod the Great began and Herod the Tetrarch continued, sellers and money changers moved into the temple. While they provided a good service to the pilgrims (after all, who always has the proper offering or coins for the sacrifice?), it was not the place. Jesus corrects this.
IN our lives, there might be things, as good as they initially started out, that are equally out of place, preventing us from fulfilling our proper purpose. May the Lord cleanse our hearts!

Second Sunday of Lent

Jesus Christ reveals to Peter, James, and John His divine nature veiled by His Human flesh as a foreshadowing of what is to come. While Christ is to die on the cross, He will be raised from the dead because He is divine. This foreshadowing is one that is frequent - it is how God the Father, who wrote the history of salvation, gives hints of how he is going to save us, gave prophets and seers the glimpse. It is seen in the first reading as Isaac, bound and laid on the altar and nearly sacrificed, Is this not a foreshadowing - the Father will provide His only Begotten Son, who will carry the wood of the Cross, and be attached to it. The Father will raise Him up again, and through His Son, Salvation will be given.
The Father speaks to the apostles with a message for us, too: this is my beloved son - listen to Him!

First Sunday of Lent

Jesus enters the desert, a place of testing and desolation. He enters society, prepared for his ministry, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and that there is need for repentance.
Note, in this short passage, we have perhaps the best explanation of formation for those responding to a vocation. They are taking out of the world into seminaries or houses of formation, ministered by angels, and among the savage beasts (like the formation staff and the others in formation), and they leave prepared for the ministry.
This Lenten season can be such a time for us, too.

Ash Wednesday

We begin the season of Lent, and as we do, we are invited to ask the Lord what He desires us to be free of or properly order in our lives so that we can love Him above all else. Note that in the Gospel, the hypocrites do good things, but for the wrong reasons - they do it all for fame. If we do it for our personal health, simply the arm feelings, or for any other reason other than the Love of God and the denial of self because of that love, we have failed.
May this season of penance, prayer, alms, and fasting by one that helps us find freedom in God.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus forgives a man because of the faith of his friends. This might strike us as odd, and in a way, it is, but this man was perhaps most paralyzed by sin. He was unable to come to Jesus Christ on his own, and so his friends bore him to the Lord, tearing up the roof so that Jesus could heal him. THat is true faith.
If we forget this miracle, we might forget the important role we have in carrying our friends and neighbors to the lord in their paralysis. We must be men and women of faith, knowing that the Lord wants us to be free from sin, and bring them to Him in our prayer.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Lord desires us to be free, so He heals the leper. Not all the time, though, is healing bodily. The healing that we do experience, often healing of our spirits, demonstrate Christ's love. No longer does He tell us to not tell anyone, so we should follow the example of this leper and tell all how we were healed.

New Prayer Calendar posted

I have posted the new prayer calendar for March through August. I also posted the full-page calendars, too. I will rename it/move it the end of the month, which is why it is named "future".

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus heals Simon Peter's mother-in-law, but knows that he came to preach in more toms that just Capernaum. He tells them that they must move on. His purpose drives His action.
When we know why God created us (certainly to know, love and serve Him) with some more clarity, it sets us on a path. We must follow Jesus's example, therefore, and spend time in prayer in asking the Father what purpose He has planted in our hearts.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus does everything He does from his own authority. In Greek, the work for authority is literally "from one's being". While the crowds did not understand that He was God, they did understand that He was working from his own power. He taught and healed as who He was.
We who follow Him work with His authority. But He also gives us authority as sons and daughters of God. Do we use it for the purpose with which it has be given?

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Did the fishermen understand what this seemingly simple explanation mean, or did they just follow, knowing that in time all would be revealed? They were asked to be formed in Jesus Christ, and with that formation to bring men into the Kingdom of God by sharing the good news.
We hear that some call in our lives. We are called to conform our lives to Christ and to transform the world around us by proclaiming the good news.

Second Sunday In Ordinary Time

Speak. Lord, your servant is listening! Samuel opens his ears and heart to the Lord, who called to him but he did not recognize who was calling. He lived in a time and culture when, as the verses before this reading relate, revelations were infrequent and visions rare. But the Lord was calling - the people were accustomed to not listening. Even Eli, the priest, missed the signs the first two times. But the beauty is that once he realizes what is going on, he is able to instruct Samuel, who then never ceases to listen to the Lord.
Andrew does not struggle with listening to the God. He, as a follower of John the Baptist, hears John point of Christ Jesus, calling Him the Lamb of God. He follows Jesus. When asked what he is looking for, he answers not with a desire to see the house of Jesus, but to know Him, to see where he lives. Andrew finds Simon, and tells him. Simon and Andrew both are able to hear the Lord, and they in turn help others.
We live in time that has distanced the Lord, by and large. But we have some people like Eli, John the Baptist, and Andrew. They can help us listen to the voice of the Lord, and help us to open our hearts to Him.

Newest Edition of Vocations View

I have posted the newest volume of the Vocations View Newsletter. Click to go to the page, or Right click to download!

The Epiphany of the Lord

Christ is revealed to the nations as God made flesh, and wise men, following the star, come to worship. They open up their treasures to the Lord, giving Him gold, a symbol of His kingship, frankincense, a symbol of divinity, and myrrh, as symbol of suffering sacrifice.
While star no longer shines and leads us to Christ, we follow Christ Himself as he is true light. We come to worship all the same, and we offer not treasures contained in coffers, but the gift of our hearts, redeemed by Christ.

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Mary is the Mother of God, and on this octave of Christmas, we take a further look at her Son. To proclaim Mary is the Mother of God is a proclamation that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word of God. The Blessed Mother is often titled Theotokos, the God-bearer. It is not that she gave Christ existence - He was begotten by the Father before the ages - but gave Him flesh. Mary, Mother of God, reveals Christ to us. So we honor her, and we worship her Son who was born for our salvation.

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

Jesus Christ is born for us, having been conceived 9 months prior, nourished and nurtured in the Blessed Mother's womb with love beyond all telling. Here is salvation at last. We call to mind that fly night in which the heavens and earth united in the praise of God who sends His Son for our salvation.

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December

Unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth
And then formed man and woman in his own image.

Several thousand years after the flood,
When God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the covenant.

Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;

Thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges;

One thousand years from the anointing of David as king;

In the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.

In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
The seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome.

The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
The whole world being at peace,

Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
Desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
Being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
And nine months having passed since his conception,
Was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.

Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

Amen.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Mary responds to the message of the angel, rather to the Lord, "May it be done to me according to your word." She may not know the full implication of her response, nor how exactly this is to come to be, but she is submissive and obedient. She is not passive, though, despite the passive voice of her translated response. In the Greek New Testament, this is in the 'middle' voice - a voice that implies that while another performs the action, the subject will cooperate with the actor. Mary will cooperate, she will help the Lord bring about salvation.

Third Sunday of Advent

John the Baptist cries out for the people to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah. He knows where he stands - that he is not worthy to untie the Savior's sandals - and who he is. He prepares the way through he baptism of repentance. As we prepare ourselves to receive the savor at His second coming, that message of repentance is still relevant for us. Are we prepared to receive Christ?

Second Sunday of Advent

John the Baptist's purpose in life was clear: he was to proclaim the coming of Christ the Messiah, to prepare the hearts of those who would receive Him through repentance. He gives comfort to the people who long to see Christ, and most likely disturbed those satisfied with the status quo. But John simply proclaims the message, disturbed neither by those clamoring or opposed to come to Christ. Perhaps he can serve as an example to us who are striving to live our vocations. We must simply do our best!