Jesus leads us to slow down so we can experience the love and presence of his Father.

“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one” (Jn 17:11).

Jesus is well aware of the temptations of the world, recognizes that the disciples will need the protection of his intercession, that they will remain faithful only if they remain in his love and in relationship with him. The unity that the Father and Son share is an eternal and infinite communion. Jesus, as the Son of God, continued to be one with his Father, while fully experiencing his humanity. As a human being, Jesus faced the same temptations present in this world that we face. The difference is that with each choice that he made, as a human being with a free human will, he chose to be faithful to his Father. The unity of his humanity and divinity remained intact and deepened.

Jesus sought the same unity that he shares with his Father for his disciples, and he seeks the same for us today. His hope is that we may be one as he and the Father are one. Yet, he is not going to pull us out of the world for that to happen. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One” (Jn 17:15). The disciples then and us today, are to do as Jesus did. We are to welcome the invitation to be in a relationship with God, grow in relationship with him so that we come to know his voice and will, and share it with those we encounter in our realm of influence. We are not to be transformed by the world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds and hearts by the love of the Holy Spirit. Through our transformation, we can then bring Jesus’ light into the darkness as God works through us one person at a time.

Following the will of God is simple but not easy and hard work to undo dysfunctional neural pathways, habits, that we have built over years and decades. We are bombarded by distractions, diversions, and temptations that attempt to wear us down and draw us away from being faithful and true to God, ourselves, and who God calls us to be. Many times, these distractions not only appear to be, but are good. The challenge is not whether we are good or evil, even are we being good or doing good, but are we doing God’s will, what God is calling us to do?

Being able to stop, be still, quiet our mind, and just breathe for a sustained period can help us to learn to recollect. Often when we attempt to spend time in prayer, we finish at the moment we are just getting ready to begin, and, then wonder why nothing is happening! Making time to recollect grants us the opportunity to transition from the busy to making friends with silence.

We can deepen our relationship with Jesus and his Father and experience the love of the Holy Spirit when we slow down our pace and become still. We are also in a better place to receive the gifts that the Holy Spirit seeks to impart, his guidance to discern his direction, as well as the courage to follow his will. Resting in silence, we may also experience emotions, some that have been buried. And that is good, because we are now feeling safe enough to experience them and with God release them and begin to heal. 

St. Mother Teresa taught that, “in the silence of the heart, God speaks.” We are better able to recognize God’s voice, experience his healing, and guidance when we embrace daily moments of stillness. We are better able to identify the temptations and pitfalls, dysfunctional patterns, and sins that prevent us from healing when we go slower. We grow in discipline, persistence, and dedication when we allow ourselves to be nourished by God’s love and affirmation. 

A new way of life is available for us when we are willing to change, to be transformed, and grow beyond the comfort zone of the dysfunction we know. We can trust Jesus, such that even through the growing pains, we will experience the love and oneness Jesus shares with his Father. We are not alone.

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Photo: “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39). When we are willing to slow down, Jesus offers us his peace.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 20, 2026

In knowing Jesus, we will know God and experience the love of the Holy Spirit.

“Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (Jn 17:3).

This is our goal, to know God. Eternal life, or heaven, is not only experienced when we die. Through experiencing the life of Jesus, we can have a foretaste of heaven now. We can experience this as the joy that rises from within, that is not merely pleasure, which is a response from the stimulation of our senses, and which dissipates once the experience ends. Nor is joy even happiness which comes from the lasting memories of these pleasurable experiences. The experience of joy is not based on external situations and sensations. Joy comes from an encounter with the living God who is present to us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.

We often first experience this joy, this closeness to God, when we experience love exchanged between ourselves and another. Even a love that begins in infatuation is a drawing out of ourselves toward another. The hope is that this love matures and develops into a friendship.

This maturation happens when we spend time getting to know each other’s interests, goals, and dreams. We experience another as a person, and with time and continued trust, we begin to risk and allow our masks to be taken off. Inevitably, when relationships begin to mature, they will go through times of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict. The relationship will come to a crossroads, but this does not mean that the relationship will come to an end. If the relationship devolves into abuse, dehumanization, and self-gratification alone, the relationship will or ought to end. But if there is a mutual willingness to forgive, to work together, to meet each other with humility and seek mutual understanding, relationships will grow stronger and deeper. This is the fertile soil where love grows.

Our first experience of developing relationships is in our families. None of us are perfect, so none of us have had a perfect family life. Familial relationships develop in a similar fashion as listed above. We all go through ups and downs. The more that we can be present to one another, support one another, communicate and love one another, the more likely our familial relationships and friendships will also mature and grow. 

Where there are deep wounds that have not been healed though, and there is not yet a willingness to seek healing, hurt people can hurt people. Where there is not a willingness to heal, this will be more of a challenge. Healing begins one person at a time. We can still begin with ourselves. We can go to Jesus and allow him to love us where we are and as we experience his love we can begin to trust him. As we trust and experience the love of Jesus, we will begin to be able to face areas in our past, wounds, as well as sins, and be forgiven, healed, and transformed. “Maturing in Christ is part and parcel to a rich understanding of healing the whole person” (Fr. John Horn, S.J.).

Many of us hope to attain this healing and a place within where we can accept and love ourselves and develop mature relationships with a core group of family and friends. Many of us could be quite happy with that. Even as Jesus invites and guides us to reach this point of development, he continues to press us to strive to love beyond family, friends, and tribe. All of us are ultimately called to an unconditional love that sees in others a brother and sister seeking to be better, healed, and whole. This is not some utopian philosophy. Love happens through one concrete encounter, one person at a time. As we love God and one another, we lift all of humanity and creation up.

This will not happen through our own will power or discipline. Placing self over God and others, isolates and disconnects us from the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. God is not some transcendent, impersonal force, nor is God an omnipotent, tyrannical overlord. The God of Jesus Christ is a God of love, for “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Jesus invites us into a relationship with him and his Father to experience the love of the Holy Spirit. When we assent to this invitation, we come to know and experience a foretaste of heaven on earth, a loving relationship with God.

Jesus, please help us to experience the love of God our Father by coming to know and trust you, and in truly knowing you come to better know each other. May we see each other as our loving God and Father sees us, as a unique gift that has never been nor ever will be again. Help us resist reacting to the rough edges and exterior projections of our inner wounds and instead guide us to be more compassionate and understanding, and willing to see the truth and fullness of the wonder of each person. Help us to allow the Holy Spirit to love others through us today, one person and one encounter at a time.

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“The Father does not love us any less than he loves his only-begotten Son. In other words, with an infinite love” – Pope Leo from his homily Sunday, June 1, 2025. Photo during Lent 2026.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Jesus is never alone, and neither are we.

The disciples are beginning to have a better understanding that Jesus is who he says he is, that “he came from God.” Jesus does not rest on or savor this insight and affirmation, but shares with them how, they still do not fully comprehend. He lets them know how each will not be able to stand by him in his most desperate hour. Those he takes with him into the Garden of Gethsemane will fall asleep. When Jesus asks them to watch and pray with him, to be a support for him as he receives the crushing will of the Father that leads him to the cross, they fall asleep multiple times. When the guards come to arrest Jesus, led by Judas, all the disciples will flee. Peter will then betray Jesus three times without hesitation.

What is interesting is that just as Jesus shares with them, that even though they, his most intimate followers, his closest friends would betray him, he says: “I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” 

These words are words of comfort and hope. Comfort and hope for his disciples then as well as for us today! No matter if we betray or are betrayed ourselves, we let others down or are let down, we see and experience the devastating effects of our fallen world and fallen human nature, from without and within; no matter what conflict, challenges, or tribulations rise up before us, we do not need to succumb to cynicism, hopelessness, and despair.

It is important that we resist the temptation to curve in upon ourselves and drink from the poison of shame. In doing so, we cut ourselves off from the very source of our life and being, as well as forgiveness and healing. Having the humility to acknowledge where and when we have caused harm in any form requires embracing a healthy sense of guilt which is good. Then, instead of beating ourselves up, we are to seek forgiveness and reconciliation as well as be understanding and willing to forgive.

We also need to remember that in those times when we feel misunderstood, hurt, let down, or are facing the unbearable in life, we are not alone! Jesus, who experienced the same, reveals to us the way to his Father because Jesus is the Way! Seeking affirmation from the culture or the world is not the way. Our priority is to seek Jesus first, he who will lead us to the Father so we will experience the Love shared between them, the Holy Spirit!

Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and he will not be overcome, for he has conquered sin, death, and the world. We are an Alleluia people because through our participation in the life of Jesus the Christ we will overcome as well when we trust in and experience the love of the Father. As an Alleluia people, we are to resist being shaped by the culture and the world, our own wounds and fears, and renounce the shame and lies hurled at us from the enemy. Instead, let us choose to follow Jesus, and live out the Gospel and will of our loving God and Father as Jesus did. As we share the light, joy, peace, and love of Christ we have received with each other, we and those willing to receive, will be daily healed and transformed by trinitarian love.

Photo: The more we slow down and breathe, receive, rest, and abide in the love of God, we will know that no matter what we are experiencing, we are not alone.

Link for the Mass for Monday, May 18, 2026

Jesus’ ascension opens up heaven for us.

For many of us, when we hear about the Ascension of Jesus, we are just as beguiled as the disciples who, as recorded in the Book of Acts, were standing around, looking at the sky. Also, depending on where you live, will depend on when you celebrate this solemnity and for those of us in diocese’s that celebrate it on Sunday may be beguiled on why we don’t celebrate it on Ascension Thursday. 

If you live in the ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia you already celebrated Ascension Thursday on its traditional day, this past Thursday. For the rest of the country, it is celebrated today, on Sunday. The reason for Ascension Thursday is that the Ascension of Jesus took place 40 days after the resurrection and 10 days before Pentecost. The point of concern for moving to Sunday observance may be lack of attendance on Thursdays. Solemnities are obligatory because we are celebrating the foundational anchor points of our faith. 

The event to remember and the readings offered enhance what and why we believe what we believe on an annual basis over the liturgical year and actively participating in these celebrations helps us to grow closer to God and each other as well as have a better understanding about the core tenets of our faith. Just as we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions in the lives of our families, we do so in the life of the Church. I agree with Pope Francis that it is important for us to celebrate our baptismal days as well. Which I still do not do and forget even which day it was. Wait a minute… 

I just went and checked my files. I was baptized July 18, 1965, at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield, CT. You may want to check to see your date of Baptism. That I was baptized in the Church of the Sacred Heart I don’t think I ever knew, but it aligns with a teaching I received last evening at a talk with Fr. John Horn. Jesus is present deep in the heart of all of us, in the very depths of our souls. The reality of that truth is activated by our Baptism! Something beautiful to celebrate!

Our baptisms are made possible because of Jesus, who as the Son of God, was willing to be sent by his Father to become one with us in our humanity without sacrificing his divinity. Jesus, lived among us, experienced the joys and sufferings of life like us in all things but sin, yet chose to enter into solidarity with our sinful human condition when he submitted to the baptism of repentance offered by John and then would take upon himself the full weight of our sins on the cross.

Jesus then died, entered into the utter godforsakeness of death, and conquered death. He rose again through the Love of the Holy Spirit, not as a ghost or a spirit, but still fully divine and fully man. His body was transfigured in the resurrection becoming the firstborn of the new creation, embodying the fullness of the humanity that God the Father always intended. 

Jesus returned to the Apostles and the close inner circle of disciples and for forty days would teach and prepare them further until the time of his ascension, which we celebrate today. Though those closest to him couldn’t bear losing him a second time, Jesus had to go. 

Not so much up, up, and away in my beautiful balloon, or zipping away like Superman to destroy an asteroid hurtling toward the earth. Nor was it that Jesus had had enough of his followers and left them to fend for themselves. After the forty days that he spent gathering his disciples, eating with, teaching, and empowering them to continue his work of making the will of his Father known, Jesus ascended back to the Father still fully human, and with our humanity as well. 

This is a type of physical and spiritual physics. God did not create us as autonomous and completely independent. God created to be interconnected and this is why St. Paul can write to the Corinthians, “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life” (1 Cor. 15:23)!

Bishop Robert Barron has explained it this way: “The Ascension is the translation of this earthly reality into a heavenly reality.” Jesus is no longer limited by the time and space of our present temporal reality. He transcends our recognized three-dimensional reality and now exists at a higher pitch of existence. Just as Jesus was able to pass through a locked door, he is able to be present to us at Mass on Thursday or Sunday or any time that the Mass is celebrated anywhere in the world in his glorified Body made present again on the altar. The priest up the Eucharist, Jesus present in his glorified Body for all gathered to see: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.” 

He who did not sin, took sin upon himself on the cross to conquer the power of sin and death so that in each Mass, we can say in the words of and trust like the centurion: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter unto my roof, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.” Jesus is present to all of us everywhere because we are united by our humanity and the humanity and loving embrace of Jesus!

Through the event of the Ascension, Jesus brings something of our humanity to heaven, and at Pentecost, which we will celebrate next week, he will send something of heaven to us in the descent of the Holy Spirit. And who is the Holy Spirit, but the Love that is breathed, that is shared between the Father and the Son.

What the Ascension means for us is that we are separated no longer from the reality of heaven. St Irenaeus wrote that “Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.” We can see this displayed in biblical accounts such as the sky was torn open at the baptism of Jesus, as the veil was torn in two outside the Holy of Holies in the temple at the moment of his crucifixion, and as Jesus ascended with our humanity, to return to the right hand of the Father. Heaven and earth have been wedded in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

We become part of the Church, the bride of Christ through encountering Jesus in the Sacraments, especially in our Baptism when we become part of the Body of Christ, when we are nourished by the Eucharist, and empowered through love of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation. Jesus did not leave us alone when he ascended, he did not close the door to us. Because of Jesus, there is an invitation to experience intimacy with him and God the Father. By our Baptism, we become an organic part of the Mystical Body of Christ and now as long as we remain in communion and relationship with him, we experience healing, life, and trinitarian love through our participation in the life of Jesus.

We are transformed, divinized, restored to our image and likeness to God through our participation in the life of Jesus. We are made holy, and our commission, the same as the Apostles, is to continue the work of being a bridge for the communion of the human and the divine. We are to follow the will of God, on earth as it is in heaven, to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).

Having heard this Good News of the Ascension, let us not, as the two angels said about the disciples, just “stand around looking at the sky” (cf. Acts 1:1-11), but go forth and share the love that we receive in the Eucharist, when we consume him, or even through a spiritual communion if we are unable to receive the Eucharist at this time. Jesus is no longer limited by space and time, and he invites all to participate on earth what is celebrated in heaven, the love of the communion between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen! Alleluia!!!

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Photo: Beautiful moments God gives us in the Bible as we had from Acts today about the Ascension, and the book of his creation as the sun was setting.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 17, 2026

Jesus invites us to share in the dance of trinitarian love.

“I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (Jn 16:28).

This phrase, in one form or another, has been a consistent message in John’s recording of Jesus’ farewell discourse. These words not only show Jesus’ connection to the Father through his coming from and returning to the Father and then his sending of the Holy Spirit, but these statements help to prepare the way for our understanding of the Trinitarian Communion.

Theologians have termed this reality the Immanent Trinity, God within himself. Which is expressed by the divine communion of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All that God the Father is, he gives all, holding nothing back, to God the Son perfectly. God the Son receives all that God the Father has given perfectly, and returns all that he has received, perfectly, holding nothing back, to God the Father. This giving and receiving, this going out from and returning to, this perfect willing of each other’s good, is the purest expression of Love. This Love shared infinitely and perfectly between God the Father and God the Son is God the Holy Spirit.

The Son of God became one with us, sharing in our humanity, so we can also share in his divinity. His ascent and return back to the Father makes this even more possible. Now his divine nature, as the Son, always remained in full communion with the Father. Jesus is one divine Person as the Son, yet he subsists in two natures the divine and the human. The Ascension of Jesus was a point in salvation history, in which the human nature of Jesus transcended our three-dimensional reality and realm, so to enter the eternal present, the immanence of the Trinitarian communion. Because God created all humanity and creation as interconnected with one another, we are now able to share in the intimate, divine dance, or perichoresis, of the Love, shared between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

We are all invited, 24/7/365, with every breath, thought, word, and action, to experience the Holy Spirit, the communion of Trinitarian Love. But this is not an imposition, it is an invitation, meaning no matter how wonderful, no matter that this is what we have been created for and will truly bring us fulfillment and joy, we can reject or accept this offer.

Thankfully, because of the Divine Mercy of God this is an open invitation. Even if we have said no for years, we can say yes at this moment. Once we say yes, even just a little, the love of God grows within us, just like the image of the mustard seed. As we experience the love of God in our own lives, we begin to realize how God is the foundation of our being and all of creation. We realize we are not the center of the universe, that the world does not revolve around us, and that it is not all about us. 

We come to see how God is the foundation of all things, how he is present to us in our everyday actions when we participate in the very being and life of Jesus. We do so most intimately when we participate in the sacraments. Jesus is even more present to us in the sacraments than when he was present to the Apostles in person. 

We also experience and encounter God through our participation in the three transcendentals, the ways of our being that God has imparted to us to experience him, which are the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. It is through the expression of our creativity in music, dance, and the arts that we come to experience the Beautiful. By embracing our gift of reason and intellect, through prayer, study, and sharing of ideas, we come to know the True. In recognizing the gift of others as human, through our fellowship, loving and engaging one another in the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy we come to experience Love which leads us to the Good.

God has given us the wonderful gift of life not just to endure but to experience fully, even in the midst of our trials, tribulations, and sufferings we are invited to experience joy and love. We just need to remember who we are and open our hearts, minds, and souls to receive the gift of God working in and through us. Just as the Son has been, we are sent to risk, to give our love away, by sharing his love with others. Our offer can be turned down or rejected. Even so, we must resist the temptation to judge or to take offense, but instead to assume a posture of understanding, of being present, and being available to witness and to allow God to reach others through us.

We never truly know the pain and suffering of another, nor what they may be dealing with. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction or adding fuel to the fire, we can instead take a deep breath, seek to be more understanding, and ask God to be present. Ask the Holy Spirit to love us and the person with us. In that simple choice to receive the love of God in a conflict or disagreement, we might become a healing presence that can make a difference.

Each one of us is on a journey. We are invited to open ourselves to the will of God, so that we can experience the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, as well as, perichoresis, the infinite dance of the Love shared between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our fundamental option, our end goal, is to enter the fullness of the divine dance and communion of the Trinity. What Jesus has brought to us through his Paschal Mystery; his life, suffering, and death, as well as his resurrection and ascension into heaven, is the reality of how we can experience heaven on earth right now.

Fr. John Horn, SJ, teaches that, “The most fruitful human activity that we can experience is to receive God.” Our vocation is to say yes to God’s invitation and to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in the love of the Trinity. So having received, we now have something to give. We can now love others as we have been loved. This is the regenerating and transformative power of the Holy Spirit first activated in our Baptism that can continue to flourish and expand. As our prayer and activity in life becomes more trinitarian and thus more loving, we experience freedom, healing, and spiritual maturity.

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Photo: When we allow ourselves to receive moments to be still to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love, our minds, hearts, and souls experience healing and transformation!

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 16, 2026

Our response to the darkness is the light, love, and joy of Jesus.

“But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (Jn 16:22). 

Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for his horrific death by offering hope that he will see them again. That he will see them again is not a typo. We can read about the exchanges between Jesus and his risen disciples. Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdalene at the tomb, he appeared to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus, and he appeared to the ten and then the eleven with Thomas. Jesus sought out those he commissioned to proclaim his Gospel message after his Resurrection, just as he had done during his ministry before his crucifixion.

When Jesus did appear to them again, at the moment of recognition, there was wonder and great joy! It is hard for us to even imagine these early Resurrection accounts. Although, this is a wonderful meditative practice! The disciples witnessed his brutal death, lived in fear because of the very real possibility of their own persecution and similar death, and then, they encountered the risen Jesus. St Paul would also shortly thereafter encounter Jesus on a different road, the one to Damascus en route to continue his persecution of the followers of Jesus. 

All of their hearts rejoiced when they experienced the risen Jesus, and it was this joy that they proclaimed with boldness. The Apostles, like Jesus, led with joy and love to embark on their evangelical mission. They lived a difficult and challenging life that for many ended in their own brutal deaths, yet their joy carried them through and into eternity.

Life is hard, even in the best of circumstances. There is evil present in this world, not of God’s creation, because all that he has created is good. Through the corruption of the good that God has created, bad things happen to good people, and good people do bad things. Suffering, disease, violence, natural disasters, division, corruption, hatred, and dehumanization abound. It can be easy to succumb to the overwhelming tide of negativity and assume a stance of cynicism, detachment, denial, defensiveness, and/or indifference. Yet this is not the response Jesus modeled nor has infused his followers through the ages with.

Our response to the evil and darkness of this world is to be bearers of the joy of Jesus! We are to be as lights shining in the darkness, providing hope for those in despair, accompanying those in their struggles, and being willing to receive help when we are ourselves are in need. We cannot do any of this alone and on our own, but it can be done in participation with Jesus and each other. The Apostles, disciples, and saints, those who have gone before us, have shown us that it is possible to be beacons of hope in very dark places.

Pope Francis reminded us about our mission in The Joy of the Gospel (276): “However dark things are, goodness always re-emerges and spreads. Each day in our world beauty is born anew, it rises transformed through the storms of history. Values always tend to reappear under new guises, and human beings have arisen time after time from situations that seemed doomed. Such is the power of the resurrection, and all who evangelize are instruments of that power.”

No matter how bumpy our lives get or how much we are tossed about, we can trust that Jesus is with us, closer than we can ever imagine. He readily offers us his love and joy. Are we willing to receive each? May seem like a silly question, but we can refuse to receive the joy and love of Jesus when our hearts are constricted or closed. 

When we choose to allow his light to enter and dwell within us, even though the light may reveal some darkness and deep suffering, we can experience forgiveness and healing. Once experiencing his healing and love — joy! And when the joy wells up and radiates through us and outward, no matter how small or insignificant, the darkness in our realm of influence will begin to fade away. For, within or without, darkness cannot remain in the presence of the light of Christ.

Photo: May the light of Jesus shine through us for others to see!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, May 15, 2026

Allowing God to love us in our suffering helps us to heal and love others.

“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete” (John 15:11).

What is this referring too? “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”

And what is his commandment? “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”

Even when life appears pretty dark and division and suffering seem to be waiting around every corner, we need not give up or fall into despair. God wants us to experience fulfillment, meaning, and joy despite our experiences and not through being lemmings or slaves but as Jesus said, his “friends”. The friends of Jesus are those who hear the word he has received and shared from his Father which are his commandments, the greatest of these is the commandment to love as Jesus and the Father have loved us.

If we truly want to be happy, fulfilled, if we want to heal, experience a path to wholeness and the glory we have been created for, and have meaning in our lives, Jesus invites us to align our wills with the will of God who is Love. St. Irenaeus taught that the joy of God is the human being fully alive. For us to be fully alive, not just surviving and existing, we need to allow ourselves to be loved by and then love as God loves us.

God knows what will fulfill us, give us meaning, and great joy. Many of us do not experience the fullness of this joy because we are distracted and diverted by apparent goods, instead of striving for what actually is good. Time and discernment with the guidance of the Holy Spirit can help us to distinguish the difference. Spending quiet time with God in his word and just being still with him, will also help us to experience God and his love. Once we do, the things of this world will have less of a draw.

A false path to fulfillment and joy is denying, covering over, or being so busy that we don’t face the sufferings or conflicts in our lives. We experience healing when we are willing to experience our pain, breathe into that reality, identify its cause, and offer our suffering to Jesus. Jesus receives what we have shared and offers us his mercy and love, and experience healing at the root. As we allow God into those places of pain and sin, as we experience God’s love, in allowing ourselves to be loved in places we would rather not go ourselves, we find clarity and healing. As we heal, we can help to alleviate some of the sufferings of those around us.

“To love as God does, we must be constantly dying to our own sinfulness and selfishness and living for God. And we live for God by obeying the Father’s will and loving one another” (Martin and Wright, 260). Each day we are invited to choose to curl up in our shell of selfish concern or allow ourselves to be loved and to love in return, to come out of our shell, to risk, and become agents of healing and love. As agents of God’s love and mercy we can help to make our corner of the world a little better.

Photo: The light of Jesus leads us through the darkness to healing, fulfillment, and newness of life.

Martin, Francis and Wright IV, William M. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 14, 2026

The guidance of the Holy Spirit offers us more wonder, beauty, good, and truth than we can imagine.

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Hopefully, we are less foolish and moving more along to path of gaining wisdom. Jesus continues his best efforts in today’s Gospel to offer guidance and assurance to his disciples that the Holy Spirit will continue to be their guide after his departure. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (Jn 16:12-13a).

Surely, Jesus could see the dimming lamps in the eyes of his disciples. As discussed yesterday, comprehending the death of the Messiah, his Resurrection, and return to the Father was a bit much to understand, let alone digest. Also, there was only so much that they could grasp with their finite intellect. Until they experienced the infused contemplative insights given to them by the Holy Spirit, there was only so much the apostles were able to be able to receive regarding the inner life of the Trinity, the divine communion of love between he Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Yet, Jesus, sowed the seeds that his Father gave him to share. His disciples took in what they could and would come to reflect later with more experience. Jesus’ death and Ascension were not to put an end to their learning, deepening of their understanding, healing or further developing their relationship with Jesus and his Father. The Holy Spirit would continue what Jesus started, and would to lead them to all truth, the fullness of the foundational relationship that is the source of all that exists, the Holy Trinity.

Anyone involved in teaching anyone anything or learning something for one self knows, that just telling someone something does not mean that learning has happened. There is a process of introduction, integration, practice, review, mistakes, corrections, and adjustments until some proficiency is achieved. With the disciples, this is the same. Jesus did not just present things once and move on to the next order of business. That is why John declared at the end of his Gospel that: “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (Jn 21:25).

I am sure a part of what John was talking about here were the lessons, corrections, and guidance Jesus offered. Just as Joseph modeled for and guided Jesus in his trade in carpentry, so Jesus learned from him through observation, practice, mistakes, adjustments, and corrections. Jesus guided his disciples in the same way, as a mentor with apprentices. He was now assuring them that even though he would be leaving them, the guidance and leading would continue with the support of the Holy Spirit.

The lessons about the immanence of God, God within himself as a Trinitarian communion, that Jesus taught were not as concrete as sawing, hammering, and planing wooden beams though. God is not a being, not even a supreme being, meaning that he transcends our ability to comprehend the fullness of his reality. We will never fully comprehend God or exhaust the richness and the depth of our relationship with God. What the apostles and the saints to follow and we can still experience today is God’s grace building on our nature. When we read, pray, and meditate with these sacred texts, the Holy Spirit will communicate with us and grant us insights beyond any intellectual endeavor. Context and study is important, but the understanding and transformation is gained through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

On the human level, we are guilty of malpractice in our relationships when we assume that we know everything there is to know about someone else. The gift of the person, the human being, is that we are ever-developing and growing in the mystery and wonder of who we are and who we are called to be. We can always surprise each other. If this is true for us in our relationships with each other, it is much more true in our relationship with God. Once we get to one level of understanding, we plateau for a time, but that is not the end of the journey. That is only a time to savor, to ponder, and contemplate until we are ready to go ever deeper into the truth that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us.

Our tradition teaches us that the fullness of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ, which is true, yet to comprehend that revelation will take a lifetime and continue on into eternity just to scratch the surface. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a Dominican Friar, who is considered the Angelic Doctor of the Church, was one of the top theological influences during the Scholastic Period, yet close to the end of his life he had a deep and intimate encounter with God in which he came to realize that all of his intellectual achievement, all that he had written, mattered no more than a pile of straw compared to that which God had revealed to him in a single moment of infused contemplation!

Arguably one of the wisest persons of his time, and some would say one of the most brilliant minds ever, was also one who was steeped in daily prayer and continued to be open to the majestic wonder of the glory of God. May we too continue to embrace the gift of wonder, the gift of learning, and never settle, rest and savor yes, but continue to learn and grow, to seek and hunger for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, to continually allow our hearts and minds to be open to the Holy Spirit that he may guide us “to all truth”!

Photo: Experienced a nudge of the Holy Spirit to take a longer walk before Mass yesterday morning. A wonderful moment of joy from a simple activity that then heightened as I celebrated Mass.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 13, 2026

When we allow our grieving heart to touch Jesus’ Sacred Heart, we will experience healing.

At some point in our lives, we experience the death of someone we love. If we live a long life, we will experience even more of the pain of losing those close to us. I remember my maternal grandfather sharing with me when he was around ninety that he had outlived most of his siblings and friends. Unfortunately, for too many in our world, death is a daily event through violence in all its forms. Grief during time of loss is a natural human response. It is certainly not an emotion to be suppressed.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus shared: “But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts” (Jn 16:6). Jesus was preparing his disciples for his suffering and death on the cross while at the same time also letting them know that they would not be left alone. Even after his death, his resurrection and again time with his disciples, he would then at his ascension return to the Father. And better for his disciples that he would return to his Father. The Father will transform Jesus through his suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus will assume his glorified body and the Holy Spirit will proceed from the Father and the Son to empower the apostles. They too will be transformed. No longer afraid, no more falling short of the glory of God but fulfilling and actualizing who Jesus called them to be from the beginning. 

We can see the apostles living out who Jesus had chosen them to be on full display in our reading of the Book of Acts during the Easter Season. 

Of course, the Apostles could not understand what Jesus was talking about at the moment. Who can blame them? They had no point of reference for someone dying and rising again, let alone that he would ascend to the Father and send the Third Person of the Holy Trinity to be with them. The Apostles would not only feel the grief of the loss of Jesus they would also experience the fear that the same persecution that took him would take them. Jesus predicted no less. To be his follower, they would need to be willing to give their own lives, as Jesus was about to do.

They did not get off to a great start. Even though Jesus foretold them of what was to happen, in Jesus’ final hour, they betrayed and abandoned him. And yet, except for Judas, because he had taken his own life, Jesus came to them again after his resurrection. He did not condemn but forgave them. Jesus would in a short time ascend back to the Father as we will celebrate this Sunday, and the disciples, with Mary, would experience the love and grace of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which we will celebrate a week from Sunday.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they faced what was before them head-on, even to experience their own violent deaths, except for John. The fear of death had no more power over them, their grief and their fear were turned into joy from their encounter with the Risen Jesus and the love of the Holy Spirit they experienced first-hand.

For us, as with the Apostles, grief is real, because death is a loss, it is a change in our present reality. Yet, we celebrate the Easter Season for fifty days for a reason. Death has lost its sting because Jesus has died, entered into the fullness of everything that death threw at him, and he conquered it. Jesus died for each and every one of us so that we can also rise with him, and be with him and our loved ones again for all eternity.

We can believe in our minds that death does not have the final answer, yet we will still feel the grief, the pain of loss. We need to be honest with our emotions, and not stifle them, thinking by showing grief that we are in some way less a person of faith. Jesus himself wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. In allowing ourselves to experience our pain, we will experience the Risen Christ who is waiting to embrace us and help us to heal. 

The key is to allow ourselves to experience and feel our grief, to allow our hearts to expand with the pain we are able to feel. As our heart expands with pain, Jesus’ heart expands with his love and comfort. At the point where we have felt enough, Jesus receives our pain there. We, in experiencing, instead of denying our pain, can offer our suffering to Jesus. In receiving our grief, we can then receive his compassion, his consolation, healing, and love. Heart speaks to heart.

To experience our grief and allow it to expand in our hearts when it comes is healthy and necessary, but we do need to be careful that it does not define and overwhelm us. We just enter the ebb and flow as outlined above. 

After seven months of caring and accompanying JoAnn to her death, visiting with family and friends through Thanksgiving and Christmas, I returned home to Florida, and for the first time, had some time alone. I had a two-day period where I was able to experience the weight of my grief and my heart was pierced with the suppressed grief. Fortunately, I received a phone call from my friend, Theresa Frettered, and she invited me to a diocesan event. I didn’t want to go but said yes. Terry was a messenger of the Holy Spirit. She invited me to leave the despair and come up for some air. Experiencing the grief, but then not staying there, was the first steps that led to years of healing, that still continue.

The time of grief is different for each person. “There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). When we experience the full range of our emotions and bring them to Jesus, the first born of the new creation, and pray for all those who have died that we hold close to our pierced hearts in this moment, those who have no one to pray for them, as well as those who are in purgatory, we heal a little more. We also with these moments of heart to heart with Jesus, begin to realize we too will die.

This is not morbid. Pondering our own death helps us to resist taking the time we have left for granted and choose to live our lives more intentionally, with greater purpose. Just as the jailer in today’s first reading turned from committing suicide to asking Paul and Silas: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

As we experience the ebb and flow of grief with Jesus, as we entrust our lives more to him, we will experience his tender care for us. We will begin to heal and so help others to heal. When we believe in Jesus, we and our household will be saved. Maybe not in this instant and moment, but in God’s gentle pace and timing. Death really does not have the final answer. The loving embrace of Jesus does.

Photo: As I learned from CS Lewis, losing someone we love is like experiencing an amputation. We will live, but it will never be the same. What I learned from Jesus is that we can also experience healing and joy again.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Jesus has sent us the Holy Spirit to lead us to experience rest and peace grounded in his love.

What is common to all of us is that we experience some expression of loneliness to varying degrees, sometimes consciously but mostly unconsciously. We are social beings, we want to belong, to be part of, and this is why we are communal. We may do, say, or turn a blind eye to behaviors that go against our conscience just to be accepted, acknowledged, and/or noticed. This behavior further feeds our loneliness, because though we may be “accepted”, we become more alienated from our true self. We are not accepted for who we are but who we portray ourselves to be.

At the core of our being, what we all seek is to be loved, and to love in return. We strive from the moment of our conception not only to exist but to actualize the fullness of who God is calling us to be. Through our time of gestation, we are not potential human beings, we are human beings actualizing out potential. A difference between me typing this now and when I was in my mother’s womb is that before my birth, I was smaller and more vulnerable.

We as human beings are a living, craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another from the moment of our conception until our natural death and continuing on into eternity. This is true to the believer and the atheist alike. Until we embrace this deepest of needs and desires, we will be restless, anxious, and unfulfilled. We can feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of a hundred people or daily likes on social media. St. Augustine in the introduction to his autobiography said it best: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.”

God has made us for himself and constantly invites us to be in a relationship with him and with each other because he is the foundation and source of our being. Sin is the turning away from that invitation, a curving, or caving in upon oneself away from God and others. It is also the unwillingness to bother or to care, to reach out toward another in need. For what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Jesus. We are not just to be pro-birth though, we as Catholics are to be pro-life, and we are invited to promote a consistent ethic of life.

Jesus became human in his Incarnation. He too, as we did, developed in the womb of Mary to show the importance of the dignity of the person and that our dignity is grounded in our relationship with God our Father, meaning we are all brothers and sisters. We are his beloved daughters and sons, just by who we are not by what we do. Jesus was not a plan B, but he was always the primary plan. In the fullness of time, when God so willed, he sent his Son to become one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. 

Jesus is the face, hands, and body of God. He came that we might see and experience God. Jesus experienced all we experience except for sin because he never, in any thought, word, or deed, rejected or said no to his Father. His whole life was a, “Yes” to the will of God. Jesus is the bridge, the way to love and be loved, authentically.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues preparing his disciples for the reality that he will be returning to the Father. Though he will ascend to the Father, he will not his apostles nor has he left us alone. He has and will continue to be with us for all ages. This is so because as the Son of God made man, in his Ascension, he returned to the Father not just in his divinity as the Son, but also in his humanity. God created all of humanity and his creation as interconnected, and because of that, we all experience this transcendent act of the Ascension when Jesus returned to the Father in his glorified, human body.

Jesus shared with his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning”(Jn 15:26-27). Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the infinite Love experienced and shared between the Father and the Son. We become sharers in this divine love and communion of the Holy Trinity through our participation in the life of Jesus.

As we experience the love of the Holy Spirit, develop a relationship with him, we begin to feel alive, we begin to heal and to feel whole, because we have experienced the love we have been made for. We have experienced being loved for who we are and as we are. We no longer have to say, do, or accept those actions that we don’t agree with or that go against our conscience, to belong. St. John Henry Cardinal Newman has stated that our conscience is the “Aboriginal Vicar of Christ”. Jesus dwells within us, to guide and lead us, to help us to develop a well-formed conscience. He encourages us to also say, “Yes” to his Father as he has and continues to do.

We share in the trinitarian love when we grow our relationship and participate in the life of Jesus. This great gift of grace will continue to grow as we testify to this love and share it with others. The greatest gift of God, the love that he gives us, expands as we receive and give his love away. The more we give, the more we will receive. That does not mean fixing others or their problems. We are called to be present, to accompany, and journey with others, meeting them as Jesus met others and meets us, as and where we are. We are to laugh with, cry along, encourage, empower, and support, but above all to be present, to allow the love of the Holy Spirit to happen through us.

Jesus has not left us as orphans. Jesus cares, even if we believe or feel like he is not listening. His return to the Father through his Ascension has given us a greater and more intimate access to the Holy Spirit. By trusting in his love, we will begin to heal from and free ourselves from the tendrils of doubt, fear, and anxiety.

We are not alone. We will heal, and expand when we say, “Yes”, to God’s will and allow ourselves to be drawn in by the tender chords of his love to grow in our relationship with him. Allowing ourselves to experience and receive more of God’s love, helps us to slow down more so that we will better listen, be more aware of and present to our needs and the needs of each other. Once identified, we can choose with the guidance of the Holy Spirit how best to proceed.

As we strive to actualize and become truer to ourselves, and who God us has created us to be, and then rest there, we will experience that peace that surpasses all understanding and develop relationships with others based on authenticity and integrity, regardless of external pressures and internal stirrings. To know we are loved and to love in return, which is what we all seek, is an unbreakable foundation. A foundation upon which we can find the rest we have been created for, in God, in ourselves, and we can just be.

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Photo: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love!!!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 11, 2026