“When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we are obliged to do” (See Luke 17:1-10).

Ouch. The servant has come in from working all day and is now expected to prepare his master’s dinner, wait on him, and only then get to eat after his master has finished. What will help us to relate to Jesus’ teaching is to remember who Jesus is.

He is the Son of God who was sent by his Father. As St. Paul put it in his Letter to the Philippians: “Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6). Jesus accepted the role he was given to play every step of the way even unto accepting that he would die on the cross to save us.

He expects no less from us. I would much rather be a slave to Jesus than Satan or my own fallen nature. During my retreat this past summer, I imagined the scene in which Jesus went back to his hometown and was rejected. I imagined myself in that scene as it got violent to the point where they attempted to throw him headlong down the hill, but he escaped. I followed. And as I caught up to him, his face seemed to radiate joy.

I questioned him about it, and he shared that he wasn’t happy about his own hometown crowd rejecting his message, but he said his joy came from doing the will of his Father no matter the cost. That had an impact on me and my own relationship with God which has been more often on my terms than his. I have been surrendering more of my will to his since then.

The image of the servant working for his master in today’s reading works because Jesus preached what he lived. He did not grasp at his own divinity, he fully assumed his humanity with all the finite limitations and sufferings that went along with it, as Paul said, “he took the form of a slave.” Even when he suffered, he did so with joy in knowing that he was following his Father’s will.

Jesus is helping us to remember that God is God, and we are not, and we need to resist the temptation of mixing that up. There is so much grace and blessing that God wants to share with us, but we can only do so with our hands empty and open to receive. If we are grasping at and clinging to what we want, we are not able to receive. We have to let go and trust.

We can share what we seek with God as Jesus did in Gethsemane, but we also need to be willing to say with Jesus, “not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). For God is the master and we are his servants. When we do what he asks us to do, we will find healing, fulfillment, meaning, and the same joy that Jesus experienced in following his will.

Photo: St. Vincent De Paul Chapel, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 14, 2023

‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us!’ But he said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you’(Matthew 25:11-12).

They were refused entrance into the wedding feast because they were not ready when the Lord had come and what’s more, he did not know them.

Upon the first reading of Jesus’ parable, it has a bite to it when the bride groom says to the, “I do not know you.” Another interpretation is even harsher, “I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” Even before their being locked out, when they asked the five wise virgins for a share in their oil and they were refused.

The attitudes of both the bridegroom and the five wise virgins do not seem to be aligned with what Jesus teaches us about being faithful disciples. This does not appear to be loving God and neighbor as self. The interpretive key may be in the words, “I do not know you.”

There is a similar response in another parable just a few verses later when those being judged by the king asked, “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” and he responded, “what you did not do for one of the least ones, you did not do for me.” (cf Matthew 25:31-46).

The core of our faith is not so much a philosophical or theological system, it is about relationship. The core of Christianity is knowing not just about Jesus but knowing him as a person. As we come to know him, we begin to better know ourselves and are better able to know each other because in growing in our relationship with Jesus, we are healed and freed from that which keeps us isolated or at a distance.

We come to know Jesus and build a relationship with him when we pray. When we make time to be with him in quiet moments in each day so that we can experience, receive, rest, and abide in his love. When we make time to see how he has helped us, guided us, and healed us and show our gratitude in prayer. When we bring to him our challenges, and trust him with everything even when we don’t see the immediate responses we seek and so grow in hope and patience.

Spend time in the Bible, especially the Gospels each day and linger there in what we read, meditating, and contemplating on what we are reading we experience Jesus in a powerful way in our imagination and in the depth of our souls.

We come to know Jesus in the Mass in the readings and the prayers, in the singing, in praying together in community, and in an intimate way in the Eucharist. Jesus comes to us in such a simple way. The gifts of bread and wine become through the words of the priest and the power and love the Holy Spirit the Body and Blood of Jesus. We consume him and become one with him.

Once we receive him, we are given the opportunity to meditate and contemplate, to ponder as did Mary when she received Jesus in her womb. We who have received Jesus are then dismissed to share him with others. It is in loving and serving others that we also come to know Jesus. As we come to know Jesus within us, we can recognize Jesus in each other, and then we can love, serve, and care for one another as Jesus has done for us and leads us on in our own unique ways.

Getting to know and build a relationship with Jesus is an incredible grace and experience. We cannot do this for another. No matter how much we would like to, we can’t give another our oil. We can though share the joy and love of our relationship with Jesus. We can be the peace we experience even in our suffering, express the gratefulness for his guidance, and radiate the hope and trust we place in Jesus. We can invite others to share in our experiences and practices, but each person must freely choose to receive Jesus. Each person must fill their lamps with their own oil.

When we consistently pray, read, meditate, and contemplate with holy Scripture, participate in Mass, and serve one another, we keep our lamps filled with oil and so the light of Christ continues to burn brightly in and through us. When Jesus comes again, he will not only find us ready, but he will also know us and invite us into the wedding feast.

Photo: View from holy hour Saturday afternoon, St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 12, 2023

In our first reading Paul is writing again to the churches in Rome: “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another” (Romans 13:8).

And then in the gospel of Luke, we read: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Paul could write what he wrote to the Romans because he received, understood, and embraced Jesus’ teaching that he shared with the crowds. Even more importantly, he received Jesus’ love and acceptance even when he, Saul, before he became Paul, was persecuting Jesus. What first appears to be opposed and opposite are saying the same thing. 

The point of both readings is the cost we pay to be disciples of Jesus. But to understand the cost, we need to understand the terms of agreement that Jesus requires. 

When he is saying that we must hate the members of our family, and even ourselves, he is speaking clearly as a prophet in hyperbolic speech to get the crowd’s and our attention. At the same time, this is not just hyperbolic. 

When Jesus uses the term, hate, he is not doing so in the way we might think of it as a violent, emotional reaction. He is presenting hate as a detached choice. To be his disciple, we must make Jesus to be first, and primary before anyone and anything else. We must make this choice freely. We can trust Jesus and put him first because he knows what we need to be healed and made whole, better than we do, better than our family and friends.

As we come to know Jesus, we come to know ourselves and we can better come to know each other. We come to know Jesus when we trust him and allow him to love us. As we let go of our inordinate attachments and crawl out of our comfort zones in trust, receive his love and experience his love, we experience what we have been created for – to be loved and to love in return. 

This love of Jesus is unconditional. It is no mere emotion or sentiment. When we love the way Jesus loves us, without conditions, and choose to renounce our inordinate attachments, we will experience his love as a free gift. We can then love by willing the good of another as they are as Jesus loves us. 

Jesus is our stable foundation not only when we have trusted in him but it is just as important to know that he is our foundation in those times when when we may not have thought to reach out to him, or when when we did, not have felt that he was even present. He is present when lies attempt to divert us away from our relationship with him. Jesus has been, is now, and will always be with us. We have never nor will we ever be alone.

Whenever we open your hearts and minds to Jesus, God our loving Father happens in our lives. He loves us as we are and where we are as the starting point, even in our worst moments. Then we begin each time from that moment to the level we are open to following his will. May we continue to trust and take Jesus’ hand today as both of us did yesterday morning and walk with him as he leads us.

Photo: St. Vincent De Paul Chapel, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, November 8, 2023

“Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer” (Romans 12:12).

Each of these three points are interconnected and rely on the other. When we persevere in prayer, we will have the inner strength to endure our afflictions, and we will rejoice in hope. When we endure in affliction, we realize God is helping us and we will continue to turn to him in prayer, and rejoice in hope. When we rejoice in hope even in times of affliction, we will endure with joy and be fueled by our prayer.

The enemy will tempt us to turn away from our prayer when afflicted, telling us that it doesn’t matter, that God does not hear our prayers. We need to resist and persist in our time of prayer and trust God is with us because he is. The enemy will tempt us with despair and direct us to focus on the problems we face and so be overwhelmed. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus and retain our hope, trusting in his providence. The enemy will tempt us to give up and tell us we don’t have what it takes to continue. God will not allow anything to happen to us that he won’t give us the strength to overcome.

God is with us today. So let us rejoice in his love for us and be hopeful, endure through any challenges, and continue to persevere in prayer!

Photo: Persevering in prayer each evening! St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL

Link to the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 7, 2023

In the closing verses of our first reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we see his poetic agility. He has constructed in verses 33-36 a beautiful triadic formula. This is more than wonderful linguistics. Paul is summarizing not only the lines that went before, but he is also summarizing the entirety of his letter up to this point.

Paul has outlined in detail how many of his brother and sister Jews have rejected Jesus, and although Jesus is the Messiah, and he came to his own first, in their rejection of him the gospel has now been proclaimed to the Gentiles as well. This has been God’s plan from the beginning, that all might be saved and come to experience his love and intimacy.

Paul has come to realize and is sharing his great wonder at the riches, the wisdom, and the knowledge of God. “For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid” (Romans 11:34-35). In these words, he echoes Job when Job asks God to explain why he had to suffer. Job does not get a direct answer from God but instead receives a brief glimpse of the wonder, glory, and vastness of God and is struck with awe and wonder.

God is so beyond us that we will never come to fully comprehend him, or fully understand his ways. Yet he loves us so much that he has come close to us by sending his Son. Jesus reveals to us that, all we have comes “from him” for he is our creator, “through him” all of humanity and creation has been redeemed, and “for him all things are” to be made right again. All of humanity and all of creation will be saved through God’s righteousness and justice.

This is good news for us this Monday morning. For it means that God has an answer, and he will bring about a greater good in all circumstances and in our suffering, we do not suffer alone. God has sent his Son to accompany and guide us. Even in our struggles, even when we don’t understand, God will provide a path, a way forward. May we continue to trust in Jesus, in his Father who cares and knows what is best for us, and so rest and abide in the love of the Holy Spirit as we take each step into this day and this week.

Photo: Each evening walk has been a wonder and joy experiencing the beauty of God’s creation at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, November 6, 2023

Fame… Pleasure… Power… Wealth

In and of themselves, none of these four are bad. Yet, when we place them as idols before God, they become a disorder that can lead to attachment and addiction. The reason is we believe the attainment of one or all will bring meaning, fulfillment, and happiness to our lives. They can bring moments of happiness, although each are finite and will not last and no matter how much fame, pleasure, power, or wealth we attain it will never be enough.

This is because we have a deeper hunger in the depths of our souls. We are a living, craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and each other. Nothing else will satisfy that deep hunger for love and intimacy and when we substitute it with anything else we will be left wanting.

This could be what the prophet Malachi is driving at when he asks, “Have we not all the one father?
Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another, violating the covenant of our fathers.”

The priests of Malachi’s time are looking to their power and prestige, their pride of place instead of leading the people into deeper relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God not of the dead but of the living.

Jesus echoes Malachi in his charge against the scribes and Pharisees. They profess the law of Moses, but they do not put what they preach into action. And instead of helping the people they are to serve to experience the love of and deepen their relationship with God, they place upon them heavy burdens that instead creates a barrier to relationship.

Jesus invites those gathered around him and us today to set aside apparent goods and substitutes for God’s love that will fade and to open our hearts and minds to our loving God and Father who will fulfill, give meaning, and joy to our lives.

Happiness is based on the external and finite. When the sensation ends, so does, except for a memory, happiness, and we find we need more of what makes us happy. Joy wells up within us, not from something external, but from the love of God within us as we experience our communion with him. God is eternal and his love not only never ends but expands. As the psalmist sings: “In you, Lord, I have found my peace.” This can be true even when we are going through challenges and trials.

If you would like to experience more meaning, fulfillment, peace, joy, and authentic love in your life, I invite you to ask God to help you to identify who or what substitutes, attachments, and/or apparent goods you are placing before your relationship with God. Let them go into the perfect fire of his love that will purify that which is partial, that which is not leading you into deeper relationship with him.

Those relationships and pursuits that remain do so because they have been purified. We will enjoy our relationships and engagement with the things of the world more because in placing God first, all else will be in their proper balance and order. We are no longer looking for them to feed us because we are satisfied with the love of God.

Photo: Enjoying God’s creation in making time to pray the Rosary each evening, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 5, 2023

God chose to make a people his own as a part of his plan to save humanity. The people he chose were those of the children of Abraham. Paul has been sharing his frustration over the past few days in our readings about how many of his fellow Jews were not believing in the fulfillment of God’s plan in the coming of Jesus.

Paul confirms in today’s reading, that even those of his children who reject his covenant, turn their back on his invitation of relationship, that he will remain faithful: “For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

God will not turn his back on us either. When we go against the will of our loving God and Father, which goes against our own best interests, he will guide us against it. Yet he also allows us to freely choose. God sees beyond our limited point of view. What may seem good in the moment, may not be in the long-term. God sees the full spectrum, and we do better when we slow down and follow his lead instead of impulsively reacting or choosing apart from his guidance.

God seeks our best interest, encourages us, invites us to walk with him, has sent his Son to lead us back to him, and he will not abandon us. It is important to remember he loves us more than we can ever mess up or can imagine. When we realize that we have walked away, it is as simple as turning back to him, and every time, we will find him right there waiting with open arms and ready to show us how to begin again.

Photo: Sunset Thursday after evening prayer, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary

Link to the Mass readings for Friday, November 4, 2023

“I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart” (Romans 9:2). Paul is sharing his great pain because his own people are rejecting the gospel of Jesus. Paul can certainly relate because he not only rejected but persecuted anyone who followed Jesus, the person he came to believe is truly the Messiah.

Jesus also experiences the same aguish as he is meeting yet again opposition as he heals a man with dropsy, a condition in which some part of his body was suffering with swelling. Instead of recognizing and rejoicing in the healing just witnessed, the people judge Jesus for healing on the sabbath.

In response, Jesus points out the obvious by asking, “Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day” (Luke 14:5)? No answer but crickets…

We need to be careful that we don’t fall into the same tunnel vision by limiting Jesus in our own lives because we are choosing our fears, insecurities, or doubts over his guidance. I have done both. I have resisted, chosen not to act, beaten myself up over it (which does not work because we are still focused on ourselves and not Jesus), and prayed to improve the next time. I have followed without hesitation. I have also hesitated and then acted. Each time I was willing to risk and follow Jesus, I have experienced his consolation and our relationship has grown stronger.

I invite you to listen to Jesus today and ponder where he might be leading you and in what way to act regarding yourself or another who may be in need of healing. Grant yourself a quiet moment to examine where you may be resisting his invitation no matter how small, trust him, and take the risk to love.

Photo: Rosary walk one evening last week. Daily times of quiet prayer help us to step away from the hectic pace of the day and we are in a better posture to be able to listen and act on the invitation of Jesus.

Link to the Mass readings for Friday, November 3, 2023

The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them (Wisdom 3:1).

Another interpretation is righteous. The just, the righteous, have been purified from all stain of the sin by the loving flame of the Holy Spirit, restored to their original glory, perfected in their participation in the life and death of Jesus, and have been reconciled to the Father for all eternity. They are the saints we honored and venerated yesterday during the Solemnity of All Saints.Today we commemorate, we remember, and we pray for the souls in purgatory. They are still being purified or made righteous. As Jesus said, “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” Jesus became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. He was sent to do his Father’s will, which Jesus stated is “that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”

During every Mass the priest and those participating in the Mass pray for, as is stated in Eucharistic Prayer I, “all those who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace.” Our hope is that in Jesus all will come to know and be saved by Jesus.

The beauty of the liturgical year is that we have special days of solemnities and remembrance to recall the core tenets of our faith. We can review and deepen our commitment to what we believe and who we believe in. Today, and for the month of November, we place a special emphasis of praying for our departed brothers and sisters that they may enter the kingdom of heaven for all eternity.

May we make a special effort this month to pray for those who have died for whom we hold close to our hearts as well as all the souls in purgatory. May we also with intentionality speak words of kindness and encouragement and engage in acts of love on behalf of those we are praying for.

Remember, by our baptism we are priests. That means during Mass, when we hear the ordained priest say one of the four prayers for the dead such as found in Eucharistic Prayer IV: “Remember also those who have died in the peace of your Christ and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known.” Bring to mind those for whom you would like to pray that they may be granted entrance into heaven.

Photo: As I do each day, but adding a few extra today, I remember and pray for JoAnn, my heart.

Link for the Mass readings for All Soul’s Day

Brothers and sisters: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us (Romans 8:18).

This side of heaven, we are going to suffer in this life and sometimes intensely. So many suffer from the atrocities of violence and war, poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, slavery, and the list continues. We have our own struggles, trials, and tribulations.

Paul recognized that in his time as well and is reminding the churches in Rome and us today that this life is not it. There is a glory beyond this world that is promised to those of us who accept the invitation to participate in the life of Jesus. It is in this reality, our oneness and unity with God will be fully experienced. This is where we place our ultimate hope.

Yet, we do not have to wait for heaven to experience a foretaste of heaven now, to experience the wonder and glory now. A gentle, light shines in the darkness. Do we see it? In today’s gospel, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed or yeast. Meaning that God is present in this fallen world. He has not given up on us, he has not abandoned us. He calls us to himself to receive, rest, and abide in his love.

Our struggles will become a blessing when we consistently seek Jesus when all is calm as well as when the storm rages. Each time we choose to put God first we experience him more. In gentle ways, he touches our minds and our hearts, he grants us hope, a little light in the darkness to follow. We just need to remain steadfast, trust, and continue forward, one moment at a time, one choice at a time.

Just like the Mustard seed will grow into a bush and the yeast will help the dough to rise to make a nice, warm loaf of bread, so we in our participation in the life of Christ will grow and mature as his disciples and his Father’s beloved children. God will bring about a greater good from our trials and tribulations.

Photo: Evening Rosary walk, St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, October 31, 2023