gospel-of-the-day

God loves us, hears our prayers, and guides us to healing and wholeness.

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Lk 11:9).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues to teach his disciples and us about prayer. The key point he is emphasizing is to be persistent in our prayer and to trust in God. He is our Father who cares for us more than any human can. He cares and will provide for us more than our own earthly parents or friends.

Yet, we can be frustrated in prayer because when we do make the time to pray, we may feel or think that nothing is happening or has happened. We may pray for a specific petition for our self, or for a particular intention for another and felt, or thought, that there was not an answer from God. One may pray a sincere, seemingly selfless prayer for a loved one, a child, a spouse, a friend, to be healed from a particular painful emotional situation, a conflict to be resolved, or someone ill and dying, and yet, the situation continues, the conflict may not get better but may worsen, and/or the person still dies.

The one petitioning may feel deeply hurt because they did what Jesus said; they asked, they pleaded and begged, but felt they did not receive the ending of pain, the resolution, or healing they sought for themselves or others; that which they pleaded, was not given and, instead what they found was nothing but pain and heartache; they knocked until their knuckles were raw and experienced no one on the other side.

Our attitude and orientation to prayer matters. When we sincerely turn our hearts and minds to God in prayer, something happens between us and God, though it may be beyond our cognitive grasp to understand or our sensory awareness to experience. There may indeed be emotional highs and consolations experienced in prayer, but if seeking those is the primary motivation for prayer we will find ourselves more frustrated than not. There may also be lows in prayer, dryness, even desolations, and even feeling God’s absence. Emotions are fleeting and not a good barometer when measuring the effectiveness of prayer.

Another big misconception is that we pray to God as if he were a gumball machine. It may seem a silly analogy but how many of us really do pray and worse, only pray that way, and when we do not receive the specific thing we asked for, at the time specified, when we wanted and as we wanted, we brood and think God doesn’t care or does not, in fact, even exist. We may even slip into the barter posture. God if you grant me this, I will do that. If we are only open to receive what we want on our terms, again we are setting ourselves up for disappointment.

The very desire to pray is the beginning of our awareness, for God is the one who reaches out and invites us to pray. The answer to what or who we ask, seek, and knock is found at the end of the Gospel reading for today: “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Lk 11:13)?

God knows what is best for us, he sees our potential, he wants us to experience joy and be fulfilled. How can we best live our lives in this world to attain that reality? We do so by asking for the Holy Spirit. Who is the Holy Spirit? The infinite, communal love expressed between God the Father and God the Son. Our goal in prayer is to enter into God’s reality, the infinite communion of Love.

We pray first and foremost to help us to grow in relationship with God. This happens through our participation and conformation to the life of Jesus. When we take time to learn, meditate, pray with, and put into practice Jesus’ teachings as his disciples did, we will start to see as he sees, we will come to see the truth of empty promises, apparent goods, substitutes to fill our emptiness and faulty defense and coping mechanisms that we have been utilizing as guideposts to merely survive and get through life.

When we stay consistent in an authentic life of prayer, God won’t bend to our will, but we will change. Instead of God becoming smaller to our demands, he expands our hearts and minds to be capable to receive his love. As we mature, we will begin to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (cf. Galatians 5:22-23)?

Why may God not appear to answer prayers for healing of a relationships, resolutions to conflicts, physical healings for a loved one with a chronic condition or one who is dying? I do not know. God though does not wave a magic wand and poof all is wonderful. If we genuinely seek healing for ourselves and others, that will take time, for God seeks healing for the long term, and that means helping us to build firmer foundations through trusting him and receiving his love.

When we trust God there is less disappointment, because we can be more patient to receive God’s outcome, than grasp for our intended outcome. We trust that God knows better than us. Sometimes what we ask for we receive in the way we asked, and sometimes we receive what we asked for in a different way than we expected.

We need to resist running from the pain and be willing to trust that God has not abandoned us but is with us. The tears that arise from our suffering can then become a healing salve, a doorway into the open arms and embrace of Jesus who awaits us in the depths of our frustration, grief, and pain. Even our loved ones who have died have not come to an end but have experienced a new beginning. JoAnn often would say in her last few weeks that she was just changing her address. God answered our prayers for JoAnn’s healing, just not the way we had intended.

Ultimately, what we ask, what we seek, and what we knock for when we pray is to be loved, to belong, to be a part of someone and something greater than ourselves. We have been created as a living, craving hunger, and desire to be one with God and each other. This is true for the atheist and the mystic alike. We have been created to be loved and to love. God’s love is present to us no matter the internal or external turmoil within ourselves or those we love.

The Holy Spirit is the gift of prayer that is open to us all. He is the love shared between the Father and the Son, that we too can experience. This is why he is the answer to our prayer, though sometimes to be aware of his presence takes perseverance. It may not be that God is not answering, but that we are not patient enough to receive the answer. We need to be patient enough to be still and know God. Prayer is about building a relationship and like any other relationship, that takes consistent time and work.

To mature in our relationship with God not only takes perseverance, we also need to trust him. One of the enemy’s chief tactics is to sow the seeds of doubt and mistrust. Trust in God’s love for you. Trust that he hears every prayer. Continue to show up each day and pray. Even if you feel nothing is happening, God is working within you, fighting for you, helping you to feel safe, to heal and grow in trust. It is also important to spend regular time in quiet, for God’s primary language is silence.

God provides an answer to every prayer. May we be willing to seek his truth, trust in him that he knows best and will guide us well so that we may follow the path that he lights before us. “Leave it all to God and leave your interests in His hands. He knows what is fitting for us… No matter: tell Him honestly, candidly, and ask Him to help you trust Him.” – St. Teresa of Avila

Photo: No matter how dark, and even when there appears to be no way, trust in Jesus, he will hear our prayer and show us the way.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 8, 2026

“Father, Hallowed be your name.”

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he shared with them the prayer we know as the “Our Father” or “The Lord’s Prayer”. This version from Luke is a bit different than the version from Matthew that we are used to. Praying with different words can help us to be more attentive and mindful. We also need to be careful when we pray to resist the temptation to only say words and forget that the words we are praying are directed to a Person, in this case, Our Father.

This very prayer was given to the Apostles, who passed it on, and it has continued to be prayed and passed on generation after generation such that we have received the “Our Father” again in this moment!

God’s word is alive. It touches our hearts and minds, and reaches each of us in our own unique moments of sorrow, challenges, and desolations, as well as our successes, joys, and consolations. Another good point to remember when approaching prayer is to resist the temptation to change God. Instead, let us allow him to transform us by his loving embrace.

The Lord’s Prayer is wonderful on its own when we meditate upon each of the words. While at the same time it is also a model of prayer. In the very opening line, Jesus invites us to begin each prayer in praise and thanksgiving. Beginning any prayer in gratitude leads us to experience joy and communion with our Father. When we are grateful, we are less apt to dwell on what we don’t have.

Each of the following lines are lines of petition and intercession. We are asking God for our needs, physical as well as spiritual. The daily bread points back to how our Father took care of the Hebrews in the desert with bread from heaven, the manna. And points forward to the institution of the Eucharist. The most powerful petition we can pray, and the most transformative and healing petition is to ask for and offer forgiveness.

Having been forgiven and making time to savor being forgiven, we will be hopefully, more apt to forgive others. Through the lens of forgiveness, we can then also see better what our lives look like with God and without him. We can then more clearly decide to give our lives to God more fully and resist temptations more consistently by asking for his help. Just as God protected Jesus in the desert from the temptation of Satan, so he will protect us when we to nourish ourselves daily by reading, studying, meditating and praying with his sacred word.

I invite you to give yourself some time now to slowly and prayerfully pray this prayer again. Pay attention to each word, meditate upon them, direct them to, and spend some quiet time with our Father.

“Father, hallowed be your name,
your Kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test” (Luke 11:2-4).

Photo: Let us resist the Kentucky Derby version of the recitation of the Rosary and instead, slowly recite and ponder upon the wonderful prayers and Mysteries on this feast day of our Lady of the Rosary. Painting by Charles B. Chambers.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 7, 2026

May we bring any anxiety to Jesus and receive his love and consolation in exchange.

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her” (Lk 10:41-42).

My wife, JoAnn, and I used to have more than a few spirited discussions on this Gospel passage each time that it arose because, at first reading, it appears that Jesus does not show any empathy or regard for Martha’s gift of hospitality nor for all the work that she is doing, she who was “burdened with much serving”. All the men are sitting around listening to Jesus, and Mary… she is doing the same, and who is left to do all the work? Martha.

Blessed to serve as a permanent deacon for ten years, I saw my own, as well as other deacon’s wives, carry extra weight and burdens in support on the home front to allow their husbands the time to serve. Many of us also still held full time jobs. Not only deacon’s wives, this reality is also true for many wives who are full-time homemakers, run in-home businesses, or carry a job outside the home, as well as care for the children, overseeing the bills, the day to day grind. They too may find themselves, feeling under-appreciated, undervalued, not respected for all they do, and “burdened with much serving”.

Husbands can do a better job of being present, more patient, respectful, and attentive to their wives and be more of an equal partner on the journey. There are challenges of being overwhelmed being single as well. Not having someone to help out to share the load, especially as we age. Our mortality, married or single, is a little closer on the horizon.

The point Jesus is making, that he makes throughout the Gospels, is to put God first, then family, work, and our unique vocation. The expression of that is going to be different for each station in life. There will be more time constraints for parents of infants. No matter how little time we may have, setting time aside to pray daily, to allow time to as Mary did, sit at the feet of Jesus and receive his nourishing word, rest and receive his love, and confer with him our challenges to receive his guidance is so important. Doing so, will then help us to properly order the chaos of our day as well as feel peace even in the mundane. The more we can “choose the better part”, we will find that time we did not think we had and Jesus will help our lives to be properly ordered.

This short account acknowledges the reality of how much we all juggle with in all ages. There is much to do and much to be done. Jesus was not disregarding Martha’s hospitality. Especially in the Gospel of Luke, there are many instances in which Jesus empowers women so far beyond the cultural reality of his time. We read this as we do any biblical account from our twenty-first-century mindset. Contextually, the men sitting at the teacher’s feet in a different room, the women cooking, and most times eating separately were commonplace for those in the ancient near east of the first century AD. Mary was the only person out of step with the times.

The interpretive key to understanding this account is what Jesus said. He pointed out that Martha was “anxious and worried about many things.” Mary could have been one of those worries, and not so much that Mary wasn’t helping in the kitchen, but because she was breaking the social norm of sitting with the men. When Martha calls Jesus to redirect Mary, she probably expects him to support her plea. Yet, Jesus acknowledges that: “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her” (Luke 10:42).

Mary, sitting and having her primary focus on Jesus was the posture of a disciple. Jesus was not only allowing her to do so, he was commending her for doing so. I can visualize Martha being taken aback at first, but then slowly feeling the muscles in her face relax as the lightbulb went on. We don’t know. But could Martha in that moment have experienced peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding, such that the anxiety and worry left her? Feeling the peace instead of fear, she too like Mary approached Jesus as Mary had done. Did Martha then take her apron off, throw it to the side, and sit down next to her sister and also become his disciple?

There is biblical evidence that beyond the Twelve, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, were Jesus’ friends. When Jesus came four days after the death of Lazarus, as soon as Martha heard Jesus was outside, she, not Mary, came immediately out to Jesus, and in that exchange, it was Martha who made the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God (cf Jn 11:27). Would she have had this insight, the same as Peter, if she was still holding a grudge from this encounter?

Our modern reaction and push back to this Martha and Mary account in Luke may not so much be a reflection on Jesus but how poorly men have treated women over the generations and how poorly women continue to be treated even today. No matter their ages, young, old, and everywhere in between, women are human beings created in the image of God. No one has the right to abuse, demean, disparage, devalue, or exploit any woman. Women are to be appreciated, heard, respected, cherished, and valued. Jesus showed that truth time and again, especially in the Gospel of Luke.

God has given each of us gifts to participate in his Father’s plan. May we resist the temptation to fear coming close to Jesus and taking time out to sit at his feet, to engage in mental maelstroms, to be “anxious and worried about many things.” Instead, when we experience the beginning tremors of any stress or strain, catch the effective movement, stop, breathe, be still and rest in Jesus’ presence as Mary, and hopefully Martha, did.

In Jesus’ presence, we will feel safe and can then share with him what is going on and hopefully be able to identify the source of the anxiety, share it with him and receive his love and consolation. Entering into this dance with Jesus of bringing him all that comes our way from within and without will help us to better know Jesus, his voice, and his teaching, know and follow his will, love others as he loves us, and live our lives respecting, encouraging, and supporting one another with the gifts and guidance that God has given us.

When we choose the better part of sitting at Jesus’ feet before making a decision, we can experience less chaos and more of his peace and guidance. Instead of living in a perpetual state of chronic stress and anxiety, being “worried and anxious about many things”,we can instead choose to breathe, rest, receive and abide in God’s love. Then from that place of stillness, like Mary, and I believe Martha, instead of reacting, we can make a choice based on God’s guidance.

Photo: Mary, Jesus’ mother, was the premier disciple for she “pondered” the mysteries she experienced with Jesus “in her heart” (Luke 2:19) and “heard the word of God and observed it” (Luke 11:28).

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, October 6, 2026

“Go and do likewise.”

It is interesting that the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and here in today’s Gospel account, a scholar of the law, instead of genuinely seeking to learn the truth from Jesus, they all “test” Jesus. They seek to prove him wrong, trip him up, or attempt to present him in a compromising light.

The scholar indeed knows the law well. He knows the foundation of the law which Jesus himself calls the greatest commandment in Mark and Matthew. In combining Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, the scholar answers his own question that one can “inherit eternal life” by loving “the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

Jesus commends his answer and acknowledges his understanding. Jesus then shares an important point to any law or teaching: “Do this and you will live” (Luke 10:28). It is not enough to know, we must put what we know into practice. Otherwise, there is no fruit. What we “know” will atrophy, it will whither away and die if we do nothing with what we have learned.

Not only does the scholar miss the point, he continues on his course to press Jesus further, seeking to “justify himself” by asking who is his neighbor. Jesus without missing a beat, sings the song of the Good Samaritan. Jesus presents who ought to be the heroes in his parable, the priest and the Levite, two law abiding Jews. Each know the law but each are unwilling to take the risk of breaking the law of ritual impurity by touching a dying man. Or they do not want to risk their own safety and refuse to fulfill the deepest root of the law, loving their neighbor as themselves. So they walk on and keep at a good distance. Jesus does not give the reason for their refusal to help.

The one who is willing to come close, the one who fulfills the letter of the law is not a scholar, a Pharisee, one of the high council, or even a common Jewish man or woman, but a Samaritan. Samaritans were considered enemies for different reasons. They were not pure-blood Judaeans. They were of the northern tribes of Israel and many of the Jews that survived the Assyrian occupation intermarried with the Gentiles. They also worshipped, not on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, but on Mount Gerizim. Sprinkling in some violent interactions and you have a recipe ripe for division and distrust.

Yet, it is this Samaritan who lives out the fullness of the law of God by loving his neighbor who is in need. He not only comes close to check on him, he provides aide, brings him to an inn where he can rest, heal, and all on his dime. Did the scholar go and do likewise? We do not know. Just as when the rich young man walked away sad after Jesus invited him to sell all he had and follow him, we don’t know if he ever came back. Are we willing to treat each other with mercy as did the Good Samaritan?

We can know the Catechism inside and out, know the Bible chapter and verse, we can attend daily Mass, but it does not mean that much if we do not allow what we have learned to shape and soften our hearts, transform our minds such that we come to put into practice the teachings of Jesus so that we may better know him and his Father and experience the love shared between them, the Holy Spirit. Our faith is about experiencing God’s love and loving one another as he loves us.

To grow in our relationship and experience of God’s presence we need to slow down, slip away from the fast pace and the instant gratification mill. That is the invitation of loving God with our whole being by embodying the first three laws of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments that have to do with loving God and then we can better follow the next seven, and love our neighbor as ourself. What we receive in our time of reading, studying, meditation, prayer, and worship, we need to ponder, put into practice, and share with one another as God leads. “God works in depth, in the slow time of trust” (Pope Leo XIV).

We are not perfect. We all fall short of the glory of God. The enemy seeks to distract, divert, trip, beat us down, and leave us for dead, just as we read about the man on the Jericho road. The good news is that in our times of desperation, when we find ourselves down and almost out, the Good Samaritan is Jesus. He is not only willing to come close, if we are willing to allow him, he will lift us up, restore us to health, save, redeem, and give us new life.

As Jesus does for us, let us go and do likewise for each other.

Painting: “The Good Samaritan” by Eugène Delacroix

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 5, 2026

We are tenants serving in the vineyard of our loving God and Father.

“Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (Mt 21:43).

With these words, Jesus is speaking to the leadership of Israel, those entrusted to shepherd God’s chosen. Jesus is not, as some have unfortunately suggested, advocating supersessionism: the claim that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan. The Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, Declaration on the Relation of the Church and Non-Christian Religions, states clearly: “It is true that the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from holy Scripture” (741).

There is clear evidence that there have been anti-semitic movements and supersessionist views in the Church and it has created division instead of interfaith communion, and there are traces that still support a view contrary to Nostra Aetate. There is still much to do to heal and promote better mutual understanding. We must remember that Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the Apostles were Jewish. Pope Paul VI stated that we are all spiritual Semites.

What we need to glean from Jesus’ words is that we who say we believe in God are given a sacred trust and duty to care for one another and all of creation. In the parable that Jesus shares, God is the owner of the vineyard, echoing a similar analogy from Isaiah 5:1-7 which is our first reading. The appeal of each telling is an appeal to the leaders and elders to repent.

Jesus is speaking to us as well. The Church is not our Church, just as in the parable the vineyard does not belong to the tenants. We are to serve God by following his will and bear good fruit by living our baptismal call to live holy lives dedicated to God. We cannot go through each day with blinders on to the needs of those around us. Though we cannot meet all the needs everywhere and for everyone, we can begin to approach each day with an intent of being good stewards to those we engage with.

We can begin by looking at our own home. First, on the material level, do we have more than we need? Are there material goods that could be used better elsewhere rather than just taking up space? Then, going forward, we can purchase what we need and resist what we think we need. I need to apply this to books!

“Wealth, explains Saint Basil, is like water that issues forth from the fountain: the greater the frequency with which it is drawn, the purer it is, while it becomes foul if the fountain remains unused” (Compendium, 329). We need to seek God’s discernment so to better manage the gifts and resources that God has entrusted us with. We are to free ourselves from the attachment to our material goods and seek God first. He gives us more in one loving glance than any possession we have or ever will have. We are to be people of generosity giving freely with joy, not choking on our own stagnation of excessive acquisitions.

Assessing daily how we treat one another is also important. A good practice here is to follow St. Mother Teresa’s five finger Gospel: “You did it to me.” This was an embodiment of Matthew 25:31-46, where Jesus emphasized what you do to the least of my brothers, you did it to me. If we can approach each person we meet, in person as well as online, not as if they were like Jesus, but in fact Jesus, we might treat others with more dignity or respect.

The act of respecting the dignity of one person makes a big difference, certainly to that person. Respect ripples out to counter the negativity that permeates growing cynicism, distrust, division, and polarization. A waterfall begins with one drop. Helping people to feel they matter, that they have worth and dignity begins with one smile or a listening ear is just such a drop. Kindness and caring begins by listening to God tell us how much he loves us, be still long enough to rest in his healing embrace, and allow him to love us where we may not want to be loved or feel unlovable.

We can often get stressed, strained, frustrated, and angry when we consume too much of the news and allow ourselves to be saturated with the negativity of the world. Very little is within the realm of what we can have an impact on. Might be a good practice to consume less of the negativity, pray for the needs of the world, and allow the light and love of Jesus to reveal to us where we need to repent. repentance, forgiveness, healing, help us to receive more of God’s love. We are better able to resist serving ourselves but instead serve God in his vineyard in the unique way he calls us to serve.

We are called to work toward the common good of all, within our country and throughout the world. Doing so not in some abstract or utopian way, but in specific ways where we are invested in the lives of others. “Collaboration in development of the whole person and of every human being is in fact a duty of all towards all, and must be shared by the four parts of the world, East and West, North and South” (Compendium, John Paul II, 446).

We are not the owners of the vineyard, we are the tenants placed in charge by God. How we use our time, talent, and treasure matter. This is a good point of daily meditation and focus when examining our conscience each evening before we retire to the land of dreams. How have we done in the matter of being grateful to God, caring for one another, ourselves, and our environment? For those places we have fallen short, may we seek God’s forgiveness, and commit with God’s help to begin anew. Where we have done well, may we thank God for his guidance and continue to receive his love and follow his will, such that the water of generosity we draw continues to be pure so we may bear good fruit that will last.

Photo: When we remain connected to the vine of God’s love, we will bear good fruit.

Link for the readings for Sunday, October 4, 2026

Flannery, Austin. Vatican Council II. Fifth ed. Vol. 1. 2 vols. New York: Costello, 1998.

Compendium of the social doctrine of the church. Cittá del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005.

God cares and invites us to receive, rest, and abide in his love.

In the Gospel, Jesus receives the seventy-two he had commissioned to heal and exorcize demons in his name. They returned rejoicing at the wonders that they experienced in their service and Jesus shared with them that what was more amazing was not so much that “the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

What is amazing about what Jesus is sharing is that much more than what we do, even in doing God’s will, is who we are in relationship with God. That our names are written in heaven means, we know God. God cares about us personally and intimately. God knows each of us by name and knows us better than we know ourselves. Even though God does not need us, God yearns for relationship with us and has planted that very desire to be in relationship with him in the very depths of our minds, hearts, and souls. God also wants us to participate in his plan of salvation history and has a particular part for us to play.

When we give ourselves some time to take this in, to rest and stop, to breathe, really take some deep and slow breaths, and ponder not only how much God loves us, but actually give ourselves time to rest in and receive his love. Wow! You’ll never breathe or see the world in the same way again. When we receive something negative or harmful we are able to process and receive that in three seconds. To receive something good or to hear someone say we are loved, can take from 30 – 90 seconds to process.

We might hesitate or question whether God cares because we might believe that he allowed something to happen or not to happen, or because we have unwittingly welcomed the negative influence and lies of the enemy, such as: we may not care about having our name written in heaven, for what’s the point of having an eternal relationship with someone who doesn’t care enough to listen. Lies such as these keep God at a distance. God hears all our prayers even while they are still thoughts in our mind.

He knows our deepest needs, hurts, and desires more than we do. To experience God’s love though, to know that he hears our prayers, we will need to slow down and be still for more than a moment. God speaks in the silence of our hearts and we will hear his voice and experience his love when we remain still long enough to hear, receive, and rest in his word.

Just taking a moment to be still, and to bring our questions to God is a good first step. For God is the best one to answer them. We just need to be prepared that he may answer our question with more questions. He may also say yes, no, not yet, or yes in a different way that we think. As long as we enter into the conversation, God is present. It is not so much that we need to get up and do something, as much as… we need to sit and allow God to do something in and through us, and to remain still long enough to hear, receive, and rest in the gift of God’s love. Having received and rested in God’s love, we will better discern each thought to entertain, word to speak, and action to take.

Photo: “Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

Link for the Mass for Saturday, October 3, 2026

The love, rest, and peace we seek, we will find when we place ourselves in the arms of our loving God and Father.

“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me” (Mt 18:4-5).

Children during the time of Jesus were seen, if they were acknowledged at all, to have little worth. They were vulnerable, had little if any status in society. They were often nothings, nobodies, and completely dependent on their parents for survival. Jesus invites a child to come to him, identifying himself with the child, as a response to the disciples’ question as to who would be considered the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus taught his disciples, and through his teaching that we get to hear or read today, he teaches us also that we need to be completely dependent on our loving God and Father, just as a small child is totally dependent on his or her parents. What leads us to greatness in the Kingdom of heaven is our turning away from the temptation to curve in upon ourselves, resisting the urge to feed our ego, place ourselves first, rely on a radical self-sufficiency that says we have to take care of ourselves because no one else will.

St Thomas Aquinas taught that we are to resist the cultural lures and substitutes for God: power, pleasure, honor, and wealth. In and of themselves, each of these four are neutral. Yet, when we seek our security in any, some or all, above and before God, we will be disillusioned and let down, because there is not enough power, pleasure, honor or wealth to fill the infinite need in our soul. Only God can fill that deed need to be seen, loved, and heard, especially in our deepest places of hurt, vulnerability, and those places we ourselves don’t feel all that lovable.

We are also to reject the image of the Übermensch, the super man, popularized by Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher. Nietzsche wrote that God was dead and promoted the idea that humanity needed to create a world that would create new values based on the power of human will alone. Supermen and women striving for complete autonomy and self-sufficiency. Jesus teaches the exact opposite. We need to place our complete dependency and trust in and on God and rely on him for everything.

Participating in the reign of God is not one of lordship over another. Jesus teaches us to assume the humility to accompany, walk along with, and serve each other along our journey in this life. Jesus embodied this reality. He, as the Son of God, entered into our human condition. He did not grasp at his divinity but instead surrendered it to his humanity. While remaining fully divine, he became fully human when through the power of the Holy Spirit was conceived in the womb of Mary. In such vulnerability and weakness, he developed through his period of gestation, and was born into our fallen world. As an infant and child, he was completely dependent on Mary, Joseph, and God his Father.

As Jesus continued to grow as a young child, he experienced the fullness of the human condition. He laughed, he cried, he got sick, he was tempted, he felt pain, he experienced heartache and joy. Throughout his life, and especially during his public ministry, he experienced human suffering up close and personal. More so than we ever will, because there was never a filter or compensation or disordered affection that Jesus would utilize to cover up the pain. He received any pain full on with no filter. He understood the suffering of his neighbor and experienced his own human and finite limitations. He loved and wept as we saw in his encounters with Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. All that Jesus experienced he brought to his Father in prayer and received his love, strength, guidance, and consolation.

Jesus invites us to do the same as he did, to relate to our loving God and Father often in the best sense of that intimacy of dependence. St Thérèse of Lisieux, whose memorial we celebrated yesterday got this. “Jesus has chosen to show me the only way which leads to the Divine Furnace of love; it is the way of childlike self-surrender, the way of a child who sleeps, afraid of nothing, in its father’s arms.”

Accepting Thérèse’s image is an acknowledgment that we are just as dependent on God and others, that we are not self-sufficient, that we are not capable of living radically independent lives, nor are we supposed to. God created us to be loved and to love, to be in community, to care for, respect, and support one another.

Our guardian angels, whose memorial we celebrate today, are at the ready, awaiting our call. When we have the humility to ask for their help, we will realize that we are not alone. When we experience some supernatural support, from God, his angels and the saints, we might just be willing to seek help from and support each other. We can offer a shoulder to lean on, a smile, a hug, a voice that speaks for the voiceless, a text, email, or phone call if at a distance, a soul open to pray with and for others, an ear to hear, and we can embody the courage to serve and stand up for the dignity of each other.

St Mother Teresa who took her name from the Little Flower, Thérèse, was willing to come close and pick up that first dying man in the street. She did not ask his religion, was not concerned if he was of a different race or nationality, was not afraid to risk illness or injury by attending to him. She knelt down and was present in his time of dire need. We are at our best when we follow Jesus, St. Thérèse, St Mother Teresa, the saints, and our guardian angels, and surrender to, and place our dependency and complete trust in our loving God and Father and support each other by doing little things with great love.

Painting: Jesus found rest, peace, and love in trusting in Mary, Joseph, his Father and the Holy Spirit. We along with our guardian angels as well can too!

Mass readings for Friday, October 2, 2026

When Jesus, his Father and the love of the Holy Spirit is first, everything and everyone else becomes properly ordered.

And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God” (9:61-62).

Jesus again invites us to the radical call of the Gospel to put God before all else, even before family and again even more radical than the Old Testament. When Elijah called Elisha to follow him, Elijah allowed Elisha to say goodbye to his family and settle his estate, so to speak, before they left together (cf 1 Kings 19:19-21).

This invitation is given to all of us. We are invited to be part of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. The important foundational point is that we understand what Jesus means by the Church. The original Greek term that we have in the earliest manuscripts was ekklēsia. This is more than just a gathering or an assembly of like minds. Ekklēsia means to be called out from.

Jesus calls us out from anything in our life that we put or place before God, and he calls us to a new way of living. Jesus invites us to turn away from the false substitutes, apparent and/or disordered goods, in which we may be seeking happiness and fulfillment. Pleasure, power, honor, and wealth will not fulfill us, will not provide stability for us, nor will they give us control over our lives. Instead, when we make them idols, we will be enslaved to them. Jesus does not preach a prosperity Gospel, he calls us to radically and unconditionally trust in him first and foremost.

We have been created to be fulfilled, to be happy, to belong, to be loved. To experience meaning and fulfillment means to surrender to who God has created us to be, which is a living, craving hunger, and desire to be one with God and each another. Nothing else will satisfy, nothing. Once we say yes to the invitation of Jesus to reorient our life such that we put God before all else, the other matters and material realities will fall into place.

Jesus calls us each by name, out from the apparent goods and false truths that we have been diverted by and he calls us into the experience of being incorporated into and part of his Mystical Body, the Church, the communion of believers unified in his name, renewed, born from above in his water and blood. This process of transformation begins when we place our trust in God our Father and allow him to love us so we can remember who we are, his beloved daughters and sons.

Photo: Sunday Evening Holy Hour to rest, renew, and reset. Breathing, receiving, resting, and abiding in God’s love.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 30, 2026

St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Rafael, archangels of heaven, are cheering us on.

He promised that he would be there so that she would not have to die alone. The hospital called. Her time was closer. The priest was visiting another ill parishioner. He finished up as fast as he could, left and experienced traffic and too many lights turning red instead of staying green. Although he pushed the speed limit, when the priest arrived at the nursing station and asked for the name of the woman, the nurse informed him that he was too late, she had already passed.

He felt horrible because he promised her that she would not die alone. As he was mulling over the unfortunate timing, the nurse continued. “An interesting thing happened. An orderly came in with another patient, and I had no order for her to be in this room. This woman looked at your friend and asked if she could have her bed closer to hers, then reached out her hand. They held hands while the orderly and I left to check into the matter. When we returned, your friend was dead. The orderly then moved her bed out. The funny thing is that I have been checking since they left and found no record of this orderly or his patient being in the hospital.”

She did not die alone after all. Was this a visit from two angels?

Today we celebrate the feast of the archangels, Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael. Angels are eternal, spiritual beings. They are not human but can take on human form in their appearance. Also, when we die, we do not become angels. We are human beings, and as such we are human and spiritual.

One of the possible reasons that Satan, who is the archangel, Lucifer, and demons, the other angels who follow him, rebelled against God was because in our participation in the life of Christ, we become higher than the angels. That was too much for Satan and his followers to take. Choosing their pride over God, they rebelled.

Jesus, fully God and fully man, is infinite and eternal as Son, while at the same time finite as human. In Jesus coming close to be one with us in our humanity, we are offered the opportunity to participate with him in his divinity. Like the angels, God has given us the ability to reason and the freedom to choose. We can choose to grasp at divinity on our own terms through our pride, as Satan and his minions, or we can receive the gift of God’s love, participate in the life of his Son, and become like God. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are divine by their very nature, whereas we are given the grace to participate in their divine nature.

We don’t lose ourselves and become absorbed by God, we remain distinct and experience the fullness of our humanity in our participation in the divinity of Jesus. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus has assumed his glorified Body. He is the first born of the new creation and through our baptism we participate in his life and through him, the life of the Trinity. As we surrender our lives to God, take up our cross, die to ourselves, and follow Jesus, we grow in holiness. We join in the new creation Jesus has won for us. With each faithful step we draw closer to the heavenly Jerusalem, and we become more united with the Body of Christ.

The wonderful reality we can ponder today is that in God’s order of creation, with each breath we take, we can rest in the truth that we belong to an incredibly extended family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the angels, and the saints. We can rest in the reality that no matter what challenges we are going through, we all have a significant part to play in God’s plan, we are all interconnected, and we are not alone. We are loved, we are in communion with many in heaven and on earth who are not only cheering us on but loving us, willing our good, and guiding us on our journey.

Icon written by Nikolaos Bratakis

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, September 29, 2026

When we remember to keep God first instead of ourselves, we will experience more peace within.

The Apostle John attempted to prevent someone from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not one in their “company”, he was not one of those handpicked by Jesus as were each of the Twelve. This person casting out demons in Jesus’ name was not like Simon the Magician (see Acts 8:9-25) who sought to buy the power of God from the Apostles to perform feats to boost his own fame and ego. He was doing what the apostles were doing and in the proper way, by invoking the name of Jesus, as well as better than the apostles!

Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you” (Lk 9:50). The important part about being a disciple is surrendering to the will of God. Jesus consistently pointed this out to his followers. Being a disciple of Jesus had nothing to do with whether or not someone was in or out of their company, or whether or not they were related to Jesus, as was recorded just in the last chapter, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is pointing out the danger of groupthink for its own sake. This is something we desperately need to understand in our present-day and age. What is important is not putting our self, our family, our tribe, our party, or our nation first. What is most important is putting God first.

The man in today’s Gospel did not rely on his own strength or willpower but called on the name of Jesus to cast out demons and he did so not because he was seeking to be great but following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. John was more focused on the fact that this man wasn’t in their company, instead of being amazed that he was exorcising demons in the name of Jesus. The man was doing what Jesus had called the apostles to do. Maybe John was a bit jealous that this man was doing a better job of it as well.

We and John can learn a bit from the humility of Job from our first reading. After losing all his livestock, workers, and children, Job turned to God in humility and said: “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21-22).

“Blessed be the name of the LORD!” Job felt the anguish and pain of his loss, tearing his cloak, cutting off his hair and here is the key, he kept the proper perspective and trusted in God. He prostrated himself before God and did not speak his name in vain, but blessed him instead!!! Job trusted in God who was the creator of his life.

John’s misstep and rash judgment of the man could have come from the fact that he and the other apostles were arguing about who was to be the greatest. They had taken their focus off of God and were focusing upon themselves. Jesus reminded them that the one who is least is the greatest. The one who is willing to depend on God, as a small child depends on their parent for everything, will have greater access to God as did this man and Job. We are at our best when we remember who we are, beloved daughters and sons of God. Let us trust in our loving God and Father today.

Photo: Giving ourselves time to seek God’s will for our lives in silence, we will experience his peace no matter the challenges.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, September 28, 2026