jesus

We are to love Jesus more, than our possessions, our family and friends, even our own life.

I can visualize the opening scene of today’s Gospel in my mind’s eye. Jesus striding along with a gathering of people walking, talking, and moving about, and then he just stops. The turns. Those closest to Jesus pull up with him, others continue right past, while at the same time others bump into and trip over those who had stopped before them. The subtle hum of random conversation then slowly comes to a halt. A stillness ripples through the crowd, and then there is silence. The dust begins to settle. Those closest have their eyes locked on his, while those further back are craning their necks, moving left and right to get a better look. Still others are cupping their ears to catch the sound of Jesus’ voice.

Those following Jesus consisted of disciples to be sure, while the greater majority were those on the periphery gathering because of curiosity, intrigue, and maybe even wonder. Jesus then begins to speak, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife or children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life,…” and then, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me…” and then he finishes with “In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple” (cf. Lk 14:25-33).

Those who may be hearing these words second hand, as they were further away from the point of direct hearing, may not believe that the message was transmitted to them correctly. These words cut to the quick, just as surely as when Jesus shared about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and when he told another follower, who wanted to bury his father to let the dead bury their dead. Luke does not say, but it is likely that many of those gathered around him were just as shocked and began to walk away.

The familial bond for ancient peoples was strong. Though the invitation of salvation that Jesus offers is for all to be saved, he is not going to dumb down or sugar coat his message just to get numbers. Jesus presents, time and again, that the way to live a life of fullness and wholeness, to restore that which has been lost, is to put God first in our lives. God must be the primary focus, the primary relationship in our lives, nothing else can have priority of place before him. When we do so, everyone and all other things will fall into their proper place, will be properly ordered. We will experience a peace and rest.

Do we want to be an onlooker, just someone looking at Jesus from a distance? Or do we want to be a disciple, willing to be his servant sent forth to share the Gospel and invite others into relationship with him? Are we attached to possessions, false substitutes, even members of our family, such that we place them before our relationship with God? Idols are anything that we put before God and will distract and divert us from the very flow of his life force that fuels our existence. If we are willing to walk the path of discipleship, we must be willing to surrender our will to God, place him first in our lives, take up our cross, and be open to being transformed by his love.

Jesus is the interpretive key that opens our understanding. All that which is material and finite in our lives only find true meaning in relation to him. Only when we are able to let go of the attachments to the things of this world will we then truly be free and experience then healthier relationships to each other. St. Francis embodied this in a radical way. One of his foundational prayers, which he sometimes would pray for hours was, “My God and my all!” And that is the life he lived and which Jesus invites us to live.

Photo: Blessed to concelebrate Mass at St. Anastasia a few weeks ago as we gathered to pray and prepare for World Youth Day in South Korea.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, November 4, 2026

We are to love one another as family, for each of us are beloved children of God.

“[W]hen you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you” (Lk 14:13-14).

Jesus means what he says here, though I am not sure many of us are ready to live this Gospel out. If we are going to get to the point where we can, we must understand the deeper point that he is making. The words of Jesus above give us an example of what it means to love unconditionally. We are to resist the temptation of doing anything with the primary purpose of receiving thanks or praise. We are to instead reach out to those in need because they are in need seeking nothing in return.

We embrace our dignity as human beings when we recognize the inherent dignity of another and serve them without hesitation, without holding anything back. Today’s parable puts flesh on the bones Jesus’ teachings because he shows that “the radical demands of discipleship in the kingdom involve renouncing ‘possessions’ (Luke 14:33) and even ‘hating’ one’s family: ‘father and mother, wife and children’ (14:26). The demands are worth it, however. Hence, even if the excuses seem like good ones (see 9:57-62), they pale in comparison to the blessing of dining in God’s kingdom (14:15)” (Gadenz, 266).

This is the root of what we mean when we say that we are believers in the God of Jesus Christ. God is a divine community of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father gives all that he is to the Son perfectly, infinitely, holding nothing back. The Son receives all that he has been given perfectly, infinitely and returns, in like fashion, what he has received back to the Father, holding nothing back. The infinite love shared between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit.

The Son of God became incarnate, one with us in our humanity, and he also gave all of himself to us on the cross, holding nothing back. He conquered death, rose from the dead, ascended to the Father so that we now can participate in that same divine love given and received between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not give of our time, talent, and treasure, so that we will receive more of each. We give, we love, we will the good of each other, because we have been loved into existence and are continually loved more than we can ever imagine by God. We are to receive his love and love in return because that is who God created us to be.

The very fact that we exist, that we have life, is a gift, yet we are not meant to merely exist. Jesus teaches us that the height of our humanity is to allow him to love us and through us, love others unconditionally. When we look into the eye of each and every person we meet, we are to see a brother, sister, mother, father. With each smile, each embrace, each listening ear, each act of invitation to walk not ahead, not behind, but with another, and by simply being present, we reaffirm to each other that we have dignity. This is true because each and every one of us has been created in the image of God, who is love.

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Photo: St. Martin de Porres lived out this gospel literally. From the Dominican monastery in Lima, Peru, he fed several hundred people a day, provided healing, financial support, and began a school for street children. St. Martin, pray for us that we also may be people of prayer and service.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

Jesus conquered sin and death for the salvation of all.

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who seeks the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:40).

This is our hope and what we believe, that we who encounter Jesus, believe in, know him, and follow him shall have eternal life. God’s will, what he created all of us for, is to be in communion with him and one another in this life and the next. A word of assurance that I often lean on is from the book of Wisdom from our first reading today, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us utter destruction. But they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3).

The miracle of Jesus raising the daughter of the Roman official, Jairus, embodies these verses from Wisdom. As Jesus entered the home of the official many were “making a commotion” and Jesus dismissed them stating: “Go away! the girl is not dead but sleeping.” He was ridiculed by the crowd but paid them no heed. He went to the girl, took her hand, “and the little girl arose” (cf. Mt 9:18-26).

Experiences like the raising of Jairus’ daughter, as well as the son of the widow from Nain, and Lazarus, were not only seeds of hope planting the promise of his resurrection to come but a foretaste of the raising of humanity on the last day. “The father’s will is the salvation of all of humanity through Jesus” (Martin and Wright, 125). The disciples witnessed Jesus’ actions and words, and not only kept these experiences in their hearts but shared them.

Through the Gospels, we are invited to experience the encounters of Jesus with others again and again. We also experience Jesus each time we spend breathing in silence, meditating and praying with his word, participating in the sacraments, communal worship, and loving one another through concrete actions of sacrifice and service. In each of these moments, we are conformed and shaped into who we have been created and called by God to be in this life, so better to prepare for the next.

This All Souls Day we celebrate the gift that Jesus was victorious over sin and death, not only for himself but for all. Unlike those he raised from the dead and died again: “We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him” (Romans 6:9). The difference between All Saints yesterday, and the commemoration of all souls today, is that we pray for those who have died and are still in need of the purifying fire of God’s love. Just as “gold in the furnace” (Wisdom 3:6) is purified, so God purifies those in purgatory. Let us pray for them today that they may be freed from any sin so they may also join the communion of Saints!

“Merciful Father, hear our prayers and console us. As we renew our faith in your Son, whom you raised from the dead, strengthen our hope that all our departed brothers and sisters will share in his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever” (Prayer for All Souls, from the Liturgy of the Hours).

Photo: For All Saints, we ask the saints to pray for us, for all souls, we pray for them that they may be saints.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, November 2, 2026

When we live the beatitudes, we will experience “a glimmer of joy and hope of the heavenly kingdom.”

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the land” (Mt 5:5).

Meek is usually not a trait that anyone would like to be associated with. Many of Jesus’ teachings often generate a puzzling look, a scratch of the head, an unsettling look, or a pit in the stomach. The more we are steeped in the fallen nature and secularized culture, the more challenging these teachings are. Just as with the prophets teachings, they are meant to do just that.

The prophets and Jesus spoke for God and so challenged their followers and non-followers and everyone in between. Jesus challenges us when his word is proclaimed at Mass, or when one accepts the invitation to open the living word of God and begins the journey. Hearing or reading the Beatitudes are just such a collection of teachings that can be very unsettling.

“Jesus’ beatitudes represent a reversal of values, turning the world’s standards for happiness upside down.” We are challenged to “see life from God’s viewpoint, not the world’s. When his followers live by God’s standards, they are truly in a fortunate state in life no matter what their circumstances may be, for they bring a glimmer of the joy and hope of the heavenly kingdom not the afflictions of the present world” (Mitch and Sri, 88).

Jesus spoke and speaks now in this moment as he is, the eternal Word. He speaks his word to us to lead us from our state of perpetual reaction and chronic stress and invites us to walk a different path, one of hope and promise, even where there may appear no way forward. Jesus said, as is recorded in Mark 1:15, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus, is the kingdom at hand, just an outstretched arm away. The good news is that his hand is reaching out to us, always has, and always will be.

Jesus is inviting us to walk with him on the path of meekness. This is not a path of the weak or faint of heart, but a path of courage and strength. To be meek, does not mean we are milk toast. Being meek means we are willing to receive insults, negativity, hurt, and even stand in the face of evil and choose not to react in kind, but instead, breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love, so to respond in love. To assume a posture of giving the other the benefit of the doubt, seeking to be a bridge of understanding, and accepting that we don’t know or understand all the time. In each instance, we are willing to allow God to love through us to invite our brother or sister to receive his love that can bring about healing and transformation.

To be meek means that we resist the temptation in stressful, fearful, or challenging moments to rely on our own self-sufficiency. We choose instead to turn to and seek our support, help, guidance, and strength from Jesus. In our meekness, we remember that we are beloved children of God and when we turn to our loving God and Father he will fight for us, be our firm foundation, and love us through every moment of our trials.

When we turn to Jesus in meekness and take his hand instead of exert the reaction and retaliation the world calls us to respond with, we experience of a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven. This is the land of our inheritance that Jesus promises to the meek. When we allow Jesus to lead us, we collaborate with him to help counter the darkness of injustice, violence, and sin. Jesus who embodied meekness by his willingness to be sent by his Father. He not only became human but was also willing to suffer the agony, loss, pain, and hurt in his passion and death on the cross. He understands what we are feeling. His presence and closeness will be the strength we need to guide us through the many ups and downs, fits and starts, to navigate our emotional roller coaster, and also be present and help others who struggle.

Today, we celebrate the gift of the Communion of Saints on this All Saints Day. The saints lived in meekness and lived the beatitudes. They dedicated their lives to the call of Jesus and have gone before us. They have inherited the land of promise, our heavenly home, and from there they cheer us on, encourage, and intercede for us. They remind us that we will be blessed also when we resist being attached to the things of this world and instead follow the will of God.

Jesus suffered and persevered the agonizing pain of the cross, then experienced, and conquered death. He lights the way and leads us back to the Father. We need not fear the fallen world nor death because through our life in Jesus, neither has any power over us. St Paul of the Cross, taught: “The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God. We must arouse the world from its slumber.”

Photo: When we turn to God with everything, we will experience our loving God and Father’s comfort, peace, and healing. We will rise from our slumber and reflect the light of Christ to help our brothers and sisters rise from their slumbers.

The source for the quote is from St Paul of the Cross

Mitch, Curtis and Edward Sri. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 1, 2026

We will experience freedom, consolation, and joy when we seek our affirmation from God.

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).

With these words, Jesus ends his parable about people jockeying for seats of honor, when in fact it is the prerogative of the host to determine the seating. Jesus also addressed this same issue with the Apostles when James and John requested to sit, one on his right and the other on his left when he would come in his glory (cf. Mark 10:35-45). True humility is submitting ourselves to the will of God and acting as he directs, such that he is given the primacy of place, not us.

A memory of mine from third grade sticks with me and that is the feeling one day of someone watching me in the classroom. The feeling was not my classmates or the teacher. I don’t believe that I was paranoid. What I think the experience was about was me starting to be aware of me from the outside of myself, kind of looking in at myself as I perceived others as seeing me.

Maybe this was the awakening of my ego. I am no psychiatrist, this is all speculation on my part, but the memory is still easy to recall. At some point, we become aware that people are looking at us. With maturity, we may come to realize that people are not looking at us as much as we think. That is until we serve in the public eye as Jesus did. Many people were looking at him and judging him in a full range that we have witnessed as we have been journeying through the Gospel of Luke.

The challenge is to resist acting in any way other than how God is calling us to be and act in any given expression. We ought not to seek to impress others, but instead, seek to express ourselves in ways that we are lead by the Holy Spirit. Too often throughout my life I have made decisions seeking others’ approval and just as often, I have chosen my actions regarding perceived opinions, not actual decisions requested of me directly. These perceived opinions were much more subtle in nature, but also could multiply and be debilitating at times when I sought to make a decision.

I am realizing that it is more important to align myself with God’s will for my life. In coming to a better understanding of God’s will, I am more authentic in my interactions with others instead of operating from a posture of appeasement, which is more disingenuous. In so doing, I am better able to be present to others for their needs and not my own. Also, when we are open to the nudge of the Holy Spirit, we experience God’s grace time and again.

What may have been going on with those at dinner seeking the closer seats to the host, what impelled James and John to want to sit at Jesus’ right and left when he came into his glory, was that they were seeking honor, prestige, glory, acceptance to feed their egos. They were listening to the nudge of the enemy. Jesus is teaching us to instead listen to our Father’s voice. We will find the fulfillment and joy that we seek in not man’s approval even when we receive it, but in God’s affirmation. This is the transformation we saw happen in Peter. He protected himself at the cost of denying Jesus three times but forgiven by the mercy of Jesus he gave himself in love to serve him and his Church unto his death.

We will experience freedom from indecision, mental distractions, and temptations, and receive a clearer mind, heart, and spirit when we surrender to God’s guidance. We will feel more confidence and courage knowing his love and acting upon his guidance. As Mother Teresa sought, we to can become a simple pencil in God’s hand. Instead of seeking honor, recognition, and praise, let our intention rather be to follow God’s leading and to serve others unconditionally, willing their good. In dying to our ego-self, may we go forward today living for Jesus. We will then be able to say with joy with Paul, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Photo: Following the nudge of the Holy Spirit, I slowed my pace and instead of entering my room, I heard my name. I turned, Fr. Kevin McQuone, asked, “Do you want to see the rainbow?” I did.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, October 31, 2026

When we allow ourselves to receive God’s love, healing and transformation happens.

Paul offers this prayer to the Church in Philippi: “that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and every kind of perception, to discern what is of value…” (Philippians 1:9-10a). Paul, after encountering the conviction of Jesus’ love for his Church, changed his countenance from one of persecuting Jesus’ followers, to become one of his most ardent supporters. He was willing to repent and change.

Unfortunately, Jesus was not receiving the same openness from some of Paul’s contemporaries. In today’s gospel, Jesus is faced yet again with opposition as he heals a man with dropsy, a condition in which some part of his body was suffering from swelling, possibly water retention. Instead of recognizing and rejoicing in the healing just witnessed, scholars of the law and the Pharisees judged 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… Jesus, as he often does, builds his case from the lesser to the greater. Just as he did with the parable of the unjust judge who made a just verdict, and an unwilling neighbor gave bread to his persistent friend in the middle of the night, how much more will God provide for his children?

Jesus also met the scribes and Pharisees on their home turf. In sharing the account above about saving the ox on the sabbath, Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 22:4. He was appealing to their knowledge of the Torah as well as making an appeal to reason. Jesus invited them to repent and soften their hearts as Paul had, as he invites all of us to do. Jesus wants all of us to be saved. The healings of Jesus are invitations to the ultimate healing we all seek which is the restoration and reconciliation of our relationship with God.

We need to be careful that we don’t fall into the tunnel vision of some of the scribes and the Pharisees 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 a present challenge or challenges. Grant yourself a quiet moment to examine where you may be resisting his invitation no matter how small, then trust him, and receive his love. With each thought we entertain, choice we make, word we speak, may each go through the filter of the Holy Sprit. Ask, God is this what you want me to think, choose, or say? If yes, go forward. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction, let us give ourselves a prayerful pause with the Lord, follow his lead, and watch his love increase!

Photo: Jesus loves us this much! Are we willing to receive and be transformed by his love.

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

As we trust in Jesus not only will our faith grow, we will also radiate his light and love more.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you” (Lk 13:31).

Even with this warning, from some Pharisees no less, Jesus continued to teach openly and publicly as well as performed healings and cast out demons. He did not fear the threat of retribution even from the likes of Herod who had killed John the Baptist. He willingly surrendered all to his Father and would continue to do so, especially not being deterred from continuing his march toward Jerusalem.

It is interesting that there are those Pharisees that are attempting to help him. Could they have been moved by the courage of Jesus? His undeterred persistence for his mission and courage makes him a very dangerous man. He cannot be controlled, threatened, or coerced. Jesus is sure of what God has sent him to do and he is going to follow through with his Father’s plan even to the point of giving his life.

Many, even those like the centurion, who did not believe in him, after he ran his spear through his side, admired his courage, and something happened in that moment such that he came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah (cf. Mark 16:39). Many of the first-century martyrs who followed Jesus to their own deaths were a big reason for those who came to believe and also became followers of this One who died on a Cross. Tertullian, one of the early Church Fathers, living from 155 – 220 AD, went so far as to say that: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

We are all called by God to be martyrs, not necessarily by shedding our blood. Martyr literally means witness. Each one of us is called by Jesus to bear witness to what we believe and the One who we believe in. Faith is a gift. If we feel that we are weak in our faith, we are in good company, because Jesus said on more than one occasion to his Apostles, the ones he would send out as his witnesses, “Oh, you of little faith.”

The Apostles continued with the little faith they had. They trusted in Jesus and continued to move forward. Trusting in and growing our relationship with Jesus gives us our strength. If we feel like our faith could use a little shoring up, let us not choose the path of Judas who isolated himself from the forgiveness of Jesus. Let us instead ask God to increase our faith, to allow the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and transform us, and be open to opportunities to follow his will.

Jesus, please help us to be still and hear our Father calling and challenging us to resist indifference and be his witnesses in our everyday lives. Help us to be more open to the stirring of the Holy Spirit and put his guidance into action. Each time we say yes to the will of God, our clarity, courage, and faith will increase. In times of trial and even in weakness, may we, with Paul, draw upon our faith firmly as with a shield “to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One” (Ephesians 6:16).

Photo: When we turn to the Holy Spirit, he will guide us through any darkness and storm.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 29, 2026

Jesus found time to pray on the mountain. Where is our sacred place to pray?

Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God (Lk 6:12).

Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to God. What did that look like? We don’t know. Since the traditional practices of prayer we have learned from Jesus, we can speculate that he spent some time in vocal prayer, speaking with his Father. He most likely then spent some time in quiet meditation. But my feeling is that he spent much of his time in contemplation. A deep, intimate communion between him, his Father, and a deep experience of the love between them, communion with the Holy Spirit.

We can surmise vocal prayer because when the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he taught them the words of the Our Father. He would have also spent some time in dialogue with his Father because when he came down in the morning, he “chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles” (Luke 6:13). Jesus would have meditated, thought about his choices of who he would have picked, and then prayed, dialogued with his Father for his confirmation. That he spent time in contemplation we can speculate because he knew the Father and the Father knew him. You don’t know someone intimately unless you spend time together.

How about us? Are these forms of prayer possible? Yes. If you want to pray, you have already begun. The desire in and of itself to pray is prayer. The originator of our prayer does not begin with us but is an invitation from God to spend time together. As the desire arises, we are now acknowledging God’s invitation. He will, if we allow him to get through all the noise, distractions, diversions, and temptations leading us away from praying with him, get through.

When we want to learn about something, our first instinct is to read and study about it. A good first step. The danger though regarding reading about prayer is that we think we are praying. In the turning of a page, the completion of a chapter, even reading the Bible, we can feel as if we are accomplishing something, but we are only imagining how prayer can be. “It is tempting to remain in the comfortable theater of the imagination instead of the real world, to fall in love with the idea of becoming a saint and loving God and neighbor instead of doing the actual work, because the idea makes no demands on you” (Peter Kreeft, Prayer for Beginners, 12).

The other trap is when we are praying with words, reading the Bible, being present at Mass, but only doing these practices in a functional manner. We don’t do prayer, we speak, meditate, pray, and listen to a Person. We allow God to do, through us. Is God an idea or a real Person? This is a very important distinction. When we pray even the Sign of the Cross, when done properly, we invoke each Person of the Holy Trinity: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. When we pray in this way, we invite God to be with us and in us!

There is a myriad of ways to pray and each practice will match each of our unique personalities and temperaments. The key to prayer is to make a commitment to a time and a place to pray each day, show up at that time and place, then let God happen. Start with a timeframe, such as five minutes that you know you can do. Depending on the discipline of prayer you practice, your family, school, work, and/or ministerial demands will be indicators as to how much you might be able to increase the time you pray once you have built a consistent practice.

The amount of time that we dedicate to prayer is not as important as our commitment to spend time with God each day. We need to schedule daily our non-negotiables for prayer first, and then build around that. Again, this will depend on our station in life. Young parents’ non-negotiables are their infant’s care, whereas someone who is religious life will have more time available.

Mass, the liturgy of the Hours, reading the Bible, sitting or walking quietly outside, at the morning table with a favorite devotional, the Rosary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, spiritual reading, and imagining ourselves sitting with Jesus on the mountaintop in silent meditation and contemplation are all practices that can help us to grow in our relationship with God. When the Holy Spirit invites us to close our eyes and be still though, that is our invitation to listen to God and begin to learn his language of silence.

St Therese of Lisieux offers us a good approach to prayer: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy” (CCC, 2559). No matter how we pray, our goal is that we don’t seek to bend God’s will to our’s but to allow our lives to be conformed to Jesus, that we encounter and build a relationship with him and each other, such that our experience of prayer matches St Augustine’s: “True, whole prayer is nothing but love” (Foster, 1). We pray, so we can fall in love with God who made us for himself.

Photo: Blessed to be back at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary to pray in St. Mary’s Chapel.

Foster, Richard J. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.

Kreeft, Peter. Prayer for Beginners. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Small gestures of genuine love bring light into dark places and nourish hope and life to our brothers and sisters.

In today’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed and yeast. Each of these elements is not only small but they are tiny. Though with the proper environment, resources of sustenance, water, and sunlight, this mustard seed will germinate, sprout, and grow into a large bush. Yeast, a single-celled organism, is the catalyst for assisting dough to rise, strengthen, and ferment, thus providing a more appealing and tasty bread.

Jesus offered these simple examples from everyday agrarian life that his listeners understood from experience. If we have planted seeds or made our own homemade bread, we too are in a better position to relate to these two small parables as well.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus lives out the parables by engaging person to person. Jesus’ interactions happened concretely, through walking along the road and breaking of bread together, sharing stories, teaching with authority, healing, and exorcising demons with his touch, and he still does so today. The smallest, genuine act of kindness or love can seem insignificant and may even go unnoticed by many, but it is significant to the individual who is on the receiving end and can reveal dramatic results over time.

There is a story that expresses this point called, “A Simple Gesture” from the story collection, Chicken Soup for the Soul. The short tale describes how one day a boy named Mark was walking home from school and came upon another boy who had tripped and dropped all of his books and many other items. Mark offered to help carry some of the load of the other boy, who, as they walked home, found out was named Bill. They talked about common interests and when they approached Bill’s home, Bill invited Mark in for a Coke and to watch some T.V. They spent the afternoon together, then interacted on occasion for the rest of their time in middle school and into their high school years.

Three weeks before their graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk. Bill shared that the reason that he had been carrying all of that stuff home on the day they had first met was because he didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else to clean up. Bill had planned to commit suicide that evening. Bill continued to share that, after their original encounter and afternoon together, he realized that if he had killed himself that day he would have missed more opportunities to talk and laugh. Bill finished the conversation by saying, “So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life” (Canfield and Hansen, 35-36).

Personal encounters were how Jesus helped others to realize that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Just as in the example of how Mark, in making the simple effort to help Bill pick up his personal items, helped to shift the momentum away from a potential suicide attempt. This action shows how Jesus can continue to work through us today.

Like a modern-day Good Samaritan parable, “A Simple Gesture”, helps us to see that when we are aware of and engage in opportunities to help and act with genuine care, no matter how small, to resist the gesture to fix, and love and listen, we can have a dramatic effect on another’s life. We also don’t have to bear the weight of those who struggle alone. Jesus will bear that with us, when we feel overwhelmed with another’s challenges. Small acts of presence, a listening ear, being there even when we don’t but letting go of imposition, and genuine care all help us to remember we are not alone.

Many people have a lot on their plate, we may not be aware of even half of what they are going through. That is why we need to be attentive and open to the move of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He will lead us out beyond ourselves so that we notice others. In doing so, we can become like the mustard seed, or the yeast, in another’s life. Through a smile, a hello, a bent ear to listen, we can make a connection, be present, and love. What may appear to be minuscule or mundane at the moment, may, in fact, be life-changing and transforming for a lifetime.

Photo: Not exactly a mustard tree but this cabbage palm started as a small seed, survived the tornadoes of Milton, and though palms are a bit frayed from the winds, still doing quite well. We will too when we allow God to love us and love each other.

Canfield, Jack, and Mark Victor Hansen. Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1993.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, October 2026

Jesus sees us, our need, and provides our healing.

I lost track of how long ago this happened, almost twenty years ago now, I woke up one morning and realized that I could not stand up straight. Each time I tried, I felt a searing pain in my abdominal area. I hadn’t made any lesson plans so I did not feel that I could call in sick. I decided to go into the shower and see if I felt any better but didn’t. I did not want to disturb JoAnn and continued my morning routine hoping and praying that whatever was going on would release.

When it didn’t, I figured I would see if I could walk to the car and sit to drive. I was able to do so as long as I did not sit all the way back. I drove to school figuring that I would get everything set up, put together some lesson plans, request a substitute, and get to the doctor. As I arrived, pulled into my parking spot, and then got out of the car, I attempted to stand and still could not. It was hard to walk because I was leaning so far forward to keep the pain in check. As I was getting things set up in my classroom, I walked in between the desks toward the back of the room, and, all of a sudden, the pain released. I felt in that moment as if it hadn’t even happened.

I don’t know what caused the pain, I haven’t experienced anything like that nor has it ever happened again. I was able to stand up straight, was grateful and thanked God that I was pain free, and able to teach that day.

What I experienced was only a few hours. The woman in today’s gospel account suffered with her condition of being “crippled by a spirit” for eighteen years. Then one day while listening to Jesus teach in the synagogue, he saw her, and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God (Luke 13:12-13). The woman didn’t even ask for a healing. He saw her spiritual oppression and set her free!

Jesus sees us this morning as well. I invite you to read the gospel account a few times, enter the scene yourself, and imagine encountering Jesus as this woman did. Allow Jesus to look at you and call, “You are set free of …” Fill in the blank. Receive his call and allow him to come close so that you too, may feel his hands on your head. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. May you experience the consolation, freedom, healing, joy, rest, and love that Jesus would like to share with you today!

Photo: A moment of quiet, and invitation to go to breathe and rest with the Lord who made heaven and earth and invited me to experience this moment with him. Listen for Jesus’ invitation to put things aside and rest a moment or two with him.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 26, 2026