joy

Each day we awake and consecrate our heart to the Lord, we will experience his joy!

“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(Jn 3:29b-30).

How could John be feeling joy with decrease? This is counter to what many aspire to in our country. Aren’t we supposed to obtain more, be more popular, and not rest on our laurels if we are to be happy? If our end goal is, fame or honor, wealth, power, and/or pleasure, above all else, then yes that would be true. But John is giving us an insight here about what brings us real joy.

True joy comes from God himself. He is the one who will satisfy our deepest longings, the ones that we are not even aware of! This is even deeper when we have found our meaning and purpose, or vocation in life. John was clear about his mission. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He experienced this from the time when he leaped in the womb when Mary first arrived to see Elizabeth. From that moment, he was preparing the way for Jesus and continued to do so into his adult life. He was not distracted by how many people he was or was not baptizing because he did not see Jesus as competition. Each of them were playing their part in saving humanity and the world. John focused on his part, preparing people to be ready for the coming of the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).

John is not threatened by Jesus as was Herod, he was overjoyed that the time of fulfillment had come. What John had been called to do by God he had been doing and would continue to do. The reality that Jesus increased and John decreased brought John joy because this was the fulfillment of his mission. How many of us get to experience the fruits of our labor in the moment or even our lifetime?

If we want to be happy, experience joy, and be fulfilled, then following the lead of John the Baptist is a pretty good way to start. I do not necessarily mean selling off everything and living in the wilderness. The important point is that John cultivated a relationship with God. He came to know God’s voice, was open to his direction, acted on his leading, found confirmation, and became clear of the part he was to play in salvation history.

Each and every one of us has a specific role to play in God’s plan. We come to understand our mission by slowing down and becoming consciously aware of the relationship God is inviting us to participate in. As we do so, we also experience the Holy Spirit who, in the words of Pope Francis, “impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission” (Francis 2014, 48).

I enjoyed teaching at each level, elementary, middle and high school. As I saw my teaching career coming to a close because I knew that Jesus was leading me to the priesthood, I experienced joy, not because I was leaving a career and vocation I was blessed with, but was taking the next step that the Holy Spirit had called me to participate in. I am also glad that I have been able to continue to share these reflections. There have been many evenings in which my body was ready to head for the land of dreams but I have found joy even when weary to do so mostly each day.

When we allow ourselves to listen, we will hear and begin to recognize the voice of Jesus in the silence of our hearts, we will better discern where we are placing our thoughts, time, and energy, as well as better examine how God is inviting us through his creation, our experiences, and relationships. As we step out and risk, following the lead of the Holy Spirit, as we decrease and allow Jesus to increase, he will not only confirm for us but provide us with the means to accomplish our mission and we will experience his joy!

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Photo: “My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and chant praise. Awake, my soul; awake lyre and harp! I will awake the dawn.” (cf Psalm 57). Last morning at USML.

Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 10, 2025

May we, like Anna, speak about how our encounter with Jesus has changed our lives.

We have no evidence of what the encounter with the baby Jesus meant for Anna, Simeon, the Magi, or the shepherds. What most likely happened was that they all did as Anna did, she “spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). Since they followed God’s invitation to come and see the baby in their own unique ways, even though their part in God’s theodrama was no longer recorded in the Bible, their lives were most likely not ever the same again as they continued to share the good news they experienced.

The account continued for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus who, “returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” (Lk 2:39-40). No ticker-tape parade, no giving the key to the city, and no gala ball awaited the Holy Family when they returned to Nazareth. They went on to live very simple lives preparing for the appointed hour.

The Advent and Christmas accounts of these past few weeks have revealed a wonderful tapestry of men and women accepting God’s invitation. In their own small and unique ways they have collaborated with God who works through the everyday events of people’s lives, more often than not unseen. We would do well to ponder and follow their examples. St. Mother Teresa learned from her namesake, the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, to do just that, not get caught up seeking to do great things, but to do little things with great love.

As the Christmas Season continues, let us do the same as life has already or has begun to shift; families and friends have come and gone or are readying to go, vacation days are coming to an end. Let us resist the temptation to get lost again in the busyness of life. Let us appreciate the gift we have been given, to meditate, ponder, and think a bit more about the accounts of Jesus and the supporting cast around him. What do these stories mean for each of us? Life can be hard and can change in an instant because it is fragile. Let us not take our family and friends for granted. May we take a deep breath and renew our commitment to God and each other.

As the Holy Family begins their journey to Nazareth and their simple life, as we begin to return to our regular daily routines, may we be a little more aware and open to the quiet and gentle ways of how God is working in our lives. May we commit to supporting and caring for one another, be a little more aware and reach out to those in need, express our need for help and allow others to assist us. As we do so, we will start to recognize the simplicity of divinity operating within the midst of our human interactions. The Holy Spirit is inviting us to be transformed in this new year, to watch, pray, and cooperate, so that he may kindle in us the fire of his love so that it may spread to others and renew the face of the earth.

Photo: “Holding the Redemption of Israel.”

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, December 30, 2025

“When everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.”

Jesus sent out these twelve (Mt 10:5).

Jesus sent out his Apostles to minister in his name and share the Gospel as he did, declaring that the “Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Our faith tradition is one of evangelizing, sharing the Good News. That means that first and foremost we need to be people of joy. We may share the most wonderful words about our faith, but if they are not backed up by a life of radiating joy, then our words will have little if any impact.

This does not mean that we are happy and buoyant every second of the day, it does not mean that we will not experience hardship, sorrow, and loss. What it does mean is that we are not defined by our suffering, the trials we face, nor our wide range of our emotions. God also calls us to face tough realities when it might be easier to remain in our comfort zone. In the midst of each of these and other challenges, we can experience hope because God is with us. He seeks to comfort us in our weeping, provide for our needs, guide us in the right way we are to walk, and give us the strength to do so with each step we take.

What defines us is God’s love. We will experience great joy when we slow down long enough to allow God to love us. We will then know that we are not alone in our trials. Jesus experienced the fullness of our human condition, from his conception, birth in a cave, having lived a life of hardship and poverty that led all the way into the depths of betrayal, injustice, and God forsakenness on the cross. He did not just suffer on the cross but he also experienced death. Yet, through the indelible, binding force of the Holy Spirit, the love shared between Son and Father, Jesus was drawn back to life and conquered death not only for himself but for us all.

This is the good news we are to share. Jesus conquered death for each of us. How we live our lives each day and interact with others may be the only Bible that someone else will ever read. May we share the joy of our relationship with Jesus, may we share the joy of the lives we have been given, for: “Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” – Pope Francis from his apostolic exhortation, Joy of the Gospel, line 6.

Photo: Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles at the foot of the cross. She experienced the joy of being infinitely loved. May she intercede for us that we may as well!

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, December 6, 2025

The beatitudes lead us away from the false promises of this world to experience real joy!

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man” (Lk 6:22).

The Beatitudes are contrary to much of what too many of us are tempted by when seek our satisfaction, security, and fulfillment. Much of us are lured in some form or fashion, by power, fame, wealth, pleasure, and celebrity. What is more, how many of us who proclaim to be people of faith resist Jesus’ teachings because of self-centered reasons? We hold on to things that keep us from God, that really do not make us happy.

In today’s Gospel account from Luke, Jesus began to teach his disciples on a deeper level. He had just chosen the twelve by name and that number would not have slipped by them. Their thoughts were more than likely moving closer to the realization that Jesus was the Messiah, the promised heir of David. Would he be gathering them together to restore the twelve tribes of Israel and overthrow the occupying power of Rome? Yes, but not in the way they were thinking.

Jesus’ presentation was not about taking up military or physical armaments, but spiritual ones of attaining the  kingdom through four blessings and dashing the common hope with four woes. Jesus’ message is a universal message, an invitation to and for all who have ears to hear as well as hearts and minds open to receive. Jesus spoke not only to his twelve newly hand picked followers as wells as those from “Judea and Jerusalem” but also those from the “coastal region of Tyre and Sidon” (Luke 6:17). That Jesus did not dismiss but was teaching those from Tyre and Sidon would not have been missed either. They were from Gentile territory.

Jesus’ teachings challenged all present and they challenge us today to evaluate where we are placing our trust and security. If we are placing our trust in the things of this world, the four woes section is for us, for that which is finite and material are fleeting and passing. By placing our trust in Jesus, his Father and the love shared between them, the Holy Spirit, the beatitudes will lead us to experience joy.

Being poor, hungry, in mourning, hated, excluded, insulted and denounced as evil will bring us happiness? Yes. Because each of them counter the typical substitutes that we can be tempted by and place before our relationship with God. Each of the beatitudes that Jesus offers are invitations to experience true joy. We just need to be willing to relinquish putting self first and seeking pursuits apart from God’s will.

When we rely more on God and less on material things, even relationships, when we depend more on God alone, our relationships and our pursuits will be more properly ordered. With God first, we will experience order and peace and… what is so fleeting to so many who seek both in the things of the world, we will experience real rest. If we are serious about being Jesus’ disciple, then a good place to start is learning and living the beatitudes. This is no easy task but when we look at each one and begin to detach from the attachments they allude to, “we will rejoice and leap for joy” (Lk 6:23)!

Joy because we will then have the inner freedom to experience the good things that God gives and less ensnared by them. We will be fueled not by the advancement or aggrandizement of self, but by emptying our ego, we will have room to receive the love of Jesus, the source of our joy, which wells up from within and never runs dry! Jesus is the kingdom of Heaven that is at hand and he will lead us, if we are willing to follow, to the ultimate desire and deepest craving and hunger of our being, to be in communion with God and one another.

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Photo: EnJOYing another beautiful sunset painted on God’s canvas of creation Sunday evening. May you experience a taste of the joy God is seeking to bring you today!

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Life is a fragile and precious gift to be respected and celebrated.

Mary “traveled to the hill country in haste” (Lk 1:39) and as she drew close and called out to announce her arrival: Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, [and] the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:41-42). This is an encounter of joy. Elizabeth’s response is a confirmation to Mary’s, “Yes”, to the angel Gabriel, that she has indeed conceived in her womb the Son of God who was taking on flesh and becoming one of us, a human being, as she traveled to the hill country. Elizabeth’s son recognized him, and in leaping with joy, helped to get the celebration started!

The encounter and interaction between Mary and Elizabeth, Jesus and John, at the Visitation is a model for us of discipleship. Touched by the Holy Spirit we are to go out to share the Good News that God our Father loved us so much that he sent his Son to be one with us. He was willing to enter into our humanity. Some of the earliest heresies in the Church, which are still perpetuated today, were birthed because of an unwillingness to accept this gift, that God entered into and embraced our humanity, that God would become human was and is still for too many, inconceivable.

Yes, we have been wounded by sin, but we have not been destroyed and completely undone. The coming of the Son of God as one of us is an opportunity to be healed, to be born again from above, and this can happen through the same love of the Holy Spirit that inspired John to leap in Elizabeth’s womb and for her to rejoice.

May we resist the mind noise from within, and without from other people who tell us overtly and/or covertly that we are worthless or nothing. Not true! Through our very being, we are created in the image and likeness of God, we have been created by love, to receive and to share love. We are a living craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another. This is true for the atheist and the believer alike. We are called to will the good of the other as other as they are, unconditionally. If we have fallen short, a little or a lot, in the way we have been treating ourselves and/or others lately, today is a new day to take Jesus’ hand and begin anew. Let us celebrate with Jesus, Mary, Elizabeth and John.

We are celebrating that Jesus was born for us, he lived that we might not only be shown a better way, but know that he is the Way. Jesus became vulnerable for us, a key ingredient in unconditional love: to be willing to risk being authentic to who God called him to be, even to being willing to be rejected, even if that meant that all might walk away from him. May we be willing to be vulnerable, to risk, to share with others who we are, free of masks and pretense. May we be present to, and also walk and accompany one another. Being there for our family and friends is important, and if we take our Christianity seriously, we must come to acknowledge, in concrete ways, person to person, that we are all brothers and sisters, that in Christ we are all related.

Just as the sun shines on the good and the bad alike, Jesus died for each and every human being, all of us. After his resurrection and ascension into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son, to empower us to live as he did, in communion with his Father, so to better actualize our communion with one another.

An invitation for the transformation of all humanity and creation happened at the Galilean hill side when two simple women said yes to God and embraced with joy. They came to embrace not only each other, but their vocation. May we join them in saying, “Yes”, to God, follow his will with joy as Mary and Elizabeth did and with them, celebrate the gift of life, because as each of these mothers would experience all too soon, life can be taken quicker than they could or we can ever imagine.

We do not know the time or the hour, so let us like Mary go in haste to tell those we care about that we love them. Let us make that call, send that card, email, or text, and/or invite that person for a walk, to sit down and visit. Especially amidst the expansion of divisive and polarizing darkness, may we be a light to all we encounter. Empowered by the love and joy of Jesus, may we encourage, empower, and lift one another up so as to treat each other with dignity, respect, kindness, and understanding. The easiest way to start is when you catch the eye of another, smile. In that simple gesture, we say to the other person that we care enough to make the time to acknowledge their dignity, their worth, and to let them know that they exist and have meaning.

On this feast day of the Visitation, may Mary and Elizabeth intercede on our behalf that we may honor all life from the moment of conception, through each stage until natural death. We start simply by appreciating and respecting the dignity of each other a bit more today than we did yesterday. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us” (Gandalf said to Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, JRR Tolkien). Let our choice be to build a culture of life.

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“The value of the person from the moment of conception is celebrated in the meeting between the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, and between the two children whom they are carrying in the womb” (St. John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 45, in Gadenz, Pablo T. The Gospel of Luke. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018). Photo credit: OSV News photo/Giancarlo Giuliani, CPP

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 31, 2025

May we be instruments of joy!

“But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (Jn 16:22). Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for his horrific death by offering hope that he will see them again. That he will see them again is not a typo. We can read about the exchanges between Jesus and his risen disciples. Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdalene at the tomb, he appeared to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus, and he appeared to the ten and then the eleven with Thomas. Jesus sought out those he commissioned to proclaim his Gospel message after his resurrection, just as he had done during his ministry before his crucifixion.

When Jesus did appear to them again, at the moment of recognition, there was wonder and great joy! It is hard for us to even imagine these early resurrection accounts. The disciples witnessed his brutal death, lived in fear because of the very real possibility of their own persecution and similar death, and then, they encountered the risen Jesus. St Paul would also shortly thereafter encounter Jesus on a different road, the one to Damascus en route to continue his persecution of the followers of Jesus. All of their hearts rejoiced and it was this joy that they proclaimed with boldness. The Apostles, like Jesus, led with joy and love to embark on their evangelical missions. They lived a difficult and challenging life that for many ended in their own brutal deaths, yet their joy carried them through their suffering, death, and into eternity.

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

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

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

With each breath, we are invited to trust that Jesus is with us, closer than we are to ourselves, filling us with his love and joy. No one can take this joy away from us, except us, if we are unwilling to share it. Let us choose to allow the light and the joy of the Holy Spirit’s love to radiate through us, no matter how small or insignificant an act of kindness it may seem. When we do so, the darkness in our realm of influence will begin to fade away.

Photo: With my brothers in our final days of seminary. Please pray for us that we may continue to live, speak, and spread the joy of the Gospel!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, May 30, 2025

Knowing Jesus helps us to experience our grief and our grief will become joy!

Jesus continues his farewell discourse and appears to be speaking in riddles: “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me” (Jn 16:16). We who know what is coming for Jesus understand what Jesus is talking about, but for the disciples, not so much. Jesus will be crucified and rise again from the dead. Jesus then goes on to explain further that: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy” (Jn 16:20). Jesus is speaking about the same two points of reference, his Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Yet, his “explanation”, would not help to clarify for his disciples. This clarification would only come when the Comforter comes, when the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus would come to reveal to them the truth of Jesus after they experienced his resurrection, time with them, and then ascension. First, they would all have to endure with Jesus his passion, suffering, and death on the cross.

The most brutal sign of oppression during the reign of the Roman Empire was the cross. It was a weapon of terror, torture, an extreme case of punitive justice or capital punishment, and in actuality state-sanctioned terrorism. The person would be stripped of all their clothing, would be nailed by the wrists, or palms, and wrists tied, nailed by the feet, and then lifted up for public display. Then would begin their humiliation, dehumanization, and long agonizing death; a sign for anyone to think twice about challenging the authority of Rome.

The disciples wept and mourned, their hopes dashed, they were stunned, ashamed, and demoralized, while others rejoiced as Jesus and the two others beside him were lifted up. The centurions flaunted their authority and prowess. Others gathered around and jeered at who they believed to be another false prophet dying on Golgotha, the hill of the skull, where so many had gone before. Where other hopes and dreams had been crushed under Roman dominance and oppression.

Jesus was sometimes described as being hung on a tree in some letters of the New Testament because writing the word, cross, was still too raw and vivid in people’s minds. This is also why there are no depictions of Jesus on the cross before the year 200 AD, and the earliest known believed to be the Alexamenos graffito was a mocking not complementary etching of Jesus on the cross. Yet, this was not the final chapter. The grief of the Apostles would turn to joy when Jesus conquered death and rose again. The cross, this symbol of torture, would become a sign of victory over death and the grave.

Yet, one centurion got it right: “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mk 15:39)! For many Christians today, the Crucifix and Cross are no longer a sign of oppression and fear but are displayed as a sign of the triumph and victory that Jesus has won for us. They are not magic talismans, but they are sacramental signs, concrete objects that are tangible, that we can see, wear, and hold on to. Not because of some macabre fascination with death but for the purpose of reminding us that we have a God who understands our humanity because he lived life as we do. He suffered with us in our suffering and experienced pain as we do.

Jesus cried as we cry, he laughed as we laugh, and he enjoyed table fellowship with friends as well as those on the peripheries. Jesus faced rejection, misunderstanding, trials, and tribulations, he overcame conflict and rejection, he died as we will die, yet his death was not the end. Jesus conquered death, so that through our participation in his life and resurrection we have the opportunity to rise again in Christ as well.

We are still in the Easter Season, and are drawing closer to celebrating the Solemnity of the Ascension when Jesus returns to the Father. It may seem odd, but meditating upon a crucifix is a good practice not just In Lent but anytime, even in Easter, because we are reminded of what Jesus went through and what he overcame. When we are going through a particularly rough patch, we can hold the crucifix, feel the wood, allow our gaze to fall upon the face and wounded body of our Lord. When we allow him, Jesus will embrace us with his arms outstretched to ease our suffering and pain, and also help us to overcome as he did.

Jesus is and continues to be present with us, closer even than the crucifix we hold or look upon. Even if we do not feel Jesus present, he is! Even when we pray daily and feel nothing is happening, Jesus is close, closer to us than we are to ourselves. The apostles experienced the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, their time together after the resurrection and up to his ascension, and then his leaving them again. It was not until the Holy Spirit was sent to them though that they truly got it, and saw the truth of who Jesus is. Then looking back they were able to connect the dots. Their grief became joy, and so can our’s.

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Photo: We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 29, 2025

In our encounter and deepening of our relationship with Jesus we experience love, peace, and joy!

After the most recent clash with those Pharisees bent now on killing Jesus, he “withdrew toward the sea”, the Sea of Galilee. After his entanglements with the Pharisees, he may have sought refuge or a quieter setting away from the crowds. Yet, the people followed. Mark details in his account that many from all over the region came to Jesus to be healed. Among the crowd, unclean spirits threw those they possessed down before Jesus. This did not slow the gathering of people who pressed in on Jesus, just to touch him. The mass of people grew to a point that it was getting out of control so Jesus “told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him” (Mk 3:9).

People wanted to be healed, to be cured, to be exorcised, and brought others to experience the same. Yet they were missing the deeper point of who Jesus is. He was not just a miracle worker, not just someone that brought about physical healing. Healing accounts were heard and known about in the ancient world.  The unclean spirits got it, they recognized Jesus before the people did, “for, whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God'” (Mk 3:11).

They were bound by the authority of Jesus to be renounced. They had to obey him and in calling out who he was they were attempting to control him with no effect. Throughout the Gospel of Mark, we will read about how the crowds, disciples, and even the apostles, all struggle to understand who Jesus is. The people closed in on Jesus seeking to be healed, but missed the deeper hunger within their souls that St Augustine, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo, so eloquently described on the first page of his autobiography: “[Y]ou have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they can find peace in you” (Augustine 1963, 17). Jesus is the Son of God, not just a miracle worker, teacher, or healer, but God Incarnate.

The only way we will be fully satisfied, inspired, fully alive, and be at peace within our own skin, is by developing an ongoing, deepening relationship, and communion with our Father. God is infinite and cannot be exhausted. We as finite beings are left wanting even when we have the best of material things. We always hunger and want for more, because in the depths of our very being, whether we recognize it or not, we want God. The many who came to Jesus for healing, were not aware of the deeper hunger and healing they sought.

The deeper healing that Jesus seeks to offer all of us is to restore us to the fullness of who his Father created us to be. To do that, we must be willing to embrace the truth, the way, and the life that he offers us. Which means that we will need to let go of anything that does not align with his invitation. At the first, we may be taken aback because of our attachments. We need not be afraid. Jesus works slowly. His light shines gently that we might see what is keeping us from growing in our relationship with him and each other.

Jesus conquered death and freed us to abide in an authentic love expressed at a deeper, more intimate level than we can ever imagine. Jesus satisfies our deepest hunger as he invites us to be drawn into his grace-filled embrace so as to be healed, renewed, shaped, and conformed to his heart, mind, and will. When we come to this place of encounter, reconciliation, and intimate relationship, we come to know our mission and in serving through that mission we come to know who and whose we truly are. In that place is our greatest joy and it only gets better the more we receive and share his love!

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Drawing by: First weekend Mass about six months ago. Feel blessed and joy filled to overflowing each day as I continue to build relationships here at my new home of Holy Cross Catholic Church, grow as a disciple of Jesus, and serve as his priest!

St Augustine. The Confessions of St Augustine. Translated by Rex Warner. New York: New American Library, 1963.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 23, 2025.

May we awaken each morning seeking to decrease so God may increase in our lives.

“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”(Jn 3:29b-30).

How could John be feeling joy with decrease? This is counter to what many aspire to in our country. Aren’t we supposed to obtain more, be more popular, and not rest on our laurels if we are to be happy? If our end goal is, fame or honor, wealth, power, and/or pleasure, then yes, that would be true. But John is giving us an insight here about what brings us real joy.

True joy comes from within when we have found our meaning and purpose in life, our mission. John was clear about his mission. John came to prepare the way of the Lord. He experienced this from the time when he leaped in the womb when Mary first arrived to see Elizabeth. From that moment, he was preparing the way for Jesus and continued to do so into his adult life. He was not distracted by how many people he was or was not baptizing, but instead was focused on preparing people to be ready for the coming of the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).

John was not threatened by Jesus as was Herod, he is overjoyed that the time of fulfillment had come. What John had been called to do by God he had been doing. The reality that Jesus increased and John decreased brought John joy because this was the fulfillment of his mission. How many of us get to experience the fruits of our labor?

If we want to be happy, experience joy, and be fulfilled in our life, then following the lead of John the Baptist is a pretty good way to start. I do not necessarily mean selling off everything, moving to the wilderness, and subsisting on a staple of locusts and honey. The important point is that John cultivated a relationship with God. He came to know his voice, was open to his direction, acted on God’s leading, because he was clear of the part he was to play in salvation history.

Each and every one of us come to know our mission, our specific role to play in God’s plan when we slow down daily, pray, spend time reading and meditating on his word. We  become consciously aware of the relationship God is inviting us to participate in. As we do so, we will better experience the Holy Spirit who “impels us to open the doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the good news of the Gospel, to communicate the joy of faith, the encounter with Christ. The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission” (Francis 2014, 48).

I have been blessed to have been instilled with a sense of mission during my days with the Franciscans in my early twenties, my twenty-three years of marriage to JoAnn, and my twenty-five plus years teaching. Each of these as well as all of my other experiences have prepared me well for this next chapter of my life serving as a priest. The key practice that has helped me during each step along this path has been to ask God what he wanted me to do, to trust in his guidance, and follow him.

When we make the time to listen, we will hear and begin to recognize the voice of Jesus in the silence of our hearts, we will better discern where we are placing our time and energy, and will be better able to discern what and who we have placed before God as idols and let them go. When we are willing to have eyes to see and ears to hear, we will see where God is inviting us through his creation, our experiences, and relationships. As we step out of our comfort zones and risk, follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, and are willing to allow Jesus to increase within us, he will not only confirm for us but provide for us the means to accomplish our mission.

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Photo by Josh Sorenson from Pexels

Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 11, 2024

Let us rejoice, as Elizabeth and Mary did, that God is among us.

Mary “traveled to the hill country in haste” (Lk 1:39) and when she and Elizabeth got together they rejoiced in the gift of new life that God had blessed them both with. We are to rejoice too, as we remember the gift of the conception and birth of Jesus. Jesus invites us to experience a new life. What we are about to celebrate in a few days had never happened before in human history. The Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, fully divine, became a human being, fully human, just like one of us. That affirms that we are not junk, not someone’s trash to be kicked around. Our life has purpose and meaning because we are loved by God more than we can ever imagine!

We are all invited to be recreated, each and every day. Have you ever wanted a fresh start, a do-over? Well, here you go. Don’t believe any negative mind noise or other people who will actually tell you in subtle or overt ways that you are worthless or nothing. Not true! Just by our very being, the reality that we exist, says something. We have been created in the image and likeness of God and we have been created by Love to receive and to share the love we have received. We are a living craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another. This is true for the atheist and the believer alike. We are called to will the good of the other as other and as they are, unconditionally. If we haven’t been all that loving lately, today is a new day to take Jesus’ hand and begin anew.

We are about to celebrate a baby’s birth. Not just any child, but the One who has always been. The Son became so vulnerable as he took on flesh as an embryo, developed as an unborn fetus, and was born as an infant, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Mary’s Son would continue to grow, mature, and thirty-three years later, return to an even more vulnerable position on the Cross, beaten, scourged, naked, and crucified. He was born and tabernacled, made his dwelling, among us, to be one with us, so that when he mounted the cross he took our sin upon himself. Original Sin did not destroy us. We were wounded, but by his stripes, the scourging that Jesus endured for us, we have been healed. Then he conquered even death, that we could have life and have it to the full, now and into all eternity.

Jesus was born for us and he is still with us that we might not only be shown a better way but to know him, who is the Way. Jesus became vulnerable for us, being authentically who God called him to be, even when that meant rejection, time, and time again. May we too be willing to be vulnerable, to risk, to share with others who we are, free of masks and pretense. May we be present, and also walk and accompany one another.

Being there for our family and friends is important, and if we take our Christianity seriously, we must come to acknowledge, in concrete ways, person to person, that we are all brothers and sisters. Just as the sun shines on the good and the bad alike, Jesus died for us all. After his Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the Love shared between the Father and the Son, to empower us to live as he did, in communion with his Father, to better actualize our communion with one another.

Mary and Elizabeth celebrated the joy of new life. They rejoiced over the miracles each of them experienced in being able to conceive sons. May we not only share in their joy of the gift of life, but also realize what they realized all too soon, that life goes by too fast. Both sons died a brutal death, and yet God brought about a greater good from their willingness to sacrifice their lives. John and Jesus gave us a new beginning for humanity.

Let us not take the gift of the life that we have been given, any moment, for granted. May we be open like Elizabeth and Mary to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let us let the people we care about know that we love them. A simple call, a card, and/or a walk can make a huge difference. Especially when in the moment of connection, we are present to each other as if no one else existed in that moment. For those for whom we may be estranged in any way, may Jesus, the Prince of Peace, help us to face those conflicts and guide us through the challenges that have kept us at a distance. May we not wait until it is too late to seek healing and reconciliation.

Making time to rest in and receive the Father’s love, we will be more open to being respectful, kind, understanding, and caring in our interactions with each person we encounter in these final days of Advent. When we catch the eye of another, offer a smile. In that simple gesture, we say to another that we care enough about them to acknowledge that they exist and that they have worth. Let the joy of Mary and Elizabeth catch like wildfire in us this Advent and let us share with haste the joy of Jesus we have experienced in our lives!

Photo: Stainglassed window of the visitation from Shutterstock.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, December 21, 2024