love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trust in Jesus and follow his commandments and the freer we will be to hear and experience the love and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We are living in such uncertain times in so many areas of our lives that we may be experiencing a mix of emotions such as feeling uneasy or unsure, unsettled or upended, fretting or fearful, anxious or angry, some or all of the above, and that is ok. These are human emotions that arise from our perceptions that all is not well and that there may appear to be some instability in our families, society, and world right now. 

Denying our more painful emotions, hiding our head in the sand is not the answer. If we deny them, we keep ourselves ignorant of the wounds that may be feeding them. As we continue to leave them in the shadows, they shape our view of reality and we can hurt others by saying and doing things in a defensive mode that we would not do if we were grounded in God’s love for us. 

Allowing ourselves to experience what we are feeling joys as well as sorrows, becoming more aware and mindful of them, we will find that we won’t actually be overwhelmed by them and we can slowly regain some agency back in our lives. This also helps us to move from mind fields of depression, anxiety, and instant reactions as well as incessant needs for instant gratification.

Growing up, I was drawn to lighthouses. These buildings set on the shore emit a penetrating light to guide sailors to a safe haven, especially during times of darkness and stormy seas. 

The Bible very much operates as a lighthouse for us. The words passed down to us from generations, help to guide us home to a safe haven, as well as lead us to our final destination. When we avail ourselves of the gift of God’s word we are never lost or alone no matter how strong the winds of unpredictability blow or how unstable and turbulent the waters are. No matter the external circumstances or even the internal maelstroms that swirl, what remains a constant source of direction and support is the light of God’s presence in our lives.

Each of our readings today offers us some illumination to ponder today and through the week.

In the Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (Jn 14:15)”.

Upon first reading, if we still wear a pair of cynical glasses we might view this statement, “Well that is a pretty conceited thing to say. There goes the Church again telling me what to do. There’s unconditional love for you.” And that is the view many people take regarding authority because many view institutions, the Bible, the Church, Jesus, and God from the view of our wounds, sins, mistakes, and failures. Much of our society is steeped in a culture of celebrity and we place our sports figures, entertainers, political and religious leaders on pedestals where they don’t belong, and when they fall, we find ourselves in a crisis of leadership.

Jesus not only never sought celebrity, he denounced any whiff of it. What also kept a growing sense of celebrity at bay was that he spoke consistently as the way, the truth, and the life. He challenged everyone’s comfort zones with his words and actions. Those seeking a superficial and surface relationship with Jesus free of personal demands then and now, walked and walk away from him. Jesus challenged in love and as such, to those seeking a deeper healing than the physical, intimacy to satiate the core of our being, Jesus was the light that guided to a safe haven. Safety from the external and internal unrest that is to find our grounding in our ontology. We are at our core a beloved daughter and son. Nothing or no rejection, wound, or abandonment can change that truth. 

There is also a challenge in that truth. We as beloved children of God are called to live by his commandments. To say that we do not need the commandments is like telling the lighthouse keeper as we head off into the calm ocean to shut the light off, we will be able to find our own way back home. No problem if all of a sudden a storm rises, or darkness falls sooner than we expect, will we be able to find our way back. Not wise.

Too many of us do the same when being offered God’s commandments as a guide. We fail to do so, relying on our false stability of our self-sufficiency. God is God and we are not. Would we prefer to anchor ourselves in the infinite reality of all existence or the temporary finite nature of our wonderful yet fragile humanity? 

All we need for evidence of this is a quick review of the past few months. Have we accomplished all our New Year’s resolutions, overcome an addiction or disordered affection, failed to take time to plan and just wing it, determined too often that we can go it alone on our own will power and determination? Even with good intentions, many diversions and distractions arise, and we choose apparent goods over and above our highest hope and good and find ourselves adrift without direction.

In our first reading from the Book of Acts, we see how “Peter and John ‘laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit’” (Acts8:17).

The early Church took root and thrived even while under heavy persecution because they encountered Jesus, trusted in him, allowed themselves to be forgiven and healed, as they followed the principles he set forth. They did so not on their willpower alone. For left, to themselves, and we see plenty of evidence of the failures of the apostles throughout the gospels, they were all utter failures. It was not until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that they were empowered by the love of God to now put into action what Jesus had prepared them to do. 

When we are, as were the apostles, willing to learn and follow Jesus’ commandments, Jesus, “will ask the Father, and he will give [us] another Advocate to be with [us] always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him” (John 14:16-17).

We can see the work of the Holy Spirit most active and alive in the sacraments. These are direct encounters with Jesus in which we are transformed by the fire of his love, die to our self-centered focus, and are reborn in him as a part of his body and life. As we grow closer to Jesus, allow him access to more areas in need of healing, trust and follow his leading, we experience more and more the love of the Holy Spirit alive in our lives. 

There is no secret to living as a Christian. Each day we must set aside time to pray and meditate, spend time in the Bible, worship together as a community, go out from ourselves to serve others, all the while being attentive to those Jesus has entrusted to our care. This balancing act will ultimately play out depending on our station and demands in life. This is why we need the Holy Spirit to nudge us, a savior to lead us with his light back into the core relationship we have been created for with our Father.

Our final point comes from our second reading from St Peter.

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, (1 Peter 3:15-16).

As our relationship with God grows, we share about our experiences with him to one another. This is who we are created to be. We are to share our faith, we are sent on mission to share our relationship with Jesus and our experience of the Holy Spirit. That does not mean imposing our views on others or assuming we are right and others are wrong, or that we are charged with saving those in our midst. It means that we are to share our stories, our encounters, our experiences with the living God and let God happen!

We do so when we know and put into practice the commandments, especially to love God, place him first in our lives and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to continually open our hearts and minds to accept the power of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments as well as in our daily spiritual disciplines and in our willingness to love, serve, and suffer with others.

When we live a life committed and guided by the commandments and are continually open to being transformed by the Spirit, when we trust and bring our trials and tribulations to Jesus, we will be people of hope and joy. Living a life of hope and joy in a world of suffering for some is like water in a desert. We may be the only Bible anyone ever experiences.

No matter what challenges we are experiencing now, or those that will rise before us, no matter how dark the night or how violent the storms, no matter how wounded or sinful, we know that God is our light, that he is with us, and that he will guide and provide for us in each of the ups and downs of our lives. We are not alone.

Photo: Holy Spirit moment! I was at my original gate typing merrily away this reflection when felt a nudge to look up, my gate said Houston instead of WPB. I then looked at my phone which I did not hear ding, and had just received a text that my gate was changed. One hop, skip, and a jump to the train, which was closed, and then another five minute walk all was good.  

Link to the Mass readings for Sunday, May 10, 2026

Even though Jesus was hated and persecuted, he chose to love and so can we.

When Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first”, Jesus was not proposing an-us-verses them mentality. It can be easily taken that way and certainly has been lived out in many ways in our society and world. Yet, an-us-verses them mentality is usually a defensive posture assumed by those who often feel or are actuality being persecuted. It is an understandable posture. It is just not the stance that Jesus proposes us to take. We are to love our enemies, we are to love those who hate us. Impossible? Yes, on our own will power alone, for apart from Jesus we can do nothing, but with him all things are possible.

Jesus makes it plain to his apostles. They need to be prepared, for the same persecution that has been happening to him will happen to them. They will be persecuted, mocked, imprisoned, and give their lives just as Jesus did. The gospel message is a challenge. We are challenged to have a change of mind and heart, to be conformed to the love of Jesus the Christ. This means that our focus must shift from that of self-focused, self-first and foremost, as well as I – me – mine. Instead of curving in upon ourselves and constricting, we are to look up and out beyond ourselves and put God first. With God holding priority of place in our lives we will expand and heal.

We know that we are putting God first instead of our fallen nature when we react less and love more. Reactions are based on survival instincts, which can be exacerbated with an-us-verses them mentality. “They” are responsible for the state I am in, it is all “their” fault, “they” made me do it… These are all reactive thoughts that can lead to more divisive and uglier statements and actions. Jesus invites us to assume the disposition of mindful action not reaction.

To resist reacting, we need to be willing to slow down and pay attention to our interior voices. We can slow down when we experience an emotional reaction, by breathing into the emotion, feel it instead of reacting or denying it, and then see if we can hear the thought or thoughts that are feeding the emotion(s). Spending time to recollect, just to breathe and allow our minds to settle, helps us to get in touch with our emotions and thoughts. Then bringing them to Jesus, he can help us to identify them and instead of reaction being our default position, we can begin to choose if we want to react or not. Instead of reacting, we can choose how Jesus is inviting us to respond. 

Much of our reactions comes from our harried pace, keeping us from being in touch with our deep-seated anxieties, suffering, and fears. Instead of running from the mirror Jesus holds up to us, may we stop and pray with him regularly. In this way, we can see our wounds, not just our sins and unhealthy choices, but the reasons why we are choosing to do what we don’t want to do instead of what we want to do. Healing begins when we allow ourselves to take some deep breaths, ask Jesus to be present with us in daily quiet moments and receive the light of his love. We can then see those hidden places that we have not wanted to face, those areas that rumble when a trigger is tripped, when our impatience starts to swirl, and/or our reaction begins to form. 

Since we are not machines to be fixed, we only need to allow ourselves to be loved by Jesus in the places that we have been afraid to let anyone see for fear of being rejected or abandoned. As we daily begin to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in Jesus’ love, we will become more patient, understanding, truer to who he calls us to be: People of love, willing the other’s good, accepting and encountering each other as fellow brothers and sisters on our journey together. In seeking to understand someone instead of reacting, we can then choose to listen and love as our first response, and come to recognize that the common denominator for each of us is that we are all wounded, imperfect, experience loneliness, and that we just want to belong and be loved.

May we allow the love of the Holy Spirit to guide and flow through us, so as to dissolve walls of hate and division, and instead build bridges of dialogue and healing. Instead of a tit for tat approach to contempt, hate, and dehumanization, we can choose instead to pause, breath, and turn again and again to Jesus for the strength to resist the easy and impulsive reaction so as to not act in kind but instead respond with acts of understanding, empowerment, and love.

Please let us take good care of ourselves and each other today.

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Photo: Wanting to learn how to slow down? Stop and look up and breathe slow. Doing just that in Woodstock, GA this evening.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 9, 2026

The love of Jesus received, helps us to heal and love others as we have been loved.

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:12).

God created us from the abundance and outpouring of his trinitarian love to be loved, and to love him in return. The love that Jesus is talking about is unconditional and not just relegated to those closest to us, although, hopefully, in our families and friendships is where we first experienced being loved and learned to love in return.

The love that Jesus commands that we are to participate in as his followers, is a going out from, a giving of ourselves to, and a willingness to sacrifice for one another. We are not to seek in return, but are to empty and give ourselves away. The return we get is from experiencing the infinite wellspring and source of the Holy Spirit that rises up within us. The more we hold back, the less we receive, the more we give, the more we experience. We are to resist withdrawing our love and assuming a selfish posture that leads to us becoming more like a stagnant pool. Instead, we are to remain open so as to allow the living stream of God’s infinite love to flow through us.

The love Jesus commands cannot be done on the fly. Love is accepting the interruption and choosing to be present. Love means stopping, setting aside our agendas, and accompanying another. Love is also not coercion and manipulation, it is accepting another as they are and where they are. Love is sharing the journey of life together. St Thomas Aquinas has written it best: Love is to will the good of the other as other. This is more than mere emotion, feeling, or sentiment but actually wanting the best for someone else and rejoicing in their becoming fully alive. Nor does this mean that we become doormats or enablers of dysfunctional or abusive behavior. We hold people accountable – for to love is also to be clear about respecting our’s and another’s dignity.

This practice of love is also not exclusive but universal. Yes, we are to love those in our family, community, place of worship, tribe, political party, and nation, while at the same time we must be willing to go out from our comfort zones and protected bubbles to risk opening ourselves up to those who we feel are different, those who do not see the world as we see it, and even those we consider our enemies. This does not mean we have to agree or even like someone else. Jesus commands us to love, to respect the dignity of the person as our starting point. This is the love he offers us and calls us to do the same.

Speaking and listening with a heart and mind open to the love of God is also a good way to participate in the divine communion of love that is shared between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Authentic communication happens when we state clearly our beliefs, our thoughts, and dreams, and also allow others to do the same. Even though we may differ in our points of view, we can still grow together in love. What may prevent us from doing so is our own wounds. These wounds can lead to reacting and talking at and over one another, demeaning, belittling, disdaining, and/or are condescending one another.

Receiving Jesus’ love regularly can help our healing process begin, and it will increase the more we share his love with others. Pope Leo has invited us to be “a Church that builds bridges and encourages dialogue, a Church ever open to welcoming”.  We are welcoming and build such bridges of dialogue when we are willing to identify our own wounds, allow Jesus to love us there, and lead us to love as we have been loved. From that starting point we are better able to encounter the person and free ourselves from prejudicial caricatures and labels that hopefully will dissolve through our interaction and respectfully engaging with one another.

Instead of keeping each other at arm’s length, when we are willing to love as Jesus loves us, we will better be able to listen with patience and understanding. We will learn to embrace and grow from one another. Yet, there will be those that are not willing to respect us nor dialogue. We can still love them and respect their position. We can hope for an opening and seek for a movement of mutual, loving dialogue. Even if not, we at least can resist adding fuel to the fire. Let our starting point be to recognize and remember who we are, beloved daughters and sons of God our Father, seek to approach each other in love and in our engagement, and let God happen.

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Photo: Quiet time to be with Jesus before our communal Mass here at our annual priest convocation.

Pope Leo XIV quote from his May 8 Ubi et Orbi message

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 7, 2026

Jesus radiates the light of peace to dissolve the clouds of division, violence and war.

Why so much violence? So many countries are and have been consistently embroiled by the ravages of war. Many countries, including our own, were founded on the taking of lands by force and oppression of aboriginal peoples. Too many of our youth and citizens die from gun violence and mass murders. So many examples of road rage, domestic abuse, human trafficking, terrorism – foreign and domestic, and the myriad of random acts of violence that continue daily.
We may hear goodwill speeches shared after each atrocity, participate in the petitions and intercessions ringing from our ambos and pulpits in our places of worship, and pray personally and in prayer groups, participate and/or witness demonstrations, marches, and votes for change. All the while, there are those working in the trenches of communities throughout the world, putting their own lives at risk, matching their words and prayers with their deeds. And yet, do any of these efforts make a difference?
There is a constant temptation of cynicism and despair biting at our heels, but let us never give in. There is a light the shines in the darkness of our fallen world. There is hope for a better day. We can experience both light and hope when we read and/or hear, pray with and rest, in the words of Jesus: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27).
This peace that Jesus promises to leave with his apostles is a peace that is not of this world, a peace that surpasses all understanding (cf. Philippians 4:7), and this peace has been and continues to be offered to us as a gift. Many have indeed said, “If there is a God, well then, why doesn’t he do anything?” God did and continues to. God sent his Son, the King of kings and the Prince of Peace. The peace that God shares through his Son and the love of the Holy Spirit is offered to one person at a time. This is why when Jesus rose he only appeared to those he chose and not the whole world.
Jesus is to be encountered and his relationship is built one person at a time in each generation. Each of us have the invitation to accept or reject his invitation to believe in him, but so much more. Jesus invites us to be his disciples. This means more than just putting into practice his teachings, as did the original apostles and saints who in each generation have done just that. We will experience his peace when we come to know Jesus. We do this best when we surrender our minds and hearts and the very depths of our souls to the love and peace that Jesus offers and teaches and allow him into the places of poverty, pain, and suffering where we are most in need.
Our world will not change until we change, until we allow ourselves to spend time each day breathing, receiving, resting, and abiding in God’s love. Until we are willing to be loved, until we are willing to confess our sins, and until we are willing to admit we need God’s help, we will continue to slip into survival mode and engage more in reaction and retaliation. When we do allow Jesus in, to be loved, forgiven, and accept his help, we will begin to heal  will begin to see each other not as enemies but as brothers and sisters, hurting and in need of help.
The peace of God that the risen Jesus offers is not some abstract formula. His command to love is not some pie in the sky universal love for all. The teachings and acts of peace and love that Jesus shares throughout the Gospels are very concrete, individual, and personal. Jesus interacts with people as people, not as numbers. He engages and directs us to do the same, by encountering, accompanying, and loving one person at a time. The real question is not why isn’t God doing anything? The real question is why have we left the gift of God’s peace offered to us unwrapped?
If we want peace in our world or even our corner of the world, our hearts and minds must be open to receive God’s love. We must be still and receive, savor, and embrace the love he wants to give and then share with others what we have received and as he directs. To receive and embrace the peace of Jesus, we must be willing to let go of our own weapons of hate, prejudice, cynicism, racism, division, selfishness, and the like. God created us as beings who are interconnected, which means that what one does affects all, for the sun rises and sets on the good and the bad alike.
If we want peace, as I believe all of us really do, we need to be more aware of and choose more intentionally our thoughts, words, actions, and even the expressions on our faces. The thoughts that we feed are the ones that bear fruit in our words and deeds. Figuratively and literally, we need to be willing to “beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks” (cf. Isaiah 2:4).
This verse becomes real in our lives when we choose to resist the temptation to react and choose instead to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the concrete, we can choose to disagree with someone without being disagreeable or disrespectful. When we make a mistake, let us resist beating ourselves up over the process and instead learn from our misstep, and begin again. We also do so when we are willing to seek and offer forgiveness, acknowledge we need to be healed, and be more patient and understanding. We can’t do any of this alone and that is why we need a Savior, to heal us, save us, and lead us from our own darkness into his light.
Can we really counter the violence, wars, and division, really bring about world peace? In some abstract form, for all people, for all time, no. What we can do is make a daily commitment to spend time with Jesus, receive, rest, and abide in his love. Study, pray, meditate with and learn from him. As we love, follow the way of Jesus and practice his truth, we will begin to live a life of peace that counters the division, violence, and hatred of a weary and worn world. Will that make a difference? Absolutely, for you and for me, and those within the realm of our influence. May we begin in our own little way, and bring a little light and love to our corner of the world today.
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Photo: Jesus is the light that reveals the way, the truth, and the life to experience lasting peace and unconditional love.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 5, 2026

The commandments of Jesus do not constrict but expand our freedom to be loved and to love.

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” (John 14:21).

Especially in our modern, western mind set, the idea or mere mention of following commandments may cause a bristling. Mostly this is because of the witnessing weakness of our fallen nature expressed in egregious ways through the abuse of power, abuse in relationships, and a weakening of trust in secular and religious institutions.

Jesus though is offering more of a challenge as he draws the following of commandments and love together. He is sharing with his apostles in the beginning stages of his farewell discourse, and before his crucifixion, what he feels is most important to share. His testament that he not only wants to give, but these final words he wants to impart upon them in such a way that they continue to learn and receive his teachings, put them into practice, allow themselves to be transformed by and so perpetuate them.

Just as commandments can lead one to bristle, love has many more superficial meanings than what Jesus means. One reason is that, even though the English language has a plethora of words to utilize and choose from, there is only one word for love and it is interpreted and used in many ways. In Ancient Greek, there are four words that are used to connote love. There is eros, which has to do with attraction. It is the beginning stage of love because we are drawn out of ourselves as we are attracted to another. The next word for love is philia, which aligns with friendship, a wanting to be together, to share between friends. If our love matures it moves from attraction or infatuation to friendship. The third word, storge, is the deeper love shared with family members which can be through blood or a deepening of friendship. The fourth word is agape, which is unconditional love, a sacrificial love.

When Jesus shares that we are to follow the commandments, he is not demanding that we do so as a tyrant would. He is providing boundaries, guard rail, parameters for us to grow and mature as people who love, who, in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, will the good of the other as other. As humans, we are social beings. We want to belong, to be accepted, and to be a part of. We seek meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in our lives. This is best done through cooperation and collaboration with God and with one another, striving to love unconditionally, agape. We desire to belong, to be loved, and to love in return. Yet, we need to ground our love in God first or our pursuit of love and belonging will be disordered.

As a good son of St. Augustine, Pope Leo XIV quoted Augustine in his inaugural Mass as Pope last year: “Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you (Confessions, I: 1,1).” We are made by God to be loved and to love in return. Nothing we seek in this world will satisfy this deepest hunger that we all have in our soul besides the love God has for us. Unfortunately, we succumb to many disordered affections in pursuit of the love we seek. We are led astray by apparent goods that leave us hungry, thirsty, and wanting for more.

If we operate from a self-centered posture in which we are only turned in upon our self, and we only seek to manipulate and get from others, or worse, objectify others. Instead of working for consensus and sharing a common vision, we will ultimately be empty with the exchange on any level, because even in our relationships as with material things, we will be left wanting more. This is true because once the immediacy of the stimulation, whether material, emotional, or sensual, ends, so does the experience of the feeling. Some happiness may linger from the effect, but we will never be filled or satisfied with that which is finite. We will continue to seek more and more until the pursuit of instant and constant gratification ensnares us and we are entangled in a web of addiction.

God’s commandments, grounded in love, are meant to provide boundaries for us, training wheels, and to keep us free from enslavement to sin. The commandments point us to that which is not apparently but truly good for a wholesome and whole life. At the same time God’s commandments and the teachings of Jesus help us to mature as persons moving away from a posture of being self-centered to becoming disciples that love as Jesus loves.

Discipline in this way is meant to be a means of freedom for excellence such that we can become who God calls us to be and who we truly desire to be. God is not in competition with us. He is our biggest fan. As St Irenaeus wrote, the glory of God is the human being fully alive! When we can rest in the truth that God loves us as we are, even in our sin, when we can stop, breathe, receive, rest, and abide in his love, we can begin to settle and feel safe. Our restlessness can slow, the grasping can release, and we can just be, be loved, be ourselves, and experience peace.

Commandments and morality imposed indiscriminately, without reason or an end goal is a bludgeon. Love and mercy without accountability and justice can be enabling. Jesus’ invites us to receive and observe his commandments so that we may be freed from disordered affections and so properly order and discipline our desires and passions to be free to love authentically. Jesus knows what will truly fulfill and give us deeper meaning. May we trust in and learn from the deposit of faith passed on from Jesus to the Apostles, to each successive generation, as well as the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit, our Advocate that the Father sent in his name (John 14:26).

Pope Leo XIV, the vicar of Christ, implored us about a year ago: “Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters.” We are brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus, when we receive and put into practice Jesus’s commandments, when we love him and his Father, we are given the discernment to reveal the lies of the enemy, we grow, and mature in our spiritual lives. The “heart of the gospel” Pope Leo preached in his inaugural address echoed again in his Sunday Regina Caeli address, May 3, 2026.

Having faith in God and Jesus “frees our hearts from the anxiety of possessing and acquiring, and from the illusion that we must pursue a position of prestige to have worth. Each person already has infinite worth in the mystery of God, which is the true reality. By loving one another as Jesus has loved us, we impart this awareness to one another… through love, amidst a multitude of brothers and sisters, each one discovers that they are uniquely made.”

Let us allow and continue to allow the tender chords of the Holy Spirit’s love to draw us deeper into intimacy with Jesus so that we can be transformed, forgiven, and healed by his love, and so freed from the false lures and promises that seek to divert us from being the beloved daughters and sons of God our Father that he has uniquely created us to be.

Photo: Pope Leo Regina Caeli address (Vatican Media)

Quotes above from Pope Leo XIV Inauguration Mass, May 18, 2025: Transcript of Pope Leo XIV’s Homily

Pope Leo XIV Regina Caeli, Sunday May 3

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 4, 2026

When we love, we reveal Jesus and his Father to others.

Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip” (Jn 14:8-9)?

Again we see the Apostles struggling to understand that Jesus and the Father are one, that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus attempts to explain again to Philip that whoever sees him sees the Father.

The challenge here is that Philip and Jesus are using the same language but talking from different points of view. When Philip is asking Jesus to show him the Father through physical eyes, he is asking to see God along the lines of what we might perceive from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting of God. Jesus has been revealing the Father through the spiritual eyes of his works. Or: “He might be looking for a grand theophany, because his request of Jesus, Show us the Father, recalls Moses’ request of the Lord at Mount Sinai: ‘Let me see your glory!” (Exodus 33:18).” (Martin and Wright, 246).

God is not finite, he is not a being like we are. He is neither male nor female. We use the term Father because Jesus used it often to speak of him, and thus why we use the pronoun him. Jesus used analogous language to create a bridge of understanding for us who are finite, human beings to help us understand better that we can have a relationship with our God who is Infinite Act. God’s essence and his existence is one and the same. Even though God is beyond any genus of being, beyond any way for us to classify him, we can still know and experience God.

Jesus shared with Philip that “The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves” (Jn 14:11).

When Jesus heals, exorcises demons, speaks on his own authority, associates with those on the peripheries, these are some of the ways he is revealing the Father. In these very acts, he is loving those in his midst, he is willing their good. When Philip and the Apostles believed in Jesus and acted in his name they revealed Jesus and so his Father to others. When we love one another as Jesus loves us, live and act from the love we have received from Jesus, we also will reveal Jesus and the Father to others!

Photo: Jesus helps us to remember that we are each beloved daughters and sons of his Father, to be loved by him, to breathe, receive, rest and abide in his love for us and to love in return.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 3, 2026

 

May we allow the light of Jesus to shine in our darkness.

“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness” (Jn 12:46).
What might be the darkness that Jesus refers to? It could be anything that turns us within ourselves, that turns us away from that which is True, Good, and Beautiful. Anyone or anything that turns us away from God. God has created humanity and all of creation out of the abundance of his love. Through sin, suffering and the good God has created, has been corrupted and darkened. We as well as the world has been wounded but not destroyed, nor is the damage so far gone that we are doomed. Prejudice, ignorance, cynicism, sin, violence, hatred, war, division, dehumanization, and destruction reign, but the darkness cannot stand up to the light. The darkness has not nor ever will overcome the light. Jesus invites us to make a choice to feed on the darkness or the receive the light.
Jesus has come and continues to be present in our lives to invite us to heal. Each and every one of us is important to him. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves and he knows the darkness that is within, the places we may not want to even face. The wounds, the hurt, the grief and suffering, the pain, and our sin. Jesus invites us gently to trust him and allow his light to shine into these places, not to shame and condemn us, but to love us there and lead us to freedom.
Jesus encourages us to leave our self imposed imprisonment by loving us as we are, more than we can imagine, and more than we can ever mess up. Christianity is not just a set of moral principles, a set of doctrines, a philosophy, or a theology. Christianity is about an encounter with a person, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ, who invites us to be loved and to love in return. When we allow ourselves to feel safe with Jesus as a person who cares and has our best interest in mind, we can begin to trust him and experience his love and healing. The wonder of his gentle light is that we can see more clearly where we buy into the lies and deceptions of the enemy.
When we allow the light of Jesus into our hearts and minds, we can choose between the darkness and the light, evil and good, pride and humility. The light of Jesus leads and invites us to experience that which we have been created and are restless for – an intimate relationship with God the Father and each other. Through the light of his love, Jesus reveals to us those apparent goods, false substitutes, and idols that distract us and keep us separated from deepening our relationship with God. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus and his Father, we experience the love of the Holy Spirit and are moved to share his love with each other.
Jesus, in this moment, help us to take some slow deep breaths. Help us to be still. Help us to receive and experience your love. Help us to see where we are reactive, where triggers are engaging past wounds in need of healing, and what are the apparent goods we are attached to that are leading us away from spending time to be able to be still right now, right here with you. May we rest and abide here in your love so to experience the reality of your presence, and help us to come back to spend time with you tomorrow as well so that we come to believe that your light is greater than any darkness we may face, that you are with us, and that we know we are loved.
Photo: Breathing, receiving, resting, and abiding in God’s love.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, April 29, 2026

“Jesus walks with us. Always.”

Jesus continues to present the imagery of the shepherd in today’s Gospel reading from John. He offers the assurance of security and protection that is to be found for those that are in his fold when he says, “No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one” (Jn 10:28-30). How does one enter the fold of the Good Shepherd? All who hear his voice, believe in, and follow him will be known by him, come to know him, and so be a part of his flock.

Yet, there are those who hear his voice and do not recognize the Shepherd. They do not follow him and so are not known by him, although he seeks them out. They may know about the Shepherd, have heard of him, but do not know him. Their hearts and minds are closed. They do not believe in his miracles, his exorcisms, his teachings, and the question of those opposing him in today’s reading is, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (Jn 10:24). Jesus did just that by saying that he and the Father are one. The response to the forthright comment of Jesus is that those who are closed to his answer pick up rocks to throw at him (see Jn 10:31).

Jesus offers the gift of relationship with him and his Father, to experience the love shared between them, the Holy Spirit. Jesus offers eternal life. Jesus is open about who he is, who we are, and who we can become in participation with him. Those who say no to his invitation do so for their own reasons. Just as Jesus invites us to freely come to him, he will only come so far as we are willing to receive him. He does not conform to us or to our will.  Jesus does not need us nor does he force his will upon us, yet he loves us by willing our ultimate good. He is willing to risk that we will walk away, but he continues to be close and ready for when we turn back.

Even many of us who have said yes, only go so far. We hedge our bets, dip our toes into the water, and maybe go in ankle-deep, but not too many of us are willing to relinquish control, let go, and surrender fully all at once. Jesus offers, eternal life, true, but also a life of meaning and fulfillment now. A perfect life? No, there will continue to be challenges, conflicts, mistakes, and missteps. There will be suffering, pain, and heartache. All the while, Jesus’ voice continues to call us to follow him, to trust him, and seek safety and healing from our anxieties, fears, wounds, weakness, and sins. Our safety is truly in Jesus, because he is eternal and unchanging.

Jesus empowers us to face our conflicts and resistances, and as we grow in our trust in him, we can feel safe to let go of our control and defense mechanisms, and become more disciplined in resisting temptations and apparent goods. Through all our experiences, the ups and downs, the only assurance is that we are not alone. No matter what we may face today or tomorrow, we can be assured that Jesus will never let us go and no one can take us out of his hand. Each step of the journey we take, we can be confident that Jesus, our Good Shepherd, will be there to guide and protect us as he leads us to experience deeper intimacy with him, his Father, and the Holy Spirit.

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Painting: Accessed on Amazon.com wall art

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, April 28, 2026