prayer

Giving ourselves the time to pray, to breathe, and be still, helps us to be loved so to love.

There is a danger when we read a comment from Scripture such as when Jesus, “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons” (Mk 1:34). The danger is that we may not believe we are capable of healing as Jesus did, so we don’t do anything active with our faith. We also might think that Jesus is divine, so of course, there is no way we can measure up to what he has done. An even less helpful line of thought would be to disbelieve that the healings of Jesus happened at all, they were all made up, and that they never really happened.

Another challenge can be pride. We may want to heal like Jesus, for the purpose of our own aggrandizement, so people look at us, not God. That was the sin of Simon the magician, who saw the Apostles healing, just as Jesus had, and offered payment for the power to accomplish the same (cf. Acts 8:9-25). Along the same line is wanting to do something grandiose, something beyond our own unique gift and charism, again so the focus is placed on us.

A more helpful perspective is ponder about the truth that Jesus had a specific mission to accomplish, and yes he is divine, but, as I have shared often and the Church maintains, Jesus is also fully human. He had a specific mission from his Father, he gave a specific mission to his Apostles, and his Father has a specific mission for each and every one of us as well. Jesus himself proclaimed: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn 14:12). Not only works as Jesus did, but even greater ones! Jesus knows the plan God has for our life, the part we are to play, and he will share it with us and empower us with that which we need to accomplish it.

We all have the capacity to provide God’s healing presence to others. God works through us when we embrace the love of the Holy Spirit and are conformed by it such that we come to know how God wants us to love and be present. There is some way for all of us to contribute. Throughout the Bible there are accounts of how God invites others to service, each in very small and humble ways – Jesus himself began his days on this earth wrapped in swaddling clothes, in a feeding trough, as vulnerable and humble a beginning as there can be. He then lived the next thirty years in obscurity until his public ministry began.

We need to resist the temptation to limit and define Jesus, but instead embrace the gift of a “sitting theology” in which we allow ourselves to look at Jesus, take him in, for he is “infinite Love incarnate” (Barron). Then to place ourselves before Jesus and allow him to expand us so that we can receive his revelation and guidance and come to know the mission God has planned for us. We also need to be willing to allow his Spirit to work through us.

Then as we go about our lives each day, we become contemplatives in action. We take time away to pray as Jesus did, listen for his guidance, and be open to the experiences that arise. Facing opportunities and interruptions in which we can be present to another with a smile, an active listening ear, and a helping hand, leads to more joy. In each small act, we say yes to God’s invitation, are present and accompany others by our willingness to love as he has loved us. Small acts of presence and willing each other’s good, leads to healing.

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Photo: Jesus often went off to a deserted place to pray, who better to teach us how to do the same. Some quiet time with Jesus to end the day back at USML.

The thought of a sitting theology comes from Bishop Robert Barron Lesson 5 lecture that he gave on Hans Urs von Balthasar from his Word on Fire Institute. To learn more about the WOFI and what it offers, type the following link into your web browser: https://wordonfire.institute

Link to the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 14, 2025

In loving our brothers and sisters, we are loving Christ who gave his life for us.

He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).

Jesus spoke these words to his hometown congregation in Nazareth who had just heard him read the passage from the writings of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus proclaimed that he was the one to whom Isaiah was talking about. Luke chose to highlight this event as the starting point of Jesus’ public ministry, of bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives, recovering sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord (Lk 4:18-19).

This message of universal healing, restoration, and reconciliation for all people would be an aspect of the mission of Jesus. He presented the message that he would be the vehicle to bring the love and redemptive work of his Father to all the nations, to invite all people to be aware of the reality present to them: that God his Father is inviting all into communion and relationship with him. The poor mentioned were not just in reference to those experiencing material poverty, but also to those finding themselves on the margins of society, the outcasts, those on the peripheries. The captives were not only those imprisoned for debts or crimes but those bound in the chains of their own sin and addiction. The blind were not only those who could not physically see but those who experienced the spiritual blindness of pride and arrogance. The oppressed were not just those under the iron fist of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes, but those pressed down through their own anxieties and fears.

In what ways are we in need of Jesus’ teaching, healing, and restorative power? What is keeping us on the peripheries, apart from communion and fellowship? What sins, disordered affections, and/or addictions, fears, anxieties, distractions, and/or diversions keep us bound? What is keeping us blind to the reality that God is in our midst and seeking a deeper relationship with us? Today we hear or read again Jesus’ words proclaimed in the Gospel. Jesus invites us to be healed and to align ourselves with his will and ministry of loving service.

It is a good practice to ponder the same words that Jesus spoke to the people of his own hometown. Are we willing to listen? Will we hold on to our biases and prejudices, to our tribe, nation, political party at the cost of losing our integrity, reason, and dignity? Or can the words of Jesus be a light for us to see our fallen nature? Resisting the temptation to turn away from but instead allowing the light of Jesus to shine into our darkness opens us to the gift of our uniqueness, the richness of our humanity, and that we are all interconnected.

The Psalmist stated that, “From fraud and violence he will redeem them” (Psalm 72:14) and John wrote, “whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). Pondering these words from today’s readings gives us an opportunity to begin again. Allowing ourselves to be loved by God who loves us more than we can imagine and has a plan for us beyond our wildest imagination offers so much hope. We receive this gift, when we give ourselves time to experience what we thankful for, admit our sins and turn to God with a contrite, sorrowful heart for what we have done and what we have failed to do.

As we do so, we are more able to experience the healing hands of Jesus on our bowed heads and receive the warmth of his forgiveness and love pouring through us as we are purged from our sin and pride. Then, in recognition of how much suffering and pain is present in our country and world, we can open our hearts and minds to the guidance of the Holy Spirit to participate with him in choosing love over hate, bringing the invitation of healing and reconciliation to others, and committing to bringing about “a year acceptable to the Lord” in this new year of 2026 (Lk 4:19).

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Photo: Prayerful walk after lunch on the grounds of USML.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, January 9, 2025

God is inviting us to experience some silent moments to pray.

And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray (Mk 6:46). We often read in the Gospels that Jesus went off by himself to pray. I am sure this was not a practice that he just began during his public ministry, but one that he learned and developed from Mary and Joseph. The Apostles themselves witnessed Jesus praying, and how God was primary in his life.

Pope Leo during a Sunday homily on July 20, 2025 shared, “Our relationship with God comes first… we should set aside moments of silence, moments of prayer, times in which, quieting noise and distractions, we recollect ourselves before God in simplicity of heart. This is a dimension of the Christian life that we particularly need to recover today, both as a value for individuals and communities, and as a prophetic sign for our times. We must make room for silence, for listening to the Father who speaks and ‘sees in secret’” (Mt 6:6).

Jesus prayed, he taught his Apostles to pray, and we are at our best when we are people of prayer. We become people who pray when we are willing to make friends with silence. When we show up intentionally to spend time with God, our lives begin to change. That we even desire to pray, that we even want to be closer to God, is already a prayer because we are experiencing an invitation from God to draw close to him, to develop a relationship with him, to come to know the one who knows us better than we know our self.

Fr. William Barry in his book, God and You, describes how prayer is becoming consciously aware of our relationship with God. “God is in relationship with each and every created thing in the universe and in relationship to the whole of it… whether that being is aware of the relationship or not.” The amazing thing about God is that “he will not force himself on us. He continually tries to arouse our awareness and interest in him” (Barry 1987, 12-13).

God reaches out to us in so many ways such as a majestic sunrise or sunset, the ebb and flow of the waves on a beach, and the brilliant radiance of a starlit sky. He also does so through our trials of sickness, pain, others who are being hurt, or encountering injustice. He is also present through our every day relationships and experiences. The key is to be aware of what is being stirred up within us when we experience something and allow ourselves to “wonder about the experience and its meaning” (Barry, 13).

What is most important regarding becoming people of prayer is our awareness, our becoming conscious that we have a relationship with God who is not an idea but a person. “This relationship is based on God’s actions to establish it and his desire that we become conscious of who he is and wants to be for us. Our consciousness depends on our willingness to pay attention to God’s actions, or at least to experiences that might be actions of God, and to let our desires for God be aroused” (Barry, 14).

Another question that Fr. Barry answers regarding prayer is that if God knows everything about us, why bother to pray at all? God is not just wanting information. Again, he is inviting us to enter into a relationship. He wants to know whether we believe he cares how we feel and whether we are willing to let him in, to let him know what we feel and desire. It is important to be honest in our dialogue and be willing to reveal ourselves to God, while at the same time, be open and willing to allow him to reveal himself to us. This is how we build authentic relationships with God and each other (cf. Barry, 15).

Jesus, thank you for inviting us in so many small ways each day to spend time with you. Though we can allow our harried pace, distractions, diversions, temptations, and/or pain to lead us away from the gift of your presence, please help us to slow down, to breathe, rest, and abide in the wonder of how our God and Father is present, and how the love of the Holy Spirit is working in our lives daily. Help us to realize that we don’t need to be perfect to come to you, to say the right words to be heard by you, nor that we have to say any word at all, and help us to be free to show up, rest in your loving gaze, and be with you and go from there.

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Photo: Moments when we are touched by beauty and stop, are accepted invitations to pray.

Barry, William A. S.J. God and You: Prayer as a Personal Relationship by William Barry SJ. New York: Paulist Press, 1987.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 7, 2025

Theotokos! – We are invited to ponder.

Mary offers us a wonderful gift through the words of Luke as we begin the new year together. “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Gabriel shares with Mary that she will conceive a child through the power of the Holy Spirit. Her relative Elizabeth, past childbearing years, is six months pregnant when Mary and Elizabeth meet. In their encounter, John leaps in the womb of Elizabeth. The shepherds convey the message they received from the angels that Mary’s baby is the long-awaited Messiah. Simeon and Anna offer prophetic confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah.

These are the events we have been hearing or reading about again during Advent and this Christmas Octave. May we, like Mary, also ponder them, not to just read or listen and move on. The Church at her best has followed the model of Mary’s reflection, pondering, and meditating upon what these words mean and has come to call this day the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. This title says more about Jesus than it does about Mary. This is the teaching that the Church Fathers confirmed during the council of Ephesus in 431 AD:

Mary is the Mother of God, in Greek – Theotokos – the God-bearer.

From the pondering of Paul we receive his words, “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). Paul did not say, born of man and woman but of a woman. The second Person of the Trinity was sent by his Father through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and was conceived in the womb of Mary. Jesus is the Son of God in his divinity and the son of Mary in his humanity. He remained fully divine as the second Person of the Trinity and the Holy Trinity was not diminished in any way as he developed as a human being in the womb and was born of Mary. This truth and reality is the Mystery of the hypostatic union: Jesus is one divine person subsisting in two natures the human and divine.

Theological insights such as Mary being the Mother of God and the hypostatic union of Jesus, are easily missed or worse dismissed if we conform ourselves to the present age of instant gratification, instant access, surfing, swiping, absorbing sound bites from social media platforms and amassing information overload. These technological avenues along with the growing influence of AI can be one more distraction, diversion, and temptation that can lead to horrific outcomes or if we slow down, discern well and allow ourselves to think critically and prudently, we can experience some benefits.

If we still read books, do we do so with pencil and highlighter in hand, take notes and go back to those points underlined, highlighted, and/or annotated and ponder the insights we have received, and then put them into practice? Or do we just have a moment of pause and say hmm, interesting, and then move on to the next page, paragraph, and book, seeking more?

Let us begin the first day of the new year by taking a few deep breaths, allow ourselves to stop before getting back on the roller coaster of chaos and chronic stress, and allow ourselves to follow Mary’s guidance, and ponder. We can reflect on a word, a phrase, or a short statement that we write down and return to it often. The phrase could be as simple as a paraphrase from today’s reading: Mary pondered these things in her heart.

We can ponder a mystery of Scripture that touched us at some point in our lives and see what the deeper relevance to our lives God has invited us to experience when he moved our hearts and minds to carry this memory. We can go to today’s reading, read it again a few times and allow the Holy Spirit to overshadow us so that Jesus made be revealed present and comfortable awaiting our waking to his presence.

This reality can be deepened by meditating on one word such as: Theotokos, expressing the truth that Mary is the God-bearer, the Mother of God, and what that means to us. How can we be Theotokos? We can meditate on a picture like the one I posted with this reflection, one you may have on the wall or a precious moment on your phone or a dusty untouched photo album.

If we seek to live a life of joy, fulfillment, and meaning in 2026, we would do well to follow Mary. Following her lead would entail pondering more, slowing down, and reflecting on life, on what is important, what has value, where we are putting our time, energy, and effort, and recognizing where we do not follow God and where we do welcome God into our lives. We can reflect upon where we resist and where we follow his will.

Reflecting upon our lives helps us to move away from the automatic pilot of survival mode and experience more intention and agency. Otherwise, we may allow ourselves to float along through another year indecisively or stagnantly with indifference or cynicism, merely reacting to situations that arise, or just plodding along in survival mode or merely bored and listless. Being still can be scary because as we do so, our fears, our past hurts, and our loneliness can come to the surface.

If so, that is a gift. We are human and in experiencing our emotions, we can heal. When we experience them with Jesus whose celebration of his incarnation we have been experiencing, then there is a path lit by the light of his love that reveals a way where in the past we thought there was no way, no hope. In an intentional act of slowing down and even coming to a complete stop, the Holy Spirit can overshadow us in these very real emotions with his love, so we can begin to heal and transform beyond merely existing and set a healthier course of being more alive and grateful for the gift of our lives.

Hand in hand with Jesus and Mary, we can face and embrace our fears, and heal from our wounds. Surrendering and conforming our lives more to the life and love of Jesus, we will realize that we are not alone, and so can build more authentic and intimate relationships. We can act more decisively and with greater clarity, and experience more fully what we are here for, to bring a little more tenderness, mercy, understanding, forgiveness, and love to the many others around us who are also wounded.

May 2026 be a wonderful new year of healing, joy, and fulfillment, as we, like Mary, come to experience God’s presence in the silence of our hearts, his love that he seeks to embrace us with, so that we may become a people of faith, hope, and love in contemplation and action. Mary Mother of God, pray for us.

Here is a blessing to receive and ponder for us all for today and each day of this year. May “the LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (See Numbers 6:24-26)

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Photo: My favorite icon of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Chapel, St Vincent DePaul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, where I was blessed to spend many hours reading, pondering, mediating, praying, and healing.

Link for the Mass readings for January 1, 2026

Let us ponder Mary’s, “Yes.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her (Lk 1:38).

Whether this is the first or thousandth time we have read or heard this verse, the more important question for us is how many times have we said to God, “May it be done to me according to your word”? How would it be for us to begin each day with this prayer and then at the end of the day reflect on how well we have heard and answered yes to God’s will?

Mary’s “yes” changed the course of human history. Her willingness to bear the Son of God allowed him to come close. He entered our wounded, human condition to offer us healing, forgiveness, and to lead us home to communion with his Father and each other. Jesus is the gift that keeps giving – and we receive his gift each time we, as did Mary, say, “Yes.” When we do so, we become less, as he becomes more, and the kingdom of God continues to expand.

Along with Mary, the “yes” that we make is not a one-time, “yes,” but we are to affirm a daily, moment by moment “yes”. As St Paul wrote to the Church of Thessalonica, we are to: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 16-17). We are able to rejoice always and pray without ceasing when we say, “yes,” to God by developing and sustaining our relationship with him such that even when we experience pain, suffering, and struggles, we are not overcome or overwhelmed. When we allow Jesus to be close, we can even feel joy in the midst of whatever arises. He does not abandon us to random fate. He is our source, our refuge, and our strength, present to us in all that we experience.

Our prayers of petition for ourselves and intercession for others are another “yes” to God’s will because they are an “admission of one’s own helplessness” (Lohfink 2014, 240). Prayer is a, “no,” to pride. We cannot get through this life on our own, nor are we meant to, for apart from God we can do nothing. We are all interconnected and interdependent and God is the foundation and source of our very being, and with God all things are possible.

Our willingness to ask for help and to help others are also practical ways of saying “yes” to God. There is no such thing as a “Lone Ranger Christian”. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Two by two, just as Jesus sent his disciples. Prayer is a “yes” to our acknowledgment that we need Jesus to guide and help us, also to save us from ourselves! Service is a “yes” to the love we have received from him and a willingness to share this love with and receive it from others.

Let us rejoice as we are readying to begin this fourth week of Advent because we are drawing ever closer to celebrating the birth of Jesus who is Emmanuel, God with us. Let not the busyness of the preparations and plans impede the invitation to experience God’s love in our time of meditation, prayer and serving one another. This reality is made possible because of the handmaid of the Lord.

Painting: “The Annunciation” by Ossawa Tanner 

Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, December 20, 2025

“Jesus who is called Messiah” will light our way through the homestretch of Advent.

Today in the liturgical calendar of the church we begin the nine days before Christmas as we do each year with Matthew’s account of the genealogy of Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, is fully divine, while at the same time he is also fully human. Matthew gets us started in the home stretch with the lineage of Jesus’ human line from Abraham to his father Joseph (foster father, in that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological dad, but no one would not have made that distinction in Jesus’ time.) and his mother Mary.

Jesus was part of a people and a family, he was born at a particular time and in a particular place. If you go through this genealogy with a fine-tooth comb, there are gaps, but Matthew was more concerned with the line of faith than a strict historical account. Matthew also included women in this listing, which was not common in ancient patriarchal societies. This was also not common in ancient Jewish genealogies, “which traced lineage from father to son” (Mitch and Sri, 38). Looking at their stories in Scripture will also show that most listed were not the most morally upright, but more importantly, God was still able to work through this imperfect line of humanity and so the genealogy ends with, “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called Messiah” (Mt 1:16).

Though Jesus was conceived in Mary who was a virgin and immaculately conceived, he came from a line that was far from perfect. As Catholics and Christians, this is our heritage as well. We are spiritual Semites. Genealogies have become more popular in recent years as can be seen by the different advertisements for DNA test kits. There is a natural instinct to reach out for these because we want to belong and to be a part of.

To understand who we are and where we have come from, and to continue forward, it is helpful to reach behind. Jesus belonged to the people of Judah. He is a part of the succession from Abraham and his clan, to the twelve tribes of Jacob, to the unified nation of Israel under David. That did not change even as the fall from grace beginning with David, continued with his son Solomon, and most of the other kings.

Joseph was the heir to the thrown that in this imperfect line of succession went underground when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians. This promise of the return of the messiah, the king in the line of David remained even while under occupation for the next five hundred years under Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and at the time of Jesus’ birth, the Romans. When Joseph died, Jesus was next in line. Jesus’ leadership would become and continues like no other before him or that will ever come again. Jesus brought God’s movement of grace, the seeds of which were planted by some of the prophets like Isaiah, beyond the nation of Israel to fulfill the promise that they be a light to the nations, a universal invitation for all.

Another piece that a careful reading of the genealogy uncovers is that Jesus does not come from a purely Jewish lineage. As mentioned above, women were included in this list of ancestors. The common denominator of each of these four women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and most likely Bathsheba was that each of them were Gentiles. “Gentile blood flowed into the royal line of David. This underscores God’s concern for Gentiles, demonstrating that he brought them into the story of Israel even in the Old Testament” (Mitch and Sri, 39).

God’s invitation of relationship with him was intended from the beginning, and step by step through salvation history God continued to thirst for his children and sought to woo them back, drawing them with his tender chord of love. This would come to fruition in the incarnation. The Son of God became one with us in our imperfect and sinful human condition to set right a world that had gone wrong.

Through our Baptism, we become part of the royal lineage and line of Jesus. No blood test needed. We are not alone, no longer estranged, no longer separate, or on the peripheries. We belong to the Body of Christ. Yet many, even those who profess their belief in Christ, are missing his greatest gift of faith, which is developing a relationship with him now. Let us not be complacent and settle for Christian in name only or walk away from our birthright.

In these final days of Advent, may we set aside a little more time to spend with Jesus. As our schedule revs up, may we bring Jesus into our busy. The Son was willing to draw close to us in the incarnation that we are about to celebrate, let us draw close to him. We all have the same amount of time in our days. Deciding to set aside some time of quiet, to take some deep and slow breaths, and accept the invitation to draw close to Jesus who is at hand will help us to engage better with the time we have and those walking with us.

Those brief moments are a powerful reset. In those moments of turning our hearts and minds to Jesus, we can receive the rest and renewal we desperately need. We can receive his love and invite him to walk with us in all that we think, say, and do. We can yoke ourselves to Jesus so that we do not travel these days alone. Jesus is more than willing to share our burdens, and he will give us the strength to carry on.

By our baptism we are part of the royal line of Jesus. More importantly, Jesus is present in each moment. We just need to remember to turn to him. Each intentional, deep breath will bring our shoulders out of our ears, help us to react less, and experience greater clarity in our choices and decisions. We will also see each other a little different than before, with more understanding, patience, and love.

As we celebrate the birth of “Jesus who is called Messiah”, even in the imperfections and messy moments, Jesus’ light will shine through. We are invited this season to be the calm in the storm of the chaos. “Peace be still.”

Photo: In times of silence we will experience how close Jesus really is.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, December 17, 2025

“Religious confession is no substitute for personal relationship with Jesus”.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

I have written quite often, quoting and paraphrasing one of my favorite quotes from St. Irenaeus, that Jesus came to be one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. In his becoming one with us in our humanity he invites everyone, no one is excluded, to participate in his divinity. Yet if everyone is invited, how can Jesus say that not everyone will enter the Kingdom of heaven?

The answer to that question is in the line that follows. The one who will enter heaven is, “the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” If this verse does not help, then it might be helpful to understand a little about heaven, as best as we can, as the mere mortal, finite beings that we are.

Heaven is not so much a place but a state of being in relation to God, in which we are privileged to share communion and a deeper intimacy with God for all eternity. We will still not know everything about God because God is infinite and we will still be finite even in heaven. God is without limit, we are limited. We will never exhaust our relationship, never get bored with God.

Maybe a more three dimensional, an earthly example may be of help. If we were invited to play a sport, an instrument, or to act in a play, with the end goal being that we would play in the upcoming game, concert, or performance, we might feel pretty excited about the offer. We tell the coach, conductor, or director “That’s great news!” Yet, in the days that follow, we do not attend any of the practices, we do not practice the skills required to play the position, instrument, or role and we do not return any of the follow-up invitations by phone, email, or text. The day of the big game, concert, or performance comes, we gather our self together and head on over to the arena or hall. We arrive to see the coach, conductor, or director but are denied entrance. We might say, “I don’t understand, you invited us to play!” The reply is, “Not everyone who says to me coach, coach (conductor, conductor, or director, director) is ready and prepared.”

Jesus invites us to play a part in God’s theodrama, everyone. Some say yes and some say no. Some say yes, and then don’t put into practice what is then asked, some say yes and do some things, some say yes and dive in. Most of us take a few steps forward and a step or two back. Just like preparing to play in a big game or perform in a big concert, or play, we need to be committed, disciplined, and persistent. Unlike a missed opportunity to participate in a game or performance, that we can correct and make another attempt down the road, we don’t want to miss the opportunity to spend eternity with God in heaven.

The above analogy does not imply in any way that we earn our way into heaven, or we can do so on our own effort and will power. The bottom line is that Jesus gave his life for all of us and through his grace, we have been saved. Our salvation is a gift freely given. Yet, we have to be willing to receive and open the gift. Our time here on earth is the time we are given to: open the gift we have received, work out our salvation, not just hear but to also put into practice Jesus’ teachings, and be about building our relationship with him. As we do so, we will be transformed by and conformed to Jesus, so that we can come to know his Father as he does, and then we can reflect the light and love we have received to others.

It is not enough to say that we believe in Jesus. “Religious confession is no substitute for personal relationship with Jesus and the obligation to obey his Father’s will. If our creed and our conduct are out of alignment, then our profession of Jesus as Lord is not a true submission to his lordship. The mere fact that believers can perform miracles in Jesus’ name, which is an exercise in charismatic grace, is no proof that sanctifying grace has penetrated their lives or brought them closer to Christ” (Mitch and Sri, 121).

If we want to know and put into practice God’s will, we need to know God. Advent is a time of preparation, a time of getting to know Jesus who is already with us and inviting us to let him have reign of every part of our lives. Jesus helps us to recognize and see what our lives are like without God and how they are with God. If we are willing to see, that clarity helps us to better choose our thoughts, words, and actions.

When we are humble enough to acknowledge ways that weaken our relationship with God, we can then repent and seek forgiveness. God never tires of forgiving us. Let us never tire of asking for forgiveness and committing more to knowing and putting into practice his will. Each time we seek and receive forgiveness, our minds and hearts are not only expanded but properly aligned to Jesus so that we may experience more of the love of the Holy Spirit, which helps our relationship to grow and to put into practice our Father’s will.

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Photo: “Prayer can truly change your life, for it turns your attention away from yourself and directs your mind and your heart towards the Lord.” – St. John Paul II

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

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, December 4, 2025

When we come to sit at the feet of Jesus we experience healing and are nourished.

“Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, went up on the mountain, and sat down there. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them” (Mt 15:29-30).

There is a key yet subtle point before Jesus began to heal that might be missed. Before great crowds came to him, Jesus “went up on the mountain, and sat down there.” This is no insignificant sentence. The posture of sitting on the mountain would have been recognized right away by the people of Jesus’ time. This was the posture of the teacher and sitting on the mountain a reference to Moses. Prior to the healing in this setting, as he did throughout the Gospels, Jesus most likely taught about the reign of God. In fact time and again, Jesus’ “works of healing took place in this context of his preaching of the kingdom of God” (Lohfink 2014, 58).

A great multitude of people came to Jesus to hear his message and also they came with a full range of needs. Jesus made himself available, exorcised, restored, and healed those who were brought to him. He encountered them as they were in their present condition of need. There is no record in this Gospel account that Jesus asked for any identification, that he discussed their belief system before healing them, nor did he ask if they were Jewish or Gentile, and nowhere in this account did Jesus deny anyone who came to him. The response of those to being healed and restored was that “they glorified the God of Israel“. This is because, “where God is master, there is salvation and healing” (Lohfink 2014, 62).

These recorded accounts of mass healings, are but a foretaste of the heavenly realm of eternal communion with the Father. Jesus is the kingdom of heaven at hand, for as St Irenaeus wrote, “Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.” Jesus though was not done. The whole process took some time, which is probably an understatement, and as people were getting ready to leave, Jesus showed compassion yet again. He sought the assistance of the disciples because he did not want to send the people away hungry.

The disciples of course are taken aback because of the reality of the undertaking Jesus proposed. Jesus asked what they had and they shared just some bread and fish. Jesus took “the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets full” (Mt 15:36-37).

This Advent let us surrender our will to God. May we pray with and meditate upon the Gospels such that they become relevant in our lives, so that we can serve God as Jesus did. Not stopping to ask for identification, religion, race, gender, creed, or political affiliation, but to see each person as God sees them as his children, human beings with dignity and value. In reading, meditating, and praying with the Gospels, we too come to sit at the feet of Jesus. We too can express our need, be nourished, and satisfied. We can then share what we have received.

Let us also not be dismayed by how little we have, but let us give what we do to Jesus in solidarity for his purpose, as did the disciples, so to experience with those we serve, the multiplication and abundance of the love, and grace we have received from our loving God and Father. For when God is our master, “there is salvation and healing.”

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Photo: Where I come to sit at Jesus’ feet during my holy hour each evening since returning to our renovated church a few weeks ago.

Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, December 3, 2025

“Be vigilant at all times and pray.”

“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man” (21:36).

These are the last words we will hear or read from this liturgical year from the Mass. The season of Advent and the new liturgical year begins tonight at the vigil Mass. They are not only good words to end the year with but that they would also be good words to read at the beginning of each day.

“Be vigilant at all times” are certainly words to abide by. This is not a call to be paranoid or to live in fear. This is a call to be aware, to watch, and pray. What we see, hear, and think is then important to bring to God in prayer. Being vigilant is also a reminder that we need to resist the temptation of speeding through life with blinders on and not taking time to listen to that quiet voice of God that is available to guide us day in and day out. The more we hear the subtle, quiet leading of the Holy Spirit and ignore it, the less we grow in our awareness of his presence in our lives or the presence of those who need his mercy, grace, and love.

Worse yet, the less we take the time to hear and know God’s word, the more we will be distracted, tempted, and persuaded by the myriad of other voices that are not from God, which can lead us astray. That is why prayer is so important, so we can develop an ear for our loving God and Father’s guiding voice heard when we are still. Once we begin to recognize his voice spoken in the silence of our hearts, we will begin to hear him speak in our daily activities.

Being vigilant also requires us to surrender our self-serving ego, for if we want what we want when and how we want, if we just keep up at a fever pitch pace, if we are feeding ourselves with apparent goods, we can open ourselves up to some unsatisfying and pretty horrible scenarios.

There are those who seek to do us harm from self interest and lack of awareness to forms that are unconscionable. Pretending that they aren’t there doesn’t work and being paralyzed with fear makes us more vulnerable. We need to be aware of, and establish clear boundaries for ourselves and communicate them with others. Each time we listen and follow through on the leading of the Holy Spirit, our conscience is better formed, we increase our confidence in who we are and who God is guiding us to be. We can also sidestep scenarios that can lead us down some dark paths.

Being vigilant and turning to God daily and often does not mean that we will be free of challenges. We live in a fallen world. There is imperfect actors within the Church as well. But in each and every case, we are to maintain hope in the one who we will be preparing for this Advent, the return of Jesus. He is the Light that shines in the darkness and will not be overcome by it (cf. John 1:5).

Though others may let us down or seek us ill, Jesus is the one we can trust. Jesus is the one who will accompany and strengthen us as we face any temptations, trials, and tribulations. As St Augustine said in one of his homilies, “while we are still in the midst of this evil, let us sing alleluia to the good God who delivers us from evil.” For, in the end, Jesus the Christ will be the one to lead us home to the Father’s embrace for all eternity. Watch and pray today and all days! It is the most important thing we can do each day.

Painting: Head view of Rembrandt’s Christ with Arms Folded.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 29, 2025

Praying persistently helps us to grow in our relationship with God and one another.

Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary (Lk 18:1).

In the parable that Jesus offered in today’s gospel account, he is not saying that persistence in prayer is changing God or somehow bending his will to our’s. We are not wearing him down like the woman did with the judge. God does not need us. God is completely and totally self-sufficient. We are the ones who need him. Our persistence, our daily habit of prayer, changes us, transforms us, helps us to develop our relationship by interacting with God more consistently. Things happening in our lives help us to see that we are fragile and vulnerable and in need of help. Our persistence in prayer will help us to experience that we are not alone in our challenges. When we are dealing with a crisis or very real trauma, our persistence and faithfulness in prayer will help us to experience the closeness of Jesus in our midst as he accompanies us through our suffering and grants us the strength not just to endure but to overcome.

In fact, the practice of stopping everything and praying for five minutes when a crisis arises, often helps us to resist slipping into a fight or flight mode and helps us to resist reacting automatically based on our emotions. Consciously choosing to breathe while praying helps us to act more prudently than impulsively. We may also come to see that what we thought was a crisis, may have been more of a problem to be solved rather than something catastrophic. Our instant reactions to perceived crises can often escalate an issue rather than de-escalate one.

In the greater scheme of things, God answers all prayers of petition or intercession by saying yes, no, or not yet. Most seem to fall in the not yet or not the way we originally intended category. Remaining patient and faithful can help us to move away from seeking to conform God to our will and instead allow him to expand our hearts and minds to his will. Through this expansion, we can come to see the situation from a broader perspective. Our persistence in prayer also helps us to move away from seeking instant gratification and instead trust more in God’s will and timing. Sometimes we are blessed for unanswered prayers because with time, hindsight, and some distance, we find our original request was more an apparent than an actual good.

Persistence in prayer is also a discipline that deepens the roots of our relationship with God. Ready access through our modern technology, higher internet speeds, one-click access, and overnight shipping, can offer plusses, but we have to be careful that this mindset does not shape our mental, psychological, and spiritual growth. Physical fitness, wisdom, or spiritual maturity is not instantaneous. More importantly, development as human beings and our relationships take time, experience, discipline, prayer, and trust in God’s plan.

Patience, persistence in prayer, freeing ourselves from attachment, developing an authentic and intimate relationship with God and one another are all worth the effort. We need to take some time to breathe deeply, slow down our pace, discipline ourselves to resist even seeking small acts of instant gratification each day. No matter how busy, it is important to slow down. Even when we stop to pray and feel like nothing has happened and that doing so feels like a waste of time, God is present. God loves us, has our back, and we can trust in that.

Photo: Blessed to have a moment to pray evening prayer back at St. Peter Catholic Church. Keeping our eyes on Jesus helps us to quiet our minds.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 15, 2025