“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you …” Such an approach obviously runs counter to our natural instincts, and it takes the grace of Christ to make such a lifestyle even possible. But when that grace is given and received, how amazing the results can be!
Read MoreOur Lord’s first sermon at Nazareth is vehemently rejected and almost leads to His death. Why, a Sister asked, does God send His messengers (and even His Son!) when He knows they will not be accepted? And how could a person with such an apparently “fruitless” mission find strength to persevere?
Read MoreAs always, Holy Mother Church uses the first Sunday of this season to call our attention to the Baptism of Jesus, the beginning of His public ministry which we will be exploring throughout the coming weeks.
Read MoreThe Visitation is the sudden manifestation of the Spirit’s hidden work in the lives of Mary and Elizabeth, and the vibrant joy of this moment echoes down even to our own day.
Read MorePassionists often refer to our unique religious habit as the “garment of mourning and penance,” so what are we to make of Our Lord’s command to “take off the garb of mourning?” Isn’t it He Who called us to wear this garb in the first place? The answer lies in the deeper mystery of what it means to be a Passionist.
Read MoreEach day it would appear that the widow only had “a handful of flour” and “a bit of oil” left, and she would have to renew her trust that the Lord would, indeed, continue the miracle. How often He acts the same way with us! God always gives us the grace we need for today – but not for tomorrow!
Read MoreObedience to God is not a matter of force, but of peaceful surrender; He wishes to form us, not to destroy us! “See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear Him, upon those who hope for His kindness, to deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine,” as the Responsorial Psalm asserts.
Read MorePs. 54 is a song of lament, but all of a sudden we see David breaking forth into thanksgiving and praise. He is so confident in the Lord’s deliverance that he begins his thanksgiving while still undergoing trial!
Read MoreVery often in our day, obedience to God’s law is portrayed as blind, unthinking anti-intellectualism. However, Moses here insists that the opposite is true! Secular society may paint religion as childish, but the example of saints throughout history proves that mature obedience to God and His commandments is ultimately the path of “wisdom and intelligence.”
Read MoreJesus is the Son of God, the all-holy One, and we find Him weeping at the tomb of a friend, passionately decrying abuses of the Temple, and – in this Sunday’s Gospel – being “moved with compassion” at the sight of those in need.
Read MoreGod does not ask us to “fix” our own weakness, but to bring our brokenness to Him, humbly admitting that we can do nothing without Him. It is at times like this, when we are faced with the reality of our own weakness, that He calls us to take the sometimes-scary step of total trust in Him
Read More…This story shows God’s utterly personal love. Jesus is fully attentive to both situations, seeing the individuals rather than just the task to be done. In His Divine wisdom and providence, He uses this situation for the benefit of both.
Read MoreWhen we are “anchored” in Him, though He may not always take away the storm, we are able to maintain peace of heart even as the wind and waves rage. Saint after Saint testifies to the fact that the Lord wishes to bring us to this deep peace, which paradoxically becomes more obvious when we are undergoing external or even emotional/spiritual distress. God Himself is our “harbor,” and by dwelling in Him we can weather any storm.
Read MoreIt is actually an act of God’s infinite mercy to humble us when we begin to rely too much on ourselves. He does not cast us from our self-made thrones simply to leave us in misery; rather, He does this so that we can become one of the lowly whom He raises high. The Lord wants our happiness and glory with all His Heart, but He knows that we as creatures can only achieve this fulfillment on His terms.
Read MoreWe no longer live a merely earthly existence, since Christ has claimed our souls for His Kingdom through the Sacrament of Baptism, but we still await the fulfillment of this reality in the world to come. So while we do not yet experience the Beatific Vision, we nonetheless are connected to Heaven in an amazingly intimate way.
Read MoreThe readings for this Sunday are all focused on the mystery of love – God’s love for us, and our love for Him and for our neighbor. Such a seemingly basic topic is actually the profoundest mystery of our Christian religion. After all, as our Second Reading reminds us, “God is love”!
Read MoreThe Paschal Mystery in us is both a preparation for and a foretaste of the Trinitarian life of Heaven: we live the Passion by giving of ourselves, and the Resurrection by receiving the grace that God pours out in return.
Read MoreOne Sister was particularly struck by the emphasis which Jesus lays on the sheep being His “own.” In a sense, this must be our primary identity; we must first and foremost remember that we are His, and that as such we are infinitely precious to Him.
Read MoreWhen we approach the Word of God, do we recognize that it is truly a grace to understand it as God intends us to? Biblical exegesis and research can do much for us, and they certainly have an important place in Scripture study, but ultimately the ability to penetrate the deeper meaning of the sacred texts is a gift from the One Whose Word they are.
Read MoreGod’s Word is infinitely rich, and even though we hear the same Scriptures over and over again during the 3-year Lectionary cycle, we will never exhaust their treasures. Sometimes, for instance, familiar passages suddenly come alive with new meaning when we are facing a particular challenge. This was certainly the case for us as we pondered this Sunday’s readings in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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