Jesus meets the devil (Bishop Robert Barron)

You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.

--Psalm 91

   [Sunday’s] Gospel tells of the Lord’s temptation in the desert. After forty days of fasting in the desert (evocative of Israel’s forty years of wandering in the desert), Jesus meets the devil, who proceeds to lure the Messiah onto the path of sin. Jesus’ sacrifice will entail his coming to battle sin at close quarters, his willingness, therefore, to be drawn by its power, to come under its sway. 

    Satan first tempts him with sensual pleasure: "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread." One of the most elemental forms of spiritual dysfunction is to make the satisfaction of sensual desire the center of one’s life. Jesus responds: "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." 

    Jesus enters, through psychological and spiritual identification, into the condition of the person lured by this sin, but then he manages to withstand the temptation and in fact to twist this perversion back to rectitude. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, February 26, 2023

Image source: Christ Treading the Beasts, mosaic, Chapel of St. Andrew, Ravenna (6th c.), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_treading_on_the_beasts#/media/File:Christ_treading_the_beasts_-_Chapel_of_Saint_Andrew_-_Ravenna_2016.jpg
Quotation source

Proclaim the Lord and you will encounter him (Pope Francis)

    This is beautiful: When we proclaim the Lord, the Lord comes to us. Sometimes we think that the way to be close to God is to keep him tightly close to us; because then, if we reveal ourselves and start to talk about him, judgements, criticisms arise, and we may not know how to respond to certain questions or provocations. 

    So, it is better not to talk about him, and to close up: no, this is no good. Instead, the Lord comes while we proclaim him. You always find the Lord on the path of proclamation. Proclaim the Lord and you will encounter him. Seek the Lord and you will encounter him. Always on a journey, this is what the women [who witness the empty tomb] teach us: we encounter Jesus by witnessing him. Let us put this in our hearts: we encounter Jesus by witnessing him. 

--Pope Francis,
Angelus, April 10, 2023 

Image source: https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-francis-do-you-live-as-a-witness-of-jesus

Quotation source

Intentional desert traversing (Diana Marin)

    Living into God’s vision for our life might call us into the desert. It might call us to live a life we don’t expect for ourselves, to utilize resources within ourselves we don’t know we have; to find our way through unfamiliar terrain - geographic, metaphorical, spiritual. The desert upends our world. But the good news is that God is there, with us, in all. 

    This past week we entered into Lent, a season of intentional desert traversing. I like to think of Lent as a skills building time. It’s a desert that is measurable and measured: we know when it begins and when it ends, we know the rules, we know to deepen our prayer, fast, and give. We do this in community. This doesn’t mean it’s not challenging, it is. But it’s a desert that invites us to build spiritual muscles, so that when life wallops us sideways, we can get back on our feet and see, even if it’s only in distant retrospect, that God softened our fall. 

    Lent invites us to trust in God, fully. 

    Entering the desert does not mean that we took a wrong turn or made a mistake. It doesn’t mean we’re being punished. Sometimes leading the life God affirms for us can mean taking us into the desert, a place that is unfamiliar and world-turning. And as we look at Jesus’ life and consider what it means for our own, I believe there’s an invitation for us to live a life that is bold and courageous, knowing very well that it will lead us into unsettled terrain. 

   As we enter into Lent, may we remember that we are beloved by God. May our hearts be softened to the injustices in the world. May we hear God’s call to us to live boldly and courageously, even if this means we find our lives unsettled. And may we leave this time trusting in God, fully. 

--Diana Marin 

Image source: Linda Saskia Menczel, Temptation in the Wilderness, https://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/artist-of-the-future-award/linda-saskia-menczel
Quotation source

Where is Lent taking you? (Pope Benedict XVI / Catherine Doherty)

Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God
penetrate our life and in this way
to know the fundamental truth:
who we are, where we come from,
where we must go,
what path we must take in life.

 --Pope Benedict XVI 

   Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves… What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment’s hesitation. 

--Catherine Doherty 

Image source: https://jamesjackson.blog/2024/09/01/day-245-the-point-we-miss-in-mens-ministry-ezekiel-2230/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

How could Our Lord be tempted? (Brian Kelly)

    After forty days of fasting and prayers Our Lord is tired and hungry. He has not yet begun His public life. Saint John the Baptist has given testimony that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus is baptized by John and he retires to a desert place to prepare for His Messianic public ministry. 

     The fast is about over. It has been forty days. The devil has been watching Him, waiting for the last day, thinking then this Jesus will be most vulnerable. The devil, as far as we know from scripture, did not assault John the Baptist who lived his life in the desert fasting on honey and locusts. The demon knew that John was not the Messiah. He was not of Juda, a son of David, he was from Levi. But Jesus of Nazareth was of Juda, the kingly tribe, a son of David. The time for the advent of the Messiah, prophesied by Daniel, had come. The seventy weeks of years were complete: “Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the saint of saints may be anointed” (9:24). The anointing of the Saint of saints was by the Holy Ghost who effected the anointing in the fruition He made in the womb of Mary in the Incarnation. Messiah, is a Hebrew word, meaning “the anointed one.” 

    Forty days is a long time to fast. Imagine how weak Our Lord was in His body! How hungry! 

    There is a stench in the air. Satan approaches Our Lord. Jesus allows it. 

     How could Our Lord be tempted? 

--Brian Kelly 

To read the rest of Brian Kelly’s reflection, click here. 

Image source: https://comeandreason.com/the-temptations-of-jesus-a-lesson-for-us/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 9, 2025: The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart...

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…
How often do we give voice to our faith? 

      Throughout their history, the people of Israel had trouble remaining in right relationship with the Lord God, and Moses knows it. The golden calf they chose to worship, the complaints they made about their lack of food and water… On so many occasions, the people have demonstrated their lack of fidelity to the Lord who loves them, failing to give witness to their faith. But in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that, once they reach the promised land, they will need to show their gratitude to God. Moses even provides the words they are to say, the story they are to tell: Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God: The Lord brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand and outstretched arm; he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. The people are also to acknowledge God’s goodness with the firstfruits of the products of the soil, bowing down in his presence. God has been with them all along; they need to return to right relationship and give thanks. 

      In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus knows it is incumbent upon him to right the wrongs of Adam and Eve and their descendants. When Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert, each temptation the devil offers represents a historical breakdown in relationship, whether it center upon control or idol worship or testing God, and each time, Jesus chooses love and relationship, citing Scripture to correct the devil’s misuse of the holy text. When the devil cites Psalm 92, for example – With their hands, the angels will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone – Jesus counters with his own knowledge of Scripture: You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. Jesus trusts wholeheartedly in his relationship with his Father; where the people of Israel failed, Jesus makes choices congruent with his Father’s will, and speaks his mind boldly, even when confronted with the devil himself. 

      St. Paul will similarly encourage the Romans to prioritize relationship with the Lord over all else and to give voice to their faith when challenged: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith is in the heart and comes from the heart, but it needs to be verbalized, spoken, affirmed. What is the story we tell? May it be one that affirms the intimacy of our relationship with the Lord, a story that comes from the heart, with thanks. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Let me find thy grace (The Valley of Vision)

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory. 

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision. 

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley. 

 --The Valley of Vision,
A Collection of Puritan Prayers
and Devotions
(ed. Arthur Bennett)

Today is Ash Wednesday!
What do you hope to learn during Lent?

Image source: Valley of the Ten Peaks, Banff National Park, Canada, https://www.worldatlas.com/valleys/the-world-s-most-beautiful-valleys.html
Image source 2:  https://www.mercyhome.org/blog/sunday-mass/reflections/ash-weds/
Read how this poem helped NYT columnist David Brooks come to faith here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/opinion/faith-god-christianity.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20241220&instance_id=142771&nl=today%27s-headlines&regi_id=67728187&segment_id=186234&user_id=e6442f68320ad8470b72ce4a672cfb87
Poem source

O death, where is thy sting? (Charles Morris / Georg Friedrich Handel)

Charles Morris tells this story of the composition of Georg Friedrich Handel’s Messiah: 

   In a time of rising secularism and humanism in England, [Handel's friend Charles] Jennens was a member of the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel” and a passionate evangelical believer. He believed that putting the gospel to music would communicate its truth, not just intellectually, but at a deep heart level. 

    This libretto was made up entirely of Old and New Testament texts combined to present the entire Christian message in a single piece. When it was finished he took it to his friend, the great composer, George Handel. 

    For 18 months the libretto sat on Handel’s shelf gathering dust until one day he took it down, dusted it off, and in three intense weeks, shut up in his flat on Brook Street, composed the oratorio that made the words come alive. He barely ate or slept; he was completely engulfed in the creation of this music—and he wasn’t alone. When he got to the Hallelujah chorus, his assistant found him in tears, saying, “I think I did see heaven open, and the very face of God.” 

--Charles Morris

Part 3 of Handel’s Messiah contains a quotation from our readings from Corinthians this week: 

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 

To hear the Bach Collegium San Diego perform this incredible duet, click on the video below: 

Image source: Victor Loup Deniau, Resurrection, St. Roch Ste. Foy, Aveyron, France, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1785622648381496
Quotation source
Video source

Authentic discernment (Jazmin Jiménez)

      Authentic discernment requires freedom and space. 

      Loving God, draw us more deeply into the practice of discernment. Give us the freedom to listen to the stirring of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Allow us to feel all the feels – let us be troubled, let us ponder, let us question, let us listen… and in the end, let our Yes mean Yes and our No mean No – all for your greater Glory. 

      Amen. 

--Jazmin Jiménez 

Image source: Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance (1664), https://franciscanathome.com/the-catechetical-review/articles/inspired-through-art-art-discernment-catechetical-ministry
Quotation source

Listening with the heart (Pope Francis)

   Listening with the heart entails much more than simply hearing a message or exchanging information; it involves an interior openness that can intuit the desires and needs of others, a relationship that urges us to abandon the patterns and prejudices that at times lead us to pigeonhole those around us. Listening is always the beginning of a journey. The Lord asks his people to have this kind of heartfelt listening, to enter into a relationship with him, who is the living God. 

--Pope Francis, December 31, 2023 

Image source: https://www.pdxchurch.org/grow/articles-and-resources/lord-give-us-a-listening-heart/
Quotation source

Words (J.K. Rowlings)

   Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it. 

--Albus Dumbledore,
in J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albus_Dumbledore
Quotation source

Imagine having no need to judge anyone! (Henri Nouwen)

    Imagine having no need at all to judge anybody. Imagine having no desire to decide whether someone is a good or bad person. Imagine being completely free from the feeling that you have to make up your mind about the morality of someone’s behavior. Imagine that you could say: “I am judging no one!” 

    Imagine — wouldn’t that be true inner freedom? . . . But we can only let go of the heavy burden of judging others when we don’t mind carrying the light burden of being judged! 

    Can we free ourselves from the need to judge others? Yes, by claiming for ourselves the truth that we are the Beloved Daughters and Sons of God. As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to the need to put people and things in their “right” place. To the degree that we embrace the truth that our identity is not rooted in our success, power, or popularity, we can let go of our need to judge. “Do not judge and you will not be judged; because the judgments you give are the judgments you will get” (Matthew 7:1). 

 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: https://rorycooney.blogspot.com/2019/03/beam-and-splinter-c8o.html
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 2, 2025: From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks...

From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks…
What happens if we remain in the presence of the Lord? 

    The Book of Sirach offers a multitude of advice on how to remain true to the Lord’s presence in our lives, with a particular focus on speech. What you have to say reveals what you are thinking, the bent of your mind, Sirach says, so we must listen carefully to see what another’s speech reveals about them, and be very careful about how we speak ourselves. Ultimately, Sirach suggests, if we remain close to the Lord and the Lord remains close to us, then our speech will reveal that truth. Indeed, we will be like the palm tree or the cedar of Lebanon mentioned in Psalm 92: if we are planted in the house of the Lord, we will flourish, bearing good fruit! 

    Jesus is similarly full of advice for his disciples in Luke’s Gospel, particularly around the act of discernment. To discern rightly what is good and what is bad takes humility, and a willingness to see one’s own faults clearly before remarking on those of our brother. Remove the wooden beam from your eye first, Jesus says, then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye. Again, we are all capable of bearing good fruit, and we shall do so long as we remain close to the Lord and allow him to remain close to us, for when the Lord is with us, our hearts are full, and from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.  

    In the end, as Paul tells the Corinthians, death is swallowed up in victory. Like Jesus, transformed by the action of God in the resurrection, we can be transformed from corruptible to incorruptible beings, by the power of God’s love. This isn’t something we can achieve on our own; only God can transform our mortal bodies into immortal ones, and he will do so, so long as we remain firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

You say I am loved (Lauren Daigle)

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low
Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know 

   Ooh-oh
   You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing
   You say I am strong when I think I am weak
   And you say I am held when I am falling short
   And when I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours
   And I believe (I)
   Oh, I believe (I)
   What You say of me (I)
   I believe 

The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity 

   Refrain

Taking all I have, and now I'm laying it at Your feet
You have every failure, God, You have every victory
Ooh-oh 

   Refrain 

To hear Lauren Daigle sing You Say, click on the video below: 

Image source 1: Paul Gauguin, Christ on the Mount of Olives (1889), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_on_the_Mount_of_Olives_%28Paul_Gauguin%29 
Video source

The measure you measure (St. Francis de Sales / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

Above all, avoid false accusations
and the distortion of truth,
regarding your neighbor.

--St. Francis de Sales 

    The universe gives back to us morally exactly what we give to it. As Jesus worded it, the measure you measure out is the measure that will be measured back to you. 

   What we breathe out is what we’re going to inhale. If I breathe out selfishness, selfishness is what I will inhale; if I breathe out bitterness, that’s what I’ll meet at every turn. 

   Conversely, if I breathe out love, gracious, and forgiveness, these will be given back to me in the exact measure that I give them out. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI,
Facebook, October 18, 2019 

Image source: https://usw-womensministries.org/the-measure-of-god/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Loving our enemies (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Jesus commands us to love our enemies. 

    And Jesus showed us how to do it. Immediately after being fixed to the cross, he said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." One of the most important elements of Jesus’ kingdom ethic was, accordingly, the praxis of forgiveness: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." 

    As Walter Wink has pointed out, these recommendations have nothing to do with passivity in the face of evil. Rather, they embody a provocative but nonviolent manner of confronting evil and conquering it through a practice of coinherent love. By forgiving those putting him to death, Jesus is awakening them to the truth in which they already stand: their connectedness to him and to each other in God. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, February 19, 2023

Image source: Marion Honors, CSJ, Crucifixion: The Tree of Life,  
https://www.instagram.com/jamesmartinsj/p/CMOGoFVhdfY/?img_index=1
Quotation source

A path to our own mercy (Elizabeth Scalia)

   Jesus did indeed recognize that there are such things as enemies—and we are not meant to wander through our lives reckless and unaware of what or who can threaten us or do us harm. Certainly, we should not turn a blind eye to evil, which is the true enemy.

    But Jesus’ command to love those we perceive to be our enemies is actually a tool for discernment, and for our own salvation. To love our enemies means a great deal more than to simply not wish evil upon them; it means making a conscious effort to find a path to our own mercy, for their sake and our own. That path is found, Jesus tells us, through prayer: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). 

--Elizabeth Scalia

Image source: https://mariacollege.edu/blog/mercy-the-principal-path
Quotation source

Doing good to those who hate us (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Where Jesus stretches us beyond our natural instincts and beyond all self-delusion is in his command to love our enemies, to be warm to those who are cold to us, to be kind to those who are cruel to us, to do good to those who hate us, to forgive those who hurt us, to forgive those who won’t forgive us, and to ultimately love and forgive those who are trying to kill us. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI,

Facebook, October 4, 2024

Image source: Melani Pyke, Love Your Enemies, https://www.melpyke.com/blog/184567/love-your-enemies-feb-11-daily-painting-jesus-sermon-on-the-mount
Quotation source

When we make our enemies part of ourselves (Takashi Nagai / Henri Nouwen)

Love everyone and trust his Providence,
and you will find peace.
 I have tried it and can assure you it is so.

 --Takashi Nagai,
Japanese convert to Catholicism
and survivor of the atomic bomb

    Christians mention one another in their prayers (Romans 1:9; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 4:3), and in so doing they bring help and even salvation to those for whom they pray (Romans 15:30; Philippians 1:19). 

    But the final test of compassionate prayer goes beyond prayers for fellow Christians, members of the community, friends, and relatives. Jesus says it most unambiguously, “I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44); and in the depth of his agony on the cross, he prays for those who are killing him, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). 

    Here the full significance of the discipline of prayer becomes visible. Prayer allows us to lead into the center of our hearts not only those who love us but also those who hate us. This is possible only when we are willing to make our enemies part of ourselves and thus convert them first of all in our own hearts. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Christ on the Cross (ca.1660-1670), https://www.somethingstillsacred.com/reflections/father-forgive-them
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 23, 2025: Love your enemies, and do good to them...

Love your enemies and do good to them…
Is it really possible to love one’s enemies? 

   When, in the First Book of Samuel, David spares his king and enemy Saul, David proves by his actions what he believes: if the Lord has appointed a man to be king, then it’s the Lord’s call to remove that individual when necessary. Do not harm him, David says to his nephew and commander Abishai when they have the opportunity to eliminate Saul, for who can lay hands on the Lord’s anointed? By not taking Saul’s life, David shows himself to be a man in relationship with the Lord, a man who trusts in the Lord, knowing that the Lord will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness. Ultimately, it is through David that the Lord spares Saul, because, as Psalm 103 reminds us, The Lord is kind and merciful, and thus it is the Lord who allows David to be merciful and compassionate. 

   In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will take this lesson to another level as he tells his disciples to love their enemies, and do good to those who hate them. God loves everything he has created, including our enemies; our lives therefore have to be consistent with the God-life given to us. If we are to learn how much God loves us, we are going to have to participate in that life and in that love, with no half-measures possible. Moreover, Jesus encourages his disciples to not even judge others, for the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you. If our measure of one another is the love God has for us, an absolute love with no limitations, then that love should not limit us either – indeed, that love should approach, as closely as possible, the limitless love God has for us, and for all of our world. 

   We bear the image of the heavenly one, Paul tells the Corinthians. We share in the humanity that Christ took to death and hope that we might share in his divine life in the future, if we but put our faith in him, if we trust in his promise, if we open to being transformed by his sacrificial death and resurrection. In this way, step by step, God draws us into eternal life. But today? We can carry paradise with us, right now. We carry the love of God with us at every moment. We must live in the contradiction, knowing that the world that does not know Jesus is steeped in judgment and condemnation, whereas we, assured of his love, must be steeped in all that heals, all that makes whole, all that builds one another up, until there are no enemies, only brothers and sisters in Christ. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Richly blessed (An unknown Civil war soldier)

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might humbly learn to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I received nothing that I asked for --
but everything that I had hoped for;
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed. 

--An unknown Civil War soldier 

Image source: Jean-Michel Folon, Prayer, Church of Waha, Belgium, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10234068167596143&set=pcb.2889959311158864
Quotation source; see also this link.

Blessed-bringers and Woe-warnings (Sr. Bridget Bearss)

   There are moments in each of our lives when hope in the God of yield and plenty has felt distant and others when we rejoice in our presence as one whose life proclaims resurrection. Many of us, I suspect – if not all of us – find ourselves as those who are “Blessed-bringers” and those who receive the “Woe-warning” as we hear in [Luke’s Gospel]. No one of us is given lifetime admittance to those who make the dream of God – the Kingdom of God—come true - forever in our midst. 

   Today, we are issued both an invitation and a choice. God leaves us free to look within our heart and see what love calls us to do – AND where our feet take us. Do we nourish the soil on which we are planted by keeping our eyes open, our hearts wide, and our hands outstretched? Our past history, our giving record – the social action we took yesterday does not exempt us from the discerning heart that requires that our insides and our outsides match- today. I am challenged again, in this day – to make my life the Gospel read by another – to make visible the vision of Jesus and the tools he left us. When was the last time I washed the feet of the ‘woe warned’ or allowed my own heart to be cleansed? 

   In our midst is the invitation and the call – to make room at the table for both the Blessed Bringers and the Woe-Warned – where each of us makes room for the other – I for you and you for me – no matter what category we place one another -- so that we might hope again – that the dream of God is our dream… 

   A dream where we will each have the chance to make the toast and to eat the toast of love. 

   To be the bread of life with for one another. 

   What does love ask of us this day? 

--Bridget Bearss, RSCJ 

Image source: https://publicsquaremag.org/faith/gospel-fare/unearthing-the-overlooked-gems-of-lukes-sermon-on-the-plain/
Quotation source

To draw closer to the God who loves us (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   Why do we persist, generation after generation, in a kind of blindness that fails to see the Lord at work in our world, and in us? What is it that so handicaps us from living the life that God has called us to? Some would say it’s merely an ability to pay attention past the tangibles, past those things that are so easy to count, so easy to take stock of. 

   We sometimes don’t put enough importance on our encounters with God. The Irish called them the “thin places,” the belief that heaven and earth are about three feet apart, but there are some places where heaven is closer and you encounter God. How many thin places do we encounter every day, where God is present in our lives, if we would but open our eyes to see? But we are so intent on what we can see that we don’t look. 

   Now is a good time for looking, for finding those thin places in our lives to encounter God as much as we possibly can, so that all of our days might be filled with his presence, with his grace, with his forgiveness, all of which draw us ever closer to him. Our lives are a journey into the thin places, and the only intent is to draw closer to the God who loves us. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, February 21, 2024

Image source 1: https://onbeing.org/blog/thin-places-and-the-transforming-presence-of-beauty/
Image source 2: Mill Valley sunrise, October 30, 2024.
For more on "thin places," see also:  https://christchurchcranbrook.org/2021/03/03/thin-places-in-the-celtic-tradition/

The root choice (Simone Weil / Henri Nouwen)

To be rooted is perhaps
the most important and least recognized
need of the human soul.

 --Simone Weil 

    You are constantly facing choices. The question is whether you choose for God or for your own doubting self. You know what the right choice is, but your emotions, passions, and feelings keep suggesting you choose the self-rejecting way. 

    The root choice is to trust at all times that God is with you and will give you what you most need... God says to you, “I love you. I am with you. I want to see you come closer to me and experience the joy and peace of my presence. I want to give you a new heart and a new spirit. I want you to speak with my mouth, see with my eyes, hear with my ears, touch with my hands. All that is mine is yours. Just trust me and let me be your God.” 

    This is the voice to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice, not just once in a while but every moment of every day and night. It is you who decides what you think, say, and do. You can think yourself into a depression, you can talk yourself into low self-esteem, you can act in a self-rejecting way. But you always have a choice to think, speak, and act in the name of God and so move toward the Light, the Truth, and the Life. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/problem-solving/do-sunflowers-follow-sun/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Your present blessings (Charles Dickens)

   Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. 

--Charles Dickens 

Image source:  https://aileencooks.com/monterey-bay-aquarium-review/
Quotation source

Love is the beginning (St. Augustine / Dr. Wendy Wright)

To fall in love with God
is the greatest romance;
to seek Him the greatest adventure;
to find Him, the greatest human achievement.

--St. Augustine 

   Love is the beginning, end and means of the entire Christian life. 

   [H]uman hearts are created to love deeply and fully, to experience the depth of divine desire, and to love as they have first been loved. 

   Human hearts are drawn to intimacy with the Heart of God and with one another through the Heart of Christ. 

   Human hearts beat in rhythm with the heartbeat of God as they ‘Live Jesus’, and allow the Heart of the gentle, humble Savior to inhabit and animate them. 

   Human hearts rest in the Heart of God like children in the arms of a parent or lovers on the breast of a beloved. Human hearts beat and breathe together in friendship, in families, in intentional communities, in the Church and in loving service, revealing the Heart of the gentle Jesus alive in the world. 

   Holiness, sanctity, sainthood: these words do not refer to an élite cadre of super-human heroes or to a chilly, inhuman piety; they are not reserved for religious professionals or for individuals who are ‘not of this world’. Holiness is the destiny of all human beings. Sanctity is simply the deep realization of the life given over to Love. And all are created for and invited into the mystery of the divine and human world where heart speaks gently to heart. 

--Wendy Wright,
Heart Speaks to Heart:
The Salesian Tradition

Happy Valentine’s Day from

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley! 

Image source: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/wacky-weekend/article/hearts-in-nature
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 16, 2025: He is like a tree planted beside the waters...

He is like a tree planted beside the waters…
Are we rooted in the Lord? 

    The prophet Jeremiah uses vivid plant imagery to describe two different human scenarios. On the one hand, those who seek their strength in flesh and whose hearts turn away from the Lord are like a barren bush in the desert that stands in a lava waste. Such an individual is not rooted in the Lord but in a void; he trusts in his own accomplishments and has abandoned God. On the other hand, the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted beside the waters that bears fruit. We have life so long as we remain connected to God, rooted in God, no matter where we are. If we are without God’s presence because we have cut ourselves off from God, what blessing is possible? But if we are, as Psalm 1 says, people who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on his law day and night, we too will yield fruit. We must thus concentrate on how to stay close to the Lord, rooted in the love of God.

   To be rooted in God is to be blessed. In Luke’s Gospel, the Beatitudes name as blessed those for whom nothing stands between them and the Lord: Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours… The blessed will inherit the kingdom because they can possess the kingdom more easily, because nothing gets in the way. By contrast, Luke paints the rich as already having received their consolation; having “all” they need, they have no need for God. To be blessed thus suggests closeness to God, while woes are for those who have put themselves at a distance from the Lord. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they too need to be rooted in what God has done: having suffered despair and physical anguish, Christ has been raised from the dead, Paul reminds them, so that humanity could be transformed. To negate this core belief of our faith would be to put oneself at a distance from the Lord, to be uprooted.

   Ultimately, we need to be rooted in God and his love for us, not in some substitute, be it land or worldly possessions or a false belief. Better by far to remain blessed, that we might rejoice and leap for joy, because we are able to bear fruit in the name of Christ who died for us. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The courage to let go (Marissa Papula)

   Ours is a God who disrupts, interrupts, and breaks into our ordinary lives in extraordinary ways, calling us to deeper love, more committed discipleship, and even sometimes, to leave everything we know behind, to pick up our nets and follow the call. 

   I wonder when in our lives we receive invitations that turn everything upside down, and we’re left with little else to do then pick up our nets and leave it all behind for God: the job layoff, the positive pregnancy test, the diagnosis, the love at first sight. God’s call to us and our compulsion to respond might not involve a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. Still, it might very well involve the minutiae of our daily lives: parenthood, partnerships, jobs, the humanness of living in a body that is fragile and mortal. From within our lives but beyond our expectations and imaginations come invitations that compel us out of all we know and into a wilderness of holy surrender. 

    [W]hat a wonder it is to affirm their courage in getting out of the boat. How many of us hold fast to familiarity, clinging with a white-knuckle grip to what we know, afraid of loosening our grasp, and opening our hands, hearts and selves to God? 

   Let us pray today for the courage to let go, pick up, and follow Jesus. And let us pray for those who are finding their sea legs as they answer the call to pick up their nets, get out of their boats and move more deeply into the lives God is calling them to live. 

--Marissa Papula 

Image source: https://sheilaalewine.com/2022/02/13/have-you-offered-your-boat-to-jesus/
Quotation source

The invasion of grace (Naguib Mahfouz / Bishop Robert Barron)

Fear does not prevent death. 

 It prevents life. 

--Naguib Mahfouz 

    Jesus climbs into Peter’s boat without asking permission. He simply commandeers this vessel that is central to the fisherman’s life and commences to give orders. This represents something of enormous moment: the invasion of grace. 

    Though God respects our relative independence, he is not the least bit content to leave us in a “natural” state. Instead, he wants to live in us, to become the Lord of our lives, moving into our minds, wills, bodies, imaginations, nerves, and bones. 

    This commandeering of nature by grace does not involve the compromising of nature but rather its perfection and elevation. When Jesus moves into the house of the soul, the powers of the soul are heightened and properly directed; when Jesus commands the boat of the natural human life, that life is preserved, strengthened, and given a new orientation. 

    This is signaled symbolically by the Lord’s directive to put out into the deep water. On our own, we can know and will within a very narrow range, seeking those goods and truths that appear within the horizon of our natural consciousness, but when grace invades us, we are enticed into far deeper waters. 

 --Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
September 7, 2023

Image source: Peter Paul Rubens, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes (1618-1619), https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/peter-paul-rubens-the-miraculous-draught-of-fishes 

Quotation source

How worthy or unworthy we are (Fr. James Martin)

   After the Miraculous Catch of Fish, and in the presence of the divine, Simon (Peter) feels his own sinfulness and begs Jesus to ‘depart’ from him (Lk 5: 1-11). 

    But Jesus not only doesn’t depart, he asks Peter to follow him. And later, after Peter denies knowing him during the Passion, Jesus again asks Peter to follow him. 

    Our discipleship depends not on how worthy or unworthy we are, but on how loving and compassionate God is.

--Fr. James Martin,
Facebook, February 6, 2022 

Image source: http://mountcarmelmv.blogspot.com/2022/11/great-power-william-booth.html
Quotation source

Happy Birthday, Fr. Brown!

Today is OLMC Priest-in-Residence
Fr. Bill Brown's birthday!

May God continue to shower you with
wisdom and joy in the year to come,

Fr. Brown,
and may the Holy Spirit fill your heart
with peace and happiness
on your special day!

Image source 1 & 2:  
http://facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/ 
(Fr. Brown was so happy to bless the animals of OLMC in October 2024, including the Spencers' lovely Lilly!)

Once Christ speaks to our hearts (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

    [The disciples] have been called to a radical change in their lives. Nothing about their lives will be the same. Nothing will be about their expectations; it will be about learning what God’s expectations are. 

   Once Christ begins to move in our lives, once Christ begins to speak to our hearts, we cannot go back, because we cannot change that fact. We can fight, we can insist on doing what we want to do and going where we want to go. We can say we want everything our way, but that doesn’t mean that he is going to leave, and it doesn’t mean that his call is going to stop – it will continue… 

    And we will be called again and again to proclaim good news with our lives, to be a people of resurrection, not of death, to embrace our world, not to reject it for its evil. For once you reject something, you can’t easily draw it back, but if you love the world, you then have the ability to have an effect on it, and that is what Jesus Christ came to do: to love this world, and everything that is in it. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, Sunday, January 21, 2024 

Image source: Fr. Patrick Michaels, Christ Has Compassion on the Crowds (1984), https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=912444854254263&set=pb.100064662700877.-2207520000&type=3