Love changes us (Walter Mosley / Henri Nouwen)

We are not trapped or locked up in these bones.
No, no. We are free to change.
 And love changes us. 

--Walter Mosley

    A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us: “I have a gift for you and can't wait for you to see it!” Imagine. 

   We must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying: “Let me show you where I live among my people. My name is God-with-you.” 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Artemisia Gentileschi, Christ and the Samaritan Woman (1637), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cristo_e_la_samaritana_al_pozzo_%281637%29_-_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg
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What His eyes see (Valerie Lewis-Mosley / Manuel Cardoso)

   Jesus looked beyond her faults and saw her need. He did not dwell on her past human brokenness. He acknowledges the truth so that he could bring her to a place of truth and it is here that the healing begins. Jesus looks at her and mirrors to her what His eyes see, when He gazes upon her. 

   Jesus does not allow the limitations and taboos of the time, religiosity, culture, and gender- to define how He sees this woman. It is in the recognizing her human dignity- that He talks with her and walks with her and lets her know that she is His own! You see, Jesus saw her, and He sees us! 

   Where the world makes us invisible – we are made visible again in Christ! This is the faith we are initiated into at the well of Baptism. It is this proclamation of conversion and metanoia and faith that we are called to run and tell about. We are called to lead others out of a place of invisibility and into the light. A “Well” Woman’s Witness so to speak! The testimony of one who has been healed and made whole, plunged into the Living Water! 

--Valerie Lewis-Mosley, RN, OPA 

To hear Portuguese composer Manuel Cardoso’s beautifully meditative piece, Aquam quam ego dabo, click on the video below. The words are: Aquam quam ego dabo / Si quis biberit ex ea / Non sitiet in aeternum / Dixit Dominus mulieri Samaritanae, or The water which I shall give / if anyone shall drink of it / he shall never thirst / Said the Lord to the Samaritan woman. 

Image source: https://www.johnbmacdonald.com/blog/a-jesus-encounter-of-a-different-kind Quotation source
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The Bible's vision of sin (Timothy Keller)

      The Bible’s vision of sin is not just a list. It’s a story of what went wrong. And how grace enters in. 

--Timothy Keller,
What is Wrong with the World?

Image source: Raphael Sanzio, fresco, Moses Hit the Rock, Vatican Apostolic Palace (1518-1519), https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/water-from-a-walking-rock/
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He who desired to drink (St. Augustine / Carole M. Stephens)

He who desired to drink
thirsted for the faith of the woman.

 --St. Augustine 

 

   When the woman came to the well, Jesus—the embodiment of living water—said simply, ‘Give me to drink.’ Our Savior will likewise speak to us in a voice we recognize when we come to Him—for He knows us. He meets us where we are. And because of who He is and what He has done for us, He understands. Because He has experienced our pain, He can give us living water when we seek it. He taught this to the Samaritan woman when He said, ‘If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.’ Finally understanding, the woman responded in faith and asked, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not.’ 

   When we come to Him with humble and teachable hearts—even if our hearts are heavy with mistakes, sins, and transgressions—He can change us, ‘for he is mighty to save.’ And with hearts changed, we can, like the Samaritan woman, go into our own cities—our homes, schools, and workplaces—to witness of Him. 

--Carole M. Stephens,
The Master Healer

Image source: Angelica Kauffman, Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well (1796), https://www.wikiart.org/en/angelica-kauffman/christ-and-the-samaritan-woman-at-the-well-1796
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 8, 2026: Hope does not disappoint...

Hope does not disappoint…
What does it take for us to trust in God? 

   As they traverse the desert on their way to the Promised Land in the Book of Exodus, the people of Israel have every reason to grumble against Moses. After all, they are afraid they will die here of thirst with their children and their livestock! It is not an idle complaint. God’s promise was clear; God promised to take care of them. And yet the moment they are afflicted, the promise goes out the window. Their hearts, as Psalm 33 states, are hardened, and they test the Lord, rejecting God and turning on Moses. But Moses turns to God, knowing that God can provide what he himself can’t. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it, God tells Moses. Moses relies on God to do the unexpected, to lead him where he needs to be, rather than where he wants to be. 

   When, in John’s Gospel, Jesus comes to Jacob’s well in Sychar, a town of Samaria, he plans to call those rejected by the Jews to have faith in him. His encounter with the Samaritan woman is transformative; he is calling her – and her town – to something new, opening her slowly to the revelation present in her midst, Jesus himself, the Christ. Jesus is not caught up in the woman’s possible sin; Jesus is caught up in her personhood and in the dignity of her humanity and in her capacity to give witness. Trusting in the Lord who entrusts her with his presence, the Samaritan woman runs to town filled with the Spirit, leaving behind her water jug but carrying with her living water that she brings to her community to drink. 

    We too are called to trust, to faith, to belief in that which we cannot prove. We are called to take a leap beyond all physical evidence and to trust in all that God has revealed. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul reminds them that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; his is the grace in which we stand, a capacity to stand and give witness. Our struggle is to get past our wants and needs and to remain hopeful for that which is to come, that which is promised – his love for us, a love greater than any we have ever imagined. For that is where true faith leads us, beyond our comprehension, stretching us farther than we ever thought possible, so long as our hearts are open to his revelation and to his promise.

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

Bless the world (John J. Morris S.J.)

Mighty God, Father of all,
Compassionate God, Mother of all,
Bless every person I have met,
every face I have seen,
every voice I have heard,
especially those most dear.
Bless every city, town and
street that I have known.
Bless every sight I have seen,
every sound I have heard,
every object I have touched.
In some mysterious way
these have all fashioned my life:
all that I am,
I have received.
Great God, bless the world. 

--John J. Morris, S.J. 

Image source: Snow on Mt. Tam, February 24, 2023, https://millvalleylit.com/rare-snow-on-mt-tam/
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He was transfigured (St. Leo the Great / St. Anastasius)

He was transfigured so that
we might be transformed.

—St. Leo the Great 

    Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven and — I speak boldly — it is for us now, to follow him with all speed. . . Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here.’

--St. Anastasius 

Image source: Giovanni Bellini, Transfiguration of the Lord (ca. 1480), https://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-did-jesus-privilege-peter-james-and.html
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Being happy (Pope Francis)

    You can have flaws, be anxious and even be angry, but don’t forget that your life is the greatest business in the world. Only you can stop it from failure. You are appreciated, admired and loved by many. Remember that being happy is not having a sky without storms, a road without accidents, a job without effort, relationships without disappointments. 

    Being happy is to stop feeling a victim and become the author of your own destiny. It's going through deserts, but being able to find an oasis deep in your soul. It's to thank God every morning for the miracle of life. It’s kissing your children, cuddling your parents, having poetic moments with your friends, even when they hurt us. 

    To be happy is to let live the creature that lives in each of us, free, joyful and simple. It's having maturity to be able to say: "I made mistakes". Having the courage to say "I'm sorry". It's having a sensitivity to say "I need you". Is having the ability to say "I love you". May your life become a garden of opportunities for happiness... that in spring I can be a lover of joy and in winter a lover of wisdom. 

    And when you make a mistake, start over. Because only then will you fall in love with life. You will find that being happy doesn't mean having a perfect life. But life uses tears to irrigate tolerance. Use your defeats to train your patience. 

    Use your mistakes with the serenity of the sculptor. Use pain to tune into pleasure. Use obstacles to open the windows of intelligence. Never give up ... Above all, never give up on the people that love you. Never give up on happiness, because life is an amazing show. 

 --Pope Francis, 2023 

Image & quotation source: https://sacredheartfl.org/wisdom-from-pope-francis/

Allowing his love to transform us (Fr. Patrick van der Vorst)

There’s something beyond this world
that can be glimpsed through this world.

--Bishop Robert Barron

     Many of us have likely stood on the summit of a mountain at some point in our lives. Standing there, we often experience a profound sense of distance from the world below, a peaceful detachment from the busyness of everyday life. It was to such a place that Jesus led three of his disciples to pray, away from the crowds and distractions. As He prayed, something extraordinary happened: “the appearance of his face changed.” In that moment, Jesus heard his Father’s voice calling Him in love: “This is my Son, my Chosen One.” There’s something deeply human about hearing our name spoken with love—it transforms us. Our faces light up, and our hearts are lifted. Conversely, when we encounter hostility or rejection, the opposite effect is visible—our features darken, and sadness takes hold. We see this contrast vividly in images from war-torn regions, where countless faces reflect grief and suffering. 

    On the mountain, Jesus was being strengthened for what lay ahead: the journey into the valley, where suffering and sacrifice awaited Him. The disciples, however, struggled to grasp this reality. When the voice from heaven commanded, “Listen to him!” it was a call for them to heed Jesus’ words about the necessity of his suffering and death, words they found difficult to accept. They hesitated to come down from the mountain, reluctant to face the challenging road that awaited them. 

    As followers of Jesus, we too live between the mountain and the valley—between moments of prayerful encounter with God and the daily challenges of life and work. We tend to spend far more time in the valley than on the mountain. Yet, the mountain of prayer is essential. It’s where we step back, quieten our hearts, and simply be in God’s presence, allowing his love to transform us and strengthen us for whatever the valley may bring. 

--Fr. Patrick van der Vorst 

Image source: Transfiguration, St. John’s Bible, https://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/cmurphy/courses/sctr015/prep/xams/saint-johns-bible.htm.
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To help God transfigure the world (Michael Battle)

   You and I are placed in this world of hatred, violence, anger, injustice, and oppression to help God transform it, transfigure it, and change it so that there will be compassion, laughter, joy, peace, reconciliation, fellowship, friendship, togetherness, and family. We are here to bring others out of exile. 

—Michael Battle

Image & quotation source: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/loving-in-a-time-of-exile-weekly-summary/

Notice how often the Lord blesses you (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

    I will bless you, God says to Abram. What does that mean for us? 

   How conscious are we of the blessings of God that occur in our lives? We are in the middle of blessing, always, but do we notice? And can we then give witness to the fact that God is sending us blessings? 

   Notice how often the Lord blesses you in your life, big and small. These blessings link you, connect you, give you a place in world. 

    We are also to be blessing to others, as Abram was, because God is active in us, acting through us. It’s about how we understand our own existence and we are challenged to see how God is involved in it. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Scripture Class,
March 2, 2023

Image source: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-was-gods-promise-to-abraham.html

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 1, 2026: All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you

All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you…
Are we blessed? Are we blessing? 

    When, in the Book of Genesis, the Lord tells Abram to go forth from the land of his kinsfolk to a land that the Lord will show him, Abram must abandon all he knows and trust that God will fulfill all his promises: I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, the Lord says to Abram. I will make your name great. I will bless those who bless you. But Abram must then be a witness to all of the blessings of God, for God created us to be blessing to one another. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you, God says. 

    Like Abram, and as Psalm 33 reminds us we must place our trust in the Lord, hoping for his kindness… and for nothing else. Absolute trust in God is our greatest hope, for it is through ongoing trust that our relationship with God develops over time. Timothy, the leader of the Christian community at Ephesus, was similarly called to trust in God’s Word, as Paul tells him, with the strength that comes from God. In spite of any hardship Timothy is experiencing, he knows he has been called to a holy life. God will steer him in the right direction, giving him the strength to give witness to the gospel, so long as Timothy remains open to God’s love and willing to share God’s blessing with all. 

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Peter, James and John are witnesses to an impossible scene: on a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured before them; his face shines like the sun and his clothes become white as light. Do the three disciples trust enough to accept this revelation as God has chosen to reveal it to them? Do they recognize the blessing they are experiencing? Peter seems confused and proposes making three tents on the site. But the Transfiguration is a profound event out of space and time that cannot be memorialized by tents. If the three concentrate and listen to Jesus, they will know how much they are loved by God and how God wants them to bless their world. 

    Revelation is not easy, often involving a significant disruption of our comfort zone, challenging us to see things differently. If we look, if we are open, we will see the blessings of God revealed in our lives and trust in his promises. Only then will the communities of the earth find blessing… in us.

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

A garden of solitude (Henri Nouwen)

   To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. This requires not only courage but also a strong faith. As hard as it is to believe that the dry desolate desert can yield endless varieties of flowers, it is equally hard to imagine that our loneliness is hiding unknown beauty. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is a movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Ryan Mountain, https://www.hikespeak.com/ca-desert/
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Lent is a time to recenter (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   Our faith journey is to try and clarify where our focus is. Lent is an attempt to try and focus our energies, to focus our lives. We come at this season as people who know sin. We do know sin. It’s not just a past reality for us; it’s something we struggle with every day. We struggle to make good choices. We struggle to do what’s going to be the most loving thing possible, and yet we do fail, because our focus goes out of whack. When we’re sinning, our focus, our center, cannot be Christ. It’s not possible. 

   So, we need to refocus, recenter. Lent is our time to recenter, to put ourselves back in that place where what we decide comes from the depths of our hearts where Christ dwells in us, so that we know the difference between the delusions of our egos and the truth of our hearts, and so that we choose rightly. 

   This journey is a gift, a time to walk together, to join with one another, in finding our center and letting it be the center of our lives as a community and our lives as members of that community, so that the love of Christ might fill our world. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, March 9, 2025

Image source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/diy-dictionary-plumb-bob/?srsltid=AfmBOor3E_DXIePk1MXztWRa9Nk-BPM1DejfWiHNdphTy6AASsm31-Re

God leaves them free (Marilynne Robinson)

   I think that right through Scriptures, God’s intention is to humanize humanity, to give you a heart of flesh rather than stone. The thing that God does that is so striking is stand apart. He wishes people would — for their own sake, for the sake of the other people, whom he also loves — he wishes they would not kill and not steal and so on. But God leaves them free. He tells them what he considers good and right. But they always have the freedom to transgress, if that’s what they choose to do. And I think that can be understood as God’s loyalty to the idea of their being human, being free, acting creatures. And it’s in the way they are able to act on their own, even in departing from what God wills for them, they have one of the qualities of God: freedom. I think that’s very profound. 

--Marilynne Robinson 

Image source: William Blake, So Judged He Man, Illustration 10 for John Milton's Paradise Lost (1807),  https://emuseum.huntington.org/objects/58/illustration-10-to-miltons-paradise-lost-the-judgment-of
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The only way out is through (Fr. Mike Schmitz)

   Why couldn’t God just take the people of Israel from the place of slavery to the place of promise? Why did they have to go through the desert? Because they needed training. They didn’t know how to live as free people. 

   God is giving us this desert of Lent because we are like the people of Israel: I just want to be done: Lord, just tap me on the head and make me look like Jesus, automatically! But we need this training; we need this place of the Way, because we are called to be people we are currently not, able to do something that we currently cannot. 

   So God is leading us into the desert, where all the things we trusted are finally put down. That’s what Lent is. We’re led into the desert where we are just invited to put down all of the things we trusted in. The desert is a place of training. The desert is a place of testing. The desert is a place of trial. But it’s also the place where all the things I’ve trusted in are absent. All our crutches, all our comforts, are absent. We put down those things we use to buffer between us and life, the distractions, the noise, the diversions, all the things we hold onto that will help us from having to acknowledge that we are not yet who we should be. 

   And so here, at the beginning of Lent, you are entering into a place of training, of testing. So it can’t just be the usual. It can’t just be the status quo. It can’t just be the normal thing I always give up. I can’t just do the same thing I always have done and expect a different result, because we are called to do something new, to go somewhere new, and that means putting down something old. 

   Whenever we find ourselves trusting in ourselves rather than in God alone, that’s what we have to be willing to put down. It will be difficult. It will be difficult. 

   What am I training for? What am I trying to become? 

    I want to be able to live like Jesus. I want to be able to love like Jesus. I want to be able to trust like Jesus. That means I have to go from not-knowing to knowing. That means I need to go from not being able to being able. It is frustrating. 

   And the only way out is through. 

--Excerpt from
Fr. Mike Schmitz’s homily,
Hallow App, Lent,
March 2, 2025

Image source: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/christ-in-the-desert/iwEnS8zpRy4qzw?hl=en&ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A8.663783236351296%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A2.734523311575076%2C%22height%22%3A1.2374999999999994%7D%7D

Make friends with the desert (Bishop Robert Barron / Fr. Ron. Rolheiser)

Deserts are places of no distractions,
when we get down to spiritual basics
with nothing to divert us from the great questions.

--Bishop Robert Barron

    The Gospels invite us to make friends with the desert, the cross, with ashes, with self-renunciation, with humiliation, with our shadow, and with death itself. We grow by letting the desert work us over, by renouncing cherished dreams to accept the cross, by letting the humiliations that befall us deepen our character, by having the courage to face our own deep chaos, and by making peace with our own mortality. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Facebook, November 5, 2025

Image source: https://cathopic.com/photo/57450-jesus-christ-in-the-desert 
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He took upon himself the shame of Adam (Pope Francis)

    Adam, after his sin, experiences shame, he feels naked, he senses the weight of what he has done; and yet God does not abandon him: if that moment of sin marks the beginning of his exile from God, there is already a promise of return, a possibility of return. God immediately asks: "Adam, where are you?" He seeks him out. Jesus took on our nakedness, he took upon himself the shame of Adam, the nakedness of his sin, in order to wash away our sin: by his wounds we have been healed. Remember what Saint Paul says: "What shall I boast of, if not my weakness, my poverty? Precisely in feeling my sinfulness, in looking at my sins, I can see and encounter God’s mercy, his love, and go to him to receive forgiveness. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: La Tentation d'Adam et Eve, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, Clermont-Ferrand, France, http://luc.greliche.free.fr/Mathieu/clermontferrand0402.html 
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 22, 2026: Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert...

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert…
Are we ready to enter into the desert of Lent? 

   In the Creation story of the second chapter of Genesis, the Lord God forms man out of the clay of the ground and blows into his nostrils the breath of life. It is a moment of striking intimacy, an action on God’s part to make of his creation man, a living being, a being created to love God. But God also creates the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden in Eden and tells the man that he is free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except this tree. The man thus has a choice, the free will to choose what is right or what is wrong. Free will is necessary to human existence, for, if God created us to love God, we need to be able to choose. But humankind is tempted by a desire for control, and thus both the woman and the man, tempted by the serpent, eat some of its fruit. Together, they choose to disobey God’s command, and the consequences will be grave indeed. One can imagine them singing Psalm 51, Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned, as they leave paradise in shame. 

   Thus, as Paul reminds the Romans, Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death. The trespass of Adam is a transgression that led to human mortality. But, Paul goes on to say, just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. Jesus came in order to surrender his life to God, taking our sins to the cross. Unlike Adam, Jesus brings life. 

   But first Jesus himself must experience temptation and choose. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. All three of the devil’s temptations – to command that stones become bread, to throw himself down from the parapet of the temple, and to prostrate himself and worship the devil – ask Jesus to rebel against God. But Jesus, God-made-man, steadfastly refuses: Get away, Satan! Jesus has journeyed into the desert to solidify his dedication to God’s will. In Lent, we are called to do the same, to take that very same journey into the desert, that we might learn obedience, rejecting sin in recognition of the gracious gift of the Lord, so that that grace, in turn, might overflow for the many. 

   Our journey begins! Are we ready?

This post was based on OLMC’s Scripture Class 2023.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

God calls us to action (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   When God appears to people, almost every time, he gives them directions as to what to do. He calls them to action. What’s curious is that, so often, we don’t respond with action. We respond with hesitation. 

    When they called a fast in Joel’s time, it was meant to be immediate. People weren’t to stop for anything. Even if you’ve just been married, you were to leave the wedding chamber. Everything was to be done in that moment, so that you could respond with repentance to God. Whenever something bad happened, they believed it was because they had sinned, and when the locusts came in to devour their crops, they were certain that they needed to repent, and so they called a fast. They called for repentance from the whole group, and the whole group responded. God called, and they responded. 

   God called, and Paul responded as well, as God calls each of us to respond: as ambassadors of Christ. To be ambassadors of Christ means that we are the ones going out to make him present in the world, and that is where our energies need to be expended. Too often we expend our energies spinning on things we think we are supposed to be doing, when in fact the one thing we’ve been called to do is to make him present in the world, to bring the Eucharist we receive to bear upon the world in all of its brokenness, to bring mercy to bear. 

   Jesus has a great explanation for how we are to go about doing the various things that we might do as a Lenten observance. Yet the main thing here is, make sure you know why you’re doing it. Make sure you know why you’re giving up Brussels sprouts. Make sure you know what it has to do with being an ambassador for Christ, so that whatever you have chosen to do for Lent, it’s going to make you a better ambassador, more dedicated to the Word, to the mercy that has been shown you, so that you might show it to others. 

   Whatever we do needs to serve his will. He has called us to action, not to complacency. He has called us to more, so that he might live more profoundly in the world. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, Ash Wednesday,
February 14, 2024

Today is Ash Wednesday!
Don't forget to fast!

Image source: Bayeux Tapestry, Feast of William the Conqueror panel, https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/whats-the-point-of-fasting-during-lent/

Your heart equals my heart (Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer)

In a circle of mountains
it’s easier to remember
we belong to the mountains,
belong to high-pitched cheep
of pica, belong to the cliffs,
to the path, to the unpath,
belong to the blue,
blue reach of sky. 

We belong as much to each other
as we belong to ourselves,
each of us a poem read by strangers
and beloveds in ways only they can read us,
each of us constantly rewriting
our lines, while in the meantime
we are constantly rewritten
by a great and unnamable
is-ness that rhymes us each to each other. 

We belong to the truth
that all belongs, even when we
are most lonely, even when
we would rather push away
from the world. 

In a circle of mountains,
it is easier to practice belonging—
easier to notice this math:
your heart equals my heart,
and all this opening, opening, opening
to what we cannot know,
that equals what a life is for. 

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer,
In a Circle of Mountains

Image source: OLMC’s “Chosen” group prays for the world at the end of its last 2025 meeting. Photo by Danny Gutierrez, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1328667335965344&set=pb.100064662700877.-2207520000&type=3
Poem source 

We are to love (Thomas Merton)

I once asked an old man:
 Which is more important, to love or to be loved?
 He replied: Which is more important to a bird?
The left wing or the right wing? 

 --Author unknown

   Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbor worthy. 

--Thomas Merton

Image source: https://bmtrust.org/event/valentines-nature-heart-hunt/
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The lens of love (Fr. Patrick Michaels / Rachel Marie Martin)

Discernment is God's information
that teaches us what love really is.

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
OLMC Scripture Class

   When my kids were little and they’d leave for school I ask them if they have their sunglasses on. Not real sunglasses, but imaginary sunglasses, glasses of love. I wanted them to see the world through that lens, not the lens of negativity, self-doubt, criticism, worry, fear or comparison. 

   But the lens of love. 

   Sometimes they chuckled at the idea, but it was and is a powerful reminder to take stock in how you see the world. 

   We cannot control all the circumstances.
   We cannot control other people.
   But we can control our response.
   We can control how we see others.
   We can control how we treat others.
   We can control how we view ourselves. 

   When we look through the lens of love it gives us a great gift - margin, space, a breath. It allows us a split second moment to respond differently, to gather courage, to be brave, to be kind, to make a difference, to breathe. 

   Sometimes those "glasses" fall off.
   But the beauty is we can always put them back on again. 

   Love teaches us to have grace for ourselves and others.
   Love teaches us to look beyond fear.
   Love teaches us to have courage and bravery.
   Love teaches us to be kind. 

    So even if it is silly, I’d remind them.
   "Wear your glasses today." 

   You too. Dare to see the world through the lens of love. Dare to put on your own glasses. It doesn't mean it will be perfect, easy, and bubble gum and rainbows. It simply means that you aren't pushed around by the waves of life and that you have decided your heart, your mind, your life is greater than just random. 

   Love matters.
   Love wins.
   Love cares. 
   Love conquers.
   Love heals.
   Love well. 

-- Rachel Marie Martin         

Image source: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/all-about-perception-lens-love-or-fear/
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Love is our vocation (Fr. Patrick Michaels / James Baldwin)

Love is our vocation –
it’s all we have been called to do.
 We’ve been given very, very different lives,
and very different ways in our lives,
but they all boil down to this one call,
this vocation to love.

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, October 1, 2025 

    The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another. 

--James Baldwin 

Image source: https://in.pinterest.com/2beamscotty/the-artistic-bird/
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Standing before he who is love (Pope Francis)

   Here then is some advice for making important choices. When I do not know what to do, how to make a definitive choice, an important decision, a decision that involves Jesus’ love, what must I do? 

   Before deciding, let us imagine that we are standing in front of Jesus, as at the end of life, before he who is love. And imagining ourselves there, in his presence, at the threshold of eternity, we make the decision for today. We must decide in this way: always looking to eternity, looking at Jesus. It may not be the easiest, it may not be the most immediate, but it will be the right one. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Quentin Massys, Christ Blessing (ca. 1500), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clydxld8k80o
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 15, 2026: Give me discernment...

 

Give me discernment...
What does God’s order look like? 

    For the people of Israel, the answer to this question lay in the Law, which the Book of Sirach invokes as the primary source of order for those who opt for it: If you choose, you can keep the commandments; they will save you. As Wisdom literature, Sirach is full of instructions on proper behavior, directing readers away from chaos (which is frequently the choice of human beings, thanks to free will) and toward a world in which love rules. Participating in the order set out by the commandments was perceived as aligning oneself with God; obedience leads to right relationship. These sentiments are echoed in Psalm 119, which focuses on the human capacity to learn God’s ways, to walk with the Lord: Open my eyes, that I might consider the wonders of your law, the psalmist asks. In other words, help me to be internally disposed, bearing the power of discernment, so as to be open to God, because it is in God that I will find life. 

    From a Christian perspective, the coming of Jesus represents a new kind of order, one still focused on relationship, but based first and foremost in love. In Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invokes a variety of Jewish laws (about murder, adultery, and false oaths, in this week’s reading), deepening the implication of Jewish law from the literal – the letter of the law – to an internal and more profound understanding. For example, it’s not enough, Jesus says, not to murder; we need to protect our relationships with one another through compassion and kindness, building each other up, treating each other with reverence. In each case, constant attention to relationship is in order, particularly as concerns our internal disposition to that relationship. If we embrace one another in love, with our whole beings, we can’t help but maintain God’s order, for God’s order is love.

    This is the new wisdom of this age of which Paul writes to the Corinthians, a wisdom that applies not to a select few (like the Corinthians, who wanted to feel “special”), but to all: God has revealed the full force of his love, sending first his Son to die and rise, and then the Spirit to dwell in and with us, Love, in its most perfect form, known imperfectly by us, yet still, the principal source of God’s order in today’s world. 

    What does God’s order look like? Seek to live your life immersed in God’s Love, serving as a conduit of that Love to others, and you will find the answer! 

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

We don't see them (Dan Evon)

Share your bread with the hungry,
 shelter the oppressed and the homeless.

 --Isaiah 58:7

    On the first day of shooting his new movie, [Time Out of Mind,] director Oren Moverman had an unusual task for his star, Richard Gere: He wanted the famous actor to stand in New York City's bustling Astor Place with an empty coffee cup begging for change. 

   Moverman needed the scene for "Time Out of Mind," in which Gere radically goes against type to play a homeless man. But the filmmaker soon realized it served another purpose. 

   "Richard stood there for 40 minutes‎. No one gave him a cent. No one even recognized him," Moverman said. "And that proved the whole point: The homeless are all around us and we don't see them." 

--Dan Evon 

Do we see the hungry and the homeless?
Do we help?
Or do we turn away? 

Image & quotation source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/richard-gere-homeless/

Acts of kindness (Maya Angelou)

My wish for you is that you continue.
 Continue to be who and how you are,
to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.
Continue to allow humor
to lighten the burden of your tender heart.

 --Maya Angelou

The owl stirs cake with wings so wide,
A cat in a monocle, with dignified stride,
A puppy wags, a happy bark,
A day for fun from dawn till dark!
May you leap like a deer through meadows green,
As playful and joyful as you've ever been.
May you find treasures, shiny and sweet,
Like a squirrel with nuts, a tasty treat!
With a lion's roar, let your laughter ring, 
And the grace of a swan, let your spirit sing.
May your day be filled with furry friends,
And happy adventures that never end.
So blow out your candles, let the wishes fly,
Like birds soaring high in the bright blue sky!
Happy Birthday to you, a creature so grand,
The best animal lover in all the land! 

(A poem after Edward Lear…) 

OLMC parishioners wish our Priest-in-Residence
(and secret animal whisperer),

Fr. Bill Brown, a very happy birthday!

We are so grateful that you are

a part of our parish family –

you are a blessing to us all!
 

Image source 1: Fr. Brown blesses the animals on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 2025, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=5097555260353039&set=pb.100002958458217.-2207520000&type=3
Image source 2: Fr. Brown with one of the feral cats he befriended in Tiburon, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1261250759373669&set=a.1261251466040265
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Learning to have a heart that is moved (Pope Leo XIV)

    If Christ shows us the face of a compassionate God, then to believe in him and to be his disciples means allowing ourselves to be changed and to take on his same feelings. It means learning to have a heart that is moved, eyes that see and do not look away, hands that help others and soothe their wounds, shoulders that bear the burden of those in need. 

--Pope Leo

Image source 1: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-07/pope-leo-hope-is-source-of-joy-no-matter-our-age.html
Image source 2: https://www.today.com/parenting-guides/want-raise-empathetic-children-here-s-what-know-t177606
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Fiercely kind (Laura Jean Truman)

God,

Keep my anger from becoming meanness.

Keep my sorrow from collapsing into self-pity. 

Keep my heart soft enough to keep breaking. 

Keep my anger turned towards justice, not cruelty.

Remind me that all of this, every bit of it, is for love. 

Keep me fiercely kind. 

--Laura Jean Truman 

Image source 1: https://www.facebook.com/groups/387096378163324
Image source 2: https://fiercekindness.com/introducing-key-fierce-kindness-practice-tool-the-kindometer/
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The way to right wrongs (Ida B. Wells / St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata)

The way to right wrongs is
to turn the light of truth upon them.

 --Ida B. Wells

    When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. 

--St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata 

Image source: A Missionaries of Charity nun talks with a man at a home for the dying in Kolkata, India, Sept. 4. The lunch took place during Mother Teresa’s canonization in Rome. https://catholicphilly.com/2016/09/news/world-news/mother-teresa-do-small-things-with-great-love-2/
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