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/
Quotation source

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
Quotation source

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
Quotation source

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
Quotation source

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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We bring God's life to others (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Friends, in [Sunday’s] Gospel, Jesus uses the images of salt and light to show how we are to bring salvation to the world. In our rather privatized and individualistic culture, we tend naturally to think of religion as something for ourselves designed to make our lives richer or better. Now there is a sense in which that is true, but on the biblical reading, religiosity is like salt, light, and an elevated city: it is meant not for oneself but for others. 

    Perhaps we can bring these two together by saying that we find salvation for ourselves precisely in the measure that we bring God’s life to others. The point is that we followers of Jesus are meant to be salt, which effectively preserves and enhances what is best in the society around us. We effectively undermine what is dysfunctional in the surrounding culture. 

    We are also light by which people around us come to see what is worth seeing. By the very quality and integrity of our lives, we shed light, illuminating what is beautiful and revealing what is ugly. The clear implication is that, without vibrant Christians, the world is a much worse place. 

--Bishop Robert Barron

Image source 1: https://maymanamarket.co.uk/food-cooking/enhance-flavour-with-salt-how-a-sprinkle-transforms-taste-in-seconds-2904/
Image source 2: https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/09/why-salt-enhances-flavor/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 8, 2026: You are the salt of the earth...

You are the salt of the earth...
 But what does it mean to be salt? 

    When Jesus, in our reading from Matthew’s Gospel this Sunday, tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and light of the world, he wants them to believe that they themselves are able to enhance the lives of others as they bring God’s love to bear on those lives. Salt enhances flavor; light brings life. In all that we do, Jesus suggests, we are called to live our lives for others, enhancing their lives. We are graced so that we can bring the love of God to all we meet, by living the gospel in their midst, thus revealing God’s love in action. 

    In fact, Jesus is echoing a key idea in Isaiah, where the Lord reveals that true social morality results in life-giving justice for all: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. We are called to live lives of compassion, seeing the need around us, and meeting it in such a way as to equalize the situation at hand. But it means we can’t just talk about justice: we have to do justice, participate, act. Moreover, to be authentic, such behavior must come from the depths of who we are, and must reflect our own openness to and trust in God. Such a person—one who is in right relationship with God—is described more fully in Psalm 112: s/he is gracious (the source of grace and blessing for other), merciful, and just. When our compassion recognizes our source and our commonality, we respond out of that commonality. We can thus be a blessing to other, and God is revealed in us. 

    For Paul writing to the Corinthians, such knowledge of God is focused first and foremost on Jesus Christ and him crucified. The paradox of the Cross lies in the fact that salvation comes from a criminal: the love of Jesus dying for our sins transcends the embarrassment and humiliation of a crucified Savior. If you know this, know it not only in your mind but in your heart, you will experience God’s love in the depths of your being, and can only respond to the experience of such love with faith and humility, in complete service to other. Enhancing the lives of others, you are salt. It’s as simple as that. 

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

The preferential choice for the poor (Pope Leo)

          The preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if only we can set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry. 

        Those who follow Jesus must tread the path of the Beatitudes, where poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, hunger and thirst for justice, and peace-making are often met with opposition and even persecution. Yet God’s glory shines forth in his friends and continues to shape them along the way, passing from conversion to conversion. 

--Pope Leo      

Image source: Br. Mickey McGrath, The Preferential Option for the Poor, https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/option-for-the-poor-and-vulnerable
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To 'inherit the earth' (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    What does it mean to ‘inherit the earth’? To be a superstar? To be rich and famous? To have power over others? To walk into a room and be instantly recognized and admired as being significant and important? Is that the way we ‘inherit the earth’? Or, do we ‘inherit the earth’ when a coldness is melted in our hearts and we are brought back to our primal goodness by the smile of a baby? What does it mean to you? 

 --Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI 

Image source: https://www.todaysparent.com/baby/baby-development/when-do-babies-smile-2/
Quotation source

Blessed are (Henri Nouwen)

   "Blessed are the poor,” he said. Jesus is poor, not in control, but marginal in his society. What good can come from Nazareth? 

   “Blessed are the gentle,” he said. Jesus does not break the bruised reed. He always cares for the little ones. 

 

   “Blessed are those who mourn,” he said. Jesus does not hide his grief, but lets his tears flow when his friend dies and when he foresees the destruction of his beloved Jerusalem. 

   “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice,” he said. Jesus doesn't hesitate to criticize injustice and to defend the hungry, the dying, and the lepers. 

   “Blessed are the merciful,” he said. Jesus doesn't always call for revenge but heals always and everywhere. 

   “Blessed are the pure in heart,” he said. Jesus remains focused only on what is necessary and does not allow his attention to be divided by many distractions. 

   “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he said. Jesus does not stress differences, but reconciles people as brothers and sisters in one family. 

   “Blessed are those who are persecuted,” he said. Jesus does not expect success and popularity, but knows that rejections and abandonment will make him suffer. 

   The Beatitudes give us Jesus' self-portrait. It is the portrait of a powerless God. 

--Henri Nouwen

 

Image source: https://jacksoncommunitychurch.org/reflections-on-beatitudes-and-blessings-themes-from-matthew/
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Consider your calling (Beth Ford McNamee)

    In today’s readings we are given an invitation to become a part of God’s reigning of justice. An upside down, turn your world around, reigning of justice. Where the lowly are raised up, the blind see, the hungry are fed, and the imprisoned are set free, the psalmist proclaims. Where God chooses the foolish of the world to shame the wise and chooses the weak of the world to shame the strong, Paul tells us. Seek justice, seek humility, the prophet Zephaniah exhorts us. Seek humility that no human being might boast before God. Seek humility, for we are in Christ Jesus, the wisdom of God. Seek humility, the very ground and birth of our being from God's fierce and tender love, a radical love that does justice, a justice that we are called to work for with others, especially learning from those on the margins. 

    Consider your calling, Paul says. Can we show up for this upside-down reigning of God? Can we place ourselves in spaces where we are not trying to be first, best, or boasting before God and others? Can we place ourselves instead in marginal spaces, place ourselves in humility before the sacredness of one another, to become people of authentic encounter, kinship, and relationship? 

    Consider your calling. God is calling us.... Welcome to your calling. Welcome to your calling that is blessedness, that is humility, that is fierce and passionate love, that is encounter, kinship, and relationship, that is collaborative and creative restructuring of our societies. So that the oppressed are set free, the lowly are lifted up, the mourning are comforted, and the hungry are not hungry in the first place. So that we may celebrate and join together in the Eucharistic banquet where no one is outside of God’s overflowing, abundant, and compassionate love. For this, let us rejoice and be glad! 

--Beth Ford McNamee    

Image source: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/why-you-should-literally-look-at-the-world-upside-down/
Quotation source

Bringing peace through justice (Fr. Greg Boyle / Benoît Standaert)

I suspect that, were kinship our goal,
we would no longer be promoting justice
– we would be celebrating it.

 --Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ,
Homeboy Industries

    Whenever we strive to bring a little more peace through justice here on earth and, in whatever form, change sadness into happiness, heal broken hearts, or assist the sick and the weak, we arrive directly at God, the God of the resurrection. 

--Benoît Standaert 

Image source: Edvard Munch, The Sick Child (1907), https://medium.com/@leila.tayebifard/depictions-of-disease-in-art-history-70cf039445ff
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If I say I am a Christian (Pope Francis)

Whatever you did for
the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.

--Matthew 25:40 

    You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian. You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25. It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of your help. If I say I am a Christian, but do these things, I’m a hypocrite. 

--Pope Francis

Image source: Pope Francis meets with refugees, November 2014, https://slmedia.org/blog/pope-francis-meets-with-young-refugees-before-his-departure-from-turkey
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 1, 2026: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth...

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth…
 Do you need God? 

    When the prophet Zephaniah exhorts the people to seek justice and humility, he is offering them a path to finding God. For, in order to seek justice, we must first make room for God in our lives, embracing humility; justice flows from our willingness to be in right relationship with God, to be a people humble and lowly who take refuge in the Lord, recognizing that it is only through God that any human action is possible. And, after all, Psalm 146 reminds us that it is precisely the humble – the oppressed, the hungry, captives, the blind, those who were bowed down – who receive help from the Lord, and who can then, in turn, bring life-giving justice to others, God’s justice, born of right relationship. 

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus elaborates on the promise of Psalm 146, beginning with a blessing for the poor in spirit and the meek, those who know they need God, who seek not control but a measure of God’s love in their lives. From beginning to end, the Beatitudes invite all of us to live in a way that demonstrates that we do need God, for God is necessary to the fullness of life; without God, after all, what depth of meaning can we find in human existence? In the epistle, the Corinthians seem to have forgotten this lesson; Paul reminds them that God chose the foolish of the world – the humble of heart, the poor in spirit – to shame the wise, for God can only work through humble hearts open to God’s action in their lives. In that kingdom of inversion, the only kingdom in which true justice is possible, we seek the Lord, struggling to hold him, rather than worldly distractions, at the center of our lives. Isn’t this why we come to church each week, to recognize our need for God, the fact that God has a place in our everyday existence? Yes, we need God: we need God’s presence; we need God’s love. To walk the path of justice can only mean a self-emptying humility that recognizes this imperative need, and opens to it. 

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

One small white candle (Penny Hackett-Evans)

For friends who have challenges 

I write to say
I am sending you light.
Tiny light –
One match struck.
The first spark
for your dry kindling.
Or maybe a pinprick
of starlight coming from
millions of miles and years
just into your dark room.
Or maybe one small white candle,
warm wax dripping into the cold. 

Or the light of one glow worm 

making a hazy green mysterious spot. 

Not to overwhelm this darkness 

where you shelter. But only 

to remind you 

that you are accompanied 

there by the softest hope. 

--Penny Hackett-Evans 

Image source 1: OLMC Easter Vigil, Holy Week 2025, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1116337687198311&type=3 
Image source 2: OLMC's "Chosen" meeting during Advent 2025, photographer D. Gutierrez,  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1328667322632012&set=pb.100064662700877.-2207520000
Quotation source

Darkness is not the absence of light (Elizabeth Tabish)

    Darkness is not the absence of light; that would be too simple. It’s more uncontrollable and sinister. Not a place but a void. I was there once. More than once. And although I could not see or hear you, you were there, waiting. Because the darkness is not dark to you, at least, isn’t always. You wept, not because your friend was dead, but because soon you would be and because we couldn’t understand it, or didn’t want to, or both. The coming darkness was too deep for us to grasp. 

    But then, so is the light. One had to come before the other. It was always that way with you. It still is. Tears fell from your eyes and then ours. Before every light in the world went out, and time itself went to die with you. I go back to that place sometimes, or rather, it comes back to me, uninvited. The night it was eternal, until it wasn’t. Bitter, and then sweet. But somehow the bitter remained in the sweet and has never gone away. 

    You told us it would be like that, not with your words but with how you lived. The man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. That grief wasn’t what we wanted to see. So, we tried to look away, and in so doing, fulfilled your very essence, one from whom people hide their faces. But soon, we couldn’t hide from it any more than we could stop the sun from setting. Or rising. I remember you wishing there could be another way, and looking back, I do, too. I still don’t know why it has to be this way, the bitter often mingled with the sweet. Maybe I never will. At least, not this side of… 

 --Elizabeth Tabish
as Mary Magdalene
in “The Chosen,”
Season 4, Episode 7

Image source: https://aleteia.org/2024/02/07/mary-magdalene-of-the-chosen-opens-up-about-season-4/

No place for division (Pope Leo XIV / Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman)

The love of God has no limits.
We are called to let ourselves
be embraced and shaped by that love,
and to realize that in God’s eyes
– and our own as well –
there is no place for
division and hatred of any kind.

--Pope Leo XIV 

    Today we’re called to walk together in a new way toward that Land of Promise and to celebrate who we are and whose we aren’t. If we, as a Church, walk together – don’t let nobody separate you – that’s one thing black folk can teach you – don’t let folks divide you up – you know, put the lay folk over here and the clergy over here – put the bishops in one room and the clergy in the other room – put the women over here and the men over here – The Church teaches us that the Church is a family of families and the family got to stay together and we know, that if we do stay together– we know that if we do stay together – if we walk and talk and work and play and stand together in Jesus’ name – we’ll be who we say we are – truly Catholic and we shall overcome – overcome the poverty – overcome the loneliness – overcome the alienation and build together a Holy city … where they’ll know that we are here because we love one another. 

--Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman 

Image source: Prayer for Wholeness Gathering, Mill Valley, CA, September 15, 2018, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1992340400827372&type=3
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Lead, Kindly Light (St. John Henry Newman)

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on.
Keep Thou my feet;
I do not ask to see the distant scene;
one step enough for me. 

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that
Thou shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on.
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, pride ruled my will;
Remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. 

--St. John Henry Newman,
The Pillar of the Cloud

Image source 1: https://ferrelljenkins.blog/2011/11/16/keep-your-lamps-burning/ 
Image source 2: Simon Dewey, Lead, Kindly Light, available for purchase at: https://www.deseretbook.com/product/5098123.html?srsltid=AfmBOooZ_I4iJeCRvRQvSKm2yjC0-XZ5etO9ENMjPBYcTCZt9eP8_Tla
Poem source

Like a pillar of fire (St. Francis de Sales / Pope Francis)

Faith is a ray of supernatural light
that brightens our minds.
It enables us to see God in all things,
and all things in God.

--St. Francis de Sales 

   Indeed, his light cannot be reduced to a “magical moment”! It would thus become something false, artificial, something that would dissolve into the fog of passing sentiment. On the contrary, Christ is the light that orients our journey like the pillar of fire for the people in the desert. 

--Pope Francis

Happy Feast of St. Francis de Sales! 

Image source: Tehila Bechhofer, Pillar of Fire, https://www.instagram.com/p/DCc8KMnRuf6/
Quotation source

Light in the darkness (Jon Fosse / Henri Nouwen)

It’s in the hopelessness and despair,
in the darkness, that God is closest to us.
 It’s just when things are darkest,
blackest, that you see the light…

--Jon Fosse, Septology 

Dear Lord, 

Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. I know there is light in the darkness that makes everything new. I know there is new life in suffering that opens a new earth for me. I know there is a joy beyond sorrow that rejuvenates my heart. Yes, Lord, I know that you are, that you act, that you love, that you indeed are Light, Life, and Truth. 

People, work, plans, projects, ideas, meetings, buildings, paintings, music, and literature can only give me real joy and peace when I can see and hear them as reflections of your presence, your glory, your kingdom. Let me then see and hear. Lord, show me your vision, become a guide in life and impart meaning to all my concerns. 

Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: Alper Doruk, photo, https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/reflection-perfection-60-photos-that-show-you-how-its-done/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 25, 2026: The Lord is my light and my salvation...

The Lord is my light and my salvation…
 Is Jesus the light in your darkness? 

    In Biblical times, darkness often represented danger or evil. Speaking of a time when Israel will be delivered from the Assyrians who have degraded the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the prophet Isaiah tells of God’s promise of a savior: Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness… The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. It is no surprise, then, that when, in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus goes to live in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, he is fulfilling the promise of Isaiah, embodying the very light of which Isaiah had spoken. Jesus is our light in the darkness, and when his future disciples see him, they immediately abandon all they are familiar with – their boats, their livelihood – to follow this light. He represents their opportunity to do as Psalm 27 suggests, to gaze on the loveliness of the Lord, and to dwell in his house forever. How beautiful would it be if we could always put ourselves in that place, recognizing God with us always, responding always from a place of love, God’s love, rather than from a place of the fear that all too often governs our lives. 

    It is because of the light of Christ, and in that light, that Paul can enjoin the Corinthians to seek unity, urging them to agree in what they say, with no divisions among them. The Corinthians have seen the light, by the grace of baptism, and need to focus on the good news, the truth of the passion, death, and rising of Jesus, the beacon of light who brings abundant joy and great rejoicing, and who dwells within them still. They, too, must recognize that the Lord is their light and their salvation, and act accordingly, living in the same mind and in the same purpose, ever attentive to the Lord revealed in their midst, responding with love rather than fear, that Jesus might continue to be the light in their darkness, as he is in our own. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation… 

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

I am light (India Arie)

I am light,
I am light
I am light,
I am light (2x) 

I am not the things my family did
I am not the voices in my head
I am not the pieces of the brokenness inside

Refrain

I'm not the mistakes that I have made
Or any of the things that caused me pain
I am not the pieces of the dream I left behind 

Refrain 

I am not the colour of my eyes
I am not the skin on the outside
I am not my age
I am not my race, my soul inside is all light

All light
All light, yeah
All light

I am light,
I am light
I am light,
I am light, yeah 

I am divinity defined
I am the god on the inside
I am a star
A piece of it all
I am light 

To hear India Arie sing “I Am Light,” click on the video below: 

Image source: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/blog/restoring-your-light-reconnecting-with-your-true-self-in-christ
Video source

Each of us is called (Laura Boysen-Aragón)

    Each of us is called by God. The call may not be as dramatic as the stories we heard today, but we are all called to live into our full selves. Sometimes, the call is difficult to hear at first. Sometimes our call does not fit within the confines of the systems that humans have created. Sometimes, [speaking up for justice] may require relaying difficult truths to people close to us. The psalmist sings of God putting a new song in our mouths, “to announce God’s justice in the vast assembly.” We must “not restrain our lips.” We are all called to speak out even when it is uncomfortable. Especially when it is uncomfortable. After all, that’s what Jesus did time and time again. 

--Laura Boysen-Aragón

Image source: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tree-in-the-rock
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Taking the first step (Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. / Pope Francis)

Faith is taking the first step,
even when you can’t see the whole staircase.

--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    God’s first call is to life, through which he makes us persons; it is an individual call because God does not make things in series. Then God calls us to faith and to become part of his family as children of God. Lastly, God calls us to a particular state in life: to give of ourselves on the path of matrimony, or that of the priesthood or consecrated life. They are different ways of realizing God’s design, the one he has for each of us that is always a design of love. God always calls. 

--Pope Francis

Image source 1: https://blog.reallyrightstuff.com/light-and-shadow/the-challenge-of-spiral-staircases-by-scott-stulberg
Image source 2: https://mississippitoday.org/2025/03/28/on-this-day-in-1961-martin-luther-king-made-his-last-march/
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