At its best, the church is a murmuration (Rev. Spencer Reece)

     [Starlings] fly in one mass of love. They have no leader. They pulse as a single entity. The starlings are the words of Paul come to life: ‘For all of you are one.’” 

     At its best, church is a murmuration. If it’s done right, a priest is a leader who is being led. But if you’re a leader and you think your ego is in charge of all the starlings, it won’t work. You have to shrink your ego to the size of a pea, and that’s not an easy thing to do. The power of church is community and community-building. And the future of the church is how it will bridge to the secular world. 

     The beauty of starlings is as beautiful as the murmuration of the disciples as they gather for the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus stands before them like the Statue of Liberty and asks them to consider a call to radical love. Bless everyone you can think of until you can’t think straight. Everyone listening, in a mass of love. Everyone led by Jesus, a leader who is led.

--Rev. Spencer Reece

To watch a beautifully filmed murmuration of starlings, click on the video below: 

Image source: https://www.carolynanderson.com/blog/174266/a-murmuration-of-starlings
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The Church the world needs today (Pope Leo XIV)

Here is the church.
Here is the steeple.
Open the doors and
see all the people.

--Children's rhyme

      A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today. 

--Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi te

Image source 1: https://saintcoleman.org/cst-love-for-poor

Image source 2: https://katyandtheword.com/2012/06/15/here-is-the-church-here-is-the-steeple-open-the-doors/

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Her full, total yes (St. Edith Stein / Fr. Settimio M. Manelli F.I.)

The kingdom began on earth
when the blessed Virgin spoke her
Be it unto me.

 --St. Edith Stein 

    Such ‘consent,’ given by Mary, is not merely private, but expresses the willing participation of man, of humanity, in the work of salvation. In the freedom of Mary, at that instant, were contained all the desires, fears, and hopes of man in need of redemption. And the New Eve spoke her full, total yes to the angel of light, just the first Eve had once spoken her yes to the angel of darkness. Moreover, the response given by Mary to the angel also expresses, in addition to her consent, a humble and unconditional dedication to the plan of God entrusted to her. 

–Fr. Settimio M. Manelli, F.I.

In May, we honor
the Blessed Virgin Mary…

Image source: Daniel Braniff, Annunciation window (1966), Dominican College, Belfast, Ireland, https://www.facebook.com/groups/303462353173920/posts/3134290370091090/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 3, 2026: Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do...

Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do…

How much God can accomplish through us,

if only we are one in Christ! 

   One of the single most important takeaways from the beginning of Jesus’ Last Supper Discourse in John’s Gospel is the fundamental union of Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, with his Father, from the time of the Incarnation to Jesus’ death on the cross and beyond: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, Jesus tells his disciples. Through his death, Jesus gives us access to divine life as well: I am going to prepare a place for you, he says. We are baptized into Christ’s death so we might join him in resurrection. But the place he prepares is here, now – it is relationship. Jesus calls us to be fully alive in him, here and now, on earth as it is in heaven. How? Where I am going you know the way, Jesus tells his disciples; I am the way and the truth and the life. Jesus, the perfect revelation of God’s infinite love for all creation, teaches us the way. Love is the way. Love is truth. Love is life. Love is what we are called to. 

   Although, as we see in the Acts of the Apostles, the early Christian community had its growing pains, with Hellenists complaining against Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution, the community is still very much grounded in their faith in this truth: that they too are called together, as a community, to act in concert as a community for the benefit of all, through love. They can only do so if they recognize the centrality of the Spirit and the importance of the wisdom they gain from the word of God, placing their trust in the Lord, as Psalm 33 reminds them to do. 

   The importance of interdependence is reinforced in the First Letter of Peter, which calls upon the Christian community of the author’s time to let themselves be built into a spiritual house, not a tangible structure but rather an intentional union in Christ, the cornerstone of our faith. Like the community in Acts, these Christians must work not only to meet the needs of their own, but call others to faith, for this is the work of God, and to do the work of God, they must be one in Jesus who is the revelation of God. Together we are called to learn the way and the truth and the life that is Jesus, and to build upon all that he accomplished, allowing the Lord to work through us for the benefit of our world.

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

Their hearts are changed (Jackie Bacon)

     The Acts of the Apostles provides us with the opportunity to witness one of the truly “aha” moments in Christianity, when people see something quite extraordinary and they are changed. On the day of Pentecost, we see Peter and the other disciples filled with the Holy Spirit, and Peter interprets the recent Christ events and the arrival of the Holy Spirit for them. The crowds see the effects of the arrival of the Holy Spirit on these simple, flawed fishermen, and what they see and what they hear is so gripping, so compelling, that their hearts are changed. They ask, What are we do to? Peter says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Peter then issues a call to action: Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. 

    The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, is such a recurring focus in Acts, referring not only to a changed mind, but to a profound conversion that changes the heart, moving people from where they were before to where they are now: a very different place because of Jesus and faith. They are new people, individuals transformed, a group transformed, a Body transformed. That is what Peter is asking the people of Israel. 

--Jackie Bacon,
OLMC Communion Service,
April 2, 2024 

Image source: Fra Angelico, St. Peter Preaching in the Presence of St. Mark (c.1433), https://www.wikiart.org/en/fra-angelico/st-peter-preaching-in-the-presence-of-st-mark

Oftentimes we do not recognize the gift (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

     Oftentimes, in our own self-perception, we do not recognize what God has done in creating us. We do not recognize the gift that he has gifted the world with. We don’t know what we are capable of, but God has loved each one of us infinitely, which means that each one of us has an infinite capacity. The smallest seed brings forth a great, large shrub that gives shade to others. 

     For the longest time, we were all taught to work for our own salvation. That stood in contrast and contradiction to everything Jesus taught. We cannot find salvation on our own. We can in each other’s context. That’s why we gather here. We long to be with the Lord, and we gather here to be with the Lord in each other, to affirm his presence in one another, to help each of us leave this place knowing that God is at work in us, knowing that the infinite capacity of his love is contained in us. We do not control the growth, but we allow it. 

     We have to stop working for ourselves, trying to find that holiness we think only can be found in isolation. Holiness is found in one another. We are blessed profoundly in one another because the gifts that you have not the gifts that I have, and if you want a whole set, you need more than you can bring on your own; we all do. That is what draws us together, for then we encounter the one who makes us holy and we live a love that we are only beginning to understand. This is grace: he is present here, now, always, every time we gather, so that we might live… in him. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, June 16, 2024

We are so grateful, Fr. Pat,
for these words of wisdom,
which seem so very appropriate today
as we celebrate your birthday.
 You may not often recognize
what God has done in creating you,
 but the OLMC community sees God
working through you daily,
and we know we are blessed to have you.
Thank you for all you do for us,
and for all you do with us!
May you be abundantly blessed
today and always,
as you are blessing to us all! 

Image source 1: Fr. Pat celebrates Mass on Palm Sunday 2025, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1116331353865611&set=a.1116337687198311

Image source 2: Fr. Pat works with Joe R. and Rodrigo to prepare the OLMC Memorial Day Float, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1233405612158184&set=a.1233430658822346

At the center of your being (Henri Nouwen)

     Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and ask him more directly to give you joy, peace, and a pure heart. Purity of heart means a heart where God is the center of your attention. Take a simple sentence like “The Lord is my shepherd there is nothing I shall want,” and repeat that quietly during the day until the truth of it enters the center of your being. You will always continue to have feelings of depression, anger, and restlessness, but when God dwells in the center of the storm, the storm is less frightening and you can live with trust that in the midst of all of the darkness you will be led to a place of joy and peace. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: Christ in a mandorla, which is often a representation of the door through which we must pass to live in him; Evangelistar von Speyer (1220), Manuscript in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe, Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandorla#/media/File:Codex_Bruchsal_1_01v_cropped.jpg
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