Step beyond the literal (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   To believe in the power of the Eucharist at work in us, we need to step beyond the literal and the tangible. If we can’t step beyond the literal and the tangible, we will not understand. We will misunderstand why Jesus came and what kind of life he wanted to share with us. It’s not a tangible life that he wants to share with us, it’s a spiritual life, a life of in-dwelling, he in us and yes, us in him – a shared existence, a Way, a Way through life where blessing is left behind in our wake because Christ is with us and we are with him.

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

Image source: https://zeenews.india.com/web-stories/lifestyle/optical-illusion-within-6-seconds-spot-the-two-hidden-things-2830229.html. What do you see in this image?  Look again!

Ruminating the Word of God (Pope Francis)

Ruminate, v., from the Latin, ruminari,
to chew repeatedly for an extended period

-- Merriam-Webster Dictionary

     The Word of the Lord should be repeated, made one’s own, safeguarded. The monastic tradition of the monks, uses an audacious but very concrete term. It goes like this: the Word of God must be “ruminated.” “To ruminate” the Word of God. We could say that it is so nutritious that it must reach every aspect of life: to involve, as Jesus says today, the entire heart, the entire soul, the entire mind, all of our strength (cf. v. 30). The Word of the Lord must resound, echo and re-echo within us. When there is this interior echo that repeats itself, it means that the Lord dwells in the heart. 

 --Pope Francis

Image source 1: https://www.facebook.com/groups/biblestudyprayerandrevival/posts/4478263632453740/
Image source 2:  https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/angelus/2021/documents/papa-francesco_angelus_20211031.html
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Beyond all human logic (Henri Nouwen)

    Remember the big crowd, five loaves, and two fish (Matt. 14:15-21)? Jesus said, “Give them something to eat.” The disciples responded, “Lord, fives loaves, two fish, big crowd? It doesn't fit.” Jesus said, “Give them something to eat.” And he said, “Throw out your nets.” They did and caught fish, but not just as many as they needed. They caught so many their nets could not hold all the fish. It is the same with the crowd. Jesus didn't just want to be sure everyone got a little piece of bread. There were twelve big baskets of leftovers! And the boat was so full of fish that Simon didn't know what to do with them. 

    Jesus breaks right through our normal logic. He is moving all of reality to the kingdom. Suddenly the fishermen were no longer living in the logic of the world. They had entered the logic of God's house, which is beyond all human logic. They had entered a whole new world. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Miracle of the Five Loaves and Two Fish (16th c.), https://lisahendey.com/your-gifts-matter-five-loaves-and-two-fish/
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Multiplied (Bishop Robert Barron)

     What you have received as a gift, give as a gift – and you will find the original gift multiplied and enhanced. 

--Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: Juan de Espinal, The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (ca. 1750), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Milagro_de_los_panes_y_los_peces,_de_Juan_de_Espinal_(Ayuntamiento_de_Sevilla).jpg 

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O holy and sacred inebriation (St. Francis de Sales)

All you who are thirsty,
come to the water! 

--Isaiah 55:1 

    Now in all divine mysteries there is food provided for dear friends to eat and drink well, and for dearest friends to be inebriated. Some eat and drink, but they eat more than they drink and so are not inebriated: the others eat and drink, but drink more than they eat, and those are they who are inebriated. Now to eat is to meditate, for in meditating a man doth chew, turning his spiritual meat hither and thither between the teeth of consideration, to bruise, break and digest it, which is not done without some labour. To drink is to contemplate, which we do without labour or difficulty, yea with pleasure and tranquillity. 

    But to be inebriated is to contemplate so frequently and so ardently as to be quite out of self to be wholly in God. O holy and sacred inebriation, which, contrarily to corporal inebriation, does not alienate us from the spiritual sense, but from the corporal senses; does not dull or besot us, but angelicizes and in a sort deifies us; putting us out of ourselves, not to abase us and rank us with beasts, as terrestrial drunkenness does, but to raise us above ourselves and range us with angels, so that we may live more in God than in ourselves, being attentive to and occupied in seeing his beauty and being united to his goodness by love! 

--St. Francis de Sales,
Treatise on the Love of God,
Book VI, chapter 6 

Source of images: Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Teresa (1652), https://news.artnet.com/art-world/bernini-the-ecstasy-of-saint-teresa-2659785
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 2, 2026: The hand of the Lord feeds us...

The hand of the Lord feeds us...
What feeds you? 

    Our readings this Sunday all focus on the ways God provides for our needs, feeds us, in other words, in ways we can perhaps only begin to appreciate… First, the prophet Isaiah reminds the people of Israel that God has never failed to meet their physical needs, sending water, wine, and milk for the thirsty and grain for the hungry and poor, those who have no money. 

   More importantly, though, God meets their needs with food that nourishes the soul, in the deepest sense: Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life, he says. In other words, take in my Word, digest it, let it fill you and feed you entirely… for the Word is more satisfying than any tangible food; it is our means to an ever-renewing covenant with God. These sentiments are echoed in Psalm 145, in which the psalmist stresses God’s loving willingness to give us our food in due season, again, with a focus on meeting our spiritual needs with God’s justice, grace, and mercy. 

     It is perhaps not surprising, then, that this week we hear Matthew’s version of the Loaves and Fishes, the quintessential example of Jesus providing for the people with overwhelming love. Taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, giving it: the point is not just that Jesus did this, once or twice, but that he does it, every day, through Eucharist, entering fully into relationship with us, every day, though we may not be ready for it. And the implicit message to the disciples – his intermediaries in the distribution of this communal meal – is that they too are sent forth (as are we!) to feed others with God’s Word, with God’s infinite love, finding their need and healing that need with grace. 

    What can separate us from the love of Christ?, Paul asks the Romans. His answer? Nothing – nothing on heaven or on earth – can stand between us and the love of God. We may struggle to live this love; that is our challenge is a world that is afraid, a world whose defenses against anguish, distress and persecution are high. But with open hearts, we are capable of true justice. Filled with the love of God present to us in Eucharist, we ourselves are not only fed, we are able also to feed others, capable of being life-giving to those we meet, capable of being food for the world. 

    What feeds you? God’s love.
 Allow it to fill you, so that you might feed others in turn! 

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

Saying "yes" to the reign of God (Fr. James Martin)

    [In one of Jesus’ parables,] a man finds a treasure buried in a field and sells everything to purchase the field. So far, so good, we think, until we realize that the man apparently never told the rightful owner of the field about the treasure! 

    Jesus is not inviting us to do immoral things—that is, to be sneaky with someone else’s money or buy something under false pretenses. Rather, he is recommending a particular aspect of this (fictional) character as an important attitude for the disciple: single-mindedness. The finder of the treasure is single-minded in their pursuit. 

    A second parable offered today is about a merchant searching for fine pearls. Once he discovers the “pearl of great price” (in another translation, a “specially valuable pearl”) he sells all that he has to purchase it. 

    So Jesus’s point is not only about single-mindedness, or single-heartedness, but also about the inestimable value of what has been discovered. (In one case, the person finds it unexpectedly; in another, he is searching for it.) Of course, both of these parables and the third one offered today—the fishing net that brings in fish of various sorts, both good and bad, which are sorted out—are about the central theme of Jesus’s preaching: the reign of God. 

    Jesus’s immoral heroes are vaguely disreputable, but they are also shrewd—that is, smart. And the wisdom that Jesus asks us to accept is the wisdom of saying "yes" to the reign of God, which is both our treasure and the pearl of great price. 

--Fr. James Martin,
July 30, 2023

Image source: Fish!  https://biblefilms.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-chosen-2019-s1e04.html
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