We don't live on bread alone (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   We don’t live on bread alone. Jesus told us that. Our soul too needs to be fed and its food is affirmation, recognition, and blessing. Every one of us needs to be healthily affirmed when we do something well so as to have resources within us with which to affirm others. We can’t give what we haven’t got! 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI,
Facebook, July 7, 2021 

Image source: OLMC parishioner Chris Murphy manning the beverage station at Fr. Pat’s “Welcome Back!” Party, March 2023, one of many volunteers who made that event possible – bless them all! https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=586128333552585&set=a.586141140217971
Quotation source

Feed the hungry (St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata)

   I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I’m praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things. 

 --St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata 

Image source: Children in Gurap, India, working together to prepare pumpkins for lunch, photo by Fr. Patrick Michaels, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2281364652045716&set=a.101422990039904 ; see also https://triberisingindia.org/gallery/.
Quotation source

Jesus took the loaves (Manuel Cardoso)

Accepit ergo Jesus panes:

et cum gratias egisset,

distribuit discumbentibus:

similiter et ex piscibus

quantum volebant. 

Jesus then took the loaves,

and when he had given thanks,

he distributed them to those who were seated;

so also the fish,

as much as they wanted. 

To hear Manuel Cardoso’s (1566-1650) choral work, Accepit ergo Jesus panes, please click on the video below: 

Image source: Armenian manuscript, Daniel of Uranc Gospel (1433), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeding_the_multitude#/media/File:Feeding_the_multitude,_Daniel_of_Uranc,_1433.jpg
Video source

The deepest hunger of the human heart (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Today’s Gospel tells of the feeding of the five thousand, which is a type of the Mass. Jesus is interested not only in instructing the crowds but also in feeding them. Copying this rhythm, the Mass moves from the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. 

    The disciples supply a poor pittance—five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus makes the customary Eucharistic moves in regard to the bread: taking, giving thanks, and distributing. And everyone is fed. 

    During the sacred liturgy, the priest, on behalf of the people, offers to God a small pittance: some wafers of bread and some wine and water. But because God has no need of these gifts, they come back infinitely multiplied for the benefit of the people. Through the power of Christ’s word, those gifts become his very Body and Blood, the only food capable of feeding the deepest hunger of the human heart. 

    This liturgical rhythm is beautifully conveyed by the laconic lines: “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.” 

 --Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, April 21, 2023 

Image source: Balavendra Elias, The Miracle of the Loaves & Fishes, wood carving, https://loandbeholdbible.com/2017/11/19/the-multiplication-of-the-loaves-john-61-15/

If we have given what we could (St. Gregory of Nazianzus)

   Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to the one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could. 

--St. Gregory of Nazianzus 

Image source: https://sanctuarybaptist.org/2021/07/25/five-loaves-two-fishes-and-a-pocketful-of-prayers-make-a-church/
Quotation source

God will magnify it (Fr. James Martin)

   Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed with life’s problems, whether in our families, our churches, our countries or our world. And we can feel powerless to do anything in the face of these problems. 

   But [Sunday’s] gospel, in which Jesus multiplies five loaves and two fish to feed a vast crowd, shows us that we only need to bring whatever we can into the world, and God will magnify it. 

   Notice, in the Gospel, that the one who brings the loaves and fishes to the disciples is a boy, who was probably prompted to do that by his parents. They gave what little they had. 

   We can do the same, even in the face of overwhelming odds: Love as you can, give as you can, forgive as you. And trust that God will magnify what you bring. 

--Fr. James Martin,
Facebook, July 25, 2021

Image source: Fish and Loaves, Byzantine mosaic, Chapel of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, Tabgha, https://www.bibleplaces.com/tabgha/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 28, 2024: The hand of the Lord feeds us...

The hand of the Lord feeds us…

And we are to feed one another! 

    God has always provided for God’s people. When, in the Second Book of Kings, the people of Israel are faced with a famine, the prophet Elisha knows that a meager offering of twenty barley loaves along with fresh grain in the ear will be enough. Give it to the people to eat, he tells his servant Gehazi, and when the servant protests that it can’t possibly be enough for a hundred people, Elisha shares God’s own words on the matter: You will eat and have some left over. The prophet knows that, as Psalm 145 reminds us, The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs. God will always give us food in due season, because God works to provide, no matter what barriers we might erect to stop him. 

    Jesus feeds a much larger crowd in John’s Gospel, but, while this miracle would surely have recalled to the people the work of the prophet Elisha, Jesus offers so much more than food to satisfy their physical hunger. Even the disciples see the situation as hopeless: There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many? Andrew asks. When Jesus provides more than enough food for the crowd, they immediately see in him the fulfillment of the ancient prophesies: This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world. Jesus’ ability to do what, to the human mind, is impossible causes them to want to come and carry him off to make him king. Jesus speaks to their hearts. 

    Like our Lord, we are called to be aware of others’ needs and to provide for them. This is integral to what it means to be church, as Paul reminds the Ephesians: in order to live in a manner worthy of the call we have received, we must bear with one another through love, allowing love to be what guides us in all of our relationships, that we might remain in union with Christ and in union with one another. We encounter Christ in Eucharist, of course, but we also encounter Christ in community, a unity that shares one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all. We can only provide for all if we are one in him, that we might be the hand of the Lord that feeds all through the power of his love. 

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

A communion of salvation (Karl Rahner / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

As regards to our salvation,
we remain dependent on other human beings…
Human beings are in a communion
of salvation and its opposite.

–Karl Rahner 

    Karl Rahner once explained it this way: Our love for each other does not just give us friendship and companionship here on earth, important though these are. It does something else too for us. It links us to love in such a way that when we stand before God and make our choice, a fundamental choice for all eternity, we stand there already connected in love to a community of grace and therefore much more prone to choose love and God. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI 

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/stbernpar/photos/a.265438283540196/3986741174743203/?type=3
Source of quotations (and much more fully developed article)

The wide-open pastures of our faith (Fr. Timothy Radcliffe)

    We are gathered in this Synod because we too are divided and hope and pray for unity of heart and mind. This should be our precious witness in a world which is torn apart by conflict and inequality. The Body of Christ should embody that peace which Jesus promised and for which the world longs. 

    [I have identified] two sources of division: Our conflicting hopes and different visions of the Church as home. But there is no need for these tensions to tear us apart. We are bearers of a hope beyond hope, and the spacious home of the Kingdom in which the Lord tells us there are ‘many dwelling places’ (John 14.1). 

    Of course not every hope or opinion is legitimate. But orthodoxy is spacious and heresy is narrow. The Lord leads his sheep out of the small enclosure of the sheepfold into the wide-open pastures of our faith. At Easter, he will lead them out of the small locked room into the unbounded vastness of God, ‘God’s plenty.’ 

--Fr. Timothy Radcliffe 

Image source: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/jesus-christ/what-does-it-mean-that-jesus-is-our-shepherd-today.html 
Quotation source

Like sheep without a shepherd (Bishop Robert Barron)

    [Sunday’s] Gospel shows Jesus’ compassion for the multitude in the desert. "When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." 

    There is the motif of the people Israel in the desert after their escape from Egypt. Isolated, alone, afraid, and without food, they clamored for something from Moses. Here we see people who are dying to be fed, and a prophet who is under threat of death. This crowd around the threatened Jesus is a metaphor for the Church. We have come to him because we are hungry, and we stay even when things look bleak. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, February 5, 2022

Image source: James Tissot, Le Sermon des Béatitudes (1886-1896), https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TissotBeatitudes.JPG

Bringing God's salvation (Sr. Joan Chittister / Pope Francis)

Compassion is the thread of God
that runs through the soul of the human race.

 --Sr. Joan Chittister 

    For Jesus, bringing God's salvation to all was the greatest happiness, the mission, the meaning of his existence (cf. Gal 6:38) or, as he says, his nourishment (cf. Gal 4:34). And in every word and action with which we unite ourselves to Him, in the beautiful adventure of giving love, light and joy multiply (cfr Is 9,2): not only around us, but also in us. To proclaim the Gospel, then, is not time wasted: it is to be happier by helping others; it is to free oneself by helping others to be free; it is to become better by helping others to be better! 

--Pope Francis, March 13, 2024 

Image source: https://www.summitkids.com/blog/encouraging-helping-behaviors-in-young-children/
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source

Jesus went to where people needed him (Fr. James Martin)

   God meets you where you are. Jesus went to where people needed him. Mary appears to those who are suffering. All of this is part of God’s great mercy for each of us individually, but especially the poor and marginal. Our call is to emulate God, Jesus and Mary, in our preferential option for those who are in most need of our love, care and compassion. 

--Fr. James Martin,

Outreach, February 3 & 4, 2024

Image source: Jan Verhas, The Raising of the Widow’s Son in Nain (1860), https://divinerenovation.org/blog/jesus-speaks-to-me-a-focus-on-mothers/

Quotation source

Moved in the center of his being (Henri Nouwen)

   The mystery of God’s love is not that our pain is taken away, but that God first wants to share that pain with us. Out of this divine solidarity comes new life. Jesus’ being moved in the center of his being by human pain is indeed a movement toward new life. God is our God, the God of the living. In the divine womb of God, life is always born again…. The truly good news is that God is not a distant God, a God to be feared and avoided, a God of revenge, but a God who is moved by our pains and participates in the fullness of the human struggle. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://m.bibleodyssey.org/articles/jesus-lazarus-and-friendship/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 21, 2024: His heart was moved with pity for them...

His heart was moved with pity for them… 

What does it mean to say Jesus saves? 

    The history of the people of Israel is filled with shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of the Lord’s pasture. The prophet Jeremiah takes aim at one of them, Zedekiah, the final King of Judah who failed to take care of the people and protect them from Nebuchadnezzar II. Zedekiah did not understand, as Psalm 23 tells us, that the Lord is his shepherd who will unite, rather than scatter, his people. Unlike King David, Zedekiah did not trust in God’s leadership and insisted on being directed by his own will rather than by God’s. But Jeremiah gives the people hope: Behold, I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; he shall do what is right and just in the land. Jeremiah, like the psalmist King David, knows that God is always there to lead us and to care for us. But we have to have confidence in order to be able to express such confidence. 

    Even when, in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tries to take his disciples away to a deserted place so they can rest a while, the crowds show up in great numbers. Jesus’ compassion for the crowd, who appear like sheep without a shepherd, is so great that his heart is moved with pity for them, and he reaches out immediately. Why is he not annoyed by this intrusion? It has to do with where his heart his: Jesus is mercy, and his instinct is to take care of his people. Jesus is the one God promised who comes to save his people in their distress. He is, as Paul tells the Ephesians, our peace, a savior who breaks down the dividing wall of enmity between Jews and Gentiles, who, through the cross, gives them access in one Spirit to the Father, and brings them into one Body with one life – a life in him – to share. Our shared life in Christ is indeed what saves us, that we might manifest his love to our world, through our unity and community. This is what it means to say Jesus saves… 

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

What do you need for your mission? (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Jesus sends the Twelve on their mission to announce the nearness of the kingdom. I want to say a few things about our embracing our mission and being equipped for it. 

    What do you need for your mission? You need a keen sense of God as the absolute center of your life. In a word, you require the spiritual gifts of piety and fear of the Lord. I realize that these terms can sound fussy and puritanical, but they are actually naming something strong and essential. 

    You need fear of the Lord, which does not mean that you are afraid of God. It means that nothing to you is more important than God, that everything in your life centers around and is subordinate to your love for God. And your equipping needs to include piety. That means that you honor God above everything else, that you worship him alone. These spiritual gifts enable you to find true balance; they allow you to know what your life is about. 

    Equipped with these gifts, you are ready for mission. Having received the fire of the Holy Spirit, you are ready to set the world on fire. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, July 11, 2021 

Image source: OLMC, Easter Vigil 2024, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=834294138736002&set=a.829490822549667

To carry the Christ Child (A Reflection on Our Lady of Mount Carmel)

How would the world respond if we walked around
carrying the Child Jesus in our arms? 

    The prophet Zechariah probably never imagined that, when God came to dwell among us, stirring forth from his holy dwelling, he would do so in the form of a child, a babe in arms. But might Mary have had Zechariah’s prophecy in mind when the angel Gabriel came and said to her, the child to be born will be the Son of God, Emmanuel, God dwelling among us?  Mary -- beautiful, embodied, blessed Mary -- said yes to God and yes to the Incarnation, yes to the invitation of God to dwell within her, that he might dwell among us. 

    Today we celebrate the Patroness of our parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a feast that, like all Marian feasts, is Christological. The Church teaches us that Mary’s love for her Son was and is perfect, the most perfect love humanly possible. St. Francis de Sales wrote that, the love of the Mother of Love surpasses that of all others. Is it any surprise, then, that most of our representations of Mary are of the Madonna and Child? What a moving portrayal of the love of God, embodied! 

    As we see around our church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel is generally depicted with the Christ child in her lap. Carmelite tradition has it that the first representation of Our Lady of Mount Carmel dates all the way back to St. Luke (circa 70-80 AD?, above), in the form of an icon he created that came into the possession of the Carmelite Order on Mount Carmel in Palestine. The Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel built a monastery there, dedicated to Mary under another title, Star of the Sea, but they were called Carmelites and Our Lady of Mount Carmel was their patroness. When the Carmelites were forced to flee Palestine in the early thirteenth century (due to a resumption of Muslim rule in that area), they took St. Luke’s icon with them and became mendicant friars in Europe, still under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. 

    Not long after, in 1251, St. Simon Stock, an English priest and prior of the Carmelites, became concerned about the survival of his order, and prayed to Mary. Carmelite tradition has it that Our Lady appeared to Simon and gave him a full-body scapular, with the promise that whoever died clothed in the habit would not suffer the fires of hell. This tradition evolved into lay use of the (much smaller) brown scapular. One imagines that Our Lady appeared to Simon Stock with the child Jesus on her lap, a sure sign of God’s mercy, peace, and protection bestowed upon the Carmelite community, God dwelling among them! 

    The medieval theologian Meister Eckhart once wrote, We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to the Son if I do not also give birth to Him in my time, in my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of God is begotten by us.

    Like Our Lady, our Patroness, we are invited to say yes to God’s will, yes to God’s love, yes to God’s Son dwelling among us and within us. We are to carry this Christ Child, begotten anew by us, with us always, so that we may reveal God’s loving mercy to our world by magnifying all that the Lord has done and continues to do in our lives, with us, in us, and through us. 

    May we hold that baby close, hug him gently to our breast, as Mary did, that he might be a beacon of peace, love, and mercy in our world! 

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel!

Image source 1: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Icon purportedly written by St. Luke the Evangelist,  https://carmelourladysdovecote.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/story-of-the-miraculous-painting-of-our-lady-of-mount-carmel/

Image source 2:  St. Simon Stock receives the brown scapular from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Mill Valley (photo by Fr. Pat), https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.673491021482982&type=3

Our job (Fr. Patrick Michaels / Pope Francis)

That’s our job:
to love so intensely 

that other hearts will open 

to him who loves us all. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, May 14, 2023

   The Bible shows us that when God calls a person and makes a pact with some of them, the criterion is always this: elect someone to reach others, this is the criterion of God, of God’s calling. 

--Pope Francis, November 22, 2023

Image source: https://biblestudymedia.com/blogs/daily-lectionary-devotional/why-jesus-did-jesus-send-out-disciples-two-by-two
Quotation source

Joyous energy for mission (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    A number of the great Christian mystics have taught us that as we grow more deeply in our relationship with God, we gradually become more bold with God. Fear gives way more and more to intimacy. Judgment gives way more and more to empathy, and the kind of piety that would have us clinging to the knees of Jesus paralyzed by our own sinfulness gives way more and more to a joyous energy for mission. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI,
Facebook, July 19, 2023 

Image source: The Chosen, Season 3, episode 2, still, https://www.vox.com/culture/23807450/what-is-the-chosen-series-why-so-popular-controversy 

To be Christian (C.S. Lewis / Fr. Patrick Michaels)

Our desire is not only to SEE glory, 

but to participate in the glory we see.

 

―C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

To be Christian is not to belong to a denomination; it is to be one in Christ. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Scripture Class, July 8, 2021 

 

Image source: http://wcucatholic.org/glory-to-god-in-the-highest/

Free to speak (Henri Nouwen)

   The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world—free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless; free also to receive love from people and to be grateful for all the signs of God’s presence in the world. I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source 1: The Prophet Amos, after Gustave Doré, http://www.biblejunkies.com/2013/09/rediscovering-prophet-amos.html
Image source 2: James Tissot, The Prophet Amos (c.1900), https://www.artbible.info/art/large/219.html
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 11, 2024: In him we were chosen...

In him we were chosen…

How does God decide whom to send out? 

   Have you ever noticed that God does not necessarily always choose the “obvious” candidate for a job? When, for example, Amaziah tries to dismiss the prophet Amos, who isn’t saying what the community wants to hear – Off with you, visionary! – Amos responds that his being a prophet was not his choice but God’s: The Lord took me from following the flock, and said to me, Go, prophesy to my people Israel. God knows Amos is a sheep breeder and dresser of sycamores, but God chooses him anyway, because God knows Amos’s gifts. Even when he is rejected, Amos will persist, for such is God’s will. 

   Jesus similarly chooses unexpected candidates to send for with the good news in Mark’s Gospel. The Twelve, whom he sends out two by two, giving them authority over unclean spirits, come from modest backgrounds; some are fishermen. Their only instruction is to rely upon the Lord in all things; they are to take nothing for the journey. Jesus also reassures them that if they encounter rejection, this is not a sign of failure: leave there and shake the dust off your feet. Remain filled with God’s presence, in other words, and leave the negativity behind. Jesus’ intent is simply that they be fruitful. They have heard what God proclaims, as Psalm 85 puts it, and know that near indeed is salvation to those who fear the Lord. 

   In his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul reminds the community to pay attention to its call. The Ephesians have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, Paul says, and, like the disciples, they have been chosen for the praise of God’s glory. Like them we are destined to be brothers and sisters of Christ, one with him through baptism, recognizing the grace of God at work in our lives and living from it. Like the Ephesians, we are meant to give witness to that good news, revealing God’s justice to all and drawing them to God as we praise his glory… even when the good news is rejected by those to whom we reveal it. Our common identity in Christ calls us to no less. 

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

Do I live as a witness of Jesus? (Pope Francis)

   The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward” (Mt 10:41). Each one of us, brothers and sisters, is a prophet. In fact, with Baptism, all of us received the gift of the prophetic mission. A prophet is a living sign who points God out to others. A prophet is a reflection of Christ’s light on the path of the brothers and sisters. And so, we can ask ourselves: Do I, -- each one of us – Do I, who am “a prophet by election” through Baptism, do I speak, and above all, do I live as a witness of Jesus? Do I bring a little bit of his light into the life of another person? Do I evaluate myself on this? I ask myself: What is my bearing witness like, what is my prophecy like? 

--Pope Francis, July 4, 2023 

Image source: https://catholicwomeninbusiness.com/articles/2022/1/14/navigating-the-catholic-faith-in-a-secular-workplace
Quotation source

Faith (Mat Nelson / Fr. Mark Hallinan SJ)

In Christianity, the heart has a
certain primacy over the head;
for God judges hearts, not heads.
Faith is largely a matter of the heart—
indeed, its surrendering, even breaking.

 --Mat Nelson,

The Challenge of Being a Christian

    Faith in who Jesus is comes through an extended encounter with Jesus, through an extended reflection on one’s encounter with him. It is in and through an encounter with Jesus that persons with the eyes of faith, an openness to God’s grace, can come to see who he is and profess their faith in him. 

--Mark Hallinan, SJ

Easter Sunday homily, 2024,

 Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, NYC 

Image source: He Qi, The Road to Emmaus, https://www.facebook.com/oursaviorsburbank/photos/a.133460446676425/3075483942474046/?type=3html
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Commissioned as a prophet (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Jesus’ hometown rejects him as a prophet. And I want to say a word about your role as a prophet. 

   When most lay people hear about prophecy, they sit back and their eyes glaze over. “That’s something for the priests and the bishops to worry about; they’re the modern-day prophets. I don’t have that call or that responsibility.” 

   Well, think again! Vatican II emphasized the universal call to holiness, rooted in the dynamics of Baptism. Every baptized person is conformed unto Christ—priest, prophet, and king. Whenever you assist at Mass, you are exercising your priestly office, participating in the worship of God. Whenever you direct your kids to discover their mission in the Church, or provide guidance to someone in the spiritual life, you are exercising your kingly office. 

   As a baptized individual, you are also commissioned as a prophet—which is to say, a speaker of God’s truth. And the prophetic word is not your own. It is not the result of your own meditations on the spiritual life, as valuable and correct as those may be. The prophetic word is the word of God given to you by God. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, March 13, 2023

Image source: Still shot, Jesus is rejected at Nazareth, from The Chosen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeMg72qRA4I

Tears of love (Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI)

      To be a prophet is not to proclaim oneself loudly as counter-cultural, as cultural deviant, as agitator, as divine disturber, as righteous protector of the poor, as angry by divine right. To be a prophet is to love the world and hope that you never have to get angry with it. To be a prophet is to cry tears of love when you are angry. To be a prophet is to get angry only to lead back to love. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI,
Facebook, December 21, 2022

Image source: Rogier van der Weyden, detail, the tears of Mary of Clopas, Descent from the Cross (ca.1435), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crying#/media/File:Weyden,_Rogier_van_der_-_Descent_from_the_Cross_-_Detail_women_(left).jpg

A vow of love (Daniel Berrigan SJ)

A prophet makes 

a vow of love,

not of alienation. 

--Daniel Berrigan, SJ 

Image source: Statue of the Prophet Ezekiel, Column of the Immaculate Conception, Piazza Mignanelli, Rome, https://slmedia.org/blog/word-alive-the-call-of-the-prophet
Quotation source

Happy Interdependence Day!

   Last week, my friend Carrie Newcomer and I were talking about July 4th, Independence Day. Independence is a treasure, of course—but it’s only one pole of a paradox that makes for a good society. 

   The other pole is interdependence, a word to name the fact that we’re all in this together and need each other. So, we propose designating July 5th as “Interdependence Day." 

   On this day, we highlight our connections to one another, we celebrate the interdependence of nature and the human community, and we remember the abundance we can generate when we come together to care for each other and Mother Earth. 

   We thought up some things we could do on Interdependence Day, such as flying flags with all the colors of the rainbow behind an image of this beautiful blue boat we call earth. We could plant trees and remind folks to repair, reuse, and recycle. We could drop in on people who rarely get visitors, have a get-acquainted talk, and invite them to a meal. 

   Carrie suggested that instead of picnics with hot dogs and hamburgers we grill up some tofu pups, and buy everything from the local farmer's market. I like the idea of locally-sourced food, but the tofu must be optional! 

   And instead of fireworks, how about sitting on the steps or the porch, or in the yard or the park, telling stories and singing songs, watching the moon rise and taking time to appreciate life together? 

   Happy Interdependence Day, everyone! If your July 5th is already filled with work and family obligations, consider Interdependence Day a moveable feast that we can and should celebrate 365 days a year! 

--Parker Palmer, Facebook, July 5, 2019

Image source: https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2023/09/05/protect-porch

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 7, 2024: A prophet is not without honor except in his native place...

A prophet is not without honor except in his native place…

How can our faith help us see the Lord clearly? 

    Why do we have so much trouble listening to those whom God sends? When the prophet Ezekiel is sent to the Israelites – his own people! – he has no expectation of being successful, since God tells him that they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this day. Yet when Ezekiel, God’s prophet, speaks on God’s behalf, God says, the people shall know that a prophet has been among them. Similarly, when, in Mark's Gospel, Jesus goes to his own native place, Nazareth, the people of that town presume to know him: Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary? they ask. They fail to see who Jesus really is; they fail to listen to the one God sends. Like the people of Israel with Ezekiel, the people of Nazareth erect a barrier between themselves and the one who comes as God’s mouthpiece, Jesus. A prophet is not without honor except in his native place, Jesus intones. In Nazareth, there is no faith that what Jesus does comes from God, and so he is not able to perform any mighty deed there. 

    Paul encounters a similar barrier when he goes to preach the good news to the Corinthian community. Although he has borne insults, hardships, persecutions and constraints, Paul perseveres. He is there for the community; he cares about them, and so continues to write to them and to love them. His weaknesses allow God’s love to shine through. When the Lord tells him, My grace is sufficient for you, Paul knows full well that this is a gift he has not earned, but God gives it to him anyway. Grace is the experience of the presence of God; Paul knows God is there with him throughout this trial, helping Paul to bear the thorn in the flesh that is his lot. 

    Here, as always, God’s power is most seen, most visible, when we have need of him; in the throes of our own brokenness, God’s grace sustains us, and God’s power is made perfect through our weakness. Do we, like the people of Nazareth, presume a relationship with the Lord that does not fully recognize his identity? Is our relationship with him deep enough for him to work through our weakness? Is it profound enough for his grace to work in our lives? Are we ready to open ourselves to ongoing grace? Are our eyes on the Lord, our God, as in Psalm 123? In the end, faith does not make miracles happen. Rather, faith is an open door that gives Christ access to work in our lives. Faith permissions. But do we have faith? Will we allow God’s love to shine through our weakness, through our brokenness? Is our faith sufficient to bring down any barriers we might erect between ourselves and the one God sent? 

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

Pray for our nation (Catholically)

   As we approach the 4th of July, a day synonymous with barbecues, fireworks, and parades, it's essential to remember the deeper meaning behind the celebration. 

   For us Catholics, this day holds a unique significance. It's not just about celebrating the birth of our nation; it's also about reflecting on our faith and the role it plays in our lives and our country. The 4th of July is a celebration of freedom, a concept deeply ingrained in our Catholic faith. Our faith teaches us that true freedom comes from God and is a gift to be cherished and protected. 

   As we celebrate our nation's independence, let's also celebrate the spiritual freedom we enjoy through our faith. As Catholics, we are called to be active participants in our society, contributing to the common good and upholding the principles of justice and peace. 

   The 4th of July is an excellent opportunity to reflect on how we can better serve our communities and live out our faith in our daily lives. While enjoying the festivities, let's also take a moment to pray. Pray for our nation, for peace, and for the protection of the freedoms we hold dear. Pray for those who have sacrificed for our freedom and those who continue to do so. 

   As we celebrate this 4th of July, let's remember to carry the light of our faith into the world. Let's be beacons of hope, love, and peace in our communities. And let's continue to pray for our nation and for each other. 

--Catholically 

Image source: https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/jogging-our-collective-memory-on-july-4th-christian-faith-has-been-bedrock-of-our-nation
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Be that one (Mike McHargue / Sheri Eckert)

If you want to help someone heal,
love them without an agenda.

 --Mike McHargue 

   Be that one. That one who forgives when deep offense has been committed. That one who loves when no one else does. That one who gives kindness to those who are mean. Be that one who looks past the insult, instead seeing the pain that motivated it. That one who shines light upon those who sit in utter darkness. Because the impact of being that one runs far and wide. It brings healing to the wounded, joy to the sad, and hope to those in despair. Be that one. 

--Sheri Eckert 

Image source. https://ordainminister.com/whatever-you-do-in-life-will-be-insignificant-but-it-is-very-important-you-do-it/
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Made for another world (C.S. Lewis / Thomas Salerno)

If I find in myself desires which
nothing in this world can satisfy,
the only logical explanation is that
I was made for another world.

―C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

    Every human being has cosmic significance. God created this vast and astonishing universe not only as an expression of his creative omnipotence, but also so that he could have a personal relationship with you and with every other person. 

    Some might dismiss such a worldview as naively anthropocentric. I disagree; it’s fundamentally theocentric. God is love (cf. 1 John 4:16), and he created the cosmos out of love in order to give life to creatures he could love and who could freely choose to love him in return. Love is the fundamental law of the universe, far more than any physical law of electromagnetism, gravity, or entropy. 

    The French Jesuit and paleoanthropologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin envisioned creation as a dynamic, ongoing process. He speculated that everything in the universe was evolving towards an ultimate unification, a dramatic and final climax he called the “Omega Point.” Teilhard’s particular ideas about progressive evolution might have been mistaken, but certainly Scripture reveals to us that at the eschaton when Christ returns in glory and history arrives at its consummation, he will draw all things to himself and “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). 

--Thomas J. Salerno 

Quotation 1 source
Image and Quotation 2 source: https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/contributors/spiritual-insights-from-nasas-james-webb-space-telescope/?fbclid=IwAR0eTogMJU2ktzyVNtPVG4jtLaNMOJB6bbke0gQZGsnsk9GVsM1XRyr9F2k

We grow by giving (Anne Frank / Pope Francis)

No one has ever become poor by giving. 

--Anne Frank 

   The Spirit, the living memory of the Church, reminds us that we are born from a gift and that we grow by giving, not by holding on, but by giving of ourselves. 

--Pope Francis

Image source: https://www.sfarch.org/catholics-become-fieldworkers-in-st-vincent-de-paul-society-following-saints-path/
Quotation source 1
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