Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 3, 2025: Your life is hidden with Christ in God...

Your life is hidden with Christ in God…
How do we maintain our focus on the eternal? 

   Our existence on this earth is transitory. Psalm 90 reminds us that human life is short and out of our control, for death is ever menacing: You turn men back to dust; you make an end of them in their sleep. Only God can assuage our anxiety: Teach us to number our days aright, the psalmist prays, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we might shout for joy and gladness all our days. Qoheleth, 3rd-century B.C. author of the Book of Ecclesiastes, similarly wrote: All things are vanity! Qoheleth knew that human beings run after things that won’t last, investing all of their knowledge and skill in the temporal, and yet the only product of their toil is anxiety of heart. Fortunately, as Qoheleth also recognizes, God has also put the timeless into human hearts, a connection to the divine that dwells within us. 

   In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will likewise remind his followers that, though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions, which are ephemeral and transitory. The so-called parable of the rich fool, whose land produced a bountiful harvest, but who lost everything by an untimely death, is meant to lay bare the self-focus inherent in greed. Rather, Jesus wants followers who are rich in what matters to God, which Paul describes to the Colossians as a life hidden with Christ in God. In baptism, we put on the new self in the image of our creator, working toward a union in Christ that is eternal. So long as we let go of all that keeps us from him – vanity and every kind of self-focus – so long as we stay open, our hearts not hardened, we can live in God’s time, kairos time. It is there that we will meet Christ our life and appear with him in glory, rich in what matters to God! 

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

I throw all my cares before You (Passion)

For prayer is nothing else
but being on terms of friendship with God.

--St. Teresa of Avila

Find your freedom… 

Speak to me
When the silence steals my voice
You understand me
You understand me 

Come to me
In the valley of unknowns
You understand me
You understand me
You understand me, God
You understand me 

So I throw all my cares before You
My doubts and fears don't scare You
You're bigger than I thought You were
You're bigger than I thought
I stop all negotiations
With the God of all creation
You're bigger than I thought You were
You're bigger than I thought You were 

So much bigger than I thought
You're bigger than I thought You were 

I believe
But help my unbelief
You understand me
You understand me

Help me reach
The faith that's underneath
You understand me
You understand me
Yes, You understand me, God
You understand me, oh

Refrain 

I will rest in the Father's hands
Leave the rest in the Father's hands (bis)

Refrain 

To hear Passion sing Bigger Than I Thought You Were, click on the video below: 

Image source: Mount Tamalpais, Mill Valley, CA,  https://www.sunset.com/travel/california/tam-secrets
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We begin with a plea (St. Padre Pio / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

You must speak to Jesus
not only with your lips,
but with your heart.

--St. Padre Pio

    In our more reflective moments, and in our more desperate moments, we feel our need for prayer and try to go to that deep place. But, given our lack of trust and our lack of practice, we struggle to get there. We don’t know how to pray or how to sustain ourselves in prayer. But in this we are in good company, with Jesus’ disciples. And so a good beginning is to recognize what we need and where it is found. We need to begin with a plea: Lord, teach us to pray! 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI 

Image source: Patrick Dougher, Higher Power, https://artandtheology.org/2023/01/15/a-prayer-by-claude-mckay/
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To pray you open your whole self (Joy Harjo)

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty. 

--Joy Harjo, Eagle Poem 

Image source: https://vt.audubon.org/news/bald-eagles-are-set-soar-vermonts-endangered-species-list
Poem source

Pray with faith (Bishop Robert Barron)

   [Sunday's Gospel was] about prayer and the power of prayer. This excerpt from Luke is filled with wisdom in regard to the proper attitude of prayer. What is prayer, and how should we pray? Prayer is intimate communion and conversation with God. Judging from Jesus’ own life, prayer is something that we ought to do often, especially at key moments of our lives. 

   Well, how should we pray? What does it look like? You have to pray with faith. Have you noticed how Jesus says before working a miracle, “Do you believe I can do this?” Can you hear the simple faith in this astonishing line of Jesus: “I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.” 

   And today he says, “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, October 10, 2024

 
Image source: James Tissot, The Lord’s Prayer (Le Pater Noster) (1850), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer
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Prayer is a conversation (St. Alphonsus Ligouri / Hans Urs von Balthasar)

Acquire the habit of speaking to God
as if you were alone with Him,
familiarly and with confidence and love,
as to the dearest and most loving of friends.

--St. Alphonsus Ligouri

    Firstly, prayer is a conversation between God and the soul, and secondly, a particular language is spoken: God’s language. Prayer is dialogue, not man’s monologue before God. 

--Hans Urs von Balthasar

Image source: https://whatisthegospel.blog/gospel-history/friend-of-god/
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Being persistent with God (Pope Francis)

   God knows our needs better than we do ourselves, but he wants us to present them to him boldly and persistently, because this is our way of participating in his work of salvation. Prayer is the first and principle “working instrument” we have in our hands! In being persistent with God, we don’t need to convince him, but to strengthen our faith and our patience, meaning our ability to strive together with God for the things that are truly important and necessary. In prayer there are two of us: God and I, striving together for the important things. 

--Pope Francis, July 24, 2016 

Image source: George Henry Boughton, Woman Kneeling in Prayer (watercolor on paper, ca. 1860), https://art.thewalters.org/object/37.1384/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 27, 2025: Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me...

Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me…
When was the last time you had a real conversation with God? 

   In Psalm 138, it is clear that when the psalmist cried out for help God responded: I will give thanks to you, o Lord, with all my heart, for you have heard the words of my mouth, the psalmist sings, confident that the Lord will always answer. The patriarch Abraham is similarly confident in God’s patience and love, and so he is bold in his conversation with the Lord in the Book of Genesis. Abraham believes that the Lord may destroy the city of Sodom, and so his prayer takes the form of a real conversation; Abraham wants to understand just how far God’s mercy will reach. Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city, Abraham asks, Would you wipe out place? What about forty-five, forty, thirty? What if there are no more than twenty? What if there are at least ten? It is almost endearing: Abraham is open enough to be able to converse with the Lord, and the Lord loves Abraham enough to endure his persistent questions. We can almost see them both smiling as the conversation continues… 

   When they see Jesus himself praying, the disciples in Luke’s Gospel ask Jesus, Teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. The disciples seek what Jesus has – to be sustained by a relationship grounded in prayer – and Jesus has a connection to the Father unlike any they’ve seen or witnessed. Notice that the prayer Jesus teaches them begins with that word, Father; they are first to address God by a word that connects, a word that draws them into relationship. Their prayer is also to be constant: God our friend will give us whatever we need because of our persistence. Jesus is speaking throughout of where their heart is when they pray, hopeful that they will cultivate an intimacy with the Lord that is greater than anything they might have imagined. 

   Jesus would again pray before his disciples while on the cross. Aware that our own salvation means entering into Jesus’ death – being buried with him in baptism, as Paul tells the Colossians – that we might rise with him, we should seek the transformation that prayer offers us in order to remain one with him always, forgiven of all transgressions. We long for the kind of relationship that Jesus enjoys with the Father, like the one that Abraham enjoyed with his God, and God himself longs for such a relationship with us, a relationship with no distance between us, so that God’s love and mercy can pour out abundantly on us. When we enter into prayer, we are drawing nearer to all God wants us to be, and mercy is ours. Let us pray one day to see God smiling at us as he must have smiled upon Abraham, full of love for the one who seeks him in persistent prayer. 

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

When a stranger appears at your door (Naomi Shihab Nye)

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have the strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends you don’t care. 

Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse. 

No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world. 

I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea. 

--Naomi Shihab Nye,
“Red Brocade”

Image source 1: Sr. Petra Clare, The Hospitality of Abraham (icon), https://loandbeholdbible.com/2017/05/19/the-hospitality-of-abraham-genesis-181-15/
Image source 2: https://www.finedininglovers.com/explore/articles/pine-nuts-z-26-things-know
Poem source

We are friends of his (Fr. Patrick Michaels / Giaches de Wert)

   The Church struggles; it always has, from its very beginnings. We wait for revelation to draw us further into the love of God. We wait to understand and we struggle to try and do what Christ has called us to. It’s in that that we remain church. Those who would envision a perfect society where everyone is the virtuous person they imagine we should be will ultimately be disappointed. But you and I, every day, have the opportunity to love a little more. When we take that opportunity, Christ is present, we are friends of his, and we are doing what he commands. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, May 5, 2024 

To hear Giaches de Wert’s meditation on last Sunday’s Gospel, Intravit Jesum, click on the video below.  The text in Latin is that of Sunday's gospel from Luke (the story of Jesus in the house of Martha and Mary):

Intravit Jesus in quoddam castellum et mulier
quaedam Marta nomine excepit illum in domum suam
Et huic erat soror nomine Maria,
 quae etiam sedens secus pedes Domini audiebat verbum illius
Marta autem satagebat circa frequens ministerium,
quae stetit et ait: 

Domine, non est tibi curae
quod soror mea reliquit me solam ministrare?
Dic ergo illi ut me adjuvet.

Et respondens dixit illi Dominus:
Marta, Marta, solicita es et turbaris erga plurima,
porro unum еst necessarium
Maria optimam partem еlegit
quae non auferetur ab ea 

Image source: He Qi, Martha and Mary, https://concordpastor.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-stroll-through-gallery-of-martha-and.html
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Full participation in the life of discipleship (St. Francis de Sales / Bishop Robert Barron)

Necessary employments,
according to each one’s vocation,
do not diminish Divine love, but increase it,
and gild, as it were, the work of devotion.

 --St. Francis de Sales,
Treatise on the Love of God,
Book 12, Chapter 5 

    One of the principal marks of Jesus’ teaching and ministry is the overturning of social conventions. And one of the most striking and surprising of Jesus’ moves was a radical inclusion of women. 

    While this typically women’s work was going on, men would sit out in the main room of the residence and talk. If a prominent rabbi or Pharisee were present, the men would sit at his feet and listen to his words. 

    Now we can see why Mary’s attitude was so offensive to Martha and probably to everyone else in the room. Martha wasn’t simply mad that Mary was giving her more work to do; she was mad that Mary had the gall to assume the stance of a man, to take up her position in the men’s space. 

    In his response to Martha’s complaint, Jesus signals more than a preference for listening over acting; he invites a woman into full participation in the life of discipleship. “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, October 8, 2024 

Image source: Pieter Aertsen, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha (15), https://boijmans.nl/en/collection/artworks/1618/christ-in-the-house-of-martha-and-mary
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They lived lives of boldness (Susan Fleming McGurgan)

Why are Martha’s actions unsatisfactory?

In his own ministry,
Jesus emphasizes feeding people,
providing wine and bread and fish;
dining, sharing, offering radical hospitality
to the point where he and his disciples are criticized for it. 

Why is Martha criticized for doing what Jesus himself did?

[…]

Is Martha a cautionary tale for the overwhelmed?
Or do we hear in her,
the anguished voice of a woman
who sees her role and her ministerial responsibilities
being pulled away,
diminished,
dismissed,
and calling on her sister in ministry to come to her support? 

And Mary… 

Is Mary the model of a bold disciple,
claiming her space among the men, 
or is she a figure that illustrates
the importance of women keeping silence? 

I don’t know. 

And none of the brilliant scholars
who study this story know, either.
All we can do is view Mary and Martha and Jesus
through the eyes of faith
and the crucible of our experience
and reflect on the possibilities—
knowing and trusting
that Christ is with us in the reflection. 

We can embrace and emulate
the sisters' close relationship with Jesus,
a friendship so deep that they trust him
with their anger,
their silence, their choices.
We know that later, they trust him even unto death,
as he commanded their beloved Lazarus to exit the tomb. 

We can give thanks for their courage in following Jesus.
We know that Martha and Mary,
like other women we meet in Scripture,
lived lives of boldness,
whatever else the world may say about them. 

--Susan Fleming McGurgan 

To read Susan Fleming McGurgan’s remarkably insightful piece on the complicated story of Martha and Mary in its entirety (and worth every minute!), click here. 

Image source 1: Martha and Mary in The Chosen,  https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/shows/the-chosen-season-4-episode-5-ending-explained-jesus-visits-home-lazarus
Image source 2: St. John's Bible, There Is Need of Only One Things,  https://magazine.berea.edu/summer-2015/a-year-with-the-saint-johns-bible-seeing-the-divine/
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Hospitality that blurs boundaries (Annalise Jolley)

    Hospitality that blurs boundary lines—both in public and at home—is less about throwing dinner parties and more about opening a doorway to growth through participating in diverse community. It is a spiritually-enlivening, if often uncomfortable practice. 

   As Siddiqui writes, “When honoured and exercised as a divine imperative, it is about knowing that reaching out to others is an act of worship, thus challenging, humbling and spiritually transformative.” 

--Annalise Jolley

Image source: https://medium.com/faith-hacking-101/abraham-the-three-visitors-92e37437741a
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Hospitality brings new life (Henri Nouwen)

   [I]f there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality. It is one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight in our relationships to our fellow human beings. Old and New Testament stories not only show how serious our obligation is to welcome the stranger to our home, but they also tell us that guests are carrying precious gifts with them, which they are eager to reveal to a receptive host. 

   When Abraham received three strangers at Mamre and offered them water, bread and a fine tender calf, they revealed themselves to him as the Lord announcing that Sarah his wife would give birth to a son (Genesis 18: 1-15). When the widow of Zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah, he revealed himself as a man of God offering her an abundance of oil and meal and raising her son from the dead (1 Kings 17:9-24). When two travelers to Emmaus invited the stranger, who had joined them on the road to stay with them for the night, he made himself known in the breaking of the bread as their Lord and Saviour (Luke 24:13-35). 

   When hostility is converted into hospitality then strangers can become guests revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them... Thus the biblical stories help us to realize not just that hospitality is an important virtue, but even more that in the context of hospitality guest and host can reveal their most precious gifts and bring new life to each other. 

--Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out

Image source: Giovanni Andrea de' Ferrari, Abraham and the Three Angels (ca.1660-1669), http://www.slam.org/collection/objects/34104/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 20, 2025: Let me bring you a little food, that you might refresh yourselves...

Let me bring you a little food, that you might refresh yourselves…
Are we ready to offer extraordinary hospitality to the Lord? 

    When, in the Book of Genesis, the Lord appears to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, Abraham does not seem to be entirely sure who his guest is… or are. For the Lord appears before him in the form of three men standing nearby, at once singular and multiple. Yet, even in his uncertainty, Abraham goes overboard, offering fresh rolls, a tender, choice steer, and curds and milk. Abraham is ready to enter into the presence of the Lord, as Psalm 15 puts it, for Abraham does justice, living according to the law and in right relationship with his God. Meeting the needs of his neighbor, Abraham lives in the presence of God! 

    In Luke’s Gospel, Martha and Mary similarly offer hospitality to Jesus. Martha serves, taking care of Jesus’ physical needs, while Mary listens, which is in fact itself a form of service. Both are important, although Martha’s service is somewhat marred by the anxiety she allows to creep into her actions: Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things, Jesus says. Martha’s worry diminishes her gift, and she does not seem to see that her sister Mary is also providing Jesus with something important. Both, however, are themselves gifted by the presence of Jesus in their home, and by all that he can teach them. 

    By contrast, St. Paul never met the Colossians, yet he too offers them what he can in terms of teaching in his letter to their community, rejoicing in his own sufferings for their sake. Paul knows that baptism offers us a new life focused in the Spirit; he invites the Colossians to enter into Jesus’ death and suffering more profoundly, that they might best participate in what it means to be church. It is Christ in you, Paul says, the hope for glory. Identifying with them as members of the Body, Paul affirms their shared mission: it is Christ whom we proclaim. Even at a distance, Paul connects. 

    Paul and the Colossians may not have the benefit of a shared meal, as Abraham does with his visitors, or Martha and Mary with theirs, but all participate in God’s activity. For us, the opportunity to both give and receive extraordinary hospitality is present every time we come together to celebrate the Eucharist, sharing in the Eucharistic meal as a participation in God’s activity right here and now. Won’t you join us? 

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

Mary opened her vision (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

    Think of what would have happened if Mary had just decided to work within the confines of her own narrow perspective! How would the Savior have been born? No, I’m not married yet, so I can’t have a child. It’s not possible; think again. If Mary thought only in terms of the narrow field of her own experience, she would not have had the child and salvation would not have come through her. But she opened her vision so that she could see, so that she could see what God sees, that the impossible is possible. All you have to do is open your heart. 

    Miracles happen all the time! Any one of us can be involved in a miracle, if we are open to what needs to be done. What happens when we see the need for mercy and we offer it, rather than the need for condemnation? What happens when we see the need for compassion and we offer it, rather than the need for indifference? What happens when we see the need for help, and we help, rather than saying, it’s not my job, not my responsibility? God can work miracles in us all the time. We just have to be open to it. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,

Homily, July 16, 2023

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,

Patroness of our Parish!

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=587301054664654&set=a.556998306465588
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The garment of mercy (Pope Francis)

    Without grace we cannot take a step forward in Christian life. Everything is grace. It is not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord; one must be open to a journey of conversion, which changes the heart. The garment of mercy, which God offers us unceasingly, is the free gift of his love; it is precisely grace. And it demands to be welcomed with astonishment and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for having given me this gift.” 

--Pope Francis, Angelus,
October 11, 2020 

 

Image source: Vasily Surikov, The Good Samaritan (1874), https://arthive.com/vasilysurikov/works/404388~The_good_Samaritan#google_vignette,  
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When lives become ministry (Katy Carl / Henri Nouwen)

Hope is to be found only in each
individual soul’s imitation of Christ
and in the ever deeper saturation of culture
with the authentic virtues of mercy,
charity, humility, and the non-exploitative,
non-competitive just treatment of all.

--Katy Carl 

    Solitude molds self-righteous people into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own great sinfulness and so fully aware of God’s even greater mercy that their life itself becomes ministry. In such a ministry there is hardly any difference left between doing and being. When we are filled with God’s merciful presence, we can do nothing other than minister because our whole being witnesses to the light that has come into the darkness. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: https://www.biblejournal.net/2020/06/16/merciful/
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A refusal to unchoose the other (Fr. Patrick Michaels / Dr. Tom Neal)

To love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart, with all your being,
with all your strength, and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.
The redemption of Creation lies in 
our capacity to take today's readings seriously.

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Scripture Class, July 10, 2025,
on the readings for the Fifteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time, Year C

    For Catholics it is above all in those relationships we find ourselves thrust into—relationships that resist the shifting sands of whim or preference—that we learn what it means to be truly human. [Francis Cardinal George] argued it is among the people we are “stuck to” that we become capable of grasping the deep meaning hidden in the divine command, “You shall love your neighbor as your self.” For when we are confronted by the unsought face of a neah bur—one “near by”—love encounters its highest calling. 

    Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable is about a man who finds himself confronted by a victim of violence who, simply by virtue of his proximity, imposes the severe demands of mercy on the Samaritan passerby. Unlike the priest and Levite, the Samaritan traveler refuses to unchoose this victim by passing on the other side of the road. Rather, he draws nigh, stooping low and pouring out compassion on a stranger’s wounds he claimed as his own. 

    The moral of the story is made even more stark by Jesus’ insertion of the dark Jewish-Samaritan history of ethnic, cultural, and religious hatred. Such ancient and powerful rationales for unchoosing others simply dissolve under the force of this parable’s inexorable logic, making clear to all hearers there is no room in the kingdom of God for those who choose to exclude anyone from laying claim on their own freely offered love. 

--Dr. Tom Neal 

Image source: François Ribas, The Good Samaritan, Temple de Bière, Switzerland, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1785622648381496
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The love of one's neighbor (Karl Rahner)

     The love of one’s neighbor which is comprised in the love of God, also chiefly consists in our receiving the whole divine life by the power of God’s grace, with faith and love, into the depths of our heart, in such a way that it extends and redounds to a blessing for others who by our side, like us, are to receive the one and only salvation from the eternal God. 

--Karl Rahner,
Mary, Mother of the Lord 

Image source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2021/11/24/grace-flows-to-the-lowest-part-yet-always-lifts-us-higher-give-generously/
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To be other Christs (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Every story, parable, illustration, and exhortation is, at the end of the day, a picture of the Lord. 

   In one of the great windows of Chartres Cathedral there is an intertwining of two stories, the account of the fall of mankind and the parable of the Good Samaritan. This reflects a connection that was made by the Church Fathers. The Good Samaritan is a symbol of Jesus himself, in his role as Savior of the world. 

 

   Now our task is to be other Christs. “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus says to him, “Go and do likewise.” 

    We spend our lives now looking for those people stranded by the road, victimized by sin. We don’t walk by, indifferent to them, but rather we do what Jesus did—even for those who are our natural enemies, even for those who frighten us. And we bring the Church’s power to bear, pouring in the oil and wine of compassion, communicating the power of Christ’s cross. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, October 7, 2024 

Source of images: Chartres Cathedral, Good Samaritan & Creation Window, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Samaritan_Window,_Chartres_Cathedral
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 13, 2025: Take care of him!

Take care of him!
How important are the relationships in your life? 

    In the Book of Deuteronomy, shortly after reminding the people of Israel that God has always been faithful to God’s covenant with them, Moses offers the people a clear path to restoring relationship with the Lord. If only you would heed the voice of the Lord, your God, and keep his commandments, Moses says. And no excuses! The people know the law; the Shema is already in their mouths and in their hearts; they have only, Moses explains, to carry it out. All they need to do, in other words, is to decide that they want to live in relationship with God, turning back to the Lord, as Psalm 69 says, and connecting deeply with the God who brought them into existence. For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, and fulfill all of his promises to those who remain in relationship with him. 

    The scholar of the law who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life also knows the law; he can recite the Shema perfectly. But Jesus challenges him with the parable of the Good Samaritan, to be sure that his understanding of the injunction to love his neighbor as himself is complete. Luke’s Gospel makes it clear that, in Jesus’ time, contact with fluids from the body was believed to make one unclean, and so both the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road, unwilling to touch the man who fell victim to robbers and was left half-dead. But God’s love and mercy, Jesus says, are meant to be shared with all, no matter their origin; our love of neighbor must likewise be for all, for every relationship is important! 

    We believe, as Paul tells the Colossians, that Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God; he is also head of the body, the church. As the firstborn of all creation, Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the very love and mercy he preaches to the scholar of the law. Jesus is also our access to the Father, the source of our connection to God. We are one in him; his death and rising have made this possible. And we, in turn, are called to be the manifestation of Christ in our world, bringing his mercy to all in every single relationship, cultivating and nourishing them with his love. 

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

Sweetly broken (Jeremy Riddle)

To the cross, I look, and to the cross, I cling
Of it's suffering, I do drink, of its work, I do sing
On it, my Savior, both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love and God is just 

At the cross, You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees
And I am lost for words, so lost in love
I'm sweetly broken, wholly surrendered 
Yeah, yeah, oh Lord 

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given through Christ crucified
You've called me out of death
You've called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now, through the cross, I'm reconciled 

Refrain

And in awe of the cross, I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love
And how great is Your faithfulness 

Refrain 

Yeah, yeah, I'm broken for you
I'm broken for you, my Lord, yeah Jesus,
Your love is there I am sweetly broken 

To hear Jeremy Riddle sing “Sweetly Broken,” click on the video below: 

Image source 1: Roger Wagner & Patrick Costeloe. Crucifixion window, St. Mary’s, Iffley, Oxford. In 2012, design artist Roger Wagner installed this window at the northwest corner of the nave. It features a Tree of Life adorned with the figure of the Crucified Christ. The design was translated into glass by master glazier Patrick Costeloe. The installation was carried out by Norgrove Studios. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2938197199691249&set=gm.2849892455197551&idorvanity=303462353173920
Image source 2: Crucifixion, mosaic, Eglise St. John Bosco, Paris, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2442661372767979&set=pcb.4121127144831023
Video source

Joy is the very being and presence of God (Pope Francis / Dr. Angela. Gorrell)

The joy of men and women who love God
attracts others to him.

 --Pope Francis 

    But there’s also the act of rejoicing, which is a choice. I tell people, 'You can’t make joy.’ The feeling of joy is a gift from God. I think joy is also the feeling that we get when we’re being ministered to by God. Joy is the very being and presence of God, which is why joy can be felt in the midst of suffering. But we can choose to rejoice, to look for beauty, goodness, truth and meaning in the world and choose to actively rejoice over it… we can choose to be ready for joy. To be postured for joy. To be open to it. 

   There is redemptive restorative joy, healing joy. There is a groundedness. Joy grounds us. When we feel it we feel it deeply. It can overwhelm us. The gravity of joy also pulls us toward each other because joy is contagious. 

--Dr. Angela Gorrell 

Image source: https://blessedcatholicmom.com/live-with-joy/
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Snuggle in God's arms (Kay Arthur / St. Francis de Sales)

Snuggle in God’s arms. When you are hurting,
when you feel lonely, left out.
 Let Him cradle you, comfort. you,
reassure you of his all-sufficient power and love.

--Kay Arthur 

St. Francis de Sales found the image of God as a nursing mother to be a powerful one:

   Certainly, just as one sees a famished little child so strongly glued to his mother's side and attached to her breast, avidly pressing this gentle fountain of sweet and desirable liqueur, in such a way that one might think he wants either to bury himself entirely in the maternal breast, or draw and suck that whole breast into his own, so our soul, panting from extreme thirst for the true good, when it encounters the inexhaustible source of the good in the Divinity, O true God, what holy and sweet ardor to unite and join oneself to these breasts abounding in al! goodness, either to be entirely engulfed by [the good], or that it might come to reside entirely in us.

--St. Francis de Sales,
Treatise on the Love of God,
Book III, Chapter 8

Image source: Mary Cassatt, Young Mother Nursing Her Child (1906), https://www.artic.edu/artworks/3541/young-mother-nursing-her-child
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The mercy we are meant to go out and proclaim (Fr. Ron Rolheiser / Fr. Patrick Michaels)

All invitations from God
come as an invitation, not as a threat.
 It’s through love and not a threat
that God invites us into life and discipleship.

 --Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

    [Sunday’s] gospel passage seems to almost give a string of instructions that are loosely strung together and not really explained. Some seem to be, but it’s not entirely clear what links all of these instructions together. In fact, the link is that the disciples who are being sent out already know the kingdom. They know the grace of Christ’s presence in their lives. They know and have had a taste of the kingdom they are going out to proclaim. The kingdom of God is at hand: they have already been through this process of reconciling the depth of their own sinfulness with the gracious mercy of Jesus who is among them. They already know this kingdom. 

    That is why the peculiar Watanabe in O’Brien Hall, the one with five figures, is called “Five Apostles.” The text attached to it is, I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. The five figures are celebrating in a paradise environment filled with flowers and birds and butterflies. Because even though the world may threaten them, the mercy of God is greater. The kingdom is greater. And when they go out, that is what they are to keep in mind. It is to be central to what they do. Then they won’t need a walking stick or a sack or money – because they have the one thing they do need: they have the kingdom within them. 

   That is what they are going to proclaim to all the places Jesus intends to visit, that they might see the kingdom at work in something. That is what we are supposed to be about. We’re supposed to come to this deep realization of how far we have fallen, how much we failed to follow through on the Lord’s commands, but only so that it might draw us closer to him and closer to the mercy that we are meant to go out and proclaim to the world. For mercy is the kingdom. We are to take the kingdom with us, give witness to it, and it is to send us out into other people’s lives, not to leave us turned in on ourselves. 

    These seventy-two go out because they have been transformed, and Jesus hasn’t even died yet. Think of how much power Christ has invested in us, that we might do the same. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, October 5, 2023 

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, Five Apostles, https://www.weschlers.com/auction-lot/sadao-watanabe-japanese-1913-1996-five-apostle_D974AFCB7B. This woodcut also hangs in O’Brien Hall.

Completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble (G. K. Chesterton / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

Jesus promised his disciples three things –
that they would be completely fearless,
absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.

--G. K. Chesterton 

    The Gospel is not so much good advice as it is “good news.” It tells us how much God loves us. God is as proud of us as is any mother of her children. Peace comes to us when we can enjoy that favor. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser

Image source: The Chosen, clip, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzU94kejFXM
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She is here for our country (Bishop Robert Barron / Chris Sparks)

We are a missionary Church.
We are sent by the Lord to spread his word and do his work.
The Christian Gospel is just not something
that we are meant to cling to for our own benefit.
Rather, it is like seed that we are meant to give away.
We do this work together, with others, in community.
We don’t go it alone.

--Bishop Robert Barron 

    As we celebrate our nation’s birth on July 4, it’s a good time to ask Our Lady, Immaculately Conceived, to intercede for us, all of us, from sea to shining sea. She is our mother, after all — mother for all of us: those on the left or the right, Democrat or Republican, whatever our ethnicity, race, or even creed. Our Lady is the New Eve, Mother of the New Adam, and the Refuge of Sinners; she has been given the whole human race by God. 

    So let us imitate God and bring her everyone we think most needs her intercession. Let us take some time as we pray for our nation to bring to mind those we think most heroic, most patriotic, and pray for them. Let’s also take some time to bring to mind those we think least patriotic, those people whom we are frightened of or feel threatened by, and let’s hand those people to Our Lady, as well. She loves everyone better than we do; she knows what we need better than we do; she is utterly trustworthy, and her intercession is powerful beyond the dreams of everyone here below. 

    Take all your hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, worries and fears, and give them to Our Lady. Hand her everything, past, present, and future. She has been there for our country; she is here for our country; she will be there for our country. Light a candle before an image of her and say a prayer. 

   May God bless America, and may Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, keep us all safely in her Immaculate Heart! May she intercede for the conversion of America’s enemies into America’s friends! May her prayers win the conversion of all hearts, the peace that comes from God alone, and true justice and mercy in our wounded nation. 

--Chris Sparks

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Image & Quotation 2: https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/fourth-july-call-our-spiritual-mother

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 7, 2025: As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you...

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you…
If God is with us, how can we not rejoice?

    As the Book of the Prophet Isaiah comes to a close, the Lord instructs the people of Israel to stop mourning and instead rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her. The city to which the people are returning is personified as a nursing mother: Oh, that you may suck fully at the milk of her comfort, the Lord says. It is not the vision of prosperity that should cause the people to rejoice, but the Lord’s invitation to relationship, an invitation to intimacy with a maternal God who is generous and nurturing and caring, a God whose capacity to care for us is infinite! Once the people accept God’s invitation, they will be able to, as Psalm 66 suggests, Shout joyfully to God and sing praise to the glory of his name, even speaking to God directly, saying, How tremendous are your deeds! 

   If these Old Testament readings show individuals who rely entirely upon God, whose identity comes from God alone, this same dynamic would continue throughout Jesus’ lifetime. When, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus appoints seventy-two whom he sends ahead of him in pairs, he instructs them to go out with confidence, for he will be with them, intimately present to them, throughout their journey. As the disciples discover, even the demons are subject to them because of Jesus’ name. It is precisely their relationship with the Lord that allows them to do his work, fueling their preaching, teaching and healing. In utter dependence, the disciples will learn to share the good news of Jesus: The kingdom of God is at hand! 

    Years after the dying and rising of Jesus, Paul can also share the good news because he remains in intimate relationship with the Lord. Paul writes to the Galatians, May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord. For Paul, the cross is the unique route to salvation, a gift from God which the external world sees as abhorrent. Paul suggests that peace and mercy will be given to all who embrace and follow this rule, and are compelled to share their knowledge of God’s activity with their world. 

    Like the disciples, we too will rejoice, for our names will be written in heaven! We too will have a place in God’s heart, in God’s arms, in God’s lap, as Isaiah foretold: as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you and your heart will rejoice! To be Christ’s disciple, one who understands the Christian mission and allows God to work in her and through her, is a true reason for rejoicing!

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