All are invited to this banquet (Marcy St. John)

      How can we as a church, as a Christian community, create a space that invites others to join in? How can we show through our lives that all are invited to this banquet of God’s love — and that by emptying one’s self and opening up to God, our eyes are opened to see God’s actions all around us all of the time; our ears are opened to hear the needs of others and seek to answer those needs; and our hands are given the guidance they need to bring more to the table? 

--Marcy St. John,
OLMC, November 5, 2024

Image source 1: Eugene Burnand, Invitation to a Banquet (1900), https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Eugene_Burnand_-_Einladung_zum_Gastmahl.jpg
Image source 2: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley, Parish Potluck, July 14, 2024, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=909840917847990&set=a.909848687847213

True humility (St. Madeleine Sophie Barat / St. Francis de Sales)

Be humble, be simple,
bring joy to others. 

--St. Madeleine Sophie Barat 

       The humility that does not produce generosity is undoubtedly false, for true humility, after it has said, ‘I can do nothing; I am only absolute nothingness,’ suddenly gives place to generosity of spirit, which says, ‘There is nothing and there can be nothing that I am unable to do, so long as I put all my confidence in God, who can do all things.’ And so, buoyed up by this confidence, it courageously undertakes to do all that is commanded. 

--St. Francis de Sales 

Image source: Annie Frances Lee, Humility, https://charis.regent.edu/humility-artwork-on-humility/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Humility emerges (Marianne Williamson)

    Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. 

    Perhaps, in a way, that's where humanity is now: about to discover we're not as smart as we thought we were, and will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defenses which avail us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of who we really are. 

--Marianne Williamson 

Image source 1: A man prays in Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha, Azerbaijan, after it was partially destroyed by shelling in October 2020, https://www.christianpost.com/voices/what-true-humility-looks-like.html 
Image source 2: Robert Henderson Blyth's disturbing In the Image of Man (1947).  You can find an analysis of this painting here: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/matthew-5-38-42-2025/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 31, 2025: Humble yourself the more, the greater you are...

Humble yourself the more, the greater you are…
Why is it so hard to be humble? 

    Warning his audience against the human self-sufficiency promoted by Greek philosophy, the author of the Book of Sirach teaches that a humble approach to life is one in which there is room for other people: My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humility goes a long way in connecting us to one another; community requires that we hold space for one another, and the only way that that can happen is if we are humble enough to recognize that we are not complete in ourselves, that there is need for others to bring what is lacking in us and to support us in ways we cannot support ourselves. And, as Psalm 68 reminds us, God takes special care of those who are humble, orphans and widows, the just and the forsaken, for they live their lives aware that they need God in their lives, and God provides for the needy – surely a reason to be glad and rejoice! 

    Jesus sees the same problem in his community two hundred years later. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’ parable of the wedding banquet reminds his listeners that it is not fitting to choose places honor at the table, but rather humbly to give those who are so often left out an opportunity to be included there. Even the host must be careful not to invite friends or brothers or relatives or wealthy neighbors; far more important is the host’s invitation to the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. By inviting the humble, the host is himself demonstrating humility. True inclusion, in other words, is at the center of Jesus’ message, one that reaches beyond humankind’s self-serving fear to see the world differently and to focus on the fact that everyone has value, and that salvation is for all. 

    Years after Jesus’ death, the community to whom the Letter to the Hebrews is addressed is also in danger of forgetting Jesus’ central message. The Hebrew Christians live in fear; members of their community are being persecuted, and it would be far easier to run in terror and abandon their faith than to cling to it. But the author of the Letter reminds them that they have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. God, in other words, has offered them salvation; in the face of trials, they must humbly focus on that gift of salvation, the promise of eternal life, where the spirits of the just will be made perfect, and surrender all to the one who is ultimately in control. 

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

Surrendering (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Someday, emerging at last from this vision,
Let me sing out joy and praise to assenting angels.
Let not even one of the clearly struck hammers of my heart,
Fail to sound because of doubt, slack, or a broken string.
Let my joyfully streaming face make me more radiant.
Let my hidden weeping arise and blossom.
How dear you’ll be to me then, you nights of anguish.
Why didn’t I kneel more deeply to accept you, inconsolable sisters,
And surrendering, lose myself in your loosened hair.
How we squander our nights of pain,
How we gaze beyond them to see if they have an end. 

—Rainer Maria Rilke,
Someday 

Image source: https://morethanuseless.com/archives/9632
Poem source

To accept discipline (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   To be a disciple means to follow, to be a follower; discipline is the way that we learn. If we accept discipline – if we practice, practice, practice – we will get to the point where we act automatically. But this requires discipline. Disciples follow, and learn by following and by doing. We too follow, and learn by following and by doing. 

   The trials in our lives require discipline and lead to discipleship. Don’t shy away from the difficulty. Don’t let fear control you. To accept discipline is to participate in learning and growing into a disciple of Christ. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Scripture Class, August 2022

Image source: James & John plow a field, The Chosen, Season 2, Episode 1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMjMRiCeibc

We are called to bear witness (Amanda Gorman / Pope Leo XIV)

We are the good news
that we have been looking for,
demonstrating that every dusk
holds a dawn disguised within it.

--Amanda Gorman 

    These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society. 

    This is the world that has been entrusted to us, a world in which, as Pope Francis taught us so many times, we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Jesus the Savior. Therefore, it is essential that we too repeat, with Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16). 

--Pope Leo XIV,
Homily with the Cardinal electors,
May 9, 2025

Quotation source 1
Image & quotation source 2: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263981/full-text-pope-leo-xiv-s-homily-at-mass-with-the-cardinal-electors-in-the-sistine-chapel

Sweet surrender (Dr. Dedalus Hyde)

When a flower blossoms
emerging forth from the bud
does it experience a moment of uncertainty
a growing pain
as it opens itself to the world? 

Does it wonder about its purpose
fearing the unknown
or the ways in which the world may hurt it? 

Does it struggle
pushing, pulling, parting, perplexed? 

Does it know it’s a blossom
a vulnerable collection of tender luminous leaves
that carry the miracle of life within? 

Does it question its worth
or where it will end up
or how it will spend its finite existence on this earth? 

Or does it just blossom
with an awareness that it is meant to
accept the inevitability of its growth
believing in its capacity
trusting its fate
inviting the sun and the rain
turning towards the light
reveling in its aliveness
welcoming the bees and butterflies
giving into its unfolding with a sweet surrender? 

—Dr. Dedalus Hyde, The Unknown 

Image source: https://susanrushton.net/2022/06/26/the-magic-of-rose-buds/

Poem source

Let us strive to enter the narrow gate (St. Theodora of Alexandria)

   Let us strive to enter the narrow gate. Just as the trees, if they have not stood before the winter’s storms cannot bear fruit, so it is with us; this present age is a storm and it is only through many trials and temptations that we can obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. 

--St. Theodora of Alexandria 

Image source: https://afb.accuweather.com/blog/floridas-citrus-growers-facing-a-squeeze-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-ian
Quotation source

To traverse the risk of love (Pope Francis)

    Christian life is “measured against Christ”, founded and modeled on him. This means that the measuring stick is Jesus and his Gospel — not what we think, but what he says to us. And so, we are talking about a narrow door not because only a few are destined to go through it, no, but because to belong to Christ means to follow him, to commit one’s life to love, in service and in giving oneself as he did, who passed through the narrow door of the cross. Entering into the project God proposes for our life requires that we restrict the space of selfishness, reduce the presumption of self-sufficiency, lower the heights of arrogance and pride, and that we overcome laziness, in order to traverse the risk of love, even when it involves the cross. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Russian color engraving, Two Ways of Life (1884), https://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Challoner_One_Thing_Narrow_Gate.html
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 24, 2024: Endure your trials as 'discipline'...

Endure your trials as ‘discipline’…
Where do we find the strength to follow,
 and to proclaim the good news? 

    The early Christian community struggled under persecution by the Roman Empire. Recently baptized Christians saw their brothers and sisters suffering and had fear that they too would be called to endure pain and suffering. Fear paralyzed them, making it impossible for them to act. The Letter to the Hebrews – written to Jewish Christians – was meant to remind this community that God would never abandon them. Yet they, for their part, must endure discipline in order to draw closer to God, to find alignment with God and with each other, which is the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by discipline. So they must strengthen their drooping hands and their weak knees, that they might find strength in God’s promises, live in hope, and follow Christ. 

    Jesus was quite clear about those promises. Lord, will only a few people be saved? someone asks him in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus’ advice to those gathered is, Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. The scribes and Pharisees might believe they are in right relationship with God, but they reject Jesus because he threatens their status quo. Jesus warns them that some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last. Only when the scribes and Pharisees accept their need for God and surrender to the love the Jesus offers them will they be assured that the door will be open to them. But surrender, paradoxically, requires great strength. 

    Once we accept such surrender, we are more than equipped to do what God has always called upon God’s people to do, as Psalm 117 states clearly: Go out to all the world and tell the Good News! God has always worked to gather nations of every language, Isaiah reminds us; the people of Israel were to be the ones who brought news of God to all the world, to proclaim his glory among the nations, to live in such a way that the nations would know that their God was extraordinary. We are called to no less. Jesus wants us to fall in love with him, surrendering all to his love for us, that we might join him in his mission. What could be any more extraordinary than that? 

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

In the face of chaos (Sisters of Mercy)

   Give me the courage to pause. 

   Allow me the radical response of stillness in the face of chaos. 

   Provide me the remembrance that to breathe connects me to my deepest intention. 

   Release me into the space of finding common ground through the fog of division. 

   Awaken me to willingness to be still until the turbulence settles. 

   Open my ears to listen and my heart to believe something else is possible. 

   Give me the courage to pause. 

--Sisters of Mercy,
Transforming Grace:
The World of Transformative Justice

Image source: https://option.org/product/calm-amid-chaos/
Quotation source

The world as dysfunctional family (Bishop Robert Barron)

    [T]he statement of Jesus that we have in the Gospel is frightening: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!" He’s throwing fire down, much like the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. 

   Okay, so how do we make sense of all this? I thought the angels on Christmas morning said that he had come as the Prince of Peace? Jesus is the Incarnation of the God who is nothing but love, but this enfleshment takes place in the midst of a fallen, sinful world. Therefore, it will appear as something threatening, strange, off-putting. 

    The world, on the biblical reading, is a dysfunctional family. When Jesus comes, he necessarily comes as a breaker of the peace, as a threat to the dysfunctional family. Now we can begin to understand that strange language about setting three against two and two against three. 

    This is why Jesus wants to cast a consuming fire on the earth. He wants to burn away all that is opposed to God’s desire for us. He has to clear the ground before something new can be built. Is this utterly painful? Yes! 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection

Image source: https://www.melissalloyd.org/unraveling-normal-exposing-the-dysfunctional-family/
Quotation source

Fire as a creative force (Pope Francis)

     ‘I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!’ (v. 49). The fire that Jesus speaks of is the fire of the Holy Spirit, the presence living and working in us from the day of our Baptism. It — the fire — is a creative force that purifies and renews, that burns all human misery, all selfishness, all sin, which transforms us from within, regenerates us and makes us able to love. 

--Pope Francis

Image source: https://discover.hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/Seeking-Emulating-the-Love-of-the-Holy-Spirit
Quotation source

Jesus came to set the world on fire (Karen Seaborn)

    [W]hile Jesus longs for us to live in unity, longs for us to love one another, longs for us to experience the Kingdom of God in our midst, he also knows our struggle. He knows that in our efforts to call out evil when we see it, and yes, misinformation, we will rattle a few bushes, shake a few trees. In other words, we will get into “good trouble.” Because Christ knows that before true communion can occur, we must first seek justice. And inclusiveness. And forgiveness. And healing. Not just for some, but, indeed for all. That is the work before us today. Just as it was the work before those who lived in Jesus’ day. 

    Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus came to set the world on fire. And he calls us, his disciples, to continue the work he started. He never told us working toward peace and unity would be easy. Or immediate, as much as he wished it was so. Jesus had to trust that new life would emerge from the conflict that led to his passion and death. So too are we called to trust—that when we set a fire for justice, inclusiveness, and radical love, new life will emerge. Just like new life emerges from the charred ruins of the trees in Yellowstone. 

--Karen Seaborn 

Image source: Young trees grow amid trees burned in the 1988 fire in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, https://peapix.com/bing/25042
Quotation source & full article

Our common humanity (President Jimmy Carter)

       The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.

--President Jimmy Carter,
Nobel Prize Lecture,
December 10, 2002

 
Image source: https://pikespeakhabitat.org/carter/
Quotation source

Participating in the fullness of life in God (Dr. Angela McCarthy)

    How do we find joy in all this pain and chaos? 

    Maybe this is how Mary felt; young, unmarried and pregnant with the possibility that she could be stoned to death according to the Law of Moses. To find support she went to stay with her cousin Elizabeth and the gospel today tells us the result. 

    Elizabeth was completely in tune with God’s will and Mary’s need. She proclaims her blessed and the child leapt in her womb; Elizabeth and her unborn son both recognise the mother of the Lord. This echoes previous women of the Hebrew bible who are declared to be blessed, Jael and Judith. Mary and Elizabeth follow in the tradition of the great Hebrew women, faithful women who are instrumental in the salvation of Israel. 

    Mary then proclaimed what we call the Magnificat. In all the chaos and danger, Mary finds in her heart a song of God’s greatness, of God’s care for the poor and the downcast. Praise of a God who lifts up the lowly and brings down the high and mighty. Her song echoes the Song of Hannah from the 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Hannah, who was barren like Elizabeth, had been blessed by God and bore a son, Samuel, who she then gave to the Lord. She too prayed a great prayer of praise and it is possible that Mary knew Hannah’s prayer. Hannah, Elizabeth and Mary, who are blessed by God, are all mothers of prophets who will change the world. Prophets are those who point the way to God and the birth of Jesus brings the full revelation of God through his life, death, ascension and resurrection. 

   The Feast of the Assumption is a strange one and is difficult to understand in a 21st century mindset but it has been honoured since the sixth century. Mary’s body held God and therefore she holds a very special place in our hearts and faith. Eventually, when death came, she was honoured and, in some way, taken into the fullness of life with God without suffering corruption in an earthly way. Mary is an example because she participates in the fullness of life in God and shows us that through her Son’s resurrection, we too will share eternal life. She is part of the new creation, won through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection. 

--Dr. Angela McCarthy

Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary!

Masses are at 7:45am and 12:10pm.

Join us! 

Image source 1: Fr. John Giuliani, Sioux Assumption, https://bridgebuilding.com/products/sioux-assumption-note-card 

Image source 2: Br. Mickey McGrath, Saintly Tea Party, https://www.bromickeymcgrath.com/presentations/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 17, 2025: Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?

Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth?
Is Jesus rocking your boat? 

     When Jeremiah tells the people they must surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, else the city will be burned and they will be destroyed, no one wants to listen to him because, they claim, he is demoralizing the soldiers and all the people. Jeremiah is rocking their boat. Yet the people are so convinced that Jeremiah is wrong that they refuse to listen what God is asking them, through the prophet, to do. Still, Jeremiah remains faithful to his message, and is ultimately saved because God is faithful. In the end, the king orders that Jeremiah be drawn out of the cistern before he should die. Jeremiah had good reason to sing Psalm 40: The Lord heard my cry; he drew me out of the pit of destruction! The psalmist knows God has put a new song into his mouth, and so he sings God’s praises. 

     Like Jeremiah, Jesus rocks people’s boats. I have come to set the world on fire, Jesus tells his disciples in Luke's Gospel. Do you think I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. Jesus’ teachings do not fit the vision of many who encounter them; to listen and believe requires that they surrender the rigidity of their own constructs in order to embrace the love and union Jesus calls them to. Jesus’ disciples are willing to embrace the disruption to the status quo that Jesus represents and follow him with their hearts. 

     As the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, Jesus endured not only the cross, but opposition from sinners… Yet he kept his eyes on the purpose of the Incarnation, which is salvation for all humankind. The Hebrew community is fearful; persecutions are rocking their boat, and their fear causes them to question their faith. But they must shore up their flagging faith and focus on the eternal life to come, remembering that the world of the Christian disciple is defined solely by the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to challenge the constructs of our world. If we fear disruption, if we fear persecution, if we fear the cross, it’s hard to follow him. But once we understand why he came, we can open ourselves to the radical change he calls us to, especially in our hearts. We go forth arm in arm on this journey, together, united in him. 

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

You must understand salvation (Elton John)

I have to say my friends
This road goes a long, long way
And if we're going to find the end
We're gonna need a helping hand 

I have to say my friends
We're looking for a light ahead
In the distance a candle burns
Salvation keeps the hungry children fed 

It's gotta take a lot of salvation
What we need are willing hands
You must feel the sweat in your eyes
You must understand salvation 

A chance to put the devil down
Without the fear of hell
Salvation spreads the gospel round
And free you from yourself, oh 

Refrain 

I have to say my friends
This road goes a long, long way
And if we're going to find the end
We're gonna need a helping hand 

I have to say my friends
We're looking for a light ahead
In the distance a candle burns
Salvation keeps the hungry children fed 

Refrain 

To hear Elton John sing “Salvation,” click on the video below: 

Image source: OLMC represents in the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2360527534008655&set=a.2360514214009987
Video source

Playing eternally before our Lord (St. Jane de Chantal)

       Let us not strive for the rewards of heaven, valuable though they may be, but live so as to please the God of heaven. If God were not in heaven, all its beauty, riches, and sweetness would be dull rather than delightful. By faith, we know God already dwells within us. But in heaven we will see God face to face. May we so live that one day we will be in heaven praising and playing eternally before our Lord and Savior! 

--St. Jane de Chantal

Happy Feast of St. Jane Frances de Chantal!

A "worthy wife" before her husband's death in 1601,
Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot "found her peace in the Lord."
With St. Francis de Sales, she founded the
Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary,
which was open to women of any status,
no matter their age or health or wealth.
As a Visitation nun imbued in Salesian spirituality,
Jane learned to love the Lord before all else,
and to seek always to do his will.
She is the patron saint of the forgotten,
of widows, and of parents separated from their children.
Her motto, like that of her friend and mentor
St. Francis de Sales, was "Live Jesus!"

May we, like St. Jane, surrender our hearts to the Lord,
living always aware of his presence within,
serving as conduits of his love & mercy to our world...

Image source 1: Visitación, detail from a mural at the Casa Ave Maria, Managua, Nicaragua, https://christiancentury.org/critical-essay/mary-s-joy-everyone/
Image source 2:  St. Jeanne de Chantal (Jane Frances de Chantal), portrait, Monastery of the Visitation of Holy Mary, Toledo, Ohio, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Francis_de_Chantal/
Quotation source

Sit still and trust (Corrie Ten Boom / Pope Francis)

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark,
you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off.
 You sit still and trust the engineer.

 --Corrie Ten Boom

    Confidence, “nothing but confidence”, is the sole path that leads us to the Love that grants everything. With confidence, the wellspring of grace overflows into our lives, the Gospel takes flesh within us and makes us channels of mercy for our brothers and sisters. 

--Pope Francis,
October 18, 2023 

Image source: https://www.ambershadwick.com/blog/2021/2/10/a-path-of-love
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Faith is an active force (Sr. Joan Chittister / Samuel Robinson)

Where there is faith, hope can run wild. 

 --Sr. Joan Chittister

    In the tapestry of life, faith is the golden thread that weaves our hopes, dreams, and aspirations into a masterpiece. It's the unyielding force that propels us forward when circumstances seem to hold us back. 

   Faith is not a mere concept; it's a divine connection. It's the audacious belief in the unseen, the unwavering trust in the unfathomable, and the profound understanding that there's a higher purpose guiding our journey. 

   When the storms of life rage around us, faith stands as our steadfast anchor. It reminds us that, even in the darkest night, the dawn of a new day is just beyond the horizon. It whispers, "Hold on, for your breakthrough is nearer than you think." Faith doesn't deny the existence of challenges; instead, it embraces them as opportunities for miracles. It declares that mountains can be moved, giants can be defeated, and the impossible can become reality. 

   Let us remember that faith is not a passive state of mind; it's an active force within us. It propels us to take that first step when the path is unclear, to offer kindness when the world seems cold, and to love unconditionally when faced with adversity. 

   Today, let your faith rise like a mighty tide. Embrace the unseen with unwavering conviction. For as it is written, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) 

   May your faith lead you to extraordinary heights, and may your life be a testament to the incredible power of belief. 

--Samuel Robinson 

Image source 1: https://www.sylviasstitches.com/2016/02/golden-tapestry-work-in-progress.html
Image source 2: Gustav Klimt, Tree of Life, https://gustav-klimt.com/The-Tree-Of-Life.jsp
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Life is a journey (R.C. Sproul / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

Salvation is not earned through our merits,
but received through the finished work of Christ
-- a gift of unmerited favor.

--R. C. Sproul

    Karl Jung once said that life is a journey between the paradise of the womb and the paradise of heaven. Jesus said that while on earth we are on pilgrimage. Is it any wonder, then, that at a certain point in life, we begin to realize that everything is a variant of, or a substitute for, waiting? 

 --Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI,
Facebook, February 2, 2025

Image source: Louis Tiffany, Window, Park Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, https://parkchurchgr.org/tiffany-windows/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Wisdom and prudence (Bishop Robert Barron)

    In [Sunday’s] Gospel, we meet a prudent steward who serves his master wisely. I would like to say something about prudence and wisdom. In the Middle Ages, prudence was called “the queen of the virtues,” because it was the virtue that enabled one to do the right thing in a particular situation. 

    Prudence is a feel for the moral situation, something like the feel that a quarterback has for the playing field. Justice is a wonderful virtue, but without prudence, it is blind and finally useless. One can be as just as possible, but without a feel for the present situation, his justice will do him no good. 

    Wisdom, unlike prudence, is a sense of the big picture. It is the view from the hilltop. Most of us look at our lives from the standpoint of our own self-interest. But wisdom is the capacity to survey reality from the vantage point of God. Without wisdom, even the most prudent judgment will be erroneous, short-sighted, inadequate. 

    The combination, therefore, of prudence and wisdom is especially powerful. Someone who is both wise and prudent will have both a sense of the bigger picture and a feel for the particular situation. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
October 20, 2021

Image source: https://trulygod.wordpress.com/2017/05/10/parable-of-the-faithful-servant/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 10, 2025: Your people awaited the salvation of the just...

Your people awaited the salvation of the just…
What are we hoping for? 

    The story of the Israelites’ departure from Egypt on the night of the passover is recounted over and over throughout Jewish history. The Book of Wisdom reminds us that, throughout their trials in Egypt, God continued to champion the cause of the people of Israel, who suffered but were never forgotten. It was their trust in God that saw them through, for they put their faith in the promises or oaths of the Lord, and so, when the time came, they did as the Lord told Moses they must do, applying blood to the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of the Lord might pass over them. Because they acted in faith, God cared for them. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own, Psalm 33 reminds us. The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness. 

    Like the disciples whom Jesus bids be ready to open immediately to the call of God, we must not be afraid any longer. The prudent steward in Luke’s Gospel was prepared for the return of his master; finding him vigilant upon his arrival, the master blesses the servant with good fortune. Jesus tells the disciples that the Father is pleased to give them the kingdom, if only they understand the inexhaustible treasure that awaits them. For their part, the disciples have faith in God’s promise, a promise sealed with Jesus’ death and rising. For as the Letter to the Hebrews gently reminds us, faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen. Like Abraham, we act by faith, trusting that our hope will be fulfilled; faith spurs us on, helping us to stay on track as we pray for fulfillment of the kingdom of God for all. 

    Our soul waits for the Lord to bring salvation to bear on our lives. Though we sometimes struggle to embrace God’s kingdom, we need to maintain our faith in the power of God’s love to save us, continuing with hearts and minds open, living for what we hope for. For the eyes of the Lord are upon us, too, as we await the salvation of the just! 

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

Travel lightly (Sr. Joan Chittister / St. John Vianney)

To be free in life—really free—
we need to travel lightly,
to own as little as possible.
To live well but not extravagantly.
Otherwise we will become
the captive of our own possessions.

 --Sr. Joan Chittister

    To make us appreciate more keenly the necessity to turn our eyes to eternal blessings, God has filled our hearts with desires so vast and so magnificent that nothing in creation is capable of satisfying them. Thus it is that in the hope of finding some pleasure, we attach ourselves to created objects and that we have no sooner possessed and sampled that which we have so ardently desired than we turn to something else, hoping to find what we wanted.  We are, then, through our own experience, constrained to admit that it is but useless for us to want to derive our happiness here below from transient things. 

   If we hope to have any consolation in this world, it will only be by despising the things which are passing and which have no lasting value and in striving towards the noble and happy end for which God has created us. Do you want to be happy, my friends? Fix your eyes on Heaven; it is there that your hearts will find that which will satisfy them completely.  

 --St. John Vianney

Image source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1588682565/personalized-kids-rolling-luggage
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The Christian cannot fear (Hans Urs von Balthasar)

    Insofar as he possesses the life of faith, the Christian cannot fear. 

    The uneasy conscience that many Christians have, and the anxiety based on it, do not come about because they are sinners and backsliders but because they have stopped believing in the truth and efficacy of their beliefs; they measure the power of faith by their own weakness, they project God's world into their own psychological makeup instead of letting God measure them. They do something that Christians are forbidden to do; they observe faith from the outside; they doubt the power of hope; they deprive themselves of the power of love; and they lie down to rest in the chasm between the demands of Christianity and their own failure, in a chasm that, for a Christian, is no place at all. Is it any wonder that anxiety seizes them on account of this placelessness? 

―Hans Urs von Balthasar,
 The Christian and Anxiety

Image source 1: https://www.faithpot.com/overcome-doubt/
Image source 2: https://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2018/12/13/bridging-the-chasm-of-the-heart
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In and with God here and now (Henri Nouwen)

     Eternal life. Where is it? When is it? For a long time I have thought about eternal life as a life after all my birthdays have run out. For most of my years I have spoken about the eternal life as the “afterlife,” as “life after death.” But the older I become, the less interest my “afterlife” holds for me. Worrying not only about tomorrow, next year, and the next decade, but even about the next life, seems a false preoccupation. Wondering how things will be for me after I die seems, for the most part, a distraction. When my clear goal is the eternal life, that life must be reachable right now, where I am, because eternal life is life in and with God, and God is where I am here and now. 

 

    The great mystery of the spiritual life—the life in God—is that we don’t have to wait for it as something that will happen later. Jesus says: “Dwell in me as I dwell in you.” It is this divine in-dwelling that is eternal life. It is the active presence of God at the center of my living—the movement of God’s Spirit within us—that gives us the eternal life. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://www.kingdomcitizens.org/kingdom-103-the-indwelling-of-his-spirit-the-governor.html
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I have enough (Antoine Vergote / Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

Excess is a substitute for genuine enjoyment.

--Antoine Vergote

    We live with constant pressure, from without and from within, to see more, consume more, buy more, and drink in more of life. The pressure to increase the dosage is constant and unrelenting. But this is precisely where a deliberate, willful, and hard asceticism is demanded of us. To quote Canadian theologian and author Mary Jo Leddy, we must, at some point, say this, mean it, and live it: It’s enough. I have enough. I am enough. Life is enough. I need to gratefully enjoy what I have. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI 

Image source: https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-people-carrying-too-much-stuff-2013-4#for-transporting-a-lot-of-ducks-a-motorcycle-works-2
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If we cling to anything (St. Thérèse de Lisieux / Thich Nhat Hanh)

Joy is not found in
the material objects surrounding us,
but in the inner recesses of the soul.

--St. Thérèse de Lisieux

          Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free. 

--Thich Nhat Hanh

Image source: https://www.meer.com/en/22160-what-we-gain-from-letting-go
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Valid in our humanness (melanie lau / Jane Goodall)

western cultures believe we must be alive for a purpose.
to work, to make money.
 some indigenous cultures believe
we’re alive just as nature is alive:
 to be here, to be beautiful and strange.
 we don’t need to achieve anything
to be valid in our humanness.

 --melanie lau 

   We have become caught up in a materialistic and greedy world, so many of us. This has dire consequences for the future. It seems that there has been some disconnect between the clever mind and the human heart, love and compassion. And instead of making a major decision based on, ‘How will this affect generations ahead? How will this affect the world in the future when we’re not here?,’ the criteria today are, ‘How will this decision affect me now, me and my family now? How will it affect the next shareholders meeting? How will it affect my next political campaign?’ 

--Jane Goodall 

Image source: Sarrita King, Language of the Earth, available for purchase at: https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/artworks/sarrita-king-language-of-the-earth-sk084/
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