Christ on a Donkey (Henri Nouwen)

    Christ on a Donkey, in the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg, is one of the most moving Christ figures I know… 

    Christ’s long, slender face with a high forehead, inward-looking eyes, long hair, and a small forked beard expresses the mystery of his suffering in a way that holds me spellbound. As he rides into Jerusalem surrounded by people shouting “hosanna,” “cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path” (Matt. 21:8), Jesus appears completely concentrated on something else. He does not look at the excited crowd. He does not wave. He sees beyond all the noise and movement to what is ahead of him: an agonizing journey of betrayal, torture, crucifixion, and death. His unfocused eyes see what nobody around him can see; his high forehead reflects a knowledge of things to come far beyond anyone’s understanding. There is melancholy, but also peaceful acceptance. There is insight into the fickleness of the human heart, but also immense compassion. There is deep awareness of the unspeakable pain to be suffered, but also a strong determination to do God’s will. Above all, there is love, an endless, deep, and far-reaching love born from an unbreakable intimacy with God and reaching out to all people, wherever they are, were, or will be. There is nobody whom he does not fully love. 

    Every time I look at this Christ on the donkey, I am reminded again that I am seen by him with all my sins, guilt, and shame and loved with all his forgiveness, mercy, and compassion. 

    Just being with him in the Augustiner Museum is a prayer. I look and look and look, and I know that he sees the depths of my heart; I do not have to be afraid. 

PRAYER 

 Almighty God,
today we pay homage to Christ in his victory.
With songs of praise
we accompany him into his holy city;
grant that we may come
 to the heavenly Jerusalem through him
who lives and reigns with you to all eternity. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: Christus auf dem Palmesel, Upper Rhine (1350-1360). For this and a further collection of Palmesel, go to:  https://artandtheology.org/2026/03/13/the-palmesel-palm-donkey-a-holy-week-tradition-from-medieval-germany/
Quotation source

Choosing love (Elizabeth Scalia)

   Choosing love in any given moment requires a consciousness of Christ as being continually before one’s eyes, and a conscientiousness of service-as-love for the sake of being united to the vast ocean of mercy that helps to heal and sustain the world. 

--Elizabeth Scalia 

Image source: Fra Angelico, Deposition from the Cross, Pala di Santa Trinità (1432-1434), http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/fraangelico/depositionfromthecross.htm
Quotation source

God is in the midst of you (St. Andrew of Crete)

  Behold, your king is coming to you, the Holy One, the Savior 

   Let us say to Christ: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. Let us wave before him like palm branches the words inscribed above him on the cross. Let us show him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under his feet like garments, so that entering with the whole of his being, he may draw the whole of our being into himself and place the whole of his in us. Let us say to Zion in the words of the prophet: Have courage, daughter of Zion, do not be afraid. Behold, your king comes to you, humble and mounted on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. 

   He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation. He is coming who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin. Do not be afraid then: God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be shaken. 

--St. Andrew of Crete 

Image source: The Entry into Jerusalem, St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Cathedral, Santa Rosa, CA, https://saintseraphim.com/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 29, 2026: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…

Will we choose love? 

   When, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus enters into Jerusalem upon a simple beast of burden, he does so as a king who is meek and humble. For all that his procession is triumphal – Hosanna to the Son of David, the very large crowd shouts to honor him, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! – Jesus himself holds to the humility he embraced when, as the Letter to the Philippians tells us, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness. Emptying himself of all rights of divinity in order to be human, Jesus seeks not to control but to love humanity with a love that is merciful, that forgives, a love that includes even us. 

   And so, as Jesus enters into his Passion, though he may be degraded like the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, his back beaten, his beard plucked derisively, and also scoffed at and mocked, in fulfillment of Psalm 22, yet love is still at work. Jesus has benefitted from many gifts; he knows how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them, and he knows how to listen, ears open, that he might hear all that God expects of him. Like the Suffering Servant, Jesus has confidence in the ability of God’s love to transcend all things… even the worst that we as human beings can come up with. 

   Thus, even from the Cross, Jesus remains a witness to God’s love, enduring the torture and pain out of love for humankind, love even for those who are visiting pain upon him, love even for those close friends who betray him, as all do, one after another. Judas never sees that Jesus’ love is greater than his own betrayal of his Master. Yet, at the Last Supper, Jesus’ disciples all drink of his forgiveness and mercy and love, taking that love into themselves, preparing to bring his love to the world. We do the same in Eucharist, participating in his sacrifice, that we too – though we sin – might know God’s deep and abiding love for us, and bring it to bear upon our world. In the midst of pain, Jesus chooses love. Will we?

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

Am I ready to surrender? (OLMC Reflection)

   Thy will be done. How many times have we uttered that line of the Our Father in prayer? 

   Thy will be done. This is Jesus’ prayer during his agony in the garden in Luke’s Gospel. Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done. Jesus has known from the beginning of time that God would send him to save humanity. And yet at his hour of agony, Jesus must choose to fulfill his Father’s will, to offer his own body for our salvation. Or, as Fr. Patrick Michaels once said, Jesus took on our humanity so that, through humanity, he could save humanity. 

   In the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus is quoted as having said, Behold, I come to do your will, O God. I come to do your will. The passage describes the Incarnation, Jesus’ yes to the Father’s invitation to death: When Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. I come to do your will. Jesus empties himself of his own will, that he might do the will of his Father. 

   Today is the Feast of the Annunciation; it might also be called the Feast of the Conception & Incarnation of Jesus. As the angel departs, the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary, and Jesus is conceived – wow! Bishop Barron says that, recognizing the divine in her midst, at that crucial moment, Mary allows herself to fall in love with God, and in that moment of ecstasy, the Son of God enters the world for its salvation. What makes this possible? 

   Dr. Wendy Wright has written that, on the one hand, Jesus’ Incarnation was divinity’s ecstatic, kenotic gesture of love, a wooing of mankind. But Mary’s yes was also ecstatic. It was both a passionate response and a self-emptying. It took her out of herself; she gave herself to and became inhabited by the one she loved. Mary’s own receptivity to grace allows her to accept the Father’s will, no matter the cost. In spite of what must have been tremendous uncertainty, even bafflement, Mary says, Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your will. 

   May it be done to me according to your will… or, Thy will be done. Because of her self-emptying selflessness, Mary’s tiny womb was filled with infinite divinity; her humanity was the portal through which divinity could take on human flesh. 

   This story resonates with me in so many ways, and prompts so many hard questions. For starters, Mary trusted her experience of the divine. Do I? How am I remaining open to the movement of the Spirit in my life? And, maybe most importantly: Am I aware of God’s desire to be born in me, daily? 

   Because if I am, then, boy, do I have work to do! Look at King Ahaz. God invites Ahaz to ask for a sign; God wants Ahaz to allow God to work in his midst. But Ahaz does not say yes to God: I will not ask! Unlike Ahaz, Mary allows nothing to get in the way of the divine taking root in her. Unlike Ahaz, Mary surrenders any control she might have to God’s will for her. 

   Am I ready to do that? Am I ready to surrender all that stuff I’m holding onto, all the negativity and brokenness and sin, so that my body might have room for the Lord to grow in me? 

   Am I ready to let go of my deep-held resentments and open my heart to God? 

   Am I ready to give up my obsessive-compulsive need for control and allow God to work in me? 

   Am I ready to shut down the clock of my impatience, and be attentive to those I love? 

   Am I ready to close my judgmental eyes and see others with the eyes of my heart? 

   Am I ready to sacrifice, if not myself, then my self-focus, for the sake of others? 

   Am I ready to choose to empty myself and serve in the way God wants me to serve? 

   St. Ambrose once wrote, If there is only one Mother of Christ according to the flesh, all are begetting Christ according to the faith. Eight hundred years later, Meister Eckhart added, What good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? 

   Mary’s own humanity afforded the Son of God the human component of his identity; through her womb, Christ took on flesh, became incarnate, to save all of humanity. The Feast of the Annunciation, Conception & Incarnation invites us to do the same: to allow the Lord to take on flesh through us, his Body on earth, to be his love and mercy and justice and compassion in ways that are tangible, real. 

   Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will. Thy will be done. 

   This Lent, I pray, O Lord, help us learn to surrender all, to empty ourselves completely, as both Jesus and Mary did, that we might choose freely and openly to do your will, that your divinity might be born in us, and through us, heal your world! 

--Suzanne,
OLMC Communion Service Reflection,
March 25, 2025

Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation!

Image source 1: Róisín Dowd Murphy of Murphy-Devitt Studios, The Annunciation, Corpus Christi Church, Drumcondra, Dublin., c.1978–85, https://corpuschristidrumcondra.ie/

Image source 2: John Collier, Annunciation, Church of Saint Gabriel, McKinney, Texas, https://cultivatingoakspress.com/to-make-visible/

Free me (Andy Otto)

Lord God, 

You give me the gift of freedom,
guiding me to a life of joy,
calling me to be my truest self.
As you freed Lazarus from the
burial clothes, and gave sight to
the blind, and called the rich
man to detachment, free me
from the unfreedoms that pile
up, which blockade me from the
life-giving joy you have for me.
Remove those things which
hinder my life with you.
I can freely choose this.
And I do. 

Amen. 

--Andy Otto,
Loyola Institute for Spirituality

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, The Raising of Lazarus (1967), http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=45032;type=101#
Quotation source

Jesus is on his way to the tombs (Joann Melina)

 
     This resurrection hope in the life-giving power of God is not just something for us to say we believe, but it must be encountered and experienced – and it only comes to us who are at the tomb. We must be willing to acknowledge our suffering, and the suffering of the world, and open ourselves up to God's Spirit at work. 

    It is not enough for us to shake our heads at injustice, tweet out thoughts and prayers, and then change the channel and keep our peace, hoping that someday Jesus will work it all out. Our faith demands our transformation, and our courageous and prayerful action. As Christians we have to disrupt the whole system of unnatural death which is bearing down upon the most marginalized, poor, and vulnerable. We have to act prophetically against the forces of death in our families, workplaces, community. Life has to break in through our economic choices, our advocacy, our votes, our relationships, and yes, through our prayers. We have to embody the truth that St. Paul shares: that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is with us, animating the Church. God is drawing near. We believe, yes, that eventually, in the fullness of God’s time all oppression will cease, and death will be no more. Until that time we must be instruments of God’s life, enfleshing hope and proclaiming today that death cannot have the last word. 

    The truth is that here and now, Jesus is on the way to the tombs of the ones he calls beloved, and he is asking us if we know the way and if we will go with him. Do we grieve with those who grieve, do we live in solidarity with those who are despised, disposable, and put to death in our world? Do we cry out to God for help? Do we know the stench of the tomb, like Martha and Mary did, because we are siblings of those who suffer? 

--Joann Melina 

Image source: https://abcnews.com/US/faith-leaders-blocked-ice-delivering-communion-immigrants-speak/story?id=127148684
Quotation source & full article

Jesus can give you new life (Fr. James Martin)

    In our own time, most of you reading the story of Lazarus have probably already made your choice for Jesus. The crisis for you may be different: Do you believe that Jesus can give you new life—not in the way that he gave it to Lazarus, but in your life as you live it? 

    The final act in the story of Lazarus is not about death, but about life. And moving toward life is more than simply letting something die in the tomb. Or even dying to self. Because neither are things that we do. Rather, God invites us to let go in order that we might receive new life. For every death to self there is a rising. And we have to let go. 

    But the real work—the raising—is done by God. […] 

    None of us is going to be raised from the dead as Lazarus was. But we are invited to accept not only that God can give us new life, not only that God wants to give us new life, but that God is giving us new life. In many ways. 

--Fr. James Martin 

Image source: Jacob Epstein, Lazarus, New College Chapel, Oxford University, https://liveasthoughyouareloved.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/epsteins-lazarus/
Quotation source

Believing (Madeleine L'Engle)

Believing takes practice. 

--Madeleine L’Engle,
A Wrinkle in Time 

Image source: Giotto, The Raising of Lazarus (ca. 1304-1308), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giotto_-_Scrovegni_-_-25-_-_Raising_of_Lazarus.jpg
Quotation source

Take away the stone (Pope Francis)

    Take away the stone: the pain, the mistakes, even the failures. Do not hide them inside you, in a dark, lonely, closed room. Take away the stone: draw out everything that is inside. “Ah, but I am ashamed.” Throw it to me with confidence, says the Lord; I will not be scandalized. Throw it to me without fear because I am with you, I care about you and I want you to start living again. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: John August Swanson, Take Away the Stone (2005), available for purchase at: https://johnaugustswanson.com/catalog/take-away-the-stone/?srsltid=AfmBOopRavwW-ty9XBgp2rKEnY2-1s5yM7TBt8q3H9MroHZDd0aVrJUL
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 22, 2026: Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live

Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live…
Can we find new life in Christ? 

   De Profundis, as Psalm 130 is more commonly known, speaks to the experience of an individual who has found himself in dire need of God’s mercy: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, the psalmist sings, Lord, hear my voice! It is a psalm that would perhaps have brought comfort to the people of Israel exiled to Babylon: For with the Lord is kindness and plenteous redemption; and he will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. In the midst of this difficult exile, the people of Israel hear words of restoration from the prophet Ezekiel, words of hope and promise that only God can provide: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Their identity will come not only from the land that will be restored to them, but from God’s spirit implanted in them: I will put my spirit in you that you may live, God promises. To be in relationship with the God who loves them is to have the life God promises. 

   Jesus’ friend Lazarus has not fallen out of right relationship with the Lord as the people of Israel had. But in John’s Gospel, Jesus uses his good friend’s illness as a means through which he can reveal the Father’s work through him and with him, that all might come to believe. When, even in the midst of her grief, Martha expresses her continued trust in Jesus’ plan, Jesus reassures her definitively: whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. If Lazarus can be raised, set free from death itself, then all have the opportunity to be freed from their fear of death, and live. We can live, as Paul tells the Romans, in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in us. Physical death, even a body dead because of sin, is as nothing so long as the spirit is alive because of righteousness, for the one who raised Christ from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies also. If Jesus dwells in us, if we allow him entry, then we can be alive in Christ, finding new life in him and giving resounding witness to the glory of God! 

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

The gift of spiritual vision (Fr. David Justin Lynch)

   When Jesus calls us out of darkness, he bestows on us the gift of spiritual vision, to look at the world in a new way, not just with our physical eyes, but with our hearts and souls. The beauty of God’s creation is a spiritual vision. When you go outside and look at the mountains, the forest, the desert and the ocean, those whose eyes are spiritually opened will not only see them as physical objects but will experience the majesty of their utter beauty. Spiritual vision also extends to how we look at both ourselves and others. 

   Spiritual vision invites us to look at our lives and those of others not only fully and objectively, but lovingly as well. Lovingly is how God sees us. God looks at the entire universe but at the same time looks lovingly at each one of us. God invites us to see the big picture of our lives and our world, and to do so with love. Jesus tells us, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” 

   Therefore, let Jesus alone be the light of your world. Be children of light, not children of darkness. Live in the light of spiritual awareness, not spiritual darkness… 

--Fr. David Justin Lynch 

Image source: Mount Shasta, https://www.atlasandboots.com/travel-blog/most-beautiful-mountains-in-the-us/
Quotation source

Turn to the Lord (St. Patrick)

I turned with all my heart
to the Lord my God. 

--St. Patrick

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Image source: George Walsh, St. Patrick Window (1972), St. Bullaum Church, Galway, Ireland, https://www.facebook.com/groups/303462353173920/posts/2508077226045744/
Quotation source

The Christian way of seeing (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Friends, today in the strange and strikingly beautiful account of the healing of the man born blind in John’s Gospel, we find an iconic representation of Christianity as a way of seeing. Jesus spits on the ground and makes a mud paste, which he then rubs onto the man’s eyes. When the man washes his eyes in the pool of Siloam as Jesus had instructed him, his sight is restored. 

   The crowds are amazed, but the Pharisees—consternated and skeptical—accuse him of being naïve and the one who healed him of being a sinner. With disarming simplicity the visionary responds: “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” 

   This is precisely what all Christians say when they have encountered the light of Christ. It was St. Augustine who saw in the making of the mud paste a metaphor for the Incarnation: the divine power mixing with the earth, resulting in the formation of a healing balm. When this salve of God made flesh is rubbed onto our eyes blinded by sin, we come again to see. 

   Reflect: How is the Christian way of seeing different from the culture’s way of seeing? 

--Bishop Robert Barron

Image source: El Greco, Healing of the Man Born Blind (1570), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healing_of_the_Man_Born_Blind_%28El_Greco,_Dresden%29
Quotation source

Join me on the road (Henri Nouwen)

     Please, Lord, join me on the road, enter into my closed room, and take my foolishness away. Open my mind and heart to the great mystery of your active presence in my life, and give me the courage to help others discover your presence in their lives. Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: https://yearningheartsjourney.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-constant-awareness-of-gods.html
Quotation source

Sharper spiritual vision (Daniel Harrington)

   The story of the man born blind in John 9 is one of the seven “signs” or miracle stories in the Fourth Gospel. As a sign it points to the central mysteries of our faith—Jesus’ death and resurrection. In a long, complicated process, the man who had been blind since birth comes to see on both physical and spiritual levels, while those who seemed to see perfectly well become increasingly blind. The man born blind is a good symbol for us in the middle of Lent as we try to sharpen our own spiritual sight. 

  

   The narrative begins with the disciples’ question about the cause of the man’s blindness. Was it caused by his own sin or that of his parents? Jesus dismisses these explanations and asserts that the “works of God” will be made visible through him. Then in a somewhat unusual (almost magical) procedure, Jesus anoints the man’s eyes with mud and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Healed, the man is able to see on the physical level. But that is only the beginning of his coming to see the true identity of his healer. 

   When his neighbors question him, the man affirms that he was indeed healed by “the man called Jesus.” When the Pharisees contend that his healer could not be from God because he healed him on the Sabbath and thereby performed forbidden work, the man asserts that his healer is “a prophet.” The opponents then question his parents about whether their son had really been born blind. Their response is guarded: they confirm that he was born blind and now can see, but they profess ignorance about his healer. When the opponents summon the man again and try to make him condemn Jesus as a sinner, he refuses and states that Jesus must be “from God.” When he finally meets Jesus again, the man accepts Jesus’ self-identification as the “Son of Man”—in John’s Gospel a glorious figure. Note the man’s journey in coming to see who Jesus really is: first a man, then a prophet and someone from God, and finally the glorious Son of Man. 

   The blind man’s progress in spiritual sight is paralleled by the opponents’ descent into spiritual blindness. While their inquiry starts quite objectively, their understanding of Jesus becomes increasingly hazy. First they insist that Jesus must be a sinner because he broke the Sabbath. Then they dismiss the man’s claim that Jesus is from God. Finally, in their own encounter with Jesus, they fail to recognize their spiritual blindness and sinfulness in rejecting Jesus as the revealer and revelation of God. 

   Through several rounds of conversations the man born blind comes to see Jesus as he is, while the “spiritual leaders” of the people fall into even greater spiritual blindness. Many interpreters find in this story a sketch of the history of the Johannine community in its efforts to clarify their own understanding of Jesus and in their struggles within first-century Judaism. But it also presents lessons for us today as individuals and as a community of faith. 

   The blind man’s progress in spiritual sight reminds us that we need God’s grace and revelation to move toward sharper spiritual vision. This point is illustrated by the prophet Samuel’s efforts (today’s first reading) to identify God’s anointed among the sons of Jesse and his final recognition of David as the one chosen by God. Likewise, the opponents’ descent into greater spiritual blindness warns us that if we think we already know all about Jesus, we may be blinding ourselves to the many surprising features of Jesus’ person and fail to see in him the glory of God. 

   Today’s reading from the Letter to the Ephesians ends with what seems to be a quotation from an early Christian baptismal hymn: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” The exhortation that precedes it concerns living as “children of light” insofar as “light” produces goodness, righteousness and truth. 

   In a few weeks, at the Easter Vigil, the celebrant will intone “Light of Christ” three times as a summary of the Easter message. The hope is that we will let Christ be our light, live out of the power of Jesus’ resurrection, see things more clearly and act more appropriately, having “no part in the fruitless works of darkness.” A good prayer for the remaining days of Lent is to ask God to help us see Christ more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more nearly. 

--Daniel Harrington

Image source: Jorge Cocco Santángelo, Jesus Heals the Man Born Blind, available for purchase at: https://altusfineart.com/products/jorge-cocco-your-faith-has-made-you-whole-jesus-heals-blind-man?srsltid=AfmBOooQBi_xTkI_dmYIZwpM33tIOa96OkFyfMb253E1j3gJsB0hKcBi
Quotation source

What does it mean to live in the light? (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    We’re called to live in the light, but we tend to have an overly romantic idea of what that should mean. We tend to think that to live in the light means that there should be a kind of special sunshine inside of us, a divine glow in our conscience, a sunny joy inside us that makes us constantly want to praise God, and ambience of sacredness surrounding our attitude. But that’s unreal. What does it mean to live in the light? 

    

    To live in the light means to live in honesty, pure and simple, to be transparent, to not have part of us hidden as a dark secret. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI 

Image source: https://blog.whoisgrace.com/how-to-let-the-light-of-jesus-shine-in-and-through-you/
Quotation source

God's presence went unnoticed (Fr. Dave Ghiorso)

    The tragedy is not that God was absent; the tragedy was that God’s presence went unnoticed. 

    I think this could be a warning for us today. I believe the Lord often draws near in our own lives and we fail to recognize him. Maybe he comes in the person we find difficult to be around. Maybe he comes in that moment of silence that we kind of rush through and ignore. Maybe he comes in our conscience, that tug that we also ignore. Maybe he comes in that invitation to prayer that we postpone. Maybe he comes in the needs of those who are struggling: the poor, the sick, the suffering, the outcast, the immigrant. 

    Jesus weeps not to condemn but because he longs for us to experience that peace and to receive that peace he offers. 

   What might be ways that we are missing that peace that Christ is offering? 

--Fr. Dave Ghiorso, Homily,
OLMC, November 20, 2025

Image source: William Holman Hunt, The Finding of the Savior in the Temple (1854-1855), detail, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Finding_of_the_Saviour_in_the_Temple#/media/File:William_Holman_Hunt_-_The_Finding_of_the_Saviour_in_the_Temple_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 15, 2026: I was blind and now I see...

I was blind and now I see…
Are we aware of the Lord working in our lives? 

    When, in the First Book of Samuel, the Lord sends Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint David, the Lord’s chosen one, the Lord can work through Samuel because Samuel is open to the Lord’s presence in his life. As instructed, Samuel scrutinizes each of Jesse’s sons in turn, but the scrutiny of God sees only David: There – anoint him, for this is the one! God tells Samuel. David too will need to be open to the Lord’s revelation as it unfolds in his life. When he is open to the spirit of God, that spirit will fill him with grace. And, as Psalm 23 reveals, David is aware of God’s presence in his life: The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want, the psalmist David sings. The Lord never ceases to accompany David, giving David confidence and comfort in all that he must do. 

    Jesus’ healing of the man blind from birth in John’s Gospel is yet another opportunity for the revelation of God’s light at work. The blind man does not ask for healing, yet he becomes a witness to Jesus, the light of the world, come to do the works of the one who sent him, God’s vessel through which light shines in the world. Yet, even as the man is healed, the Pharisees’ blindness becomes more acute, and they ridicule the man’s faith in Jesus. However, the man continues to live in faith, actively aware of and witnessing to God’s presence in his life: I do believe, Lord, he says to Jesus, and he worships him. 

   Like the man blind from birth, we were once in darkness, but now are light in the Lord, as Paul tells the Ephesians. We are to live as children of the light, stepping into the light of faith which reveals to us the path on which we walk with the Lord. Because of our own fear or desire for control, we can become blind to the light of Christ. But our awareness of Christ’s presence in our lives brings us from darkness to light. In every situation there is always grace, grace and the light that is of the Lord. God asks us to be ever aware of his presence, to enjoy a growing appreciation of the light that never leaves us, and to give joyful witness to his light… for our world. 

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

Who is the woman at the well (Carolynne Wright)

In this late season, who is the woman at the well
drawing water, reflecting on the woman at the well?

Millennial fissures in the well-rim, weed-choked cracks
where brackish water rises for the woman at the well.

At the bottom of the well shaft, the sky’s reflective eye
opens, closes on the shadow of the woman at the well.

Where are the rains of bygone eras? Preterite weather
yields more rusted bucketsful for the woman at the well.

Ancestral well of Jacob, where a weary traveler rests,
where Jesus asks for water from the woman at the well.

Oh plane trees of Samaria, in whose shade a stranger
speaks of artesian fault lines to the woman at the well!

Chaldean fountains, oases of date palms and minarets—
how they flourish in the dreams of the woman at the well!

Mirages of marble, pomegranate flowers, cedars of Baalbek
shimmer in the sight of the woman at the well.

On the night of destiny, the angel Gabriel descends
and hovers by the footprints of the woman at the well.

Jacob’s ladder leans against the door of heaven—
on the bottom rung, the woman at the well.

Women of Sychar, women of Shechem! Draw aside your veils,
reveal the features of the woman at the well.

Wise ones, why do you weep? Do you fear your fate
tips a mirror toward the woman at the well?

Oh artisan of sorrow, mystery’s precision, sit down
beside your sister, second self, the woman at the well. 

--Carolynne Wright,
Ghazal: Woman at the Well

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, The Well in Samaria, https://scriptum.com/artwork/16462-the-well-in-samaria?artistsid=1505
Poem source & explanation of the “ghazal form”

Witness (Pope Francis)

   It is necessary to remember that witness also includes professed faith, that is, convinced and manifest adherence to God the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, who created us out of love, who redeemed us. A faith that transforms us, that transforms our relationships, the criteria and the values that determine our choices. 

   Witness, therefore, cannot be separated from consistency between what one believes and what one proclaims, and what one lives. Every one of us is called to respond to three fundamental questions, posed in this way by Paul VI: “Do you believe what you are proclaiming? Do you live what you believe? Do you preach what you live? 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: Vanessa DiSilvio as the Samaritan woman at the well in The Chosen, https://foursignposts.com/2020/06/11/review-the-chosen/
Quotation source

Love changes us (Walter Mosley / Henri Nouwen)

We are not trapped or locked up in these bones.
No, no. We are free to change.
 And love changes us. 

--Walter Mosley

    A new beginning! We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to a voice saying to us: “I have a gift for you and can't wait for you to see it!” Imagine. 

   We must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying: “Let me show you where I live among my people. My name is God-with-you.” 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Artemisia Gentileschi, Christ and the Samaritan Woman (1637), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cristo_e_la_samaritana_al_pozzo_%281637%29_-_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

What His eyes see (Valerie Lewis-Mosley / Manuel Cardoso)

   Jesus looked beyond her faults and saw her need. He did not dwell on her past human brokenness. He acknowledges the truth so that he could bring her to a place of truth and it is here that the healing begins. Jesus looks at her and mirrors to her what His eyes see, when He gazes upon her. 

   Jesus does not allow the limitations and taboos of the time, religiosity, culture, and gender- to define how He sees this woman. It is in the recognizing her human dignity- that He talks with her and walks with her and lets her know that she is His own! You see, Jesus saw her, and He sees us! 

   Where the world makes us invisible – we are made visible again in Christ! This is the faith we are initiated into at the well of Baptism. It is this proclamation of conversion and metanoia and faith that we are called to run and tell about. We are called to lead others out of a place of invisibility and into the light. A “Well” Woman’s Witness so to speak! The testimony of one who has been healed and made whole, plunged into the Living Water! 

--Valerie Lewis-Mosley, RN, OPA 

To hear Portuguese composer Manuel Cardoso’s beautifully meditative piece, Aquam quam ego dabo, click on the video below. The words are: Aquam quam ego dabo / Si quis biberit ex ea / Non sitiet in aeternum / Dixit Dominus mulieri Samaritanae, or The water which I shall give / if anyone shall drink of it / he shall never thirst / Said the Lord to the Samaritan woman. 

Image source: https://www.johnbmacdonald.com/blog/a-jesus-encounter-of-a-different-kind Quotation source
Video source

The Bible's vision of sin (Timothy Keller)

      The Bible’s vision of sin is not just a list. It’s a story of what went wrong. And how grace enters in. 

--Timothy Keller,
What is Wrong with the World?

Image source: Raphael Sanzio, fresco, Moses Hit the Rock, Vatican Apostolic Palace (1518-1519), https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/water-from-a-walking-rock/
Quotation source

He who desired to drink (St. Augustine / Carole M. Stephens)

He who desired to drink
thirsted for the faith of the woman.

 --St. Augustine 

 

   When the woman came to the well, Jesus—the embodiment of living water—said simply, ‘Give me to drink.’ Our Savior will likewise speak to us in a voice we recognize when we come to Him—for He knows us. He meets us where we are. And because of who He is and what He has done for us, He understands. Because He has experienced our pain, He can give us living water when we seek it. He taught this to the Samaritan woman when He said, ‘If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.’ Finally understanding, the woman responded in faith and asked, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not.’ 

   When we come to Him with humble and teachable hearts—even if our hearts are heavy with mistakes, sins, and transgressions—He can change us, ‘for he is mighty to save.’ And with hearts changed, we can, like the Samaritan woman, go into our own cities—our homes, schools, and workplaces—to witness of Him. 

--Carole M. Stephens,
The Master Healer

Image source: Angelica Kauffman, Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well (1796), https://www.wikiart.org/en/angelica-kauffman/christ-and-the-samaritan-woman-at-the-well-1796
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 8, 2026: Hope does not disappoint...

Hope does not disappoint…
What does it take for us to trust in God? 

   As they traverse the desert on their way to the Promised Land in the Book of Exodus, the people of Israel have every reason to grumble against Moses. After all, they are afraid they will die here of thirst with their children and their livestock! It is not an idle complaint. God’s promise was clear; God promised to take care of them. And yet the moment they are afflicted, the promise goes out the window. Their hearts, as Psalm 33 states, are hardened, and they test the Lord, rejecting God and turning on Moses. But Moses turns to God, knowing that God can provide what he himself can’t. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it, God tells Moses. Moses relies on God to do the unexpected, to lead him where he needs to be, rather than where he wants to be. 

   When, in John’s Gospel, Jesus comes to Jacob’s well in Sychar, a town of Samaria, he plans to call those rejected by the Jews to have faith in him. His encounter with the Samaritan woman is transformative; he is calling her – and her town – to something new, opening her slowly to the revelation present in her midst, Jesus himself, the Christ. Jesus is not caught up in the woman’s possible sin; Jesus is caught up in her personhood and in the dignity of her humanity and in her capacity to give witness. Trusting in the Lord who entrusts her with his presence, the Samaritan woman runs to town filled with the Spirit, leaving behind her water jug but carrying with her living water that she brings to her community to drink. 

    We too are called to trust, to faith, to belief in that which we cannot prove. We are called to take a leap beyond all physical evidence and to trust in all that God has revealed. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul reminds them that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; his is the grace in which we stand, a capacity to stand and give witness. Our struggle is to get past our wants and needs and to remain hopeful for that which is to come, that which is promised – his love for us, a love greater than any we have ever imagined. For that is where true faith leads us, beyond our comprehension, stretching us farther than we ever thought possible, so long as our hearts are open to his revelation and to his promise.

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

Bless the world (John J. Morris S.J.)

Mighty God, Father of all,
Compassionate God, Mother of all,
Bless every person I have met,
every face I have seen,
every voice I have heard,
especially those most dear.
Bless every city, town and
street that I have known.
Bless every sight I have seen,
every sound I have heard,
every object I have touched.
In some mysterious way
these have all fashioned my life:
all that I am,
I have received.
Great God, bless the world. 

--John J. Morris, S.J. 

Image source: Snow on Mt. Tam, February 24, 2023, https://millvalleylit.com/rare-snow-on-mt-tam/
Quotation source

He was transfigured (St. Leo the Great / St. Anastasius)

He was transfigured so that
we might be transformed.

—St. Leo the Great 

    Jesus goes before us to show us the way, both up the mountain and into heaven and — I speak boldly — it is for us now, to follow him with all speed. . . Let us run with confidence and joy to enter into the cloud like Moses and Elijah, or like James and John. Let us be caught up like Peter to behold the divine vision and to be transfigured by that glorious transfiguration. Let us retire from the world, stand aloof from the earth, rise above the body, detach ourselves from creatures and turn to the Creator, to whom Peter in ecstasy exclaimed: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here.’

--St. Anastasius 

Image source: Giovanni Bellini, Transfiguration of the Lord (ca. 1480), https://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-did-jesus-privilege-peter-james-and.html
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Being happy (Pope Francis)

    You can have flaws, be anxious and even be angry, but don’t forget that your life is the greatest business in the world. Only you can stop it from failure. You are appreciated, admired and loved by many. Remember that being happy is not having a sky without storms, a road without accidents, a job without effort, relationships without disappointments. 

    Being happy is to stop feeling a victim and become the author of your own destiny. It's going through deserts, but being able to find an oasis deep in your soul. It's to thank God every morning for the miracle of life. It’s kissing your children, cuddling your parents, having poetic moments with your friends, even when they hurt us. 

    To be happy is to let live the creature that lives in each of us, free, joyful and simple. It's having maturity to be able to say: "I made mistakes". Having the courage to say "I'm sorry". It's having a sensitivity to say "I need you". Is having the ability to say "I love you". May your life become a garden of opportunities for happiness... that in spring I can be a lover of joy and in winter a lover of wisdom. 

    And when you make a mistake, start over. Because only then will you fall in love with life. You will find that being happy doesn't mean having a perfect life. But life uses tears to irrigate tolerance. Use your defeats to train your patience. 

    Use your mistakes with the serenity of the sculptor. Use pain to tune into pleasure. Use obstacles to open the windows of intelligence. Never give up ... Above all, never give up on the people that love you. Never give up on happiness, because life is an amazing show. 

 --Pope Francis, 2023 

Image & quotation source: https://sacredheartfl.org/wisdom-from-pope-francis/