Yes Lord.
St. John Berchmans wrote, “Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be."
Give the Lord all that you are and all that you do, imitate Mary’s simple fiat. Mary responded to the Angel Gabriel, “I am the servant of the Lord. May it be done to me as you say.” [Luke 1:38a]. In Latin, the word fiat means “let it be done.”
In other words, yes Lord.
May God Be Praised.
St. Thomas More said, "You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds . . . What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can."
St. Francis de Sales offers us this prayer to end our day, “Thank you for all the gifts of the day, for the place I spent it And for those with whom I spent it, for all its joys and all its sorrows, for the troubles overcome and for those that remain.
I offer you the silence of this night, its darkness and its solitude. Whether you chose under the cover of this night to take away the problems of this day, or leave them for tomorrow,
I will bless your name.
Thy will be done. Amen.
May God Be Praised.
"In this life no one can fulfill his longing, nor can any creature satisfy man’s desire. Only God satisfies, he infinitely exceeds all other pleasures. That is why man can rest in nothing but God." [St. Thomas Aquinas]
Give your heart, your soul, your entire being to God, it is a great leap of faith, but a leap of faith with eternal rewards. Take five today and listen to Fr. John Foley, S.J.’s Take Lord and Receive: Take Lord and Receive
May God Be Praised.
Pray for Peace
We read in Isaiah “He will settle arguments among the nations and will make decisions for many nations. Then they will make their swords into plows and their spears into hooks for trimming trees. Nations will no longer fight other nations, nor will they train for war anymore.”
Take time today to pray for peace in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our nation, in our world, but let it begin with me.
Listen to this rendition of Make Me a Channel of Your Peace made during the height of the COVID crisis: Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
May God Be Praised.
Where does joy come from? [Based on Bishop Barron’s Reflection on Matthew 11:28-30]
Jesus does not offer us one more philosophy of God. He offers “… us the view from the inside of the Trinity. And that is why we should respond to his compelling invitation: ‘Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.’ … everyone wants is rest …. Rest here means achievement of joy.”
In Matthew’s Gospel we discover the extraordinary invitation from Jesus, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Jesus is, in his innermost nature, the one who listens and obeys.
The straight forward meaning is Jesus obeys the Father and is yoked to the Father. Similarly, we need to be yoked to God, who is Father, Son & Holy Spirit and there we will find balance in life. Our true freedom lies in obeying Jesus.
May God Be Praised.
St. John Bosco wrote, "We find ourselves in this earth as in a tempestuous sea, in a desert, in a vale of tears. Now then, Mary is the Star of the Sea, the solace of our desert, the light that guides us towards heaven."
Go to the Blessed Mother when the sea of your life is turbulent, when you are weary from the sands of life blowing in your face and pray for the beams of her light to guide you to her Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ who will bless you and keep you and shine His light upon you.
May God Be Praised.
*The image is available at the Salesian Shop https://www.salesianshop.com/the-sacred-artwork-of-bro-mickey-mcgrath/
They Recognized Him in the Breaking of the
BreadIn his Treatise on the Love of God, St. Francis de Sales wrote, “Such is infinite happiness and it has not only been promised to us, but we have a pledge of it in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the perpetual feast of divine grace”.
“The Eucharist is the heart and the summit of the Church ….” (#1402 CCC). In the Catechism of the Catholic Church there are 88 full paragraphs dealing specifically with The Eucharist, there are many more references to the Eucharist throughout the Catechism.
Here are a few more selections from our Catechism to reflect upon. It states the mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. (#CCC 1374) It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as “the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend.”
In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist “the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.”
At the Last Supper Jesus asked the Apostles and us TO REMEMBER HIM, and to do that He gave us: THE EUCHARIST, the Memorial of His Body and Blood. We remember Him most profoundly in the Eucharist.
May God Be Praised.
An Insight on Prayer
“If during vocal prayer your heart is drawn to mental prayer, do not restrain it, but let your devotion take that channel, omitting the vocal prayers which you intended to say: that which takes their place is more acceptable to God, and more useful to your own soul.”
[St. Francis de Sales, p. 63 An Introduction to the Devout Life]
Allow the Holy Spirit to mold your prayer life.
May God Be Praised.
Listen to the Lord
On April 16, 2023, I Preached at the 5:00 pm [Vigil] and the 7:30 am Masses at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bethlehem, PA. In that Homily I shared a deep spiritual experience I was granted at our Easter Vigil.
“The Risen Christ gives us His PEACE to help us and to help us help our world. At our Easter Vigil Mass we sang ‘Create in Me a pure heart, O God, a willing spirit’ [Eleazar Cortes]. The ‘a willing spirit’ struck a deep chord in my heart and soul.
I reflected that the Lord was reminding me that the essential call to which each one of us must answer – is having “a willing spirit”, to follow Jesus totally.
Take a few minutes today to sit in silence and commit or recommit to allowing the Lord your God to direct your life, to create in you a willing spirit.
May God Be Praised.
St. Hildegard von Bingen offers us this advice, “May the Holy Spirit enkindle you with the fire of His Love so that you may persevere, unfailingly, in the love of His service. Thus, you may merit to become, at last, a living stone in the celestial Jerusalem."
May the Flame of God’s love consume you.
May God Be Praised.
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, the famous saint of the Sacred Heart devotion was requested by Our Lord in the 17th century to remember Gethsemane in a special way on Thursday nights. He said, “Here (in Gethsemane) I suffered inwardly more than in the rest of my passion because I was totally alone, abandoned by heaven and earth, burdened with the sins of mankind … In order for you to be united with me, in the humble prayer that I presented to my Father in the midst of all that anguish, you will arise between eleven o’clock and midnight … for one hour with me.”
"The Divine Heart is an ocean full of all good things, wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to drown our folly, an ocean of mercy to those in distress, an ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty." [St. Margaret Mary]
Spend sometime today [Thursday] meditating on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and allow His great love to envelop you.
May God Be Praised.
“Some say, Jesus is the Greatest Story ever told, I think Jesus,
True God & True Man, is the Greatest Truth ever revealed! Alleluia, Praise God!” [Deacon Kelly]
Share the Truth!
May God Be Praised!
In the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 12 we read, “Wherefore, we who are receiving the unshakable kingdom should hold fast to God’s grace, through which we may offer worship acceptable to him in reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire.”
Today accept with gentleness God’s Grace it is sufficient.
May God Be Praised.
One month ago,
we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, so today let's ponder of these life lessons from the great Saint knowing we most to be more faithful disciples of Jesus, by practicing them.
2 Find answers in prayer.
3 Stand up to authority … when you should!
4 Respect the Lord’s name
5 Don’t be afraid to ask God for what is important.
May God Be Praised.
Blog Post 4/16/2023 Cycle A - Offered at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Bethlehem, Pa
Peter, John and the rest of the apostles [except Thomas] were doing something very ordinary, they were praying. The simple, mundane tasks of being a parent, of being a member of a family, of being a friend, of being a part of a parish, is the very "work" of God …. The "work" of God is not measured in effectiveness or efficiency; the hallmark of God's work is the compassion and love,
the justice & healing that inspire and compel that work.
The simplest act of kindness and charity … is … the very work of Christ; the most hidden and unseen acts of kindness will be exalted by Christ in the kingdom of his Father. The hard work of being a Christian is filled with sadness and with joy!
The sadness we encounter points us to Christ’s wounds and we know that [one day] they will be turned into joy.
Jesus greeted His disciples: “Peace be with you.” And then, He invited Thomas’ to touch and believe; Thomas response was a great act of faith, of belief, “My Lord & my God!”
“The peace of Christ is realized in loving when it is most difficult to love, in putting aside our own disappointments and doubts for the sake of another, in forgiving when we are too angry or disappointed to forgive, in reaching out when we expect to be rebuffed or rejected.” [Connections April 10, 2010]
The Risen Christ gives us His PEACE to help us and to
help us help our world. At our Easter
Vigil Mass we sang “Create in Me a pure heart, O
God, a willing spirit.”
The “a willing spirit” struck a deep chord in my heart and soul. That seems to me to be the essential call each one of us must answer – “a willing spirit”, to follow Jesus totally.
Thomas recognized Jesus’ divinity through His humanity. Thomas may have received one of the first, if not the first sound bites when he was labeled “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas represents each of us. Our faith and our doubts in Jesus Christ - true man and true God and our willingness to make a leap of faith in Jesus Christ.
Sometimes we doubt when we [or a loved one] faces sickness [my wife Joanne on Holy Thursday admitted to the hospital, she was released yesterday] or death,
when we lose our job or experience economic hardship, when we live with violence, war or terrorism.
Mother Theresa doubted sometimes; even the Popes occasionally doubt. FAITH is leaping with the doubts and through the doubts into the Lord!
Maybe this Story about a 5 year old boy whose house was on fire can aid our understanding: smoke everywhere, he was on the 2nd floor, blinded by the smoke, on the grass outside his window his father could see him clearly and called to him to jump, the boy said he could not see, and his father assured him that he would catch him. “I CAN SEE YOU SON, JUMP & I AM HERE!”
Jesus waits for us when we doubt; He waits for us to jump into His arms and into faith in Him. Unlike Thomas we don’t have Jesus wounds to touch, but we have wounds: our own, and our loved ones. When we touch those wounds with our compassion and our empathy, we touch Christ!
We are profoundly blessed to receive the wounded and resurrected Jesus in the Eucharist. Jesus is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Way to everlasting life.
“Create in me, create in me a pure heart, O God, a willing spirit.”
Pope Francis in his book, The Name of God is Mercy, wrote, “Mercy is the divine attitude which embraces, it is God’s giving himself to us, accepting us, & bowing to forgive.” [pp. 7,8]
For a few minutes, in silence, accept God’s mercy and give God your burdens!
May God Be Praised.
The Octave of Easter
"The school of Christ is the school of love. In the last day, when the general examination takes place ... Love will be the whole syllabus." St. Robert Bellarmine
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said what you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for Me. Today commit or recommit to living the Beatitudes as the foundation of your love for Jesus, [5:1-12].
When he saw the crowds, He went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, His disciples came to Him. He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Blessed are you when you live The Beatitudes.
May God Be Praised. Alleluia, Alleluia.
The Octave of Easter is an eight day celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. The Easter Season last fifty days, from the Resurrection until Pentecost Sunday; Really one Great Celebration. During the Octave we have the option of proclaiming a Sequence, which is a poetic and or musical celebration.
Let me share some of the Sequence with you, “Christians, to the Paschal Victim Offers your thankful praises … Christ my hope arisen ….”
In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles Peter and John preached the Good News and the authorities were threatened. In our Gospel Jesus prepares a meal for His disciples; He does that for us each time the Eucharist is celebrated, He gives us His body & Blood – The Eucharist.
Jesus teaches us that God’s power is made know to us through sharing the Good News. Jesus wants us to follow His Teaching because He knows that is where our true happiness lies.
May God Be Praised.
The Octave of Easter - Hospitality
Many years ago, the great clipper ships sailed the West Indies in search of spices, riches, and fruits. Highly regarded for its intense sweetness, the pineapple was a staple of Indian feasts and rites. It was difficult to transport, and so this “excellent fruit” remained rare in Europe and America. The pineapple was once so uncommon and coveted a commodity in Europe that King Charles II of England posed for an official portrait in an act then symbolic of royal privilege—receiving a pineapple as a gift.
Due to its association with warmth and friendliness, pineapples in America were often used as the “crowning” piece in large displays of food. Visitors confronted with pineapple-topped food displays felt particularly honored by their host who obviously spared no expense to ensure their guests' dining pleasure. Because the pineapple was so prized, if you were served or given a pineapple you knew you were considered a special friend.
The pineapple, in time, became a symbol of Southern hospitality. President Kennedy once said of Washington D.C., "It's a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.”
When you see or eat a pineapple remember to show Southern hospitality, Northern efficiency and Christ’s love in all you do and to each person we interact with today.
May God Be Praised. Alleluia! Alleluia!