Blog Post 3/31/2024 EASTER SUNDAY, “He is Risen – ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!”

 

 “So many words ready to burst forth.

 

Words of poets.

Words of scientists.

Words of musicians.

Words of theologians.

Words of artists.

All waiting to be born.

Words eager to give birth to the one immortal idea of all ages.

And the only words that find life are so simple, so brief, so uncomplicated that many great minds have overlooked them: 'He has risen!’ [Mark 16:6]

The Word is risen.”  (Stations of the Cross, by Rev. T. Ronald Haney, with Illustrations by Bro. Michael O’Neill McGrath, OSFS)

 

Today take some time to meditate on this awesome thought, “The Cross, the Tomb and the Resurrection of Christ are the source of all blessings, the gateway to all grace.”  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

Blog Post 3/30/2024 – Holy Saturday Prayer

Today a Prayer of Thanksgiving for God’s love:

Listen to The Prayer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVfgY9xPAag

Promise your self to make your prayer life the top priority in your life.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 3/29/2024 - Good Friday & Hidden Darkness

 

 

On this most somber of days, Good Friday, Hans Urs Von Balthasar offers us this powerful insight into the Trinity.

 

“To [the Holy Spirit], the most delicate, vulnerable, and precious one in God, we must open ourselves up, without defensiveness, without thinking that we know better, without hardening ourselves, so that we may undergo initiation by Him into the Mystery that God is love.

Let us not imagine that we already know this ourselves! ‘In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and send His Son to be the expiation for our sins’ [I Jn 4:10].

The spirit alone teaches us this reversal of perspective, but through Him we can really learn what, in His view, love is.”  [Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Credo: Meditations on the Apostles' Creed, p. 72[

 

Henri Nouwen asked these questions:

1.     “How am I to let myself be found by him?”

2.     “How am I to let myself be known by God?”

3.     And “How am I to let myself be loved by God?”

Take the time to listen to Dan Schutte’s  “Hidden Darkness”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ePEEW4aT8w

 

“… God of silence we embrace your holy night during as we rest beneath your moon.”

 

 

 

May God Be Praised

Blog Post 3/28/2024 - The Lord’s Supper

In the washing of the feet, we remember … St. Paul said to the Corinthians, and he says to us, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”  [1 Corinthians 11:23-26]

Reflect of the gift of Ashes, remembering the cross of Ashes on our forehead, when we heard, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”  May the Ashes we received remind us to ask God for His Grace of Repentance and Forgiveness.  And may Grace guide our lives.  Today we begin The Sacred Pascal Triduum so we focus on God’s great love for us and the Awesome gift of the Eucharist.

So may we follow the advice of St. Francis de Sales “In fact, there is no other art than to set ourselves to the work of loving Him [God], applying ourselves to the practice of those things that are pleasing to Him [God].”  [The Art of Loving God, p.108]

Cardinal Cantalamessa “What is the place the Eucharist has in the history of salvation?  The answer is that it has no particular place – it is the whole thing.” 

 

                                                In the Eucharist we discover Hope.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 3/27/2024 – Learn to See God.

 

The Gentlemen saint, Francis de Sales offered us this advice, “Learn to see God in the details of your life, for He is everywhere.”

God is everywhere so look for Him in your daily life, your daily routines, in your mirror, in your actions.  When you find God thank the Lord for creating you, because you bring a unique glimpse of God and God’s love to yourself and the world.

 

*

May God Be Praised.

*Brother Mickey McGrath’s artwork is available at: https://www.bromickeymcgrath.com/

 

 

Blog Post 3/26/2024 - Homily Offered at OLPH Penance Service 3/24/2024.

 

Homily Offered at OLPH Penance Service 3/24/2024.

A Reading from the Gospel of John [1:15-17]

“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’  He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’  He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’

He then said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’  He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’  He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’  Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’” 

Homily

Jesus provides Peter an opportunity to seek Forgiveness and unburden his soul.  The threefold “Do you love me ….” asked by Jesus of St. Peter is not bringing up Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus.  Jesus meets Peter where he is to share His love for Peter and the exchange goes like this.

Jesus asks Simon Peter, “Do you Agape Me, love Me unconditionally and totally?”  Simon Peter responds “Yes, Lord I Philia You, love You like a brother.”  Jesus asks again Simon “Do you Agape Me?  Peter responds “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.”

A third time Jesus asks Simon “Do you Philia Me?  Peter [distressed] responds, “Lord You know everything, You know that I Philia You.”  Tonight, in Confession the Lord will meet each one of us where we are and give us His mercy wrapped in Grace we need and the Forgiveness we seek.

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 3/25/2024 - Silver & Sorrow

“Lord, you know the burden of my sorrow.”  The Words of the Lord are true, like silver from the furnace. [Office of Readings 1/09/2024]

“A jeweler was visiting a silversmith, whose works she sold in her shop.  As he worked on a new piece, he showed her how the silver ore is held in the heat of the refining fire until it is purified. ‘How do you know when the ore has been in the fire long enough?’ she asked.  ‘…When the silver is fully refined, I can see my own image in it.  Then I know it has been in the fire long enough.’”  [Connections, August 21, 2011]

The Lord carries our Sorrows with us and when we see God’s image [His Cross & His Resurrection] in our actions and in our wills the Silver of Sorrow is fully refined.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 3/24/2024 - How Does God Look at Us?

 

*

“No one is esteemed before God for having lived long – but only for having lived well. For nothing is small in the service of God.” (de Sales)

 

Today let’s offer each action we do to God, who loves us and cares for us.

 

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

 

*Brother Mickey McGrath’s artwork is available at: https://www.bromickeymcgrath.com/

Blog Post 3/23/2024 – Coffee in Lent, a Reflection

 

                                                                Reflection on a Cup of Coffee

A cup of coffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUXOKabkocQ

"Life is like coffee.  The jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live.  While you pursue the fine cups, be sure to keep focus on enjoying the coffee!"

Today when you have your coffee, tea or other drink focus on your Lent and find ways to enjoy it, it is a gift.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 03/22/2024 – Faith

Faith

St. Francis de Sales said, “Faith is like a bright ray of sun light.  It enables us to see God in all things as well as all things in God.”

As we continue our journey this Lent carve out some time to thank God for the gift of faith given to you.  Reflect on your Lenten practices and whether they are strengthening your Faith.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 3/21/2024 – Season of Listening

                                                                     Season of Listening

Pope Francis in his 2024 Lenten Message wrote, “It is a time to act, and in Lent, to act also means to pause.  To pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence a wounded brother or sister.  Love of God and love of neighbour are one love.”

This Lent, pause, to listen attentively to God’s whispering words of love to your heart and allow them mold and guide your will.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 3/20/2024 – Authentic Love, Wasting Time and Being Tamed

 

Bishop Barron offers us the profound insight on LOVE, “In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good of the other as other. To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire.
 

Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other’s good for the other’s sake. It is an escape from the black hole of the ego, which tends to draw everything around it into itself.”

 

In Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince we read,  “It is the time you wasted with you rose that makes it important.”  The fox taught the Little Prince the meaning of “tame”.  Profound insights for us as we examine our prayer life: “wasted time & being tamed.”

 

Love is an act of the will, therefore it is important for us to allow God to “tame” us and our response should be to “waste” time with The Lord.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 3/19/2024 – Feast of St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church

 

 

On this feast of St. Joseph, we reflect on the heavy burden and responsibility that St. Joseph bore, the picture is of the sleeping St. Joseph allows you to place your burdens and your cares on his pillow and he will carry them to the Lord.  As we celebrate St. Joseph reflect on words from Pope Francis and Fr. Matthew Kauth.

Pope Francis wrote, “In his relationship to Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father. He watched over him and protected him, never leaving him to go his own way. We can think of Moses’ words to Israel: ‘In the wilderness … you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled’ [Deuteronomy 1:31]. In a similar way, Joseph acted as a father for his whole life.”  [Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde ]

Fr. Matthew Kauth writes, “You were not faint of heart, Joseph. You were a man after God’s own heart. And so, as He loves [Mary], so in proportion did you. You were betrothed. You touched that hand when you made your espousals….   It would fit into your rough and worn palm and find security and strength there. Did you stare at your hand that night by the candlelight? Did you marvel that something so poor held something so rich?”  [The Imitation of Saint Joseph, p.170]

St. Joseph is the Patron: of the Universal Church, unborn children, fathers, workers, travelers, immigrants, and a happy death.

St. Joseph pray for us.

Blog Post 3/18/2024 - Homily Cycle B 3/17/2024 – 5th in Lent - [St. Patrick’s Day]

Sheamus O’Toole was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place.  Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me.  If you find me a parking place, I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of my life & give up drinking Irish Whiskey!"

Miraculously, a parking place appeared.  Sheamus looked up again and said, "Never mind Lord, I've just found myself."

Jeremiah announces that a New Covenant is coming, when the God will place His law upon our hearts, and we shall be God’s people.  We prayed in our Responsorial Psalm “Create a clean a pure heart in a willing spirit.”

Then, in the Letter to the Hebrews we heard that Jesus is “… the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  And in our Gospel a rather odd incident is recounted.  “Some Greeks … came to Philip … and asked him, ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus.’”  For the Greeks [at that time] the request to see Jesus meant to believe in Jesus.

Jesus responds to their request in a peculiar way, “… unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

Jesus doesn’t promise an easy life for his disciples rather He promises a life based on loving God which will leads to eternal life.  He offers us a life focused on doing God’s Will, by bringing Christ’s mercy & compassion to the world.  By dying to our prejudices, our fears & our wants we can “Live Jesus.”

When we pray the Hail Mary we say“… pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”  As we move through our life, we discover that there are many “hours” of death; we “die” many times as we grow and mature.  There’s the death of childhood, when we put aside our innocence to deal with “real life,” we come to understand that our needs & our wants are not the center of the universe, from the “death” of  childhood comes the “birth” of adulthood.

 

There’s the death of dreams, when we accept the reality that we will never play in the NBA, on the PGA Tour, for the Phillies or the Yankees.  We will never Sing on Broadway or in Carnegie Hall.  We put aside those “dreams” and accept who we are, the talents we are blessed with.  We accept our life, with its meaning and purpose as gift from God.  We learn that work, sacrifice, perhaps most important of all — forgiveness, are essential in every meaningful relationship.  Every life is a series of death & birth,  of change and discovery, of joy and sadness.

 

With the image of the “grain of wheat” Jesus teaches us that life demands “dying” to our fears and our self-centeredness.  True life means to choose to love Jesus, love ourselves, and love others.  The Gospel “harvest” prepares us for eternal life with the Lord.

[Adopted from Connections, March 17, 2024]

C.S. Lewis said the Lord challenges us to “irrigate desserts.”  [The Abolition Man, p.14]. Lent reminds us to “irrigate desserts” in this life with Pray, Almsgiving and Fasting.  To strengthen our Faith with the Sacraments, especially Penance and the Eucharist.  Receiving The Eucharist, enables us to give our lives to the Lord in reverence, in obedience and in awe confident that He will bless us & pour our His Grace upon us.

Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Author of Life, and the Conduit to Eternal Life.  The New Covenant is written on our souls at our Baptism, upon our hearts, invisible but essential to our lives.  For a few minutes, in silence, reflect on your gift of Faith and what you doing this Lent strengthen your Faith?

 

May God Be Praised. 

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearB.cfm