A Daily Dose of God

 

Christ is counting on you, to proclaim His Gospel by your life!  You are His hands, His feet, His heart, His compassion, His love, His tears, His smile.   

 

Remind yourself of the end game, heaven, as we travel through this largely “virtual” experience.  Christ loves you, not virtually but really, and your commitments today may be altered by the pandemic, but they not eliminated.  You need realistic commitments, commitments consonant with your vocation, with your job, with your family and with the COVID situation that we currently find ourselves.

 

Jesus calls us to Truth, to Serve, to Love, that is Life in the Spirit!  You need to adapt or plan to grow in holiness to your current circumstances; maybe you need to revise your plan because of the pandemic, and allow the Spirit moving you in a new or different direction.

 

Each one of us has a unique glimpse of God to share with the world.  What a privilege!  What a responsibility!  Think about Mary and Martha, they responded differently to the Lord. 

 

We should not judge people; Stephen Covey shared this story in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  “One Sunday morning on a subway in New York.  People were sitting quietly — some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene. Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car.  The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

 

The man sat down and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation.  The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers.  It was very disturbing. And yet, the man did nothing.

 

It was difficult not to feel irritated. One passenger could not believe that the man could be so insensitive and let his children run wild and do nothing about it.  It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So, the irritated passenger finally said, ‘Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people, couldn’t control them a little more’?

 

The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, ‘Oh, you’re right. I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.’”

 

We never know the burdens or crosses that others are carrying, so pray for them and give them the benefit of the doubt and let God be the judge.  Remember that Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6; 6)

 

I believe with all my heart that Jesus is calling us to journey with Him here, so we can recognize Him when we enter eternal life.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

 

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

Disciples on the Road to Emmaus said, “…were not our hearts burning….”  Has your heart ever been burning, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct.”  (1 Peter 1:15)

 

All the children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic school for lunch.  At the head of the table was a large pile of apples.   

The teacher placed a note that read, “Take only one, God is watching.”  Moving through the line, to the other end of the table, was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.   

A boy wrote this note, “Take all you want, God is watching the apples.”  Remember you are the apple of God’s eye, in a loving and caring way, God is watching you.

In our lives as Christians, we are constantly moving either toward God or away from God.  The Irish symbol for Holy Spirit is a “Goose” [a Wild Goose].  The Goose is a lot like a real Christian community, noisy, messy but working together great things are accomplished.  Think about geese in there V formation it is a glimpse of heaven.

In the V formation the geese fly further and faster.

In the V formation, if a goose gets hurt one or two stay behind to help.

In the V formation, their honking is to encourage, much like prayer and praise.

Jesus saved us over 2,000 years ago!  Now we are challenged to allow His saving grace to mold us, to renew us, and to form us.  Charles Taylor in his book, “A Secular Age” and Fr. Michael Buckley, S.J. in his article, “At the Origins of Modern Atheism” point out that Secularism and Atheism are challenges that we face.  We need to deal with them in a serious manner, but we should not fear them.  Bishop Cupich said, “… we should welcome this moment as an opportunity to embrace more fully our own discipleship ….” (Origins, 9/5/13 p. 214)

The bishop offered several ideas on how to talk about Faith in a Secular Age; I think the most important one is this: “Our confidence that the Gospel speaks to the deepest longings of the human heart ….”  [Ibid, p. 217] The Gospel should be the foundation of how we speak, as well as how we live.

St. Francis de Sales said, “Take courage, and turn troubles which you cannot remedy into material for progress and maturity.” [That certainly applies to our COIVD 19 Pandemic Times].  de Sales advises us “Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself,” and St. Paul tells us “…God is faithful and will not let you be tried beyond your strength….” (1 Cor. 10:13b)

Jesus assures us that we are loved by God, allow that message to permeate your heart and guide your life.

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

A Daily Dose of God

DeSales taught us that “The measure of love is to love without measure.”  Easy to say, very hard to live.  St. Paul shared this insight with us, “No longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  We are called to be Saints - that is the goal of Christian life, and Saints are people who do ordinary, extraordinarily well.”  (St. Francis de Sales)

In fact, “There’s more to get thrilled about in the ordinary than the extraordinary.” We should live this wise insight, “Don’t waste your time trying to get people to love you. Instead, spend your time loving people & the other will follow.”

(Colors, p. 73, 78)

In Matthew’s Gospel (25: 31 – 46), Jesus tells us about our judgment criteria.

Jesus’ called you to “Live Jesus”, to be His disciple.  Think about poor St. Thomas, he got a bad rap!  Thomas is mentioned four times in the Scriptures.  He could be Courageous Thomas, Questioning Thomas or Believing Thomas.  But he has been labeled “Doubting Thomas”, maybe he got that label so, we have a saint to go too when we doubt, when we have reservations!

The way we live, our words, our actions, present Jesus to the world or cast “doubt” on Christianity.  Christianity is hard work, hard work filled with joy but hard work, nonetheless.

Josh Groban has a wonderful song,

“You raise me up…to more than I can be.”

When I am down & oh my soul, so weary.

When troubles come & my heart burdened be.

Then, I am still & wait here in the silence.

Until you come & sit a while with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains.

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders.

You raise me up…to more than I can be.

Take a few minutes and listen to this unique and beautiful rendition of You Raise Me Up by Matin Hurkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RojlDwD07I

Beautiful song but remember that God raises us up to “BE ALL THAT WE CAN BE” – St. Francis de Sales taught us to “Be who you are & be that well.”  You are made in the image and likeness of God, share that with the world, the world needs it.

May God Be Praised!

 

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

 

 

 

 

St. Therese of Lisieux said, "Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love." 

 

We have all heard at one time or another, “Actions speak louder than Words!

”  There is much truth in that statement.  St. Francis Assisi, in his rule for the Franscians stated, “All the Friars … should preach by their deeds.”  (Rule of 1221, Chapter XII)

 

The Christian Life is a life of Prayer, a life centered on Living Jesus, and His Gospel.  We pray not to God but, inside God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our relationship with God is a bond, a covenant.  St. John Paul II said that in the “… Incarnation we see the human face of God & the divine face of humanity.”

 

St. Augustine said, “You have made us for your self, Lord, & our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”  A loving relationship is the communication of feelings, the willed decision to commitment and the openness to the graces that God gives.

 

 

 

As you move through your day remember that the Lord is with you each step, each thought and each action, make them your gifts to the Lord this day.

 

May God Be Praised!

 

 

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

 

Hear my cry!  “Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

 

Provide strength to the first responders, compassion to the medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

“But in our contrite souls, in a spirit of humility, accept us, Lord….  Bring to fruition the quest of those who follow you, for those who trust in you can never be confounded.  And now we follow you with all our heart and we revere you and seek your face.” (Morning Prayer Week IV - Canticle: Daniel)

 

This story may help us with our perspective on life, God and religion.

 

“What good are Soap and Religion?”

 

A rabbi and soap maker who went for a walk together. The soap maker had some negative things to say about religion: "What good is religion? Just look around you. What do you see? Trouble, misery, wars - even after all these years and years of preaching and teaching about goodness, truth, peace. What good is religion with all its prayers and sermons if all this evil still exists?"

The rabbi kept quiet as they continued their walk. Then they noticed a child playing in the gutter. The child was just filthy with dirt and mud. The rabbi said to the soap maker: "Look at this child! Now you say that soap makes people clean, but what good is it? With all the soap in the world this child is still dirty. What good is soap after all?"

The soap maker immediately answered him: "But rabbi, soap can't do its job if it isn't used!"  The rabbi said, "The same is true with religion."  [Jim Davis, The Call of Discipleship]  

 

Thomas Merton said, “The root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved.  The faith that one is loved by God.”  St. Augustine taught us to, "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."

 

Today when you use soap think about God!

 

May God Be Praised!

 

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

 

“Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

 

 

 

 

 

What Dose the Lord Require of me?

 

 

 

 

 

The prophet Micah advises us, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow before God most high....  You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

 

Lord our God, You commissioned us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, let your light shine on us, Lord Jesus.  Lord, you alone are the holy one.

 

We are not required to love God, but we are invited to love God with all our heart, with all our will and with all our mind.  How can we measure success?  Many years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson noted three qualities he deemed marks of true "success": the ability to discern and appreciate beauty, the ability to see the best in others, and a commitment to leaving the world a better place. 

 

He believed that success came with appreciating God's world, developing loving relationships with God's people, and with working to improve God's world. 

(R. Robert Cueni, Sermons on the Gospel Readings, Series I, Cycle C, CSS Publishing Company)

 

As Catholics we are blessed to be nourished with the Eucharistic on our journey.  We are called to seek the good in each person we meet, to see one another as God sees.

 

“In Chicago in 1953 the city officials and news reporters were waiting at the railroad station for the arrival of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize winner.  When he stepped off the train…he thanked them and asked to be excused for a moment.  He walked quickly to the side of an elderly woman struggling with her two big suitcases.  Smiling at the woman he picked up her bags and walked with her to her bus.  There he helped her aboard and wished her a safe trip.  Then we went back to the officials and apologized for keeping them waiting.

 

 

 

That man was Albert Schweitzer….  One of the committee members turned to a reporter and said, ‘That’s the first time I ever saw a sermon walking.’”

 

Most of us will not be called upon to perform great actions on great stages, so we must do what we can with small actions on small stages – done with love for God. 

 

That’s HUMILITY!

 

Walk Humbly each day with God and the world will be a better place.

 

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

 

“Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]

 

 

 

A Daily Dose of God

Homily Cycle A 8/16/2020 – 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081620.cfm

In our Entrance Antiphon we prayed, “Turn your eyes, O God … look on the face of your anointed one; one day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.”  Then in our Gospel, we heard the story of the Canaanite mother who sought healing for her daughter.   Jesus initially ignores her because she isn’t a Jew; later, Jesus commissions the disciples to baptize “all nations”. (Mt 28:19)

Matthew’s Gospel begins with Jesus’ genealogy, tracing his Jewish heritage through Joseph back to Abraham.  The genealogy names mostly men; but in addition to Jesus’ mother, Mary, there are four other women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.  They were either explicitly or implicitly non-Israelites who played a significant role in the history of Israel.  [August 2020, issue of America Magazine.]

Jesus affirms her belief in Him ‘O woman, great is your faith!’  Her insistence that Jesus heal her daughter means the Gospel message is for all people. The Canaanite woman’s story points to a world where justice, mercy and the love of God prevail.

Isaiah reminds us our life is to be a “house of prayer”.  That house doesn’t eliminate or remove the crosses that come into our life or the hardships that we will endure. God sustains us, through the gift of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh.  Jesus teaches us His way, and if we walk His path, our life will be Joy-filled.

In the Gospel Jesus appears to be rude and mean to the Canaanite woman.  His meeting with the Canaanite “…challenges us to take a much wider view of our world and the people who inhabit it.”  (Connections, 08-17-08) The Canaanite woman reminds us that unwavering trust in Jesus and His Gospel is central to our discipleship!  Jesus challenges His disciples and us, to reflect on why we do what we do.

Maybe this story can help us.

Every day, for years, he visited his wife in the nursing home; she suffered from Alzheimer’s ….  He would feed her lunch, sit with her and show her the pictures of their children, sharing with her the latest family news.  He would patiently remind her who he was, explain that they have been married for 52 years and that they have two daughters, a son, and four beautiful grandchildren. 

Before leaving, he would kiss her & tell her how much he loved her & knowing she would never realize nor remember … that he had … been there.  His heartbroken friends would ask him, Why do you keep going when she doesn’t even know who you are?
  And he would always reply, “Because I know who I am.”  (Adopted from Connections, 08-17-08)

The husband’s faithfulness to his wife – demonstrate his love and trust in God.

Faith calls us to TRUST in Jesus and to live as His disciple, to be like the Canaanite woman and follow Jesus no matter what life throws in our path.

Jesus wants us to be like the Canaanite woman and pursue Him, no matter what happens.  Jesus marveled at her faith, may Jesus one day marvel at our faith.

May God Be Praised!

Join me and cry out from the depths of your heart to the Lord who hears us. 

“Lord, listen to my prayer: turn your ear to my appeal.” [Psalm 143]

God, You are our refuge and our hope, we turn to you during this COVID 19 pandemic and plead for Your intercession.  In Your mercy and Your compassion “… grant eternal rest to the dead, comfort to mourners, healing to the sick ….” [Collect from Mass Time in Pandemic]

Provide strength to the first responders and medical personnel, and wisdom to government leaders.  End this coronavirus scourge.  Bring Your light to all who wander in the darkness of this pandemic and give us hope in Your eternal love today and every day.  Amen.  [Dcn. George Kelly]