Wednesday’s Wink from Above November 5, 2025 - Homily Cycle I 10/17/2025 Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch – Offered at the School Mass for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Bethlehem, PA

 

Readings:    https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/1017-memorial-ignatius-antioch.cfm

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch born around 50 A.D. in [present day] Syria. Ignatius was the 2^nd Bishop of Antioch & was the first one to use the term “Catholic Church” as a collective designation for Christians, he is mentioned in the Roman Canon.

Have you ever heard the phrase “Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane. No, it’s Superman.” As you know his cape is red, but I am so old that when I watched the Adventures of Superman growing up, his cape wasn’t red because television then was only in black and white.

 

Superman’s cape is red for two reasons:

1.      It was linked to his Kryptonian heritage.

2.      It was a vibrant color.

This morning Fr. Marty and I are wearing red vestments not because the color is vibrant, BUT because St. Ignatius of Antioch was a martyr and is part of our heritage as Christians. 

Red Vestments are used at other times during the liturgical year, for example Confirmation, Good Friday and Pentecost. They represent sacrificial love, but also, point to divine charity, and spiritual fervor, associated with the Holy Spirit and Christ's Passion.

 

Ignatius believed that Jesus was truly God and truly man. St. Ignatius believed in the “Real Presence”,  Jesus gives us His body and blood in the Eucharist to nourish us. In our 1^st reading St. Paul teaches us that our “citizenship is in heaven” and in our Gospel we heard that we are called to serve and follow Jesus – if we do we will produce much fruit.

One way can do that today is to join with St. Ignatius, who lived in the Middle East, and pray that the agreement [recently signed] prevails & brings peace to that region. If we follow Jesus - our families and our world will be better served.

How you can serve Jesus: 1. By being a good daughter/son, by doing your best as a student, by listening to your parents and your teachers. Today when you see something “blue” say a quick prayer to the Blessed Mother and when you see “red” say a prayer of thanks to Jesus.

May God Be Praised.

Wednesday’s Wink from Above 10/29/2025 Is Praying a Joy or a Burden?

Prayer is both a Joy and a Burden, but most importantly it is a Gift!

Today we conclude our Octoberfest on Prayer with the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, because it combines insight into our need to read the Scriptures, Receive the Eucharist at Mass and put our relationship with God first in our lives.

“Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, ‘What are you discussing as you walk along?’ They stopped, looking downcast.

One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?’ And he replied to them,

‘What sort of things?

They said to him, ‘The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.’

And he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer, these things and enter into his glory?’

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.’

 So, he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?’

So, they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, ‘The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!’

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

Take some time today to thank God for the Gift of the Eucharist and the Gift of your Faith.

May God Be Praised.

Wednesday’s Wink from Above 10/22/2025 How to Pray?

Fr. Lewis Fiorelli, OSFS wrote in The Spiritual Directory Today, “In Salesian spirituality … union with the will of God must always be situated in the deeper context of a loving, personal relationship with the Beloved that is expressed in and deepened through daily prayer ….” Salesian Scholar Wendy Wright asks, “What claims your love?”  “Where do [your] deepest desires lie?”

To find true peace and contentment we must give our heart, soul & will to God – for God’s good pleasure. The “Source and Summit” of our life is Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and The Our Father is the prayer that Jesus taught us. Today we pray the Our Father because when the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He said,

“Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come,

Your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread;

and forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors;

and do not subject us to the final test,

but deliver us from the evil one.” Amen.

 

St. Francis de Sales teaches us, “Do not hurry along and say many things but try to speak from your heart. A single ‘Our Father’ said with feeling has greater value than many said quickly and hurriedly.”  [Sermon in a Sentence, p. 134]

 

Say & pray each phrase to Jesus who is lovingly listening to you.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Wednesday's Wink from Above October 15, 2025

 

Homily Cycle C 10-12-2025 [28^th Sunday Ordinary Time] offered at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Bethlehem, PA. Prayer “There go I with the Grace of God.”

Today’s Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Second grade students at a Catholic school were asked to draw a picture from the Bible. When the teacher reviewed their artwork she saw a drawing with a man & a woman without any clothes sitting on the back seat of a limousine & a man with a long white beard in the driver’s seat.

The teacher said to the little girl who drew it,”…  there is nothing like this in the Bible”…. –               the girl opened to the Bible to the Book of Genesis where it says, “And God drove Adam & Eve out of the Garden.”

Today our Scriptures point out to us that the 1^st step in being healed is recognizing that you are sick or have a problem. Naaman knew two things: he was sick and where to go for healing. The ten lepers in our Gospel knew those same two things.

Some people look at the crosses they see others carrying and say, “There go I but for the grace of God.” Some people who carry those or other crosses say, “There go I with the grace of God.”  

This morning, I am going to share with you two stories and ask you to research two others on the Internet. The two I want you to research are: Jermaine Gardner, the pianist, born without one eye, no nose and a misshapen face, [https://guideposts.org/positive-living/friends-and-family/parenting/children/a-childs-disability-meets-a-mothers-unending-love/] and Patrick Henry Hughes, born without eyes and without the ability to straighten his arms and legs, [https://patrickhenryhughes.com/], both accomplished musicians with powerful stories.

The two I am going to share with you. Author Kelly Adkins wrote about Kevin, her 30 yr. old 6’ 2’’ brother in an article entitled, “God Lives Under the Bed.” “I envy Kevin.  (He) thinks God lives under his bed, one night walking past his bedroom I heard praying out loud in his … bedroom. I heard him pray, ‘Are you there God?’ - ‘Where are you?  Oh, I see.  Under the bed ….’ [Kevin is] mentally disabled as a result of difficulties during labor.

He reasons and communicates with the capabilities of a 7-year-old. Up before dawn each day, off to work … home to walk our dog, then his favorite dinner macaroni and cheese and later bed. Twice a week he stays up late to gather dirty laundry for his next day’s chore, doing his laundry. On Saturday’s … my Dad takes him to the airport for a soda, and they watch the planes land.

His life is simple; his heart is pure .… he trusts God.

One day, when the mysteries of heaven are opened …. Kevin won’t be surprised at all! [http://www.the-special-needs-child.com/Under-the-Bed.html] Kevin knows how to Pray, how to Live and how to Trust in God.

The other vignette I want to share with you is about my son Brian and his wife Laurie. As some of you remember Laurie suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm and stroke in 2018. At that time, their two children were ages 7 and 4. Your prayers aided in Lauire in becoming a miracle, she is today.

My son Brian prayed each day since then, “There go I with the grace of God.” It hasn’t been easy, but it is blessed and grace-filled.

Our Scripture Readings focus on Faith, Gratitude and Prayer. Faith and Prayer are obviously theological, but Gratitude is both secular & theological. As I look out upon you this morning I am filled with Gratitude because each of you is a gift from God.

This morning let’s ask ourselves, “Do I seek only the gifts of God OR am I truly seeking God Himself?

Naaman and the Samaritan were cured, were blessed and we are blessed in many ways. Naaman and the Samaritan recognized God as the source of their healing. For us as Catholics giving thanks is not just a secular attitude but an act of giving glory to God, the essence of our being.

You and I are called to recognize God by being Thankful & that is what The Eucharist teaches us. Today reflect on Whether you seek only the gifts of God or are you truly seeking God Himself?

May God Be Praised.