It’s easy to fall back into old habits. Especially when you get with friends from long ago or people you used to work with. (click the link to read more)

July 4, 2017

GN 19:15-29

PS 26:2-3, 9-10, 11-12

MT 8:23-27

It’s easy to fall back into old habits.   Especially when you get with friends from long ago or people you used to work with.  As a former construction foreman, I know all too well how the mind can make thoughts of our old ways seem joyful.   We reminisce together about days of old and often tell stories with almost a sense of pride.  Stories that are often of things we should never have been doing, and definitely shouldn't be happy we partook of.   Words that we thought we had kicked the habit of using come out of our mouths before we even realize we have said them.   It’s as if our flesh takes joy in all those carnal and sensual things, even though our mind knows they weren’t good for us then and still aren’t today.

Lots family were in the land he chose for them.  Abraham had given him the option.   Lot seeing how fertile and modern this land was wanted it for his own.   God saw the danger coming and sent messengers, at the request of Abraham, to Lot and his family telling them to flee.  In the process of leaving this life of sin, Lot’s wife looks back at what she is leaving behind.  It’s a tale of sorrow and sadness.  Was she reminiscing?  Was she so used to the city life that going back to living in the secluded country would be such a hardship?   Did she miss her friends? Her things?   Those thoughts we will never know.  What we do know is that spiritually it’s an emblem of all those times we look back at what we gave up with longing, instead of looking forward to the salvation offered to us by our God.

Just like Lot’s family, God was with the disciples on the boat during the storm.  Instead of keeping their eyes on Him, their faith in God’s provision, they looked out at the gathering waves, lightning, and crashes of thunder.   It’s easy to do.   Knowing who Jesus is, and knowing He promised to be there with them, they still on some level didn’t understand.  Like Lot’s wife, they were busy looking at the world, and not at the Lord.  We too should keep that in mind during the storms of our daily lives.  Jesus is present there and guiding us towards the destination.  He asks us to put our hands to the plow and never look back.  It is precisely during the storms that it is most important to keep our eyes on Christ, to head in the direction He has directed us, even if it’s hard to see or understand the outcome.   Then having done our very best to follow, knowing that Jesus is right there with us as we trudge along.

 His servant and yours,

Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14  

It is interesting how we each react in a different way to God’s presence in our life. Sometimes we have mountaintop moments that encourage and lift us to new heights. (Click the link to read more)

July 5, 2017

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 379

GN 21:5, 8-20A

PS 34:7-8, 10-11, 12-13

MT 8:28-34

Luigi Alois Gillarduzzi Hagar und Ismael in der Wüste 1851

It is interesting how we each react in a different way to God’s presence in our life.  Sometimes we have mountaintop moments that encourage and lift us to new heights.   Others have experiences that frighten them or leave them feeling ashamed and fearful.  The one thing that can be said is that no matter what happens when one encounters God they will never be the same again.   Jesus, the incarnation of God, demands that of us by his very presence.  We must either choose to follow Him or reject Him.  As He points out in the Apocryphal book of Revelation, being lukewarm is not an option.  Either we are hot or cold.  

Abraham encounters God at a moment that to our modern sensibilities seems cold and aloof.  His wife has now had a child of her own and demands that Abraham's slave and son must be sent off.   In the time period when this happened and the culture that they were a part of, this was not an unusual request.  Abraham could have simply expelled them and left them to die.  The world around them was full of those who sacrificed their children to Gods or abandoned the weak and only cared for the strong.   Instead, we are reminded of the promise of Abraham, wherein God has promised to bless the entirety of the world.   Through Ishmael, some of those blessings will pour out as well, but Isaac is the child of the covenant, the promise.  One scholar says that this ‘mellowed’ Abraham.  I think that is a lackluster description of what it must have done for a father to push away his first born son.

Whereas Abraham was faithful to God and trusted, the Gadarenes rejected the divinity among them.   Instead of seeing Jesus as a deliverer who had saved one of their own from demonic possession and a healer, they see Him as a threat to their local economy and way of life.  When given a chance for conversion of their own they reject the one who can bring them true joy and happiness and beg Him to leave.  We often forget that simple truth: an encounter with God does not always lead to faith.  When we offer the Gospel to others, reasonably and rationally, and they reject it…. Often it makes no sense to us who have faith that they would do so.   How can their hearts be hardened to such a beautiful and joy filled truth?  It is because it challenges.  The Gospel doesn’t leave us where we are, it challenges us to change and go forth and sin no more.   It’s not enough to just say we believe, like Abraham we set out on a journey and do the actions demanded of us from God, trusting that even when we don’t understand, He will provide the Sacrifice necessary for any of our actions to have value.  On their own, they are nothing. United to Christ they are made complete.

His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14  

Our culture seems to be obsessed with the living dead. We are bombarded with media that include sparkling vampires, lovable ogres, and even battles with the “Walking Dead.” (Click the link to read more)

June 30, 2017

Lectionary: 375

GN 17:1, 9-10, 15-22

PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

MT 8:1-4

Our culture seems to be obsessed with the living dead.  We are bombarded with media that include sparkling vampires, lovable ogres, and even battles with the “Walking Dead.”   I can’t help but wonder if part of the inspiration for the idea of a zombie came from that horrible and misunderstood disease of biblical notoriety: leprosy.  These men and women were often treated as if they were the worst of sinners as if their soul was as dark as night itself.   So filled with pestilence and hatred that it somehow had boiled over and seeped out their skin into the world itself.   Not understanding the microscopic world of hygiene that we now have the privilege of entertaining, these unfortunate souls were pushed out of town and into the worst of conditions to live in seclusion.

Saint Francis of Assisi had an almost uncontrollable revulsion from the leper.  When he saw someone suffering from this affliction he would go the other way or avoid them on the other side of the path.   One day as he meditated on the Scriptures he came face to face with a man in need.  Seeing the image of the suffering Jesus before him, Francis dismounted and approached the leper, kissing him on the cheek.   His revulsion gave way to love and mercy.   He clothed the man in his own rich clothing and went on his way happy and whistling.   Both Francis and the leper had received a gift that had freed them of the social stigmas of their time and brought immense joy into the lives of both.

That’s the beautiful thing about the image of Jesus healing the leper in the gospel today.  We often forget in our world of overly sexualised imagery where intimacy is broken down into simple acts of gratification, just how powerful the touch of another human can be.   To those of us who experience handshakes daily and hugs from our families, we often fall into a rut of habit.  Those gestures become “old hat” and we do them without emotion or feeling.  To those who have been ostracized by society these simple gestures become amazing moments of connection.   In the movie the Martian, we see the breakdown of the astronaut as he is reunited with his comrades.   That moment when they touch, the first human touch he has had in years, breaks my heart every time.

That’s why it is important to realize that Jesus performed a much greater miracle than just the curing of a disease.   Yes, curing a disease is amazing!  It’s miraculous!   It doesn't compare to the true mercy of God that not only heals but also unites.   Not only breaks down physical barriers but mental ones as well.   It freed this man from the constraints of a society that had turned its back on him.   A society that tried to strip of his dignity to which the King of the Universe gave an emphatic no.   You can’t take dignity from the other, it comes from God.  He is waiting for each of us to reach out with our faith.   Yes, some of us need physical healing, and God can do that.   I think all of us are the victims of many spiritual and cultural stigmas that separate us from one another.   

Are you feeling like your dignity has been stolen?   Or is someone trying to cover it up with lies, abuse or neglect?   Jesus is the answer.   He can take all your broken pieces, and not only put them back together, but in the process reveal the masterpiece of who you truly are.   All you have to do is give Him the chance.  He is there for you in the Sacraments, in the Scriptures, and in the silence of your heart.   Do you take the time to encounter Him?  To learn about Him?  Receive Him frequently and reverently?   You can be freed from all that holds you back, all you need is to be like Abraham and have faith.

His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14 

The saying goes: “Hindsight is 20/20.” We cannot see the future as well as we can the past. Abraham here is going on trust alone as God Himself passes through the animals which have been torn asunder. (Click the Link/Image to read more)

2017-06-28
Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr
Lectionary: 373
GN 15:1-12, 17-18
PS 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
MT 7:15-20

The saying goes: “Hindsight is 20/20.”  We cannot see the future as well as we can the past.   Abraham here is going on trust alone as God Himself passes through the animals which have been torn asunder.   The symbolism of this primitive ritual is rife with imagery but I think most telling is that God is the only one involved in the Covenant at this point.   It is not because Abraham has performed anything other than believing.   It is his faith that is credited to him as righteousness.   The covenant is a free gift given to mankind by a God who loved them so much that He would rather be torn asunder, like the sacrificed animals, before going back on His word.   That is because God is the truth.   He cannot go back on His word any more than light itself can be darkness or warmth can be cold.

Abraham’s faith was on God’s words but without the ability to see the future.   Unlike God, who is outside of time itself, we cannot see tomorrow or the next day.   We can only guess and hope that the things we imagine will come to fruition.   That doesn’t mean that we can simply go through life not working for those things which we want to achieve.   We must become the change we want to see in the world.  Like Abraham, we must not only rest in God’s presence as God does the work but also set out on the journey as God directs.   It is in the journey that we come to know not only ourselves but see glimpses of God in creation in each other.

How then do we know who to listen to?   Who has the right “message”?   Which person has the Gospel that is the truth?  By their words and their works.   Many will tell you that you do not need to “do anything” to be a Christian.   Jesus reminds us time and again that yes, we are saved by Grace and Grace alone, but we must work!  “Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot, therefore, rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved. However, according to the Lord's words "Thus you will know them by their fruits."  (CCC 2005)

That is how we know those who speak the truth, by how they exhibit it in their lives.   That doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, though we should be striving to be better day by day.  What it does mean is how we respond to our failures.   Do we respond by being despondent and depressed?  Or coming to Christ in the Sacraments and offering our lives back to Him again and again?   Conversion can mean a mountain top moment.   You know, those moments when your life turns inside out and change happens because of some spiritual awakening from God’s grace.   The thing is Conversion is not just a one-time thing, but something we must do every single second of every single day.

I saw someone who was offended the other day when someone: said “I’ll pray for your conversion.”  I would be happy if each of you would pray for mine, continually.    I don’t want to stop being more like Christ, because I have not arrived.   I need to grow each and every day, using the means of grace that He established through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the authority He set upon His Church.   It is precisely because I cannot see that future, and often have not learned enough from the past, that I need prayers.   It is only through His grace that I can ever give the kind of fruit that I need to give in order that others will know me as one of His.

His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14

Someone made a comment the other day about not needing to bring a sacrifice to the altar, and in a way that’s entirely true. Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. Everything we receive from that work of His and His alone is through grace and not any merit we have of our own. (Click the link to read more)

June 16, 2017
Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 363
2 COR 4:7-15
PS 116:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
MT 5:27-32

Someone made a comment the other day about not needing to bring a sacrifice to the altar, and in a way that’s entirely true.   Jesus Christ died on the cross for us.   Everything we receive from that work of His and His alone is through grace and not any merit we have of our own.   However, we do have to offer a sacrifice at the altar.   Ourselves.   We come to the altar unworthy with a sacrifice that is blemished by our own failures and sins.  That sacrifice is united with the only sacrifice worthy of God’s love, Jesus Christ himself.   That’s the sacrifice we must bring to the Mass… a complete giving of ourselves to God through His Son.

St. Paul reminds us today what that looks like.   It’s not simply getting ready at Mass, our work begins much earlier.   It begins the moment we walk out at the sending from the Last Mass we attended.  Our work begins by dying to ourselves every moment of every day that Christ might live in us.   That same God who died on the cross now resides in our mortal bodies as though in a Temple created just for Him.   All the power of the universe, the life force that animates all life, and sustains the universe itself has been received by us in the Eucharist and if we allow our own frailty, thoughts, and desires to die away can change us into the men and women that we were created to be.

Sometimes we think our thoughts and fancies are harmless.   Who do they hurt?   Especially for the married people, they hurt not just ourselves but they sap away the strength of our resolve.   They weaken our love for the other and embolden our own selfish desires.   They undermine our dedication to a single person and drain the very love and devotion we have toward our spouse, our neighbor, and our God.   That’s why Jesus reminds us that it’s not just our actions that we must work on, but our thoughts towards others.   Our cross is not always just an external situation that is difficult to walk through but is also the nails of our own wants desires, and appetites.   In offering those to God, in allowing the things we want that will hurt us to die in ourselves, we can journey with Christ toward Calvary in an even more powerful way… by accepting the cup that God has given us, regardless of what we want in our own lives.

His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14

Leaving the Nest

The eldest of four is moving out today.   She ventures into the world to experience it from a different perspective.   I remember doing the same thing shortly before my eighteenth birthday, though I did not move very far away at that point.   Like my parents, I've tried to help her to be prepared for what life has to offer.  Not just the roses and enjoyments, but also making sure she isn't completely unaware of the gritty and horrible side of life.   As parents that is our job.   To prepare them for the world.  To give them the tools necessary, the knowledge to go forth and become who God has created them to be.   As she moves out I pray and hope she finds joy in this life, but more especially that she lives in a way that reaches towards eternity.

So often we reject that knowledge though, don't we?   I remember that I began to do things 'my way' as soon as I got on my own.   I did go to church, but not as much as I should have.   I didn't put the Gospel into action in my life.   I wasn't a horrible person on the inside, but my actions bespoke a brokenness that was evident to those of faith.   I had been baptized but I wasn't living out that calling to it's fullness.   I thought as long as I have faith, that's all that matters right?  That as long as I believed in Jesus, confessed him with my mouth, I was 'saved.'   It seems I was rejecting a lot of the knowledge that my Father had given me as well.

God in today's readings promises a renewing.   He promises that He will take away our stony hearts and give us hearts of flesh.  The Psalm of David's lament reminds us of that longing for God's joy, for a renewing of that Spirit with in us.   When we are broken those words are so powerful to read.   To remind us that God can clothe us in righteousness and salvation.   That the invitation to be renewed has already been offered and needs to be accepted.   You and I both have been offered the invitation to the wedding feast, but it takes more than just accepting it to attend.

The Gospel reading is one that many people avoid.   It's one that gets rid of that notion that one can just confess with their lips, believe, and be saved.   It reminds us that we must 'do' something.  Saint James phrases it this way, "Faith without works is dead."   When all of the people who should have been at the wedding refuse?  The King calls to the ones in the streets, the outsiders, the broken, the widow and the orphan.   He invites them all to the feast and He seemingly provides for them a garment to wear.   One man shows up without it.   The King inquires how he got in without being dressed for the occasion and then casts him out.   It's not enough to just receive the invitation.... you must have a change, do something, put on the garment.   What garment?   Saint Paul expresses it to Timothy in this way: "The aim of this instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith."    That is the garment.   He also says "If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.  And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing."

At a homily a few days ago Father Don spoke of Metanoia.   That fancy Greek word which means to turn around, to change.   It has a stronger meaning.   It has a connotation of turning inside out.  Today we might say "flipping our life upside down."   That's what it means to put on the garment, the arraignment for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.   It means to turn your life around completely.   To stop living for self, and to embrace the tools the Father has given you to become the person He has created you to be.   It means to stop doing it "my way" and to start living out the thing we say at Mass every time we attend: "thy will be done."

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection on the readings for Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time: August 18th, 2016.  Ezekiel 36:23-28; Psalm 51; The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 22:1-14

I did it my way

I’ve told this story before.  The story of sitting on the riverbank of the Mississippi at the White House in Saint Louis, Missouri.   How that the sun was shinning, the birds singing, the river flowing it’s long easy strides.   That I was sitting there meditating on being thankful and how awestruck we should be at the generosity of God.   There I was having this beautiful moment of relaxation with the beauty of nature when the thought occurred to me:  This moment would be perfect if a deer would just walk out of the woods right now.  God had created a moment in which I could encounter Him on a greater level, a moment in which the temporal could touch the infinite… a perfect moment.   There I was trying to be God.

Our first reading shows us that times haven’t changed much in that regards.  Just like I on the riverbank that Mark Twain made famous sought to perfect a moment that was already perfect, the world tries to tell us what makes us happy.   Frank Sinatra once sang a song called “I did it my way.”  In that song he lauds that his life is coming to an end, and that he always did it his way.  Later in his life he was known to complain about the song.   His daughter said he described it as like having something on his shoe, something unpleasant that you just couldn’t get off.  It was too ego centric, too self serving.  It reminds me of that saying the kids have, “I’ll do me, and let you do you.”   You be your own truth, and I’ll be my own truth, and we’ll be both be happy.  Yet, very few of us are happy.

The Saints show us a different way.  In their emulation of Christ they instead put others first.   They put their egos aside and serve God and man instead.   They let their own wants and needs go to the way side.  They aren’t concerned with honor, or glory, or riches or fame.   Recognition at the end of the day is not their concern.   Mother Teresa was once told by someone that they wouldn’t do what we she did for a million dollars.  She replied, “I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars either!”   She realized that the true reward is not in the comforts of this life, but in the joy of communion with Christ.  Not just in Heaven, not just in the Sacraments, but also in each other.  In the faces of those distressing disguises that Christ is wont to wear: the poor, the widow, the orphan, the refugee, the sinner.

Christ on the cross shows us the fulfillment of life.   The Disciples were confounded when He said that it was near impossible for a rich and wealthy person to enter the kingdom of Heaven.  The Jews in first century Palestine, like many of the people today, had a sort of prosperity Gospel understanding of how things worked.   The more God loved you?  The more you had.  The less favor with God?  The poorer and sicker they were.  Jesus turned that on it’s head.  The first, the most honored, wealthy and powerful King of all times and places?  Died destitute on the cross.  The first was last in the eyes of the world, but the last in the eyes of the world? Is first and foremost in Heaven.    That’s true happiness… right there on the crucifix.   A man with no wealth, no power, no honor, no pleasure…. But living out the will of the Father.   Dying in the place of all of us as the greatest act of love in the history of everything!   

That’s our challenge as well.  To die to self that we might serve others.   Not to make God an afterthought… not to get everything else in order first, and then.. After work, health, retirement, vacation, school, kids and all the other things we add in there, to find a moment for God… Rather to put God in their first.. And then place the rest around Him and in His arms… That is lasting joy.

His servant and yours,

Brian

“He must increase, I must decrease.”

A reflection on the readings for daily Mass for Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time:  Ezekiel 28:1-10; Deuteronomy 32; The Holy Gospel according to Matthew 19:23-30

Like and Oil and Water, so are the days of our lives.

I moved out of my parents home into a house they had generously given me when I was just shy of eighteen. I remember making many, many mistakes.   One that comes to mind this morning involved being in a hurry to get back to whatever I was doing but trying to cook at the same time.   I decided to deep fry some 'tater-tots' so I could have a quick snack.   In my hurry to get back to the computer, or tv, or whatever it was... I forgot to take off that little plastic cover you put on top to keep the oil from getting stuff in it.  A few minutes later I smelt smoke.  Running into the kitchen I saw fire literally licking the ceiling tile!   I grabbed the thing off the oven and put it on the floor so the fire couldn't touch the roof.   Then I grabbed a glass of water off the nearby counter and threw it in it.   As flames engulfed my face and hair began to dissipate like the morning dew, I realized the truth of the saying oil and water do not mix.

I believe that to be the crux of the message from Jesus in the gospel today.   Some would use this verse to allow anger and hatred to rule in their lives.  To claim that anyone who stands in their way is simply doing so because they are a 'good Christian.'  Jesus is not giving us permission to be hateful.   He is not saying that we can ignore the rest of the Gospel and lose our joy, our kindness and our love.   No, rather He is giving us a dire warning.   That good and evil do not mix.   That often the response to our Christian walk and the message we bear will be an explosion.   That like the oil that splattered on my legs going straight through the skin, people will often blow up and respond with anger and division.   We are to love them anyway... to care for them... even at the cost of our own lives, our own desires.

In today's world were people soften the message of Christ, the cross becomes a thing of the past.   That's not what Jesus demands of us.  These three readings grouped together remind us of the price of discipleship.   That our goal is not one of flowers and rainbows, gentle currents and soft beds, but the discomfort of Calvary.   We are challenged to live our faith with joy amidst persecution, love amidst hate, a friendly demeanor when all others are bearing down upon us.  The early Church realized that Christianity was a call to martyrdom, a call to give up our lives if need be, without rejected the faith.   In all of this they realized that God's mercy was beyond anything we could fathom, but that the call was not lessened by that, but strengthened in the example set forth by the incarnation of God himself and the Way of the Cross.

With Christian martyrs in the recent news, displaced Christians being persecuted and martyred in many nations, and some making the claim that "in this century [we are[ witnessing more shedding of Christian blood than any of the previous twenty"; our eyes turn toward the past and the future.. but we must need live in the present.  You and I in the comfort of America likely will not be called to give our lives for our faith, though it is not out of the realm of possibilities.    The challenge for us at the current moment is: to die to our own selves.   To live our lives in a way that shows us to be servants of Christ.   To look for Him in every encounter with others and ask How can I feed them?  How can I give them drink?  How can I clothe them?  That means both physically and spiritually.   To ever be prepared to give "an account for the hope that is in us." (1 Peter 3:15)  Is there anything standing the way of that?   Anything stopping me from serving the widow, the orphan, the refugee?   The victim and the bully?  Until we become detached from those things which stand in the way of complete abandonment to Christ and His calling, Paul reminds us that we "have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood."  

What is preventing you from being the person you were created to be?  Fix that first.  Work on your relationship with God first and everything else will fall into place.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time:  August 14th, 2016.  Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; The Holy Gospel according to Luke 12:49-53

Perfectly Imperfect

People do change.   Their base personality and faculties define who they are, not their behavior.  Behavior is something we do, not who we are.  The man I was in my twenties is not the man I am now, nor am I the man I hope to be ten  years from now.   What is important is not who we were, but who are now and who we are becoming.   That's what being a disciple is about.  Changing from the fallen person we have become into the person we were created as and to be, with Christ giving us the premier example of how to do that.

The twelve themselves were imperfect men.  They argued.  They fell short at times in understanding what Jesus was saying.   They had petty rivalries and jealousies.   At the foot of the cross we don't see those who jump up to say they would die with Him, save for John.  Impetuous Peter denied Him three times and went on to be the first of all the Apostles.  The thing is they were all changed, they all experienced a radical about face in their lives by encountering Christ.  All but John were martyred for their faith.  John was tortured as well and they tried to kill him, but when they failed they exiled him to a remote island to lessen his influence.  All were imperfect, but all were created for a purpose.

You see their character never changed.  You and I were created to be the person that we are.  God gave us a personality, intellectual abilities, a mind to think to with, a heart to feel with, and a memory to help us learn.  All of this he handed us with free will.  God does not ask you to become a mirror image of someone else, but rather to live the walk of Christ as you are able, in the way you are able to do it.  That doesn't mean we all don't do the same action.. but that we do it to the best of our ability as who we are.  For some that means being in the choir.  For others a Lector.   For still others helping with kids in the back.  For one a mother or father, for another a single lay man or woman on a missionary journey.   For some it means going across the world to experience new thrills... and for another staying right where they were born for their entire lives to serve those in that community.   God has a purpose for each and every one of us, and designed us unique with that purpose in mind.

We like James, John and Peter are quick when asked to drink of that cup to resound with an emphatic "Yes Lord!"   Do we truly count the cost of that? When your cup is drained to the dregs and all that is left is one drop of drink along with the dust and grime of daily life in some muddled mess that a seer might try to read for a glimpse of the future, are you ready to give that away?  Society teaches us to be selfish and to hold back that last part for ourselves... and while it's important to get away in prayer and to live our primary vocations as good parents, family, priests and servants; we are asked again by Christ are you ready to pour your life out like a libation?   To pour out every drop until you give your very life for another?  Not just the ones who are dear to you.. but the ones who challenge you?   The stranger?  The angry man at the office that gets on your nerves?  The one who breaths like Darth Vader while you're trying to listen to someone speak?  To the woman who talks bad about you?   To the widow? The orphan?   The homeless man on the street who smells of alcohol?   The refugee whose faith has been portrayed as one of a killer?  The guy who chews potato chips so loudly it sounds as if fire crackers are going off in your skull? Will you pour it out to them?   Christ did on the cross.  That is what He is asking you right now, when he says "Can you drink the cup that I shall drink?"

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection the daily Mass readings for the Feast of Saint James: July 25th, 2016.   Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm 126; The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 20:20-28

I am a grown man, I'll eat what I want to eat!

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.
- Jesus

In my teens I attended an evangelical church that taught that these words meant that we were free to do anything and everything we wanted.   So I did.   If it felt good I did it, if it tasted good I ate it, if I wanted it? I took it.  That's freedom right? After all, freedom means being able to do whatever you want when you want, right?
 I want to defend myself and say "I wasn't a horrible person."   Yet, when I look back on some of the things I did I am not sure I can make that claim and be honest with myself.
True freedom is not being a slave to our passions and desires.   It means being able to say yes or no, regardless of what our minds or bodies tell us to do.  A person who is truly free can be chaste and avoid doing those things which his body desires.   They can avoid being a glutton, no more cake for me please, I've had enough.   They can walk into the flames of a fire to save another soul even though the pain of the burns they receive scream at them to run the other way.   That's true freedom, being disciplined enough and free enough to decide for yourself, regardless of what peer pressure, hormones, and all those other influences call for you to do.

The thing about a yoke that I did not realize as a teen is it is only easy when you go where it is leading you.  When we read that verse from Isaiah we see the path of the just is smooth and and level.  The just.  That is a person who lives out the justice of God, not a person who simply does what they wish.  When we go along with God's will, when we seek out that which is good and noble, that's when the yoke is easy and the burden is light.   That doesn't mean a bed of roses.   Today is the feast day of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha.  This young woman walked with the yoke of Christ on her shoulders.  In reward for it her people starved her, threw rocks at her as she went to church, and eventually she had to flee to a different area to live in peace.  In all of it, she went where Christ asked her to go.

The reason the yoke is so easy though is it's something we are innately wired to do.  Yes, there are those out there who have been broken by society, their parents, or traumatic experiences.  All of those are created in the image of God, we were born to live out the simple truth of God's justice: love.  When Moses spoke to the people earlier this week he said that the message we have received is not something lofty in the skies that we must beg a bird to go get it, nor is it something distant and hidden that we must send someone on a quest to find it, rather it is already on our tongues and written in our hearts.   We already know what is right to do, but we choose to do what is easy, what is comfortable.  Are you listening to God when he speaks to you?  Are you following the yoke when it pulls to the left or the right?  Or trying to forge your own path?

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the daily Mass readings for Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, July 14, 2016. Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19; Psalm 102; The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 11:28-30

She died in her sleep...

My daughter knows that if she asks me for something to eat I will give it to her.  It did not matter if it was two in the morning or the afternoon, if she was hungry I fed her.   I explained to my wife that one of my father's relatives had a daughter who asked for another piece of cake very late in the night and her mother refused to let her have it.   She sent her to bed without that piece of cake.  That daughter died in her sleep.  To this day I will feed a child, regardless of what time it is, if they tell me they are hungry. 

Think of the boldness of those of us who proclaim that God is our Father.   In the prayer that Jesus taught us we say simply, "Give us this day our daily bread."   Recently when meditating on this I pictured myself as a child with my hands out, simply asking God for a piece of bread.  The image in my mind reminded me of the stance we take when going up to receive communion in hand. We place our hands forward as a throne, like children, like beggars.  In asking simply God rewards greatly, giving us not just bread, but the body soul and divinity of Christ.  He gives us more than we ask for, far better than we deserve.

As Christians we are called to live out our lives in the image of Him who we have been created in.  That is, we are to emulate God in our actions, in our thoughts, and our words.  That's a challenging thing when you think of the image of God as Father, as the one who is being asked for sustenance, peace, and tranquility.  He provides freely, generously, and more powerfully than we ourselves even expect.  Forgiving our sins, meeting both our physical and spiritual needs, while also helping us to move forward and grow into the person we are created to be.  We can find the source of that image in Christ himself. 

That's our challenge then isn't it?  To be childlike in our faith in that we trust God to reach out to us and give us what we need, but also to be the image of the invisible God to those who are hurting, frustrated, and lacking in their lives.  We ourselves receive Christ in the Eucharist, then we must go out into the world and share it with those who have not.  By giving food and drink to the widow, the orphan, the refugee... the moment they ask, and even more than they ask for.   Also, in giving spiritually to all in need.  This is what it means to love.  To treat people as a whole, not as a part.  To interact with them more than on a superficial level, but on a level that unites us as one body.. That's what happens when we encounter Christ at the Mass... are we allowing that to happen when we encounter Christ in His most distressing disguises? 

His servant and yours, 

Brian 

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A Reflection on the Daily Mass Readings for Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary time: July 13, 2016.   Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16; Psalm 94; A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew 11:25-27

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

A reflection on the daily Mass readings for Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time: July 11, 2016.

Isaiah 1:10-17
Psalm 50
The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 10:34-11:1


This morning as I was reading the Mass readings for today, I was reminded of something that happened this weekend on the retreat that I think fits in nicely.  One morning I was standing in the lobby watching the sun rise over the Mississippi River when I noticed a tree frog climbing up the inside of the glass next to me.  Every time I would move he would freeze and begin to lose traction, sliding back towards the floor.  As long as he did not look away from what he was doing to watch me he would climb towards his goal, wherever that was.  It was only when he looked at me instead that he would end up right where he started.  That to me speaks rather eloquently of what Isaiah was speaking to the Israelites about.

He was chastising them, not for sliding down the door, but for not climbing at all.  They had become so complacent in their sin that they were just continually offering sacrifice.  They were no longer truly offering their hearts to God with contrition.  Now they were just sitting at the bottom of the door, not even bothering to try to change.  Why bother climbing?  We are just going to slide back down.  They had lost sight of their goal and were simply looking around at all the distractions.  Isaiah was reminding them to get to climbing again, to start doing more than just hollow ritual.

God calls us in the same way to make love our focus and justice our aim.  In the Gospel we see an echo of that line from Isaiah when Jesus speaks of the reward a disciple will receive for giving a cup of water to the thirsty children.  Jesus knows this is controversial, a teaching that the world will not want to follow, but one that we must do.  After reading some news articles of the events that transpired in our country while I sat in peace and silence listening to God, I realize even more how important that is today.  In one of the readings just yesterday we were reminded that praying for someone without giving them what they needed was worthless.  That doesn't aim the arrow at the center of the target.. but somewhere off to the side.

This is how we climb our door, how we gain traction to get up the glass of life.  To reach out to those in need.  Those who are thirsty and hungry.  To feed them and give them drink.   That's both physically, for we have many hungry widows, orphans, less fortunate and refugees who need our help; and spiritually.  There are many young men and women out there who are hurting right now.  There is a void there that needs to be filled, something inside that causes them to lash out.  What are their needs? The only way to know is to listen.  Is to have an earnest conversation and say, "How can I help?"   Then to help.  Not just to get a good glimpse of the door that needs to be climbed.. but to start climbing it together.  We climb our door by helping them climb theirs.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

You don't know anything!?

A Reflection on the readings for Daily Mass for Thursday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 7, 2016.

Hosea 11:1-4, 8e-9
Psalm 80:2ac, 3b, 15-16
The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 10:7-15

I was haggard and disheveled.   I hadn't slept a wink.   My wife was even more tired than I was.  Our daughter was refusing to sleep.   She had decided that night time was day time, and day time was night time.  It was turning our life into a topsy turvy mess.  Here it was two A.M. and she was bouncing off the walls.  My wife was asleep in a chair where she had finally succumbed to her fatigue, having to work again in a just a few hours.   My eyes were blood shot and cracked and I kept saying go to bed!   A few hours later I called my dad and mom and I apologized to them for all the times I had kept them awake as a child.  I knew I had been hyper active and all those years I got upset when they asked me not to eat candy or drink soda... how many nights had I done just this to them?

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”― Mark Twain

Kids always seem to know better than their parents.   There is something about the aging process that makes a child who hits pubescence seem to think that anyone older than them must simply just not understand life.  All of a sudden no one else is right, everyone else is either stupid or crazy, and only I can ever figure out the truth.  It makes it hard for parents, but the much more difficult cross to bear is that it hurts.  It makes our hearts ache for that child.  Knowing what we had to go through to learn, knowing that they are making mistakes that will lead them to pain and sorrow.... that is the silent sword that pierces the heart of one who loves their child.   We've been there, even if they don't believe.. even if they don't think we can ever understand.... we've had our hearts broken, we've had our lives riddled with sin, we've been down those roads.. some of us to places we won't even talk about.

The first response is often anger, isn't it? "Why won't you listen!"  "I'm trying to help!"  "Won't you just learn from my mistakes and not make the same ones?!"  Growing up that's how I heard that verse from Saint Matthew.   "Shake the dust off your feet" and move on.   They weren't worth getting worked up over, just find someone else to proselytize was the message I received.   It's not the one I hear today when I read those words... it's rather a reminder of what we see at the end of the reading from Hosea... "My heart is overwhelmed and my pity is stirred.  I will not give vent to my blazing anger...[] For I am God, not man."  God isn't calling us to reject those people, to shake the dust off and leave them to lose their way.  He's rather saying, do not let fear cling to you.   It's as if He is saying "I've got this."  Don't let the dust of the situation cling to you, drag you down.. take away your joy and peace.   Rather trust in the Lord, you're God.   Lift them up in prayer and leave it to Him.

That's a hard lesson to learn isn't it?  Offer them at the foot of the cross.  Like the Blessed Virgin Mary we are challenged with standing and watching as a 'sword pierces our own soul.'  She is our example, the ultimate of discipleship.  Even when she did not understand she kept all of it in her heart and thought about it.  She did not discourage Him from this path, but rather, she asked Him to perform the first miracle of his ministry.  That's our other thought... to lift them up, to say Jesus.. we are asking you to turn the water of their life.. no matter how dingy or used it may become... into something exquisite... a wine fit for a king.  That's the interesting thing about that miracle isn't it?   These were the ceremonial cleansing jars.. where people washed their hands and feet from the trip.  Water was precious (is precious) in those lands.   They wouldn't waste it and did not know about germs or such.. so they just washed and put it back.  Yet it became the most beautiful of wines did it not?   Their life, our lives... are in His hands.  Are we ready to be transformed into wine?

My Dad When I Was...
4 years old:
My daddy can do anything!
5 years old:
My daddy knows a lot!
6 years old:
My dad is smarter than your dad!
8 years old:
My dad doesn't know exactly everything.
10 years old:
In the olden days when my dad grew up,
things were sure different!
12 years old:
Oh, well, naturally,
Dad doesn't know anything about that.
He is too old to remember his childhood.
14 years old:
Don't pay any attention to my dad.
He is so old-fashioned!
21 years old:
Him? My Lord, he's hopelessly out of date!
25 years old:
Dad knows a little bit about it,
but then he should because he has been around so long.
30 years old:
Maybe we should ask Dad what he thinks.
After all, he's had a lot of experience.
35 years old:
I'm not doing a single thing until I talk to Dad.
40 years old:
I wonder how Dad would have handled it.
He was so wise and had a world of experience.
50 years old:
I'd give anything if Dad were here now
so I could talk this over with him.
Too bad I didn't appreciate how smart he was.
I could have learned a lot from him.
I sure do miss him.
from Ann Landers

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

My First Stitches.....

A reflection on the daily Mass readings for Wednesday of the twelfth week of Ordinary Time, July 6, 2016.

Hosea 10:1-3, 7-8, 12
Psalm 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 10:1-7

Today is the Memorial for Saint Maria Goretti

Maria Goretti was born to poor farm laborers in Corinaldo, Italy, in 1890.  Like Agnes, Lucy, and Agatha, virgin martyrs of the early Church, Maria willed to suffer death rather than the destruction of her purity.  She was eleven when nineteen-year-old Alessandro Sereneli attacked her, intent on raping her.  Even as she struggled in Alessandro's grasp, Maria begged him to consider the gravity of the sin he was about to commit.  He stabbed her fourteen times.  She died two days later after great suffering, freely forgiving her attacker.  Legend has it that she appeared to him in his prison cell and gave him fourteen flowers, one for each wound.  Maria is the patroness of purity and protector of Catholic youth. 

I was around four years old when I needed my first set of stitches.  My cousin Michael and my brother Danny thought it would be funny to pretend to lock me into the chicken coup.  I was deathly afraid of the chickens, especially that big white rooster.  If you turned your back on him to get the eggs he would flog you from behind.  Something about those wings flapping and the loud yell from his beak terrified me.  They sent me in on a dare to get an egg and then acted like they were leaving.  Then they sat down behind the chicken coup.  In my fear of the rooster I ran terrified towards the door and through myself into it with both hands.  I remember standing there with my head down because my neck hurt after having pushed right through the solid glass door.  My cousin Michael ran up and asked me if I was OK and I just kept looking at the ground.  Finally he said look at me, are you OK?  When I looked up he saw all the blood and the last thing I remember was him calling out to my mom in a shaky voice.

We sometimes do that don't we?  We run from something that is scary without looking to see the even scarier situation we put ourselves in.  If I had known then that rushing through the glass would hurt so much I would rather have faced the rooster.  We as Christians are called to an even scarier situation.  The cross.  We are called to face it, to be faithful to our covenant with God.  The Israelites in the first reading for today were treating God like a good luck charm.  They were scared of going back to where they had been, slaves in Egypt.   Instead of just keeping the covenant and loving God with all their hearts, they build more temples, more altars.  They couldn't see that in trying to run from Egypt they were running towards idolatry, towards sin.

When Jesus called the twelve he warned them continually that they would have to bear the same cross as He.  As Christians that is what we are called to.  We are called to face the cross... We can do it now or we can do it later.. but we must face it.  Look at that list of twelve men.  All twelve of them had to face the cross, they had to face death.  Judas did it in betrayal... he ran from the cross towards the plan he wanted to live.. trying to force Jesus' hand.  10 of the others were martyred for their faith. Peter, the first among them, was crucified upside down.   John?  Well John stood at the foot of the cross with Mary, took her into his home, and when they tried to kill him years later?  They failed.  So they ended up exiling him to an island where he died of old age.

On the feast of Maria Goretti we are called to do something, to face our cross.   To bear it with dignity, joy, and forgiveness.  Maria went to her death protecting the covenant with God.  She was faithful.  She didn't try to force God to do it her way, but rather even tried to save her attacker.  Like Christ she died forgiving him.   We too are called to face that cross.   Both by emulating Mary, the mother of God, and being present at the cross of Christ.. standing at the foot of it continually gazing up on our Lord; and like the Apostles and Maria Goretti, in being willing to bear our own cross... dying for our faith if necessary to bring others to God.  Are you ready for that?  Are there attachments holding you back?  Have you become so attached to God that if faced with the option of betraying Him you would rather die?

“Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost.  I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul.”
-- Saint Philip Neri

Our society makes purity and chastity into a joke.  God calls us though to understand that intimacy is not just sex, and that love does not always fulfill itself with intercourse.  Sometimes love requires that we hold back those desires we have for both the good of that person and ourselves.  Why are we living our lives for this small time frame here, instead of for an eternity beyond?  If we truly believed that eternity was awaiting those who lived a life of purity and chastity.. would any amount of personal pleasure be worth trading that for?  Your'e going to spend eternity somewhere.. which way are you running? Today we are asked to choose... will you stand united at the foot of the cross?  Or run headlong into a field for just a few silver?

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

And you can too!

A reflection on the readings for Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 5th, 2016.

Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13
Psalm 115
The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 9:32-38

My wife and I had a relaxing and beautiful Fourth of July.  She, Moira, and I road our bikes around town a couple of times.   First to eat lunch at Subway.  Then to go see Haley at work and get some of the vegan Italian ice she keeps telling me about.  It was a day of peace, reflection and joy.  A day to remember that we are free enough in this country that my wife and I can go riding downtown with our kids and not have to worry about being attacked.   She can wear exercise clothes and not be in fear of her life or being beaten for exposing too much skin.  A day in which we celebrate that freedom, but also have to think deeper.

The readings remind us about something that we often don't think about anymore in our society.   Americans tend to think that freedom means I can do whatever I want, I don't need discipline... if I want this I eat it... if I want that I drink it.   If I like this person I sleep with them.  As long as I do not hurt anyone else, what does it matter?  "You do you, and I'll do me."   That's not freedom though.  Freedom is not giving in to every single whim that your body, your desires, asks you to give in to.   True freedom is being able to say "I know I want that fifth doughnut, but I also know it's not good for me.  So I'm not going to eat it."   True freedom is being able to step back from your situation to ask, Is this good for me?  Is it good for them?  Which action leads to a long term good not a short term pleasure? True freedom must produce fruit.

  The stalk of grain that forms no ear can yield no flour

Though Hosea was talking to a people a couple thousand years ago, he could also very well give the same message to us today in the United States.   We have become complacent.   In our search to make freedom into our deity we have forgotten where we have been, who we were, and why we had become that people.  A Protestant reformer once said that a man should just sin because where there is sin, God's grace abounds.  So he encouraged people to sleep with their chamber maids when their wives weren't in the mood, or to eat till their stomachs were close to bursting in gluttony because somehow that made God's grace even greater.   That just doesn't seem right does it?  Why do evil so that good can come from it?  Rather than do good that good can abound?  When we forget our past... when we forget the things that have happened to us before... we fall into the same ruts.. the same sins... we stop producing fruit that is worth eating.. and become just a stalk of grain that has no ear... no flour... nothing worth eating.. and even what we have?  Is feeding the wrong type of person.

The Gospel reminds us though that when Jesus looks out on us, lost and confused in the crowd, He looks on us with compassion.  He sees us as a flock scattered in the mountains with ravenous wolves seeking to devour us on every side.  He seeks to find us, first and foremost with the call in our hearts.. but secondly by sending the Church to find us.. to guide us.. to give us discipline.. yes discipline.. that we might be truly free.  Sounds almost like an oxymoron doesn't it?  But true freedom comes form discipline.. it comes from putting our emotions, our desires, and our urges on the back burner and asking.. what is the true good that I need to do?  How can I produce fruit?  He calls us not just to be the fruit.. but also to be the laborers of the harvest.  That means that we first have to discipline ourselves.. but then to go out and help others to see the beauty of what Christ has to offer us.. by living it with joy, with peace, and with patience.  He wants to heal us... so that we can go out into the fields and help others to be healed too.

So are you doing that?  Are you working to produce fruit?  Are you trying to help others produce good fruit too?  That's why we Catholics consider it our responsibility to get involved in politics, in education, in all walks of life... why?  Because fruit is there... it's either good or bad... and we must stand up and say "This is wrong."  or "This is right!"  That's a fruit right there!  To stand up against the grain of what society tries to tell you is good and say "No.  That only seems good... and it probably feels good in the moment.. but it leads you to a place that is not good.. and does not feel good."  That's true love..... not just giving others what they want.. but rather giving them what they need.  The harvest is plentiful and abundant and Christ is calling you to go forth and help those who are struggling.. the ones who aren't producing fruit.. the ones who are falling away and starting to lose soil... starting to lose root... and saying Here, let me water you... let me feed you.... Let me serve you the least of these.. the widow, the orphan, the refugee, the sinner and the saint.... let me help till the soil and draw the bucket.... that you too might join me in producing the grain that Christ has sent us to grow...

That's our calling.. not just to think about ourselves... but to try to help every person we meet to come into a living relationship with Christ... to get to Heaven.... because that's the goal isn't it?  Starting with working on ourselves and our families... but then.. going into the world and living in a way that says I am producing fruit and you can too.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."  

What is the least I can do?

A Reflection on the readings for Friday of the thirteenth week of Ordinary Time, July 1, 2016.

Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
Psalm 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131
The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 9:9-13


I almost did not write a blog today.  You see, my summer assignment was to write three days a week and every Sunday.   Then I read the readings today after reading Stu and Robert's blog and was convicted by them to look inward and ask myself why I am just doing the bare minimum.  Other weeks I have written all five week days.   This week I just felt down, worn... out of energy.   I had just mowed my yard and was laying back in the recliner when my alarm went off to remind me that we had Eucharist Benediction at 7 tonight.   So I went.  I am glad I did...

"If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude."
- St. Angela of Foligno

You see Amos was talking to the people about something that we ourselves are very guilty of thousands of years later.   The people saw God as a burden, the Sabbath as a loss of money.  They were just punching their card and looking good to the people all the while bemoaning the day of rest that God provided them.  Then they left the temple, left the Sabbath and fixed their scales and cheated others to make up for the money they had lost by keeping their oath.  How often we do that today?  "How late can I show up to Mass? Do I have to hear the readings? Or just be their for communion?"   "When can I leave?  Do I have to wait for the song to be over?  The blessing?  Or just for the priest to leave the room?"  "Do I have to go this Thursday?  Is it a holy day of obligation?"  "What can't I do on Sunday?  Should I eat out or stay home?"  Always looking for the least we have to do, instead of realizing the gift we have been given.   Instead of asking "How long can I be there before? What time do the doors open?"  "Can I stay for a few minutes after to spend time with Jesus?"



God warned them that this sort of life of just doing the minimum led to a loss... it would lead to a day when the word of God would be gone from their presence.  A day when creation would realize how horrible a thing had been performed.   That day was on Calvary just around two thousand years ago.  As the Word of God hung on a cross and pronounced it was finished, creation itself groaned and mourned.  The sky darkened as if by night, the ground quaked and shook, the temple veil itself tore from the top to the bottom.  A man standing at the foot of the cross was converted instantly as He saw the Word's demise before his gentile eyes.   "Surely this man was innocent."  What would that be like?  That sense of emptiness?  That sense of longing?   That moment in which we realize that something is wrong, that something is missing from our lives?

"Our hearts are restless, till they rest in thee."  - St. Augustine 

That is exactly what we experience when we sin mortally.   When the Word is no longer visible to us, when the universe itself goes awry and we are unable to find happiness.   The Word comes again to us in the Sacrament of Penance to make us whole, to complete us.  He is resurrected!    He wants you to be resurrected too!   That thing you are missing, that happiness and joy you are seeking.. is found right here, in the Eucharist.. in the Holy Sacraments of the Catholic Church.   Don't just punch your card.. find time for this relationship with the Son.   He wants to be a part of your life and you, you have been seeking Him from the moment of your conception.  It's time to put Him in your schedule first.. then add the rest of the things in your day around Him.   That's when we find joy.. that's when we find love...

So do they know you by that?   The Sacred Scriptures remind us that they will know we are Christians by our love for one another.  A saying attributed to Gandhi goes "I like your Christ.. but I do not like your Christians."   That's because what they see when they look at us alone is creation groaning... our soul darkened and shadow.. our very being quaking and the veil of our soul ripping as it cries out to the world the emptiness it feels when God is taken from it's presence..... Are you ready for Him to come in and fill you so completely that your heart overflows with joy?  It's the year of Mercy.. and Reconciliation is just a moment away.

In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance. - St. Thomas Aquinas

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."