Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
When I read scripture, I often wonder how much of the deeper meaning of the readings are lost to me because I do not live when these stories were written. Our world and culture are so far removed from these stories that at times I stop and wonder what truth is really trying to be shared.
Friday of the Second Week of Advent
Our readings today beg the question, what will it take for us to listen? Especially in this Advent season, when we know the Lord is coming, what will it take for us to truly prepare the way? Isaiah shares, “I, the Lord, your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go. If you would hearken to my commandments…” (Is 48:18). We might acknowledge in our minds that God loves us and knows what is good for us, but when we attempt to accept this in our hearts, will it change how we live each day? As Matthew Kelly shares in this year’s edition of “The Best Advent Ever,” the will of God is not a mystery. Sometimes we think it is so difficult to know and then to follow the will of God. In reality, however, what we know is that God wants us to fulfill our potential and, in Matthew Kelly’s words, become “the best version of ourselves.” So God lays out the commandments and shows us, through Jesus, Mary, and the communion of saints, how to live in virtue. Thérese of Lisieux said, “Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and gratitude.” Sometimes we are bustling about trying to figure out how to be happy, trying to follow our will and our path in life, rather than God’s way. Often, the path we create entails worrying about, and paying attention to, trivial matters and we end up ignoring God and not paying attention to all of the signs of God’s love in our lives. In the Gospel, Jesus warns, “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn” (Mt 11:17). Jesus points out that John was criticized for not eating and drinking while the same people criticize Jesus for eating and drinking. When we begin to define our own path, we do not pay attention to the signs in front of us.
Thursday of the Second Week of Advent
Everywhere we look today, it seems, we see signs that ours is a culture and a time defined by insecurity, disorder, and even chaos. On an annual basis, now, we learn that last year was warmer, on average, than any previously recorded year. Owing to the pandemic, nearly 11 million Americans are unemployed right now. And with the surges we have seen and more expected, it’s anyone’s guess where that number is headed. Even worse, where are the numbers headed in terms of how many Americans will be infected? How many will die?
Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
Last week I reflected on the nature of our hope as Christ-followers. Hope is a confident pressing forward, a waiting on the edge of your seat, eagerly anticipating what is to come. For nearly nine years, I worked for a non-profit organization called Heart to Honduras. During countless trips to Honduras, I came to know the incredible faith and hope of the Honduran Christians. Despite daily hardship, suffering, and challenge, the Honduran people exhibit remarkable resilience. Nearly every sentence uttered by Honduran Christians is punctuated by “Glory to God!” or “thanks be to God!” These expressions flow from hearts that know how to wait upon the Lord in genuine hope. In rural villages, families rise around 4:00am and toil until late into the evening. Despite physical exhaustion, Honduran Christians find rest in the midst of it all. Our readings today point us to the kind of hope and rest to which the Hondurans give witness.
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Anticipation. Advent is the season of anticipation and today we celebrate one of the greatest feasts of anticipation. In anticipation of her role as Jesus' mother, we believe that God preserved Mary from Original sin and safeguarded her from personal sin. This is a feast that I find myself thinking about frequently, not just because our parish is Immaculate Conception, but it is a belief that raises a lot of questions from Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Here are two of my musings.
Memorial of Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
When I would take teens to youth conferences and retreats, one of the hardest things they faced was going home. Today, Jesus’ command to the paralytic he heals is not to follow or to remain secret or to go out and teach everyone. Instead, he sends him home.
Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Prayer is an essential part of our spiritual journey. As in every healthy relationship, open conversations are necessary to encourage a deepening between the person praying and God. Throughout my life as a Catholic, I have been taught how to pray to God with certain prayers- the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, etc. As I have grown older, I have also been invited to pray using my own words to express my gratefulness, praise, petitions and love. All of these types of prayers are good, but I have begun to realize that my prayer is one-sided. In all good conversations there needs to be a give and take between the two persons sharing life. This notion has made me stop and ask, “How often do I stop and listen to what God wants to say to me?” If the goal of a disciple is to grow closer to God, then I realize the need to spend more time listening to all that God desires to speak to me.
Friday of the First Week of Advent
I don’t recall ever hearing a doctor ask me before a surgery or procedure, either for myself or my children, “Do you believe that I can do this?” It seems kind of silly to imagine. Yet, I suppose, we are professing our faith in that doctor, in the medical field, when we consent to whatever it is that we are agreeing to have done. We are placing our trust and our bodies in the hands of that medical practitioner to repair, correct, heal, etc. And what if that physician also said to us, as Jesus said to the blind men in today’s gospel passage, “Let it be done for you according to your faith”? I suppose there have been some doctors I have put more faith in than others. But it causes me to wonder, do I have as much faith in Jesus as the blind men who said “Yes, Lord”?
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest
St. Ignatius of Loyola said that “love should be manifested in deeds rather than in words.” In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asks his wife Golde whether she loves him. She answers by saying, “For twenty-five years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned the house, given you children, milked your cow. She asks then, if that’s not love, what is?” Of course love does not simply mean performing a list of duties for someone, but rather love must be wedded to the deed. Love is a feeling that expresses itself in action.
Wednesday of the First Week of Advent
When I was a little girl, my friends and I sometimes engaged in a little playful competition at twilight. The object of the game was to be the first person to spy a visible star in the darkening night sky. The first one to point to the novel star sang a little ditty that went like this, “Star light, star bright; first star I see tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight.” Then the victor made a secret wish, expressing some unspoken desire of the heart. Jiminy Cricket’s famous song from Disney’s Pinocchio expresses the same longing of a dreamer’s heart:
Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Are you ready for the coming of complete justice, for an end to domination and violence? It’s something we all agree will be great, but in the meantime we’re waiting around from someone else to make it happen. This is what our first reading promises with such beautiful, allegorical language. A shoot from the root of Jesse. In other words, someone is coming in the line of the legendary, successful King David. Today, we believe this is Jesus. In the season of Advent, we celebrate Jesus as Emmanuel, but also Jesus’s second coming in ultimate fulfillment of his saving mission to humanity. Darnit, in the meantime, we still have to put up with lions and bears and snakes.
Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
"At once they left their nets and followed him." These words stood out to me and in many ways convicted me. Their resolute immediacy in Peter and Andrew is not something I always have in my life. I can often be a person that drags my feet or overthinks the implications of one course of action over another. But they heard Jesus' voice and heeded it! Our secret I think lies in the prior readings.
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
A while ago I found a great reflection from Bishop Robert Barron on the Seven Deadly Sins. I know that is a cheery start to this reflection stay with me. I want to draw our attention to sloth in particular. He mentioned that people can run around, busy with all sorts of things, but still be slothful. He described that as being spiritually slothful. He warned that being lethargic about our faith can be slothfulness.
Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
We live on the edge of a metropark and when the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes came through, it permanently changed the landscape. There was far less green that summer and I worried about what the spring and summer of 2020 would look like…would it really feel like spring and summer if life in the forest could not return because of the damage? Of course, nature worked her magic and I was pleasantly surprised by the new life and abundant growth that still surrounded us. There were still buds bursting open and a sense that summer was near. While the landscape was forever changed, the continuing signs of growth and life provided reassurance, especially in a year full of turmoil and disarray throughout the world. One of the greatest obstacles I have faced in 2020 has centered on mental and emotional strain--the lack of certainty, the constant change, and dearth of hope caused by the challenge to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanksgiving Day
For the last ten years or so, Bill and I have spent Thanksgiving with our two older daughters, their now husbands, and our grandchildren (as they came along). For the last few years, we have made the trip around the bottom of Lake Michigan and then up through Chicago and then farther north and westward to Green Bay, Wisconsin where our daughter, Abigail, teaches history at St. Norbert College and her husband, Dan, works as an architect for the state of Wisconsin. Most years, our daughter, Rebekah, and her husband, Ahmed, and their children have joined us as they were able (years with a newborn were out of the question, not surprisingly). Two years ago, we were all delighted when our daughter, Anna, was able to join us too!
Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
My reflection today is simple. Let us orient ourselves toward God in gratitude and focus today on singing God’s praise. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and our attention is already tuned to being thankful. That attitude may not be as easy for some of us this year; we arrive at this holiday season in a time of great turmoil, hardship, and a myriad of disappointments. It’s not easy to maintain joy and gratitude during times like this. Singing God’s praise is an antidote to despair, and praise ignites gratitude every time, if we’re willing to allow it. Today’s readings open the way for us.
Memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
We’re living in what some have called the “Information Age.” We have access to more information than ever before in the history of humanity. We can easily access most of that information with a few key pad strokes or spoken requests to our digital assistants (Siri or otherwise named). As a people, we like to know, we like to predict, we want to be able to plan for and have control over our lives and others’ lives, even if for the best. It seems to be part of our human nature. And God often doesn’t cooperate with our desires to know all, predict, and control.
Monday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
I think we all know this adage, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” While I agree wisdom is that which helps us avoid being fools and fooled, I was reminded by today’s readings that the Lord stands alongside us if we become victims. Not in a condescending, “you should have known better” way, but in genuine solidarity.
Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
As the liturgical year comes to a close and we prepare to celebrate Christ the King, today’s scripture provides some thoughts for reflection. Jesus reminds us that eternal life is something that is difficult for us to imagine. Resurrection is real because our God is a God of the living, but Jesus encourages us to live right now as children of God’s kingdom by realizing that our worth comes from God’s abundant love.
Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
You know how some foods taste so good on the tongue, but leave a sour or unsettled feeling in your stomach? That’s what we hear about in today’s first reading from the book of Revelation (10:8-11). Only it’s not food that the author was tasting. It was a “small scroll.” A scroll with words written on it that tasted as sweet as honey, but would “sour” in his stomach. We hear about words in today’s gospel reading (Luke 19:45-48) as well. Jesus’ own words and the words he was quoting “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” Words that were likely sour to those he was driving out of the temple area. Yet some found his words to be sweet, as we read, “all the people were hanging on his words.” So much so that it interfered with the plans of those who were seeking to put Jesus to death.