Wednesday of the First Week in Lent
How often in making a decision do we seek a sign? Discerning a choice, especially between two seemingly good things, can be difficult. Sometimes we get a push toward the choice by the word of a friend, or a verse of Scripture that keeps appearing in our prayer. At other times we seek a sign, and fail to recognize the one that we have been given.
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
For Christians the season of Lent is a time for renewal and recommitment. At this time of year I find myself thinking more about how to pray. Jesus’ instructions on how to pray in the gospel for today give some concrete advice on how to improve the practice of prayer in our lives.
Monday of the First Week of Lent
I am amazed at how much my day to day life of discipleship is influenced by my thinking. This may sound simple but have you ever noticed how one thought, given a chance, can grow in your mind and govern your whole attitude and way of seeing the world for an entire day—or longer? There are times when I realize I have allowed a conflict or resentment or a judgmental thought to grow in my mind and take over my thinking. Before I know it, my behavior is affected. When this happens, I find myself far away from God. I find I have taken control and I find myself justifying that thinking and the subsequent behavior. I also find I am restless and unhappy and very self absorbed. If I have accepted the call of Christ I must realize that it begins with first aligning my thinking with Jesus. When I “think” like Jesus I find am very close to God. I surrender control to him and let him “justify” what I am doing. Also, I realize that this is when I am able to live “other absorbed”—caring for and about others, much less concerned about myself and my agenda, and I am at peace.
Friday after Ash Wednesday
A word like "empty" is, when you really think about it, a pretty difficult concept to get. My five year old has been wondering: What does it mean to say a cupboard is empty and has nothing in it? She knows that means that the cupboard doesn't have "stuff" in it - but still, the cupboard is there, and at the least has air in it. An empty cupboard has many possibilities, too - it can be a train car or a house, or a place to put arts and crafts. So why do we say it is empty?
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
So here we are, already in the season of Lent, and today’s readings present the choice before us: choose life or choose death. The choice seems so obvious, but in our daily lives, day-to-day decisions, it isn’t as easy or as obvious as it sounds, is it?
Today’s first reading from the book of Deuteronomy (30: 15-20) reminds us that if we love God, walk in God’s ways and keep God’s commandments, we will live. We are also cautioned that if “you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish.” Granted, I don’t think any of us are intentionally adoring or serving other gods, but before we rule ourselves out of this caution, let’s consider what other gods there might be in our lives.
Ash Wednesday
“Rend your hearts, not your garments.” (Joel 2.13a) Rend is a word we encounter seldom in the English language. In reflecting on the readings today it became clear that Lent is a process by which we rend our hearts. Rend in its best sense here means to tear apart fiercely. Joel is making clear that this change that is to occur in us is not superficial. He is challenging the people of God to give everything they have over to the Lord. Only a heart that has been rigorously broken open is ready to return fully to the Lord. Only a heart that has no more protection is truly ready to receive God’s grace and mercy.
Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
I am sitting in my office, listening to the sounds of my family moving about the house at the beginning of this day. Looking out the window, it is still a bit windy; the trees are swaying. This day seems significant. There seems to be a pause, a stillness in time. It is a day in-between. The Church is making her preparations for the season of Lent, a time of fasting, penance and contemplation of the suffering Christ. Tomorrow, as a community and as the Church, we will together be marked with ashes to signify our solemnity. But there is another transition that marks this day in the life of the Church. Yesterday, most of us heard the shocking news that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI was resigning as the Holy See of Rome. We will witness the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the Church as a new servant is chosen as pope.
Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
When I read about the miracles that occur throughout the Bible, I wonder why there is so little recognition of miracles in today’s world. If we understand that a miracle is “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs” then shouldn’t there be many occasions to witness God’s presence in our lives? Today’s readings suggest reasons why we may not notice the miracles that occur in our world, and how we can be more attentive to God’s amazing work in the world around us.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last December we had a very special parish council meeting. We invited three people who left the Catholic Church and three people who joined the Catholic Church to share their experience. We wanted to know why people make the decisions they make about belonging to a particular faith tradition. I soon realized that discussion like these are complex as well. I received two letters apart from the people who were present at the meeting; one from a young lesbian who feels unwelcomed in a Catholic environment and the other from a young mother who recently became Catholic but then could not reconcile her conscience with the church’s teaching on contraception. Those who were present at the meeting also shared their stories. Later when the parish council reflected on all their stories there were common strands we could identify. For one, we realized that those who had left the Catholic Church and those who joined her, were all very sincere people. Their choice was made out of a genuine conviction. But then, there is one trend that I found directly related to the three scripture readings today – a powerful experience of God. The Catholics who left the church did so because the Church could not give them what they were searching for – a God who was close and real. They found the church too rigid and ritualistic. On the other hand, each one of those people who joined the church did so because it was in the Church, particularly in the Eucharist, that they experienced God in a tangible way.
Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while,” Jesus says to his apostles in today’s gospel reading (Mk 6:31). The apostles, we are told, have returned from healing the sick, expelling demons, and preaching the kingdom of God. Further, they have all, presumably, just heard the news of John the Baptist’s beheading by Herod. This is a lot!
Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
This is the time of year when I have to turn in my evaluations at work. I know it is good to do this, but it is also hard to read peoples’ criticisms and figure out how to change for the better.
Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Upon first reading of today’s gospel passage (Mark 6: 7-13), one might reflect on how we, as Jesus’ disciples, are also called, like the first Twelve, to go out into the world to preach the Good News and heal those in need of healing. And this is true, at least in our own way, in our own walk of life. Today, however, I would like to reflect on how sometimes we are the ones in need of hearing Jesus’ words, and the ones in need of healing. In Mark’s gospel Jesus instructs the disciples to stay in a house that welcomes them until they are ready to leave that area, and to “leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony again them” in whatever place does not welcome the disciples or listen to them.
Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs
Shortly before John Paul the Second’s death, there was a conversation in the church about the suffering that the pontiff was enduring as part of his illness. This conversation was in large part because of the Terri Schiavo case that had captivated the world the month before. I recall one of the last messages from John Paul. The message was of gratitude for the prayers of the people and it shared that he offered his pain as connected to the pain that Christ endured on our behalf.
Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
The theme of the scriptures for today is faith. Faith can sometimes have a negative connotation. Sometimes it can seem like a commitment to something that goes well beyond common sense. At other times, faith can even seem off-putting to others who do not share our commitments. Faith can even lead us to live in ways that other people find to be strange. As St Paul says, faith seems like foolishness to those who pride themselves on their wisdom (1 Corinthians 1: 27). For these and many other reasons it is difficult to live a life of faith.
Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The lives of the great Catholic Saints always seem so remarkable to me, and for good reason. By the inspiration of their example, the witness of their faith, and through the grace of Christ made available through their prayers, we are able to grow in our own discipleship of Christ and all that that includes. Nevertheless, we may look at the lives of the saints and still feel discouraged, thinking to ourselves, "I could never do that" or "I'm so far from being a saint." It's easy to subconsciously confuse the saints as being superhuman. But in reality, they are actually the most human, because to be human is to be in union with God. All of us are called to sainthood, to dwell with God forever in this life and in the next, even if the cause of our beatification or canonization is never taken up. We are husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. By many standards, perhaps even our own, our lives may not seem extraordinary. But because we are first disciples of Jesus, we have been called to live ordinary lives in extraordinary ways.
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Please note that this reflection is from three years ago as Father Satish is currently at a conference in India.
You know that I look forward to every trip home to be with my parents. However, in this very traditionalist part of India, there is something I do not look forward to – being the kind of priest that I am. Many of my relatives do not want a jeans-clad, long-haired “hippy priest.” Even when I am at home they expect to see me dressed in my collar, constantly exercising my priestly duties, perhaps, on my knees in prayer. Yet, when I raise some of the social issues that plague our society, like the dowry system or caste system, they think I should just be a priest and not a rebel. My own home town is the most difficult place for me to be a priest. I usually do not worry about these things but I hate for my parents to hear anything negative said about me. I think they hurt for me.
Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
I think sometimes passages like today's first reading (Hebrews 10:32-39) are used to make people feel like they should suffer in silence, because this letter's author suggests that we should be "joyful about confiscation of property" because we know that we have a "better and lasting reward." Passages like this one can get used to promote spiritual passivity - an acceptance of the status quo and especially of great and terrible wrongs like physical suffering and abuse at the hands of a variety of authority figures - because God has something better in mind for us in a vague future, and we should think about that future instead.