If you had a tiny seed—say an apple seed—and you wanted it to grow into a strong tree, full of good apples, what would you do? First, you’d find a sunny spot with rich soil for planting. A place protected from harsh winds. You’d water and feed it. You’d cultivate the soil around it to keep the weeds from stealing its nourishment. You’d protect it from attacks of pests. After several years of this loving…
Have you heard of the term “affluenza”? It’s been defined as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more” (Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic). Basically, the theory is that the need to consume and the desire to have more than others drive people who are financially well-off to a type of “sickness” where they don’t understand the consequences of their own actions due to their…
Money is a tool we are meant to use for good. Sometimes tools can become our masters, bossing us around. Jesus warns us: “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon” (Lk 16:13). In Jesus’s time, having a master meant that you were a slave. We are called to be “slaves,” or…
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). Thanks be to God for His mercy! If Jesus didn’t seek out His lost sheep, how many of us would be living in sinful ways? How much good would be left undone by us if He would have let us wander off…
Letting go of our own plans and ways and trusting in God’s plans and ways is a theme in today’s scripture readings. Detachment from things, preferences, and ideas can help us to fully embrace God’s will. When we have confidence in God’s will for us—when we know that He has our best interests in mind—we will feel more peace and happiness. Imagine that there’s a certain task that you want to accomplish. You’ve thought it…
This Sunday’s readings call us to reflect on the virtue of humility. Truly, we can grow in humility only by the grace of God. Our part comes in praying for God to give us the grace and strength to cooperate with Him in order to grow in humility. The “Glory Be” is a wonderful prayer for practicing humility if we really think about what the words are saying: glory be to GOD, not glory be…
“Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Lk 13:24). How can we become strong enough to do what is required for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Who is helping us to become stronger? Most of us have had a coach at some point in our lives. Coaches direct, advise, and encourage us. They help us train so…
“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Lk 12:49). Jesus longs to see each one of us on fire with love for God and for each other. He doesn’t want to see just a little flicker of love. No, he wants to see our hearts blazing—full of warmth, energy, and light. Fire is usually destructive. It burns away almost everything in its path, leaving behind…
Today’s Scripture readings continue our theme from last week of keeping our eyes and hearts set on heaven. The first reading tells how the Jewish people in Egypt were prepared for their Exodus. They were to eat their Passover as those ready to leave their homes in Egypt and allow God to deliver them: “This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,…
Have you ever wondered where your heart lives? Of course, your physical heart lives in your body. Your spiritual heart is the seat of your conscience, emotions, and desires. It’s deep within you, yet it can also be elsewhere. Our hearts can be overly focused on gaining money, power, and possessions, resulting in greed; on another person, resulting in obsession; in earthly pleasure, resulting in sin; or even on ourselves, resulting in selfishness. These are…