Come Holy Spirit, set my heart on fire with Your divine love. Renew my spirit and fill me with Your holy power. Burn away my selfish and sinful habits. Bless me with Your gifts and then empower me to use those gifts for Your glory. Bless me with the gift of wisdom so I recognize how crucial it is to keep You at the center of my life. Bless me with understanding that I might…
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear how Jesus restored the sight of the man born blind. Just as David was anointed with oil and received the spirit of the Lord in our first reading (1 Samuel 16:13), Jesus anointed the blind man with clay, a combination of the earth and Jesus’s spit: “…he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes…(John 9:6). Recall that God formed…
Considering death is difficult; we may feel like pushing the subject away. But the Church, in her wisdom, sets aside November as a month where we can have a safe space to think about “the last things:” death, judgment, heaven, hell, the saints, the poor souls in purgatory, the death of this age, and Christ’s second coming in glory. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, the Sadducees challenged Jesus about the resurrection of the body. What…
“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…
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…
Each of us has a deep longing in our hearts: to love and be loved. Pope Francis said that the ideal of love is “the most authentic desire of our hearts.” The Holy Trinity is love itself: an eternal exchange of love between God the Father and His Beloved Son. The Holy Spirit, “who proceeds from the Father and the Son” (Nicene Creed), is the result of this fruitful and creative love between God the…
Just before the Ascension the disciples ask, ”Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Lord Jesus, this is what we’ve been waiting for! Is this when you will make all things right here on earth? Will you show everyone that You are the Messiah after all? Jesus replies, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own…
Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (Jn 14:27). We all yearn for this true peace, and Christ gives it to us as a free gift. So why are our hearts still troubled when we believe that His peace is with us? It…
“For the Lamb that is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water” (Rev 7:17). On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we’re reminded of the loving care that Jesus provides for us. “We know that the Lord is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends” (Ps 100:3). How do shepherds tend their sheep? They protect and defend them from harm. They…
In today’s Gospel, the disciples went fishing but caught nothing. Then, once Jesus directed them where to cast their net, they caught so many fish that they couldn’t lift it into the boat (Jn 21:5-6). Notice how Jesus addresses them: “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” (Jn 21:5). To whom do these children belong? To God, of course! When you were a very small child, you were completely dependent on your parents. You had…