O God, be merciful to me a sinner. – Luke 18:13 It can be difficult for me to admit my wrongdoings. It’s not easy to look at myself with honesty to see my true faults. In truth, I can only do this peacefully by seeing myself as a beloved child of God, no matter what my sins have been. This Sunday’s Gospel passage shows us a model for what admitting our sinfulness means. First off,…
When I reflect on the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), thankfulness for God’s mercy wells up within me. Perhaps because I’ve been away from my home in Christ in the past, it’s easy to remember what it was like to trust in the world and seek its pleasures instead of trusting in Jesus. I was searching in “a distant country” for happiness. Far from Christ, I was indeed a lost sheep. Reflecting on…
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God. – John 3:21 Have you noticed that the sun sets later each evening now? The vernal equinox—the start of spring!—is just a week away on March 20. The light will increase from now until it begins to decrease after the summer solstice on June 20. Interestingly, this is just a few days before we…
…they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb – Revelation 7:14 The Solemnity of All Saints, 2020 Lord, this robe of mine is dirty, torn, and worn thin. The hem has been drug through the dust of this life. The bottom has become tattered and grey. Lord, I have fallen down in this robe so many times. I have tripped and stumbled into the dirt. I have torn…
There was a time when I could not forgive. I’m not proud of this, but it’s true. I wanted to forgive. I asked many people for advice on how to forgive. But still, forgiveness eluded me. You see, I grew up in a house characterized by addiction, neglect, and abuse. For many years, I carried around the wounds from those years. In fact, I still carry them and probably always will. But the choice to…
Last week’s reflection focused on how sin keeps us from loving God and others, and how to work on a pattern of sin to purge it from our hearts. One reason sin keeps us from loving is that it also blocks us from receiving love. This is especially true of mortal sin, which turns us away from God and cuts us off from God’s grace (CCC 1855, 1861). God pours love into our hearts and…
The story of Zacchaeus climbing the tree to see Jesus reminds me of the story of the men who went around the crowd and opened the roof of a house so their friend could be healed (Mk 2:1-12). Or remember the woman who only touched Jesus’s clothes and was cured of her hemorrhage (Mk 5: 25-35)? What lengths people went to so Jesus might heal them! We might suppose that Zacchaeus subconsciously wanted to see…
“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…
Scripture tells us that St. Mary Magdalen had a special devotion to Christ’s precious feet. She wept over and anointed His feet in contrition for her sins. She humbly sat at His feet, listening to every word of His teaching. She stood courageously at the foot of His cross, bearing the weight of His passion. What a humble devotion, to worship at the feet of our Lord. “How beautiful are the feet upon the mountains…
How fitting that the first week after Easter Sunday is the Sunday of Divine Mercy. First we celebrate Christ’s powerful victory over sin and death, and then we celebrate His powerful mercy. Our call today is to accept and trust in God’s ocean of mercy and then pour it out for others. Divine Mercy means that God helps us when we are in distress: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit…