A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. ~Isaiah 40:3-5 Jesus, prepare my heart for Your coming. Show me the…
“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…
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…
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…
St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) said, “If we have no peace, we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” When we welcome others in Christ’s name, even and especially people who are different from us, we’re fulfilling God’s greatest commandment to love God and love others (Lk 10: 27). When we love others, we are actually treating them as if they were Christ Himself. In the parable of the sheep and the goats…
Experiencing the Holy Spirit is kind of like a visit from a butterfly. You can’t force a visit from a butterfly. You can’t send an invite and expect one to show up for tea next Tuesday afternoon. No, butterflies come and go with the breeze. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit in a similar way: “the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it…
St. Teresa of Calcutta said, “The words of Jesus, ‘Love one another as I have loved you,’ must be not only a light for us but a flame that consumes the self in us. Love, in order to survive, must be nourished by sacrifices, especially sacrifices of the self.” In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the defining mark of discipleship is love. “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have…
“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…
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…