In today's Gospel, Jesus is approached by a Roman centurion whose servant is seriously ill. When Jesus says that He will come and cure the servant, the centurion responds, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." These are the words that we reiterate at every mass, right before receiving Communion, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed."
The Roman approaches Jesus with great humility and trust, acknowledging his own unworthiness but confident that Christ has the power to heal, if He so chooses. This is the model for how we too should approach Christ, especially during this season of Advent: humbly acknowledging our great need for Jesus and our unworthiness of the fact that He has given us the gift of Himself, but confident and fully trusting that He has the power to heal our deepest wounds. When we say these words at the mass, we are emphasizing that even as unworthy as we are, Jesus doesn't just enter under our roof. He enters into our very souls. And He alone has the power to heal even the deepest wounds of our soul.
This Advent, I'd like to invite you to bring to Jesus whatever it is in your life that is in need of healing. Bring to Him the deepest wounds of your soul, whatever they may be. Bring to Him whatever is keeping you from drawing closer to Him. Approach Jesus like the Roman centurion, with humility but with great trust in His power to heal. Prepare for this Christmas by bringing to Christ whatever is weighing you down the most and allow Him to do what He needs to in your life in order to truly heal you and make you whole.
My prayer for all of you is that God may give you the grace to bring to Him whatever you need to and that He may bring you His healing this Christmas.
Pax Vobiscum
Monday, December 4, 2017
Saturday, December 2, 2017
Advent: Week 1-Day 1
We've begun one of my absolute most favorite times of the year, and I'm kicking it off by resurrecting this blog and beginning a series of (hopefully...) daily posts, reflecting on this beautiful season of Advent! Please follow my blog, and together we can prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ this Christmas.
So, Day 1; here we go. In the Gospel today (Sunday) , Jesus tells us to "watch", to stay awake so that His coming among us does not catch us off guard. This sets the tone for the whole season of Advent. The word "advent" means "coming", and during Advent we look forward to the two comings of Christ. The first and most obvious is His coming among us as the Word made Flesh at Christmas. At the same time though, we also look forward to His second coming, His return to us at the end of the world, no longer quietly in the dead of night as a helpless infant, but as Who He truly is - the King of all that is.
So the Gospel today reminds that we have to watch and be prepared for both of these comings. It is all too easy to become distracted by the stress, busy-ness, glitz, glam, and commercialism of this season; but if we do that, we run the risk of missing the whole point, the great and unspeakably beautiful gift that is the coming of Jesus at Christmas. Similarly, and on a grander scale, the noise and busy-ness of our life in general can distract us from what is most important: the coming of Christ in our own life.
This Christmas, I'd like to challenge you to better prepare for it during these next few weeks by making a sincere effort to keep first things first. Keep your eyes on Christ. Do not let the noise and clutter of the season or of any part of your life keep you from drawing closer to Him. Watch. Do not miss the coming of Christ this Christmas. Do not let Him find you unprepared. Not this Christmas and not at any moment of your life.
Pax Vobiscum
So, Day 1; here we go. In the Gospel today (Sunday) , Jesus tells us to "watch", to stay awake so that His coming among us does not catch us off guard. This sets the tone for the whole season of Advent. The word "advent" means "coming", and during Advent we look forward to the two comings of Christ. The first and most obvious is His coming among us as the Word made Flesh at Christmas. At the same time though, we also look forward to His second coming, His return to us at the end of the world, no longer quietly in the dead of night as a helpless infant, but as Who He truly is - the King of all that is.
So the Gospel today reminds that we have to watch and be prepared for both of these comings. It is all too easy to become distracted by the stress, busy-ness, glitz, glam, and commercialism of this season; but if we do that, we run the risk of missing the whole point, the great and unspeakably beautiful gift that is the coming of Jesus at Christmas. Similarly, and on a grander scale, the noise and busy-ness of our life in general can distract us from what is most important: the coming of Christ in our own life.
This Christmas, I'd like to challenge you to better prepare for it during these next few weeks by making a sincere effort to keep first things first. Keep your eyes on Christ. Do not let the noise and clutter of the season or of any part of your life keep you from drawing closer to Him. Watch. Do not miss the coming of Christ this Christmas. Do not let Him find you unprepared. Not this Christmas and not at any moment of your life.
Pax Vobiscum
Monday, October 2, 2017
On Angels and Tragedies
Today, the country woke up to what is being called the worst mass shooting in the history of the U.S. This on the day the Church also happens to celebrate the Memorial of the Guardian Angels, a reminder of a provident God who provides and cares for us by giving us our own personal spiritual guides and protectors. Ah, but how hard it is to see God's care and providence on a day such as this, fraught with such public tragedy, swiftly on the heels of so many other similar stories of violence, hate, threats, war, division, disasters, tragedy, and suffering. In a cold way, these stories are almost becoming part of our every-day life. These days, it seems much easier to see the work of the demons than the work of the angels.
So what are we to make of it all? Will faith in God, angels, and providence answer all the questions raging through our hearts and minds when such tragedies fall? The painfully honest answer is: probably not. But that's okay, and it's okay to acknowledge that we won't always get the answers we want on this side of mortality. But one thing is for sure: without God, there are no answers at all. Without God, this life is all there is. Without God, the violence wins.
Yes, God doesn't wrap up the answers to life's hardest questions in a neat little box for us; but without Him those hard questions are all that we have. The Psalms are filled with asking God the hard questions, lamentations over the greatest hardships and sufferings and the seeming absence of God's presence. This is different from complaining about God and why He isn't doing anything. This is taking the question to the source, facing it head on. And this, I believe, is the only way we can find any sense of peace in the midst of chaos. It is not to naively deny the difficult realities around us, nor is it to give in to gloom and despair. Rather, it is to take our questions to the only One with any answers at all. It's not just to ask where God is, it's to seek Him where he may be found.
As I write this, I was quite coincidentally listening to a song by the Christian rock band Jars of Clay called "All My Tears". I had no intention of including the song in this post, but as I was writing I was struck by the timeliness of its lyrics. "When I go, don't cry for me. In my Father's arms, I'll be. And wounds this world left on my soul, will all be healed and I'll be whole....It don't matter where you bury me, I'll be home and I'll be free. It don't matter where I lay, all my tears, be washed away." As people of faith, we are not naive to the tragedies of this world; but despite these tragedies, we live in hope, knowing that there is more for us, knowing that there is a place where all the wounds from this world will be healed, where our tears will be washed away, where the angels gaze on the face of God.
So don't give in to the darkness; live in the Light. But also don't be afraid to face God and ask Him the hard questions. Ask Him where He is, in the midest of all this tragedy. You never know, you may actually find Him.
So what are we to make of it all? Will faith in God, angels, and providence answer all the questions raging through our hearts and minds when such tragedies fall? The painfully honest answer is: probably not. But that's okay, and it's okay to acknowledge that we won't always get the answers we want on this side of mortality. But one thing is for sure: without God, there are no answers at all. Without God, this life is all there is. Without God, the violence wins.
Yes, God doesn't wrap up the answers to life's hardest questions in a neat little box for us; but without Him those hard questions are all that we have. The Psalms are filled with asking God the hard questions, lamentations over the greatest hardships and sufferings and the seeming absence of God's presence. This is different from complaining about God and why He isn't doing anything. This is taking the question to the source, facing it head on. And this, I believe, is the only way we can find any sense of peace in the midst of chaos. It is not to naively deny the difficult realities around us, nor is it to give in to gloom and despair. Rather, it is to take our questions to the only One with any answers at all. It's not just to ask where God is, it's to seek Him where he may be found.
As I write this, I was quite coincidentally listening to a song by the Christian rock band Jars of Clay called "All My Tears". I had no intention of including the song in this post, but as I was writing I was struck by the timeliness of its lyrics. "When I go, don't cry for me. In my Father's arms, I'll be. And wounds this world left on my soul, will all be healed and I'll be whole....It don't matter where you bury me, I'll be home and I'll be free. It don't matter where I lay, all my tears, be washed away." As people of faith, we are not naive to the tragedies of this world; but despite these tragedies, we live in hope, knowing that there is more for us, knowing that there is a place where all the wounds from this world will be healed, where our tears will be washed away, where the angels gaze on the face of God.
So don't give in to the darkness; live in the Light. But also don't be afraid to face God and ask Him the hard questions. Ask Him where He is, in the midest of all this tragedy. You never know, you may actually find Him.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Video: The Archangels
After a long silence, here's a video for the Feast of the Archangels. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFD1C0V8AfA&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFD1C0V8AfA&feature=youtu.be
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Video: Ash Wednesday
It's a day late, but I hope still relevant for the beginning of this Lenten season. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHjKY4XpIzU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHjKY4XpIzU
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Friday, December 30, 2016
The Holy Family
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, and on Sunday we will celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. It is not by accident that these two days fall so closely after we celebrate Christmas Day. We are, after all, still in the Christmas season and these days serve to remind us that God did not just come down to us out of nowhere. He came through a Mother. He came through a family.
Such a powerful witness should make it clear to us just how dear to Christ’s Heart the family is (perhaps an important thing to bear in me during the holidays...). St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother show us the heroism that is involved in parenting; the complete giving over of their lives for the sake of their Child. The Christ Child, for His part, reminds us that even He humbled Himself enough to become a child, totally trusting and obedient to His parents, as we are all called to be, not just to our earthly parents but to our Heavenly Father as well.
Now our families may all be far from the Holy Family, but nonetheless all families are called by God to be a community of love, as the Holy Family was. Of course, we live in a day and age in which family life is under attack in so many different ways, and for many, family can be a source of pain rather than love. As we continue this beautiful Christmas season, I would encourage you to turn to the Holy Family for comfort. Ask St. Joseph, Our Blessed Mother, and of course Christ Himself to fill you with the love of their family, to share that love with all families most in need of it, and to defend the beauty of family life in a world that needs more holy families.
Pax Vobiscum
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