All Saints

 

Saints are ordinary people

Just like you and me.

They come from families just like you and me.

They grew up just like we did,

And faced similar struggles.

Some came from broken families,

Like St. Francis

whose father locked him in a prison cell to keep him from following Jesus.

Others experienced painful physical suffering,

Like St. Theresa of the flower who died from Tuberculosis.

Some we poor like St. Bernadette whose entire family lived in one single room.

and others were rich

Like St. Louis who was the king of France.

Some were very intelligent like

St. Thomas Aquinas

And others were just simple fishermen.

And God took these ordinary people and did great things through them.

All they did was say “yes”

Yes I will follow you!

Yes I will do what you ask!

And God did the rest.

God made them holy.

God gave them the gifts they needed.

We are never too old or too young;

Never to weak and never too poor.

To be a saint.

All we have to do is say “yes”

I will do whatever you ask.

And God will do the rest.

Monday 30th Week of Ordinary Time

 

The Freedom of the Spirit Rom. 8:12-17

We claim to be free,

But those who live according to the flesh are never really free.

They are slaves to their appetites.

As their bodies crave one thing after another until one gives in,

Only to have the cravings and appetites come back later even more ravenous than before.

St. Paul tells us that only those who live by the Spirit are truly free.

And He encourages us after being freed from the flesh,

Not to fall back into the slavery of the flesh.

For we are Children of God

And God is Spirit.

30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

To Fall in Love with God Mt. 22:34-40

The Great Commandment is to Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, we must Fall in Love with God.

Have you ever Fallen in Love?

When a person Falls in Love,

They love another person with all their heart and soul and mind and strength.

In other words, they think about them every moment of the day.

They can’t wait to see them.

They want to spend every minute with them.

They start to talk baby talk to each other.

There is nothing they wouldn’t do for each other.

No sacrifice they wouldn’t make.

Because nothing else matters.

For St. Francis nothing else mattered.

Became had fallen in love with God.

He gave away everything he had.

Walked away from a good job.

Gave up fame and fortune.

Love does that to a person.

It turns everything upside down

And what used to be important isn’t anymore.

Does this describe our Love for God?

What about our neighbor?

How can we claim to Love the God we cannot see,

If we do not love the neighbor that we do see?

Everyday, Mother Teresa would pray in the chapel to God

And then she would look out the window

And see her neighbor in the gutter

And Love called her to Love them.

So the great commandment to Love God and to Love Neighbor are inseparable!

And the way that we measure our Love for God is by the Love we show our neighbor.

And only when we Fall in Love with God, will we Fall in Love with our neighbor,

And then we will have fulfilled the Great Commandment.

The Apostles Simon and Jude

 

Saturday

The Apostles Simon and Jude

Oct 28

The Foundation Eph 2:20

A foundation plays a major role in the construction of a building.

A good and strong foundation keeps the building standing

Even when the forces of nature wreak havoc.

The Catholic Church is built and founded on the Apostles.

The men who lived with Jesus for three years.

Who heard His teaching and who saw His miracles.

And most of all who saw Him risen from the dead.

Any other church is built on sand and hearsay

And will not stand.

The Catholic Church goes back to the Apostles and we know this because the remains of the Apostles are all found in Catholic Churches.

But the Church is not built on their remains,

But on their living Spirit handed down to every bishop

Who is there successor.

This is what makes the Church Catholic and Apostolic Church

Friday 29th Week of Ordinary Time

 

What I do is not what I want Rom. 7:18-25

The great St. Paul had his struggles.

He did not always do the good he wanted,

But the evil he did not want.

He had an interior struggle within himself of wanting to do good, but doing evil instead.

Who has not experienced this.

Wanting to say something nice,

But saying something mean instead.

Wanting to avoid overeating

But having that second helping instead.

Wanting to love one’s enemy,

But hating them instead.

The struggle within ourselves is real

And cannot be ignored

And can only be won with the help of Christ

Who will deliver us by His Power and not our own.

Thursday 29th Week of Ordinary Time

 

The wages of sin is death. Rom. 6:19-23

The 7 Deadly sins are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Anger,Envy and Pride.

These are deadly because they kill the soul.

They promise pleasure and power but in the end,

They make slaves of all who let them in.

And breaking free from them becomes harder and harder as they seek to control everything in a person’s life.

Jesus died on the cross to show us how to die to these sins and become free of their hold on us.

And know the Freedom of being a child of God

And Eternal Life in His Kingdom.

Wednesday 29th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Much will be required. Lk. 12:48

As Catholics we have been given so much;

The Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist;

Forgiveness of sin in Confession;

The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter and his successors

Examples of Holiness in the saints;

On the Last Day when Jesus returns he will want to know what we have done with all of it.

For much will be required of the person to whom much has been entrusted.

We have been entrusted with the Catholic Faith.

What have we done with it?

Tuesday 29th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Death comes through sin, Life through Grace. Rom. 5:12-21

Original Sin was like a virus.

It started with Adam and was passed on to his children Cain and Abel.

And became part of our spiritual DNA.

As deadly as sin is,

The remedy of Grace that Jesus offers abounds all the more.

So much so that nothing of sin remains.

We receive this sanctifying grace of Christ through the Sacraments, especially of Eucharist and Confession.

Confession washes us clean from sin,

And The Eucharist fills us with grace.

So as Death came to us through the sin of Adam

Grace and Forgiveness comes to us through the grace of Christ.

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

To Ceasar what belongs to Cesar

Monday 29th Week of Ordinary time

 

Abraham the Father of Faith Rom. 4:20-25

Abraham was fully convinced that God would accomplish what he said He would do, so Abraham set out to a new land.

Faith leads to action.

Doubt leads to nothing.

Like Abraham, Faith may not always tell you exactly where you are going or what you should be doing

But Like Abraham those who have Faith go forward and eventually the Lord leads them to where He wants them to be.

While Those who doubt, stay home and never go anywhere.

Friday 28th Week of Ordinary Time

 

Our Father in Faith. 

God told Abraham to pack up his bags and go to a foreign land he had never seen before. 

And if he did, God would bless him with offspring as numerous as the stars. 

And ever since 

Abraham has been our Father in Faith

Showing us the way to walk in Faith 

As we make our Pilgrimage through this world to a land we have never been

And if we walk with him

We will have blessings as numerous as the stars in the sky

In the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Thursday 28th Week of Ordinary Time

 John de Brebeuf and Issac Jogue and their companions are the early Jesuit martyrs of North America. 

John once wrote ,

“How I grieve, my God, that you are not known, that this savage country is not yet wholly converted to faith in you, that sin is not yet blotted out!”

These are words that St. John De Brebeuf said over 400 yrs. ago. 

As he travelled throughout Canada preaching the Gospel. 

He could just have easily said it today!

How little God is known in our country 

And how much sin still needs to be blotted out. 

Do our hearts grieve as did his

Over what we see?

And do we go about making God known?

Wednesday 28th Week of Ordinary Time

The Feast of St. Luke Oct. 18

Jesus sent out 72 of His disciples in pairs to every town and village that He intended to visit. 

The Lord sends each one of us before Him as well. 

To work, to the store, to school, to the neighborhood. 

Do we prepare the way of The Lord?

Or are busy preparing our own way?

If Christ is no longer present in the workplace, the marketplace, in schools or our neighborhood it is because we have not prepared the way for Him. 

In order to prepare the way for Him in the world we must first prepare the way for Him in our hearts. 

And we prepare for the Lord’s coming into our hearts everyday

By tidying  up our hearts;

Throwing out all anger, lust, pride and selfishness. 

And preparing a place of welcome. 

A place of Faith; Hope and Love!

Where He feels at Home!

Tuesday 28th Week of Ordinary Time

 St. Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius was the Bishop of Antioch in Syria in the year 100 A.D.  

During the persecutions he was Chained and on his way to Rome to be fed to the lions in the Colessium,  many Christians came out and greeted him on the way. 

     Ignatius told them not to pray for a way for him to escape, because he embraced dying for the Lord. 

“Nearness to the sword is nearness to God; 

to be among the wild beasts is to be in the arms of God; 

 I endure all things that I may suffer with Christ who strengthens me.” 

Ignatius saw his suffering and death as his path to glory with Christ.

Do we?

Monday 28th Week of Ordinary Time

 St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

St. Margaret Mary is the Patron Saint of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Who revealed His Sacred Heart to her in a vision. 

She once wrote.

“We must never be discouraged,

Or give way to anxiety. 

But always have recourse to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “

“And Keep your heart in Peace. 

Let nothing trouble you,

Not even your faults 

Rather Humble yourself before the Lord. “

Who is Gentle and Humble of Heart.  

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 The Wedding Feast Mt. 22:1-10

Everyone loves a wedding. 

The Beautiful Bride. 

The nervous Groom!

The Food. 

And most of all the Love that fills the entire day. 

Heaven is like an Eternal Wedding Feast

The Church is the Bride

Jesus is the Groom

And all are invited to the Supper of the Lamb

Where there will be a Wedding Feast that will never end. 

The Mass is a foreshadowing;

Just a glimmer and taste of what the Heavenly Wedding Feast will be like. 

For at every Mass we come as the Church to be united with Christ.  

And at every Mass a Banquet is placed before us;

Where we Feast on the Bread of Life. 

And yet so many people pass it up. 

Pass up The Love,

The Feast

Pass us The chance to become one with Christ at His Table in Communion. 

Like the people in the parable,

Everyone has their excuse. 

A prior engagement;

Too busy;

Got to go to dinner or breakfast;

The big game is on. 

Or just too tired. 

The Mass is the Invitation to the Heavenly Wedding Feast. 

By coming to Mass we RSVP Jesus. 

We let Him know that we are coming to His Eternal Wedding Feast in Heaven. 

But If we turn down the invitation here,

And do not come to Banquet He has prepared at Mass;

Then Jesus will send His angels out on the Last Day

To find others who will. 

And the Heavenly Hall will be filled

The Wedding of Christ and His Church,

Of Christ and His Faithful will take place. 

The Supper of the Lamb will be placed before us. 

A Feast to behold that will satisfy every hunger and desire. 

And the Celebration will never end,

For those who accepted the Invitation.