Friday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

When you think of St. Francis,

What is the first thing that comes to your mind?

Usually bird baths and bunnies!

Poor St. Francis, relegated to a birth bad!

Yet St. Francis is one of the most multifaceted and influential saints in the history of the Church. 

Francis lived in a time of war and division. 

City states were fighting with each other. 

The Crusades were at war with the Moslems. 

The Church was divided and falling into ruin. 

All of this was going on 800 years ago,

But it sounds just like today. 

And his response was Peace!

Everywhere he went and everyone he met he would say,

“God give you Peace!

Just imagine if instead of arguing about politics and what is going on in the Church today,

If instead everyone said to each other,

“God give you Peace”

Just that simple greeting would change hearts and attitudes

Far more than arguing and debating. 

O Lord make me an instrument of Your Peace today!

Thursday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 My Redeemer Lives!  Job 19:21-27

Job had lost everything 

His family, his riches and his health. 

He had nothing but sorrow and suffering. 

And yet he prayed,

“I know that my Redeemer lives!

And that one day I will behold Him. “

Even in the face of the greatest sorrow and suffering

Job did not lose Faith that God would Redeem him from all all of his sorrow and suffering

And that he would behold Him face to face. 

And neither should we ever be filled with such sorrow or suffering.

That we forget that the Lord is Risen 

And that one day we too will behold Him face to face. 

Wednesday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 Feast of the Guardian Angels

There are angels everywhere.  

Every Angel ever created is at Mass. 

Because Jesus is there on the altar in the Eucharist,

Adoring Him. 

But most people are not aware of their presence. 

Only those willing to leave the things of this earth 

for the heights of Heaven can feel the flutter of their wings. 

Only those who are dying can see them,

Because the angles are preparing to carry them away. 

Only those who no longer desire to walk among the pleasures of this world 

Can fly with them. 

Tuesday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

St. Therese, the Little Flower

The Little Flower

God is Love

Love one another as I have loved you 

God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. 

The greatest of these is Love. 

Above all these things put on Love.

There is no greater Love than to lay down one's life for a friend. 

The early Christians knew that Love was the foundation of their spiritual life and the  center of their relationship with God and one another.

That is why the Pagans would remark on how the Christians loved one another.

But as the years and decades and centuries went by love was replaced by penance, mortification, fasting, and methods of spirituality so that holiness became the realm of an elite few and impossible to reach by the ordinary Christian. 

Until St. Therese of the Little Flower.

Therese knew that she could not be an apostle, prophet or teacher. 

She could not be a martyr or missionary. 

She was a simple, young,  cloistered nun who longed to be holy. 

What could she possibly do?

She could Love!

After reading the passage from Corinthians, that Love is the greatest of all, she set set her heart on Love, child like love. 

Therese showed that being holy was not complicated. 

It was as simple as a child loving and trusting God, just as a child loves and trusts it's own  father or mother.

Thus she began her "Little Way" to holiness that even a child could follow.