Monday 27th week of Ordinary Time

 

Who is my neighbor ?

Usually we think of our neighbor as the person who lives next door or across the street.

Jesus however tells us different.

In the story of the Good Samaritan

Our neighbor is the person in need.

Our neighbor therefore is not the person who lives next to us,

But the person who we see on the street who is in need.

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

Mass

Once in awhile you might hear someone say’

“I don’t get anything out of Mass.”

We do not come to Mass to “Get”

But to “Give!”

God has already given us so much.

God has given us our life.

Our very breath comes from God.

And God continues to give us life everyday.

God gives us everything we see around us.

The blue sky, green fields;

Birds and animals;

Oceans and rivers and mountains.

Everything we see God gave us.

And God continues to give us life and everything and everyone around us everyday!

And God gave us His only Son.

Whose death and resurrection has opened the Gates of Paradise for us

So we come to Mass not to “Get”

But to “Give”

To give Thanks.

Thanks for all that we have already been Given.

That is what “Eucharist” means. “To give Thanks”.

Considering alll that we have been given already and are being given now and will be given in Heaven

Is “Thank you” once a week for 45 minutes really enough?

We can never really Thank God enough for all that He has given us.

And we come to Mass because Jesus told us too!

He said “Do this in Memory of Me!”

You can’t do this at home.

For on the altar heaven comes down to earth.

The Holy Spirit descends upon the bread and wine

And through the words of the priest who stands in the person of Christ

They become the Body and Blood of Christ.

So in the face of all that God has given us already,

God continues to give to us the greatest gift of all

Himself!

His very Body and Blood!

So that our humanity can share in his divinity and live forever.

We get plenty; more than enough; more than we deserve.

And so we come to Mass to say “Thank You.”

For all that we have received;

All that we are being given now.

And all that we will receive in Heaven.

Friday 26th Week of Ordinary Time

 St. Jerome

St. Jerome spent most of his life in a cave in Bethlehem translating the Scriptures from Greek and Hebrew into Latin.

In doing so He wrote every single word of the Bible.

And in writing every word of the Bible

He really got to know Jesus.

So much so that he said,

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”

How well do we really know Jesus?

That all depends on how much time we spend reading the Bible!

Thursday 26th week of Ordinary Time

 

The Archangels Sept. 29

In our profession of Faith, we profess that we believe, God has created things that are “visible and invisible.”

There is so much more to life than what we see.

So often we rely on what we can see and hold in our hands to help us when even greater things that we cannot see are right next to us to help us.

God’s Holy Angels.

There are three main archangels and a 4th lesser known one always watching over us.

Michael the angel of strength;

Gabriel of Good News

Raphael of Healing

And Uriel of Light.

There is an Ancient Hebrew Prayer that is prayed in he evening for protection as one goes to sleep.

For What we do not see as we sleep,

God's Holy Angels do see,

and watch over us and protect us always.

"In the name of Adonai the God of Israel:

May the angel Michael be at my right,

and the angel Gabriel be at my left;

and in front of me the angel Uriel,

and behind me the angel Raphael...

and above my head the Sh'khinah (Divine Presence)."

Wednesday 26th week of Ordinary Time

 

St. Wensceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out

On the Feast of Stephen

When the snow lay round about

Deep and crisp and even

Brightly shone the moon that night

Though the frost was cruel

When a poor man came in sight

Gathering winter fuel

Wenceslaus was a Good King,

Because he looked out for the poor.

If we follow his example and also look out for the poor in their need,

We can be Good Catholics.

Tuesday 26th week of Ordinary Time

 

A bad day and a bad life.

For all those who have ever had a bad day,

Of feel as if they are having a bad life,

There is Job.

Job laments that he did not die at birth!

But if Job had died at birth,

We would never know that in the end,

God restores all that Job lost a hundredfold.

Suffering may come our way,

And we may even wonder why we were born;

But our story will end like Job’s

For like Job we know that our Redeemer lives.

And will bless us a hundred fold for all we have suffered.

26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

 

The chasm

There are the haves and the have not’s in this world

The rich men and the Lazaruses

The rich man had everything

While Lazarus had nothing.

Not even scraps.

But when they died,

The roles were reversed.

Lazarus had everything

And the rich man had nothing.

So the rich man asked Abraham

To send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to ease his torment.

But Abraham replied that there is a chasm that separates them that cannot be crossed.

As I was driving one day,

I thought how much I wanted to see Br. Juniper again,

I am sure many of you have the same desire to those you love.

But we can’t.

Because there is a chasm that separates this world from Heaven.

A chasm too far to cross from one side to the other.

And I thought to myself,

Why?

Why is there a chasm that separates this world from Heaven that cannot be crossed?

Because this world has hatred and jealousy and selfishness in it.

War and violence and racism and sexism and all the other isms!

And the purpose of that chasm is to keep it from spilling over into Heaven.

Because if it did spill over into Heaven,

Then Heaven wouldn’t be Heaven anymore.

And that is why we cannot cross over to Heaven and Heaven cannot cross over to here.

Although at times we can hear voices.

Calling out to us.

We can see faces in the shadows.

So what is a person to do?

As sad as death is

And as much as it seems that death takes everything from us

When Death comes for us.

Death gives us wings; to cross the chasm.

And get to the other side.

Where angels and saints, Family and friends

Are waiting.