Posts

Faith Beyond Buildings: The Church As More Than Brick and Stone | Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome - November 9, 2025 (Year C)

This week, we celebrate the dedication of the Archbasilica of St John Lateran in Rome, the oldest of the major basilicas in Rome, the seat of our faith.  In reflecting on the readings and the namesake of the feast, I was struck by the connection: community.  It can be easy to see the church we attend each Sunday as just a building: a facility for our service each week, a venue for weddings and funerals, or an adjunct facility to house various events for children in school.  And even the building builds community, albeit locally.  But it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture, that our church is part of the Church, and that our community is part of the Body of Christ.  Rome may feel far away from the pew we sit in each week, but spiritually we are connected.  On the surface, we share the same liturgical traditions having the same calendar, readings, prayers, and other "forms" of worship that are indistinguishable from each other in all but language....
Post a Comment
Read more

Living The Beatitudes: How To Become A Saint | Solemnity of All Saints - November 1, 2025 (Year C)

This week, I'm going to focus on the Holy Day coming up this Saturday, the Solemnity of All Saints.  It's an interesting set of readings - given the day, I would have expected readings more focused on the first saints and their lives.  Instead, we are given almost a blueprint, and, to my understanding, it runs backwards from the order in which we hear the word this weekend.  In Matthew's Gospel Reading, we hear Jesus give us the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, in which we are given guides on how to live.  Following these and orienting our lives and actions towards being on the right side of the beatitudes will almost certainly lead to us among the God's children discussed in our second reading, leading us to hopefully be worthy of the status of those worshippers glimpsed in our first reading from Revelation.  It is fitting that it starts with Jesus and His Love radiates into our lives and becomes the basis of faith from which to build.  We must do ou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer, More Than Just Words: What A Tax Collector Teaches Us About Humility | Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 26, 2025 (Year C)

This week, we are reminded that how we pray is more important than prayer alone - words without the backing of faith are just air.  We are reminded in the Psalm and the reading from Sirach that our Lord always hears our prayers.  We may not always see the immediate response we desire, but we live in a linear sort of time that God is not bound to act in as we are.  But with our prayers reaching God, we must strive to be like the tax collector Jesus speaks of in the Gospel, humbling ourselves in our prayer.  Take St Paul's anecdote about how he was broken down, with no one but God with him.  Paul gained strength from his lowliness and rose to proclaim the Gospel far and wide.  We too must find strength in our humility, a strength of conviction in God's will and not in our own achievements.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Persistence of Faith: Courage to Keep the Faith In All Times | Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 19, 2025 (Year C)

Persistence and perseverance.  Those two traits are essential to building and keeping a strong faith through a healthy life of prayer.  It will not always be easy, as the image of Moses struggling to keep his arms up reminds us.  But we must heed St Paul's words in his letter this week in which we must press on whether "convenient or inconvenient", which is an interesting take on faith.  When it comes to those ideals, the non-negotiables in life that we continue to prop up or hold true regardless of circumstance, is our faith always in that category?  We stand by sports teams and organizations through all sorts of strife, and find it easy to do so, but our faith?  Do we keep that steadfast?  Pray often and keep God in your heart and in your mind, so that like the parable, God will remember our persistence when the time comes.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Perspective of Faith: Remembering God's Gifts in Good Times | Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 12, 2025 (Year C)

This week, I'm going to focus on faith.  It is this strength of conviction that God loves us, that Jesus died for us, and that the Holy Spirit is here with us, that provides the lens that we Christians must view life.  Without this perspective, we are wandering in the wilderness, lost without a cause.  And how do we show our faith?  Look at these readings - eleven lepers were healed for their faith, and only two of them (Naaman from Kings and one of the ten lepers from the Gospel) showed reverence and thanks to God.  Did the other nine fail to praise Jesus because of ignorance, or do they think it was their own doing that brought about their healing?  Which is worse?  And now, put up the contrasting image of those other nine former lepers with that of St. Paul in chains from his epistle, and see that the image is striking.  If they won't even give thanks when they have been healed by Jesus, do you think they would suffer and go to prison just to p...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hard Way: Living a Life Worthy of Heavenly Love | Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 5, 2025 (Year C)

This week is all about the journey we all take with God.  This path is not supposed to be easy - God did not reach from heavens to immediately answer the call of Habakkuk and Jesus did not increase His Apostles' faith with the wave of His hand.  We are called to work to be worthy of the heavenly love and gifts available to us.  If only we humble ourselves and heed the Word that we hear each week, we can begin to approach our path.  Unfortunately, it is, even then, tempting to become haughty and prideful once you have begun on that true path, and it becomes ever more important to be the servant that Jesus references in the Gospel.  Yes, the journey is hard, but that is why we have the Bible, the Saints, and all those holy people that have come before and those that live around us - they are our guides providing a direction.  But it is ultimately up to us whether we choose our humility, our self discipline, our strength to fortify our souls for the journey to...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Curse of Comfort: How Modern Convenience Gets In Our Way | Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 28, 2025 (Year C)

The curse of comfort.  That theme echoes throughout the readings this weekend.  It is easy to lose ourselves within the relative comfort of our surroundings.  We become accustomed to being able to have anything we desire within two days shipped to our house, watch anything that want, and generally surround ourselves with the news and self-confirming voices that appease us.  Comfort may be more dangerous today than it ever has been.  How many of us are like the brothers of the rich man?  Even with the Word of God, we still continue in self-indulgence.  Would the return of a spirit change our ways?  Do we believe enough that we would even be able to comprehend the message?  We are the stewards of our souls, and we must strive each day to combat the sloth and greed that surround us.
Post a Comment
Read more