Tag: Catholic meditation

Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.”

There is no part of today’s Gospel reading that is pleasant to dwell on. It’s all pretty grisly stuff. Yet, at the end of the passage, John’s disciples show love and respect for him by burying him and telling Jesus what had happened. In both the first reading and the Gospel, the figures in them are afraid and act out of fear. Although he was speaking the truth and asking them to repent, the princes and people of the city fear putting Jeremiah to death because they don’t want to bring innocent blood on themselves. In the end, they release him. In the Gospel, Herod the Tetrarch is described as afraid and distressed as he acts this out by not killing John but finally being pressured to “because of his oaths and the guests who were present.”

Thank you, God, for today’s examples from the readings. We have the people in the first reading and King Herod in the Gospel, who show us how not to live: in fear. And we have Jeremiah and John, who spoke the truth and faced death because of their belief in God. As uncomfortable or threatening as it is sometimes, I should never be ashamed to speak in truth to others about what is good and true, as revealed by your Son and through the teachings of the Church.

I know you want me to stay close to you, God. There is real evil in the world that wants to put to death those who love and serve you. Stay with me today because I know I will forget you when I hear of those who live in fear and see those who follow you as their enemy. I know you have many good gifts in store for me today because of your unsearchable generosity and mercy—a joy to carry with me throughout the day even as the truth is called into question. From the responsorial psalm, let me remember: “Lord, in your great love, answer me.”

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Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus: Reflection

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

Before Jesus said these words to Martha, she said to him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” How else is Martha presented in the Gospel but as one who, while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, is anxious and worried about many things. Yet, after Lazarus dies, Mary sits at home, while it is Martha who heard that Jesus was coming and “went to meet him.” Here, as she mourns the death of her brother, her anxiety and grief are evident but brought to Jesus because she knows he is the Son of God. Help me understand, Lord, that you present me with many opportunities each day to test my faith. Rather than say, “If you had been here . . . ,” give me the grace to believe that with you, anything is possible.

Lord, let me rest in you as I try my best to make a worthy dwelling for you. Having received you in the Eucharist, let me come back throughout the day to find with complete trust that you are always present.

What Jesus said to Martha long ago, he says to all who would hear him today: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus is not satisfied to broadcast a public service announcement for all who wish to follow him. Just as Jesus came to meet Martha, he comes to meet each of us wherever we are. When I go out to meet him in the midst of the day, will I say “Lord, if you had been here . . .” or “You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

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Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus continues to explain the kingdom of heaven to his disciples through parables. To describe to them the “end of the age,” he likens the sorting of fish after being collected from the sea to the separation of the wicked and the righteous in the fullness of time. In the first reading, God also has his hands upon his people when he says to Jeremiah: “Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.”

God, you gave me life and your hand remains in my life. Help me see that you are present every day in everything I do and that I need your grace to know and do your will. This is not to wallow in my limitations and sinful nature but to recognize you, Lord, in the gifts you present daily in the world around me and in the people I encounter. Most of all, help me understand the great gift of freedom that you have given me in bringing into reality the mystical body of Christ, the Church. To “live and move and have our being” in you, God, is to know joy.

The Gospel reading causes me to question how I use the things of this world. Do I want fame or wealth or professional success? Do I do what I do each day for the glory of God or to pursue an ever-shifting goal to succeed for the sake of success? What does that even mean to pursue and knock down goal after goal? Show me, God, to use the things of this world in a way that serves you and pleases you. I know I am free to do your will, and I choose to do it. Teach me your will; I am clay in your hands.

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Wednesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.’ ”

The appeal of the parable of finding a treasure hidden in a field is irresistible. Who would not want to find a treasure and claim it? Yet, the man in the parable finds it, buys the field, and then buries the treasure again. If faith is the field and buying is completely abandoning oneself to the will of God, what could it mean that the treasure is again hidden?

Thank you, God, for the daily treasure of faith. Thank you for your extraordinary gift of abundant grace and mercy hidden in the day-to-day unfolding of life. Here on earth these gifts bring to each moment the Kingdom of heaven. Help me understand, Lord, that to find and hide the treasure of faith seems contradictory when the apostles were to go out to all the world and proclaim the Gospel. My gut tells me that within the heart of those who desire to be close to you through the sacraments, through prayer, and through their lives have hidden in the recesses of their heart a private joy, a one-to-one intimacy that finds fullest expression between you and them—love that ultimately overflows. How can the joy of this kingdom, inexpressible except between the beloved and the lover, be spoken? It is this treasure “which a person finds and hides again.” Yet, how can that joy be contained?

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: and of his greatness there is no end.” God, give me the grace to invite you into all situations. If I have that grace, there is no consolation I want other than to know you are present, guiding me. I know well enough that I am likely to forget you if I do not have you grasp me by the hand.

Today let me show that joy in some way—not a showy, preachy way—but more like a certain something that makes others wonder what’s at the bottom of it, what lies hidden there.

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Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Reflection

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

The disciples spent private time with Jesus, which is made clear in today’s Gospel reading as he dismisses the crowd. He went on to explain to the disciples the parable of the weeds. Teaching the disciples behind closed doors was an essential part of Jesus’ ministry, just as parents spend time with their children to explain the ways of the world.

God, help me understand that there are certain things you will have to spell out to me time after time. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.” When you say this, Lord, you are speaking not in parables but in truth. Can I overlook my actions day after day when you say, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers”?

In prayer, I can’t help wondering about how the disciples tested Jesus’ patience just as Abraham tested the extent of God’s mercy in dealing with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Was Jesus tired and irritable as he dismissed the crowds, or did he want the intimacy with his disciples through which he taught them everything? Imagining Jesus dismissing the crowds, I can’t help thinking of John Paul II among crowds. Rather than dismissing crowds, he moved among them eye to eye so that he could see and embrace people. Yet, he also needed quiet time in prayer to let the word of God grow and thrive within him.

Today, the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, I want to be present to those closest to me. Let me remember not to dismiss others close to me—or people I might meet throughout the day—but to set time aside to talk together about the world now and the world to come. That attempt to sow good seed is essential now and in the life to come. “The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower; all who come to him will live for ever.”

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Feast of Saint James, Apostle: Reflection

Jesus said to the disciples, “Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus came to serve, to be the servant of servants. By saying this to the ten disciples after talking with James, John, and their mother, Jesus pulls the rug out from the type of dog-eat-dog authority that the rulers of the Gentiles exhibited. As Father Burke Masters says, quoting Bishop Barron, “This life is not about you.” The chalice that Jesus offers the disciples is not one of greatness and power, but of subjection and suffering.

Fisherman James and John, also known as the Sons of Thunder, wanted a share in Jesus’ kingdom; they had, it seems, a thirst for success and worldly power. In my own life and in the goals I set, I want to understand that the thirst for those things in this world that seem to be measures of success—honor, power, pleasure, wealth—are really just a sham and a substitute, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, for God.

It’s a back-to-work day. The list of things to do, however short, seems to pile up in my mind as I try to spend quiet time in prayer. Is there so much in a day that I need to accomplish? Is that so? All I can say is “My Jesus, mercy!” No great revelations follow; just the hope that the day doesn’t lead me, tongue lolling, toward honor, power, pleasure, or wealth. Do I dare ask God to teach me how to be a good servant?

I want to reject the shams that I encounter today—every one of them, one by one or however many at a time approach me. Instead, let me find the next best way to serve somebody in my family and welcome interruptions. In Interior Freedom by Fr. Jacques Philippe, he says that Saint Thérèse welcomed interruptions. In his book, he says: “If a good Sister then came by to ask her for some little service, instead of coldly sending her away Thérèse made the effort to accept the interruption with good grace. And if nobody interrupted her, she considered that a charming present from her loving God and was very grateful to him.” That’s a challenge that I’m sure I’ll fail at today because of important things I have to do, but I can ask God for the grace to get back up and try again and again. After all, this life is not about me.

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Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Reflection

Jesus said to his disciples, “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

Jesus’ disciples asked him how to pray, and he prayed the Our Father. In a parable, he then compares prayer with the Father as one asking a friend for a loaf of bread at midnight. Just as his persistence results in his receiving the bread, so the disciple receives what he asks from the Father: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

The first and second readings show how God hears our prayers. Abraham asks God to show mercy to Sodom and Gomorrah if only ten of its inhabitants were innocent. In Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, he says we are brought to new life through baptism and forgiven of all transgressions. The refrain from Psalm 138 is “Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.” God, help me understand that in the account of you in today’s readings, you give us not only the very words your son used to pray to you but also the message of your mercy that spans generation after generation.

God calls to me today to rest in Him, to recline at Jesus’ side as the beloved disciple John did. It is a day of rest. Let me make a worthy dwelling for God in myself so that He can rest in me as I rest in Him.

Today I want to make myself present to others, not in a way that pesters them but makes my availability clear. I want to gather my family together and pray the rosary. God, if I ask for your grace to do these two things today, I know it will be done.

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Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

He replied, “No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”

In the parable from today’s Gospel reading, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a man who sowed good seed in his field. His enemy sowed weeds throughout the wheat so that both the weeds and the wheat appeared from the soil and would not be separated until harvest. The first reading from Jeremiah tells the story of human wheat and weeds, how evil grows among the living temples of the Lord.

Help me understand, God, that there are people today who do exactly as people did in the first reading, people who “[are to] steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not.” There are people who reach not for Baal, but who worship what goes beyond the limits of freedom and distort it, thinking, “We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again.” God, help me remember to pray for peace and conversion of heart so that all will worship you alone. In my own life, guide me away from strange gods so that I do always what is pleasing to you.

Jesus, you know that this life is a spiritual battle, that the enemy comes while we are asleep and prospers among us during the day. Can I trust that in me you see a little child, whose fears and anxieties you can scatter with the touch of your hand and a whisper of reassurance that you are ever present?

It is summer, and the weeds have flowered and grown tall. Today, God, help me to acknowledge that they are here for now and will be until the end of time, and help me to work on uprooting the weeds that have grown in the very heart of my own garden. Let the weeds be the weeds and be bundled in time for burning, but let me then be gathered like wheat in your arms.

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Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene: Reflection

Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, “I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her.

The first reading from Song of Songs expresses the love Mary must have felt for Jesus and also Mary’s inability to recognize him at once: “The Bride says: On my bed at night I sought him whom my heart loves–I sought him but I did not find him. I will rise then and go about the city; in the streets and crossings I will seek Him whom my heart loves.”

God, thank you for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of seeking the Lord and remaining in his love. An apostle to the apostles, she was the first to encounter the risen Christ and proclaim to them: “I have seen the Lord.” Help me understand that before I seek you, the desire must be in my heart to carry out seeking you. I ask for the grace to desire to see you—and see you!—as the day unfolds.

I have to consider the things I see daily that obscure my ability to see God. Certain routines, expectations, and long-held goals are so much a part of my vision for each day that inevitably I am missing some of the moments when God is trying to get my attention and guide me. God, come to my assistance so that these obstacles are cleared from my sight. As Emily Dickinson writes in “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”:

The Bravest—grope a little—
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead—
But as they learn to see—

Either the Darkness alters—
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight—
And Life steps almost straight.

Today I want to look twice at those closest to me because what I think I’m seeing, I might not be seeing at all. When I think all is well and conforms to expectations that reinforce my habitual way of seeing, when “Life steps almost straight,” let me look again and invite God to get between me and what I’m looking at. To pull that off, I can’t rely on myself or even remember to do that; for that reason, I ask for God’s grace today to be able to see.

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Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Reflection

“This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.”

The first reading from Jeremiah fits perfectly with Jesus’ words from today’s Gospel reading: “Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” The disciples ask Jesus why he speaks to the crowd in parables, and he says that knowledge has been given to the disciples but not to the crowds. This is difficult to understand because it seems that Jesus would want to speak to people clearly and not in parables. Saint Lawrence of Brindisi said the parables are like treasure God has hidden underground, “so that we cannot find it or unearth and possess it without great effort and diligence.”

God, help me understand that to know your will means bringing the hole I have dug for myself to you and asking you to fix it so it can hold water. Jesus’ parable seems pretty straightforward until I try to identify which of the seedbeds I am and realize I am and have been all of them. God, help me understand how to listen out for you during the day to remain in you and stay whole.

It is one of those days where finding early morning quiet time to pray didn’t work. I feel like something is missing, like I’ve forgotten to eat breakfast or double knot my shoelaces. It is good, then, when the desire is there that my brother invites me today to adoration.

Today there is so much I would like to do, so many peaks I’d like to ascend. But I know very well I won’t reach them. God, help me today realize that my way is not your way and if I slow down enough to hear you, I’ll go further than I imagined.

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