Today, the Gospel is the story of Jesus in His hometown of Nazareth, reading from the prophet, Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” And then Jesus responds by proclaiming “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” For me, this passage is almost a no-brainer. Like, duh, of course this passage is being fulfilled. This is Jesus! By this time in […]
holiness
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Merry Christmas! (And yes, it is STILL Christmas!) I hope this finds you still rejoicing in the great gift of Him who humbled Himself to become like us as a babe in the manger at Bethlehem! My post today is an outgrowth of my spiritual mentorship ministry work, and the great need that I have seen for people to come to know and understand and embrace that the reality that God loves us so deeply, passionately and profoundly, that He desires nothing more than to love us, and to that end, He invites us to enter into life with, in […]
Today was spent in quiet reflection as I prepared to make my promises to become a member of the AVI (Apostles of Interior Life) Family. In the midst of quiet time in Adoration with Jesus, all of us who were gathered together were encouraged to reflect upon not only the promises that we would be making, but even more so, to reflect upon what does it mean to be family? One of the AVI Family members shared some wisdom given by Dr Greg and Lisa Popcak, national speakers on issues of marriage and family, in which the Popcaks suggest that […]
As we are now drawing super close to Christmas, the world has us in an absolute frenzy of preparations and “checking lists twice.” For those of us for whom Jesus is the reason for this season, it can be extremely disconcerting to traverse through these final days as all the focus seems to be on everything and anything but Jesus. So how do we wrench our focus off all the “to-dos” and allow ourselves to focus on Him? By doing what Jesus told us to do and become like little children. How? By acting like a child. 1. Look with childlike wonder. How often is it that we actually […]
The entire season of Advent is all about preparation, but Gaudete Sunday is the Church’s way to signal to us that we need to kick our preparation into high gear. Why?
Before the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII said that it was time to “open the windows [of the Church] and let in some fresh air.” In the last 55 years since Vatican II, there have been many theories proposed about what the now Saint Pope John XXIII meant by his comment, but as the Catholic Church continues to struggle to to effectively evangelize people, especially young adults, in this post modern world, one thing is abundantly clear, some more “fresh air” is desperately needed if people are to come to know and experience what it means to belong and […]
A few days ago, I wrote about how much I love November, and how this is a truly special time in the life of the Catholic Church. Particularly because it is a month when we celebrate the fullness of the Communion of Saints. We begin by celebrating all who have completed their journey and are in heaven with God on All Saints Day, and then we commemorate all the holy souls who have gone before us on All Souls Day, before spending the remainder of the month praying for those same souls. I have to admit, with the shortening of […]
I absolutely ADORE the end of October and the month of November. Probably not for the reasons that you might expect though, as my reasons have not much to do with the usual ghosts or goblins or spooky graveyards, but everything to do with the Communion of Saints. What is the Communion of Saints, you ask? Well, simplest explanation is that it’s everybody–the best, the better and the trying to be holy men and women. The best are the Saints. These are people who are in union with God and have allowed their love for God and God’s love for […]
Many times when people hear stories about people who are saints, like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pope John Paul II, or Maximillian Kolbe, the response tends to be, “Well, that’s great, but I could never be like them.” The reality is actually quite the opposite, as all the people throughout history who eventually became saints share 7 common characteristics that we can incorporate and practice in our own lives, too. Practice #1 Daily Prayer and Meditation “A soulthat does not practice the exercise of prayer is very like a paralyzed body which, though posessing feet and hands, makes no use of […]
Am currently traveling back from the V National Encuentro (which is taking far longer than I expected since my flight got cancelled and I was rerouted!), but it’s given me the opportunity to reflect and process on these last 4 days in which I was privileged to accompany 3,000 others from across the United States. For those of you who might be unaware, the Encuentro “process” was initiated more than 2 years ago by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops when they requested that the Hispano/Latino Catholic communities gather together to reflect, discuss, compile and then present the needs […]