My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today we hear of the Lord chasing out the money changers and those who were selling doves for the ritual sacrifices that would be used in the temple by the people in order to worship God and to offer sacrifice to Him. Our Lord saw that these sellers were taking advantage of those that needed to buy these doves and were probably over charging the people in their need to bring a sacrifice into the temple. Instead of providing a service, they were going out of their way to overcharge and take advantage of the worshipers.

What was most important to our Lord in the gospel for today was the act of worship of God in the temple. That’s where the true sacrifice is: not in offering doves as a sacrifice to God, but to offer to God our very selves to Him as a pleasing sacrifice. The temple is to be a house of prayer. These sellers and thieves were taking away from the holiness of the temple by their selfishness and greed. As a result, the people were distracted from true worship of God. The sellers were making it into a den of thieves. Our Lord was outraged and thus expels these evil people from the temple

When we enter church for our time with the Lord, do we have things on our minds that may distract us from the worship of God? Any of our distractions from our daily lives can take away our focus from the worship of God, and, like these thieves in the temple, these cares and concerns takes away the peace we need in order to give God the love and time he deserves when we come to pray before him during mass. Ask the Lord to remove these distractions from us as he removed the thieves in the temple. Thus, our focus can be on our prayer time with God.

Our Lord points out the importance of prayer in today’s gospel. He says, “…all that you ask for in prayer, believe that youwill receive it and it shall be yours.” (Mark 11:24) God answers all prayers. Maybe not in the way we expect, but in the way we need. Further, our Lord is calling us to be forgiving of anyone we may have a grievance against. As we are forgiving to those who may have hurt us or offended us, God in turn will be forgiving of us when we turn to Him seeking forgiveness. 

Lord, help us to give you ourselves as a living sacrifice, pleasing to you in every way. Help us to be as loving and forgiving with those in our lives as you are with us. Amen

The World's Only Hope

Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.

 

The scripture reading for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter | USCCB

In our gospel for today we hear our Lord question Peter three times about His love for Him. As you recall, on the night that our Lord was betrayed, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny Him three times. Peter claimed that he would never do such a thing. But by the end of the evening, before the cocked crowed, Peter did indeed deny knowing Jesus the three times our Lord predicted. This filled him with a great deal of guilt and remorse. Peter was so terrified that he himself would end up being handed over to the Romans to be crucified that he took the cowards way out and denied Jesus. Peter denied the person that he knew was his Lord and Savior.

In today’s gospel, after Our Lord rose from the dead, and as he was on the shore preparing breakfast for the apostles, we hear of the love and forgiveness that Jesus had towards Peter and allowed Peter to make up for the three times he betrayed the Lord, by telling Jesus that he did indeed love him. And Jesus gave him the instruction of feeding or tending the lambs and sheep. Peter, being the leader of the apostles, was given the instructions to take care of the people that would come to faith in Jesus Christ. Peter would spiritually feed the followers of Jesus by living out his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  This, as our Lord predicts, would lead Peter himself to be crucified for his faith in Him. Peter went from being afraid of claiming to know who Jesus was, to boldly proclaiming to the whole world that Jesus was indeed Lord and Savior.

We are all like Peter. There are times when we fall short in our following Jesus and as a result deny our faith in Him when we should be proclaiming that we are indeed followers of Jesus Christ. We need to bring our faith in Jesus in every issue or problem that we may face in our family or work life. We are to include our faith in resolving these family or work issues. There are times, for whatever reason, we find it easier to not bring our faith in these situations. It is then that we deny knowing Jesus. It is after these times of denying Jesus that we need to turn back to Him in the sacrament of Reconciliation and seek forgiveness. Jesus is always there in the sacrament of confession to bring us His love and forgiveness. In confession Jesus is asking us, through the priest, “Do you love me.” Our response is, “Lord, you know I love you. Here is where I fell short in following you. I am sorry. Please forgive me.”

Let us pray for the courage to always proclaim that we know, love and serve Jesus as our Savior, even when it seems easier to turn away from our faith in Him.

THE GOSPEL & THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: A CRUCIAL CATHOLIC/CHRISTIAN/FRANCISCAN ISSUE

 

Today we have a guest blogger, Arlene B. Muller. Arlene B. Muller (Arlene Clare Muller, OSF) is a lector and EM at St. Pancras parish, a singer in the choir at St. Margaret's parish, a professed Secular Franciscan at St. Adalbert's Secular Franciscan fraternity & an itinerant speech/language therapist working with preschool children with delayed language development. She enjoys writing and music and sharing Christian and pro-life posts on FACEBOOK.

As Christians, Catholics & Franciscans we are called to live the Gospel of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST and to promote the Gospel of Life. Every human being from the moment of conception through natural death is a unique creation of our Creator God, created in His image, and someone for whom the Son of God became Incarnate in the womb of the  Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Every human being from conception through natural death is a person for whom JESUS CHRIST was born, lived a sinless life of preaching, teaching and healing, and for whom He suffered and died on the Cross to be our Savior, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and gave the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as Christians, as Catholics & as Franciscans we are called to respect and seek to protect the sanctity of all human life from conception through natural death.

In Pope Francis' encyclical LAUDATO SI, which was inspired by St. Francis of Assisi's CANTICLE OF THE CREATURES, after writing about our obligation to be good stewards of God's beautiful Creation, Pope Francis ended by focusing on the importance of caring not only for the rest of Creation but especially for human life, highlighting the sanctity of human life and the protection of the lives of the unborn.

In contrast to the political climate of America in our time, there is really no contradiction between caring for the poor  and protecting the lives of the unborn, the infants, the elderly, the sick, and people with disabilities. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who both cared passionately about and devoted a good portion of her life to taking care of "the poorest of the poor", at the same time cared passionately about ending abortion, which she considered to be the greatest enemy of world peace.

In subsequent articles we will focus on 4 ways in which we need to fight abortion, using the acronym, P. L. E. A, our plea to make abortion not only illegal but especially to make abortion UNTHINKABLE:

P = PRAYER 

L = LEGAL/LOBBY/LEGISLATION 

E = EDUCATE & EVANGELIZE 

A = ADVOCATE (for women in crisis pregnancies).

Pax et Bonum,

A Pivotal Event

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you

 

The scripture readings for this blog can be found at Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle | USCCB

We hear again in today’s gospel that of Jesus’ command to love one another. Our Lord stresses the importance of love in His relationship with us and our relationship with each other. Central in our Lord’s teaching is that we follow His command of love: “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” The love of God is both vertical between us and God the Father through Jesus Christ, and horizontal: from us to those in our lives.

It reminds me of the Christian hymn that you may recall hearing: “They will know that we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love.” It is through us and how we live out our lives as Christians that we can bring other people to know the love that Christ has for each one of us.

Throughout the gospels the Lord teaches many ways of how we are to live out our Christian vocation of love of God and love of neighbor. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 12, our Lord says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law of the prophets.” Then, also in Matthew, chapter 25, we hear our Lord talk about the Judgement of the nations and how we are to serve others as if we are serving the Lord. Our Lord says, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you do for one of thel east brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Mathew 25:40). We are to see Christ in every person we meet, and to love them as we love Christ.

It’s not always easy loving those in our lives, but it’s how our Lord is calling us to live out our lives. By bringing that love and peace that can come from God to those around us we are making this world a more peaceful place that can truly know the love God has for each one of us.

St. Thérèse de Lisieux, the Little Flower, said in her autobiography, the Story of a Soul, “Then, overcome by joy, I cried, 'Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.”

All of us are called to that vocation of love: love of God, and love of neighbor. May we live out this vocation of love in a way that’s pleasing to God the Father.

 

How Else Can You Explain St. Peter?

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle B

This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you

 

The scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter | USCCB

Being a follower of Jesus Christ can be challenging at times. In our gospel for today Jesus is reminding us that we need to love one another. Coming to church and loving God is the easy thing to do. It is a good and important thing to do in our relationship with God. But Jesus is calling us to something more in our relationship with God. Loving only God here in church is just not good enough. We have to take this love of God that we experience in church and bring it to everyone we meet throughout the day. Everyone, without exception! We have to love everyone in our family, even those in our family that are most irritating. We are to love the neighbors that we encounter as we enter or leave our apartment buildings, even that neighbor that we may not really like and would rather avoid. And we are to love those people we may encounter on line at the supermarket or store that may be taking a little longer to check out than we’d like. We are to love EVERYONE, without exception. Very often it’s not really easy to love those people that God has placed in our lives, whether they’re family or just people we encounter as we go about our business during the day. But it’s what Jesus is calling us to do.

In order for us to have the love of others that Jesus commands, we must first love God with our whole mind, heart and soul. Developing a good, holy, and healthy relationship with God is a valuable way to work towards love of one another. We can grow ever closer to God by the daily reading of scripture. Taking about 15 minutes per day to go over the scripture readings from Mass is a good way to be able to hear with our spiritual ears what God is trying to say to us. By being open to God in Scripture helps us to grow closer to Him. Next would be the frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession to see where we may be falling short in our relationship with God and with one another. The Sacrament of Confession is a valuable tool to help us become less selfish and to grow more in our love of God and neighbor. Further, the frequent reception of Holy Communion is that spiritual food that helps us to grow in the love of God and love of neighbor.

Once we have all these in place, we would be ready to love others as Jesus commands us in today’s gospel. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “It’s not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts” and “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” By doing what Mother Teresa suggests, we then can do what Jesus says, “This I command you: love one another.”

Pruning is Essential