Third Saturday of Lent

It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice. Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.

God wants us to be merciful like Him. He wants us to be good like Him. He wants us to be compassionate like Him. He wants us to love like Him. He wants us to magnify Him for all the world through our thoughts, words, and works. All the almsgiving, prayer, and mortification in the world will avail us nothing if we don’t do it in His Spirit. We can do all the right things for all the wrong reasons. God wants us to do them for Him and Him alone. It isn’t easy choosing to be Christ-like. It is a hard and narrow path filled with hardship and suffering and sacrifice, but if we follow in God’s footsteps and accept our crosses, then we shall taste the goodness of the Lord and enjoy His Heavenly Feast for all eternity.

Are we merciful like God? Are we good and compassionate like Him? How can we magnify Him in all we think, do, and say?

O Lord, wash us from our guilt and sin so we will become merciful, good, and compassionate.

Amen.

Third Wednesday in Ordinary Time

 You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchizedek. The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion: “Rule in the midst of your enemies.”

Every good, grace, talent, and power we have has been given to us by God as a free gift. He provides everything we need to grow in faith, hope, and love because He wants us to spend the rest of eternity with Him. He wants us to rule over our minds, bodies, and spirits with prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. He wants us to overcome the enemies of evil, temptation, and indifference. He wants us to follow in His Beloved Son’s footsteps and become priests, prophets, and servant kings.

Have we thanked God for all the goods, graces, talents, and powers He has given us? How can we rule over ourselves more perfectly? In what ways can we be more like Christ?

O Lord, thank you for the powers you have given us.

Amen.

Eleventh Tuesday of Ordinary Time

I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

The genuineness of our faith, hope, and love is tested every day. We are faced with great and small opportunities to show our trust in God and our willingness to do His Will in all things. We meet people who challenge our faith, attack our hopes, and mock our acts of charity and mercy. We also meet people who are in desperate need for someone, anyone to be the light of Christ in their lives. Jesus became like us in order to show us how to be more like him in our daily lives. He shows us that sacrifice for the good of others helps us to grow in holiness and store up spiritual treasures.

Are we genuine in our faith, hope, and love? How can we make ourselves more like Christ? What can we do to become rich in virtue?

O Lord, make us rich in virtue.

Amen.

Tenth Thursday of Ordinary Time

Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged.

The Holy Spirit is a spirit of true freedom. When we give ourselves over to God through the Holy Spirit, the chains of our sins are broken and we become our best selves. We are transformed into Christ-like members of the One, Body of Jesus. Coming with this transfiguration is the ministry to charity and mercy. For just as Jesus showed us these things, so must we spread them to others. We cannot live up to the name of Christians, if we do not go forth and act like Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit for our Heavenly Father.

Have we accepted the Holy Spirit into our lives? Are we allowing Him to transform and transfigure us into more faithful, loving, and merciful reflections of Jesus Christ? How can we do a better job of living out our ministry to others?

O Lord, free us through your Holy Spirit so we can become you for all people.

Amen.

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality.

Although Paul’s words are addressed to the Romans and the Church, they echo the life of Mary, who we all should take as our model of holiness. For of all the creatures in the world, only Mary, through the grace of God, remained sinless. She endured the afflictions of the Passion and the Cross. She persevered in prayer through these trials, placing her trust in God the Father. This is because her love is sincere, she hates evil, she holds onto what was good. She loves others with compassionate affection and shows them honor and gives them dignity. Her zeal for doing God’s Will never wavers, she is fervent in the Spirit, her Beloved Spouse. She serves the Lord and His children. She rejoices in her Savior and Son, the Prince of Hope. She contributes to the needs of the God’s holy ones past, present, and future. She exercises every hospitality to God’s children, her children, because she loves us all as her own. By imitating Mary, we become more Christ-like. She is our stepping stone, leading to the Holy Trinity, Her Father, Her Son, and Her Holy Spouse.

Is our love of God and neighbor sincere? Are we fervent in the Spirit? How can we imitate Mary and become more like Christ?

O Lord, help us to become more like you, just as Mary did in her most holy life.

Amen.

Monday of the Second Week of Easter

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

Paul writes these words to the Corinthians because some of them have started to doubt and deny the resurrection of the dead. They did not understand the need for a resurrected body. They preferred a purely spiritual afterlife to one that would mix perfect spirit and imperfect flesh. However, as Christians we do not see our bodies as evil. They were created good by God when He made Adam and Eve. Our corruption comes from original sin and the wounding of our ability to control our spiritual faculties, our intellect and our will. This injury opens us to temptation and inclines us to evil. But thankfully, this is not the end of the story. Jesus died not only to redeem us from death, but also grant us the saving grace that can heal the wounds of original and personal sin. He came into this world to sanctify the whole person, body and soul. It is not enough to control our lower passions, but give into our selfish intellectual or willful desires. We have to become like Christ in mind, body, and spirit or we shall discover that we are not wholly Christ’s disciples. This is why his resurrection and the revelation of his glorified body are so important. They remind us that we are called to tame both our body and our soul so that we might share in the glory of the resurrection.

What are we doing to sanctify our bodies’ senses and passions? How can we discipline our intellect and will so that they will be more Christ-like? Do we thank God each and every day for the saving graces He has granted us through the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ?

O Lord, through your resurrection you have saved us.

Amen.

Christmas Weekday

If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.
As children of God, we are called to righteousness and purity. God gave us the perfect example of these virtues in His Beloved Son, who was righteous and pure in all his thoughts, words, and works. God did this because He loves us and wanted to give us a concrete model we could look to for guidance. Because of the example of Jesus Christ, we know who God is, what He wants from us, and how we should act toward Him and our neighbors. So, if we what eternal life with our Heavenly Father, we must be like Christ and have hope in our Creator.
Are we righteous and pure or selfish and sinful? What is getting in the way of our being Christ-like in our thoughts, words, and works? If we are sinful, how can we make ourselves righteous and pure going forward?
O Lord, make us righteous and pure.
Amen.

Nineteenth Saturday in Ordinary Time

Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

Children are great teachers about what it means to love unconditionally. They do this in both their way of loving and annoying. They have the potential to love their parents, grandparents, and other family members without reserve. In addition, they can push all our buttons and try our patience to the breaking point. However, this stress test also helps us to understand what it means to love without expectation of return just as Jesus loves us. He died for all of us on the cross because he loved us, but he would never force us to return his love. Instead, he lets us make our choice to love others as he did or to selfishly pick ourselves over others. When a child throws a tantrum or refuses to give us a hug or kiss, then we have a small taste of what Jesus goes through when we deny him through our words and works and instead choose evil over good. So the next time we are tempted to sin, perhaps we should imagine ourselves as a child before Christ and remember that our choice is between love and selfishness. Hopefully, we shall choose wisely and well.

Are we childlike in our unconditional love of God and others? How can we be more Christ-like when we are faced with people who refuse to return our love? How can we encourage children to grow in their love of God and others?

O Lord, give us hearts filled with childlike love.

Amen.

Seventh Tuesday of Ordinary Time

Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”

After telling his disciples that those who want to be first among his disciples must become the least and servants of all, he goes even further and shows them how to receive the lowly and the poor in spirit. He takes a child and wraps his arms around it. This hug expresses the depth of love Jesus has for us all. He wants his disciples to understand they must love others, especially the lowly, whom the child represents, with generous and gentle hearts. He makes clear that we will be judged by how we treat those who are most in need in this world. If we do treat them with love and respect, then we shall be blessed by not only Jesus, but His Father and the Holy Spirit.

How do we receive the lowly? Do we treat them well? How can we love those in need more perfectly?

O Lord, help us to receive others as you receive us.

Amen.