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.

Eleventh Monday of Ordinary Time

We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise.

Now is an acceptable time for us to live out our baptismal calling. It is an acceptable time to make ourselves into stepping stones to holiness and not into stumbling blocks. It is an acceptable time to commend ourselves to God and the proclamation of the Good News. It is an acceptable time to endure afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils and fasts in the service of God and His children. It is an acceptable time to purify ourselves, increase our knowledge, learn patience, grow in kindness through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is an acceptable time to love God and others with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strengths. It is an acceptable time to speak truthfully and powerfully of God’s Love, Mercy, and Grace. It is an acceptable time to arm ourselves with the weapons of righteousness that come from living out our faith with hope and love in spite of what glory or dishonor, insult or praise comes for doing so.

Are we stumbling blocks to the faith of others or stepping stones to Heaven? Are we willing to endure trials and tribulations in order to follow the teachings of Christ? How can we let the Holy Spirit sanctify us and enkindle the fires of love, mercy, and virtue within us?

O Lord, now is an acceptable hour for us all to become good and faithful servants.

Amen.

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is the reason we come to mass. Gathering together as a community is important, but it is the Holy Communion that unites us in faith. Listening to the Scriptures is enlightening and uplifting, but it is the Blessed Sacrament that gives us the grace to fulfill God’s Will. The best way to meditate upon the mysteries of the Incarnation, Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is to receive the Divine Bread and Wine he blessed so long ago. The centrality of the Eucharist to our faith is undeniable. We must eat of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ if we want to be a part of God’s Kingdom and rise to eternal life with Jesus. It is also through this Blessed Sacrament that we welcome God into our lives. And if we are sincere in our reception of the Eucharist, then God will remain with us in a special way, providing us with many graces we can get nowhere else and that will carry us forth into the world.

Do we place our focus on the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ whenever we go to mass? How do we show God respect and sincerity before, during, and after our reception of the Blessed Sacrament? In what ways do we cultivate the graces of the Eucharist?

O Lord, you are our true food and drink. Remain with us forever and ever.

Amen.

Tenth Saturday of Ordinary Time

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

The thought of being an ambassador of Christ can be one that slips our minds in the day-to-day business of our lives, but it is something we should do our best to keep in mind. Wherever we are, as Christians, we are called to shine forth the goodness, love, and mercy of our Heavenly Father. We are called to imitate Christ and bring him into the lives of those around us… no matter who they are. We are called to reconcile ourselves and others to God through our acts of kindness, love, and mercy. We are new creations in Christ and as such we should put on the spirit of Christ in our every thought, word, and work so we can be the best ambassadors of his message to the whole world.

Are we carrying out our mission to be ambassadors of Christ? How are we bearing witness to the goodness, glory, love, and mercy of God? Are we making every attempt to reconcile ourselves and others with God?

O Lord, make us good and faithful ambassadors of your Divine Will.

Amen.

Tenth Friday of Ordinary Time

We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Dying to ourselves isn’t easy, but it is necessary if we want to be good and faithful followers of Christ. This doesn’t mean we sacrifice our individuality, but rather than our individuality is practiced in a way that mimics Christ’s willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of all. God wants each of us to worship Him in the unique way that only we as individuals can know, love, and serve Him. We do this best by both dying to those things that are not of God and living for those things that are from God. When we persevere through afflictions, perplexing problems, persecutions, harm, and all the other trials, we make manifest the life of Christ in our flesh. We become an incarnation of our Lord and Savior, giving ourselves over to our Heavenly Father just as Jesus did in His Most Holy Life... as a living sacrifice for the salvation of souls.

What things in our lives do we need to die to? What are the things in our lives we should be living for? How can we manifest Jesus more perfectly in our thoughts, words, and deed?

O Lord, make us incarnations of your Way, Truth, and Life.

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.

Tenth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of its glory that was going to fade, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit be glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory. Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious.

Paul makes a clear distinction between the ministry of death, which came from the Ten Commandments, and the ministry of the Spirit. The Ten Commandments are mainly restrictions on our actions and focus on punishment for crimes against God, while the Golden Rule given by Jesus and enkindled in us through the Holy Spirit is life-giving. Paul isn’t saying the Ten Commandments should be ignored, but rather that their glory is surpassed by the Holy Spirit’s gifts. The Ten Commandments are good to follow, while the inspirations of the Holy Spirit are even more so.

Do we follow the glorious Ten Commandment’s? Do we follow the even more glorious inspirations of the Holy Spirit by knowing, loving, and serving God and His children to the best of our abilities? Are we putting the gifts of the Holy Spirit to good use?

O Lord, let your glorious Holy Spirit inspire and guide us to become better servants to you.

Amen.