Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

And now, Israel, what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good?

Here we have a good road map of what it means to follow God’s Will. It means to fear disappointing Him. It means respecting God and following in His ways. It means to love and serve Him and His children with all our hearts and souls... with all our minds and strengths. It means to keep His commandments, to follow His teachings, and listen to and enact His inspirations. He asks us to do all these things for our own good because He loves us and wants only the best for us. Everything He does is for our good and the good of others and we would do well to remember that when we are undergoing trials and tribulations and are tempted to doubt His Love for us. He does not wish any ill upon us, but neither will He take away our free will to do good or evil. And if we suffer evil, we should rest assured that He will come to our aid.

Are we respectful of God and fearful of disappointing Him? How can we do a better job of knowing, loving, and serving Him with all our hearts and souls? In what ways can we learn to keep God’s commandments more faithfully?

O Lord, help us to follow your ways, now and forever.

Amen.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Jesus will not let us drown. He will always stretch out his hand and catch us if we are willing to let him. He is always with us in our times of plenty and our times of need. This is why he tells us to take courage and be not afraid. This is why he asks us to come to him. We might falter along the way, frightened, and sink into doubts or sins, but as long as we cry out for help, Jesus will be there for us. He does not force his aid upon us, but offers it to us and lets us decide. He is willing to ask us to do great and small things for him... and equally willing to let us fail... in order to teach us about learning to trust in him, our Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit.

Are we willing to take courage and follow the inspirations God sends us? How can we overcome our doubts and fears in order to take those great and small leaps of faith God asks of us each day? When we fail, are we humble and faithful enough to cry out, “Lord, save me?”

O Lord, give us the courage to come to you wherever you are.

Amen.

Eighteenth Saturday of Ordinary Time

"When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he would give you, a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant; and when, therefore, you eat your fill, take care not to forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. The LORD, your God, shall you fear; him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear."

What we have in life isn’t ours. It is God’s. He has given us our life, health, goods, family, friends, and homes. He has instilled within each of us gifts, talents, and graces, which find their source, center, and summit in Him. We should never forget that we are merely borrowing all these things for a time. We should always be grateful for the goods God has given us. He has indeed delivered us from the slavery of sin and offered us a Promised Land filled with good things. We should fear disappointing Him and do everything we can to repay His unfathomable kindness by knowing, loving, and serving Him to the best of our abilities.

What goods, gifts, talents, and graces has God given us? Do we thank Him for all the goods we have? How can we know, love, and serve Him better?

O Lord, let us thank you through humble and faithful service.

Amen.

Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin

Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the LORD, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

God is personally involved in our lives, just as He was with the Israelites so long ago. All the goods in our lives come from Him. He constantly speaks to us through our conscience and through the inspired words of others. He ventures forth with us in all our endeavors and offers His aid in our times of trial and tribulation. By signs and wonders, great and small, he delivers us from evil and leads us to good. We might not always notice His Presence or the instances of His Divine Assistance, but He is with us... always. In return, we ought to do everything in our power to remember what God has done for us and to recognize His Presence in our lives... for there should be no doubt that He will remember us, the good and bad, when the time comes for our earthly journey to end.

Do we keep our eyes, minds, and hearts open to seeing, understanding, and appreciating everything God does for us? Are our ears and consciences open to listening to and putting into practice God’s Divine Word? In what ways do we recognize God’s Presence in our lives?

O Lord, thank you for all you have do for us.

Amen.

Feast of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr

Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

God gives us everything we need to succeed as Christians. He offers us guidance and graces. He supplies us all our good thoughts, words, and works. All He asks from us in return is a spirit of humble servitude and a faithful, hopeful, and loving life spent sowing the spiritual seeds He gives us. If we do this, then our acts of charity and mercy will sustain not only our souls, but the souls of many others. They shall multiply and increase the harvest of good and righteous fruits. God wants us to be active in our faith... to scatter it wherever we find good and fertile ground so that devotion and fidelity to God will grow in the hearts and minds of all those whom we are graced to meet.

In what ways do we thank God for the graces He has given us? How can we use these gifts and talents to increase the harvest of His righteousness? Where is God asking us to scatter the seeds of our faith?

O Lord, thank you for the graces you have given us and the harvest have entrusted to our hands.

Amen.

Eighteenth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

How long will this wicked assembly grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the children of Israel against me. Tell them: By my life, says the LORD, I will do to you just what I have heard you say. Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall. Forty days you spent in scouting the land; forty years shall you suffer for your crimes: one year for each day. Thus you will realize what it means to oppose me. I, the LORD, have sworn to do this to all this wicked assembly that conspired against me: here in the desert they shall die to the last man.

After everything God had done for the Israelites, from freeing them from Egypt to dwelling with them in the ark, they still did not trust God. This lack of faith spurred by fears and doubts overcame their confidence in God. How easily we can fall into the same pattern in our own lives. We are faithful followers of Christ while things are easy, but the moment He asks us to risk something for our spiritual growth, we grumble and complain. He offers use a life overflowing with graces and good fruits, but we recoil from it because we are afraid of the obstacles in our way. We come up with excuses not to take the leap of faith and deny God our trust. And then, we wonder why our lives seem to be wondering aimlessly through the desert from suffering to suffering with no relief. It is because we turned our backs on the way forward and have chosen to oppose God’s Will. The only remedy for this is to purge ourselves of our doubts and fears and put our faith in God’s Providence.

What are the things we grumble about in our lives? Are our doubts and fears holding us back from where God is calling us? How can we learn to take the leap of faith when God provides us with an opportunity to follow Him into the Promised Land?

O Lord, we are sorry for our grumbling and ask you to lead us where we need to be.

Amen.

Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest

“Now listen to the words of the LORD: Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal myself to him, in dreams will I speak to him; not so with my servant Moses! Throughout my house he bears my trust: face to face I speak to him; plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the LORD he beholds. Why, then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?”

Jealously is a vice we all have to struggle against. Sometimes when we see another person who is prospering or blessed in some way, we start to wonder why they have all the luck. Worse yet, if the person who is doing well is someone we dislike we might feel angry that they are getting all the breaks. We start to grumble about our lot in life and covet what others have in life, love, possessions, and whatever else we see ourselves lacking. This envy of others worms its way into our relationships, making us more and more spiteful, hollowing us out, eating away at all the things we once took pleasure or solace in. When we fall into the temptation to be jealous, this vice slowly but surely whittles away at joys and we find no comfort in anything as long as others are doing better than us. This is why we must nurture within ourselves a spirit of kindness. We should find joy in the joy of others, even our enemies. We should celebrate the successes of others as if they were our own. This empathy for our fellow children of God will help arm us against the vice of envy which can only grow where self love overcomes charity.

Are we jealous of anyone? If so, then how can we ground our relationship with that person or persons in kindness and love? What can we do to keep ourselves from being jealous of others?

O Lord, rid us of our jealousy and in its place give us hearts full of kindness.

Amen.