Thursday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 30^th 2020

Gospel                                                                   JN 6:44-51

Jesus said to the crowds:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:

They shall all be taught by God.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

Dear Friends and Family,

            Let us listen more deeply at sacred scripture and hear how God uses bread in salvation history.  As we listen we discover the great weight in which this teaching is proclaimed.  Jesus is Jewish and the crowd that he is speaking to is Jewish as well.  He elevates the gift of bread that he is offering above that of the God given manna that fed the Jewish people in the desert for 40 years. If that was not shocking enough to those that were listening, he then tells the Jewish crowd, that embraces the dietary restrictions of the Jewish Law, that to have eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, they must eat the Flesh of Jesus.  This should shock anyone who hears it. 

            Are we similarly affected by this revelation?  It’s such a bizarre statement, that we should still be shocked by it 2000 years later.  Our creator is choosing to humble himself by becoming the very substance of bread for our consumption.  So that when we eat of it we will live forever with God. 

            Again the context in which this is stated is everything.  The manna follows the unleavened bread of the Passover that the people were instructed to make prior to the Exodus. The Passover meal has essential elements; unleavened bread and a roasted lamb.  It’s the meal and how they celebrate that meal that saves the Hebrew people from the final plague that strikes Egypt.  The lamb is sacrificed and the blood of the lamb is used to marks the doors of the home. The roasted flesh of the Lamb is eaten by those in the home.  The unleavened bread is the bread of haste; it is eaten in preparation for the journey from slavery to freedom that they will take the next day.  The Passover meal saves them from death and it sets them free from their enslavement.  But the meal must be eaten, that is the point.  God gives them the instructions for their liberation but they must follow them and share the meal.  This history prepares us for the salvation that Jesus offers. 

            Jesus also gives us the instructions for our salvation, but we too must be willing to follow them and share in the meal that Jesus offers us, his very flesh.  Just as God heard the cry and the hunger of his people in the desert, he hears our hunger and our longing today.  Let us pray that as we long for the return of the Eucharist, we may appreciate the great gift that the Eucharist is and in faith allow that gift to liberate us from sin and grant us eternal life.

           

Pope's Letter

ETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE FAITHFUL FOR THE MONTH OF MAY 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The month of May is approaching, a time when the People of God express with particular intensity their love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is traditional in this month to pray the Rosary at home within the family. The restrictions of the pandemic have made us come to appreciate all the more this “family” aspect, also from a spiritual point of view.

For this reason, I want to encourage everyone to rediscover the beauty of praying the Rosary at home in the month of May. This can be done either as a group or individually; you can decide according to your own situations, making the most of both opportunities. The key to doing this is always simplicity, and it is easy also on the internet to find good models of prayers to follow.

I am also providing two prayers to Our Lady that you can recite at the end of the Rosary, and that I myself will pray in the month of May, in spiritual union with all of you. I include them with this letter so that they are available to everyone.

Dear brothers and sisters, contemplating the face of Christ with the heart of Mary our Mother will make us even more united as a spiritual family and will help us overcome this time of trial. I keep all of you in my prayers, especially those suffering most greatly, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. I thank you, and with great affection I send you my blessing.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 25 April 2020
Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist

Pope Francis

---

First Prayer to Our Lady
 

O Mary,
You shine continuously on our journey
as a sign of salvation and hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,
who, at the foot of the cross,
were united with Jesus’ suffering,
and persevered in your faith.

“Protectress of the Roman people”,
you know our needs,
and we know that you will provide,
so that, as at Cana in Galilee,
joy and celebration may return
after this time of trial.

Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform ourselves to the will of the Father
and to do what Jesus tells us.
For he took upon himself our suffering,
and burdened himself with our sorrows
to bring us, through the cross,
to the joy of the Resurrection.
Amen.

We fly to your protection,
O Holy Mother of God;
Do not despise our petitions
in our necessities,
but deliver us always
from every danger,
O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

---

The second Prayer
 

“We fly to your protection, O Holy Mother of God”.

In the present tragic situation, when the whole world is prey to suffering and anxiety, we fly to you, Mother of God and our Mother, and seek refuge under your protection.

Virgin Mary, turn your merciful eyes towards us amid this coronavirus pandemic. Comfort those who are distraught and mourn their loved ones who have died, and at times are buried in a way that grieves them deeply. Be close to those who are concerned for their loved ones who are sick and who, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, cannot be close to them. Fill with hope those who are troubled by the uncertainty of the future and the consequences for the economy and employment.

Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us to God, the Father of mercies, that this great suffering may end and that hope and peace may dawn anew. Plead with your divine Son, as you did at Cana, so that the families of the sick and the victims be comforted, and their hearts be opened to confidence and trust.

Protect those doctors, nurses, health workers and volunteers who are on the frontline of this emergency, and are risking their lives to save others. Support their heroic effort and grant them strength, generosity and continued health.

Be close to those who assist the sick night and day, and to priests who, in their pastoral concern and fidelity to the Gospel, are trying to help and support everyone.

Blessed Virgin, illumine the minds of men and women engaged in scientific research, that they may find effective solutions to overcome this virus.

Support national leaders, that with wisdom, solicitude and generosity they may come to the aid of those lacking the basic necessities of life and may devise social and economic solutions inspired by farsightedness and solidarity.

Mary Most Holy, stir our consciences, so that the enormous funds invested in developing and stockpiling arms will instead be spent on promoting effective research on how to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.

Beloved Mother, help us realize that we are all members of one great family and to recognize the bond that unites us, so that, in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity, we can help to alleviate countless situations of poverty and need. Make us strong in faith, persevering in service, constant in prayer.

Mary, Consolation of the afflicted, embrace all your children in distress and pray that God will stretch out his all-powerful hand and free us from this terrible pandemic, so that life can serenely resume its normal course.

To you, who shine on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope, do we entrust ourselves, O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.

Wednesday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 29^th 2020

Gospel                                                                                  JN 6:35-40

Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”

because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Dear Friends and Family,

Have you ever felt that you don’t have any say in what is going on? That someone or something else is calling all the shots and you just have to deal with it.  Maybe this is how you have felt during the pandemic, that there have been moments when you feel powerless about the circumstances around you and you find yourself adrift.  Do you hear what Jesus says to the crowd?  “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” Jesus was human, so did he experience the vulnerability that you and I have faced when you are subject to the will of another? Jesus surrendered himself to the will of God the Father. Was that easy for our Lord to do, to accept God’s will? We know that our Loving Father knows what we need, what we truly hunger for in this life. Have you thought about your hungers or cravings in the last month? We may be thinking we hunger for a meal at our favorite restaurant, that we long to get a haircut, that we even ache for the ability to be in control of our own lives, as we were prior to the pandemic.

Sometimes we feel powerless when we are not in control. And it does not look like that control is going to return any time soon. But even if it did, let us ask ourselves: what is my deepest hunger? How can I surrender my will so that God’s Kingdom may hasten? What about those days when I surrender not to God, but to my own frustration and limitations? Do I trust God’s plan?

This is where we turn to our Lord, Jesus Christ, the bread of life. While we may hunger and desire for many things, it is in him that all those hungers, thirsts, and needs will be fulfilled. And when we surrender our own will and ask that God’s will be done, can new think about what does that look like? What does that mean for us as we spend another day sitting in isolation?

·         One of the best ways to defeat fear and anxiety is through the power of the Bible. Read the Word of God and immerse yourself in it. If you find some favorite verses, copy them. Make a prayer card for your kitchen table or to hang on your fridge or copy the words into your Journal. Take those words to prayer and ask God to open your heart to his will.

·         When we begin to worry about lack of control, take it to God in prayer. Sometimes writing out your prayer in a Journal is helpful. Others write prayers on slips of paper and put them in a jar or a bowl that lives on their prayer table, which signifies that we are ‘giving it to God’

·         To recognize that as we live our lives as disciples of Jesus, we are going to be faced with challenges, struggles and obstacles, and each of those may bring its own amount of worry, anxiety or frustration, but ultimately, they allow us to draw closer to the Lord.

·         A recent online post stated something to the effect that no matter how many steps you have taken walking away from God, the journey back to him is a single step. God longs to be merciful, all we have to do is ask him for it.

Remember: There is no situation in life that we will ever face that is out of God’s control, so the best place to be, always, is close to Him. Maybe we can share with one another how we are staying close to Him during this pandemic. Please email me and let me know, as your idea may inspire another, and make us feel closer to one another as a community of faithful believers.

Tuesday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 28^th 2020

Gospel                                                      JN 6:30-35

The crowd said to Jesus:
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:

"He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

So they said to Jesus,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Dear Friends and Family,

            The crowd represents us well.  After all the miraculous events the crowd has experienced at Jesus’ hand, they still demand that Jesus prove himself to them.  They look back to their own history and the gift of the manna that miraculously appeared each day, and they said, do something like that.  Jesus corrects their misunderstanding; it wasn’t Moses that gave the gift but rather God the Father that fed them in the desert.  Then just as in yesterday’s gospel Jesus gives them more than what they ask. 

            They asked for bread that would sustain them physically, but Jesus offers them the gift of his very self.  It is a tangible gift, with a spiritual reality that will bring eternal life.  The crowd wants this gift and asks for the gift to be given to them through all time.  They recognize that Jesus is the one who can give them what they are seeking. They want what Jesus is offering, but do not comprehend how this bread of life will be shared.  The manna was a daily gift.  The Hebrew people in the time of Moses, trusted, they depended upon God’s intersession so that they could live.  The Hebrew people had to eat the bread that was offered to survive in the desert.

            Just like the crowd in the gospel, we also long for the gift of eternal life, but we are amazed by how God offers this life to us.  Our God say, “I am the bread of life.”  He is offering himself as the bread of life.  In the crowd that makes up the Catholic Church today, there are many, if not all among us, who long for the day when we will gather back and our parish churches and are fed at the table by the gift of the Eucharist.  For this is how Jesus said he would be with all people of all time. Some in the crowd have become used to watching on a screen and they may be wondering if it is necessary to return to the Church? (And it may be a while before we return to Church, and that is ok) Some in the crowd are so hungry, they are searching everywhere but the Church in order to be fed. Do they realize they are starving to death?

            Regardless of where we find ourselves, when this pandemic has run its course and we return to our Churches for Mass, how will we approach our Lord at the table? Like the crowd in today’s gospel, will we proclaim, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Will we recognize that Jesus is the one who gives us what we are seeking?  This is how Jesus told us that he would be with all people for all time. Let us pray that as we grow in our love for, devotion to, and understanding of the Eucharist, may all Catholics know the real presence of Jesus in the Body of Christ.   May we all live our lives in the grace of that real presence

Monday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 27^th 2020

Gospel                                                                      JN 6:22-29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

Dear Friends and Family,

            The day before this conversation the crowd of five thousand had been fed.  They follow Jesus to see if he would give them another free lunch.  The crowd is caught up focusing on their immediate needs.  Jesus invites them to think bigger.  Jesus invites them to ask for something that is eternal, not something that is temporal.  The crowd responds in right fashion by asking Jesus what they must do.  How should they ready themselves to receive such an eternal gift?  Jesus makes it simple, believe in the one God has sent, believe in me.

            Today it is easy for us to be just like the crowd that followed Jesus.  We call out to our God and ask him to satisfy our immediate needs; it may be food, it may be a job, it may be protection, it may be healing.  We are caught up in the fears of the moment and we have a hard time looking beyond this moment.  The challenges of each day ebb and flow through life, but the solution is always the same, believe in Jesus Christ.  This is our work.  This is how we work out our salvation, believing in Jesus.  None of us earns the gift of eternal life, but we have to be properly disposed to receive the gift our heavenly Father offers.  It’s during the hard times, when the truly important elements of life rise to forefront. 

            Jesus is setting the crowd up.  He knows their problems, he knows their hunger, he knows how they are oppressed and he knows their helplessness in light of it all.  So he is about to offer them something that will set them free.  But it will begin with a belief in him.  So today let us ask ourselves, what are we longing for?  It may be food, it may be a job, it may be for healing or protection, but those are our temporal needs.   What spiritually needs have we long neglected that have come to the forefront of our lives?  Let us pray that as our belief in Jesus grows our spiritual and temporal needs will be satisfied by our God that longs to give us more than what we ask.

Saturday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 25th 2020
Gospel    MK 16:15-20
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
Dear Friends and Family,
 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”  What a bold statement, what a bold promise.  But look at what the apostles do after this, they courageously go out into the world and proclaim Christ to all they meet.  They proclaim his Word and perform miraculous signs.  They lived lives of fearless faith because they believed in the salvation that Jesus promised.  That is our story as well.
 What if we all lived secure in the promise of our own salvation?  What would we have to fear?  What would stop us from building the Kingdom of God here and now?  Prior to the pandemic, just a few months ago, we enjoyed the safety and security of living in a place where we felt, more or less in control of our lives.  It is times like these, when our comfortable lives are been torn apart, that exposes the illusion that we were ever in control.  The apostles knew that they were never in control, that Jesus, God incarnate was in control, and they chose to follow his lead.  They trusted in the resurrection and the knowledge that whatever they would encounter, wherever they would go, God would be glorified.  To live like that takes faith, and a trust that God is in control, no matter what is going on around us.
 Jesus doesn’t leave us alone in that. He gives us the helps we need. We have the Bible and the Sacraments as the ways Jesus speaks and acts with us in the world today. It is important to remember that the Plan of God includes each of us.  All of our lives play a part in this sacred history.  We are building the kingdom when we pray from the heart, “Thy kingdom come” and “Thy will be done”   Let us pray for that time of unity among all people.  That time when we will all live lives of courageous faith that allows us to share our relationship with God and trust in God’s promise of salvation.

Friday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 24^th 2020

GospelJN 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

Dear Friends and Family,

            Let’s look at what the disciples have to offer.  Now keep in mind at the beginning of the day the disciples were probably only thinking about what they would personally need for food this day.  The boy shows up with five barley loaves.  Barley is not one of the finer grains; it is the food of the poor. He has two fish; the quantity is too small for even the inner circle of apostles and women that journeyed with Jesus.  It’s not much food, and they most likely knew they would be going hungry that night after sharing this small meal.  Jesus then lays a greater burden on them, “Where could we go to feed the people?”  The disciple know they don’t have the money so they scramble and share what they do have, a small poor meal.  You know a few disciples were thinking, “Looks like we go hungry tonight.”  Some may have even been resentful, “We came somewhat prepared to this mountain top, so why is this burden to take care of all these people now on us?”  Jesus steps into their need and anxiety, he takes the poor food they have to offer and Jesus give thanks to his Father.  Jesus takes the little they have and he blesses the crowd with an abundance that not only satisfies their immediate need but goes beyond it to fill twelve wicker baskets.

            We may be in a very similar circumstance today.  We may have prepared a simple poor meal for ourselves and our families.  We may look at the need of the world around us and wonder, “Why is this burden on me?”  We know what we have is not enough for the enormity of the problem that surrounds us.  But let us follow the reluctant path of the disciples.  Let us give to Jesus our poverty, our smallness, our emptiness and let Jesus bless it and transform it.  The thousands were not fed with the disciples sacrifice; the thousands were fed by what Jesus did with their sacrifice.  Also, consider the hunger of the disciples was satisfied along with that of the crowd, God does not neglect those that choose to be generous.  So let us today not focus on what little we have to give, but let us open our hearts and give what we have and let our God transform our sacrifice.  When we do this, his Kingdom is built and the people are fed.

Thursday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 23^rd 2020

Gospel                                                      JN 3:31-36

The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.
But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony.
Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.
He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.
The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God remains upon him.

Dear Friends and Family,

            “He testifies… but no one accepts his testimony.”  Have you ever been in that place where something fantastic has happened and you try to tell someone but they do not believe you?  My Dad and I truly enjoy ice fishing and whenever we had chance, we would go fishing.  One beautiful sunny Saturday morning we went fishing.  The weather was perfect but the fish were not biting.  So I moved away from the crowd and drilled a hole in the ice.  I was soon distracted by the nice weather and lost my focus on my pole.  Then out of nowhere I had a bite, it was a large mouth bass that was so big his open mouth was the size of the hole in the ice.  I quickly reached down to grab it, but it shook the hook from its mouth and it sank back into the dark waters.  I stuck my whole arm in the hole in a vain attempt to catch it but it was too late.  It was incredible and I rushed back to tell everyone that was fishing what had happened but most of the old timers just laughed it off and did not believe me.  My Dad believed me and patted me on the shoulder and shared in my disappointment at the one that got away. 

            Jesus has an incredible truth he longs to share with us all.  He wants us to know of the love of his Father in heaven.  Jesus wants us to understand the kingdom has come and our salvation is being realized in their hearing.  They hear him but they do not believe.  Maybe Jesus truth is too fantastic to believe.  But maybe we hear Jesus, we put our hope and trust in him, and we make a move toward him.  That move would bring us the promise of eternal life.

            I would like to tell you the old timers picked up their gear and started fishing near me.  I would like to tell you I returned to my spot and caught five more fish but that would not be true.  Nobody caught any fish that day, but my encounter did teach me a couple of lessons.  Number one; there are some big fish out there. Number two; just because others don’t believe you, does not change your experience of the truth.  Number three; don’t be afraid to step away from the crowd and try fishing somewhere else, you never know what you might catch. 

            We believe God dreams much bigger than we do.  Others may not believe or recognize how our powerful encounter with the risen Christ has transformed us.  Finally, we are called, through our baptism, to share our love of God with others no matter where that will take us. Let us pray that we will embrace our trustworthy God and allow that belief and trust to bring us the gift of eternal live.