In today’s Gospel (Matthew 6:7-15), Jesus teaches us how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer beautifully reflects God’s wishes when Jesus says, “When praying, do not babble.” In other words, quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality in your prayer life. That’s why I love the Lord’s Prayer because it sums up what we need from God (and what He wants from us) so succinctly. But today, I want to focus on one short phrase of this prayer: “Thy will be done.” So what does this really mean? Read More
On the Inside; On the Outside
Have you ever wondered what God is saying to us? Are we even listening? Many of us feel as if we can’t hear God, and as a 
result we walk around aimless, clueless, and lost. What we need to do is to ask if the words of Jeremiah apply to us (Jeremiah 7:23-28). How carefully do we listen? How well do we carry out the will of God in our lives? How clearly can we discern the presence of God in our daily lives?
To help answer these questions, here are five steps that we need to follow to help us walk in God’s ways: Read More
People are always asking me for ideas for what “things” they can do during Lent to partake in the hallmarks of a Christian life of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. As our Lenten journey is about to begin, I want to focus on the first hallmark: prayer.
There are many ways to pray, but there are a few methods that can really help us spiritually prepare ourselves during Lent. Read More
Every time I hear the story in today’s Gospel (Luke 1:26-38), I can’t help but to be in awe of Mary and her acceptance of her call to be the Mother of God. I can’t help but to think about how Mary responded with complete, obedient faith.
I’m sure that Mary had a ton of questions that were bouncing around in her mind. And I’m sure that Mary, so innocent and young, struggled with her fear and not really knowing what was being asked of her – just as we too struggle with allowing God to accomplish all things through us. But it is in faith that we know that God will use us in spite of our weaknesses, our deficiencies, and even our own ignorance.
In these remaining weeks of Advent, let us take a deliberate step back from the rapid pace of our lives and take some time to simply breathe. Let us then focus on what God is asking of us; knowing that God has chosen each one of us, just like Mary, to carry Christ to others.
Let us pray for the strength to echo Mary’s words of prayer: “May it be done to me according to your word.”
Have you ever had a song just pop into your head out of the middle of nowhere? And it was a song that you haven’t heard in years? Well, that happened to me a couple of days ago when the song “Like a Rock” from Bob Seger entered my brain. And what a great tie-in with today’s Gospel (Matthew 7:21, 24-27). Here are some of the lyrics:
My hands were steady; my eyes were clear and bright.
My walk had purpose; my steps were quick and light.
And I held firmly to what I felt was right. Like a rock.
Like a rock, I was strong as I could be. Like a rock, nothin’ ever got to me.
Like a rock, I was something to see. Like a rock. Read More
God and a man are walking down the road. The man asks God, “What is the world like?” God replies, “I cannot talk when I am thirsty. If you could get me a drink of cool water, we could discuss what the world is like. There is a village nearby. Go and get me a drink.”
The man goes into the village and knocks at the door of the first house. A beautiful young woman opens the door. His jaw drops, but he manages to say, “I need a glass of cool water.” “Of course,” she says smiling, “but it is midday. Would you care to stay for some food?” “I am hungry,” he says, and your offer of food is truly kind.” He goes in and the door closes behind him. Read More
Many Americans think of Thanksgiving as a wonderful time to celebrate getting out of school for a long weekend, and eating a great dinner. Or, maybe they think it is the start of the Christmas holiday season. What is the real meaning behind Thanksgiving?
We can trace this historic American Christian tradition to the year 1623. After the harvest crops were gathered in November 1623, Governor William Bradford of the 1620 Pilgrim Colony, “Plymouth Plantation” in Plymouth, Massachusetts proclaimed:
“All ye Pilgrims with your wives and little ones, do gather at the Meeting House, on the hill… there to listen to the pastor, and render Thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all His blessings.” Read More
I saw a commercial last night on television for a very large sandwich chain. They have a special going on where you can get a different sandwich every day of the week for a low price, eliminating the possibility of getting stuck in a routine of eating the same sandwich day after day. And that got me thinking: what if we did the same thing with our prayer lives? Read More
If you haven’t had a chance to read the America Magazine interview of Pope Francis, I have included the link here. It is a wonderful insight to our Pope. (http://www.americamagazine.org/pope-interview) One of the things that struck me the most was when the reporter asked him: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” The pope answered, “I am a sinner.” Well if the Pope is a sinner, what does that make me? Our Pope has inspired me to come clean…I too am a sinner! Read More
Today is the feast day of St Ignatius of Antioch. He was the bishop of Antioch in Syria and was the second successor of St. Peter. He was a disciple of the apostle St. John, and also met St. Peter, having probably been ordained by him.
During the reign of Emperor Trajan, Ignatius was sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts. He was transported in chains to his martyrdom in Rome; along the way, he was met by Christians from nearby places. To these friends, he wrote seven letters, six addressed to some Christian communities and one personal letter to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna. All seven are most beautiful pearls of our early Christian literature.
Prior to his death in the year 110, he wrote a letter to the Ephesians where he highlighted the following four points, which are still relevant to this very day: Read More
