Pastoral Reflections Finding God In Ourselves by Msgr. Don Fischer

Original Airdate: June 18, 2023Exodus 19:2-6a | Romans 5:6-11 | Matthew 9:36—10:8 Opening Prayer: Oh God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace that, in following your commands, we may please you by our resolve and our deeds.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Closing Prayer: Father, help us to remember always that your plan for us is not so much that we grow in a personal perfection but rather we enter more fully into the participation of you saving the world.  Bless us with this hope.  Bless us with this kind of sense that there is meaning in all that we do, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 15, 2024 === Gospel Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the Evil One.” Reflection Once again, Jesus makes it clear that we are not regulated by rules and regulations. We're simply regulated by a spirit within us. And the spirit is the spirit of truth. He's just saying, whenever you say yes to someone, you make a promise. Keep it, mean it, and make clear that your intention is honest. It's not something that you will follow through on because you have to, but because you want to. Closing Prayer Father, the authenticity that you create for us, through your spirit dwelling within us is such a great gift. Help us to be aware of it. Help us to turn to it as we struggle with our own human nature, so that we can become more and more engaged in the divine nature that you share with us. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 16, 2023 === Gospel Matthew 11:25-30 At that time Jesus exclaimed: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him. "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” Reflection There will always be difficulty, strife, separation, anger, resentment in the world. And yet we know that there is a work that is being accomplished by God. It's the heart of His message. I've come into the world to save and to heal and to bring life. So there's a moment you should take, and I should take it always, in the midst of whatever struggle we're in, to take a moment to remember that. To rest in a promise. Even though what is the goal of our work has not yet been accomplished. Closing Prayer Father, give us the discipline that we need to stop whatever is going on in our life and spend a moment with you in meditation, reflection. And experience a calm that is so essential so that we can go on with the work in a spirit of hope and trust. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 13, 2024 === Gospel Matthew 5:20-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Reflection The Pharisees were noted for following the letter of the law, but their hearts were not where God wanted them to be. What this passage is pointing out, is that we are called to always look deeply into who we are in relationship to those around us. Do we judge them? Do we criticize them? Do we call them stupid or foolish? It may not seem like such an important thing, but when you look at it, what it reveals is that we do what we're told, but we aren't becoming what we're called to be. We are called together to come to an altar and to invite God to enter into us, and to be a source of love and forgiveness. Closing Prayer Father, reveal to us how we treat each other. Make us more sensitive to our comments and our criticisms, so we can be aware of how easy it is to fall into a trap of a kind of righteousness about people who aren't what they're supposed to be. Make us loving, forgiving human beings. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 12, 2024 === Gospel Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” Reflection Jesus has come to empower us to live under the law, infused with the law. And he's not talking about the Mosaic law of 613 different rules and regulations. He's talking about the Ten Commandments, which are reduced to the most beautiful explanation that it's all about loving God and loving our neighbor. And he's just simply saying, the kingdom of heaven is made up with those who can make a distinction between regulations that are not really about relationships. Relationships are the heart of what Jesus has come to transform. Closing Prayer Father, we live in a sea of things that are asked of us, rules and regulations we follow for all kinds of reasons, but help us always to focus on one law, the law of love. That's the most essential. That's the one that you've called us to live. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 11, 2024 === Gospel  Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus said to his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” Reflection I've always loved this passage because one of the things that is clear when you look at what salt is, salt never loses its flavor. You don't have stale salt without any seasoning power. And also a light, once even a match is lit in a totally dark universe, that light is not extinguished by the darkness. It gives us an image of the power of the love that God has created for us to dwell within us, to bring light to those around us. Closing Prayer Father, your Spirit within us is unlimited in its ability to do the work you call us to do. Give us that trust in what you've given us, not in what we ourselves think we need to create. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 10, 2024 === Gospel Matthew 5:1-12 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Reflection I want to focus on one aspect of this gospel. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. A clean heart is a gift from God. It is called redemption. It is called the infusion of the Holy Spirit within us. And the beautiful thing about having a clean heart is that we not only see God, but we see the world as God sees it. It's our gift of being able to perceive the value, the dignity and the beauty of a life of service and love. Closing Prayer Father, please bless us with an awareness of all that you have accomplished for us. Free us from worry and struggle to try to be who you want us to be. Let us allow your work to take place within us and we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: June 11, 2023Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9 | 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 | John 3:16-18 Opening Prayer: Oh God, who in this wonderful sacrament have left us a memorial of your passion, grant, we pray, so to revere the sacred mysteries of your body and blood that we may always experience in ourselves the fruits of your redemption, who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Homily: I want you to think for a few moments about Jesus the man, like us in everything, weaknesses, doubts, fears, anxieties, and for 30 years he spent time reflecting and studying and wondering about life and about who he was and about what he was here for.  And then it came time for him to have this burning desire inside of him, this desire to teach and to preach and to open people to something that he knew now and was convinced of, and that is God dwelling inside of him.  He was God, but he never acted as if he was God.  He acted as he was, a man filled with divinity, and so we have to suspend some logical, “How does this happen?  How does that work?”  Suspend all that, and stay with the image.  And the image is this presence of God inside Jesus gave him the ability to do everything that he did, teach everything that he taught, perform every miracle that he performed with one intention.  “I want people to understand who this God is and what he wants from them and what he wants to give them.”   That first reading talks about the early time that God called a people together and took them on a journey.  It's the archetypal journey of going from slavery to freedom.  We are called into a world where we are not burdened by a law and rules and regulations that go against what we really want.  No, we're on a journey transforming us so that the things that we're called to do are not commands we have to follow but the only choice we believe is the right choice.  We begin to live in the truth that the law calls us to live in.  And so in those early days, what it was about was God had to work with us where we were, and we were pretty low on the scale of consciousness, and so basically it turned out that God was taking them on a journey.  They didn't know where.  They had to trust in him, and so the beginning is do you trust in God and the plan that he has for you.  He's going to invite you into that plan, and so what they were experiencing in the plan is that it was not something that was comfortable or easy.  What they left seemed to be more comfortable at times, and so they have this resistance consistently through this journey.  We don't like this process.  We don't like evolving and growing and changing, and so what we sense in this is there is this way in which he says, “Look, I want you to trust in me on this journey, but you've got to trust.  That is, I'm not going to zoom you to the goal and say, ‘Now here it is.  Now do you believe in me?'”  No, he said, “I want you to trust in the process.”  And so one of the things he promises to do in this journey of ours is to feed us and to make sure that we have what is essential for life: food and water.  You can see the images in these things as we look at the whole story of salvation history.  Water is all about cleansing and about quenching the longings in our heart, and food is about having the strength and the power to do what we're called to do or to endure what we're called to endure.    So in the very beginning of this journey that we share with God, he revealed to the people that he is there to nurture so that we can do the work, do the work.  And what is the work?  Well, Paul brings up something interesting.  Nothing is more essential to the teaching of Jesus than the whole notion of his body and his blood being offered to us on a regular basis.  That is the thing we need.  That's the nurturing we need in order to do the work we're here to do, and so Paul is very aware of that.  And what he's saying is something that goes beyond just saying, “We are here to receive from God his presence, and it nurtures us and it feeds us.”  But then Paul adds, “Know this work of being fed and nourished is something we have to learn to participate in.”  And if you're participating in it, it doesn't mean that you're feeding yourself, but then you're realizing that you're being fed with that which gives you strength, and this blood that is so clearly an image of being there for other people, forgiveness, having a stance towards the needs of others, these are things that we are fed, but then we have to feed them to others.  So the idea of God giving us what is necessary, he then says, “And if I'm doing that with you, and I'm doing it for everyone, but I'm going to do it often through another person.  I'm going to be using you to be my body and my blood to other people, because I am in you, and you share what's in you.”  When you think about all of that, it's hard to grasp what that really is like, and we believe, as Catholics, in the Eucharist.  We use it every day in our ministry to communities.  We celebrate it, and then yet what we realize is that, according to the statistics that are out there, asking the average Catholic, “Do you believe that this bread is really the body of Christ?  Do you believe this wine is really the blood of Christ?”  Supposedly only about 30 percent of Catholics believe in transubstantiation.  What do they believe in?  It's a beautiful, rich symbol, a symbol.  There's nothing wrong with having symbols that point to a reality, but why was Jesus so insistent in saying, “Unless you believe in this, you can't have life.”  And what does he mean by life?  He means that ability to be engaged in the life that God has created for you and for me, to believe that all of it is interconnected, that we're part of something much bigger than we are, and we're living out something that is moving toward life and growth and change and something wonderful.  That's hard to believe in sometimes.  So what do we have to do in order to be more in touch with this incredibly core issue of our Catholic faith or Christian faith, Jesus living inside of us as Spirit, the Holy Spirit, God the Father Spirit, his Spirit in us, flowing out of us, doing the same thing that Jesus did on this planet?  Now, if you're waiting for signs, that's a little dangerous, because I don't know how Jesus dealt with his humanity and the ability that he had to make God's presence felt through him through signs and wonders and miracles and driving out demons.  I don't think any of us could endure that kind of egocentric food without getting caught up in it.  So it has to be done in a way that is not so literal, but at the same time, it is absolutely real.  It is his body that we take into us.  It is his blood that is coursing through our veins.  How else can we imagine God in us, that he's ⎯ we can imagine that he's in our heart.  He stays there, but he's in our flesh.  He's in the essence of who we are.  What a beautiful image to believe in, and the thing that keeps us is our logical mind that says, “Well, if it's bread, it can't really be the body of Christ.”  Even miracles around the blessed sacraments, the reality of it is the host bleeds, or somehow the host takes on a quality of flesh, as if to say, “If we believed it really was the body of Christ, by experiment, by science, we would believe it.”  Well, I don't think so, because if you look at science now, science is in a very different place than it was, say, 50 years ago.  Quantum physics has changed our whole idea and understanding of what matter really is, and we find out that matter is not made up just of atoms but of tiny particles.  And these tiny, tiny particles have the ability to do things we never thought was possible, because a particle can be both something that you can measure and see and weigh, and it can also just be energy, just power, just a force.  Reality can be both material, and in a sense, we would say non-material to our eyes.  That's not super-unusual, unnatural.  It's the way the world works.  If the world works that way, then the idea of this presence of God in the world that is, to us, invisible, has every right to be there in a sense.  Science says, “Yeah, there's a Spirit in the world that is goodness, that is him, that is God, that is truth, and it's as real as the person you're looking at or the chair you're sitting on.”  And that probably doesn't really work to say, “Well then, I believe,” because even the disciples had a hard time believing.   In fact, it's encouraging to me, when you listen to all those stories after Easter, how many times Jesus had to say, “I was with you.  You saw this.  You saw that.  Why do you still not believe.  Believe, believe.”  That's the key.  Can you believe that this issue that Jesus made such a big deal about, “You've got to believe that I'm in you.  My Father's in you.  The Holy Spirit is in you.  We're working with you.  Everything is working together.  You're on this path.  Without that, we can just spiral down into something very dark.”  So make a choice.  Believe in Christ's presence.  Believe in the food that we find in each other that is him, the nourishment, the power to forgive, to love.  We find it through other people, because he's in them, and he flows to us, and he's in us.  It changes my life.  It has changed it, and I hope it changes yours.  Amen. Closing Prayer: Father, everything we long for, everything we ask for, you promise to work it so that we will receive that gift.  Help us to trust in your promise.  Never let it diminish our desire to ask over and over and over again for all that we need to live the life you've called us to live.  And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 10, 2023 === Gospel Mark 12:38-44 In the course of his teaching Jesus said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation." He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” Reflection Jesus says to us over and over again, There's something so important about being poor. And it's not about money. It's about whether or not we feel that we have all that we need and do not need anything from God. It's so easy to fall into that trap when life is easy and life is good. But we must know that there comes a point always in life, where we admit without God we are lost. We are empty. We are broke. We need Him. Closing Prayer Father, we often grow closer to you in times when we are not in control and cannot make things happen that we feel need to happen. Bless us in that time when we can grow in our understanding that nothing that we're called to do can be as full as rich as you intend without you, without your wisdom, without your grace, without your love. Help us depend more and more on you than ourselves. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 9, 2023 === Gospel Mark 12:35-37 As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, "How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord said to my lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.' David himself calls him 'lord'; so how is he his son?" The great crowd heard this with delight. Reflection There's a stark contrast between the blindness of the Pharisees and the crowds. When they heard the truth they were filled with delight. The Pharisees heard a truth that they would not agree to. They were filled with a destructive spirit. It says a lot about the freedom we need to have, about our own decisions, about what we know is true. God has promised you and me the truth. All we need to do is seek it. Admitting. Accepting that we don't yet fully know.   Closing Prayer Openness of mind is a gift that you give us. Help us to listen to your word. And to listen to the way life unfolds around us with an open mind so that we can be taught and learn the things that we do not already see. Truth changes us, and when we're open to it, we delight in the change. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 6, 2024 === Gospel Mark 12:28-34 One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, He is One and there is no other than he. And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions. Reflection It's important to realize there were those who lived by the rules and laws of the temple that recognized in Jesus who he was. He had truth. He had wisdom. And in this story, when it comes down to what is really the temple there for? What is religion's goal? What is it asking of us? It's asking us to enter into a way of life that's called the Kingdom of God. And it's all about love. Loving God, loving ourselves, loving each other. And that's not a feeling. That's not an emotion. It's a powerful force that lives within us, that heals and transforms. Everything depends upon love. It is the power of God in the world. Closing Prayer Father, awaken us. Open us always to the simplicity of the message of God and the mystery that it contains. When we open ourselves to a gift that is the beginning of our ability to be who God calls us to be. We're called to allow him to be a source of love to all those around us, and thereby establishing his kingdom here. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 5, 2024 === Gospel Mark 12:18-27 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her." Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.” Reflection The audience in this story is different than those that we've just reflected upon. The Sadducees were a group of Jews who simply did not believe that there was such a thing as life after death. What I think is interesting about Jesus response to them is that he's simply saying, you know you're greatly misled. You have been taught poorly and you don't understand. There's a gentleness in the way he treats them compared to the way he treated the scribes and Pharisees. He is more compassionate and understanding. That's what he does whenever we don't understand. He gently says, you were misled and let me lead you. Let me show you the truth, and I will do that for you. Closing Prayer Father, give us the courage to look at the things that we don't fully understand, and turn to you and ask you to explain. You long to lead us into a place of truth and life. Let us never hesitate to admit that we do not understand. But we long to understand. And when we ask, you will answer our needs. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 4, 2024 === Gospel  Mark 12:13-17 Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech. They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion. You do not regard a person's status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?” Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at.” They brought one to him and he said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They replied to him, “Caesar's.” So Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” They were utterly amazed at him. Reflection To live in the world is to live in a society where there are regulations and rules and we follow them. And Jesus is pointing that out to the Herodians and to the Pharisees, because what he's saying, look, okay, I'm not really engaging so much in how the world is working around you. I am working on establishing a different kind of kingdom, a kingdom of love, a kingdom of truth, and it dwells in people and will change the world. But it is not the world or society that will change us. It is God's truth that changes the world. Closing Prayer Father, we spend a great deal of time evaluating the way the world is going, but the Kingdom of God is inside, and that is the place where God is asking us to wait for and to experience the Kingdom of God, the peace and the joy that it promises. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 3, 2024 === Gospel Mark 12:1-12 Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?" They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away. Reflection The frightening thing about this passage is that we begin to see that the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders knew what they were doing. They saw in Jesus a truth that they knew they should be listening to, but they refused to because they had invested so much in a way of life that was comfortable and easy for them, that they could not let go of it. And when they realize that Jesus is addressing these words to them, that they are guilty, and so they simply went away, staying in the shame that they felt. Closing Prayer Father, over and over again you show us in subtle ways, and sometimes not so subtle, where we are wrong, where we are off. Give us the kind of openness to being found out in a sense. There's nothing wrong with admitting that we have made mistakes. There's something terribly wrong with not facing them. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: June 7, 2020 Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9 | 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 | John 3:16-18 Opening Prayer Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we who have come to know the grace of the Lord's resurrection may, through the love of the Spirit, ourselves rise to newness of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Closing Prayer Father, your greatness is too much for us.  All that you've planned, all that you have invited us into seems beyond our comprehension and beyond our abilities, and yet you continue to call us into places where your power works through us beyond anything we could ever do on our own.  Open us all to this great gift of your presence in our life.  Help us to be encouraged and enlightened and empowered so that we can accomplish all that you ask us to do, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 1, 2024 === Gospel Mark 11:27-33 Jesus and his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?" Jesus said to them, "I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John's baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me." They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say, 'Of heavenly origin,' he will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But shall we say, 'Of human origin'?"– they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet. So they said to Jesus in reply, "We do not know." Then Jesus said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Reflection Jesus in this passage exposes something in the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. They had a position of authority, but they had no interior authority, because they did not open themselves to the source of all authority. And that's authenticity. The truth. And when Jesus poses a problem for them, and their answer is, they do not know. They weren't admitting that they don't know, but what Jesus wanted them to say is, we don't listen to your truth. Closing Prayer Father, open our eyes and our minds to your truth. It is the one gift that you have given us that can change the world and free it from all illusion and lies. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: June 2, 2023 === Gospel Mark 11:11-26 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple area. He looked around at everything and, since it was already late, went out to Bethany with the Twelve. The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “Is it not written: My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have made it a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city. Early in the morning, as they were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered to its roots. Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions.” Reflection The reason this story of the fig tree is so important is because it reveals something that Jesus is learning. And what He's learning is how to be the instrument that His father intends Him to be, to transform the world. And when His human anger gets the best of Him, He wants to destroy, not to save. And so it's clear that what He's saying to His disciples by their reflecting on what this all means. He's saying, look I've learned that I cannot save the world by first hating it and wanting to destroy it. And He gives the most amazing advice Don't pray for anyone or anything without first forgiving the person or the situation. Forgiveness is essential to offering grace to another. The  Closing Prayer  Father, you teach us that if we are going to be an instrument of your grace for someone else, we must get past our anger, our resentment, our desire for retaliation. We must always forgive the offense, the offender, and then pray for transformation. And we ask this In Jesus' name, Amen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 30, 2024 === Gospel Mark 10:46-52 As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.” Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.” He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Reflection The request of Bartimaeus is radically different than the disciples, who often asked, Lord, give us a position of authority. Let us sit at your right, and another one will say, let me sit at your left and what Jesus is not calling us to is not a worldly authority over people, but he's calling us to an insight to see and understand who we really are, the beauty that we have, the dignity that we have, and to encourage others to see it for themselves. Nothing is easier for God, in Jesus, to give you what you ask for when you ask for sight. I want to see. I want to know. I want to experience your love. Closing Prayer Father, we often find ourselves in a kind of dark place where we're confused. It's a perfect time to turn to you in that darkness and say, Please give me the light that I miss. Give me the understanding I don't see. Open my eyes to a way that I've never thought of before. And that is always answered, because it's what he longs to give to the world. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 29, 2024 === Gospel Mark 10:32-45 The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise." Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?" They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left." Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The chalice that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Reflection Jesus is describing to his disciples the essence of who he is. He is a servant coming into the world to do something for everyone else, even giving up his life. And he wants to teach this to his disciples. And in a very obvious way, in this story, they don't get it. They don't understand it. Not only do they not get it, but as soon as he describes his self-giving, they turn to him and say, we want you to give us what we want. And Jesus in his kindness, and his gentleness just makes it clear to them, look what I'm asking you to do in this world is to be engaged in me. In me and you through baptism. And you want to drink the cup. And the cup is selflessness. You learn how to be a servant. That's the essence of what I long for all of you to be. It's a beautiful way of making clear how difficult it often is for us to get past our self-centeredness. Closing Prayer Father, it's natural for us as human beings to be caring about what we need. But break us of that habit that we can open ourselves to what you empower us to be. It's not that we can be the selfless creatures you want us to be, but with you we can be that selfless creature. Fill us with a spirit of giving and we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 28, 2024 === Gospel  Mark 10:28-31 Peter began to say to Jesus, "We have given up everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Reflection Jesus is giving his disciples a radically new message, which flies in the face of so many things that everyone believed. And we know that when we take on some new vision of life different from our family of origin, different from the people all around us, we're going to experience persecution, rejection, and what Jesus warning his disciples, don't let that be in any way, shape or form anything that will keep you from doing what I'm telling you. Because the community that you're called to is so much more than those that have formed you in the past, those that are being created and new through this message will make you a new community, and it will reach everyone. Closing Prayer Father, we seek approval from people. We want them to agree with us. But so much that you teach us is different. And help us to be so convinced of your truth that it just resonates from us and gives people a direction to follow. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 20, 2024 === Gospel John 19:25-34 Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother             and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,             and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom      he loved,             he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple,             “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, aware that everything was now finished,             in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,             Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop             and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,             “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. Now since it was preparation day,             in order that the bodies might not remain on the      cross on the sabbath,             for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one,             the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken             and they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first             and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead,             they did not break his legs,             but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,             and immediately Blood and water flowed out. Reflection What this presents to us is an interesting image of the role of Mary now, today in the church. She is our great intercessor. She is caring for the disciples and caring therefore for the church, for its teachers, its pastors, its flock. It's a beautiful image of a feminine figure that we can trust and know is always there with the Holy Spirit working for us, in the process of growing and becoming who were called to be. Closing Prayer Father, help us to recognize Mary as a source of great help and support for us. Help us to place her in the role that she longs to have. To draw us closer over and over again to her son, to his love, to his gift of his life. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: May 28, 2023 Acts 2:1-11 | 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 | John 20:19-23 Almighty, everliving God, who willed the Pascal mystery to be encompassed as a sign in 50 days, granted from out of the scattered nations the confusion of many tongues may be gathered by heavenly grace into one great confession of your name.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 18, 2024 === Gospel John 21:20-25 Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved, the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper and had said, "Master, who is the one who will betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus said to him, "What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me." So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die. But Jesus had not told him that he would not die, just "What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours?" It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written. Reflection The relationship that God has with us, is one of intimacy. And it's something that grows slowly and develops more in some than others. And what Jesus is saying in this passage is that, Why compare where someone is in their spiritual life with God, with where you are? Why are you doing that? Just follow God, follow Jesus, follow your destiny. That's your responsibility, not to compare to somebody else. Closing Prayer Father, competition is something that doesn't fit in the spiritual world, but we get caught up in it. And we can be envious, and we can be thinking that we're better than someone else. So take those things away from us, let each individual be honored for where they are with their God. Long for their faith to deepen. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 17, 2024 === Gospel John 21:15-19 After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them, he said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." He then said to Simon Peter a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me.” Reflection This is one of the first appearances of Jesus to his disciples after he is risen. And what we see in it is a way that Jesus is preparing Peter for his role as the leader of the community, that he is founding. And when he says, I want you to do something, I want you to take care of people. But he uses two images that I think are really interesting. I want you to feed them and tend them. What's the difference? One is making sure of everything that they need that they have. Give them the truth. Give them what they need. But tending is like a bending over and a caring for how they're doing on their journey. It's a thing that we often don't find enough in the religious world that I live in. It's more about feeding them, sending them out. But the tending is at the heart of what I think Jesus is asking all of us to do. Closing Prayer Father, to tell someone what they should believe, or what they should do is one thing, but to give them what they need to be able to do it, is another. And then to stay with them as they struggle is even another very important part. Keep us in that mode of feeding and tending and being there for each other. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 16, 2024 === Gospel John 17:20-26 Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” Reflection This passage in John makes one of the most important teachings of Jesus more real for us. The incarnation is Jesus coming into the world, and we know that he came in as a human being, but he also came as a God. He was both human and divine. The model that he is giving us is a model of friendship, of relationships, of love. Just as a father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father. So Jesus is in his disciples and disciples are in Jesus, and just as friends are in each other, they become one. It's a great mystery, and it makes clear that the work that we have is to surrender to reality, not to try to create something, but to allow a mystery to be real, to be lived, to be understood. Closing Prayer Father, we have a hard time in relationships. Often we find them difficult because we are trying to make them into what we think they should be, or we're trying to control the other person. Help us to enter into this mystery of oneness. Fill us with compassion, understanding, and a desire that all of us grow together in unity. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 15, 2024 === Gospel John 17:11b-19 Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.” Reflection There are many ways to understand the message of Jesus, but the one that is expressed here is really important. It is Jesus came into the world to reveal the truth, reality, what life is really for and what it's about and how we're supposed to live in it and change it. We have been set apart, consecrated with the power to hold and to teach and to be in the truth. That's our destiny, and that's the work of God within us. Closing Prayer Father, so much of what you teach, we first have to believe in before we understand it. Give us the wisdom to stay with you, even though we're not sure what you're asking of us. Give us perseverance, curiosity, imagination so we can find and live in the truth. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 23, 2023 === Gospel John 17:1-11a Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began. "I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.” Reflection There are not many passages in Scripture that are a conversation between Jesus and God. But this one is so important. He's giving us a clear indication of what His ministry was about. It was about putting people, not in touch with information, but the presence of God. He longed for them to enter into a similar relationship that He had with God, and that was one of intimacy where everything that Jesus has was from God. And everything that Jesus gives is from God. They are one. And in a way, it's really hard for us to understand that we have that inheritance, God can dwell in our humanity, as imperfect as it is, and manifest Himself. That's the message of Jesus. We are to live as He lived, to minister as He ministered. And we have confidence because Christ Himself says to us, I'm praying for you. I am praying that you will allow the divinity in you to do the work you are meant to accomplish. Closing Prayer Father, keep us from reducing the beauty and the fullness of your message to something that involves earning our salvation by doing what we're supposed to do because we're told to. Open us to this amazing mystery that you're calling us to carry your presence, not just information about you, but your very presence into the lives of those who are ready, open, receptive. It's a work that we have total confidence in because it is, you. You've empowered us to do it. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 13, 2024 === Gospel John 16:29-33 The disciples said to Jesus, “Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” Reflection The disciples were students. And it's interesting that as a teacher begins to open the mind of someone to a new world, it's really hard for them to grasp. But here we see that they're beginning to really grasp it, they see the truth in it. But they're not finished in their evolution of understanding it. So Jesus reminds them, you will deny me. You will leave me, but know that I am with the father. Don't worry about me, I have the father with me, and you will have the father with you. Trust, even though you don't fully yet understand. Closing Prayer Father, we've never fully grasped the mystery of who we are in you and who you are in us. And how we are to live our life. It's always a process of learning more and more. Bless us with an eager heart and an open mind that we might fill ourselves with more and more of the truth, as we fulfill our obligation to follow you. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: May 21, 2023 Acts 1:1-11 | Ephesians 1:17-23 | Matthew 28:16-20 Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who believe that your only begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day to the heavens, may in spirit dwell already in heavenly realms.  Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 11, 2024 === Gospel John 16:23b-28 Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” Reflection This proclamation on the part of Jesus to his disciples is very profound. There must have been many times when the disciples asked Jesus, please pray to God for us. And when he says, Here, I no longer am going to ask the father for you. You could ask the father directly. And the image is so clear that there has been a bonding with human race and God the Father that has been revealed in the ministry of Jesus. No one ever dreamt that the father loves us as much as Jesus proved that he loved us through giving us his only begotten son, the highest form of love. So we need to take from this passage, and from everything that Jesus is really working on, is repairing and deepening and enriching our relationship with God who lives in our hearts, resonates his love. We no longer have to ask someone else to ask God for us. We talk directly to him. Closing Prayer Father, it's hard for us to imagine that what you're really, really asking of us is that we allow you to love us. Meaning, we open our heart, or mind, our will to the awesome belief that you are deeply, deeply in love with us and want nothing, nothing more than us to be ultimately with you forever. Keep us in touch with this great gift. and we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 10, 2024 === Gospel John 16:20-23 Jesus said to his disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” Reflection When you think of the expectations that the disciples had, and how the story of Jesus working with them on this earth, they had to go through a sense of great confusion and loss. And somehow, when the truth that you believed most of your life is challenged, it's like a kind of death. It's kind of like an experience of pain. What do I believe? Where do I go? What do I know? That's the most important thing for all of us as we evolve and grow and change into the person God has created us to be. It's a dying and a rising, dying to error and lies, rising to truth in love. Closing Prayer Jesus, you surrendered to the father's will and let go of any human desire to be successful in the ways of the world. And we see Jesus accepting something that had to be so difficult. Every time we're presented with a new way of seeing that radically changes where we were, we are desperately in need of your support. Bless us with a conviction that we do not grow on our own, but only do it through your grace. Through the work of your Holy Spirit. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 14, 2024 === Gospel  John 15:9-17 Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you:  love one another.” Reflection When Jesus tells his disciples that he loves them, he uses as an example. He says, My love for you is the same love that God has for me. And what I want you to understand is that unless we believe that we are loved unconditionally, not based on anything that we say or do, if we think anything we can do diminishes the love that God has for us, we've missed the mystery and the power of this teaching. You can't love if you're not loved, and you can't feel love if it's based on performance. So the challenge is to let go of our ego and our personality and surrender to simply a God who is nothing but love. Closing Prayer Father, open our minds and most especially our hearts to the fullness of what it means that you are so deeply in love with us, just as we are. Not because we improve. Not because we're doing better. Simply because of who we are. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 8, 2024 === Gospel John 16:12-15 Jesus said to his disciples: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” Reflection This passage, in a way, underscores the need for something like the Holy Spirit, because we cannot understand and accept the fullness of reality when we simply aren't ready. And the readiness is something that comes about slowly. It is a growth in understanding in consciousness of how the world works, who God is and who we are in him. And the more that evolves, the more open we become to the depth of the mysteries that have to become a part of us. The Holy Spirit's work is to guide us on that journey. Closing Prayer Father, we continue to evolve. To change. To be open to more things than we ever thought we could ever understand. So bless us with patience and understanding of how this all works. So that we can be truly receptive to each new insight that the Holy Spirit sends to us. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 7, 2024 === Gospel  John 16:5-11 Jesus said to his disciples: "Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” Reflection We see in this passage something that's very human. The disciples have been told that Jesus is leaving, they didn't expect that to happen, and they were completely filled with grief. And I'm sure they were thinking primarily about what's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to this message? And what he's again reminding them is that there is a truth that the world will not see and has not seen yet, and they are the ones to bring that into the world. And he's not telling them, They have to figure it all out. They have to know it now. No, he's saying, That this will be something you will grow into. And as you understand, you will bring those into greater understanding. Closing Prayer Father, there will always be voices that will contradict everything that you're teaching us. We pray always for the wisdom to see clearly what you are to us, and how you have done so much for us. Help us never to waver in our appreciation, our thankfulness for your message. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Post Date: May 6, 2024 === Gospel John 15:26—16:4a Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. "I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.” Reflection We're coming to the end of Jesus ministry with his disciples. And what he's promising them is something really important. He's saying, I'm not really leaving you. My father and I are one, and we are there for you. And the form that we take is this mysterious thing called the advocate. The Holy Spirit. And it's the power of God continually to work with each individual, and open their eyes to the mystery that we are faced with. Understand fully the redemption that Jesus won for us. We need that teacher. Closing Prayer Father, as we ponder the mystery of who you are in our life, we know that we long to understand this mystery more and more. So help us to be open to the ways in which you will guide us. Let us surrender to the insights that you share with us as we continue to live the word of God. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Original Airdate: May 14, 2023 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 | 1 Peter 3:15-18 | John 14:15-21 Grant, almighty God, that we may celebrate with heartfelt devotion these days of joy, which we keep in honor of the risen Lord and that what we relive in remembrance we may always hold to in what we do.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gospel John 15:18-21 Jesus said to his disciples: "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.” Reflection There's something hopeful in realizing that as we have continued to preach and teach this beautiful message of God flowing to us through Jesus and explained through the Holy Spirit that what we're really receiving is an understanding of who we really are. God is asking us to be nothing other than who he created us to be. And when we bring that truth to someone who is caught in the lies that they have created, there's always going to be hatred and a desire to destroy the one who speaks the truth. Closing Prayer Father, help us never to be discouraged. The world is changing. Is moving more and more into being what God intends it to be. Help us to see that and to take courage in simply being the truth. Being a person who is able to understand that they are vehicles of God's grace, changing the world we live in. Making it into the Kingdom of God. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gospel John 15:12-17 Jesus said to his disciples: "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” Reflection There is something about trusting a friend and being able to reveal to them things that we know and that we feel. Jesus used that as an example of His relationship with us. But you can't fully grasp it until you realize what Jesus is doing. For the first time in the history of the human race, He's revealing the fullness of who God really is. What a thing to tell the world. Jesus, the man, the human side of Him was hearing all this for the first time in a sense, and he shared it with people because He knew how transformative it was and how different it was from the fullness of the Old Testament, which didn't get close enough to revealing the fullness of who God really is. We need to bask and live in this new knowledge with an open heart. Closing Prayer Father to know you is to fall in love with you, and to fall in love with you is to know what life is for and how we are to live. So we know that your love is never conditional on our performance, but rather, in a sense, the reward of our belief that you are the lover you say you are. You are the healer in all of us that we now possess. Let us feel the joy and the peace that that brings. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gospel Mark 15:9-11 Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love. “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” Reflection The commandments that Jesus is referring to is the heart of the law. To love God, to love your neighbor, and to love yourself. The beautiful thing about being human is that when we are loved, we learn how to love. We have to understand how much God loves each of us as we are, as he created us, and having that conviction of our value. We have that sense that there is something in us that we can offer to another, that our love has a quality that is needed and always appreciated. Closing Prayer Father, free us from all those voices in our past that have told us that if we're not doing something as we're supposed to, that we will be rejected. There is no rejection on the part of God to anyone that he has created. He's there to support, to tell us we're valuable, to tell us that we have a gift within us. His love that he longs for us to share with the world. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gospel John 15:1-8 Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” Reflection Jesus continues to teach his disciples the heart of what he has established his kingdom. The kingdom is one in which he lives in you, you live in him, and the goodness that you have, through that union is what you give to the world. It's called love, acceptance, encouragement, hope. The fruitfulness that God wants each of us to have is nourishing our brothers and sisters and ourselves through this mysterious, indwelling presence of God. Without connection to that, we have no real capacity to give life to anyone. Closing Prayer Father, we can become overwhelmed when we look around us and see the things that we would like to see change. And if we do our work and try to fix them, it is even more discouraging because we are not the ones who can fix this world or improve the way people treat each other. It's only you. You are the gift. Help us to trust in the gift of you, in me, in all of us, and resonate that, intend it for the world and know that it is more than enough. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gospel  John 14:27-31a Jesus said to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.” Reflection Jesus is preparing his disciples for his death and resurrection. They have no real understanding of what it is and what it will do for them. But he does make something clear that it's about a sense of well-being, about a sense of peace, knowing that things are the way they need to be, but not necessarily the way we think they should be. Jesus makes it clear that the peace that he offers is not the same kind of peace that we in the world want. The way we want it is no tension, no problems, everything working the way we think it should work. When he's saying, No if you surrender to all that God has planned for you, you will find peace. Just as he says, That my love for the father has enabled me to do whatever he has commanded me. And that's a reference to his death and resurrection. Closing Prayer Father, give us the faith to trust in the way our life unfolds. You love us so intensely that you know what we need more than we know that. And when you do not answer our prayers, give us the wisdom to seek the answer that is there, is promised the answer. Help us to believe in that promise. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gospel John 14:21-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. "I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name -- he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Reflection The change that Jesus wanted to bring to the world is something that's always been difficult for us to understand. What we can understand is that the rules and regulations have to be done, and if we do them, then we will receive something. But Jesus doesn't talk that way. He doesn't talk about doing something. He talks about being someone. And the being you have to be is the one who has responded perfectly to what God commands. And what he commands is that you love him. If you love him, you will have a gift, and the gift is the fullness of who he is, as revealed in Jesus. God the father is our creator. Jesus is the one that reveals who the father is. And then the Holy Spirit comes along and says, I am here to teach you, remind you, show you over and over and over again. Because the work of being in love, in a state of being that you know you are loved is a thing that we work on all the time. It's not, we get it and we've got it. We just evolve and evolve and evolve until we become the kingdom of God. Closing Prayer Let us pray. Father, we have a hard time dealing with things that we can't fully understand. But we do know what love is. We do know what it feels like to love someone or to have them love us. Help us to realize this is the major commandment that God has called us to be. Lovers, caretakers, people that support one another. That's the work. That's the goal of all faith and truth. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices