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Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
Advent | Family Activities | Sacred Heart enthronement
Make room for Jesus. As we prepare our hearts and home for Advent and the Christmas Season, we are invited to declutter our lives and make room for the Lord. Jesus offers us His most Sacred Heart of Jesus as a refuge for all. St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation Sister who lived in the 17th century, was invited by Jesus to be the Disciple of the Sacred Heart and begin a movement of renewal through encountering His Most Sacred Heart, resulting in deeper faith and love. In this ongoing series, we will learn more about the Sacred Heart, Saints like St. Margaret Mary, and ways we can better live out this devotion so that this Christmas we give our hearts and home to Jesus in a new way.
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Homily Video | Learn more about our faith
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus performed seven healing miracles on the Sabbath. You would think that a man with such a record of helping people regain their health and their lives would receive much appreciation and love for what he had done. It was not so as we reflect on the gospels. To the Pharisees and the Scribes, that was strong enough evidence to show that Jesus was a dangerous, irreligious, and law-breaking character they had to take down at the earliest opportunity they could find. To the Pharisees interpretation of the law of God, no work was permitted on the Sabbath, and healing on the Sabbath was work, therefore it was a form of breaking the Law of God.
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Catholic Faith | Gospel Reflection | Homily Video | Learn more about our faith | saints
St. Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians with the bottom line: “Brothers and sisters: Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.” He was helping them to be in the battle of life that we’re all a part of. As I reflected on this and the strong metaphorical speech that follows, I was reminded of growing up as a Boston Bruins ice hockey fanatic.
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Jesus | Learn more about our faith | faithfulness
Jesus presents us with two parables to illustrate the nature and growth of the Kingdom of God. He compares the Kingdom of God to a tiny seed that grows into a large tree where birds can build nests in its branches, showing us that the Kingdom has humble, insignificant beginnings yet expands into something that impacts many people. Jesus also compares the Kingdom of God to yeast mixed into dough that works its way into a loaf of bread, enjoyed by those who eat it. Jesus uses these two parables to highlight the subtle, internal, and pervasive influence of Jesus' teaching in our lives. God's Grace Works from Within We just had ordinations of nine young men in the Province of East Africa two weeks ago. I lived with them for the last four years as their director in a formation house. One of them, when he was being vested with the chasuble, just started crying, with tears streaming profusely down his face.
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Jesus | Learn more about our faith | faithfulness
Charity and love are core virtues of our Christian faith. They are foundational in helping us noticing those who tend to be invisible in society. Through kindness and love we can see and acknowledge individuals with whom society, daily routines or systematic prejudices routinely overlook. In today’s gospel, we have a woman described as having a spirit that crippled her for 18 years, leaving her bent over and unable to stand up right. Jesus notices her in the middle of teaching, interrupts himself, calls her to him, and lays hand on her and heals her. This woman was invisible to the religious structure around her, and yet Jesus stopped his teaching to see her, call her forward and even addressed her a daughter of Abraham in a way of restoring her dignity. Jesus’s love for this woman in her disability led him to heal her, setting her free from her infirmity, even when he knew that would make the religious leaders indignant, mad at him for breaking the sabbath law. While others walked past her or looked down, Jesus was able to notice her predicament.
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Homily Video | Learn more about our faith
Human history tells us that for years human beings relied on a reading and interpretation of nature for their own survival. People relied on reading nature for navigation, for agricultural work, for healthcare management, for military campaigns, for worship. For instance, parents knew that when the skin, the hair or the eyes of their babies changed in a certain manner, the babies needed to be treated with a specific herb to improve their health. Farmers knew that when birds started making their nests, or the squirrels started gathering nuts, it meant the end of one season and the arrival of new season. They acted accordingly. Humanity has survived over the years through careful reading and interpretation of nature.
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