Return to the Lord with Thanksgiving
Throughout this Sunday’s readings runs a thread of gratitude and thanksgiving at seeing the wonder and goodness of God. There is a profound desire to be close to the Lord. To develop and maintain a relationship with Him — not for what He does but for who He is.
An Increase of Faith
In today’s gospel the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. They found themselves ill equipped. While truth resonated through Jesus’s words and actions, they were asking to have what Jesus had so that they could more adequately do it.
Living the Call to Discipleship
Each of us is being invited to seek those things that are of God and “compete well for the faith.” This means that we are called to persevere in living out our individual, unique vocation of service to God and the Church.
Giving Voice to Our Faith in the Public Square
Our responsibility to bring our faith into the public square is founded on the commandment that we love our neighbor as ourselves. As followers of Christ, it is our vocation to give a voice to the voiceless.
The Grace of Indelible Value
Value is assigned by the one with authority to confer it. Our value as humans is assigned by God Himself, that transcends personal preference or public opinion or any other human convention. Today’s Gospel parables have one thing in common: the intrinsic value of what was lost.
The Prayer of an Earthen Shelter
Perhaps Christ’s admonition to renounce our earthly possessions is not just about things that fill our dwellings, but anxieties, fears, expectations — these possessions we hold in our minds and cling to like a child clings to an old, smelly blanket.
A Meek and Humble Heart
Jesus is the ultimate example of humility — incarnate, reliant on Mary and Joseph as an infant and child, handing himself over to be crucified, and now allowing himself to be consumed by the faithful daily, in the guise of bread and wine in the Eucharist.
The Disciple of Discipleship
What is it that you desire most? This is a powerful question that must be asked and answered if we want to avoid a haphazard, disjointed, and chaotic life. It also must be asked and answered if we claim to be a person of faith who is committed to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Fire of Discipleship
The passages from Luke’s Gospel that we are hearing in this span of Ordinary Time invite us to reflect on what it means to live our faith, to put into practice what we profess. Today’s passage presents a different, even startling facet of Jesus’ teachings.
Less Stress, More Faith
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus gives us an important example as to how we are to exercise our faith. As believers, we have an active expectation that Jesus will come again. This is the important difference between those who believe and those who do not.
Encountering Jesus
Jesus says, “one’s life does not consist of possessions,” I still struggle with this … perhaps, I’m not the only one. I want the joy and freedom of a saint like St. Francis of Assisi, but I am slow to embrace the voluntary poverty through which that joy and freedom flourished.
Abraham Drew Nearer
The theme that leaps off the page from today’s readings is persistence in prayer. To the modern world, that’s a very strange — almost silly — concept. If God is omnipotent, why does he need to be asked to do anything?