Faith
Not For Me
Today’s reading to the letter of the Romans 14:7-9 by St. Paul was the focus of the homily by our pastor this morning. He talked about how damaging, lonely, and unfulfilling our lives can be if we think and live as if we are a self-made being; in other words, my focus is living my […]
Imitation of Christ
Today I started listening to a podcast of “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis, on the Hallow app. It started out by acknowledging that the literature is challenging. But to encourage the listener, a quote was read from the book that could be beneficial in many situations, “Do not be detoured, nor quickly […]
Steady Faith
This morning, I heard a lot of commotion outside the garage door. I went to investigate and saw a fire truck and ambulance parked next door. The EMTs were actually at the home of the “roof mate” of our neighbor’s. Several people were outside, concerned for the residents. The man who lives in the home […]
Effective Anointing
Mom had a stellar day today. When our friend was here, she went for a walk, finished the big puzzle they were working on, played the piano, and helped get lunch ready. She napped a little after that. Then we had a smoothie while she read and played some games on her iPad. She became […]
Viaticum
We were blessed to have the new priest from our parish come over to the house today. He was young, soft spoken, gentle, and caring. He talked with my mother for some time and asked her what she thought Heaven would be like. She said she pictured it as full of clouds with an organ […]
Don’t Be An Obstacle
Today’s Gospel reading was when Jesus told Peter, “Get behind me, satan.” which is shocking. Only a couple of verses before, Jesus built His Church on Peter. There are a couple of things that really stood out to me from the readings and homily. First was that Peter must have felt pretty great that he […]
Fear Not
I saw the scripture Isaiah 41:13 in an email I received today, “For I, the Lord your God hold your right hand. It is I who say to you Fear Not. I am the One who helps you.” It sounded very familiar to me. Then I remembered a prayer card we received in the mail […]
Ukraine Witnesses
My mom and I watched Mass today from the parish we used to attend 30-40 years ago. My mom was the organist there. At that time, the pastor met a young priest from Ukraine and they formed a close relationship. The two parishes also formed a relationship supporting one another. The young priest became a […]
Grow Up
I listened to a powerful reflection of today’s Gospel by Bible scholar Jeff Cavins on the Hallow app. In this scripture, the people who worked for a land owner all got paid the same daily wage, regardless of how long they worked. Those who worked all day long were upset about that, even though the […]
God’s Reflection
I came across a story that further explains the “Refiner’s Fire” that I have been thinking about: There was once a group of women studying the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three, which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of […]