Daily Reflections with Fr. John

How do you come to make the decisions in your life?

What does it actually mean to love an enemy?

Today we celebrate Saint Peter Claver. He was born in Spain and became a Jesuit priest. He did not come to the United States. He served as a missionary in Cartagena, in what is now Colombia.

The people have arrived. The church is filling. Someone may be greeting a friend. A family is settling children into the pew. Another person has come alone. Someone is joyful. Someone else is exhausted, grieving, anxious, distracted, or unsure why he or she came. Then the bell rings, the music begins, and the procession starts.

On this Labor Day, we remember these three truths: through our work, we participate in God’s creation; through our work, we serve others and the common good; and through our work, we learn to trust God rather than living in constant anxiety.

Saint Paul tells us what a transformed Christian life looks like in practice.

The Sabbath was God’s gift to his people. It was meant to provide rest, restore their relationship with God, and remind them that their lives belonged to him.

Jesus says, “New wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.”

"At your command"

Jesus enters the home of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law is very sick with a high fever. The people in the house tell Jesus about her. And what does Jesus do? Jesus notices her. He goes to her, stands beside her, and heals her.

Before the first hymn is sung, before the priest reaches the altar, before anyone makes the Sign of the Cross, something important has already happened: God's people have gathered.

Familiarity can sometimes close our hearts to grace.

Do not let the culture around you set the pattern for your life. Do not let power teach you how to treat people. Do not let status determine your worth. Do not let anger, division, retaliation, or prejudice shape the way you see others. And above all, do not give your deepest loyalty to anything that belongs to this world.

When the truth becomes costly, will I still remain faithful?

Keep your lamp filled

Monica spent many years praying for her son Augustine. She watched him wander away from God, pursue an immoral life, and embrace beliefs far from the Christian faith she cherished.

Your outside is spectacular but what about the inside?

Jesus calls every one of us to become His disciple. There is an enormous difference between being a Catholic and being a disciple.

Saint Bartholomew reminds us that discipleship begins when we allow ourselves to be known by Christ.

Relationships grow because we spend time together. We talk. We listen. We share what is going on in our lives. We begin to know what matters to the other person, what brings them joy, what hurts them. And over time, that relationship begins to shape us.

Mary our queen who humbled herself and said yes to God.

How do we bring people closer to Christ?

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of a king who prepares a wedding feast. Everything is ready, the invitations have gone out, and yet many of those invited simply do not come.

We often say that we want God to be generous but sometimes we mean generous to us. When God is generous to someone whom we believe has done less, arrived later, or deserves less, we can begin to complain.

Every believer eventually reaches a moment when inherited faith must become a personal choice.