Come Away By Yourselves

Sin and evil are real.  They are not playing games.  To defeat them and be disciples of Christ, we need to take our Christian life very seriously.  This takes resolute, decisive choices and clear thinking about good and evil, virtue and vice, love and betrayal.  

Jesus's presence in the Blessed Sacrament affords us a wonderful opportunity.  Just as we spend time with friends and loved ones just to be with them, our mental prayer is an occasion of simply being present with Jesus.  Jesus did this during his earthly life with various groups and individuals.  They cherished these days and hours alone with their Friend, Lord, and Teacher. We can do the sam...

This Sunday's readings remind us of so many important realities.  We are God's people and precious to him.  He has loved us in our sinfulness, before we merited any goodwill on his behalf.  We are an apostolic Church chosen by name and invested with power to do good and proclaim the Gospel.  Our ordinary lives are actually quite extraordinary!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is more than a symbol.  Jesus truly loves us with his heart.  This love is fully human: emotional, warm, tender, encouraging.  This love is fully divine: all powerful, infinite, eternal.   To appreciate this love we need to live in it and pray about it.  Let's "enter into the Sacred Heart of Jesus," as saints and Popes alike have encouraged us.  There we fi...

On the Feast of Corpus Christi the Church turns her heart to Jesus's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament.   A marvel of love, in the Eucharist the infinite enters the finite, the Creator his creation and the invisible the visible real.  Adoration, devotion, and gratitude should mark our response to this great mystery of our Faith. 

The Bible often encourages us to a silent, receptive stance before God's reality and goodness.  This kind of prayer takes recollection or composure of heart, which in turn requires some trust in God.  Our distaste for quiet prayer can be rooted in an unwillingness to cede control or a fear of the changes it might provoke in us.  Jesus's advice to the busy Martha is pertinent for all time...

The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us.  The Spirit dwells within each one of us in the state of grace.   We should ask him for help and rely on his presence especially to live the virtue of charity.  The fruits of the Spirit are the indications of his activity in our life. 

"This is eternal life, that they know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."  These words of Jesus reveal the importance of coming to know God more and more.  We grow in this knowledge in various ways: study and spiritual reading, personal dealings with Him in our prayer life, living in HIs presence.  To know Jesus fully, however, we also have to enter into his own ex...

As we celebrate Mother's Day in the month of May, our minds and hearts naturally go to our Heavenly Mother, Mary.  Devotion to Our Lady should be natural and heartful, as is our devotion to our own mothers.  Mary is a great ally in the Christian life and May, Mary's month, is a great time to increase our love for her and our dependence on her intercession .

St. Peter says we are a priestly people who  offer spiritual sacrifices to God.  What does it mean to have a "priestly soul"?  How can we make our hearts altars of a burning love of God?  How can we be mediators and peacemakers between God and men?

The image of our Lord as Good Shepherd is a challenging one.   It means that we Christians are sheep.  Our pride and self-sufficiency naturally bristle at this image.  Only with deep humility, and contemplating Jesus the Lamb of God, can we embrace being sheep and having a Shepherd.

The two disciples' encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus teaches us so much about prayer and faith.   Jesus walks with us whether we realize it or not.  He is interested in what is happening in our lives and also in how it affects us.  His presence in the dialogue of prayer, in the Eucharist and in Scripture should be places where we regularly seek his companionship and counsel.    

When he appears to his apostles on Easter Sunday, Jesus's first and consistent message to them is one of peace.  The very presence of Jesus brings us peace as it did the fearful Apostles.  Union with the person of Christ is also another source of peace.  This is promised to us by Jesus himself, "Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you."  Trust in God, especially in God's merc...

Lent is over and with it comes the expectation of Easter Joy.  Holy Saturday invites us to anticipate the joy and wonder of the Resurrection of Jesus.  The Resurrection is a powerful reality that continues to give life and joy to the world and especially the Church.  

As we enter Holy Week, we can ponder Jesus's fundamental motivation.  Whether growing up in Nazareth or preaching throughout Galilee and Judea, whether acclaimed by the crowds or nailed to the Cross, Jesus is always doing one thing: fulfilling his Father's will.  This is at the crux of our own identity as sons and daughters of God in Christ 

Jesus's death on the cross is the supreme revelation of God's love.  St. Paul tells us that nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ.  Christ's death shows us how much he loves us and what the Father's love for Him, and for us, is like.  This is a  reliable love, upon which we can firmly plant all of our problems and our whole life.  The cross fills us with confi...

In saving us from sin Jesus does more than relieve us of an unpayable debt.  He actually pays the debt himself.   He buys us back, redeems us, with the price of his precious blood.  The wounds of Christ are thus mysterious sources of confidence and consolation for us, worthy of our continual contemplation. 

To pray is "to lift up our minds and hearts to God."  Often, however, we lose a proper sense of the grandeur and awesome nature of God.  Routine makes us used to prayer and God becomes something taken for granted, ordinary, and even boring.  Reflecting on God's power and transcendence can spark us to a renewed love for him and new horizons in our prayer life.  

Jesus gives two clear conditions for following him: deny yourself and take up your cross each day.  Lent is a clear invitation and opportunity to do this. 

Lent is a wonderful opportunity to find our peace, joy, and comfort in God.  We do this by denying ourselves our usual sources of support, distraction, and pleasure.   To be filled by God is to run the risk of emptying ourselves out of other things.  This takes trust, courage and patience.   God always responds to this kind of personal faith, even when it is imperfect and needs to grow.   

Jesus's time in the desert fasting and praying are a model for how to live Lent well.  If we understand the opportunity that Lent presents us, we will be more engaged and committed in our Lenten practices.  This will yield great fruits in our interior life. 

Jesus has high hopes for his Church in the world.  We are to be salt and light, giving flavor, endurance, guidance and inspiration to the rest of the world.  This takes a daily fight against our easy-going lukewarmness and a magnanimity of heart that moves us to serve and give good example to others.  

Today we reflect on a unique feast day in the Church, the Conversion of St. Paul.  Paul's conversion shows God's initiative in our lives and the great changes grace can work in a soul.  St. Paul responds to God's entrance into his life in a powerful and exemplary way.  His willingness to suffer for Christ reveals the depth of his love for God.  

This episode is a joint effort with "Sons and Kings" a new podcast on Psalm 2.  Jake Jakubisin interviews Fr. John Grieco about Psalm 2 and the Christian view of Human Nature.   Listen to "Sons and Kings":   https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/sons-kings-the-psalm-2-show/id1863578222 https://open.spotify.com/show/2P7KxJ2ILJD1MCd0Qlbfq3

The Sermon on the Mount is at the heart of Jesus's preaching the Kingdom of God.  Jesus presents us with a demanding challenge to live a truly holy life.  At the same time, however, he assures us of God the Father's love and constant care.