Come Away By Yourselves

On the last day of May, we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation. Elizabeth's response to Mary's greeting reveals a beautiful chain of presence, words and responsiveness.  Her compliments to Mary on her motherhood and her confidence in God are closely connected.  By imitating one of them we also participate spiritually in the other.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

In this month of May, we turn our hearts and minds towards Our Lady.  Like a good mother, she can teach us the most important of lessons.  Among these, how to prayer better is something we can learn from her example and her life with Jesus.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Reflections on Marian devotion and Our Lady of Fatima. 

"He who eats this bread will live forever."  "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him."  In the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus makes wonderful claims about Eucharistic Communion.  In Communion, we share in Jesus' resurrection and are intimately united with him.  This should change the way we think about Jesus.  He is not a merely figure from the...

In St. John's Gospel, Jesus's third appearance happens after a night of fruitless fishing for the apostles.  Our Lord's intervention makes up abundantly for the lack of success they had that night.  Our lives too are often marked by apparent failure and frustration.  Like the apostles, this can be made right by a new encounter with the Risen Christ.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.co...

God's power is especially evident in his mercy.  There are no sins that he can't forgive and his mercy waits upon the smallest opening of repentance and sorrow for sin.  Receiving God's mercy is also the result of being merciful ourselves.  Forgiving others is a condition for being forgiven.  Our own forgiveness and mercy make us like our Father God: constant in love and invincible...

At the Easter Vigil, the Exultet tells us to rejoice with the joy of Christ's Victory.  Easter Joy is triumphant.  Christ is a victor and conqueror of sin and death.  We share in this victory in the sacraments and in charity.  Living a sincere Christian life, we become the resurrection for the world. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com    

How do we make the most of these Holy Days?  Keep Jesus company in his passion and death.  To get the most out of Easter, let's try to stay with Jesus from the Last Supper through his death, burial and Resurrection.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

At the Last Supper Jesus opens his heart to the apostles and to us.  St. John shares Jesus' own description of the Father's love for us: it is the same love that he has for his only Son, Jesus.  If and when we truly believe this, it changes everything and serves as the foundation of our Christian life.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

In today's Gospel Jesus saves the woman caught in adultery from a terrible fate.  We can imagine her joy, relief, and love after Jesus's intervention.  As sinners saved by Jesus, we are all in the same position.  Deep sorrow for sin precedes the great joy of forgiveness in Christ.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Almsgiving (charity) is one of the three traditional practices of Lent.  When preaching about almsgiving, Jesus focuses on purity of intention.  We should love others for their sake and for the glory of God.  St. Paul paints a portrait of the Christian heart in his letter to the Ephesians.  Christian charity is especially imbued with understanding of others and selflessness in service.  https://co...

Moses encounters God on Mount Horeb in the burning bush.  We do so in our Lenten prayer and penance.  The time for conversion, for correspondence to Christ's offer of mercy, is limited.  Like the fig tree given just one year more to produce fruit, our life and our Lenten season are passing by.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Lent is a time of self-denial.  The higher, better part of ourselves strives to deny and to master our lower nature.  This interior struggle is a necessary condition for Christian life.  In emptying ourselves out, especially of our pride, we invite God to enter in.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

David composes Psalm 51 as an extended act of contrition.  This follows his being convicted of his sin by the Prophet Nathan.  The "Miserere Psalm" can help us enter into Lent well, focussed on bravely recognizing and humbly repenting of our sinful deeds and state.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

"Spes non confudit" -- with these words from St. Paul, Pope Francis invited the Church to celebrate the Jubilee year of 2025.   Living Christian hope, firmly based on God's love for us, we can become beacons of hope for many others. 

Jesus tells us to pray to have the strength "to stand before the Son of Man."  When we die we will be judged by God.  This is a hard truth but also a truth that saves us.  If we ask God for the courage to see ourselves as we really are now, we will be prepared for our death and God's judgment.  Reliance on God's grace, fostering sincerity with ourselves and others, living chari...

"Where are you?"  This is God's haunting question to Adam and to fallen humanity.  "Here I am!" This is our response to Christ's search and rescue mission on our behalf.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

"To be eucharistic souls" was a great ideal proposed by St. Josemaria.  Having our lives and hearts shaped by what we celebrate in the eucharist has various manifestations in our spiritual life.  Adoration, receptiveness to God's love, imitating Christ's charity, joy, and thanksgiving are among the characteristics of truly eucharistic souls.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

This week we celebrated the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.  Thomas believed that the Crucifix was his greatest book and source of wisdom.  Guided by St. Thomas, we too can learn great spiritual lessons of from Christ by contemplating his passion.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

"He who loves his life will lose it, he who loses his life for my sake will find it."  Finding our true life, and our true selves, means handing ourselves over to Christ.  Losing our lives for the sake of Christ is a transformative union with him.  This takes work and an acceptance of suffering.  There is no resurrection of ourselves in Christ without the cross. https://comeawaybyyoursel...

Like the apostles themselves, the life of the Christian is a call to be close to Jesus and to go out and spread the Good News.  Holiness and apostolate are two sides to the same divine vocation.   To be an apostle, however, we have to confront various obstacles which would keep us from sharing Christ with others.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

The Baptism of Jesus speaks to us of his incredible humility.  Without being a sinner, Jesus plays the role of one by letting himself be baptized by John the Baptist.  Humility unlocks our ability to love God and others.  It protects our peace and joy.    https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

The Feast of the Epiphany invites us to set our on our own journey to find Christ.  Christ is the Truth, the light of Life.  To find him means to deepen in our understanding and acceptance of the Truth about Him and about ourselves.   https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Holiness is God's own will and resolution for us.  In calling us to be holy God resolves that we be such.  Holiness is the fullness of charity.  To respond to our call to holiness, to live this divine resolution, is to learn to love God in himself and in and through all things.  

Heading into Christmas we turn our hearts towards the Christ Child.  Christ is our great Christmas present from God the Father.  Mary and Joseph give him the gifts of their faith, hope and love.  These are gifts that we too can give to the Baby Jesus.  https://comeawaybyyourselves.com