Fr. Kubicki 2 Minute Prayer Reflections

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Francis De Sales, who when he was 18, was tempted to despair. He was obsessed with the thought that he had lost the love of God. He decided to make a pure act of love.

At today’s Mass during this Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, we have a wonderful second reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. It’s from chapter 12 where St. Paul compares the Church to a body.

Yesterday was the feast day of a martyr of the early Church – St. Agnes, who was only about 14 years old when she died for the Faith. Her name comes from an ancient word for ‘Lamb.’ She, like the one for whom she gave her life, was truly a Lamb of God.

Thousands of people are gathering today in Washington DC for the March for Life. Today is the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing abortion – Roe vs. Wade. Though many of us cannot be there in person, we can still join in prayer to overturn this decision.

Do you remember your confirmation name, the patron saint whom you chose when you received the Sacrament of Confirmation? Maybe you were an adult, or maybe you're an Eastern Christian and you were confirmed when you were baptized as a Christian.

Yesterday, we began a very special period of prayer. Every year from January 18 until January 25, Christians around the world join in an intense prayer for unity that in the words of Jesus in the Last Supper, that they all may be one as the Father and the Son are one.

In the first reading at mass today from the first book of Samuel, we have the story of how God rejected King Saul, and chose to replace him with a most unlikely of persons – David, a mere youth who’s only occupation had been a shepherd.

Today, the Church honors St. Anthony of the desert. He is so named because he left everything to live as a hermit in the desert of Egypt. Many consider him the father of monastic life.

Although we will be following St. Luke’s gospel on Sunday this year, today the Church gives us the famous story about the Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus performed his first public miracle changing ordinary water into the best of wines.

While Monday is the legal holiday in honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., today is his birthday. Let us thank God for his life and how his life has touched so many others.

In today’s gospel from the beginning of the second chapter of Mark’s gospel, we see the image of Jesus healing a paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof because of the great crowd at the door.

Sometimes people think of the Church as one human institution among others, and they fall into the temptation that human ingenuity and personnel management, and public relations, will solve the Church’s problems.

The Bible teaches a lot about prayer. For example, in the story of the call of Samuel which can be found in chapter 3 of the first book of Samuel, we see Samuel’s mentor Eli teaching him the simple prayer: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

After the season of Advent and Christmas, the feast of The Holy Family, Mary Mother of God, The Epiphany and the Baptism of our Lord, we are now back to ordinary time on the Church calendar.

What was the greatest day of your life? If you’re like most people, you probably didn’t think of the day you were baptized, and that’s probably because you were too young to remember it. Having just celebrated the feast of the Baptism of our Lord, it is a good time to think of that great sacrament of our own Baptism.

Today is the last day of the Christmas season and the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. The second person of the Blessed Trinity became human, shared our human nature, all in order to raise it up.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord by St. John the Baptist in the River Jordan. As we approach this feast, we should reflect on this event in the life of Christ and think about what it is and what it means to us.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of St Raymond of Peñafort. He is know as the father of the Church’s law or Canon Law. St. Raymond was born in the year 1175 and by the age of 20, he was a professor of philosophy.

Today, the Church honors a humble brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross; St. Andre Bessette. He’s a good example of how you don’t have to do big things to become holy.

In the Church’s Calendar, these are some days to honor some of the saints who lived and worked in the United States. Today we honor St. John Neumann, an Eastern European immigrant of the 19th century.

Today, the Church celebrates  the feast of the first native born United States citizen to be canonized a saint – St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. She was canonized by Pope St. Pius VI in 1975.

Names are important. When we are growing up and people make fun of our names, it hurts. In a sense our names are ourselves. That’s certainly the case for Jesus. Today we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of the Epiphany and we remember how Jesus was manifest. That’s what the word Epiphany means, manifest to the three Mahi who visited from the East.

Today we celebrate the first day of the new year. In the Catholic Church, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God. As we enter this new year, we pray that our heavenly mother will cover us in her love and keep us and our families holy, healthy, and safe in the new year.

As we come to the end of the 2021 calendar year, a year that has continued to be very challenging, because of the pandemic but also because of everything going on in the country and throughout the world, we need to continue to pray and put our trust in Jesus.