God's blessings in the Life of the Israelites and in Our Own lives

In today's first reading, Acts 13: 13-25,  Paul speak to the people in the synagogue of God's works among the Israelites.  The following actions are pointed out to us: 1) God chose the ancestors of the Israelites, 2) God exalted the people, 3) God led them through the wilderness, 4) God put up with them in the desert, 5) God gave them their land as an inheritance, 6) God provided judges for them, 7) God gave them Saul as a king, 8) God removed Saul, as he violated the covenant, 9) God raised up King David, testifying: "I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish"  and, finally, 10) God brought Israel, and us, a savior, Jesus, the Christ.

WOW! Every one of those statements about how God blessed, provided for, guided and sustained Israel is true of how God works in  your life and mine!  We have been chosen and exalted in our baptism and the other sacraments we receive, including the signs (sacraments) of God's presence in our daily lives.  We have been and are led through the wildernesses and deserts of our own lives, including the present "desert" caused by the coronavirus. And, yes, God puts up with us in the difficult times of our lives when what comes from us is mostly complaints against God and others. Furthermore, however,  God has given us and holds for us an inheritance in heaven. God provides judges for us to restore justice in the lives of those deprived of such and He raises up leaders for us--our own parents, grandparents, surrogate mothers and fathers, teachers, counselor, mentors, friends--men and women after his own heart who will carry out every wish coming from God.  And yes, He has brought us a savior, Jesus, the Christ!

Can it get any better? For me, no! For you?

Granted the Privilege by the Father to Come to Jesus

In today's Gospel, John 6: 60-69, Jesus had just said to his disciple: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world."  A significant number of his disciples said to themselves: "'This  saying is hard; who can accept it?'"  Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them:  "'The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.'  Jesus  knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, 'For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by  my Father.'  As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him."


Lord, you are telling me that the words you speak to me are Spirit and life. I discover that truth when I am open to your words and when I follow the way that you point out to me. I also discover the truth that I enter a "desert" when I walk away from you and do not choose the path to which you are directing me.

          Know, Dorothy Ann (insert your name), that I am grieved when I see you walking away! My 
          heart, then, aches for you and I wait for your return always!

Jesus, I am truly sorry when I cause you pain! Forgive me.

         I do, Dorothy Ann (insert your name).

Father, loving God, thank you for granting me the grace to come to you, to Jesus, to the Spirit.

         You are most welcome, Dorothy Ann (insert your name).  You are my beloved daughter (adapt             this to yourself) in whom I am well pleased. I delight in you. I cherish you. I love to watch the             efforts you put into your search for me. I love it as much as I loved watching Mary Magdalene             looking for me in the empty tomb. I am never far off when you look into places where I am not--
         am not, that is for you but might be for another person.

Thank you, Jesus. And thanks, so much, that you are never far away from me! Thanks for delighting in me, for cherishing me, for being pleased with me, for watching me always!  Lord, please help me that I may continue to follow you, to listen for your voice and when hearing it

Jesus' Mission Statement and His Anointing of Us

In today's Gospel, Luke 4: 16-30, Jesus is attending the synagogue service, as He always did on the Sabbath.  He stood up to read and opened the Scriptures to the passage in Isaiah that spells out His Mission Statement:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the  oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord!

Let us hear Jesus' message to you and me:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon  you, (insert your name), because I have anointed you at your baptism and every time you receive the Eucharist, the sacrament of  the Anointing of the Sick or any other sacrament. I also anoint you every day with love.  Why? So that you become a Good News person and are able to make a difference in the lives you touch. I anoint you so that My love grows in  you and you can be a blessing of love to those I send into your life each day or to those to whom I send you.  I anoint you each day so that you can be a person who empowers others to know freedom from oppression, negative views of themselves and know that they are loved.  I anoint you with the oil of the Spirit, an oil that never dries up but multiplies when you anoint others with love and they anoint you."

"I anoint you because I have chosen you to go forth and bear fruit that lasts and that fruit is love."

How great is the Lord, our God!

Chosen to a Life of Faith, a Labor of Love and Endurance in Hope

In today's first reading, 1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10, St. Paul says to the people: We give  thanks to God always for all of you,... unceasingly calling to  mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,...knowing...how you were chosen.  For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.  ...In every place your faith in God has gone forth...."

As I reflect upon those words, I think of my parents. They, too, "were chosen."   Like the people of Thessalonia,  "the Gospel did not come to [them] in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction."  Their faith was alive and well. It was powerful and changed their lives.  They endured all that they encountered in life with the same faith that Jesus had in God's will for Him and thus they were survivors, not victims of suffering. The sufferings that my parents endured in their lives deepened their faith and dependence upon God and one another. 

How do you and I cope with suffering? Is suffering a catalyst that nurtures our faith and dependence upon God and each other, making us spiritually strong individuals? Or do we use suffering to feel sorry for ourselves, to vent our anger upon others, and to play the "poor me" role in life? Suffering itself is not harmful. It is the way we cope with pain and suffering that can harm us or others.  The choice is ours!

It is also important to remember that God does not send us pain or suffering. Such comes to us through sin. Jesus Himself suffered, as all of us do, because of sin in the world, in his case because of sin in the leaders of his time who were jealous of Him and therefore determined to put him to death. He was a threat to their power and therefore they found a way to destroy Him, so they thought, in death.  Jesus teaches us to approach suffering and death in faith, knowing that these realities of life here on earth do not have the last say. God does and God gives new life in spite of and through that which causes us pain and leads to a dying and rising--new life here on earth or to eternal life in heaven!

God's Inheritance

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor. 1: 25-31, St. Paul reminds us that we “are in Christ Jesus” and that Jesus, through a gift from God the Father, became for us “wisdom,…righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”  Those of us chosen, called to become Jesus’ disciples, to live “in Christ Jesus,”  St. Paul reminds us, were not “powerful.” We were not “of noble birth.” No! God “chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those  who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. [In fact, it] is due to [God] that you [and I] are in Christ Jesus.”

How difficult it may be to absorb the truth that before being  and living “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from  God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” you and I were  weak, foolish,   lowly and the despised of the world, counting for nothing and that there is nothing you and I can boast about, nothing!   Then turn this around and realize that Christ Jesus is your strength and mine, your wisdom and mine, your righteousness and mine, your sanctification and mine, your redemption and mine.   Furthermore, the author of Psalm 33, today’s responsorial psalm , tells us that God has “chosen [us] for his own inheritance.” God’s inheritance! What? You and I are “God’s inheritance”?  WOW!

Chosen by God to be Part of His Intimate Circle, the Trinity

“I shall not call you servants anymore, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father” (John 15: 9-17).  

Imagine being a servant in the Whitehouse. You are one of the waitresses/waiters at the elaborate dinner served to special guests/friends of the first family.  Or you are a domestic servant  and you observe the First Family have close friends over to celebrate one of their children’s birthday.  You watch the interactions in awe of the relationship the President and First Lady have with each of their guests. You are not privileged to be a part of the intimacy that exist among their close friends. Oh, how you would love to be, not a servant, but a friend.

Switch now to today’s Gospel.  You and I are not servants but friends of Jesus, of the Trinity. “I have chosen you,” to be my disciples and my friends, one with us in holiness and truth, in love and forgiveness, in justice and generosity to the poor and needy.   “Everything “ , Jesus says to us, “that I have  learned from the Father  shares with you” (cf Jn 15: 9-17).   So why might so many people not experience this friendship, this intimacy with the Lord, with the Trinity, with God?  Like any other relationship, becoming close friends is not magic or automatic. Lots of time is spent with a close friend. Lots of conversation occurs between friends. A friend wants to know everything about his/her friend. So, when this does not happen between us and the Lord, why is that? I might ask myself: Am I taking time to get to know the Lord (He already knows us intimately)? Do I read about Jesus in the Gospels? Do I take the opportunity my parish offers me to study the Scriptures? Do I take time to gaze upon the Lord in love and let the Lord gaze upon me, as wives and husbands enjoy gazing upon one another in this way? Do I take time to show God love by loving, caring about, supporting others—again, husbands and wives do loving things for one another?

Yes, it is my choice to develop this relationship. God stands at the door knocking. Will I open to Him today?

The Stewardship of God's Grace

Paul begins today’s first reading, Eph. 3: 2-12,  with the statement: “Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit…”  Each of us, also, has been given “the stewardship of God’s grace” for others’ benefit, not for our own.  Earlier in this same letter,  Chapter 1, verses 1-11, Paul says to us: “In Christ…[you] were…chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.” We “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,…the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession,to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1: 1-11).

Do I realize that I am not my own, that I belong to God? Do I realize that today God has a purpose for me or am I so intent on the goals I have set for myself that this underlying, foundational goal set by God is lost to me?  Does “this is what I am going to do today, in this meeting, in this encounter,” shut me out of waiting upon the Lord, allowing the Lord to show me His glory in “what I am going to do today, in this meeting, in this encounter”? Am I do noisy that I do not hear God at work?  If God’s grace is given to me for other people’s benefit, in what way do I allow “God’s grace” to reveal itself without my interference in  how that will happen in the events, the relationships, the opportunities given to me today to experience the “inheritance toward redemption”  (Ephesians 1: 11-14)that God wants to show me?

In Utmost for His Highest, the spiritual writer for today’s meditation, Oct. 22, challenges me with the words: “…abandon yourself to Him in total surrender….abandon your own reasoning and arguing” and then God will witness “to what He has done.” “The Spirit of God,” this spiritual author states, “witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else….We are inclined,” he says, “to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason[ing].”

All I can say is “Lord, have mercy!”

The First Installment of our Inheritance

Today’s first reading, Ephesians 1: 11-14, led me to think about  the excitement of persons who won a lottery of millions and millions of dollars and are promised 1000’s of dollars weekly.  The excitement, I imagine, is uncontainable. The future looks brighter than it ever has been.  For some, the hopes and dreams for their future are realized in genuine, authentic living of the messages of the Gospel. For others, living a purely secular lifestyle, the worst in human nature can spill out into jealousies, envious actions, abusive spending, selfish pursuits, wild ambitions, covetousness, prideful claims and so on.  Life, somehow, can become emptier and more chaotic than ever imagined.

Desperation, for some persons, leads them to turn to God, to take up the Bible, looking for help. The Spirit within them breaks through the darkness, as somewhere in the world prayers are being offered continually for the salvation of all persons.  Searching for God in the letter of St. Paul to the  Ephesians  in Chapter 1 verses 11-14, they are told that they are “chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that…[they and] we might exist for the praise of his glory.”  In this passage, Paul reminds them and us that  we who first hoped in Christ….[and those who later come to believe in Him are] sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,…the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession.” 

Wow!  I wonder why our excitement is not as overwhelming as the excitement of those lottery winners!  We do not need to imagine “winning the lottery” that only God can give.  We did not even purchase a ticket. Jesus purchased it for us through His obedience to the Father’s plan for our redemption, his death and resurrection.  We have been given this inheritance  by the price which Christ Jesus paid for it.   The “inheritance toward redemption” includes the following: 

•  Being “chosen, destined in accord with the purpose”  of the Holy One, the giver of eternal wealth 

• Being “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,”  the “first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession”

My response and yours? Let us, with Mary and all the saints and angels in heaven [and on earth],  praise God in the words of the Magnificat: “My being proclaims your greatness,” O God, “and my spirit finds joy in you, God, my Savior, for you have looked upon me, your servant, in my lowliness…God, you who are mighty, have done great things for me. Holy is your name….”

The Lord is My Shepherd

Yesterday’s responsorial psalm was Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd. There is nothing I shall want….” The LORD is my shepherd. Who? The Lord God Almighty, the All-knowing, All-seeing, All-loving, All-caring One. God Himself guards me, protects me gives me life, sustains it, nourishes it, strengthens it, and preserves it for life eternally. The Lord IS my shepherd, not “was” or “will be” but IS my Shepherd this very second, this very hour, today and every day of my life, one day at a time! The Lord is MY Shepherd. God has chosen me as HIS special sheep, the lamb He carries on His shoulder. I am His. He is mine. He has his eye on me all of the time because I belong to Him and to no one else. The Lord is my SHEPHERD. He knows the terrain I will encounter today, whether it has dangerous potholes in it, whether it leads to unsafe crossings, whether it is smooth and inviting yet deceptively evil, unsafe and/or treacherous. He knows where the path leads and will turn me around to safer ground, if need be. As my Shepherd, God leads me to “green pastures” where my needs will be met: my need for full development spiritually, intellectually, physically, socially, emotionally. All I need to do is step forward, get off the couch, so to speak, and move toward the goal that promises me authentic freedom, peace and joy. Then it is that God empowers me to be nourished on all levels. As Shepherd, He gives me the provisions I need to become the best version of myself every second of every day in all kinds of “weather” and on all kinds of terrain. “The Lord is my Shepherd. There is nothing I shall want.”

Called by Name

Today I am conducting a Come and See for women interested in religious life.  One of the activities today is to take time in quiet prayer, reflection and meditation on Moses' call to mission.
We read in Exodus, 3: 4, 10 that "God called to him [Moses] out of the bush, "'Moses, Moses!'  And he said, 'Here I am.' Then the Lord said, 'I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.'"

With every call--be it to marriage, to the single life, to religious life, to priesthood--comes a mission, comes responsibilities.  Carrying out the mission God entrusts to each one of us means that God calls the shots, God is the one who is sending us, and God is the one who matches the person to the mission.

I was deeply touched when I repeated to myself: Dorothy Ann, God matched you to the mission you are now asked to carry out for the sake of the Kingdom.  God matched me. God called me. God has a work for me to do. And when he chose me for the work I am now doing, He chose carefully. God knew, better than anyone, who He needed to do this particular work. That is true for each of you reading this: God chose you.God matched you to the mission, the job, the tasks to which He sent you to perform in His name. No one else but you and you were specially chosen to be the mate in your marriage, the father/mother to this/that child, to do this or that ministry/job as a teacher, a counselor, a plumber, an electrician, a store clerk, an administrator, a physician, a nurse, a technician, a physical therapist (fill in the blanks).  Specially chosen. Sent by God. And God calls the shots!
Source: I HEARD GOD CALL MY NAME, from the National Religious Vocation Conference.

Chosen and Appointed by God Himself to Do Great Things

Today is the feast of St. Matthias. He was chosen by lot to replace Judas and to join the other eleven apostles to be a witness to Jesus’ resurrection.  You and I, also, have been chosen to be witnesses to Jesus’ triumph over death.  We were chosen, not by lot, but directly by Jesus. He says to us in today’s Gospel:  “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain…” (Jn 15:6).

 Envision Jesus making this choice! It is you and I He is choosing! It is you and I whom He is appointing to assume the mission of bearing fruit that will never rotten, never disintegrate, never die!  What kind of fruit does not ever deteriorate and turn to rot but blooms into eternal life? The answer, obviously, is love.  The same Spirit whereby Jesus rose from the death is the same  Spirit Who empowers us to love in the face of hatred, to work for peace in the face of violence, to work toward forgiveness and reconciliation in the face of injustices and hurts we endure in this life. “That’s impossible,” you might argue. However,  Jesus returned to heaven, to His Father, in order to send to us the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit at work in us Who enables to do even greater things than Jesus did during his short 33 years here on this earth.  Jesus Himself makes that promise in John 14: 12-14: “In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works,  because I am going to the Father….I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth….[H]e is with you, he is in you” (Jn 14: 12-13, 15-17).

And you and I, from conception , have been chosen to receive the Paraclete, to be a witness to the Resurrection of Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, by the works we do—“even greater works” than Jesus did here on earth! Do we believe this truth? Do we believe Jesus? Or do our mediocre, apathetic lives proclaim our unbelief?

The mighty works of God

We open today's liturgy with the prayer: "O Chosen people, proclaim the mighty works of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, alleluia."  God has called each one of us out of the darkness of sin and selfishness, fear and hatred, including hatred toward oneself that can be learned from those in our lives who are jealous of us, put us down, reject us, a hatred we can easily internalize.  We have been called into the marvelous world of light, of God's unconditional love, God's justice and peace, God's mercy and forgiveness.  In faith, we know that God waits for the moment that His free gift of redemption is fully realized in each one of us. In faith we also know that Jesus will return to take us up into heaven to reside where He and the Father reign, where there is no more pain and sadness, no more chaos and confusion, no more put downs or rejections, no more self-criticism or harsh rebukes from others whose self-disdain can easily be projected onto us.  O how God longs for that day when we will occupy that special  place that Jesus has gone up to heaven to prepare for us.  O happy fault of Adam that revealed to us God's marvelous love for His Chosen People!