Let us surrender. Let us be opened up to learn and follow.
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For Black Catholic history, holiness is God’s response to injustice
So let us honor the proud legacy of our Black Catholic ancestors by continuing their work of building Christ’s kingdom in America.
Continue readingListen, be open to God like little children
And we say as the Gospel verse said, “Alleluia! Alleluia! Blessed are you Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom. Alleluia! Alleluia!”
Continue readingLike Mary, we are called
+ We are moving through narrative sections of the scriptures, and they do not present us with a lot of teaching through parables and other storytelling devices.
However, today is a most interesting passage from the very first verses of Matthew’s Gospel — the famous Genealogy of Jesus.
Also interestingly, for whatever reason, those who put together the scriptures that would be used in liturgy chose to leave out Verse 17 which actually is said to be largely artificial composition, arranging three sets of 14 generations — 42 in all.
It begins with Abraham and interestingly includes good and not so good peeps.
It also includes five women, which was a rarity.
And even rarer was that among those five women were prostitutes and gentiles.
Of course, Mary is also noted. All of this makes up the line of ancestors — the Davidic line — from which Jesus was born.
He, Emmanuel (God is with us), entered into humanity through the Virgin Mary.
The feast day is a big one in both the Eastern and Western churches, but more so in the East where it is a solemnity.
It falls on Sept. 8 (also artificially rather than historically) because Sept. 8 comes exactly nine months after the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, just as the Annunciation precedes the birth of Jesus by nine months (celebrated on March 25).
The thorough artificial listing of names is to root Jesus historically in time and to really show his human nature attached to people both good and not so good — family.
That’s the way it was, and that’s the way it is.
There is a choice for the first reading.
The Micah passage sets us up for the Davidic line that would be traced back to a tiny and insignificant place, and from this clan of insignificance would come a mighty ruler — the prediction of the messiah realized in our Gospel passage.
The other choice of readings from Paul’s letter to the Romans speaks of how we are called by God just as Mary herself was called: “and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
Really, like Mary, we are CALLED.
And when we realize that deep within we are also invited to be “conformed to the image of his Son.”
Continue readingTaste the Gospel, hear the call of Jesus, and don’t settle for anything else
This is the preparation for the endurance and the surrender to the cross. This is simply what has been referred to as the truth — the Gospel truth.
Continue readingGod’s love is something entirely unique
It is for that reason, if we ever learn that lesson, that we therefore should love one another.
Continue readingI am thankful
We have worked together. We have become more united — more one, and more the Body of Christ.
Continue readingCovered by the love of the cross, covered by the love that is God
We will never fully understand it, and yet we touch the mystery countless times every day in prayer, allowing this mystery to guide and to change and to love us!
Continue readingAre we willing to respond like Mary with our own simple ‘Yes’?
A reflection on the daily readings, for the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Father Perry. By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor Today, we celebrate not just a visitation but the visitation. And this visit of […]
Continue readingBehold others as brothers and sisters in Christ, and behold all in love
We return to walk with and in and through and because of our faith and our love of the Christ.
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