All Saints Day

Communion of Saints by Ira Thomas. (Click for larger view)

The prayers from the liturgy for the Solemnity of All Saints (Tuesday, November 1) give us not only a good understanding of what this day celebrates but also a fine insight into what we mean when we say we believe in the communion of saints.

The Opening Prayer for All Saints Day:
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God,
today we rejoice in the holy men and women
of every time and place.
May their prayers bring us
your forgiveness and love.

...the work of your hands is manifest in your saints,
the beauty of your truth is reflected in their faith.
May we who aspire to have part in their joy
be filled with the Holy Spirit that blessed their lives,
so that having shared their faith on earth
we may also know their peace in your kingdom.

The Prayer Over the Gifts:
Lord,
receive our gifts
in honor of the holy men and women
who live with you in glory.
May we always be aware
of their concern to help and save us.

The Preface for All Saints

Today we keep the festival of Your holy city,
the heavenly Jerusalem, our mother.
Around Your throne the saints,
our brothers and sisters,
sing Your praise for ever.
Their glory fills us with joy,
and their communion with us in Your Church
gives us inspiration and strength
as we hasten on our pilgrimage of faith,
eager to meet them.

With their great company and all the angels
we praise Your glory as we cry out with one voice:

Holy, holy, holy...

The Prayer After Communion
Father, holy one,
we praise your glory reflected in the saints.
May we who share at this table
be filled with your love
and prepared for the joy of your kingdom.

In addition to affirming an afterlife, these prayers highlight our belief that we continue to be in relationship with those who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith. It is not only a matter of our honoring the holy lives these brothers and sisters led but also of acknowledging that they who are already with the Lord continue to be concerned for us and our welfare. That the very work of God can be manifest in our lives calls us to the responsibility of living in a way that the love of God be transparent in our deeds and relationships. Finally, our prayer on All Saints Day reminds us that when we share at the altar of the Lord's table we have a foretaste of the banquet the saints share forever in the reign of God.

The church calendar sets aside many days to honor the most famous of saints. November 1 is the day for us to remember and honor those saints whose lives made headlines not in the daily papers but in the hearts of those they served and touched. All of us know such saints in our own lives - some who have gone home to the Lord and some who are still with us.

Happy All Saints Day!



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November 1 and 2 on the Church calendar

In some cultures, it's customary to visit cemeteries on the eve of All Saints Day 
and to light candles at the graves in honor of the dead.

The Saint Anthony Messenger site answers some questions about the origins of the next two days on the Christians calendar. Following are excerpts from the Messenger report.

When you think of Halloween, what comes to mind? For a lot of people, Halloween has become synonymous with candy, costumes, scary stuff, witches, ghosts and pumpkins. But do you know the Christian connection to the holiday?

The true origins of Halloween lie with the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. For the Celts, November 1 marked the beginning of a new year and the coming of winter. The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, lord of the dead. During this festival, Celts believed the souls of the dead, including ghosts, goblins and witches, returned to mingle with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires.

When the Romans conquered the Celts, they added their own touches to the Samhain festival, such as making centerpieces out of apples and nuts for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchards. The Romans also bobbed for apples and drank cider, traditions which may sound familiar to you. But where does the Christian aspect of the holiday come into play? In 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1. The night before became known as All Hallows' Even or holy evening. Eventually the name was shortened to the current Halloween. On November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day.

The purpose of these feasts is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the "communion of saints," which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that through the communion of saints "a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things" (#1475).

For more, read the rest!


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Monday Morning Offering - 167

Coffee in the Morning by George Mendoza


Tomorrow is the first day of November, the month of All Souls, a special time to pray for those who have died. You might want to keep today's MMO handy as a prayer for these November days...


Good morning, gracious God...

November wraps its dampened shroud
‘round nature’s shoulders hunched:
our souls know well the chill
of summer’s passing and winter's drawing near...

Bare limbs scratch against gray skies,
and snatch the mourner’s veil
from hearts laid bare in shivering loss,
alone, exposed in grief…

November, Lord: no other month
could better claim the name All Souls
or set the scene for praying, weeping,
rememb'ring those before us gone
and marked with signs of faith…

So this November morning, Lord,
I offer my beloved: created from your hand,
claimed by grace and carried now
in the arms of your embrace…

I especially lift up prayer today
for family and for friends who've died...
(mention and remember your loved ones here, by name)

I offer you from my heart's depths
the ones I struggle to let go…

I offer you a prayer of tears
for those whose absence fills my silent hours…

I offer from my hands to yours
the ones whose hands held mine
until you called them home…

I offer from a contrite heart
the ones I bruised and hurt:
I pray that all the wounds I caused,
your mercy now might heal...

I offer up a prayer
for those who've none to pray for them:
brothers, sisters never met;
sisters, brothers mine,
for all are one in you...

Receive into your arms, O Lord,
receive into your peace and joy
the souls of those who've gone before
who wait to meet you face to face...

I offer you my grief, O Lord,
refresh me in your tender care;
make deep my trust I'll see again
all those I've lost when,
gathered in your kingdom's joy,
your mercy brings all home...

Beneath November’s canopy walk others, Lord,
who know as well as I the depths
of this month’s memories,
the souls for whom we pray:
keep us gentle with each other, Lord,
and mindful of what binds us in your love…

Accept my mourning offering, Lord,
today and through the night until it dies
and wakes again, a new day born,
the day that you have made...

Amen.


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Happy Halloween!

Photo: Brett Marinaccio

As The Concord Journal reports, this is about how things are here in town - in October!



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Of traffic cops and nursing mothers

Image source

Homily for the Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Scriptures for today's Mass)

Audio for homily



If there’s any Sunday
on which someone other than someone ordained should preach -
it’s this Sunday.

In the readings today from Malachi and Matthew,
priests and preachers are criticized and even cursed by the Lord.
In the first scripture the priests are condemned
for not taking their calling seriously, for not “laying it to heart,”
and for thereby leading others astray.

In the gospel the preachers are castigated
for not practicing what they preach
and for feeling entitled to privilege on account of their ministry.

We don’t have to look too far back in history
to see that such failings plague the ministry to this very day.

And I don’t have to look very hard
to see how the Lord’s words are a critique my own life and work.
I’ll spare you the details and myself the embarrassment
of disclosing my own failings
but you can be sure that like all priests,
I am far from being a perfect one.

Priests and preachers stand in a precarious place.

I don’t usually think of myself as some kind of spiritual traffic cop,
but I know that I stand at a difficult and critical intersection
in peoples’ lives.

A priest stands at the intersection
of the grace of gospel and the grit and grind of daily life:
- where the Lord’s way and our ways either merge or diverge;
- where pleasure yields to conscience or crashes in fantasy;
- where business follows ethics’ map or is lost in greed;
- where science is cautioned
to give human dignity the right of way;
- where politics not fueled by principles cannot be licensed;
- where religion without sacrifice, like a car with four flat tires,
is a vehicle going nowhere.*

A priest stands:
- at the intersection of God’s word and the latest fad;
- at the corner of sacrifice and entitlement;
- at the crossroads of comfort and sacrifice.
And there he is expected to give signals and directions
to people making some of the most difficult, personal choices of life,
choices that have long-lasting, even eternal consequences.

That’s where a priest stands.

And at the same time, writes St. Paul to us today,
a priest, a preacher, should be among his people,
“as gentle as a nursing mother, caring for her children…
sharing, with affection, not only the gospel
but his very self as well...”

Such a powerful image here, especially when you consider the intimacy
of how a nursing mother gives her very self to her children…

So perhaps the priest is to be a kind of spiritual traffic cop
and a nursing mother at the same time.
Try to imagine a nursing mother directing traffic!
Try to imagine directing traffic with a child at your breast!
The priest, the preacher needs to be both.

Image source

I don’t say any of this to excuse my own failings
or those of my brother priests and our bishops -
much less to solicit any sympathy because I have a hard job.
I love my work!
But the temptations to shrink from or shirk the responsibilities
of such a ministry are real.
Real, too, is the possibility of becoming
either the traffic cop --or-- the nursing mother,
rather than allowing both aspects of ministry to meld into one.

I offer all of this because in so many ways it applies to all of us.
Each of us is called to follow the road the Lord maps out for us
and to respect the rules of the road he gives us --
even and especially when passing through
the most difficult of life’s intersections.

We’re expected, all of us, to “ask for directions”
even before we get lost -- and to follow them.

In fact, we’re called to become so familiar with the Lord’s road rules
that when we do get lost
we’ll have a good sense of direction,
good enough to help us know
which path to take… which way to go.

And because we don’t travel the Lord’s road alone,
we have to avoid “spiritual road rage.”
Each of us is called to be with others
as gentle and affectionate as a nursing mother,
not only giving each other admonition and advice,
but giving of ourselves, as well.

As we gather at the Lord’s Table today, I ask you to pray for priests
that they might be always more and more faithful to the Lord:
strong in giving good direction
and gentle in loving those who seek and need it.

And let us pray for one another...

On the Cross, the Lord’s sacrifice made smooth our path
and gave us a way home.

At this table, like a nursing mother, he feeds us from his own breast,
with his Body and Blood, to give us strength to walk in his footsteps.

Show us the way home, Lord, direct us
and gently lead us all as we make our way with you…

*categories adapted from Ghandi's Seven Deadly Sins

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Heavy burdens...

Source: Pencrush

There's still time to sit with this Sunday's scriptures and ponder them before heading out to Mass where these texts will be proclaimed.  For the readings and commentary on them, check out this earlier post.

What are you waiting for?


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Let us pray for one another...

We all ask others to pray for us
and we promise our prayers in return...

This night I pray for some special people in my life
and I'm sure you're praying for friends and loved ones in yours...

Like you, I pray for people who have many needs
and I take comfort in knowing that the Lord knows those needs
even before we speak them...

Like you, I pray for family and friends,
for neighbors and parishioners
who have asked for my prayers...

And like you, I pray for people I've never met,
for whom others have asked me to pray...

For some we pray for help, hope and healing...
for others we intercede for patience, forgiveness and reconciliation,
for many we ask for guidance, counsel and understanding...
for others we pray for relief, comfort and consolation...
and for all we ask for serenity, harmony and peace...

We pray for the sick and the dying
and for those who care for them, day by day...

We pray for an end to violence in peoples' homes,
in their streets and among nations...

We pray for the healing of the abused and betrayed
and for the restoration of trust and confidence in the Church...

We pray for the victory of justice and a harvest of peace...

We pray for those who serve and protect us, at home and abroad
and we pray for our enemies and for those who persecute us...

And we pray with grateful hearts for those who this day
found peace, happiness and joy...

I join you in your prayer tonight and I pray for you...

Please join in my prayer tonight and pray for me...

God, grant us serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
courage to change the things we can
and the wisdom to know the difference...


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Word for the Weekend: October 30

Women Miners Carrying Coal: VanGogh

“They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry 

and lay them on people's shoulders, 

but they will not lift a finger to move them” 

(Matthew 23:4)

Time to sit down with this coming Sunday's scriptures for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

You'll find the readings and brief commentary on them here and if you're shepherding young ones to Mass this weekend, you'll find tips on helping them prepare to hear the Word right here.  (A child wondering about the readings before hearing them in church is likely to listen more carefully when at Mass!)

The gospel and first lesson for this Sunday are hard on leaders of the faith community and their failures to minister appropriately and with care for those entrusted to their care. Jesus says: "(D)o and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people's shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen"  

The first scripture is just as strong where the Lord says of the priests: "You have turned aside from the way, and have caused many to falter by your instruction; you have made void the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts. I, therefore, have made you contemptible and base before all the people, since you do not keep my ways, but show partiality in your decisions."

What a contrast we find in the second lesson where St. Paul, speaking of his own ministry, writes: "We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us. You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God."

It would be interesting if any other than clergy were to preach on these texts this weekend!

Check out the complete texts -- now!

What might you preach this weekend if the clergy were sitting in front of you and listening to your words?
 

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Sometimes

I want to ask the Lord

why he allows

poverty, famine and injustice in the world

when he could do something about it.

But I'm afraid he might just

ask me the

same question...

(Found on FaceBook)

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Speaking of love...

Given my homily on this Sunday's scriptures, I found this post on FaceBook (thanks, Troy!) especially appropriate.


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Monday Morning Offering - 166

Image: George Mendoza


Good morning, good God!

I was driving into Boston on Friday afternoon
when, through my windshield, 
you aimed the sun
into my eyes, my mind, my soul...

Your brilliance pushed me back, 
my eyes squinting, 
focusing intensely on the road ahead 
and with the sun, a flashlight in your hand,
you snapped me to attention!

And with the light came the heat of you
warming my flesh and whispering,
"I've got you!"

And you did.  
You had me!
For a few minutes on 95, 
you had me in the palm of your hand
and I wondered aloud, "What're you doing?"

But I knew exactly what you were doing...

You were in my face, in my eyes,
with light to dazzle and remind 
that even as the leaves fall and winter waits, 
you warm me inside out:
my flesh, my heart and soul, my mind...

Lord, have mercy!
How often, so turned inside myself,
do I miss the moments 
when you hold the sun in my path 
and warm my heart with light 
no darkness can douse?

Christ, have mercy!
How often, so chilled in my own grief,
do I shrug off the warmth of your embrace
reaching out to blanket me 
in love that never fails?

Lord, have mercy!
How often, dazzled by your beauty glimpsed,
do I shut my eyes closed tight
and blind my soul to hope
and choose a path of tears?

Lord, have mercy!
Christ, have mercy!
Lord, have mercy!

Before the leaves have fallen, all
and winter chills what warmth is left:
open up my heart, Lord:
to see what you would have me see;
to find your furnaced heart's embrace;
to catch a glimpse of hope as seasons change...

I offer you my prayer, 
this Monday morning, Lord,
for all the times I've missed 
the light, the warmth, the hope 
I found on Friday afternoon
and waits for me today, tonight
and through the week ahead...

Amen.

(Click here for an archive of Monday Morning Offerings)


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A whole lotta lovin' going on!

 

Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Scriptures for today's liturgy)

Audio for homily

LOVE:

- we talk about love, we write about love, we sing about love

- we dream of love, fantasize love, hope for love

- we sell love, buy love, ignore love -- we grieve its loss

- we offer and receive love, we make love

- we need love, we promise and betray love

- we abuse and refuse love, we forget and regret love

- we fear love, we reject love, we welcome love,

- we love love…

Love is such a pervasive reality in our lives:

this complex, perplexing, beguiling, bewildering,

demanding, ambiguous reality that runs through

all of who we are and what we do.

Our hunger for love, our drive to love and to be loved

is given to us by God who embeds a desire for love

in our minds and hearts and imaginations,

a desire intended to whet our appetite for God who is love.

All love is from God -- and all love leads us back to God.

True love has no source other than God

and real love always, in some way, draws us closer to God.

Jesus is clear in the gospel here about how much God desires our love.

God wants me, wants you, wants us all -- heart and soul.

God wants all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my mind.

But even God's desire does not exhaust the love I have to offer.

I’m also called to love my neighbor -- and to love my self as well.

In other words, all of my relationships (even my relationship to myself)

are to be relationships of love.

All love is of God and all love, true love, leads us back to God,

in one way or another.

The first scripture today tests the depths and limits of my love

in calling me to love even those I don’t know,

to love the stranger, the alien

and to love those who have nothing to give back,

to love the poor.

I’m called to love the one whose ways are alien to mine.

And I’m called to love generously those who are in need,

expecting nothing in return.

This is a selfless love, offered to and for the other,

a love that finds its greatest peace and deepest joy

not in self-fulfillment but in caring for the beloved.

Jesus himself, of course, is the model for just this kind of love.

Look to the Cross and you see the One who loves us

with all his heart, all his soul and all his mind.

Look to the Cross and see the One who loves us

even though our sins threaten to estrange and alienate us from him.

Look to the Cross of Jesus and see the One

who loves us who have nothing to offer in return

except our thanks and praise -

and our efforts to love one another as he loved us.

We come to this altar every week to remember Jesus

and his willingness to sacrifice everything for love of us.

We come to the table to offer thanks and praise

and to be nourished with the life he gave for us:

his Body and Blood shared with us in the Eucharist.

We come here to remember, to be reminded that:

all love is from God -- and all love leads us back to God.

True love has no source other than God

and real love always, in some way, draws us closer to God.

I’ll close with a reflection on love written by Pedro Arrupe,

a Jesuit priest:

Nothing is more practical than

finding God, than

falling in Love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide

what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you do with your evenings,

how you spend your weekends,

what you read, whom you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in Love, stay in love,

and it will decide everything.

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Words we all know... words we need to ponder...

We're already familiar with Jesus' words in the gospel this weekend - the question might be, are we too familiar with them?

Sometimes it's the familiar passages that most require our attention and study, lest we take them for granted.

At this earlier post you'll find this Sunday's scriptures, brief commentary on them and hints for helping children prepare to hear the Word.

Go for it - now!


Image source

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We must be pierced by flowers...

Source: Thundafunda

On a rotating basis, in a column titled Voices of Faith, leaders of faith communities in Concord contribute articles to the town's weekly, The Concord Journal.  It was my turn this week...

In Hardwood Groves

The same leaves over and over again!
They fall from giving shade above
To make one texture of faded brown
And fit the earth like a leather glove.

Before the leaves can mount again
To fill the trees with another shade,
They must go down past things coming up.
They must go down into the dark decayed.

They must be pierced by flowers and put
Beneath the feet of dancing flowers.
However it is in some other world
I know that this is the way in ours.

-Robert Frost

Of all Frost’s poems, this is one of my favorites. It’s difficult for me to imagine a greater grasp of the fall than what’s found in these simple words. Of course, Frost captures more than the soul of autumn, he captures our hearts, our souls, too. For this is the way in this world of ours, in October and in any time, when the rhythm of falling and mounting again, the passage of dying and rising, moves around and within us.

Is it my imagination or have the leaves been slow to fall this year? And the colors - where are the colors? I want more color on the street where I live and more color along the roads I drive! How far west on Route 2 need I travel to enjoy a palette finer than faded browns and muted, dappled yellows? I need more color to help me through the shorter days, the longer nights and the chill that’s finally trumping last week’s treat of shirtsleeves warmth. The colors coax us to accept the going down in dark decayed and hint, they even promise what’s coming up but cannot yet be seen or smelled, loved or touched.

The dying and the rising must be: however it is in some other world, I know, with Frost, that this is the way in ours.

Saturday’s afternoon was a chilled and rainy day in Harvard where I attended a memorial service for Jeremiah, a young man, a gentle, wise, loving leaf of a poet who fell much too soon from the shade his life offered to family, friends and his beloved.. So many loving hearts, assembling to remember, coming together to lift up precious memories as if they might, with grief’s reach, reattach this precious green leaf to the branch where he belonged.

But before the leaves can mount again, more than a season must pass…

Jeremiah has not taken leave of hearts that knew and now treasure him all the more in loss. Perhaps, already, he rests even more deeply in the souls of those he’s left behind. He is gone but he is not gone. He is not here but he is here. He has fallen from his place and yet even memories of him give shade to hearts muted in October’s faded browns…

We all need the colors that help us make a way through this season and all the seasons of our hearts. We need the colors to help us through the shorter days, the longer nights and the chill that trumps the warmth of memories and huddles us together, waiting through winter for the spring. We must be pierced by flowers and put beneath the feet of dancing flowers. However it is in some other world, I now that this is the way in ours.

To Frost’s verse and in memory of a young poet, let me add my own words:

I offer you thanks, Lord,
for your divine imagination,
your playful wisdom shaping
earth, its seasons and their beauty...

Who first knew your plan
for shorter days and autumn chill
to sap the summer's chlorophyll
from leafy, shady boughs?

A gift of longer nights,
these hidden hues now bared
expose on every branch your hand
waving blessings on October's breeze...

I see revealed in summer's loss,
in each tree's seasoned death,
a glory of gold and russets
rustling purple patches, crimson crowned

and fall's late light filtered
through leaves glowing from within:
all so simple, as if your hand,
divine, had not designed it all...

When my hope's summered green
fades, Lord, paint my soul in
autumn hues, illumn'd with light
whose only source is you...

I offer you my thanks
for every leaf that sighs and falls
and pads the path I walk
and wander in your grace...


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Remembering and praying for priests

Yesterday, I received an email yesterday from someone I've not seen or heard from since 1982.  Maureen was a student at day Notre Dame when I was on the Campus Ministry staff at the home of the Fighting Irish in South Bend. In the course of a couple of email exchanges, Maureen shared this reflection:

Among the many things that I pray and meditate about regularly, I like to remember and give thanks for the hardworking and inspiring priests that have influenced me over the years. Doing this has helped to counteract my profound disappointment and frustration with the human failings of the institutional church...

I'm grateful that Maureen would number me among such priests but more than that I was struck by the wisdom of what she wrote.  Who among us doesn't share her profound disappointment in the tragedy and pain some priests have inflicted on the lives of the innocent and their families and friends - and the whole Church?  And who among us isn't deeply frustrated with the failure of the Church over decades to respond appropriately and in a timely manner to the claims and cries of the abused?

Maureen's wisdom lies in taking time to remember, too, the good that has been done in the lives of all of us by those ordained to preach the gospel and minister in the name of Jesus.

To be clear, we cannot for a moment afford to forget or gloss over what has happened: to do so would be to invite history to repeat itself.  But as we grieve and work to insure that such abuse will never again be tolerated, it might help us all to remember the many priests who served us well, especially in our younger days.

As a Catholic who shares Maureen's profound disappointment and frustration, I've been nudged by what she wrote to think back on my own history and to remember and pray for the priests I remember from my youth: Monsignor O'Brien, Fr. Sheehan, Fr. Berube, Monsignor Cusack, Fr. Fagan and Fr. Bukay...

Thanks, Maureen, for being in touch and for leading me (and my readers) to prayerfully and gratefully remember the blessings of all the good priests in our lives...

All of the above has put me in mind of the Year for Priests (June '09-June '10) and the Prayer for Priests which I wrote and posted monthly...


A Prayer for Priests

Gracious God, loving Father,
font of every gift and good,
make of priests for us we pray:

men of faith, men of love,
humble servants of your Word,
prophets of your Spirit’s grace;

men of hope, men of peace,
strong defenders of the truth,
heralds of your holy gospel;

men of prayer, men of praise,
guardians of our sacred rites,
of the scriptures and tradition;

men of changelessness and change,
men who follow you each day,
when and where your Spirit leads;

men of tenderness and strength,
comfort for the sick and weary,
shepherds leading home the lost;

men of counsel, men of wisdom,
gentle guides for the confused,
lights along the darkened path;

men of mercy, patient men,
understanding and consoling
of the grieving and abused;

men of justice and compassion,
reconciling and forgiving,
men of healing in your name;

men of sacrifice and honor,
single minded in your service,
set apart to do your will;

men of holiness and joy,
men anointed by your grace,
men ordained to serve as Christ.

Make us one with them in faith
and in Christ your only Son
in whose holy name we pray.

Amen.

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Word for the Weekend: October 23

Time to ponder the scriptures we'll hear proclaimed at Mass this weekend for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Did you run and get your bible?
Good!
Now, open it to Exodus 22:20-26, 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10, and Matthew 22:34-40.

You didn't run and get your bible?
That's OK!
Click on this link for the weekend's scripture passages and background material on them!

Got kids? Then another click will take you to hints for helping children prepare to hear the Word at Mass this weekend.

The Wisdom text may be sound primitive in our own era and in our economic distress but the heart of its message is as true today as it was in its own time.  The Thessalonians piece is a continuation of that letter's salutation (the beginning of which we heard last week) and it's a gracious compliment from Paul about his readers' reputation in the faith. (Would that our faith today stood out so boldly for the world around us.) The gospel from Matthew gives us the "two great commandments," words we all know, perhaps by heart. We need to be careful lest our familiarity with them lead us to pay them insufficient attention.  To ponder these words over and over again is a virtue, not a waste of time.


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Who are the beautiful people?

H/T: SrRP

I know many such beautiful people and I'm sure you do, too...



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