11/6/16 God of the Living
THE 32ND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Dear friends in Christ,
Sometimes in our daily lives, God becomes more of an idea than a real person. Jesus was very emphatic in his response to the Sadducees: God is God of the living, not of the dead. God is alive, He is the Living God, the All-Powerful Father who sustains all that exists. When God is not seen as the Living God, then He is perceived as an idea, a preference, something negotiable, at the same level of other ideas or opinions. Then, as it was the case for the Sadducees, we can ask interesting questions about God, but be far from Him. Then, as we see often today, God and his Word are not a source of authority, but only a matter of preference, as long as there is no other idea that we would rather choose. The God of the living calls us to know Him, love Him and follow Him. And, in difficult times, He assures us of his company and support. Even in times of trial and persecution, He offers heaven, and gives us everlasting encouragement and good hope, directing our hearts to the love of God and the endurance of Christ, as St. Paul said today. As we get ready for the presidential election, let us renew our faith in the living God, and receive from Him the endurance and hope we need to be faithful to Him at all times.
United in prayer,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
10/30/16 The Desire for Something More
THE 31ST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Brothers and sisters, God’s power is seen in the wonder of his creation. But this power shines even more in God’s mercy. You have mercy on all, because you can do all things, we heard in the first reading. Of course, the power to create the world from nothing is impressive; but the power to forgive evil, to have mercy on those who choose to betray the goodness of love, is even more impressive, as that power is not only gratuitous but also undeserved. This power is what transformed the heart of Zacchaeus. Because he realized that he had done wrong, he was open to forgiveness and salvation, and so he changed his life. This is how things work: it would be naïve to expect someone to change just out of some formal duty; there has to be an encounter, there has to be conversion. And because God is powerful, his mercy can do all things.
This message brings hope, not only to our lives but also to our society. In times of challenges hope has to be more than optimism. Hope has to be rooted in the truth: the truth of our own weakness, and the truth of God’s mercy. Only in this way does mercy transform our hearts, and therefore, our society as well.
Let us pray for each other,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
8/21/16 Entering Through the Narrow Gate
THE 21ST SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear brothers and sisters,
Someone asked the Lord a question about how many would be saved. He did not give any number nor statistics, but rather turned the curious question into a personal matter: [you] strive to enter through the narrow gate.
Salvation is not a given, a cheap reality that will happen anyway to anyone, regardless of our good or bad actions. If a wrong understanding of mercy led us to think this way, we would not truly appreciate the high price paid by Christ for our salvation. But He died for us, so that we can live and be saved! So we need to strive, make an effort and enter through the narrow gate.
This also means that we need to help others to know and be aware of this reality. We cannot simply ignore that many people are at risk of ignoring or rejecting the right path! And for this, as a duty of love, we need to share the good news: God loves us and wants our salvation. Let us say that kind word, let us make that invitation, let us bring people to Christ!
With my prayers,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
O Beauty So Ancient and So New
SUMMER RETREAT:
Liturgy, Sacred Music & The New Evangelization
Adam Bartlett is the President and Editor of Illuminare Publications and is editor of the Lumen Christi Series. He has served as a parish and cathedral music director for over 10 years, and has previously served as Assistant Director of the Liturgical Institute, Mundelein, and as professor of Liturgical Chant at Mundelein Seminary. He studied music at Arizona State University, liturgy at The Liturgical Institute, Mundelein, and Gregorian chant at St. Meinrad Archabbey under the direction of Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB. Adam teaches, speaks and writes extensively on topics of liturgical music.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
7/24/16 Praying with Confidence
THE 17TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear friends in Christ,
The Lord himself teaches us how to pray. What a blessing! We do not believe in a distant God who has no contact with us, but rather, we trust in a loving God who wants to be with us and who teaches us how to pray! Today we learn again the most important prayer of all: the Our Father. And with it, we are encouraged to pray with persistence: to ask, knock, and call, knowing that God will always hear our prayer. One of the most important lessons about prayer is that trust is at the root of any authentic prayer. We need to believe that God will give us good gifts. To be clear, the promise is not that we will receive exactly what we wish. Rather, Jesus said that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. This is his promise, this is our hope: God will listen to our prayer and will give us what we need. Let us find comfort in this certainty, and renew our commitment to pray with confidence.
United in prayer,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
7/17/16 The Practice of God’s Presence (takes 2 minutes per day)
THE 16TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear friends in Christ,
Our beautiful Gospel tells us of Martha and Mary and their relationship with the Lord. We know that they —and Lazarus, their brother— were good friends of Jesus and would host Him at their home. And we also know that they were different and had a different way of relating with Him.
Typically, Mary has been seen as a symbol of contemplation and Martha of action. While this is important and true, it is also important to keep in mind that what matters is not primarily the way in which we encounter Christ, but that we actually do encounter Him, that we choose the better part. Martha’s problem was not that she was working hard, but that she was anxious and distracted and, therefore, while preparing a feast for Jesus, she was away from Him. The main lesson of today’s Gospel is that we need to choose the better part: be with Christ always, whether we are in church or at work, because that will never be taken away from us.
United in prayer,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
7/3/16 Your Name Written in Heaven
THE 14TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear brothers and sisters,
The Lord invites us today to reflect upon the true understanding of joy. After the disciples came back from their first mission, they were excited and happy about what they had done. Spontaneously, they began to share all their great works. It is significant that Jesus led them to a deeper joy than that which comes from what we can do. That deeper joy is also more stable as it does not depend on what we do; it lasts forever because it comes from God. That joy is the joy of being called: the awareness of being chosen, of having received a gift that we do not deserve, that surpasses our merits and can only be understood when we realize that we are loved. God’s love is unconditional; therefore, we have always a reason to rejoice, for our names are written in heaven. With gratitude, let us try to open our hearts to this profound joy so that we can also respond with generosity to such a generous gift.
God bless you all,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
6/26/16 Called for Freedom
THE 13TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear friends in Christ,
We have been called for freedom. The words inspired by God to Saint Paul are very clear and important: for freedom we have been set free. What does this mean? First, we have been set free: Jesus became one of us and died for us so that we can receive the gift of freedom: freedom from sin and death. Second, this gift does not guarantee that our life is going to be, actually, free from sins. The gift is there, given freely and generously. But we need to receive it and cooperate with it. We need to respond to God’s grace and choose effectively to do what God wants for us.
Freedom is not just a simple capacity to do things, to choose whatever we want. Freedom is, firstly, “being freed” by someone, and so, true freedom becomes responding to the one who has freed us. True freedom is to be able to say to Jesus I will follow you wherever you go, and actually do it, without looking back. Let us pray for the gift of freedom and let us make our best effort, in the daily and many times unpretentious circumstances of our life, to be actually free and follow Jesus in every action and thought.
With my prayers,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
6/5/16 Praying with the Psalms
THE 10TH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear brothers and sisters,
The readings show us Jesus as our true savior. He is truly our redeemer not only because of his divine power, capable of such an impressive miracle as the resurrection of a dead man, but also because He became man, one of us, our brother and our friend. This simple truth is absolutely essential: God saves us through Christ, whose human heart allows Him to experience compassion, in the true sense of the word: compassion; to suffer with. In this way, God really united Himself with us, reconciling the wound that separated us from Him. Being aware of this reality is important if the Gospel is to be more than a nice story from the past. The Word we heard today is the good news of our possible redemption, of the gift offered by Jesus in our own lives. And for this we need to open our own hearts to encounter Him more deeply in prayer, and especially in the sacrament of confession. Hopefully, this Sunday can become an occasion of renewing our desire to be more open to the salvation brought by Jesus to each one of us.
With my prayers,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
5/8/16 Your Participation in His Victory
THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION
–> Click here to view the bulletin
My dear brothers and sisters,
Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord and with it we reflect on the victory of Christ and our participation in it. The Gospel tells us of the significant fact that the Lord ascended into heaven as He was blessing his disciples. Contrary to what one may think, his departure is neither a curse, nor a negative event for us, who would be better off if He had stayed with us in the same kind of presence He had with his first disciples. The Ascension teaches us that his going to the Father is a blessing: the beginning of a new kind of relationship.
This is why the disciples did Him homage and left with great joy. They understood that the Lord was going to be with them always; they realized that his sacrifice on the cross was the source of all blessings, and his risen presence would never be taken away from them. For us, the Ascension is the beginning of our own discipleship, of the way given to us to follow Christ and announce Him. Today is a day of joy for us, as it was for the first disciples, for the Lord’s ascension is a great blessing.
Also, today we rejoice for the 40 parishioners who are receiving the sacrament of Confirmation from Archbishop Aquila. Please, pray that they will experience the closeness of the Lord, and the joy of being anointed by the Holy Spirit. Finally, Happy Mother’s Day to all those who give us God’s love through the gift of motherhood!
Happy Solemnity of the Ascension,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
5/1/16 What is Peace?
6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER
–> Click here to view the bulletin
Dear brothers and sisters,
One of the fruits of Easter is the gift of peace. When we hear the word “peace,” we think of something good and positive. Even people without faith would agree that peace is something to be aimed for. But what is peace?
Today’s Gospel offers an important key in order to understand the gift of Christ’s peace. He said Do not let your hearts be troubled. What does He mean? The Lord is saying that even if there are difficult and painful moments in life, we should not be troubled. It is one thing to suffer; it is another thing to be troubled. How can we endure difficult times without letting our hearts be troubled? This is only possible if we welcome the gift of Christ’s peace. His peace is not a feeling; He spoke of it as something He will leave us, as something He gives. This gift is a reality that we cannot produce, that comes from outside our hearts, from his own heart, giving us the serenity and security that his love is indeed stronger than sin and death. It is only because of his risen presence that peace can be a reality in our hearts and that we can be not troubled, but be in his loving presence.
With my prayers,
Fr. Daniel
Podcast: Play in new window | Download