12/26/2015

The Holy Innocents



A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew (2, 13-18)

When the Magi had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

This is the Word of the Lord.
 listen here

12/03/2015

Revolution of Tenderness

In an interview to a Catholic weekly magazine (‘Credere’),  Pope Francis responds to a question about the female face of the Church, saying it is not easy to understand the maternity of God, so he prefers to speak of the tenderness of God as our mother and father. If we are open to this revolution of tenderness, the Pope says, we ourselves will become more tolerant, more patient and more tender, learning not to treat people as objects. The Pope gives the example of an employer who lays off his workers over the summer so that he doesn’t have to pay the extra pension or social security costs of a full time worker. If we are able to put ourselves in that other person’s shoes, the Pope says, then things change and we stop thinking about the money in our own pockets.
Read report  here
Read interviedw in Italian here

11/01/2015

You are invited, come!

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14: 15-24).
One of those at table with Jesus said to him: ‘Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, “Come; for everything is ready now.” But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.” So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, “Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.” And the slave said, “Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” Then the master said to the slave, “Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.”’ This is the word of the Lord.

7/20/2015

Freedom for excellence


                                                                             Read article

7/15/2015

POWER AND WISDOM BELONG TO HIM

Then Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (Mk 6, 7-13)

In today’s liturgy the Gospel selection starts: “Jesus called the twelve …” In the Bible there is a small word that connects today’s selection with the verses preceding it. The word is: “Then”. This little word can help us understand better today’s gospel.
What does it refer to?

6/02/2015

Whose wife will she be?

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark (12, 18-27)
And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the wife, and raise up children for his brother.  There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no children; and the second took her, and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; and the seven left no children. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife." Jesus said to them, "Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, `I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong."
This is the word of the Lord.

There are at least two reasons why one asks a question. First, a person wants to learn and asks questions in his search for wisdom and truth. Second, a person might want to trick another into a trap and asks malicious questions.

4/20/2015

What Jesus says, IS!

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 6, 52-59)

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Jesus was teaching in the Synagogue at Capernaum. He was saying wonderful things that were difficult to understand fully. The crowd in the synagogue was looking for him because he had fed them for free with five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus challenged them to look for food that endures to eternal life. They wanted this food and they remembered the manna God gave their forefathers to eat in the desert, abundant and free. They were still thinking of material food: bread, fish and meat.

Listen here.

4/01/2015

I AM ABOUT TO CREATE NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH (Is 65, 1-3)

Mother Church today continues in its call for joy. In our pilgrimage to Easter Sunday, we are having a foretaste of resurrection, not only that of Jesus, but also that of those who desire life eternal and who ask God to help them walk along the Bridge He has built in his only begotten Son. God told Catherine of Siena: “The Bridge is walled and roofed with Mercy. His also is the Hostelry in the Garden of the Holy Church, which keeps and ministers the Bread of Life, and gives to drink of the Blood, so that My creatures, journeying on their pilgrimage, may not, through weariness, faint by the way.” Indeed, we believe that “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his”. (Rm 6:5)
We believe that God is “about to create new heavens and a new earth”. We firmly do! However, we are sometimes inclined to ask: When, O Lord? It seems that you take so long to create a new earth in which peace and justice reign, and the love of You and of our neighbours is practiced! You said through Isaiah: “There shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create.” (Is 65, 17-18) But when?

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON,
SO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM MIGHT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE

Catherine of Siena speaking to the Father told him: “It seems, oh, Abyss of Charity, as if you were MAD WITH LOVE OF YOUR CREATURE, as if You could not live without him, and yet You are our God who have no need of us” and she also called him “LOVING MADMAN”. She understood what Jesus told Nicodemus: “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so everyone might have eternal life”. It is only the madness of love that can do this. Let me say this: All of you are mad. This is how people see you who leave the comfort of your homes and give your time and your abilities to do everything possible to try to stop human trafficking. Indeed you are mad with love of God and of your fellow human beings. Otherwise how can you explain your dedication to this risky service to God and to man?
A few weeks ago somebody asked me why would God want the cruel death of his Son in order to pay for our sins and satisfy his justice. He must be a cruel God, then! He is not! I answered that, notwithstanding our frequent sins, he still wanted our salvation and that we obtain eternal life. So he took the risk inherent to the mystery of the Incarnation. He asked his only Son to take on him our human condition with everything that comes with it, such as death and human wickedness.

IT IS LOVE THAT I DESIRE, NOT SACRIFICE


IT IS LOVE THAT I DESIRE, NOT SACRIFICE,
AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD RATHER THAN BURNT OFFERINGS

This is today’s message the prophet Hosea (Hos 6, 1-6).
When Matthew wrote about his call to discipleship and about the feast in which many tax-collectors and sinners were sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples, the evangelist remembers the reproach with which Jesus faced the ever present Pharisees: “Go and learn what this means” he said, “ ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:13) Matthew remembers also the day when the disciples were hungry and started to pluck heads of grain to eat. The Pharisees interfered and told the Lord: “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath”. Jesus answered them:  “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless”. (Mt 12, 7) Wasn’t Jesus right to call them whitewashed tombs? (Mt 23, 27).
Luke, today, tells us the story of the Pharisee and the tax-collector. The Pharisee spoke this prayer to himself: “‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’” Was he praying? He was advertising himself!  Without realizing it he was saying that God was indebted to him!

I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD: LISTEN TO MY WARNING (Ps 81, 11 and 9)

          We have just repeated these words as a response to the first reading. It is made up of the first part of verse 11 (I am the Lord your God) and the first part of verse 9 (Listen to my warning).
To tell you the truth, I got stuck when reflecting on this response, for I had two different versions of it, the one we repeated and another which I have in my text which says: “I am the Lord your God: hear my voice”. I started searching the different translations of the Psalms and I found a third version which says: “Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me!” (NRSVCE)
Does it matter that much which translation we use? Maybe, but as we are not in a Bible class, I will only say that to me the version I have is somewhat soft: it says “hear my voice”. The one we used today seems harsh for it points to a warning. Is God angry? And what is the warning? A dictionary tells me that to warn is “To make aware in advance of some actual or potential harm, danger, or evil”. So, what is the warning? “I am God and there is no other!” Why does He say this? Because God knows how easy it is for us to turn our back on Him and fabricate gods in our image and likeness. So he tries to make us aware that, all through human history, when people create gods for themselves or make themselves gods, they cause so much trouble, suffering and death. And humans do not learn and they keep abandoning God in their desire “to be like god”, not the true living God but what they imagine to be god is like! Old Adam and Eve are still among us as many still follow their dream!

THE WORDS THAT I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU ARE SPIRIT AND LIFE (Jn 6, 63)

I have to confess that I am a little bit deaf. I do not hear as well as I used to, and I have to pay greater attention when people are talking. Not that I bother that much about this for, as my brothers tell me, I am able to listen clearly what interests me! My mother use to tell me that my grandfather used to pray God to make him deaf for he was very sad at hearing God being offended. He couldn’t stand blaspheming!
I am not really preoccupied with my little impairment as I can hear well enough. I won’t ask God to make me deaf, though, like my grandfather did! I would rather ask Him the grace to be able to hear and listen carefully to His Word (with a capital W), and to His words and inspirations. Why am I saying all this? Because today’s Bible readings speak about listening, about being obedient to God’s commands.

DO NOT TAKE AWAY YOUR MERCY FROM US

If you ask for it, you will get it! If you don’t, you won’t! I am speaking of God’s mercy.  “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete”, Jesus said (Jo 16, 24). True, Jesus was not speaking about mercy here, but about anything we might want to ask of the Father in Christ’s name”.
“Why do we ask for God’s mercy so often and in every Mass?” God never gets tired of offering us his mercy; we easily get tired of asking for it. What we ask for, we are better prepared to accept!
In today’s first reading we read part of Azariah’s prayer while standing in the furnace into which he and two other young persons were thrown because they did not want to sacrifice to a golden statue king Nebuchadnezzar had set up. In his prayer Azariah asked God “Do not take away your mercy from us”.
Can God ever deprive us of His mercy? No, because if He did, we would cease to exist! And then, God’s mercy is an expression of His boundless love. Who can deprive us of God’s mercy? We can! Each one of us can! How?

MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS, NOR ARE YOUR WAYS MY WAYS

My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. I chose this quote from Isaiah 55, 8 because it sheds a light on today’s bible readings (2 Kgs 5:1-15 and Lk 4:24-30)  and will help me in my reflection. 
There is this Naaman, a Syrian and an army commander. He was highly esteemed and he was valiant, but he was a leper. A little girl, a servant of the leper’s wife, spoke about a prophet who could cure her master. Naaman obtained permission to seek the prophet, but when he reached Elisha’s house, the prophet did not come out to meet him, but sent a message to the leper and told him to go and wash himself seven times in the River Jordan. Naaman was angry and went away saying: “I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy.” His servants convinced him that if the prophet had asked him to do something extraordinary he would have done it and he went to the river, washed and he was cured.
Jesus mentioned this healing in today’s gospel as one of two examples of how “no prophet is accepted in his own native place”.  The people in the synagogue of Nazareth were angry at Christ’s words and drove him out of town in order to kill him. “But he passed through the midst of them and went away”.

Let’s walk with Christ

Palm Sunday

A reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philipians (2, 5-11)

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
This is the Word of the Lord

Today the Church celebrates Palm Sunday, and today’s liturgy points to the mystery we will be celebrating throughout the following week and which finds its highest point in the Celebration of Easter. Today, palms which were used by all nations as a sign of joy and victory, and which the Church has also adapted as a symbol for martyrs, are blessed and carried in procession as a sort of re-enactment of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

2/07/2015

Bearing witness, being church: Dominican sisters in Iraq

Please read this post published on National Catholic Reporter
February 7-8, 2015
Thank you.

By Dawn Cherie Araujo  

In the middle of makeshift refugee camps, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena are trying to make life work. They get up every morning for prayer, and then they spend the rest of the day visiting the thousands of Iraqi refugees living in the abandoned malls and unfinished construction sites of Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The sisters would like to open schools for the children, but for now they're making do with a Montessori kindergarten that's run out of an apartment.

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