Glory be to Jesus Christ! What did you prefer to run in track? Were you a hurdle jumper, a sprinter or a long distance runner? In our reading today the Lord outlines the difficulties that His disciples will face trying to preach the Gospel to the world. Not only those in the synagogues, but members of their own families will betray them to death. Yet, in the midst of this troubling news He tells them not to worry or be anxious, because through their endurance and faithfulness to the end they will be saved. He tells them to keep their…
O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust for power and idle talk. But give to me, your servant, the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love. O Lord and King, grant to me to see my own faults and not to condemn my brother and sister. For you are blessed unto the ages of ages. Reflect on the prayer phrase by phrase and let it question you. “O Lord and Master of my life...” Who is Lord and master of my life? Me? God? The ideas, slogans, and choices of people…
Because we did not fast we were banished from paradise. So then let us fast so as to return back to paradise. (St. Basil, On Fasting, 1) Although our time has brought with it many changes in church laws, traditions, and discipline, and the Second Vatican Council has relaxed the rules for fasting, including the Great Fast[1], nevertheless, the Forty Days Fast still has significance for our spiritual life. For various reasons, today we may be unable to fast in the same way as our ancestors did; yet even today we are obliged to a spiritual fast—that is, we are…
Glory be to Jesus Christ! Ever prefer the Jesus in your mind to the one which we have been presented with through the Scriptures and the Church He established? In his later life, Thomas Jefferson, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, decided to make his own version of Jesus. Very meticulously he took a razor and cut out many of the miracles, the Resurrection and other things he didn't really like about the God-man he had read about in the New Testament. This book he referred to as…
Glory be to Jesus Christ! Did you ever have to train your ear to learn singing or play a musical instrument? It is amazing what more you can hear in a piece of music when you are actually listening for it. Little nuances between artist's interpretations of the same piece, the different musical quality of the various instruments all stand out to you when you may have completely missed them before. Today we celebrate the feast of the Encounter of Our Lord in the Temple, and we meet two people, Symeon and Anna, who have been waiting and listening to the…
Christ is Born! When I was a teacher, I taught a student named Shema. This is the Hebrew word for the Greatest Commandment which is referenced by our Lord in our reading today- to love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. Christ has been speaking to Scribes the whole way through this Gospel and none of them seem to get it. What is the difference here? While the other Scribes had been interested in setting traps for our Lord, this one comes to Him honestly. This is what allows…
Christ is Born! What’s your earliest memory? It’s always interesting to ask people this question and see what event stood out in their mind when they were just a little kid. Some people can remember events when they were very young, others have memories which start when they are a little older. God’s memory is eternal. He is from everlasting. For Him every moment is “now” not yesterday or tomorrow or “some other time.” We are creatures who live in time. God is outside of time. We read in our Gospel passage today how our God is not the God…
Christ is Born! Fish seem to be the only pet we can really take care of as a family. Although my kids desperately want a dog, I recently broke and allowed them to get a beta fish which they named dizzy. Dizzy lives in a little bowl on our shelf in the living room. His world consists of a little pool of water in this enclosure. These parameters, limits and restrictions allow Dizzy to survive. We live in a culture brothers and sisters which sees all restriction to choice to be a restriction to freedom. If I don’t have infinite…
by Brent Kostyniuk As Christians, one of the things we most strive for is to trust God. Most of us are familiar with the image of Christ with His arms extended towards us, offering His Divine Love and Protection—Jesus, I trust You—this holy image admonishes us. Trust comes in many forms and degrees. Ultimately, we should turn our entire lives over to Jesus. He did, after all, create us, and certainly knows what is best for us—whether we accept it or not. Sometimes, the reality He presents us is so out of tune with our own expectations it seems impossible…
