Tag: christianity

The Sower and the Weeds:

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”The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.” (Matthew 13: 24-26).

This particular parable that Jesus told always resonated with me as I am a Midwest farmer’s daughter through and through. Believe me, I have pulled many many weeds out of our family garden. And yes, sometimes, I accidentally pulled out a plant with the weed. Jesus goes on to say in the parable (which I will paraphrase) that he does not want the slaves to pull the weeds out because the wheat might get pulled out as well.

There’s a valuable lesson here I think and for me it goes like this. We are going to be surrounded in life by really good people, some lukewarm people, some indifferent people and some down right evil people and situations. But the Lord made us all and we were all made in His Image and likeness….good. All the other happenings to us after that is through our own free will. God gives us choices….free will. We can surround ourselves with other good humans; however, before life is done, we will also come in contact with evil and probably more than once. Yes, evil is real and comes in many forms, especially in the world of social media we live in today. Lots of temptations!

If we are living a virtuous Christian life and doing our best to be a good person, we will have to ferret out the ‘weeds’ that pop up from time to time in our lives. We just have to keep our eyes open for goodness, and be aware of evil situations or people who do not have goodness at the core of their being. Sometimes, that is not always easy to see. Sometimes we don’t want to see it, especially if it is someone or some situation that we have become close too. Just like with the weed plants, you have to stop the growth at the root of the weed/problem, making room for goodness to flourish and grow. While it is not easy to pull out a weed that is deeply ingrained in the soil, I believe it can be done. It takes prayer, a relationship with our Lord, and trust in Him to guide you and help you see where the weeds in our life are.

Blessings,

PJP

Spring Feasts:

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This spring not only brings much awaited rains and some beautiful flowers, but we also celebrate, once the Easter Season is finished, which is marked by the Feast of Pentecost, several special feast days.

Immediately after the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Jesus. He ascends to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, where we all pray to also go one day. This past Sunday we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Simply stated in the last part of the second reading for this day (Corinthians 2) is a prayer with “Trinitarian expressions of hope for all divisions and misunderstandings to be healed by the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the friendship of the Holy Spirit” (National Catholic Reporter , Carol J. Dempsey, 5/20/2026 publication) . He is one God in three persons, Father, Son Jesus and Holy Spirit.

This week on Friday, June 12, we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

If you notice in the featured image today, you will see a picture of the heart wrapped in thorns. It is often that you will find the image of Jesus with his heart wrapped in thorns in many Catholic homes and prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus are often prayed. We entrust our prayers of thanksgiving, petitions and intercessions to His most Sacred Heart because we know that His Heart is filled with infinite love for us, even to die on the cross for our sins to open the gates of Heaven.

This past week the United Conference of Catholic Bishops met on Friday and consecrated our nation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, praying for peace, love and protection (among just a few things) for the United Stated of America. Gratitude fills our hearts that our President acknowledged this consecration of our country in a nationwide speech. Thank you President Trump.

May you have a Blessed Spring and celebrate all the good things given to us by our Lord.

PJP

First Three Weeks of Lent:

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The various podcasts and sermons I have been listening to tell me that is it a time for ‘check in’ with myself about how I am doing with my Lenten disciplines. They also have mentioned that Lent starts to feel ‘hard’ about this time, as we are half way there.

Sometimes, I think I try to do too many different things. When I start on Ash Wednesday, it seems ‘oh, wow this podcast, or this Lenten program, and oh, yes, this looks like good spiritual reading too’. Then I realize that while they are all good and my intentions are good, I need to just pick a couple of things and keep it simple, so I can be consistent. As Father John Tap, our parish priest says: “We engage in these practices in order to grow closer to Christ, during this holy season and for the rest of our lives. So, if you have already fallen short with your Lenten commitments, then simply start over again.’ Good advice.

On the second Sunday of Lent, we reflect on the Transfiguration of Jesus. While Jesus is up on the Mountain with Peter, James and John, the Lord shares with us a little bit of the Kingdom and his affirmation of His Son and the role He will play in salvation history. I can only imagine that the apostles must have been overwhelmed by this experience of Jesus being transfigured and hearing the Lord’s voice.

This past Sunday, the third of Lent, we reflect on the story of the woman at the well. Jesus not only meets her where she is and for the reasons that she is there in the middle of the day, but He also tells her of her sin and explains the ‘Living Water’ to her. She was not afraid to approach Jesus; she listened; and she acted by running straight to her community and sharing with them what she now knew and understood; Jesus is the Messiah they have been waiting for. Just like the woman at the well, understanding and developing our faith takes a life time and it doesn’t happen over night. It’s all those little encounters we experience through prayer, people, things we read and all the other things we see and do in life that bring the fulfillment of faith to us.

May you be blessed as you continue your Lenten journey.

PJP

Third Week of Advent: Gaudete Sunday: JOY

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As we light the third candle, the rose/pink candle, we reflect on the joyful/rejoicing anticipation of the birth of Christ. There is a different feel to this week; the somberness of the first two weeks is changed to a lighter tone of JOY. We are still preparing for His coming in both our hearts and our deeds.

Father John Tapp at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Florida gave a wonderful homily about the meaning of Gaudete Sunday. I will paraphrase and capture his main points. Title: What things in your life really bring you Joy, that deep sense of amazing joy in your heart? Is it that new car, the latest and greatest new gadget that does everything, the coolest new outfit from your favorite store, something your child or grandchild often does that warms your heart, your financial status, and the list goes on. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with feeling happy and joyful about any of these things. BUT the type of amazing, deep inner JOY and peace comes only from Jesus Christ who lives in our hearts. He is always there, but many times other material things that we think bring us JOY overshadow that feeling in our hearts.

I will share with you one of the closest moments to this JOY we are talking about that I experienced 37 years ago. It was a cold winter night in mid February with a new blanket of sparkling 6 inches of snow. My father had unexpectedly passed away only a few weeks before. After dinner that night, I was feeling sad, so I bundled up and took a long walk all the way to the top of a hill above where we lived. In a few moments, the moon shown so brightly that every flake of snow reflected like a diamond. I stopped, took a deep breath and in that moment through my tears, I felt the amazing JOY of Christ and His peace in my heart. I have never forgotten that type of JOY.

May you leave the material things on the second page and put Christ and the JOY He gives on the first page.

PJP

Feast of Corpus Christi: Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ:

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This most joyful beautiful day is the celebration of the wonderful gift of the Eucharist, which Our Lord gave to us at the Last Supper (Luke 9:11b-17). It places honor in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Yes, He is truly present, not just a symbol of his presence, but truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus……our most precious spiritual life giving nourishment. Just as our bodies must be nourished daily to be in good health to feed our physical hunger, so too, the Eucharist is our soul’s nourishment to satisfy our deep spiritual poverty. Historically, this universal feast in the church was established by Pope Urban IV in 1264.

The above picture was from in front of our altar this past Sunday, depicting bread, wine and the chalice, symbols in Christianity that refer to Christ’s flesh and blood. What a joy it is that we as Catholics can receive Christ’s nourishment for our souls everyday at Mass if we choose.

The second topic for this post is that the month of June is celebrated as the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Many Christians have a picture of the Jesus and his Most Sacred Heart displayed in their home and there are numerous prayers that can be said to honor His Sacred Heart and to petition Him for our needs. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a priest about some various things. As I was finishing the conversation, the priest told me to say an Our Father and place this along with someone/or something in Jesus most wounded Sacred Heart……one prayer for each entity I wanted to tuck away in His Heart. I tucked in His Heart each of my children, each grandchild, each sibling, friends I knew that were in need, health issues and a few other things pertinent in my life. Along with several Our Father’s and quite a few minutes later, I had a profound sense of peace. On occasion, I have continued to do this at home.

Happy end of June and my you be blessed by His Most Sacred Heart and His Mercy that flows from His heart.

PJP