Tag: faith

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

Parable of the Sower and the Seed: (Matthew 13:1-9)

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Bishop Barron (Wednesday July 23, 2025 Daily Reflection) paraphrases the parable: “The sower sows far and wide, some of the seed landing on the path, where the birds eat it up; some falling on rocky ground, where it is scorched in the sun; some sown among thorns, where life is choked off; and some sown on rich soil, where it bears thirty, sixty or a hundred fold”.

Being a product of a Midwest farming family and community, this parable always speaks to me, reminding me of my roots of my faith and my family. I can see and smell the dark rich soil my father planted the corn and beans in and the wonderful rich soil where we as a family planted the HUGE garden….. I mean really big and it held a lot of weeds. But it provided all of our vegetables and some of our fruits for a whole year, until the next year’s harvest. Of course, that meant freezing and canning. Summer fun!!

The analogy to this is what we plant in the soil of our soul. If we have planted roots of our faith in the Lord and continue to nourish that faith with prayer and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, the produce of our lives will be good and sustainable. No, not perfect, but definitely good and sustainable. On the other hand, if we only sometimes pray, pick and choose which commandments to follow, or stray from Mass or church services, we will be overcome by the weeds of life and the trends of today’s culture: the biggest weed being sin itself. Smothered by this weed, our faith cannot grow and flourish. It has no roots of rich soil of consistent prayer, reading of scripture, and reception of the sacraments. Then we have the seed that is planted on rocky ground and cannot grow. These are the times that yes we hear about prayer, sacraments, and the Lord’s teachings, scripture readings; but we CHOSE to do nothing about what we hear and see. We don’t practice; thus, faith cannot grow and it will die eventually.

It’s up to each of us individually to decide, to chose, to act on how rich we can make the soil of our soul. Furthermore, soil that is rich enough and has grown deep faith roots, an explosion of fire within us, so that we can pass that faith on to our family and friends.

Blessings for the richness of faith in our lives.

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

Advent: Fourth Week

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Today, December 24, we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent so we light the fourth and last purple candle. This candle represents love and is also called the Angel’s candle. This candle is a symbol of the angel messengers who came to bring glad tidings of our Lord’s nearing presence. Mary, the mother of Jesus, will bring forth our Savior, who will model for us throughout His life love. His love for us is present in everything, even to the point that He gave His life for our sins, so that we could be saved.

This year the fourth Sunday of Advent also falls on Christmas Eve, the very night in which our Savior will be born in a stable. He did not come as a rich prince or a powerful warrior; no He humbled himself and came to us as a small quiet baby, born in a stable in the tiny town of Bethlehem. Yet, He is the powerful King of Kings. What a gift we have received! Let us include thanksgiving in our prayers this day for the miracle that changed the entire course of the world.

May you experience the love of Jesus within your heart, within your family, within your home and within your community.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Christmas!

PJP