Monday, December 30, 2024

Solemnty of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God_C - Theotokus_010125

Theotokus, “Joy of All” Icon – orthodoxmonasteryicons.com


Deacon Tom writes,

“Theotokus”

 

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God_ Year C

 

I don’t know of a better way to begin the New Year than by celebrating the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God….In honoring Mary today we have the opportunity to reflect on the fact that God had an infinite number of ways that He could have chosen to make good on His promise to Adam and Eve after the fall…The time, circumstance and conditions as to how He would redeem us were endless.

 

Yet, during this holy season, we celebrate that God chose the most improbable way imaginable…He chose to fix the mess we got ourselves into by becoming one of us; by choosing to be born not to a woman of high status – a queen, 

a princess, a wealthy woman. No, he chose a simple young girl  of little or no means. And setting aside His Divinity… He crept into our history and joined our humanity.

 

It took years of before we recognized the depth of this mystery. In the year 431, the Council of Ephesus declared Mary to be “Theotokus” meaning, “Mother of God” the title of the Feast we celebrate today, as we look forward in hope to the dawning of a New Year.

 

In recognizing Mary as the “Mother” of God we are able to glimpse ever so slightly the depth of the Incarnation when we reflect on the Christ Child born into human poverty. In this image of Mother and Child we come to understand the reality and depth of God’s unconditional love of the highest of His Creation, the human family in all its brokenness, fragility, and fear.

 

This is the message Mary’s child carried into our world. We all belong to God’s Holy family….Where everyone is called to share in the life-sustaining, unconditional love of God and even in His very nature.

 

As the New Year dawns on us, let us ponder the wondrous gift of Mary, the Mother of God--- Theotokus. Let us place our hope and trust in her for all our needs as she abides in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May her favor be upon us as we welcome this New Year.

 

 

Through the intercessions of Mary, Mother of God,  may…… 

The Lord bless us and keep us!

The Lord let his face shine upon us and be gracious to us!

The Lord look upon us kindly and give us peace!

 

 

Wishing you and your families a…Happy, Holy, and Healthy New Year‼!

Deacon Tom

 

Please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you....


 Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

 

 OTHER RESOURCES


Recommended Reading:  Blessed Among Us: Day by Day with Saintly Witnesses by Robert Ellsberg

Since the early centuries, Christians have held up the saints as models of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Blessed Among Us explores this eclectic “cloud of witnesses”—lay and religious, single and married, canonized and not, and even non-Christians whose faith and wisdom may illuminate our path. In two stories per day for a full calendar year, Ellsberg sketches figures from biblical times to the present age and from all corners of this world—ordinary figures whose extraordinary lives point to the new age in the world to come.
  
Blessed Among Us is drawn from Ellsberg’s acclaimed column of the same name in Give Us This Day, a monthly resource for daily prayer published by Liturgical Press

 

Recommended Podcast: Things Not Seen Podcast hosted by David Dault speaks with Robert Ellsberg, publisher of Orbis Books, on his friendship with Sister Wendy Beckett -- a friendship based on several hundred letters, exchanged on an almost daily basis, during the last three years of Sister Wendy's life. Initially they dealt with lives of saints, the meaning of holiness, and the spiritual life, but they soon expanded into a deep and intimate exchange that encompassed our whole lives, the subject of love, suffering, joy, and the presence of grace in everyday life. The correspondence is collected in the recent book, Dearest Sister Wendy.

 

Sister Wendy, who died in December 2018, was a consecrated hermit who lived on the grounds of a Carmelite monastery in England. For some years she achieved highly unlikely fame when she was discovered by the BBC and given her own TV series to comment on art. From this there followed many books on art and spirituality. But eventually she reverted to her solitary life. Many had urged Sister Wendy to write more about her interior life--but she always refused. That is what changed in the course of our correspondence, to the point that she observed that the book I had been seeking was to be found in our correspondence. 


Sunday, December 29, 2024

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Year_C - Reflection on the Holy Family_122824

 Image Credit: Cindy Osborne Drayton University

 

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Reflection on the Holy Family”

 

The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Year C

 

The Feast that we celebrate today is a very special one for all who see family as the center not only of our physical lives but our spiritual ones as well. God’s unconditional love for us is revealed and reflected in the human family. The family is where we come to know and experience the deepest form of love – agape love, that sacrificing and selfless love - in an intimate way. The love of family and close friends surrounding us as we grow through infancy and childhood forms our behavior and determines how we will interact with those around us throughout our lives. In our effort to grow in our understanding of God, we begin to see that God’s self-revelation to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is something that we see in the structure of our own families. As unfathomable as the mystery of God’s own nature is, we are, nevertheless, able to experience that divine nature in a limited way in the love we share first in our families, then with others.

 

If we have contemplated the life of the Holy Family, we might have noticed that it stands in marked contrast to many of the experiences of families today. Families are under so much stress with all the demands being made on parents who are, in today’s norm, both working just to provide for everyday needs. Then there is all the running around – school activities, running back and forth to day care, music lessons, doctor’s appointments, getting the oil changed, yoga classes, or getting to the gym. Oh, and don’t forget getting to CRE and Mass too! There seems to be no end to the demands of contemporary family life. And, sadly, there are so many families that are unable to maintain the pace or withstand those stress and for them addiction, violence and abuse can become the order of the day.

 

Our children and even our grandchildren are under a lot of pressure too, more so today than ever before, as they strive to do well in school, to be the student athlete, and to star in the big play. Our active schedules leave very little time for families to enjoy quality time together, a time to share each other’s company and stories about how life used to be. Now more than ever in our human development there is so little time where mom and dad can teach their children about virtuous living and help shape their character so that they can know how to live a moral life. Then there are the challenges poised by families separated by many miles and the difficulties encountered by single parents.

 

Isn’t it interesting that the people of antiquity were receptive to this notion of “Sabbath Rest” and set aside a complete day on which to rest from their labors and to replenish their spirits? Let’s face it, unless we are very disciplined people, we seldom schedule time to rest our bodies, renew our spirits, and develop lasting and binding ties to family and friends. And then there is this relatively new problem that we face today, our kids are susceptible to outside influences earlier today than ever before because our high-tech society has radically changed the way we communicate and interact with one another. And, as we are beginning to see more clearly, has produced numerous challenges to family life.

 

As we journey through these few days of Christmas, we would do well to contemplate the love and life of the Holy Family in which the child Jesus was welcomed, loved, nourished, and where He flourished and came to know and experience the depth of the love of God. With God’s grace may we do the same.  

 

May God bless you with the happiest and most peaceful New Year.

Deacon Tom

Monday, December 23, 2024

The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) Mass at Dawn_Year C - When Heaven Came Down to Earth_122524


Deacon Tom Writes,
“When Heaven Came Down To Earth…”


In the stillness of the night in a remote village, the sound of a newborn baby’s cry interrupts the silence. No ordinary child by heritage, his ancestors include Abraham, Jesse, David, Solomon and Amos, towering figures who had safeguarded the promises given to them by Yahweh that he would one day come down from heaven and live among his people. All creation celebrates this moment in time. Stars in the sky light the way. Angelic Beings sing with joy. Wise men set their course to find him. Nothing in the history of the world before or after this singular moment has had a greater impact on our lives than when heaven came down to earth.

We look back two thousand years and celebrate this joyful event today as we look forward to the dawning of this new day and the promises it has in store for us… the promises of hope that we have for our children, grandchildren and, for some of us, our great grandchildren…. the promises we have that our loved ones who are suffering will find comfort and rest…..the promises that our broken world may find some peace and that all that divides us will be reconciled.

The world that Jesus was born into was not much different than the world we find ourselves living in today. There are evil rulers who destroy the innocent as Herod did. Vast numbers of people lack the basic necessities of life; there is uncertainty about "What is truth?" Many are living in fear of what tomorrow will bring.

And so too there is nothing new under the sun as the saying goes... this was pretty much the way things were when Jesus was born. Yet, In the quiet of the evening he came into the world that he created to be its light. But, “the world received him not". It is by the choices that we make throughout the day that provide the surest evidence that we have chosen to receive him into our lives even though he is still rejected by the world. We do so...when we choose forgiveness instead of resentment… when we choose the good of the other over our own self interest…when we choose to do what is right and virtuous instead of pleasing the crowd…when we choose the Eucharist over (____) [fill in the blank], when we choose to be the light that in the midst of the surrounding darkness. And yet, Jesus chooses too; he chooses to come again and again into our broken lives, into our fractured world, peddling his goods… peace, justice, purity, love. One day we’ll get it right… That’s the promise. That’s our hope.

May the joy of the Holy Family be with you and your families this Christmas and may the Christ Child grant us the deepest desires within our hearts.

Merry Christmas
AND
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Deacon Tom
Enjoy this special day!

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it. 



OTHER RESOURCES

Recommended Reading:
“The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is”
by N.T. Wright The Challenge of Jesus poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of the twenty-first century. A very good read as we enter into a new year.

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Fourth Sunday of Advent_C - I Come to Do Your Will, O God_122224


Deacon Tom Writes,
“I Come to Do Your Will, O God”


Isn’t it strange that the one thing that can keep us furthest from God’s love is the very gift God intended to draw us closest to him? It’s this unique gift of “Free Will” that flows from God’s unimaginable love for us that enables us to say “No” to him. When we misuse this gift, we are free to reject him completely; we can ignore him when it is convenient to do so; we can even deny that he exists. Imagine that! Once we liberate ourselves from our Creator, we are completely free to live our lives with reckless abandon trying to find substitutes for those very things God intended us to have from the beginning – our complete joy and happiness. But striking out on our own to find “the good life” usually has dire and “unintended” but predictable consequences.

Of course, God did not intend for us to use the gift of “Free Will” to reject him. In giving us this gift God revealed something about himself. He revealed his unconditional love for us and for all his creation. No “normal” parent gives their children something that would harm them. The giving of gifts reflects the deep love parents have for their children. Genuine giving is an intimate sharing of parents’ desire for their children to experience joy and happiness here in this life, to reach their full potential as they mature into adulthood, and one day to enter into eternal life for which we were all created.

In the Second Reading today, St. Paul quotes Jesus’ words letting us know that he is aware of the gift he has received from God, and that he knows how to respond to that gift. He responds to the precious gift of free will by saying “Yes” to God. In the Gospel, Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth to share with her the good news of how God responds to her saying, “Yes” to him. Both Jesus and Mary use the gift of their free will by submitting themselves to God and disposing themselves to do all that God asks them to do. Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist know and teach us that this is the only way for us to fully experience all that God has promised us in this life….and, to look forward to the life that is to come.

As we prepare to exchange gifts this Christmas, let us recall the gifts that we have received from God. And, let us respond joyfully to the many other gifts we have been blessed with over the years by echoing Jesus’ words, “I come to do your will, O God” and then, sit quietly and await his response in silence.



God bless and keep you and your loved ones close to him, now and always. And may the Christ Child fill you with his peace and love.



Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those thinking of coming into or leaving it.





OTHER RESOURCES



Recommended Reading: Reasons to Believe - A Personal Story Belief is difficult. Sometimes we need to see to believe. Jesus was gentle with Thomas and his doubts. He allowed him to touch His wounded heart. Is He doing the same for us now, in this new millennium? As a compelling and thought-provoking witnesses to their faith, Ron Tesoriero, lawyer author, and Michael Willesee, investigative journalist, take a look at several Eucharistic Miracles and build a powerful fact-based-case for belief in Eucharist



Recommended You Tube: Eucharistic Miracles of Buenos Aires - Bread to Human Heart. An interesting presentation on Eucharistic miracles occurring today. 







Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom



Thursday, December 12, 2024

Third Sunday of Advent_C - What Shoud We Do?_121524



Deacon Tom Writes
“What Should We Do?”

Third Sunday of Advent, Year C

 

John the Baptist was like a magnet drawing people out into the desert. They came because they were looking for something, and perhaps, because John was so very different than anyone they had ever heard or seen, they may have thought that he had what they were looking for. So, they came and listened. Some even went so far as to be baptized, a sign that they bought into what he was preaching - lock, stock and barrel!

 

The baptism that John was preaching called for a change of heart. Those who felt called to take John up on his offer had to leave their old ways behind and start out fresh, as if it was a new beginning, or at the least, a new mindset. Those who desired to change their ways asked John an obvious question, “What should we do?” And so, to the Tax Collector, John says, “Stop collecting more than is prescribed.” In other word, do whatever is the right thing to do in all your business affairs. To the Soldiers who asked what they should do, he answered, “Do not extort…do not falsely accuse…. be satisfied with your wages.” That’s the equivalent of saying don’t abuse your power or misuse your authority. People from all walks of life came to John for his advice and it would basically be the same, “Stop the injustice; start doing what is right.”

 

John is preparing the people for the one who is to follow him, Jesus. John lays the foundation of justice that Jesus will build on. The call to justice requires that we look within and see how we have contributed to the injustices that surround us and to have a change of heart and recognize that we need to change our ways.

 

John calls us to conversion, a change of heart that comes from within. When we experience this conversion, we too begin to ask the question, “What should we do?”   While we still have some days of Advent remaining, let’s pause and ask Jesus to help us answer this question from within so we may always “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

 

Enjoy the Day!

Deacon Tom

 

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

 

OTHER RESOURCES

 

Recommended Reading: “Open Mind, Open Heartby Cistercian Father Thomas Keating. A deep and thorough overview of the Christian contemplative tradition, a process of interior transformation, a conversation initiated by God and leading, if we consent, to divine union. Herein a restructuring of consciousness takes place which empowers one to perceive, relate and respond to everyday life with increasing sensitivity to the divine presence in, through, and beyond everything that happens. Fr. Thomas gives step-by-step guidance in the method of Centering Prayer, a movement of divine love designed to renew the Christian contemplative tradition.

 

Recommended You Tube: a short reflection on “Stillness and the Fruit of Attention” YouTube: 79 The Most Excellent Path, Part 1, with Thomas Keating who leads us on the spiritual journey – Formation in the Christian Contemplative

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Second Sunday of Advent_C - Love Changes Everything_120824


 Image: Giotto Nativity


Deacon Tom Writes,

Love Changes Everything

Second Sunday of Advent, Year C

 

Paul tells his brothers and sisters in Philippi of his great love for them and he prays for them “…always with joy in my every prayer for you.”  He says further, “And this is my prayer: that your love may increase ever more and more” [so you may] “discern what is of value.” Paul emphasizes that love is the most important virtue in his letter to the Corinthians, in one of his most famous quotes, “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love” 1 Cor 13:13. “Love”, as a song written by Andrew Lloyd Webber expresses so well, “Changes verything”!

 

Advent is, as we are so well aware, a time of preparation...a time to get ready for visits from friends and family; a time to cook and prepare the traditional family meals; a time to write Christmas Cards to distant friends with whom we share fond memories but have not seen in a while because of distance or the busyness of everyday life; a time, oh yes of course, for shopping for special gifts, wrapping them, and decorating the house and Christmas Tree. Whew! We often reap a whirlwind of fatigue trying to get “prepared” for Christmas. Sometimes, perhaps often, we just get too wrapped up - pun intended - and miss out on the “Meaning of the Season.”

 

Advent is a time of preparation, yes. But, while these other efforts are worthy and hopefully driven by our love of family and friends, it is a sad reality that we often fail to prepare ourselves for the most important of friends, family, and loved ones... Emmanuel, the Word Made Flesh. The most beautiful preparation we can make, the one that is most worthy of the Christ Child we anticipate, is to open ourselves up to a change of heart. That is, to open ourselves up to overcome our hardness of heart, our negative judgments of others, our insistence on holding on to grudges and resentments of the past, our unwillingness to forgive those who have hurt us. We are “broken” and we need to be healed from the inside out. The only gift the Christ Child desires is for us to have a change of heart so that we may welcome him into our lives untarnished by the bitter resentments of the past, to offer him hearts that long to be filled with the Peace and Joy of the new born babe.  Love really does change everything. Love changes us from the inside out as Dickens demonstrates in his famous Ebenezer Scrooge.

 

May this Advent Season be different than all we have experienced. May God’s grace increase our desire for those gifts that last forever: a generous heart, a deeper sense of compassion and empathy for those who are hurting this year, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And, may our love increase so that the Holy One may use us when and where the Divine Presence is needed to bring healing and reconciliation to our troubled world.

 

Yes, “Love changes everything” and, when it does, “Nothing in the World will ever be the same.”  Advent is that time of year when we dare to dream that the forces of love can cast out the darkness we see and experience in the world around us and prepare our hearts for the King of Glory to enter within.

 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

 

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com  and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it. 

 

OTHER RESOURCES

 

Recommended Reading: “Channel of Peace, Stranded in Gander on 9/11by Kevin Tuerff tells the story of a stranded traveler’s encounter with boundless acts of generosity and compassion from total strangers. This is a great story about hospitality during these challenging times.

 

Recommended You Tube: a short reflection on “Stillness and the Fruit of Attention” by Fr. Lawrence Freeman, OSB that encourages us to develop the practice of contemplation in our lives.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

First Sunday of Advent_C-To You, O Lord,I Lift My Soul _120124

     

Deacon Tom Writes,

“To You, O Lord, I Lift My Soul”

 

First Sunday of Advent, Year C

 

In the silence of our Advent reflection, the words of the Prophet Jeremiah can stir our hearts with expectant hope and longing for promises to be fulfilled, for the days when, “all shall be safe and dwell secure.” For this to become a reality we must first place ourselves in the presence of the Lord and breath the prayer we hear in the Responsorial Psalm today, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.”

 

Every year we all face the challenge of Advent: we need to get everything ready for Christmas, the shopping, the cooking, the visits to family and friends, the writing out of Christmas cards. And when do we stop to put it all in perspective and reflect upon the “Reason for the Season?”

 

This year can be different. We can break the distracting spirit of consumerism…. if we want to! We can take a tip from St. Paul and ask the Lord to make us, “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” How our lives would change if we were to follow St. Paul’s advice! So, some questions to ask during this Holy Season are these:  What holds us back from attempting to love those people in our lives that irritate us; reconciling with those family members from whom we have intentionally distanced ourselves? What prevents us from seeking the Holy or entering into the Mystery of the Incarnation? Are we afraid of the changes that an injection of love into the fabric of our lives would cause? Are we afraid of what the newborn Babe would ask of us? Are we afraid of the confrontation with self that can take place in the time we spend in holy solitude? There are a lot of reasons why we avoid silence and fill our lives with busyness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This year can be different!!!

 

Jesus tells us to, “Be vigilant at all times and pray… to escape the tribulations….and to stand before the Son of Man.” This Advent gives us another chance to renew our efforts to center our lives around prayer and to create a quiet space where we can go and rest awhile with a friend, Jesus, who comes to us as a little child bearing many gifts to all who come before him singing the refrain, “To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.”

 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: A Living Gospel: Reading God's Story in Holy Lives. In his latest work, Robert Ellsberg, the author of many acclaimed works on the saints, looks on the “living gospel” that is written in human lives.

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  A Living Gospel - Reading God's Story in Holy Lives  Produced by the Henri Nouwen Society, this 5-part meditation video series is designed to offer a focused reflection on our spiritual journey. Over five weeks this summer we will release a new video on the Society’s YouTube channel. In each video, Robert Ellsberg, friend and publisher of Henri Nouwen, will share insights and practices to enrich, deepen, and strengthen your spiritual life. Reflecting on the lives of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Henri Nouwen, you will be invited to reflect more deeply on your own journey and vocation.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, November 21, 2024

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe_B_My Kingdom Is Not of This World_112424


Deacon Tom Writes,
“My Kingdom Is Not of This World”


Pope Benedict XVI wrote the following comment about today’s Feast of Christ the King:

“Jesus of Nazareth is so intrinsically king that the title ‘King’ has actually become his name. By calling ourselves Christians, we label ourselves as followers of the king. God did not intend Israel to have a kingdom. The kingdom was a result of Israel’s rebellion against God. The law was to be Israel’s king, and, through the law, God himself. God yielded to Israel’s obstinacy and so devised a new kind of kingship for them. The King is Jesus; in him God entered humanity and espoused it to himself. This is the usual form of the divine activity in relation to mankind. God does not have a fixed plan that he must carry out; on the contrary, he has many different ways of finding man and even of turning his wrong ways into right ways. The feast of Christ the King is therefore not a feast of those who are subjugated, but a feast of those who know that they are in the hands of the one who writes straight on crooked lines.”

This reflection from Pope Emeritus Benedict would have us consider the many paths our lives may travel. A few words from St. Matthew’s Gospel serve as a compass perhaps: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21). For those who have chosen to follow in the footsteps of Jesus we might ask how we pursue the treasures we seek in this life in light of what we perceive to be the divine activity within us. Let’s face it! We have so many choices today and really few, if any, limits on how we pursue them. How do we remain faithful to the gospel values and set priorities between our spiritual and physical needs? To whom will we pledge our loyalties during this life and at what cost? Is our allegiance to the spirit of this world, thinking only about ourselves and our own needs, acting as if it’s all about me, declaring to those with different opinions “it’s my way OR the highway”? Or, will we choose a different path, and live in solidarity with the poor, advocate for the weak and oppressed, seek shelter for the homeless and food for the hungry, ever mindful of the plight of refugees and orphans? Will we see ways to build relationships with those who oppose us or will we seek to annihilate them? This is the ultimate freedom we have today, the freedom to choose to be subjects of the creator and ruler of the cosmos who has … “set us free...to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).
Jesus was right to tell Pilate that “his kingdom does not belong to this world.” But, as Jesus taught us, the way to the kingdom is here and is a conscious choice whenever we serve those who lack power, privilege and prestige, those very people Christ identified with, served, and redeemed. When we serve them, we declare with our lives where our treasures lie and we give witness to others of our deliberate choice to follow the man whose kingdom is not of this world.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

OTHER RESOURCES

Recommended Reading: The Contemplative Heart by James Finley recognizes the depth and range of today's spiritual yearning and refuses to settle for anything but its most profound possibilities. He opens our everyday living to the contemplative traditions, practices, and teaching that have been traditionally the preserve of the monk, and he does so without diluting them. The Contemplative Heart, enables readers to realize that wherever we live, whatever we do, the richest possibilities of a contemplative life are within our reach-that they are in fact what we have been searching for all along.

Recommended YouTube Video: The Prophetic Path In this video, Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) faculty member James Finley explores our 2023 Daily Meditation theme, The Prophetic Path, placing an emphasis on how we can heal from trauma. He reminds us that “we are the generosity of God; we are the song God sings.” Then, James invites us into a rendezvous with God — a grounding and prayerful practice.

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinay Time_B - The passing of Time and Place_111724

 

Image credit: craving4more.files.wordpress.com – where-does-the-time-go

 

Deacon Tom Writes,

“The Passing of Time and Place”


Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Our Liturgical Year comes to a close next Sunday on the Feast of Christ the King. As we reflect about the passing of another year, our readings today focus our attention on the “End Times.” The physical laws of the universe tell us that all things must come to an end. That pertains to our world as well. Today we read an account of those days and they paint of pretty grim picture. The Prophet Daniel says, “it will be a time unsurpassed in distress.” Jesus tells his disciples, “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give it’s light.” 

 

Daniel tells us that during these devastating days, “the wise shall shine brightly….and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.”  Jesus tells his disciples that, “they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds… and he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds.”

 

Today’s readings tell us some truth about the future. Hollywood imagines the “how” in its myriad depictions of “the end times;” our Christian focus is on the “why”.  For we all must consider how we live our lives and prepare ourselves for that day which will be our last day, whenever that may be, in days, or months or years. Through the eyes of faith, we know that we have nothing to worry about on our “last days” if we have been faithful to our Baptismal promises and have used the time God has given us wisely, helping others, sharing their burdens and lightening their loads, comforting them during their times of sorrow. Aware of our shortcomings in this life we trust in God’s abundant love, mercy and compassion that he will come and gather his faithful sons and daughters from the “four winds” and bring us home to be with him forever when our time comes. Our days are numbered, as is all creation. And there will come a time when all that we see will be transformed into the new heaven and earth that awaits us. Today’s readings suggest that we take some time now to see how prepared we are to render an account of our lives to the God of all creation.

 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

 

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: The Contemplative Heart by James Finley recognizes the depth and range of today's spiritual yearning and refuses to settle for anything but its most profound possibilities. He opens our everyday living to the contemplative traditions, practices, and teaching that have been traditionally the preserve of the monk, and he does so without diluting them. The Contemplative Heart, enables readers to realize that wherever we live, whatever we do, the richest possibilities of a contemplative life are within our reach-that they are in fact what we have been searching for all along.

Recommended YouTube Video:  The Prophetic Path In this video, Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) faculty member James Finley explores our 2023 DM theme, The Prophetic Path, placing an emphasis on how we can heal from trauma. He reminds us that “we are the generosity of God; we are the song God sings.” Then, James invites us into a rendezvous with God — a grounding and prayerful practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time_B - Only in God_111024

 

Image credit: wikimedia.org-Hand_gottes.jpg

 

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Only In God”

 

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

In the course of today’s readings, we encounter several women who have remarkably strong faith. They are women whose actions demonstrate their dependence upon God to provide for all their needs, even for the most basic necessities of life! We know neither of their names only that they share a common bond, that of widowhood. Being a widow was tantamount to being assigned to a most difficult and arduous station of life in the patriarchal society of the bible, and it remains such to this day. The loss of a husband meant a life of poverty. It reduced a woman to a life of begging and dependency upon the acts of charity from others in the community.

 

Despite her direful plight, the first widow we encounter in the Book of Kings offers the Prophet Elijah hospitality. She and her young son have only a “handful of flour… and a little oil” and that’s it. The widow and her son are themselves far beyond the bounds of destitution and yet she willingly makes “a little cake” for the Prophet leaving nothing for herself and her son! Yet, “the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry!”

 

In the Gospel Jesus notices what’s taking place at the Temple offering. “Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.”  Jesus comments that this woman did not contribute from her wealth as the others did, “but from her poverty…she contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

 

These women teach us of a deep and trusting faith in God, lessons very appropriate for us today. They teach us not from their head, but from their heart and from their deep-seated experiences of life. Do we give to others from our surplus or from our need? This is a difficult question for us to face honestly as we tend not to reflect too deeply into our own possible shortcomings but, it is an area that is certainly worth the effort. If we spend some time thinking about this question it may lead us to reflect on an underlying struggle we face often in this life – that is, how much do we really trust that God will be there in our time of need, whatever that “need” might be.

 

There is an aspect to these widow’s faith that reflects Christ’s complete self-giving, his pouring himself out completely for our sake, Christ’s “kenosis” as St. Paul writes in Philippians 2:7, in which Christ surrenders his own will to the divine will of his Father. This complete giving of self is a gift from God that scripture reveals mostly in the lives of the poor and lowly ones, such as these widows we encounter today. They teach us that God cannot be outdone in generosity. Their strong faith enables them to trust God completely, to trust only in God in all things, not only for all the necessities of the present moment but for all our future needs also.

 

May our faith grow like that of these two women we meet in scripture today so that like them, we are willing to share generously the gifts we have receive from above.

 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

 

 

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: God Is All In All by Fr. Thomas Keating. God Is All in All introduces some mighty themes—including nature as revelation, mystical teachings on interdependence, new cosmologies of religion and science, and evolutionary understandings of what it means to be human—in a much-needed update to theologies Keating describes as “out of date.”

 

Outlining a three-part spiritual journey from recognizing a divine Other, to becoming the Other, to the realizing there is no other, Keating boldly states “Religion is not the only path to God.” Thoroughly Christian and fully interspiritual, this much-beloved outlier Trappist monk offers a message of “compassion, not condemnation” in a contemplative embrace of the cross as a symbol of humility, inviting those who would become co-redeemers of the world to join him in the kind of meditation and contemplative prayer that allows the transcendent self to emerge.

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  The Dimension of Listening The beloved and Reverend Joseph Boyle of St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, who was mentored by Fr. Thomas Keating, explores the dimensions of listening through a series of charming images and profound stories. A favorite prayer of his was from Dag Hammarskjold, “For all that has been, thank you. For all that is to come, yes.”

This talk was recorded at the 2006 Contemplative Outreach Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  The theme was "Transformative Listening:  Whose Voice Are We Listening To?" For other talks from this event by Abbot Joseph and Fr. Thomas Keating, go to.  

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time_B - First Things First_110324


Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

We have so many demands upon our time that we can hardly keep track of them. Fortunately, we have the technology to remind us where we have to be and when we have to be there. We have electronic calendars, email reminders and cell phones, I-pads and

I-pods. We leave ourselves voice mail messages, stick post-its on the refrigerator. All this busyness and the technology to keep up with it is a part of the great reality in which we live, but it comes at a price. And the price that we pay seems increasingly that we crowd so many other important things out of our lives, like God! …. Really, who has time for God given our demanding schedules?

 

Working God into our daily lives has become a challenge for us today, but it hasn’t always been that way. From the very beginning the Jewish people were encouraged to place God at the center of their lives – physically, spiritually and mentally. Moses laid this obligation before the people in what has become the famous Jewish prayer, the “The Shema” which begins with the command, “hear, O Israel!”

 

 

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all you soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today

 

These words that God spoke through Moses were a simple message intended to help the people find their happiness in this world by cooperating with God’s plan. Keep it simple; put first things first God says; live according to my plan; love me above all else…… with every fiber of your being.

 

Today we are busy. We are busier today than yesterday, and it doesn’t stop: the laundry, the shopping, the portaging the kids to sporting events and school plays, the extra projects at work... phew...and on and on it goes. If you have any doubts, just ask someone you know who’s retired! “We don’t have time,” they complain. “We don’t know how we got things done when we were working” you’ll also hear.

 

The challenge we face today is consciously putting God first in our lives. And, to do that, we have to increase our awareness that he is present in all those activities that fill up our day. We need to develop a mind, heart and spirit that is tuned into God’s presence... in those little and big things that fill up those limited and priceless minutes of our lives. It’s a matter of practice…of building the habit of inviting God into all the activities of our day, into all that busyness that so often overwhelms us. Invite God to be with us during our evaluation at work. Invite God to be with us when we’re running the kids or grandkids to soccer or piano lessons; invite God to join us in the Dentist’s chair or when we’re getting the oil changed. All the activities of our day are opportunities to draw close to God and to show him that we are mindful that his desire is to be a part of the lives of those who love him. Inviting God into all our daily chores will make those insignificant things we do throughout the day more meaningful and help us experience the presence of God in all that we do.

 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

 

Please Visit www.deaconspod.com and listen in as the three deacons engage in a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer to those on the threshold, those thinking of joining our Catholic Community or walking away from it.

 

OTHER RESOURCE

Recommended Reading: Living Justice by Fr. Thomas Massaro. Rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus and the message of the New Testament, the Church proclaims: "Justice is constitutive of the Gospel." Building upon the broad tradition of Catholic social teaching. Living Justice offers a fresh discussion of contemporary issues (disarmament, human rights, the option for the poor). Through Scripture, Tradition, world events, and living examples of heroism and holiness ranging from the simple to the extraordinary, Living Justice develops your understanding of Catholic social teaching and inspires you for service

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  Living a Christian Life in an Age of Distraction, a lecture by Jesuit Thomas Massaro critiques our attempt to live out our Christian vocation in the midst of all the distractions, commitments and business of our everyday lives.