Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time_Year A, God Be in My Head_100823

Deacon Tom Writes,
“God Be in My Head”

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

The gospel for today sets the stage for Jesus’ death. The parable of the wicked tenants who kill the servants sent to collect the rent and then the vineyard owner’s son foreshadow the events that will soon claim Jesus’ life. The message Jesus is conveying is that God’s plans will not be stifled by those of man. His being rejected by the Jewish authorities allows a furthering of God’s Kingdom. For… “The stone rejected by the builders will become the cornerstone”. God’s plan of salvation is mysteriously broadened so that others may join in the task of bringing about that bountiful harvest the Kingdom of God will produce.

Jesus showed us by word and example how to live fruitful lives. As His disciples it is necessary to engage in meaningful reflection about the quality of our spiritual lives. A question we might ask ourselves is, “How do we know if we are bearing fruit for the kingdom?” One way to fathom this out is to set some time aside at the end of the day and review our day’s activities from a spiritual perspective. This is one of the many spiritual practices handed down to us from St. Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises. It goes like this:

1) Give thanks to God for all that we have.
2) Ask God for the grace to know our sins and to avoid them in the future.
3) Reflect on the events of the day and how we served God or where we have neglected him.
4) Ask God to pardon our faults.
5) Ask God for the grace to be more like Him.


If we are to form a habit of this simple yet humbling practice, we are sure to grow spiritually and that growth will produce a harvest worthy of the Kingdom.

As we grow in the love of God, we are able to surrender our thoughts and desires to Him and allow Him to fill us with His thoughts and desires as was captured in this prayer from the middle-ages:

God be in my head and in my understanding;
God be in my eyes and in my looking;
God be in my mouth and in my speaking;
God be in my heart and in my thinking;
God be at my end and at my departing.
Amen

May God open our minds and hearts and bless the work of our hands so that we can advance His Kingdom in our time.

Enjoy the day!
Tom

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

 

OTHER RESOURCE

 

Recommended Reading: Into The Silent Land by Fr. Martin Laird, OSA Teaches readers the practice of meditation, sitting in stillness and cultivating the art of awareness long in use by Hindus and Buddhists in order to deepen our Christian faculties to have a deeper experience of the presence of the divine in around us.

 

Recommended YouTube Video:  Jerry Straub and his work in Haiti . Take a look at the great work this witness to our faith is doing in Haiti. Consider supporting this worthwhile ministry.

 

 

 

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time_C - I've Been Waiting for soooooo Long_100222

Deacon Tom writes on….

“I’ve Been Waiting Soooo Long” 

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Today’s readings remind us that we are not patient people. When things are going badly, we cry out to God for help, and it never seems to come soon enough. The Prophet Habakkuk cries out for God’s help to end the violence and destruction that are plaguing the people of Judah. But God “does not intervene.” 

Being faithful to God when we are experiencing sickness or despair, when we have lost someone we love, or when we are fearful of what the future holds is very difficult. Our hearts and minds struggle to feel God’s presence. What we really want though, is to have our fears calmed, our financial problems resolved, our relationships mended, our illnesses cured, and for our loved ones to remain with us forever. 

Difficult, perhaps, even as impossible as it seems, it is in these most painful times we are called to wait on God and to know that we have a share in that vision he told Habakkuk to write down. What is that vision that Habakkuk wrote down on the tablets? WOW! The text doesn’t say! All it says is that the vision, “...still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.”

Habakkuk’s vision and prophecy came to completion in the person of Jesus Christ. He entered our human drama in answer to the Prophet’s cry, “How long, O Lord?” God not only hears our cries but even shares in our suffering and pain. It is during these very moments of intense suffering, when we are utterly helpless, that we begin to understand the very vision Habakkuk referred to, the vision that will not disappoint that God has in store for us. That vision: Eternal Life, where our tears will be tears of gladness and all that God has in store for us surely will not disappoint. 

To make this vision of Habakkuk’s ours we, like the Apostles, need to first, use the faith that we do have to build up the kingdom of God and then, pray for an increase in faith so that our faith will not run out as we do all the Lord asks of us in this fleeting life on earth before he calls us home. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom 

Go to www.deaconspod.com to hear a contemporary conversation exploring the treasures our Catholic faith has to offer.

 

Recommended Reading:  The Breath of the Soul, Reflections on Prayer by Sr. Joan Chittister opens the pathway to a deeper spiritual life through a more authentic and meaningful prayer life. 

Twenty-seventy Sunday in Ordinary Time - Power Source_100619

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Power Source”

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Imagine we could harness the power Jesus associates with faith. If a tiny amount of faith could transform the physical environment, and one could move mountains, there would be no limit to the good that people with just a bit of faith could accomplish.  So why do we have so many conditions that cause us hardship, sorrow, regret and grief?  Is Jesus somehow chiding His disciples for lacking faith? 

The sudden urge the Apostles had for more faith is revealing. Was it because they are finally beginning to realize they needed to step up their game in order to follow Jesus; or they needed more faith themselves just to grasp Jesus’ revolutionary teachings about love, forgiveness and the cost of discipleship?  A little of each, I suspect. 

Today there is an obvious need for increased faith on our part. We need a deep faith to reshape the landscapes of our hearts and minds so that we realize that God is God and we are the work of His hands. This is a seismic shift in the prevailing wisdom of our contemporary society that feeds us non-stop with the toxic messaging that the individual is at the center of the universe; that holds out an empty wisdom that is relentless in feeding our egos and boosting our pride that “I” deserve the best, that “I’m # 1, that “I’m” a self-made person and everybody else has to take their place behind me.  Faith is the only antidote that enables us to see the bigger picture that places God at the center of everything and to recognize a power above and beyond us…a loving and caring God who invites us to enjoy and share this world and all its riches with one another and who gives us the vision there are greater things to come.  

Faith gives us a clear vision of what lies ahead and the obstacles we must overcome to get there. Once the Apostles recognized the road they were about to travel, they asked Jesus for the Faith to carry on. A wise request and one worthy of imitation. For, the more our faith increases, the more we will understand who we are: “we are unprofitable servants” striving to do what we have been asked to do – love, forgive and serve. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom