Daily Reflection – God Permits Trials
Minute Meditation – A Movement of Grace
The call to enter into the world of “the other” contains a costly component. Moving from accepted bias, taboos, and prejudices is not an easy step.
Often such taboos are reinforced by laws of both Church and state. They are firmly implanted in a culture or society’s conscious and unconscious mindset. While a person can “study” his or her way to a new understanding of “the other,” often it requires more than intellectual acceptance of a new position. The movement from understanding to action and advocacy is a movement of grace.
—Sister Margaret Carney, “The Franciscan Embrace of ‘The Other’”
St. Anthony Messenger, June/July 2022 issue
//Franciscan Media//
Minute Meditation – Empowering Grace of God
We are birthed into life in the empowering grace of our creative God, and our collaborative responsibility with that God is to birth anew the nature that has birthed us. In this co-creative process, there is no room for patriarchal power or manipulation. It is our sense of belonging that defines our true nature and our God-given identity. That to which we belong defines the very essence of our adult selves. Therefore, God’s will for humans—and for all creation—is to exercise an agency of co-creation: to bring about on earth a greater fullness, the evolutionary complexity I described in chapter one. We are meant to be an engaged and involved species, adult people serving an adult God, in the ever-evolving enterprise of our magnificent universe. Seeking to escape to a life hereafter makes no evolutionary sense anymore; in fact, it never did for our ancient ancestors.
—from the book Paschal Paradox: Reflections on a Life of Spiritual Evolution, by Diarmuid O’Murchu, page 25
Are You Complaining Too Much?
St. Paul tells us, “Do everything without grumbling,” but even the best-intentioned Christians can fall into a toxic habit of constant complaining. It’s true that sometimes, sharing a complaint can help rectify an unjust situation or call attention to something that needs to change. But when you start fixating on the negative things around you and voicing your critiques or grievances about everything in your life, you imprison yourself in your own personal hell.
Today, Fr. Mike encourages us to ask for God’s grace to break free from the habit of complaining.
Struggling to Forgive Yourself?
As Catholics, we believe in the forgiveness of our sins through the graces of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But often, even though we are absolved but we can struggle to forgive ourselves for our past faults and failings.
Today, Fr. Mike shares the main reason why we struggle to let go of the past and surrender to God who is our loving Father.
Minute Meditation – God Is Not Afraid of Mistakes
God is not afraid of mistakes, it seems. God knows that God can turn everything around—into good. There are no dead ends in the economy of grace. So, God allows us to play the field and eat of almost all the trees in the garden. This is scary, but Paul, as usual, offers a crescendo statement of the same: “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). Jesus lives it in his climactic forgiving breath (John 20:22), wherein he eternally frees humanity from its shame and guilt. Consider it this way: God’s main problem is how to give away God! But God has great difficulty doing this. You’d think everybody would want God, but the common response is something like this: “Lord, I am not worthy. I would rather have religion and morality, which give me the impression that I can win a cosmic contest by my own efforts.”
— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM, page 29
//Franciscan Media//
Minute Meditation – Swimming in God’s Grace
We may read volumes and volumes on the art of swimming, yet we’ll never understand what swimming is like unless we get wet. So we may read all the books ever written on the love of God and never understand loving unless we love. Where love is genuine, belonging is always mutual. It is like submerging ourselves into an ocean of sublime grace.
—from the book The Way of Silence: Engaging the Sacred in Daily Life by Brother David Steindl-Rast
//Franciscan Media//
Minute Meditation – Christ Is Proclaimed by Our Lives
The Franciscan path of prayer that leads to peace is a path of transformation and witness. Christ is proclaimed not by words but by the example of one’s life, one’s willingness to suffer or perhaps offer one’s life for the sake of another. Christ lives in that Christ lives in us––in our bodies, our hands, our feet and our actions. This is the challenge for our time with its emphasis on rationality and materialism, the challenge of divine risk, of allowing God to enter our lives and lift us out of the doldrums of mediocrity, privatism and individualism. We are called to be vulnerable to grace so that we may be transformed into the living Christ.
—from the book Franciscan Prayer
//Franciscan Media//
Minute Meditation – Prayer Is a High-Risk Enterprise
Prayer that allows the mystery of Christ to change our lives, is a high-risk enterprise—an uncontrollable experience. Yet, the power of God’s grace is such that one who, like Francis of Assisi, is able to trust God sufficiently can enter into the “cave” of the heart, the place where Incarnation takes place, and be transformed into the triumph of love. Franciscan prayer, therefore, is Christ-centered, affective, contemplative, cosmic and evangelizing. The goal of prayer is to make Jesus Christ alive in the believer. To bring Christ to life is the way to peace.
—from the book Franciscan Prayer
//Franciscan Media//
Sermon Notes – October 31, 2021 – Follow Directions!
“Follow Directions!”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
October 30 – 31, 2021
Gospel: Mark 12:28-34
One thing about theology, it is a precise science. Our Lord was precise. He gave our first parents instructions in a 12-word declarative sentence: “You shall not eat from the Tree of Good and Evil.” They screwed it up, and here we are. Really? It was twelve words in a declarative sentence about how to maintain the original state of grace. Our Lord reiterates what His Father revealed in the Old Testament about how we should love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. He also said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But the devil clouds our minds, especially of those who are educated way beyond their abilities. “What does that mean?” “How can we do this?” “We better check the nuances of that.” “Well, that was 2000 years ago, and now this word means something else.” No. It really means what it says. “It means this now because we are all enlightened.” No, that’s just a temptation of the devil. We want to be like God and make up our own rules. When you get to Judgement, let me know how that goes for you.
Our Lord did not say, “Work it out for yourselves, and whatever you come up with is good.” No. He was very precise in how He told us to do it because He knew we would mess up. Follow the Commandments. By the way, a person’s conscience does not triumph over Divine Mandate or Church teachings. “My conscience told me it was okay to do this.” If you go down the street about a half mile and take a left at the courthouse, behind it is a big building full of people whose conscience told them it was okay to do whatever they did. Also, if you drive down Airport Road to Felon University, there’s a whole bunch of people there who will say, “God told me it was okay to put a bullet in that guy’s head.” No. Conscience does not trump Divine Revelation. The apostles had been in the presence of God for years and saw all those miracles, but every time He asked them a question, they got it wrong.
Our Lord was precise. Let’s say that you are traveling, and you think the Mass is at 8:30 at Our Lady of Perpetual Agony down the street. You get ready and go, but they moved the Mass to 7:30. Are you guilty of missing Mass on Sunday? No, because you tried. Are you guilty of missing Mass if you got your days mixed up and thought November 2nd was a Holy Day when it was actually on November 1st? No, you’re not. But, when you give the Church the big humph, well then you have a problem. God tells us exactly how to love. He knew we would mess it up because of our fallen nature. We are supposed to try to return to the original state of grace by living a life of holiness, and we can by doing what He told us to do.
“What would Jesus do?” Jesus told us precisely what to do. If we do what He said to do, we will get what He has promised. Two weeks ago, I went to see my cardiologist. It was a great appointment because he never put on a glove. One glove is bad enough, but when they double-glove, be very afraid. . .it might get mildly invasive. “Now this is going to hurt a bit.” No it’s not. It’s going to hurt a heck of a lot! It’s not a thrill for anybody on the other side of the glove either…trust me on this one. I saw a doctor give a patient a rabies shot in the finger. Wherever you are bitten, that’s where you get the shot now. This guy was a Vietnam Vet, and he was no sissy boy. The doctor said, “Now this is going to hurt.” The guy was sitting in a chair, and he grabbed both chair arms while nurses held him down by his shoulders. After the shot, he decided to relax a while on a gurney. Afterward, I was talking to the doctor, and he said, “Oh, it’s going hurt worse tomorrow.” Who are you, Joseph Mengela? Anyway, my cardiologist said that my blood work is fine. I’m normal – at least my blood is. I’ve been keeping records from when I started this heart regime two years ago after my brother’s death. There is improvement because I did what I was told to do. Did I always like it? I’ll let you be the judge. When I go out to breakfast with the staff, they have French toast and bacon while I have fake eggs and dry wheat toast. What do you think? To make matters worse, they go on and on about how good their food is. Stuff it! I’m not brave enough to tell them, but that’s what I’m thinking. Still, I did what my doctor told me to do, and I have scientific evidence that my health has improved. However, it just means I’m going to die of something else.
Our Lord showed us exactly what we should do. Love your enemies and pray for them. Sometimes, the most loving thing to do is not the thing we want to do. We all have someone who irks us and who we just cannot stand. I am not immune even as a priest. Am I supposed to forgive them? Yes, even though sometimes I’d like to go charismatic and lay hands on them. Forgiveness is an act of intellectual love. . . an act of faith. What are we supposed to do? We are supposed to pray for them. Pray for good for them. . .and not to have an aneurism. Pray for their conversion. Pray that God will lay hands on them and not from the Joe Cutrone School of Counselling.
Our Lord left us precise ways to show our love for Him and precise ways to show that love in action. What did our Lord tell us about forgiveness? He gave us an example of what that love is in the parable of the prodigal son. In the parable, the father didn’t wait for his son to grovel. He ran out to meet his son, put his arms around him, and kissed him on the cheek. He even had a celebration for him. Likewise, our Lord went out after sinners. He went to sick people like the blind man and healed them. He didn’t ask if they wanted to be healed; He healed them anyway. We are supposed to do that for those who hate us, for those who don’t love us, and for those who are unkind to us. He told us to love one another, and this is how we are to demonstrate our love. He showed us exactly what to do even to the point of the Cross.
How will you apply this message to your life?
You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.” Sermon notes can also be found on the church Facebook page by searching for “Facebook Our Lady of the Annunciation Albemarle”