MASS READINGS

The Art of Beginning Again – Part I

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HUMBLING

 

First published November 20th, 2017…

This week, I am doing something different—a five part series, based on this week’s Gospels, on how to begin again after having fallen. We live in a culture where we are saturated in sin and temptation, and it is claiming many victims; many are discouraged and exhausted, downtrodden and losing their faith. It is necessary, then, to learn the art of beginning again…

 

WHY do we feel crushing guilt when we do something bad? And why is this common to every single human being? Even babies, if they do something wrong, often seem to “just know” that they shouldn’t have.Continue reading →

The Numbering

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THE new Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, gave a powerful and prophetic speech that recalls the prescient warnings of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. First, that speech (note: adblockers must may need to be turned off if you cannot view it):Continue reading →

The Victors

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THE most remarkable thing about Our Lord Jesus is that He keeps nothing for Himself. He not only gives all glory to the Father, but then wills to share His glory with us to the extent that we become coheirs and copartners with Christ (cf. Eph 3:6).

Continue reading →

An Invincible Faith in Jesus

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First published May 31st, 2017.


HOLLYWOOD has been overrun with a glut of super hero movies. There is practically one in theatres, somewhere, almost constantly now. Perhaps it speaks of something deep within the psyche of this generation, an era in which true heroes are now few and far between; a reflection of a world longing for real greatness, if not, a real Savior…Continue reading →

On the Threshold

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THIS week, a deep, inexplicable sadness came over me, as it has in the past. But I know now what this is: it is a drop of sadness from the Heart of God—that man has rejected Him to the point of bringing humanity to this painful purification. It is the sadness that God was not allowed to triumph over this world through love but must do so, now, through justice.Continue reading →

The Real False Prophets

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The widespread reluctance on the part of many Catholic thinkers
to enter into a profound examination of the apocalyptic elements of contemporary life is,
I believe, part of the very problem which they seek to avoid.
If apocalyptic thinking is left largely to those who have been subjectivized
or who have fallen prey to the vertigo of cosmic terror,
then the Christian community, indeed the whole human community,
is radically impoverished.
And that can be measured in terms of lost human souls.
–Author, Michael D. O’Brien, Are We Living In Apocalyptic Times?

 

I TURNED off my computer and every device that could possibly stalk my peace. I spent much of the last week floating on a lake, my ears submerged under the water, staring up into the infinite with only a few passing clouds glancing back with their morphing faces. There, in those pristine Canadian waters, I listened to the Silence. I tried not to think about anything except the present moment and what God was carving in the heavens, His little love messages to us in Creation. And I loved Him back.Continue reading →

The Warning of Love

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IS it possible to break God’s heart? I would say that it is possible to pierce His heart. Do we ever consider that? Or do we think of God as being so big, so eternal, so beyond the seemingly insignificant temporal works of men that our thoughts, words, and actions are insulated from Him?Continue reading →

The Growing Mob

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Ocean Avenue by phyzer

 

First published March 20th, 2015. The liturgical texts for the referenced readings that day are here.

 

THERE is a new sign of the times emerging. Like a wave reaching the shore that grows and grows until it becomes a huge tsunami, so too, there is a growing mob mentality toward the Church and freedom of speech. It was ten years ago that I wrote a warning of the coming persecution. [1]cf. Persecution! … and the Moral Tsunami And now it’s here, on Western shores.

Continue reading →

Footnotes

Courage in the Storm

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ONE moment they were cowards, the next courageous. One moment they were doubting, the next they were certain. One moment they were hesitant, the next, they rushed headlong toward their martyrdoms. What made the difference in those Apostles that turned them into fearless men?Continue reading →

The Storm of Our Desires

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Peace Be Still, by Arnold Friberg

 

FROM time to time, I receive letters like these:

Please pray for me. I am so weak and my sins of the flesh, especially alcohol, strangle me. 

You could simply replace alcohol with “pornography”, “lust”, “anger” or a number of other things. The fact is that many Christians today feel swamped by the desires of the flesh, and helpless to change.Continue reading →

Striking God’s Anointed One

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Saul attacking David, Guercino (1591-1666)

 

Regarding my article on The Anti-Mercy, someone felt that I was not critical enough of Pope Francis. “Confusion is not from God,” they wrote. No, confusion is not from God. But God can use confusion to sift and purify His Church. I think this is precisely what is happening at this hour. Francis’ pontificate is bringing into full light those clergymen and laymen who seemed as though waiting in the wings to promote a heterodox version of Catholic teaching (cf. When the Weeds Begin to Head). But it is also bringing to light those who have been bound up in legalism hiding behind a wall of orthodoxy. It is revealing those whose faith is genuinely in Christ, and those whose faith is in themselves; those who are humble and loyal, and those who aren’t. 

So how do we approach this “Pope of surprises”, who seems to startle nearly everyone these days? The following was published on January 22nd, 2016 and has been updated today… The answer, most certainly, is not with the irreverent and crude criticism that has become a staple of this generation. Here, David’s example is most relevant…

Continue reading →

The Anti-Mercy

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A woman asked today if I’ve written anything to clarify the confusion over the Pope’s post-Synodal document, Amoris Laetitia. She said,

I love the Church and always plan to be a Catholic. Yet, I am confused about Pope Francis’ last Exhortation. I know the true teachings on marriage. Sadly I am a divorced Catholic. My husband started another family while still married to me. It still hurts very much. As the Church can’t change its teachings, why hasn’t this been made clear or professed?

She is correct: the teachings on marriage are clear and immutable. The present confusion is really a sad reflection of the Church’s sinfulness within her individual members. This woman’s pain is for her a double-edged sword. For she is cut to the heart by her husband’s infidelity and then, at the same time, cut by those bishops who are now suggesting that her husband might be able to receive the Sacraments, even while in a state of objective adultery. 

The following was published on March 4th, 2017 regarding a novel re-interpretation of marriage and the sacraments by some bishop’s conferences, and the emerging “anti-mercy” in our times…Continue reading →

Getting Ahead of God

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FOR over three years, my wife and I have been trying to sell our farm. We’ve felt this “call” that we should move here, or move there. We’ve prayed about it and surmised that we had many valid reasons and even felt a certain “peace” about it. But still, we’ve never found a buyer (actually the buyers that have come along have been inexplicably blocked time and again) and the door of opportunity has repeatedly closed. At first, we were tempted to say, “God, why aren’t you blessing this?” But recently, we’ve realized that we’ve been asking the wrong question. It shouldn’t be, “God, please bless our discernment,” but rather, “God, what is Your will?” And then, we need to pray, listen, and above all, wait for both clarity and peace. We haven’t waited for both. And as my spiritual director has told me many times over the years, “If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.”Continue reading →

The Cross of Loving

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TO pick up one’s Cross means to empty oneself out completely for love of the other. Jesus put it another way:

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:12-13)

We are to love as Jesus loved us. In His personal mission, which was a mission for the entire world, it involved death upon a cross. But how are we who are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, priests and nuns, to love when we are not called to such a literal martyrdom? Jesus revealed this too, not only on Calvary, but each and every day as He walked among us. As St. Paul said, “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…” [1](Philippians 2:5-8 How?Continue reading →

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 (Philippians 2:5-8

The Late Consecration

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 23rd, 2017
Saturday of the Third Week of Advent

Liturgical texts here

Moscow at dawn…

 

Now more than ever it is crucial that you be “watchers of the dawn”, the lookouts who announce the light of dawn and the new springtime of the Gospel
of which the buds can already be seen.
—POPE JOHN PAUL II, 18th World Youth Day, April 13th, 2003; vatican.va

 

FOR a couple of weeks, I have sensed that I should share with my readers a parable of sorts that has been unfolding recently in my family. I do so with my son’s permission. When we both read yesterday’s and today’s Mass readings, we knew it was time to share this story based on the following two passages:Continue reading →

The Coming Effect of Grace

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 20th, 2017
Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

Liturgical texts here

 

IN the remarkable approved revelations to Elizabeth Kindelmann, a Hungarian woman who was widowed at the age of thirty-two with six children, Our Lord reveals an aspect of the “Triumph of the Immaculate Heart” that is coming.Continue reading →

The Testing – Part II

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for December 7th, 2017
Thursday of the First Week of Advent
Memorial of St. Ambrose

Liturgical texts here

 

WITH the controversial events of this week that unfolded in Rome (see The Papacy is Not One Pope), the words have been lingering in my mind once again that all of this is a testing of the faithful. I wrote about this in October 2014 shortly after the tendentious Synod on the family (see The Testing). Most important in that writing is the part about Gideon….

I also wrote then as I do now: “what happened in Rome was not a test to see how loyal you are to the Pope, but how much faith you have in Jesus Christ who promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church.” I also said, “if you think that there is confusion now, wait till you see what’s coming…”Continue reading →

The Art of Beginning Again – Part V

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 24th, 2017
Friday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of St. Andrew Dũng-Lac and Companions

Liturgical texts here

PRAYING

 

IT takes two legs to stand firm. So too in the spiritual life, we have two legs to stand on: obedience and prayer. For the art of beginning again consists in making sure that we have the right footing in place from the very start… or we’ll stumble before we even take a few steps. In summary thus far, the art of beginning again consists in the five steps of humbling, confessing, trusting, obeying, and now, we focus on praying.Continue reading →

The Art of Beginning Again – Part IV

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 23rd, 2017
Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Opt. Memorial of St. Columban

Liturgical texts here

OBEYING

 

JESUS looked down upon Jerusalem and wept as He cried out:

If this day you only knew what makes for peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes. (Today’s Gospel)

Continue reading →

The Art of Beginning Again – Part III

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 22nd, 2017
Wednesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of St. Cecilia, Martyr

Liturgical texts here

TRUSTING

 

THE first sin of Adam and Eve was not eating the “forbidden fruit.” Rather, it was that they broke trust with the Creator—trust that He had their best interests, their happiness, and their future in His hands. This broken trust is, to this very hour, the Great Wound in the heart of each of us. It is a wound in our inherited nature that leads us to doubt God’s goodness, His forgiveness, providence, designs, and above all, His love. If you want to know how serious, how intrinsic this existential wound is to the human condition, then look at the Cross. There you see what was necessary to begin the healing of this wound: that God himself would have to die in order to mend what man himself had destroyed.[1]cf. Why Faith?Continue reading →

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 cf. Why Faith?

The Art of Beginning Again – Part II

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 21st, 2017
Tuesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Liturgical texts here

CONFESSING

 

THE art of beginning again always consists in remembering, believing, and trusting that it is really God who is initiating a new start. That if you are even feeling sorrow for your sins or thinking of repenting, that this is already a sign of His grace and love at work in your life.Continue reading →

Judgment of the Living

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 15th, 2017
Wednesday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time
Opt. Memorial St. Albert the Great

Liturgical texts here

“FAITHFUL AND TRUE”

 

EVERY day, the sun rises, the seasons advance, babies are born, and others pass away. It is easy to forget that we are living in a dramatic, dynamic story, an epic true tale that is unfolding moment by moment. The world is racing toward its climax: the judgment of the nations. To God and the angels and saints, this story is ever-present; it occupies their love and heightens holy anticipation toward the Day when the work of Jesus Christ will be brought to completion.Continue reading →

All In

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for October 26th, 2017
Thursday of the Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here

 

IT seems to me that the world is moving faster and faster. Everything is like a whirlwind, spinning and whipping and tossing the soul about like a leaf in a hurricane. What is strange is to hear young people say they feel this too, that time is speeding up. Well, the worst danger in this present Storm is that we not only lose our peace, but let The Winds of Change blow out the flame of faith altogether. By this, I do not mean belief in God so much as one’s love and desire for Him. They are the engine and transmission that move the soul toward authentic joy. If we are not on fire for God, then where are we going?Continue reading →

Hoping Against Hope

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for October 21st, 2017
Saturday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here

 

IT can be a terrifying thing to feel your faith in Christ waning. Perhaps you are one of those people.Continue reading →

On How to Pray

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for October 11th, 2017
Wednesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Opt. Memorial POPE ST. JOHN XXIII

Liturgical texts here

 

BEFORE teaching the “Our Father”, Jesus says to the Apostles:

This is how you are to pray. (Matt 6:9)

Yes, how, not necessarily what. That is, Jesus was revealing not so much the content of what to pray, but the disposition of the heart; He was not giving a specific prayer so much as showing us how, as God’s children, to approach Him. For just a couple verses earlier, Jesus said, “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.” [1]Matt 6:7 Rather…Continue reading →

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Matt 6:7

Can We Exhaust God’s Mercy?

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for September 24th, 2017
Sunday of the Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here

 

I am on my way back from the “Flame of Love” conference in Philadelphia. It was beautiful. Around 500 people packed a hotel room that was filled with the Holy Spirit from the first minute. All of us are leaving with renewed hope and strength in the Lord. I have some long layovers in airports on my way back to Canada, and so am taking this time to reflect with you on today’s readings….Continue reading →

Going Into the Deep

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for September 7th, 2017
Thursday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here

 

WHEN Jesus speaks to the crowds, he does so in the shallows of the lake. There, He speaks to them at their level, in parables, in simplicity. For He knows that many are only curious, seeking the sensational, following at a distance…. But when Jesus desires to call the Apostles to Himself, He asks them to put out “into the deep.”Continue reading →

Afraid of the Call

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for September 5th, 2017
Sunday & Tuesday
of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here

 

ST. Augustine once said, “Lord, make me pure, but not yet!” 

He betrayed a common fear among believers and unbelievers alike: that being a follower of Jesus means having to forego earthly joys; that it is ultimately a call into suffering, deprivation, and pain on this earth; to mortification of the flesh, annihilation of the will, and rejection of pleasure. After all, in last Sunday’s readings, we heard St. Paul say, “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” [1]cf. Rom 12:1 and Jesus say:Continue reading →

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 cf. Rom 12:1

The Ocean of Mercy

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for August 7th, 2017
Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Opt. Memorial of St. Sixtus II and Companions

Liturgical texts here

 Photo taken on October 30th, 2011 in Casa San Pablo, Sto. Dgo. Dominican Republic

 

I JUST returned from Arcātheos, back to the mortal realm. It was an incredible and powerful week for all of us at this father/son camp situated at the base of the Canadian Rockies. In the days ahead, I will share with you the thoughts and words which came to me there, as well as an incredible encounter all of us had with “Our Lady”.Continue reading →

Seeking the Beloved

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for July 22nd, 2017
Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene

Liturgical texts here

 

IT is always beneath the surface, calling, beckoning, stirring, and leaving me utterly restless. It is the invitation to union with God. It leaves me restless because I know that I have not yet taken the plunge “into the deep”. I love God, but not yet with my whole heart, soul, and strength. And yet, this is what I am made for, and so… I am restless, until I rest in Him.Continue reading →

Divine Encounters

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for July 19th, 2017
Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here

 

THERE are times during the Christian journey, like Moses in today’s first reading, that you will walk through a spiritual desert, when everything seems dry, the surroundings desolate, and the soul almost dead. It is a time of testing of one’s faith and trust in God. St. Teresa of Calcutta knew it well. Continue reading →

The Paralysis of Despair

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for July 6th, 2017
Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Opt. Memorial of St. Maria Goretti

Liturgical texts here

 

THERE are many things in life that can cause us to despair, but none, perhaps, as much as our own faults.Continue reading →

Courage… to the End

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for June 29th, 2017
Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Liturgical texts here

 

TWO years ago, I wrote The Growing Mob. I said then that ‘the zeitgeist has shifted; there is a growing boldness and intolerance sweeping through the courts, flooding the media, and spilling out onto the streets. Yes, the time is right to silence the Church. These sentiments have existed for some time now, decades even. But what is new is that they have gained the power of the mob, and when it reaches this stage, the anger and intolerance begin to move very fast.’Continue reading →

Making Way for Angels

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for June 7th, 2017
Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Liturgical texts here 

 

SOMETHING remarkable happens when we give praise to God: His ministering angels are released in our midst.Continue reading →

The Old Man

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for June 5th, 2017
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of St. Boniface

Liturgical texts here

 

THE ancient Romans never lacked the most brutal of punishments for criminals. Flogging and crucifixion were among their more notorious cruelties. But there is another… that of binding a corpse to the back of a convicted murderer. Under penalty of death, no one was allowed to remove it. And thus, the condemned criminal would eventually become infected and die.Continue reading →

The Unforeseeable Fruit of Abandonment

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THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for June 3rd, 2017
Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions

Liturgical texts here

 

IT rarely seems that any good can come of suffering, especially in the midst of it. Moreover, there are times when, according to our own reasoning, the path that we’ve set forward would bring about the most good. “If I get this job, then… if I am physically healed, then… if I go there, then….” Continue reading →