Daily Scripture

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6, 9-11  
Psalm 27: 1-4, 13-14 
Luke 4: 31-27.

Reflection:
Take a moment to get in touch with what is going on in your life now…what you would like to bring to prayer and reflection on today’s readings, this September 1, 2009.

The Psalmist in our entrance antiphon has wisdom and insight to share for our life experience today… "Lord, hear my voice when I call to you…You are my help; do not cast me off.  Do not desert me, my Savior God."  Ponder these words… what do they say to you today in the midst of your life experience?   Take time to ponder and pray …

Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians reminds all of us that no matter the struggles and sufferings in our lives, we are ‘children of light, children of the day…’… not to sleep but be alert and sober…remember we are united together with Christ, who died for us and that we live together in Him…

Paul also reminds us that we are part of the community of faith, called to encourage one another.  Thus, we are never alone. Who and how might we be that supportive, encouraging community to build up another today.  How might we be open to another in our community with our own struggles today? What does Paul say to you in the midst of your life experience?  Take time to ponder and pray…

Our Gospel today tells us the familiar story of Jesus healing the man with an ‘unclean spirit" in the mist of the people gathered in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The people were amazed and said to one another… ‘What is there about his word?  For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits and they come out… 

Again, let us bring our life, as it is today and enter into this scene. Is there anything within is… that needs healing within us that we bring to Jesus this day?  Take time to talk to Jesus … ponder and pray.

In closing, Say today’s responsorial Psalm 27: 1,4, 13-14.
Response:  I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the
land of the living.
        The Lord is my light and my salvation:  whom shall I fear"
        The Lord is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?
(Response)
        One thing I seek of the Lord:  (you may want to add your own
words here too) this I seek:  To dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of my life. That I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his
temple. 

(Response)
        I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of
the living. Wait for the Lord with courage. Be stouthearted and wait for the
Lord.

(Response)

Peace and Prayer. 

 

St. Marcella Fabing, csj, is on the staff at Christ the King Passionist Retreat Center,
Citrus Height, California..

 

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Reflection:

We’ve all seen the bumper sticker that says, Think Peace.  I like the one that says, Forget peace.  Think about using your left turn signal!

These bumper stickers remind us of a most basic psychological law.  Marcus Aurelius Antonius said, "Our life is what our thoughts make it."   James Allen stated, "You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."

In today’s gospel Jesus tells us that "wicked designs come from the deep recesses of the heart."  If wicked designs come from the deep recesses of the heart, then just and loving designs come from there too.  Today’s gospel can be complimented with St. Paul’s words to the Philippians, "Whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of  praise, think about these things."(Philippians 4:8)  If more and more people follow this advice, then our world will have solid hope for peace.  As the Constitution of the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (1946) reminds us, "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed."

There is a transforming power in our thoughts. Thoughts focus our attention.  Thoughts place a goal before our eyes.  Thoughts mobilize our energy.  After that, our bodies and emotions spring into action.  Yes, as the bumper sticker declares, if we think peace, we will get peace.  If we think war, we will get war.  If we envision ourselves as a loving person, we will become a loving person.  If we think angry thoughts, we will become an angry person.  Garbage in, garbage out.  Diamonds in, diamonds out. The choice is ours.

So we humbly welcome the Word, as St. James tells us today, and dwell upon it.  Then, as it takes root, the actions that follow will certainly fulfill the will of God.

 

Fr. Alan Phillip, C.P. is a member of the Passionist Community at Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

 

Scripture:
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
Matthew 25:1-13

Reflection:
Be prepared!  That seems to be a mantra for much of the western world. From Boy Scouts to financial planning, preparedness is a way of life.  Here in California, earthquake country, everyone is even urged to put together a preparedness kit! 

Today’s Gospel calls us to think about our spiritual preparedness kit.  Just as we do not know when the next earthquake–maybe even "the big one"–will hit, so too, we do not know when God will call us. 

A common way of looking at this reading is to consider it a call to stay free from sin, but there is another message here.  Each of us is given only so much time to be disciples of Christ on earth.  I think this Gospel warns us to listen for God’s call.  To be alert for those times when we are called to be witnesses of Christ through our words and actions. Sometimes opportunities to be disciples appear when we least expect them.  Hearing about a family in need, or an offer to join in a prison ministry, or meeting someone who needs consoling are all opportunities for us to serve God.  Are we awake to the call? 

This is also the Feast Day of St. Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church.  St. Augustine left us with much theological richness in his writings and his preaching.  Augustine went from an ardent critic of Christianity, leading a life of self-indulgence to a Bishop, a great saint and one of the most influential figures in our Church history.  His teaching included many aspects of our Faith.   Perhaps one of the most important of these is his deep appreciation for the Eucharist and for the Church as the Body of Christ.  He exhorted his flock to recognize themselves in the bread and wine they received, to allow it to turn them into itself, so that they would always belong to the Body of Christ. 

Looking at St. Augustine’s life in light of today’s reading, we see how recognizing God’s call radically changed his life.  Christianity – being a disciple of Christ – was not the path he chose for himself, but he was awake when God called, he listened and followed. 

When do we hear God’s call?  What opportunities to be disciples are presented in our lives?  How do we respond?

 

Mary Lou Butler ([email protected])is a former staff member and is now a member of the Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center Board, Sierra Madre, California. 

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Luke 4: 16-30

Reflection:

As Jesus stood up, he must have known that he had a reputation to live up to and he also knew the truth of his mission from the Father. 

Jesus probably understood that the expectations of the community were likely to be high.  What would he teach?  What would he say?

Community expectations, on the one hand, God’s truth on the other hand.

His listeners must have been amazed.  How could this be the son of Mary and Joseph – the boy next door that they watched grow up?   LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD, the headlines could have read!!

However, Jesus asked his listeners to consider that they perhaps are not as "chosen" as they want to believe……that God could also favor a Syrian leper and a widow from Sidon.  God’s love is inclusive.

The community was not ready to hear "the message."  Instead, they focused on the "messenger" and reacted by trying to throw Jesus over the cliff.

This disbelief and rejection may still be true today.  How often do we tend to ignore or discount the wisdom of those closest to us?  After all, did we listen to our parents when we were teens?  Now, as adults, are we any different?

 We are challenged to recognize the teachers, the healers and prophets among us today.

 

Deacon Brian Clements ([email protected]) is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.         

Scripture:

Jeremiah 1:17-19
Psalms 71:1-2; 3-4a, 5-6ab, 15ab and 17
Mark 6:17-29

Reflection:

An old friend and I were speaking recently about the rise of violence against religion throughout the world today. As younger men we were both actively committed to the peace movement and subsequent dialogue among faiths that "religious" people encouraged. Were we just too idealistic? As my friend pointed out at the end of the conversation with a sigh, "People die in the name of religion everyday!" And I sadly had to concur.

My thoughts wandered back to that conversation as I read the gospel assigned for today. As I read my focus fell on the person of Herod Antipas rather than John the Baptist. What motivates a perpetrator to kill a person of faith?  What motivates a whole ideology to slaughter those who disagree with it? The early Christian community considered John the Baptist a great figure. Jesus speaks of John as the "last of the prophets" and considered John’s baptism of repentance as a sign of the coming of God’s own Kingdom. It is obvious reading Mark’s narrative that jealousies, envy, fear and lack of moral courage motivated Herod to take John’s life.

Jealousy, envy, fear, and lack of moral courage tend to characterize most of the martyrdoms that have taken place before and since.

Take for example Passionist Bishop and Martyr Eugene Bossilkov, CP. Bishop Bossilkov was born on November 16, 1900 in a small town in northern Bulgaria called Belene. He came from peasant stock, but being attracted to the Passionists who had been missionaries in that area since the 1700s, he joined them. Studying in Passionist seminaries in Belgium and Holland, he professed his vows in 1920 and was ordained a priest in 1926. After doctoral studies in Rome, he returned to Bulgaria in 1933 where he served both as his bishop’s secretary and then pastor of a parish. When his bishop died after WW II, Eugene Bossilkov was ordained Bishop of Nicopolis (of Northern Bulgaria) in 1947 just as the Stalinist purges behind the Iron Curtain were gaining strength. Between 1947 and 1951 Bishop Bossilkov, true to his Passionist vocation, encouraged his people to remain faithful and to know that in all their sufferings they shared in the Passion of Jesus.

Finally in mid 1952 mass arrests of church leaders began. On July 16^th of that year, 40 priests, religious and lay leaders were rounded up and arrested. In the midst of them all was their Bishop, Eugene Bossilkov. Family and friends reported that all during his incarceration Bishop Bossilkov remained faithful to the Gospel despite physical, emotional and mental torture.

One day his niece, a religious, came to the prison to retrieve a basket she used to deliver supplies to him. The basket was returned to her untouched. She was stunned. When she questioned the guard as to what happened to her uncle the Bishop, she received silence. One guard, however, wrote on a small slip of paper that her uncle had been shot a few days earlier and his body disposed of – nowhere to be found. The guard returned to her the Bishop’s bloody shirt and a cassock.

It was not until 1975 that Paul VI received verbal confirmation of Bishop Eugene Bossilkov’s death from an official.

John the Baptist, a little known Passionist Bishop, and all the thousands of unnamed persons of faith, both Christian and non-Christian, who die due to jealousy, envy, fear, and lack of moral courage. What would Jesus think; Jesus himself who died for those same reasons?

 

Patrick Quinn ([email protected]) is the director of Planned Giving at the Passionist Development Office in Chicago.

Feast of Blessed Dominic Barberi, CP

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:27-32

Reflection:

Today we celebrate the feast of Passionist Blessed Dominic Barberi.  Orphaned as a small child, Dominic was raised by a maternal uncle and aunt and learned to tend sheep.  As a young man, Dominic experienced his true calling: join the Passionist Congregation and someday set up a Passionist Mission in England. 

In today’s First Reading, all are encouraged to live with the fullness and hope of a God who will one day welcome us into His eternal Kingdom of Glory.  "In receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe." 

Dominic Barberi truly felt the word of God at work in his heart.  After years of ministries in Italy and then Belgium, Blessed Dominic was finally able to fulfill his vocation; in 1842 he was sent to establish the first Passionist residence in England.  During his time in England, Dominic Barberi preached missions and received many converts to Catholicism including Anglican John Henry Newman.  Dominic lived his life as a son of the Gospel, proclaiming the word of God to all. 

Blessed Dominic was a true believer.  He lived his life as God’s will; when people saw and heard him preach, it was evident he spoke from a spirituality deep within.  Unlike the Pharisees in today’s Gospel: Jesus scorns them, calling them hypocrites, admonishing them for their two-faced ways.  He likens them to "white-washed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth."  

Aren’t we all a little hypocritical in some aspect of our lives?  What about people as a society?  What is it then, when we smile good-natured toward others, but the minute they turn around we gossip about them behind their back?  Where is our tolerance, faith in others and faith in God when we see someone in need of our help, and although we do the righteous thing and choose to help them, we do nothing but complain about the whole experience afterward? 

How do we make it right?  How can we, as spiritual and moral followers of Christ, learn to live our lives less in the ways that are easy and more as the will of God?  It does not have to be in the form of a call to religious life as Dominic Barberi received.  Rather, making a decision based on what is right and not what is easy and acting upon that decision.

 

Claire Smith ([email protected]) is on staff at the Holy Cross Province Development Office in Chicago, Illinois.

Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 3:7-13
Matthew 24:42-51

Reflection:

"Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." 

Take a moment to reflect on the countless ways you prepared for the unexpected today.  We certainly lock our doors at night before going to sleep.  You may also set a house alarm just in case the locks fail and someone makes their way inside.  We spend thousands of dollars on home, car and possibly even life insurance.  We click on our seatbelts before we start the car.  Moms pack their diaper bags with bottles and baby wipes, band-aids and extra clothes.  We always check with the weather forecast before grabbing sweaters, umbrellas or sunscreen.  These days we don’t dare leave the house without our cell phones just in case of emergency.  And especially as of late, we monitor our bank statements and listen to the endless expert advice on how to save for college, protect our investments and shelter our retirement funds.  Pretty impressive. 

Yet I wonder, what have we done to ready our souls?  In today’s Gospel, Matthew tells us that we "must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."  Like a "thief" in the night, he will come.  And will we be ready?  I am fairly sure that a safe investment portfolio and a state-of-the-art car alarm will not suffice.  Christ didn’t sugar-coat his message here.  He is coming.  We don’t know when.  So we better be ready at all times.  Just like a thief doesn’t give notice or warning, neither does the Son of Man.  And the consequences of being ill-prepared are devastating.  When a bugler comes to an unarmed home, he takes everything of value he can get his hands on.  When Christ comes, the wicked servant who took advantage of Christ’s delay "will be punish[ed] severely."

As Christians, we are challenged to live the ordinary days of our lives all the while knowing that there is a much larger, more extraordinary possibility in every day-Jesus’ return.  And for those who "stay awake" and serve God in their lives, he promises eternal rewards.  For the faithful servant, our Lord "will put him in charge of all his property."  What strikes me is the example of the good servant in Christ’s parable.  What makes this person worthy in life is that while the master is away, he serves the household meals at the appointed time; ‘Blessed is the servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so."  In other words, he hasn’t slept with one eye open every night.  He hasn’t berated his fellow community members for their failings.  He hasn’t suspended his responsibilities to home and family for constant prayer and penances.  He has simply served dinner "at the proper time."   

Can it possibly be this easy?  Well, yes and no.  I think the message is that we don’t have to preach God’s word from the highest mountain or leave our families for a life of sequestered meditation.  But we do have to live the life God gave us with honesty, integrity and faith.  This might mean caring compassionately for an aged parent, suspending a lucrative career to raise young children or treating our employees with generosity and understanding.  We can find holiness and grace in the regular responsibilities of our everyday lives.  In doing that, we can be ready for anything.

Marlo Serritella ([email protected]) is on staff at the Holy Cross Province Development Office in Chicago.

 

Scripture:
Ruth 2:1-3, 8-11, 4:13-17
Matthew 23:1-12

Reflection: 

"Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways… your children (will be) like olive plants around your table."  (Ps 128: 1, 3b)

We are blessed indeed to have raised 4 children. We tried to teach them to seek the Lord and His will for their lives, and that they would be truly happy when they said "yes" to His plan. We gave them all back to Him when they were teenagers and we knew the time was coming for them to leave home. Now, years later, we are in the process of letting go again.

We have three sons and one daughter. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s our daughter who is discerning a religious vocation with the Sisters of Life in New York. Since we live in Portland, Oregon, it’s hard to see her move so far away from us (although a friend did remind me that it’s much closer than India!)

It’s been quite a roller coaster of emotions and of letting go of our dreams for Julie (Jim walking her down the aisle, she and I leading women’s retreats together, etc.) for a better dream – God’s dream for her. One day when I was on the grieving part of the roller coaster, I asked the Lord to speak to me about His plan for her. As I listened, this is what I sensed Him saying to me:

"My sacred heart is aching for you. Truly I know the pain you are feeling. I will bring so much good from it, I promise. I love Julie. I have called her from her birth. I have kept her for myself. Thank you for helping Me by loving her so well and by passing on the gift and spark of faith. Your love for Me helped her to fall in love with Me. I will take good care of her. I will provide for all of her needs. And I will help you continue to love her and hold her in your heart. She will always be a part of you even though distance separates you. Cling to Me and my promises. You are precious to Me too. Don’t be jealous of Julie’s vocation – she wouldn’t be here without your vocation! Let Me have her now with no reservations. Let her run to Me – let her go with all joy and with all wonder. Give her back to me again."

God didn’t promise that His will is easy, or that it never hurts. But He did promise to be with us always, and that He will turn our mourning into dancing. As we pray for religious vocations, let’s pray too for the families who must let them go.

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Portland, OR and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. Janice also leads women’s retreats. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 2, soon to be 3. Visit Janice’s website at http://www.jcarleton.com/ or email her at janice@frcedric/org