Luke 15:3-7Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: I have found my lost sheep

How cool is it that Jesus will stop at nothing to find the lost, just like a shepherd will go into the mountains and dangerous terrain to find that one sheep who is lost and stuck on a ledge with no way to save himself. 

It is truly a time for celebration.  Not only because we are grouped together and united in Christ, but also because our own worries and anxiety for that one is now calmed because of the Lord.  We usually think about the lost sheep in relation to the Good Shepherd.  We sometimes tend to forget its relationship to the others.  When we have someone we know leave the Church, or be sucked into dangerous ruts in life, whether depression, drugs, alcoholism, or self destructive behaviors, don't we worry and become anxious for them?  Prayer is the key.  Prayer can change so many things.  Unconditional love, but a firmness of knowing when we can help and when we can't.  Sometimes things are too great for us alone, and we need to trust in God to intervene.  That is where our Lord comes to us or others as the Good Shepherd.  We need to remember that he is there, and if we need his help, we need only ask--be prepared for him to respond in ways that we don't expect.

John 17:11B-19 Consecrated in Truth

These words that Jesus speaks today remind us of our priests who speak to God the Father upon the altar, and thus are known as Jesus' "high priestly prayer" as he speaks to the Father on our behalf, offering us up with himself, so that we may be in union with him and the Father.  It is what our dear priests do at every mass during when they call down God and lift us and our prayers up during the sacrifice of the mass. 

“Holy Father, keep them in your name" is a line that marks us as a people of God, set aside and anointed.  Jesus asks that we be consecrated in the truth by the Father.  "Your word is truth." he acknowledges.  Through God's word we are made holy.  Through Christ, the Word, we are made holy.  Let us rejoice and be glad! 

Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18 Ash Wednesday

for today's reading http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021016.cfm

Today we are summoned to repentance, to reflection, to renew ourselves in God's eyes as his holy people.  Called to fasting we lose ourselves to this world and place ourselves in solidarity with Christ's suffering as we prepare for his Resurrection at Easter.  It is also a time too for us to refocus our loves upon the Lord, to renew ourselves to his laws, to do his will.

I offer you the prayer of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton:

O Father, the first rule of our dear savior's life was to do Your Will.  Let His Will of the present moment be the first rule of our daily life and work with no other desire but for its most full and complete accomplishment.  Help us to follow it faithfully, so that doing what You wish we will be pleasing to you.  Amen.

Mark 6:53-56 Crossing the Waters

Marriage is a reflection of the relationship that we have with God, and the Church's relationship with Christ.  For those reasons it is very sacred. Two of the sets of relationships that we are given in today's Gospel are the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Apostles after they have been called, and that between Christ and the people whom he loves and has great compassion for. 

A Jesuit taught me once that for better understanding of the Gospel sometimes it is helpful to put yourself into the story.  I imagined myself as one of the Apostles.  It was almost overwhelming until I realized that it is how we are called to service even now in our personal lives.  Then I imagined myself as one of the people waiting for the Lord, and recognizing him.  How I realized that this was my true Spouse, the one from the Song of Songs, whom I would recognize as a lover and want to be with always: the one whose gentle touch could free me from everything around me, pulling me out of troubled thoughts, and make me forget everything around me as we joined thoughts and are healed in that communion. It reminded me of the prayer of St. Ignatius: "Lord receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my will...give me only your love and grace, and that is enough for me." 

But there is another entity entirely missed within the story: the Sea of Gennesaret.  The beautiful sea created by God himself and animated with the movement of the Spirit.  Upon its surface the light is reflected.  The sea is molded and shaped by the Master continuously. From within it comes forth life.  Yet when others and perhaps even the sea itself seems barren, the Lord commands the nets be lowered into its deepest parts, which brings forth abundant life, like the Lord himself living within the deepest parts of us just waiting for us to need him enough to be seen and heard from those quiet recesses within.  We are more than that too.  We are the sea which becomes that vessel carrying Christ and his teaching to others; we are the living water bringing a quenching drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry through His generosity when we share his Way, his Truth, and his Life.  The people we read about today are healed by the mere touching of the Lord's tassel.  Are we that that vessel of his love too? 

Every day I pray this prayer, and today it finds new meaning. I share it here with you.

 "Lord, temper my heart with the fire of your mercy

so that I may be a worthy vessel for your love. Amen. "

~ H. Hurley

Mark 3:20-21 What does it mean to be out of one's mind?

What does it mean to be out of one's mind?  Does it mean that we mourn when our enemy dies, as David did at Saul's death?  Does it mean that we show compassion to those in need?  Does it mean that we give even the shirt off our back? 

In today's Gospel the crowds had again gathered around Jesus just as they do around Pope Francis today because they want to touch holiness, to be healed, to have their hope renewed.  We are all like that.  We want to be in God's presence.  God calls us to his presence so that we might be in communion with him.  Jesus will not turn away those in need for he has such great love and compassion. 

His family thinks that he is out of his mind.  But aren't all things possible in God?  And so, if one must be crazy, why not be a fool for God?  Why not love as he loved?  Why not enact his spiritual and corporal works to grow that love?  Our Good Shepherd is teaching us and leading us in this path, for this is the path to eternal life.  In this path we give up our will, what we think we ought to do, and are drawn out of our comfort zones, and perhaps others will think we are also out of our minds. 

St. Ignatius of Loyola has a prayer, let us join with him today:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.

Mt 2:1-12 Feast of the Epiphany

"...Behold the magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem."  What a beautiful story of the magi arriving to adore the Christ child.  What motived them?  Prayer comes from that first initiation from God alone.  He calls us closer to himself, into communion with himself, into prayer.  So this calling of the magi to come to adore the newborn King, that was something that only God could have put into their hearts through the grace of the Holy Spirit to walk that faith journey, through difficulties, through foreign lands, to search for the Child, to not lose faith when they learned the child was not of Herod's line, but of a royalty far deeper.  They were not the Jews, but they recognized God made manifest.  God had manifested himself to all through his birth, but now He manifests himself as a savior to all human kind through these Gentiles. 

Indeed St. Paul reminds us that Christ came for people of all races, all backgrounds, all beliefs.  Yes, there will always be those who choose not to accept Christ and his gift.  There are those who will ridicule and persecute the followers of Christ.  However, it is our duty to recognize the face of God in all whom we encounter.  ALL are called to the Table of Plenty.  It is God who calls us, not ourselves, not a special few who give us the invitation, It is God and God alone who first imparts that call within our hearts and creates that desire to know Him.  May we strive to find God in each other today and show Him love.