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Today we are celebrating the newest feast day declared by Pope Francis, that of Mary, the Mother of the Church.

Before you dismiss today’s blog because you are not Catholic and it doesn’t interest you, please hang in there! Just to let you know, that Jesus’ mother, in that role, is also mother of us all, no matter if you practice my faith or not. If we are the Body of Christ, as it proclaims in Scripture, then she is our mother, too.

And we can be assured that the woman – who said “Yes” to the angel Gabriel, and the woman who stood at the foot of the cross as her son died, and the woman who was present at Pentecost in the upper room when the Holy Spirit rushed in to inspire and embolden all the followers of Jesus – that she is a unique and unfathomably blessed…

Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke, (LK 9:18-22). It includes Simon Peter’s declaration, inspired by the Holy Spirit, (see Matthew 16:17), that Jesus is “the Christ of God.” Christ means Messiah, the anointed One. He is the One that Israel has been waiting for, He will liberate the people from slavery and oppression. But, of course, Christians believe that the slavery we’re delivered from is sin and death. And we believe that the liberation is the freedom to seek the supreme good, the will of the Father.

Jesus perfectly exemplifies this for us in His crucifixion, in His total surrender to the will of His Father in the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, in His passion and death. And in His Resurrection. That last event is the Best part, to put it extremely mildly. Jesus is all about doing as His Father desires for the…

In the early 1970’s there was a hit song entitled, “I Am Woman.” Lyrics include, “I am woman, hear me roar/In numbers too big to ignore.” And another bold pronouncement, “No one’s ever going to keep me down again.”

Would that these statements were still true. We seem to live in an age when women are under attack again. There are forces in the culture that are trying to eradicate not only the word ‘woman’ but its meaning. If they succeed, we women will lose our identity and our place in the world that we’ve struggled so long and hard to have.

If you don’t believe that it was an arduous struggle at the start, you should read this. It’s one of many terrible, dishonorable moments in our country’s history. But if had not been for some incredibly brave women, we would not have the rights we do…

So, while I had no plan to do this (I rarely know what I’m going to write about until the inspiration ‘hits me’) today I am writing again about St. Maximilian Kolbe. And, again, this was not planned.

The Mission of the Franciscans

I am a ‘fan’ of St. Max. His intercessory prayers, I’m convinced, are why my book got published and that began my fascination with the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe. I have been reading through a small book about his life that is also a meditation/prayer book for Lent. I guess I ordered it. I remember so little these days. It’s from Franciscan Media which placed a statement on the back of the book that helpfully says, “Our mission is to share the love of God in the spirit of St. Francis.” As one who is studying at the Franciscan School of Theology, ordering items from Franciscan…

I heard yesterday that not many U.S. citizens are ‘proud to be an American’ these days, according to a recent poll. I suppose that’s understandable, but not for the reasons you’d think. Yes, a lot of terrible things have been going on. Yes, there is still racism in the U.S. which is not something any of us should stand for. But I think that, in our fervor to decry the evils of racism, and rightfully so, we have begun to think, many of us, that this country is woefully deficient in seemingly every other area. And I think that’s a mistake. I hope this isn’t received by the reader as a ‘political’ piece. Because I’m not terribly political. I am more of a reasonable, pragmatic type where earthly institutions and such are concerned. 

Always a Light in the Darkness

Life is never without challenges; good things happen even during…

In the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 17, St. Paul gives a rousing set of remarks to the people of Athens. It’s filled with good things, but my favorite sentence (and not just in this Book, but anywhere) is “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

St. Paul did have a way with words. In fact he sometimes had too much of a way and in some of his letters he leaves me confused as I try to follow his run on sentences! But that’s a story for another time. What I found interesting and even surprising was that these words, of which I am so fond, did not originate with St. Paul. I did notice that the sentence is in single quotes and Paul does even say that “some of your own poets have said” those immortal words. Huh. I never really heard that before.

In the Old Testament’s 8th Psalm we read a meditation on the awesomeness of God and how insignificant we seem in comparison. And yet, we human beings are still the pinnacle of God’s creation.

In verse 6 we read,

“Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor.” Some translations use the term “angel” instead of “a god,” but we get the sense of it. Men and women are just a bit less special than creatures in Heaven. And that’s definitely at the ‘top of the heap’ on earth!

I was reminded of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as I’m sure many are and have been, in reading the words excerpted above from Psalm 8. Hence the title of this entry. In this passage Shakespeare has Hamlet observe, “What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and…

I heard an interesting homily on Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday a fews years ago. In our liturgical cycle, the same readings came up again today. Our presider, Father Raphael, relayed to the congregation the story of a policeman who was asked by an out of town visitor where he might find a church for Sunday services. He did not specify any particular religious preference and so the policeman recommended a Catholic Church that was on his ‘beat’. When the visitor asked him why he referred him to that church, the policeman replied, “Those people coming out of that church are always so happy. They say they receive Jesus Christ into their hearts and they take Him with them when they leave, to their homes, and everywhere else they go…”

Of course, that’s how it should be for all of us. The joy we feel after we receive the Eucharist should carry…