Thoughts on fasting

 

Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–18

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus prescribes the essential disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Let’s focus on fasting and almsgiving. The appetites for food and drink are so pressing, so elemental, that, unless they are quelled and disciplined, they will simply take over the soul. They are like children who clamor constantly for attention and who, if indulged, will in short order run the house. Therefore, if the passion for God is to be awakened, the more immediately pressing desires must be muted, and this is the purpose of fasting. We go hungry and thirsty so that the deepest hunger and thirst might be felt. In a way, fasting is like the “calming of the monkey mind” effected by the Rosary: Both are means of settling the superficial mind that darts from preoccupation to preoccupation. But food and drink are not the only objects of concupiscent desire. Material things and wealth are also ready substitutes for the passion for God. Thus, a kind of fasting from what money can buy is an important practice. How often Jesus recommends that his disciples give to the poor, and how often throughout the Christian tradition has almsgiving been emphasized. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Father's Day

 

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and spiritual fathers today. Yours is a profound and indeed privileged calling. And in many ways, you walk in the footsteps of St. Joseph, who, as I’ve said many times before, was charged with the provision and protection of the Holy Family. Watch my reflection here.

As fathers, you are similarly charged. Studies have shown that fathers who attend Mass greatly influence their children attending Mass in their own adult lives.  So, fathers: Can I encourage you to keep bringing your families to Mass for your spiritual life, the life of the Church, and the lives of those in your care? And as we reflect on fathers, let’s pray a Rosary for all the fathers in our lives. Happy Father's Day!  In Christ,

Bishop Robert Barron P.S. Don’t forget to pray today for all the priests in your life, who serve as spiritual fathers to God’s people!

Thoughts on the Holy Trinity

Trinity Sunday

15 June 2025

                       

There are so many mysteries in life. They frequently confound us, they irritate us, and sometimes entertain us. The ultimate mystery, however, is a mystery that consoles us. It is the mystery of God Himself, the Holy Trinity. The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the central dogma (highest level of doctrine) of the Christian Faith. 

• It is the most basic belief of our Faith. It is even more basic than the doctrine of the Incarnation, of God becoming man, for without the Trinity there could be no Son.

• The Holy Trinity is the most basic mystery of our Faith. Theologians call it an “absolute” mystery: a divinely revealed truth, the inner essence of which cannot be fully understood by the finite human mind. It is absolute mystery because we would not know of it if Jesus did not explicitly reveal it to the Apostles.

• Our belief is that the one true God exists in three Divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

These three divine persons are:

► co-equal (No one person is above the others.)

► co-eternal (Each person has always existed and will always exist.)

► consubstantial (“of one substance” or “nature” or “essence”)

This absolute, ultimate mystery of God cannot be fully (or even satisfactorily) explained.

It defies our logic and even defies our mathematics. How can one equal three?

Through reason alone we can know that God exists; however, we cannot know or understand the Trinity through reason alone. But, this absolute mystery can console, encourage, help, and guide us.

           God the Father:  Is the Loving, Providential God who created us, the world,                                          and all in it. He is the Loving God who still holds us in                                                existence.

           God the Son:  Is the Lord and Savior who suffered and died for our salvation.

                                  He revealed to the world the ways of God and the way to God.

           God the Holy Spirit:  Is God with us still – sustaining, guiding, consoling,                                                    counseling, pleading our cause.

Life is always full of mysteries: some confuse, some irritate, and some will never be solved in this world. But the ultimate mystery of God's true nature, the Holy Trinity, is meant to comfort us, console us, and even inspire us, because we believe that our True God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – guards and guides us with His providential love each day.



Fr. Don Saunders, SJ

Thoughts on repentance

 

Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:20–26

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches that if a brother has something against us, we must be reconciled with him before we offer our gift at the altar. This reconciling requires a change of heart and mind. The word often misleadingly translated as “repent” is metanoeite. This Greek term is based upon two words, meta (beyond) and nous (mind or spirit), and thus, in its most basic form, it means something like “go beyond the mind that you have.”  The English word “repent” has a moralizing overtone, suggesting a change in behavior or action, whereas Jesus’ term seems to be hinting at a change at a far more fundamental level of one’s being. Jesus urges his listeners to change their way of knowing, their way of perceiving and grasping reality, their mode of seeing.  What Jesus implies is this: a new state of affairs has arrived, the divine and human have met, but the way you customarily see is going to blind you to this novelty. Minds, eyes, ears, senses, perceptions—all have to be opened up, turned around, revitalized. Metanoia, mind transformation, is Jesus’ first recommendation. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Mary, Mother of the Church

 

Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

John 19:25–34

Friends, today we celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. We recall that, from the cross, Jesus pronounced this word to St. John: “Behold, your mother.” In saying this, he was giving Mary not only to John, but through John to the whole Church. Mary would be the mother of all the beloved disciples of Jesus up and down the centuries. Then we recall that, at the Annunciation, the angel declared to the maiden of Nazareth: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” The two persons required for the Incarnation were the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother. Now we can make the connection: in becoming the mother of Christ, Mary, by extension, would become the mother of all those members of Christ’s Mystical Body across space and time. Just as the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Mother were required to bring about the Incarnation in history, so those same two agents are required to bring about the birth of Christ in our souls. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Pentecost

Pentecost

8 June 2025

                                                                                              

Pentecost is the Birthday of the Church, and the Gospel setting is the Cenacle, the Upper Room in Jerusalem, the place where the Church was born, the focus of Christian history from the Last Supper to Pentecost. For the Apostles that was the room where frequent memories of Jesus continued to come alive, encouraging them, but also embarrassing them, and even chastising them. 

Slightly more than seven weeks before Pentecost, Jesus gathered the Apostles for the Last Supper. He gave them His final instructions. He celebrated the first Eucharist, and He gave them the mandatum, the new commandment to “Love one another as I have loved you.”

The Cenacle is a room of love, but also a room of sadness, betrayal, and parting. This is the room from which Judas left to betray – and to which the others returned to hide and to pray. From this room the Apostles heard the shouts on Friday morning, “Crucify Him!” But also in this room the Apostles heard, on the evening of that first Easter, Jesus’ words of forgiveness: “Peace be with you!” There the cowering Apostles saw and heard the incredible: “Why are you disturbed? Look at my hands and my feet; it is really I.” And a week later Thomas heard, "Put your finger here and see my hands."

Even after the Ascension they were once more huddled and confused in that room – and the Holy Spirit comes upon them that first Pentecost. That finally changes everything: they understood! They now leave that “room of memories” with new courage – and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit – to do what The Master had done: to preach, to teach, to heal. To spread the Gospel; to spread the Church; to spread the Kingdom of God.

The Apostles became New Creations: Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon them, as the Father breathed into inert clay to create man in the beginning. St. Paul tells us that we are Temples of the Holy Spirit. We are meant to be “inhabited” by God, always “reminded” of God, always in God's presence. Because we, too, have received the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom (highest knowledge); understanding (intimate knowledge); knowledge (most basic of the three levels of knowledge); fortitude (firmness of spirit; steadiness despite difficulties); counsel (discernment about the right choice); piety (honor; reverence); fear of the Lord (an attitude of respect, awe, and dread of offending God).

We, like the Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, are to leave the Cenacle, our Upper Room of memories and fear and confusion, going forth and reminding our world of the truth of God’s presence. On this Pentecost, the “Birthday of the Church,” may God give us the graces we need, the courage and perseverance we need, to witness to a frequently unbelieving world – the miracles of the Upper Room, the miracles of our Church, the miracles our True Faith.

Fr. Don Saunders, SJ

Thoughts on unity

 

Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

John 17:20–26

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus prays for our unity with him and with each other. The Church is one because its founder is one. Jesus compels a choice precisely because he claims to speak and act in the very person of God. Jesus simply cannot be one teacher among many, and therefore those who walk in his way must be exclusively with him. Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) commented that the opening line of the Nicene Creed, “I believe in one God,” is a subversive statement, because it automatically rules out any rival claimant to ultimate concern. To say that one accepts only the God of Israel and Jesus Christ is to say that one rejects as ultimate any human being, any culture, any political party, any artistic form, or any set of ideas. A Christian, I would argue, is someone who, at the most fundamental level of his or her being, is centered on the one God of Jesus Christ. This helps to explain why, on the last night of his life on earth, while sitting at supper with his disciples, the core of the Church, Jesus prayed, “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one.” Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on God's presence

 

Small Signs of God's Presence

Our salvation comes from something small, tender, and vulnerable, something hardly noticeable. God, who is the Creator of the Universe, comes to us in smallness, weakness, and hiddenness. I find this a hopeful message. Somehow, I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God's saving power; but over and over again, I am reminded that spectacles, power plays, and big events are the ways of the world. Our temptation is to be distracted by them and made blind to the “shoot that shall sprout from the stump.” When I have no eyes for the small signs of God's presence – the smile of a baby, the carefree play of children, the words of encouragement and gestures of love offered by friends – I will always remain tempted to despair. The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices.

“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.”   - Isaiah 11:1

Thoughts on the Visitation

 

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 1:39–56

Friends, today’s Gospel tells of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. I’ve always been fascinated by Mary’s “haste” in this story of the Visitation. Upon hearing the message of Gabriel concerning her own pregnancy and that of her cousin, Mary “set out and traveled to the hill country in haste” to see Elizabeth. Why did she go with such speed and purpose? Because she had found her mission, her role in the theo-drama. We are dominated today by the ego-drama in all of its ramifications and implications. The ego-drama is the play that I’m writing, I’m producing, I’m directing, and I’m starring in. We see this absolutely everywhere in our culture. Freedom of choice reigns supreme: I become the person that I choose to be.  The theo-drama is the great story being told by God, the great play being directed by God. What makes life thrilling is to discover your role in it. This is precisely what has happened to Mary. She has found her role—indeed a climactic role—in the theo-drama, and she wants to conspire with Elizabeth, who has also discovered her role in the same drama. Like Mary, we have to find our place in God’s story. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Ascension

 

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Luke 24:46–53

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus is taken up to his Father in heaven. We tend to read the Ascension along essentially Enlightenment lines rather than biblical lines—and that causes a good deal of mischief. Enlightenment thinkers introduced a two-tier understanding of heaven and earth. They held that God exists, but that he lives in a distant realm called heaven, where he looks at the human project moving along, pretty much on its own steam, on earth. On this Enlightenment reading, the Ascension means that Jesus goes up, up, and away, off to a distant and finally irrelevant place. But the biblical point is this: Jesus has gone to heaven so as to direct operations more fully here on earth. That’s why we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus has not gone up, up, and away, but rather—if I can put it this way—more deeply into our world. He has gone to a dimension that transcends but impinges upon our universe. Bishop Robert Barren

More thoughts on the Holy Spirit

 

Sixth Week of Easter

John 16:12–15

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church through time: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” Since Jesus is the Son of God, it is impossible for us adequately to interpret him through our own powers of perception. We require a divine pedagogue through which the speech of the Father is to be understood. This is the advocate we call the Holy Spirit. The words of today’s Gospel are almost unbearably profound, for they speak not only of the inner life of God but of the central dynamic of the Church’s life. The Father indeed spoke the fullness of his life, being, and truth in the Son, but the Church, in its earliest days, was incapable of taking that fullness in. What was (and still is) required is the ongoing influence of the Spirit, the divine interpreter of the Word, who does his work gradually and powerfully as the Church journeys across space and time. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Memorial Day

 

Memorial Day thoughts

This post was originally published on Memorial Day 2015:


My wife and I went to Mass on Memorial Day and our priest told a story in his homily about a man he knew that grew up without parents.  The man's name was Matt.  Matt led a lonely life and it seemed that everything he did or tried was met with a closed door.  He joined the military and eventually was deployed into active service in Afghanistan.  On return home to the US while on leave, he seemed bitter and distant to the priest and others who knew him.  His demeanor had changed now that he had been exposed to the brutality of war.  Upon his return to Afghanistan for another tour of duty, he fought bravely for his country, but this time he was killed by enemy fire and returned home to the US again, but this time he returned in a flag draped coffin.  He was given a proper funeral Mass and burial service, and this time he went through an open door, a door which led to heaven.  At this point the priest got choked up and everyone could see that he was very moved by this story.  The story of a person he knew personally, who had fought and died for his freedom as an American.  A person who was not loved by many people on this earth, but was loved tremendously by God.  We often don't think of the thousands of people, real people, real human beings, who lost their lives for this country, when we think of Memorial Day.  We tend to think of the patriotism and the flags, but we quickly turn to thoughts of summer time, BBQ's and time off from our jobs to be with our families and enjoy a day off.  When you think about people who were touched by a soldier who gave his life, it gets personal.  We live in a great country because of people like Matt.

Scott

Thoughts on the Holy Spirit

 

Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 14:23–29

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in Christ’s name, will teach his disciples everything. The Holy Spirit is the love shared by the Father and the Son. We have access to this holy heart of God only because the Father sent the Son into the world, into our dysfunction, even to the limits of godforsakenness—and thereby gathered all of the world into the dynamism of the divine life. Those who live in Christ are not outside of God as petitioners or supplicants; rather, they are in God as friends, sharers in the Spirit. And this spiritual life is what gives us knowledge of God—a knowledge, if you will, from within. When the great masters of the Christian way speak of knowing God, they do not use the term in its distanced, analytical sense; they use it in the biblical sense, implying knowledge by way of personal intimacy. This is why St. Bernard of Clairvaux, for one, insists that initiates in the spiritual life know God not simply through books and lectures but through experience, the way one friend knows another. That knowledge is what the Holy Spirit facilitates. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on summer

 

Summer

For many people, summer has a lot of different parameters as far as when it begins and when it ends. For children, summer begins when school lets out for the year.  When I was a kid, that meant sometime in June, but now it means late May.  This past school year, my children were done for the year on May 23rd!  For people who work for a living, Memorial Day weekend kind of marks the beginning of summer, a time when the temperatures are warmer and the local swimming pools open up.  Of course, if you go by the calendar, the official beginning of summer is on June 21st with the summer solstice.  If the weather doesn't cooperate, most anyone else will have to admit that by July 4th, Independence Day weekend, we are definitely into summer.  For a few, summer doesn't begin until you take your vacation from work and go on a trip out of town. 

People who have children in school will most likely agree that what we think of as summer, the time off between when school ends and when it begins, has definitely moved from a Memorial Day to Labor Day time period to a late May to early to mid August time period as schools nation wide have adjusted their schedules over the last 20 years or so.  For many folks, once the calendar flips over to August, vacations are over and you are buying back to school supplies and thinking about school starting again.  But really, summer is only about half over because it doesn't really end until Sept 21st. So when is summer to you?  I guess it really doesn't matter, unless you make calendars.  Enjoy the warm weather and time off of work.  Slow down and enjoy the enjoyment!

Scott

Thoughts on joy

Reflection for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

During this Easter season there have been numerous references to joy, especially in the preaching of the early apostles and in Jesus’ words to his disciples at the supper. In fact, Jesus’ prayer is that our joy will be complete. Why not just pray for happiness? It is Joy that seems to be the ultimate goal that God has for us. (Someone who knows Greek has pointed out to me that “joy” comes from the same root as the word for grace.)

Many of those things that bring us pleasure in life are really a reflection of a deeper reality that we seem to be seeking. Joy is a gift that transcends time and circumstances, is connected to our confidence in God’s love and care. Perhaps the joy coming from our relationship with God, prayed for by Jesus and proclaimed by the apostles was what provided the freedom to embrace the life held out to all who came to believe.

This promised joy and freedom rested then—and still rests—in the gift of the Spirit who continues to fill us and our whole world with the prospect of a joy and a peace that this world cannot of itself provide.

 The “Good News” is that God has drawn close to us, and as the Book of Revelation proclaims: “The Lord God almighty and the Lamb provide the light for our lives!”



Len Kraus, S.J. 

Thoughts on grace

 

Fifth Week of Easter

John 15:9–11

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus instructs us in the way of loving others with God’s love: “Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”  Much hinges on that little word “remain”—menein in the Greek—which John uses frequently in his Gospel. God’s love is given unconditionally as a grace, but remaining in that love is indeed a matter of keeping certain commandments.  Here is how it works: God’s love can truly dwell in us and become our “possession” only in the measure that we give it away. If we resist it or try to cling to it, it will never work its way into our own hearts, bodies, and minds. But if we give it away as an act of love, then we get more of it, entering into a delightful stream of grace. If you give away the divine love, then it “remains” in you. This is the great Catholic doctrine of grace and the cooperation with grace. We don’t drive a great wedge between law and grace, as some of the Reformers did. Rather, we say that law and commandment allow us to participate in the love that God is. It’s a play, if you want, of both conditional and unconditional love. And it’s precisely why we can grow in love. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on love

 

Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 13:31–33a, 34–35

Friends, today’s Gospel instructs us in the way of loving others with God’s love. We find joy in God alone, for our souls have been wired for God. But here’s the trick, and the whole of the Christian life is on display here: God is love. . . . Love is God. God is self-emptying on behalf of the other. But this means, paradoxically, that to have God is to be what God is—and that means giving one’s life away. Now we see the link between joy and commandments: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” And now we begin to understand the laws, commands, and demands of the Church. All are designed to make us more adept at giving ourselves away. Don’t steal; don’t kill; don’t covet your neighbor’s goods or wife; honor your mother and father; worship God. All of these commands—positive and negative—are meant to awaken and make possible love. Notice, please, that we are to love with a properly divine love: “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” Radical, radical, radical. Complete, excessive, over-the-top. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on glorifying God

Reflection for Fifth Sundays of Easter

What does it mean to “glorify God?” One succinct and simple answer is this: whenever any of our actions or words make God look good, when the goodness and loving kindness of God is manifested in a person or in an experience of love, that is the way that God is glorified.

Jesus, in this Sunday’s Gospel says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Then he turns to his disciples and says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”  If we love one another as he loves us, all will know that we are his disciples. Is it really that simple? Our world might not agree…

Our reading from The Book of Revelation addresses the world in which the followers of Christ were living: a world of division, fear, uncertainty, rejection. This is what is proclaimed as God’s vision: a new heaven and a new earth.  “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and will always be with them as their God.

A new heaven and a new earth are not yet fully realized. We live in hope as we place our trust in Jesus, and in the grace to love as he has loved us. Even if it isn’t always evident to our world, we do glorify God and we continue to help fulfill the promises God has made to us and to all of creation. “Behold, I make all things new.”



Len Kraus, S.J.

A prayer for the new Pope

 

A Franciscan prayer for Pope Leo XIV

You are the Holy One, Lord God Most High,
the one who works wonders.
You are strong, you are great,
you are the Most High and Glorious God.

By your Spirit,
You have given us a successor to Peter—
our brother, Pope Leo XIV.
Bless him, Lord, and guard him tenderly
as he begins this sacred ministry.

Show your face to him,
and have mercy upon him
Lord turn your gaze upon him
and give him peace.
Steady his steps with swiftness and clarity,
that he may walk the pilgrim path
with joy and resolve.

Let him guide Your Church securely and joyfully,
leading us along the way of prudent happiness.
With us, he is Christian, for us he is Bishop
Like all Christians may he offer his vow to you, Most High,
in the pursuit of that perfection
to which the Spirit of the Lord has called him.

As our pontiff may he embrace the poor and crucified Christ.
Let him gaze upon Jesus, our Brother and Lord—
to consider him, to contemplate him,
and to desire always to imitate him.

We pray all this for your greater glory,
for our sanctification,
for the good of all the Church
and for the healing of the whole earth.

Amen.

—Gilberto Cavazos-González

Thoughts on celebrating

 

Freed From the Bounds of Time

Celebrating means the affirmation of the present, which becomes fully possible only by remembering the past and expecting more to come in the future. But celebrating in this sense very seldom takes place. Nothing is as difficult as really accepting one's own life. More often than not the present is denied, the past becomes a source of complaints, and the future is looked upon as a reason for despair or apathy. When Jesus came to redeem mankind, he came to free us from the boundaries of time. Through him it became clear not only that God is with us wherever our presence is in time or space, but also that our past does not have to be denied but can be remembered and forgiven, and that we are still waiting for him to come back and reveal to us what remains unseen.

“A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.”   - Psalm 90: 4