Thoughts on Devine Mercy Sunday

 

Whoever lived through the twentieth century would have witnessed World War I and World War II, the Great Depression, the Cold War, the rise of communism, the decline of faith, the legalization of abortion, numerous genocides, and a host of other tragedies.  It thus stands as one of the darkest centuries in all of human history.  We should not be surprised then to hear that Heaven did not leave us without guidance or hope. In 1917, Our Lady appeared to the visionaries in Fatima.  She warned them of the impending travesties which would take place if the world did not repent and take refuge in her Immaculate Heart.  In this way, she gave us the warning, the cure of praying the Rosary and faithfully undertaking penances, and promised the triumph of her Immaculate Heart and Christ’s Sacred Heart. Additionally, in the first half of the same century, our Lord Jesus Christ appeared numerous times to St. Faustina Kowalska.

Throughout these visions, our Lord graced her with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Divine Mercy image.  Christ knew that the world would be in desperate need of His mercy, and rather than leaving us to despair, He gave us the unshakeable promise of His love. If we heed Our Lady’s advice and turn to the Lord through prayer and penance, if we die to ourselves, then we may also enjoy the glory and victory of Christ’s resurrection.  It is by being washed in the blood of Our Savior which He so generously poured out for us that we can be cleansed from the sin and disorder which plagues our hearts and this world.  He is our only hope, but He is a most sure and beautiful hope! For this reason, the Church has decided that we should end the Octave of Easter today by joyfully celebrating Divine Mercy.  Let us then hopefully join our hearts in this prayer: “Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion — inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself. Amen.” In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Christopher P. Wendt International Director Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima

More thoughts on Doubting Thomas

 

Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

John 20:19–31

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Thomas says that he will not believe in the Lord’s resurrection unless he puts his finger in Jesus’s nailmarks and his hand in Jesus’s side. Thomas is a saint especially suitable for our time. Modernity has been marked by two great qualities: skepticism and empiricism, the very qualities we can discern in Thomas. And when the risen Jesus reappears, he invites the doubter to look, see, and touch. But then that devastating line: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” If we stubbornly said—even in the area of science—that we will accept only what we can clearly see and touch and control, we wouldn’t know much about reality. This helps us to better understand Jesus’s words to Thomas. It is not that we who have not seen and have believed are settling for a poor substitute for vision. No; we are being described as blessed, more blessed than Thomas. God is doing all sorts of things that we cannot see, measure, control, fully understand. But it is an informed faith that allows one to fall in love with such a God. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Doubting Thomas

On the Octave of Easter, this 2^nd Sunday of Easter, we always hear the Gospel of Doubting Thomas.

Thomas would not believe the testimony of the other Apostles, as he defiantly proclaimed, until he put his "finger into the nail marks" and his "hand into [Jesus'] side." To believe that Jesus was alive, Thomas needed to see and even to touch Jesus. And he does finally believe, becoming the very first of the Apostles to proclaim the Faith of the Church:  "My Lord and my God."

           What about us who have not seen and touched the Resurrected Lord? Why do we believe, and what do we believe concerning our Lord and the assertions of our religion? Do we believe only what the Bible says?

At the end of today’s Gospel, St. John says that “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book.” In other words, Jesus said and did many things that are not recorded in the Bible.

           “Divine Revelation,” which means the truth God has revealed about Himself, is more than the Bible.

Divine Revelation is transmitted to us in two ways: through Sacred Scripture, the Bible, but also through what is called Sacred Tradition.

           It is Sacred Tradition that St. John is alluding to when he says that Jesus did many other things not specifically recorded in the Bible. After all, how could any book, or any number of volumes, contain everything? Sacred Tradition means the truths not contained in the Bible but still revealed by God through Jesus and the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Many of these truths are from the preaching and teaching of Jesus and the Apostles that have been handed down in the oral tradition.

Some examples of Sacred Tradition include:

·        The fact that Scripture itself draws from Sacred Tradition, because – think about it – the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles pre-date the Bible. It was the Church that had to decide what would be included in the canon of Sacred Scripture. The Church came before the Bible. The Gospel of Mark dates to around A.D. 70, and the First letter to the Thessalonians was written around A.D. 52. 

Other examples of Sacred Tradition include:

·        Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

·      Assumption of BVM

·     Perpetual virginity of BVM (always a virgin, before and after Jesus’ birth; no other children)

·       Role of Pope, bishops, priests in Christian ministry

·        Infallibility of Pope teaching officially on faith and morals

·        The understanding of the sacraments and their place in Christian life

           Our Catholic Faith relies on the Bible, but not only the Bible. Much of the truth of what the Church teaches comes from Sacred Tradition, which together with Sacred Scripture, forms what is called the one “Deposit of Faith.” It is this Deposit of Faith that comprises all of Divine Revelation: the truths we must believe and the principles of conduct that we must live. The Deposit of Faith is taught, interpreted, and handed down by the teaching authority of the Church, the “Magisterium,” which is guided by the Holy Spirit and given to the bishops (successors of the Apostles) united to the Pope (successor of St. Peter).

           Thomas’s faith was formed and made firm by his seeing and touching the Resurrected Lord, which we read in today’s Gospel, from the Bible. But our Catholic Faith is formed and made firm by the entire Deposit of Faith, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, the truths not contained in the Bible but still revealed by God through Jesus and the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

           May we always read and revere the Holy Bible. But may we also revere the teachings of the Church handed down in God’s gift to us of Sacred Tradition.    

                                       

Fr. Don Saunders, SJ

Thoughts on the risen Jesus

 

Thursday within the Octave of Easter

Luke 24:35–48

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus appears alive again to his followers. Upon seeing him, “they were startled and terrified.” They are terrified because the one they abandoned and betrayed and left for dead is back—undoubtedly for revenge! Luke’s risen Jesus does two things in the presence of his shocked followers. The first thing is that he shows them his wounds. This move is a reiteration of the judgment of the cross: Don’t forget, he tells them, what the world did when the Author of life appeared. But he does something else; he says, “Shalom”—“Peace be with you.” In this, he opens up a new spiritual world and thereby becomes our Savior. From ancient creation myths to the Rambo and Dirty Harry movies, the principle is the same: Order, destroyed through violence, is restored through a righteous exercise of greater violence. And then there is Jesus. The terrible disorder of the cross (the killing of the Son of God) is addressed not through an explosion of divine vengeance but through a radiation of divine love. When Christ confronts those who contributed to his death, he speaks words not of retribution but of reconciliation and compassion. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Resurrection

 

Tuesday within the Octave of Easter

John 20:11–18

Friends, in today’s Gospel, we find Mary Magdalene weeping by the tomb of the risen Lord. She then sees Jesus and doesn’t recognize him immediately. In a wonderful detail, she thinks he’s the gardener. In the book of Genesis, God, the gardener of Eden, walked with his creatures in easy friendship. Sin, the sundering of the loop of grace, put an end to those intimate associations. Throughout the history of salvation, God had been trying to reestablish friendship. Through the death of Jesus, through that tomb placed right in the garden, he accomplished his goal. So now, in Christ, he appears again as a gardener. “Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni.’” Then Jesus says: “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers.” The not clinging has to do with the call to proclaim. The idea is not to hang on to Jesus but to announce what he has accomplished. The content of the proclamation is, once again, that we have become the intimates of God: “My Father and your Father . . . my God and your God.” Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on God's will

 

Doing God's Will

From: The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom

Try to give your agenda to God. Keep saying, “Your will be done, not mine.” Give every part of your heart and your time to God and let God tell you what to do, where to go, when and how to respond. God does not want you to destroy yourself. Exhaustion, burn out, and depression are not signs that you were doing God's will. God is gentle and loving. God desires to give you a deep sense of safety and God's love. Once you have allowed yourself to experience that love fully, you will be better able to discern who you are being sent to in God's name.

Reflection Question: What would it look like today to surrender your agenda to God and trust that God's will leads not to exhaustion, but to love and peace?

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”   - Matthew 11: 28 - 30

Thoughts on Easter Sunday

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 

Those four words have been the heartbeat of the Church for two millennia, proclaimed in cathedrals and whispered in prisons, sung at dawn by monks and shouted in joy by new converts stepping out of the baptismal waters. They are the words that change everything — not only about what we believe, but about who we are and how we are to live. The resurrection of Jesus is not a coda to a tragic story. It helps us to understand the whole story, in a way that rewrites ours.

 

I find myself returning, every Easter, to the scene the Church gives us in John's Gospel this morning. Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb while it is still dark — and finds the stone rolled away. She then runs. Peter and the Beloved Disciple then run.

 

There is something gloriously undignified about the image of two grown men sprinting through the early morning streets of Jerusalem because something has happened that — despite Jesus’ multiple prophecies that he would rise on the third day — dramatically defied their expectation.

 

The Beloved Disciple reaches the tomb first, peers in, and sees the burial cloths lying there. Then Peter enters, and John tells us something quietly extraordinary — he saw and believed. He did not yet fully understand, but he believed. The empty tomb and the burial cloths were enough for love to outrun grief, and faith to outpace explanation.

 

That same invitation is extended to us this morning. We, too, are asked to enter — to step past what we think we know, past our doubts and our losses and our unanswered questions — and to believe. The tomb is empty. Jesus is not there. He is risen, and the world has not been the same since.

 

The Church exists because those first witnesses could not stay silent, and because every generation since has found, in their own encounter with the Risen Lord, the same irresistible impulse to share what they have seen.

 

You and I are part of that long, unbroken chain of witness. Together, through the work of The Pontifical Mission Societies, we are part of how the news of Easter morning reaches men and women who have not yet heard it — in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, in the river communities of the Amazon, in the ancient cities of the Middle East, in Africa, Asia and every corner of the earth.

 

Christ has not just risen, but is very much alive, and journeys with us in time. The world is not the same. Neither are we.

 

I pray that, this Easter, God will fill you with a joy that does not fade, and that the Risen Lord will make himself known to you in the Holy Eucharist, in his Church, in the faces of those you love, and in every unexpected moment of grace that awaits you in the fifty days of the Easter Season that lie ahead.

 

Happy Easter!

Monsignor Roger J. Landry

Thoughts on Holy Saturday

 

Holy Saturday Reflection: Behold Your Mother

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34)   It is Holy Saturday and Jesus lays lifeless in a garden tomb. Today is a perfect time to ponder his life - as I'm sure the disciples and apostles in Jerusalem were doing. And what better place to start than by reflecting on the woman who gave him life. Twice in the Gospel of Luke, we hear that Mary pondered what was happening in her heart. The first was when the Shepherds arrived in Bethlehem bringing news from the angels. The second was when Jesus left his parents and was found waiting for them in ‘his Father’s house,’ the temple of God.   Luke, who knew Mary and heard her stories before writing his Gospel, gives us this detail to help us understand the heart of Mary. It’s a heart that receives, a heart that reflects, a heart that ponders.   Imagine what her heart was going through Good Friday? She followed Jesus the entire way to his cross, never leaving his side. Not once did she call out, “Jesus, my Son, get off the cross!” Not once did she beg through teary eyes, “Jesus, for my sake, honor your mother! Make this stop!” No, she pondered and she walked and she suffered and she gave him her eyes. She offered him her strength. She lifted him up.   We know Jesus was perfect in everything and never sinned. So, we know he honored his mother. We see this at Cana when he responds to Mary’s concern for the wedding party. “Woman, my hour has not yet come.” And yet, despite this, he listened to Mary’s request and performed his first miracle. Imagine the pain Mary would have caused Jesus if she asked him to get off the cross? Peter didn’t understand why Jesus had to die and we remember the chastisement given to Peter. What if Mary had asked the same? Would Jesus have honored her? How would he have reconciled her request with his mission - with the Commandments? The good news is Mary didn’t. She was silent just like her son, following him to the cross.   Thank God for Mary. She gave us life twice. In her yes to his conception and in her yes to his death. "Be it done unto me according to thy word." And, because of her receptivity to the word of God, a sword pierces her soul. St. Paul tells us about this sword in Ephesians. He says it is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." It is this spirit that overshadows Mary in Nazareth and this spirit that penetrates her very soul at Calvary. In her restraint, Mary embodies the Holy Spirit and is prepared for her task - to Mother the Church.   "Woman, behold your son. Son behold your mother." Mary stands beside those who face the cross - beside the Church - as our Mother. We can be sure that on Holy Saturday, just as Mary pondered her son's conception, his life and his death, she was pondering this gift she was given on Calvary. She was bringing us into her heart too.   Let us then turn to Our Mother Mary today. Let's ask her to open her pondering heart and tell us stories of her son who is our brother Jesus. He is coming tomorrow. May God Bless You, Matt & the Catholic.store team

Thoughts on Good Friday

 

Good Friday Reflection: A New Garden

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 1:24)   It’s day three of our Holy Week reflections - Good Friday.    What a day today is. It's overwhelming.    To understand what is happening on Good Friday, we have to start with the night of Holy Thursday. Jesus enters the Garden of Gethsemane and begins to pray. “Father, let this cup pass from me. Not my will but yours be done.”    Jesus’ agony is one of the most profound and mysterious parts of the Bible. In this simple phrase Jesus speaks from his two natures. As the perfect man, Jesus is praying the Passover prayer asking for the cup of suffering to pass from him. However, as God, he is asking for the blood to pass from him. In fact, just a few lines before he says, “this cup is my blood.”    The root of his agony is the tearing of Jesus the Man and Jesus who is God between these two prayers. As Messiah he is restoring the separation between God and Man that has existed since the Garden. Ultimately, he undoes the sin of Adam and Eve and submits himself to the will of the Father, “Not my will but yours be done.” Jesus sweats blood by his own volition and lets himself be handed over. Jesus the high priest has become the lamb led to slaughter.   There is so much to unpack here. But let's start with the fact that it all happens in a Garden. It’s not unintentional. Jesus wants us to think back to the first Garden. To Eden. He wants us to reflect on sin and expulsion. What has to be corrected is a matter of the heart and Jesus is correcting it through uniting his heart with ours. Adam and Eve desired to be God. If God allowed them to stay and gave them the tree of life forever, this corruption of the heart would spread its rot throughout creation. Unfortunately, they had to die.   But the secret is, how could that death become redemptive, not just punitive. Can good come from death? Jesus shows us this simple key to the Christian life. When we willingly die to ourselves for God, when we embrace our crosses, we are given new life. And not only are we given new life, we are given access back to the tree of life - the source of eternal life.   It's no coincidence that Jesus died on a cross made of wood. This tree made of human work from dead wood by an empire of war, soaks up his blood and becomes the new tree of life. The fruit of the tree is his body and blood.   When we suffer with love, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the world becomes a new Garden ready to be planted and death becomes a doorway to the Kingdom of God.   Let us all embrace our crosses and repeat with Jesus today, “Not my will but yours be done.”  God bless you, Matt and the Catholic.Store team

Thoughts on Holy Thursday

 

Holy Thursday Reflection: The Heart of the Mass

Today is Holy Thursday and we’re continuing our series of Holy Week meditations with an exploration into the heart of the Christian liturgy, first celebrated on Holy Thursday some 2000 years ago - "Do this in remembrance of me." Yesterday we looked at the downfall of Judas and how we all can fall under Satan's control through little sins. The call to confession was not insignificant, for to fully enter into the graces of the Mass, we must come before the Lord with clean hearts. “Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God.” This promise from our Lord in the Beatitudes is not just a promise that the pure of heart will make it to Heaven, it’s a promise for the here and now. The pure of heart will be given the grace to see God in this life and the next. When we come to worship with purified hearts, truly repentant and confessed, we come face to face with God in the Holy Eucharist. And when we come to see God - to truly see Him - we become witnesses to his work in the liturgy and enter into the heart of Christian worship. Holy Thursday Mass is famous for foot washing. Every Holy Thursday, the priest washes the feet of individuals from the parish. But, this isn't just a call to service, it is more importantly a directive from Jesus that what is about to happen is for those he is serving. For us, it’s a call to receive. To let Jesus work on us, to prepare us, to purify us. So in a sense, the Mass is a place where we aren't called to be active, but to be receptive to Jesus. And what is it that he wants us to be prepared to receive? “This is my body, given up for you.” Jesus gives up his body for the Apostles at the table. He gives up his body for the people who will believe in him through the Apostles throughout the ages - that’s you and me. He gives up his body for the Church.   In one sense, the heart of the Mass is the sacred heart of Jesus made tangible in the Holy Eucharist. But, the Holy Eucharist isn't stagnant. It's alive. His flesh and blood are poured out for each of us and given to dwell within the purified hearts of the believers. So, the Mass is about us.   Yes, but not entirely.  “This is my body, given up for you” isn’t only directed to us. At the same time, Jesus is giving his body to the Father. He, the Paschal Lamb, is the sacrifice offered for the sins of the world to God the Father Almighty. While laying his life down for us, he lays his life down in love for the Father. So, the Heart of the Mass is the offering to the Father.   Yes again, but not entirely.   The ultimate task of the Messiah is the restoration of Heaven and Earth as one. The Messiah heals the fractured wound caused by sin and brings God's original plan back together. And in the Eucharist, we become one. This is why we pray the Our Father prayer in the Mass, “on Earth as it is in Heaven.”   So the Mass is about this union. A union that the book of Revelation describes as a wedding feast! The Mass is about the heart of Christ, it is about the heart of the Father, and it is about our hearts for the purpose of bringing everything back together as one. And it is Christ alone who accomplishes this work. And where does Jesus choose this restoration to take place? Some might say the most sacred place in the Mass is the Holy Altar. It is, but is it not also the altars of our hearts? Jesus brings Heaven to the hearts of all those who receive him with pure intention. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." And it is you who are sent at the end of Mass to carry Jesus into the world!    This Holy Thursday, we pray you lift up your hearts to receive Our Lord with pure intention and with him, the fullness of Heaven. May God bless you this Holy Thursday, Matt & the Catholic.Store team

Thoughts on the Last Supper

 

Wednesday of Holy Week

Matthew 26:14–25

Friends, today’s Gospel is from Matthew’s account of the Last Supper, where Jesus acknowledges Judas as his betrayer. God’s desires have been, from the beginning, opposed. Consistently, human beings have preferred the isolation of sin to the festivity of the sacred meal. Theologians have called this anomalous tendency the mysterium iniquitatis (the mystery of iniquity), for there is no rational ground for it, no reason for it to exist. But there it stubbornly is, always shadowing the good, parasitic upon that which it tries to destroy. Therefore, we should not be too surprised that, as the sacred meal comes to its richest possible expression, evil accompanies it.   Judas the betrayer expresses the mysterium iniquitatis with particular symbolic power, for he had spent years in intimacy with Jesus, taking in the Lord’s moves and thoughts at close quarters, sharing the table of fellowship with him—and yet he saw fit to turn Jesus over to his enemies and to interrupt the coinherence of the Last Supper. Those of us who regularly gather around the table of intimacy with Christ and yet engage consistently in the works of darkness are meant to see ourselves in the betrayer.  Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Palm Sunday

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. The Church will joyfully celebrate the triumphant entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. All over the world, the faithful will carry a palm into Mass. In some places, parishes celebrate with elaborate processions through the streets. In the United States, palm branches are blessed with holy water outside the church or in the narthex, then the congregation processes in to celebrate Mass.

We find ourselves in the final stretch of Lent, just before Holy Week begins. As we approach the finish line, we hope your Lenten observances, fasting, abstinence, and sacrifices have borne good fruit. We commend your faithfulness and encourage you to persevere. There is still time in these remaining days to deepen your prayer. Perhaps add a Rosary, meditate on the Stations of the Cross, or make a meaningful act of almsgiving.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. The liturgy opens with the blessing of palms and a solemn procession, recalling the crowds who spread cloaks and branches before the Lord as he entered Jerusalem. Yet the tone quickly shifts. At Mass, we hear the full reading of the passion, and the same voices that cry “Hosanna!” speak the words of the crowd calling for his crucifixion. Palm Sunday holds joy and sorrow together: the triumphal entry and the looming cross, glory and sacrifice intertwined.

May these final days of Lent be a time of renewed focus and gratitude. Take up your blessed palm and let it remind you that Christ is King, not only of Jerusalem long ago but of your heart today. Walk with him through the passion, remain close to him in prayer, and prepare to rejoice with him at Easter.

Bishop Robert Barron 

Thoughts on Holy Week

Entering our Holy Week…

Beginning this Sunday, Palm Sunday, we enter a companionship with Jesus, who enters his time of fully offering himself to us, and for us. We begin with his entrance into Jerusalem—riding, not a war horse or in a chariot, but on a donkey. This is the “Lamb of God” presenting himself as the paschal lamb, the one who is sent to bring deliverance from bondage, unconditional love for the world.

His journey to the Cross and his resurrection to glory is, as St. Ignatius says, “the greatest mark of His love.” And we are invited to make this journey with Jesus, gifted with gratitude and compassion—and joy. It is our opportunity to spend time with him, as we pray for the grace of compassion—as one would accompany a friend who is going through a loving but difficult time.

Holy Week can be a time when we are drawn together by bonds of love, with gratitude for this wondrous gift. And we can pray for the resurrection grace of sharing in the joy of Jesus in His risen glory and fullness of life.

The hymn, What Wondrous Love Is This, celebrates so well these gifts of love, compassion, gratitude, and joy—that we share in this holy week:

What wondrous love is this, O my soul!

When I was sinking down, sinking down,

Christ laid aside His crown for my soul!

To God and to the Lamb who is the great “I Am”

While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be:

And thro’ eternity, I’ll sing on.

May all of us have a blessed week!

Len Kraus, S.J.

Thoughts on the Annunciation of the Lord

 

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

Luke 1:26–38

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel reveals to Mary that she will bear a son who will reign from David’s throne. As background, note that God had promised that David’s throne would last forever, but his line had apparently been broken in 587 BC. Six hundred years later, Gabriel appeared to Mary, who was betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David. Greeting her as “full of grace,” the angel announced that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son: “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.” Then comes the kicker that would have taken the breath away from any first-century Jew listening to the story: “And the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” What seemed to have come to an end had in fact just gone underground and was now ready to appear fully in the light. The kingly line of David was in fact unsevered, and now the full meaning of God’s promise would be revealed. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on power

 

God's Power Calls Us Close

From: Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit

People with power do not invite intimacy. We fear people with power. They can control us and force us to do what we don't want to do. We look up to people with power. They have what we do not have and can give or refuse to give, according to their will. We envy people with power. They can afford to go where we cannot go and do what we cannot do. But God's power is something entirely opposite. God does not want us to be afraid, distant, or envious. God wants to come close, very close, so close that we can rest in the intimacy of God as children in their mother's arms.

Reflection Question: How might I invite God's closeness into moments when I feel fear, distance, or inadequacy?

“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.”   - 1 Corinthians 1: 21