Sunday, April 27, 2025

Feel Divine Mercy: Second Sunday of Easter, Sunday of Divine Mercy (Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31)

I have been meditating a lot lately on Divine Mercy through the context of the Mass.  The moment when Father breaks the Eucharist, the moment the spear pierces the heart of Jesus Christ on the cross.  I invite you to close your eyes now.  Bring yourself to that moment.  Allow yourself to be bathed in the blood and water spraying from His side.  The blood and water that gushes forth through the Sacramental Life of the Church to free you of spiritual bondage, that you may truly live a life of joy and peace.  Feel the red and pale rays of grace radiating through your soul, healing you and bringing you to completion.


Allow yourself to recall that the moment of Divine Mercy is extended perpetually through the Eucharist as we are present in adoration.  Even now, sitting in the presence of His Divine Majesty, the red and pale rays of sacramental grace are radiating over you and through you as we speak.  This reality is true, even if our human senses fail.


Feel the red and pale rays penetrate you deeply, bringing you healing, hope, and new life in His name, in the name of Mercy.


Feel your memories being purified by Divine Mercy.  Remember those times you were carried by Divine Mercy, even in those times you felt abandoned by God.


Feel your regrets and resentments being purified by Divine Mercy.  Feel yourself being released from a prison of self-pity.  Feel your focus changing from suffering without God to God suffering within and through you.


Feel moments of humiliation, purified by Divine Mercy, as they change to moments of joy and gratitude.


Feel your weaknesses, purified by Divine Mercy, becoming a more vital part of yourself. 


Feel your pain and discomfort easing, and your spiritual blindness waning.


Feel your despair from inhabiting a body of death being transformed into the hope of walking according to the spirit.


Feel charity and mercy enter into your soul in a way that you have never felt before.  Feel the desire to forget yourself and feel the release of the need to please others.


Feel a growing desire to forget your self-interest for others.  


Feel a growing desire to work for the conversion of sinners.  


Feel the shower of blood and water nurturing in you the desire to offer up all that you are, all that you have, all that you ever have been, and all that you ever will be, for the salvation of the world.


When you are ready, feel free to open your eyes, and focus solely on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the Eucharist, before you.


Like Saint Thomas, let our doubting souls be overcome with complete trust in Divine Mercy as we declare our trust in Divine Mercy:


The proper response to the following is “I Trust in you!”


Divine Mercy, gushing forth from the bosom of the Father, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, greatest attribute of God, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, incomprehensible mystery, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, fountain gushing forth from the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, unfathomed by any intellect, Human or angelic, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, from which wells forth all Life and happiness, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, better than the heavens, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, source of miracles and Wonders, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, encompassing the whole Universe, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, descending to earth in the Person of the Incarnate Word, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, which flowed from the Open wound of the Heart of Jesus. I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, enclosed in the Heart of Jesus for us, and especially for sinners, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, unfathomed in the Institution of the Sacred Host, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, in the founding of Holy Church, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, I Trust in You

Divine Mercy, in our justification through Jesus Christ, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, accompanying us through our whole life, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, embracing us especially at the hour of death I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, endowing us with immortal life, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, accompanying us every moment of our life, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, shielding us from the fire of hell, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, in the conversion of hardened sinners, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, astonishment for Angels, incomprehensible to Saints, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, unfathomed in all the mysteries of God, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, lifting us out of every misery, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, source of our happiness and joy, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, in calling us forth from nothingness to existence, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, embracing all the works of His hands, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, crown of all of God's handiwork, I Trust in You 

Divine Mercy, in which we are all immersed, I Trust in You

Divine Mercy, sweet relief for anguished hearts, I trust in You.  

Divine Mercy, only hope of despairing souls, I trust in You.  

Divine Mercy, repose of hearts, peace amidst fear, I trust in You.  

Divine Mercy, delight and ecstasy of holy souls, I trust in You.  

Divine Mercy, inspiring hope against all hope, I trust in You.



Let us pray:

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.


We fly to Your mercy, Compassionate God, who alone are good.  Although our misery is great and our offenses are many, We trust in Your mercy, because You are the God of mercy; and from time immemorial, it has never been heard of, nor do heaven or earth remember, that a soul trusting in Your mercy has been disappointed.


O God of compassion, You alone can justify us and You will never reject us when we, contrite, approach Your Merciful Heart.  Your Merciful Heart, where no one has ever been refused, even if he were the greatest sinner.  As Jesus told Saint Faustina, “Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy fail to embrace a trusting soul.”


Jesus, Friend of a lonely heart, You are our haven.  You are our peace.  You are our salvation.  You are our serenity in moments of struggle and amidst an ocean of doubts.  You are the bright ray that lights up the paths of our lives.  You are everything to a lonely soul.  You understand the soul even though it remains silent.  You know our weaknesses and, like a good physician, You comfort and heal us, sparing us from further suffering.


O Jesus, eternal God, we thank You for Your mercy and for Your countless graces and blessings.  Let every beat of our hearts be a new hymn of thanksgiving to You, O God.  Let every drop of our blood circulate for You, Lord.  May our souls be a hymn in adoration of Your mercy.  We love You, God, for yourself alone.


Amen.


I invite you to close your eyes once again.


Continue to feel the flow of the blood and water from the Eucharist, the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, feeling the grace truly heal and renew you.  Continue to feel the rays of red and pale penetrating deep into your soul.  What else do you feel?  What is the blood and water, the rays of red and pale, purifying within you?  Allow the Sacred Heart of Jesus to continue to speak to your heart, and let your heart speak in return, that you may continue to be transformed into a complete image of the merciful Christ.


Thanks be to God!





Friday, April 25, 2025

By What Name?: Friday in the Octave of Easter (Acts 4:1-12; Psalm 118:1-2 and 4, 22-24, 25-27a; John 21:1-14)

In a way, our first reading today is a crescendo in the saga we have been hearing about throughout the week.  An incident that occurred at the Temple in Jerusalem shortly after the Apostles received their charisms, their gifts of the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost.


Peter heals the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate.  The power of the Holy Spirit made manifest through Peter and the Church in order to extend the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus into the world around him.


As we heard and recall this story through the sequence of events that occurred, it brings us to a point of reflection.  Do we truly believe miracles of healing, like the one we heard about on Wednesday, actually happened?  Do we truly believe miracles of healing still happen today?


Jesus didn’t heal every physical ailment that He encountered while walking around Galilee and Judea, but he healed many in order for them to be a sign of the true healing miracles He makes available to each and every one of us through the Sacramental life of the Church.


Since my ordination, I have had a handful of opportunities to pray with others that were, for all intents and purposes, crippled by spiritual bondange.  As we pray together to renounce and break the spiritual influences that had bound them, the release they experience in the moment of deliverance is often immense and powerful.


A couple of cases, in particular, come to mind.  In the midst of tears, there was a joy and a peace in their eyes that was not there when they first walked into the rooms.  In every case, the miracle was real and the experience has been both amazing and astonishing.  Miracles of healing continue to happen all around us.  Miracles have happened to me, and they can happen to you also.


To bring us back to the point of reflection:  What hurts and pains are you still carrying around?  In what ways are you the crippled person, standing at the Beautiful Gate, crippled by the emotional and spiritual hurts and pains of life?  In what ways are you the crippled person begging to be loved by those in your midst?  Let the miracle of healing through the Sacramental Life of the Church occur in your life.  


Spend time today understanding the hurts and pains that you carry.  Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any personal character defects that may contribute to the circumstances around those hurts and those pains. 


Take those character defects to the confessional and receive the graces of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  


At Mass, offer up not only the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of God’s dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; but also offer up your hurts, your pains, and your character defects to be transformed by the glory of God.  


At Mass, lift up your heart, truly giving your heart to God the Father, so it may be replaced by the Sacred Heart of Jesus as you receive the Eucharist.  


When Father breaks the Eucharist at the altar, as the spear pierces the heart of Jesus, allow yourself to be bathed in the blood and water spraying from His side.  The blood and water gushing forth through the Sacramental Life of the Church to free you of spiritual bondage that you may truly live a life of joy and peace.  Feel the red and pale rays of grace radiating through your soul healing you and bringing you to completion.


Easter truly is the season of miracles.  Through the Paschal Mystery, particularly the Mass, allow the Lord to bring you healing, fulfillment and new life.  When others see your renewed joy and ask, “By what power or by what name has this been done?”  You can confidently reply, “Mercy is His name”.


Thanks be to God!


Live Stream Recording





Saturday, April 19, 2025

Harrowing of Hades: Morning Prayer for Holy Saturday (Hosea 5:15b-16:2)

There is an apocryphal book called the Gospel of Nicodemus that contains a story called ‘The Harrowing of Hades’.  We do not hear much of this book within Catholic circles (at least in the Latin Rite).  Although the story does serve as inspiration for a well known icon called ‘The Resurrection’ and the story is referenced in several hymns related to Holy Saturday.


In the story, Jesus descends into Hades upon His death on the Cross.  This was not the hell of the damned, but more likely the bosom of Abraham we hear about in Luke, Chapter 16.  


Jesus appeared in the form of a man and His glory lit up all the dark recesses of Hades.  


Immediately Hades cried out: “We have been conquered: woe to us! But who are you, who has such power and might? and what are you, who comes here without sin who are seen to be small and yet of great power, lowly and exalted, the slave and the master, the soldier and the king, who has power over the dead and the living? You were nailed on the cross, and placed in the tomb; and now you are free, and have destroyed all our power.”


Our Blessed Lord embraced our forefather Adam, and raised him.  Then, He said to all the rest of the just souls in the bosom of Abraham, “Come all with me, as many as have died through the tree which he touched: for, behold, I again raise you all up through the tree of the cross.”


Jesus raised them all.  Adam was filled with joy and said, “I thank Your majesty, O Lord, that You have brought me up out of the lowest Hades.”


All the prophets and the saints echoed Adam in saying: “We thank You, O Christ, Saviour of the world, that You have brought our life up out of destruction.”


Jesus took Adam’s hand and set out for paradise, delivering all the just.  Saint Michael and all the angels welcomed them.


I invite you to meditate on that image today.  Picture yourself among those setting out toward paradise.  Afterall, He will raise us up, to live in His presence.  And, indeed, we already live in His presence through the Eucharist!


Thanks be to God!






Friday, April 11, 2025

Double Down: Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7; John 10:31-42)

You may recall a homily I delivered where we talked about the beheading of John the Baptist and how the ministry of Jesus Christ seemingly took a stark pivot directly toward Calvary.  In a way, we have watched this saga continue to play out in our readings.  Let’s look back and highlight a couple of things.

The reading for the previous homily would have occurred about six or so months previous our reading today.

During that homily, I mentioned Jesus had just fed 5,000 disciples with the loaves and fish.  At that point, He had a great number of followers. They even wanted to make Him king.

Shortly thereafter, Jesus delivered the Bread of Life discourse in the Capernaum synagogue.  This, as you know, is where Jesus first explained the Eucharist.  The Eucharist that we must consume if we are to have eternal life. The Eucharist, which is the hard teaching that caused all of His disciples to leave Him.

And as I mentioned, this is the point of time when the news of the death of John the Baptist had reached Him…a reminder that John the Baptist was a forerunner of Christ in all things, including His Passion.

Three or so months later, we have our Gospel reading from last week.  The reading where Jesus and the twelve apostles went to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot.  At this point, it seems Jesus has only His twelve Apostles.  For all intents and purposes, He has no other followers.  In fact, we hear in the reading that the religious leaders are plotting to kill him.

In today’s Gospel reading, a couple more months have passed by.  Jesus and His Apostles are back in Jerusalem celebrating Hanukkah.  They are now celebrating the rededication of the second Temple.  

We see in the reading that Jesus has not made many more friends, as now is seems almost literally everyone is trying to stone Him.  

I’m trying to picture Jesus in this situation.  Within a few short months He went from many, many followers to no followers.  He went from being almost crowned king to almost being stoned.  By any worldly standard, His mission is failing miserably.

Further, He knows the next major feast is Passover.  He knows Passover just a matter of weeks away.  He knows this is the Passover where He will undergo His sorrowful Passion.  He knows His followers are few.  He knows He will be betrayed.  He knows He will be denied.  He knows He will be abandoned.  Yet, He continues on with His mission.

I can easily picture any other person in that situation just giving up.  But, not Jesus.  

In the face of adversity, He doubled down down,

He doubled down in Capernaum when he declared, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”  He said this knowing it would cause all of His followers to leave Him.

He doubled down again at Sukkot when He referred to God the Father when He said, “I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”  He said this knowing they would try to arrest Him.

Now in today's reading, at Hanukkah, He doubles down yet again as He clearly regards Himself as “the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world”.  He says this in the midst of those that have the stones in their hands.

But what He said today is actually far more profound than it may first appear.  Jesus declares that He is consecrated by God on the very day they are celebrating the rededication (or re-consecration, if you will) of the temple.   Now that is bold!

At the same time, what did Jesus say about Himself in John, chapter 2?  “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

Brothers and sisters, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Eucharist, is the Temple of the New Covenant.  The Body and Blood of Christ, consecrated by God, is the source of eternal life.

Our pivot toward Calvary is nearly complete as the Holy Triduum is next week.   Holy Thursday, we get to rededicate our Temple, the Holy Eucharist, as we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist by Christ.  Good Friday, we get to walk with our Blessed Lord through His Passion.  Holy Saturday, we get to experience, in a very profound way, His resurrection and the transformation of His sacrifice into the Blessed Sacrament. 

The Holy Eucharist, truly is our rock of refuge, our shield, the horn of our salvation, our stronghold!

Thanks be to God!





Thursday, April 10, 2025

Learn, Go, Make: Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 105:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; John 8:51-59)

When the Lord created His covenant with Abraham and his tribe, the Hebrews did not automatically know what it meant to be a people chosen by God. Nor did they know how to act as the chosen people.

I believe this is one of the reasons why our first reading today has a lot of future tense language in it. I will do this. I will do that. You will be this. The Hebrews had to go through a formation, of sorts, to become the chosen people to which they were being called.

In a similar vein, Archbishop Lori challenges us to take part in a Catholic faith formation course.  It could be something offered by Incarnate Word or the Archdiocese. It could be something that you find online, such as the Augustine Institute (just make sure the resource is truly Catholic).

In issuing this challenge, Archbishop Lori asks the following questions: “Looking at the development of your own faith, how have you ‘come to believe’ truths about Christ and/or the Catholic faith? What teachings do you still have questions about? What areas of your faith would you like to develop further? Where can you find resources — or whom can you ask for resources — to help you deepen your faith and understanding?”

In the shadow of this challenge and as a follow-up the questions I received related to the comments I made a couple months ago about reaching out to others, I’d like to take the opportunity to issue a corollary challenge. In the spirit of the New Evangelization and specifically the renewed call for Missionary Discipleship in the wake of All Things New, I encourage you to answer the challenge of Archbishop Lori by taking one or more formation courses that would help you grow in Missionary Discipleship.

The Archdiocese offers several evangelization workshops throughout the area. These workshops are free and are constructed very well. They begin with a very fundamental approach to help us see what evangelization really is and more importantly, what it is not. And begins to expand on the topic from there.

One of the more effective parts of being a missionary disciple is learning how to tell your story in a more impactful way.  Another formation opportunity related to this is to attend a speaker workshop at the Catholic Renewal Center.

The speaker workshops offer a very supportive environment to learn how to more effectively tell your story. Even if you never speak at an event for the Renewal Center, the skills you would pick up would enable you to tell your story to your family, your friends, and others in your circle of influence in such a way that may help someone start their journey to Christ.

Another opportunity is to attend pro life sidewalk counseling training. In a supportive environment you learn the fundamentals of sidewalk counseling and have the opportunity to role play. Again, even if you never actually volunteer to provide sidewalk counseling in front of an abortion mill, the skills would be easily translatable to situations where you are having individual faith conversations with family and friends, particularly those that have fallen away from the faith and/or have issues with the faith.

You can also find some good resources on Formed. Formed is a website and media platform owned by the Augustine Institute. Each of us have the opportunity to obtain a free subscription to Formed through Incarnate Word. A couple of series of interest include “Formed for Mission” and the other is simply called “Missionary Discipleship”.

The Archdiocese also has several online resources through the Office of Evangelization and Discipleship, including a podcast called “Go & Make”.

Brothers and sisters, we have the opportunity to answer the challenge of Archbishop Lori in a very profound way. By answering this challenge, we have the opportunity to be formed into the people that can reach out to others that they may be converted into children of God, as we discussed a couple months ago. We have the opportunity to answer the challenge in a way that truly brings forth everything God intended the Church to be when He made His covenant with Abraham.

As we enter into this brave challenge, there will be moments of fear and anxiety. But, be not afraid. The promises made to Abraham are also the promises made to us. So, look to the Lord in his strength; seek to serve him constantly through missionary discipleship.

Thanks be to God!