10/23/2014 – Thursday of 29th week in Ordinary Time – St John of Capistrano – Ephesians 3:14-21

        We hear a prayer today in our first reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Paul kneels before God the Father and prays for the Ephesians.  He prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts in their faith.  Faith is indeed a gift, and all of us can thank God for the faith that we have in my heart through his grace.  We seem to live in a world where faith is suspect or mocked or questioned.  But the faith that we have in Christ, a faith that we have in our hearts, is indeed a faith to be cherished. 

         The saint we celebrate today is a man of great faith just like St Paul: St John of Capistrano.  You probably are more familiar with him by his Spanish name, as mission San Juan Capistrano in California was named after him by the Franciscan missionaries who brought God’s word to the native people of that reigion.  St John of Capistrano was born in the late 14th century.  He was imprisoned for a time during a war with a neighboring town in Italy, and he entered the Franciscan community in Perugia after his release.  After being ordained to the priesthood, he brought his gifts of preaching to countries all over Europe – throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia.  Through his preaching, John of Capistrano tried to unify the Christians throughout Europe.  He died of the plague on this day in the year 1456 in Italy. By the way, today, October 23, is the day that the swallows leave Mission San Juan Capistrano in California as they make their way down to Argentina. 

         How are we striving toward holiness in our lives?  How are we opening up our hearts to Christ and proclaiming his kingdom?

10/24/2013 – Thursday of 29th week in Ordinary Time – Psalm 1:1-5

     “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord” – this is the refrain we hear in the psalm today.  The message in the psalm brings us a message of hope, as we as disciples of Christ are to place our hope in our faith, in the salvation we have in Christ.  Yet, the readings also hold us accountable and responsible as disciples of Christ as well.  Paul tells the Romans that while before they were slaves to impurity and lawlessness, now they are to live in righteousness as disciples of Christ.  Sometimes in what we are going through in our daily lives, it came be difficult to have hope. Yet, our readings challenge us today in our faith.  When I was a missionary in Ecuador, I remember meeting nuns who had served in difficult situations as missionaries their entire lives.  They had to meet many challenges in their service to the Church, but they always did so with joy in their hearts.  They put their hope in the Lord.  May we do the same. 

10/25/2012 – Thursday of 29th week in ordinary time – Psalm 33, Ephesians 3:14-21

         We hear a prayer today that is included in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  Paul kneels before the Father and prays for the Ephesians.  He prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts in their faith.  Faith is indeed a gift, and I thank God for the faith that I have in my heart through his grace.  We seem to live in a world where faith is suspect or mocked or questioned.  But the faith that we have in Christ, a faith that we have in our hearts, is indeed a faith to be cherished. 

         I was driving to my mass in Belzoni through the heart of the farmland of the Mississippi Delta.  Much of the cotton crop has been harvested.  Some huge cubes of cotton are all bundled up on the side of the fields.  The air was rather crisp and clear this afternoon. The rich Delta farmland stretched as far as the eye could see. This is not a big city, urban area.  This is not an area teeming with shopping malls or factories or sprawling suburbs.  In fact, Humphreys county, where my parish in Belzoni is located, has the highest rate of child poverty and the lowest median family income of any county in the United States, according to one study I recently read.  There is not even one gas station in the 27-mile stretch between my parish in Yazoo City and my parish in Belzoni.  Yet, even as I am so aware of our problems and struggles to make it in the Mississippi Delta, I could not help but think of the goodness of the Lord, as the psalmist declares today.  And it takes faith to see God’s goodness in the midst of the crime, violence, and economic stagnation that plague this part of the country.  Yet, God’s goodness is here.  And I see that goodness through my eyes of faith.