Mary teaches us to go out of ourselves on a journey of sacrifice, love and service, so that as pilgrims on the road, we may sing the wonders that God has done in us as he promised.
Like the Good Samaritan, Father Damien is an example for us all, encouraging us to join him now, to not simply walk past those broken people lying in a ditch saying “let someone else take care of them, let the government or some charity do it,” but to get involved personally, touching their lives and offering them our compassion and consolation, confidence and hope. In this way we can transform their lives and the world, by the infinite and merciful love of God, curing them of their despair and allowing them to know the joy of the Risen Christ.
Don’t just stand there, the angels tell us as we look up at heaven. Jesus has told us to do something. God wants to transform you and me by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he wants us to live our faith and share it with others. In this way we help transform the world.
The center of all Christian life is Christ himself. By his Incarnation and work of redemption we are healed and called to share in a new life, a life that binds us together as children of God and sharers in the life of the Trinity.
When it seems that all of the news is bad and this earthly life becomes overwhelming, turn to Jesus…Only he can bring the great calm, restoring peace to the most troubled and disconsolate soul.
Jesus, our risen Lord, offers us hope, he offers us love, he offers us mercy, and that love, as our Holy Father says, has triumphed over sin and death, and it can triumph over any sufferings, disappointments or misunderstandings in our lives that may have distanced ourselves and others from Christ.
Our faith in the Risen Christ in such times of sorrow offers us the confident hope that death shall not have the last word.
In the Virgin Mother is the pure, living dwelling-place of God. She teaches us that God does not dwell in buildings of stone, but in the living hearts of those who accept him.
Death has no power over you and me if we enter into his life in his Church.
Jesus will give us strength – the strength is not you, but him in you. He gives us the strength, he renews our spirit and gives us the courage to become his witnesses, which in Greek is translated as “martyrs.
(Saint) Joseph teaches us that all men, by their inherent paternal nature, are called to be fathers in a certain sense, if not in the flesh, then in the spirit by a pure and fruitful love that helps in the formation and growth of others as children of God.
It is inspiring to reflect on how we as priests are living links in a chain reaching back over 20 centuries to contact the very person of our Lord, and reaching forward through and beyond time and the human condition to Christ, his kingdom and the fullness of his glory.
Our ministry is constantly caught up in helping people recognize that kingdom of God at work in our midst.
Helping people to build a connection with God, an encounter with Christ, means journeying with Jesus.
Woman has, within her nature, a unique capacity for the other.
The mission of the Church is to help people encounter the Lord, letting them know that every person on this planet is capable of a relationship with God, a life-giving relationship.
