May 31, 2021: Feast of the Visitation

Following right after the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we celebrate when the Blessed Mother Mary visited St. Elizabeth.  They experienced the fellowship of the Triune God together, especially since Mary's coming to the home of Elizabeth and Zecharaiah brought them into the presence of God like never before.

Even St. John the Baptist, from within the womb, rejoiced and, in a way, danced in the presence of the Lord.

God greatly delights in His people and that's why He desired to come and be present with us.  That is why we can rejoice, as we become aware of God's entrance into our lives.

Even at times when we are unable to see Him, by faith we can recognize His presence, and joyfully commit ourselves to Him.

May 30, 2021: Sunday of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

We rejoice heartily today in the same spirit of the past several weeks, in which we have celebrated and reflected on a reality mentioned in today's first reading:  Our God has worked great marvels to fashion for Himself a people as His own, and Who speaks to them directly.

Now, through the Paschal Mystery, we come closer to God than ever.  Indeed, we call Him our Father, because of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts.

God raises us from our feeble, fallen state with His very presence to invite us into a relationship with Him.

He created us in His own image, and as such, we reflect that God is relational.  We embrace how we can grow in relationship with the unseen God Who is manifest in our relationships with other people.  And with His Holy Spirit at work in us, we edify one another as we join together in the fellowship of community that reflects our God and His Love.

May 23, 2021: Pentecost Sunday

The God Who became present to the world in the Incarnation became alive and present in a whole new way when the Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem for the start of the Feast of Weeks at the celebration of Firstfruits at Shavuot/Pentecost.

The Church came alive as God breathed new life into His people with a powerful wind and sealed them with flames, the signs of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit equipped the apostles for the specific purpose of proclaiming the Good News to the multiplicity of people gathered in Jerusalem.

We, too, are empowered and equipped by the Holy Spirit with gifts that point to the One God.  Each of us receives specific gifts and when we join together in using those gifts, we truly edify the Church, the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit comes to us individually and collectively to bind us more closely as the Body of Christ, so we are reconciled and more closely united to Him and with one another, as diverse people throughout the world sharing one faith that comes from the Savior, Christ, Who pours forth the Spirit from the Father.

May 16, 2021: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Our exuberant Easter joy of these past 6 weeks reaches new heights, pun intended, as we celebrate the Ascension of our Risen Lord.

He has triumphed in rising from the dead, and now takes His place at the right hand of God.

While He is no longer present physically with His disciples on Earth, He continues to abide with them,  as He promised, especially in the mission He has left for them to make Him known in the world.

He has equipped each of us for a special role to build up the Church, the body, so that we may attain the full stature of Christ, and reach where our Exalted Head has gone.

We now live to make Him known to others by our way of living.  And because He desires to abide with us, He continues to work through us, and so we rejoice.

May 9, 2021: Sixth Sunday of Easter

By the Paschal Mystery, God, through Jesus Christ, saved us from sin, restored us to abundant new Life, and has allowed us to know the Love of God, and to live that Love.

Truly God loved us first, and gives us the ability to love as a way of life.  His love pours forth through all the Earth, that all people may be saved, as St. Peter declares in the first reading.

So He gives us His love freely as a gift, and then we bear fruit as we live that love for others.  

Certainly, we celebrate how God has been made known through the love our mothers have shown us and that we have shared with them.  Even as I reflect on the recent end of the RE year, I think about how much I have given to support my students so they go forth to bear fruit.

Indeed, love is an action that God first took so that we would come to know Him so intimately, as friends, so that we could share that love freely in the same manner as Christ.

May 2, 2021: Fifth Sunday of Easter

Today I party like it's 1999, when I received my First Holy Communion.  In a class during the preparations, we discussed the passage from John 15 that is the Gospel proclaimed today.

By His Resurrection, Jesus Christ has become our Source of Life continuous, abundant, and ever-new.

We continue to experience His Life by remaining with Him Who always remains with those He has saved and named His people.

In the power of His Spirit, we go forth to boldly proclaim Who He is, just as Saul had a total reversal from denying Jesus to preaching about Him.

Indeed, we go forth to bear fruit as we remain in Him, and He empowers us to obey His commands, and live in the way He desires, so that we seek His desires in what we ask for, as we keep constantly in touch with the Life-giving Spirit.  By remaining in Him, He remains in us so we can love the in the way that makes Him powerfully present in this world.