May 31, 2024: Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

May started in the midst of the Easter Season, marked by great joy.  We end May with another Feast steeped in joy.

It's quite a scene when the Blessed Virgin Mary arrives at the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah.  The presence of Christ within her is the cause of great joy for St. John the Baptist and Elizabeth.

The words in Isaiah 12 are fitting, that we should rejoice because the presence of the Holy One is in our midst.

May we have the power of faith to help us recognize He is present to us, Whose Risen Presence continues to abide with us in the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Eucharist, and even in our gathering together as Church community.  And then following the example of the Virgin Mary, let us bear Christ's presence to others, to give them cause for joy, too.

May 26, 2024: Most Holy Trinity Sunday

God has been revealing HImself throughout history in so many marvelous ways, and in these revelations, we see the work of three unique Persons Who are all in harmony as God.

Indeed, God chose a people specially for Himself.  In the fullness of time, He sent a Savior to bring us back into right relationship with God so that we could truly be His children.

And He calls us to go forth in mission to live out our relationship with Him, sharing it with all the world.  Last week's celebration of Pentecost Sunday was a nexus point as we concluded celebrations of the Paschal Mystery over the past several weeks and how we are alive in a new reality in the Resurrection.

There's something profound in the Gospel reading when the Risen Jesus appears to the disciples on a mountain, a typical location for important encounters with God.  He said that He had all power in Heaven and on Earth, and was using His position to empower the disciples, who were in doubt, to go forth on mission.

So while the Trinity is a great mystery we won't fully understand in this life, we have enough of a sense of God's Presence, revealed to us in the distinct ways of each Person of the Trinity, to share this Mystery with the world, that our God is powerfully alive and at work in us.

We can certainly sense this reality in our relationships, especially in family, and I'm fully aware of that this day as I celebrate my Mom's birthday.

Ultimatetly, the Father and the Son share great love, and from it proceeds love, which is the Holy Spirit, flowing into us so we can show love as we give of ourselves to others, which is the wondrous revelation of God's character to the world.

May 20, 2024: Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church

God called Mary to play a special role in His plan of salvation.

She now offers a model to all of us who are part of the Church brought alive by the Holy Spirit.

We come before the Cross, the source of our salvation so we may know what we truly proclaim.  We spend time in prayer, awaiting how God will pour out the Holy Spirit in our day so that we can live out the mission God has given us as He brings salvation to all the world.

May 19, 2024: Pentecost Sunday

We cap off the Easter Season by celebrating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that birthed the Church.

Jesus has fulfilled His promise to send the Spirit, and everything He did and taught now became alive in the disciples, and becomes alive in us who live by faith.

Through the Holy Spirit, we crucify our old selves with its wrongful desires, like St. Paul describes in the passage from Galatians 5.  Then, made anew, we bear fruit of good characteristics, which are in the list of the fruits of the Spirit.

Truly Jesus breathes His life into us through the Holy Spirit, like He did to the apostles huddled in the locked room, and they overcome their fear and rejoice.

We celebrated the Resurrection with great joy and we can continue to joyfully proclaim by our lives that Jesus is alive because the Holy Spirit is His Risen Life living and working in us.

God created the world marvelously and has renewed it in a profound newness of Life through the Holy Spirit.

May 19 was Pentecost Sunday 11 years ago when I graduated from college.  I could look back upon my college experience and see how wondrously the Holy Spirit was at work as my academic life converged with my faith life to truly make me anew by giving me a strong new sense of purpose in life.  In that light, I continue to celebrate how God is working through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Truly we can go forth in great joy because of this great gift that is constantly keeping us alive.

May 12, 2024: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

We marvel that the Risen Christ, after appearing to the disciples at various times in the 40-day period, now has returned to Heaven.  

He Who has accomplished the Paschal Mystery is glorified.

Christ is Our Exalted Head of His Body, the Church.  We have hope that we will rise to join Him.

Yet He continues to be present with us.  As St. Paul writes in Ephesians, He ascended and fills all things in every way.

Before departing, He told His disciples that they would receive power from the baptism of the Holy Spirit so that they could take up the mantle and continue His work that He started, making Him known throughout all the world.

We call upon the Holy Spirit, marveling that He Who ascended and reigns in Heaven is advancing His Kingdom on Earth, displaying His signs as He always accompanies us, a foretaste of Heaven here now on Earth.

May 5, 2024: 6th Sunday of Easter

God is love, and He has displayed His Love for us in sending His Son in the Incarnation, Who, through the Paschal Mystery, became expiation for our sins and brought us into Newness of Life.

We are now truly alive because Christ has Risen and Love lives.

We live in His love by following the commandment He has given us to demonstrate the example He has showed us in laying down His life for us, Who He calls friends, because we are now in such a close relationship with Him.

In this relationship, we are called to go forth and bear fruit as His disciples that shows to the world the reality of the Resurrection, that He is alive in us.

This gift is for all the world, as the first reading indicates in the astonishing scene when the Holy Spirit descends on Gentiles, so they can participate in bearing fruit as God works in them.

I knew my connection to Jesus in a powerful new way 25 years ago on the first Sunday of May when I had my First Holy Communion.  For 25 years, I have known the power of being part of God's people, in Whom He lives, and Who He calls to bear fruit as we stay connected to Him.