November 16, 2025: 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we draw close to the end of the Liturgical Year, we focus on the End of Time, when God will execute judgment.  For us who remain faithful in this time, the End will bring the victory of righteousness and will set everything right.

When the disciples admire the Temple in the Gospel reading, Jesus predicts its destruction.  He then further predicts other calamities, especially for those who are His Chosen Ones.  Yet He promises that He will save us, and that we will have Eternal Life.

So we strive faithfully in challenges, living and working in a meaningful way now to focus our gaze beyond what is transitory to what is everlasting.

November 9, 2025: Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica

As we celebrate this important occasion for the Dedication of the St. John Latern Basilica, the Mother of All Churches, we reencounter the important truth that the Church is made of Living Stones--all of us--who join together as the Body of Christ.

When Jesus goes into the Temple to cleanse it of unholy practices, He pivots to referring to the Temple of His Body, which would be destroyed and then be raised up again.

St. Paul draws on this idea as He refers to all of us as the Body of Christ, God's building, and that we are holy.

And the prophet Ezekiel looks ahead to the vision of abundant Life in the new Temple in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

We are holy as part of God's Temple, the Body of Christ, and so we strive to keep building each other up, and the world, too, as we strive to be Church in this world, living out the sign that the church buildings are.

November 2, 2025: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed/Feast of All Souls' Day

Faith gives us a different perspective on everything, especially death.

Like the reading from Wisdom indicates, we see that death is not the end of our existence, but a transformation.  Christ has conquered death, and so by joining ourselves to Him in this life on Earth, we can participate with Him in dying and rising.  We can truly live in hope.

Furthermore, we have hope for those who have departed from us in faith.  They left this life and journeyed to God.  He will raise up all those who have departed.  Through the purification process of purgatory, the souls of the righteous will be made ready to enter full union with God.  We all experience the mercy of God that flows forth from the Paschal Mystery.  Indeed, we embrace the mercy of God because of our hope in the Resurrection.

November 1, 2025: Solemnity of All Saints Day

Our Church is a great communion of those on Earth and those in Heaven.  The Church in Heaven is filled with those who were faithful in their lives in the Church on Earth and now are united with God in His Presence in Heaven, giving Him glory.

As people of faith, we see the path that leads to where they are.  We strive to be purified and unite ourselves closely to God, becoming more like Him.  We focus away from the world's wisdom to follow the path to build virtues and put faith into action, even though "Holy Moments", a term Matthew Kelly often uses.  On this path, we are transformed to be more like God, experiencing the reality of union with Him now that we will experience in its fullness in Heaven.

God has made it possible to be close to Him through Jesus Christ, and so holiness is not far off, but something that we can experience now, where we are.

October 26, 2025: 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God hears the prayers of those who are poor and lowly in a powerful way.  Like the tax collector in the parable of the Gospel reading, they have the humility to recognize who God is and who they are, and how they are not God.  So they open themselves up and are truly receptive to how God fills them.  The Pharisee praises Himself in prayer, and has not made room for God.

Humility is an important virtue for us, the faithful, so we can remember God is God and we are not, and that God alone can meet our needs.  With humility, we position ourselves to rely on God.

Certainly, St. Paul relied on God through his life's difficulties, and was confident that God would bring him safely to His Heavenly Kingdom.  As he neared the end of his life, St. Paul recognized that, reliant on God, he had fought the Good Fight, finished the race, and kept the faith, fixed on God.  He would then receive a reward for being faithful.

We can join with him and all the saints in the great reward of Heaven by constantly striving faithfully in this life, fixing ourselves on God.

October 19, 2025: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

God has created a plan for this world, and He chooses us to be part of it.

I heard a great insight from the All Set for Sunday podcast with Father Andy Syberg as the guest with Scott and Jeff for this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  "Prayer allows us to know God's will for our lives."  As he elaborates, through prayer, we ultimately come to know God more closely, and then we can know His will.  So we can participate in God's will and God's plan through prayer.

God desires for us to keep striving after Him, becuase the process can benefit us, even as we wait for God to fulfill our needs.  Moses had a part to play in the success of the battle, and he had to keep his arms lifted for success to unfold.  The widow in the Gospel reading's parable kept persisting for an unjust judge to give her a favorable ruling, and he finally granted it.

Even more so, God desires to meet our needs out of love for us.  It matters for us to have faith so we can strive ultimately for God and be ready to embrace what He offers us.

20 years ago on this weekend of the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, I was confirmed.  It began a new life for me of constantly striving for God and the ways He would continue to fill me in the power of the Holy Spirit.

October 18, 2025: Feast of St. Luke

Jesus Christ, by coming to Earth as our Savior, has shown us a new way and given us a mission that emerges from His salvation.

We magnify God, giving glory to Him, and bring peace to Earth as we proclaim the Kingdom.

We do all this in the power of the Holy Spirit, a sure sign that the Risen Christ is at work to heal us in the very depths of our beings, and is present with us to fill us abundantly.

As St. Luke heralded the Gospel, so we proclaim the Good News by our lives.