Fast or Feast?

The desert can be very barren and lifeless.  That is until the rains arrive and overnight, life shoots forth. Lent is like that.  A time of barrenness that is quenched by the baptismal waters of Easter.  We are only a week away from the Easter Vigil: a time to review our fasting of Lent and the pending feasting of Easter.  It is a time to ready ourselves and our souls for the refreshing waters that await us!  As we move into this liminal time of Holy Week, take a minute for this prayer by William Arthur Ward:

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ indwelling them

Fast from emphasis on difference; feast on the unity of all

Fast from thought of illness; feast on the healing power

Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify

Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude

Fast from anger; feast on patience

Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism

Fast from worry; feast on divine order

Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation

Fast from negatives; feast on affirmations

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness

Fast from self-concern (ego); feast on compassion for others

Fast from discouragement; feast on hope

Fast from suspicion; feast on truth

Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promised that inspire

Blessings on both from what you fast from and what you feast on!

Homily: 5th Sunday of Lent - The Raising of Lazarus



Fresco by Giotto located at the Church of St. Francis in Assisi

On this 5^th Sunday of Lent we celebrate the Third Scrutiny as we pray over our Elect who will be baptized in two weeks at the Easter Vigil.  The readings from Cycle A are used for this occasion and so this weekend we are treated to the only account of the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead, as recorded by John.

This Sunday I was blessed to have been asked to be a guest homilist at my high school alma mater, Oratory Prep in Summit N.J. for their annual Family Mass.  It was a beautiful liturgy to see so many families come together as a community of faith.  This sense of ‘community’ or what we call ‘church’ tied right into my insight into this popular Gospel story.  But it is a meaning that is often overlooked by all the attention given to the miracle.

What was Christ really up to? 

Check it out!

For the Sunday Readings click: here

For the Homily click: here

Homily: The Fourth Sunday in Lent - The Second Scrutiny

The 4^th Sunday of Lent is also called Laetare Sunday – taken from the Latin word to Rejoice!  It is time to rejoice, for Lent is half over…or better put, half of Lent is still before us.  So how do we use that time? 

Perhaps we should be following steps of our brothers and sisters who are preparing to be fully received into the Church this Easter Vigil.  For this Sunday is their Second Scrutiny.  What does that mean?  What does that call us to? And how does the Gospel story of Jesus healing the blind man tie it all together?

Click below and check it out!

Find the Readings for this Sunday here.

Find the Homily for this Sunday here.

The Scrutinies of Lent 2012

So as we head into the Third Sunday of Lent we begin the Scrutinies.  Over the next three weeks the Elect (those who will be baptized) will take this time to carefully look inside themselves to see what needs to be changed.  But this introspection time is not just for them…it is for all of us!

We began on Ash Wednesday by being reminded that Lent is a time when we are called to repent!  Repent: to turn ourselves around and live differently….to live as Christ called us to live.

In 1940 Frère Roger wondered what it really meant to live a life like that.  To live a life according to the scriptures.  Swiss by birth, he wondered how he could fulfill his vision in the war stricken country of France.  A year later Roger settled in a small desolate village called Taizé.  Soon others came from Switzerland to join him in this Christ-centered community which was a sanctuary to countless war refugees.

By the 1970’s followers from various Christian backgrounds joined the community causing them to build a larger church just outside of Taizé.  By this time the role of the community was to reach out around the world, through prayer and song and to show others how to ‘repent’….how to turn around and live differently.

And one of their greatest gifts to all of us? Music! Designed to be easily learned and sung in many languages, their music emphasizes simple phrases and lines from Psalms or other scripture which are repeated.

So find four minutes to think of how your life needs to be different…and click to listen to this gift from the community at Taizé!

What does Lent call us to do?

A week has gone by and the ashes have long fallen off our heads and perhaps we have already forgotten what Lent is all about.

This morning’s meditation from “The Black Book,” published by the Diocese of Saginaw, struck me as it quoted the bible verse from Mark that I use every time I baptize children.  “On coming out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came down from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”  Mark 1:10-11

In the time of Christ, you only became a part of the family once your father declared, “this is my son (daughter).”  Prior to that, you were legally nobody.  We forget that the Spirit who descended upon Jesus at his baptism is the same Spirit that descended upon us at our baptism.  It is the same God who calls to us, “You are my beloved son and daughter; with you I am well pleased.”  Pleased, just the way we are.  But all too often we spend our lives being who we (or others) think we ought to be.

What are we really being asked to do in Lent?  Easy answer.  Stop being who others want you to be and simply carry out what God has asked you to do as his son or daughter; be who you were born to be.  By definition, that is God’s plan – nothing more and nothing less.

Think what that would be like.