May we who are merely inconvenienced, remember those whose lives are at stake. May we who have no risk factors, remember those most vulnerable. May we who have the luxury of working from home, remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent. May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close, remember those who have no options. May we who have to cancel our trips, remember those that have no place to go. May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market, remember those who have no margin at all. May we who settle in for a quarantine at home, remember those who have no home. During this time, when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, let us find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.
WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT DISCIPLINE?
Freedom is one of our most cherished channels for happiness. Our preoccupation with freedom often leads us to believe that everything we have a taste for should be ours by right, and that everything we want should come to us easily. "Effort" and its companion "discipline" are falling out of use in our culture's vocabulary. However, life can be "a bowl of cherries," but, for the most part, only for those willing to pick them. To be physically fit, for instance, we have to work at it. To have a satisfying marriage or friendship will demand commitment, tact, flexibility, and endurance. Spiritual growth, also, requires discipline. Would you, or anyone you know, like to hear more about how to achieve spiritual growth through the "discipline" of the Catholic faith? We invite you to an RCIA Inquiry Session. For more info, call our RCIA contact at 732-764- 0264.
GOSPEL MEDITATION
Encourage Deeper Understanding of Scripture
You can feel so small standing by the seashore. The vastness of all that is before you expands much farther than your eye can see. What is happening on the other side? As tides continue to ebb and flow, what occurs as they come and go remains largely a mystery and the effects of their presence unknown in your sight. Yet things are moving and changing as you gaze upon the water, as the thumbprint of their presence is left behind. The greater the wind and wave, the greater the effect. But even a gentle breeze leaves its humble mark upon the seashore on which you stand. The smallest pebble still makes a ripple in the great blue expanse of ocean waters. It doesn't need to be big.
You never know the full impact of your smallest gesture or simplest of words. A yes or no, agree or disagree, here or there, this or that can influence time and history in ways you may never know. The Holy Spirit is like that: fierce and torrential, and then almost still and silent, creating and recreating nonetheless. Coming as a gentle breeze or a gusty wind, God's Holy Spirit continues to move over, around, and into the waters of our lives. The Spirit brings fruit and unknown possibilities to what we humbly bring with us and that same Spirit eventually brings all to fulfillment in Christ.
The first disciples didn't have much. They possessed simple faith and a willingness to go into unchartered territory with a love of their friend-God, humble offerings, and a knowledge that they were not alone. This allowed them to do amazing things with very little. Do you believe that you are being led and that you have a purposeful life? We often do not realize our value because we do not think that the little we have is good enough. How wrong we are! A little flour mixed with water and embraced by a prayer of blessing transforms simple offerings into the magnificent Eucharistic presence of God. If the Holy Spirit can do such amazing things with these humble gifts of the earth, even more can happen with you. Don't underestimate the value of the smile you gave a stranger, the door held open for an elderly widow, the listening ear offered to one who was lonely, the tolerance given to the wounded soul who is angry, and the loving shoulder you offered as a cradle under the head of someone in pain. Modest gifts offered with love can be transformed by the Spirit into wondrous blessings you may never know. It's Pentecost. Trust. You are not alone.
Do you have a favorite word? A word that you like to say because of the way it sounds, or how the syllables just roll off your tongue so easily? I do and I have cherished the word, “Behold” for many decades. A few years ago, one of my friends was on retreat and she called me. She told me that the Priest had a favorite word and she wanted to see if I could guess what it was. I immediately responded “behold”. My friend was in disbelief that I had guessed the priest’s word! Before we hung up, she told me that she was going to speak to the Priest to tell him that he and I share the same word. My response to her was this: “tell Father that after years of praying with ‘behold’, I have come to realize how often I hear it as “be held”. It is as if I am being reminded that God is in control and that all I need to do is trust that it is so. Don’t worry about tomorrow, be held in my love; the difficulties and situations in our world will be resolved, be held in trust; soon my people will be healthy and joyful again, be held in hope. The Coronavirus has been very disorienting to many of us as we turn to God for comfort and assurance. The silver lining of behold is be held. At various times in life we all need to be held…in the arms of a trusted friend, or in the silence that speaks of the mystery of God. I share this story because when I feel frightened or disoriented, I am comfortable asking God to hold me, for a while, until I adjust to a new normal. Until we can once again greet each other at Mass, I will continue to pray that we all will be held by our Loving God. Pat Dorsi 4/17/20
Sunday, June 7, 2020
Reflections for The Most Holy Trinity
By: Joe Cullinan, Director of Sacred Music at Our Lady of Mercy, South Bound Brook and Director of Instrumental & Choral Music at
St. Thomas Aquinas High School
On this Feast of the Most Holy Trinity we are treated to a selection of brief but powerful readings, including arguably the most popular Gospel verse of all time: John 3:16.
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
The powerful love and forgiveness found in those words cannot be understated. And since John 3:16 has been called “The Gospel in a Nutshell” by some biblical scholars, those of us eager to spread the Good News should be pleased with how deeply it has permeated into our pop culture. Consider:
You can see “John 3:16” written on signs at almost every major sporting event.
Country music favorite Keith Urban included the reference in his hit song “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16.”
World-class monster truck driver Devin Jones has “John 3:16” painted on the side of his truck.
When he wrote “John 3:16” on his eyeblack for the 2009 BCS National Championship game, Tim Tebow helped make it the most Googled term in America that week.
Now there are some people who would look at the popularization of the verse and respond with concern over the dangers of trivializing the foundational belief of our Faith into something that you find at the bottom of soda cups at fast food restaurants (In-and-Out Burger).
But this week we are reminded that the power and glory of our God takes on different forms, specifically for the purpose of evangelization. The Most Holy Trinity: Three Persons in one God, each different yet the same, a mystery that exists to spread the Good News in the most effective way possible: through differentiation.
As a teacher of 13 years, I’ve attended a meeting or two on differentiation, and what my experience so far has taught me above all else is that students are all willing to learn, but sometimes they need to hear the lesson in different ways – and this is even more true now, in this challenging time of COVID-19.
So if a member of our congregation tells us they know of the deep and personal love God has for them, and they come to worship because they’ve heard our songs and read the Bible, that is a wonderful thing. If they tell us they know of that same love and come to worship because they read it on the bottom of their soda cup, that’s wonderful too.