“My Grace Is Sufficient” by Melanie Rigney

“My Grace Is Sufficient” by Melanie Rigney 

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

(B)ut he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me. (2 Corinthians 12:9) 

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. (Psalms 34:9a)

“Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30) 

Piety

Jesus, take the wheel.

Study

There’s a lot to worry about in this world. 

• What will the tests show about my loved one’s fatigue?
• Will I get that job I so desperately, desperately need?
• Will I have enough money to retire?
• Will my grandchildren get into the colleges they so desire?
• Will traffic be bad again today?
• Will dinner turn out all right if I use sweet Italian sausage instead of hot
• Will I ever be able to expand Farm 24 in Farm Town?

Laugh if you will, but don’t your worries range from the serious to the ridiculous? To me, that’s one of the benefits of all those rosary beads—plenty of opportunities to offer up those worries in prayer. 

It’s human nature to worry. We like to have control. Or rather, we want to think we have control. But we focus on the wrong things. We don’t have control over that loved one’s medical test results. We do have some control over our reaction—and the compassion we show in offering to help set the treatment plan. We don’t have control over colleges accepting the grandkids. We do have control over showing delight if they are successful—and helping them learn resilience if they are not.

If we exercise the control, we do have and show confidence in God for the rest, and we can be made great where we are weak. We can show others what the power of Christ looks like when we get out of the way. 

No worries.

Action

Offer up your worries, one by one, as you pray the rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet. Then let them go for the day.[i]

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[i] Photo credit is Malgorzata Tomczak via Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/photos/depression-sadness-man-2912424/

Light the Darkness By Beth DeCristofaro

 Light the Darkness By Beth DeCristofaro

 

Brothers and sisters: Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. To my shame I say that we were too weak! 

(2 Corinthians 11:18)

 

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.” (Matthew 6:22-23)

 

Piety

My friend Jesus, too often I find myself distracted by the shiny, glittering things about me in life: a lovely house, the coveted promotion, a seat at a not-diverse table, comfortable and reliable food, water and A/C.  I genuinely do not want to experience the sufferings of Paul, even if they are in your name.  May your light show me that suffering happens to us all.  Open my eyes to your presence above all else and bend my heart to you no matter where it leads me. 

 

Study

In today’s reading from Corinthians, Paul catalogs some of the trials he experienced as he evangelized.  He did this to respond to charges that he was inauthentic in his preaching.  And yet, he states he and the community were all too weak despite enduring hardship and cruelty because there is no price too high for following Jesus.  Paul’s detractors, among other charges, claimed he was an ineffective preacher.  He points out that worldly goods, shallow practices and personal ability, such as public speaking, do not necessarily lead us to Jesus.  In fact, they might derail us as we focus on the transient not the eternal.

 

In our Cursillo weekends, and hopefully, in our Group Reunions, we try to identify the priorities (Jesus calls them “treasures”) of our lives.  Our walk with Jesus helps us to balance our treasures better.  Perhaps the greatest weakness we can strive for is that more profound relationship with Jesus, which illuminates our soul. The lamp of the body is the eye. It is the beacon of God’s light that indeed reveals where our treasure is.  It points the way to safe passage – a life of loving God first and our neighbor as ourselves.  And it shines to provide safe passage around the dangerous shoals of transient, decadent “treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19). Living out of our greatest weakness will indeed look like foolishness when we drop the trappings of a successful life (as defined by society) and with Christ live with and love the poor, prisoners, blind, oppressed, and proclaim Jesus by his light shining from us. (from Luke 4:18)

 

Action

We can’t love others if we are blinded by too much obstructing our line of vision. Neither the threat of suffering nor the empty promise of success can keep Jesus from enfolding us in his loving arms.  What might be blocking you from seeing that light? 

 

Pray today for all those who cannot see the light.  Pray extra for those who choose not to see Christ’s light, those who use God as an excuse for hatred, bias, judgment of others.

Your Father Who Sees What Is Hidden

Your Father Who Sees What Is Hidden 

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Brothers and sisters, consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work.  (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

“And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”  (Matthew 6:18) 

Piety

A candle as it diminishes explains, 'Gathering more and more is not the way. Burn, become light and heat and help. Melt.' (Rumi)

 

Study

There is a part of Mass which occurs only ONCE a year yet it is one of the most moving experiences that many Catholics never experience. 

 

On the Easter Vigil, Mass (yes that three-hour Mass) in our parish begins
outside the church building in the dark of night.  The pastor lights a bonfire from which the new Pascal Candle for the next Liturgical Year is lit from those flames.

 

Everyone there to worship on this holy, silent, dark night gets a candle and lights it off the Paschal candle (or from another candle which was lit by a candle lit from the paschal candle). The deacon holding the candle, leads us into the darkened sanctuary to reveal Salvation History and teh fulfillment of the covenant..

 

That old Youth Group song comes to life.  It only takes a spark to get a fire going as we move from Lent and the Triduum to Easter during that Mass. Not a single candle gets dimmer in sharing its light with another candle.

 

Today’s readings bring to mind that ceremony because we have life lessons in the letter to Corinth and the Matthew's Good News.  Our faith asks us to sow seeds so that others might reap. We also are not to do it in a proud or boastful manner.  We do it quietly. As encouraged in Proverbs 11:24-25:

 

One person is lavish yet grows still richer;

another is too sparing, yet is the poorer.

Whoever confers benefits will be amply enriched,

and whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.  

 

Action

Much attention is on charitable giving from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day – holiday giving and year-end (tax-deduction) gifts.  But here in the middle of the year, needs continue.

 

MacKenzie Scott reminds us of some stark facts with her latest round of giving:

• People are struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change that they are creating.
• Higher education is a proven pathway to opportunity.
• Discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities has been deepening.
• Over 700 million people globally live in extreme poverty.

Where can you give now?  Let’s not wait until the end of the year when we are trying to save on taxes.