In today’s (5/12) Gospel, Jesus describes Himself as the gate for the sheep to enter through.  He is the gate through which eternal life will be found.  In one part of the passage, Jesus says, “he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.  But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers” (John 10:4-5).  The voice that we are most familiar with in our lives is the voice we will recognize and listen to.  Are we more familiar with the voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, or the voices of all in the world trying to influence us?

It can be really hard to hear the voice of Jesus in our lives.  The media, the constant noise, and people who disagree with us can all make it difficult to listen.  I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I was on a silent retreat.  Turning off my phone and being in silence for a whole weekend reminded me of just how loud life is and how needed and refreshing the quiet is.  I was reminded of how much easier it is to pray when you put yourself in an environment of silence.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to live our lives in silence and turn off all noise all the time.  So, how do we hear the voice of Jesus in our daily lives?

In order to hear Jesus’ voice, we must know His voice.  And to know His voice, we must spend time with Him.  Going to mass, spending time in eucharistic adoration, and reading scripture are all ways that we can learn to recognize Jesus’ voice.

If we are not spending time with Jesus, we will allow the “voice of strangers” to pull us away.  Countless influences in the world  around us try to tempt us to stop following Jesus and to walk in the other direction.  This noise and distraction can lead us astray.  The voices around us can often be masked as good and right, but apart from Christ, there is no good nor truth. If we are deeply committed to Jesus and allow Him to lead us as our Shepherd, we will know what He teaches and recognize that He alone gives us “abundant life” (John 10:10).

My prayer for each of us today is that we would recognize the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd and not be led astray by the voices of the world!

In this past weekend’s Gospel, we heard another story of Jesus interacting with His disciples after the resurrection.  In the story, Jesus asks Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me” (John 21:16)?  And Jesus asks him this three times.  When reading this passage, we are reminded that Jesus is asking each of us the same question, “do you love me?”

When we think about our lives as Catholics, this is what it really comes down to.  It can be easy to do things out of habit and because we know it’s what we’re supposed to do.  To attend mass, to pray, and to volunteer in different ministries at church are all essential for us.  We must ask ourselves- are we just checking off boxes and going through the motions or are we participating fully in our faith because we love Jesus?  If we are in a place where we are showing up mostly out of obligation and because we know it’s the right thing to do, Jesus can use that and can increase our love for Him if we keep showing up with an open heart and a desire to be closer to Him.

My number one goal in life is to love Jesus and to live in a way that proves it.  It is something I know I need to work on each day because sometimes I allow things to get in the way.  We all must stay focused and remember the point of our lives.  This gospel passage brings to mind something that St. John Paul II once shared.  In a homily he gave to youth, he said, “Today Christ is asking each of you the same question:  do you love me? He is not asking you whether you know how to speak to crowds, whether you can direct an organization or manage an estate. He is asking you to love him. All the rest will ensue.”  This quote beautifully reminds us that our purpose is not found in what we achieve and our abilities, but rather, in our love for Jesus.

Jesus has a deep desire for us to love Him.  We can always ask Jesus to help us increase our love for Him.  My prayer for each of us is that we would hear Jesus asking us, “do you love me” and that our lives would be a reflection of that love!

Over the weekend, while on a retreat, the director giving the talks made a statement that I’ve been thinking about since.  She shared that many people have reduced Christianity to “having good table manners and being nice and good.”  But Jesus was radical and He reminds us several times in scripture that we will be hated by the world because of Him.  As followers of Christ do we truly understand this reality?

As Christians and Catholics, we absolutely should be kind, polite, and compassionate.  But being these things does not mean that we withhold the truth or water down the faith.  We see this all the time.  People often use Jesus and Christianity to justify sin, to promote a certain agenda, and to accept any and all behaviors, even if it’s contrary to the faith.  Many have reduced Christianity to warm and fluffy feelings.  It seems that many people often want to be seen as tolerant and accepting rather than known for sharing the truth.  As Christians we need to ask ourselves, are we willing to say the hard things?

We need to learn what Jesus taught and what the Church teaches and we have to live it.  This is not a popular thing to do.  But who do we want to serve, Jesus or the world?  When we share the truth, we must do it with love.  And even when we do that, the world will not recognize it as love and will reject us and the truth.  But we must continue on.

To truly follow Christ and live by the teachings of the Catholic Church is countercultural.  It goes against what the majority says, what the media says, what many people around us say, and what the world says.  But we must not live to seek the approval of the world because if we follow the Truth, the world will never approve of us.

Jesus tells us that we will be hated by the world if we follow Him.  We need to use the feelings and pain of rejection to strengthen our faith and beliefs.  We need to allow it to deepen our commitment to living for Christ and His Church.  And we must not cave to the social pressures to go with the flow.  My prayer for each of us is that we would always cling to Christ and our faith and be strengthened in our commitment to the Truth always, even in the midst of a culture that rejects us.

The Easter Vigil, on Holy Saturday, is my favorite mass of the year.  There is so much from the mass to think about and reflect on.  One of the main themes that resonates throughout the mass is light.  Once everyone heads back inside to the church after the blessing of the fire and lighting of the Paschal candle, everyone at the mass lights their individual candles.  It is a profound moment, as we turn to the people next to us and around us in the pews to pass on our light, the light that we get from the Paschal candle, symbolizing the light of Christ.  It is a powerful point of the night.  As I watched the light spread throughout the church, I was reminded that this is exactly how it is supposed to be in our lives.  We all must receive the light of Jesus and share that light with those around us.

Thinking about this significant part of the Easter Vigil brings to mind the call that each of us has to bear the light of Christ to others.  The world is a dark place.  And we must respond to that darkness by carrying His light, illuminating the world around us.  How do we do this?

It is simple, but not always easy.  It comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and allowing that relationship to have an effect on our lives, radiating through the way we live.  Through sharing our faith, love, hope, and joy, the light of Christ that is burning within will shine through.  And when it gets hard, we need to remember that we don’t have to try to keep the light burning on our own.  God places people in our lives who will be lights to us, helping us to reignite our flame when it grows dim or to make sure it stays burning brightly.  And we must continue to pass on this light.

Am I bearing the light of Christ to the world around me?  What areas of my life can I allow His light to shine brighter?  How can I bring His light to my encounters with others?  As I reflect on these questions today and in the days going forward, I pray that the Lord would fill each of us with His love and His light, and let it burn so brightly that through us, others might see Him. Let’s spread His light throughout the world!

As Catholics, we are in the most sacred and significant week of the year: Holy Week.  It is the week that changed the world.  And all these years later, the commemoration of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection is still changing the world.  Is it changing our world?  This week is different from the rest.  How will we enter deeply into this week and encounter Christ’s presence throughout the following days?

At the heart of this week is an encounter with the love of Jesus.  It is a love that knows no limits.  Betrayal, loneliness, agony, humiliation, suffering, and torture are just a few of the experiences that came with Jesus’ journey to the cross.  And yet, He continued on.  This is a love so deep that nothing would stop Jesus from the life-giving mission He was given.  This is a love so pure that through every painful moment of the journey, each one of us was on His mind.  How do we respond to a love so deep and profound?

We must take time to pray and reflect through each day, allowing each of the events to increase our faith.  We must participate fully in the liturgies and thank the Lord for everything that we’ve been given through His sacrifice.  From the institution of the priesthood and Eucharist, to Jesus’ death on the cross, and then His resurrection from the dead, we must allow these events to change us, because they are events that have truly changed the world and are what our faith is built on.

As we go through this week leading up to Easter, do not let it just be another week.  Let the events of this week change your heart.  Allow Christ’s love and all that He went through to draw you closer to Him.  Through Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, He was thinking about you.  Will you think about Him?

In today’s (Monday 4/7) Gospel, Jesus says, “‘I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life’” (John 8:12). Reading this passage and this line specifically had me reflecting on the suffering that we all face and the darkness that so often accompanies our suffering.  We know that darkness exists and that we must walk through it, but if we follow Jesus, He always lights the way and walks with us through that suffering and darkness.  The way we look at suffering as Christians is different from the world.  We know that we all have crosses to carry throughout our lives and we cannot escape from them.  As we experience suffering, do we let Christ in, allowing His light to guide us?

One period of time in my life that came with great suffering was the roughly 12 year period that my dad was sick.  From around the time I was in 6th grade and he started changing, indicating that something wasn’t right, to his death almost three and a half years ago, there was a lot of darkness over those years.  With his eventual diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, there were a lot of questions and a lot of unknowns of what the disease would bring, not only to my dad, but also to my family.  There were a lot of highs and a lot of lows.  The kind of dementia he had involved changes in his personality, behavior, language, and movements.  It wasn’t simply a matter of him being forgetful or not remembering things.  Thankfully, unlike many other forms of the disease, he never, at any moment, forgot who we were or failed to recognize people.  In fact, he remembered all the details about so many things and could tell you things like exactly how many months and days until our next birthdays and how old we were turning.  However, the form he did have absolutely changed who he was and changed our lives.  Oftentimes, it seemed as if some people didn’t understand or didn’t care, because it was hard to describe the scope of it in a few words.  This felt so lonely and isolating at times and one of the hardest parts was watching my mom deal with it all, just wanting someone to be there for her and understand, to help ease the pain.  There were a lot of tears and this cross seemed far too heavy at times.  Through the struggle though, there came many great blessings and gifts.

Through the whole ordeal, I am confident that the faith of each of my siblings and I grew stronger.  We couldn’t lean on the world in those times and that was a realization that we needed to lean on Jesus and His Church.  We developed an even closer sibling bond over this time, as we all knew exactly what was going on and could talk and share stories.  There were many times of laughter as we talked about the crazy things that happened on a given day or throughout the week. The Lord used this to help me to learn how to love more purely and sacrificially, to love deeply because that’s what we are called to, to love and serve my dad even when he couldn’t provide and love in the way that I expected.  I also learned how to find joy, even in the midst of suffering, which is something the world does not understand. Over the years, I came to recognize how Christ’s light was shining through the situation, guiding us through this darkness.  It came in the form of the prayers and support of others, both those that were known and unknown to me, and the love of family, both immediate and extended. It came in the realization of just how many people actually did care. I eventually came to recognize the value of this suffering.  It is this cross that was transformative for me and my life and faith.

Suffering is an invitation to go deeper- to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus and unite our sufferings to His on the cross, to deepen our faith, our trust, and our prayer.  The Lord will always bring good out of our suffering, even if we don’t always see it or recognize it in the moment.  When we are in the midst of our suffering, it can feel like hell, but Jesus will draw us closer to Him through it when we lean on Him.

There is so much pain and suffering in the world.  What suffering have you recently endured or are currently enduring?  What crosses are you carrying that just seem too heavy right now?  The world will tell you that your suffering is meaningless and that it should be avoided at all costs.  And if you listen to the world and allow yourself to be convinced that there is no point and everything is hopeless, the struggles that you may be going through will stay dark.  You will be blinded and dragged down to the lowest pit possible, where there is only darkness.  But if you invite Jesus into your suffering and choose to let Him in, He will help you carry your cross, making it possible to keep moving forward.  And He will shine His light upon you and your life, helping you to walk through whatever you are facing.

If you are suffering right now or struggling with anything, invite Jesus into it.  Ask Him to help you carry your cross.  Acknowledge the fact that you cannot carry it alone.  He wants to help you.  Will you let your cross transform you?  May we all follow Jesus, allowing His light to dispel the darkness and lead us onward as we carry our crosses.

In so many passages in scripture, we read about Jesus going up to the mountains to pray.  Sometimes, it was with His disciples, and oftentimes, it was by Himself.  Powerful spiritual moments often took place on the mountains.  From significant encounters with God to deeper prayer, and so much else, there were countless times when God’s glory was so profoundly revealed.  But every time Jesus and his disciples went up to the mountains, they didn’t stay there, they came back down.  And we must do the same.

We all have mountaintop experiences in our lives- those moments where we experience God in profound ways and where we feel especially close to God, where we experience in a powerful way God’s love for us, and deepen our love for God.  It is on these mountains that we often want to stay.  To be at the peaks is where the views are the greatest.  We look down at the valleys, and the problems, challenges, and the ordinary and mundane routines of our daily lives seem so far away while up on these mountains, almost as if they don’t exist.  Life seems so much more exciting.  We so deeply desire to stay up on the mountain, to live up on the peaks and enjoy the views.  But after some time, we need to go back down, back into our daily lives and regular routines.

We all need mountaintop experiences in our lives.  These spiritual experiences are the times when we encounter God and His love in profound ways.  We have our hearts set on fire.  We recognize so easily how He is working.  Life during these mountaintop experiences often seems so much easier because we are often surrounded by people with the same faith and the same beliefs, who are trying to walk the same path as us.  But once these mountaintop experiences end, we must go back down into the valleys.  If we stay on the mountain, we cannot share our experiences with the world around us.  And that is what Jesus calls us all to do.

The experiences we have on retreats, pilgrimages, mission trips, and during various other faith opportunities are the mountaintop experiences that give us those spiritual highs.  And we must take those experiences and bring them back down the mountain, into our everyday lives.  What good are the experiences if they stay up on the mountain?  We need to share those experiences by the way we live, letting Jesus be reflected in what we say and do.  

It’s often easier to live our faith on the mountaintops.  But what about in the ordinary moments, the moments that might seem dry and boring?  What about in the daily routines of our lives, where we wake up, go to work, come home, and repeat the next day,where nothing too eventful is happening?  These are the moments that are a true test of our faith.  These are the moments that challenge us to go deeper and to keep moving forward in our faith, even when it is hard.  

Are we truly following Jesus, not just up to the mountains, but as He walks across the dry, flat, and barren land?  Are we bringing the love and light of Jesus to those we cross paths with as we walk through each day?

Saturday evening, I was driving with my mom, and we were on the interstate for a large part of the drive.  We had been following a semi-truck for awhile, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it, knowing it was there of course, but not really seeing it.  After some time, I looked at the back of the truck and saw small red text towards the bottom.  These small red words said, “Deo Gratias”, which means, thanks be to God.  In that moment, it was a small reminder to take time to look up, look around and to thank God, for everything.

We often are preoccupied with our thoughts, the events of the day, and the tasks we need to get done.  How often do we stop throughout our days to simply thank God for who He is, what He has done and continues to do, and for what He has given us?

We have so many reasons to thank God, yet we sometimes fail to do so.  We sometimes see our challenges and difficulties as being greater than the gifts in our lives.  And whether we realize it or not, our challenges, crosses, and sufferings can actually be seen as blessings to thank God for too.

We must remember to thank God always and for everything, to actually look at our lives and recognize He is the reason for it all.  For the people He’s put in our lives, for the opportunities we have, for all our needs that are met, for the Church and the sacraments, for the gift of our faith, and for the breath in our lungs, as we are blessed with a new day of life.

Thanking God is so simple, yet we don’t express our thanks to Him nearly as much as we should.  Seeing those words on that semi-truck was a reminder to me, to thank God for it all.  Maybe you sometimes need a reminder too.  My prayer for today is that each one of us would stop in the midst of what we are doing and be able to say, “Deo Gratias!”

Last April I had my wisdom teeth removed.  My sister Abbey was my designated driver to take me home after the procedure.  One thing about Abbey is that she is not particularly fond of dealing with blood.  Even just the word “blood” being brought up in conversation is enough to make her feel squeamish.  After the procedure was done, she drove to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions while I waited in the car.  Just as she was getting back to the car, I made the mistake of putting my head down to look at my phone.  As that happened, an excessive amount of blood dripped down and started pooling out from my mouth, and it wouldn’t stop.  She noticed this after driving a few feet away from the pharmacy and after panicking for a few brief moments, pulled into the parking lot of another business.  She got out of the car and came over to the passenger side.  After blood had already dripped all over her car, she helped me to lean out of the car and into the parking lot.  She pulled out more gauze from the bag that was sent home with me, rolled it up and assisted me with replacing it every few minutes as each piece filled with blood and I needed a new one.  She held the bag with the blood- soaked gauze and tissues for those few minutes before it slowed down and we were able to continue back home.  We often laugh now about this situation, but as I think back about those moments, I recognize that Abbey served me when I needed it.  She did something that was inconvenient.  She gave when there was nothing I could give her in return in those moments.  And we are all called to do the same.  We may not be called to physically wipe up another person’s actual blood, but we are called to serve others with love and compassion.

When we serve others, we serve Jesus Himself.  Each day, we are called to be attentive to the needs of others, whether big or small.  This can be something as simple as listening to a family member talk about the difficult day they had, helping a coworker with a project they are behind on, visiting a friend who feels alone, or offering to pray with someone.  Other times, it may be something bigger like volunteering at an organization that helps those in need, giving someone a ride, helping a neighbor or a fellow parish member with something, or taking care of someone who is sick or unable to do something for themselves, whether temporarily or permanently.  In all of these situations, we must look outside ourselves and see where Jesus is asking us to serve.

Not only are we called to serve, but we are called to do it with compassion and love.  To serve with compassion and love is to serve even when it might be inconvenient, difficult, or uncomfortable.  When Jesus was making the way to His crucifixion, Veronica stepped out from the crowd to wipe the blood and sweat from Jesus’ face.  A seemingly small act, she was moved by Jesus’ suffering and chose to act, and she did it out of love.  Are we too moved by the needs of those around us, choosing to act out of love?  As St. Ignatius of Loyola said, do we choose to “give and not count the cost?”

There are opportunities each day for us to serve others.  Whether it’s being there for someone who is struggling with something or hurting, giving our time to serve a group of people in need, or helping a sibling replace bloody gauze pads, Jesus is there in the midst of all of it, because when we serve others, we serve Him.  My prayer for each one of us today is that we would be able to open our eyes to where He is calling us to step up and serve, giving of ourselves without expecting anything in return.

“Lord Jesus, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve as you deserve, To give and not to count the cost, To fight and not to heed the wounds, To labor and not to seek to rest, To give of my self and not ask for a reward, Except the reward of knowing that I am doing your will.”- St. Ignatius of Loyola

Last year I read a book called Into His Likeness: Be Transformed as a Disciple of Christ by Edward Sri.  One point that the author made has stuck with me since.  He talked about how disciples would walk behind their leader, “following him so closely that they would become covered with the dust kicked up from his sandals” and they were expected to follow “so closely that they would be covered with their master’s whole way of thinking, living, and acting” (Sri 30).  He goes on to say that it should be the same for us as Jesus’ disciples (30).  This is a profound image to sit and reflect with throughout this season of Lent.  Imagine walking so closely to Jesus that the dust from His sandals covers us, and that we become like Him, imitating His way of life.  That is the goal for each one of us, especially in this season.

We must continually ask ourselves, “How can I become more like Jesus?”  The answer to that is to follow Him more closely.  We can often find ourselves following other people, doing what everyone else is doing, and listening to the voices of the world.  It can be easy to want to be like everyone else, to get sucked into the ways of the culture around us.  But if we have faith, we will choose the path that Jesus is leading us on, choosing to follow right behind Him.

How do we follow Jesus closely?  We spend time reading scripture and letting His words speak to our hearts.  We immerse ourselves in prayer, growing in our relationship with Him and spend time praying in eucharistic adoration as often as we are able to.  We receive the sacraments.  We go to mass to worship Him and receive Him in the eucharist.  We study our faith by reading the books and using the many different resources that are available to us these days.  And we surround ourselves with people who are trying to do the same, so that we can be encouraged and supported on our journey to follow Him more closely.

When we follow Jesus closely, we become more like Him.  We become more joyful, more at peace, and filled with deeper love.  I want to be more like Jesus.  While I am far from imitating Him well in every moment, I recognize that each day, I can take one small step closer.  My prayer for each of us is that we would all strive to follow Jesus so closely that the dust from His sandals would cover us, and that we would all become a little bit more like Him.