Thursday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

It seems like everywhere we turn today there are temptations facing us: our own golden calves being touted by someone or ubiquitous self-aggrandizing behavior. “They” pop up on our computers, on our televisions, in our newspapers and magazines, bombarding us with the temptations of the here and now. We do find ourselves “living in a material world” but we have the choice before us a thousand times a day of whether or not to join in the frenzy. And if we’re honest, most of us have gone down that road more often than we might like to admit. Let’s face it: the material world looks pretty good. Is it any surprise that the Israelites in their flight from Egyptian slavery were tempted to make and worship a pretty, shiny object? Or that Jesus found it necessary to speak of testimony and belief to the people he preached among?

As humans, we are weak and fallible. It is often reassuring to be distracted by temporal items or people who tell us what we want to hear. Moses became an intermediary protecting the Israelites from God’s wrath. Jesus became man in order to fulfill the Scriptures through His life, His teachings and His works. Yet we are a hesitant, troubled and stiff-necked people. And still the Lord favors us.

Faith is difficult to sustain and it suffers under repeated assaults from many directions. In place of faith, we seek proof constantly, often something tangible, to reassure us of His presence and support for us. The Israelites of Moses’ time built an idol to worship because they felt the need for something visible and valuable. What are the golden calves that we should acknowledge and let go of in our daily lives?

Prayer

Lord, help me to focus and quiet myself, to look past the material and human distractions that pull my attention away from You on a daily basis. Help me to listen for Your voice and open myself to place my faith and trust in You.

John Devlin, Professor of Fine Arts, Theatre

Scripture

First Reading: Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 106:19-23
Gospel: John 5:31-47

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Wednesday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

Can a mother forget her infant…?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you. Isaiah 49:15

What a tremendous blessing is a parent’s love.  As the reflection of God’s boundless love for each of us, it gives us the confidence and capacity to seek intimacy with others and with God.

However many times I was scolded or admonished as a child for doing something wrong or potentially harmful to myself or others, I never doubted that my parents love remained steadfast.  Even when my behavior led to punishment, forgiveness followed.  There seemed to be nothing I could do so separate myself from the love of my parents. 

My mother died in October 2021.  While she remains in my heart and my daily thoughts, it is God now—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who continues to call me.  “Come out!” “Show yourself!”  Like a loving parent, God is there to call us out when we succumb to sin and guide us forward with redemptive love.

Prayer

Lord God, we thank You for Your guiding hand and forgiveness when we make mistakes.  Shower us with Your constant grace, that we may we always seek to do Your will and to forgive those who have offended us.  Do not allow us to succumb to temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Rick Cote, ’89

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 49:8-15

Psalm 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18

Gospel: John 5:17-30

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Tuesday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

In this reading, Jesus has gone to Jerusalem for a festival.  Entering through the Sheep Gate, Jesus comes to the pool named Bethesda where ill, crippled, blind and lame people gathered to be cured.  Jesus encounters an ill man who had been there for years.  Jesus asks him, "Do you want to be well?"  The man explains how he cannot get to the water in time to be cured.  Jesus says, "Rise, take up your mat and walk."  As it was Sabbath the man was stopped for carrying his mat, and when explaining his cure, he was asked who had cured him on the Sabbath.  Learning that Jesus had cured him, the Jews began to persecute him even more, especially after Jesus said, "My father is at work until now, so I am at work."

The message seems to be that Jesus is with us to do God's work and that work is to heal us of our ills. This loving work will cost Him His life but that, along with His resurrection and ascension is only the perfect offering for our human salvation.  

Prayer

Help us to feel the love given us from every moment of our being, to Jesus' perfect offering of love.  Help us to love one another as the Father and Son have loved us.

Stephanie Noakes, ’80, M’09, P’05, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12
Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
Gospel: John 5:1-16

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Monday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

Isaiah speaks of a new heaven and earth being created and of the past no longer remembered. This can be viewed in a spiritual, emotional, or symbolical way, or even life after the pandemic. We can choose to believe, trust in the Lord, move ahead, and leave the fear of COVID behind us. All will be well, again. God tells us that there will be both joy and weeping in this imperfect life, that God will sustain us, if we allow His grace to transform our souls to boldly live a life filled with a deep and heartfelt gratitude.

The Responsorial Psalm, “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.” Rescued me from what or whom? Situations, other people, sickness, the pandemic, or from myself? I often say that God wants to bless us if we would only let Him. Unfortunately, we often get in the way and become our own stumbling block to all the spiritual and temporal gifts God wants to bestow on us. The simple purity of the Lenten journey is God’s gift to help us to realize, understand, and then let go of all that prevents God from rescuing us.

The Gospel reading encourages us to be bold with the Lord. Do we believe and trust like the official? Do we dare to ask for God’s will for us and not our own? I recall the year my daughter got married and my son was diagnosed with cancer. I wondered how I would balance all the emotions, everything that would occur over the coming months and what could, or would I do? I chose to trust in the love of God through his son Jesus to give me the grace, courage, and strength to live each day that year in love and peace and to be an example of this for my family. Although I did not know why this profound joy and deep sorrow were occurring at the same time or whether my son would be cured, I chose to believe that God was and is with me, always, even when I don’t feel His presence. Thanks be to God, like the official, my son was healed.

Prayer

O Lord, our God, unwearied is Your love for us, help us to remember and trust in that love, visible to us through Your son Jesus Christ. Help us to love ourselves and others for love of You and to be a grateful people who understand and acknowledge that You have rescued us in Jesus. Amen.

Nancy Dulude, Administrator Saint Anne’s Shrine

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-21
Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-12a, 13b
Gospel: John 4:43-54

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Reflection

Most of my early life I heard this story as a cautionary tale of poor choices (the wayward son turning his back on his family) and self-righteousness (the elder son). God’s message to me now has nothing to do with either sons’ choices, but instead with their father’s steadfast response. What took me a long time to hear was the presence of overwhelming generosity- of understanding, of compassion, and of love. 

We live in a time when we are expected to do the “right thing” and “say the right thing.” Where point of view seems to fall in polarized camps, and where there is little room for both. These two brothers remind me of these polarized sides- one initially doing everything to leave and the other sure the only right option was to stay. And yet this father seems to see beyond sides. His outpouring of love and compassion for the returning son comes BEFORE the son has said a word. In the same way, the father’s strong love for the son who stayed is not ONLY because he stayed.

As I look to my busy day filled with people making requests of me, am I stingy with my time, my patience, and my ability to help? Am I like the son who stayed home, feeling that some deserve more than others? Or can I find a way to be as generous as the loving father, Our Father, who simply comes running to embrace?

Prayer

Infinitely loving God, breathe your spirit of generosity in me and through me. Slow me down when someone else needs to be seen and loved. Help me embrace others for their presence and not only for their words.

Marianne Strayton, ’98

Scripture

First Reading: Josiah 5:0a, 10-12

Psalm 34:2-7

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Saturday of the Third Week

Reflection

Today’s readings offer views into how I can use the words and promises of God in my healing journey. In the first reading, God promises to heal us. Each time we return to God, especially in this season of Lent, we widen the pathway of healing. Knowing we can always return to God, and that God loves us no matter what, are ideas that I can let sink into my soul; letting these ideas continue to heal me. God provides a merciful pathway home, and the doors are always open. Like the tax collector in the Gospel, I am a part of all of humanity/life. I am a sinner, and I need God’s gentleness and mercy, which is home. Home into God’s loving and healing embrace. The readings also remind me that I can continue on my journey of being gentle in my relationship with myself and gentle in my relationships with others, and in so doing, I widen the pathway home to myself and home with others.

Prayer

Dear Lord, I return to You for healing. Embrace me with Your gentleness. Let me feel my connection with all of life. Let me widen the pathways of gentleness in my relationship with myself and my relationships with others.

Jane Hingston Wilkins, ’01

Scripture

First Reading: Hosea 6:1-6
Psalm 51:3-4, 18-21b
Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Friday of the Third Week

Annunciation of the Lord

Reflection

It may seem a bit strange to be “preparing for Christmas” during Lent.  Ash Wednesday was 25 days ago.  Easter is only 23 days away.  The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is celebrated exactly nine months before Christmas, or just three months after last Christmas, if you are looking back. 

This, however, in no way compares from the grand Mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption wrought in the person of Jesus, through the human intervention of Mary.  If I am constantly awestruck by the wonder of God showing up in human form in Jesus, I am also baffled by God's humility in choosing Mary as the vessel by which to proclaim the grace offered to humankind, more precisely, to each human person.

It strikes me that in the Annunciation of the Lord, humility equates with grace and true greatness.  The angel says to Mary, “HAIL, FULL OF GRACE! THE LORD IS WITH YOU.”  In the letter to the Hebrews, we hear the words, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.”  These reinforce Mary’s faith in that she exhibits such simplicity and love in receiving the angel Gabriel’s mystifying message.

Incarnation and Redemption, Christmas and Easter, were separated by Jesus’ lifetime on earth.  Yet, each event represents a manifestation of God's infinite love for humankind, and the potential for human love that this grace affords to the human person.  Let us rejoice together in the gift of the Annunciation of the Lord.

Prayer

Gracious God, we give thanks for Your wisdom in becoming one with us in Jesus, through Mary.  We pray for Your Holy Spirit to guide us during the holy season of Lent so that we may know more profoundly the grace the Annunciation.  We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, Your Son, our Lord.  Amen.

Fr. Marcel Rainville, S.S.E. ’67

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10

Psalm 40:7-11

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:4-10

Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Thursday of the Third Week

Reflection

In today’s readings there is a lot of God commanding and the people not listening. And then God condemning.  There is also some miracles being performed and miracles being doubted.  And Jesus says “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”  Some pretty harsh choices but laid out clearly—follow me, listen to my words or else…

But in our Responsorial Psalm we hear it said a little more gently —If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. This advice can be very challenging in today’s world.  Where do we hear His voice?  In the cry of the poor, in a child’s heart, in a friends need, in a request for assistance, in a witnessed harm, in the eyes of the homeless, or in our own misgivings?  Harden not your hearts, says the Lord, but rather follow me, listen to my words.  What can we do today to when we hear His voice in our world, in our community, in our daily lives?  What have we done today to NOT harden our hearts to the suffering and need all around us?  What can we do right now, today, in this very moment?  If we all softened our hearts, listened with the “ear of the heart” oh what things we could do!  The possibilities are boundless. 

Prayer

Good and gracious God, harden not our hearts so that we may hear Your voice in those we love, those we do not love and those we will come to love. Give us the strength to do what You ask of us, the courage to put it into action and wisdom to try again if we fail, knowing all the while You are by our side.

Jeff Vincent, ’93, M’07, P’21, Director, Residential Life and Community Standards and Assistant Dean of Students

Scripture

First Reading: Jeremiah 7:23-28

Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9

Gospel: Luke 1:14-23

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Wednesday of the Third Week

Reflection

Today our reading from Deuteronomy portrays something of a “constitutional convention” for the ancient people of Israel.  Moses lays out the basic statutes and decrees for the Covenant People’s soon to be new nation.  He is speaking near the end of his life, just prior to the Israelites entry into the Promised Land after decades in the wilderness. 

Recalling our national preamble, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union…do establish this Constitution”; Moses might have paraphrased his as “The Lord our God, in order to form You as my new nation, has instructed me to proclaim these statutes and decrees, these laws and commandments”.  Contemporary legal scholars are quick to remind us that our national constitution, and many others, find their roots in the early codes of the Israeli, Greek, Persian, and Roman peoples.  Much is written about the value and importance of the rule of law.  The rule of law prescribes structure, process, order and consequences for individuals and societies at large.  When it is weakened or ignored, we risk chaos, harm and injustice.  The rule of law should be changed rarely and then with great caution, with much deliberation.  Consistent with this, Moses admonished the Israelites “be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory…but teach them to your children and to your children’s children”.  Loyalty and observance were expected—don’t stray from the body of laws as divinely laid out. 

In our Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is speaking to His contemporaries.  He underscores and values the ancient laws of Israel.  He articulates the splendid consequences of following them—and the dire results of not.  He seems concerned that some are questioning His intent.  Is He about abolishing the law that we have long held so dearly?  He reassures them that until “all things have taken place” not the “smallest letter or part of a letter” will be changed.  He thus focuses on the prophecy imbedded in the law and shifts their attention to the magnitude of their place and time with Him and to what He is truly about as their Lord and Messiah.  That His destiny is to fulfil what the law had foretold.

Prayer

Loving Father, we are children of the children’s children.  Help us to follow as we have been taught.  Amen.

Church Hindes ’69, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9

Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20
Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Tuesday of the Third Week

Reflection

But with contrite hearts and humble spirit, let us be received...and now we follow You with our whole hearts...deal with us in Your kindness and great mercy.  Daniel 3:39, 42-43

As I read today’s Scripture readings, I felt the continual tug, the ebb and flow—our moving near to God, then stumbling and falling away, turning back towards God with contrition and humility, and drawing near again through God’s compassion and mercy.  There are so many times that I think, “This time will be different.  This time, I won’t stumble.  I won’t fail.  I won’t miss the mark.”  And then, there I am—in need of God’s mercy once again.

In the Gospel, we hear Jesus’ appeal to us to forgive “not seven times, but seventy-seven times,” so essentially, over and over again.  But what really stuck me this time when reflecting on this familiar passage, was not the call to continually extend forgiveness, but rather how we are to do it.  The last verse after the parable of the servant who did not show mercy to his fellow servants after receiving mercy from his master, says, “forgive your brother [or sister] from your heart” and the verse before the Gospel implores us to “return to me with your whole heart, for I am gracious and merciful.”  Our whole hearts—that is a big ask.  I wonder if we often extend forgiveness through our words and in our minds, but do we truly forgive from our hearts?  That feels too vulnerable.  Too risky.  It asks us to give up control of our hurt and let go completely of any resentment or bitterness to which we might be clinging.  But Jesus wants us to forgive with our whole hearts.  And when we do, we are able to extend God’s kindness, mercy, and compassion to those who are in need of it, as God has done to us over and over again.

Prayer

Merciful God, in this Lenten season, may we turn back towards You with a humble spirit and return to You with our whole hearts.  May we then offer forgiveness with our whole hearts to those who have hurt us by extending love and compassion to them. Amen.

Anna Lester, ’98, M’11, Assistant Director of Edmundite Campus Ministry

Scripture

First Reading: Daniel 3:25, 34-43

Psalm: 25:4-5ab, 6-9

Gospel: Matthew 18:21-35

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Monday of the Third Week

Reflection

During Lent, this time of particular reflection on ourselves in our own faith journeys, we must find the ordinary, mundane and everyday things that God is calling for us to do and act.  In the first reading, from 2 Kings, we read that there was a man named Naaman who was a great warrior from the kingdom of Aram, only there was one small catch—he was a leper.  When he had gone to visit the great prophet in Israel, Elisha, he had been told to pursue a task that seemed so ordinary it could not possibly work.  Eventually after the insistence of his servants he goes and washes in the Jordan as he was told. His servants heard the words of Elisha and said “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” They heard the call.

As we continue on our faith journeys and reflect to ourselves: is this the time to think when has God called me to do something mundane or ordinary? Have I heeded His word when He called? When I think of God calling me to do His work I think of a simple analogy, a call coming in on a landline telephone.  I think whenever He’s calling me, its as if He were actually calling me. I don’t always hear the ringing but He’s calling me, and I just need to answer the call.

Prayer

Dear Lord, allow me to hear Your word when You call me.  Allow me to continue Your holy work for all of Your children.  Lord, guide me when I answer Your calls. Amen.

Hank Kelly, ’22

Scripture

First Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-15b

Psalm 42:2-3; 43:3-4

Gospel: Luke 4:24-30

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Third Sunday of Lent

Reflection

In today’s Gospel, we see God as a spiritual “gardener”; tending to us as if we are the fig trees described by St. Luke.  Jesus says that God, like the gardener in the parable, is willing to invest time and love to nurture us, shape us, and provide all the right balance of nourishment so that our lives will bear fruit.  And if we fail to grow to our fullest potential in that first bloom, God doesn’t give up on us!  Like the gardener, God recognizes our frailty, and ensures that our failings do not condemn us to extra punishment or push us past all hope of redemption.  Instead, we are tended to and invited to try anew.  We are encouraged to recognize our sins, to repent and begin our re-growth in a new direction.  God does not leave us alone in our struggle to grow either.  We are provided with structure and supports. We are repeatedly invited and instructed how to prune all things that prevent us from growing to our fullest human potential.  

I take great comfort in the fact that God is a God of patience and of mercy—because I certainly have not gotten my spiritual life to grow in the right direction on the first try.  But, in the light of God’s love and care, I know I can become something strong that will bloom where I have been planted.

Prayer

Lord, continue to cultivate the ground around me and nurture me with Your love.  Help my relationship with You to grow strong and bear fruit.

Amy Rock-Wardwell, ’96, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

Psalm 19:8—11

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Gospel: John 2:13-25

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website 

Saturday of the Second Week

Feast of Saint Joseph

Reflection

I was struck by how little I know about St. Joseph.  Most saints are known for their preaching, spiritual writings, miracles, extraordinary religious devotion, sacrificing their lives for others, or becoming martyrs for the faith.  St. Joseph is not known for any of these.  What we know of him is found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and today’s readings give us a choice between: 1) Matthew’s account of Joseph receiving a message from an angel in a dream and 2) Luke’s account of finding Jesus in the temple.  We hear no words spoken by Joseph in either Gospel; we don’t even know when he died.  But we can get to know him through what is written about him and by his actions.

Joseph is righteous, but also loving and compassionate, so he plans to divorce Mary quietly.  He is prayerful and hears the message of the angel in a dream.  He follows God’s will, so he takes Mary into his home, and then he protects and guides Mary and Jesus to Egypt and later to Nazareth.  Joseph and Mary nurture Jesus and teach Him about their religious traditions.  They anxiously search for Jesus in Jerusalem.  Joseph teaches Jesus his trade of carpentry and guides Jesus as He advances “in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” (Lk 41:52) 

We might not know many details of St. Joseph’s life, but God knows.  Most of us will never be famous; but if we live our lives like St. Joseph with love, compassion, prayerfulness, faith, and caring for others, God will know.

Prayer

Lord, help me to follow the example of St. Joseph and faithfully listen to Your Word and to do Your will day by day.  Amen.

Brother Frank Hagerty, S.S.E.’73, Spiritual Director and Prison Minister

Scripture

First Reading: 2 Samue l 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16

Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29

Second Reading: Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22

Gospel: Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24a or Luke 2:41-51a

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Friday of the Second Week

Reflection

In today’s first reading, Joseph (“the most beloved son of Israel,” the young shepherd with his coat of many colors), is sold into slavery by his jealous older brothers. They resented him—not only as a favored son of their father—but also as a “master dreamer,” a young interpreter of prophetic dreams who did not conform to the expectations of his siblings. “We shall then see what comes of his dreams,” they said after placing young Joseph into an empty, dry cistern before they decide his fate.  But Joseph rises to great heights after being sold into slavery in Egypt; he emerges as a consummate leader, a wise visionary and skilled advisor to Pharaoh, as well as the timely interpreter of his dreams.  The seven years of famine in Egypt (a famine that extended to all of the known world), is mitigated by Joseph’s visionary gift through God’s grace: “Remember the marvels the Lord has done,” we are told in the Responsorial Psalm.  In the Gospel reading, Jesus’ parable of the landowner and his vineyard presents the paradox that “the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone . . . and it is wonderful in our eyes.” Once again, Jesus’ teachings fulfill the Old Testament promise: the rejected stone becomes the foundational cornerstone; in the Book of Genesis, the 12 tribes of Israel are redeemed by the “cornerstone” brother sold into slavery—the visionary Joseph, who restores and strengthens his family through the power of God’s wonderful grace.

Prayer

Gracious God: Help us to recognize the young master dreamers in our lives as the pivotal cornerstones they may be in our unseeing eyes. They are the messengers of God’s deep and abiding grace.

Joan Wry, ’79, P’10, Professor of English

Scripture

First Reading: Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a
Psalm 105:16-21
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Thursday of the Second Week

Reflection

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord”.  Jeremiah 17:7

In today’s reading and Gospel, we learn of the power of leaning into and trusting the unending love of our Lord in good times and in bad. We learn of Lazarus and his miserable physical existence in the shadow of the rich man, cloaked in purple and feasting on fine foods, who was blind to the earthly needs of Lazarus. When Lazarus passed, he was “carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham” (Luke 16:22) since his heart was in the hands of God. Lazarus had spiritual wealth. The rich man only took notice of Lazarus when he himself was not carried by the angels upon death.  The rich man was spiritually poor.

To varying degrees, we all have “sores” as Lazarus did. How do we rely on our love of the Lord to carry us through difficult times and situations? How do we rely on the Lord’s love of us to help us to notice our neighbor and their needs? May we turn our suffering to the Lord so that His Grace can fill our hearts and minds.

Prayer

Dear Lord, help me to trust and lean on the strength of Your love for me. Continue to walk with me and help me to always consider the other, my neighbor, as I follow the path that You have laid out for me.

Dawn Ellinwood, Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students

Scripture
First Reading: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1:1-4, 6
Gospel: Luke 16:19-31

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website