Monday of the Third Week

Reflection

In the first reading,  Naaman is the general of the Syrian or Aramean army, second in command only to the King.  He had everything going for him but “he was a leper.”  In the Bible, a leper was considered unclean.

An innocent little slave shows compassion for Naaman and pleads to have him present himself to the prophet in Samaria to be cured.  Expecting that the prophet would invoke God to cure him instead of asking him to wash seven times in the Jordan,  Naaman becomes angry,  but urged by his servants  he follows Elisha’s order and becomes clean.  He says to the prophet:  “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”

In Scripture, leprosy is associated with sin.  We may be successful, respected and loved, but we are all sinners.  God is calling all of us as he did the little girl slave to be instruments of His love.  His love cannot be bought.  We must come to Him in good faith.  As Christians, we should be thankful to God for having received His spiritual healing through His Son, our Brother, Jesus Christ.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus challenges and angers His people in the synagogue at Nazareth as He has done more than once.  After saying:  “Amen I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place,” He declares the prophets’ inability to solve problems in their own land.  His words are still relevant today.  Who has not used them referring to some of our leaders who sometimes are more respected abroad than in our own country?

Prayer

Dear God, please guide the leaders of our Church and our country and make them worthy of our acceptance and admiration.  Open our minds to their wisdom whether they are near or far away.

Fran Thompson, M‘10, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-15ab

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 the middle of today’s reading from Exodus, God says: “So I know well what they are suffering.”   My astonishment with this phrase may be due to the fact that I do not normally associate such compassion with God.  Self-reflection, however, forces me to question, Why do I not connect God’s love with the suffering of humanity?  How is it that I can have such lofty ideas of God and not get even to first base regarding Who truly God is?

Sometimes I feel privileged to have gained an “education.”  However, college degrees sometimes make you (me?) proud, which sadly, also distances you from other, “less fortunate,” folk.  Happily, our faith is nourished by a “system” of spiritual care, that “brings us home again” to the real God, not the God of my own brainy fabrication.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sees the awful suffering of the Israelite people in Egypt.  He is a God whose “compassion” never burns out, and makes our “space” into “holy ground.”  God says to Moses: “I have witnessed the affliction of my people… and have heard their cry…”  No wonder God can tell Moses “I AM” for he makes our own existence His own.

Today, Jesus offers us a chance to be good trees again.  Earlier, the twice-repeated plea to repent hearkens back to Ash Wednesday (“Repent… believe in the Gospel”).  We have a “year” (Lent?) to cultivate the ground so as to become the “holy ground” of God's presence in us.

Prayer

Gracious God, grant us the grace to be true to the spirit of repentance… and the grace to be filled with Your compassion, “to know well [our neighbor’s] suffering.”  We make our prayer in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Fr. Marcel Rainville, S.S.E. ‘67, Director of Formation for the Society of St. Edmund

Scripture

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

Psalm 103:1-4, 6-8, 11

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

Gospel: Luke 13:1-9

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Saturday of the Second Week

Reflection

Today’s Gospel reading is one of the most well-known Scripture readings of all time, The Prodigal Son. This is a story that can be appreciated from a host of perspectives. Put yourself in the scene of this Scripture as the son who returns after demanding and then squandering his share of the family inheritance, looking for acceptance and forgiveness…or the son who watches his brother leave and remains loyal and committed to the family and land, but doesn’t understand how his brother can return and now be treated like royalty…or the father, who unconditionally welcomes back without question the one son who was away, while assuring the son who remained that they were both loved.  Can you relate to one of the three? Would you like to be more like one of them? Perhaps at times we have seen ourselves in the faces and likeness of each of them.

God is ever loving and forgiving, and as today’s psalm states, God crowns us with kindness and compassion.  How fortunate we are. Today, we are again reminded of how constant God’s love is despite our human selves.

Prayer

God of mercy, grant us the grace to be open to Your presence in our lives and open our hearts and minds to Your goodness.  Help us to know the crown of kindness and compassion you embrace us with, always.

Patrick Gallivan, ‘89, Vice-President of Institutional Advancement

Scripture

First Reading: Micah 7:14-15, 18-20

Psalm 103:1-4, 9-12

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

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Friday of the Second Week

Reflection

Today’s first reading should sound very familiar – it is the story of the “Joseph” made popular by the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.” It also has many elements in common with the passion of our Lord.  These similarities begin with both being loved sons who dreamed monumental things – Joseph of his future role as a leader and Jesus as our master dreamer envisioning a world striving toward charity and justice to all. Both had murder plotted against them – Joseph by his brothers and Jesus by the hierarchy of the Synagogue. Both had someone unsuccessfully trying to go against the tide to prevent his death – Ruben who had the intention of rescuing Joseph from the cistern and Pontius Pilate torturing and humiliating Jesus in an attempt to get the crowd’s sympathy and choose Jesus over Barabbas for release.  Both were stripped of their tunics and both sold over for pieces of silver – Joseph for 20 and Jesus for 30.

Today’s Gospel then goes on to relate the story of workers in the vineyard killing the landlord’s son. The Gospel continues on with the famous passage, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

All together some very powerful readings that propel us toward the Passion story of Holy Week. Each theme is meaningful and both together symbolize the message of Christ’s death on Calvary. Both passages deserve a re-read and our thought.

Prayer

O Lord, when we see evil being plotted, help us to stand up for what is good and help one another with courage and love.

Joseph Gaida, Member of the Worshipping Community

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

Today's readings give us the opportunity to reflect on where we put our faith. It's so easy, especially these days, to believe that we can solve our anxieties with "things" and that the greatest goal in life is material wealth, which offers us the opportunity to buy even more "things." Our highly consumerist society would like us to believe that there is not a need out there that cannot be met with a purchase, not a discomfort that can't be alleviated with a medication, not a trouble that can't be avoided by entertainment at our fingertips on a glowing screen, large or small.

But, when we put our faith in peace through purchases and external distractions, we're missing the opportunity to find our faith within. We are so busy trying to buy it that we have lost sight that it is ours for free if we remember how and where to look. It's not in the words, but in the silences. It's not in our busyness, but in our stillness. It's not in a feast for ourselves who are full, but in creating a feast for those who are hungry.

We, like the rich man in the story of Lazarus, have been given all the information we need, but yet we remain unconvinced. It's easier to live on the surface than take the time to look deep within us and within others to find the Divine. We feel refreshed when we take the time to serve others, to meditate, to pray, to be part of a spiritual community. These readings remind us of the rewards of doing so, and the emptiness that comes when we don't.
Prayer

Dear gracious and loving God, remind us gently today and every day of the goodness that we all have waiting for us when we return our faith to life's most rewarding pursuits: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with You.

Caroline Crawford, Public Relations and Marketing

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

Wednesday of the Second Week

Reflection

“Remember that I stood before you, to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.” Jeremiah 18:18-20

The readings today focus on the idea of good overcoming evil. The examples of both Jeremiah, in the first reading, and Jesus, in the Gospel, present the idea that they will be condemned and eventually executed by their enemies. Yet, they are willing to give their lives for these exact people, requesting that God forgive them for what they will finally do. The ultimate sacrifice that Jesus and Jeremiah perform is the truest act of selflessness and kindness, not only dying for the Lord, but dying in order to save the Lord’s people from sin. We ask today that God save us in His kindness and that we may somehow, during this season of Lent, find it in our hearts to be kind to one another. May we be open to forgiveness to those who have hurt us, even when it may be challenging, as Jesus and Jeremiah once were to those who had wronged them.

Prayer

Lord, enable us to be like Jesus and Jeremiah.  Allow us to show kindness in the face of our enemies and to be selfless followers of Your word.  Amen.

Alex Byrne, ‘14

Scripture

First Reading: Jeremiah 18:18-20

Psalm 31:5-6, 14-16

Gospel: Matthew 20:17-28

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Tuesday of the Second Week

Reflection

In today’s first reading, Isaiah speaks forcefully — we can hear him shouting at us.  “Hear the word of the Lord!  Listen to the instruction of our God!  Wash yourselves clean!”  He softens somewhat and admonishes us to “Cease doing evil; learn to do good.”  Then, we are gently invited to “Come now, let us set things right.”  His message is though we have strayed, redemption is within our reach.  “Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow… if you are willing, and obey.”  Continuing the theme, the responsorial psalm reminds us that our failings are not invisible to the All-Knowing, who offers salvation when we correct our ways.  Matthew then cautions that obedience to the Lord must, however, be genuine, without pretension.  We are to avoid living in a showy manner mouthing the words we have learned but failing to live by them.  We are urged to live humbly and follow Christ — our one teacher, our sole father, our only master.  Jesus reminds us that our humanness is in the image of the divine and there is no need to embellish on what is born in perfection. And, although we live lives of imperfection, our imperfection lacks permanence — if we humble ourselves and seek God’s forgiveness and direction.

Prayer

Lord, teach us to seek stillness and to listen.

Help us to discern Your message as we hear it.

If we have good to teach, help us to teach.

If there is good to learn, help us to learn.

If there is good to be done, help us to do good.

If there is a burden to be borne, help us to bear it.

All in humble service to You and to one another.

Amen

Churchill Hindes, ‘69, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 1:10, 16-20

Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21, 23

Gospel: Matthew 23:1-12

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website