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Faith Over Fear

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“I should share this on Facebook! It’s so inspirational and really struck a chord with me. No… what if my friends think it’s too religious? Or what if even my Christian friends think it’s too in-your-face?”

This is a conversation (aka battle) I have with myself every day. As a Catholic that also struggles with depression and anxiety, I find a lot of my mental solace comes from inspirational Scripture or Catholic teachings. Still, I know that not all my friends on social media are Christians and rather than using this as an opportunity to evangelize… I choose not to. 

Maybe you can’t relate, but I’ve often had the same conversation with my 21-year-old sister. We realized that we often let what others think of us make decisions for us. Actually, we don’t even know if it’s what others think of us. We let what we think is the public’s perception of us determine our lives. Really, we let fear not faith decide. 

In today’s Gospel reading, we see the powerful, unstoppable faith of the four men carrying the paralytic. They don’t just try to get him to Jesus, they break through the roof to lower him down. They ignore what people are saying and don’t think about what others are thinking because they have so much faith that only a touch, only a word, could heal him. 

In the Gospel, Jesus also shows us the power of witness, regardless of what others are saying or thinking. Unlike us, Jesus actually knew what the scribes were thinking. He knew they were judging him since he was forgiving sins, something the scribes believed could only be done by God directly. So Jesus calls them out on it with the truth and Word of God. And THEN he heals a man. A paralyzed man. Can’t move. Just… gets up. Walks away. And so does Jesus. He says what he needs to, heals the man, and does not engage further. The truth has been shared.

And THEN, the last line of today’s reading is shared and it is almost the most important: 

“They were all astounded and glorified God” (Mark 2:12).

Yes, people were astounded by Jesus calling out and addressing the scribes. Yes, people were astounded by the miracle of healing. But furthermore, they witnessed all of this and glorified God. 

In today’s world, with social media and the internet, we have such an opportunity to share our faith and we cannot let our fear stop us. We must let our faith bring us closer to God, even if it is for the world to see, even if there are people that may confront us. We can show our faith without it being an argument. 

So many times, I see other’s Christian posts and I have never felt upset or annoyed or rolled my eyes. Instead, I am uplifted. I am inspired. It changes my day for the better. 

So I challenge you (and myself) to share your faith on social media. Share the love of your beautiful and merciful God, never condemning, and invite others into a relationship with God. Maybe it’s exactly what they need today. 

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Veronica Alvarado is a born and raised Texan currently living in Pennsylvania. Since graduating from Texas A&M University, Veronica has published various Catholic articles in bulletins, newspapers, e-newsletters, and blogs. She continued sharing her faith after graduation as a web content strategist and digital project manager. Today, she continues this mission in her current role as communications director and project manager for Pentecost Today USA, a Catholic Charismatic Renewal organization in Pittsburgh. 

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In the Waiting

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Just last night, my husband and I were talking about good friends. I mentioned how in one city I had so many acquaintances but very few close friends and how in another city I had great affection for many of my friends, even though I haven’t lived there in almost a decade. 

We were also reminiscing about how long we were single and how neither one of us ever thought we would get married. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would just have to be the best single aunt I could be, but would never have children of my own, and he just thought he would live with his family for the rest of his life. And here we are, about to celebrate our 10th anniversary in a few months, with 5 beautiful children!

Life really does have a way of throwing you for a loop sometimes, but then it throws you plenty of surprises too, and I’m talking about the good kind. I am reminded of the Heinz ketchup commercial “The best things come, to those who wait.” I always thought that was tongue in cheek, but with a few more years under my belt, I can see that it actually applies to many situations. 

For example, I ask myself how long the leper in today’s Gospel had to wait to be healed by Jesus. The passage doesn’t mention his age, but somehow I imagine he had dealt with the disease for some time. And just like that, with seven words from Jesus, “The leprosy left him immediately.” 

Perhaps there is something that you have been praying for for years, even decades. Perhaps you are hoping for physical healing or waiting for a loved one to come back to the Church. Perhaps you are experiencing spiritual dryness and are asking for more consolation in your prayer life. The list could go on and on just as our waiting can go on and on. 

Our faith tells us that with just one word from Jesus, each one of these situations can be resolved, if He wills it. Maybe today is not the day, nor tomorrow, but one day, either this side of eternity or the other, we will be made clean just like the leper. 

Let us use our time of waiting, no matter how long it may be, to draw ever closer to our Lord in prayer. Amen.  

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Tami Urcia grew up in Western Michigan, a middle child in a large Catholic family. She spent early young adulthood as a missionary in Mexico, studying theology and philosophy, then worked and traveled extensively before finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in Western Kentucky. She loves tackling projects, finding fun ways to keep her little ones occupied, quiet conversation with the hubby and finding unique ways to love. She works at her parish, is a guest blogger on CatholicMom.com and BlessedIsShe.net, runs her own blog at https://togetherandalways.wordpress.com and has been doing Spanish translations on the side for over 20 years.

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Mission And Communion

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“The whole town was gathered at the door.” What would this look like if it happened at your house? “After sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.” What would you think about this? What would your friends think about this? What would you do?

Jesus responded by curing many and driving out demons. If we had that ability, maybe we would do this too. But then, Jesus does something we probably would not do – he leaves and goes far away from all the people clamoring for his help, celebrating him, undoubtedly wanting more from him.

He goes away to pray. He leaves the crowd so that he can be alone with his Father.

This is a recurring pattern in the Gospel, so it must have happened often. Jesus, who alone is the Holy One, who alone is the Lord, who alone is the Son of God, goes to be alone with his Father. In his singular power and steadfastness, in his spiritual perfection, in his emotional and psychological integrity, he is utterly independent of every inordinate human influence. He is focused on the Mission from his Father, and neither the criticism of others nor their adulation can move him unless it is the will of the Father. And so, he returns to communion with the Father repeatedly, even when he must get up very early or stay up very late to do so.

His friends go looking for him (in another passage, they seem to think he is losing his mind because they cannot understand his actions). When they tell him “everyone is looking for you,” he responds that he needs to keep moving, to preach in other places, so that others can experience the Good News. Was this the message he received from the Father in prayer? It seems so, by his words, “For this purpose have I come.”

And then he preaches and heals throughout all of Galilee, to fulfill the Mission given to him by the Father.

When we remain firmly in the Truth of our own mission, we too can be less disrupted by the criticism or adulation or advice of others. We all have a mission, we all have tasks put before us by the Father. How do we know what they are? They are usually revealed in the duties, interruptions, and inspirations of the moment: our family, our parish, our job, those in need before us. It is only when we spend quiet time with the Lord, as Jesus did, that our purpose can become clearer to us, and we can fulfill our mission with courage and confidence. Otherwise, we can be like snowflakes in the wind, being blown in every direction by influences that are not holy.

In 2022, let’s resolve to imitate Christ by spending more time in solitary prayer, receiving our mission and the grace to fulfill it from the Father Who loves us.

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including Father Rob), and four grandchildren. She is President of the local community of Secular Discalced Carmelites and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 30 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio. Currently, she serves the Church by writing and speaking, and by collaborating with various parishes and to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is www.KathrynTherese.com

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It Is All About Relationship

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Today is a very special day for me. It is my wife and my anniversary! We have been married for two years and her companionship has made the struggles of the past two years joyful. In Scripture, there are many references to the reality that if you cannot love those in front of you whom you can see, how can you claim to know and love God. The inverse of that is true as well, when we show kindness, mercy, and love we reveal what God has first shown us. It is through this lens that I wish to share with you my reflections on today’s readings. 

In our First Reading today, we see the critical moment of Hanna’s fidelity to God when she is accused of being a drunkard in her misery. Her response reveals that she does not take offense to these harsh words. Let’s stop for a moment and think about this; she was misunderstood and treated roughly when she was at her lowest low, crying before God. If this were you, crying and praying your heart out and a priest, a friend, or another Christian came up to you and accused you of being a drunk, what would your response be? Hanna’s response was one of security, she did not start fighting with Eli the priest and judge but rather explained herself and asked him to pray with her. This carries weight in my eyes because in the midst of her suffering she was courageous enough to be vulnerable with God and let God comfort her and that reality is shown by her vulnerability with the priest even after his roughness. Her relationship with God is shown through her response to Eli. But the story does not stop there, God remembers Hanna’s prayer. This word is used in describing how the Passover was supposed to be done as well as our Mass. “Remember” is used to enter back into the reality of the experience and relive it. God, from that partnership, answered her prayer for a child.

The Gospel reading reveals an interesting truth, it takes more than acknowledging that Jesus is God to be saved. The demon in the man cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” It acknowledges Jesus as the Holy One of God but in fear and hatred. Jesus then gives freedom to that man who was possessed by the demon. But it was not just freedom for freedom’s sake. It was freedom to be able to say with love and familiarity, ‘My Lord and my God, I am loved by you, you see me and know my suffering.’ In other words, we cannot sit back and say Jesus is God, Jesus needs to be my Lord. The relationship needs to be personal. If you doubt this, look back at the Psalm. The Church has us repeat, “My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.” That is a deeply personal proclamation that reveals the love in our hearts in response to God’s liberating love. If you are reading this, there is already a drive to grow closer to God. But I want to encourage you to dive even deeper into Jesus’ love for you. Be encouraged by these two witnesses of God’s love today and do not hold back from what he has in store for you!

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Arthur Richardson is married to his wonderful wife, Gabby Richardson. They will be married for two years this January! Most of his work experience is in ministry. He was a retreat missionary in Wisconsin for two years and a youth minister for three years. He is now the Web Project Manager here at Diocesan, and loves it!

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God is God

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The Responsorial Psalm at Mass today reminds us that “a sacrifice of praise” is integral to the worship of God. 

In Psalm 116, the speaker is praising God particularly because God has listened to his prayers and saved him when he was in great need and distress. How often do  we remember the fate that would await us if it wasn’t for the salvific act of Christ on the Cross? And do we give praise to God for our deliverance? How often do we take a moment to praise God for our health, for our loved ones? Even the little blessings we experience, like a hug from a friend or a warm bed, are occasions to praise God.

But beyond what God has done for us, he deserves our prayer simply because he is God! The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God.” (2639) Though the psalmist in today’s readings has gone through hard times, he does not rail against God. He realizes that God is God, and he deserves worship; a “sacrifice of praise.”

The little vexations in our daily lives can be useful when it comes to developing an attitude of praise to God, especially when things don’t go our way.

This morning, after coming in from the frosty January chill, I made homemade hot chocolate. After whipping the ingredients into a frenzy, I popped a mug of the mixture into the microwave to heat it and to create a nice, thick topping of foam. Distracted for a moment, I turned back to the microwave to see that my cup runneth over! Hot chocolate foam was boiling all over the inside of my microwave. 

Moments of frustration like this one can train us to become people of praise! When things go awry, we can curse, we can complain, or we can say, “Praise God!” 

When my cocoa was ruined, praising God was not my first impulse! I was ticked off. I felt betrayed. I was hungry and cold, and-it-was-such-a-gloomy-day-and-I-just-went-to-Mass; aren’t I virtuous; don’t I deserve a reward!? But in situations like this, when we choose to speak out the simple words, “Praise you Lord!” with as much sincerity as we can muster, our attitude changes. We remember that, actually, we don’t “deserve,” and that we are called to love and serve God whether things go our way or not.

When we practice praising God during these seemingly insignificant moments of frustration, this kind of spiritual exercise eventually translates into life-long faithfulness and a docility to the will of God. In other words, it makes us like Christ, who, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.” (Philippians 2:6)

The Catechism says that we owe God honor and glory “simply because HE IS,” (emphasis added by author) not because he has behaved in a way that we think God should. No matter what happens in our day, or in our life, God is God and he deserves our praise.

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Christine Hanus is a thwarted idealist who, nevertheless, lives quite happily in Upstate NY. She is a wife and mother of five grown children.

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You Are God’s Beloved Child

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While admiring photos of a friend’s daughter I thought that how she feels – the pride, love, and joy –  is how God feels about us. Our love for our own children is mirrored in the love of God for us as his beloved children.

I remember my own children as toddlers. Toddlers are uncivilized, irrational, emotional bundles of messiness and dirty diapers and even though I wondered if they would ever be decent enough to be let loose in the world, I loved them deeply. No matter how often they did the same naughty thing, when they said something hurtful to me, or just exasperated me with their childishness, I never didn’t forgive them. I always longed to be in communion with them. 

This is how God feels about us only infinitely more. He sees us doing stupid stuff, hurting each other, and being disrespectful to him. He also sees our goodness. He sees how we strive and when we turn our gaze toward him and ask for forgiveness he welcomes us back with joy because we are his children. 

God said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son.” Jesus hadn’t begun his public ministry yet. He hadn’t healed anyone or driven out any demons but God loved him and was pleased. No matter how messy you are or were or will be, you can always, always run to God’s waiting arms like a toddler running to her mother. He will be delighted to have you there. He’s waiting.

Imagine God saying the same of you just as you would of your own child. Be bold and insert your name.

“This is my beloved son/daughter ______ with whom I am pleased.”

God, thank you for creating me to be your beloved child. Help me to rest in your love today. 

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Merridith Frediani loves words and is delighted by good sentences. She also loves Lake Michigan, dahlias, the first sip of hot coffee in the morning, millennials, and playing Sheepshead with her husband and three kids. She writes for Catholic Mom, Diocesan.com, and her local Catholic Herald. Her first book Draw Close to Jesus: A Woman’s Guide to Adoration is available at Our Sunday Visitor and Amazon. You can learn more at merridithfrediani.com.

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Pray and Live with Confidence

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What hope we hear in the readings today! 

In the First Reading, John encourages us to pray confidently because we have assurance of eternal life. But is it really that easy? In whom is our confidence? Ourselves? Certainly not! John’s answer is “If we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears us.” (emphasis added by author) Not only must we be confident in the promises of our Father, we must be confident that He wills that which is truly best for us. It is when we can fully trust Him that we are able to conform our wills to His, and it is through that conformity that we gain confidence in prayer. 

As we move to the Gospel, we hear an excellent example of someone who submitted their will to the will of the Father, humbled himself before the Lord, and was greatly exalted: St. John the Baptist. What can we learn from St. John the Baptist? In short: “He must increase, I must decrease.” John the Baptist knew that it is humility that allows us to place our lives in the hand of God, and that, by being humble, we will be raised in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Pride is often considered the deadliest of sins and the root of all other sins. It is pride that turns us away from God in our times of need. It is pride that allows us to take credit for our accomplishments and for our good deeds rather than giving the credit to our Creator. Recognizing the reality of our humanity before God, John the Baptist says, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.” Everything we have, everything we are is a gift from God. When we live our lives with this at the forefront of our minds, we are better equipped to pray with confidence. 

May we pray with the confidence, intentionality, trust and selflessness of which John speaks. Like John the Baptist, may we surrender our will to the Holy Will of God and allow Him to fulfill the wonderful plan He has for us. For it is in humbling ourselves before Him that we will be raised to glory with Him.

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Dakota currently lives in Denver, CO and teaches English Language Development and Spanish to high schoolers. She is married to the love of her life, Ralph. In her spare time, she reads, goes to breweries, and watches baseball. Dakota’s favorite saints are St. John Paul II (how could it not be?) and St. José Luis Sánchez del Río. She is passionate about her faith and considers herself blessed at any opportunity to share that faith with others. Check out more of her writing at https://dakotaleonard16.blogspot.com.

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Be Made Clean

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There have been some changes the last couple of days at work. I’m sitting in a different part of the building that has windows with an outside view (wooHoo). Making a space clean that has been unused for the last 22 months takes a little time. It looks clean but once you start the process more is uncovered that needs to be cleaned or restored to right order.

In today’s Gospel there are three little words that challenge me to uncover more: be made clean. The Scripture tells of a man full of leprosy who fell prostrate before Jesus pleading, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean. Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I will do it. Be made clean.’”

The leprosy was gone because of those three simple words and a touch of Jesus’ hand. Jesus’ love and compassion cured a man whom society branded an untouchable outcast due to the leper’s personal or hereditary sin or spiritual corruptness. The Messiah, our Lord God, is the only one who can make a person fully clean, be it in body, mind or spirit.

I surely can clean an office, my clothes or clean up my act. I do, however,  absolutely need divine intervention as I do these tasks and every other kind, too. Really; I am not being flippant or sarcastic. Every aspect of who I am needs to be made clean as I am human.

When it comes to keeping tasks, habits or deep seeded feelings or reactions to certain situations, thoughts or people, and in the loving and just relationship with God I am to maintain through my baptism and teachings of the Catholic faith, I need the Holy Spirit and the sacraments to help me be made clean. 

What I have done throughout the day, week, or since I last went to confession and what I have failed to do offends my heavenly Father. I am so very thankful that before I receive Communion I pray,
‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my soul will be healed.’ I need to remember to ask the Lord to stay in my heart, my thoughts, my words and my actions throughout the day. I want to be clean in all aspects of my life. 

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Beth Price is part of the customer care team at Diocesan. She is a Secular Franciscan (OFS) and a practicing spiritual director. Beth shares smiles, prayers, laughter, a listening ear and her heart with all of creation. Reach her here bprice@diocesan.com.

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God is Love

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What is love? This question seems to echo through the halls of human history as strongly as the question asked of Jesus by Pilate, “What is truth?” Of course, the answer to both questions is found not in a book, experiment, or set of theories, but rather in a person, namely the person of Jesus Christ.

Ok, that’s cute and all to tell to students in a youth group to help them feel loved, but what does it really mean? We hear in the First Reading today that we can only love because God first loved us. I often try to bring my readers back to the beginning, not because Genesis gives us a purely scientific description of the start of all things, but because it shows us deep theological truths about who we are and who God is.

When reading through the first few chapters of Genesis it is immediately striking that out of all the creation narratives that have been written, and there have been many, Genesis stands apart because it is finally talking about a God who creates out of nothing in an act of pure love. All of the other major creation narratives talk about gods at war or sexual promiscuity as the source of all things, but here God stands apart from all the other pagan beliefs. We hear it in the Gospel of John, “God is love”. John also draws the connection between this God who is love and the Creator in the beginning, they are one and the same. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God.”

Ok, where am I going with all of this? Let’s think back to that First Reading. We cannot even begin to love unless God first loves us. The Catechism makes the bold claim that, “God is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.” From the very beginning God is love itself and we were made in the very image and likeness of that same God. We have love in our DNA so to speak, as deep as our bones, and deeper in fact because it resides in our soul.

I think we can often try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and white knuckle religious rules and regulations. By that I mean, I think we often think we can do this religion thing on our own. We may have the false belief that we only need God for the really big things. But in today’s readings we are reminded that without God we can’t even love, because we would be rejecting love itself. Rather than living by this pelagian mindset, the heresy that we can do it by our own strength and don’t need God, let’s instead ask for the grace to live according to how we were created in the beginning. Adam and Eve may have lost the grace of God in the fall, but we can get it back through the God who is love who hangs on the cross for us.

During this new year, let’s try to make an effort throughout the day to notice when God is working with his grace. The great tragedy of our time, it seems, is that we can go weeks without ever contemplating how God is working in our lives. Let’s ask for grace to take hold so that we may be loved and in turn may go and love others. From all of us here at Diocesan, God bless!

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Tommy Shultz is a Business Development Representative for Diocesan. In this role he is committed to bringing the best software to dioceses and parishes while helping them evangelize on the digital continent. Tommy has worked in various diocese and parish roles since his graduation from Franciscan University with a Theology degree. He hopes to use his skills in evangelization, marketing, and communications, to serve the Church and bring the Good News to all. His favorite quote comes from St. John Paul II, who said, “A person is an entity of a sort to which the only proper and adequate way to relate is love.”

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The Twelfth Night

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The twelfth night, the evening of January fifth, has marked the end of the Christmas season since the Middle Ages.  There are many who believe and just as many who think the Catholic meaning of the twelve days of Christmas is an urban legend.  When Catholicism was made a criminal offense by Henry the 8th in England in 1558, many believed that the song was a secret catechism for the Catholics living in Britain to remember and teach their faith without fear of prosecution.

Many people singing this song envision “my true love” as a smitten suitor, while others know the “true love” as God himself.  Each gift given has a catechetical meaning starting with The Partridge as a symbol for Jesus Christ.  Two Turtle Doves refer to the Old and New Testaments.  The French Hens for the Trinity, Four Calling Birds reference the Gospels of the New Testament.  Five Golden Rings symbolize the Pentateuch.  Six Geese are the Creation Days.  Seven Swans symbolize the Seven Sacraments.  Eight Maids are the Beatitudes and Nine Ladies are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Ten Lords refer to the Ten Commandments and the Eleven Pipers are the loyal Apostles of Jesus.  Twelve Drummers remind us of the twelve doctrine points of the Apostles Creed.  

The twelfth night may recall the romantic comedy by Shakespeare or the festivities still celebrated in a handful of European countries in Rick Steve’s Christmas Travelogue, but what does it mean to us besides a wee bit of history?

We are blessed to live in a country free from religious persecution.  It is difficult to imagine a world where a multitude of denominations and religions don’t coexist, but we all know those places do exist.  I am not a cradle Catholic, the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and over the head a few times until I found my home in the Catholic faith.  Would I be strong enough to withstand a world where I could lose my freedom or my life if I chose to remain and worship as a Catholic?  Would I be crafty enough to sing a song with dual meaning to my grandchildren in order to maintain our Catholic Faith?  The twelfth night to me is my litmus test.  

After all the gifts my true love gave to me, the greatest is love.  Our First Reading today says “….so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.”  BE FEARLESS!

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Kay Kunz is the Accounts Manager at Diocesan.  She is a mother of two and grandmother of five.  Living on her family’s centennial farm surrounded by nature, creatures great and small, wild and tame, Kay and her husband are in perpetual restoration mode.  When she is not crunching numbers or helping churches with bookkeeping issues, you’ll more than likely find her curled up with a book and a cup of coffee.  Inspired by St. Brigid of Kildare, not just because she is the patron saint of chicken farmers and turning water into beer, but her simple pastoral life of finding peace in nature.

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We Need Christ as Our Shepherd

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Today’s Gospel reading tells the story of Jesus preaching to the masses and multiplying the loaves and fish. It begins: “When Jesus saw the vast crowd, His heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” 

How often do we feel like sheep without a shepherd? It’s easy to feel that way when things go wrong in life or when we choose to do our will rather than God’s will. We lose direction and feel like we’re floundering. But we know that God is our shepherd; He is always there for us. We simply need to seek Him.

God is our spiritual Father; He leads us. So we must follow His example and lead our children or the children in our lives. We must act in the spirit of God here on earth and teach our children what He would have taught—just as He did the day He multiplied the loaves and fish.

But talking to kids today can often be extremely difficult. If they’re not playing video games, they’ve got their nose stuck in a phone watching Tik Tok or sending Snapchats. They’re just like the sheep without a shepherd—unless we become a shepherd in Christ’s footsteps.

How do we do that? It’s not always easy, but it’s necessary.

Engaging them is key. Start by having a phone-free dinner or a phone-free game night. Sit together and talk about their day. Ask what’s going on in school. Ask their opinion about current events, about sports, or about anything you think they’ll discuss. Tell them about your day, even if you’ve had problems or difficulties. Allowing them to watch you work through problems is integral and can help them develop techniques to work through their own problems. 

Use Christ as your inspiration. Never forget that He is there for you, and make sure that your kids know that you—and God—are always there for them. Become the shepherd of your family. If you don’t, then social media or their peers will. 

Psalm 23 teaches: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.”

Let us ponder this Psalm and hold its words in our hearts, as we remember God’s infinite love and mercy, and as we extend that love and mercy to our own children.

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Susan Ciancio has a BA in psychology and a BA in sociology from the University of Notre Dame, with an MA in liberal studies from Indiana University. For the past 17 years, she has worked as a professional editor and writer, editing both fiction and nonfiction books, magazine articles, blogs, educational lessons, professional materials and website content. Eleven of those years have been in the pro-life sector. Currently Susan freelances and writes weekly for HLI, edits for American Life League, and is the editor of Celebrate Life Magazine. She also serves as executive editor for the Culture of Life Studies Program-an educational nonprofit program for K-12 students.

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Transformative Repentance

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“From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Mercy offered in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is transformative. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides this magnificent explanation on the grace of Confession:

 “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time, it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace” (CCC 1431).

A “radical orientation of our whole life” seems powerful language for entering a confessional (or room) with a priest and laying out our offenses. Spewing out a laundry list of “should have” and “should have nots.” Why not bring these directly to Jesus in prayer? Why involve a middle-man of sorts?  

There was a time I was petrified to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. My heart raced, palms sweat, throat closed, and my feet wanted to sprint to the nearest exit. Honestly, I avoided it until the Holy Spirit nudged me to go, and there, Jesus made me laugh. 

First, the nudge, Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Next, the time the priest called me back into the confessional. After completing my Confession and opening the door to leave, I heard, “oh, wait, one more thing.” I am sure that’s happened to you before, right? Sweat formed on my brow as I made eye contact with the long line of people waiting for their turn! 

I sheepishly smiled at the kind folks staring back at me and slowly closed the door. The kind priest recognized my voice and wanted to share some exciting parish happenings with me. Although it didn’t seem the appropriate time (or place), a little spiritual insight sparked by grace helped it all come together, whereas I could recognize — God’s perfect timing and precisely the encounter I needed to overcome my fear. 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the love and mercy of Jesus, offered through the priest, In persona Christi, Latin for, “in the person of Christ.” A genuine encounter with Christ, who is eager to impart grace and wash away your iniquities and cleanse you from your sins (Psalm 51). Sure, it will be uncomfortable; that’s contrition! Jesus’ message in today’s Gospel reminds us that the Kingdom is now, and we want to be always ready to enter it when called.

As for that middle-man? I am grateful for the opportunity to encounter Jesus through the priest because I have yet to experience anything in this world, as sweet as the words, “The Lord has freed you from your sins. Go in peace.”

 Contact the author

Allison Gingras works for WINE: Women In the New Evangelization as National WINE Steward of the Virtual Vineyard. She is a Social Media Consultant for the Diocese of Fall River and CatholicMom.com. She is a writer, speaker, and podcaster, who founded ReconciledToYou.com and developed the Stay Connected Journals for Catholic Women (OSV).   

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