Posted on

Gaudete! Rejoice!

Click here for daily readings

Our liturgies for this Sunday take on a different tone than the first two Sundays of Advent. The vestments for Mass are rose instead of violet, and we light a pink candle to represent joyfulness in the middle of our waiting. We are reminded repeatedly to REJOICE! The Entrance Antiphon bids us to “Rejoice in the Lord always… Indeed, the Lord is near,” and the opening prayer continues the theme by asking God to “enable us… to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.” The First Reading tells us, “the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers and rejoice with joyful song” (Isaiah 35:2). We have reached “half-time” in our Advent preparation, and we are called to rejoice that the Lord is coming.

The Gospel for today focuses on John the Baptist, with Jesus answering the question about whether he is the “one who is to come” and then telling the crowd that “among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist.” John is the one sent to prepare the way of the Lord, the one who hoped in the Lord, who rejoiced in the Bridegroom and ultimately gave his life for the Truth. He is indeed a great prophet and more than a prophet.

But Jesus gives a surprising comment at the end: he says that “the least in the kingdom of heaven is even greater than” John! The least is greater. Jesus wants us to understand that his Kingdom is essentially unlike any other kingdom: of those who enter, the humblest will be most exalted in it! Our way of judging and rewarding is not God’s way of judging and rewarding. Jesus came to turn the world’s understanding upside down, to bring God’s Light so that we can learn to see as He sees and to teach us to walk with him in our baptismal grace toward holiness and joy only God can give.

It is only because Jesus became one of us – a man like us in all things but sin – that we are enabled to become adopted sons and daughters of the Father, who is Love, and be lifted up into the eternal Kingdom of Christ.

This is why, even as we await the fullness of this Kingdom, the Church rejoices today, singing “Gaudete!”

He is near!

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

Bringing the Light to Every Darkened Place

Click here for daily readings

Jesus’ generation is much like ours, with people ready to take up the gossip on the prevailing wind and believe whatever is being said, rather than working to see the truth and go against the flow when necessary.

Jesus is never one to mince words, and when the situation demands it, he calls out the faults of his listeners. He has one goal in doing this: to get their attention so that they will not MISS THE TIME OF HIS COMING, the hour of redemption. He sees everything from an eternal perspective, the perspective of the whole history of salvation, but his listeners are often like children, subject to their whims and moods at the moment, rather than being awake to objective truth and wisdom.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus compares them to children in the marketplaces, who cannot see things clearly or judge them rightly. They accused John the Baptist of being possessed because he lived a solitary life of fasting and preaching. Because Jesus was “eating and drinking,” they accused him of being a glutton and a drunkard. The people were unable to see that wisdom guided both of their lives completely! Jesus tells us: “Wisdom is vindicated by her works.” And in the end, everything will be clear.

In a world in which trends rise and fall quickly, in which social media facilitates a kind of “mob hysteria” from one moment to the next, in which any opinion can take on the authority of fact because it has a wide circulation, it is important that we “put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12) so that we can SEE the Truth clearly and are not “carried away by all kinds of strange teaching” (Heb 13:9). In a world of confusion, a world that has no place for objective truth, it is important that we ground ourselves in the One who IS truth so that we can recognize the distortions (and a half-truth can be more dangerous than a lie!).

Each Advent, we have a fresh opportunity to shake off the confusions of the culture and focus fully on the truth: that God loves us, that God comes to dwell with us, that God has a beautiful plan for each of us. In seeking ourselves and all meaningfulness in God, we can act in line with true principles in our very real situations, bringing the Light of Christ to every darkened place.

If we make this our goal, God will provide fresh grace as well, allowing us to do what we long to do for the good of others and for His glory. Maranatha!

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

Emmanuel: God WITH US

Click here for daily readings

If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ve undoubtedly heard me ask, “Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing on this planet?” Because every important journey begins with understanding where we are headed and how to get to the destination. There are all kinds of things we can wonder about and discuss, but if we miss the whole point of our existence, we will spend a lot of time on things that do not help us to our goal. We have to keep going back to our beginning to understand our end!

We exist because God willed our existence, continues to will our existence, and His endless creating love works with our wills and our circumstances to continuously create our existence. He created human beings who could share His own life of joy and peace and love, and He is continuously creating. Why? Because He loves us and wants us to dwell with Him eternally.

In Genesis, God DWELLS WITH Adam and Eve, walking in Eden in the cool of the evening. When they allow their trust in Him to die and choose their own way rather than His, He must send them out of this Paradise and no longer dwell with them. A door was closed.

But Jesus came to restore this relationship: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). Jesus came to reopen the door that was closed so that God could DWELL WITH US again. And before his death, Jesus leaves his disciples with the Gift that will allow him to remain with us until he comes in glory: in the Sacraments, particularly in the Eucharist, Jesus can be with each one of us throughout our lives.

In the end, we read in the Book of Revelation, “the DWELLING OF GOD IS WITH MEN, and He will live with them” (Revelation 21:3). God made us in His image and likeness, and this image and likeness is love and communion  – a communion of Persons, loving one another perfectly, and desiring to share that loving communion with others because love is effusive of itself.

In today’s Gospel, we glimpse the Trinity: Jesus – the Son – is rejoicing in the Holy Spirit and praising the Father. This is a model for our own prayer: we pray with/in Jesus, to the Father, through the Spirit. We can do this because Jesus, who is one like us in all things (except sin!) is also equal to, consubstantial with, the Father; no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and this knowing and loving IS the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus can say in another place that those who have seen him have seen the Father.

During Advent, as we prepare to welcome the Child in the manger, let us also remember that He is our Savior, who came to open the door so that He could dwell with us as Emmanuel: “God-with-us.”

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

How Near Is The Kingdom Of God?

Click here for daily readings

As we draw near to the end of Ordinary Time, preparing to enter into Advent, the Gospel readings are… serious. Jesus is giving serious warnings about the destruction of Jerusalem, about signs in the sun and moon and stars, about wars and the persecution of his followers. And understandably, his followers are asking the obvious questions: When will this happen? How will we know? What should we do?

We naturally feel unsettled by these descriptions. It is not comforting or empowering to think of things falling apart and ending. And yet, in yesterday’s Gospel, when Jesus described people dying in fright and the powers of the heavens shaking, he tells his followers to “stand erect and raise your heads” rather than fearfully cower in a corner. Why? “Because your redemption is at hand” (Luke 21-28).

As he speaks of these things, Jesus uses words and imagery that his listeners would understand as referring to the Day of the Lord predicted by the Old Testament prophets. This was seen by Jews as the coming of the Messiah, the end of the Old Covenant, the dividing point of all of history. Jesus is helping us to see that the Day of the Lord is more than a day: it extends to the end of time, as the experience of the first Christians – persecution, growth, war, and disaster – is repeated by every generation until Jesus returns. Jesus IS with us. Jesus WILL return in glory. And Jesus WILL reign over all eternally.

There is another lesson here. In today’s short Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that these things will certainly come because his word is Truth. No matter what is happening in our human lives, in the culture, in the natural world, in our families, in our hearts, HIS WORD IS TRUTH. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will NOT pass away.” His word is meaningful and everlasting and absolutely stable. More stable than the sun and the moon and the mountains and the sea, more lasting than our own ideas and hopes and agendas, more meaningful than all our own activity.

All of human history is moving toward a final, climactic moment when Christ returns in glory. Each of our personal contributions to that history will be made known when Christ establishes “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1), and takes his place on the eternal Throne of Love. By placing these readings at the end of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to ponder the awesomeness of our eternal destiny, the seriousness with which we must attend to our baptismal calling, and the great Gift of Love that God gave us in sending His only-begotten Son to save us.

With this as our backdrop, we are better “prepared to prepare” – this Sunday we enter into Advent, when we focus our efforts on joyful preparation for our celebration of this Gift of Jesus at Christmas!

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

All We Need, And More

Click here for daily readings

Does your parish church have stained glass windows? Then you will appreciate Pope Benedict XVI’s observation that from the outside, the windows look dark and dull, but when you are inside the Church, they are richly and brilliantly illuminated.

That is another kind of parable for the lesson of Jesus in today’s Gospel. We see Jesus Himself as the “nobleman” who went to obtain a kingship, giving ten of his servants a gold coin worth 100 days’ wages before he left, giving them specific instructions to “engage in trade” with them. After he became king, he returned to check the “return on investment,” as it were.

These coins can be seen as the talents and graces we are freely given. The Lord gives us everything and invites us to freely put our gifts and our lives in his service and the service of others. He asks us to use what we have (without comparing it to what others have!) to engage fully in life, to help others, and to glorify God. To those who do this generously, Jesus promises a generous reward!

But if we refuse to use what we have been given, it will be as if we have chosen to remain outside the church building in the cold, seeing it as a stone mountain into which we dare not enter. From outside, we cannot see the light streaming in through the colored windows, or enter into the hymns of praise rising up from the People of God or partake of the rich banquet of the Body and Blood of Christ. We, therefore, keep ourselves separated from communion with God and His family!

Many things can keep us from fully engaging our gifts: fear, selfishness, ingratitude. We may not really know what we have or what we can do; we may be using our energies to satisfy our own wants and forgetting to look at ways to serve others; we may be blinded by a conviction that we really don’t have enough to give; we may be afraid of the risks of taking our spiritual responsibility seriously; we may be focused on counting the costs. All of these attitudes and more can impel us to “wrap our coin in a handkerchief” rather than “engage in trade”!

Where do we begin to shift engagement? We can begin by making sure that our relationship with God truly has first place in our lives. Then we can take a look at the duties and responsibilities before us, in our family and at work, and assess whether we are doing all we can for the people around us. Next, we can look at our parish, to see where we might be of service to further the mission of the Church!

We need not fear that we will run out of anything. If we are doing what God calls us to do, we are given more! When we engage our gifts and talents in His service, we will always have all we need.

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

An Unseen Kingdom?

Click here for daily readings

Every time we pray the Our Father, we make the petition, “Thy Kingdom come.” In just a few weeks, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. We know that Jesus is King, but when will His Kingdom finally be established?

In today’s Gospel, this is the question the Pharisees asked. The Jews were living in expectation that, after generations under the yoke of powers that opposed them and their beliefs, the Messiah would come and free them – politically. They awaited the freedom to worship without fear, and to live in the joyous prosperity of the Kingdom promised them. And if Jesus was some kind of wise rabbi stirring trouble, he surely should have some kind of timeline.

Jesus says something that must have surprised most of those present: “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is….’. Behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Wait… It can’t be seen or announced? It’s already here? What?
Everyone on earth knows that conquerors are obvious, and that their conquering is observable, and that the establishment of a Kingdom is announced with great fanfare. What kind of Kingdom is Jesus talking about if it is not visible or proclaimed? What kind of Kingdom is already present but invisible?

The Kingdom, as we know, is Jesus Himself, present among His people. One of the ways He made this clear was to be crowned (with thorns), clothed in royal garments and handed a reed for a scepter, and finally to take His place on the throne (of the Cross). Rather than taking everything to Himself with violence and power, Jesus submitted Himself completely to the false powers of this world, submitted Himself to their violence, pouring Himself out utterly for love of each of us. Unlike worldly kings, this King conquers one heart at a time, not by subduing it with violence, but by submitting Himself to it in love.

And He remains present with us in our prayer and our love and, in a sacramental way, in the Eucharist. In Eucharistic Communion, the King of the Universe draws all of us together, and all of us to Himself, in the love of His own heart. The King of Love offers Himself completely to us in love, offers all that has been given to Him by the Father to us, in exchange for our offering ourselves to Him in love.

So the Kingdom is already among us wherever Christ is present, whenever we acknowledge Christ as King and ask Him to reign in our hearts, our homes, and our lives. It cannot be seen because it has no borders. It cannot be announced because it will not be completely established until the end of time. It began with the presence of Christ on this earth in Bethlehem, and it continues with the presence of Christ on this earth in our hearts and our tabernacles.

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

Jesus Is Not A Magic Genie

Click here for daily readings

Is Jesus a benevolent giver who wants to give you good things? Does He intend to pave your way and keep things running smoothly? Does He want everyone to be happy and get along?

Well, yes and no.

Jesus is not like a genie in a bottle, giving us the gifts we wish for. Jesus IS the Gift and the One Who wants to give us EVERYTHING. He sees all and knows all and has a plan for our lives that is far more awesome than our small imaginations can envision. He wants us to love and serve one another and to live in communion so that others are drawn by our loving faith.

But this all requires something on our part. In fact, receiving everything requires that we surrender EVERYTHING. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us we have to hate our own family and our own life, that we have to carry our cross and give up all our possessions in order to follow Him as His disciples.

We naturally recoil from this kind of demand: How can we surrender everything, hate our own lives, carry our cross, and still be happy?

It’s really just a matter of priorities. What do we value more than our relationship with Christ? We might say “nothing,” but we all hold onto things that are not Christ. We all hold back, out of selfishness or woundedness or fear. For example, do we faithfully keep our Sunday obligation? Or are vacations and ballgames allowed to displace our Sunday Mass?

Do we share and witness our faith to our family and friends? Or do we keep our faith on the “down low” in front of other people because we fear being ridiculed?

Do we give generously to the Church and to others in the name of Christ? Or do we hold back on our giving because we want something for ourselves?

We are not called to actually hate anyone or ourselves, or to give away all our worldly possessions. What we ARE called to do is put Christ first, and be willing to let go of any relationships, habits, activities, and selfishness that we are holding onto. And sometimes, we don’t know what we are holding onto until God asks us to let go of it.

God wants to give us everything, but if our hands are full – if we are not willing to let go of what is not Christ – we cannot open our hands (and hearts) to receive the gifts He longs to pour into us.

Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:30) What parts of our lives do not feel easy? What cross in our lives feels too heavy to bear? And how can we yoke ourselves to Christ so that we bear these things with Him, and learn that through them how He intends to give us every good thing?

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

God’s Will For Me Is Right Here

Click here for daily readings

“Lord, what am I supposed to be doing?”

Have you ever wondered or asked the Lord why you are alive, or what He wants you to do? Have you ever thought that this is almost impossible to know without some “writing on the wall”? Well, it’s usually clearer than that.

Today’s Gospel reminds us of the call to be faithful stewards of God’s gifts. We all, deep down, want to do this. We mean it when we make our resolutions, when we dedicate ourselves to a good cause, when we make a promise. But what gets in the way of our ability to fulfill our resolutions, maintain our energy for a good cause, or keep a promise?

These are the questions we should ask ourselves as we hear about the Master returning to demand an accounting. Because each of us is entrusted with a task, each of us has a vocation, each has been entrusted with a mission. What is keeping us our fulfilling our God-given mission?

In many cases, it is simply our inability to recognize our God-given mission.

Once, on a long camping trip with my husband and seven small children, I was trying to prepare myself for morning Mass by recollecting myself somewhat. But the kids were rambunctious and someone spilled something and another started crying and my heart achingly (and somewhat foolishly) asked: Lord, how can I focus on You with all this? And He spoke to my heart clearly: “I am right here, IN all this.” My God-given mission in that moment was to attend to this beautiful rabble.

God’s will for us is usually revealed to us in the duties and interruptions of the present moment. We are entrusted with taking care of the people and things that are our natural duty to take care of (usually parents, spouses, children, our home, job, etc.). We are called to attend to the people and situations that present themselves before us as a matter of course. The things that “cross our path” today are God’s task for us. God’s will is usually right here, not elsewhere.

On a wider scale, our calling is usually revealed in the gifts and charisms we possess from God. These charisms, in turn, are often revealed to us in the subjects we enjoy or excel in, or in the talents others see in us. My husband appreciated the logic of electricity and switches; he became an electrician. My teachers consistently praised my writing; now I write. My son found a deep joy in sharing the faith; now he is a priest.

So what are we supposed to be doing? Probably what we are doing right now. And if we do it as well as we can, as wholeheartedly as we can, leaning into the Lord and not merely our own resources, we are doing our part to advance the Kingdom in some way and contribute to the fruitfulness of the Body of Christ. And when the Master returns, He will not be disappointed.

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

Give Us This Day Our Daily Meditation

Click here for daily readings

We all know that prayer is the way we converse with God, but we often feel a bit lost about how to pray. Reciting prayers is one thing; truly praying is another. Maybe you’ve seen someone at prayer and been struck by how they seem to be able to converse with One they know loves them! The disciples must have been struck in a similar way when they saw Jesus pray, so they asked Him to teach them how to pray like that. And Jesus gave them – and us – the words we pray together so often in the “Our Father.”

This is the only “prayer” Jesus gave us. Yet we too often rattle off the words as if we were in a hurry to get to something else! Long ago, I realized that the words Jesus gave us must be meditated on so that they sink into the fibers of my being and become part of my DNA, as it were. So I decided on a method I’d like to share with you:

Each day of the week, I focus on one phrase of the prayer. It becomes the “background music” to all my other prayers and meditations of the day, and the prayer phrase I repeat throughout the day.

SUNDAY: “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Jesus always prayed and acted in the fullness of His divine Sonship, acknowledging his Father as ALL. We can spend this day thinking about our own adoption as children of God and heirs with Christ, gathered together as one Body in Christ to worship the Father Who is Love.

MONDAY: “Hallowed be Thy Name.” The Name of the Lord is thrice-holy, and to be reverenced and glorified by us. We can think also of the many “names” of God: Creator, Sanctifier, Savior, Father, Son, Spirit, Love, Mercy, etc. We can also make some act of reparation for those who do not reverence the Names of God.

TUESDAY: “Thy Kingdom come.” God willed that His Kingdom be established on earth, so that all creation might fulfill its purpose. His kingdom is established one heart at a time, as each one surrenders fully to the reign of love and peace. But there is a battle that has been waged from the beginning against this Kingdom on earth, and the Enemy is never asleep. What can we do to allow Christ to reign fully in us?

WEDNESDAY: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” How is God’s will done in Heaven? Promptly, perfectly, lovingly, joyfully, trustingly, peacefully. Also, effortlessly, but we will have to wait until we are also in Heaven to act effortlessly. While we are here on earth, we can focus on asking often throughout the day: What do You want in this situation, Lord? How can I be Your instrument of love in the world? I want to do YOUR work, YOUR way; YOUR will for YOUR glory.

THURSDAY: “Give us this day our daily bread.” I love the fact that when you line up the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer with the days of the week, the petition for our “supersubstantial bread” comes on the day when we traditionally honor the Eucharist because of Its institution at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday. We ask the Lord to give us this day our daily bread; give us today what we need for today; give us this moment what we need for this moment. We entrust tomorrow to the Lord’s Providence.

FRIDAY: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Again, is it a God-incidence that the petitions line up so that on Friday, traditionally a day of penance, we beg forgiveness for our sins? The words for today remind us that we are forgiven AS WE FORGIVE, and is a call to let go of any resentments or grudges that obstruct for us the wide horizon of God’s love.

SATURDAY: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Finally, we ask the Lord to guide us on our way so that we might walk along paths that will lead to Him and not to confusions, questions, danger, and sin. It is a way of asking that God’s mercy and love accompany and lead us toward Himself.

These are only springboards to your own meditations, and I pray that all of us receive the grace to continually dive more deeply into the words Jesus gave us as a guide to prayer!

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

Sudden Freedom

Click here for daily readings

On this Feast of St. Matthew, we acknowledge all the Apostles – those specially chosen by Christ to lead the Church he came to establish for the salvation of all! In a particular way, of course, we look at St. Matthew himself, and the Gospel he wrote records his own calling.

We only know the details provided, which are few, so we are prompted to ask:

Could Matthew have been following him at a distance for some time or was this the first time Jesus ever saw Matthew the tax collector? If so, what did Jesus see in Matthew that prompted him to say, simply, “Follow me.”? What was moved in Matthew that prompted him to simply get up and follow?

We know that tax collectors did not have the esteem of the people, as the demands on them forced them to put demands on others! Perhaps there had been already a slow, gnawing discomfort in Matthew already, in which the counting of coins had lost its luster. Or perhaps that direct encounter with the Lord of Life shone so suddenly and startlingly and brightly in his heart that the coinage that made up his life was suddenly seen as nothing. In either case, it seems he left it all behind in that moment and then held a banquet to celebrate his new freedom in Christ.

This banquet – in which Christ was eating with “tax collectors and sinners” – outraged the Pharisees, who would have seen such persons as a contamination of their purity. Jesus, always rising above the fray, points out that he has come to heal the sick, to call sinners, not the righteous. The implication is that we must first recognize and acknowledge our own need for healing before we can avail ourselves of the medicine of mercy and grace.

How do you identify with this Gospel? With Matthew, who left everything immediately when he was called? With the Pharisees, who cannot yet see how love bends down to those in need? With other sinners at the banquet who are somewhere in between, benefitting from mercy but not sure they are ready to follow this controversial rabbi?

Wherever we are, let us allow the Lord’s words to resonate through our lives and shed their light on every situation: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

Staying out of the Ditches

Click here for daily readings

What’s with the Pharisees? Haven’t they learned by now that they couldn’t win an argument with this wandering rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth? Still, they continue to challenge him and to demand that he explain himself.

In this short Gospel, we see the preoccupation of the Pharisees with the observation of the many rules (over 600!) that had been formulated to ensure that the Ten Commandments given to Moses could be followed meticulously. Some of these Pharisees pose a question, trying (of course) to catch him in a breach of the rules: “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

What the disciples were doing was not morally wrong, but it was against one of the elaborate rules about how to “keep holy the Sabbath.” There were forty categories of activities that were defined as work, which was forbidden on the Sabbath. These many rules placed a heavy burden on a day that God intended to be full of joyful worship, rest, delight, and recreation.

Jesus “calls them out” for seemingly forgetting their own history: “Have you not read what David did?” Of course they knew this story well; but rather than engage in a complicated argument about the absurdity of the rule in this instance or even of the many rules in general, Jesus uses the story to point out that the rules are not even the supreme thing – since human rules/laws are the work of human reason for the common good, when the observance of a law is harmful to the community, that law can be dispensed.

This truth was lost in the many rules surrounding the Mosaic Law. Jesus is reminding them of the correct understanding of “Sabbath rest” and indirectly pointing to their own lack of virtue – Pharisees saw themselves as the most pious of Jews, following each rule meticulously and then parading their “virtue” before others, which is no virtue at all.
Having addressed their question, Jesus then changes the playing field by stating a startling truth: “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” As it was God Himself who gave this precept to the Chosen People, Jesus is revealing his identity as God Himself. While this certainly alarmed and angered the Pharisees, they seemed to have no argument to counter that claim.

Wherever there are spiritual rules, there will be a tendency toward a kind of “Pharisaism” that thinks meticulous observance of the rules equals true holiness. The rules are to be obeyed, but our “obedience” can easily become a kind of “Checklist of Goodness” on the one hand, or a “Badge of Pride” on the other. In reality, the rules are more like guardrails to keep us on the right road and out of the ditches.

God intends for us to travel this road in freedom, filled with the joy that comes from trusting that He Himself will provide all we need to reach our final destination: the very Heart of God.

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.

Posted on

We Are Made For Heaven

Click here for daily readings

Today’s official liturgical celebration is “The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” This is significant if we understand that there are three categories of celebrations throughout the year: Solemnities, Feasts, and Memorials.

“Solemnities” are the highest degree of Catholic celebration and so we are obliged to participate in Mass on these days – Sundays, Easter, Christmas, Pentecost, and other Holy Days of Obligation are solemn celebrations of the most important mysteries of our faith.

These are higher than “Feast Days,” which are not days of obligation, but are set apart as days to honor special saints and events of salvation history, such as the Apostles, the Archangels, the Visitation, the Presentation, and the Baptism of the Lord.

The final level of importance on the liturgical calendar, and the one we encounter most often, are “Memorials,” which usually honor the saints, though there are Marian Memorials as well, such as Our Lady of Fatima (May 13) and the Queenship of Mary (August 22).

With that little liturgical lesson done, it is worth asking: Why do we rank the Assumption – a dogma that was not “official” until 1950 – as a solemnity, along with Christmas and Easter?

Pius XII, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, stated: “By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

Mary’s Assumption into heaven, body and soul, means that the resurrection is not limited to Jesus alone; where the Head has gone, we are called to follow, body and soul. Knowing with the certainty of the Church’s infallible teaching that Mary’s whole being, body and soul, was taken into heaven, we have the certainty of knowing that there is a place for our glorified bodies as well.

So, onthis Solemnity, we are called to participate togetherinthe Eucharist and look to Mary ina particular way: as one like us (a creature, thougha sinless one) who exists to bring Jesus to us andto bring us to Jesus, andwho is alreadyfullyin heaven.

There are two human bodies in heaven and they are our BROTHER and our MOTHER, whose two Hearts beat as one with love for us! In our participation in the Eucharist we are joined already to those in heaven and to the Body of Christ on earth, and we are reminded that our destiny is beyond what we see and touch right here and now, that we are called to an eternity of love and belonging and peace beyond all understanding.

And that is a solemn celebration indeed.

Contact the author

Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.