The Church continues to invite us to reflect anew on the beautiful mystery of God’s mercy. We see God’s mercy in all aspects of our life: our birth, our initiation into His Church, the life of grace in our souls, His healing when we fall, His powerful love in the Eucharist, His call to holiness and union with Him, His invitation to express our love for Him through our service of His children, etc. Everything is mercy!
Jesus invites us all to a reach a very high bar. He asks to act as God acts. We are to be merciful as God is merciful. That is a very high bar to reach. How is God merciful? Luke tells us “He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” To more clearly understand, we can reflect upon the etymology of the word “mercy.”
During Holy Week pay close attention to praise. The actions that praise our Savior, the psalms that speak His prayer, the wounded lives that cannot praise, the broken ones who will be His praise to the ends of the earth after the Resurrection. Psalm 8 teaches us that praise foils the enemy…
May I share a true story with you about St. Joseph? My story begins in the family home of our foundress, Mother Luisita. To begin with, it’s probably best to give Mother Luisita’s full religious name – Mother Maria Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Before she became a religious sister, everyone called her Luisita and then when she was a religious sister, it was easy to transition into calling her “Mother Luisita.”
Every year, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, commemorating the life of one of Ireland’s most popular saints. Most people have heard of him and many choose to participate in one or more of the Irish traditions that are kept alive from year to year on St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, my parents, both of Irish descent, wove Irish expressions of Catholicism into our Irish-American-Catholic family life.
May I begin with a true story? It all happened in the year 1852. The Loretto Sisters ventured across the country into the wilds of New Mexico, a newly acquired territory of the United States. Among the sisters’ goals was the fulfillment of their dream of building an academy for girls in the territory.
Dear Saint Joseph, it is difficult for me to understand you… your personality, your character, the reason behind your reactions to various things. I’ve read, reread Sacred Scripture, and noticed – I don’t know why – something jumped out at me as I was reading. And then I quietly began to think about you, about Mary, and about the supernatural penetrating the routine daily scenarios of your life.
When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, ‘Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.’” To this man, God gave the power and the means to provide for and save the people. God raised Joseph up through suffering and a deep purification, so that he could be a means of the providential care of our Heavenly Father for the people.