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LET THE SPIRIT GUIDE YOU TO ALL TRUTH

  Wednesday, May 8, 2024 – Acts 17:15,22-18:1 / John 16:12-15   Was St. Paul a smashing success everywhere he went?  The passage from Act tells of him going to Athens, and so I wondered why there is no Letter to the Athenians. A little farther along is this quote, “When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, ‘We should like to hear you on this some other time’ and so Paul left them.”   In the Gospel Jesus said to his disciples, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth will guide you to all truth.” Jesus apparently recognized what Paul did not.  There is a time and place for everything, and when we feel inclined to share our wisdom with others, we might take that into consideration as Jesus did.   The sophisticated Athenians gave Paul the brush-off, and so he moved on to a more receptive audience in places like Corinth where his message was well received.  No question there is a lesson in
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JAIL = FUN OR MAYBE NOT SO MUCH

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 – Acts 16:22-34 / John 16:5-11   Yesterday the reflection was about Pat and Phil being locked up with Morganna, The Kissing Bandit, in what amounted to the Wrigley Field jail.  Today Paul and Silas are tortured and chained in a real jail in Phillipi. Pat and Phil didn’t sneak into the ballgame, They had tickets, but used them on the wrong night.  Paul and Silas are there because they preached forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with the one true God.   Imprisonment can take many forms. In the bio today, St. Rosa Venerini (1656-1728) willingly entered what some might consider imprisonment when she became a cloistered nun. She was forced to withdraw when it became necessary for her to care for her family . But later, when she was free to pursue her vocation, she took a new approach to religious life.  Believing that women were deprived of a proper education, she started the first public school for girls.   The idea caught on and soon the motto “Educate to Liberate”
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STAYING IN TOUCH

  Monday, May 6, 2024 – Acts 16:11-15 / John 15:26 – 16:4a   In Acts we had previously read that Paul had a vision in which he was asked to go immediately to Macedonia. Today he is there in the city of Phillipi.  Looking for a place to pray, he and his companions come upon Lydia and some other women.  She must have found his words the answer to her prayer because she “and other members of her household” were baptized at once, and she invites Paul to “come and stay” with them.   In the Gospel Jesus reassures his disciples they will not be left alone when he ascends into heaven saying, “I have told you this so that you will not fall away.”  The Father will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to them and through the Spirit they will stay connected. They will not fall away.   Paul, aware of the danger that once evangelized his converts could still fall away after he moved on, wrote letters to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Tit
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GOD SHOWS NO PARTIALITY

  Sunday, May 5, 2024 –Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 / 1John 4:7-10 / John 15:9-17   The antiphon chosen for Morning Prayer seems to sum up the readings.  “God shows no partiality/”  God is love. He loves us. He sent his son “as expiation for our sins”.  The Gospel ends, “This I command you, love one another”.  If he shows no partiality, as stated in the antiphon, then how dare we?   They say, ‘timing is everything’.  I am in the middle of a novel set at the time the Berlin Wall was built. One of the characters decides it is time to leave East Berlin and enjoy freedom in the west.  Unfortunately, her timing was off. Kruschev had just ordered closure, and access to the west was restricted.    Kruschev did not want people going out. In the here and now we do not seem to want people coming in.  Although all of us, save those of purely American Indian heritage, descended from those who migrated from elsewhere, we do not seem to remain impartial even though our Creator does.    We decide who
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ACCEPTANCE, REJECTION and REMAINING TRUE TO OUR VALUES

  Saturday, May 4, 2024 – Acts 16:1-10 / John 15:18-21   I guess it is human nature to desire acceptance by our peers, to feel we belong rather than feeling like an outsider.  But, in the Gospel today, Jesus prepares his disciples for the reality that, if we remain true to our values, the world may come to hate us, even come to persecute us, as it did him.    In Acts it would seem as though Paul is wandering aimlessly preaching the word, but then, in a dream he is called to Macedonia and goes there at once.   I often dream during the night, but rarely awaken with clear direction as to what I should do, or where I should go. Should that lead me to believe that my life is without purpose?   Last night in my dream I realized the lease on the car I was driving had expired, and wondered where I was to return it.  In reality,  I gave up driving a couple of years ago after my diagnosis of aortic stenosis causing occasional dizzy spells.  Feel free to interpret that dream and let me know if I
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IDENTITY THEFT

  Friday, May 3, 2024 – St. Phillip and St. James. Feast – 1sr Corinthians 15:1-8 / John 14:6-14   I ran out and needed to reorder checks yesterday. I was surprised by all the options offered, many designed to prevent identity theft. As I read the Gospel this morning I was reminded of those options. Why?  Because Phillip asks Jesus to “show us the Father and that will be enough for us”.  Jesus replies in effect he is one with the Father. “If you know me you know the Father”. It led to the doctrine that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father.  It is a highfaluting term for we are one.   It was Phillip to whom Jesus posed the question, where can we go to purchase food to feed the crowd, and he answered, ‘Not even 200 days wages would be enough for each of them to have a bite”.   Jesus knew what he was going to do with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus knew who he was and that no one who followed him would ever go hungry. He was secure in his identity.   Perhaps there was a trace of exasperatio
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IT IS NOT COMPLICATED

  Thursday, May 2, 2024 – St. Athanasius, Memorial - Acts 15:7-21 / John 15:9-11   The passage from Tobit, chosen for Morning Prayer, begins, “Seek counsel from every wise person, and do not think lightly of any useful advice.”  The Antiphon that follows is, “The disciples took counsel and listened to one another.”  In the Canticle of Zechariah, he speaks to his son, John the Baptist, “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the most high; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.”   The bio is of Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914), a devout Catholic who married an atheist and spent her life praying for his conversion.  She died of cancer and her husband, “increasingly impressed by her courage, and realizing she drew strength from her faith, was overcome by a note she had written in her spiritual diary that she was offering her suffering for his conversion”. He went on to publish her writings and was
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