What the Smallest Can Become

What Little Can Become

In today's gospel reading we encounter Jesus' words about the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed. Lacking a picture of a mustard seed, the above will suffice. From the smallest of seeds a beautiful flower or plant can evolve ... it is another sign of God's abundance.

We are no different. So easily we can become like the seeds that produce wonders in our own world. We can become the embodiment of God's abundance, his gift to others. How many are the small ways that you can imagine as avenues for Jesus to walk into the lives of others?

Just yesterday a high school classmate who has remained a close friend for more than 54 years came to visit. I think back to a September day in 1959 when we met, the first day of our freshman year at Gonzaga High School here in Washington, DC. It was an insignificant meeting, a gathering of frightened new freshman students. Something clicked. A conversation started: "Where did you go to grammar school?" A seed was planted ... for 54 years that seed has continued to grow through countless meetings, numerous emails, many, many dinners, meetings in Ocean City and Washington, DC and most rewarding the incorporation of many people into our individual circles of friends. All because a seed was planted, a question was asked.

Planting seeds, even a very small, insignificant seed, can become a flower, a plant, far beyond that first meeting. It is a small seed that has enable me and my visiting friend to advance the Kingdom of God in our own hearts and in the lives of so many others.

And you? Is there a sensitivity in your heart that can allow a simple, small question or event lead to something remarkable, something enduring, something truly God-gifted? Consider Jesus' story of the mustard seed as it might have been fulfilled in your past as well as how it might be planted today, tomorrow or next week. One never knows what abundance can result from a simple question.

Bundance

The two readings offer joy and cause for gratitude. In each reading we encounter God's abundance. In St. Paul's words and Jesus' teaching consider God's blessing to your own spirit. In particular, Paul's think is a reminder of heritage, our unique relationship as daughters and sons of a loving Father. It is relationship to Jesus that comes about because "those who are led buy the Spirit of God" are also daughters and sons of God. This relationship does not come to anyone of us because of our family tree! It is the abundance of God.

The gospel can be another meaningful experience of divine giving. Today it can also afford us the opportunity to recall how we men and women have the rewarding experience of knowing first hand at least one, but most likely, women who have carried heavy burdens in their lifetimes. Giving birth to children, enduring physical or emotional abuse by a parent, spouse or perpetrator, suffering injustices in the workplace: these are but a few of the burdens or crosses that bend the backs of so many of our mothers, grandmothers, sisters or aunts. And notice this: like many women, the crippled woman in the gospel does not ask relief. Rather Jesus sees her need and responds because, as Paul reminds us, our heritage with God as his child is a unique sharing in his abundance.

The Struggle between Social Mores and Church Teachings

The words and thoughts of St. Paul in today's readings, Romans 7:18-25a, are truly remarkable: a personal reflection that is worth serious reflection of us in today's world. Read them three or four times, slowly, reflectively.

Paul reveals himself as a genuine human being with what he speaks of as the sins in his flesh. In just two or three sentences he speaks of his struggle against natural instincts in his body that can range from laziness to serious immorality. Here he is not so clear, no specifics to his confession.

So well does he relate his inner struggle between good and evil. Yet he does not succumb to a temptation to give up. "Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ." That is the answer.

At the same time, however, his struggle will not be ended immediately. Sin will continue to be a painful part of his life. Give up the struggle? That was not in his nature.

When will natural instincts that draw us to sin, that create an inner struggle in our lives, when will they subside? When will we no longer be struggling? When I was a Jesuit novice, a retreat master told us during a retreat prior to being invested in a Jesuit religious garb (habit), "Will those temptations of the flesh disappear? Yes. However it will not happen until your are six months in the grave!"

So we have a life-long struggle ... thanks to the Adam-Eve gift of Original Sin! However, like Paul, we have to see in Jesus Christ the energy and abundance of God's lover for us, his forgiveness of our sins.

Thursday: What Was Your Profit?

Conversion

How true! How true! "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." Look at your local newspaper today. Listen to the radio or television. Look in your skeletons' closet! Gratefully there are radio stations, there are good books, there is nature around us that offer peace and calm.

If you read Luke entire gospel, Jesus makes clear that his mission is not necessarily to make people subject to peace! Rather his vision, the Father's will is to bring us from the experience of sinfulness through personal conversion to the gift of peace. St. Paul had his moment of personal conversion depicted above. Reflecting on his personal encounters with Jesus and the growing traditions of the formative years of the Church, continues the preach the mission, the message of Jesus Christ. What Paul describes as the cost of peace is conversion from the weaknesses of our human nature, from lawlessness to righteousness. As the apostle says, we must convert our slavery to impurity to slavery to righteousness.

Paul puts before us a question that should capture our attention: "But what profit did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed?" No doubt most people have their skeleton closets which, if opened to family and friends, would be a cause of great shame.

So, to achieve a peace of heart and mind, we need as individuals, as families, as nations, to end lawlessness and allow a metanoia, a change, to occur within our hearts.

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

Photo: Carravaggio, Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1601

For Wednesday: Remember the reality of sin???

You have heard it said: "Sin hardens the heart." How aware are we, the people of the 21st Century, of this reality. Clearly many Catholics have altered what they believe sin is. Even some rather conservative Catholics (whatever that actually means) have a doubt about some of the things we considered sins just a few decades ago. The Pro-Choice army is not solely liberals! Sin, so it seems, has been riding on the pendulum, swinging from the scrupulous right to the "Is there still sin?" questioning of the liberal left. Testimony to this reality is the not so frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Even from those who are brave enough to allow others see them in a confessional line, albeit a short line, there is too frequently a remark like this: "All I have to confess are the ordinary sins."

Tell that to the man who was scourged, beaten, had a crown of thorns mashed into his head, nailed to a crude tree cross and stabbed before his body finally gave up the spirit. If you were in his skin, do you think you would say, "Okay, that okay. This is just an ordinary thing that is happening to me. St. Paul reminds us "Sin must not reign over your bodies."

How did this come about, this lackadaisical attitude toward sin? De we succumb to a deception that "God will always forgive." Sin really doesn't mean that much any more. While God forgives sin there is a reality we seem to forget: forgiveness is just on part of pardon; there remains atonement. One of these days we will begin to realize the sentiment of "The days of the two martini lunch are long past!" also applies to the matter of sin. Don't let our culture make us look like fools. "Our help is in the name of the Lord." And this we call reconciliation.

For Tuesday: If we fully understood! Amazement!

Have you ever been stunned by serious thoughts of God's love for you? Today's readings lead you to St. Paul's thoughts about what we have designated as original sin. Try to imagine yourself as God -- don't let it go to your head!!! But imagine, there was a moment when your plan was to create human beings. And there would naturally be one man to start the whole human race. Do you think that you could have not held back the gift of a free will to your creatures? That would be so foreign to your love for humankind. Yet, as God you knew there would be the Adam and Eve story. You knew that your creations would turn against you and your will because of their weakness and their misuse of the free will gift. This is where the remarkable experience of your love is so powerful, so explosive, so far reaching, so very wonderful. You know that you have to have your Son be born. Sure that is a great moment. However, the pain is just beginning. You know that the Son you love so much was be tortured and crucified to atone for the sins of humankind. This is truly your gift of abundance to the people you have created. Would you, in your role as God, have been able to do all of this?

Now back to the real world. Do we allow ourselves to understand fully the truly incredible love of God for each one of us? Could you have created and forgiven in such a way? Do you know the gift of redemption in your life? The answer to these questions is what stirred on the man the Church honors today, St Paul of the Cross. He became a priest and founded the Passionist congregation of priests. In the footsteps of his namesake, Paul of Tarsus, St. Paul of the Cross and his Passionists realized how graced we have been and made it their mission to remind humankind that it was the love of God that brought about the wonders of divine forgiveness.

For Monday: Fiathful Followersu

Saints Isaac Jogues and John de Brebeuf, SJ

Recently our Church has celebrated days honor some of the "great" on our calendar of saints. Some have called these days as a prelude to November 1st, All Saints Day. Today the honorees are no less to be noted for their heroism, their endurance, their fidelity. Isaac and John and their collaborators are a part of the our American Church's early history. The challenges in settling the new country beyond those encountered when doing something totally new in a territory that was inhabited by other human beings who were not happy with the intruders were caused by their faith. Missionaries were a threat even though they came to bring the Good News. Their loyalty to their faith earned for them membership in the community of martyrs.

Who of us can endure the torture of martyrdom? Their vision, their passion to preach the Word of God brought them to the altar of sacrifice. They believed with great firmness. They would not step back from their commitment no matter what the temptation.

In our times there is martyrdom. How many are the times, the situations, that challenge us to back away from our commitment to our faith. Modern society poses ways of living that are like magnets, pulling us away from our faith. It is the strength of our ancestors in faith that should encourage us in those moments of temptation.

For Saturday: Hang Tough!

Today's Feast Day: St. Ignatius of Antioch
Readings

Challenge! How do you respond to challenges? Today's feast day focuses on very early Christian, Ignatius of Antioch. Most likely he was appointed by Peter as the head of the Church in Antioch. By the year 107 AD, Ignatius was dead, victim of the persecutions of Trajan, the Roman Emperor.

Our early ancestors surely endured extreme challenges to their faith, even their very lives. Ignatius, while being brought from Antioch to Rome to face a trial, wrote a few letters that stand as models of a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ. He penned these frightening but powerful words: "I am God's wheat, and I am to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of Christ."

Most of us today are not living in circumstances that are as horribly frightening. We live in a generation when subtlety reigns. It is the sword; it is the grinding teeth that Ignatius faced. Subtlety is the means used by the Evil spirit in our world to bring us to deny Jesus Christ! How often are you confronted by jokes about your faith? How often are there subtle remarks about our Church's strong defense of life stance? Those water cooler remarks that occur on occasion. The innuendo of some preachers of other faiths against the Catholic Church. These are some of the challenges that dedicated followers of Jesus Christ might say today.

Know this: you are a true radical if you are one who follows Jesus Christ and the teaching of his Church! This is your reality. This is why you may be asked not to be victims of wild beasts' teeth but to take up the cross of subtle ridicule because you believe in Jesus Christ.

The words of Jesus in Luke's gospel today have poignant meaning for the 21st century:

I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others
the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.

For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what your should say.

For Friday: Jesus Forgot!

St. Margaret Mary Alocoque

Each year in June we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart, a heart of love so intense that it was seen as a heart afire. Closely associated with this Visitandine sister was Jesuit Claude de la Columbiere. As spiritual director for the Sister, Father Claude, now Saint Claude, told her to ask Jesus when he next appeared to her what his most serious sin as a young man. In time Sister Margaret Mary was visited by Jesus in an appearance afterward. She asked Jesus Father Claude's question. Tradition has it that Jesus responded "I forgot." St. Paul's words in today's reading give us some thought: "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record." St. Luke in his gospel recorded Jesus saying "Do not fear."

Today, who of us, whether we like it or not, have become so technologically conditioned by our culture, that we demand to know. We want to see immediate results. Push a remote control button and we can see live events almost anywhere in the world. Is this the reality that undermines our faith, our desire to trust God? Do we fully understand the gift when we hear Jesus say "Your sin? I have forgotten them! You are the object of my intense love that sees beyond them." Do I live with this belief in my heart, my not so sacred heart? This feast is an invitation to you: "Would you come to me with your love? Do not be afraid. I have forgiven your sins by my suffering and death. Do not be afraid. Only be afraid of what the Evil one can do to separate you from me in a lashing way. Let the love I have for you never fail to draw me to you."

For Thursday: "God walks among the pots and pans."

Saint Teresa of Avila, Doctor of our Church

The Church now honors an extraordinary women.  Ladies please take note.  Daughter of a wealthy man, one of nine children, Teresa knew in her heart that God was inviting her to live a life of sacrifice and prayer.  She was a woman whose passion was her religious vocation and her love of Jesus Christ.  To fulfill God's intention for her life, she joined a Carmelite monastery not too far outside Avila, Spain, her home town.  At that time convent life was not terribly trying on the women in the communities.  Eventually she felt the call to establish a community of Sisters who would follow much more stringent rules and regulations: much prayer, sacrifice and poverty.  During an illness prior to the establishment of the Discalced Carmelite Sister, Teresa came to know that was what God wanted her to do.  In her recuperation she spent hours in prayer, opening herself to the will of God.

She wrote many letters calling for monastic reform.  It was an action that caused resentment from other convents who did have a comfortable lifestyle.  In Butler's Lives of Saints we read that Teresa had an aversion to "long-faced saints that make both virtue and themselves abhorrent."  In the description of her life we also read that she and the papal nuncio had there moments of major disagreement.  He said that she was a "restless, disobedient and contumacious gad-about woman, who ... has left the enclosure ... and gone about teaching, contrary to the injunction of St. Paul."  King Philip II brought about reconciliation!

Teresa was canonized in 1622 along with St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, St. Philip Neri and St. Isadore, the farmer.  No insignificant class in the history of saints!  In 1970 Teresa was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church along with St. Catherine of Sienna:  the first two women to be raised to that dignity, an elite community of 33 men and women.

And what would our Church and religious communities be today were she alive and well?  After some thought there are, perhaps, two women of our times who might be like her:  Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Mother Angelica of Birmingham -- perhaps the two strongest women religious of our times.  The following words were found on a book marker in her prayer book:

Let nothing worry you;

Nothing dismay you;

Everything passes;

God does not change. 

If you have patience, you can do anything.

Those who have God want for nothing;

God alone is enough.

(Butler's Lives of Saints)

For Wednesday -- Grateful for St. Callistus, Slave, Deacon, Pope

St Ignatius Church, Park Avenue, NYC

Tomorrow is the feast day when the universal Church honors a man who was once a slave, Callistus by name. Once a salve, the man earned his freedom and eventually was ordained a Deacon by Pope Zepyrinus. Callistus succeeded the Roman Pontiff who ordained him a Deacon!

There was at the time of Callistus, 3rd century, a practice in our Church that bothered the Pontiff: the consequences of confessing serious sins. No doubt living a part of his life in servitude made him away of the realities of forgiveness and mercy. How could a serious sin which required public penance -- a serious humiliation in itself -- further forbid a return to the reception of the Eucharist? Where was the reality of the forgiveness and mercy of God earned by the suffering and death of Jesus? In allowing those who had committed murders, adultery and fornication to return to the Eucharistic table, Pope Callistus was awarded severe public criticism from some quarters of the Church. Surprise??? Ho doubt the words expressed by St. Paul that we earn complete forgiveness through "the priceless kindness, forbearance and patience" of God had touched this Pope's heart. Let us never judge others who receive the Eucharist by our own standards. We never know the relationship between a sinner and God. I say to myself: look in the mirror whenever the thought crosses my mind that someone should not be receiving the Eucharist. I am not the judge. God knows far better that any of us the ends to which human weakness can push human beings ... who may not be saints!

The Power Over Evil

Romans 16 - 25

The Power to Change 

St. Paul's words in Romans  are a reminder to us that we, all of us, are a blessed people, a people empowered by God.  Paul brings to mind that there was a moment when the power of evil was victorious over our first parents.  Ever since that Eden day, evil has been handed on to each person brought into this world.  This is a reality that has been implanted in our hearts, our lives.  We have an inclination to evil within our very being.  Each of us has this!  It is a reality that has turned one person against another, one nation against another, one person against their Creator.

However, there is a God who has chosen to forgive our sinful transgressions.  Ours is a loving God who willingly offered his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to serve as the atonement for our sins, our perpetuating the Eden sin.

Our spirit is lifted when we quietly recall that we are exonerated from the burden of our sins.  The life and death of Jesus reminds us that we can overcome the power of evil.  We can overcome what would ruin our lives.  It is our faith, our desire to make God a genuine par of our lives, Paul writes, that will empower us to be the women and men that God has planned us to be.  It is our belief and trust in God that should convince us that we are able to carry out the mission entrusted to us.  David, in composing Psalm 68 concluded the prayer with these words:

How awesome is God as he comes from this sanctuary -

He gives strength and power to his people.

Praise God!

Please note the following:

The content for the daily blog will reflect the readings for the next day.

Why?  To assist priests who read these postings and others

in preparing for the next day's time of prayer.

Amazing Grace CEO Space Forum

This is the view from one side of the hotel-conference center where I am attending a Forum for CEO Space. The "amazing grace" that has come to all of us attending the Forum is bountiful. No gambling, no smoking, much talking with people from all over the world, and, please catch this: there has been a rare presenter who does not speak of the place of God in their lives and their journeys.

The people here are a wide range of entrepreneurs. They push the message that deep within each of us God has planted a plan, a mission. It is our duty to learn what that mission is for us and how it will help other people. This operation stands on three legs: learn, earn and return.

It is clear that capitalism that seems to have ruled the world until this past year has brought our nation and many others to their knees. Why? Because capitalism has become so competitive, so dog-eat-dog. The pushers of modern capitalism thought they could stand on two legs. They forgot the third leg. They learned their vision with great passion. They strove to earn as much money as possible. But then came the great mistake: greed, greed, greed entered the picture. And, as you know, greed cannot stand on the stage with return, with care of others, with charity, with reaching out to others. It became a program for self!

So, that's what I have been doing for this week. Starts each morning at 7:30 with table discussions over cereal and continues minimally until 10 PM. Each day is filled with coming to know that we have our community here, men and women who want to work as hard as we can to improve our planet.

I return to DC late Saturday evening to prepare for the upcoming Knights of the Holy Sepulchre annual meeting.

God be with you.

And You Don't Worry????

There are very few who see this picture from wordpress.com who don't feel a hankering in the heart for peace and quiet .. but for what? Deep within each of us is the yearning to be free of worries, free from the daily trials that fall upon our shoulders.

It is the day-to-day worries, especially in stress-filled times like ours, that distract us from being able to answer that inner calling, the need for time alone. Most of us today find ourselves racing from one demand to another. Was life meant to be this way? I don't believe so. Neither did Jesus.

Invited to dinner with Martha and Mary and perhaps other guests, Martha, as we know, carried a heart that was so concerned with perfection. Everything she was doing had to be just right. Sound familiar? Yet there sat Mary. She was answering that inner call for peace and quiet, that yearning to respond to the call that wanted to be heard, that wanted to share in the wisdom of their invited guest.

We may not have Jesus dropping in and out of homes as a dinner guest in our times. However, we do have houses where the residents do stop throughout the day to listen to that inner voice of the Holy Spirit. Those houses? Monasteries where the monks and sisters find time to be with that inner voice, to be within the world of silence, listening to the Holy Spirit. Yes, it is a privileged life. No, it is not impossible for us to live a similar life even in the rat-race world surrounding us.

We have to be like Mary and chose a time and place to listen, to hear what God is saying to us. Did you do that yesterday? If you did, bravo/a for you. If you didn't, surely it was because you were too busy. Promise yourself right at this moment: "I will find five minutes when I stop my engine. Five minutes when I will relax my mind and let my heart listen for the voice of God.

Where Is The Holy Spirit?

St. Paul, in I Corinthians 3:16, writes that the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us. When Jesus was about to undergo his suffering and death, he promised the apostles, disciples and us that God would give us a gift quite remarkable. With Jesus gone, the Holy Spirit would become a part of all of us. He would be with us each day.

If we truly believed this reality, this doctrine of our Church and the belief of most Christians, wouldn't our lives, our world be somewhat different ... almost radically different?

We live in a dog-eat-dog world. Competition exists: from the day your first sibling entered your life or, if you are an only child, the day your parents told you were better than the kid next door or your one of your cousins. This has made all of us consciously or unconsciously a people of judges. Directly and indirectly that competition has made us punish those who do not win, who are not on top.

Listen to conversations you hear during the next three weeks. No doubt most of them will contain a reference to another person's weaknesses, failures, infidelities, and so on. Please note if you can find a conversation where praise and admiration are heaped upon another person. Even some praise fails in many remarks: "She's wonderful but ...." "He'd make a good whatever, but ...."

If this failure to attribute magnificence to one another abounds so plentifully, is it not a sign that the Holy Spirit's indwelling in us is just talk by Church leaders and a few others? If we truly believed the Holy Spirit was within us, wouldn't we have a hard time choosing between a Jesus physically present and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us?

"Come, Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts with your love."

God's Intention for Us

Those of you who have followed this blogger may find the thoughts in this posting a repeat of previous reflection(s). However, I am in Henderson, Nevada. An invitation to celebrate Mass for people gathered at the hotel came my way. Following one of the presentations from last evening by Mr. Bernie Dohrmann, I am sharing some of the Dr. Wayne Dyer thoughts from his book, The Power of Intention. So, you have had a head start on today's thoughts.

Last night Mr. Dohrmann spoke about one of the "lesson" his father, Mr. Alan Dohrmann taught his nine children in one of the famous "Dohrmann Seminars." For those with children, I am sure your brood have told or would tell of some of your stories to them to help them understand what life is all about.

Mr. Dohrmann concluded a presentation with a recollection of his father teaching his children that within each of them is a power, a power of light, a power of brightness that enables each of them to change the darkness in their own lives as well as the lives of others.

In his book, Dr. Dyer speaks about the real power that we have within ourselves comes from our Creator, regardless of the name we assign to the power that created this world, that is the essential cause of who we are.

We so often hear people say that we existed in the mind of the Creator even before the world was created. In his mind the Creator had a plan for each one of us. It was and is a plan that always was. It was a plan that took on special significance on the day that you were conceived and made very real the day you came crying into this universe of our. It was then that you began to live out your God's, your Creator's plan for you. Each day since that first day of the rest of your life, you were entrusted with the responsibility to live out what he wanted for you and for his universe.

The wonderful gift that this Creator gave to you in his plan, his intention, is a most unusual gift. It was the freedom to live out his plan as you wished. We were given the freedom to live in darkness, we were given the freedom to live in the light that the elder Mr. Dohrmann taught his children.

Now what is that intention that the Creator God may have had for you ... your Bernie, you Bruce, you Helen, or each one of you? To answer that question you have to look at your life. Why do people make annual retreats ... business meetings or spiritual times away from the helter-skelter of our world? I honestly believe that happens because we have that divine intention buried within us that daily calls upon each of us to come to know that intention.

Once we know what that intention or what we believe it to be, we become an incredible person of passion. We become alive like few have ever known us. A man who taught me in high school at least some 50 years ago impressed his students more than any other teacher at the time. He spoke of the "turning moment" in his life during WWII when he was on a burring ship and had seen so many of his colleagues dying. It was then that he realized there had always been what he called the "nagging pain" in his heart to do something for young people. It was then that he finally landed on the pathway that was intended for him. He saw that light and refused to let it go ... because he knew his being saved as his ship sank in fire and as living burial ground in Pearl Harbor for those who could not free themselves from the compartments below deck.

Two year ago in a not as dramatic way I found myself having a very difficult time breathing with each step I took. Several days later a doctor came to me on the operating table with these words: Fr. Jordan, I am here to save your life. You should be dead ... never, ever, forget those words. And I say this to you because I honestly believe you have a mission to fulfill. God's intention for you has not yet been completely fulfilled.

And here I am today ... some two years later. Retired from active priestly ministry yet finding that there is not enough time in a day to live out what I see as that intention that was buried in my heart for all those very productive years of priestly ministry but years that only touched the surface of what God has been calling me to do.

Each of us us has quietly living within us that Creator-given power of intention. Know your passion, know what you are the happiest in doing, know the highway that enables you to bring light into the lives of other people in a way that no other person but you can do that.

Bernie, I want to thank you personally here today for gathering that Benedictine Brother's notes of your Dad's lessons to you and your siblings. As a priest who loves to use stories, I realized how marvelous your Dad must have been ... even though he may have needed that coat hangers for some of you!

Thank you for sharing his lessons because he continues to be the master teacher for us when you take that mic and speak so passionately from that inner place where you found the power of God's intention for your life.

A Great Insurance Policy: No Fees

Feast of the Guardian Angels

Apologies for yesterday's silence. Blogs may be inconsistent for the next week: attending a conference in Henderson, NV for the week.

Today, in addition to the feast of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, the Church celebrates a day honoring the Guardian Angels. Their primary purpose, of course, is to praise and worship God in his heavenly kingdom. Additionally these heavenly creations serve as an expression of God's genuine care for each of us.

In our times all of us are facing the very expensive outlay of long term health insurance. Even in my Archdiocese it is now a reality for all priests: all must purchase a long-term health policy. But all of us realize that we live longer but not necessarily healthier years. Nonetheless we will pay as much as we can afford to have such insurance.

This feast reminds me that in a way God provides an insurance policy for each of us. He has promised always to be with us. In a way he has assigned an agent to watch over us: his angels, my guardian angel for each of us individually. How many reading this blog and others, how many seek the assurance of the divine insurance each day? It is not expensive, you know: only a minute or two each day in prayer with that heavenly agent who handles your policy!

These are the words of your Church in today's Eucharistic Liturgy for the Guardian Angels: God our Father, in your loving providence, you send your angels to watch over us. Hear our prayers, defend us always by their protection and let us share your life with them forever. Amen.

Long-term health insurance, medicare and medicaid take care of our bodies. Today's feast is a calling to invest in a policy to care for your soul. Each day spend time with your guardian angel: give the angel a name! Make it real! Don't forget, your angel will not require one cent of your funds only one or two minutes each day. Can you find a better option!