Second Sunday of Lent • Year A
Every year, on the second Sunday of Lent, we recount the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop. We hear that Jesus “takes leave of” the busy and demanding activity of his ministry and steps away to devote time to prayer. Accompanied by three disciples, Peter, James, and John (I would suggest they represent dimensions of who we are as followers of Jesus), Jesus is “transfigured” while in the presence of Moses and Elijah.
First Sunday of Lent • Year A
Lent is most truly a journey of the soul. The richness of the liturgical experience as well as the continual call to turn within, is a challenging expectation, but is truly at the source of everything that matters. Augustine describes that in his Confessions as he calls out to God “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Because it’s not always easy to do God’s will, rather than our own, God has given us resources to help us. He has given us each other by whom we can be inspired and encouraged. He has given us the Eucharist, his Body and Blood, to nourish and strengthen us to make our choices as spiritually mature human beings.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Feeling powerless against the times and events of the world? We can begin with taking care of those closest to us. These readings invite us not to underestimate the power of small everyday acts of kindness. If we begin with taking care of those closest to us, we can trust that our light will break forth like the dawn. When we do this we will “live rightly and change the times” as Saint Augustine prophetically taught in his sermon 311.
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year A
Not many of you are “movers and shakers” … people of power followed constantly by the press to hear what you think or what you will do. For sure, not many of you come from the upper classes, those higher reaches of society where supposedly the “best people” dwell. But that means nothing. What means something is that you are among those who have been called to be with God for all eternity. God wants silly old you, to show the worldly wise that their wisdom is worthless if they take it too seriously. God wants powerless old you, as weak as you are, to show those who pride themselves on their strength that a human is nothing if not supported by God.
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time • Year A
God is seeking us even when we are not seeking him. Augustine admits that we are just a small portion of God’s creation carrying about the signs of our mortality. But we are not left out of the possibility of an encounter and communion with God. Some may be called in the way Simon and Andrew were called -as if waiting to be touched in their own deep faithful disposition- while many others are questioning, struggling to see and hear, to comprehend the mystery of themselves and God. Augustine was one of them. That is why he insisted that we ought to seek, knock on the door and call upon the Lord.
