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Posts Tagged ‘Bible encouragement’

Encouragement to Keep Going, Even When the Way Forward Is Unclear

Posted in Easter, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for May 4, 2025:

All in one place:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050425.cfm

In the context of each Bible book:

  1. Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41
  2. Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13
  3. Revelation 5:11-14
  4. John 21:1-19 

What stands out to me from this week’s readings:

In the gospel for May 4, Jesus calls the apostles, including Peter, “children” (John 21:5) as if they are elementary school students, and he’s the teacher. In the previous chapter, he called them “brothers” (John 20:17). What’s the reason for the difference? Well, maybe this video reflection with Jeff Cavins and Jonathan Roumie provides an answer. In going fishing, the apostles try to go back to where they started, as if they haven’t seen the empty tomb, as if they haven’t seen Jesus alive at least twice.

What I’m saying about the readings:

So if you still struggle to have faith and hope, if you’re tempted to give up, if it’s ever taken you a lot of study and a lot of mistakes before you learned or accepted something, you’re in the company of the apostles in the Gospel passage for May 4. And you haven’t seen Jesus the way they do in the passages that come before this one.

What someone else is saying about this week’s readings:

Jenny Jackson poses to us the question Jesus poses to Peter in the Gospel for May 4. I need time to reflect on the answer to this question. I trust that taking this time will allow the Holy Spirit to give to me what Jenny Jackson wanted during the time she describes in her reflection. Okay, so I don’t entirely trust, but I trust enough to declare my intention of trusting, of being open.

What I’m saying that doesn’t have to do with the readings:

As I’ve written so often here, I may not post next week. In fact, unless something surprising happens, I won’t. I feel like I’m just going through the motions on this blog lately. I do want to acknowledge that going through the motions when one doesn’t feel like it often has value. It builds perseverance. And I believe in a God who works behind the scenes and under the surfaces of life.

But I also read on another blog recently about prioritizing quality over quantity. That’s what I want to do. I’m seeing that the post on this blog that gets the most views is one that when I wrote it, I felt I had an insight to share that I wasn’t seeing in a lot of other places. Most weeks, I don’t feel that way. Most of my posts get one or two views.

Writing this blog has helped me appreciate in a new way the work that preachers and spiritual writers do. It’s quite a challenge to keep stories and messages that are so familiar feeling fresh and resonant. The challenge feels like an even greater one to face every week, as so many spiritual leaders do.

Now I’ve never published this blog to get followers or to go viral. I’ve always said that if what I write here resonates with one other person, it’s worth doing. And sometimes it has helped me feel like I’m getting my perspective out there in a world where it feels like homilies mainly have non-disabled married people with kids and without mental health struggles as their target audience. Other times, I’ve felt sure that despite my original vision for this blog, I’m not reaching spiritual seekers who may feel invisible in many spiritual communities. I’ve felt like I’m not really engaging with the texts, not bringing myself as I am to them.

So what now? I’ll tell you what I’m not doing. I’m not deleting this blog. Therefore, if there are posts that resonate with you, I want to let you know they aren’t going anywhere. I’m just going to come back to this blog when I have something I really need to share. As I was bothered by something yesterday and praying this morning, I got a couple ideas for spiritual essays. I may develop these ideas at my own pace and share them here if and when I’m ready.

I plan to journal whenever I feel prompted to and not put any pressure on myself to share what I write in my journal. Maybe this low-pressure practice will also generate writing I want to share here.

This week’s prayer:

Come, Holy Spirit! Bring my heart to life with Your love. Help me recognize it everywhere. Show me how to use the gifts You gave me to share it. Amen.

Works cited:

Cavins, Jeff, and Johnathan Roumie. “Holy Land: Easter Sunday.” Hallow, 20 Apr. 2025, hallow.com/prayers/1077275/.

Jackson, Jenny. “Third Sunday of Easter: May 04, 2025.” Catholic Women Preach, FutureChurch, 2025, www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/05042025.

“Third Sunday of Easter — Lectionary: 48.” Daily Readings, Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2nd typical ed, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2025, https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050425.cfm.

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Reflections on Privilege, Faith, and the Beatitudes

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for February 16, 2025:

  1. Jeremiah 17:5-8
  2. Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6
  3. 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20
  4. Luke 6:17, 20-26

What stands out to me from this week’s readings:

Contrasts stand out. I see contrasts between fertility and barrenness, between emptiness and fullness, and between sorrow and joy. The readings tell me that making room for God makes room for life and growth. In contrast, putting all one’s trust in the ways of human beings, especially in individual humans, is misleading. It prevents a person from being part of a circle that expands easily   so he she can grow and embrace life. It leads to dissatisfaction instead of openness and depth because no human is all-knowing or all-powerful.

What Someone Else Is Sharing about This Week’s Readings:

The readings for February 16 inspired Julia Murphy to reflect on the effect privilege can have on a person’s relationship with God. She reflects on this topic through the memory of a service immersion trip experience. She also points out that, regardless of how a person is or isn’t privileged, the Beatitudes aren’t telling the people who receive them to be passive. She reminds us that God calls us to wake up so we can tell the difference between wants and needs. Once we’ve discerned what’s needed, God calls us to cooperate with each other and with the prompting of the Holy Spirit to address our needs and the needs of others.

What I’m Saying:

Before I read Julia Murphy’s words, I didn’t know what to write in this section other than to repeat the themes of the text in different ways. The passages seem pretty self-explanatory, and especially in the case of the Beatitudes in the gospel passage, so familiar. What could I say about the Beatitudes that’s more than a list of “shoulds?” How does my gut react to the Beatitudes?

When I went back to this week’s gospel passage seeking answers to these questions, the passage reminded me of something that stood out when I first revisited it. The reading makes a point of telling us that when Jesus preached about the Beatitudes, he didn’t stand on a mountain or in a boat. He’s not depicted as looking down on the great crowd of his disciples. He’s not separated from them by the framework of a boat. Rather, we are told “he stood on a stretch of level ground” (Luke 6:17). I get the idea He was scanning the crowd as he spoke, meeting the eyes of this individual, then that one. I imagine Him seeming to each person as if he spoke only to him or her.

To anyone who sees him or herself in the blessed group, he offers encouragement. To anyone who recognizes him or herself in the opposite group, His warnings might imply questions:

If you’re rich, how did you get that way? Who helped you get there? Have they reaped the benefits as well? How can you show your appreciation? How can you share your more-than-enough with those who don’t have enough?

  • If you’re filled, what are you filled with? Does it take care of and treat kindly the body and mind God has given you? Where do you make room for God? For recognizing the injustice in your midst?
  • If you’re laughing now, what are you laughing at? Are you laughing at someone else’s expense? Someone else’s misfortune? Or can you laugh at your own frailty, imperfections, weaknesses? Can you left so that you don’t take them so seriously that you think God can’t work with you through them and despite them.

Many of us who can read these words might be rich by the standards of the much of the world. And yet lack of privilege can take different forms in different people’s lives at different times. Why? Because different factors contribute to each person’s sense of agency and independence. The truth is, a sense of independence isn’t permanent for anyone. We’re born needing others, and we die needing others. So many events in between lead us to ask God and one another for help. And that’s okay. That’s honest.

This Week’s Prayer:

Lord, grant us the grace to make room for You in our lives so we can see and hear as You do. Amen.

Scripture Translation Used:

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Lectionary: 78.” Daily Readings, Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2nd typical ed, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2025, https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021625.cfm.

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A Rose Is Beautiful — Thorns and All

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , on July 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for July 7:

  1. Ezekiel 2:2–5
  2. Psalm 123:1–2, 2, 3–4
  3. 2 Corinthians 12:7–10
  4. Mark 6:1–6

Beyond this week’s readings:

I’m mostly taking a break from the blog this week, but I wanted to list the readings and offer a prayer.

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help us to experience Your power in our vulnerability and to recognize that Your power is the power of love. Help us not to cling to our expectations and preconceived notions so that neither limit our ability to recognize You and to experience Your love. I pray this prayer in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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