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Following the Rules

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I am the firstborn of my parents. My mom knew just what she wanted her daughter to be like. I started dance classes when I was three in the hopes that I would become graceful and elegant. I did all of the “right” things and I was raised very conscious of the importance of my being a role model to my siblings for what to do and what not to do. I am a born and raised rule follower.

So it is difficult when I encounter someone like the leper in today’s Gospel, who, after receiving God’s mercy, receives a direct command from Jesus and then does the complete opposite. Jesus shows pity and touches the man, heals him and gives him very clear instructions, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed.” But what happens? “The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.” What!?! Didn’t you hear what Jesus told you? How could you not follow this one simple rule?

To top it off, no more is said about the man’s apparent disobedience. Mark continues on to Chapter 2 and the healing of the paralytic. The commentaries I consulted had nothing to say about this portion of the story but it is the part of the story that my well-trained eldest child brain can’t let go.

And when I am really honest with myself, some of my problem is that I am jealous. Not of the obvious things like the direct miracle of his healing, but because the man was so excited he just couldn’t stop talking about Jesus. He may not have followed instructions, but he sure followed the leader. I want that.

I have been so fortunate to not have had any major health issues in my 57 years. I have had the usual bumps and bruises (Sorry, Mom, despite your best efforts, I am neither graceful nor elegant!), bugs and bothers, but nothing that has disrupted the long term trajectory of my life. Yet, there are countless small healings and blessings that have graced my path through life. Times when things could have gone bad and didn’t. Yet, I don’t focus on those things. I fuss when things don’t go the way I think they should, when my way is not The Way. Sometimes I get so busy following the rules, that I neglect to follow my leader. There are times when I need to let go of what I think should be and just revel in the fact that God’s got this. His healing and his blessings come in his time. He has his eye on me. “Even all the hairs on your head are counted. So do not be afraid…” (Matthew 10:30-31)

“He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.”

Dear Jesus, Lead me so that my life is such a reflection of you, your healing and joy that when I meet others, they too want to find come and find you.

If you catch Sheryl sitting still, you are most likely to find her nose stuck in a book. It may be studying with her husband, Tom as he goes through Diaconate Formation, trying to stay one step ahead of her 5th and 6th-grade students at St Rose of Lima Catholic School or preparing for the teens she serves as Director of Youth Evangelization and Outreach in her parish collaborative. You can reach her through her through www.youthministrynacc.com.

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Walking the Talk

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This is my note to myself at the beginning of 1 John. John is making a point. The community that John is writing to is under attack from false teachers. There were those who denied Jesus was the Christ and those who denied he was a true man. By denying Jesus is the Christ, they deny his humanity in order to ensure his divinity which is docetism, or they viewed Jesus as a mere stepping stone to a higher knowledge of God, which is Gnosticism. While we don’t know the specific heresy that John is speaking against, we do know that for John, true doctrine wasn’t just a point to be discussed or a lesson to be taught; for John, doctrine is to be visible in our conduct.

It’s all there is the beginning of the letter. “What was from the beginning”, Jesus was from the beginning. He is God without beginning or ending. He also is what the apostles have heard, seen with their eyes and touched with their hands. He is true flesh, true man. If we believe both those things, then everything else has to revolve around that belief.

I wasn’t raised in the Catholic Church and I remember going to Vacation Bible Schools or other events that would end in an altar call. I used to go up every time because as much as I wanted to be God’s child, I couldn’t see the evidence in my own life. I expected that when I accepted Jesus as my Savior that somehow, all my character flaws would melt away and I would be kinder, more patient, more loving. I took literally, “No one who remains in him sins.” My logic was I was definitely a sinner, therefore I must not have seen or known him. So despite my mother’s explanations that I didn’t need to go up every time, I did. I kept hoping that it would “take” and I would suddenly be the kind of person I so wanted to be.

What a relief to know now that conversion is not a once and done event. That every day I can experience conversion to living as the saint I am called to be by baptism. Every night, I can examine my conscience, ask forgiveness for where I have failed to live out the doctrine I profess and continue the process of conversion in the new day.

Jesus came to be flesh like us so that like him, we can be children of God. In all our sinfulness, in all our brokenness, in all our misery, God wants us for his own. To do that, he sent Jesus to show us the way. He sends the Holy Spirit even now to guide and comfort us along that way.

So as the Christmas season comes to a close this Sunday with the arrival of the Magi, let us still take time to celebrate, to cherish our status as adopted children of He who created us.

Let us remember too, that we are all called to be saints, children of God. That means that my grumpy neighbor, the person who cuts in front of me in the check out lane, the person at work who just gets under my skin, that one lady who always sings too loud and off-key at Mass, they too are God’s children, even if they don’t know it yet. Living out the doctrine of Jesus Christ, true God and true man in my conduct, means I need to treat them with the dignity they deserve as a child of God, whether I like it or not.

Like John, my conduct needs to speak my doctrine and my doctrine needs to inform my conduct. In other words, dear Lord, please help me to walk my talk.

Merry Christmas!

If you catch Sheryl sitting still, you are most likely to find her nose stuck in a book. It may be studying with her husband, Tom as he goes through Diaconate Formation, trying to stay one step ahead of her 5th and 6th-grade students at St Rose of Lima Catholic School or preparing for the teens she serves as Director of Youth Evangelization and Outreach in her parish collaborative. You can reach her through her through www.youthministrynacc.com.

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Miraculous Through the Ordinary

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When we receive our writing assignments, we “sign up” by putting our names by the dates for which we want to reflect and respond to the readings. I’d love to be able to say that I thoughtfully and prayerfully choose the readings I will write about, but the reality is that the spreadsheet for signing up usually arrives in the midst of a myriad of other tasks which are all demanding my attention and so I usually send up a quick prayer and try to choose two readings about 2 weeks apart, simply to make it easier to hit the deadlines.

But today, I have hit the reading lottery jackpot! This is one of my favorite, favorite stories in the Bible! I love Zechariah and Elizabeth because they remind me that God works amazing things through perfectly ordinary people. And I love the reminder that God is funny, I mean God is really funny.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are a devout Jewish couple, just going through life trying to do their best. Unfortunately for them, they are not blessed with children. For those of us who have lived through a multitude of people pressing you to have children, asking (what you thought were private and intimate) details of why you don’t have children, and explaining how their third cousin once removed finally got pregnant, we have some small insight into the deep disappointment with which Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. Childless women of Elizabeth’s time were not just interrogated, they were mocked and ridiculed. So it is at this late stage in the game, that we meet Zach and Liz, ‘righteous in God’s sight’ living outside of Jerusalem in the hill country. Not only are they childless, but they are also country folk! My people!

Zechariah is a priest and it is time for his division to head into Jerusalem to perform their regular duty in the Temple-liturgy, he is just doing his job. Zechariah draws “the lot” and is appointed to go into the inner sanctuary to offer incense while the others remain praying outside. Zechariah’s regular duty provides the setting for something extraordinary.

Gabriel shows up. There, standing to the right of the altar of incense is not just an angel, but one of the archangels. Zechariah gets scared.

Just as with Mary, Gabriel tells Zechariah not to be afraid, that his prayers have been heard and a child will be born. However, Zechariah takes a different approach than Mary. Zechariah argues with the angel. How can this be? I’m old and have you met my wife? (How many times do I argue when I should probably just be quiet!?!)

Can’t you just picture Gabriel sighing and taking a deep breath before answering? (I wonder if angels when appearing to us can roll their eyes?) “Listen, Zach, I stand before God and HE sent me to give you this good news, but since you have decided to just give me wordy arguments, you will now be without words until the child is born.” (I’ve taken the liberty of paraphrasing but, see, I told you God was funny!)

One thinks immediately of Abraham and Sarah, and how when Sarah laughed at the news she would have a child in her old age, God named the baby, Isaac which means laughter. Again, pretty funny, God.

From today’s first reading, we think of Manoah and his wife, who though childless, also conceived after a visit from an angel. Their child, Samson was consecrated to God, just as Zechariah and Elizabeth’s child would be. Having a child long after child-bearing years is not a stretch for God, nor is it even something new. In this way, the story of their child, John, takes its place in a long-standing sequence of events all for God’s purposes; the fulfillment of God’s promises.

The stories of these sons; Isaac, Samson, and John all prepare us for the coming of The Son. It also reminds us, that in the midst of the big things, and one could argue that the Incarnation was the biggest of the big, God responds to the smallest of hopes and desires as well. It is in the midst of ordinary people, doing their best to live out their faith on a day to day basis, that God resides and moves. Ahhh, that means there is hope for me yet.

See why I love this story?

Sheryl O’Connor is happiest in her role as wife to Tom. Together, they are discerning Tom’s call to the Diaconate and he is in his Aspirancy year with the Diocese of Kalamazoo. She is the Director of Youth Evangelization at her parish collaborative. 

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The Ocean of Mission

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In the Bible I use as my study Bible, the second half of today’s Gospel is labeled, The Privileges of Discipleship. Jesus tells his disciples that they are blessed because they get to see and hear what so many others desired greatly, but did not get to see and hear.

My initial reaction to this passage sort of brings out the chip on my shoulder. Kind of a response of, “Sure, rub it in, they got to see you in person and we don’t. I get it, they were privileged, special, blessed while the rest of us are just trying to get through on the words and stories they left us.” One would think that I would have learned by now, that there is always more than meets the eye and my first impressions are rarely correct.

In this passage from Luke, Jesus is guiding his disciples to a new perspective. Look at what comes before and after this passage. Just prior to this Jesus has sent out the 70 (or 72 depending on your preferred translation) who have gone out into the countryside to heal and cast out demons in His name. And lo and behold, it works! From timid followers who leave with nothing, they return rejoicing at the fruits of their labors. Just following this passage, a scholar attempts to trick Jesus by asking him about the law and eternal life. When Jesus turns the question back on him, the scholar responds with the Shema Yrasel, the centerpiece of Jewish prayer, “You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus responds by affirming the scholar and then expands on the meaning with the story of the Good Samaritan (whose title would have been an oxymoron to the Jews of Jesus’s time).

In the sending of the 70 (or 72), Jesus has begun to share his mission to spread God’s kingdom with his disciples. In the Good Samaritan, he shows us that mission isn’t just to the ones who live next to us, think like us or believe like us. Jesus is helping his disciples get used to the water so to speak, to get their toes wet before they have to swim in the ocean depths of the mission that He will leave for us, his disciples, to continue.

God’s ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55:8) It also isn’t about becoming the wisest, the most powerful, the most influential, the most productive. Jesus praises the Father because He has turned all this human thinking around and stood it on its head. Jesus is telling his disciples (both them and us) that life isn’t about what we expect it to be about. To live as a disciple, yes, we learn at the Master’s feet, but we need to always remember that all right knowledge, wisdom, understanding (Gifts of the Holy Spirit, anyone?) come from God and they only flower and produce fruit when rooted in love.

So the Church, in her wisdom, gives us this reading in these early days of Advent, to remind us. This season isn’t about bows and ribbons, parties and programs. It is about preparing our hearts for the shoot which will “sprout from the stump of Jesse.” Because we too are special, blessed and get the privilege of discipleship. Not as we think it should be, but as God desires it. The disciples saw and spoke with Jesus in the flesh. We take Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity into our very being. He changed them from the outside in, but He has reserved for us who follow the opportunity to be changed from the inside out.

And all that started with a babe in a manger. The prophet tells us that as a result of that babe, that shoot sprouted from Jesse, “the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord as the water covers the sea.”

And that brings us back to the ocean of mission, where we serve God by serving our neighbor. Anyone what to go swimming this Advent?

Sheryl O’Connor is happiest in her role as wife to Tom. Together, they are discerning Tom’s call to the Diaconate and he is in his Aspirancy year with the Diocese of Kalamazoo. She splits her time between Holy Family Healthcare where she is the Director of Strong Families Programs and her parish collaborative where she is the Director of Youth Evangelization.

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A Firm Disposition to do the Good

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“A virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person to not only perform good acts but to give the best of himself.” CCC #1803

As I write this, it is Thanksgiving week. A time set aside in our country for reflection and gratitude. You would think that it would be a peaceful time, with joy-filled family celebrations and goodwill being spread from friend to friend.

Yet, we hear (or experience first hand!) the tales of families for whom proximity brings tension or where the tension is so great that proximity to those we think should know and love us best is no longer an option. On the day set aside to remember how grateful we are for all we have, the advertising/media machine is going full tilt convincing us of stuff we still have to have and how we need to get a better deal on our stuff than our neighbor. This doesn’t exactly set the stage for a firm disposition to do the good, perform good acts or give the best of our selves.

It is in this context of the knowledge that we should be grateful but we are caught up in the stress and desire for what we don’t really need that we receive today’s readings with their predictions of the rough times to come before Jesus reappears. Jesus tells us straight out, a lot of crazy stuff is going to happen. It is going to be scary and people are going to try to deceive us, they will even try to convince us that He sent them. Don’t buy it! (Pun intended.)

So what are we to do? How do we keep putting one foot in front of the other and facing each new challenge when it just seems so hard to maintain our focus much less develop good habits?

The Holy Spirit gives us the gift of knowledge. If we rest on that gift and seek to know Jesus, we will receive the gift of understanding what he has taught us. We love him first, over anything else. We love our neighbor. Jesus gives us in the example of how he lived the understanding that love isn’t just words, it isn’t enough to just sing carols of peace and love. We are called to roll up our sleeves and work for it.

It takes the virtue of patience to ignore the siren call of this world to satisfy all our needs now and to wait on Jesus. Yet, that is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do in Luke. “Do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” We have to wait for His end. It takes patience to continue to follow His example when those who follow their own path seem to be the ones prospering. It takes a firm determination to not be distracted by those who offer shortcuts. We have to make a habit of being in prayer to stay connected to the one who “rules the world with justice and his people with constancy.” We need to routinely immerse ourselves in His word so that we have the confidence that “He has made the world firm, not to be moved.”

So I wish you patience this holiday season. Patience with those around us who are caught up in the world. Patience with yourselves as you discern how to best prepare for celebrating Jesus’s birth. Patience with God as He gives you all you need in His own time so that you are able to give back the best of yourself.

Sheryl O’Connor is happiest in her role as wife to Tom. Together, they are discerning Tom’s call to the Diaconate and he is in his Aspirancy year with the Diocese of Kalamazoo. She splits her time between Holy Family Healthcare where she is the Director of Strong Families Programs and her parish collaborative where she is the Director of Youth Evangelization.

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The Faith Of St. Teresa Of Avila

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Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the person I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me.

“This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.”

You gotta feel for Jonah. His is the unlikely prophet. (Can’t you just hear him saying, “Me, Lord, are you sure? See, look over there, there’s George. Look at George, he’d be much better. Yeah, that’s it, send George.” Since God doesn’t change his mind, Jonah changes his tactics. “Sure God, whatever you say. I’ll get right on that,” as he quite literally heads in the opposite direction.

Oh my goodness, how I can relate! There is a similar tape that plays in my mind telling me I am not good enough, smart enough, kind enough to do what God sets before me. And how many times have I assented to God’s will, only to put it on the bottom of my to-do list and say, “Sure, God, I’ll get to that.”

It is bad enough that God’s corrective action for Jonah is to have him cast overboard to spend 3 days in the belly of a fish. Once Jonah delivers his message, Assyria repents, is strengthened by God and eventually breaks Israel into pieces. It almost begs a sarcastic, “Thanks, God, glad I could help you but…”

But all the humor at Jonah’s expense aside, Jesus doesn’t make references lightly. The Israelites of Jonah’s time had turned away from God and God used a reluctant prophet to raise up the enemy who would destroy them.

In Jesus’s time, the Israelites have once again lost sight of what is important and reject Jesus. More concerned with maintaining traditional roles and precision law-abiding, they have lost sight of the law as a means to a relationship with God. They too reject a prophet, not just a prophet, “but one who is greater than Jonah”.

So what does this mean for us today? It is easy to look around and say, “Evil generation? Yes, we’ve got that covered.” Fortunately, we also have the saint whose Feast Day is today, St. Teresa of Avila. She is a guide. She too lived in an evil generation. Joining a Carmel in search of a quiet life and contemplative prayer, she instead found a place where wealthy and social elite gathered bringing with them trivial conversations and a worldly focus.

From a wealthy family herself, Teresa could have been content with being one of the society women who frequented the monastery, pious in their location and poisonous with worldly values. But St. Teresa joins the contemplative life and reforms it from within by looking to herself. Well aware that none of us have the power to live a holy life on our own, St. Teresa opened herself up so completely to the Holy Spirit that she is able to hear Jesus himself speak.

So like, St. Teresa of Avila, let us not bemoan our own evil generation and let us learn from the Israelites of Jesus’s time that the law of God is a path to Him and set to change the only one we can-ourselves.  To be honest, St. Teresa, you scare the bejeebers out of me because you show me that there is no obstacle to being a contemplative besides me. Come, Holy Spirit.

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary healthcare practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/.

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Beauty And The Beast And Our Catholic Faith

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“I consider all things rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

You know how sometimes someone says something or makes a new connection for you and not only does a light bulb go off, but you want to just smack your head and wonder, “Why didn’t I ever see that?”

Last week, I heard someone draw a parallel between Beauty and the Beast and our Catholic Faith? Bear with me, and trust me, at first, I thought he was stretching it too.

In the beginning, the prince has everything he could want. He has power; he has wealth, he is surrounded by people who cater to his every need, he indulges every pleasure. We tend to look at people like him and be a little jealous.

But then he is approached and asked for the smallest of charities, to provide some shelter from the cold. He has nothing to gain from the old woman and turns her away. She warns him not to judge by appearances.

Because of his lack of mercy for the woman, he and the people around him are transformed by his vision of the world. He loses his human appearance and looks to all the world like a beast. Even worse, the people near him, lose their humanity to become objects. His punishment has been to make his invisible relationships visible to all the world. His only way out is to go beyond his shallow worldview and to love and become beloved.

Beauty and the Beast is one of those handfuls of universal tales which have variations in all cultures across the world. And why not? A tale as old as time, (haha, get it? But seriously, some researchers say it is over 4000 years old) it is the story of humanity from Adam and Eve on down. Adam and Eve have everything, they have been provided for in the Garden of Eden, they have a loving relationship with their Creator, and yet, they doubt God’s desire to provide for them. They trust the appearances of the devil and use the fruit, not for the purpose it was intended but to try to be something other than what they are. Their invisible doubts that separated them from God are made visible as they are expelled from the Garden of Eden. And as we all know, life has never been the same.

We all now search for the intimate relationship they lost. We are created with a desire to love, to be beloved and to send that love out into the world. Like the Prince (and Adam and Eve), we become distracted by all sorts of things that keep us from true love. We substitute love with power, a desire to control the events and people around us. We use people to gain influence and material wealth, not realizing that when we undermine their inherent dignity, we also undermine our own. We replace love with pleasure, using people and things to help us “feel” good; physically, mentally, and spiritually. We forget that feelings are transitory emotions and we are created for eternity. We put knowledge before love, trusting in our own ability to find truth rather than trusting the one who is Truth. We create all sorts of havoc in big and small ways, all in search of love.

In the story, it is a poor farmer’s daughter who teaches the beast/prince about love and saves him. As his heart opens to love, he and all those around him regain their human forms.

As Catholics, we know who saves us. We don’t follow one who teaches about love; we follow the one who IS love. Jesus the Christ, God become man, left the beauty of heaven to live among us, suffer and die. But death could not hold him, and through his resurrection, we too gain eternal life. “No greater love than this than to lay down one’s life for a friend.”

As Catholics, we also know it is not only about the “happily ever after” of love in heaven. Our faith is not only words we speak or prayers we offer. Our faith transforms us so that what is invisible is made visible in our actions, our works of love, mercy, charity.

It is the most beautiful of paradoxes, it all is summed up in the Gospel acclamation for today, when we regard all as rubbish so that we can gain Christ, he gives us everything back and what is more, it is all transformed in his love so that we begin our heaven here on earth by living out what it means to love, to be beloved and we serve God by serving one another. It is in that service, that reaching out in love for another that we find He has satisfied our own desires.

Dear Lord, help me today to see all those around me as you see them. Help me to be open to the little ways of showing love and providing small comforts to others in this world so that they too may find your comfort and love in the world to come.

Praise, God. He is amazing.

Now, excuse me, I have to go watch that movie again.

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary health care practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/

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Our Lady Of Sorrows

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“‘Woman, behold, your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother.'”

Biblical historians generally agree on which disciple this was of the twelve. Yet, he is not recorded with a specific name. As Catholics, who embrace Mary as our Spiritual Mother, we know that this disciple stands in for all of us, the disciples to follow. Jesus gave us his own
physical Mother to be our Spiritual Mother. Jesus told Mary to behold us. Mary doesn’t just see us, Mary beholds us. Mary beholds you. Yes you, she sees you as someone impressive and worthy of attention. She sees your heart, your efforts, not only the
results. She beholds me too and loves me in spite of my double chin, an extra 30 pounds and my often failed attempts to be a good daughter of the King.

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, right smack dab in the middle of September, a whole month devoted to remembering and consoling Mary in her sorrows. Mary voluntarily suffered right along with Jesus and experienced his pain as only a mother can feel the pain and suffering of her children. So, too, Mary is now feeling our pain, our sorrow, our grief in the midst of so much upheaval and hurt.
At the halfway point in a month dedicated to consoling our Mother in her grief, what can we do?

Are we adding to her pain or are we bringing healing and peace?
In preparing for Consecration to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort presents Mary as the Queen we can approach even when we may be afraid to approach the King. When a lowly servant had a gift for a king, the servant might approach the queen to present the gift on his behalf. What might have been a small, lowly gift, when presented by a queen on a golden platter becomes rich beyond what is visible. So too, Mary presents us to the King. She takes our meager gifts, the small sacrifices we offer up and presents them to our King, God himself in such a way that they become the finest gifts in all creation.

So what happens when we make a gift of our whole self? When Mary beholds you, when she beholds me, she takes whatever gift we can offer and burnishes it, cleans it up, makes it worthy of the King. When we go even further and make a gift of our whole selves, not just the bits and pieces we are comfortable showing, Mary takes us and presents our gift of self in the finest fashion. When Mary, as the Mediatrix of all Grace, sees that we intend to do God’s will, she
strengthens us, she intercedes for us, she will help us live out that good intention when we are unable to do it on our own.

So what if we each starting beholding each other? What if we focused on the gift that God created each one of us to be? What if we used our time, talent and treasure to be a small oasis of peace and healing for each other in a crazy, crazy world? Just think how much consolation we could bring to Mary and to each other.

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary health care practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/

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Openly Humble

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“I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”

Paul is so focused. He is so grounded in his purpose of bringing the message of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, that he doesn’t let anything get in his way. Not even his shortcomings or weaknesses.

Shortcomings? Weakness? Oh, you mean those things about ourselves that we like to tuck away? Cover up? Stick in the back of our closet and try to forget?

As I write this, I have the results show from America’s Got Talent on television. (Yes, it is my summer guilty pleasure.) Simon Cowell was speaking after receiving a star on the Walk of Fame and said, “If anyone says fame is a bad thing, I don’t know what you are talking about, it is the best thing in the world.” So much of how our society functions are about only showing the parts of ourselves that will get us our 15 minutes of fame.

St. Paul didn’t want fame. He doesn’t want to be strong. He isn’t trying to use every tool at his disposal to convince us he is right. St. Paul turns the idea of success on its head and gives us what feels like the exact opposite of the world’s message. St. Paul, who evangelized so much of the world, embraces his weakness, his fear, and openly trembles, for he knows that it isn’t about him at all. If we put our faith in St. Paul, we miss the point!

If our life’s goal is to get to heaven and to take as many with us as possible, St. Paul does so by being so openly humble, so open to God’s spirit and power, that we don’t rely on St. Paul, but can see God working through him and are drawn to God himself.

Satan works in our insecurities and desire to present only a certain version of ourselves to the world. He thrives in the backs of closets, in the tucked away parts of ourselves. It is only through voluntarily bringing all that to light that God can begin to work. God works when we embrace our weaknesses. This is why he gave us the Sacrament of Confession and why we need to go often. Only through grace, can we allow him to be what the world sees when they look at us.

Heavenly Father,

Help me to be like St. Paul and embrace my weaknesses, to live with humility; secure in the knowledge of who I am in you. Help me to remember that true success is about creating spaces for others to fall in love with you.

Allow me to see the world with your eyes, hear with your ears, love with your heart. And when others look at me, may they see only you shining through all that I say and do.

Amen!

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary health care practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/.

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Out Of Whack

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“Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its head were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars of the sky.”

Lately, I have just felt off, out of sync. Like if life is a play, everyone else already knows their lines and I have yet to see the script. It seems I stumble through my days trying not to get in anyone’s way and crawl into bed at night with little strength left or the will to even say a prayer. I fall asleep before my handsome husband makes his way to bed; only to wake the next morning unrested and not at all feeling prepared to do it all over again.

And it seems like it is more than just me. When I look around, it feels like much of the world is out of whack too. Cardinals, the princes of the Church, and bishops are being exposed for misusing their authority and severely damaging both beautiful individuals and causing scandals so vast that it can’t be surprising if many turn away from God and His Church. In a dark world which is demanding that tolerance be valued over truth, they are providing grist for the mill.

“…the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit.”

Oh, how I need this today! The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven is our day to celebrate that we have a spiritual mother who has not only gone before us on earth, she is already in heaven and interceding for us. When life gets rough and we need our Mom, we know right where to find her!

Today’s Gospel is the most we ever hear from Mary and God’s mercy gets two mentions. Even when the very stars fall from the sky (or the princes from their thrones) God’s mercy is there. The work of our life lies in how we respond to that mercy. If we want to live a truly holy life, not in a floating-angel-singing-all-day-type of way, but if we want to be holy in a crazy-out-of-whack-world-where-it-is-hard-to-find-and-keep-our-footing way, there is no easier, surer way to do that than to go to our Mother and imitate her virtues. (Just ask St Louis de Montfort!)

Virtues are more than just good habits, virtues are moral goods and something which is a moral good is not only good for us personally, but is a good for all of society. Virtues shine as lights in the world and are truth visible in the action of our behavior. As others have done since the early days of Christianity, in Mary’s virtues we can refocus and draw nearer to Jesus, even when the world doesn’t feel right. (We know it isn’t about our feelings anyway, those fickle bedfellows who come and go as they please.) It is about obeying the Father, following the Son, and cooperating with the Holy Spirit and if we are going to figure out how to do all that, there is no one better suited to teach us than the most faithful daughter of the Father, the most holy and humble Mother of the Son, and the most pure spouse of the Holy Spirit.

I always tell my sister, if you see me getting out of whack, or having a hard a time staying focused, just ask me when was the last time I prayed the rosary. While I always intend to pray the rosary daily, the fruit, or sometimes more obviously, the lack of fruit in my life is a dead giveaway of just how much time I am spending with my heavenly Mom.

So in this current time of life when the darkness of discord and distrust seems to be the pervasive way of the world, I can choose to respond to God’s mercy by committing myself to the rosary anew. I can offer up study of Mary’s virtues. I can prayerfully meditate on how those truths look in action and through God’s grace, I can carry with me, the light of Mary, my Mother which is her Son, Jesus.

If you see me soon, please keep me accountable and ask me when I last prayed the rosary.

Hail Mary, most pure 

Hail Mary, most prudent

Hail Mary, most humble

Hail Mary, most faithful

Hail Mary, most devout

Hail Mary, most obedient

Hail Mary, most poor

Hail Mary, most patient

Hail Mary, most merciful

Hail Mary, most sorrowful

Mary, Mother of us all, pray for us, your children!

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary healthcare practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/

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Familiarity And Miracles

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In his book, Catholic Christianity, Peter Kreeft sets out the 3 C’s of any religion; Creed, Code, and Cult. Our Creed is what we believe, the words we speak. Our Code is how we live; our works. Our Cult is our practice, our worship.

We Catholics recite our Creed at every Mass and share it with most other Christian faiths. Just think of it, every Sunday, as we attend the heavenly banquet made present in the Mass (note: big miracle right there), we recite the Creed. Rather than a rote recitation, we should be joining this proclamation of faith with great joy, remembering that what we each proclaim individually, binds us together and our collective voices reach around the world and ring out in heaven.

Our Code is how we live. This is where the people in Jeremiah’s time had fallen down, just as we do now. Our Code is first broken down in the 10 Commandments, and then swept together in Jesus’s great Commandment to love God with our all hearts, with all our minds, and all our souls, and to love one another (paraphrased from Matthew 22:36-40). Jesus sets the standard. “No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jesus actually died for us, his friends. Most of us aren’t called to physically die. We are called to myriads of daily little deaths, where we give up a piece of ourselves, of what we want for the
good of another. That driver that ticked me off in traffic, did I let him in or cut him off? When my spouse wants to tell me about his day, do I put my phone down and give him my full attention or do I multi-task our relationship? Our Code is further deepened by the Beatitudes. Jesus outlines the values that drive our behavior and just in case we didn’t catch on, he gives us concrete examples for our daily life in the Corporal and Spiritual works of Mercy. We can look at this list and ask ourselves, do my words of belief lead me to these works on a daily basis?

Our Cult is how we offer worship. Occasionally, someone will tell me they find the Mass boring and they just don’t get anything out of it. While we share our Creed with many of our Protestant brothers and sisters, our Cult or worship, how we approach gathering before God sets us apart. In the Church before Mass we don’t talk to one another, not because we don’t want to be friendly, but because we know we are there to see someone greater than all of us. It is time to center our hearts and minds on our encounter with Jesus, who will be present body and blood, soul and divinity in the Mass. Just like the people of Jesus’s villages didn’t see his miracles because he was so familiar. These are great miracles that we may overlook through familiarity.

We find Jesus first in our priest, who is in persona Christi, in the place of Christ in the Mass. These men have sacrificed earthly families and what the world tells us is success to be present to us in Jesus’s place. They offer our sacrifices and through them Jesus makes himself present in the Eucharist. That’s a pretty big deal.

The words of the Bible are the incarnation of the Spirit. Like Jesus, the Bible is fully human and fully divine. The homily is meant to guide us to the Word. (Not getting anything out of today’s homily? Focus on the Word. Jesus is there.)

In the Eucharist, God makes himself fully present to us. Jesus promised he would never leave us alone and keeps that promise in a very real way.

Finally, Jesus is present to us in one another. Think about what happens on a physical level after your receive the Eucharist. Jesus is even more than simply someone we are incapable of conceiving fully, He is fully present in our bodies and becomes a part of who are, physically and spiritually. He is what we carry out into the world.

These are all familiar miracles.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t perform great miracles in his own village, not because he can’t but because Jesus is so familiar, the people have no faith. Do we lose sight of the miraculous because it becomes familiar? We follow Jesus and are present in our villages everyday. When others look at us, are they drawn to know what we know, to love what we love? Or does familiarity with our works strengthen their disbelief?

Jesus, help me to see your great miracles in the Mass and not to lose them through familiarity. Guide me always to live the word, the work and the worship of our Catholic faith in a way that draws others to see through me to You. Amen.

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary healthcare practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/

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Do The Right Thing

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“They’ll do the right thing if I have to drag them kicking and screaming all the way!” Ever said anything like this? I know I have and if you are like me, we are in good company with St. James whose feast day is today. James and John (in Matthew, it is their mother who approaches Jesus; in Mark, it is the brothers themselves) desire to be at the left and right hands of Jesus; the positions of power for those who know the King. They are looking to be in the positions of authority when Jesus comes into his kingdom. A clue to how they see using that authority, comes in St. Luke’s Gospel, when the Samaritans did not welcome Jesus, James and John ask Jesus if he wanted them to call “fire down from heaven to consume them.”

This phrase, “if I have to drag them kicking and screaming,” came up in an argument with someone I admire and respect recently. We were having a rather heated discussion about how to lead a team to “do the right thing.” Our goal was admirable. We were discussing a plan for how to become more open, to go out of our comfort zone to reach out to others.

But somehow, for all our good intentions, we got lost. I mean really lost. The Good Lord knows I have used this exact same phrase more than a few times in my years as a school or parish leader. But somehow hearing it in this context shocked me as surely as if I had touched a live electrical wire. Within 2 days, someone else made a very similar comment to me about bringing people along, even against their wishes. I get it, I have been so sure that I knew the right solution that I just had to get others to see it my way to make it all work out. Just follow my plan and all will be well.

The Samaritans reject Jesus, so James and John plan to rain fire from heaven to make them change their minds and accept Jesus.

Jesus rebuked them and today’s reading rebukes those of us who attempt to use power or authority to overpower others. Jesus shows us that true leadership is humble. The purpose of leadership is to serve. Leaders who follow Jesus must first strive to be servants. Leaders who follow Jesus are not to impose their will on others, but to create opportunities for others to encounter our living God and to find their purpose in serving His will.

We humans, leaders included, are earthen vessels. We are fragile, afflicted, perplexed and persecuted. And that is a good thing! It is precisely because of our fragile, afflicted, perplexed, and persecuted state that God can be glorified. “Indeed, everything is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.”

Of all of today’s readings, it is the Gospel Acclamation that pierced my heart. “I chose you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.”

Whatever my plans are, it is God’s plan that will bear fruit that will last.

Even when we find ourselves in a leadership position, God’s plan is for us to be servants. In order to serve Him, we must serve one another. In order to serve Him, we must serve those who look to us for leadership, we must serve those who lead us and we must even serve those with whom we flat out disagree. This is certainly antithetical to how the world views leadership. James and John were looking for power in the kingdom they thought was to come. Jesus shows us that his kingdom is already here and he has chosen us to go forth into the kingdom and bear fruit through humility and charity.

Heavenly Father, Please send your Holy Spirit to inspire me to lead with humility, to remember in order for my plans to bear fruit, my plans must be your plans, and your plans always include serving first. Help me to do, not just the right thing, but to do your thing. Amen. Glory to God.

While wearing many hats, Sheryl O’Connor is the wife and study buddy of Thomas O’Connor. Not having received the gift of having their own children, their home is filled with 2 large dogs and their hearts with the teens and youth with whom they work in their parish collaborative. Sheryl is the Director of Strong Families Programs for Holy Family Healthcare which means her job is doing whatever needs to be done to help parents build strong Catholic families. Inspired by the works of mercy, Holy Family Healthcare is a primary healthcare practice in West Michigan which seeks to honor the dignity of every individual as we would Christ. Find out more at https://www.holyfamilyhealthcare.org/