Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

  In the Gospel today we read that as Jesus comes in sight of the city of Jerusalem, he 'sheds tears over it' because of the inability of its inhabitants to welcome the message of peace. In the Book of the Apocalypse John 'wept bitterly' because there was nobody fit to open the scroll and read it. This is the awareness of the human condition which limits us from that fulness of life which God continually offers to each of us.  Revelation 21: 4 reminds us that ‘God will wipe away every tear’ yet Psalm 80:5 says that the Lord ‘has fed them with the bread of tears and made them to drink tears in large measure.” So which is it? Does God want to console us when we are hurting or does he want to make us cry?   We cry because we are sad or fed-up. We cry because we are hurt and lonely. We cry because we have been betrayed or disillusioned. We cry because we have regret, we wonder why, how, where, what. We cry because...sometimes we don't even know why we are crying.  ...

Today the Gospel offers us the story of Zacchaeus. It is the story of the hospitality of God shining a light into Zacchaeus’ darkness. Jesus goes to eat at the house of a tax collector- and people complain!  For me I see that this story presents two kinds of “lostness.” There is the lostness of Zacchaeus, a social outcast, a man who suffers from a different kind of poverty than we normally think of—and there is the lostness of the crowd, which we need to identify with ourselves. We who call ourselves Christians are not immune to this kind of lostness. Often, we judge and we look-down-upon, we fold our arms and we distance ourselves, and we make little biting comments about each other to others or in our own minds.  Yet Zacchaeus could have declined the offer to have Jesus come and dine. God leaves us free. God is not about forced entry and the door must be opened from the inside as the beautiful image of ‘Christ, Light of the World’ depicts. We must make the decision to yield ...

I often wondered where the expression "throw in your 2 cents ", originated from. Well today as I was praying with the Gospel for this Sunday, the penny dropped (pardon the pun!). Whilst it has come to mean to voice an opinion or to express a view, in the past it was also associated with gambling, to throw your last two cents on the gambling table, to risk losing everything. In the Gospel  we will see the woman, a widow, in the Temple in Jerusalem who puts everything she has into the offering box...2 small coins. When you have a moment find 2 little 1 cent coins...they're very small, tiny! Hold them in your hand and imagine this is your life savings, your whole financial stability. Then give them away....freely, selflessly , no drama. Could you do it?  I always recall my nieces when they were toddlers and used to go to Mass with my mother. She would give them 2 coins, a bigger coin the 50 cent and a smaller coin, a euro. The 50 cent was for the donation basket and th...

After the Beatification of Blessed James Alberione I have walked among saints, even ones who have not yet been entered in the canon of saints....or who never may be.  I take a virtual tour in my mind and heart and think of the many tombs of Saints, Blesseds and Venerables and Servants of Gods I have prayed before.   More than often my prayer was very simple- pray for me as I try to imitate Jesus. Here is my little litany of saints. To Saint Paul, fervent apostle of Christ, I have asked your enthusiasm in preaching the Crucified Jesus, and acceptance of the thorn in the flesh which leads us to live only for Christ and not for ourselves. To Blessed James Alberione our Founder, I have asked intercession to be a faithful Disciple and a Pauline, following in the footsteps of St. Paul. Pray for us. To Blessed Timothy Giaccardo, our first Pauline priest, I have asked the simplicity of life and complete offering when sickness and trials comes. Pray for us. To Venerab...

I have at times witnessed a parenting technique my brother would use with my 5-year-old niece. When she was distracted or he wanted to call extra attention to what he was saying, he would tell her to put on her ‘listening ears.’ I would smile to myself as she made the gesture of putting her hands up to her ears to show that she was truly listening. This Sunday’s Gospel is asking each one of us to put on our ‘listening ears.’ We witness an encounter between a scribe and Jesus. When approached and asked which is the first the commandments, Jesus answers with the words of the Shema, a simple but life-immersing prayer which the Jewish people would pray at least twice daily to remind them of who gave them life, who gives love, who gives us other brothers and sisters to walk alongside and practice and receive love. It was a prayer also which would have been formative for Jesus, and he drew upon it in his teachings: ‘Listen, Israel…’  The call to listen should stir in us something – a sti...

This Sunday’s Gospel has us continue the journey with Jesus. He has left Jericho and is en-route to Jerusalem. We are told that his disciples and a large crowd are with Him and as they journey, they encounter a blind beggar. The encounter takes place at the side of the road, ‘para ho hodos’ as the Greek text offers. The word ‘hodos’ in Greek means a path, a way, which gives us the root for words like ‘syn-odos’ (which we are hearing a lot about in these days) and ‘ex-odos’. Often in life we can feel that we are sitting on the side of the road- stuck and not able to move forward. We can be like Bartimaeus, no longer moving toward goodness, fulfilment and fulness of life, but stuck in sin and death, that is, until we encounter Jesus. There is a new sense of hope for Bartimaeus, and he cries out to Jesus, not once but twice. The beautiful thing is that he is named- even though he is for many, a blind beggar, St. Mark names him and links him to his family, he is Bartimaeus, the son of Tima...

In the Gospel this Sunday we see James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approach Jesus and ask him for a favour. Jesus’ response : “What is it you want me to do for you?”. Their answer reveals that they want to be offered special places, power and prestige, either side of Jesus. When questioned if they were ready for all that the position would bring them, they affirm that they can. Little did they know at that stage where their discipleship, the true discipleship, would bring them! We cannot help but think of another Scripture passage which speaks of two men being at the right hand and left hand of Jesus. These men, however, did not request these places. It was on the Cross where Jesus had either side of Him, a thief, both condemned to death, just like Jesus. One would realise the humble privilege of being alongside the Saviour of the world, the other would mock Him even in the last hours of death, questioning his identity as the Beloved Son of the Father. St. Thomas Aquinas once sa...