Month: March 2022

In The Vineyard

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How has your Lent been so far? We’re just over two weeks into this liturgical season so it’s a good time for us to pause and evaluate. How are your chosen sacrifices going: strong or have you given up already? Or maybe you’re on the cusp of giving up? How’s your prayer been? What about your almsgiving? 

In the spirit of full honesty, for me, Lent has been a struggle from the very beginning. I had high hopes for this season (maybe too high) and they pretty much all came tumbling down almost immediately. I’ve still kept up with my chosen sacrifice of giving up Netflix but everything I had envisioned for prayer has been flipped upside down and turned around. 

Today’s Gospel also presents us with a great opportunity to evaluate where sin has entered into our life, seeing how Lent itself provides a great opportunity to rid our hearts of sin to make more room for Christ. 

There is a consistent theme of greed among the tenants of the vineyard. They wanted the produce all to themselves, which is why they killed the two groups of servants. Eventually, they also killed the landowner’s son in order to acquire his inheritance. 

Maybe you aren’t greedy to the point of killing someone but greed is a vice that can have a tight grip on our hearts. Do you tend to want more, more, more, even if you know what you have is enough? Do you thank God in prayer for the things that you have? Have you thanked others for the things that you have received from them or are you always wanting more from them? Is your pursuit of the material goods and things of this world more important to you than your pursuit of your relationship with God? These questions can help us begin to examine our consciences when it comes to greed as well as lead us to consider the other vices and sins that may be present in our lives. 

So take time to not only evaluate how your Lent is going but also to examine your heart. Confession opportunities abound during the season of Lent – do not be afraid to approach the Lord in the Sacrament of Reconciliation during this penitential season. 

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Erin Madden is a Cleveland native and graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville. She is passionate about the Lord Jesus, all things college sports and telling stories and she is blessed enough to get paid for all three of her passions. You can catch her on old episodes of the Clarence & Peter Podcast on YouTube as well as follow her on Twitter@erinmadden2016.

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St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Saint of the Day for Friday, March 18, 2022

“Make your fold with the sheep; flee from the wolves: depart not from the Church,” Cyril admonished catechumens surrounded by heresy. These were prophetic words for Cyril was to be hounded by enemies and heretics for most of his life, and although they could exile him from his diocese he never left his beloved Church. Cyril’s life began a few years before Arianism (the heresy that Jesus was not divine or one in being with the Father) and he lived to see its suppression and …

A Life Of Prayer With Psalm 1 And Beyond

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How do you pray? How do you talk to Jesus?

I have always found it so hard. In this world and age, we are so distracted by the activity around us, it is hard to focus on finding inner peace and conversing with Christ.

Too many times instead we rely on the resources and comforts of our Earthly life: money, security, worldly pleasures.

But in contrast, today’s First Reading states “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh.” And what follows is, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream”.

Psalm 1 paints a beautiful image of a source of life, water hydrating and nourishing our soul. The Psalms are actually one of my favorite sections of the entire Bible, as they always seem to so eloquently capture the true emotions of a relationship with God, both the ugly and the beautiful, through nourishing and vivid visuals. In the simplest of terms, they provide an easy foundation to teach us how to pray.

Inspired by today’s readings, I invite you to reflect on how you sustain everlasting life through prayer and conversation with God. With prayer comes inner peace and calmness similar to that of a river stream flowing tranquilly or the air we breathe or the sunlight we feel.

Please pray for the suffering, the lonely, the scared, and the rejected, so that they can know the peace and joy that is Jesus Christ who will be present through all our trials to hold and embrace us. Pray for all the souls in Purgatory, especially those who have no one to pray for them. Please pray for all souls, living and deceased, that we may find the love of Christ as the foremost meaning to life, and that we can accept His love in all we do today and always.

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Dr. Alexis Dallara-Marsh is a board-certified neurologist who practices in Bergen County, NJ. She is a wife to her best friend, Akeem, and a mother of two little ones on Earth and two others in heaven above.

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St. Patrick: Saint of the Day for Thursday, March 17, 2022

St. Patrick of Ireland is one of the world’s most popular saints. He was born in Roman Britain and when he was fourteen or so, he was captured by Irish pirates during a raiding party and taken to Ireland as a slave to herd and tend sheep. At the time, Ireland was a land of Druids and pagans but Patrick turned to God and wrote his memoir, The Confession. In The Confession, he wrote:

“The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was rosed, so that, in a …

In Your Hands Is My Destiny

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“Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”

The mother of the sons of Zebedee had figured out, perhaps, that there was a kingdom involved in being a disciple of this itinerant preacher Jesus. For though Jesus with his call to poverty of spirit, meekness and humility certainly didn’t act like the kings she knew, he nevertheless spoke often of the kingdom of God. 

Possibilities, prestige, power…. As any good mother looking out for the interests of her children, she took the opportunity in today’s Gospel reading to ask for places of honor for her two sons. 

The other request for a place in the kingdom of Jesus that comes to mind is the request made by the repentant thief recorded in the Gospel of Luke (23:42-43).

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

What is the difference between these two requests for a place in the kingdom? They clearly received two very different responses from Jesus.

The repentant thief speaks from a place of surrender, of petition, of awareness of his sin and his need. He turns to Jesus with the trust that is available to him at that most desperate moment of his life. He responds to the action of the Holy Spirit in the measure to which he is capable in this first encounter with his Savior. In a sense, we can say that he is more completely in the form of holiness which is Jesus himself, the form of obedient humble surrender:

Mary, the mother who stood beneath her Son as he died on the cross, no doubt heard this plea that broke from the heart of the repentant thief, and in her heart echoed her own words of obedient surrender uttered years earlier at the Annunciation, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), and at the wedding feast of Cana: “They have no wine,” “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:4-5). 

The Kingdom of God is received, it is surrendered to, it is entered into by one’s complete alignment with God’s will for oneself. We can prepare ourselves, but we do this only by fertilizing the soil of our hearts through the living of the Beatitudes. 

This is why it makes sense that Jesus asks the sons of Zebedee if they are ready to drink the chalice he was to drink. It was a matter, he was saying, of moving downward and pouring out one’s life for others. Then Jesus stated that he himself didn’t have that power to give away these seats in the Kingdom. This was a decision that was the prerogative of the Father. Jesus himself in his very identity as Son deferred in all things, in all ways, to his Father in complete and obedient surrender. 

The request of the mother of the sons of Zebedee, and the desire of the two apostles themselves, did not correspond to the very being of Jesus as Son and so was impossible to grant.

We are called to serve, to be last, to give our lives for others, to trust that the One who holds in his hands our very lives and defines our destiny is faithful and can be trusted.

What places of honor might you be seeking? They may be as world-oriented as the request of the mother of the sons of Zebedee or they might be as spiritual as great holiness or a ministry that stands out and stands above the mundane work of others. In any case, the trap is often very subtle. This Lent come to your Savior with your need and your poverty and see where he himself wishes to lead you. 

“But my trust is in you, O LORD; I say, ‘You are my God.’ In your hands is my destiny” (from today’s Psalm).

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Sr. Kathryn J. HermesKathryn James Hermes, FSP, is the author of the newly released title: Reclaim Regret: How God Heals Life’s Disappointments, by Pauline Books and Media. An author and spiritual mentor, she offers spiritual accompaniment for the contemporary Christian’s journey towards spiritual growth and inner healing. She is the director of My Sisters, where people can find spiritual accompaniment from the Daughters of St. Paul on their journey. Website: www.touchingthesunrise.com Public Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/srkathrynhermes/ For monthly spiritual journaling guides, weekly podcasts and over 50 conferences and retreat programs join my Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/srkathryn.

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St. Abban: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Abbot and Irish missionary. An Irish prince, Abban was the son of King Cormac of Leinster. He is listed as the nephew of St. Ibar. Abban founded many churches in the old district of Ui Cennselaigh, in modern County Wexford and Ferns. His main monastery is Magheranoidhe, in Adamstown, Ireland. This monastery’s fame is attributed in some records to another Abban, that of New Ross. Abban is also associated with Kill-Abban Abbey in Leinster, serving as abbot there until March 16, 620. He is revered …

Being Exalted

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A new heart and a new spirit. That’s Jesus’ goal for us. He makes all things new, and he wants us to participate in this renewal by casting away all the bad and embracing all the good. He wants us to see what HE has done – turned the world’s understanding upside down – and walk in newness of life IN HIM.

That means every human tradition is questioned and held up to the true Light to see if it fits. Jesus tells his followers that they are to OBEY the scribes and Pharisees, but not IMITATE them. This is because they have the authority to teach the correct letter of the law, but they miss the spirit of the law, and so they distort the trajectory of the law from its true Goal. They have turned the whole tradition to their own benefit, their own honor and glory, not God’s.

Jesus’ whole warning against not calling anyone “Rabbi” or “Father” or “Master” is not intended to mean we can’t actually use any titles on earth; he is reminding us not to put ourselves above others because we are all children of the same God. He does not intend that there should be no hierarchy or any authority on earth; he is reminding us that those in authority have been called to serve others. We are all called to service, and those who are in positions of authority are called to greater service! A mother serves her family, a priest serves his parishioners, the store owner serves his customers, the President of a country serves the citizens. If a person in any role of authority fails to serve others, we call them “self-serving;” we do not express our admiration for self-serving people or hold them up as heroes to emulate!

On the contrary, those who give of themselves in service to others are the people we instinctively look up to: the boss who distributes the profit by giving all the employees big bonuses, or the policeman who puts his own life in danger to save another’s, for example.

In the Church, those we look up to are the saints. These are the real heroes of the Family of God, those who served others for love of God: Mother Teresa, Maximilian Kolbe, Vincent de Paul, the Cure of Ars, Damien the Leper, Sr. Clare Crockett (haven’t heard of her? I recommend the documentary, “All or Nothing” online!), and so many others who followed the Lord of all to serve others.

During Lent, we take time to ponder the Truth that the Lord of all Creation Himself “came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Who in your life has shown you what it means to serve others in self-forgetfulness? How are you being called to serve rather than be served?

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Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including Father Rob), and four grandchildren. She is President of the local community of Secular Discalced Carmelites and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 30 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE, and as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio. Currently, she serves the Church by writing and speaking, and by collaborating with various parishes and to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is www.KathrynTherese.com

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