Inspirations at your Fingertips!

Choices Luke 12:49-53 In today's gospel, Jesus wants us to choose between evil and good, activity and passivity, life and death. He wants us to choose goodness which is the very quality of God.  He wants that all of our actions are based on God's goodness and not our own concept of goodness. In desiring to do good, he wants us to choose the better part, like St. Ignatius, "for the greater glory of God."  Passivity has no place in the Catholic faith. Finally, he wants us to choose the best portion.  For there are no other choices except life or death.  Choose the least, the easiest, and the most comfortable and we still die.  The only life is found in carrying the cross, dying, and rising with Him.

Formula for life Luke 11:47-54 The greeting of St. Paul to the community of Ephesus reveals an inspiring overview of world of Christianity - our lives before, during, and after Christ.  "God chose us in Christ before the world began to be holy and blameless in his sight."  At the end, "he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth."  and in the middle, how Jesus "through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins." The gospel however gives us a sharp contrast of how Jesus reprimands the pharisees for killing the apostles and prophets. One path leads us to Christ; another path leads us away from him. The things that lead us away from Christ are: sin, the self, and the lures of this world.  We have to watch out for them.  We cannot know, love, adore, and serve God if we are filled with selfishness, if the world entices us, and most of all, sin overwhelms us.  We close our...

An familiar mix Luke 11:37-41 The first reading calls us not in excessive observance of the external law but in following Christ.  In the gospel, Jesus also reprimands the Pharisees not because of their external practices, but what lies in their hearts. Then Jesus focuses of alms as manifestations of what lies in the heart.  No one can give alms unless there is mercy and compassion.  And no one elicits mercy and compassion unless his or her heart is filled with the presence of God who is love. For everything starts with interior conversion brought about by an authentic encounter of love. This is faith.  It opens us to God's world. Second, we cannot give to others what we don't have.  If we don't have love, we can never share it to others.  Faith converted to action is love.  God gives us his love.  Love is the measure of faith. Love is converted to many forms - service, compassion, generosity. Faith, love, service - in a welcome, fam...