The Caress of God . . .

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4paWe7h5yW4

Video reflection

by Carol Braun

Returning Gifts:

 

                                                             Returning Gifts:

The Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

November 15, 2026

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Proverbs 31:10-31; Psalm 128; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6; Matthew 25:14-30

 

 

The parable of the talents tells us what God expects of us; Paul's letter to the Thessalonians tells us why we should not delay. Because life is precious, unpredictable, and limited, we are called to live intentionally. We cannot afford to bury the gifts God has given us, postpone the good we can do, or sleep through life’s opportunities. The talents represent everything that has been entrusted to us: intelligence, creativity, compassion, faith, relationships, opportunities, and the capacity to love. Notice that God never tells us how to use what we have received; They are entrusted to us with room to exercise creativity, initiative, and discernment. These are opportunities for us to participate in God’s plan for the world.

Paul reminds us that the uncertainty of tomorrow gives greater significance to what we choose to do today. I think of some reasons why I often postpone things I would like to do. I’ll wait a week or so when I have more available time. I can get half an hour of rest rather than exercising. I’m not as young as I once was. My prayer life will deepen when activities settle down. I’ll spend more time with loved ones once I finish this project that needs my attention. I’ll be more generous when I have more resources. I can go on and justify all my reasons, and I know life does not always give me the time or circumstances I expect. Something else always comes up.  

Life and time have genuine limitations. We have to choose. We cannot do everything or respond to every need. God is not asking us to exhaust ourselves or to measure our worth by productivity. We discern what is most important and how I can make the greatest contribution to others with the circumstances and resources I have. We ask if there is fear, hesitation, or the pursuit of perfectionism that will prevent me from doing some good now. What causes me to procrastinate? This is not about trying to do it all or accomplishing the greatest number of activities. It is about making our lives fruitful. God’s life will flourish through the talents entrusted to us. Sometimes the best use of our time is to be human – to encourage someone who is down, to support someone who feels vulnerable, and sit and listen patiently. These moments are an exponential investment that produces a hundredfold. 

We are not given life simply to preserve it; we are given life to make something meaningful of it. The challenge is to recognize that our lives have a purpose, and that we have something valuable to contribute now. When we use our gifts appropriately and generously, we are not simply repaying God for what God has given us. The gifts we receive become gifts we give. We are the gifts to be shared.

We live as though there will always be more time. We live as if we will never become diminished or die. We think there will be more time in the future to love better, to forgive a grievance, to reconcile an estranged relationship, to sit with someone who needs our presence. There will not be more time. This is what we have. We are to spend the time to become the people God wants us to be. Jesus tells us not to bury our talents. Paul tells us not to fall asleep. They are both urging the importance of the present moment.

          What do we do then? I am asked to develop the gifts God has entrusted to me. You have to answer that in a way that gives you most integrity. Has someone’s life become richer because I was here? Has someone’s burden become lighter? Have I given hope to someone who needs to be strengthened? We want to be “woke.” We want to be aware of God’s presence and be willing to invest whatever gifts we have received. We want to see God at the end of our lives, with empty hands, to say, “I have invested everything you have given to me. I have nothing left. I have loved as fully as I could. I have done my best.”

 

Beginning Again . .

 

Beginning to Begin Again . . .

O God, help me to believe in beginnings


and in my beginning again,


no matter how often I’ve failed before.



Help me to make beginnings:


to begin going out of my weary mind


into fresh dreams,


daring to make my own bold tracks


in the land of now;


to begin forgiving


that I may experience mercy,

to begin questioning the unquestionable


that I may know truth


to begin disciplining


that I may create beauty;


to begin sacrificing


that I may make peace;


to begin loving 


that I may realize joy.



Help me to be a beginning to others,


to be a singer to the songless,


a storyteller to the aimless,


a befriender of the friendless;


to become a beginning of hope for the despairing,


of assurance for the doubting,


of reconciliation for the divided;


to become a beginning of freedom for the oppressed,


of comfort for the sorrowing,


of friendship for the forgotten,

to become a beginning of beauty for the forlorn,


of sweetness for the soured,


of gentleness for the angry,


of wholeness for the broken,


of peace for the frightened and violent of the earth.



Help me to believe in beginnings,


to make a beginning,


to be a beginning,


so that I may not just grow old,
 

but grow new


each day of this wild, amazing life


you call me to live


with the passion of Jesus Christ.

Taken from Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder

Ponderings . . . 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SMpEsy2SSc

November 15, 2026

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lori

Stanley

As this year draws to a close, our readings invite us to consider what it means to wait actively for Christ’s coming.

We hear about the worthy wife in Proverbs 31, who is industrious, resourceful, generous, and attentive to the needs of her husband, household and community. She is praised not simply for what she accomplishes, but because she lives out her faith.

In First Thessalonians, Paul reminds us that the day of the Lord will come “like a thief in the night.” We do not need to obsess over the date or time. Instead, we are called to be “children of the light” and “children of the day.” We are called to be alert.

And in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents. A master entrusts his possessions to three servants before leaving on a journey. Two servants take risks with what they have been given and multiply it. The third buries his talent in the ground, afraid of losing what was entrusted to him.

Three readings. Three invitations. And one question that connects them all: Where is our heart in the waiting?

Because waiting can be uncomfortable, we want answers. We want certainty. We want to know that we are doing the right thing and that our efforts will produce the results we hope for.

And sometimes, in our desire to be faithful, we become so busy doing things for God that we forget to be with God.

We begin measuring our worth by our accomplishments, our productivity, and our usefulness to others. We compare our gifts with others. We wonder whether we are doing enough, and whether we are enough.

And without realizing it, we can begin to bury the very gifts God has entrusted to us—not because we lack ability, but because we are afraid.

Afraid of making a mistake. Afraid of failing. Afraid of what others might think.

We stay in what is familiar. We cling to the identities we have constructed, the plans we have carefully made, and the accomplishments that help us feel secure.

But is that where God is calling us to remain?

The Gospel Acclamation offers us a different posture. Jesus says, “Remain in me as I remain in you. Whoever remains in me bears much fruit.”

Notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say, “Produce more fruit so that I will love you.” He invites us to remain in Him.

Just as a branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains connected to the vine, neither can we bear the lasting fruit of God’s love when we are spiritually disconnected from the source of that love.

Waiting becomes an opportunity for becoming. While we wait, God invites us to deepen our awareness of whose we are: beloved daughters and sons of God. We are not loved because of what we accomplish. How we imagine God loving us affects how we imagine ourselves, which subsequently affects how we live. If we imagine God as disappointed in us whenever we fall short, we may become afraid to take risks.

Something begins to shift when we begin to encounter God as the One who loves us unconditionally. The One who calls us forth, not to earn our belovedness, but because we are already beloved, made in the image and likeness of God.

We loosen our grip on comparison. We stop looking at others’ gifts and begin looking within. We ask, “God, show me how you see me. What have you entrusted to me? What gifts, experiences, and graces have you placed inside of me? How are you inviting me to share them?”

In the Parable of the Talents, the master entrusts different amounts to each servant, “each according to his ability.”

There is no instruction to compare. The servants are not asked to produce identical results. They are entrusted with something valuable and invited to respond.

The first two servants act. They take risks. They allow what they have received to grow.

Fear becomes the reason for inaction as the third servant buries what he has been given.

The parable challenges us to look within. What have we buried because we were afraid? What gift have we kept hidden because we thought someone else was more qualified? What invitation have we resisted because we could not guarantee the outcome?

God is not asking us to become someone else. God is calling us to become more fully who you and I were created to be.

This means moving beyond the false identities and limiting beliefs we may have carried for years—sometimes shaped by our family-of-origin experiences, painful relationships, or the ways we learned to protect ourselves.

Those experiences may help explain our fears, but they do not have to determine our future.

God continues to call us forth from the places where fear keeps us small. God invites us out of the familiar boat of false security and into the sometimes-choppy waters of trust, where comparison no longer has the final word and our imagination can be expanded to how God sees us and loves through us.

While we wait, we are called to faithful readiness.

To live as children of the light means remaining close to Christ, attentive to God's presence, and awake to the needs of the world around us. Like the woman in Proverbs, may we put our faith into practice. Like the faithful servants, may we use what has been entrusted to us. And like branches connected to the vine, may we bear spiritual fruit that nourishes others and carries God's love beyond ourselves.

As this year draws to a close, let’s continue pondering the questions:

Where is my heart in the waiting?

Who is God inviting me to become?

 

Prayer of the Heart . . .

 

God of My Life

I give You thanks and praise that I have life, and trust that my life is filled with touches of Your love. You have given me a heart that wants to be happy, and You have placed in me a desire to make a difference. Quiet the fears and distractions of my heart long enough for me to listen to the movement of Your Spirit, to hear Your gentle invitation.

Reveal to me the choices that will make me happy.  Help me to discover my identity. Let me understand how best to use the gifts You have so lovingly lavished upon me in preparation for our journey together. And give me the courage to choose You as You have chosen me. God of my life; God of the journey, let me know myself and let me know You.  In this is my happiness.  Amen. (author/source unknown)

Being Alive in God:

         

The Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 

November 8, 2026

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Wisdom 6:12-16; Psalm 63; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

 

 

While the Gospel passage on the five wise virgins models for us the attentiveness needed for discipleship, the first reading focuses on the value of wisdom who likewise keeps vigil. It is wisdom special love for the Lord that makes her always watchful and filled with hope. This is the hope that comes through in the reading from Paul to the Thessalonians. A believer filled with wisdom always has hope.

 

We are in the month of All Souls when we commemorate our deceased loved ones, and we reflect upon our lives as we know that each of us will experience death. Death asks the question: In what do we hope? For a Christian, we know that while we are alive to God today, we will be alive to God after our death. What does that mean? Because of the death and resurrection of Christ, death no longer has the final word. Our relationship with God is not destroyed by death, and those who die in Christ are always remembered. 

 

When a loved one dies, we might wonder about these types of questions. Will I see my parents, spouse, children, or friends once again? What happens to my body? Will I still be myself after death? What happens to a person after a lifetime of suffering, disability, or illness? How does God treat the person who was hurtful to me? What happens to those people whose faith was uncertain? These are natural questions to ask. Jesus revealed to us that God seeks us, forgives us, loves us, and has altered the state of death when God raised Jesus to new life. The resurrection reveals God’s intention for humanity – not abandonment, but communion, not destruction, but transformation, not the finality of death, but the fulfillment of life in God. We trust that this God will be faithful to us beyond the limits of our earthly lives.

 

During times of death, we ask, “What will happen to our loved ones,” and maybe we can ask, “What does it mean to be alive to God today?” Our destiny is to live in the fulness of God’s love, and we are called to start living this way right now. We are called to become more loving, more compassionate, more forgiving, and more generous. God’s life becomes visible in our own. Our earthly lives are the beginning of a life that is meant to grow in love, and we learn to live in a way that reflects God’s values. We live in God’s grace, and we must respond to that grace. When we do so, our lives become increasingly receptive to God’s love. The love we have given during this lifetime matters. Death does not wipe out or make the goodness of our lives meaningless. The lives we have touched matters. The goodness we received and passed on matters. We trust that God who has been drawing us deeper into divine life will bring to fulfillment what God has begun. 

 

Naturally, we do not want to encounter death, and death of a loved one brings much loss and pain. For a believer, death cannot separate us from the God who loves us or from our loved ones. Love is an unknown power whose strength is greater than death. Our hope is based on the God that was revealed in Jesus Christ. Our loved ones are held within God’s love as we will be – warmly, tenderly, gently cherished. God, who is at work in us now calling us to a fulness of life, will bring the promise of the resurrection to fulfillment. 

 

We do not know everything about what happens when we die, but we trust that the God who has given us life and drawn us into love will remember us and give us an even fuller life. We have comfort in the assurance that our final destiny rests in the hands of our God who is faithful, loving, and the source of all life. We are alive to God now, and we place our hope in being fully alive to God forever.

A Prayer for Veterans

 

God of peace,

We pray that you bless all those who have served their country through service in the armed forces. Grant healing to those veterans who have been wounded, be it in body, mind or soul.

We pray especially for those young men and women who come home to lives of suffering and loneliness. Offer them the solace that only You can, and may we pray for them often, especially when they feel they cannot pray.  As a way to honor all the veterans of past wars, we ask for an end to wars and the dawning of a new era of peace.

Lord, have mercy. Bring peace to our hearts, the hearts of all veterans and to the regions in which they fought. Grant, we pray, the creative vision to see a world that, weary with fighting, affirms the life of every human being and so moves beyond war.

Prince of peace, hear our prayer,