Creator God
who breathed this world into being,
who is discernible within
the harmony of nature,
the perfection of a butterfly's wing,
the grandeur of a mountain range,
the soaring eagle and humming bird,
thank you for this world
which you have created.
Thank you for summer sun,
which reminds us
that your creative breath
is still alive and active.
Thank you for the warmth of your love,
sustaining this world.
Author Unknown
The Twelfth Sunday of
Ordinary Time2026
June 21, 2026
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Jeremiah
20:10-13; Psalm 69; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33
The prophet Jeremiah
writes about a hostile environment that makes it challenging to practice one’s
faith and to speak rightly. We hear this reading during Holy Week to emphasize
the difficulty of the Suffering Servant. We know from experience that the human
heart can be terrorizing, and we suffer at the expense of verbal bullies who
impose their thoughts upon others. It takes courage, fortitude, and safety to
speak from one’s faith. Most times, we keep our thoughts inside until we feel
safe.
In Matthew’s Gospel,
Jesus tells his Disciples that they do not have to be silenced by the fear that
others impose upon them. Those who are bullies do not see that they take away
the freedom of others. They do not even perceive that they are bullies. Those
who speak authoritatively and excessively do not realize that they silence
others. Those who are aggressive think they are acting rightly for others.
Someone recently told me in absolute terms that he disagreed with someone who
spoke in absolute terms. Why can we not see that what we find critical in
others represents what we do ourselves. The fault we see if others is the fault
we need to own.
Jesus continues to offer
hope though. He says, ‘be patient.’ The bully will find herself isolated and
lonely, perhaps misunderstood. She will continue to blame others because life
did not go as she planned. The know-it-all will have an epiphany. The aggressive
person will have a day of reckoning when he recognizes his vulnerability. Jesus
reminds us that whatever harm a person intends or is unaware of doing will
cause us harm, but it will not erode our soul or our conscience. No one can
touch that. It is off limits to the bully, and we are reminded that control is
an illusion. When someone thinks they can control the behavior or thoughts of
another person, they are living an illusion that will crumble. Those are
focused on their own ego needs says, “My will be done,” and so they focus on
getting attention, admiration, comfort, security, pleasure, and one’s very
self. For an evolving Christian, we pray, “Not my will be done, but God’s will
be done.”
Jesus tells us that as
we are his friends, we enter into the Cosmic Christ, a human-divine being that
is higher and greater that ourselves. We are elevated. Consciousness of God is
the deepest part of us, and that cannot be harmed. There is a fire within our
souls that keeps us moving towards God, and it moves us to increased
transcendence. The very center of God is love and the center of our soul is
love. This is foundational and the heart can only move towards a more
understanding, magnanimous love. Jesus rightly reminds us that we have no
worries. Though we may be near people who are trying to fill their ego needs,
your Christian heart is evolving towards the freedom of a larger life in
Christ.
Our faith is an energy
that allows us to create and bring love to loveless places. Our faith is a fire
that transforms the souls of others who seek the divine. Faith allows us to
look at suffering and endure it. We can look at a world that may be unresponsive
to human suffering, and we have the courage and fire to amorize the world, that
is, to fill the world with love, to transform the world with love. This is a
love that has no fear. This is a love that holds you preciously in admiration.
Please accept this love. We need this love to permeate the world.
May the God of Summer be with you, enveloping you with the warmth of love, filling your heart with the brilliance of light, refreshing you and cooling you in the living water of God's grace. In the shade of God's guiding, protective presence, may your deepened experience of this presence draw others to God's warm, refreshing love. May the blessing of Summer be with you.
--Maxine Shonk, OP
To
everything a season, a time for every purpose under heaven
and
yet this time out of all other times is special
A
moment of grace,
A
Kairos time,
A
time for urgency when there is no time
A
window opened on eternity where all is possible
For
those with eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand
A
time to risk all that has not been risked before
so
that we might flow with all that God intends.
A
time to seize because it will not come again.
A
time to place our lives where words have been.
A
time for bridges to be built and others crossed, and others burned,
because
there is no going back.
A
time to leave the past behind because the present, this precious “now,”
is
Holy Ground and from it the future beckons.
To
leave the past, and not to do so lightly.
To
take it out and dare to look and name what has been done and cannot be undone.
To
allow the pain to surface.
To
give voice to silent wounding, that, hearing, and being heard,
we
might with due and holy reverence allow the dying to take place,
and,
picking up the pieces that give life, to travel on;
our
burden now a cleansed and sanctified inheritance;
one
that puts into our step a spring and into our hearts
a
flame of hope that cannot be extinguished.
This
time so fragile and so priceless, gift of God to you and me
to
grasp and to embrace, to give it all we’ve got;
and,
in the giving and receiving, to learn to celebrate the Presence of the One who
in mercy and grace has given one more time.
(Adapted)
~Reverend Ruth Patterson
Ruth Patterson, A Farther
Shore (Dublin: Veritas Publications, 2000), pp. 116-119.
Image by Doris Klein, CSA
The Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026
June 14, 2026
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Exodus 19:2-6;
Psalm 100; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8
The reason for
calling these first twelve men as his disciples was this line: his heart was
moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned. Jesus
responded compassionately to the emotional and spiritual needs of the people.
In the first reading, God’s heart is likewise moved by the plight of the
Israelites and takes them under his care. We get a glimpse of God’s emotions
and God’s desire to care for us as a parent does a child. Because of this care,
the Israelites and the Disciples are called to greater matters. They are called
to care for humanity.
Pope Leo
introduced his first encyclical called “Magnificent Humanity” so that he could
call us to greater behavior. We are called to care for others, which is the
reason he relies upon Catholic Social Teaching with four points. (1.) The
letter calls us to build a civilization of humanity built upon the common good
by having a foundational relationship with God. (2.) Building the common good
means accepting the limits and weaknesses of humanity without considering them
an error to be corrected. True fulfillment is not achieved by eliminating
weakness but through harmonious growth. (3.) Building a world where everyone
can flourish requires shared responsibility and courage. Tensions and
differences are welcome because they can become the creative forces when guided
by shared responsibility. (4.) Building the common good requires respectful
language. We are to avoid humiliating or antagonistic words. Instead, we need
to choose clarity that sheds light on our issues, and we need frank discussions
that unlock new possibilities.
The Pope’s
letter says that we need to set standards for discernment, especially upon
these issues – the dignity of the human person, the universal destination of
goods like food and basic necessities, including health care, the preferential
option for the poor, care for our common home, and peace between neighbors. The
Pope writes, “True progress always stems from a heart open to others, an
intelligence that is willing to listen, and to a will that seeks what unites
rather than what separates.”
Back to
Scripture, we see that God raised the Israelites to a new relationship and that
Jesus raised twelve men to a ministerial responsibility. We must discern how
the Spirit, through Pope Leo’s words, are raising us up to a new form of
discipleship. We are invited to become builders of communion. We are to be
servants with God’s project for the world instead of those who lord it over
others. We are asked to adopt the heart of a shepherd and a loving parent to
help others to join forces to build up the common good, so that humanity, in
the face of today’s challenges, will never lose its beauty, and that the world
once again will recognize the human heart as the place where God desires to
dwell. Are you ready to respond, “yes?”
.jpg)
The Sisters of St. Agnes have been praying this prayer as a community in preparation for Chapter 2026 which will take place June 14-25.
 |
Blessed Are You Who Bear The Light |
.jpg)
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
Hymn for the Hurting
 |
The Body and Blood of
Christ Sunday 2026
June 7, 2026
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Deuteronomy 8:2-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
By celebrating the feast
of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Church reminds us of two things: God will
always nourish us, and through our partaking of the Eucharist, we become, as
St. Paul pointed out, the Universal Body and Blood of Christ. Through our full
participation in the Eucharist, we see that our faith is nourished. Faith is
first and foremost an action. Faith is proof of what we believe. Faith becomes
our capacity for loving action.
The Gospel reminds us
that Jesus is the Living Bread and he invites us to drink his Blood, and we
become what and who we eat. The Gospel writes, “The one who feeds on me will
have life because of me.” By sharing in this meal of faith, we become the living,
eternal Body and Blood of the Universal Christ. We become love in action.
Let’s talk about what we
do when we gather for Eucharist. After we ask for God’s mercy and sing “Glory
to God,” the priest says, “Let us pray.” There might be an awkward brief
silence and then the priest picks up his book and says a short prayer. It is not
that the priest forgot his place or what he is to do next. This is a privileged
moment if presented rightly. This is your moment to remember all that has
happened during the week, the accomplishments and struggles, all the stuff of
daily life, and you are to raise them up to God’s consciousness. Once that is
done, the priest collects your prayers and lifts them up to God, the Father,
God, the Parent. All the stuff of your week is gathered and offered to God. We
offer to God all of our human experiences.
During the offertory,
the community offers to God bread and wine as a token gift of gratitude. These
are the parts of the meal that Jesus blessed at the Passover supper and asked
us to remember. When we offer bread, it is not merely wafers of wheat. The bread
is designed to symbolize all human effort, all that you set out to do in the
last week. It is your labor, study, research, gardening, cooking – all forms of
work and striving. This bread contains every effort that we expend to make our
lives pleasing to God and to one another.
We also offer wine,
which is something that was first crushed, like grapes. Wine represents
whatever crushes the efforts of humanity. This includes all the suffering that
people will experience – any pain, anguish, grief, frustration, confusion,
failures, and losses. We offer to God anything that hinders and diminishes our
strivings. The bread and the wine represent the totality of human life and
experience. We place it upon the altar for the Holy Spirit to transform them as
the priest raises them up on your behalf. They are brought into the Living Body
and Blood of Christ, who seeks to enrich humanity by bringing everyone together
in charity.
The communion that we
receive is a spiritual and physical union of hearts, minds, and bodies of all
who are gathered. When we seek communion, we affirm our covenant with God,
which entails naturally care for the person next to us. We agree to create unity
in Christ as we live and move and have our being in Him. As we participate, we
are changed and transformed over time, little by little, into Christ.
When we celebrate the
Eucharist, through the Holy Spirit, God transforms us to make us more like
Christ. We raise our human labors and our sufferings, alongside the bread and
wine, and we are the object of God’s transformation. Let us offer ourselves to our
God as fully as we can. Let us raise all that we carry with us so God may touch
them with grace. We are profoundly changed, and so are our efforts and
sufferings, so that we can be shared with a hungering world.
