HUMBLING

First published November 20th, 2017…

This week, I am doing something different—a five part series, based on this week’s Gospels, on how to begin again after having fallen. We live in a culture where we are saturated in sin and temptation, and it is claiming many victims; many are discouraged and exhausted, downtrodden and losing their faith. It is necessary, then, to learn the art of beginning again…

WHY do we feel crushing guilt when we do something bad? And why is this common to every single human being? Even babies, if they do something wrong, often seem to “just know” that they shouldn’t have.Continue reading →

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 21st, 2017
Tuesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Liturgical texts here

CONFESSING

THE art of beginning again always consists in remembering, believing, and trusting that it is really God who is initiating a new start. That if you are even feeling sorrow for your sins or thinking of repenting, that this is already a sign of His grace and love at work in your life.Continue reading →

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 22nd, 2017
Wednesday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of St. Cecilia, Martyr

Liturgical texts here

TRUSTING

THE first sin of Adam and Eve was not eating the “forbidden fruit.” Rather, it was that they broke trust with the Creator—trust that He had their best interests, their happiness, and their future in His hands. This broken trust is, to this very hour, the Great Wound in the heart of each of us. It is a wound in our inherited nature that leads us to doubt God’s goodness, His forgiveness, providence, designs, and above all, His love. If you want to know how serious, how intrinsic this existential wound is to the human condition, then look at the Cross. There you see what was necessary to begin the healing of this wound: that God himself would have to die in order to mend what man himself had destroyed.^[1]cf. Why Faith?Continue reading →

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 23rd, 2017
Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Opt. Memorial of St. Columban

Liturgical texts here

OBEYING

JESUS looked down upon Jerusalem and wept as He cried out:

If this day you only knew what makes for peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes. (Today’s Gospel)

Continue reading →

THE NOW WORD ON MASS READINGS
for November 24th, 2017
Friday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of St. Andrew Dũng-Lac and Companions

Liturgical texts here

PRAYING

IT takes two legs to stand firm. So too in the spiritual life, we have two legs to stand on: obedience and prayer. For the art of beginning again consists in making sure that we have the right footing in place from the very start… or we’ll stumble before we even take a few steps. In summary thus far, the art of beginning again consists in the five steps of humbling, confessing, trusting, obeying, and now, we focus on praying.Continue reading →