Easter Sunday April 17, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflection

Easter Sunday

April 17, 2022 

Happy Easter! Today we celebrate the most unique moment in the history of humankind: The Resurrection of Jesus who triumphs over death. We welcome our newly baptized whose new life in Christ prepares them for eternal glory. St. Francis de Sales speaks of our need to renew each year our desire to serve God in order to live Jesus.

Jesus, surviving death, lives on in His works. A day will come when we shall rise from the dead. Our mortal bodies, now subject to corruption, will be immortal. Jesus took on our likeness and gave us His so that we might have a new life in abundance. Our God has so lovingly inspired and urged you to conversion. In baptism you became a child of God, forming yourself according to the Law of the Gospel. Letting go of your old self, you rose anew in Christ.

Yet, as long as we live we shall need to renew ourselves and begin over. Like some clocks that need to be cleaned and repaired, so it is with our heart. We must straighten out bent parts and repair those parts worn out. Each year such an exercise will warm up your heart, bring new life to your good resolutions to serve God and make you flourish with fresh vigor.

In winter the earth relaxes, rests and does not produce. When spring comes it renews itself with flowers that bring us joy.  Because our nature grows cold easily, we need to renew our promise to love God above all, and love all other things because they are agreeable to God, profitable to God’s honor, and destined for God’s glory. Before we enter eternal glory, the Gardener wishes to plant in our garden many flowers. Let us serve God as God wishes and we will see that one day God will do all we wish, and more than we know how to wish. When we are raised to a life of divine love, we live for our Savior who has risen. It is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice. Alleluia!

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)

Palm/Passion Sunday April 10, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflection

Palm/Passion Sunday

April 10, 2022 

In today’s Gospel, we experience Jesus as the ‘suffering servant’. His suffering unto death brings eternal life to the human family. St. Francis de Sales reflects on this event: “The most powerful reason for Jesus’ death is to fill the human spirit with God’s love. Out of death has come life, the wondrous paradox, which the world does not understand. He not only died a cruel death to bring God’s love to us, but he also suffered fear, terror, abandonment, and inner depression such as never had and never shall have an equal. He did this so that we too may persevere in pursuing divine love.”

Jesus’ human feelings left his entire heart exposed to sorrow and anguish. For this reason, he cries out: “My God, why have you forsaken me?” Mount Calvary is the mount of lovers. On Calvary death, life and love intermingle. Out of love Jesus chose death on a cross so that we might live as a child of God and possess eternal love.  Christian wisdom consists in choosing rightly. Let us choose to empty ourselves of our selfish desires and loves, so that we may be filled with God’s love, which gives rise to new life in us.

We ought to consecrate every moment of our lives to the divine love of Our Savior’s death. If injured by others, look often on Christ Jesus, crucified, forsaken and overwhelmed, by every kind of anguish. Then think of the many people who are incomparably more afflicted than you are and say: Are not my hardships roses in comparison with those, who without help, assistance, or relief live a continual death, burdened by afflictions infinitely greater than mine? When all things fail us, when our distress is at its height, say the final words of Jesus on the cross: “Into Your hands I commend my spirit.”  How happy we will be when we entrust ourselves totally into God’s hands! In doing all things for the glory of God, we will do all things well.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)

Fifth Sunday of Lent April 3, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflection

Fifth Sunday of Lent

April 3, 2022 

Today’s readings promise us a life that never dies if we live and believe in the Spirit of Jesus Christ who dwells in us. St. Francis de Sales reflects on these promises: “When the falconer removes the hood from his bird, the bird sights its prey and spreads its wings, ready to fly and capture its prey. Held back by the falconer, the bird struggles to free itself from him. So too when faith removes the veil of ignorance from us, we see that our supreme good is in God. We then desire to fly to God but the conditions of this mortal life hold us back. Our ardor may subsequently turn to sadness.

However, we must not lose courage and reduce ourselves to despair. Through a thousand promises made in Scripture and the holy inspirations placed in our hearts, God strongly assures us that we can attain a life of infinite goodness. Yet, we must be willing to use the means God offers us. If you live under the Crucified Lord, progressively your desire for God’s goodness turns into hope animated by God’s love. Our Savior will never let you go if you choose Him. When you are completely restored to health by divine love that the Spirit of Jesus pours into your heart, you can go forward and stand by yourself in virtue of your new health and holy love.

While our human nature will always produce self-centered desires and thoughts, they need not delay us on our journey toward loving God’s goodness and doing God’s work. Happy are they whose self-giving love is in the service of God. God will never let them remain barren and unfruitful! Even though they give up only a little for God, God will shower abundant blessings on them in this life and in the next. God’s assurance through many promises of paradise infinitely strengthens our desire to pursue the enjoyment of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ whose Spirit dwells in us.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales).

Fourth Sunday of Lent March 27, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflection

Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 27, 2022

Today’s readings urge us to live as children of light. It is the God of Jesus Christ who leads us out of blindness into the light of God’s love. St. Francis de Sales notes similarly: “When we experience the rays of the noonday sun, we scarcely see its light before we quickly feel its heat. So, it is with the light of faith. It no sooner casts its light on us, and we feel the warmth of God’s love that gives us hope in God’s goodness. When we are extremely careful to do all that we can to open ourselves to divine love, then our faith comes alive and strengthens our hope. Faith brings us to love the beauty of the truths of the mystery of God revealed in Jesus Christ.”

As we accept in faith the teachings of Jesus, our hearts are invigorated with holy love. In Christ, God brings us into the light of faith. When God gives us faith, God enters into our soul and speaks to us by way of inspiration. Only God can enlighten and open our blind eyes. It is a sign of interior conversion when God gives us light to see the source of our blindness. We free ourselves from our selfish desires and come to truly know and accept ourselves as children of the Light. While we naturally experience a deep desire within us for happiness, faith reveals to us the infinite marvels of eternal happiness.

Faith is the best friend of our spirit. It is the foundation of our hope and love. It gives us the certitude of God’s continual offer of grace to us. So let us not be afraid of Our Savior who treats us as a good father and mother treat their child. As long as the child walks on soft grass, the child is allowed to walk alone for that would not do much harm. However, on dangerous paths they carry the child tenderly in their arms. Let us offer ourselves to God, walking the way of love for one another as very dear children of God. It is then that we will live as children of light.

(Adapted from the writings of Saint Francis de Sales)

Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle A) March 20, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflection

Third Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

March 20, 2022

Today’s readings speak to the catechumens who are preparing for baptism. The Scriptures reveal how God cares for those who, like Moses and the Samaritan women, have faith and hope in the Word of God and live it. St. Francis de Sales notes: “Moses’ faith in God’s Word allowed him to use his rod to make water flow from the rock. Attentiveness to God’s Word is necessary to sustain us in our responsibilities in this world. Our entire good lies in accepting the truth of God’s Word and persevering in it. In the Eucharist we are nourished by the Divine Word made flesh.”

We need to grow in God’s Word. Even outside of your prayer, keep yourself as if you were in prayer. Renew yourself throughout the day with thoughts of God’s infinite goodness. Good reading, too, helps the heart come alive and gain new strength and vigor.

Yet, we also ought to nourish and strengthen the divine word by opening our hearts. We must remain attentive and reflect on what God has to say to us in the depths of our hearts. We must digest the divine word so that it becomes a part of us in such a way that we are nourished and strengthened by it. Then, like Jesus, we will put our words into action. We will carry out what we are taught, discerning carefully the needs at hand.

Our Savior desires that we have great confidence in Divine Providence. All who trust in God always reap the fruits of this confidence. Our Savior takes tender care of those who have a great willingness to abandon to Him their weariness and anxious care of advancing in holiness.

We may question whether we will always have the will to please God during our entire life.  Alas! There is nothing so weak and changeable as we are. So let us frequently place our good intention before the Lord, who will strengthen our willingness as often as is necessary, so that we have sufficient determination to live God’s Word in this life.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)

Second Sunday of Lent March 13, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflections

Second Sunday of Lent

March 13, 2022

In today’s readings, the Covenant of Abraham and the Transfiguration reveal to us how much God desires our love, so as to give us eternal glory. St. Francis de Sales notes: “When God spoke to and promised Abraham that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, Abraham had only God’s Word to assure him. God also speaks to us in inspirations that propose the mysteries of faith.”

Through faith, we know God’s Word. In hearts that give their consent to God’s inspirations, God, little by little, gently strengthens these hearts with divine love. These first perceptions of God’s love are poured into us through the Holy Spirit. Still, these first movements of love are just the dawn of faith.  They are like the green buds of springtime. Faith begins with a love for things of God.  Faith shows us that we have implanted in us, a holy natural inclination to love God above all things. No other love can satisfy this desire.

While we have the power to reject divine inspiration, we can not prevent God from inspiring us. Inspirations are favors that God does before we have thought of them. God awakens us when we are asleep. Still, it is in our power to rise or not to rise. Whereas God has awakened us without our help, God will not raise us up without our cooperation. We must consent to God’s call, for God always respects our freedom. God has no slaves, only friends. So it is that Our Savior never abandons us. It is we who abandon Him.

Our confession of faith is an act of choosing to love and serve God as faithful servants. Walk simply and faithfully along the path that God has marked out for you, and you will walk confidently. Be at peace, for Our Savior, who has shown His glory, has taken you by the hand and set you on the way to eternal glory.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales)

First Sunday of Lent March 6, 2022

Salesian Sunday Reflections

First Sunday of Lent

March 6, 2022

 The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent reminds us that when we are tempted with selfish desires we must keep focused on God’s way of love as exemplified in Jesus. Here are a few of St. Francis de Sales’ thoughts on loving God first, then doing what we desire.

 Jesus was tempted in order to teach us that we will always have to choose between good and evil during our entire life. While Jesus tells us that the life of a Christian is a continual rejecting of evilness, and a constant choosing of God’s truth and goodness, He also urges us to walk in the way of love as God’s most dear children. When we live to do God’s will nothing can harm us, for we are armed with faith in God. God’s love becomes the source of all of our desires.

 Yet even in our desire to do God’s will, our selfish motives can infect our thinking. Many people who counted on their own strength to work marvels for God failed when under fire, while those who found their strength in God’s help accomplished wonders. We may feel that we do not have the strength to resist our selfish desires.  We ought not to be afraid of our weaknesses.  Since we desire to belong entirely to God, we must rely on the strength of God, who never fails us in the midst of our weaknesses.

  While we must have a firm and habitual resolution never to willfully commit any imperfection, we must not be astonished if we do. At such times we must confide ourselves to the goodness of God, who does not love us less. Very gently place your heart back into the hands of Our Lord, asking God to heal your heart. Then set yourself once again on the path of virtue, practicing the virtue that opposes your selfish desire.

 As we grow in holiness, knowledge of our faults disturbs us more. When we find ourselves not the saints we hoped to be, we are very discouraged in the pursuit of real virtue. Do not hurry on so fast. Begin to live well your life in light of your duties of state. Perfection consists in doing the little we do in our vocation, in love, by love, and for love. Trust God. When it pleases God to do so, God will make all your desires holy.

 (Adapted from J. Power & W. Wright, Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal; L. Fiorelli, ed. Sermons)

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 27, 2022)

“From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks…”

Today’s selections from the Book of Sirach and Luke’s Gospel suggest a powerful standard by which we can judge the heart and mind of another person: the subject and manner about which one speaks.

Pretty obvious, isn’t it? Negative people tend to speak negatively. Jealous people speak resentfully. Judgmental people speak suspiciously. Their conversations tend to weigh others down.

By contrast, positive people speak positively. Happy people speak graciously. Energized people speak enthusiastically. Their conversations tend to lift others up.

If the eyes are the windows to the soul, conversation seems to be expressions of the heart.

Francis de Sales writes in his Introduction to the Devout Life: “Just as physicians learn about a person’s health or sickness by looking at the tongue, so our words are a true indication of the state of our souls.” (Part III, Chapter 26) This diagnosis has several aspects.

First: how do we speak of God? “If you are truly in love with God you should often speak of God in familiar conversation with others…just as bees extract with their mouths nothing but honey, so your tongue should always be sweetened with its God…always with attention and reverence.” (Ibid)

Second: how do we speak of others? “Be careful never to let an indecent word leave your lips, for even if you do not speak with an evil intention those who hear it may take it a different way.” When one’s heart is filled with evil or rancor or intrigue, their tongues are no longer like the sweet ones of the bees but become “like a lot of wasps gathered together to feed on corruption.” (Part III, Chapter 27)

Third: how balanced is our conversation? “It seems to me that we should avoid two extremes,” observes Francis de Sales. “To be too reserved and to refuse to take part in conversation looks like lack of confidence in the others or some kind of disdain. On the other hand, to be always babbling or joking without giving others time or chance to speak when they wish is a mark of shallowness and levity.” (Part III, Chapter 30)

What do the content and tone of our words tell others about our hearts?

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 20, 2022)

Today’s gospel offers us the great challenge for a disciple of Jesus:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who dislike you, bless those who speak ill of you and pray for those who mistreat you.” “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

We all know how difficult this is to do.

We’ll never be able to do it without God’s grace, without learning to be very conscious that God is present with us each day, without asking God for the strength of his grace many times each day. The invitation of Jesus to love those who get in our face, who know how to push all our buttons, goes against our natural feelings of irritation and anger. Jesus seems to be asking too much.

What Jesus is asking of us is to be all that grace enables us to be. By our baptism, we have been given a share in the life and love of God. Jesus has become our brother; we are children of our heavenly Father by grace. Divine life is in us and that life enables us to live as Jesus lived. Jesus is asking us to learn to live by the new life we have been given. Because of grace, we are able to be merciful as our Father is merciful. Jesus has shown us how to love those who irritate us, how to forgive those who injure us.

St. Francis de Sales recommends several practices that can help us remember the strength of divine life within us.

Begin the day with a short prayer of awareness: “My God, you are here loving me today; help me to remember you’re with me as we go through the day.” Then, talk with God about the grace I will need to deal with particular people in my life who can irritate me or have mistreated me. During the day, when I know I’m going to meet such a person, I ask God’s help that I may relate with that person in a way that is pleasing to God. Then, each evening, thank God for the times when grace gave me strength and ask pardon for the times I forgot to ask for God’s help and failed because I tried to do it on my own.

The key is learning the discipline of remembering that I share divine life. When my prayer leads me to greater awareness of God’s loving presence each day, then I will more likely become dependent on the grace God makes available to me. Then the challenge that Jesus offers – to love my enemies – is not so impossible for me to try to meet. I can meet it because I trust in God who lives in me.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 13, 2022)

A barren bush in the desert or a tree planted by running water – which of these images reflects your choices in life? Have you chosen to trust other people or are you trusting in the care of the Lord?

Jeremiah reminds us that, if we choose to trust in the Lord, then together we can face whatever life brings to us. God is with us, nourishing us even in the heat and drought of daily living.

Jesus asks us to take our trust in the Lord with us into our world and find ways to share it with the less fortunate – people who are poor, hungry, suffering and alienated. Jesus’ presence and message is meant for those who are ready and willing to focus on God rather than themselves, in order to experience the blessings of God given through others rather than holding on to the good things of life for themselves.

When you and I have learned to trust in God’s care, we are willing to share whatever we have with the poor, to give whatever nourishment we can to those who are hungry, to bring moments of joy and care to those who suffer, and to welcome into our circle of friends people who feel left-out. As disciples of Jesus, we are to be evidence of the kingdom of God present among us – by the way we live each day.

When we have learned to accept our own poverty, hunger, sufferings and alienation as human beings and are open to the many ways that God’s care has touched our lowliness and drawn us into his circle of friends, then we are better able to be more like God in caring for the lowly around us. Then we can be good news to our brothers and sisters.

During this ordinary time of the year, we are being taught about being better disciples. We are being taught to grow in more confident trust in God – that God is loving us and caring for us at every moment as his children.

St. Francis de Sales offers us an image that we can take to prayer each day:

“In all your affairs lean solely on God’s Providence, by means of which alone your plans can succeed. Imitate a little child, whom one sees holding tight with one hand to its father, while with the other it gathers strawberries or blackberries from the wayside hedge. Even so, while you gather and use this world’s goods with one hand, always let the other be fast in your Heavenly Father’s hand and look round from time to time to make sure that He is satisfied with what you are doing, at home or abroad. Beware of letting go, under the idea of making or receiving more—if He forsakes you, you will fall to the ground at the first step. When your ordinary work or business is not especially engrossing, let your heart be fixed more on God than on it; and if the work be such as to require your undivided attention, then pause from time to time and look to God, even as navigators who make for the haven they would attain, by looking up at the heavens rather than down upon the deeps on which they sail. In so doing, God will work with you, in you, and for you, and your work will be blessed.”

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 6, 2022)

What a wonderful set of life-vocation stories in today’s Scriptures.

Isaiah experiences (sees) the Lord of hosts in the Temple. He is humbled: “Woe is me, I’m doomed. I’m a man of unclean lips.” The ember carried by the seraph removes his wickedness. And Isaiah is ready to go forth: “Here I am, send me!”

Jesus has confronted Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul acknowledges that he is not worthy to be an apostle. And yet he preaches faithfully: “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Peter reluctantly puts out into deep water at the command of Jesus – and witnesses nets so full that they are breaking. He kneels before Jesus in great humility: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus gently tells him not to be afraid: “From now on you will be catching men.” Peter and his mates leave everything and follow Jesus.

Each of these encounters with God became life-changing. Isaiah will speak God’s word for his lifetime, whether he is accepted or rejected. Peter and Paul engage in “catching men” for the rest of their lives until they are ultimately killed for their preaching.

How many times in their lives as apostles would they be asked again to ”put out into deeper water and lower your nets”? Often their security was not to be found near the shoreline but with Jesus in the deep water.

Jesus’ invitation always seems to be “put out into deep water.” As we grow older, the invitation to let Jesus live in us more fully leads us into the deeper waters of our own life and that of our community. We can only fill our nets with the grace of God when we’re willing to leave our own security and trust in the invitation to come deeper.

Like Isaiah, the Lord will remove our sins and failings that keep us close to shore and prepare us to go deeper. Like Peter, we will hear Jesus gently tell us: “Do not be afraid.”

May our willingness to put out into the deep with Jesus lead us to be able to say with St. Paul: “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.”

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time January 30, 2022

In today’s reading of the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us what it means to love. St. Francis de Sales based his whole life and his teachings on love:

By love we live, feel and move. All our affections follow our love. Love is the life of the heart. As our heart is, so are our actions. Those who open themselves to God’s love in their heart have God’s love in their actions. Divine love can do all things and endure all things when we allow it to reign in our hearts. A heart that has holy love lives a clean, healthy, new life. This new life is both lively and life giving. It is the bond of perfection.

God’s love is always present in us. Unfortunately, we do not see it in ourselves. Because we do not see the presence of God’s love in us, it is easy to forget. We then behave as if God is very distant from us. God’s love is present in a most particular way in your heart and in the very center of your spirit. From time to time, retire into the solitude of your own heart, even while engaged in discussions or transactions. Talk with God. Other people cannot enter this mental solitude since they are not standing around your heart, which remains alone in the presence of God.

Our life on earth is like the perpetual, diverse motions of the waves of the sea. Some days we are buoyed up in hope, and sometimes we are cast down in fear. Even though everything changes within or around us, we must be like the mariner’s needle that always points to the North Star. Our will must remain looking, striving, and aspiring toward the love of God. Nothing can disturb or move us from God’s love, since our resolution never to forsake God’s merciful love keeps us steady amid the various changes brought to us by the conditions of this life. Thus, do not lose courage, nor let your spirit sink amid contradictions. God will never abandon the care of your heart, for God’s love is eternal.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales.)

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time January 23, 2022

In today’s reading of the Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul describes how members of the Christian community have different functions and gifts that contribute to the unity of the community. St. Francis de Sales speaks of the gifts that unite us in our differences:

As members of the body of the Church, we are so united that we share in the good of one another. Even the sick who practice many admirable virtues in their illness contribute to the well being of the community. Our Savior wishes that holy love unite us. As living members of Jesus Christ and the Church, the fruits of our labor flow down upon those who are united by sacred love. Many grapes are pressed together to make one wine. Many grains of wheat are ground and kneaded together to make one single loaf. The gift of our sharing the Eucharist together is the source of our union, for the Eucharist unites us as children of God.

We must give great value to the gifts received from God and do our best for the welfare of all. This may be difficult at times. We may have many doubts in accepting the responsibilities given to us. However, in simplicity of heart we must say, “I can do anything in God who strengthens me.” We do what we have to do: not troubled by the greatness of the task, the amount of time required, or the many delays encountered. For the Holy Spirit dwelling in us makes our frail works display the greatness of God’s love that unites us.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales.)

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time January 16, 2022

Today’s Gospel focuses on God’s presence in Jesus as He transforms water into wine, symbolic of our transformation in Christ. St. Francis de Sales similarly notes:

Jesus came to create a new humanity. He began his ministry to transform the human person by manifesting God’s goodness with a miracle at a joyful banquet. At the Wedding Feast of Cana, Jesus transformed water into wine to meet a need of the newly wedded couple. Then at another banquet before His death, He instituted the Eucharist so that we might be nourished and become like Him.

In the transformation of water into wine, and the institution of the Eucharist, God’s goodness in the Person of Jesus is made present to us. Christ’s presence in our lives turns the water of our tepid love into the wine of God’s love. Divine love invigorates and strengthens us as we journey toward wholeness in living Jesus.

In today’s Gospel, Mary, convinced that Jesus would provide the wine for the wedding couple, presents their need to her Son. We too must confidently ask God for our spiritual and temporal needs. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask daily that God’s Kingdom come, and God’s Will be done. But Jesus also told us to ask God to give us our daily bread.

When we are disheartened and feel desolate, we must present our needs to God, convinced that God will answer us according to our needs. We can say to God: “It is enough for me to present myself to You as I am. You will provide for my miseries and necessities as You see fit.” While God never gives us an excess of our self-centered wants, God never fails to supply what is necessary for our well being, if we are open to God’s presence in our life.

(Adapted from the writings of St. Francis de Sales, especially The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales, L. Fiorelli, ed.)