Twofold

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Twofold

Greatest   Commandments

Heart   Soul   Mind

Love God Neighbor As Yourself

Wholeheartedly

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Matthew 22: 34 to 40

One day when Jesus was teaching, one of the Pharisees who was a scholar of  the Law asked Jesus which Law He thought was the greatest.

Jesus gave him two:

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind."

and

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Reflection

Is it complicated to be a follower of Jesus?

Do you have to study for a degree in Theology?

Do you have to memorize the Baltimore Catechism or the Catechism of the Catholic Church?

Do you have to know every verse in the Bible?

Jesus tells us in this passage from Matthew that the answer is simple and twofold. You just have to follow the greatest commandments.

So many people complicate religion unnecessarily. They can throw all sorts of roadblocks in our way to make religion seem like such a burden. They can get all hung up on various laws and regulations. People get turned off and rightly so.

Jesus breaks it down to the three aspects of love:

the heart---the feeling of connection we have with one another;

the mind---directing our thoughts to care for others;

the soul---realizing the spiritual bond we have with all of creation.

It is so easy for us to lose our focus and to get involved in the trivia that surrounds us in our media. Many people are more concerned about the likes they receive from an online post than actually caring for those who are sick, poor, hurting, or in prison.

People will argue for hours about immigration but will not feed or house the immigrants in their community who are hungry and homeless. We get involved with laws and don't follow the greatest commandments. 

The call from Jesus is simple and direct: love God and love our neighbor. 

How do we demonstrate our love for God? Jesus tells us.

Love your neighbor.

We can talk all about how much we love God but our words are utterly meaningless unless we are eagerly doing acts of charity for our sisters and brothers in need.

The talk stops.

The concrete actions are called for.

Those actions must be done repeatedly and wholeheartedly. 

We have the example of Jesus.

Did he hold back?

1. Do you feel it is difficult to be a follower of Jesus?

2. Is religion complicated?

3. Why do some people reduce religion to following laws?

4. When personally have you become distracted by the trivia in our media and lost focus on following the twofold commandments that Jesus has given?

5. What do you see as you contemplate Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John McNamara)

Conviction

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Conviction

Stand Firm

Faith   Labor   Love

You Are God's Chosen

Hope

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 1:4

St. Paul was writing to his friends in Thessalonica. He had shared the Good News with them and felt very close to them. He was encouraging them to endure in the faith that they had embraced, and he wrote:

Know always, sisters and brothers, that you are loved by God and you are God's chosen.

Reflection

I have always admired people with deep conviction. I think of the saints like St. Francis of Assisi who was convinced that God wanted him to rebuild the Church and devoted his whole life to that conviction.

I think of Mother Frances Cabrini who devoted her life to helping immigrants who were trying to adjust to a new country and were facing discrimination and poverty.

I think of Dorothy Day who was convinced that she was being called to the Catholic Church and sacrificed her relationship with the man she loved when she made that choice.

These three and many others inspire us because they stood firm in the face of much opposition and ridicule. It is amazing that when that opposition and ridicule died down and people saw them standing firm, many others joined them and contributed to and carried on their work.

They were motivated by faith. They felt that God was speaking to them and asking them to follow God's call in a way that was different. They took a stand against their culture. Many considered them weird and strange. Even their fellow lay Catholics and members of the clergy told them that they were wrong and that they should return to a "normal" path.

They did not labor for recognition or acceptance by those in power at the time. They challenged those authorities and pointed them in a different direction---the path of the Gospel. Their labor was for Jesus and not for themselves.

They were in love with Jesus. They talked with Him every day and followed His message. Their love for Jesus grew through their prayer and helped them to overcome the daily obstacles they faced.

That love inspired St. Francis to embrace lepers, Mother Cabrini to establish hospitals for the immigrants who were not accepted at the private hospitals of her day, and Dorothy Day to publish a newspaper featuring articles about the social justice issues of her day and to establish houses of hospitality to feed the hungry.

They felt that God had chosen them for this labor of love. They knew that this would not be an easy path and many of their "friends" questioned them. 

What helped them to persevere? They all had the conviction that God had chosen them for this labor.

The Church had to be rebuilt---it was too complacent and corrupt.

Immigrants had to be helped---Jesus was dwelling in them and with them.

The hungry had to be fed---Jesus was on the bread line with them.

People of conviction like St. Francis, St. Frances Cabrini, and Dorothy Day are signs of hope for us. They remind us that God has a message for each one of us and calls us to a labor of love. God asks us to reach out to those who are hurting, neglected, and forgotten.

God has a message of Hope for them through us:

you are loved!

1. Who are some people of conviction that you admire?

2. What has given you the strength to hold on to your convictions in the face of ridicule and opposition?

3. Are you willing to make sacrifices for your convictions?

4. What are some of your convictions that challenge the culture of today?

5. What do you see as you ponder Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John McNamara)

Invitation

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Invitation

Inclusion/Exclusion

Reject   Comply   Accept

God Will Supply All

Salvation

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:  Philippians 4:19

My God will supply all that you need.

Reflection

Isn't it wonderful to get an invitation to a wedding feast?

Jesus talks about a wedding feast in The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 22, verses 1 to 14. At this feast many refused to go. They even killed the servants that were bringing the invitations!

Jesus is talking about how we respond to His invitation in this parable. Are we open to responding to His call to follow Him?

The invitation that Jesus gives is for All. Everyone is included and no one is excluded. Jesus wants all people to be at His Wedding Feast. 

He calls us to follow Him so that we can experience how much and how deeply He loves us. We have all had the experience of being left out. We feel sad when we learn that there is a party and all of our friends have been invited but we have been ignored. We wonder why we were excluded. Our feelings are hurt.

There can also be an issue when we give an invitation to a feast that we are having and people do not respond or turn down our invitation. Again our feelings are hurt.

Jesus came (and comes today!) to share Good News with us and to invite all of us to be part of the Kingdom of God. We are free to reject or accept that invitation. We might wonder if we have the courage to comply with the requirements of being part of the Kingdom.

We can respond by saying that we are not the brightest, or the most athletic, or the prettiest, or the most handsome one. We can feel that there are many other people who are more qualified to be part of the Kingdom.

Then we realize, as St. Paul shared in his Letter to the Philippians, that it is not about us and our "qualifications". It is all about God and the depth of the Love that God has for each person. God will supply all that we need.

The invitation that God gives us is an invitation that leads to salvation. This is why God sent Jesus to us. God wanted to give us a little glimpse of how deeply we are loved. 

The root meaning of salvation is health and well being. God wants to heal all those parts of us that are broken and wounded.

I remember a conversation that I had with a friend whose son had committed suicide. We spoke about the goodness in his son and how generous and caring he was. His suicide was a shock. I told him that there are some wounds that we cannot see and that God can only heal. 

Salvation is an invitation to healing.

It is God saying "I will Love you forever."

It is an invitation for all. 

How are you responding to your invitation?

1. How do you feel when you get an invitation to a great feast?

2. Has anyone ever excluded you from an invitation to a party?

3. What are some invitations that Jesus has given you lately?

4. Do you ever feel inadequate to respond to God's invitations?

5. What do you see in Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John McNamara)

Receive

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Receive

God's Peace

Transcends All Understanding

Put It Into Practice

Pray

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture: Philippians 4:9

Paul is writing to the community in Philippi and encouraging them to seek peace. He says:

Keep on doing what you have learned from me. Then the God of Peace will dwell with you.

Reflection

Answer

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Answer

Actions   Words

Honesty   Change   Obedience

And Believe In Him

Truth

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Matthew 21:32

One day Jesus was talking to the chief priests and the elders and shared a parable about two sons. Their father had asked them to do some work. One of the sons refused the father but did the work and the other son said yes but did not act on it. Jesus compares this to the response of some of the chief priests and the elders to John the Baptist and says to them:

"When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet when you observed that, you did not change your minds and believe him."

Reflection

Sometimes we get answers that are very helpful for us and bring change in our lives.

There are also times when we give answers and do not act on them.

We might also struggle to find an answer to a difficult situation we are facing.

Answers don't always come instantly.

When we get or give an answer, we then have to translate that answer from the words into concrete actions.

In our reading from Matthew the chief priests and elders with whom Jesus is speaking (we have to note that this encounter certainly does not represent all of the chief priests and elders!), received an answer from John the Baptist but were not able to accept it even as it was accepted by prostitutes and tax collectors.

This reflects our own attempts to accept an answer that we might find difficult to reconcile with what we believe. These particular chief priests and elders did not feel that they had to accept the answers that John the Baptist was giving.

There are times in all of our lives when we cannot accept an answer. In those moments we have to take an honest look at our lives and see if there are changes that we need to make.

The son in this parable of Jesus who initially gives a negative answer to his father changes his answer through his actions. There are times when all of us follow this path. We reconsider our initial answer and make a change. 

That change led this son to obedience. He did what the father wanted him to do. After his initial resistance, he truly listened to not only what the father wanted but what he felt he should do.

These particular chief priests and elders had listened to John the Baptist but could not accept the answers that he was giving at that point in their lives. 

Of course we do not know if their response changed later on as the son changed his response. So many times we reflect on the words some one has shared with us later on after our initial encounter. We start to see the wisdom of those words and that can lead us to change.

Those changes can lead us to a deeper belief. The son changed and believed in his father. He realized that it was more beneficial for him in the long run to do what his father asked him to do. 

The other son answered in the affirmative but did not answer with his actions. He did not follow through. He said what he thought his father wanted to hear; but he did not really believe it was right for him to do what the father had asked. He excused himself from his answer.

It comes down to our embrace of the truth. 

Do we believe in our answer?

Do we feel that it is the right thing to do?

Are we willing to change from our preconceived notions of what we feel is the right path?

Do we want to take an easier path or one that will not demand as much from us?

The prostitutes and the tax collectors were open to the message from John the Baptist. They were willing to change and embrace the truth that God loved them in spite of their failings. They answered by saying yes to God's invitation.

What is your answer?

1. Have you ever been given an answer that you found difficult to accept?

2. Can you think of a time in your life when you reconsidered an initial answer and made a change?

3. Do you sometimes answer with what you think the other person wants to hear from you?

4. Can you relate to the prostitutes and the tax collectors in this story?

5. What do you see as you reflect on Kathy's photo of the Peace Pole?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John McNamara) 

Choose

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Choose

Life     Death

Find Joy In Suffering

Christ Will Be Magnified

Unity

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Philippians 1:20c

Christ will be magnified in my body.

Reflection

How many choices do you make each day?

Isn't it amazing when you think about all of the decisions that you face daily?

When should I get up?

What should I wear?

What should I have for breakfast?

And that is just the start of your day!

In our reading from Philippians, Paul is facing a very difficult decision. He is writing from prison and knows that he could be facing death. This Good News that he has been preaching has been found to be dangerous by some of those in positions of power in the Roman Empire.

He could take the easy way out and just deny the Good News and stop talking about Jesus. If he is quiet and goes along with the official religion of the Empire and gives worship to the Emperor, his life will be spared and his suffering will be over.

That is not for Paul. He has found joy in the Gospel and true happiness in giving his life to Jesus. For Paul to live is to be one with Christ. He cannot deny the Gospel. Jesus has changed his life forever. He is even able to find joy in his suffering in prison because he knows that he is not alone. Jesus is with him every moment. 

His goal in all his choices is a simple one: how can my choice magnify Jesus and give Him the praise and the thanks that Jesus deserves. His choices are never about Paul. They are all centered in Jesus.

These choices lead Paul to become one with Jesus and through this unity one also with all the people he encounters. He is able to reach out to many of the communities of faith that he initiated through the power of the Holy Spirit. He writes letters from jail and receives visitors while imprisoned. 

His words can echo in our hearts and lives today. As we make our many choices each day, we have opportunities to follow Jesus by sharing the Love He gives us each day with the people we meet. 

Paul was able to do that while he was in prison. Nothing stopped him because he wanted to magnify Jesus. 

The smile you share with a stranger.

The food you give to the hungry.

The welcome you give to the immigrant.

The comfort you bring to the sick.

Those everyday choices that you and I make help the Gospel to come alive in our day and time.

Keep on choosing to magnify Christ!

1. Why do some people consider the Gospel to be dangerous?

2. Do you find joy in the Gospel as Paul did?

3. Is it really possible to find joy in suffering?

4. What is the goal of all the choices that you make each day?

5. What do you feel as you ponder Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John McNamara)

Coin

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Coin

Life   Death

Spend   Love   Dedication

We Are The Lord's

Forgiveness

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Romans 14:8

For if we live,

We live for the Lord.

If we die,

We die for the Lord.

Whether we live or die,

We are the Lord's.

Reflection

How do you spend your coin?

I think of the coin that God has given to me. I have been blessed with so many riches.

An amazing wife.

My family.

My friends.

My faith.

My Church community.

The coin that I have been given helps me to appreciate the gift of life. I cherish the blessings that surround me, and I thank God for the goodness of creation.

Paul, in our reading from Romans, talks about living for the Lord. We all try each day to put God first and to follow God's call. 

Paul says we also die for the Lord. Each day we are called to make sacrifices to help others. We have to die to that selfishness that places our own desires first. We try to become more aware of how we can help those who are in need.

We dedicate our lives to using the coin we have been given to make our world a more loving, kinder, and more compassionate place. We strengthen that dedication through our prayer, reflecting on God's Word, building up our community, and performing works of mercy.

We realize that we are the Lord's. God guides us in all we do, and we give ourselves completely to God. We hold nothing back.

That giving helps us in one of our most difficult tasks: to forgive those who have hurt us deeply or who have hurt those we love. 

We have been given a precious coin by God. It is the coin of forgiveness. 

It is that coin that can heal the pain we have experienced when someone has disappointed, attacked, or belittled us.

This degree of forgiveness is a challenge for all of us. God knows this and is patient with us. As we give ourselves to Jesus and realize we are the Lord's, Jesus can start us on our journey to be more forgiving.

As I ponder Kathy's photo of Mary holding Jesus after He was taken down from the cross, I see what forgiveness is all about. Jesus gave His life to let us know that we have been forgiven, we are loved, we are His.

His forgiveness is complete.

In His Love for us, He decided to give us a coin.

Each time we forgive someone whom we find it hard to forgive, we are spending that coin.

After we spend it, He gives us another one.

He never runs out of those coins.

He just invites us to accept them from Him and to spend them on forgiving others.

Don't hoard those coins!

1. What are some of the coins God has given to you?

2. How do you try to live for the Lord?

3. How do you die for the Lord?

4. In what ways do you use the coin of forgiveness?

5. What do you see as you ponder Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John McNamara)