Posts by Cheryl J
The Spirit of Adoption Makes Us Sons and Daughters
We have received a spirit of adoption as sons through which we cry: Abba! Father! One of the most inspiring books I read as a teenager that helped my relationship with Abba Father, was titled, “I Dared to Call Him Father” by Bilquis Sheikh. It was the conversion story of a young Muslim woman and…
Read MoreThis Saying is Hard, Who Can Accept It?
Some gifts are hard to receive. Our Gospel today from John 6:60-69 draws our attention to the consternation of the Lord’s disciples when He instructs them to eat His body and drink His blood to have eternal life. If a Catholic has not grappled with the question of whether the Eucharist is “really the flesh…
Read MoreIf you forgive…
Gladys Staines, the widow of Australian missionary Graham Staines, found it in her heart to forgive Dara Singh and the mob that set fire to the jeep where her husband and sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (6), were asleep in a remote village in Odisha, India. Graham had spent 30 years serving impoverished tribals and…
Read MoreJesus, Son of David, Have Pity on Me
Today’s gospel from Luke 18 spotlights a blind man and his heartfelt cry: Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me. Mark 10 identifies the man as the beggar, Bartimaeus, stationed by the roadside near Jericho. Jesus was passing by, accompanied by disciples and a great multitude. When Bartimaeus calls to Jesus, the crowd immediately…
Read MoreBehave!
“You should know how to behave in the household of God” 1 Timothy 3:14 Not long ago, I was in a grocery store where a 9-year-old boy loudly questioned his mother, “But why can’t I have an iPhone?” His exasperated Mum, hauling along his younger sister with one hand, and pushing her over-laden cart with…
Read MoreThe Yoke of Freedom
Today’s Mass readings are rich with the promises of freedom for the fearful, the overwhelmed, and those held in bondage and oppression. In the first reading, God says to Moses, “I Am who am….tell the children of Israel, I Am sent me to you.” God IS. As I take this one thought and meditate upon…
Read MoreJust Ask!
Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you…ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” John 16:23 Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are both comforting and bewildering. Who among us can boast of having had all…
Read MoreJoseph, the Just Man
“Come with me,” the petite nun said to our group of East Indian families from Canada on our first night in the Holy Land in March 2018. “I will take you to my convent. It is built over the tomb of the ‘just man’ and the house where Jesus grew up with Joseph and Mary.”…
Read MoreThe Choosing
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you so that you may go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last,” John 15:16 Today’s gospel from Mark 3 tells us that Jesus spent the night with His Heavenly Father in prayer before calling out twelve of His disciples to be His apostles, His emissaries,…
Read MoreChrist Our King
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the crown of the Catholic liturgical year. The Solemnity – instituted fairly lately – by Pope Pius XI in 1925, anticipates the season of Advent, where we as a church begin our yearly journey anew, preparing our hearts through the apocalyptic…
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