anger?

Jonah 4:1-11; Ps 86 Lord,, you are merciful and gracious; Luke 11:1-4

But the Lord asked, "Have you reason to be angry?"

What a question!

This is God's response to Jonah who throws a tatrum becasue the people of Nineveh are saved from destruction. He throws a tatrum because God is merciful.

Imagine that!

Here is the prophet who was coerced to preach repentance. Remember he preached agianst his will, he was reluctant. Yet, It was productive. God used this little man to bring about big changes for the people of Nineveh, the people jonah himself despised.


God allowed them to repent and to change their ways. God gave them warning, he gave them time, and in the end he gave them clemency.

But is mercy wasn't finished.

Then to show his mercy, God allowed a plant to grow and give Jonah shade even while he compalined. Then the plant withered and died.

Jonah's anger flared up.

It seems poor Jonah is only thinking about himself. Poor Jonah is only happy with God when God does what Jonah desires. Sounds a lot like us.

Don't we try to corner God in to doing what is our will rather than truly allowing ourselves to be transformed by his.

In the end, we do not have a monopoly on God's mercy. In the end do we really have a reason to be angry? when it is all said and done, is not his mercy really all that we hope for and all that we desire?



The Lord giveth and the lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

John Wayne's grandson is a priest

Here is a post for all of you John Wayne fans. His grandson is a priest.

Find the article here: Click here pilgrim

Wednesday's Audience but Sundays words from the Pope

Today I wanted to leave you with Pope Benedict's words form Sunday on the gospel as well as guardian angels, whose feast was this past Sunday. I've highighted a few parts I thought were worth looking over several times. The Successor of Peter really knows how to drive home a point. I hoep you enjoy.

"This Sunday's Gospel closes with Jesus' warning addressed to the chief priests and elders of the people that is particularly severe: "The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will bear its fruits" (Matthew 21:43). These are words that make us think of the great responsibility of those who, in every age, are called to work in the vineyard of the Lord, especially with the role of authority; they move us to complete fidelity to Christ. He is the "stone that the builders rejected" (cf. Matthew 21:42), because they judged him an enemy of the law and a threat to public order; but he himself, rejected and crucified, is risen, becoming the "cornerstone" upon which every human existence and the entire world can rest with absolute security.

The parable of the unfaithful tenants, to whom a man gave his vineyard to be cultivated to bear fruit, speaks of this truth. The owner of the vineyard represents God himself, while the vineyard symbolizes God's people as well as the life that he has bestowed upon us to do good through our commitment and his grace. St. Augustine says that "God cultivates us like a field to make us better" (Sermo 87, 1, 2: PL 38, 531). God has a project for his friends but unfortunately man's answer is often oriented to infidelity, which translates into rejection. Pride and egoism impede the recognition and acceptance even of God's most precious gift: his only begotten Son. When, in fact, "he sent them his son," writes the Evangelist Matthew, "they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him" (Matthew 21:37, 39). God gives himself into our hands, he allows himself to be an unfathomable mystery of weakness and manifests his omnipotence in fidelity to a plan of love that, in the end, foresees also punishment for the wicked (cf. Matthew 21:41).

Solidly anchored in faith in the cornerstone that is Christ, we remain in him as a branch that cannot bear fruit on its own if it does not remain in the vine. Only in him, through him and with him is the Church, the people of the New Covenant, built up. In this connection the Servant of God Pope Paul VI wrote: "The first benefit which we trust the Church will reap from a deepened self-awareness, is a renewed discovery of its vital bond of union with Christ. This is something which is perfectly well known, but it is supremely important and absolutely essential. It can never be sufficiently understood, meditated upon and preached" ("Ecclesiam Suam," August 6, 1964: AAS 56 [1964], 622).

Dear friends, the Lord is always near and working in human history, and he also accompanies us with the unique presence of his angels, whom the Church venerates today as "guardians," that is, ministers of the divine care for every man. From the beginning until the hour of death, human life is surrounded by their unceasing protection. And the angels are the crown of the august Queen of Victories, the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, who in the first Sunday of October, precisely at this hour, receives the fervid plea, from the sanctuary in Pompeii and from the whole world, that evil be defeated and the goodness of God be revealed in its fullness.

From Riches to Rags

JOnah 3:1-11; Ps 130 If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand; Lk 10:38-42

What is happiness?

St. Thomas Aquinas dedicates a whole section of his Summa Theologia on Happiness of man.

His conclusion: final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of Divine Essence. He goes on to add that a certain participation in happiness can be had in this life, but perfection and true happiness cannot be had in this life. Though rectitude of the will is necessary for Happiness; since it is nothing else than the right order of the will to the last end.

The will has to be rightly ordered. Hence "Seek ye first the kingdom of God."

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Francis. He is known through out the world as probably one of the happiest men you will ever know.

There are many advertisements about the most interesting man in the world. St. Francis is the most interesting man in the world.

We often hear of stories of people going from rags to riches, well St Francis went the other way, from riches to rags.

He gave up his family's inheritance, his wealth, his fame, his fortune and all to boot. He even gave back the clothes on his back to his father and walked away from it.

But he really wasn't walking away from anything, rather he was walking toward someone, walking with someone, Jesus Christ.

IT was in this movement toward Christ, he discovered what happiness could be. He embraced poverty so that he could truly set his heart and mind on that which matter most of all. Unhindered, his will could then "seek first the kingdom of God."

He often spoke about Lady Poverty as the one companion that would assure that his will was always fixed on Christ.

Poverty isn't just about not owning any property or having any money, rather it is about being unhindered in seeking the kingdom.

What hinders us? What distracts us from seeking the kingdom of God? What runs interference in our life? What are we attached to in life? This is where Lady Poverty can lead us forth!

This is what St. Francis models for us even today some 800 years after his death. He let nothing get in his way of achieving the goal of seeing God face to face, where true happiness is found.

His actions, his words, his discipline, his renunciations, his lifestyle all reflected that one movement of the soul, a will longing to see.

What about us?

As we encounter in the first reading and the gospel today. Especially we hear it in the words of JEsus to MArtha, Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken form her.

Have we chosen the better part?

St. Francis pray for us

Won't you be my neighor

Growing up, I remember watching reruns of Mr. Roger's neighborhood. THat catchy little song sometimes continue to ring in my head even today, "Would you be, could you be, won't you be my neighbor."

What a refrain!


Here is the introduction to Mister Roger's neighbor via Youtube


Today in the gospel we read the story of the Good Samaritan.
We are familiar with the story. We all know the players: the robbers. the victim. the priest, the levite and of course the Good Samaritan.

We know the bad guys and the good guy in the story very well.

Remember the story is told in response to the question: Who is my neighbor?

Basically the response form JEsus is thus: we don't get to choose who our neighbor is. God has already chosen that for us. Each and every day God puts unfortunate souls in our path and we must choose to respond in a neighborly way.

We don't have the luxury to go to the opposite side of the road and look away and pretend we don't see.

This is why JEsus tells us, "Go and do likewise." Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robber's victim? He replied, "The one who treated him with mercy." "Go and do likewise.

The invitation is clear and precise.

We know what God ask of us.

Be on the look out for victims of any sort. Do not seek to justify yourself but trust in the justification that comes from God who empowers us to do as he did.

BEcause in the end, we are the victims, abandoned on the side the road and Christ is Good Samaritan who has had mercy us, who carries on his shoulders and who binds our wounds by being wounded for us, "By his wounds we are healed" says St. Peter.

Won't you be a neighbor today.

sinner, satanist, saint

Jonah 1:1-2,2:1-11; YOu will rescue my life from the pit, O Lord; Luke 10:25-37

"But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the Lord."

We find these words written in the story of Jonah we experience today.

How often is this the case, where many a men and women flee from the Lord? There are too many to count.

What Jonah experiences on the boat as he flees, we experience in the world.

"The Lord hurled a violent wind upon the sea, and in the furious tempest that arose the ship was on the point of breaking up. Then the mariners became frightened and each one cried to his god..."


Look out into the world. The world is shaken with violence and poverty and disease. Not that God is punishing us, but rather by turning away from God we also turn away from all that is good. We bring self-destruction upon our self.

Just look around!

But all hope is not lost. God finds a away to call us back to himself.

Jonah is thrown over board where a whale swallows him up. In the belly of the fish for three days he journeys.

The path back to God is not an easy one. We too must deal with the belly of the fish, the stench of our past lives and decisions. They too linger even though we seek to return to the lord. We must wade through our past lives in order to experience a true conversion.

"Then the Lord commanded the fish to spew Jonah upon the shore."

What a nasty image. Jonah being spewed out of the mouth of the fish. The story of Jonah can easily be seen as a paradigm for conversion.

Today in the church we remember Blessed Bortolo Longo. He was born in 1841 in Italy. He was raised in the faith but upon his mother's death at the age of ten he began to drift away. In college he turned away completely where he was caught up in all kinds of things even the Satanic cult, where he became a satanic priest devoting his life to speak against the Catholic faith and all that was associated with God and Christ.

After sometime, a old professor met up with him and told him that he was on the path of damnation. Assisted by this professor and an Dominican priest, Bartolo came back to the faith, as the writers of biography say, "after much study, prayer, and lengthy confession."


Bartolo began to devote his life to the sick, poor, and the uneducated, teaching them to read, and write, and reaching out to them in their need. He saw it as his way of making amends for decisions of his past and as an effort to repair the damage he caused to so many as a satanist.

He began to pray the rosary daily and he grew in holiness. What a turn around! Bartolo went form a sinner, to a satanist, to a saint.


Here you can read about his life

But in all actuality the potential for holiness was always there. Such it is with all of us.
The path of conversion is not easy but it is transformative.

He learned what Jesus tells us in the parable, of the Good Samaritan, it is not we who justify ourselves but rather Christ who justifies all of us and makes the path of holiness always with in our reach.

"Which of these three were neighbor to the robber's victim?" Asked JEsus. HE answered "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

for his love endures forever

This morning as we enter fully into the weekend, on this day, October 1st, we recall to mind the Little flower, St. Theresa of the child Jesus of Lisieux.

She struggled with her vocation, her calling in life. She wanted to be many things, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, a martyr. She wanted to give God her entire life.

In the midst of her search she came upon a revelation: "Set your desires on the greater gifts. And I will show you the way which surpasses all others. For St. PAul insists that the greater gifts are nothing at all without love and that this same love is surely the best path leading directly to God. At length I had found peace of mind."

She exclaims that "love appeared to be the hinge for my vocation... I knew that the church had a heart and such a heart appeared aflame with love...Love sets off the bounds of all vocations, that love is everything, that this same love ebraces every time and every place. In one word Love is everlasting."

Thus began her little way of martyrdom, dying to self so that she might live for love, seeking the highest good for herself and for others.

Psalm 136 in the Old testament recounts God's actions in history. The psalm itself is built around a refrain that repeats every second line, for instance:

"who alone has wrought marvelous works
for his love endures forever
whose wisdom it was made the skies
for his love endures for ever
who fixed the earthly firmly on the seas
for his love endures for ever..."

And it continues. But the refrain is what makes the psalm, it answers the question, why does God do what he does, "for his love endures forever."

He is love; he is everlasting; his love and himself are the same thing; thus love never fails.

The hinge of every vocation is love because this is our destiny; therefore it must be our calling; it must that which calls us forth into life.

Read Psalm 136 today as your morning offering, perhaps with a cup of coffee. Let it soak in. Look upon the world and listen for the refrain: his love endures forever and there you shall find renewed strength for today, regardless of what happened yesterday, for his love endures for ever and it calls each of us forth into newness of life.

St. Theresa pray for us!