32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Heaven: The Journey’s End

10-30-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Lk 20:27-38

Whom are these Sadducees the Gospel mentions today? The Sadducees were the priestly aristocrats centered in Jerusalem. They accepted as scripture only the first five books of the Old Testament, followed only the letter of the law, rejected the oral legal traditions, and were opposed to teachings not found in the Pentateuch, such as the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees, often confused with the Pharisees, originated in the 2nd century BC. The main difference is Pharisees’ trademark strict adherence to the Torah, or the Law of Moses, which includes the written and oral traditions. The scribes and the expert of the law predominantly belong to this group.

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31st Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Sycamore Tree of Conversion

10-23-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Accepting the hospitality of Zacchaeus, Jesus uses the opportunity to affirm the change of heart of a tax collector: Today, salvation has come to this house! Has salvation come to our house, or better to our soul? For some, it has already come; for many others, it is coming. But hopefully, for many more, it is coming soon. The encounter between the two happens because Zacchaeus

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10-16-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

There are two main characters in the Gospel, the Pharisee, and the tax collector. The Pharisees were lay leaders known to promote strict adherence to the Torah or the Law of Moses. In Jesus’ time, they were respected and called Rabbi, which means, Teacher. The name came from the Hebrew word perusim or separated ones. Because of their learnings, they separated themselves from the ordinary people who do not know the Law. And to a higher degree, from tax collectors, publicans, or sinners.

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29th Sunday in Ordinary: Persistent Prayer

10-09-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Lk 18:1-8

Persistent prayer is necessary. Persistence does not necessarily mean long, unending prayer but heartfelt and confident prayer. In other words, it is not so much the quantity but the quality of our prayers that attract the attention of God, His mercy, and compassion. It is wrong to think that we can force God to take action in our favor because of our prayers. Remember that God is in control, that is, only He calls the shot. We can only
pray: Jesus, we trust in You!

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Gratitude

10-02-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Today, Jesus teaches us the value of gratitude and how often we forget or take it for granted. It hurts to admit: How often do we focus on what is missing; and forget to thank God for our blessings?

One of the best attitudes we can develop is gratitude. Let us be grateful for everything and everyone in our life. Blessed those who make it a practice to say: Thank you, Lord! For everything that life has given, or is giving us, the good or bad, the happiness and sadness, and still free from regrets, worries, fears, and hopelessness. “With gratitude, we shift to a higher frequency, which attracts better things.”

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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

09-25-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

As adults, unless we are dealing with children, “obedience” is not a word we typically like to hear. It often brings connotations of military protocols, deference to superiors at work, or conforming to laws and practices. In a culture that has learned to challenge authority, being obedient is understood more as something I “have” to do, not “want” to do. Do you ever see merit in wanting to be obedient? Encouraged to develop independent, self-sufficient egos and personas, we learn to focus on our own wills and merits as we strive for success and achieve a sense of well -being. Giving ourselves over to the will of another, especially when done blindly, can sometimes carry more risk than we are willing to take. Also, blindly following orders without any deference to ethics or morality can lead to atrocious crimes and violence against humanity.

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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

09-18-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

“You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Merriam-Webster defines mammon as material wealth or possessions, especially having a debasing influence. While God does not take issue with our need to use money for the business of our lives, there can be a problem with the attitudes we bring to it. We can easily become so preoccupied and obsessed with money that it becomes the real “god” we worship. Do we serve mammon instead of God? In their book, Wealth, Riches and Money, Craig Hill and Earl Pitts outline symptoms of mammon’s influence in our lives. Some of these are worry and anxiety over money, money mismanagement, fear over “never having enough,” an “I can’t afford it” mentality, impulse buying, stinginess, greed, debt, and discontent.

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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

09-11-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Since God created human beings, we have struggled to keep our focus on God. We wrestle with the question of “who is God” and foolishly believe some of God’s job description can be better completed by us. We wander in different directions, lose our way, think that happiness can be found elsewhere and even construct golden calves to worship. Are we simply too independent or just blatantly stubborn? It’s a good question to ask. Even with all of our silliness and distractions, God compassionately and patiently waits. He lets us assert our wills and knows that perhaps one day we will actually wake up and realize how lost we are.

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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

09-04-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Since God created human beings, we have struggled to keep our focus on God. We wrestle with the question of “who is God” and foolishly believe some of God’s job description can be better completed by us. We wander in different directions, lose our way, think that happiness can be found elsewhere and even construct golden calves to worship. Are we simply too independent or just blatantly stubborn? It’s a good question to ask. Even with all of our silliness and distractions, God compassionately and patiently waits. He lets us assert our wills and knows that perhaps one day we will actually wake up and realize how lost we are.

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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

08-28-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

What virtue is the cornerstone of discipleship? Love. Jesus preached about it, lived it, and summarized his greatest commandment featuring it. Love is in our DNA. To follow Jesus, then, is to follow the path of love. While this may appear to be an attractive and easy option, it most assuredly is not. Authentic love always comes with sacrifice. It is the complete giving of oneself to another. The sacrificial character of love always requires that we leave something aside and pursue something else. This is at the heart of self-denial. Love asks us to make choices that are often difficult.

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Humility and Generosity

08-21-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Thomas Edison, the famous inventor of the early 20th century, is truly a humble man at heart. This inventor of the phonograph and incandescent lamp once said to his assistant: People call me a great inventor. I’m no inventor worth talking about When I think that I can’t even build the simplest being that could think and speak or at least do something on his own, I know that there is only one true inventor. At that, he pointed his finger heavenward.

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The Narrow Door

08-14-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Jesus is making His way toward Jerusalem, the dream of every male Jews to visit one day because it is the center of their religion; and where the Temple is. The Psalms often sing the words of Yahweh: I will set my king on Zion, my holy mountain, fairest of all the heights is the joy of all the earth. The only Temple of the Jewish religion stands on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and people from all over the world long to go there to worship and offer sacrifices to the one and true God. And Jesus heads to Jerusalem one day, He would sacrifice His life there.

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Be on Fire

08-07-2022Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

I come to set the earth on fire. Fire symbolizes many things: First, there are destructive fires that bring a lot of damage to property, homes, buildings, and other structures. There are forest fires that can burn hundreds of thousands of acres and cause damage to livestock; and wildlife. We remember the 19 Arizona Granite Hot Shot who lost their lives in the Yarnell fire of 2013. Second, the benefits of fire for cooking food for the hungry, providing heat for those in the cold, purifying waters, and giving light to homes where there is no electricity. Lastly, fire ignites combustion engines that help transport people and material goods. All these are examples of the literal sense where the fire is applicable, but the Lord speaks of fire symbolically.

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