Palm Sunday - A Week to Remember - Mk 14:1 15:47

03-24-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

Fill in the blanks: 1.) _________ is greater than God, 2.) _________ is more evil than the devil. Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord is the official name of this liturgical celebration. Holy Week starts with the festive celebration when Jesus enters Jerusalem. People welcomed Him by spreading their cloaks on the road while others spread reeds they had cut in the field. Still, others got palm branches and met Jesus with a joyful cry, Hosanna! Blessed be He who comes in the name of the Lord. But the sad thing is that after a few days, the same people will be shouting; Crucify him! Crucify him!

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5th Sunday of Lent: The Grain of Wheat

03-17-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

As we approach Holy Week, the Gospel reveals things that will happen to Jesus. It does not give us all the details, but Jesus nears the fulfillment of His mission. He speaks about the Paschal Mystery in the image of the “grain of wheat that dies to produce much fruit.” Jesus introduces this image after some Greeks approach His disciples to see Him and listen to His wisdom. - The expression would like to see Jesus, is more than being curious about the Lord. They want to meet, get to know, and hopefully follow Him to be His disciples. The Greeks are expressing a deep longing found in every heart of those who have known Him. - All of us want to see the face of Jesus and get to know Him more intimately. And hopefully, like the experience of Peter, James, and John at Mt. Tabor, we want to stay with Him as long as possible. We want to know the fullness of life.

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4th Sunday of Lent

03-10-2024Weekly Reflection©LPi — Father John Muir

Our national pastime isn’t baseball. It’s what the Bible calls “condemning the world.” We generally enjoy pronouncing curses upon those whom we see as trouble, wrong, or evil. Don’t believe me? Listen to almost any podcast, cable news network, or social media platform to hear it. It will be some version of: “We all agree that if they are eradicated, things will be great.” Condemning is almost always clothed in virtue. It basks in its good intentions. That’s why it is so attractive. Condemning seems like our best path to saving what is good.

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3rd Sunday of Lent

03-03-2024Weekly Reflection©LPi — Father John Muir

I am the Lord your God … You shall not have other gods beside me. —Ex 20:2-3

One of the greatest golfers of all time — if not the greatest — was Jack Nicklaus. Which is why it is baffling that at the beginning of each season he would return to his childhood coach and re-learn how to grip the golf club. It’s like Shakespeare re-learning the alphabet and grammar. Why would he do that? Because Jack knew that the fundamentals are always relevant. Perfecting and obsessing over his grip allowed him to do everything else in the game well. In sports and life, the best ones love the basics.

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2nd Sunday of Lent

02-25-2024Weekly Reflection©LPi — Father John Muir

As a college student, my prized possession was an after-market car stereo. It was my pride and joy: glorious audio, eye-catching display screen, and multi-disc CD changer. It drained my hardearned dollars, but it was totally worth it. It drenched me in music everywhere I drove. On Ash Wednesday of my senior year of college, Father Tom, the Jesuit priest at my university said, “Pray for God to tell you what he wants you to sacrifice for Lent.” I did. In my heart, the answer came: “Give up listening to your car stereo for forty days.” I winced. Not possible, I thought. Can’t do it. I made other plans. The next morning, I was stunned to find that my car had been broken into, and my fancy stereo ripped out and stolen.

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First Sunday of Lent

02-18-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

A covenant is a formal agreement between two parties. Assuming both parties enter into the covenant of their own free will, it is a bond that cannot be broken. As time goes on, that covenant will be tested and its validity questioned by skeptics, but it will remain I f it is real.

God's covenant with his people is real. It began with a promise made to Noah and was renewed in the person of Jesus Christ. It has been tested by man through sin and by evil through Jesus' trials in the desert. But here in 2024, it still remains as strong as ever.

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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

02-11-2024Weekly Reflection©LPi — Father John Muir

Recently I had a skin rash, and it was awful. (Please don’t tell anyone.) I am embarrassed to admit that I didn’t handle it well. Complaining, whining, begging for sympathy, and crying were my responses to the merciless itching and burning. In the aftermath, a silver lining emerged. I feel a new heartfelt sympathy for all those vexed with chronic skin problems. If you’ve ever had a seemingly unending skin problem, you know how that sympathy flows up from deep inside.

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The Ministry of Jesus

02-04-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

The four parts of the Gospel today consist of: First, Jesus heals the mother in law of Peter. Second, news spread of the presence of Jesus; He heals and casts out unclean spirits after sunset. Third, early morning, Jesus withdraws to a deserted place to PRAY. Fourth, Jesus visits synagogues and casts out evil spirits.

The readings give us a wide range of human experiences, from the darkness and hopelessness of Job, losing everything (1st reading), to the joy of healing and freedom from evil spirits provided by Jesus.

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