This morning at the 6:30am I offered the following homily. Have you ever felt like you are overwhelmed in life, or overcome with your own struggles, but are constantly helping other people? You get off the phone after counseling someone who needed some advice or comfort and sigh thinking, “I wish I could listen to my own advice?!?” Sometimes helping others when we are overwhelmed, we can feel the weight of our own exhaustion, tempted to pull back and gather yourself for a bit to recoup. But… The apple tree isn’t fed by its own apples. The blueberry bush doesn’t feed on its own blueberries. The trees all find their nourishment from the ground and the sun and the rain, but their fruit sustains others… So it is with us. Our fruit, the work Jesus asks us to do in service of the community isn’t for ourselves and our own benefit and growth… it is meant for others. If we pull back when we feel overwhelmed and try and hoard the fruit for ourselves, it still wouldn’t provide us with the proper nourishment… your work and ministry bears fruit in the community, not to bear fruit for yourself. The nourishment for all of our work is Jesus. We need to go to the source to receive His nourishment and life. Only there can we find the proper foundation and life we need to serve one another. So when you feel the weight of life over you, go to Jesus, and then continue to serve the community in love and the Lord will still produce fruit. When all of us in the community work to bear fruit, then we are at the service of one another and we find nourishment in one another’s gifts. Look at St. Theresa of Calcutta. She experienced the “dark night of the soul” for fifty years. Fifty years she experienced nothing but grief and loneliness in prayer, yet she produced much fruit by her work and ministry. You want to know how? She kept coming back to the source. Day after day, year after year, she went to the Eucharist for nourishment and life. Two hours of adoration every day and the little saint became an instrument of grace and peace to the world. She fed the poor, taught the nations, and witnessed to the world the glory of God. These were her fruits, and if we go to the same source we can bear fruit, too!

The Catholic Church has a single founder, Jesús, and is the only one who has countless means left by him for us to reach holiness. Let us take advantage of each one of them: Prayer, the Sacraments, the Eucharist, the Works of Mercy, the Blessed Sacrament, the Communion of Saints, indulgences, etc. Although at times it seems difficult to achieve, holiness is for everyone and only requires our YES to God and a contrite heart, so that through the Holy Spirit, He can pour out the necessary gifts to rebuild the temple that God has made of us. We are unworthy servants, but ALWAYS loved by God, who is always looking for us, waiting for us like the father to the Prodigal Son, to give us his mercy and recover our dignity as Children of God.

Please consider joining Hallow to be part of the SSJJ prayer community now being formed. See weekly bulletin for instructions. Advent25 Prayer challenge starts on December 1, the first day of Advent. Live 3 day mission December 16 -18, Severe Mercy and Divine Intimacy. Theme: Bring Your Biggest Cup (literally and spiritually) to capture God's mercy for you and yours.

“If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.” When we trust in God’s providence life reveals opportunities for grace and life. Too often we can feel the victims of circumstance, plowing through life by sheer force, white-knuckling the trials of life as if they are meant to break us. Imagine if we saw every day as a gift from God to grow in His life, to see obstacles and struggles as opportunities for growth? If we did, we would more readily ask God for help and receive it more quickly. Here’s the secret… God wants you to be filled with His perfect peace and life… yes. He wants your Joy and happiness… sometimes the struggles are meant to purify your life so that you can finally find it! Have a blessed day!

Hi all, I figured it might be helpful to post a summary of today’s homily. I hope it is helpful! Today’s gospel about the widow's mite is a lesson in giving, but not simply as a means to show generosity, but to teach a lesson in humility: the proud love to give out of their surplus, to prove to themselves and others what they can do themselves. They build big houses and then give generously from their wealth, but when they fall on hard times, to whom can they go? Tithing teaches the opposite lesson: it teaches us to give our first and best to those who are most important. Think, Adam and Eve were in the garden… they lost the garden because of pride and they were sent into the desert! Was God being simply punitive? Or was the punishment to remind Adam and Eve that their disordered self interest would really come to nothing?!? The law of tithing reorders our priorities to give our best to those who are most important, trusting that God will provide the rest. Immediately after the fall notice that our forefathers all had to render some kind of sacrifice to God, usually the first fruits or the best of the herd. Was it some ploy to keep the best from us? Or… was it a lesson to trust in God’s Providence? When Elijah is sent out into the desert, he was fed by ravens and given shade by God’s Providence, then sent to the home of a widow and her son with only their last meal in reserves to find more sustenance. Their generosity and obedience, the widow’s mite leads to the abundance of God’s reward and providence. They all eat their full and then some. This was God’s lesson, that when we give our best and first to God, He will provide the rest. When we give our first and best to those who are most important, we rely more on God’s goodness, on His providence to provide for our daily needs. And God provides. So here’s my challenge. There are three ways we can give… time, talent, and treasure. When we give, do we give our best to those who are most important first? Do we give God our first and best, or do we give Him the leftovers? Time is your most valuable asset. It is irrecoverable. What is the first thing you do in the morning? Do you give the first 5 minutes of your day to God? Do you tithe those first few moments to God for clarity? Do you give God your first five, best minutes of your day? Do we then give our family our best after God? Or do we seek alone time? Try to carve out time for ourselves first, and get to others only after. Do we give our family and loved ones our first and best, or do we give them the leftovers?