Community life is like a bonfire, made up of many logs that illuminate and give warmth to those who need it, but the moment a log is taken out of the bonfire, it slowly goes out until it loses its light, but if we put it back in the bonfire it lights up again. That is how we are, if we move away from the community, our light goes out and we become weak in faith and we can be easy prey fir the enemy who only seeks our death through sin. I invite you to be a light in the lives on those Who have abandoned the community. Let us begin with our domestic church, our home, inviting them to the Holy Eucharist, Adoration Blessed Sacrament, confession and all the activities planned in our church, so that we can make a bonfire so big that it illuminates the lives of others. Let us pay for those who have left the community and let us be faithful to the name of Christians.

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!

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.

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?

Hallow has been doing a prayer challenge for our country since election day. A quote from Martin Luther King in 1964 is in today's reflection: "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools". Hope the USA gets the message.