My Sonshine this week features the ordination ceremony of Fr, Marcus who was ordained to the Priesthood at Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral in Lancaster, New York. Perhaps you never had the experience of witnessing this unique and profound service. As part of your Lenten practice, you might review the images of this ordination and offer a prayer for all men and women who serve leadership positions in your churches.
Today’s Sonshine photo is an image of Death Valley. As an amateur landscaper photographer, I had contacted a motel outside the park who offered free lodging if I would take photos of their motel for a new brochure. That adventure reminded me of this Sunday’s Lenten gospel where Jesus is tempted by the devil in the desert.
Temptation's not a fun place to visit? Temptation's a lonely place, a difficult place, a place of testing. But that's where Jesus is in the gospel reading today. He's already been tempted for 40 days, and then Satan goes straight for his soul. He plays hardball. Satan comes back with three final temptation doozies after 40 days of temptation. If Jesus - think about it - if Jesus, the Son of God, is opposed by the strong forces of evil, if he's not exempt from them, who is?
Satan's message is clear. "Get all you can, Jesus. Look at the splendor, look at the sparkle. It's all yours. Don't worry about God, don't worry about pleasing Him. Please yourself, Jesus. That'll make you happy. Simply worship me." Because the devil is all about getting. He's about getting because the more we focus on getting, what we think life should be, the less and less life we actually have. You can call it acquisition; you can call it purchasing; you can call it consuming. Call it what you want, but you and I live in a culture of getting. It is we. Getting, getting even, getting my way, getting what's mine, getting while the getting's good, getting all I can, getting what I want out of life, getting, getting, getting. And no matter how much we get, we still want more. We get what we want, and life's still not right. Our soul's not settled, our heart's not satisfied. We want more revenge, we want more assets, we want to get more pleasure. We are a culture of getters.
Plenty is just never enough. There's just something in our souls that always wants to get more. The devil is about getting. Jesus is about giving. "Don't try to get life," Jesus says. "Give your life away, and when you do then you'll find it." Because life is not about us. It's about God. As long as we focus on ourselves, our needs, our wants, our passion, our spirit, our desires, we'll never actually find what life is about. That's the irony, isn't it?
So when Satan offers the world, Jesus replies, "Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him." Because Jesus understood you can only have one master. You can serve whatever you choose, your passion, your desires, all the world's stuff, or you can serve God. "Just know," Jesus says, "that to serve anything other than God is to choose Satan." To serve Jesus, God, is life itself. In other words, do you want life? Give it away. That's why Lent's just so powerful. It's about these simple habits: pray, fast, give. Habits that help you give your life away to God. When you invest your heart, when you invest your money, when you invest your life in God, then you will find life.
It's funny who understands that. I had stopped by the Death Valley Visitor Center to get directions to the best photo sites in the park. The young ranger pointed out several locations like Artists Pallette, Zabriskie Point and Great Salt Basin. That evening, the hotel manager shared that his wife was going to the hospital in the morning for tests because she was diagnosed with cancer. I offered to give her a blessing and anoint her with the Sacrament of the Sick. Her husband cried when I prayed over her and most grateful that someone would pray with her for comfort, courage and strength. Yes, life is about giving. The following morning I took pictures of their motel for the brochure. The devil is about getting. Jesus is about giving.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that during Lent a lot can happen. How are you going to use yours? What are you going to do with your 40 days? Jesus is inviting you to give your life away, and when you do, you just might find that you have more life than you ever had before.
What do we do when we’re facing an upcoming big event, celebration, or special occasion in our lives? We prepare for it. Holy Week and Easter are “big events” in the liturgical year of the Church and in the spiritual life of a Christian. So, as Christians, we prepare spiritually for these through the forty days of Lent. This means that, during Lent, we rededicate ourselves to prayer.
There are as many ways to pray as there are pray-ers in this world, but a few prayer methods can help us in particular to spiritually prepare ourselves during Lent:
1. Make your abstinence a prayer-in-action.
On Ash Wednesday, I suggested that you give up something for Lent. Chocolate, coffee, that snack before bedtime, one less hour of video games or steaming the news networks—whatever it is, you can make what you’re giving up for Lent a prayer as well: a prayer-in-action. Whenever you encounter the thing you are abstaining from or the time of day that you would normally enjoy it, take a moment to say a prayer in recognition of your wholeness in God even without the thing you have given up. Thank God for the freedom to be wholly yourself without this and, at the same time, acknowledge the gift of its existence in the world.
2. Renew yourself through personal reflective prayer.
Take a moment and click to review the following online resources. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal. One easy step you can take is to use the many free online resources to jump-start or reinvigorate your prayer life. A few such resources are Loyola Press’s popular 3-Minute Retreats and Seven Last Words of Christ guided meditation, or try the prayer reflections offered by the Irish Jesuit site Sacred Space. If you’re seeking more traditional support for your personal reflective prayer, consider a book specially designed to nourish you during Lent, such as Praying Lent.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, especially the following family and prayers:Mary Z in hospice in San Antonia, TX (Robert G. grandma), Pope Francis in Rome, Ted in Farmington for successful medical procedure, Baby Rhett recovering at home and improving daily-dad thankful for all your prayers, Stacey & newborn Merlin in Las Vegas, Luz L in hospice Las Vegas, Tim in Nashua, NH cancer in remission, Tina in Strykersville cancer in remission, Patty’s parents Madeline & George W in Buffalo, Sandy in North Java, Patti in Florida, Beau in Spain, Sister Ann Marie and Sister Miriam in IL. Monastery, John in North Java, Mary Hills in Toronto, Jane in NC, Ricki & Marina in Brockport, Jerry in Lancaster, Fr. Donald F in Florida, Shelia in Webster. Bob in Buffalo, Matt in Batavia, Melanie in Attica, Cheryl in Florida, Alivia and her dad Art, Bob & Kathy in Macedon, Beth in Massachusetts, Stan In Greece NY, Steve in North Java, Will in Canandaigua, Ruth in Rochester, Fr. Don & Yvonne in Batavia, Sherri in Lancaster, Mary Jane in Rochester, Brad in Akron, Tony in Greece, Diane in Virginia, little Henry in Ohio, Paul in Lancaster, O B in North Carolina, Jane in Lockport, Maggie in East Bethany, Kathy in Farmington, Nelson in Buffalo, Joe & Carol in Rochester Bob G. in Lancaster waiting for kidney transplant donor.
When was the last time you had a really memorable Lent? Or even a life-changing Lent? So often we just give up something like chocolate like we always have, without giving it much thought. And we don’t really stick to it. Or if we do manage to get to Easter without eating said chocolate, we realize we haven’t really grown spiritually since the beginning of Lent. And isn’t that actually the point?
The point of giving something up, of fasting, is to cultivate the inner life. When we fast, we realize how truly dependent on God we are. We open our hearts, our minds, and our bodies to God’s love in our lives. We look at the ways that we need to grow, and dedicate ourselves to becoming a-better-version-of-ourselves. And when we make ourselves available to God, incredible things can happen. That’s what can make Lent so powerful.
But you can take it one step further. Don’t just give something up. There is also great value in doing something for Lent. It’s the perfect time not only to abandon self-destructive habits, but also to form new life-giving habits, habits that can extend beyond the 40 days of Lent. Give something up, eliminate a bad habit from your life, and then fill that gap intentionally.
I invite you this Lent to pick one thing from the following to give up for Lent. Give something up, then fill the gap.
Give something away—every day
It doesn't need to be money or material things—though giving these away can be a powerful experience. Try complimenting a stranger, teaching someone how to do something, spreading a positive message, helping someone who is in a hurry, or simply smiling at someone generously. You don't need money or material possessions to live a life of staggering generosity! Give something away—every day.
Don’t interrupt people
We could probably all do well to spend more time listening, and less time interjecting.
Stop complaining
Have you ever stopped to think about how many times a day you complain about something? What if, instead, you find constructive ways to talk about your difficulties? What if you look for the good in people instead of focusing on any inconvenience we experience?
Don’t waste downtime
You don’t have to give up social media or the like entirely, but you can be intentional about not using it during specific times. Take that time instead to pray, to breathe, to reach out to someone around you. You’ll be amazed at the difference it can make in your day.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we focus this Lent on being generous and give something away. I am grateful to Michael who taught me floral design many decades ago. Yesterday, I decorated our home to bring the promise of Spring inside and share online for you to enjoy. Go ahead and use as a screen saver or forward to your friends and family to bathe in the love and comfort of Our Lord.
Blessings for a wonderful Lent. Fr. Matt
It's very easy to find fault with things and people. For instance:
No
matter how good a person or a thing may be, it is easy to find some fault with
them.
And while it is easy to find faults in others, it is just as easy to overlook
our own faults. Or as Jesus says in the gospel: "We see the speck in
another's eye, but we don't see the log in our own." And notice the
difference, a speck compared to a log. A little fault compared with a
really big one. Why are we like that? Is it because we are naturally jealous?
or envious? or basically negative and critical? and we have lived with
our own faults for so many years that we have grown accustom to them, or
perhaps have never known that we had the problem. We live in a bubble of
misinformation or delusion that we are OK. Really!
Once a disciple came to Socrates
ready to gossip about someone. Socrates stopped him and gave him a “triple
filter test” about what he was going to say. “Are you
sure that what you are going to tell me is true?” The
disciple wasn’t sure. ”Is it good?” No, it
wasn’t. “Is it useful?” He wasn’t sure. Socrates said: “If what
you want to tell me isn’t true, good or even useful, why should I hear it?”
When we are tempted to speak ill of the other, it is good to apply this filter to our thought: “Is what I am going to speak really true, good, and useful?” If any one of the three conditions fails, we better keep our mouth shut, or still better, say a silent prayer for the other.
Today's gospel from
St. Luke follows immediately upon his beautiful explanation of unconditional
love whereby we are to love even our enemies. This kind of love is not
natural. It can come only with the grace of God and as a result of much
work and effort. But this is precisely the challenge of the gospel for
each one of us. To be so positive of all other people that we can accept
them for who and what they are, that we can overcome those occasions when we
tend to misjudge others, that we can stress the good in others and hope they
can do the same for us.
It sounds like a kind of Christian utopia, doesn't it? But Christ came to
change the work, to transform the world according to the will of His
Father. This gospel is a challenge, a bold challenge for each one of us
followers of Jesus.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends give us an appreciative heart so that we may speak only words that build up the other.
“But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27)
Loving our enemies. Seriously. Who or what comes to mind when you think of that word – “enemies?”
My wife had tears in her eyes, I wanted to scream, and my senior neighbor response was helplessness. Susan was contacted by a lady upset because she had to moved out of her apartment. Social services referred her to an emergency hotel. However, the hotel would not allow her to bring along her emotional support companion kitty. In tears, this lady surrendered her kitty to the officers at the animal shelter.
My vison is to make our farm into an educational resource center for students and faculty. However, the legal litigation attorneys could not find a way to make this land available without fear of a potential lawsuit if someone got hurt on our land.
The neighbor’s mailbox was demolished by a state snow plow. I contacted the state highway supervisor and he apologized but reported: “it is a privilege for any home owner to put a mailbox along the side of the road and if a plow destroys your mailbox the state has no obligation to replace it.” Seriously.
Jesus I believe is our spiritual mentor, but this teaching might be his toughest to swallow. After all, people need to pay for their crimes or the state when it wrecks our mailbox, don’t they? Are we supposed to let the bad guys just get away with being bad? If we can’t strike back, are we to choose to let ourselves be abused?
I think one of the hardest things for us to do as Christians is balance justice with God’s mercy. The truth is, it’s never going to be about who “deserves” mercy. We can’t let people or the system go around denying our right to have an emotional companion animal without trying to do something about it. But why does Jesus ask us to love enemies or a system that denies my dream to use our land as an educational center. He tells us to ignore insults and abuse, pray for persecutors, give to beggars, and forgive the misdeeds of others?
If we take the first steps to love our enemies and those who hate us, Jesus tells us, “Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” God’s mercy knows no bounds, no boundaries, no conditions. The sun shines on the just and the unjust. The rain pours down on the good and the bad. God is an equal opportunity provider of mercy. We are to be merciful as God is merciful – in just the same measure as we want God to be merciful to us.
Jesus is really asking, “Do you want to spend all your energy hating your enemies? Or do you really want to follow me and become children of the Most High?” Can we begin today to take one small step toward the kind of reconciliation Jesus knows is the only way forward for us all? Can we begin to love our enemies and pray for those who hate us? And if not now, when?
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends for it’s easy for this Gospel passage to be dismissed as impossible. To hear Jesus’ words as an ideal that is unrealistic to achieve. Instead, Jesus invites us to humble ourselves and to admit how hard this is. To let go of our impulse to hold onto the hurts and the pains that justify our hatred for someone else. Instead, to sincerely and genuinely let Him, and His love enter in. Letting Him guide and direct, challenge, and heal us not just into loving an enemy – but more importantly forming us into being His faithful disciples.
What is Jesus saying in Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. He’s expressing God’s love for the poor. But I also hear what this current moment in our nation’s history is saying, and it’s very different. When I read the news coming out of Washington, I’m hearing the opposite of what Jesus’ teaching:
Woe to you who are poor, for your poverty is none of our concern.
Woe to you who are hungry, for we won’t be sending you any more food.
Woe to you who weep now, for you will go on weeping. You will catch preventable diseases, and your children will die of malnutrition because the wealthiest man in the world has decided your lives aren’t important.
And woe to you who are criticized and reviled for preaching the word of God. There will be a resolution presented in our government to condemn your sermon as a “distorted message.” The grant money appropriated to you by our government for non-religious humanitarian work will be called “illegal.”
But blessed are you who are rich. You will get even richer.
Blessed are you who are full now, for there’s a big, fat permanent tax break coming your way.
Blessed are you who are laughing now, for you are now in charge.
Blessed are you when all speak well of you, for you have really put one over on the people.
I struggle with this message. I have a definite conflict between honoring my ordination vow to preach the truth and stand up for the poor and the marginalized, and my responsibility as a retired pastor to provide a calm online worship experience which allows my Sonshine Friends to come quietly into the presence of God—blessedly free of controversy or anything upsetting.
I’m not trying to make people angry, but I am trying to say that what is happening in Washington—the arbitrary withholding of humanitarian funds and the shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development—is a direct contradiction of the Holy Scriptures.
Luke’s Gospel is full of references to economic justice. The Virgin Mary sings of God’s regard for the poor. Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, in which a man wastes food but lets a beggar starve. Even dogs show the poor man more compassion than does the wealthy man. But when they both die, the poor man is carried away to the bosom of Father Abraham. The rich man is in torment in hades and is reminded by Abraham that he had Moses and the prophets to teach him about compassion. Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool as a warning against greed. Perhaps the most obvious example of all is the parable of the Good Samaritan in which we are reminded to love our neighbor as ourselves by showing mercy. Jesus tells us, “Go and do likewise.”
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that as we enter the holy season of Lent, we might give up more than candy, that we will not withhold generosity or compassion. We take up our special offerings and support the work of our parish community to help the poor, the migrants, And we will continue to pray “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.” Keep praying. Keep your hearts open. Keep seeking God’s will. It’s more important now than ever. If someone asks you what side of the aisle you are on, instead of getting upset or defensive might I suggest this humble response: “I am a Beatitude person!”
In the First Reading this Sunday,, Isaiah dates a religious vision not by a day but by a death: “ … in the year that King Uzziah died.”
There are some things so painful for a person that events in his life can be dated by them: “in the year my wife died”; “in the year we lost our mom”; “in the year the hurricane devastated the town.” An affliction of this sort divides a whole life into before and after: there is the life you had before your wife died, and then there is the life you have afterwards, after the death of your wife and the death of everything that made up your life together.
Isaiah produced the great prophecies of the Messiah that even now give the whole world hope.
Sometimes in unbearable grief such as that stemming from the death of someone so loved, a person doesn’t know how to stand under thier sorrow. A heartbroken person has lost something central to them; and a person can fall apart when the center doesn’t hold.
In those circumstances, a grieved and suffering person can want to die then too; they can want to come to the Lord too. When King Uzziah died, Isaiah came before the Lord too, but only in a vision, where the doorposts shook and the house filled up with smoke.
The problem is that you can’t really come to the Lord before your time on earth is over, and falling apart under grief gets you only an increase of sorrow. Isaiah responded to that vision of the Lord by saying “Woe is me! I am doomed!”
This is not the end of the story for Isaiah, though. An angel seared Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal.
And then Isaiah opened his mouth and offered to serve the Lord. When God asked, “whom shall I send?” Isaiah said, “Here I am. Send me.” All his most important service for the Lord came after the death that dates his vision and that changed his life.
When Isaiah himself finally died and came to the Lord, three kings later, he had become the foremost prophet of Israel. Because in the end he didn’t fall apart but lived after King Uzziah’s death, he produced the great prophecies of the Messiah that even now give the whole world hope.
If you can stand under your sorrow, rather than falling apart, then through the searing grief can come a new life, a good life that was unimaginable to you before. If you can stand and live into the period of your life after the destruction of your heart’s desire, then God’s grace can bring life out of death for you.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are living after the death of their spouse, parent or worse child. Give them hope and the assurance that their loved ones walk in the loving eternal arms of our Lord and Saviour.
My brother priest, Fr Erick serves as chaplain for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. This past week he offered a blessing prayer for all police officers. The above photo shows Fr. Erick with his comrades. I shared that I received an invitation to offer blessing prayers for first responders in my community in Bethany, New York at their annual appreciation gathering on February 6th. This will be my blessing:
Firefighters and EMTs embody courage, sacrifice, and selflessness as they place their lives on the line to save others. Their work is physically demanding, emotionally taxing, and often dangerous. As believers, we are called to lift up these heroes in prayer, asking God for protection, strength, and guidance as they serve our community. In praying for them, we entrust their safety to God and ask for His grace to sustain them as they carry out their critical work.
Heavenly Father,
I come before You to lift up the firefighters and EMTs in our Bethany Volunteer
Fire Department who risk their lives to protect and serve. Lord, I thank You
for their courage, dedication, and willingness to face danger for the sake of
others.
“The Lord will keep you from all harm—He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:7-8).
Father, I ask for Your divine protection over each firefighter. Guard their hearts and minds as they face dangerous situations. Keep them safe from harm, and guide their steps as they work to save lives and property. Lord, bless their families, who also make sacrifices so that these brave men and women can serve their communities.
Grant them physical strength, mental resilience, and emotional peace. Lord, let Your presence surround them in every emergency, and may Your wisdom guide their decisions. I pray for unity and support among their teams, and may they always know that their work is valued and appreciated by their community.
Thank You, Lord, for these heroes and for Your faithfulness in protecting and sustaining them. May they find strength and peace in Your presence every day. Amen.
Bethany Fire Department “first responders” include firefighters, emergency medical technicians, volunteers, critical incident and chaplain. Kind pray for the safety of these volunteers:
GLENN ADAMS
LYLE BOUNDY
STEVE BRECKENRIDGE
BRIAN BRITTON
DEBBIE DONNELLY
TIME EMBT
JASON EVERETT
JEFF FLUKER
SANDY FLUKER
JAKE HOWLAND SR
JACOB HOWLAND
CARL HYDE JR
GREG JOHNSON
PEGGY JOHNSON
BRITTANY JOHNSON
KAITLYN JOHNSON
GEORGE LARISH
TIM { TJ } LEWIS
TODD MOGENHAN
CHRISTOPHER PAGE
JIM PHILLIPS
TERRY SMART
GAIL SMITH
JOHN SZYMKOWIAK
WILL THURLEY
SCOTT THURLEY
WAYNE WALKER
WALTER WHENHOL
JEFF WOLAK
VICKI WOLAK
LILLIAN SZYMKOWIAK
HUNTER SZYMKOWIAK
JENN HOWLAND
MAELYNN HYDE
DIANE FOWLER
FR MATTHEW KAWIAK 🙂
