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17 Jun 2012 - Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

There may be two main ways to get religion wrong. One is to presume it has nothing to do with the material world. So forget political and social realities, pray harder, and concentrate on the spiritual life because it’s the only forum that counts. The other mistake is to assume that if religion has nothing to do with the material world, then it has nothing to offer because that’s where people find themselves. So eat, drink, and be merry, get what you can, and never mind about God until the unlikely event when celestial possibilities intrude on practical realities. Oh, and have a Happy Father’s Day while you’re at it. Either way makes for a bleak celebration of parenthood and the gifts fathers bring to fruitful families. If nothing matters but the next life, why have families at all? Just to hound them to attend church on Sundays? The other kind of father probably won’t be at Mass to hear this message, even if he’s in the bosom of his family to begin with and not out chasing his bliss. Jesus issues an invitation to a third way—for fathers and for the rest of us who hope to lead fruitful lives. It’s the way of the farmer, who views the ground not only as dirt but as the matrix of all hope. For the ground, coupled with his own purposeful activity, is the medium of a harvest through God’s holy desire to bring forth life. The seed sleeps in the dark soil, dying to its original being to emerge as something greater than itself. This world is the soil of our lives. It’s where potential meets possibility and possibility the movement toward perfection. Thomas Merton described grace as the hidden potential we have for every virtue—like the oak tree hidden in the meat of an acorn. “To be an acorn,” he wrote, “is to have a taste for being an oak tree.” You and I seek grace, desire its transformative effect, because we’re acorns with oak trees inside with a taste for who we’re meant to be. Planted in the soil of this world, with proper care and attention, the virtues in our spiritual genes will emerge and we’ll assume our place in the grove of those giants, the saints. It’s not only simple to do, it’s the plan. God’s plan, anyway. The only thing that interferes with its maturity is if we plan something else. Saint Paul says mortal life keeps us away from the fullness of life with God. But he doesn’t advocate throwing our lives away. He urges we invest them, with courage, walking by faith. From here to eternity is never as far as we imagine. Related Scripture links The harvest is ready: Joel 4:13; Rev. 14:14-20 Seed and sower: Eccl. 11:6; Isa. 55:10; 2 Cor. 9:10 Birds: Gen. 6:20; Dan. 4:10-12 Cedars from Lebanon: 1 Kgs. 4:33; Ezra 3:7; Psalm 37:35; 92:12; Ezek. 27:5; 31:3 Catechism links Kingdom of God: CCC 542-546 Parables of Jesus: CCC 546 Body and soul: CCC 364-365

Authors Alice Camille

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30 Apr 2017 - Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

If . . . I were asked for the most important advice I could give . . . I should simply say: In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. —Leo Tolstoy God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and compassion which are like nothing you have ever found in a book or heard in a sermon. –Thomas Merton

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13 May 2018 - Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle B

Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender. —Saint Peter Chrysologus (406-450) For the right of another . . . is the expression of God’s love and God’s will. —Thomas Merton (1915-68)

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17 Mar 2019 - Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

“Faith is a light of such supreme brilliance that it dazzles the mind and darkens all its visions of other realities, but in the end . . . we gain a new view of all reality transfigured and elevated in the light itself.” —Thomas Merton “As well as the vision of Christ’s glory . . . something else occurred which was to serve as a vital confirmation, not only of the disciples’ faith, but of ours as well. From a cloud on high came the voice of God the Father saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” —Saint Cyril of Alexandria (376-444)

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08 Nov 2020 - Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

When Mary holds you up, you do not fall; when she protects you, you need not fear; when she leads you, you do not tire; when she is favorable to you, you arrive at the harbor of safety. —Saint Bonaventure The Wisdom of God . . . comes forth, reaching from "end to end mightily." She wills to be also the unseen pivot of all nature, the center and significance of all the light that is in all and for all. That which is poorest and humblest, that which is most hidden in all things is nevertheless most obvious in them, and quite manifest, for it is their own self that stands before us, naked and without care. —-Thomas Merton, Hagia Sophia The times we find ourselves having to wait on others may be the perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord. —Joni Eareckson Tada, disabled artist and writer

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17 Jan 2021 - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

All vocations are intended by God to manifest His love in the world. —Thomas Merton Vocation doesn’t come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about . . . or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my expectations. —Parker Palmer

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11 Apr 2021 - Solemnity of the Second Sunday of Easter; Divine Mercy Sunday, Cycle B

The gate of heaven is very low; only the humble can enter it. —Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. —Thomas Merton To the hungry belongs the bread you have. To the naked belongs the cloak that is hidden in your trunk. To the footsore, the shoes rotting in your house. To the poor the money you have buried in the earth. How can you oppress so many people that you could help? —Saint Basil the Great

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28 Nov 2021 - First Sunday of Advent, Cycle C

The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ. —Thomas Merton No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do. –-Dorothy Day You . . . must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. —Luke 12:40 The church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts. —Saint Charles Borromeo See, days are coming . . . when I will raise up a righteous branch for David; as king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. —Jeremiah 23:5

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13 Mar 2022 - Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

Make ready for the Christ, Whose smile, like lightning, sets free the song of everlasting glory that now sleeps, in your paper flesh, like dynamite. —Thomas Merton I never spoke with God, / Nor visited in heaven; / Yet certain am I of the spot / As if the chart were given. —Emily Dickinson Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow and to love him as they love their cow—they love their cow for the milk and the cheese and the profit it makes them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. —Meister Eckhart

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23 Apr 2023 - Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

If . . . I were asked for the most important advice I could give . . . I should simply say: In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. —Leo Tolstoy God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and compassion which are like nothing you have ever found in a book or heard in a sermon. —Thomas Merton

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