This Sunday we celebrate the solemn feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is not easy to grasp and certainly falls into the category of a mystery of our faith. Central to this mystery is relationship. Our God is a community of persons. Whether you think of the persons of the Trinity as Father-Son-Spirit, Creator-Redeemer-Sanctifier, or Lover-Beloved- and the Love between them, the three persons of the Holy Trinity are one God, and they exist in perfect union with one another.

Most of us, I suspect, learned at an early age that we are made in the image and likeness of God. If then, this is true, we are meant to be relational and to seek unity with God and with one another. We have heard repeatedly throughout the Easter season, which ended with Pentecost last Sunday, Jesus’s instruction: “Love as I love you.” In Jesus’s teaching, preaching, healing, and forgiving, he consistently sought to unite himself with the persons he encountered and to restore them to union with God. Even when he chastised the disciples or the Pharisees, Jesus was loving them in a way that sought to draw them into union with him.

As baptized Christians, we have been incorporated into the relational life of the Trinity and share in the mission of Christ. What are the implications of this? Just as Jesus’s mission focused on drawing those on the margins closer to him; so too, we are charged with reaching out and responding to those who are separated from the Church, those who have become discouraged and disenfranchised. Last week Rachel quoted Pope Francis in her column saying that “we can fear to lose the saved and we can want to save the lost.” That fear can paralyze us by letting it take over, or it can be a starting place in our prayer, asking God to deliver us from our fear and strengthen our resolve to follow in Christ’s footsteps, seeking those who are absent from our midst.

Our incorporation into the life of the Trinity and our sharing in the mission of Jesus—that all may be one—make perfectly clear what choice we must make. Let us not fall short of the goal of living out a love based in union with God that seeks to draw others to Christ. Let us make room not only in our benches in church but in our hearts for those who have left us for any reason in the past. As Jesus told us that he was leaving to prepare a place for us, let us prepare a place for our brothers and sisters. Let us put aside the fear that impedes our attempts to make disciples of all people.

~Sr. Kathleen

Take your next step: Each day for the next month (or year—whatever it takes!), ask God to give you the courage to reach out to someone you know who has left the Church, to welcome them to join you at Mass.

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Birthday celebrations often seem especially significant or poignant when we are at a turning point in our lives--when we’re about to graduate or have a child or make a big move, or when we are facing a serious illness or grieving a loss. Pentecost this year seems especially poignant and significant because our Church, locally and globally, is at a turning point. Both in our own local community and in the universal Church, through the leadership of Pope Francis, we are asking ourselves some big questions: Why does the Church exist? What is the purpose of the Church? More and more it seems that, although there are many ways of answering these two questions, there are two basic approaches: One is that the Church exists primarily to serve the needs of its members. The other is that the Church exists primarily to reach out to and connect with nonmembers. 

It is essentially a question of priority, not an either/or. Is the faith community’s first responsibility to those who are already within its walls, or to those who are still outside of them? It seems clear that if a church does not address this question in an intentional way, the default position will be to serve the needs of those who are already within the community. As Paulist Fr. Robert Rivers puts it: “The people we need to reach out to are not around to tell us what their needs are. The people who don’t feel welcome aren’t present to tell us why. The poor who don’t feel at home in our church simply remain on the margins.” 

A difficulty arises, in Jesus’s time as in our own, when religious people feel threatened by efforts to reach out to irreligious people. The sentiment often emerges that their gain must be our loss. But in the logic of Christ, we only stand to gain when we share with others the gift of faith that we have been freely given.

On February 15th of this year, Pope Francis gave a homily addressing these two basic possibilities for the essential orientation of the Church, inward and outward. The homily was based on Jesus’s healing of lepers and the way that the authorities often responded to such acts of healing with outrage and suspicion. 

“There are two ways of thinking and of having faith: we can fear to lose the saved and we can want to save the lost. Even today it can happen that we stand at the crossroads of these two ways of thinking. . . .

The way of the Church is precisely to leave her four walls behind and to go out in search of those who are distant, those essentially on the ‘outskirts’ of life. It is to adopt fully God’s own approach, to follow the Master who said: ‘Those who are well have no need of the physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call, not the righteous but sinners’ (Lk 5:31-32).

In healing the leper, Jesus does not harm the healthy. Rather, he frees them from fear. He does not endanger them, but gives them a brother. . . . 

[T]his is the ‘logic,’ the mind of Jesus, and this is the way of the Church. Not only to welcome and reinstate with evangelical courage all those who knock at our door, but to go out and seek, fearlessly and without prejudice, those who are distant, freely sharing what we ourselves freely received.”

Here in the New Roads Catholic Community, we stand at a crossroads, too. What will our priority be? Are we going to be a church that fears to lose the saved, or are we going to be a church that wants to save the lost?

~Rachel

Take your next step: Set aside a few minutes when you can listen to God. Read Luke 15:1-7 (or even just one verse, Luke 15:4--“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?”) several times, and notice what strikes you about this passage and what feelings emerge in reading it.

The whole gospel for this week is made up of words of prayer that Jesus offers for his disciples and the community of his followers. When I think of all the ways that Jesus was an example for us of how to live and how to become all that we are created to be, I don’t often think about his prayer for us. So as I reflect on those words from the second reading for this Sunday from the first letter of John, I realize that I am still coming to know and to believe in the love God has for me. It becomes so much more real when I recognize the ways that Jesus put his love into action. I am reminded of the things I can do to show my love and care for others. I can see a clear path to growing to my full potential.

God’s love and care for us extend to every dimension of our lives. It is most apparent in the many blessings I receive every day, although my vision is often obscured by the challenges and problems I encounter every day. So I decided that a first step to motivate me to put my love for others more into action is to stop to literally count my blessings. At the 4 p.m. Mass on Saturday evening, I was blessed by the presence of one of the surest signs of God’s love in my life: my mother. For me the blessing was magnified by the thoughtfulness of my brother and sister who brought her, realizing how much she would want to attend Mass with me for Mother’s Day, and also how difficult it would be for me to make that happen on a busy weekend. That’s three big blessings right there! It makes me realize I can spend more time thinking about how I can facilitate people getting together with people they love when I have the time to invite and transport them.

On Sunday, I was blessed by the many devoted parents who brought their children to receive the Eucharist for the first time. They had participated in our Eucharist workshops and taken responsibility to help their children grow in faith and be ready for this important step in their faith journey. They showed such love and attentiveness to their children, and the joy of the event was contagious. I realize I am losing count of my blessings already! It makes me realize I can spend more time and attention looking for opportunities to help others grow, to participate with them in activities that support that growth, not only in faith but in all the ways people strive to reach their full human potential.

That same morning, several people took the time to seek me out to tell me that they had enjoyed the Mass and commented on aspects of the experience of worship. It was a real blessing that people took the time to encourage me in my work. It is so easy to be your own worst critic. More blessings! It makes me realize I need to look for ways to encourage people who do things that I appreciate and value and encourage them with affirmation. Along the same lines, a gentleman sought me out after Mass to thank me for visiting with him and his wife and for praying and celebrating the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick with them. His wife had since died, and he wanted me to know how meaningful and important the experience had been. One more big blessing for me! It made me realize how important it is to tell people when they have made a difference and to thank them.

~Fr. Thom

Take your next step: Count your blessings! As you reflect on the ways you have been blessed, think of ways you can be a blessing to others in the ways that you have been blessed this week.

How many times have you heard the suggestion made—whether in a homily, or at sacramental preparation programs for baptism, Eucharist, or confirmation—to pray regularly? I know I have heard the suggestion a lot and made the suggestion as well. But, I haven’t often heard how to go about it. Apart from taking the time to say prayers that someone else composed, how else might we go about praying to God?

It is simpler than you might think. Consider prayer a conversation with God, one in which you share with the one who loves and cares for you more than any other what you are thinking, feeling, and experiencing in the dailyness of life. The words from Matthew’s Gospel—“Come to me!”—are an invitation to each one and all of us from God, to be with him and receive the refreshment and grace we need.

Begin by finding a quiet comfortable space within which to pray. Let this become your sacred space, setting it off by lighting a candle and perhaps playing some soft, quieting instrumental music. Pay attention to how you feel as you begin your time of prayer. Are you agitated? Confused? Thankful? Full of optimism and energy? Hopeful? Hurt? Lonely? Fatigued? Peaceful? Looking for guidance or direction?

Spend a few moments thinking about what you might be looking for during this time in prayer. Begin to share with God what you feel and what you hope for during this time. Then take a few moments of quiet before reading a passage of scripture. You could read the Gospel of the day, or some people might decide to read sequentially a particular book of the Bible, for instance, the Gospel of Mark. Some texts lend themselves more readily to imaginative prayer than others do. For example, suppose you choose to read Mark 8:22-26, the story of the blind man of Bethsaida. Picture the scene. You may choose to be an observer of what is going on, or perhaps you see yourself as the blind person needing healing, or you are one of the group of people that led the man to Jesus. Let your imagination go, and have the story unfold. Perhaps the friends are eager and persistent in their request of Jesus to restore his vision, or maybe the blind person wants to speak his own mind. Imagine what Jesus is saying or doing before the man has his sight restored. How might you respond?

Before you end your time of prayer, notice once again how and what you are feeling. Has your affect changed? Did you gain any insight? Spend some time sharing your feelings with God, and remember to thank God for any graces you may have experienced. A final step in your prayer could include taking the time to recount briefly in a journal what happened during your time of prayer. For example, having prayed with the passage about the blind man’s healing, you may note: “I came to prayer feeling disturbed and unsure how to see a situation in my family life. I asked God to give me the insight I need to deal with the situation. Having witnessed that it took two times laying hands on the blind man before he was healed, I realized that God was letting me know that it may take more time and effort for me to resolve the situation that had me disturbed. With that awareness, I found myself more relaxed and peaceful than when I began. Thank you, God, for once again helping me to see more clearly.”

There are many ways we can enter into a prayerful, life-giving relationship with God. This is one way that has a long history of helping followers of Jesus grow closer to him and helping us to notice the ways in which God communicates with us. Try it. You might really like it.

~Sister Kathleen

Take your next step: At least twice this week, engage in imaginative prayer. If you are looking for a place to start, try reading about the cleansing of the leper in Matthew 8:1-4 or the call of Simon in Luke 5:1-11. Pay attention to the ways that Jesus responds to you as you tell him what you are feeling and what you hope for from him.